November 11, 2021
Ecclesiology – The study of the Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership.
- from Wikipedia
Dear Doubters of Great Faith,
I did a (somewhat) exhaustive search of my theological library to find a good working definition of “ecclesiology,” and the most concise commitment I could find actually came from the source of all modern wonders, Wikipedia. It may be because talk of “ecclesiology” is about as fungible, moving from left to right when you try to nail it down, as the body of Christ itself. But, to put it plainly, ecclesiology is the role the gathered body (the Greek “ecclesia”) plays in the doing of theology, or the work of God in the world.
Every time the body comes together, the work of God is lived out, in one form or another. Transformations are occurring, great and small, within our own individual lives, the lives of those we come into contact, and the collective life of the greater community. It is simply a reality we cannot, should not, and do not want to avoid. There is something about the gathered body of Christ, the collection of all the bits and pieces of the Holy Spirit that each of us breathe into our gathering, that incubates transformation.
We saw this again last weekend as the Diocese of Dallas gathered as the body of Christ in this part of North Texas to worship God and to do some of that theological God-work. The clergy came together to hear Dr. Edward Stetzer, distinguished Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College, as well as the Chair of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton, who spoke to us from his storehouse of knowledge on ecclesiology and missiology.
Dr. Stetzer has lots of data and statistics surrounding church attendance and membership across the years, and we talked about the overall health of mainline Protestantism, and how the Church has managed to survive, and even thrive, in the midst of a global pandemic. Churches pivoted in methods previously unimaginable, to find new and creative ways to be the body, even when gathering was all but impossible. He was quite clear that the Church should celebrate its ability to be innovative and creative as a means of perseverance.
However, Dr. Stetzer also was clear in saying that we are the Church, and by the very nature of being Christ’s body, we need to be serious and intentional about our ecclesiology (the way we are the body of Christ) as we now emerge from the pandemic. I heard his message loud and clear.
In short, it’s time to come back to Church!
I have been so grateful that we have been able to provide meaningful interactive worship experiences through our Zoom and Facebook platforms. They afforded us air space when we could not share breath. We have all worked diligently to make those experiences as meaningful and fulfilling as possible. However, it is time to come on back to Church, to the body of Christ, to BE the body of Christ, to the transformational experiences that happen at the corner of Inwood and Mockingbird, at 8 am and 10:30 am on Sundays, and at Noon on Wednesdays.
You need to share space with your fellow Doubters to participate in the transfiguring that is happening. It will feed your soul, and you will feed others’ souls. We need each other, all of us.
The 9 am Zoom service will conclude on Advent IV, December 19. That will give folks five weeks to find the service they are most comfortable attending. If you are COVID-averse, the 8 am Sunday and Noon Wednesday service have AMPLE room for social-distancing, and all services require masking. If you are home-bound and cannot make the journey to St. Thomas, we are committed to continuing the streaming of our 10:30 am Sunday service on Facebook Live.
Your spiritual health is of extreme importance to me. If you have an issue that precludes you from being a part of regular in-person worship, I hope and pray that you will reach out to me so that I can help!
Yours on the journey,
Fr. Christopher+
