PRACTICING OUR FAITH: TESTIMONY or “WALKING THE WALK”

Luke 3: 15-22; Isaiah 52:7-10

January 10, 2010 – Rev. Jerry Duggins

What do churches do to foster congregational vitality? For the next ten weeks or so, Janet and I hope to focus our attention on this question. The short answer is that vital congregations “practice” their faith. The challenge for many churches today is that they have forgotten how they did this. Dynamic practice has been reduced to tired, worn-out routines in some instances or lost in the haphazard attempt to maintain institutional integrity. It is undoubtedly true that more churches are dying than thriving. The growing cultural distrust of institutions in general and the challenge of reframing the message in order to stay relevant to a world fascinated by new technologies have stretched many congregations to the breaking point.

Churches are struggling to stay afloat, largely from a failure to understand what they’re all about. Dr. Arn, our consultant from a little over a year ago, mentioned this as issue that we at Westminster needed to address. Quite a few of those who completed the survey we did at the time stated that they did not have a sense of Westminster’s mission and purpose.

The session has made attempts to address this problem even before Dr. Arn drew attention to it. Shortly after our arrival ten years ago, the session rewrote our purpose statement. About five years ago, it drafted a new “working” mission statement. We preached a sermon series on this new statement as well as series on the great ends of the church, the apostles’ creed and the stained glass window behind me; all of these attempts to increase our understanding of congregational identity. There were many good things that came from these efforts, but I think it is accurate to say that they did not bring us to a sense of our common purpose together.

We have tackled this issue in the traditional method of first defining our identity. We have focused on the question: “Who are we?” When the answer is: “We are a great many things,” finding a common mission becomes problematic. Our theological beliefs nearly cover the spectrum. We are quite diverse in our political positions, our social stances. We prefer a variety of worship styles. We have a broad range of ages though we’re becoming under-represented by families with young children. I think this diversity is a wonderful thing and a clear indication that we are doing something right, but it makes writing a mission statement quite a challenge.

We are in fact in the process of doing this again. The session has designated a task force to work on this and you will be hearing from them soon. I hope you will participate in the process when invited. But they are taking a different approach. Instead of trying to answer the question, “Who are we?” they are beginning with the question, “What do we do?”

This brings me back to the question I asked in beginning: “What do churches do to foster congregational vitality?” The idea for the question comes from Diana Butler Bass’ study of 50 mainline congregations. In her book Christianity for the Rest of Us, she discusses ten faith practices that were prominent in these congregations. Each of the churches in her study, while exhibiting many of the practices, had focused on one or two. As we look at these ten practices, I’d like us all to be thinking about them in connection to Westminster. Do we practice them here? If so, how? Would we benefit from placing greater emphasis on one or two of them?

I begin with testimony. In my mind, no church can do without this practice. It is one way in which churches fulfill the first great end of the church: the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of human kind. Testimony answers the call of the great commission given by Jesus at the end of Matthew’s gospel. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations….” Testimony is a blessed activity as Isaiah describes it: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation….” Testimony is what John does when he speaks of one who is to come who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire; and what the voice from heaven does when it declares of Jesus: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And though I’ll make little reference to individual scriptures this morning, testimony is arguably what the whole of the Bible is all about.

Testimony is a central practice at Church of the Redeemer near Yale Divinity School. Rev. Lillian Daniel, pastor of the church at the time that Bass did her study, said “Our church’s practice is giving testimony, having people talk about their experience of God. We didn’t invent it; it was in the early church…. We have learned that speaking strengthens our community” (Bass, pp.130-1).

Redeemer was not always like this. As Bass notes in her book, before the arrival of Rev. Daniel, they were a church on the ropes. They found new life in the practice of testimony. Each week, a member would share a story about a time in which they were touched by God. Imagine, someone like you, talking about how God helped them deal with some unethical office practice, or saved their marriage, or got them through a period of unemployment. These are not stories from days long gone by, or illustrations shared by the preacher of people you don’t know. They’re stories lived by people you know, that, as Bass says, “tell of finding meaning, finding unique selves, and finding God in a confusing and chaotic world” (Bass, p.138). You can imagine the potential here to “outshine the sermon” The practice of testimony can be a wonderful reminder the “Holy Spirit uses all of us” (p.131).

For eighteen years, Westminster practiced its faith through testimony in its Lenten series, “This I Believe.” Speakers found it helpful to put words to their individual faith journeys and hearers were encouraged as they heard echoes of their own stories. The bonds of community were strengthened as we heard testimony to the work of God in our midst.

I’m not suggesting that we should bring back this particular program. Even testimony can become tired and worn out if its form fails to keep pace with the changing context of the world around us. But we would do well to incorporate testimony more consciously in our practice of faith even if it doesn’t become a primary focus for us.

Tom Long reminds us that “to be human is to live a story….” (p.11). Testimony invites us to take our individual stories and to see them in light of the Christian story. To understand the narrative character of our faith is critical if the church is to find a new vitality for the future. This is more important for leaders to grasp than even the visioning and goal-setting processes critical to many organizations. Pastor N. Graham Standish observes about “great” leaders that they “seem to craft a story, a story that inspires others… in the congregation so that they willingly become a part of and live out this story in their work and lives” (The Pastor as Narrative Leader).

It’s this link to a common story that keeps testimony from degenerating into narcissism. Practiced well, “testimony reminds us of where we have been, helps us see where we are, and directs us toward unanticipated paths” (Bass, p.139). Unconnected to the Christian story of God’s grace and love through Christ, it become mere self-absorption, a story that only amuses and entertains.

We might apply this principle to preaching as well. We’re encouraging those who are considering preaching while we’re away on sabbatical to think of it as a kind of testimony. Even though there may be many purposes behind preaching, it is at bottom, a witness to the grace of God.

Tom Long puts it this way. “Faithful preaching is not story time; it is instead the spoken word at the epicenter of a community of courageous testimony.” Among the things that this kind of preaching models, Long lists “the gospel-storied shape of the lives of people who will talk to their children about their faith and bear witness in the world to the overwhelming generosity of God” (p.26).

I cannot imagine a church, faithful to its calling, that did not practice at least informally, testimony. In personal conversations, group discussion, in the hymns and songs we sing, we do bear witness to God’s generosity. But what if we were more intentional about this practice? Would our guests see us as a “community of courageous testimony?” Would we find it easier to “shape our lives by the gospel?” Could it be the key to moving beyond institutional maintenance to thriving as a part of the body of Christ in this time and place? Imagine how rooted we might feel in this chaotic world if we were constantly reminded of how our story is grounded in the timeless story of God’s generosity in the world.

For us, this story of God’s generosity in the world had a new beginning in the birth of Jesus. We heard this love announced in the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism. We emphasize this story of God’s love every time we baptize or remember our baptisms as we do today.

I love how Tom Long puts it. He writes, “… through baptism Christians are gathered up into the identity of Jesus Christ, which means at least in part that we now see our lives in the shape and pattern of the story of Jesus…. We are given a story about ourselves we could not have crafted on our own, but this story also discloses the truth about us that may have been hidden from our eyes, namely, that we have been created in the image of God and have always been a part of God’s story” (p.11)

Testimony declares the many ways in which we are a part of God’s story. The church is surely strengthened when its members speak it. There are certainly other ways to bear witness to the gospel. The importance of walking the talk certainly cannot be overestimated, but testimony is about “talking the walk.” When the walk is good, genuinely shaped by the gospel story, we need to say so. When God is good, we need to tell others. And if we cannot do it here in the midst of brothers and sisters in Christ, how can we hope to take the message into our world? God is good… all the time. Testimony provides much of the detail behind this truth. There are stories here that need to be told, stories that can help generate new life and energy in the church, stories we are all waiting to here. Don’t be afraid to tell some here how God has been good to you. It’s a wonderful way to practice for your witness in the world. Amen.

Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. Bass, Diana Butler. HarperCollins Publishers: New York, NY. 2006.

“The Pastor as Narrative Leader” by N. Graham Standish (online article). www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=8799. 1/4/2010.

Preaching from Memory to Hope. Long, Thomas G. Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, KY. 2009.