BLOG 1/14/15. THE CHURCH WHERE YOU’RE NOT LOOKING

Let me pursue the question I asked in my 1/11/15 blog about: where would some seeking “motherless child” look to find what his/her heart was looking for? I offered up one episode of a small informal set of folk who demonstrated an authentic community of folk who had found their heart’s true home in Jesus, and were committed to be of support to each other in an informal but genuinely healthy way. Their organization was minimal but their relationship was profound.

Having said that, to use a cliché: “All that glitters is not gold.” There are is a vast array of communities and institutions out there pass themselves off as churches which may/or may not have anything at all to do with what Jesus intends for those whom he calls to himself, and to his New Creation. But an even more intriguing reality is that there is a whole host of God’s New Humanity colonies out there that exist under radar, but who understand how much Christ’s disciples need each other, and so take on all kinds of quiet forms, and are constantly re-inventing themselves to accomplish God’s mission in their social, cultural, geographical contexts.

This reality became almost humorously real to me what with a spate of articles on a couple of subjects: One set of articles that came across the media was how ‘Millennials’ were leaving the church, or maybe how the church was losing the Millennial generation. The other set, spearheaded by the Wall Street Journal, was speculating on all of the vacant church sanctuaries and what, in Europe and around the world, was to become of those, often elegant, old sanctuaries that no longer had congregations to support them. The two themes are intimately related.

An article from the Olin School of Business makes the point that in the next decade 40% of today’s Fortune 500 companies will not longer exist. One has to ask why this is so? just as one has to ask why expensive old church buildings are being abandoned (not just in Europe), and why the huge ‘under 25 years of age’ generation doesn’t find such traditional churches speaking to their needs? A former generation of youth were ‘mall rats’ that loved to hang out at malls. Now malls are an endangered species, as are J. C. Penney, Sears-Roebuck, Macy’s, Gap, and a host of other companies, but that doesn’t mean that this Millennial Generation is not shopping, or doesn’t still need clothes and the stuff that have been marketed in malls. It’s just that it so much easier to use Amazon or to shop on line. The older church institutions are slow to ‘get it.’

Wake up! The Millennial Generation is spiritually hungry, but it is also a bunch of pragmatist. They are innovative. They are willing to explore risky territory, and to invent new venues that meet their needs. So that if they identify themselves spiritually as something akin to “motherless children” (as per my previous blogs), and if they find that older traditional church institutions are something of a dry well, or a rudderless ship, where the light of the gospel burns dimly, … that doesn’t mean that they are leaving the church, it only means that they will seek or create those authentic communities where there is reality, and passion, and demonstration of that which Jesus did and taught.

And this is exactly what is happening, not only with the Millennial Generation, but across the world. Actually, the gospel of Jesus Christ is out of control, and the church is growing exponentially in the most unexpected places—but under radar, yet creating New Humanity communities everywhere. I regularly find small clusters of Millennials at my favorite coffee shop, quite unselfconsciously gathered around a patio table with the open Bibles, studying, discussing, praying, and laughing being the church in a different form—flying under radar.

There are vital and vibrant and innovative colonies of God’s new creation in Christ springing up everywhere, and free to meet these motherless children where they are in their brokenness, and hungerings, and need, and to engage with them with the One who is their heart’s true home. This emerging generation gives me enormous hope. And this is taking place globally and in thrilling episodes (even among Hindus and Muslims!). Out of control!