Christian Vocation, reprise

I had been invited by a friend of mine to lead a congregation through the process of intentional revitalization, and was just beginning the opening presentation that I had, clandestinely, entitled, "Toward Christian Vocation." The opening sentences went like this:

In the age of the historical Jesus, and perhaps through the Apostolic age, with Paul, faithful followers of the way of Christ saw it as their vocation-in-life to complete the full realization of God's will on earth. 'Kingdom' was coming imminently, and it was their responsibility to complete its arrival. They did the work to which they had been called, and for which they had been empowered, by intentionally embodying the archetype that had been established in the ministry of Jesus Christ, in his Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Church that resulted, well after a theological shift to a delayed understanding of the coming of God's 'kingdom' on earth, went in a completely alternative ecclesial direction. Christian Vocation was narrowed and lost, except for a few who understood it as their professional calling. It is time that we return to a wider understanding of Christian vocation, embracing once again what it means to be faithful practitioners of the Way of Christ. Only by so doing does the Church of Jesus Christ have a hope of being relevant in the new cultural evolution in which we find ourselves.

I was less than ten minutes into my opening presentation and saw that, already, I had lost the gathered group of some fifteen congregational leaders. Each leader wore on her or his face that tale tell, polite, vacant disinterest that my colleagues and I see so frequently on Sundays. The deal had been struck. They, in patient and tolerant etiquette, would allow me to drone on about issues that they found absolutely no passion for seeing to fruition. Later, they would get to the work of growing their membership roles and balancing their budgets by doing things just differently enough that it would attract those non-churched millennials out there. I saw immediately that my presentation was too distant from their experience, too technical for their interest, and too 'churchy' for their practical needs. So, I began again:

I know that your interest here might well be limited to membership numbers and dollars pledged against a budget. I fully accept that you, as a congregation, are trying to figure out how you can do things that attract the huge population of church alumnae. You anticipate hospitality approaches, programmatic changes, leadership initiatives. You want to know how you might avoid doing the wrong things, those that we have been told pushed people away, and how to do them rightly, in order that we may lure them back. None of it works. Marketing does not work. Advertising does not work. Vacation Bible School or Sunday School curriculum is irrelevant. Worship approaches or hymnody selections do not matter. Style of dress that is tolerated is meaningless. People will tell you that they have left the church because of these. It is not true. People have left the church because there is no passion, no energy, no meaning and purpose. There is no sense of Christian vocation, ladies and gentlemen. If we are going to be relevant in the evolving culture, if we are going to survive at all, then we have got to recover a sense of our calling and empowerment!  

There was a little more interest in those who formed the congregation's working group on revitalization. I paused here and welcomed questions. Most were along the lines of one asked by a woman, maybe 40-something, who had been a part of the church since birth. She asked something like this, "You mean that doing things better won't result in more members and more money? Just getting our name out in the community won't help?

Exactly. The entire formulae for being and doing church have to change if we are going to survive. The content of that change lies in the ancient/new recovery of Christianity as vocation instead of religious practice. It is similar, I think, to what some mean by being "spiritual but not religious."

The conversations were off and running. We formed small groups and asked them to discuss what they had tried, what courses they had followed, where they might think 'the problem' lies and how they saw solutions. They realized, of course, that the problem lies in a lack of vocational training and the energy that comes with calling and empowerment.

We were off on the process of recovering Christian Vocation in the congregation! So much fun!