By The Rev. Dr. Carl Grosse

When I look at my bookshelf, or pull items out to re-read them, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to hang out with the authors. Imagine having Josephus, Augustine, Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Spinoza, C. S. Lewis, Billy Graham, and John Stott at the next Second Friday! I wouldn’t want Aquinas or Luther or Knox there…Martin and John would start a fight, and Thomas would hog the food and beer after boring everyone else to sleep. But if they showed up, I would let them join out of Godly hospitality.

Hopefully after introductions and a beverage or two, we’d settle into some rich and candid conversation. There might be some tensions, but I wonder if people like these guys (sorry, I wish there were more women in the mix…maybe Elisabeth Achtemeier and Amy Jill Levine?) would be curious enough to listen to each other and put some honest ideas and questions on the table for discussion. Many of them had to be careful what they said and wrote in their own times. A safe and casual vibe might open them up a little, sort of like A Night At The Museum only different. 

Which ideas would reflect the greatest diversity of thought? The nature and authority of the Bible would be one candidate, from what I know about the group. Would some ideas find general consensus with an outlier or two? Most of them might agree that Christianity as a moral framework for society is superior to other options. Whether or not we could find a proposition with unanimous assent is an intriguing thought. My imagination tells me I’d love the exchanges.

I always learn things about people when we visit and chat away from the formal settings. Don’t the “real” committee meetings start after the scheduled ones adjourn?  For whatever reasons, even church struggles to function as a truly safe place to be honest. Policies and rules won’t fix that, any more than we can legislate morality. It’s good to have guidelines and standards for sure, but we can’t rely on them to “make” us more like human beings created in God’s image. How can you take what God gives you, and in your own way help make church a safer place to be authentic?