We had a great church meeting yesterday where the Elders of
our church presented a fleshed out vision to the members of the church about how we might restructure how we 'do' church and free and enable us to take church out into the city around us. Not because meeting together is a bad thing (it is very good!), but rather to orientate us towards serving and blessing the city more and more which would lead to the traditional Sunday services being only a part of how we live out church and being a community of Christians within the larger city of Edinburgh community.
Karl, our pastor, pointed out that only 1% of the cities population is coming together on a Sunday to be in a church building of one kind or another. Even taking the more optimistic number cited in the Annual Report it is still only 5%. This amounts to anywhere between ~4750 and ~24 000 which either way is not a lot of people to go around to contribute to the city which has close to half a million inhabitants. With about 600-800 of those folk are at our own church it makes it all the more important that we get our structures and strategy right. Our motivation and vision need to be turned into action and the 'controversial' freeloaders need to contribute in some form. There is simply no capacity for not doing so if we truly want to see people saved and the life of this city and its inhabitants bettered.
In the small discussion group I was in during the meeting we were commenting on how it is perhaps easier in some ways to see a more social need and respond to and reach out to that rather than making a difference in a grouping of people that is not in so much immediate physical need. For instance we run a
Christians Against Poverty centre which does some really great work and means a huge amount to many people, but how relevant or appealing is it to somebody from the affluent area of
Morningside that our church meets in?
Another example might be
Amica which is a pregnancy crisis centre that a good friend of mine from my small group is involved in running. At the moment it is in need of massive amounts of support both in terms of finances and volunteers. It has a proportionately big impact on individuals and a specific age group for which it runs education programs, but how do we bring it to a city (and a church) who rarely publicly discuss or acknowledge the issues that
Amica is involved in?
One of the things I like about how we describe the groupings of people in this city as as tribes and how we can/should be interested in and supporting many of these tribes. The tribes could be geographic, age-based, interested based, etc but they are groups of people orientated around a particular theme. People can also be members of multiple tribes and so relationships across the city are multifaceted.
One of the tribes that I am interested in and a part of is the scientific community here in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is an academic powerhouse with four universities, all in some way engaged with teaching and research related to science, engineering, technology and medicine amongst a multitude of other subjects. Several of its departments and colleges are global in terms of their scientific output and teaching with a number being the best in the UK.
Scientists are not in general any more or less religious than the general population (although perhaps more cautious with their responses to questionnaires). They may think slightly differently and on occasion some might wear socks with sandals (but with no rainbow straps on their guitars), but when engaged in conversation they are just as interested in and perhaps more thoughtful than most when it comes to matters relating to religion or God.
It's true that there are loud mouths who decry religion apparently based on science but you also get loud mouths in our churches who decry science apparently based on the authority of the Bible. Neither represents the majority of each group/tribe, but we do seem to feel very comfortable with letting them represent us and allowing the two tribes to keep their separation.
I would love to see this change.
I would love to see churches (and my own in particular) cheering the science enterprise on in our city. Science helps people, it brings benefits, it relieves unneeded suffering. It explores the universe God has provided us with. From a practical stand point as well science generates massive local economic benefits which trickle out and improve the life of our city in general. It also brings the international into our locality and all the opportunities and options that brings with it. The community it generates and its
objectives are also
staggeringly close to the community generated by and the gospel of the Christian church. And there are many people who are already in both communities. Each is non-exclusive to the other.
How can this come about? It can come about perhaps best by the mutual removal of suspicion between both tribes. Science is often presumed guilty before its innocence is even considered and likewise faith is sometimes considered irrational without an investigation. On balance I think that if there is blame to be apportioned than the church deserves the larger share as not only is there often an unnecessary hostile reaction to particular results of science, but we also encourage an underlying suspicion and negativity towards science both from our pulpits and within our community. We would rather disregard those who have worked hard and honestly to become experts and knowledgeable in their fields of study in order to listen to perhaps more familiar and comfortable opinions that don't demand challenge and careful consideration from us as individuals or our theologies.
Practically how do we change this?
Firstly we can make an effort to learn and to understand what science is discovering and the potential benefits technologies can offer. This should be an enriching and exciting experience that should also deepen our understanding of God and His love and providence for His creations. Our personal theologies might need to be be recast in the process but if this brings us closer to truth and right understanding then this can't be a bad thing.
Could we have a Sunday 'sermon' that was an astronomy talk or invite a local biologist in to give us an overview of life on our planet? Could we host local science-based events or provide meeting space for scientific societies and groups such as St Augustine's did for the
local astronomical society? Can we perhaps foster meetings between scientists and church members who have genuine questions?
Secondly we can respect scientists and engineers in the same way we already give respect to medical and other professionals in our churches. All work with the same tools, all work with useful and good intent. Scientists are not in general out 'to get' religion or faith. Engineers want to bring help to the world and its people.
For instance I have a friend out in Sierra Leone at the moment using her engineering skills on a land reclamation project to return land to suitable use for crop growing in conjunction with the mining company that caused it to become unsuitable in the first place. Part of her motivation is her Christian faith but more fundamentally perhaps is her choice to become an engineer in the first place as she sees it as an opportunity to
constructively help others and show them Christ's love.
In the same way that we rely on doctors to cure our often self-inflicted
bodily illnesses we are also going to have to rely on those with understanding of science and technology to work us out of our current environmental crisis (caused by human greed and over consumption, not science) and also to help make our tomorrow's better.
We cannot pick and choose when we will take the 'good parts' of science and dispute self-
perceived 'negative' parts that we have personal problems with. We need to show wisdom and patience and to demonstrate the ability to distinguish between science and a human abuse of scientific understanding.
Even where there are apparent conflicts of fact between science and theology we must be humble enough in our opinions to acknowledge and support the
consensus of the
scientific community's work rather than extolling the apparent virtues of fringe speakers who appeal to a less challenging but ultimately false theology while disregarding the results of mainstream science. The scientific
consensus may indeed change in time but this is done by research and hard work, not by popular appeal or adulation.
Thirdly we can support real efforts in our city, nationally and internationally that attempt to help people bridge the false gap between science and religion. Organisations like
Christians in Science or the
Faraday Institute or my own
Jesus and the Scientist project here in Edinburgh seek to do that. I would love to see more and more Christians taking an interest in these projects and the events and courses they put on - whether they have a particular science interest or not, especially if they are leaders in our churches.
When was the last time we as a church prayed for scientists or the success of their endeavours? I suspect not very recently and certainly not without some reservations whether spoken out loud or not, but we in the scientific community need the prayers of God's church as much as anyone else.
We can also provide support, equip and encourage opportunities to assist those in our community (Christian or not) to use appropriate technologies and skills in solutions to human problems -
food, shelter, energy, etc. These sort of problems are not limited to the developing world. For instance we could be taking the lead in helping the deployment of energy saving measures or micro-generation energy projects in our own local communities. We can set the example for others to join us in.
There are also organisations and charities locally that provide engineers to work on local and global problems such as
Engineers Without Borders or
Engineer Aid. These groups could be resourced by churches and entrusted with pursuing the
outcomes of their visions well.
I don't think God gave us our stewarding role in creation to ignore or stifle the reality of that creation or our responsibilities as part of it.
Fourthly and perhaps most simply I think we can acknowledge that science and religion is a scholarly subject in its on right with hundreds of people working on it worldwide today. This is important as too often our churches listen to and support those with no standing amongst either their theological or scientific peers. Their standing is zero not because of a vast global conspiracy against Christian belief in the scientific community but because their understanding of the subjects involved and the research that they rarely perform is poor. They are voices without substance that play up stereotypes and falsehoods either
deliberately or
naively through misunderstanding.
With a historic and thriving academic community engaged in real efforts to bring science and religion closer together there is really no need to give these other voices priority and every reason to allow the quieter academic majority increasing opportunities to speak. Could we as a church perhaps get an institutional type subscription to a
peer-reviewed science and religion journal such as
Zygon or
Science and Christian Belief so that they would be available to all our members? Could papers from them form the basis of discussion groups?
The upcoming Edinburgh Festivals are a great opportunity for this. We are blessed with great discussions every year now in the Science, Book and Spirituality Festivals as well as other events throughout the year.
The effects of all this would be twofold. Firstly for our church itself and as individuals it would better ourselves and deepen our understanding and appreciation for all that God gives and does for us. It would get into our collective 'DNA' and provide a more encouraging and positive attitude to both the people and world around us.
And secondly it would help to defuse a lot of the tension between the two tribes and show that Christianity can cope very happily with modern science and indeed that we are enthusiastic about it. I think that scientists like to discuss God, religion, etc as there is a lot that is attractive and interesting about the both the subject, God in general and the community and society they all manifest. If we can create a community that not only reaches out to scientists but cheers them on we can only make the Church more
irresistible while removing many of the specific
barriers individual scientists reject the church over.
This is not about compromising Biblical authority or introducing some kind of liberal or dodgy theology. It's about living in reality and saving souls. This is about cheering on the good in our city not for the sake of it, but because it is worthy of being cheered on, supported and encouraged.
Science is sometimes unnerving at first glance, but scientists are not. We need to reach them where they are because they are wanting to and need to reach us.
Posts
