The back of a souped-up Jeep read, “Not everyone who wanders is lost.” It was a phrase from the “Life is Good” company who has been putting like slogans on T-shirts and hats for years. (Your former pastor Denny Moon once gave me a sister phrase to the one plastered on the Jeep…”confidently wandering”). Viewed through the lens of faith and the church, the Jeep’s slogan is, of course, true and people outside of the church have every right to call us on it. For too long, we church “insiders” have thought of people outside the church as lacking faith even going so far as thinking less of church “outsiders” from a moral point of view.
It used to be that for one to get plugged into the social network of a new community, be successful in business life of a town or city, you not only had to go to church but be a member of the “right” church. In a small group at the church I served in the 90’s, a middle-aged woman who had just become a member was talking about her spiritual life prior to finding our community. An insider commented, “Well of course you didn’t have much faith. You were un-churched.” The woman received the comment as a righteous slight and she was right to speak up and challenge the strange “box” she had been put in.
We all know that the Church has lost its grip on the culture and no longer enjoys the majority position. We’ve known this for decades. Today’s churches share much more in common with the early church when belief in Jesus as Lord was just beginning to spread through the witness of the apostles. I still believe that the Church is God’s chosen vehicle for the spread, development, encouragement and support of people’s faith lives but surely the Church is not the only vehicle God uses. God will use anything you give him access to to communicate just how much you are loved and treasured as a human being. We have all heard of the “nones”, people who choose “none” as their religious affiliation.
I also believe there are plenty of people whose faith life is robust, alive and full even as they choose not to align with a local body of Christians. People’s mistrust of institutions, their non-interest in being joiners, feelings that today’s Church has leaned too heavily on judgment, too little on grace, the dominance of soccer, baseball and dance in the lives of our children (or in the words of a son of the church “Frankly, life outside the church is fun.”) have all lead to sharp declines in the strength of our churches, many even being forced out of business entirely.
So what is a church to do? This has been the nagging question of my entire ministry and I am sure it will continue to be so long after I hang up my robe in retirement. But, here are some of my thoughts:
- The Church (we) must embrace our brokenness and dismemberment.
- The Church is still God’s chosen vessel but a “transformed” Church is not the same church of yesteryear.
- All healing and transformation arises out of a dying, not some heroic, struggle to maintain control and power
We must take on a countenance of humility - Invest more in mercy and inclusion, less in judgment and exclusion
- Be the underdog and own our position instead of fighting for the “establishment” position
- Embrace change as a vehicle of growth and healing
- Build bridges with everyone instead of investing in walls.
This is not a dead time for the church but a time to “confidently wander,” not as people who are lost but people searching for the alive Christ in the communities in which we live for “Life is Good.”
Peace and grace,
Mark