Hypothesis:
The makeup of our congregation is very
different from the makeup of our immediate neighborhood(s). We are also out of
touch with the mainstream of the life of our community. There is a major
disconnect here, no matter how you cut the cards. We have not looked closely at
this disconnection and its implications for our future ministry and mission.
This means summoning the courage to ask tough questions, probe uncomfortable ground,
and be open to considering new ideas - ideas that could direct our ministry and
witness to a very different place
A number of Easters ago, the story of Peter denying
Jesus three times became the focal point of a very significant “aha” moment for
me as a pastor. The idea that Peter was
found out by the servants of the High Priest because of his Galilean accent
translated powerfully into the situation of our church, a church in a community
where a very different accent is prevalent.
This hypothesis, that we are disconnected from the community
around us, that we don’t look at how the neighborhood has changed, that we will
go to church where we always have and be the group we’ve always been, no matter
how far we have to drive, is not as central to our congregation as it might
have been twelve or fifteen years ago.
Don’t get me wrong, the demographics of the church are
very different from the demographics of the community, but the awareness and
the opportunities to do something about it, those have been pursued. We haven’t seen success, but that doesn’t
mean a whole lot in the world of church.
Trying and failing, learning and trying again, discerning what God
wants, risking failure to learn what needs to be learned, we’ve gotten pretty
good with that.
And yet our vision remains. But I am doing something I have never consciously
done before, revisit a text and revisit the format of the sermon, as I remember
it. Of all the hypotheses proposed
through the Jeremiah Journey to date, this is the one that has come the closest
to what we have considered, tried, and continue to address.
There is an arc of development of Peter that I believe
we are seeing paralleled in our church.
Peter dared to follow Jesus after his arrest. He knew there was something he had to put at
risk for his Master, for his Rabbi. He had
the guts to go when nobody else did. He
tried and he failed-this time. But we
know what he did with that experience.
We know how God equipped him to go on and be an outspoken leader of the church.
I believe it is in that development that we will
see where our church has been, where it is, and look forward, in celebration,
to where it is going.
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