Let me say it out loud: Immanuel Reformed Church is tiny. We’re not just tiny. Measured against the needs of the church and the world, we seem downright pathetic.

We don’t help ourselves by making grand theological gestures. It would a comfort to believe the church is supposed to be tiny and pathetic.

But we don’t believe that. We’re convinced the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea; the mustard seed will grow into an imperial tree; against nature, the Rock that topples empires will grow into a world-mountain.

The disproportion between the church’s needs and our combined resources makes us look silly. The disproportion between our hopes and our achievements looks preposterous.

These comparisons leave us vulnerable to what economist A.O. Hirschman calls the “futility trope.” The futility trope is the conviction that the status quo has the divine attributes of eternity and immutability.

When we’re in the grip of the futility trope, we think current trends are against us, and current trends always continue forever. Nothing ever changes. All our efforts will fail.

But that’s not true. The world is fluid, malleable, and susceptible to change, far more than we dream of.

You want proof?

Remember the realists who said the Soviet Union was stable, who insisted that gay marriage was a pipe dream, who assured us Donald Trump had no chance to become President?

How “realistic” were St. Patrick and St. Boniface, Martin Luther, Hudson Taylor, Martin Luther King, Jr? 

The church always follows the wake of the Spirit-mad entranced by wild visions of new Jerusalem descending to earth from heaven.

We’re tiny, but we’re not pathetic. And our work is not futile. Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection is proof of that.

Blessings,
Pastor Leithart