"How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’"
Isaiah 52:7
I know I am not alone in getting geekily excited when I hear our doorbell ring in the middle of the day. Usually, that means...our Amazon order is here!
It's interesting how different of a world we live in now that online shopping is so prevalent. Just about anything you can imagine, and can afford, can come right to your door within a day or two. I am by no means a compulsive shopper--in fact, I may have set one or two speed records shopping for jeans at Target--but still, when a truck pulls up in front of our door, and someone walks up to our door with a package, it's always a bit of a thrill. And this gets me thinking about Church...stay with me...
Ever since America's early days, the Church--not just the Lutherans or the Protestants, but the universal church--has had to be constantly reinventing itself. For the first time in over a thousand years, the Church had no state authority. Churches had to find their own ways of supporting themselves and growing, rather than relying on tax money. And at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we're realizing we also have less and less cultural authority: fewer and fewer people in our country are identifying themselves as Christians, and fewer and fewer are attending church or supporting a church out of a sense of obligation.
In a way, this is a very special time. It means those who are active in church, are here because they actually feel called to be here! But clearly, it's also a time for the Church in America to be reinventing itself, as it has done in the past.
The temptation, of course, is to compare the Church to something else we have seen as "successful", and try to model ourselves after that. The one I've heard most often is "a business." I'm not hugely fond of that analogy, but I will admit it may work, as long as we understand what "part" of the business we are working on.
The first and most grievous mistake, I think, is to think of ourselves as "customers." If we go this route, the Church exists to serve our own individual needs. We will find the church that has the best programs, the coolest music, the biggest youth group, the fanciest building, and "consume" these products, until something better comes along, and just as we stop shopping at Giant when a Wegman's comes to town, off we go to another church. I don't need to tell you: this is not what Jesus intended for his movement of followers. Jesus says, "whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve" (Mark 10:43-44). Church is not a product we consume. It's not entertainment. It's a movement we are a part of, and we are at our best when we are serving.
Okay, so maybe Church is more like a factory. We come together, and craft the best, most effective message to attract people to our movement. We use our God-given creativity to come up with compelling, relevant programs so that Church feels like exactly what our target demographic wants. We do market research, we figure out what people most want, and we become that. Whatever size, shape, and color you like, we're it. Except...we're not responsible for "making" anything hat pertains to the Church. In fact, what we have to share--the Good News of Jesus Christ--is going to sound pretty ridiculous to some. Paul writes, "the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18). Why would anyone worship as God and King, man who died in such a humiliating way?
...So, of course, we're the sales team, right? If this is what God gives us to work with, at least we spin it in a way that seems like what a normal, reasonable, patriotic, upstanding American would want, right? We've got to pretty it up, add some special effects, turn it into a multi-media experience, get it ready for theatrical release, and let everybody know that this is the God they've always wanted, right?
Well, the thing is, Jesus didn't say "go out and market my message to as many customers as you can find." He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). Disciples are not customers. Disciples are students of Jesus, who want to make their lives look more like his. This does not require sales. It's the Holy Spirit's job to inspire faith in our hearts when we hear the gospel. Even though it's rarely what we want to hear, we simply can not do anything to save ourselves: God has already done everything, on the cross. And it's the Holy Spirit's job to take that faith, and transform it into lives of service to others.
So what are we doing here? What's left?
...I'm so glad you asked. I think if we're going to stick with the analogy of "Church as a business," my best approximation of what we do relates back to the beginning of this post...we're the delivery trucks. We're not buying, making, marketing or selling this lovely brown box God has given us. We are just responsible for showing up at the world's doorstep, ringing the bell, and handing them what God has already bought for them: the free gift of God's grace and unconditional love, through Jesus Christ. Of course, showing up at the world's doorstep is always tricky, because it means we have to actually go there, rather than expect the world to pick up its package at our "worship warehouse". It means we have to navigate changing roads, and find our way around new obstacles every day. We will inevitably have to "tune up" our trucks, so we know they can get where God needs them to go. But it also means we get to be there for a very special moment, time after time: the moment when someone opens their door and discovers they are about to receive something they didn't order, nor could they ever afford, but which will save their life, and change the world.
Pretty cool job, if you ask me.
I invite your prayers for our church council this evening, and for our congregation in the coming weeks, as we discern a visioning process: as we "tune up" the delivery truck that is our congregation, and figure out how best to make our deliveries in this community. I think this route will be full of surprises from the Holy Spirit.
