The Present Future

Introduction:

Reggie says, "He (God) never forecasts. God always backcasts?" (xi) How does Reggie know? I don't believe God is bound to our space and time.

Reggie states that it is hard to feel at home in church because it lacks spiritual purpose and missional vitality.

What is the purpose of the church? Reggie's answer - Missional covenant with God to be a part of kingdom expansion.

Irrelevance of the church (xv)
"Most church leaders are preoccupied with wrong questions" (xvi).

Questions we should consider instead:

1. How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity? (11)

"The death of church culture will not be the death of the church" (1)

Builders (born before 1946)
Boomers (born between 46-64)
Busters (65-76)
Bridgers (76-94)

Post-modern world will demand a new church expression (5).
People don't trust the church, try to encounter God on their own (18).
Dangers with this: No guidance, no partnerships, no relationships of self-seeking spirituality without a community.

Benefits of the church growth model/fad asserted cultural relevance

2. How do we transform our community?

Go to them (public space, streets), don't wait for them to come to you. They need what people always need - God in their lives. (27)

Stubbornness of church-goers as reflected in the story of Samaritan woman - Jesus had a harder time reaching disciples than he did the Samaritan woman

"Religious people don't see people; they see causes behaviors, stereotypes
Our bubble (church life) is only available to people who will assimilate.

*Practical/Applicable idea: Use public spaces for worship

My own reflection: What do I appreciate about the church? pastoral care (agrarian age), collective mission work (denominations, industrial age), biblical teaching (education emphasis of informational age), what will we learn from this next age?

"When you start thinking with kingdom eyes instead of church eyes you begin to see everyone." Ben Johnson

I just finished the Continuing Ed Summer Scholars course on Interfaith encounters. This experience has lead me to vibrant dialogue and spiritual disciplines with diverse people about the power and deeds of God. My food for thought - how are we (church) getting in God's way?

3. How do we turn members into missionaries? (48)

We must go to language school - church words (lost, saved, etc) don't communicate in modern world. (52) Amen to this! We need relevant language.

"Faith, in the modern world, is about intellectual assent." (55) Results: parents can't talk to their children about their faith. Couples are embarrassed to pray together.
*Wow, this is right on. This needs to change. We have to share our faith on a personal level.

People are in search of righteousness not in terms of right relation to the law, but right relationships between people (58). We should focus on forgiveness and reconciliation issues.

Persecution is no longer coming from outside the church but inside. (68) People leave not because of outside criticism, but because they are tired of dealing with "club-members."

4. How do we develop followers of Jesus?

Physical Trainer analogy. Like the YMCA, we should have "life coaches" that welcome new people. Explaining what we do, but also working one on one to encourage spiritual and missional growth. Interview them to inquire about how they would like to grow spiritually and how they would like to serve the community (78-90).

Danger - individual consumption of God. We must keep it communal.
"Belonging to others is part of a healthy expression of life." (83)

The agenda is more and more being set by the learner. There is an interest in moving worship to homes (87).

5. How do we prepare for the future?

Reggie distinguishes between the verbs to plan and to prepare. In reality you cannot plan for the future. In Scripture, God always had the plan and the followers had to be ready (prepared) to go along with God's plan. They often had to take a leap of faith (contrary to the advice of all around them) and follow God.

Reggie points us to creating a vision. We may not have the exact times, numbers, dates, etc, but we can seek clarification of the values of our faith community and determine a vision.

I appreciated Reggie's thoughts on "strengths." We are a culture that identifies strengths and then often neglects those strengths in order to focus on the weaknesses. We are not perfect, nor can any of us reach perfection (perfect balance and wholeness) by working on our weaknesses. The shift to focus on people's strengths is powerful because it recognizes and gives praise to God for the gifts that God has given us. Though we cannot forget our weaknesses altogether, I do think our communities (and individual selves) will be more joyous when we seek to lift up our strengths.

6. How do we develop leaders for the Christian Movement?

Emergence of Apostalic Leadership:
The challenges to church leaders in the emerging 21st century parallel those that faced leaders in the first Christian century - religious pluralism, globalism, and the collapse of institutional religion, accompanied by increased interest in personal spiritual development (125)

Leadership Development: (130)
Must pay attention to paradigm issues, microskill development, resource development, and personal growth.

The resource development models made a lot of sense. We need to be an outwardly focused community.

It does make a difference if leaders are passionate about what they are doing and feel that they will grow spiritually by leading! (135)

Learning Communities (practical/applicable). "You need both organic and organizational community" (137)

Purpose for church leaders: "to share God's heart with God's people" - I like this vision!

From "What I didn't say:"
"I have discovered through the years that once I champion cultural relevance and the ability to have conversations with people outside the church bubble, it becomes necessary to defend my orthodoxy" (142).

I've found this, too. It is disheartening because Jesus spent his life with the "other." "Others" are not going to feel any conviction to follow Jesus if we ignore or disrespect them.

Not all churches need to be contemporary, rather "each culture must worship God in its own heart language." (143)

Hunger for Jesus will lead to biblical devotion. "People do not need to agree with our definition of the truth to come to the Truth." (144)

"It takes enormous courage to give spiritual leadership in the North American church culture, because the church is increasingly hostile to anything that disturbs its comfort and challenges its club member paradigm" (145).

Conclusion - words to rest assured that the future is already present for God. These changes are all part of God's plan. We can rest in God's sovereignty.

Jesus tells us "that if we can see things the way they really are (not just the way they appear), we can partner with God through prayer in fast-forwarding the future" (148). Instead of "fast-forwarding the future," I might say it is so that we can live into God's kingdom now, here, this day. I think Reggie and I mean similar things, I'm just uncomfortable with pushing God into time frames.