What are the congregational sages of the day saying about the hopes and possibilities for churches in this 21st Century? Don’t know about all of them, but Anthony Robinson, a minister in the United Church of Christ, preacher, teacher, and nationally renowned church consultant has words of hope for what the church, the body of Christ can do – and be in these changing and challenging times.
This past weekend I travelled to First Presbyterian Church of Vancouver, WA for this year’s Cascades Presbytery Leadership Fair. I attended to offer perspective on the Community Kitchen being housed bi-monthly within the walls of 1st PC Phoenix. As part of a 3 person panel (one of which has been working with a church’s community kitchen for the past 5 years, another who began serving meals as part of the hospitality their congregation offers nightly as a warming center for homeless families) I was able to, not only share some thoughts, but to hear some perspectives on not only the ‘Why’ questions, but the ‘what’ the ‘how’ and entertain some ‘what if’ questions.
We did not have as many participants in our workshop as we’d had signed up – but that’s okay, as I’m sure those who skipped out, did so to attend the workshop offered by the event’s keynote speaker, Tony Robinson. (I’d thought myself that I’d like to sit in on his presentation – but in the morning I’d signed up for a discussion on the issues/dynamics in Israel/Palestine. Very thought provoking in its own right.)
But I did get to hear the keynote speaker offer challenging, yet hope-filled, words of encouragement. Challenging – in some of the anecdotes he shared about travels around these United States congregations. In one locale (Minnesota), he told of a conversation that came out of a series of interviews with both longtime members and members new to the faith. One of the new believers shared something of a concern she felt. When she started attending, she heard about prayer, and having experienced and encountered God – but when she asked one of the longtime members about his faith/prayer life, she said, ‘you’d have thought I’d asked him about his sex life’ (to paraphrase). One of the struggles, in which mainline churches may have become entangled, is the misperception that ‘faith’ is private; it may be personal, but far from private. This misperception has lead to a growing inability to speak of the deeply spiritual in ways that allow their faith, their sense of the divine to pass to the next generation of believer.
The good news is that God is sovereign and is working, even though it may not be how we envision. He shared this reflection on his website:
I was in Vancouver, Washington last weekend speaking at a Presbyterian event. I spent some time with people from a struggling and aging congregation in Portland, Oregon. The congregation had put on a block party for the neighborhood. But they felt it was a failure because it did not result in anyone coming from the neighborhood to their worship services. I told them that simply getting out of their building, getting to know the new neighbors, and having people come to the block party was a huge success--not at all a failure. Small steps.
Small steps, but HUGE successes – Successes we of 1st PC Phoenix are joyfully stepping into.
