Harry Burggraaf
 

Some time ago I was talking to a friend who worships in a Baptist church. We compared notes on our respective denominations and discussed where the church was going in terms of its witness in Australian society, its worship, its young people’s programmes and so on. Then he asked a question that unsettled me for a bit. "Does your church have ‘imagination’?"

I’m still not quite sure exactly what he meant, but I think it included: the ability to think creatively; a certain open-endedness; flexibility to accommodate the future; the openness to examine old truths in fresh ways; the desire to pose problems as well as solve them; the ability to visualise what seems beyond reach and say "why not"; and especially, an eager openness to what God might be wanting to accomplish through our church communities in the future – an openness to grace and the Holy Spirit’s leading.

In spite of the modern penchant for subjectivism, relativism and even the supernatural, we live in an age where: largely, rationality rules; science and technology are king; management is done by setting clear goals and objectives; behaviour is measured by specifying standards and performance indicators; programmes are facilitated by careful planning; complex processes are directed by identifying discrete activities and skills. For efficiency and effectiveness this is absolutely vital. How can a church run without carefully planned programmes? How can a church survive without a commitment to well reasoned, carefully formulated theological frameworks?

However, poets, songwriters, artists, prophets and philosophers remind us that not everything in life can be captured by reason and logic. There must be room for imagination and mystery.

Eugene Peterson, in what he calls ‘an exploration in vocational holiness’ suggests that our technological and information-obsessed age has a habit of cutting imagination off at the roots. Too often it turns people into parasites, copycats and couch potatoes. As a teacher, I constantly have to contend with students who copy slabs of CD ROM and Internet information. We are all aware of children (and adults) vegetating in front of mindless soapies on television, rather than creating their own leisure. These are just two superficial examples that come to mind.

Peterson suggests that we have been given a pair of mental operations – ‘explanation’ AND ‘imagination’ – and these are designed to work in tandem.

‘Explanation pins things down so that we can handle and use them – obey and teach, help and guide. Imagination opens things up so that we can grow into maturity – worship and adore, exclaim and honour, follow and trust. Explanation defines and anchors; imagination expands and lets loose. Explanation keeps our feet on the ground; imagination lifts our head into the clouds. Explanation puts us in harness; imagination catapults us into mystery. Explanation organises life into what can be used; imagination enlarges life into what can be adored.’

We need them both - explanation and imagination.

The Old Testament character Jonah is a case in point. Jonah lived only in the realm of ‘explanation’; he had a stunted imagination. He had his programme. Nineveh was destined for destruction. The plan was in place. Jonah was the messenger. But God had other things in mind, and we find Jonah arguing and quarreling with God because he was surprised by grace. He had a fixed idea of what God was supposed to do, but against all rational and reasonable possibility and probability Nineveh was saved. Jonah’s sluggish imagination can not cope with the lavishness of grace.

Evil cities like Nineveh do not repent; cynical dictators and politicians don’t have a change of heart; people bent on a self destructive journey don’t turn around – normally.

Imagination understands that God often has purposes that exceed or counter our expectations – for the lives of individuals, families, communities, nations and yes, the church.

As Christ’s followers and as churches we are faced with immense challenges. Australian society will continue to become more and more secular. Any privileged place or acceptance the Christian faith might have had will continue to decline. The church as an institution will be largely irrelevant for most Australians, including the Christian Reformed Churches, in spite of our rich theological heritage or wonderful programmes, where we have them. Reason and logic will give us ‘explanation’; better ways to do things to meet these challenges. We also need ‘imagination’; a creative, messy, openness to the future, whereby we hope for the surprises of grace, and the mystery of a God who fouls up and explodes the neat plans of a prophet and our most well-intentioned programmes and expectations.