- Bishop Clark W.P. Lowenfield
There was a time in my life when missional hubris and personal offense went unchecked in me and some of the leaders around me. Unfortunately, I see this occurring again in leaders around me from various church backgrounds.
It seems almost impossible to me that over two decades have passed since the founding of the great church-planting movement that became known as the Anglican Mission in America. I feel spoiled to have been one of its founding leaders. We gathered, credentialed, and sent forth leaders to plant churches all over North America and it occurred at such a rate that it became one of the fastest growing church planting efforts in our lifetime. During this season we submitted ourselves to the Apostolic covering of the Anglican Archbishop of Rwanda. We enjoyed God’s favor in resources, talent of leaders, vision, and planning. They were truly glory days.
In the early days of this missional movement of God we, the national leadership team of the Anglican Mission, would gather in meeting rooms of elegant hotels for planning and strategy. Up on the screen would be diagrams, maps, and leadership principles. At one such meeting, after hours of discussions, one of our beloved Rwandan overseer Bishops stood up and slammed his bible down on the table so hard it startled most of us. He emphatically said, “You Americans, you plan so much, pray so little, and read this (pointing to his Bible) even less.” We were stunned. He had us get on our knees and pray. And that prayer went on for several hours. That day changed my life personally. That day threatened our enemy (the devil) mightily.
Though that day had convicted us to be cautious about rooting our missional efforts in entrepreneurial planning and strategy, we failed to see how our missional zeal would be tempted and crippled by hubris and offense. We became convinced that we as a movement were the only ones who had the evangelistic commitment, passion, and the “anointing” to “get the job done”. We were convinced we alone could plant life-changing churches. We did not see what was growing amongst us. There was a spiritual cancer coming out of our zeal and arrogance and it was leading to a culture that was incapable of tethering itself to humility and total trust in God’s sovereignty and provision.
We bound ourselves to alignment in missiology and orthodoxy but ignored differences we had in ecclesiology for the sake of mission. But this resulted in an ultra-permissive culture of freedom that blessed the “doing of your own thing, in your own way” as long as it reached as many people as possible. Along the way something happened. We forgot to love. We forgot Agape love.
In addition, this “glorifying” of our own abilities proved detrimental to relationships with those outside of Anglican Mission, leading to an isolation that, in our naval gazing and pride, was disconnecting us from brothers and sisters we should have been shoulder to shoulder with. We were missing out on possible partnerships in the mission and ministry of Christ’s One Holy Church.
Now as part of the ever-growing, but still maturing, twelve-year-old Anglican Church in North America, many of us continue in this missional zeal and agreement to seek to Share the Transforming Love of Jesus with North America and make disciples across the country. However, there continues to be an enemy who would distract us from our mission. That enemy uses the same old tools he always has used, and I worry we once again are becoming trapped by hubris and offense. Now it seems the enemy has weaponized social media. As I prayerfully look around the Province and at my own life, I remember my own contributions to the overall hubris and offense, and I shudder to think how easy it is to step off that cliff, over the edge, without the constant filling and guidance of the Holy Spirit. I am convinced we must all be willing to submit ourselves to accountability, allowing others to speak hard words to us when hard words are needed.
Over this last year it has been deeply saddening to experience conversation after conversation, post after post, tweet after tweet, where young and old leaders from throughout our missional movement seem to be tempted into thinking that their particular vision and perspective of what it means to be an Anglican is the only worthwhile perspective. Too often we think that ourselves as individuals, or our bishops, or our churches, or our diocese are the only ones to be truly or effectively addressing issues of justice, or race, or sexuality, or what it means to be Anglican. We seem to form into “tribes” that think they are the only ones who have a chance at reaching our broken world and the culture around us because they are the only ones who can be flexible enough, or permissive enough, or open enough, or grace-filled enough for the lost to find a home.
It has brought me equal pain and sorrow to read writings of many others who believe themselves to be the only keepers of Truth (with little mention of Grace). Social media seems to create individuals who write as if they are the self-appointed defenders of the faith, the only curators of Anglicanism. Sadly, often these brothers and sisters see only a Church made in their own image. It reminds me of a bonsai tree, which is needlessly pruned and trimmed to reduce its size and shape, and put in a singular pot, to emphasize the individual tree, rather than the whole of the forest.
Voices from across the spectrum of Anglican theology, ecclesiology, and liturgical practice are currently prevalent in our Church culture and in our dialogues. And instead of flowing from hearts rooted in an understanding of our own human brokenness and need for grace, this bishop feels our hearts are once again rooted in hubris and offense.
During my daily offices I pray for various things as circumstances warrant, but I never leave out prayers for the persecuted Church throughout the world, as well as prayers for protection from pride and arrogance in my own life and in the lives of my fellow leaders within the western Church. I encourage you to join me in praying that God’s Holy Spirit would so fill us, so purify and refine us as Christian leaders, with humility and love for one another, that despite our differences, the world will only see His Glory working in us. History has proven over and again that hubris and offense never end well. Humility and complete dependence on the grace of God always end well.