The church in North America, as we know it, is currently involved in a major transition. For the past two or three decades we have believed that we were still at the center of life for most people. That wasn't true, but we preferred to believe it was. As a result of our confusion, we were surprised that our numbers were decreasing as well as our impact on society. Many were challenging our mistaken beliefs by pointing out that the traditional church was dying, but many of us refused to listen. Our refusal to listen has resulted in approximately 100 churches in the US closing its doors every week.
We failed to recognize that God was calling His church to once again become missionaries into its community. America is no longer a Christian nation, if it ever was. We are a rapidly emerging pagan society (my favorite way of looking at our nation today) that desperately needs missionaries to proclaim the eternal gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that connects with our current generation.
This will require that we explore new ways of understanding the life of the church in today's postmodern world. We can no longer hide behind the walls of our "sanctuaries" singing our hymns and praying the same prayers we have prayed for years and believing we are doing the work of the Kingdom. I am convinced that in 2024 God is calling His church to become missionaries to the communities in which it serves. This means that today's church must reinvent itself.
First, we must stop thinking of ourselves as simply churches that gather once a week, listen to a sermon, sing a few songs and return home inspired to eat lunch. Churches today must begin to see themselves as mission stations placed in the midst of this rapidly emerging pagan society to proclaim the saving message of Jesus Christ. Likewise, church members can no longer be content to view themselves as just members of a church but to recognize that God has called them to be missionaries in their community. God has given them spiritual gifts that are to be used to minister to others, and every member of every church must begin to use those gifts as missionaries.
Secondly, we must recognize that the culture we are called to reach is often much different than the one in which we were raised. The music is different, the worldview is different, the beliefs about truth and morality are different, the way they pursue spirituality is different. We can complain about these differences or we can adjust how we minister to this younger generation in a way that recognizes these differences.
Throughout church history the music has undergone many changes. Most traditional churches that sing from their hymnbooks fail to recognize that some of those songs were quite controversial when they first appeared. Many traditional churches today want to protect traditional hymns from being replaced by more contemporary music and fail to realize that these traditional hymns were once viewed as a scandalous attempt to replace "true" Christian worship. That fact is that there are many great worship songs today that will speak much more to today's culture than the ones written in the 1800s found in our hymn books.
Any time a missionary enters a new mission field, he or she must adapt themselves to that culture. That is not compromise; it is a simple acceptance that they have entered a new culture. They must learn to eat new food, listen to the music preferences of the people, learn new languages, identify the cultural practices of the people and learn how to best present the Gospel to this mission field in light of what they have learned.
The church in North American can do no less if we are to be faithful to our calling to reach this current generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment