by Pastor Dan Baumgartner

We live in a culture of critique. For every expressed thought or action, there seem to be a thousand people standing by to blog their criticism. Faith communities receive their fair share.

I’m not thinking so much about Bethany in particular, but the Church in general. In recent years, books have been written, movies produced, movements started, seminars taught on “how to be the church- the right way.” It’s very fashionable to criticize the community of faith, and I’m the first to say that we’re an easy target.

Historically and present day, Christians have done many things poorly and sometimes been flat out wrong. Church communities have offended people and totally lost track of what is important. People have gathered together for all the wrong reasons, and fought over style instead of substance. It’s no wonder Ghandi once said “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” It’s easy to criticize the family of God.

So what’s the answer? Why did God ever invent this crazy organism we call “church?” Is there a good recipe for a church community? The best one I’ve found sounds something like this: gather people of every conceivable age, stage, background, interests, faith maturity, economic means, mix it together, hold your breath and see what happens.

Warning: it will be messy. And it won’t all be good. But in the middle of the messiness, God will show up and do things we could never ever imagine.

A 22 year-old gives part of her testimony during a recent worship service. Before we go outside on the church lawn for her baptism, she shares what finally nudged her towards baptism: listening to the story of an 8 year-old Bethany girl baptized in the Bethany sanctuary a few years ago, who in the moment of baptism saw her own face nestled into Jesus’ Good Shepherd arms in the stained glass window.

I find myself on a rainy Sunday night just down the hill at Bayview Manor, a senior living residence on Queen Anne Avenue. A number of Bethany folks live there, and after preaching at their chapel service I chat afterwards with two of my favorite people, 80-somethings in Christ. They’ve been through more in their lifetime than I can even dream of, and continue to lean steadfastly on Jesus.

A couple in their 30’s bring a child to be baptized. The congregation says “Yes” to helping raise this tiny child, and they will do just that: Nursery workers, Sunday School teachers, Vacation Bible School leaders, youth leaders, small group members, aunts, uncles, grandparents in the faith.

It’s Sunday afternoon, the Bethany van pulls up in front of the Youth House, and 16 middle-schoolers pile out, returning from a spring retreat weekend along with a number of 20-something youth leaders.

A woman who first came to Bethany through the Wednesday Night Dinner becomes a beloved fixture on Sunday morning, and often leads us in the final “Amen.”

Bethany folks sit indoors on a sunny afternoon to talk and pray and dream about connecting with kids from around the city who attend McClure Middle School.

A Bethany couple in their fifties agrees to “mentor” a newly married couple, and seven years later they are still meeting and even traveling with them.

During worship, we have an open time of listening prayer, waiting on God. A nurse prays for those having trouble breathing in the hospital. A recovering alcoholic prays for a friend in a rehab program. A home group prays for an upcoming birth that could be complicated. Someone prays for a friend who is lonely. An 84-year-old shouts praises to God for His faithfulness.

And in the midst of all this richness, we say wrong things, hurt feelings, lose our focus and reflect poorly on the Lord we follow. The community of faith? It’s a messy thing…for which I’m so thankful. Here’s what Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together:

“If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.”