Future Church...

Jesus said "...on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18). I wonder if he was looking ahead to our time and seeing the perilously uncertain times the Christian church is facing? "The gates of hell" that threaten it may not have anything to do with the "Church Lady's" Satan or Dante's hell. Much simpler but in some ways more "sinister" forces are knocking. Let's examine some of those things...

Apathy: many people of faith are too tired, too stressed, or to scheduled to participate in the church. These are folk who want to be church members, who want to live and express their Christian faith, but who have just gotten out of the "habit" of attending worship or plugging into their small group. Bad habits are easy to pick up again, "good" or beneficial habits are much, much more difficult to reengage once dropped or let go dormant. That just seems to be human nature. These are folk who get that "I'm guilty" look on their faces when I, as one of their pastors, run into them in the Giant Eagle or at Eat n' Park.

Apoplexy: others are "crippled" by anger or disgust at what they see being portrayed as "Christian" or "Evangelical" in the media, and have chosen to disassociate themselves from the church. "Evangelicals" who support autocratic leadership bordering on tyrannical, or leaders whose lifestyles seem 180 degrees out of phase from what followers of Jesus are challenged to exhibit, create angst in some and anger in others whose idea of following Jesus means actually doing and supporting the things Jesus did and taught us to do. Angst or anger are enough to drive persons away from an institution seen as a "home base" for "Evangelicals." Why would those calling themselves "Evangelicals" support leaders who do such things? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be that they see such leadership as being able to deliver on a singular goal: a large enough majority on the U.S. Supreme Court to get the specific rulings they want. These "Evangelicals" seem to be easily "look the other way" when licentious national leaders demonstrate an excessive talent for personal immorality.

Alienation: the controversy over inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals in the church has certainly affected how people choose to affiliate with or or disassociate themselves from the institutional church. A contentious feud has been brewing within my denomination, The United Methodist Church, over this very issue. People who represent a broad spectrum of theological and social perspectives, and who currently affiliate with Methodism, will either go or stay, depending upon the direction the denomination chooses (some iteration of inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons, maintaining the ambivalent status quo, or adding new rules and punitive measures to "enforce" them). However, as the denomination makes this determination, it should realize that the "church of tomorrow," namely the younger set, are strongly shaded in the direction of full inclusion of all persons in the total life of the church, and they will "vote with their feet" if The United Methodist Church--and any institutional church--chooses to restrict or disallow LGBTQ+ involvement in the organized church. And they happily point to Jesus who was light years ahead on inclusion of marginalized persons into his "kingdom," and didn't speak out against persons based on sexual orientation or identity.

Another "gate of hell" that will could threaten the future of the church is that of complacency. The current structure--both organizationally and literally (meaning the actual church facility)--needs to be reevaluated for the future. Our organizational structure, and this goes for all denominations, including Catholic and Protestant, is daunting and crippling in the minds of the people whom the church will need for the coming years, if it is to survive. And, as I have seen, younger people eschew spending lots of money on buildings and grounds, and prefer funding mission and ministry, an almost complete reversal from the "church values" of my Baby Boomer generation and older. They will be less attracted to a fancy or expensive edifice, and more drawn to a lean, "mean," missional machine. The church I serve--St. Paul's--desired to expand its ministry twenty years ago, so it began expanding its facility to accommodate this goal, and the people ponied up the dollars. (Incidentally, when the people of St. Paul's DID build, they built serviceable, practical space, not "eye candy.") Today when we talk about expanding ministry, the leaders aren't nearly as excited about expanding a building as they are at finding innovative ways to do ministry that is not hampered or limited by a building!  The church of the future may not be one limited to a physical address, if it is to attract the coming generations of people. What we DO may be much more important to these people than what we ARE. Honestly, if that doesn't sound like a good idea to you, you'll have to take it up with Jesus, as he wasn't into addresses, either.

Finally, another "gate of hell" is something I read in an article a colleague shared with me recently: the church of the future may well find itself with a severe shortage of clergy to lead it. The Roman Catholic Church is already seeing this, due to its overly tight rules as to who can be a priest and who cannot. Younger people are beginning to resist ministry as a calling in the Protestant churches as well, and for many reasons: the exorbitant cost of the required education vs. poor pay upon placement; the resistance to change and new ideas in the established churches they may serve after graduation; and the aging of current congregations which limits both volunteer manpower and funding for ministry. Younger potential pastors also resist serving any church that restricts in any way whom they may serve--for many of them, for instance, LGBTQ+ exclusion is a deal-breaker, as is the homogeneous nature of so many current congregations.

Well, we still have that promise of Jesus that the "gates of hell" shall not prevail against the church. Note, however, that Jesus was not talking about the "institutional" or "organized religion" church, as it did not yet exist. He was talking about the church as the basilea of God, the worshipping, learning, serving community of Christ followers who take literally the Matthean parable that the "Kingdom of God is like a great dragnet thrown into the sea that gathered some of every kind," meaning the work of the church is to "fish" for every kind of "fish" (diverse persons) and welcome them into what God is doing, with no strings attached (other than those of the net itself). No, I believe the church will prevail, as Jesus said, because it is based upon the "solid rock" of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and upon what Jesus taught us. He taught us to love, redeem, and transform people, not to be "fish" inspectors. (I've always loved a bumper sticker I saw several years ago: "You catch 'em, I'll clean 'em."--God.)

Let us pray for the church of the future, and for a change of heart in the church of the present that it may become future-oriented, rather than a museum of its past.