Last week at church, I preached a sermon about the Synagogue leader who scoffed at Jesus when He healed a woman on the Sabbath. The woman had been afflicted of an illness for several years, and Jesus felt that "breaking the rules" was necessary in order to do the right thing.
As I begin my preparations for another semester of seminary education (right on the heals of a long spring semester and 2 week intensive classes), I am taking a class taught by the famous Chuck Gutenson on Church Revival. The class is being taught per the mission of United Theological Seminary - "Spirit filled; renewing the Church"
I spent the last week earnestly reading Chuck's book called "Church worth getting up for." After reading the first chapter, I had to contemplate that concept - what makes for an engaged, enriching church experience that calls the people who I and my Pastor serve worth getting up for?
In the book Chuck discusses Rev Mike Slaughter's three-fold method to empower the church and make it "worth getting up for" - High permissions, high expectations, with permission to fail.
In order for us to have an impact to our church and the society which we serve, we need to make sure that we have high expectations of ourselves and others. This involves discipleship and service. We as church members and leaders need to show up, be present, and be available for ourselves our church, and our community. We need to fulfill our call to be one in our relationship with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world. That requires action and perseverance.
Next, we need to give ourselves and each other permission to do things unconventionally. I am still blown away that I had the opportunity to attend Jacob's Well church during my time between internships this summer. In all my years of attending church, I never attended a service at an indoor kids skatepark and trampoline. (FYI, I hear that they actually get on the trampoline from time to time).
Another example is City Square Church pastored by my good friends Rob Rynders and Brian Kemp-Schlemmer. They actually (gasp) hold a "Theology Pub" at a local bar to discuss spiritual matters once a month. While I personally have not attended (we live in the boonies aka Surprise, AZ), I have heard from friends that it is well attended and has great results.
These are just two of the many examples I have seen where society is being ministered to in ways that meet their needs. These are the dynamic changes which are necessary in order for us to be the hands and feet of Christ to the world.
Finally, we must all have permission to fail. This works in the corporate community. I work for a large financial organization and we have tried things that have not worked or have not been as fruitful as we would have liked. But the point is we tried. We stepped out of the box, did something, and learned from it. It is the holistic movement of growth that we as a church need. If we fail at something, we learn from it, adjust our approach and try again.
With this said, I don't believe that we need to stop what we are doing altogether. I am not advocating for a complete change of belief or practice, just our approach towards the goal of sharing the love that Christ has for us with each other and the world.
I love our Church, and am a loyal United Methodist. John Wesley attempted to approach things from a different angle. Now is our opportunity to follow the same approach.
No comments:
Post a Comment