Last week I wrote about humility and the phrase, “I could be wrong.”  A church member who read my column wrote back, “Not only could you be wrong.  You ARE wrong.”  He was referring to my calculation that 500 generations have come and gone since the time of Christ. 

Um…slight miscalculation.  I was figuring 40 years (a good biblical number) per generation.  But 40×500 is 20,000 years – not 2000!  Oops.  (I knew it all along, of course – I was just illustrating my point that “I could be wrong.” J)  OK, 50 generations.

The reflection on humility continued all week.  I’ve been asking myself, “What would it look like to be a humble church?”  If humility is not an American cultural value, but it is a biblical value, how should humility be lived out in the church?

Over the next few weeks, I’ll write several columns on that subject.  I’m really interested in your feedback, which may well shape future columns.  Post your response - what does a “humble church” look like in your mind?

Let’s begin here.  A humble church starts with humility before God.  It is the first (Exodus 10:13) and last (1 Peter 5:6) and most common use of the word “humility” in the Bible.  “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face….” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Humility comes from the same root word as humus – dark brown or black dirt made up of decomposed plant or animal matter.  To be humble is to see yourself as soil – low, lowly, and useful only when the Master Gardener does his magic.

The humble church submits to God.

Christians don’t see God as impersonal (pantheism) or disconnected (deism).  We believe in a God who can make himself known – and has – most widely in creation, most clearly in the Scripture, and most visibly in Jesus Christ. 

The humble church needs neither to seek nor innovate its thoughts of God.  The humble church acknowledges what God has said about who he is and responds, “I believe.”  The humble church acknowledges what God has said about what his will, and answers, “Yes, Lord.”

As I said last week, the humble church also confesses, “We could be wrong” about our understanding of God’s self-revelation.  Sometimes we are, painfully so, in ways obvious to others.  But that doesn’t mean we become pantheists, deists, atheists, or heretics trying to figure it all out on our own. 

God has spoken and is speaking still.  The humble church listens.