Church as "refuge"

A church I know has taken on the title 'The Refuge'. I find this both disturbing and symptomatic. And very easily understood.

Disturbing, because it implies a retreat from the world - as if the world was too "hard", and we need an escape. I guess that the name is meant to be directed at those people who have not yet encountered Jesus - and be seen as offering a place to come when one is 'weary and heavily burdened'. However, I can't help but think that nominative determinism might just apply - and that the church (which is, after all, the people of God and not the institution) might become a group of people huddled together in a corner - feeling safe and untouched by that nasty place "out there".

Symptomatic, because in the role that I now hold, I connect with lots of church communities - and it is fairly common for the church to have adopted an 'us and them' mentality.

And very easily understood. The world is (in a slight misuse of the Red God's words from Game of Thrones) "dark and full of terrors". Well, sort of.

Because it's also light and full of joy. And I reckon that it's time for the church to buy more fully into this perspective, under the example of Jesus. When he sends his disciples out (and even this says something about the inappropriateness of 'refuge') he tells them to bring healing, and to speak of the nearness of the kingdom of God. In other words, to be both bearers of, and indicators towards, the joy found in right relationship with God, and the restoration of all that is good in creation.

Pick an attitude. I know which one I choose.

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