Your Church Can Grow

At our small group discussion at Taizé, Elke, a Roman Catholic religious worker from Germany, confessed that “In our churches we give answers to questions people are not asking. We preach of things that have no connection to people’s lives.” Another Lutheran Pastor from Germany said, “My main job is burying people. I conduct five funerals a week.” Clearly, the Church–whether Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, or Free, in Germany–is composed of a very small group of people. The future of the church as it has been known is bleak. And yet, here they are at Taizé. They come with youth from their parishes. These youth do not necessarily attend worship nor do they belong to a Youth Group as we would know it in the United States. They learn of the pilgrimage at school and the churches are more than happy to organize the trips.

As we experience decline in many of the mainline churches in the United States, Elke’s confession haunted me. Are our U.S. churches giving answers to questions people are not asking? If so, then what are the questions we should be responding to? How can we begin to know those questions without engaging in a dialogue with the people who live in areas where our churches are located? I surely would welcome responses . . .

Worship at Taizé is simple. When you enter, you pick up a songbook and a sheet with scripture readings. Once the brothers have entered and the bells have finished ringing, a digital signboard gives the number of the chant and singing begins. Prior to the singing, everyone is to be silent: silent upon entering, silent as you wait for the service to begin. In the first few days of the week there is not complete silence. A youth carries a large signboard saying “Silence” on one side and “Stille” on the other (remember, “Stille Nacht”?).

The service begins with several chants and an alleluia. The scripture is read in 2-3 languages followed by chanting. Key verses from the same scripture passage are read in several more languages. Another chant is sung. This first part takes 12-15 minutes. Then there is 8-10 minutes of silence. As the week progresses, silence is heeded. The silence ends when a chant number is posted on the digital signboard. Prayers are given with a sung response (Kyrie Eleiason). This is followed by a series of chants. The final part of the service is about 12-15 minutes long. The brothers recess while the congregation continues to sing. The entire service goes for 40-45 minutes. Some leave as soon as the brothers do while others stay to sing.

The singing is accompanied by a brother who plays a small keyboard instrument that makes the sound of a classic guitar. Another brother occasionally plays a pipe organ. The church is dimly lit. The chancel area is arrayed with open ended rectangular boxes each with electric and candle illumination. Red triangular drapes adorn the wall behind the lighted boxes. A cross is placed at the right front and an icon mounted on the wall to the left. Woven baskets are placed on their side with the closed end facing the congregation. Lights beam onto the back wall from these baskets.

On this Friday I awoke immediately when my alarm sounded at 6:20 a.m. I was surprised that I had fallen asleep before my roommates had turned in the night before. They must have entered the dorm room quietly and because I had already fallen asleep, their snoring did not keep me awake. I showered and shaved. Showers have a timed push button that lasts for about a minute. I was able to shower with two pushes of the button. It is always a good idea to conserve water.

I walked through the darkness of this morning to the church. Stars still illuminated the sky as did the sliver of the moon. It was cold, perhaps just above freezing. I sat in the warm, silent church reading the bible, journaling and praying as I prepared for the first number to appear on the digital signboard.

Thursday, October 15th was a cold morning. I layered my clothing to keep warm. The skies were clear, hardly a cloud as I made my way to the Church of the Reconciliation at 7:20 a.m. There are very few in the church at this hour. The cold, I am sure, is making it difficult for people to arise from the warmth of their blankets.

At each service, after the scriptures are read, there is a long silence. The sermon is in the silence. If we are to take seriously the hearing of the word then we meditate on its meaning and its application to our lives during the silence. At first it is easy to find the mind wandering during the silence. Self conciousness, even awkwardness wants to rule. As each day passes with its three services one is invited into the silence and into its purpose of reflection on the word of God. The comment one hears most about Taizé is how people gradually came to embrace and value the silence.

We live in a world full of noise. Silence invites listening–to the Spirit, to the Word, to what God might be speaking in our souls. The minutes of silence, sometimes as much as ten minutes becomes a time of peace and solidarity for the silence is not experienced alone, it is experienced in the midst of 2,000 others, it is experienced in community. And so the silence is the sermon and the sermon is the silence.

When I awoke this morning it was a crisp autumn day. The night sky still dark at 6:30 a.m. illuminated only by a sliver of a moon rising above the hills to the east. I took my Bible, journal and cushion and entered the Church of the Reconciliation–the main sanctuary of Taizé–where I found a bench near the right front. The heat had been turned on–a pleasant bonus to this early morning. After reading scripture and making entries into my journal, the bells sounded for the beginning of a new day and a new opportunity to pray together.

For each service, the brothers enter in silence in a wide corridor centered before the chancel. The corridor is bordered by green plants. The brothers walk to their spot and turn to the chancel and kneel on the floor. Some of the older brothers or those with back problems, sit in wicker chairs. There is balance in the acitivities of Taizé, a yin and yang to the experience. We worship as a group at the prayer meetings. We meet in small groups. In the small group there is intimacy, in the large reverence.

For the Bible Study on this day I served as a translator for the lone participant who traveled from Spain. The Brother gave his lecture in German, which was translated into English and then I translated into Spanish. Have you ever played telephone line? I wonder how different the lecture ended up being in Spanish than when it began in German. We pray that the Holy Spirit allowed for a lesson to be learned despite our human shortcomings.

How wonderful to share in small group study with fellow Christians from Germany and Portugal. Despite differing theological views, there was no sense of judgment, just an openness to listen to one another and to share. There is a spirit to the sharing that echoes the first verse of Psalm 133: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!”

You never know what kind of weather you will get on an October day. Whether in the New York area or in southwestern France, autumn can be warm, cold or somewhere in between. On this Tuesday, the temperatures dropped. Big cumulus clouds floated into the sky. The sun peaked through the clouds and then hid behind them. Leaves rustled with an ever increasing breeze. Their multi-colors dotted the countryside of rolling hills and farms.

Yet the cold autumn temperatures could not chill the warmth emmanating from the Taizé community. Through worship, fellowship, bible study, conversations, I experienced the warmth of love. I wrote in my journal that day, “Taizé is first of all about love.” Love as devotion to God. Love as hospitality. Love as a choice to make for one’s life.

What is Taizé a sign of? The Kingdom of God to be sure. Might it also be a sign of the Remnant of Christianity striving to make real this 2,000 year old religion? Might it also serve as seed for Christianity’s rebirth?

Berndt, the Lutheran Pastor and a veteran of several pilgrimages to Taizé, rented an apartment in the village and invited our small group to meet there on Tuesday afternoon. We reflected on two questions: 1. What does it mean to win? 2. What was Jesus’ currency?

Our multi-national, multi-cultural group talked of winning in terms of ‘fullness of life.’ When one can be open and free to encounter others and God, including being vulnerable to being hurt, then one is on a winning track. We said that the currency of Jesus is love. Jesus loved people he encountered and was fully present to them. He did not see others as instruments for his own agenda. However, when he asks, as he did to Peter, “Do you love me?” He wants to know our commitment to him and his Way.

My Tuesday take away is that Jesus’ currency and the currency of Taizé is love. Can I embrace the simplicity of this affirmation?

The experience of Taizé centers around three daily worship services: morning, noon and evening prayer. After morning prayer comes breakfast, clean up and then Bible Study led by one of the brothers of Taizé. The Brother ended the bible study with questions for small group discussion. There were seven persons in my small group, including my GNJAC colleague, Varlyna Wright, three pastors and a religious professional from Germany (Bernd, a Lutheran Pastor; Jost, a “free church” pastor; Hartmut, a Reformed Church Pastor; and Elke, a religious worker in a Roman Catholic Parish). In addition, we were blessed by a lay person, Lucio, a Medical Doctor originally from India now living in Portugal.

Our first discussion took place on Monday afternoon, October 12th. We talked of how youth connect with the experience of Taizé in powerful ways. For the Germans, however, they said that the connection youth had with Taizé did not translate into participation in church back home. In Germany, each parish is a “State” church underwritten by taxes. Some parishes are Roman Catholic, some are Protestant (either Lutheran or Reformed). Youth who make a pilgrimage to Taizé go under the auspices and with the leadership of the parish church. They are members of the church by virtue of living in the parish not because they attend church. There is value in the experience of youth. Pastor Berndt, a Lutheran, said that he had come to appreciate the deep spiritual impact Taizé has for youth and he has learned to let go of any disappointment that the pilgrimage has not become a portal into church life. Going to Taizé has an intrinsic value for the youth. “We should not expect anything in return,” said Berndt.

And thus, Taizé is a gift. It is the gift of a religious community of faith who listens and shares who they are with youth not expecting anything in return.

Might we learn a similar lesson in our churches? Is there something we could offer to youth and young adults that would not expect anything in return? Could we engage in conversations with youth where listening becomes the key to the relationship and where we develop trust and openness? All through the week I looked for principles of the experience that could be applied to church life in the U.S. The principal I learned on Monday was this: Engage youth in conversation and listen.

I was privileged to be able to go on a pilgrimage to Taizé, France from October 10-18 along with ten other United Methodists from the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. It was a blessing in so many ways. This is the first of several entries I will make under the category, “Taizé Pilgrimage.” I made journal entries during the trip and want to share with you my experience.

Ours was the first group from our Methodist conference to go to Taizé as a group of adults. Taizé is a religious community in southwestern France whose mission is to be a listening post for youth from around the world. They were gracious to allow us adults to attend. We met up with adult leaders of youth from other parts of the world.

We traveled via Geneva, Switzerland, which is a 2 1/2 bus ride away from Taizé. We departed Newark International Airport on Friday, October 9th and flew non-stop to Geneva where we arrived at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday morning. We passed through six time zones on the way.

From the airport we were shuttled to the Bossey “Ecumenical Institute” — an educational center of the World Council of Churches. We were assigned rooms and had something to eat and then walked–as a group–to nearby Céligny, where we took a public transportation bus to the Coppet train station. From there it was a short express train to downtown Geneva.

We walked through the city center stopping at a city park that pays homage to the founders of the Protestant Reformation. We visited the Museum of the Reformation, located adjacent to the cavernous Reformation Cathedral where Jean Calvin preached. The Museum houses artifacts and bibles from the Reformed period.

We were told by our guide that today in Switzerland, less than 10% of the population attends a church for worship, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic. Has our faith story become the stuff of museums? Is there still something living in the faith of people who claim the heritage of the Reformation? What of the United Methodist faith story in the U.S.? Is our story more museum piece today or is there still a story to unfold, a history still to make?

At a recent “District Day with the Bishop,” District Superintendent Bob Costello urged laity and clergy to open our churches to change so that we can reach more people, younger people and more diverse people in our area. “Take a look around,” Rev. Costello said. “We’re not getting any younger.” The message was clear and simple: open ourselves to change to reach a new generation or be part of the last generation of United Methodists.

Is there anything more urgent for us?