Recently a member of my home congregation said, "In the end, I'm the one who has to get it done. I think most of us believe that." He was talking about a specific mission activity in the church. It seems that an awful lot of us believe that accomplishing the realization of God's reign is up to - no, not the Holy Spirit - us! In fact we do have a responsibility to commit our lives to that work, but if we not only exclude the gifts of other people in the process but also exclude the intervention of the Holy Spirit then we have missed the joy, the glory and the freedom of the Gospel.
Then coincidentally - or not - I came upon this concept in the writings of Parker Palmer, a man whose work may be better known among educators than among pastors. That is indeed our loss. He calls the concept "functional atheism.:
“… 'functional atheism,' the belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us. This is the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen here, we are the ones who must make it happen – a conviction held even by people who talk a good game about God.
This ... causes pathology on every level of our lives. It leads us to impose our will on others, stressing our relationships, sometime to the point of breaking. If often eventuates in burnout, depression, and despair, as we learn the world will not bend to our will and we become embittered about that fact. Functional atheism is the shadow that drives collective [and individual] frenzy as well. It explains why the average group can tolerate no more than 15 seconds of silence: if we are not making noise, we believe, nothing good is happening and something must be dying…." (Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak, pp. 88-89, Jossey-Bass; 1999.)
How many of us especially in the “professional” ministry are indeed functional atheists. We proclaim “faith” in Jesus Christ, but do we trust Him? Do we trust in the vital activity of the Holy Spirit? Do we make room for the Spirit to act among us, or do we squeeze out the Spirit along with many other resources that the Lord has provided? Yes, it involves risk. All of Christian practice is rooted in risk.
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