The battle that rages around us is subterranean. I am thinking of the cultural war that so many Christians and pastors are involved in fighting. The left is fighting the right and the right is fighting the left. Various groups involved in this battle could be enumerated ad infinitum. The point is that the we don’t know what time it is and we are having a very hard time thinking like missionaries in our own backyard. It is easy to say that we need to change while holding on to Jesus Christ, our sacred texts and creeds. But doing this is another thing.
Churches, especially those in small communities are extremely resistant to change. Perhaps this is why Paul went to the urban centers of the ancient world because they were more receptive to change and new idea. But around me as I serve in Siskiyou County my beloved “red neck” State of Jefferson the cultural currents are deep. Rural economics are driven by a tourist market and a need to survive. Yet the “good old boys” of these communities are holding on to the good old days of their small towns even though they are long gone. Global warming, gas prices, same sex unions and economic change are not unfamiliar topics to even the long term rancher and logger. In fact you often find that those closest to working the earth and most in touch with the needs of our globe. Ranchers and farmer are very in tune with the economic global make up that is driven by Bangkok, Dubai and China.
Being a pastor among other pastors I find that many of us are angry at the world. The energy is wasted however because that same world ignores us completely. They don’t care about our pronouncements and don’t even know where our churches are located in most instances unless there is a death and that is becoming more the exception than the rule. But we are being called by God to serve as Christ’s hands, mouth, feet and body to this generation. The boomers are disappearing from our midst and the following generations are all but gone.
We can’t continue to do church as we have. PowerPoint and contemporary music aren’t enough. That was an eighties thing but today we need to meet and serve people where they are but we are all but cut off. The anger only exasperates the problem.
So I study the scriptures looking for missional themes and counterculture threads. I pray all too little and suffer from weak faith. I have been thinking and praying the scriptures. One of the clear things that is needed is a faith that is lived. This is one of those chicken and the egg things. We need communities that natural missional Christian and we need missional Christians to spark missional engagement. But we have to remember the “God thing”. God, this is your Church, your time and so I read and pray. I am like Mary pregnant with your word. I hope for a real birth not a still birth. Make me large with Jesus, O God. I am challenged to be like Joseph who dreamed while listening. Let your words saturate my life so that I dream, dreams after God and his kingdom. When God sends his messenger to me like he did to Joseph let me be as faithful to make room for Jesus and to honor his presence.
So I am thinking that we need to begin on a radically Christ-centered foundation. Only the Spirit can show us what God is doing in our churches and communities. I am committing myself to pray and listen. God remove the anger I see in myself and in other pastors so that we overflow with the love of Jesus. Then maybe we can show Jesus to the world again.
Blessings, Jim
