Renewal of the Church

In the course of a conversation I had last evening the person I was speaking with commented that he would be privileged to be a part of the renewal of the Church. As I thought about that this morning I realized that the Church is always in need of renewal just as our own hearts are at any given moment in time. Think about it, at any given moment we are all either in an active state of rebellion against God or in submission to Him.

Renewal of our own hearts is a discipline and a practice. Woven into it are the daily practices of reading scripture, of prayer and of confession. All of these things keep us current, aware of our ongoing rebelliousness and our ongoing need for renewal. Now think about one person practicing this and how difficult it is not to be distracted by life; material goods, power, money, sex and our innate and ever-present selfishness. Now, think about a whole community of people attempting to practice renewal in some coordinated fashion. Wow, it is probably as difficult as a room full of tone-deaf and less-than-coordinated people dancing the Macarena.

Renewal of the Church is a monumentous task. Where does one begin to participate in this? I think it always begins in our own hearts. It begins with examination of our own motives. Is it love of others that motivates us or is it some selfish desire for recognition and acclaim? It begins with that quiet stillness of listening to God. Once we have been quiet and searched our own hearts it means speaking up and saying truthful things and engaging in conversations that seek to flush out truthful things about God, our community, our faith and about ourselves. Yet, these two actions, quiet and speaking up are not sequential, they are in fact simultaneous. This is even more difficult than dancing the Macarena! It seems to me that reflection and action must be going on at the very same time if we are to truly pursue renewal in our own hearts and in the hearts and minds of those within our community of faith.

When I think about this it reminds me of the complex strategy of military action. Yet, the scriptures talk about the spiritual battle that we are engaged in as a complex war. They mention something about “principalities and powers” that we fight against. In fact, these spiritual wars that we are engaged in are bigger and more complex than even the greatest battles fought throughout the history of the world. At stake are our very souls and the lives of children, mothers and fathers, widows and orphans.

Renewal of the Church is a tall order. It is a privilege to engage in it because without our engagement we lose our own souls for that is, in fact, where renewal begins.

The Recipe

I am not much of a cook. I can follow a recipe but that does not make me a good cook. Unlike my Sicilian mother who would create these wonderful dishes with a little of this and a little of that and no written recipe, I need to know exactly how much, how long, at what temperature and still it does not come out quite the same.

I know someone who is the head of an organization and he talks about how easy his job is because he just follows the recipe of those who led before him. It sounds good but it does not quite work that way. In leadership as in cooking you need to innovate depending on the situation. Things like the weather outside effect the way your cake turns out. So the effective leader is paying attention to the environment in which she leads.

My mom used to throw in a pinch of this and a pinch of that, sometimes throwing in a pinch of something she had never used before just to see if the end product tasted better. Sometimes it did and sometimes it did not. Risk and creativity go hand in hand in good leadership. Also, the freshness and/or quality of the ingredients is so important. Have you ever had a cup of tomato soup made with milk that is a few days too old?

My point is that just following a “tried and true” recipe does not make a good cake or a good leader. The good cook is the one who innovates, takes risk and is creative and one who is constantly monitoring the weather outside. In addition, a good cook cooks often and uses the very best ingredients. Like all good things leadership and cooking are a combination of art and science. If it all boiled down to following a recipe we would all be as famous at Wolfgang Puck.

Buono appetito!