When I look at the church, what gives me hope?
I’m seeing, over the past 15 years, a growing embrace of humility, not only as virtue but also as paramount to recovery of the American church’s reason to exist. While probably short of an awakening or revival, there have been important pockets of resistance (if only because of weariness) to “relevance” or “impact” as gospel-worthy aims. Perhaps connected to our government’s recent nation-building failures, there has been growing confession of our deeply embedded, messianic instincts that subvert our dependence on the crucified Christ. Ecclesiological curiosity, an admission that we’ve much to learn about being church, is a sign of hope. With willingness to be beginners once again, we just might see our usefulness in the Potter’s hands be graciously restored.
Craig Wong is a “minister at-large” for Grace Fellowship Community Church in San Francisco.
