The word “crisis” comes from the Greek meaning a time of decision. More commonly, we often think of a crisis as a major problem or as some type of disaster. Often in emergency situations, a decision is needed quickly, and this often plays into the perception of crisis being an eventful, perhaps even traumatic affair.
Over the past few years, we at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church have had to make a few decisions or have decided not to make decisions. What should we do with the pastor? Should we change our worship services, or not? How many worship services should we have? At what times should we have services and Sunday School? What type of budget can we afford? How do we help visitors feel welcomed enough to return? Should we leave our denomination and join another? Should we remodel some or all of our fellowship spaces?
The life of a congregation is full if decisions. Some of them are indeed filled with excitement. Others are accompanied by frustration, anger, and disillusionment. Because of these emotions, a time of decision can be a crisis in the common sense of the word.
In the coming year, we will continue to face more decisions. How will we weather the loss of many of our dearest members? Will we have enough people to assist with the various tasks at church, from preparing Sunday refreshments, to setting up the church for special occasions, to assisting visitors and newer members to feel comfortable increasing their participation in congregational life? Should we extend our interim constitution or draft another to replace it? The expected and the unexpected will arise and will demand us to make decisions, perhaps in ways which we might experience as a crisis.
As already indicated, change and crisis (making decisions) seem to go hand in hand. Most of us do not relish change. Some of us avoid change at almost any cost. New Year’s resolutions speak of change, but we often realize that such changes are only cosmetic and fleeting in nature. We say, “This year I will attend church more often,” or “I would like to increase my offering.” Then, we realize that Little Freddie needs to attend a sporting event on Sundays. Sadly, those bills from our “real” daily life hardly seem to get any smaller. Worse yet, we realize that no one named Little Freddie lives in our home!
From the perspective of having to make decisions, we human beings are always in crisis, except in our relationship to God. On the one hand, in our sin and its associated self-centeredness, we have to make decisions in our daily lives, even our church lives. On the other hand, in relation to God we do not and cannot make the right decisions because we are trapped in our sin. This “bondage to sin” from which we cannot free ourselves, then, affects how we make decisions in relation to ourselves, to our lives, and to our church and its mission. When not taken in relation to God’s decision for us and our salvation in Christ Jesus, “our” decisions become a compounded crisis either in our personal lives or in our church life or both.
In this crisis situation, what are we to do? In short, there is nothing that we can do. God has made the decision. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has decided for us! By the promise of his word made flesh dwelling among us, God has decided to love and to accept and to forgive and to renew and to heal and to do wonderful things in our lives and our church life. These gifts from God we cannot rightfully do ourselves. We can only share them with others as God has graciously given them to us.
As we venture into 2013, let us live together in the treasured gift of God’s word in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and thereby strive together in and with that same word to make our decisions together in the knowledge and faith that God’s word will create for us our fellowship and our future.
