What does the future hold?

What does it mean to be relevant to the world, not conform to the world, while still aligning with God's will?

I think this question becomes harder and harder to answer every day. As a life time member of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, we have adopted a wonderful identity statement.

“We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord's Table as God has welcomed us.”

I love this statement! However, I think we are missing the point. We do offer an open invitation to the table every time we gather to worship. In most places, I believe it stops there.

What we don't offer is an invitation to come as you are and worship. On the surface the offer is there. Then you have to get past the committees and stubbornness to worship any other way than the "traditional way."

I am in no way saying that traditional worship should be left on the back burner. I grew up with it and it really helped shape who I am today. I also fully understand that there are a multitude of younger families that prefer this worship style. What I am saying is that most stoves have two front burners and I think Contemporary worship deserves the front as well.

My original vision when trying to start Revive and Renew at Central was to provide different means of connection with God and to meet the needs of the people in the community that haven't discovered that God has a place for them.

Does a movement for wholeness mean that we cannot have different services and worship styles? No! Just because we are separate does not mean that we aren't a part of the whole body of Christ. I interpret a movement for wholeness as a call to fill the gaps. Leave no stone unturned.

If we are just catering to the current members of the church, aka the people that are already here believing, then we are not a movement for wholeness. An important role for the church is to nurture it's current members, but it doesn't stop there. We are called to teach our members the fulfillment of leading others to Christ through showing love. We should empower our members to step out in our local communities and make a difference. It's so easy to write a check and say, "Look what we're doing in Africa." It takes way more to say, "Look what we're doing in our neighborhood."

I have come to a stale state. If I'm just here to make people comfortable, then I'm not doing what I originally set out to do. Recently we proposed changes that we felt were vital for the future growth of R&R. As you might imagine, this caused an uproar.

The two ideas proposed were:
1. Move from simultaneous service times. This would move the time of the traditional service along with the time of R&R. This would allow our current ministry team to provide a consistent connection to the R&R members.

2. Hire a consistent minister to serve the R&R service and keep the simultaneous times. This would allow a connection between the members of R&R and the ministry team as a whole.

I would first like to say that we didn't just throw these together like a list of demands at the last second. They were thought over and organized to be well presented. Both provide separate challenges that would need work to help overcome.

The church decided to offer listening sessions where members could show up and make statements about these proposed changes or offer questions/concerns about the changes.

I had the displeasure of attending the last one of these sessions. Here are a couple of comments that were made.

"I feel that R&R is divisive." When asked to clarify the person was not just referencing the simultaneous times but R&R itself.

"Does R&R give enough to support a paid minister?"

"Why can't R&R move back to the evenings?" A step in the wrong direction in my opinion.

"I've noticed that R&R's attendance is steady and without growth. Shouldn't they show they can grow before we make any changes?" Would you wait for a plant to grow before you water it?

"Why can't one of our current ministers, Associate or Youth, be the new minister in R&R?"

The last question brought on a whole off topic discussion of why the church even needs a paid youth minister. They just want to alter his job description to include R&R! I will gladly stand up and say that having a consistent full time Youth Minister changed who I am today as a Christian. My life would not be the same without the support I received from Josh and Shelby.

Since I do consider all of our ministers, ordained or not, as a part of our church family, this really hurt me. How are we, as a church, showing love by rewriting the Youth Minister's job description, without raising his pay, to include an extra 10 to 15 hours of sermon prep every week? Do people think all he does is show up on Wednesday & Sunday nights to hang out?

It's obvious that the divisive comment stung the worst. To say that what a group of us felt God was calling us to form for Central was divisive is a slap in the face. If we were out for personal gain then we would have failed from the start.

I feel that my presence was a mistake yesterday. I've lost all hope for the church family that I thought, growing up as a kid, supported and loved me. I can now only see my true church family as a narrow few. I could count them on my hands and feet.

God calls us to make disciples. The first step is to love God. The next is to love neighbor. If we can't even love within the walls of our own church, how are we going to show that love anywhere else? What happens when a new member joins and then sees the inner workings of the church? What happens when they hear the harsh words spoken about what they feel God is calling them to do? What example are we setting as a faith community?

So what does it mean to be relevant to the world while still aligning with God's will?

I offer this solution; God does not call us to be comfortable. Jesus never called his disciples to a life of luxury. If we are to truly show God's unconditional love, then we must step out side of what's comfortable and go the distance. The world today lacks God's love and instead of it pouring out of the church in to the world, the hate is seeping in to the church.