It’s hard…
Five years ago I came to Mt. Laurel Evangelical Free Church in suburban South Jersey with some fine education and ministry experience. Like many others I had been working off of a church paradigm that has lots of similarities to the quote from the movie, Field of Dreams, “build it and they will come.” I believed that if we built a great Sunday morning experience with preaching, singing and the right blend of ministry programming that we had done our job. Now I have a growing awareness that instead of challenging the idols of our culture (consumerism, individualism, busyism,) that we have inadvertently reinforced these idols by the very way we do church. Sobering thought!
Long story short, I knew in my soul something had to change. The bar for what it means to be the church, to make disciples had to be raised, not lowered. We need to see ourselves as a community of people who are centered around the life of Jesus Christ on mission together, not merely a collection of individuals who attend a worship service. It’s not about what we get, it’s about what we give. Get ready for the understatement of the year, change in church is painful, painful for both the congregation and the leadership. For some in the congregation the pain comes from the fact that their vision, their dream of what the church should look like is dying. This is understandably difficult. We grew up with a sense of how things should operate and when these traditions or rhythms of church life are interrupted or abandoned, pain ensues. I get it. One way people respond to this pain is by leaving the church and we have seen this happen at MLEFC. When this happens, the pain is transferred to the church leadership! I love the people who leave and when our church family splits up my heart absolutely breaks. It takes me weeks sometimes to pull myself out this emotional funk. No one in leadership likes to hear this kind of news. The result is that we question ourselves, we question God, and we want to do anything to ease the pain.
But I am beginning to see things a bit differently (maybe pain is ok) and I have the gospel to thank for this. Here is what the gospel tells me, death precedes life. The good news of the cross is that Jesus was willing to go through the pain so that others could experience new life. My greatest hope and desire is that this same gospel truth is at work in our church. God is always reforming His church, and sometimes reformation means something dying for God’s glory. Unfortunately, I had made the massive error of equating the health of a church primarily based on size, and attendance. After all who wants to be the pastor at the cool, trendy church conference whose claim to fame is making his church smaller? As it turns out, I’m “that guy!”
I thank God for giving me an “a-ha moment” recently, the moment I saw the gospel transforming our community. On a weekday night we had about 20 people come out and commit to partnering with a ministry called Bridge of Hope (a ministry of friendship to single mothers and their children). The people at the meeting were all part of Care Groups that have committed to be on mission together. Our Care Groups are the biggest part of our missional transition, they are not merely groups of people who eat massive quantities of food, who talk and study but rather they are doing the Word of God together. But I digress; I sat there at this meeting and realized, in some ways, our church is actually stronger now than it has been in years! Of course not everyone is using the same scorecard and that is what causes the tension. From my perspective I see a group of people who increasingly want the truth of the gospel to flow out of their lives, their families, their church and into our world. It was the most inspired I have been in months. So, is it possible to become smaller and simultaneously become stronger? I think the answer is yes. Does it still hurt like heck? The answer is yes.
I want to do a little writing here at missionalinsuburbia.com about something the leaders of MLEFC are working on right now. We are creating a “Church DNA ” (some call it a vision but DNA sounds much cooler) of what our community, in our context, should look like. People come to us with various ideas, not all of them rooted in the story of Scripture, as to what the church should be and do. As leaders we are creating a tool that will allow for us to have a shared vision for who God is calling us to be. Look forward to sharing it here and getting your feedback.
Michael Wallenmeyer
www.mlefc.org
www.missionalinsuburbia.com
Poverty is not always financial, it is spiritual too. In Death by Suburb, author David Goetz identifies eight toxins that are plaguing the suburbs. These are the factors that are driving your neighbors to live the life they do. As Christians, it is our responsibility to be aware of these toxins, and their corresponding remedies, so that we can begin to reach out to our neighbors in meaningful ways. Identifying these addictions and offering something counter, something beautiful, will profoundly change the real face of the suburbs.
