“The church is only the church when it exists for others…not dominating, but helping and serving.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
On the last Sunday of January, I attended the first meeting of The Last Sunday, a gathering of younger (16 – 50 year-old) people meant to build community and encouragement in our current political climate. It sets out to confront what it calls “supremacist Christianity” or “toxic Christianity” in modern America, and I found a fairly diverse group of people in attendance: St. Andrew members and friends, people from other congregations, as well as people who do not currently practice religion but have in the past—all individuals who love the message of Christ and yearn for the Church to follow Jesus more closely. I commend Kyler Vogt and Forrest Nameniuk (the cocreators) for all their work to ensure that the time we spent together was thoughtful, compassionate, and in good faith.
After a casual meal together, we engaged in prayer, readings, and a short meditation on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his relationship with the white churches of America. The rest of our time was spent in conversation pairs where we talked about the things that anger us, that offer us hope, and that hold us back from doing more to bring about change. After sharing our conclusions with the group as a whole, we ended with prayer and cleaned up before setting out.
I went to find commiseration for my troubles, and found something more—hope. I saw that others are aware of the flaws in our human institutions, and that others, like me, believe that these institutions can (and MUST) change. It was an empowering experience that challenged me to think and pray further about how I can act for change in the Church and in the world around me. I recommend that anyone 50 and under attend one of these gatherings. We are not only the future of the Church, we are its present, and we are its leaders just as much as anyone else.
Allison Katsufrakis