Another year has passed--2008 has arrived! As I said in my Christmas letter, I did a lot of traveling last year--but not only physically. My thinking and perspectives went traveling too, especially in regard to what it means to be the Church today and the implications of all this in the coming years. I was challenged in wonderful, stretching ways to take an honest, clear look at how I have been ministering these past 27 years, how Hilmar Covenant has ordered its congregational life, how evangelicalism has understood itself, and how radically different our environment--our culture--has really become in recent years. Unfortunately, those of us immersed in Church culture are unaware (or unwilling to accept) the sesmic changes that have gone on around us and many are uncomfortable with what we're being called to become and do if the Church is going to have any impact in people's lives.

In an addendum to my Christmas letter, I put together a kind of summary of the ways I have been transformed. I am going to post that summary here for anyone who would like to know my current perspective and passion regarding what it means to follow Jesus. Feel free to respond--in any way! I enjoy hearty, heartfelt dialogue, and I would love to hear other ideas, concerns, or criticisms of where I feel the Holy Spirit has been leading me. In true Covenant style, I believe we can agree to disagree! But even more, I would like to know if there are more of you out there wrestling with the same issues and realities that I am. Read on!
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From December 2007:

It’s clear that there are shifts and changes happening all around us--major ones, actually: the world, the diversity of culture, the way we live, the influence of technology, media, postmodern perspectives, etc., our values and priorities--the list goes on and on. However, I don’t think that those of us inside the Church are aware of how drastic these shifts and changes really are, or of their impact on the Church, even with the evidence that is right before our eyes: declining numbers, declining influence and relevance of the Church to many, negative views and attitudes about the Church/Christianity/Christians, increasing disinterest even from those raised in the Church--again, the list goes on. We see it here at HCC: in the dozens of inactive church members, the absence of 20-30 year olds, and the difficulty in getting people involved, to volunteer, and to serve in our many programs and ministries. Through my reading, reflection, and conversations with people, a number of interesting things have emerged. For many professing Christians, they are not against Jesus, or spiritual matters, or even trying to live out their faith. They are just tired of the way Church “is;” of certain traditions, attitudes, expectations, assumptions, activities, and so forth. The Church seems too irrelevant, unappealing, disconnected from life, and downright boring to them. They don’t like the separation made between “Christian” and the rest of life. These people are ready to re-engage, but not in the customary framework, programs, schedules, and services that have characterized active, successful churches in the past. They want a more active, “in the world,” engaging faith that connects better to their everyday lives and relates to people where they live. They are not interested in trying to get these people into “Church,” into activities, or to make them fit into formulas and routines that we inside the Church feel are necessary to “be a Christian.” Much is being observed and written about this “attractional” approach to Church, which has been the accepted, normative way the Church has functioned and understood itself for several generations, at least. This must change, to an outward “incarnational” way of being the Church. We must get out there into the real world where real people are living their real lives--just as Jesus did--and connect with people right where they live; where they will see the reality of the gospel actually impacting regular everyday life. Otherwise the Church will continue to weaken and decline in the coming years. If we’re honest, I think we can see that the “attractional” mindset and approach is already failing in many ways. Check the participation and numbers of people involved in your own congregation’s programs. Also, the tendency to “reductionism” in Christianity must be repented of and changed. This appears in many guises: reducing salvation to “the four spiritual laws” and “the sinner’s prayer,” reducing evangelism to a program or committee in the Church and just getting people to heaven, reducing the “gospel/good news” to personal salvation and heavenly security when it is so much more than this--biblically and theologically, and reducing what it means to be spiritual to biblical knowledge, conservative principles, and being active inside the four walls of the Church.

It is clear, isn’t it? We must be different, and do things differently, if the Church is going to connect both with those who believe--but are disillusioned non-participants--and with those that live around us who have no interest in, awareness of, or exposure to what it means to love and follow Jesus. To continue doing and thinking in our same, familiar, comfortable ways and to stay in our “holy huddles” inside our church buildings, yet expecting things will change and that people will come and join us...hey! Isn’t this the definition of insanity? (Doing things the same way and expecting different results...) We need to hear Jesus again: “GO and make disciples!” Not “Come into our environment, routines, and activities that we find pleasant, meaningful, and familiar and become a disciple the way we think you should be.” Michael Frost, an Australian evangelist and researcher of church trends, declares that “our God is a sending God.” Therefore we must be sent as well, into the world, not try to bring the world into the Church. This is historical, biblical, incarnational. We need to go out, be seen, be in relationship with people, and be known as bearers of “good news” through service, care, acts of mercy and justice (which are “good news” in and of themselves), and build good will and respect so our “good news” can be easily heard, understood, and received by people unfamiliar with Jesus. In the words of St. Francis: “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.” This was God’s plan from the beginning, and it will serve us well again in our day. This will be the best way to re-engage disinterested believers and to reach our culture that has so many stereotypes and negative feelings and views about the Church, Christianity, etc.

All of this demands transition and even major reformation (where have we Protestants heard that term before!) for those of us who are immersed in Church culture. Some will deny this scenario, resist change, and refuse to even consider that maybe we evangelicals, especially, have taught and held certain positions that have truncated the gospel and needlessly kept people from hearing and responding to the gospel of Christ. We humans are so adverse to change! And the Church is, of course, US! Humans. No wonder the Church always seems to be behind the times, resistant to how things presently are, and slow to acknowledge what it must be and do in each generation. Personally, I find the future to be extremely exciting, radical, and transformative and very scary, messy, and disruptive for the Church in the U.S. The question is: will we adjust and become a meaningful, relevant, viable presence in our culture in the days ahead? We cannot do things the way we’ve always done them! If we insist on continuing down this road, the Church will continue to plummet in attendance, commitment, and relevance to our communities--and the world. So, how can we who are pastors, leaders, and Church advocates help our people let go of old patterns and more easily and joyfully embrace and move into something new, fresh, relevant, alive?

Perhaps what needs to happen is that all of us who call ourselves Christians must become “missionaries” to our own culture, if we are going to connect with the people around us and if Christianity is going to impact them at all. Missionaries know how to go into different cultures and learn everything possible about the people, customs, language, relationships, etc. so they can then make the gospel of Christ relevant to the people in that culture. To do this, missionaries have to be out with the people, living with them, eating their food, working with them, learning, relating, building trust--you get the picture. And isn’t this exactly what Jesus did as well? Isn’t this what the incarnation is all about? But is this characteristic of most churches? Unfortunately, most of us within the Church have no friendships with people who are not Christians. Some of us even try to stay away from non-believers! They might be a bad influence on us. And again, most of our energy and time goes into our church programs, ministries, and routines that we hope, or expect, will bring these people to us, where we are, in our holy huddles. Ten years ago, our conference superintendent, John Notehelfer, was advocating this “missionary” thing for all the Covenant churches in the Pacific Southwest Conference. He said that each congregation needed to see themselves as a “mission outpost.” I must admit I didn’t get it then--but I sure do now! John realized way back then how much things had changed in the world, and that churches needed to re-vision and re-tool for the reality of the changing world. Do you realize how very progressive missionaries are? How forward-looking, incarnational, creative, and risk-taking they are? They are way ahead of most of us in the American Church! It really does seem to me that the dynamics, skills, and lifestyle needed to be a missionary is what we Christians in America need to learn and become if we are going to deeply connect with our culture and make an impact on it for Christ in the years ahead.

Some of the books and articles I’ve read this year that have shaped my thinking and perspective are: “A New Kind Of Christian,” “Death Of the Church,” “The Dangerous Act Of Worship” (which is impacting a number of Covenant worship leaders across the country right now), “Mission Frontiers” and “Worship Leader” magazines, “The Continuing Conversion Of the Church,” and “The Shaping Of Things To Come.” A valuable website that is rich in materials and ideas is: www.missionalchurchnetwork.com. Important voices for an understanding of the Church moving out and becoming “missional” instead of self-focused include Michael Frost, Brian McLaren, Scot McKnight, Dan Kimball, Mark Labberton, Darrell Guder, and Reggie McNeal. Also, Judy Howard Peterson and Soong-Chan Rah from North Park University and Seminary were in Hilmar for spiritual life weekends this year and offered challenges and valuable information and perspectives that helped open my eyes to the realities facing the Church today. The insights I’ve received from all of these sources, as well as from conversations with people here in Hilmar and around the Covenant, have helped answer my questions, musings, and concerns about why our church has gotten the way it is, with slipping commitment, passive involvement, and lowering attendance at our Sunday services, weekly programs, and other activities.
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There you have it. Let me conclude though with the words of Jesus:
Matthew 28:19-20 - "Go and make disciples...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
John 20:21 - "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Ponder these instructions, and their implications for life and faith individually and in community, as a church of Jesus!

Shalom.