A New Church for the 21st Century- A Need for Clarity

OK.  Enough lamenting about the fact that some churches are going the way of Circuit City.   Enough lamenting the masses who have left.  We all know some churches are out of touch and some haven’t a clue.  What would a thriving church in the 21st century look like?  What kind of congregation will move forward with faith not fear, courageous not cowardly, wonder not worry?  Let me share with you in a series of blogs the kind of church I believe has a future and will be a part of the future.

This brave new church facing a brave new world doesn’t have to be conservative, moderate, or liberal.  I believe churches of all theological stripes have a future if certain realities are in place.

First in this blog I would want to address one key area- clarity.

A church of the 21st century simply must know who it is.  It must have a clear vision of its identity, mission, and purpose.  A church that tries to be all things to all people or flip flop will not make it.

What do I mean?

Many churches don’t know who they are.  They have an identity crisis.  They have a denominational name on their sign but that only vaguely describes what is really going on.

I read about a church that was without a pastor.  They went two years looking and in that time simply forgot to have communion.  Without a pastor to remind them they did not schedule any communion services.  No Lord’s Supper for two years.  And no one mentioned it.  It never came up.  Not once.  It simply didn’t even occur to anyone attending that this 2000 year old practice was abandoned.  Then one day someone took the American flag out of the sanctuary and immediately people exploded in emotion of anger and shock.

Now.  The point is that however you feel about church sanctuaries putting flags in their sacred space (and this is an issue many Christian disagree upon) this raised more emotion than not having the cup and bread that is one of the key acts of worship shows that this particular church was not clear on what it means to be church.

I would argue that clarity of identity is crucial and is found in two areas. We need a universal clarity and a particular clarity for each church.

Universal clarity. We need to  have a clear understanding that we are a Christian church in the broad sense.  We need to know the overall history and story of our faith and to understand that as a church we are not just an organization.  We need to really grasp that the sacred and secular are in relationship but that we do not need to take our marching orders from society.  Many churches are trying to shape themselves based on corporate America or the consumer culture.  Most churches do not know their Scriptures or story.   The broad pieces that make us a Christian church need to be understood.

Particular clarity. Having said that all faith traditions in the Christian church do not see things the same way.  UMC, Baptists, Anglicans, etc need to understand what that means and why.  We also need to understand who we are a particular church.  My church is not the same as Willow Creek or any other mega church or even the local church down the street.  We need to know who we are and be clear about that.  We shouldn’t say we are one thing but yet be another.

Lots of churches are grabbing onto the latest and greatest crazy and trying anything to grow.  Most pastors will not have best selling books and most churches will not be household names.  And each church is unique and not a clone of another.  We need to figure out who we are and why we are and what we are and go be that.

So if you are a conservative Methodist church in a particular community made up of blue collar workers then be true to who you are in all those ways.  Be true to your Methodist heritage and story.  If conservative then be open about that and honest.  If you are mostly a blue collar church that’s cool.  Be that.

If you are a moderate Baptist church in a college town with white collar faces then be that.  If you are a more liberal Presbyterian church in a mixed racial community then be that.  And so on and so on.

I’m not saying we have a sign at the door that says you must be this or that to come inside.  Diversity is good.  Not everyone will think or act alike and most churches will have a variety of cultures within.  But a church has a personality and a community does too.  As much as we exegete our scriptures we should exegete our communities.  If someone serves a church in a retirement community then it probably will not have the same youth program as a church in a community made up of young families.  If a church is 200 miles from a college it probably will not have a thriving college ministry.  That doesn’t mean that in each of those churches youth can’t go to heavily senior adult churches and college students can’t go to a church far from a college.  Not at all but don’t have unreal expectations.  On the same note if a church is trying to be the same church it was in the 50s but the community has changed it needs to be realistic to the new community in which is resides.

Theologically we need to welcome those who differ but we can’t just be one thing one day and the other the next.  We can be honest with new folks that we are a church with a Reformed tradition or Pentecostal and not be ashamed of that.  Just be who you are.  If a church welcomes women in ministry and a person disagrees with that opinion but comes they aren’t asked to leave but they need to know the church they are joining.  If a person is charismatic and the church she visits is Baptist and isn’t charismatic the church needs to be honest about who they are.

I believe in the 21st century we need to be clear about who we are and what we believe.

More next blog.

Blessings,

Derik