I was reading an article last week that said the Bay Area is one of the largest “post-Christian” communities in the United States, with the lowest worship/church attendance among the population. Granted, this is not isolated to Christian communities; other faith traditions are seeing declines as jobs and other things begin to take priority. On one hand, you cannot blame this community. While churches are fighting hard to be what they were, society has moved on to new realities and struggles. So you can understand why many millennials ask if the church is even relevant today. 

Not many people would take that statement and attack it, speaking of the many ways in which the church is, in fact, relevant.  But that would miss the point and further the divide, because the truth in that statement is not based on fact or even opinion.  It expresses an emotion and a feeling, and therefore, it is true. The only way to address it is to stop and listen to what is going on in our world, and look for new ways to engage the world around us. This is not something that is easy or comfortable.

Every church can grow, but there is a sacrifice that needs to be given. That sacrifice is often what we want vs. what God wants from us.  About three years ago, our session made this choice. It was a very difficult move to make, and upset some, but the call to follow allowed us to ask some really deep questions and look hard into our community.

Among the first things we did was letting go of what we know “to be right” and, more importantly, letting go of the power of the past.  Things change, and change is hard, because what worked at one point in history rarely works the same way again, since all of the things that made it work the first time are often not in place for the next.

So by listening to the needs of those outside the church, we can take the knowledge of the past, but find new and creative ways to implement this to meet the needs of our community. It is like this: in the ’50s and ’60s, churches tended to grow because of the fellowship. Even in the growth of the evangelism movements in the ’70s and ’80s, the point of entry was not to seek faith as much as it was to join fellowship activities. You would invite someone to an event, and over time, they would come to church. While that still works, the bigger draw for folks now is spiritual development. 

This is the issue that we have been focused on over the last three years as a session, and as a congregation: trying to distinguish what we want from what God wants from us. How do we make sure that we are focused on developing a deeper spiritual commitment among people in an overextended, burnt-out culture? This is one of the great difficulties in evangelism!

Reaching the emerging community we live in is something we are working on with Revive, and even during Sunday worship.  We have to remember that the generation that is present in our culture cannot come back to church, because they were not part of it in the first place.  This drastically changes the ways in which we approach and evangelize them, and it creates new struggles of overcoming the stereotypes so that we can reach this new population.

We must remember the community and their needs so we can be faithful to the message of Christ.  Personally, the best ending of any book, movie, story, or song I have seen or will ever see is the ending of the Gospel according to Matthew.   This calls the reader to task.  The New Revised Standard Version reads: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

It does not sum up the gospel, but gives us a call to action. “GO. You heard the story, you know who I am, and now it is your job to do what you need to do to let others know of my story, knowing that it is I who will be working through you!”  Thus, the responsibility of evangelism is a dual one, requiring action both on God’s part and ours.  We have to go out and find ways to attract people to the message of God, and moreover, we have the responsibility to spread this message.

This Sunday, as we welcome four new members and have one baptism, we can continue to celebrate our embrace of the sacrifice of turning from what we want to what God wants from us.

The roof of the modern 1960s A-frame church where I was baptized looked like Dopey’s ears coming down to the ground.  One Sunday I remember being startled by what sounded like a heavy rain, which was strange, since the weather outside was perfect.   After more pounding and shuffling, the gathered congregation soon realized that something was amiss, and my mother and father gave each other that look, followed by my father’s quick exit from the sanctuary.  The noise was my brothers and their friend playing tag, or something like that, on the roof! Granted, I was too small at the time to join in, but that was a good thing, since I was spared the punishment that was to come.

Worship in our family was something we did.  It came first, and if we were to miss a week, we needed a good excuse.  As a child, this was a good thing, because it instilled the importance of the church community and created a focus for my life.  That being said, worship is one of those things that I find incredibly important, yet incredibly frustrating at times. 

It is a constant struggle in almost every church to make worship inviting to children, and sometimes adults.   As a child, I rarely related to the sermon, and the bulletin served two functions: a check list marking down how long it was until the service was over, and a doodle pad.  Through college, I still went to church, even during the two years before I started to work for one.  Somewhere inside of me, I knew that worship was and is a central part of life, but it was hard at times to make it click.  Then I was given the opportunity to preach, and my worshipping world changed forever.

I often joke that I had to become a pastor because I could never sit through a worship service.   Having preached through the lectionary so many times and having planned thousands of worship services, I have come to realize that my experience of God has a lot to do with my active participation in worship, especially in preaching.

However, as a pastor I am constantly concerned with how worshipful worship actually is to those who are gathered.  Is the time a sacred time?  Is it a time where people are meeting or seeing God?  Is it time were people are having a spiritual experience? 

Yes, it is good to experience God in worship through sitting in the service, listening to my sermons, but I often wonder if that really holds up to the test of worship. Are we building up the body if our focus is merely on the word received? In Ephesians 4:11-12, Paul writes:

“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”

For me, worship is the place where I commune with God as I am actively participating in worship through the sermon.  But worship is also happening as I experience other faithful people.  So I wonder what difference it would make to have more people involved in worship.  How might we better equip our small body to be stronger in faith by members standing up and sharing their faith?  How different would it be if members wrote their stories for the newsletter? Most importantly, how might we engage others to grow in their faith, making worship more meaningful?  Let’s spend time this summer exploring ways to make faith a priority, and ask how church can be a central tool for that to happen.