Here we sit.
Eyes looking down.
I glance around the room and I see worry, I see questions.
How did this happen?
How did we fall this far?
What do we do?
One voice says "cancel our second service", another says "the people look like zombies in our service".
The joy is gone.
The money is running out.
Another voice, "we have no twenty year olds", yet another "were not growing, in fact were shrinking".
Ah the good old days, plenty of money and plenty of people, good people, nice people. Everything we did turned to gold, if we wanted it, we bought it.
It seems that we didn't even have to work for it, everything just fell into our laps.
The services now seem cold, the people now have grown older.
What happened?!?
Here we sit.
At the crossroads of our church.
The choice is simple.
Continue the same way, and surely the results will be the same. The path that leads to irrelevance, leads to death.
Change what we do?
Can we do that?
And what do we change?
The questions far out weigh the answers it seems.
And God seems so far off.
And what do I do?
What can I say?
It frustrates me, makes me angry.
I don't have the answers.
I could say simple things like, "go contemporary, love people, be friendly".
But I know the core issue is comfort.
Down deep, really deep, our people are comfortable.
They like it when they know everyone, they know when we will end the service so they can make it to the diner.
They know they have fulfilled their Christian duty by being in church. They've done just exactly what they think Christians should do.
Nothing less, nothing more.
How do you fix that?
And do they really want to fix it?
Here we sit.
At the crossroads of our church.
We look at the road on the left.
It's smooth, nice, and there is lots of pretty things to look at. It will continue until there is nobody left to travel the road.
I look at the road on the right.
It's rough, uncertain, scary. To travel it means saying goodbye to comfort, to thinking only of ourselves, and goodbye to feeling safe. And it may be the only way we survive as a relevant, healthy and growing Christian organism.
Here we sit.
At the crossroads of our church.
And I'm afraid the road on the left may be our choice.
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1 comment:
Two thoughts: 1) Thank God you see the crossroads. Many people won't even realize the point they've reached. Their comfort blinds them to this truth. Make some noise to some of your closest allies, the ones who will hear and see.
2) As a leader of the Jr./Sr. High you have an opportunity to affect the future. Many of them will choose to discontinue their church "careers" if and when they can. Get them plugged in now. Organize community outreaches through the youth. Mow for the elderly, paint some fences, deliver food to the needy -- whatever it takes to show the youth that being the church means more than Sunday morning. And take some of the blinded church leaders with you.
With God, there is always hope. But sometimes people need "hit up the side their head with a 2x4" (I thank my dad for that quote). You may have to go through tough times for some to wake up. Or wander in the wilderness while a generation fades away (let's pray not!). But you can't wait -- swim upstream, hold on to the vision, carry the light, whatever metaphor works!
You know we'll be praying.
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