What’s the Point? Take Two.

What is the Church’s mission?  What is the point?  Why aren’t people inclined to come running to the Church as part of their spiritual quests?

The big question facing so many of our congregations in particular is ‘Why are there very few young families with children?”

One of the most revealing books I’ve read in recent years is “UnChristian” by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons of the Barna Group.  Their research into the perceptions common among those people, outside of the Church, ages 16 to 29, is revealing.  Certainly others have looked at it and interpret the basic facts differently.  But what they have to share is worthy of thought and reflection.

Here is the summary slide from the UnChristian powerpoint:

Outsiders, age 16 to 29 perceive the Church to be:

Antihomosexual                                               91%

Judgmental                                                        87%

Hypocritical                                                         85%

Sheltered (old-fashioned,

       out of touch with reality)                       78%

Too political (especially right wing)           75%

Proselytizers (insensitive to others,

                not genuine)                                      70%

 

If this is true, and my experience inclines me to believe it is, we in the Church have a problem attracting these young people and their children.

Not many people wake up in the morning and say, “Where can I take my children so that we can all learn to be more anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, sheltered and out of touch with reality, beholden to right wing politics, and insensitive to others and only concerned about ourselves.

I presented this information to a group of Church folk and the response they had to it actually confirmed every aspect of these perceptions.  And it only took a couple of minutes.

So if our mission has something to do with spreading God’s message of love and forgiveness, we’ve got a problem.  The problem of course is that  either we are not loving and forgiving, or we have a very poor public relations department.

The only way we can change is to acknowledge how we have contributed to these perceptions, beg God’s forgiveness, and begin to live our lives in a manner that reflects the message of Jesus.

“What’s the Point?”

I recently underwent inpatient treatment for alcoholism, addiction to Ativan, depression, PTSD, and, for good measure, an anxiety disorder thrown in as well.  In the weeks since I’ve discovered a new community in the Alcoholics Anonymous groups.  I have rarely experienced anything of community outside of the Church, so this is a new venture for me.  I am learning much.  I have experienced grace in a way I haven’t experienced it in all my years in the Church.  And I’m convinced that we have much to learn.  My first thoughts are about Mission and Purpose.

When people hear the words “Alcoholics Anonymous”, or AA, there is incredibly wide knowledge about AA’s mission, its purpose.  It is simple.  It is clear, so clear that even a drunk reclining in a gutter knows it.  AA helps people stop drinking.  Period.  “Each group has but one primary purpose—to   carry its message to the alcoholic that still suffers.”  (Tradition 5)  The only criterion of membership is a desire to stop drinking.  And the most important part of remaining in sobriety is by helping others.  Finally, this purpose is rooted a very real need in the world.  If no one wanted to stop drinking, AA would cease to exist.  If science ever devised the magic pill that would enable an alcoholic to drink normally, AA would have lost its reason for being.  As it is, day after day, alcoholics around the world wake up to the reality that they are powerless over alcohol and their lives had become unmanageable.  And so they turn to AA.

What’s the point?  What’s the purpose?  Does the path work?  Is there a real need?

What is the Church’s mission?  Can we state it with clarity?  Does the world outside the Church know what our mission is?  And does our mission respond to real issues in the world and in the lives of those outside the Church?  Most important, does what we have to offer to the world work?

When I consider the Church’s mission I have found great meaning in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20.  We are agents of reconciliation.  Is that the point?  Is that why we follow Jesus?  Is that why the Church exists?  Let’s suppose it is.

Does the world know and understand that?  When people and nations struggle with conflict, violence, and all forms of discord that are destroying their lives would they turn to the Church to find reconciliation and peace?

Certainly we could argue that there is a clear need for reconciliation in this world.  Animosity runs rampant.  Families are divided against themselves.  Our human community has been divided against itself for not just centuries, but millennia.  Reconciliation is clearly something the world needs.

But are we any good at it?  Here is where the Church fails miserably.  If people come to the Church wanting to be reconciled, desiring nothing more than to live in peace with one and all, and to become part of a loving community—they will be disappointed.  If I turned to AA in hopes of stopping drinking and arrived at the local meeting room only to find everyone there passed out in a drunken stupor, I would quickly turn elsewhere or give up hope altogether.  But isn’t that the experience of many who come to the Church?  How can we who are so divided against ourselves possibly engage the world with any credibility as “agents of reconciliation”?

What’s our mission?

Does it address a real need?

Do we offer a credible solution?

The Church should ask itself those three questions and answer with rigorous honesty.