Diminished Public Witness

By Dr. Michael Kinnamon
General Secretary
National Council of Churches

. . . Perhaps this is a good place to name other factors that have, as I see it, diminished the public witness of many of our churches. I will use my own denomination, the Disciples of Christ, as an example.

Faced with declining numbers and resources, leaders within the Disciples fear that controversy will further weaken the church. In response, we have, since the mid-1990s, eliminated virtually all national staff positions responsible for social justice ministries and are on the verge of eliminating General Assembly resolutions dealing with contemporary issues.

Within the Disciples, as in other mainline churches, there is an evident gap between the commitment of at least some leaders and many local church members. As a result, our assemblies will sometimes offer prophetic witness only to discover that the initiatives lack the broad support needed for church-wide action. That is one reason people have argued for the elimination of resolutions: They too often have been "feel good" pronouncements that involve little serious cost or effort.

Polarization within the church on issues of social concern, and inability to deal constructively with conflict, mean that advocacy is increasingly confined to special interest groups that can be ignored by the rest of the body. I belong to the Disciples Peace Fellowship; but, as I keep saying to whoever will listen, the church should not have a peace fellowship, it should be a peace fellowship.

And, to return to my basic point, the Disciples have shown little capacity for integrating social witness with worship, pastoral care, stewardship, or the other things the church does and is. In the words of theologian Lew Mudge, "…there seems little connection in the minds of church members between the moral convictions to which they bear witness and the nature of the ecclesial community in which these convictions are nurtured" -- which means that peace and justice can be relegated to one corner of the church. . . .

Excerpted from a speech given to the Wisconsin Council of Churches on March 10, 2009.