BLOG 11.15.12: MISSIONARIES TO THE CHURCH, YET?
In my last blog I raised the vision of a creative new generation, formed by a whole different culture, and which I have hopes will also create fruitful and imaginative new wineskins for the church.
The other part of me hangs out in coffee shops and loves to get into conversations with these same emerging generation folk, and to realize what an enigma the church is for them. You see, when you’re a working author of Christian stuff, and a veteran of 40 years in the pastorate, it’s hard to escape your identity. But over coffee in the ambience of the coffee shop, we get some good conversations going. These conversation partners are mostly what the pollsters call: “nones,” in that they do not identify themselves with any church. But what is interesting is that they will nearly always explain to me that they are, however, “spiritual.” That, in itself, can initiate some good conversations just by asking to fill me in on what they consider spirituality to be about. I find a huge spiritual hungering among these, and they will frequently want my blog-site, and will give me their business card.
But when it comes to the church, they have a: “been-there-done-that,” or have encountered some sterile, and often hurtful, experience with the church that leaves them unconvinced that it has anything to offer. Ouch!
So, what do I do with that? I know some really contagious and fruitful and convincing church communities. They tend to be smaller, and usually fairly new. These communities are still clearly focused on who Jesus is, what he taught and did and promised, and are highly motivated to fulfill the mission for which he has called them. Such church communities, I find, have a lot of these self-same “nones” turning up at worship time to “sniff-out” the community, which they have heard of from mutual friends. As a matter of fact, many of them are primarily composed of such “nones” who have finally encountered the love and grace of God in Christ in that community. Meanwhile, …
Yes, meanwhile, I also look at the vast array of traditional church institutions that cover the landscape. I’ve got a long history of attending regional church meetings, listening to reports, passing motions about this and that, and going home wondering why I wasted a day. Such meetings, amusingly, remind me of an old Irish drinking song:
“O, McCarty is dead, and McGinty don’t know it.
McGinty is dead and McCarty don’t know it.
O, both of ‘ems dead and lying in bed,
And neither knows that the other is dead.”
The tragedy is that such churches are like McGinty and McCarty in that nobody seems to notice. They are too often devoid of the vital signs, and thrill about Jesus and the gospel. Nobody seems to notice as long as traditional “churchy” activities go on as scheduled.
And yet, within nearly all of these moribund and often sterile churches, there are usually those small colonies, or villages, or cohorts, of believers who take Jesus seriously, and are formed by the word of Christ. They find each other in classes, or house churches, or around dinner tables and in coffee shops. They share encouragement, prayers, and hopes for a refounding of their larger church community. Yes, there are often those smoldering embers waiting to burst into flame. In this blog I need to celebrate these faithful dear who also give me hope … those who are the faithful missionaries to such churches, which churches are themselves mission fields.
Come Holy Spirit!
