When Changing the Church…
Lately, I’ve sensed and heard a lot of healthy spiritual unrest and dissatisfaction among twenty-somethings. So much of this restlessness is coming from people who have been around churches for a while and a good deal of their frustration is focused on church as an institution or organization. There seems to be a growing perception of inconsistency between the timeless, Jesus-spoken mission of the Church and the established mindsets and patterns that are distracting churches from that mission. It is creating a vacuum and a quest for a purer, simpler, more original expression of Christian life for the young community of believers.
I encourage this quest, and I think it is our hope for the future Church. If you are an individual, or are part of a group, who is on this quest, please don’t give it up. If you have this burning gut- ache that begs to get back to the heart of Christ and His mission for His people, I want to cheer you on. This sense of holy impatience and anticipation is what revivals are made of. The Church is called to constantly pursue purity and refinement. Please keep these things in mind, as you are a part of this Movement:
Nobody’s perfect, so no body’s perfect
We can’t let this be a cop-out, but we have to know it’s a reality. Whenever two or more gather together in His name, there is imperfection. Our hearts have a built-in desire for the paradise that we were made for and that’s what we groan for deep inside. We’re looking to church as a place to experience this paradise, but it won’t be found in any group of people. Nor will it be totally experienced here in the current chapter of our spiritual lives. We always have to hope for and strive for the best as a body, but we can’t expect total satisfaction…for now.
Prayer is vital
Prayer is simply getting in synch with God. If we want to be personally in line and in relationship with Him we have to pray individually. Better yet, if we want to know God’s will for the church as a body, we need to pray as a community…together…often. If we want to know what God wants, we need to get past our awkwardness about prayer and come together and converse with Him, expecting that He will answer. When He answers, the more of us that are there to hear him together, the more we’ll be on the same page together. Then we will be unified and less involved in convincing others that what we heard from God is for real. There isn’t clearer instruction in the Bible than to pray together, and yet we are doing poorly. Movement together toward revival and refinement probably won’t happen without it. It’s God’s job to transform our minds together. It’s our job to respond together.
The Bible should be the filter
A lot of whacky things have been dreamed up and done in the name of God. Many of them are in practice in the modern church because we’ve haven’t learned how to part with the things that were never meant to be sacred. We all probably have a list of things in mind that have become like a bunch of red tape wrapped around Jesus, and it’s stuck. We know that it shouldn’t be there, but we fear removing it. There are other things that are so obviously missing from our communities – we see them directly addressed in the Bible – but we are afraid to suggest them because people “in charge” seem to be fine without them. When it comes to pursuing a pure expression of the Body of Christ, we have to have the guts to let the Bible be the filter – not the “owner’s manual” (barf) – but the filter. We have to have the courage to blow things up that are distractions from authentic Christian community and we have to have the nerve to pursue things that are sacred to God. An honest look at the Bible will point things out, but we are keepers of those things, for the most part.
The fruit of the spirit matters
We can’t really influence anyone deeply if they don’t know we love, like and respect them. When it comes to communicating our criticisms and suggestions for the Church, it has to be wrapped in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Mean-spirited, judgmental, condescending people usually only meet resistance and defensiveness. Our message will be heard best when it is comes in the form of a respectful conversation with people who know our hearts and who know we like them and are committed to them. If we want to have influence, it needs to ride in on the profound humility and selflessness that Jesus showed.
There will be friction
When Jesus talked about old wineskins and new wine not being compatible, he wasn’t just spouting a clever analogy. His metaphor is meant to point out a practical reality and to serve as a heads-up to anyone who has enough guts to call people back to God. Pollster George Barna has predicted that young adults will imagine and introduce all kinds of new and relevant expressions of faith into the church. AND, he predicts that as that happens, it will cause even more friction and distance between the older generations and this new one. The current generation of twenty-somethings are foreigners to the established world. Your mindset, needs, orientation, and ways of expression aren’t just a product of your stage in life. The world that birthed you had a cultural earthquake and you ended up a refuge in someone else’s world. People of previous generations don’t think like you and don’t know how to take you. Honestly, they aren’t quite sure what to do with you. And yet, there is great hope in this generation. This age has been compared culturally to the time right after Jesus ascended, when people were ripe to hear the untainted Good News. Your generation, with your questioning, and scaling down, and sobering up is poised to be bearers of that untainted Good News. But there will be trouble as older generations will not comprehend your ways and will often take your call for change personally. Just realize that this is part of the mission field you’ve been dropped in, and realize that other generations are not your enemy, but you may frustrate one another.
This means you
If God has placed a spiritual uneasiness inside of you that makes you feel like something just isn’t right when you encounter church, He has issued a personal call to you. He has not called you to complain, snipe, or cherry-pick. He has not called you to dropout or give-up. He has called you to jump into the current of the historic stream of believers who have given themselves for the Gospel. The first bend in this river might be to help nurture the Church back to relevance and purpose, but it is headed out to the sea of people in this world awaiting the love and grace of believers who have been invited to help change, renew and save them. God will empower you and equip you for this role, but He will not force you into it. Participation in this change is voluntary. You can sit out, but you shouldn’t and you won’t want to. BUT…God leaves it up to you to jump in. He won’t push you or pull you in. I hope you’re ready to jump together!
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AMEN BROTHER!!!!
I agree full heartedly! I could not have said it better myself! I am excited when so many young people are at this stage. That can only mean something BIG is about to happen and I am ready to JUMP in to encourage,cheer on,and even be apart of this new and EXCITING time. I am here to serve Ashland how ever GOD calls me to serve.
Jenn (previous comment) and I are about the same age (let’s call it 39+). Doug (author of this blog), you’re what — 50?
I had a conversation about this same issue with our senior pastor (who’s even older than I am) this morning. And at this week’s conference, many voices of various ages echoed this same unrest. So… I think it’s safe to say that, although this holy discontent may be more prevalent among 20-somethings, it definitely doesn’t stop there. The 20-somethings may be bolder and more outspoken… but it’s time for the rest of us to join them and, together, step outward and forward in faith. We all know it’s the right thing to do.
Ummmm…50? that’s within a decade of being right. So funny…
Our church has been praying for a “Deep Change of Heart”. I have a sense that our prayer is being answered and a symptom is this spiritual unrest. I think that the question our church should ponder is not how to bring about a deep change of heart, but how to move with the change of heart that God has already begun. It is also my opinion that it is time to bring twenty-somethings into an “official” conversation about the direction of our church.
Admin (is that you, Doug?) is right on track, I believe. God has definitely been stirring hearts and the unrest I feel is an answer to a long and often uttered prayer that God would draw me to Himself. I’m excited by what I sense is happening!
You are wonderfully insightful in what you’ve written.
I’m even older, but I’m restless too. While this restlessness may be more pronounced among twenty-somethings, I think the Holy Spirit is placing it in the heart of everyone who is no longer content with just doing church. Instead, they want to be the church, the body of Jesus, his hands and feet, sharing his love and grace, treating all people as he treated them.
To do this, much of the institutional church will need to deconstruct–not just its structures but its people’s values, attitudes and behaviors. To do so, we’ll need the discernment of the Holy Spirit so as not to throw out the baby with the bath water. In some instances, the new wine will be in old wineskins. When the old wineskins burst, I hope that the new wine that burst them won’t be lost. In other instances, there will be new wineskins for the new wine.
Thank you, Pastor Arden. It’s good to hear that the restlessness and pursuit of the authentic Christian life isn’t something we are destined to “grow-out-of”. I know that many of us share the pursuit. I’m glad that you we share it with you. I think that the real challenge with all of this is actually taking a step into the deconstruction process. Churches are inclined to add programs and activities because the process of adding is seen as constructive and affirming and progressive. We’ve shied away from deconstruction because it might give the impression that we had a bad idea, or that something good has run its course. Plus, people, for the most part, prefer the familiar. Deconstructing means that the familiar is pulled out from under us. Even if it is good for us and the Kingdom, we resist it and react against it. It would be interesting to start with one thing. What would be one thing that we could responsibly deconstruct that would put us on a truer path? Let’s tear away one thing and see where it leads.