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Charles Ringma writes on well-being in the Church

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Formation in Well-Being: A Challenge for Today’s Church

by Charles Ringma tssf

Introduction

Most of us at this conference today, know something of the reality of the pressures we experience at work. And these pressures are no different when ministering in the church, or working in church-related institutions. And they are no different when one is working in a business run by Christians, or in secular employment.

There is always more than needs to be done. There is the pressure of time- constraints, outcomes, and success. And often there are unrealistic expectations.

This is particularly true in church-related ministry. So many needs. So much more that needs to happen. And so many expectations that we place on ourselves, or that others place on us. As a consequence, Christian workers often feel burdened and not well-cared for. Burnout is a real problem. So is discouragement. And doing Christian ministry with an underlying vein of resentment can hardly be fruitful!

So, I am sure that many of you have come to this Ministerial Conference on well-being with hopes and expectations. In particular, you may feel that this topic is all the more relevant since the Covid crisis. Doing work well and being well-cared-for is a pressing challenge. And so, you have come believing that this is a most timely and relevant topic for those in Christian ministry.

But you may also have come with some concerns. You hope to gain some good ideas or strategies from this conference, but you are worried whether they can be implemented in your church.

You may also some deeper concerns. Is the concept of “well-being,” and its close cousin “wellness,” too trendy, psychological, aspirational, and vague. Does it promise too much? Will it only lead to frustration?

And if that is not enough some of you may be wondering what about the more traditional language of spiritual growth, Christian maturity, discipleship, Christ-likeness, and wholeness, among other terms that we are much more familiar with?

So welcome. And it’s ok if you are hopeful and expectant. And if you are concerned and a little troubled, that is ok too.

My happy task is not to push a particular line. I am not paid by a major pharmaceutical company to push well-being pills, although happiness pills are on the market. And ATS has not placed limitations on what I can say regarding this topic. They have only asked me to deal with church structures and practices that promote well-being. A big topic, no doubt. Enough to make me anxious which impacts my sense of well-being! Biro lang!

So come along for the ride. Let’s see what we can learn. I wish to make some basic moves. 1. I want to note the current interest in well-being in society. 2. I want to suggest that a Christian understanding of well-being has a different source and dynamic. 3. I want to make some suggestions as to what churches and church-related institutions can do to facilitate well-being. But I do so from the perspective of calling for significant change in the way we do church.

A Personal Vignette

But first a personal note. I am not giving this talk as an arm-chair theologian calmly sitting in a library. I do so as a practitioner having worked for decades in urban and cross-cultural mission and as one involved in pastoral ministry.

And I do so, having experienced a major health breakdown after several years of ministry to those in the drug scene.

I know something about failure in self-care, work-life balance, and in sabbath and other spiritual practices. I know something about the evangelical mantra of much-doing. And have struggled all my life in seeking to live and serve in more sustainable ways. My recent book In the Midst of Much-Doing: Cultivating a Missional Spirituality explores that journey.

Let me just say that failure can be a great blessing. It can immobilise us. It can also move us forward.

Well-Being in the Contemporary Cultural Landscape

A few weeks ago, the commanding general of the Australian army, gave a tearful public apology that the army had failed its soldiers and families in providing adequate support for its personnel in relation to high suicide rates. He said: “we have failed in the well-being of our soldiers.”

A little earlier we had a Royal Commission looking into problems in the Aged Care sector. The report highlighted a failure in providing adequate resources for the well-being of the elderly in aged care.

And more generally, in the current workplace, one of the challenges is that companies need to give greater attention to the overall well-being of their employees and to the conditions in the workplace in general.

Schools now have policies that are meant to guide and facilitate the well-being of teachers, support staff, and students. Mental health services provide well-being programs and strategies that facilitate a positive outlook, satisfaction with life, and life-giving ways of being and relating. And everywhere there are programs – physical, psychological, meditational, spiritual – that seek to promote well-being.

This theme has become so all pervasive that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has made well-being a key element in its public policy framework. The organisation recognises that well-being as a positive state is a key resource for daily living, and contributes not only to sustainability, but also to human thriving and productivity.

A Little Definitional Clarity

At the most basic level, well-being has to do with living a good quality of life in all its dimensions. Well-being has to do with being healthy, happy, positive, and growing in one’s full potential in the personal and social dimensions of life.

Well-being is, therefore, a relational concept. And Aristotle in the dim and distant past had already formulated the idea that my personal well-being is directly linked to your well-being. Thus, he thought of it in communal terms.

But since we are complex creatures, well-being is a complex. Therefore, it does not have a single source. It is the combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social-health factors.

It’s Not That Simple

The above is all well and good, but it’s not that simple.

First of all, one’s sense of well-being differs in terms of one’s life cycle and aging. Contemporary Western young people see well-being as involving happiness, kindness, fun, and safety. The not-so-young see it in terms of inner harmony, mental health, and work-life balance. Others have other perspectives.

Second, the sense of well-being differs in different cultures. In contemporary Chinese culture, well-being has to do with contentment but also with optimism. And you will need to identify how well-being is understood in Philippine culture, but also in its different cultural groupings and social classes.

Third, and most fundamentally within a Christian world-view, how is well-being understood in a world of beauty and abundance and a world of brokenness, injustice, and the misuse of power? How is well-being understood when we are, and continue to be, sinner/saints, according to Martin Luther? How is well-being understood when we are called to be in Christ and to live in the way of Christ sustained by a cruciform spirituality – a spirituality that calls us to suffer on behalf of others? How is well-being understood when we are called to bear the cross? And how is it understood when we live the yet and not-yet nature of the kingdom of God in our world?

And finally, and most problematically, what does well-being look like when you live with a disability, live in poverty, have been displaced due to natural disasters or war, have lost your health, marriage, or your job, or you are marginalised, or discriminated against.

In the light of all of this, is well-being simply something we wish for and can work for, but remains a dream on the far horizon?

Well-Being in a Christian Frame

If you think that I am simply negative and dismissive of the current emphasis in society on well-being, you are mistaken.

Attention to the concern for well-being has important dimensions. The one, is that health and well-being cannot be attained simply by medication. The other, is that institutions can discriminate against certain people, can misuse its power, can be oppressive. And further, in all the configurations of social life, we need to promote and facilitate the dynamics of respect, care, equality, and the possibilities for growth and well-being.

So, the concept of well-being is helpful. Therefore, I wish to show that well-being is consistent with the Christian pastoral vision. But at the same time, I seek to show that this pastoral vision surpasses contemporary notions of well-being. And finally, I wish to make practical suggestions what this Christian-enhanced-notion of well-being may look like in our churches and church-related institutions, and other dimensions of life.

The heartbeat of the Christian vision is that the God of the biblical narratives is a God who is compassionate, restorative, and empowering. God heals and seeks to make us well and whole. God’s redemptive purpose in Christ, through the Spirit, is to bless humanity so that we can live in the joy and fulness of God’s purposes. Key terms that reflect goodness is the OT concept of shalom, and the NT concept of soteria.

As a consequence, of this restorative work of God, we are all called to love and care for others both within the faith-community and in society. And this includes the dynamics of respect, care, equality, and the possibilities for growth and well-being.

But well-being within a Christian frame is different. And it is different in a number of key ways. First, its source is Christological. It is living in Christ, in the way of Christ, and for Christ. Second, its inspirational centre is pneumatological. It is living and acting empowered and guided by the Spirit. Third, it is sacrificial. It is loving and serving the other – even the enemy – for that person’s blessing. Fourth, it is prophetic. It is willing to hear God’s corrective voice, to be converted and transformed, and to carry that vision into the world to call it to God’s light. And finally, it is eschatological. It is willing to live in the now what God’s final vision of restoration will look like.

In contemporary society well-being is a human project of care, justice, and empowerment. In the Christian faith well-being is rooted in the nature of God’s redemptive work in Christ and is expressed in an imitatio Christi that seeks to live God’s shalom and soteria in relation to all, including the neighbour in need and the enemy in anger. In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, well-being in contemporary society is living the penultimate (that which precedes the ultimate). But Christians are called to live the ultimate in the light of God’s final purposes.

What this means practically is that well-being within the life of faith is not merely a human project, is not a group’s self-enhancement, and it is not primarily a strategy. Rather, well-being is love of God and love of neighbour for the Christification of all of life to the glory of God.

Christological Well-Being and Structures and Strategies in Pastoral Care

It is at this point that I seek to be most specific. The global church is facing many external challenges. But there are also many internal challenges, which I primarily seek to address.

In dealing with current issues, we must not forget the broad sweep of church history, including what the church has not done well. In the past the church has brought people to faith with the power of sword. It has burned at the stake people who did not agree with its doctrines. It has sought to rule societies. And in recent centuries it has been coopted by colonialism, the pragmatism and scientism of our age, and has in many ways been culturally captive.

Much more recently, the Lausanne Movement has identified that global Christianity is weak in the formation of its adherents, in discipleship, and in ethical and sacrificial living. And we may add, that it has not been strong in its prophetic witness in the world.

This means that the issue of well-being – a big theme in contemporary services and institutions – poses a challenge to the church in terms of church’s conversion and growth. And we take up this challenge in the light of the Christological well-being we have already sketched out.

Make Your Own Move

I am about to make a number of suggestions. But you can tune-out if you like and have a mini siesta. What really needs to happen is that you need to make some practical moves when you leave here. You need to think about how well am I caring for staff? How well am I caring for myself? How well am I serving the congregation? How much are we all working together? How well do we share what we have? How well do we build each other up? How well do we celebrate? How well are serving the wider community? And other similar questions need to asked and explored, and answers implemented.

This is up to you. Be wise. Don’t be afraid. But if nothing changes – nothing changes!

Issues I Would Also Like You to Think About

• Churches need to be challenged to move from an easy believism to proclaiming and teaching a full-orbed gospel.

• Members need to be formed in the faith: biblically, spiritually, and missionally.

• The prosperity gospel needs to be replaced with a gospel of redemption, joy, discipleship, witness, and service.

• Church as institution needs to be reconfigured as church as community in Christ, as the body of Christ, and as a common life-together.

• Church leadership as mono-leadership needs to be reconfigured as reflecting the Trinitarian nature of God.

• Members of the church – the laity – must not be kept in infancy. Their voices need to be heard. Their gifts acknowledged. Their service in family, work, and the general marketplace celebrated.

• Reflecting the Trinitarian life of God, both the Christian family, the parish church, and all forms of Christian community and church related institutions need to function in inter-related and complimentary ways.

• The pastoral life of the church needs to be rediscovered. The church is so much more than a Sunday event. It is a life-together, and many forms of small group nurture, care, fellowship, and service need to be created and maintained.

• The dynamics of life-together is more than respect, care, and mutuality. It involves prayer, forgiveness, reconciliation, servanthood, and being willing to suffer for the sake of the other.

• Christological well-being involves love of God and love of neighbour. Service, relinquishment, generosity, sacrifice, are all part of a Christological formation in a full-orbed well-being.

• In order for such a well-being to flourish in the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, we need to face our own selfishness, the dynamics of exclusion and racism, our cultural captivity, and our misuse of power. As a consequence, our hearts need to be attuned to the weak and vulnerable in our midst.
•

So much more could and should be said. Clearly the life of the church must be transparent in relation to the laws of the land. And there are good reasons for us to learn from others – including those in secular fields of human well-being and flourishing. But the gospel challenge is that the new life of Christ takes us into a fuller way of being. It takes us beyond what we think is possible. The Gospel makes this specific. Matthew records the words of Jesus: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (5: 20 ESV, my emphasis). The Greek term, perisseuo, and its derivates means: more than enough, abundant, remarkable, extraordinary.

Yes, we are called to promote well-being in terms of respect, care, and equality. But we are also called to bring forgiveness, reconciliation, love of the other including stranger and enemy, and a suffering servanthood for the sake of the other. Simply put, we are called to give our life, just as Jesus did.

Questions for Discussion

• What are the difficulties and blockages in engaging in discussion, evaluating, and improving things in your church or church-related institution?
• How much is your church task-oriented at the cost of also being nurture- oriented?
• What needs to happen if a Christ-shaped vision of well-being is to flourish in your church?

Charles Ringma, tssf.
Research Prof., Asian Theological Seminary, Metro Manila / Emeritus Prof., Regent College, Vancouver / Honorary Research Fellow, Trinity College Queensland, Brisbane / Distinguished Senior Fellow, Catechesis Institute, Waco, USA.

Book Review

SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: Greg Sheridan’s new book

Greg Sheridan, Christians: The urgent case for Jesus in our world,
Allen and Unwin, 2021.
From $26. Paperback.
Reviewed by Ted Witham tssf

Greg Sheridan introduces his new book on the people of Christianity with his cheerful description of our faith:

‘On the inside, Christianity is full of feast days and family, full of fellowship, full of friendship. And everyone is welcome, surely never more so than at Christmas. It’s full of care for the sick and elderly, and for infants. It’s full of sport and play, hard work and rest. It’s full of good music and laughter, happy rituals and lots and lots of food (it’s very big on food). It is the principle of human solidarity. It’s the search for decency. It’s a conversation with each other and with God. As John Denver might have put it, in Christianity you routinely speak to God and rejoice at the casual reply.’ (Page 11)

Christians is Greg Sheridan’s second book in defence of Christianity. Sheridan writes of a large Christianity, catholic in the widest way. One of his principal arguments, first advanced in his 2018 God is Good for You, is that it is more reasonable to believe in God than not. The first book was mainly a rejoinder to the new atheists. In it, he took on writers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and showed how much bigger Christianity is than the caricature Dawkins and Hitchens attack.

In this second book, Sheridan tells stories: the stories of Jesus, Mary and the remarkable Paul. Stories of the faith of Scott Morrison, Alpha’s Nicky Gumbel and the Melbourne Anglican founder of Converge, Jenny George. He tells the story of China’s Christians, and the difference they may make to the future of China. In London, he compares the neighbouring churches of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) and the Brompton Oratory, where traditional and informal liturgies, high classical church music and Matt Redman’s Gospel songs are all quite different and all nourish believers.

Christians compresses Christianity to its simple heart. For a reader like me, Sheridan sometimes makes Christianity seem too simple. But his purpose is to provide an attractive portrayal of Christianity for those who do not share the faith. In that, Christians reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, and Christians is a more entertaining read than Lewis.

Greg Sheridan’ s writing is compelling and accessible. He works as foreign editor for the Australian newspaper. In Christians, he is open about his political stance (he describes himself as centre-right). In a throwaway line, he suggests that Christians are likely to be centre-right or centre-left in their politics. Extremes are likely to lack love.

Christians is endorsed by well-known journalists and by church leaders as diverse as Russell Evans from Planetshakers International, Peter Comensoli, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, President of the US National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

It is a book that can be shared both with non-Christians and Christians alike. Those unfamiliar with our faith will find an attractive picture of how Christian faith is lived, and Christians will be encouraged that such a positive book will speak to such a challenging time.

[This review first published in Anglican Messenger, Perth, September 2021)

News, Reflection

Christians: The third Race?

A Divided Christendom. Can the Idea of a “Third Race” Help Us?

by Charles Ringma tssf

We seem to be living in a very different time to the 20th century when churches were concerned about the lack of unity of the church and its implications for the witness of the church in society. This concern seems to have disappeared.

Today, the splinterization of Christianity continues with many solo churches coming into being and Christian para-church groups continuing to proliferate. Also, many Christians now prefer to be part of informal “groups” or as alienated from the church while continuing to maintain their Christian faith.

All of this is overlaid with the reality that churches are not only divided along doctrinal, but also along ethnic and economic lines. We have Chinese and Vietnamese churches and churches predominately of the well-to-do.
What all of this indicates is that the concept of church, as the Body of Christ, has become a pragmatic and functional reality with little biblical/theological depth. That being the case, we have freed ourselves to “play church” at will, and our little sense of cooperation has not only led to duplication, but also competition. And with the lack of growth of the church in the West, “branding” has become a dominant operational motif. We have to show how we are different, and move you to join our more desirable form of church.

All of this should be of great concern. While this brief reflection does not provide the space to develop a theology of the faith community, some basic comments can be made.

Being linked to Christ involves the double movement of being “baptized into Christ Jesus” (Romans 6: 3) and being baptized into the faith community: “in the one Spirit we were all baptized into the one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” (1 Corinthians 12: 13). This means that God’s reconciliation in Christ is both vertical and horizontal – we are joined to Christ and linked to one another. Solo Christianity is a postmodern fiction. The heartbeat of our faith is relationality – joined to God, the faith community, and our world.

This Christological community in the Spirit is a community where traditional social categories are overcome through a spiritual unity expressed in a concrete life together: “there is no longer Jew or Greek…slave or free…male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 28).

This does not mean that these ethnic and social distinctives disappear in the faith community, but that they are no longer determinative. Christ is the new centre. And as such Christians are a corporate identity and are called “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” (1 Peter 2: 9).

It is therefore appropriate to ask the question whether in Christ a new “race” has come into being. Are Christians, as distinct from Jews and Gentiles, to be regarded as a Third Race?

The writer of the Epistle to Diognetus seems to think so. The writer speaks of Christians as “this new race or way of life” that has come into the world. The author continues: while they “follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time, they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship.” They live in countries as “non-residents,” and “every foreign country is their fatherland and every fatherland is foreign.”

What we may draw from the above biblical passages and from this epistle is the following –
1. Christians are a distinct spiritual and social entity in society.
2. Their identity in Christ is not limited to their particular church.
3. Their identity is also national and global.

Let me draw some possible implications from these most basic points. First of all, Christians need to think about commonalities and sharing across denominations in their particular localities. Secondly, churches should exercise common concerns for the nation as a whole in which they find themselves. And thirdly, and most fundamentally and controversially, Christians need to find commonality with other Christians across the world.

Majoring on this last point, I believe that we need to rethink our order of priorities. If Christians are indeed a Third Race as a spiritual/social entity in Christ, then my priorities cannot be Australia first, the USA first, or China first, and then my commitment to Christ. Instead, the priority is Christ first, and then my commitment to local, national, and global Christian communities.

This means that I need to question what my country is doing in its policies towards other countries which will also affect my Christian brothers and sisters in that country. Put in the starkest terms I may need to become an “enemy” of my country if my country’s actions hurt another country and its faith community.

While this may all sound far too grandiose or abstract, let me make a simple point. If a church community in Australia forms a link with a church, in say Timor Leste, then the Australian church would have to take an interest in Australian Government policy towards that country and the church may well need to raise its voice in prophetic protest and work hard in expressing caring and practical solidarity.

And moving in the other direction, our solidarity with a faith community in Myanmar or Nigeria or Bolivia could open our eyes to things we are not properly seeing because of our cultural blinkers and arrogance.

All of this does not in any way suggest that we neglect responding to our neighbours and institutions in the general community. Love of God involves love of neighbour. But love of neighbour does not cancel out love of brothers and sisters in the faith in other parts of the world for with them we have a Christo-centric common identity. Paul’s words ring loud and clear: “So then, whenever we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family faith” (Galatians 6: 10).

What could it look like if the local cooperation of faith communities could propel us out of our myopic perspectives and liberate us to embrace a global concern of Christians as a Third Race?

Charles Ringma, tssf,
Emeritus Professor Regent College, Vancouver; Honorary Research Fellow Trinity College Queensland; and Professor in the PhD program in contextual theology at Asian Theological Seminary, Metro Manila.

Blogs

Coronavirus and ascetism

Coronavirus and Asceticism

by Charles Ringma tssf

Much of the Christianity in the Western world has been focussed on blessing and much-having. One almost gains the impression that God has been cast as the perennial Father Christmas in the sky.

This one-sided notion of God’s relationship with us, has been somewhat dinted in this time of pandemic.

What most people are now grappling with is not the reality of blessing, but the challenges of pain and struggle in the midst of loss. And much has been lost – jobs, businesses, homes, health and general well-being. More that, our economies have received such a blow that recovery will take many years. And who knows what else will be lost in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Possible deeper losses may include the loss of confidence in our global order, in our governments, and in other social institutions. And some may be entertaining doubts about the church and other religious associations.

In countries that have not been so severely impacted by this pandemic, the refrain is – back to normal as soon as safely possible. And while this is understandable, I hope that this time of abnormality has taught us something so that there will be a new “normal” that we all aspire to and will work towards.

I believe that the hope for a new “normal” is also appropriate for the church. I hope that the present-day church won’t rush back to the old normal. This is important, because the church of the old normal has been too captive to the dominant ethos of contemporary culture, and has functioned too much on a business model for its institutional life. Moreover, the church has hardly exemplified its communal identity in Christ through the Spirit, and has failed to function as a prophetic community in society.

It is hard to predict what a new “normal” may look like for the church, but one lesson that can be drawn from our present circumstances, is learning from the present realities of loss. Rather than seeing loss as an enemy, we may learn to see it as friend. And loss is a companion to emptiness, and emptiness may be the seed-bed for a new receptivity.

Of course, it is right that we have emphasized gain in the Christian life. We have gained much through Christ’s redemptive love, even life itself. And in Christ, we have gained as gift the life-giving Spirit. But we have failed to accent the reality of loss. And loss brings us into the domain of asceticism, which from the Greek, asketikos, means sacrifice for the purpose of training and formation (as in a sport). And by way of application, sacrifice and self-discipline, for the sake of growing in Christlikeness and service.

Asceticism has not always had a good track record in Christian spirituality. At times, ascetic practices have negated the body, made salvation a self-effort, and reflected a distorted view of God. Bradley Holt rightly notes that a faulty asceticism “leads to despising God’s good gifts of creation: our bodies and the world around us.”

However, there have also been laudable perspectives and practices. While in religious orders and the priesthood, the dominant commitments have been poverty, celibacy and obedience, for the laity ascetic practices have traditionally included prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

But all of this can be framed much more basically. Asceticism is far more central to the Christian life than simply fasting. Coming to faith in Christ involves the loss of the old life of human autonomy and self-sufficiency, and embracing the new life in Christ. In coming to Christ, we hand over to him our sin and our goodness, in fact our very selves. This new life involves a life of obedience and openness to the Spirit. Thus, it involves the loss of going our way.

There is also more that we need to surrender. The love of God involves us in a commitment to seeing God’s shalom erupt into our world and the love of neighbour involves us in service to the other. What this means practically, is that we are willing to lay things aside and to sacrifice so that a something much better can swim into view.

In the light of these perspectives, it should be clear that ascetic practices lie at the very heart of Christian spirituality and service.

So, the question for us in this time of COVID-19 when we are already experiencing so much loss, is: what is it that we need to learn in anticipating the new “normal” about living more prayerfully and sacrificially? In other words, do we need to become more ascetic? Do we need to embrace loss in new and productive ways? Is the “desert” as important as the “promised land”? Is “not-having” as important as having?

In taking these questions on board we may need to hear the challenge of St. John Chrysostom: “those who live in the world, even though married, ought to resemble the monks in everything else.” Clearly Chrysostom is making the point that there should not be a huge difference between monks and the laity. “Ordinary” Christians also, need to live in community, practise hospitality, live prudently, live in obedience to the gospel, and live in fidelity. Thus, like the monks, we too need to practice asceticism and in relinquishing the good make may for the greater good in the Kingdom of God.

Charles Ringma, tssf.