Let me just say at the outset that, had it not been for Literature and a truly grace-filled teacher, 10th-grade English and I were bound together on a one-way monorail ride into the Waste Lands. I still get anxious just thinking about sentence diagrams, and don't even get me started about past-participles! But, I made it and do you want to know something? That dear lady told me not too long ago that she thought all that diagraming wasn't really necessary after all! Free at last, free at last, thank Webster almighty I'm free at last!
But, I digress, and I can hear you saying 'get to the point.' So, I will!
Three books among the stack that I am currently reading (or re-reading) have really set my brain abuzz: 'The Eight Blessings, Rediscovering the Beatitudes,' by Shane Stanford; 'Change the World, Recovering the Message and Mission of Jesus,' by Mike Slaughter; and, 'John Wesley's Message Today,' by Lovett Weems, Jr.
Mike Slaughter says, "Our faith practice has...become a distortion of Jesus' gospel of the kingdom of God. We often embrace a disembodied "saved for heaven" theology. We have overemphasized getting people into heaven to the neglect of getting heaven into earth." Wow!
In 96 short pages Lovett Weems' little book deftly mines the nuggets of Wesley's theology and provides useful support for Jim Walker's thoughts in his book "Dirty Word" where he says the United Methodist Church is "perfectly positioned with a very relevant theology and message, but with a missiology that is...frozen in time." And then, as I re-read Shane's comments on the Beatitudes, I was struck by his thoughts on "significance" as he analyzed Jesus' words, "blessed are the meek."
All of this found itself in the blender that functions as my brain these days and, when combined with some extra ingredients from the UMC Re-Think Church campaign (http://www.rethinkchurch.org/ ), made me sit up and ask if 'the church' is salvageable? Are we (not just the United Methodist Church) on a steady downhill path to stagnation and death? Have I signed on to be part of the crew of a sinking ship?
I think the answer is yes, the church is salvageable. But, there are significant challenges ahead. As Rev. Ken Carter puts it in his blog (kenatprovidence.blogspot.com) "...increased social mobility and dislocation; the explosion of sports cultures that have become normative for many young people and their families on weekends; a lower birth rate among Caucasian families and as yet unwillingness to assimiliate immigrant families into our mission.", are but a few of the factors we have yet to come to terms with.
But, you know what? Solving this may be as simple as understanding the difference between a noun and a verb, between Effect and Affect. If the church continues its present ways the effect will be further decline. If the church will positively affect the community growth is the likely result. Watch this video and then start thinking of ways you can "become a verb" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uydwJpSHx4 )
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Or, as you would find it in literature, "To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." (Oliver Wendell Holmes)
Be a Verb!
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