Changing Seasons

For everything  there is a season, and a time for every  matter under heaven.  Ecclesiastes 3:1

   Can you feel the seasons changing?  The weather has gotten colder; frost has greeted us on recent mornings.  Most of us are ready to turn up the thermostat and to put warmer blankets on our beds.  We've put the gardens to bed, and are rushing to get the harvest out of the fields.  Change is in the air.

   Can you feel the season of change in our churches?  It is becoming harder to attract and retain new members.  Fewer folks are able to help out with the church activities and annual dinners; and  more people chose the drive through at the dinner than came inside to fellowship while they eat that delicious meal.  There are more people shopping at the mall on Sunday morning than attending a church service. And, over 65% of US Americans under the age of 30 have no church affiliation.  Change is in the air. 

   Adapting to change is not always easy.  Most of us would prefer to remain within our comfort zones.  When the whole world is changing rapidly around us, it would be so nice if church was the one place that stayed the same, wouldn't it?

   While that sounds like something we'd like, the long term implications would threaten the existence of the Church.  What worked well in the world of 1860 or 1960 are not always efficient or appropriate today.  Can you imagine what things would be like if we still spoke the German of our ancestors in a culture that speaks English?  Or a sanctuary with the hard pews and no heat or air conditioning?  In a culture that drives, depends upon the internet and electronic media, we would be ill advised to expect our members  find the church by walking the streets of town, to arrive to worship via horse and carriage, use stencil-printed bulletins and respond to news sent via the Pony Express.  While "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8), the means by which we acquire knowledge of Christ has changed significantly from word of mouth to papyrus to printed pages to pixels on a screen. And, the world into which Christ's message is proclaimed has changed significantly in 2000 years!

   In the midst of change, we too must change to remain relevant to the world to which God calls us to bring the Word.  We must change or we cease to be faithful members of the Body of Christ. First, we must continually learn and grow in our knowledge and in Spirit.  A disciple of Jesus Christ should not be stagnant in their faith but should be in constant motion!  Scripture reminds us that  "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." (Cor.15:51)

   We must change how we "do church."  Diana Butler Bass makes a distinction between the spiritual and the religious; the implication of "religion" is the institutional church, the form and practices of congregations including the traditions and methodologies of worship, Sunday School, and fellowship.  "Spiritual", on the other hand, confers the relationship of a person to the heart of God, the ways in which God's light shines through an individual or community; it's about relationships both vertical and horizontal.  Younger generations claim to be "spiritual but not religious." They relate to the substance and heart of faith, but not the institution or form of the Church.  In the Preamble to the Constitution of the United Church of Christ, we affirm "the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this faith its own in reality of worship, in honesty of thought and expression, and in purity of heart before God." It is part of our organizational DNA to be about change so that the Body of Christ can and will relate to each new generation.  We must change or we will be responsible for the death of this Body!

   The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that even in the midst of change, God's plan is being fulfilled.  "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."  (Jer. 29:11)  This is Good News!  It's more than pocket change; it is change we bank our future upon.  We have not only the interest but the promise and commitment of God to see us through it.