Thermometer or Thermostat?

This Sunday, the Church celebrates another time of Pentecost. This is the Sunday we remember the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit starting with the disciples. This is a good time to remember how and why the Church came into existence. Today, the church of Jesus Christ has been described as the bride of Christ and the body of Christ. It has also been called a community of believers, a mission station, and a house of prayer. But, my favorite description for the church was coined in the 1960’s by Dr. Martin Luther King from the Birmingham jail. In a letter to other clergy who were trying to silence him, Dr. King described the Church of Jesus Christ in this way:

“There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed in. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being ‘disturbers of the peace’ and ‘outside agitators’. But they went on with the conviction that they were a ‘colony of heaven’, and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be ‘astronomically intimidated.’ They brought to an end such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest. Things are different now. The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.”

I believe that every Pentecost, we, as the Church, especially as Good News is entering into a new chapter, should ask ourselves one question: Is our church a thermostat or just another thermometer? Or, maybe a better question is that after remembering how and why the Church came into existence, what should it be?