REVIVE US AGAIN --
A WAY FOR THE BRETHREN
Editorial
January/ February, 1986
Volume 21, Number 1
The gap between what our denominational church professionals believe
and promote - and what the average member of the Church of the Brethren
believes - is very wide. There are surely a number of factors that account
for the tremendous differences that exist between what our church leaders
are saying, and what the general membership of the Church of the Brethren
stands for.
As editor of the BRF WITNESS, I asked Bro. Vernard Eller
to write an article giving his perceptions regarding the cleavage between
leader and laity. Publishing this article is not to imply that Vernard
identifies fully with BRF, nor does Brethren Revival Fellowship necessarily
feel comfortable with all that Vernard has written in his many writings.
But all will have to agree that Bro. Eller is an original thinker and a
Biblicallycommitted writer who is indeed concerned about the spiritual
welfare of the Church of the Brethren.
Eller believes that "the slide away from historic Brethrenism" is the
result of modernism among the employed professional leaders of the church.
And we agree. He believes further that the solution must come at the initiative
of the general constituency of the Church, but that the Seminary could
play a key role. He does not call for an "official" statement of faith
(such as the "Brethren Card" of the 1920s), but
for discussing faith issues (such as the resurrection and eternal life)
rather than social justice issues (such as the situation in South Africa).
Certainly such a change in emphasis at every level of church life would
be a welcome innovation.
If it is true, as Vernard contends in the WITNESS article,
that 99% of the Church of the Brethren is committed to the Biblical Gospel
(and only 1 % are leading the church away from its historic roots), then
why doesn't the 99% elect a General Board that is overwhelmingly sound
in the faith? And why not make some changes in staff personnel at our denominational
headquarters? Also, Vernard's optimism about the Seminary's leading the
way in bringing a needed corrective to the leader/laity gap, is likely
more idealistic than many of us believe in reality can happen. On the other
hand, God has worked miracles of change in
the past and certainly He can do it again.
All of us need to take seriously the task of trying to help close the
gap that exists between employed professional leaders and the average brother-or-sister
church-member who is actively involved in our local congregations. Some
practical pointers may help us work better at attempting to achieve that
goal: Know clearly what you believe; stand firmly for the Biblical faith;
speak fearlessly the truth of God's Word; keep abreast of what is happening
in the larger church; represent at district and brotherhood events; and
don't feel you need to defer to those whose formal educational level is
higher than yours.
--H. S. M.
Revive Us Again --
A Way For The Brethren
By Vernard Eller
Anyone who has seen my book, TOWERING BABBLE: GOD'S PEOPLE WITHOUT
GOD'S WORD, knows that one of the burdens of my heart is that our
historic Brethren commitment the New Testament, our rule of faith and
practice
- has been eroded by the modernist influences of a human-centered
faith. At the time of that writing, I didn't see much in the way of hope
for our situation. Now I do; and it is this great good news I want to share
here.
I am convinced that our Brethren problem is rather precisely parallel
to what the National Council of Churches currently is struggling with.
In that case, a study committee (headed by our own Bob Neff) found that
there was an overbalance on the side of political justice activity and
a corresponding slighting of what might be called "the Biblical Gospel"
- such things as Bible study, basic beliefs, theological education, worship,
and evangelism. Consequently, the emphases of the NCC board and staff were
found to be generally out of step with, and insensitive to, the mind of
the member-church-constituencies whose instrument the Council is.
When I wrote TOWERING BABBLE, I was aware of the slide
away from historic Brethrenism, but could understand it as nothing other
than a rather pervasive sickness of the church at large. Only later did
I come to realize that this is not so. The disease is actually a highly
localized one; itcenters around a relatively few people in the church.
And so the great good news I want now to proclaim is my conviction that
the vast majority of Brethren constituents are fully committed to those
emphases which in the preceding paragraph I identified as "the Biblical
Gospel." A few years ago, in the process of establishing the Church of
the Brethren "Goals for the Eighties," many in the brotherhood were quite
thoroughly sounded out, to find the will of the church at large. Predominantly,
the Brethren who were questioned called for a return to the Biblical Gospel;
and if we add to that group the host of persons in the Church of the Brethren
who - though theologically confused at the moment - would likely welcome
a Biblical correction, I'm convinced we are talking about 99% of the
membership. Thus our problem is much more manageable than if we in fact
were dealing with a widespread sickness or a deeply divided church.
What I am calling "modernist influences," then, are found almost entirely
among the employed professional leadership
of the church. There
is certainly nothing surprising about this. These are the Brethren who
received their professional education and training in the very midst of
these influences. But this group (in order of descending "church professionalism")
would include the general (Elgin) staff, the district staffs, the seminary
faculty, the religion faculties of our colleges, the pastors of our more
prestigious congregations, and all other pastors and church staff members.
With the help of a Church of the Brethren Yearbook, my count of this total
group comes to something less than 1% of our total membership.
On this point, Moderator Donald Durnbaugh was kind enough to point out
to the Bethany community that Vernard Eller himself ranks very high among
the professionals he is criticizing! Of course Don was absolutely correct;
and what it means is that I clearly have no desire to suggest that each
and every professional employee of the church is outside the faith. I simply
have no way of determining how large a percentage of this 1 % represents
unbiblical modernism - likely not very high. I certainly am not offering
to identify who among these professionals is guilty and who is innocent
- and I am not encouraging anyone else to perform such a witch-hunt either.
All I am saying is that wherever modernist teaching does show itself within
the Church of the Brethren, it is almost certain to have arisen out of
this professional employee group. And the great good news involved is that
this group is actually infinitesimally small.
Being that few, this small fraction of a 1 %-group would pose no problem
for the church at all were it not for the matter of its "placement. I suggest
that all of these professionals, at whatever level, have been employed
by the church for what is essentially one purpose - a purpose that involves
both an internal and an external aspect. Internally, they have been employed
to aid and to guide our people in the working out of their own Biblical/
Brethren confessions of faith, and in clarifying their own images of what
God is calling Brethren congregations to be. Externally, then, they are
employed to represent the Church of the Brethren to the outside world and
project to it this same image of Biblical Brethrenism. Clearly, it is from
these professionals (pastors, church staff persons, college faculty, etc.)
that other Christians and the secular world get their impressions as to
who the Brethren are.
Therefore, whenever, instead of serving the understanding of the body's
general membership, the employee uses his position to promote or impose
or project a self-chosen image born of his private preference - then we
face a crisis both of professional accountability and of Christian trust
within the body. Even in keeping with the standards of secular professionalism,
the situation would call for the employer to take strong corrective action.
From the standpoint of Christian community, Scripture is clear that "false
teaching" and the preaching of "another gospel" are to be met with church
discipline. However, the next aspect of my great good news is that I don't
see either of these procedures as being necessary in our present situation.
The difficulty, of course, is that, no matter how well-justified or well-handled
such measures may be, they nearly always create wrath, hurt, and contention
in the very process of correcting things.
So I am ready to propose another way for the Brethren to let God revive
us again, and at the same time fill each heart with His love. In
the first place, the great 99% Brethren lay-constituency was remiss in
simply handing over to its professional employees the full responsibility
for its faithconfessing and imagebuilding. I am confident that this was
never
God's idea for our going about it. Certainly it would have been proper
to have professionals submit to the constituency ideas, suggestions,
and helps. Yet it should always have been the constituency's responsibility
to exercise judgment in saying which of those were helpful and which
were unacceptable. It is our own fault for having become so passive
and undiscriminating in this regard. And it is high time for us to take
up that responsibility once more! Doing it in a nice way, of course (as
employers ought always treat employees), together we need to relearn
the matter of mutual accountability.
And let me tell you how I think this mutual accountability can be achieved
without any recrimination or bloodshed (even mental bloodshed) at all.
The 99%-plus Brethren who want to be revived to the Biblical Gospel can
just be so busy (and loud even) in their mutual confessing of this faith
- / making my confession transposing into the Brethren body's making
its
confession that the voices of the infinitesimal few who want to preach
another gospel are simply drowned out! Indeed, my hunch is that, in the
face of such confessional unity, most of those pushing "modernist influences"
may very well choose to join what they obviously can't fight.
Bethany Seminary could play a key role here; and I propose three things
it might do to help along this confessional ground-swell:
(1) Given its resources both in Biblical theology and in Brethren history
and tradition, as a community of scholars, Bethany could serve the church
by being continually at work in hammering out a Biblical/ Brethren confession
of faith to be submitted to the constituency. And I have in mind that this
submission happen through the preaching and teaching of Bethany graduates
rather than the bringing of formal statements to Annual Conference.
(2) In the classroom, in chapel addresses, in the colloquia, in their
writing, and elsewhere, the faculty members - by deliberately seeking occasion
to make their own public confessions of faith - could serve as role-models
preparing the congregations. (NOTE: At Bethany, "Colloquium , ' identifies
the graduation requirement of weekly sessions for small-group personal
sharing with participation by both students and faculty.)
(3) The colloquia themselves, instead of being restricted to matters
of personal religious experience and development, might be opened out to
become laboratories of faith-confession. The students could be of help
and support to one another in developing the freedom of mutual witnessing
to "those things which are most surely believed among us" (Luke 1:1)--which,
by the way, is the only sort of oneness that qualifies a group as a "Christian
community." And pastors who had been so prepared could not help but
make their congregations into colloquialaboratories of the same sort.
In short, I am firmly convinced that for the Church of the Brethren
to be "revived again," it will need to become first and foremost a "confessing
church" - and a confessing church, not in the usual sense of Annual Conference's
having subscribed to and decreed properly orthodox statements, but in the
Biblical sense of all of us 11 exhorting one another and holding fast the
profession of our faith without wavering" (Hebrews 10:23-25).
And my final word of great good news may be the best of all. The above
suggestion is not simply my dream of what might possibly someday happen
in the Church of the Brethren. No, there are signs that it is already beginning
to happen - that our 99% lay-constituency is beginning to rouse itself
and take up its responsibilities both as employer of its professional personnel
and in itself being the church; that we are tiring of the sirensongs
of modernism and are eager again for the golden-oldies of the Biblical
Gospel; that we once more are open to having our souls be rekindled with
fire from above.
Hallelujah, thine the glory.
Hallelujah! Amen.
Vernard Eller was an ordained minister and elder in the Church of the
Brethren. He was Professor of Religion at the University of La Verne, California.
His published books include War and Peace from Genesis to Revelation;
Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader; and the forthcoming
Christian Anarchy: Jesus'Primacy Over the Powers. His
book, Towering Babble: God's People Without God's Word, gives
more detail on issues related to the article in this
WITNESS. Eller died in 2007. Any of these books can be ordered from Brethren Press, 1451 Dundee Avenue, Elgin, IL 60120.