Fellow blogger Bruce Reyes-Chow is running for Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He has a fascinating post about four shifts that his denomination needs to take. I won't go into all of them, but I will highlight number 4:
Towards engagement driven by hope and optimism and away from reactions based on suspicion and scarcity. We can no longer operate as if new life and hope are not realities. I believe that too many of us only know how to feel useful if we are in a climate of fear and desperation. Too many of us only know how to play the role of malcontent and/or gatekeeper and do not know how to operate within a climate of hope. In fact, when we are really unhealthy, we may even create negativity and chaos when it is not there, simply so we can come in and operate in a more comfortable setting. How many times have folks tried to move things forward only to run into walls of negativity and fear? Now this is not simply a stage-of-life issue, but a reality that we, especially the church, must deal with. Jesus did not come to bring despair, but hope. If we the church, of all institutions, cannot live into that idea, we might as well pack it in and go home. Movements of hope do not demand ease and smooth sailing, but a common understanding that through the struggle and communal hard work, there is new life ahead.
While Bruce was talking about his Presbyterian Church, he could have been talking about my own denomination, the Disciples of Christ. I don't know what has happened, but at least around these parts, it's as if people took some hopeless pills. People are constantly tearing each other down, talking trash that such and such church will close, that these churches have no mission and how we should just give up and just join the United Church of Christ. It's all negative and you wonder if they really believe in a God at all.
Maybe it's a mainline malaise. Maybe we have become so used to loss that we tend to think venture inward, fearful of the future and tearing down anyone who has the audacity to believe things can change for the better.
But I have to believe I serve a God that has done the impossible; a God that has taken the weak things of this world to shame the strong. David defeated Goliath. Gideon and his small army defeated the mighty Midianites. And the Messiah came from a backwater town.
It's hard to be a cheerleader, especially me (there is a reason I call this blog "Oscar"). But you know, I do believe in hope. As Jim Wallis once said:
Hope is a decision you make. Hope means believing in spite of the evidence and then waiting for the evidence to change.
Yeah, churches are losing members and budgets are getting smaller. But we serve a powerful God. Do I have start yelling, "Yes, we can?"
Any resemblance to a certain candidate is purely intentional.
Oscar,
I hear where you are coming from. I am from Michigan where our region continues to suffer losses in number of churches and the declining and aging membership. My church included. While our regional leaders are most optimistic and full of hope, some churches such as mine have long not understood hope, when 8 years ago, they were considering of adding to our building because they couldn't serve the massive amounts of people coming through the doors. Now we can barely get 60 in the building.
Through my experience, hope is something that has to gradually happen. Especially in churches that have become so use to looking at the red ink for so long. It has taken about four years for my church to finally begin to understand what it means to hope again. While, they are not at where I would want to to be, they have finally got a grasp on what it means to be a mission church through rather aggressive and effective programs put together by our current and leaving Interim Minister, Shirley Martinson, and church leadership. But, before my fellow church members have begun realizing that hope, they had to come to realize and overcome the problems and struggles that hindered their progression from a unhealthy to a healthy church.
A small side note, we have not had a senior minister in over 5 years, we have finally found one after one Intentional Interim for 3.5 years and an Interim whom held the fort until we found one. I am very excited we finally found something stable. Anyway.
The things you talked about: churches not having a mission and that the church may close were all things we were saying. But the funny thing is, I think it is a healthy thing that they realize that. If my church had not began realizing this, they would have sat in their usual pew spot filled with thoughts of security, when in fact our church was something of the opposite. My church for over four years has had no mission. It has been something that has frustrated me for long, while the leadership fully recognizes it, members are just starting to understand that. Its a slow process, but a process none the less.
Thankfully, it sounds like you have a regional leader whom wants to reignite that hope again. From what I am understanding, this rhetoric has been happening for some time? Being stuck in that, "everything sucks" mode for an extended amount of time with no actions to rekindle the fire in it's churches seems unhealthy. Its frustrating too I know.
Transformation was a big focus of 2007 General Assembly, where the planning team brought in Alan Roxburg to speak and lead a workshop. Alan even came to Michigan a couple times, while I was not able to see him, our leaders seemed to be filled with hope and ready to transform their respective churches after experiencing Alan's workshop. Not to mention our interim minister was one of the key people whom brought Alan to Michigan in the first place. Needless to say, transformation is a tough and long process. But fortunately after years of disappointment in my church's rhetoric, I'm finally becoming hopeful again. And i'm sure it will be rekindled in your church. Let your hopeful leaders know you too have the hope and i'm sure it will further energize the movement.
With Peace,
AG Woods