Church and Commodity

We have bought into the culture of commodity and production. We have been seduced by ‘empire’ around us. We claim Jesus to be Lord but we listen to other lords who through media and model and manatras have seduced us into living life their way, the way of the world, which is not the alternative, upsidedown culture of the Christ. Walmart or McDonalds – we go because we have needs and wants.

But what would happen if you were a church that said to those who gathered and walked and worked together – ‘It’s not about you, it’s not firstly about your needs, let alone wants. Even concerns, needs, wants with regard to our family – all of that might be met, as a by-product of our seeking another way, a more bilblical way, a missional way of following Jesus, of being church in our times.

Seek first the Kingdom; get in on God’s missional agenda – and all these things will be added to you (at least the things we truly need – God knows).

Loss of Missional Understanding

Are we in danger or have we actually missed the point of why the Church exits, why were called out and into? C. S. Lewis once observed "there exists in every church something that sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. So we must strive very hard, by the grace of God, to keep the church focused on the mission that Christ originally gave to it."

What are we to do when a local church has been reduced to a remnant of faithful, albeit disheartened people, especially compared to days of former strength and glory?  Surely, it has now got to do something radical (but what?) - for mere survival (if it is to survive). And can it possibly thrive once more – perchance to rediscover its missional identity - each congregant becoming a passionate disciple of Jesus, and the entire church joining with Him in what He is doing – globally where and when possible, in the life of the particular community and communities all around it.

Churches in an UnChurched Culture

Canada was once a 'churched' culture. It no longer is that. When it was thus (in Church- and King/Queen- and Country-culture), most people went to church (meaning they attended local church buildings, entered church programs and joined in the community life and ministry of such congregations). Pastors and churches simply announced the time of their 'services,' opened their doors and people came in to receive what was offered and to give and share the gifts, resources, vision and love of Christ that held them together as a 'colony of Heaven.'

When I was a boy, even unbelieving neighbours did not cut their lawns nor run their tractors on a Sunday. Before Sunday sports and wide-open shopping, that was a day when a Christian or Christendom consensus dictated much of how life was lived in Canadian communities. There was at least a respect and then grudging tolerance for the culture of Christendom. It was not worth going against the majority view even of other non-practicing Christians that Sunday was to be considered a special day, a ‘day of rest’ - the Sabbath. Certain things were not to be done on that day out of respect for Christians, if not out of love for God.

When people gathered, we had pastors and teachers to help lead and shape their individual and collective life and witness – much of it lived in the context of the gathering in the church building and the inherent Christian nurture and witness programs carried out in that primary context.

That day is gone.

You Won?

Who wrecked our church, our denomination, our plans? Why are we challenging what and how – we believe and do? Why don’t people come and get committed to what we believe and do? Why isn’t all we do working anymore? Why do people not come to our church, get committed, enter our programs, end up running them?

To whom do we ‘throw the torch’ of ministry? Will we close down this church after all these ears? How will we survive? Will we die before we get this figured out? We opposed all those new worship songs, because how else will young people learn theology other than through singing the good old hymns?  Now, it’s: "Where did they all go?"

Well, you won; you froze them out. How can a church do local mission when we can’t even keep our own kids? We’ve lost several generations now.

Reason for Discouragement

What are we to do when a local church has been reduced to a remnant of faithful, albeit disheartened people, especially compared to days of former strength and glory?

Surely, it has now got to do something radical (but what?) - for mere survival (if it is to survive). And can it possibly thrive once more – perchance to rediscover its missional identity - each congregant becoming a passionate disciple of Jesus, and the entire church joining with Him in what He is doing – globally where and when possible, in the life of the particular community and communities all around it.

In her book, 'Small Wonder,' Barbara Kingsolver writes -The closest my heart has come to breaking lately was on the day my little girl arrived home from school and ran to me, her face tense with expectation, asking, "Are they still having that war in Afghanistan?"

I suppose there are a lot of things that may break our heart. The passing of a loved one, the absence of a friend, the hopes and fears that turn into dashed dreams and the reality finally happening: something we had greatly feared actually happens.

"As if," she continues, "the world were such a place that in one afternoon. while kindergartners were working hard to master the letter I, it would decide to lay down its arms..."

Said her daughter: "If people are just going to keep doing that, I wish I'd never been born."

Kingsolver writes that she "sat on the floor and held her tightly to keep my own spirit from draining through the soles of my feet . . ."

And she continues: "It used to be, on many days, that I could close my eyes and sense myself to be perfectly happy. I have wondered lately if that feeling will ever come back. It's a worthy thing to wonder, but maybe being perfectly happy is not really the point. Maybe . . . the truer measure of humanity is the distance we must travel in our lives, time and again, 'twixt two extremes of passion - joy and grief,' as Shakespeare put it."

One tries to keep balanced, or get balanced, tries to keep keeping on, to make sense when there's little sense - only mystery and more mystery, beyond any possible explanation; and when there is mostly silence when one tries to pray, or when one hopes a voice may respond to one's attempts at meaningful - even simple, basic conversation.