This article was written for and first published by The Ascent Network for their organizational publication.
A Shared Ascent
As we witness the great unravelling of the Church in the West, the institutions and structures that have held our ecclesial expressions together for centuries no longer feel as sturdy and sure as they once did. In the midst of this slow and painful disintegration, the threads of love and shared mission that weave together the followers of Christ now feel strained at best. We have likely all experienced Christian unity becoming a casualty of competing worldviews.
As I try to do my small part in preventing the shards from splintering further, mostly with little success, I admit there is still a longing for something intangible from our past reality. While the past was likely never as idyllic as my faulty memory suggests, I find myself wondering: what is it that I still long for? I suspect I’m not alone in wishing that the very best parts of who we were might somehow miraculously survive this current fragmentation.
I think it is this: our triune God reminds us that we were made for community. Relationship is not incidental to our faith; it reflects our deep need for one another. We long for companions who will walk with us and pray for us, who will celebrate and grieve alongside us. We need people to learn from and listen to, people who will offer wise counsel, and who will love us enough to tell us when we’re wrong. Perhaps some of us who have eagerly stepped into the Ascent Movement have felt the absence of that shared tether, the common rope that binds us together in witness and service in our neighborhoods, countries, and the world as we proclaim and demonstrate our shared faith to build God’s kingdom.
As its name suggests, Ascent calls us toward something higher. As CBM, we have found unexpected fellowship and shared purpose within this network, which brings together a surprising mix of like-hearted churches and organizations united through the task of reimagining the possibilities for the Church in North America in this generation and the next. To join Ascent is to make an intentional choice to share life with other disciples, rooted in the conviction that it is still possible to remain bound together by love and hope even amid profound diversity. Together, we bear witness to choosing faithfulness over efficiency, committing ourselves to continue saying yes to joining God in the work he is already doing in this time and place, despite our differences. As companions forging a new shared path forward, the road at times may feel unfamiliar, yet we hold on with certainty that God is doing something new and greater than we can possibly hope or imagine.
