Forward
by Elton Trueblood
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If an ounce of demonstration is worth a ton of speculation, the story which Elizabeth O'Connor tells is precious, indeed. The Church of the Saviour is the most encouraging Christian fellowship known to me. It is encouraging because it takes seriously the notion that the Church is meant to be a redemptive fellowship rather than a religious equivalent of secular promotion. It started in a combination of anguish and faith, and the founding mood has been miraculously maintained.
The experience of the Church of the Saviour is shocking to many sincere Christians. They are shocked, in the first place, because it is still small in numbers. To remain small when growth is possible is mystifying and faintly un-American. The very conception of making membership genuine rather than nominal, and therefore difficult, is bitterly resented by some, who rightly see this conception as an implicit criticism of their own superficial standards of membership.
When so many Christians have an "edifice complex," it is shocking for a now famous congregation to have no proper church building. The modest structure at 2025 Massachusetts Avenue is not even called a "church." It is simply the Headquarters" of the Church of the Saviour. In it are library, guest rooms, kitchen, office, etc., but no ecclesiastical atmosphere whatever. The "church" is not confined to a spot on Massachusetts Avenue, but is in the homes and offices and coffee shop and arts and crafts center and retreat farm. The church is where the members are carrying on their ministry. They don't need a pipe organ. All who think Christianity is centered in shrines are almost bound to resent this emphasis, particularly when it is successful.
The features of the Church of the Saviour which surprises people most is the practice of encouraging strong members either to work primarily outside the fellowship in mission groups to the unchurched or even to leave and thus be free to join some other fellowship which needs them. The philosophy of this procedure is clear, even though it goes directly against the grain of ordinary practice. The usual procedure is to hold firmly to those who have developed strength, whether spiritual or financial, but this is not done in the fellowship which Elizabeth O'Connor describes. It is not done because the clear teaching of Christ is against it. The grain of wheat does not bear fruit unless it dies. The church which aggrandizes itself may seem successful in the eyes of the world, but it is not thereby loyal to Christ's disturbing dream.
One of the ideas of the author of this book which is, so far as I know, original is the idea that people can be called to leave a fellowship just as they are called to enter it, and that they should not leave unless they are thus called. This means that a committed member will not leave because of wanderlust, or even because of better opportunities for employment in another city, but only because the opportunity to serve Christ's cause seems greater. The dedicated Christian will not make this momentous decision alone, but will seek the prayerful judgment of the group before he acts."As there was once a reception service," says our author, "there would now be a departure service—the farewell of a community to a brother who is called of God to do a work of God in another place."
It is highly encouraging to know that the story here told has not become a denominational story. Many expected that it would. But Gordon Cosby and his associates have seen the danger and have been able to avoid it. They do not want to produce another denomination, but to make a demonstration which may have an enduring effect upon the denominations. They want to create, under God, a fellowship so contagious, that the contagion spreads and spreads within existing organizations, rather than as something in competition with them. Gordon Cosby has aimed for the bigness, not in his own organization, but in Christendom as a whole. The only way in which this could have been done was, he saw, a way that is frankly local. Bishop Emrich, of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, has put the matter with memorable succinctness: "To make a thing real, make it local," he says. The Church of the Saviour has paid this price of reality.
Many, and especially pastors, are openly envious of the opportunity which Gordon Cosby and his associates have enjoyed. These people say it is easier to make a bold and unequivocal witness in a new church than it would be to do so in an old established church. In this, the affectionate critics are right. The old established church presents numerous difficulties because it is encrusted with tradition and weighted down with the burden of nominal membership. Whereas, in the Church of the Saviour, the normal attendance at a public meeting far exceeds the membership, the situation is reversed in the ordinary established church.
In the light of this observation we must ask what those in old established congregations can do, once they have read this book and believed its message. The answer is that most of them must start where they are. This story was not written in the hope of creating exact copies of what is happening in one congregation in the nation's capital. It was written, instead, to encourage Christian people to start new growths within existing structures or outside them. Gordon Cosby knows very well that the task of renewing the Church of Christ is not easy and that there is no single pattern of renewal, but he is convinced that integrity of membership is the place to begin. The story which this book records give ample evidence that this judgment is correct.
The story of the Church of the Saviour is a very disturbing story. It makes most of us ashamed of our mild Christianity. We cannot merely read this book, admire it, and forget it. We must either reject it or alter our lives, for this book is a criticism. It is a criticism couched, not primarily in words, but in events. There are, at one point on this earth, men and women who have been so touched by the love of Christ that they tithe their time as well as their money, make their secular occupations into ministries, and pray and study and witness and serve. These same people have avoided spiritual pride by virtue of the fact that their standard is so high they never reach it. They are daily conscious of the contrast between their standard and their practice.
The story has been told before, in a fragmentary way, but now it is fully told and for this we can be thankful. I am glad that there was no hurry. The demonstration has now been going on long enough to make us reasonably sure that it will endure. Already the demonstration has borne good fruit in hundreds of communities where people are given new hope of what a committed fellowship of Christians might be. Now, with the publication of this book, a new chapter in the growth of its influence will begin. Accordingly, I thank God and take courage.