What I'd Like My Church to Learn

Jim Wallis gave an outstanding sermon on Wednesday night to close the Assembly. Like others who had spoken, he called the church back to being a neighborhood presence. We will only be truly in mission with our neighbors when we know our neighbors.

During the closing communion, though, I saw again a habit or practice or norm--whatever we should call it--that distresses me and stands as a barrier to serving our neighbors. If we are going to serve our neighbors, we have to learn to serve one another. That means learning both to serve and to be served.

Wednesday night we shared communion through a hybrid of common cup and reformed traditions. We used intinction, which is a common cup practice. Traditionally, intinction is a practice of having worshippers come to a common loaf and cup, receiving the loaf and dipping it in the cup. Due to the number of people to be served, loaves and chalices were passed among the worshippers.

Passing the elements is part of the reformed tradition. This practice, as intended, demonstrates the priesthood of the believer by calling on worshippers to serve one another. However, over and over again our practice demonstrates our isolation and individualism rather than our living as Christian community. It is all too common to see a worshipper take the loaf and cup in a "serve yourself" fashion.

To be a church in mission, we must live in community with our neighborhood. But first we have to learn to live in community with one another.