The Un-stable Longing for Stability

Photo by Chua Bing Quan on Unsplash

A major theme I have noticed over the past few years, is a deep longing for stability. This is a cultural longing. It rises up in popular culture in aesthetic trends such as maximalism and grandma chic. Movements like these exhibit a longing for tactile permanence, abundance, or reminders of a simpler time when you could depend on finding grandma in the same-ole-chair. The textures are soft and inviting, the items are time tested and patina’d. This is also a religious cultural longing. It crops up in the movement of young men into the more demanding and ancient forms of church, such as Eastern Orthodoxy. It also shows itself in the fact that women have reversed the long trend of being the primary churchgoers and are seeking out the safety of being with close friends over the fluctuating environments of religious communities. It is a political longing, exhibiting itself in the embracing of perceived confidence and dominance as opposed to the slow negotiation required to live a life of love and character within a diverse community.

I wish I could say that our church was the fortress of stability in a chaotic culture. Sadly, it is not. The truth is that it is full of people looking for stability in one another. Just like a marriage, a healthy church cannot be composed of members who are dependent upon one another. Rather, a stable church or marriage emerges when the members are jointly anchored to that which binds them together. Mission Church is a beautiful expression of the body of Christ, but it is not stable enough to anchor a soul. We specialize in engaging with unstable people who are looking for a home. This means there is ample opportunity to experience instability. This leads us to continually return to the Rock on which we stand, and without whom we are washed away.

Even with that being the case, we have seen an influx of people seeking a faith that is ancient (as opposed to new and trendy), grounded in an authoritative text (as opposed to depending upon a charismatic leader) and anchored in the transcendent (as opposed to simply being a gathering of good moral type folks). This is not surprising in the midst of increasingly destabilizing times. We are learning to adapt to this by embracing more regularity, repetition, and conveying groundedness in Scripture and the Church of all times and places.

I expect the instability of our time to continue to wreak havoc on our culture. It always does. But I also expect some people to grasp for truths, communities, places, and people that seem stable when all else feels like shifting sand. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. In such times, people will grasp onto destructive and demonic ideas and institutions that offer a false claim to safety from their fears. The demand that other people satisfy the longings of the soul will be intense. The church’s opportunity lies ahead, right in the midst of this reality. If the Church will rise and point people to King Jesus and his Kingdom that cannot be shaken, I believe that we will witness renewal and the new life of faith in our midst. We must make sure the revival is life in Christ. We must guard our hearts and pray, lest we ourselves stray and seek stability outside of our Savior King.

Andy Littleton is the pastor of Mission Church in Tucson, AZ. He also co-owns a small retail store and serves the cause of developing local mission ideas through Resonate Global Mission and Infuse.Watch What You Say About ChurchWell-Equipped Christians are Checking Out, Right when Churches Need Them MostChristian; Your “What’s Next” is Impacting How You Feel About Current Events.[image error]

The Un-stable Longing for Stability was originally published in Dispatches from the Outpost on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.