meditatio at the water's edge

Tonight (Sunday night) we had a huge group of people for our worship time. You need to understand that 30 plus is huge for us. Part of the reason for so many people... a group of people from a few miles away are also doing a new faith community thing. It was great to have a handful of them with us. It was also great to hear about the joys and struggles of another faith community. Our two communities are kindred spirits. Perhaps we need to consider doing a few things together just to encourage and support one another.

During the course of the night, we heard about some of the struggles of working with a denomination as they are doing. We faced the same issue a year and a half ago. We moved away from the institutional/denominational model, and thus we said goodbye to lots of funding and support. We also said hello to new ways of being the church.

In the midst of the conversation, I was again remined how the baby boomers believe in the strong church leader model of church planting/church prospering. While the model has worked for a while now, someone sold the boomers swampland in the ocean when they became convinced that the strong leader model was the ONLY way of being Christ's church. Perhaps I have strong opinions here, but the biblical model doesn't support one way of leadership at the exclusion of the other. My gripe - why won't the boomers who control so much of the institutional money get it? Why won't they admit that the mainline churches are not connecting? Barna and most every other statasticial will point toward the younger generations walking out the doors of the church. Yet, they fail to really think beyond what they currently know. They continue to find examples of their models being effective. They continue to sit on the boards of the Lilly Foundations, and they continue to dole out money to the seminaries and "known" organizations that are desiring to try something new.

I am tired of fighting the old way of being God's people. The old way isn't wrong. It has worked. God has been faithful in the midst of doing church as my grandparents and parents largely know it. Sadly though, their generations too often fail to believe that the Spirit will lead if faith communities look altogether different than they did twenty, ten, or one year ago. ... But here is my question. Do you think that Jesus envisioned the "Lord's Supper" being served from an expensive hardwood table with the words, "This do in rememberance of me" carved onto it? As I said before, this isn't wrong. It has served the church well, but it really has very little to do with the grace of God as we remember and believe it through the practice of communion.

That's enough for now. It mostly reminds me of why it would be difficult, and probably impossible, for me to do church as I did for the first thirty-four years of my life. It also helps me realize that God has given us an incredible adventure as we try to find new ways of being God's people for the younger and future generations. With the words of Paul, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. God's blessings as we keep in step with the Spirit of the living (note - not dieing) God!