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.