Can we imagine a grown up church? A church where people take mature, healthy responsibility for their faith and practice as well as their active participation in the life and work of the congregation and the wider church community?

Such a church would not need to use gimmicks or guilt as motivations for members “to come together week by week for corporate worship; and to work, pray, and give for the spread of Kingdom of God.” (Prayer Book p. 856 on “the duty of all Christians”). In a grown up church people would worship regularly, commit time to Christian Education and Formation for themselves and their children, and give generously simply because it was the mature and right thing to do in a life of Christian discipleship.

A grown up church would have room for children (in fact it would know the difference between childlikeness and childishness and would not be all work and no play). And a mature church would have room for people at all levels of maturity and understanding as well as for strugglers and seekers. But its leadership, direction, and, most of all, its heart would be healthy, mature, and grown up.

A grown up church would have the wisdom that recognizes that the more we know, the more we know that we don’t know everything, and thus it would be humble, diverse, and open to accepting and learning from different points of view. It wouldn’t need to agree about everything, or to blame or scapegoat people near or far. It would have serious, but not unrealistic, expectations of leaders and members and would not need a personality cult to inspire personal responsibility.

A grown up church would be intelligent, civil, respectful, sincere, prayerful, and clearly earnest in its desire to be faithful to Jesus Christ. It would be a gospel church, because it knows and proclaims the good news of God’s grace through the dying and rising of Jesus. And it would be a mission church, because it looks beyond its own walls and members to find a place in God’s mission of reconciliation.

Of course, the way to be a grown up, mature, healthy church, is to take adult responsibility for ourselves.  I will do my best to be a grown up Christian, Episcopalian, and Cathedral member and, at the same time, give thanks to God for the many people around me who are doing the same.

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