In a recent email discussion regarding a range of topics around the church today , the following questions were asked (I have expanded, critiqued, focused, and clarified the questions for this blog post)
“Could it be that the small church and the mega church will survive while the medium size (compare to middle class) ceases to exist? Much like the polarization of classes could it be that the medium church is in the largest amount of trouble? Torn in their identity, asking who they are, what are they to become? I.E. The small church is happy being small (intentionally almost), but the medium size wants everything the mega (large) church has (music, youth pastor, etc.), but can’t compete (doesn’t have the funds, people, resources to pull it off). Do medium churches fall victim to the secular worldview of becoming? (ambitious sights, views of success, unattainable goals) What does the landscape of the middle class and the medium size church (if comparable) look like?”
This email was a pile dry twigs laced with gasoline and my mouse was the match that lit that ignited the fire that is currently burning my morning up. To be fair, I am a person who loves questions and riddles. Although, I enjoy painstakingly working through problems which end in solution, I could say that I ever more enjoy chasing the rabbit down the dark rabbit hole. The rabbit hole of question upon question…seemingly with no answer, but more perplexing than the question preceding it. This is where this email left me; chasing a rabbit down a hole (the kerosene laced fire burning). However, something happened as my mind went to the racetrack. Everything disappeared…no rabbit…no fire. The intellectual academic realm of questions in the clouds met solid earth. REALITY!
Reality, that the line of questions that this email started me on, ended in the church I now attend. Without getting into the details or casting stones of judgment, I can say that we are a church that was a healthy sized medium church, which is now struggling. REALLY Struggling! Struggling with the same kind of finical mess that middle class America got itself into. Struggling with our identity. Who are we? Who are we called to be? Struggling with direction and what now? Reconciling those questions with another question; is who we are called to be, who we want to be?
At the heart of this struggling, I see a lack of contentment. We still have grandiose desires. We yearn to run with the horses, but can’t keep up with the donkeys. We want to play in the NFL, but we can’t handle EBAL (a tough high school football league). Can we come to terms with the fact that we are a small church, who has a pipe dream, of making it big? Can we realize that those are OUR desires, and not Gods? What would a healthy church desire look like?
As my post ends with questions upon questions, and I could come up with more, I am unsettled in the fact that I cannot continue to ask endless rabbit hole questions in the reality of life. The questions regarding the church will be answered. They will be answered with reality. Can we find peace and contentment in that reality? Only reality will tell.
Interesting thoughts man.
ReplyDeleteOne of the struggles of mid-sized churches seems to be their inability to adapt to actually being a mid-sized church. Do they continue to operate out of the "good old days," or the smaller days. Being the church is very different as the church fluctuates in size. A mid-size church that is filled with members that still think everyone should know everyone else will probably struggle. At that point you can't know everyone, the members know it, and their hesitate to bring even more people into this "unconnected" community.
Maybe?
I understand the struggles with re-defining the church as it fluctuates, but there needs to be an honest assessment/conversation. In the assessment/conversation, the church needs to separate their desires from God's desires. That step, in my opinion, is not done as often as I would hope. The church (in my experience) is often willing to substitute secular goals, missions, or desires for that of who they have been called to be. In saying that, the church was not created to serve its members. I think it is too about us, scared, hesitating to bring people to "our" to meet "our" community, instead of bringing people to encounter God (known through the community).
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