I was thinking about what historic congregational polity, adapted to the present age, might offer to the community of churches in the United States facing catastrophic decline. I’m still mulling over it, focusing a number of ideas, drawn in part from years of writing on this site. If I come up with something worthy of sharing, I’ll share it, but not today.
But even if I don’t come up with anything in particular, it’s been worth trying. I’ve consulted old, but familiar, texts and let my mind wander to freely associate possible options that could exist. This means I’ve been reading books (e-books count) and thinking rather that scrolling face down into my phone. Others on the morning bus might think I’m daydreaming or just looking mindlessly off into space.
This engagement with theology — as ecclesiology is a domain of theology, if one of the earthy ones — gives me a lot of peace: an anchored position in the middle of today’s storms. And like a good anchor, it may be lifted as needed and the vessel can move. The vessel may the church (which moves slowly) or the self, going great and unexpected distances. But not today. Lifting anchor in a storm is foolish and dangerous. Obsessing today over what one cannot change, attentive to every gust and wave, is also foolish and dangerous. The anchor stays down for now, and that lets me look up and past the doom scroll. In a word, focus on deeper things, for these will carry you onwards.