The Church that Serves

In Karen Armstrong's book, A Case for God, the author writes that there is a clear historical pattern of cultural and religious shift that takes place every five hundred years. These seismic shifts change the ways that culture lives, its rules, its values, its mores and assumptions. Religion changes along with culture. An argument about which leads the way is one of those chicken or egg things, and is irrelevant at best. If the last seismic historical shift took place in the 16th century European "Great Reformation," then it would be no surprise to understand the 21st century, the present, as transittion from one culture to another.

For decades now, social and religious scientists have pointed to a major cultural shift that began sometime in the late 1960's. The shift is marked by certain characteristics. There is, in the developing cutlure, a rejection of authority and its institutions. There is a distrust of organizational motivation, and a move away from "the social good." As Tom Brokaw noted in his book, "The Greatest Generation," the post-Depression, WWII era generation may well be the last that is willing to sacrifice personal rights for the sake of the greater social good.

Much like the beginning of the events that led to the Great Reformation, the new "Electronic" culture is developing along lines of information and communication. Distrust of authority is fueled by immediate and exhaustive personal access to information and data, much like the culture that formed in the wake of the movable type printing press. Communication is immediate and continual. Anything that one wishes to know, from anyone, is now accessible 24/7. There is no need for authoritative opinion or institutional approval before one sifts through the mountain of available information.

While the management of information has turned personal, it certainly has not progressed toward intimacy. In fact, the electronic age has brought greater isolation. The self is now what matters. The person, and that person's rights, are sacrosanct. Ironically, due mainly to the destruction of 9-11-2001, personal rights have been abridged in this culture like never before. The outcome has been an almost violent backlash against the "them" in political and social power and the "us" who suffer through their poor decision-making. Hence the huge libertarian movement. Hence the passion for minimal government intrusion.

So, how has this cutlural shift impacted the Church? As many of my friends and colleagues have witnessed, as each of those who have seen our congregations shrinking can attest, the result in the Church is devastating. Those few who thrive turn away from serving the wider culture into God's kingdom and focus on serving just its membership, forming again exclusive groups of those who have religious and spiritual hegemony. These are the loud religious voices. These are the mega-churches. These are the inwardly focused, self-concerned, heaven-bound practioners of a faith that fits perfectly in the developing culture.

One question. And this is the question of the Progressive Church Movement. Is the self-serving configuration of the modern-day "successful" Church what God wills? Is it what God wants? Do we care if the successful Church may be contrary to God's wishes for the body of Christ?

If the Church cares about God's will, then it will have to shape itself differently. This is true for two reasons: 1. God's will continues, even, or particularly, in the face of new cultural directions and developments and 2: The Church must be relevant for Christ in contemporary culture. If the Church is to continue at all, and if it is to make a difference in the developing culture, it will have to discover anew what is God's will. The Church will have to investigate new avenues of understanding and ministry. The Church will need to progress, alongside its culture, in order to speak any divine truth within it.

I firmly believe that Shiloh Church is turning a significant corner of relevancy and faithfulness, in the light of new cultural developments. I am convinced that each of us needs a purpose that overrides our self-concern, something for which we might sacrifice personal liberty for the common good. I know that the motivational factor of a life lived for the sake of universal salvation, exercised within the confines of human history, surpasses the self-focus of our electronic age. The Church must be The Church That Serves, not just its own membership - as some exclusive club - but the entirety of humankind. It must serve the world into God's kingdom, preceisely because that is what God wills for the Church.

You can join us, as Shiloh Church becomes that Church!

See You Sunday!