Editorial: The Counter-counter Reformation & an outward-focused church

Pope Francis keeps making 2013 an ever-more-significant date in church history.

And although we’re theologically and structurally different, Baptists can learn at least one lesson from how Francis is rocking the Roman Catholic Church.

Editor Marv KnoxThis year vaulted to the upper level of church history dates in late February, when Pope Benedict XVI announced he would become the first pontiff to step down from the papacy in 600 years. The College of Cardinals ratcheted 2013 a bit higher when they elected Jorge Maria Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, as Benedict’s successor. The longshot Argentinian became Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope and the first bishop of Rome from Latin America.

From his earliest appearances—no red slippers, no ermine vestments, a bus instead of the Popemobile, his sweet blessing of a paraplegic and washing those Muslim girls’ feet—Francis signaled sustained significance, not to mention major change.

Learning from Pope Francis

While Baptists may find Francis’ humility refreshing and his imminent reforms fascinating, we would do well to learn from his exhortation. The National Catholic Register (http://www.ncregister.com/) recently reported  on Cardinal Bergoglio’s “conclave-changing” address to the College of Cardinals four days before his election to the papacy.

The church’s fundamental illness is “ecclesiastical narcissism,” the future pope declared. At a glance, you may be thinking what I surmised when a friend quoted that phrase: He was condemning the arrogance of the priests and bishops that led to the sex-abuse scandals. But Francis meant more, much more.

“When the church does not come out of itself to evangelize, it becomes self-referential and gets sick,” he preached. Except for “self-referential,” that sounds like an old-school Baptist preacher scolding the flock for failing to share their faith and to lead unbelievers to repentance.

Ecclesiastical narcissism

In Francis’ view, ecclesiastical narcissism afflicts laity and clergy alike. When Christians, whether they’re pastors or pew-sitters, become more concerned with operating their churches than demonstrating the love of Jesus, they’re ecclesiastically narcissistic.

The church must “get out of herself and go to those on the outskirts of existence,” he warned the cardinals. “It’s key that we …, both clergy and laity, go out to meet the people,” he told an interviewer. “A church that limits herself to administering parish work, that lives enclosed within a community, experiences what someone in prison does—physical and mental atrophy.”

And a church that focuses on its own members rather than the needs of its community and world is “a church that is sick,” he said.

Far too often, priests “clericalize the laity,” he said. That means guiding and encouraging laypeople to focus on the function of the local congregation and its worship. And so they wind up serving the institutional church, not the world the church exists to serve.

Be leaven of God’s love

Each layperson ought “to be a leaven of the love of God in society itself, to create and sow hope, to proclaim the faith, not from a pulpit, but from his everyday life,” Francis said.

Christians should be “missionary disciples in communion,” he noted. That means they follow Jesus, serve and worship in community and share Jesus’ love in word and deed to people who have not experienced that love.

By now, you may be thinking: “That’s great for Pope Francis and his church. But what does it have to do with us?”

Well, I don’t know if the pope ever has set foot in a Baptist church, but he described plenty. Ecclesiastical narcissism is a pan-denominational disease.

We evangelize a bit and conduct nice ministries. But for the most part, we love the church too much and the world not enough.

This problem manifests itself variously:

• Many churches—maybe even the majority—can’t adequately staff and support ministries beyond their walls because they keep their members so busy and their pocketbooks so invested in programs and ministries that only serve themselves.

• A church in a transitional neighborhood decided to use its aging gym as an outreach tool. That is, until the neighborhood children—most of them with darker faces than the church members—started scuffing up the hallways and making noise in the building. Then the church discovered many of its members loved their building more than their neighbors.

• How often have you seen churches dissipate their energy on an internal disagreement—worship music, Sunday evening programming or which classrooms can be used for what purposes, to name just a few examples?

• Baptists are tempted to mimic the farmer in Jesus’ parable who tore down his barns so he could build bigger ones. We want bigger, fancier, shinier buildings, when we would reach more people with the gospel by starting new churches or strengthening weaker ones in key neighborhoods.

By now, you probably can think of your own examples of ecclesiastical narcissism. You don’t have to bow to a pope to acknowledge his wisdom and pray for forgiveness.