I would not call myself a history buff per se, but I do like to know where I am in it. There seems to me to be value in understanding what has happened in history near the day that we happen to be living right now.
On July 19, 1848, the first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. This event proved to be an important igniter of a women’s movement the challenged both the church and the world with the good news that in Jesus Christ, there is neither male nor female.
On July 15, 1848 — four days before the Seneca Falls convention — the members of the church now called Community Baptist in Warrenville “voted that the sisters have the privilege of voting when they see fit to do so.”
To remind you, the right to vote in elections was not achieved by women in the United States until 72 years later, with the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920. This church community gave women that right 72 years before the federal government did the same.
The 15th of July 1848 was Wednesday, 178 years ago; the 19th will be Sunday. This is when we are right now.
What does it mean? Nothing… and everything.
We are not at church in crisis, but we are at Church in a crunch. We are feeling a squeeze of not enough income for the expenses we have, of too few folks for the activities we imagine to do, of insufficient outreach for the growth we need.
Again: this is not crisis, but it is concern because it impacts our ability to genuinely be the church and love the world as God so calls us to do.
I don’t think I’m saying anything that you don’t already know. The question for most of us is less a matter of whether this is the case than what we do about it. And what’s challenging about that is simply that there are no easy answers. So much about the world has changed, and whatever “the Church” is becoming has not yet become clear. There is no one-size-fits-all solution; perhaps there never really was.
In times like these, imagery of the wilderness tends to resonate. After all, wilderness areas are often unfamiliar to us and seem to play by different rules than the cultivated areas with which we are more familiar. To be dropped suddenly into a wilderness area is to find oneself without bearings or one’s expected support networks. Things that used to be easy are suddenly hard or don’t work at all. One is never sure which way to go for certain, and only special skills like navigation or wayfinding give clues that are opaque to most.
But there are actually an infinite number of ways to get out of the wilderness. Which way a person or group takes will be based on their own set of skills and abilities. And the way that is safest for one may be most dangerous for another.
I believe there are likewise an infinite number of ways for churches to navigate out of the current wilderness in which we find ourselves. But the path that leads to safety and a secure future for one may well lead to catastrophic failure and death for another. How do we know where to go? Part of the answer to that surely involves knowing ourselves. Community Baptist must decide who we will be in a way that transcends a mission statement or a slogan. We must pick a path and pour all our energy into it.
When I read through accounts of this church’s history, I see this community taking a stand time and time again. Many times, the stand they took was one for justice. In other seasons, the stand they took seems a little silly in hindsight. But they were not afraid to plant their flag and say, “This is who we are” — and then proceed as best as they could with God into the uncertain future.
Maybe if we listen, we can hear their voices across the ages encouraging us to do the same.
Remember, we’re all in this together,
Pastor Michael