The Future of the Church (OK, That's an Ambitious Title)

Life's been moving so fast, I often find myself reflecting upon things that have come and gone. For instance, last Friday (which feels like a month ago), I taught at the ZOE Conference (Arlington edition). Usually, I teach on Friday (for church leaders) and Saturday (all people)--but I'd already promised to do the wedding of some good friends, so I came to Dallas for less than 24 hours to teach a three session class on leadership in the postmodern world (we are in, regardless of what you think "postmodern" is or isn't).

First, we talked about "re-imagining our world." Instead of fearing post-modern values, we see the emerging world as a place of the gospel to re-contextualized in redemptive ways. This entailed challenging one's view of truth, belief, and the role of certainty.

Then we talked about "re-thinking our word." More than a rule-book or collection of divine timeless principles, scripture is an "unfolding drama" in which we all learn, by baptism and community, what it means to take up our role in the story.

Last, we discussed "re-envisioning our way." We thought, out loud of course, of what it would look like for leaders to reclaim the spiritual practices of hospitality, reading, and sabbath. "Church's are," I ended, "are a direct reflection of their leadership. If you don't like the spirituality of your church, you'd better first change the spirituality of your leaders."

I know that much of American Christianity is in stagnation or decline (save the Community Church and independent Christian Church movements). I'm convinced that much of Christianity will continue to die lest we see the way in which we wed ourselves to the previous era (modernity), repent, and ask God to give us bigger imaginations of what it means to be the church in our time and place.