When the Church Doesn’t

Not everything the Church has done in the past has been good, and I think this is because churches — and by that I mean the organisation, not the organism — are parts of culture, parts of the systems of this world. You may recall me advocating for the idea that not only is my soul enslaved to sin, and not only is the created world around me being enslaved to sin, the structures and systems within our societies are also enslaved to sin, and that includes churches.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The Church is the body of Christ. The Church is the living witness of Christ. The Church testifies and proclaims, “Jesus is King.” The Church represents and lives out the values of the Kingdom. The Church loves God and loves neighbour, and the Church testifies to the truth and tells that truth in the world around it.

Except when it doesn’t.

Each of those four functions of the Church has an opposite and negative counterpart. Sometimes we place our own political systems ahead of Jesus. Sometimes we live out the world’s values rather than God’s values. Sometimes we don’t love God, nor do we love neighbour, or through our understanding of loving God, that means we reject neighbour. And sometimes we don’t testify to the truth. In fact, we continue to perpetuate the problems of this sinful world.

A Complicated Legacy

Today, I’m wearing an orange shirt. This is in honour of Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Because when we get right down to it, the Church has not always treated others the way they should be treated — and this serves as a reminder to me.

Now, for me, this issue is a little bit fraught. I’ve spent my entire life in the Church, and I can trace back through the history of families on both sides, people who have devoted their life to the Church and to proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ around the world, and to leading churches and communities.

But on the other hand, my great-great-great Grandfather, Rev. James Settee, left his home early as a young child to be educated in the ways of the Church.

He became a bridge between two worlds. Not only a bridge between the worlds of European settlers and First Nations peoples, he also became a bridge between people who were enslaved to sin and the saving power of Jesus Christ.

I’ve recently been going through his autobiography and started reading through some of his diaries, and I have no doubt in my mind that Rev. James Settee was a fully convinced and converted, faithful follower of Jesus Christ.

For example, when reflecting on his life, he writes, “It did not matter any thing to me when I went to whom I ministered the Word, I was ready to go anywhere and do what I could for the Master.”

Wherever he went he advocated for people repenting of their sin and becoming followers of Jesus. But not only that, he also helped them with their daily needs, such as planting gardens and thinking about solutions for the vast number of First Nations peoples who found themselves with inadequate resources to support them. He advocated at the highest levels, all the way up to the Prime Minister and the Governor General.

But he didn’t just talk the talk. He also got his hands dirty, digging in the ground, planting seeds, catching fish, building churches out of logs, travelling 13 miles with a broken rib, leaving his family behind as he travelled around the lakes, rivers, and plains of Rupert’s Land then northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, all with one goal in mind: To bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to bring truth and reconciliation.

Everyone Bears God’s Image

So, this is a great legacy that I have to reflect upon. But even as I reflect on this, I think about the problems that the Church ran into. And a couple of verses came to mind — verses I think that some of these early founders of Canada forgot.

The first verse is “So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them.” Genesis 1:27 GW

As we wander the world, nobody we come face-to-face with is created in anybody else’s image. Whether that person looks like me or doesn’t, whether that person sounds like me or doesn’t, whether that person has the same beliefs as me or doesn’t, all are created in God’s image.

That’s why it’s really important for God — through the entire Bible, and through Church history — to not only be interested in, but to actively work towards sending us into the world so we can make disciples of all nations. These disciples are not merely the individuals in those nations, but those nations as well.

After all, in Revelation we read about people from every tribe, nation, language, and people are a part of God’s Kingdom. That’s everyone. No one is left behind — even children.

When Culture Becomes Christianity

One of the mistakes of the past was to equate culture with Christianity, with the idea that as long as I wear my clothes this way, build my houses this way, build my church buildings this way, and live this certain way, that means that I am a follower of Jesus.

But the fact that the Bible tells us that people from every tribe, nation, language, and people are a part of God’s Kingdom means none of those cultural things are important enough to make God overlook us. What’s important to God is that people be encouraged to return to him and to help transform their own cultures from the inside, in ways that are significant and relevant to them, so that their cultures, too, can be freed from the evil that enslaved them.

Transformation from the Inside

One of the key aspects to transforming a culture from the inside is that insiders need to be the ones to manage that transformation. It’s not right for outsiders to come in and say, “This is what you need to change.”

Now fortunately, together with the commission to make disciples of all nations, Jesus also said, “I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” He said that his Spirit will come upon us, and it’s this Spirit that guides us into the truth.

It’s very easy for an outsider to come in and point out all the problems with another society. But once we live together with people and share their lives, we realise, “Wait a minute. There’s things that I need to change in my own life as well.”

The secret for the Church — because this post is primarily about us asking ourselves, “How can we do better?” — is to allow God’s Spirit to move in the way that God’s Spirit wants to move.

What Does Transformation Look Like?

So you may ask, what does this transformation look like? How do I know if my culture has been transformed from the inside?

Dr. Jun Vencer has come up with four markers to indicate whether a culture has been transformed: Is there public justice? Do people have economic sufficiency? Is there national righteousness? And is there social peace?

Now, each of these things may mean something different for each culture or society, but these are the goals that we work towards as we try to transform our own cultures from inside.

And in fact, this blog post is an attempt to try to help us transform who we are, whether we come as an outsider, as an insider, as a settler, as a coloniser, as a First Nations person, as a Métis person, or as a foreigner. What is God calling me to do is to not only become a better person, but to make the world I live in a better world, isn’t he?

Be an Advocate

So, what does this mean for me today?

The word that comes to mind is be an advocate.

What makes me say that? Well, in the past couple of years, I’ve had two fairly serious experiences with the medical system. In 2024, I had a fungus and secondary pneumonia in my lungs, and earlier this year I was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer that has left me with only one functioning kidney, as well as spread to my bones and bladder.

One of the main struggles that people face when confronted with a medical condition is, how do I navigate this? How do I navigate the medical system? How do I know what to ask my doctor? What do I do when I have to take a medical test? What do all of these results mean?

I’ve been blessed because Eva is a nurse, and she has been a great companion through these processes. But I know others who struggle. They have nobody to help them journey through the issues related to the medical world. And they suffer as a result.

Truth and reconciliation requires advocacy. Who will help people navigate? What is the truth? What does reconciliation mean? How can we navigate this process?

Of course, the problem with navigation is when one person sets themself up as an expert and the other person is someone who’s learning. I think advocacy in the Church should be a two-way street. We work and journey together to try to find out, what this means for us today. How can I love my neighbour who’s created in the image of God? And how can I make this world a place where God dwells with us and we dwell with him?

God’s Home with Humans

A second verse comes at the end in Revelation:

“I heard a loud voice from the throne say, ‘God lives with humans! God will make his home with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God.’” Revelation 21:3 GW

Here God makes his dwelling — his own dwelling — the same as the dwelling of humans. God wants to live in eternity with you and with me and with everyone around us.

So What Do I Do?

So, where does that leave me today as I am faced with the people around me, in the world around me, in my society, in my community, in my family, and in the greater world?

I need to remember that everyone is created in God’s image and deserves to be respected and to be approached and to be loved.

I also need to remember that wherever I go, God is with me, and in the end, God wants us all to dwell with Him forever.

So, what can I do to make the love of God felt by those who are not like me, who don’t come from where I come from, who speak a different language than I do, who wear different clothes than me, who have different levels of education from me, and who have different ways of worshipping God?

I’m wearing my orange shirt today to honour those who were not treated the way they should have been. But I’m also wearing my orange shirt today to remind me of what I should do as someone who God loves and calls to love others like him — I should journey with them advocating for them as they advocate for me.

How can you be an advocate today? How can you become a listener?

That’s me in the picture — or at least my shirt.