Voices of Assembly

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My church is a part of the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec. Last week I attended our annual assembly. This is a snapshot of some of what I carried home with me from that gathering and shared with my church on Sunday morning:

Voices from the past. Voices from the future. Voices of today. These are the voices that define us.

Voices from our past...

You may have never heard of the Amherstburg Regular Missionary Baptist Association. I had never heard of it either. It's a group of primarily Black Baptist churches in western Ontario. Part of the reason it exists is that in 1834, it was declared across the British Empire that anyone who stood on British soil was free. Slavery was ended. But in Canada—in Baptist churches like ours—Black people were not accepted into membership. (Why? What would we thinking? I just... I don't know.) For decades after, Black people could not receive membership in Baptist churches, so they formed their own churches. They formed their own association—their own family of churches—and that rift has existed between families of Baptist churches ever since.

Recently the Western Association of the CBOQ has been an active part of working through that segregation, and the hurts that it created between brothers and sisters in the faith. I heard the voices of people from the Amherstburg Regular Missionary Baptist Association and from the Western Association, standing together on a platform, talking about how they have lamented this division, how they have been working for healing, how they now stand side by side. They spoke scripture together. They prayed for us together, the inheritors of this historic failure, stood united and prayed. For us.

Their voices echoed from our historic past something that must never, ever, ever happen again... but that is not forgotten. Something that is being redeemed.

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Voices from our future...

On the Friday night of the gathering, the keynote speaker was actually three people, with very different experiences of ministry, at very different places in their lives. They each took a section of the message, collaborated, and put together their unique messages.

The first speaker was a woman—ordained in the 1990s, she spent years pastoring in small rural churches down east. She's now retired and working as a Chaplain in long term care. She spoke from the lectern with her thoughts carefully written out and prepared, so that she would get the words and her message right.

The second speaker was a man—a senior pastor of a large trilingual Chinese/English church in Toronto. He became a pastor after spending 12 years working in IT. He paced across the stage, full of passion and energy, joy and excitement. He knew what he wanted to say. He wasn't looking at pages. It was all in his head and his heart. His passion and energy.

The third speaker is the one who sticks with me the most. He was 16 years old—a young man who volunteers at a mid-sized church in a mid-sized city. He focused on 1 Corinthians 15:58, the key verse for Assembly this year.

Therefore my beloved family be steadfast and immovable, always excel in the work of the Lord. Because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

This 16-year-old preacher told us that what jumped out at him in that verse was the phrase “the work of the Lord.” The first thing he needed to do was figure out what that was. What is the work of the Lord? He talked us through his wrestling with that phrase. What does it mean? What is it, exactly? He said that it was very helpful when someone guided him towards the passages that we call ‘The Two Greats.’

• The Great Commandment:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:34-40)

• The Great Commission:

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. (Matthew 9:16-20)

Our speaker told us that having those two ideas side-by-side clarified for him what is the work of God. His reminded us that the Great Commandment represents the work that God does in us, and the Great Commission represents the work that God does through us; when we allow God to work in us, and when we allow God to work through us, we are doing the work of the Lord.

His youthful voice began his message by asking questions, by sharing with us the questions that he himself had asked. Which was perfect. Because he lives in a generation that is raised on questions. A generation that is steeped in post-modernity.

My generation, growing up, was taught in school, on TV, in the newspapers—everywhere I went—that there was such a thing as Truth. That there is one Truth and that one Truth is founded on what we find written in the Bible. There was probably a Bible in every home where I grew up. That is no longer the case and has not been for several generations.

The generation in which our young friend—our young preacher—is growing up does not understand that there is one Truth. They are taught online, in school—everywhere they go—that there is an infinite number of possible Truths. Truth is best found not by looking to a particular book or a particular authority. Truth is found within the heart. We can find our own Truth by asking ourselves, “What has been my experience? What have I found to be true?” If that generation bothers to look at Christianity at all, they are not asking, “Is it true?” They are not looking at my faith, or at the Bible, and asking, “Is it right?” Because it doesn't matter if it's right. Anything can be right.

This generation is asking not, “Is it right.” Rather, they are asking, “Is it good? Is it worth pursuing? Does it have any value? Is it worth listening to? Is it worth investing in? Is it worth following?” They're asking the question, “If I follow this truth, if I invest my life in following this truth, who will I become? Who is this going to turn me into?”

And the answer to that question is... me. I am the answer to that question.

What impact has Christianity had on me? What impact does my faith have on the world around me, on my neighbourhood, on my family, on what I do with my money and with my time, on how I talk about other people online? How do I respond to needs? How do I decide what is true? How do I express what I believe? How do I (and this was a question that we had a good conversation about at Bible study this week) engage with people who are hostile to my faith? With people who are dismissive?

The voice of the future speaks in sentences that rise in tone at the end. Because the voice of the future talks in questions.

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Voices of today...

Our churches worship in and teach in and write songs in and translate scripture into hundreds of languages. Those languages were very much in evidence last week—voices from around the world.

One evening we shared communion. It was co-led by two pastors, one from a Cantonese-speaking church, one from an English-speaking church. With the ‘Words of Institution’ projected on the screen in English, the Cantonese pastor in spoke those same words of scripture in his own language, and for the people in the room for whom that is their first language.

I read along off the screen as he spoke:

For I received from the Lord what I pass on to you. The Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And in the same way, after supper, He took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

Having heard those words spoken in a language from literally the other side of the world, we all in the pews together shared communion with each other. Communion was not served from the front. It was not served from the top down. It was not served by the Pastor or by the Deacons. It was served from brother to sister, from sister to brother and... I only wish I could describe to you what that sounded like.

The room filled with the voices of 5 or 600 people speaking a mix of languages. Our voices weaving together like the threads of a tapestry. Our voices giving the air weight and giving it texture. You could almost feel the voices of today's Church as we—the priesthood of all believers—stood face to face, saying in I don't know how many different tongues, “This is the body of Christ. This is the body of Christ. This is the new covenant. This is the new covenant. Remember. Remember. Remember.”

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These are the voices that I carried home with me this year, and—my beloved church family—we are a voice. We are the voice of here and now.

We are the voice of our past. Preaching the ‘second sermon’ at the funeral, drowning out the voice of the casket, of our pain and our tears. Lamenting that death happens, while rejoicing that death does not win. Remembering out loud what God has done.

We are the voice of the future. Asking questions, listening to questions, seeking truth, and becoming who that truth transforms us into. Shaping our legacy.

We are the voice of today. Speaking our own language, whether it's face-to-face or online. Talking to each other about God. Talking to God about each other. Encouraging, correcting, celebrating. Joining our voices together to be His voice.

Calvary Church—you have a voice. You are a voice.

That voice has been given to us by God. To share His message in the world. To share His message with each other.

That is our challenge. That is our hope. That is our joy and our opportunity.

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