Introduction
There is a truth the Church needs to hear. For years the Church has been telling itself a lie. For decades the Church has been telling itself that when its youth and young adults leave the church—for college and/or to begin life in the real world—they would one day come back—usually after getting married.
When that didn’t happen, the Church shifted to believing a return would happen when children were born. And yeah, some came back for dedications and baptisms, but the homecoming of a plethora of baby-toting families never quite materialized as expected.
So the Church edited the belief again, thinking next those who left would return once their children reached school age and signing up for activities began. The Church believed its children and youth ministries would make the list of prioritized pursuits. But that homecoming never quite materialized either. So then the Church believed those who left are just going to other churches—Mega Churches!
Well, surveys and church statistics, conducted and calculated by experts for years, consistently reveal those who left are actually more likely to stay home than go to a different church. And those experts, who conduct the surveys and calculate the statistics, also say this: Those who left… they aren’t coming back.
And then came a global pandemic.
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Churches rose to this situational challenge—online worship, zoom meetings and gatherings, drive-in church, socially distant fellowship in the parking lot— it all showed an exciting impact. Worshipers from different cities, even out of state. The hustle and bustle of everyday life that used to conflict with church had diminished so even though we couldn’t gather on Sunday morning, we could still “connect”—differently, but better than nothing. But though the church impact was “better”, the daily stress of a global pandemic, along with political and social tensions, soon had a greater impact. And the excitement and connection got swallowed up by exhaustion and trauma.
And that is when, as Rev. Rob Dyer puts it, “We (the Church) started to notice that the proverbial back door of the church was propped open.”
Dyer goes on to say, “People were starting to drop off of the Zoom gatherings and online worship events. Online children and youth ministries saw an increase of cameras turned off and eventually a decrease in participants. Our masked and socially distanced gatherings attracted fewer numbers. But we figured the people would return, volunteer, and help rebuild the church once we reached that ‘new normal.’ We started editing the story we told each other— making excuses for individuals and families who were not showing up.”
And here is where Rev. Dyer really pulls back the curtain on the lie the Church has been telling itself, saying, “While church leaders did the hard work of navigating health guidelines and exercising creative adjustments, many people got used to life with less church— even life without church. As our society is opening up, people are starting to pick up the weight of busy lives again. With the pandemic and virus variants over their heads, people are finding they have a reduced capacity for weight bearing. Even joyful activities are getting sidelined in this ‘new normal.’ And now, the church is realizing something—not just about young adults, but also about people of all ages in our churches… They’re not coming back.”
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For decades, people have been leaving the church, and the Church has always allowed itself to believe, and promote, the lie that they would all one day come back. And it’s a lie we’ve let ourselves believe for too long. It is a lie about a very real, dim valley of death, that will never lead to green pastures, meals amongst adversity, the anointing of our heads, or the overflowing of our cups. And the Church needs to stop lying to itself about this reality. Because if we don’t then we are not setting ourselves up to allow the Divine Shepherd to lead us through today’s dim and dark valley, and have the impact God intends us to have.
Move 1
Facebook has been in the news lately, and not for flattering reasons, but it motivated me to I re-watch “The Social Network”, a 2010 dramatic film that tells, somewhat accurately but also somewhat fictitiously, about the inception of Facebook, and a particular scene struck me.
In the scene one Facebook founder, Edgardo Saverin, freezes the bank account the other Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was using to pay for the computers servers operating Facebook. An argument ensues where Zuckerberg confronts his partner with the repercussions of frozen account, emphatically stating if Facebook were to go down for even a day their reputation is “irreversibly destroyed.” The Zuckerberg character, played by Jesse Eisenberg, states if even a few people leave Facebook their departure will reverberate throughout the entire user base because the users are all interconnected.
This scene resonated with me because it demonstrates the pervasive worldview of today. If a piece of someone’s world stops, or even just slows down, the reverberation can likely be immensely negative. If this is true, and I think it is, then pace and impact is everything in our world today. “Do more… Be more… Make it happen… Get it done… Show me the money… because if you don’t I’m moving on.”
Would you agree this is the worldview of the world we are trying to share and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in? Or am I overreaching? Am I overreacting? Am I over thinking this line of thinking is having a detrimental impacted upon the Church? Because as the experts and data show; the Church has been on a downward trend for decades—the pace of which has only quickened. And the Church’s reputation?! How’s that been looking for the last decade? The last half century?
Am I overreaching or overreacting or overthinking that the Church’s reputation is being irreversibly destroyed? If I am overreaching, overreacting, or overthinking then someone to please tell me. Really. I am actually hoping and praying I am overreaching, overreacting, and overthinking, because if I am, then things are not as bad as they seem.
But if I am not overreaching, overreacting, overthinking… then what are we doing about it?
How are we equipping ourselves and building ourselves up to better share and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in a world where pace and impact is everything?
Or maybe a better question is: How are we shifting, altering, pivoting to better share and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ? How are we reversing what some believe is irreversible so we can keep pace and have an impact?
The answer is: the Church must stop believing the lie that the good old days of Church, and the way we’ve always done it, will just magically come back—and start letting the Divine Shepherd lead us through the dim and dark valley we are truly in.
But will we?
Move 2
For weeks you have heard me promoting and inviting everyone to come to our Congregational Conclave—“an assembly designed to have special authority and influence”— conducted in two sessions, with each session being offered multiple times, to make it easily accessible for everyone. As I said last week, we are quite literally, in these meetings, discussing what our future legacy will be—a discernment process of intent verse impact. What intent are we aiming to have? What impact do we think we are having? What impact are we actually having?
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In your bulletin is a purple paper that has a list of adjectives used in session one participants circled the words they felt described any area of our church life. We then unpacked those circled words—particularly the contradicting words—and began to identify our church’s strengths and weaknesses, while identifying and discussing concrete examples.
Now in session two—the other side of the purple paper—we are identifying the ministries of our church; discussing their intent, and discussing the actual impact they are having.
I give these exercises to you in worship because it seems I have not adequately emphasized the importance of what these Conclave sessions aim to do. This is all part of a visioning process aimed to reveal the intentions we are driven toward, and what we as a church must do to have an impact with them.
We are doing this visioning process together, now and we will continue it in the New Year, all before our sabbatical next summer. Then we will part, but continue the visioning work separately. I say “our sabbatical” because it will be my sabbatical from the church, and your sabbatical from me. Then when we come back together after our sabbaticals, we will bring all this intent into focus and see who God is calling First Christian Church of Stow to be, and how God will lead us to turn intent into impact.
So our Congregational Conclave is an intentional process to stop perpetuating a lie, so that the life of the Church, and this church, in this “new normal” is not irreversibly destroyed. And we need everyone to be part of this process.
Conclusion
There is no magic answer to the Church equipping and building itself up to better share and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. There is no magic answer to the Church reversing the irreversible. There is no magic answer for the losses churches have endured—even before the pandemic.
So instead we believed too many false narratives and failed to adequately address the challenges we were facing—challenges not just involving young people who moved on from the Church, but the receding engagement across all generations—Boomers to Zoomers—as well as those older and younger.
And though there is no magic answer, we do know the future of the Church will require an innovative cultural shift. We know we cannot lie our way out of the dim and dark valley, by believing the way we’ve always done it will magically bring people back to the Church. We know developing healthy, functional, exciting, engaging systems of being Church is essential for the Church to not only survive, but thrive. And we know we cannot do it unless everyone works together.
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We are in a dim, dark valley, and the way out is with a major shift, pivot, and reversal of the irreversible. That is what the Church needs to do in order for the Church to be the Church the world needs today. The walk through this dim, dark valley won’t be easy, but we don’t walk alone. We walk together, and we walk with the Divine Shepherd who leads us through.
So let us walk through this dim, dark valley believing—not a lie—but the truth that… there is a right path to green pastures and still waters. There is a right path to overflowing cups and anointed heads. There is a right path to goodness, mercy, and restoration of our souls. There is a right path that will have an impact. And the Divine Shepherd will show us the way. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer November 14, 2021
God of comfort and peace, we know it is hard work walking through the dim dark valley of the shadow of death.
But we know, you know, there is a way through.
So help us Holy God, help us to be faithful and willing parts of the body of Christ by being a church that fully acknowledges, and actively engages, in the hard, challenging work of making our way through the dim and dark valleys.
We know it will not be easy, but we can know too, with your help, there is hope to be found because with you, there is no challenge we cannot overcome.
So challenge us to see the challenges before us. Keep us from hiding from them, or lying to ourselves about them. Don’t let us dismiss them. Show us that these challenges will not be easy work, that it will not be occasional work, or work we can put off until there is more time. Don’t let us convince ourselves we are not qualified, that we are too old or too young to do it, or even that it can be done by only writing a check or making an online contribution.
Make us to know, Holy God, that the dim valley we are in today is that the Church today is not seen today as the Church often sees itself today.
Which means, to make our way out of the dim, dark valley, we must follow you, our Divine Shepherd—for not only do you know the right path through, you give us the hope filled promise that you will lead us, and provide all we need to not only find our way through the dim, dark valley, but that you will bring us through it all to a place far better than we can ever imagine.
So empower us to walk through this valley together.
Let us walk through it with eyes wide open, ready to move forward with intentionality, believing in the presence of you, Divine Shepherd—who fills us with hope in the face of challenges, and then leads us in right paths to a bright and glorious future.
We ask that you would hear now the prayers that come from our hearts in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”