While we value a separation of Church and State in this country, the Church has been a central part of community life in our history. For better or for worse, the work of the Church is no longer in the center of things today. So, where is our place in the public square now?
Robert Benne, a Lutheran scholar, takes on the place of church in the public square in his book, The Paradoxical Vision: A Public Theology for the Twenty-First Century. In it, Benne offers a contemporary interpretation of Lutheran beliefs on salvation and the church in order to articulate what role the church will play in society.
Benne argues that the primary purpose of the church is to proclaim God in Word and Sacrament and pray that the Spirit uses that to inspire people to bring about change in society. The Church’s direct action in society, argues Benne, “tends to confuse the church’s central mission and to damage its integrity.” He argues that the primary purpose of the church is proclamation of the Gospel and everything else is secondary. His approach to Public Theology is to maintain proclamation of the Gospel and “forming persons in its central religious and moral vision” as the primary purpose of the church.
This got me thinking where we at Westminster view our place in the public square. If we drew concentric circles of our mission and values as a church, what is our core? And where would our advocacy work fit? Our feeding ministry? Children’s ministry? Music? These are all things we love about Westminster and about our relationship with God. What is at the core of what we do and who we are?
My guess is that advocacy would not be at the margins for Westminster. We have decided a while back that we cannot keep feeding people without also addressing the root causes of their hunger. And that means advocacy, that means being committed to the public square because that’s where the people are.
I love this church because the center of our faith is not a silent place where we are alone with God. We are always with other people, too, laughing and singing and helping one another stand when we do not have the strength. That is the core of our faith.