Based on a desire to resist religious consumerism, honor place, & focus on essentials, my husband & I spent our 1st yr + 4 mos in Dallas at a church we could walk to. It was predominantly white, upper-middle class, non-liturgical, traditional complementarian, dispensationalist./1

We’re foundationally Reformed/Presbyterian, have some charismatic leanings, prefer ethnically & socioeconomically diverse spaces, value joint male-female leadership, & are NOT premillennialists. /2

The 1st 2 months we were there, I think I cried during or after church most Sundays. As I listened to sermons & Sunday-school lessons, I felt a vast disconnect. I didn’t know how to share the burdens we carried from our ministry to people on the margins. It was so lonely. /3

Also, after having been on a teaching/preaching team of men & women at our church in Atlanta, I felt incredible culture shock to be in a faith space where the teaching & leadership gifts were so segregated by gender. But we were committed to staying for at least 6 months. /4

I constantly had to process grief, but the longer we stayed, the more God helped me work thru my own sins of judgment & self-righteousness, & the more he helped me see that he was still present & working in the midst of this racially/economically segregated/privileged reality. /5

There are 2 common, worldly ways we approach church in the West.

1) as consumers: we shop around until we find something that checks most of our boxes
2) as activists: we see ourselves as agents of change

But neither of these approaches reflects a proper theology of church. /6

From a strictly worldly point of view, it's possible to trace the origins of every congregation or denomination & identify all the places that people went wrong. But through the eyes of faith, congregations are supernatural creatures. /7

As such, they're neither problems to be solved nor products to be consumed. Eugene Peterson wrote that the local congregation is the primary place we learn to listen to & obey Christ's commands, where we deal w/the particulars & people we live with./8 https://churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-how-to/153576-eugene-peterson-the-jesus-way-vs-the-american-way.html

Now, that doesn't mean there aren't problems to be solved (there are!); nor does it mean that we passively accept egregious errors (we don't!). But there's a disorientation/reorientation we need to go through before we arrive at a place where we can proceed w/wisdom & love. /9

I've had to divest myself of these worldly postures of consumerism and activism in order to embrace a radically different posture offered through the Eucharist/Lord's Table. Like most evangelicals, though, I've been discipled poorly on the theology of the Lord's Table. /10

It's supposed to help us connect to the historic church (those that came before) & make us conscious of how the local congregation is connected to the church universal. W/o that consciousness, churches filled w/comfortable people accept the reality of segregation & oppression./11

The Lord's Table is the place where enemies whose interests are at odds with one another are invited to form an otherwise impossible sort of family, made possible by the body and blood of Christ himself. /12