Ecumenism, Liberalism & Chicken Teriyaki
I looked down at my chicken that was about the color of my favorite pair of khaki shorts I had as a kid growing up. I then proceeded to carefully remove the toothpick which held a single pineapple tidbit and a maraschino cherry. Finally, still puzzling over what maraschino cherries and chicken teriyaki have to do with each other I pulled some meat off the chicken quarter and watched as the limp pieces of meat designed for the retirement centers octogenarians made its way towards my mouth.
Looking around the room didn’t really help much either. Gathered around the room were about 25 people all sitting at tables. Two tables ran parallel down the length of the room and a third one sat across the top connecting them, forming an open space in the middle. A sort of three sided square. My position in this whole meeting bothered me too. Through some ill stroke of fate I had managed to end up sitting in the middle chair at the head table. If some knight from A.D. 1154 had walked into the room he probably would have addressed me first, and even now pretty much everyone that walked into the room did a double take when they walked in. Perhaps even worse than my physical position in the room however, was my relative age. I was by far the youngest person in the room. The average age of most people in the room was somewhere around 45-50 and here I was having started shaving last week.
And then there was the conversation. It was supposedly a ministerial association luncheon, but most of the people there were either social workers, city workers or leaders in parachurch charities and ministries. All told there were really only 4 “pastors.” The meeting itself was a perfect illustration of ecumenism on a local level. There were a number of Catholics, a Methodist, a Lutheran, city officials, counselors, humanitarians, a baptist (whom I work with), and then myself (I’ll write another post later on why I don’t label myself a baptist). Oh, and I forgot the Christian Science lady. Throughout the meeting vague hints were dropped at things like prayer being a good thing, and the need for us to develop greater spiritual unity. All very nice ecumenical thoughts.
Then of course there were the agendas of the meeting. Discussing the homeless problem, being alerted to services to troubled youth, housing for those in the gay community suffering from AIDS, a center for victims of domestic violence, a city organization trying to provide groceries to shut ins in the community. All of them viable needs, all of them places where hurting and broken people could come for help. But that was it. It was just a social issue. Fix societies problems by working together. Now I understand the need for each of these services and appreciate that I live in a country where these helps exist for people. But what troubles me is that too many churches drift off mission. They become more interested in social work than in discipleship. Why, because of liberal and ecumenical presuppositions and beliefs which lead the church to attempt to establish utopia here and now. The need for all social activity is certainly great. But it should be motivated not by an ecumenical desire but by a gospel driven love for people. Helping people become better people is a fine goal for a state. But for the church our desire should be greater than just better people, it should be Christ-followers. Our ministry to those suffering from domestic violence should always include the healing that comes through the gospel and a relationship with Jesus Christ. Our ministry to the homeless should be fueled by and include the gospel. And the list could go and on. But there was no mention of the gospel and only a few veiled mentions to someone’s son but who he was I could never figure out. Social work done by the church without the gospel just does not make sense. And what do maraschino cherries and chicken teriyaki have to do with one another?
