Emerging Church, Change in the Church, Etc...

Well, I just finished reading A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. A good book worth pondering and I think I'm already most of the way in McLaren's "camp" in my own thinking. McLaren advocates for a post-modern church... it's not the easiest thing to explain and I'm still wrestling with what it means to be a post-modern church, so I'll probably try explaining it some other time. But for the moment I am wrestling with the notion that there is need for a significant change in the church.

Part of my questioning tonight is based on something I was faced with earlier today. I was watching Six Feet Under (a TV show) and one of the characters is talking to his priest about bringing in another priest, one who would probably shake things up a bit, and David, the character, tells his priest he's against bringing in the other priest. When asked why, David says, "My life is a complicated mess right now and I've experienced a lot of loss lately. It seems that everything around me is changing and church is the one thing that is constant in my life. I need the place that helps me understand the changes to be constant." (Or something like that... my own paraphrase)

I thought about that for a bit today. Is that the main reason people come to church? For the stability? Is this why the church really hasn't changed a whole lot in many, many years? What does Jesus call us to? Are we not talking enough about how to deal with change? What are our priorities? Are we holding on to this life too much and that's why change is such a battle for us?

So now, faced with all those questions and my recent reading, I've been thinking about transition in the church. If we are to move to something that I think is a healthier way of looking at things and probably more true to the Gospel and what Jesus was about, how do we do that in congregations where people expect the Church to be the one constant in their ever changing lives? Should we make the change, trying to be as conscious of the fear of change, and hope that those people who can't deal with the change find the Church after things settle into place? Will things even settle out soon enough for those who left to come back? Even if they did, would those people even come back or would things have scarred them to the point of having no desire to at all?

I have just spiraled myself out of control with questions that are probably only answered by trying something. But what I have become more conscious of is how we deal with change. What is constant in our lives... God. We need to continually focus on God and talk about that in the midst of the change. I think we also need to talk about the change in the church. Don't change things and hope that people deal with them. Intentionally say, "I know we are talking about some major changes here, but here's why I think it is important to do this..." Focus on God and be honest. Be willing to change if the change we started with isn't working.

A lot of pondering that will not stop for a little while I'm sure. But that's where I'm at for the moment. Look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Kate