We live in an era when the exploration of the human psyche undergoes tremendous progress. I can still remember my feeling of unbelief and surprise when, now about twenty years ago, I followed a TV interview with the filmmaker Werner Herzog and heard him say that modern psychiatry understood as much about the human brain as the ancient Egyptians understood about astronomy.
Granted, what the ancient Egyptians had mastered was not little. The wealth of astronomical knowledge reflected in the pyramids alone proves the point, and The Discovery Channel and National Geographic Magazine provide ample illustrations. But compare this to the space exploration of the latter part of the 20th century and you will quickly grasp the enormous provocation contained in Herzog’s words: modern psychiatry at the level of the ancient Egyptians.
Much has happened since. But the more we have found, the more our society seems to have grown skeptical of human freedom. Take, for example, the verdict of depression. Even in mild cases we tend to seek solutions through medication. Oftentimes, this means self-medication, because it is readily available and so much easier than seeing a professional.
Self-medication or prescription drugs, both are built on the assumption that our psychological condition is reined by chemistry and not free will. Reduced to our chemical balances or imbalances, we don’t seem to be masters in our own house anymore.
A church family, by contrast, can prove a powerful antidote to this far-spread yet limited conception. This is because, first, you cannot medicate a church, and, second, because a church is an excellent place to learn about the roots of some of our depressions not in chemistry but in false and misguided expectation.
If we use church only to find shelter for our illusions, we will end up disappointed and depressed. If we adopt instead a world-open perspective that regularly exposes us to the buzzing life of this ever changing world, we will not only be more realistic in our assumptions, but we will see our very assumptions changed as well.
It may not be realistic, for example, to expect for our church a growth in membership that will soon solve most of our financial concerns and we should not utilize people in this way anyway! Instead, I see us called to find other approaches to our situation. A pill against church depression? I’d rather ask whether it could be that God has brought us here so that we open the door to something entirely new.
I know I talk very vaguely here, but I’m also aware that our Consistory and its corresponding committees have only begun to explore the wealth of potential our future holds. I am thinking in particular of a little task force that Consistory recently appointed in order to design a vision for the interior of our education building. What type of special ministry is needed in our community, and how should the building be redesigned in order to accommodate new ministerial needs? Please be sure to follow this discussion as we move towards the summer. Our future is in the making here.
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