A Stand of Pine Trees?

Wofhart Pannenberg, a prominent German theologian, once described congregations, the assembly of believers who gather for worship and to participate in God’s mission for the world, as outposts for mission. Given my own predisposition to view congregations as gathered communities, as people called, gathered and sent into the world by the Holy Spirit, I like to think of congregations in more organic terms. Given the life-giving nature ascribed to the Spirit of God in Nicene Creed, the “one” universal church could, in my opinion, also be more broadly reflected in God’s creation. Thus, I have come to appreciate and use the metaphor of a stand of pine trees when describing congregations. Why pine trees?

I learned about the nature of these wonderful created gifts of God a few years ago after Hurricane Isabella destroyed our home in Virginia. The most powerful part of the storm, the northeast quadrant of the hurricane’s outer wall passed directly over our community knocking down thousands of the mighty oak trees resplendent in their fall colors like brittle matchsticks; oak trees that also imploded our tiny home when Isabella’s mighty gusts felled the ancient oaks. Interestingly, however, none of the seemingly fragile Loblolly Pine trees in the woods adjacent to our home succumbed to the hurricane’s mighty power. How can that be? The pine trees managed to survive the hurricane’s wrath primarily for two reasons.  For one, the tall and slender Loblolly Pine towers over the forest canopy because it has learned to sway in the wind. Unlike the powerful and rigid oaks, resplendent in their strikingly beautiful fall foliage, which snapped under pressure, the swaying pine trees survived Isabella’s mighty gusts. The pine trees survived because they have also learned to support one another during storms and drought through an intricate shared root system. When droughts or mighty storms strike, the interlocking root systems of the stand of pine trees holds fast in solidarity, whether sharing precious resources or supporting one another in difficulty — supporting one another even as the trees around them fell to Isabella’s gusts.

In many ways, the community of faith is a lot like a stand of pine trees. As members of the body of Christ, the church on earth, we care for and support one another during difficult times, particularly when the world turns its back on us. Together, saints and sinner all, we participate in God’s mission for the world, reaching out in love and Christian witness to the broken, the lost, the despised, the hurting, and the dying in self-giving love; sharing resources and supporting one another during times of trial and tribulation. Reaching out to and embracing sisters and brothers in need and affirming their status as beloved children of God no matter their present circumstances or difficulties.

My penchant for using the metaphor of pine trees, albeit more organic and less recognizable than others (church as family, a gathered community, or outpost for mission) nonetheless conveys the image that complex church communities, united by a web of interconnected relationships, exist in and for all of God’s creation. Missio Dei, notes Thomas Shattauer, is “God’s own movement outward in relation to the world—in creation, and the covenant with Israel, and culminating in Jesus Christ and the community gathered in him” (Thomas H. Shattauer, Inside Out: Worship in an Age of Mission, 2). The congregation, irrespective of the metaphors one may employ to identify and describe their function, “is the visible locus of God’s reconciling mission toward the world.”   As such, the assembly is an activity that is, like the stand of pine trees capable of surviving even the most turbulent of storms, directed outward to the world, not inward into itself.  Ultimately, the evangelical missionary witness of the Christian proclamation is broadly inclusive, for “Jesus’ voice continually calls us out of our comfort zones and private enclaves and into public service and engagement with others in God’s world” (Nathan Frambach, “Currents in Theology and Mission,” 10).

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