We are never
inventing, or constructing the Church anew, as if your congregations or
dioceses or national structures — as if Israel — could be invented anew or
constructed by the Israelites. The issue is not invention; it is always and
ever “obedience.”
We tend to pursue our ministries on a continuum between
activism and quietism, which orders most of our lives: do this; build that;
organize, strategize. Clergy conferences are all about that, as are all the
books and blogs of the world. And if that’s too much — as it surely is — we
then give in to fatigue, withdraw, hide. Most clergy end up doing that.
But there is an alternative continuum to the
activism/quietism spectrum. It is simply to do what God asks; to follow where
God leads. And only that. No more, no
less.
