Blogging—a not so daily routine

The Emerging Church Part I

Peanut butter and jelly is heaven on earth—smooth, creamy goodness that lightly massages its strawberry sweet counterpart. Growing up I never seemed to eat enough. I ate peanut butter and jelly everyday at school from 6^th to 12^th grade. That is at least one sandwich per day for 1,260 straight school days. In my glory days I ate two. It was blissfully delicious.

To say I am a creature of habit is a vast understatement. I don’t just enjoy routines–I am defined by them. I figure out what I like and then I do it over and over and over again.

Last week Eric and I met a church with a similar story. It too had a routine. Its members found an approach, way and style to “church” that they loved and they did it over and over again. For 50 years the church served and worshiped God in a familiar and formulaic manner.

The problem with this practice is that eventually it loses its appeal. Sure this church, like most churches, had its days of splendor. There was a time when its pews were filled and praise echoed against its stained glass walls. But over time its approach lost its luster. It’s the sad tale of marginal utility—eventually people wanted something different.

Churches struggle with change. It is an ironic truth. Think about it. Unexplainable miracles—no problem; people speaking in tongues— sure; believing in a savior who died, rose again and was the son of God—yeah, alright, sign us up; but introducing new songs, less liturgy or different styles of worship—now we have a problem. For some ungodly reason churches are more likely to dwindle their membership down to a mere twelve faithful disciples than they are to adapt, heal and change.

But this posting is not an obituary. After six years, I found that turkey sandwiches aren’t as scary as they sound. And the same is true with the idea of an emerging church. The Christian Church is not a synonym for stale and stagnate; it is a group of people following Christ—living, breathing and changing in the same way that culture does.

To be the emerging Church means our roots lie deep within scripture, the example of the New Testament Church and our faith within Jesus Christ, but, at the same time, it means we are not afraid to change our outer appearance to reach the lost, unloved and marginalized.

I look at it in the same way my sister frequently changes her hair color and style. Some days her hair has pink highlights, other days it is purple. But who she is never changes. She is always the same loving, highly creative and short tempered individual that I grew up with. The only thing that changes is the way she looks.

I believe the Church needs to be like my sister. We must change, adapt and share the grace and love we are blessed to know. Let us be a church that is not afraid of a bad haircut; let us be a Church who has violet highlights and loves it.

To the desire to change in all of us,

Kent