Never Quite the Same Again

People who've divorced tell me that, once the decision is made, there is the fear that, somehow, life will stop.  But they wake up, they walk outside, and life--the world--goes on...in some ways as if nothing had happened at all.  Most everything that used to happen still happens.  Yet, in your heart, you know you're in a different place, you've taken a step on a path that will lead you in a direction you've not traveled before...and whether the world changes or not, you'll never be quite the same again.

A decision to transition from traditional/attractional to missional/incarnational isn't divorce, obviously, at least not in the sense that we're separating ourselves from a relationship that has defined our lives to this point.  We're still Presbyterian, still denominational, still connectional, still striving to do things decently and in order.  Yet, in one very important way, the decision is a step in a direction we've not traveled before.  A huge step.  We didn't awaken the morning after no longer attractional but wholly missional--would were it that easy--but we all knew we'd never be quite the same again.

Missional church so often seems to be a young person's game.  You read books and blogs on missional church, attend conferences on missional church--those responsible, those in the fore-front, those lifted up as leaders to follow and innovators to be emulated, are, for the most part, 20- and 30-somethings, the vast majority of whom are pastoring churches or heading ministries with pubescent DNA.  I don't mean they're churches of teenagers--I mean they're young churches.

We're all heirs one way or another to the weight (many would say dead weight) of Christendom, but there's history and then there's history.  A church that's been around ten years has a different relationship with history and tradition and we've-always-done-it-this-way-in-the-past than a church that's been around 150.  The decision to be missional from the start is a very different decision than the decision to be missional after decades of being  attractional.  It's hardly a clean break, to extend the marital metaphor.  You, in fact, don't want it to be a clean break.  For better or worse, the history you have that others don't is a history that still very much defines the present for many in your congregation.  You have a pastoral responsibility to honor and serve that.  If you don't, the decision to become missional/incarnational is a decision to leave much of your congregation behind.  However much God is calling us to a new thing, my guess is that God doesn't expect us to answer the call at the expense of those saints whom, for years, God called in other ways.

A decision for missional/incarnational is not about a pastor's vision--it is about Jesus' vision, because the church belongs to Jesus.  Still, once made,   life will go on, in some ways as if nothing had happened at all. Most everything that used to happen will still happen. Yet you will be in a different place.  You will have taken a step on a path that will lead a direction you've not traveled before.  And you'll never be quite the same again.

Missional in Ten Words or Less

The other night my wife and I found ourselves explaining missional church to another couple new to the idea.  We found that we could talk about it in excruciating (probably) detail, telling this poor couple far more than they really cared to know.  What was harder, we discovered, was summarizing the essence of what it means to be missional.  Not a soundbite, by any means, but a way of communicating missional that people can remember and hold on to.

I found this disconcerting.  I remember reading somewhere that you don't really understand what you're talking about unless you can summarize it in ten words or less.  The fact that I went on quite a long time with this poor couple might suggest I know a lot about missional.  On the other hand, it might mean that I've yet to internalize and get inside missional enough that I truly understand what it's about...a reminder, perhaps, that living the missional life is not, as the old cliche goes, a destination but a journey.

Still, it got me to thinking.  As a fairly traditional mainline congregation that is attempting to embrace missional/incarnational church, we need to be able to explain it in a way that people can grasp without sitting through a lecture.  I shared this with a colleague whose understanding of missional church is invariably spot-on.  She suggested this: Moving out into our community to activedly participate in God's mission in the world.   OK, it's 14 words, not ten, but I think it's pretty good.  Then I found these words from Hugh Halter and Matt Smay: Living out the gospel in community together on mission.  Nine words, which I massaged down to seven: Living the gospel in community on mission.

Not bad, I think.  It covers what, to me, are the major components of what missional is about--living the gospel, community, and mission.  Next time I'm asked to explain missional church, I'll give the short answer.  Better yet, if possible, I'll just demonstrate.

Dancing with Who Brung Us

We've known it was coming.  Long ago it ceased being if.  Only when. Forces within the Presbyterian Church USA working to change ordination standards would, sooner or later, win a war of attrition.  Opposing forces were increasingly weary of the fight, increasingly inclined to walk away.  And when, in 2011, the inevitable happened and ordination standards did change, the equally inevitable soon followed.  A new Presbyterian denomination appeared--the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians--and the split (some resist calling it a split, but it is what it is) we knew to be coming is upon us.  Congregations are not cascading away, but make no mistake: the PCUSA as we've known it is circling the drain.

Many claim we are moving into a post-denominational era, that mainstream denominations are dinosaurs, their rupturing the inevitable consequence of too many congregations losing too many members trying desperately to embrace a center that simply will hold no longer. 

Maybe.  More definitely, I can say this: if the congregation I serve splits because the denomination splits, we can't blame it on the denomination.  If we split, we have only ourselves to blame.  The simple fact is that even if the PCUSA ceased to exist tonight, we'd show up tomorrow morning and the vast majority of the work we do, we'd do.  We'd still plan worship, still order curriculum, still support mission and outreach...women's circles would still meet, the men's Bible study would still meet...we'd still have our youth groups and our community groups and our prayer groups.  And we'd do this because our first allegiance is not to the PCUSA, or to our Synod or to our Presbytery. Our first allegiance is to Jesus Christ and the Kingdom, to the call God has placed on us to bless this community we call home.  It is, I think, one of the basic tenets of missional living--Jesus has first call on our lives.

The congregation I serve is in no danger of splitting now.  We will be in no danger in the future if, as we used to say in Texas, we dance with who brung us.  The PCUSA can do what it will do.  Our mission is living for Jesus and growing the Kingdom.