The world needs the church

by Brad Duncan

What are the challenges for the church today?  We desperately need a change of heart to meet the needs all around us.  Those in our church community, those in our own cities and country, and around the world.

These posts are excerpts from a full-length article and presentation.  For more information or the full documents, please email me at GraceEmerges@gmail.com

Challenges, cont'd

The World Needs the Church

You’ll notice that I’m an optimist when I talk about the positive changes that society is making, such as recognizing that prejudices are wrong and equality is right.

On the other hand, I’m also a realist when it comes to recognizing the pain that many people are in, and the pain that people cause each other. 

I can’t honestly say they are getting worse than they used to be, because they were bad before, but racial tensions are a serious reality today. The recent expression by NFL football players to sit or kneel during the singing of the national anthem, is a cry out against racial profiling by police against black men, and more broadly against the continued repression of people of color in today’s society.

Globally, racial and ethnic tensions and religious prejudices set the stage for much of the violence and terrorism that we see in the world.  Add to that the economic disparately and desperation that lead people to cry out against an unfair world, where some people have everything and others have nothing.  

If we want to end the violence and bring any semblance of good news to the world we cannot defend the status quo, but need to seriously face the inequity that fuels the anger.  Surely the best way to fight terrorism and violence is by tackling it at the source.  We need to create peace.  As the church we have a message of peace, fairness and love that would go much further to improve the world than simply isolating ourselves from the pain of others.  We need to demonstrate that we care.  We need to take action.

There are many, many other areas and ways where people are in great need, and the church can show the way of love to help with that need. I’ve written about many of these on my blog, and you can find numerous examples by simply going to CNN or Time magazine. 

The question for us is how the church will respond. 

What is our responsibility here? 

If we are the carriers of the good news from God, the transforming love of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit, then what do we do with those gifts? How do we share them and use them the way God intends?

What we need is one thing: heart transformation. 

We can change. 

We can care. 

We can bring all of our gifts to bear on the needs of the world.

In summary the challenges facing the church might seem to outweigh even the power and will of God to redeem it.  Can the church respond positively to these challenges, even if it means serious heart transformation will be required?  Can we re-frame our purpose to more intentionally create communities of people that care about one another and live to bring love and kindness to one another?  From within that place of strength, can we teach one another how to change our world?  Can we glorify God through the lives we lead, both inside and outside the church walls?  Can we change the tide of people leaving the church, and actually draw people into community so that the church can grow again?  

Can we be the kingdom of God? The growing, thriving kingdom, that shows God's love to the world?  Let's carefully consider our response...

We are set apart, but what does it mean?

by Brad Duncan, http://GraceEmerges.blogspot.com

Jesus followers are called to be “set apart” from the world. Can we think about what this means? And what it doesn’t mean?

We should be exceptional! We should be excellent in all we do. We should take the high road. We should require pure motives for our actions. We place selfish gain secondary to the greater good. We should see the good in people. We should offer grace and forgiveness when it is clearly not deserved. But we should have exceptionally clear values, and stand up against any kind of mistreatment of people. We should be globally minded – the world needs Jesus, and we should be eager to help provide hope to all nations.

What it doesn’t mean? “Set apart” doesn’t mean stuck up, doesn’t mean isolated and separate. Doesn’t mean better than. Pride is ugly, not exceptional. 

Doesn’t mean we protect our own interests. We should tear down the walls that divide people and nations from each other. In order to care we have to let our guard down and be vulnerable. Not being weak, but trusting God and taking risks.  Doesn't mean we have no healthy boundaries; it means we are confident enough to engage across the aisle, across the road, across town, and across borders.

Doesn’t mean we keep our hands clean and our boots dry – to be the hands and feet of Jesus we’re going to need to get into the thick of it. We can’t keep silent or spend too much time in the closet or in our own enclaves. We will be too passionate to keep it to ourselves.

We are called to a higher standard! But that higher standard includes exceptional humility, compassion and love, so it can’t mean we think we are special. That would be a double standard. We are called to be perfect! But we are human and flawed, so we should be perfect in admitting that and trusting God to bring about all that is Good in us and in others.

We must seek greatness while elevating others above ourselves.

Being human is complicated!  But Jesus did it – let’s just follow his example.

Comments?  Questions?

Jesus says:

So those who are last will be first. And those who are first will be last.

Matthew 20:16, in the parable about God's view of fairness.  Maybe we should read that one again.

Failure to connect

by Brad Duncan

What are the challenges for the church today?  One of the biggest challenges is connecting people together in meaningful ways, to create genuine community.  This article continues the discussion.

These posts are excerpts from a full-length article and presentation.  For more information or the full documents, please email me at GraceEmerges@gmail.com

Challenges, cont'd

Overdependence on Worship Tradition

Probably we all recognize that Jesus didn’t come to create church services. Yet, we have too much dependence on our worship traditions if we think that those traditions will bring transformative change to the world. They are merely a tradition, a preference, something we like, something that has worked to bring people together on the past. We do need to come together and organize ourselves, share ideas, sing songs together, get our kids to play and learn together, and spend time with one another. On the other hand, the time we spend looking toward the front of an auditorium and listening to a well-planned program of worship, is not the most effective way to build communities and share life with one another. The other stuff, where we spend time with people, is where the real love happens.

What responsibilities and functions do we assign to the weekly worship service? Do we expect it to change the world? Do we expect it to shine a bright light that glorifies God so people will come to him and receive grace? For the people that are present, do we expect it to meet everyone’s individual needs? Will singing about God and talking about God be enough to heal wounds and transform hearts? Certainly it can be a part of the plan to meet people’s needs, but it’s not enough. People need people. For this, people need to look at each other and listen to each other.

Worship is a great thing! Jesus told the woman at the well that he came to bring true worship. “Someday soon,” he said, “true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth!” He came to show people that worship is not in a traditional location or system, but it is a way of life. Jesus taught so much about loving one another, that it is clear this way life was meant to be lived in relationship with one another.

This is the beautiful gift we can give God. Growing into the loving community that God wants to see. This is true worship. In order to find true worship, and worship God in spirit and in truth, we have to leave the traditional mountain. We have to find Jesus by the well. We have to love God through the life we live, in relationship with others.

Failure to Connect

Even as I write this I feel the painful realization that people often don't want to connect and share their lives with one another. Churches will agree that community is their goal, but they may not see how they can accomplish it. They keep worship and individual spirituality as a focus, and they encourage community, but they fail to focus on community as a primary goal, so it becomes relegated to more of a desirable side effect.

Why?

The reasons I hear are related to pleasing God and serving God. People feel that the church must continue its activities because God wants it that way. They point to the Bible, and they point to theology.

Easy enough to fix! What if God wants something else? When we study the words of Jesus and other church pioneers in the Bible we see a different goal than pleasing God through attending church services.

Will we then change to do the new thing God is wanting? What if God wants us to leave the traditional mountain and go on a new journey with him? We can innovate to create community more intentionally. To do this, we can reduce our dependence on traditional worship. Those traditions can still be there, but they serve us, instead of us serving them. Instead we can recognize that God loves it when we simply love one another. Let’s do that as our primary focus!

Another reason I observe for the lack of focus on community is the budget. Churches have limited resources. You can count the church’s resources as being all the talent of Its members, the money it raises, and the time that people have available to use for one purpose or the other. The church uses a startlingly high fraction of its resources for normal operations, keeping the lights on, paying the staff, and running the programs. It takes time and money to organize more events, and in fact church services are a fairly cost-efficient way of meeting everyone’s needs at the same time. It is also important to bring all the people together so you can talk about budgets and ask for money. During a worship service you can also efficiently advertise other events or projects of the church and offer sign-up lists!

Do we realize that we go to church services for such practical reasons? And yet as a result we use perhaps 90% of our resources on keeping things moving the way they are. We only free up about 10% of our resources to spend on projects that help people outside the church. Like a tithe paid to the world, the church gives a small portion of what it makes for God’s work. In terms of time resources, the ratio may be better. When church-goers participate in events planned by the church, what percent of that time is spent sharing God’s love inside the bounds of the church, rather than outside the church? Is it 80%, perhaps 70% ? What percent of time and resources should be spent on loving one another, compared to keeping the church running?



What would we like these ratios to be? What if we could find a way to operate where less is needed for overhead? What if we could operate using only 10% of our incoming resources, and the other 90% could be used for loving people, shared equally between church-goers and the needs of those outside the church: in our communities, in our country, and around the world.


What about these #s?

• 10%: Overhead for operations
• 45%: Helping one another
• 45%: Helping our community and the world

In addition to streamlining our operational budget and reducing expenses, the church could reach this ratio for operational expenses by expanding its reach to many new faces! But do it without building more buildings or expanding staff hiring. If we do it right, we can grow using a new approach, without cutting budgets – just by not growing them in the same proportions we use today!

This notion of expansion requires a more grassroots approach. More work done by volunteers, and less by staff. The role of staff is to prepare us, and provide an opportunity for us to organize and grow. As church-goers we need to reduce our mindset that the staff should perform the work of God for us – instead of hiring them to do the work of the church, we should hire them only to administrate the organizing of the church, so that we can all do its work. Help us learn by doing! For instance, a sermon on the Good Samaritan, about how we should love our neighbor, should be short and to the point to make sure we are all on the same page. Then, we should spend a larger fraction of time learning about loving our neighbor by actually doing it! Perhaps some face-to-face discussions, perhaps a project outside the church, perhaps an event where people setup booths to show ideas for changing their communities. Certainly if all we do is listen to a great sermon, with a challenge to “go and do it” at the end, we are missing a huge opportunity. We are already sitting with a number of other people that could make it happen. What if we put it into practice right away, helping each other, and then organizing more activities for outside the church?

If we operate this way, then church services will be just one of the many events offered in the church. There will be many more. And they won’t cost money for the church budget. We church-goers can organize them ourselves and expand the scope of influence of the church. In the process we can learn and grow! This is how I want to teach my kids about God. I want to organize with other Christians to do things bigger than I can do myself.

Oh Church, Where Are You Now?

Thank you Cameron Webb for being a guest contributor this time.


Sometimes in the dark of night I think a lot.

There's a lot to think about at the moment, watching a lot of ugly things going on. Many of which are being ignored or out right condoned by many branches of Christianity.

It has often seemed to me that the Church, by in large, has invested many attributes and concepts found throughout the Bible, into that magnificent future envisioned for their souls after death...

It is the place where the last shall be first, where the meek finally inherit the earth. Where there will be no East nor West, male nor female, and so forth, for all shall at last be one.

Where there shall be no more poor or suffering.

Where all these obscure parables and ancient symbologies shall be manifest as the "Kingdom of God" and they shall then inherit it and inhabit it.

Meanwhile, as we all too often turn our gaze on this beatific vision, all around us the meek are abused, the poor go hungry, the servant is down trodden, the alien among us rejected.

Male and female are not one, but splintered, divided, hierarchically stratified, institutionally dominated, and abused.

And all of this appears to be accepted and tolerable, because the great Kingdom is waiting for us on the other side.

This could not be more wrong.

The Kingdom of Heaven is within us.

All of these concepts are not meant to be future attributes of a tantalizing afterlife.

They are CURRENT MANDATES.

Let me say that again:

These are current mandates.

When Jesus took the despised menial role of washing the disciples' feet, and proclaimed that the first shall be last, he didn't mean that there was a reward for oppressed servitude in some distant eternity.
He meant that the transformative power of service was meant to create revolutionary change here and now.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we are not meant to reconcile with the despised outsider in the afterlife, but instead we are to stand in the face of all disapproval and rigid tradition and bind up wounds and care for one another in our need. Right NOW.

I recently visited an older women's Bible study group in a large and privileged church. And I watched them wrestling, powerless, with what could be done because of the neglect and lack of care of widows in the organization.  Somehow, in this church, the idea of genuine religion meaning caring for orphans and widows in their distress (distinctly commanded in the book of James) has gone completely over the side. Real suffering, both emotional and financial is going on in that church, completely ignored. It tore my heart.

A lot of things are tearing my heart right now.

Many churches, absorbed in a far flung future afterlife and high holy ideals, ignore the life they should be living in the now. I suspect they ignore it because it's convenient. They ignore it because doing so won't upset their privilege and power structures.  They ignore it because they can twist the words and life of Jesus to serve their own purposes.  They ignore it because they can wield current power.  And in doing so, they neglect and destroy the very message they seek to impart. 

They ignore suffering, pain, poverty, and institutional hatred. They often create that suffering.

And then they do not understand when they are confronted as hypocrites.

In the now was where Jesus' life was lived. His life, his example, his call to live the earthly mandate of love and service is where transformation lies.

Those who have "come to the cross" must walk back down the hill into the daily life they still must live.

And they are called to LIVE as he lived.

Passionately involved.
Loving unconditionally.
Serving unreservedly.
Boldly subversive.
Engaged rather than disengaged.
Resisting hatred, prejudice, poverty, pain, and suffering.

This is the mandate your saviour gave you, oh Church.
Where are you now?

Challenges for the church

by Brad Duncan

What are the challenges for the church today?  What forces are driving the church?  How should we respond to these forces and challenges?  This article continues the discussion.

These posts are excerpts from a full-length article and presentation.  For more information or the full documents, please email me at GraceEmerges@gmail.com

Drivers

Let me start by briefly describing the primary forces and factors driving the church today.

The church is at the middle of a myriad of forces. If you think about God’s work and all that God is trying to do in the world to save it and bring healing, God wants the church to be the center of the solution.

People need God, and they need the church. They need the church to organize, mobilize, and exemplify the message and work of God. God works through people. He always has, and he always will as long as we are on this Earth!

On the other hand the church is at a particular place in its history, driven by its own traditions, its own story and expectations of its members. You can also call it inertia – the church is moving in a certain direction for historical reasons, and changing that direction may require a large force to make it move a different direction!

One such force is the power of changing ideas. As society starts to recognize many of the mistakes and inequities in our traditional way of thinking, and as we start to open up to new ways of thinking, the church feels the pressure to tackle these ideas and consider how they should affect the church.

I know very well that everyone has their own perspective on various social issues, and I am not assuming everyone agrees with me on controversial questions. However, I think we can all see that society is changing, trying to do a better job of bringing the concept that All People are Created Equal into reality. Where our old laws and societal structures created systematic inequity, we are working to fix that. We as a country are trying to bring better opportunities for ALL KIDS in the education system, better health care for ALL PEOPLE, better access to the same services. 

We don’t want only the rich, only the white, only the men, or only the heterosexual, to be treated fairly. 

That wouldn’t be fairness at all! That’s called elitism and prejudice. Today’s understanding of such inequity is that it’s morally wrong! 

This is one example of progress in society that will affect the church. The church has to adapt and change, responding to these forces, or it will lose relevance and become out of touch with the people it is trying to reach. 

In one or two generations, as the mindset of these new generations drifts further from the traditional mindset, will the church adapt? Or become ancient history? The faster the times change, the faster the church must respond.

As a church we need to respond to these forces, and MOVE where motion is required. Let me explain further by addressing the various challenges the church is facing today and then describing how we can respond to them.

Challenges

I don't have room in one article to cover all the challenges, so I'll break it into several posts.

The Mass Exodus

The church is feeling it – people are leaving. You can find more about this global trend all over the blogosphere so I won’t give the supporting details here. But it seems the church is losing its influence due to sheer numbers of people it is reaching.

This trend is not isolated to the church. People are spending less at retail businesses in favor of the convenience and selection of online shopping. Companies that depend on the old market forces to sell products are being blindsided by this new reality. Essentially a store in the mall has to compete with the cheapest prices anywhere on the internet. When I go to a store and see a price on an item I think about buying, I often check its price on my Amazon app on my smartphone. I know you all do it! If the price is cheaper and I can wait a few days, the item arrives at my doorstep in 3 days with free shipping!

Everywhere in the business world, companies are feeling the massive weight of technology change. If they don’t adapt and leverage what new technology can offer to change their business and reach a new audience, they will quickly stop having customers. We have seen many retail chains go out of business. I’ll never again get to shop at a Blockbuster Video, Circuit City, CompUSA, or Borders books. I actually feel sad about that. But there will be more retail chains that go the way of memory. Will it be Macy’s, Sears, Target?

Will I even be able to go to stores or malls in the future?

The tech industry is feeling the same crunch. Due to a crowded competitive landscape, companies that embrace the leading edge also risk going out of business due to competitors, through investing in the wrong technology, through mistakes in manufacturing (like smartphones catching on fire, for example!), or by not understanding consumers well enough. Companies that lead the industry, like Apple, also have to lead through numerous transformative changes. They have to keep leading, and not depend on products that worked in the past.

Can the church also respond to this reality?

The kingdom of God has to adapt to the times and world it is trying to reach. 

We must innovate, and we must embrace change. Fortunately, God can see over the horizon and understand what changes are needed. With God guiding us we can navigate these changes and find a new model that will work for future generations. The model that worked in the past may not work as well in the future.

In particular, what about worship services offered by churches? Do people still want to go to them? Will they continue to go in the future?

New Ideas in Old Wineskins

Jesus told a rather cryptic story about how you can’t pour new wine into old wineskins. Apparently when you do that they leak, or worse, burst open! Since we don’t use leather wine bottles these days this example is foreign to us. But it’s interesting. It’s true that when you try to adapt to change, the old system may not be able to take it. This is maybe the #1 challenge for the church. The changes it needs to make may unravel it.

In order to resist the painful breaks that will occur as the church tries to adapt, some people will build walls to protect the old ways.

Without even meaning to, these walls create a more country-club-like atmosphere. Without intentionally excluding anyone, the church can become a refuge for similar-thinking people trying to protect what they think is right from the tide of changing ideas around them.

As a case in point, from what I’ve experienced, many churches are responding to social issues with silent neutrality. They think that by avoiding the hard stuff they can stay out of the controversy and continue business as usual. Like in my examples of education and medicine above, some churches seem content to stick to the traditional way of operating, while knowing that it can’t reach many people that don’t fit into this system.

But here we have a clear example in Jesus. He came to change things. He was willing to break a few wineskins and tear down many walls in order to let people know what God wanted to bring in the world.

Take a close look at Luke 4, and the passages in Isaiah that Jesus was referencing. Do you see how Jesus was trying to bring about positive but disruptive changes to society and to religion?

If you gather all the changes Jesus was trying to bring from these passages in Isaiah you get a huge list!

I don’t read anywhere in the story of Jesus about how he tried to maintain the old system because he was worried that people would be upset, or that families would not have a place to feel comfortable, or that budgets would struggle. 

He had limited time on this Earth and he didn’t mince words. 

He said “Today this prophecy is fulfilled! The time is now upon you and these changes are happening, whether you like it or not!” I’m paraphrasing the conversation recorded in Luke 4. 

Jesus was referring to all the prophecies in the old testament about what he had come to do. To do God’s work, he had to bring disruptive change.

Are we too locked into our current way of thinking to allow this type of disruptive change to take hold today?  If so, this inertia, or unwillingness to move, may be our biggest challenge to overcome.

Who is this guy?

Based on his words, this guy is a wormy apple

Luke 6:43-45

43-45 “You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.

Luke 6:24-26

But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made.
    What you have is all you’ll ever get.

25 And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself.
    Your self will not satisfy you for long.
And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games.
    There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.

26 “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

Luke 6:39-40

39-40 He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.

--Jesus

Welcome to the )open(church!

by Brad Duncan

Hi! My name is Brad, and I’m trying to change the face of Christianity.

Like me, most Christians want to change the world. We want to share God’s love. We want to share the transforming and contagious power of grace and freedom, which comes from knowing God and opening up to the good things that God wants to bring to us.

The message of Jesus was that the kingdom of God has arrived on Earth to bring God’s love to mankind. It arrived when Jesus came to Earth, but it didn’t leave! It remained here as the church. Jesus continues to work through us, bringing good things to the world.

Most Christians are signed up to be a part of this great work that God is doing. We believe the church is the continuing work of Jesus, with ongoing guidance and help from the Holy Spirit.

However, unlike me, many Christians are pretty happy with the job the global Christian church is doing. If I take a survey of Christians I will find a strong sentiment that they don’t want to change the church very much or lose what they have built. They wouldn’t want it to change, and are concerned about the declines in church attendance in our country. There is a well-known drift away from church these days, toward individual spirituality but away from Christian community. But the world needs the church, and we need each other.

I want to start the ball rolling – and start a discussion of how the church could change. Let me start with a bit of background about myself, and then let me take you through a description of what I see as the major challenges the church is facing today. After that I want to propose how we can respond to those challenges. If we respond with a willingness for significant transformation of what we are doing as the church, together we can change the face of Christianity.

How my heart changed

Schools

Let’s start with me. I have a unique perspective on how new ways of thinking are needed. I have two special-needs kids. Both are highly intelligent kids, and the adults in their lives always tell me how brilliant and refreshing they are to talk to. 

However, they don’t fit into the usual cookie-cutter educational system. 

They both have their quirks and challenges that make it virtually impossible for them to perform under demand in a large classroom setting. They can't take tests, deliver reams of homework, and even get along socially without major changes to the approach to education compared to the majority of kids. From what I’ve heard about 80% of kids nationally fit well into the standard educational approach, while the rest, well, they struggle for one reason or another that could be remedied using a more individualized approach.

Fortunately my family moved to Massachusetts 10 years ago (my boys are now 18 and 13), which is possibly the most progressive state for education in the US. Though they struggled many times, the system was able to adapt to them. My older son was sent to a small private school, paid for by our town, and now he is about to graduate as a well-adjusted and happy teenager who knows what he wants to do with his life. I could not be prouder!  

My younger son has an IEP in the public school. That stands for Individualized Education Plan. He gets a number of services and individualized attention in the school, but he gets to stay with his friends and participate in the mainstream to the fullest extent possible. For him, it is a good fit and he is doing well. On the other hand sometimes we have to remind the teachers of the accommodations listed in the IEP – so they don’t expect the same production on demand of work that other kids can do. He will simply shut down if pushed like that. 

Both kids showed me that you have to find the individual creative ability in each child and unlock it, for them to succeed. You can’t depend on the old tried and true system to meet their needs. Many of the kids in our country that don’t fall into the 80% mainstream are struggling. States are cutting education budgets, and class sizes are increasing – all fall outs from the recent recession. Nationwide, we need to increase our attention and resources for education. Other states should follow the example of Massachusetts in my opinion.

Medicine

There’s more. My wife has a super-rare disease. It doesn’t even have a name yet and so is described in 6 long words. Doctors couldn’t explain why she had a stroke 5 years ago that landed her in a wheel chair. Numerous tests and 12 neurologists later, we finally found out what was going on. A specialist in medical genetics suggested that she have a skin biopsy to measure her nerve count, and she was found to have less than 1% of the usual count of small-fiber nerves. This is probably happening due to an overactive immune system which is destroying the nerves. This affects pretty much every system in her body. Fortunately, with this nerve biopsy test result she was able to get into one of the few clinics that treats this disease, which happens to be in Boston near where I live. 

Again I thank God for the progressive thinking in Massachusetts! The treatment is mostly new and not fully accepted by medical practices. But it is really helping! With the help of IVIG treatment (immune globulin infusions), my wife’s disease is stable and not progressing. The nerve counts are staying about the same but she can keep fighting the disease and holding ground against it getting worse. It was a hard adjustment to live with chronic disease, but I thank God for “stable” every day! However the usual medical establishment failed to help my wife. Only the most leading edge, new approach, had anything to offer.

Technology

Then, there’s my work experience. In my job I work to bring transformative technology to the automotive industry. I work for a software company that helps the world design cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks. Convincing manufacturing companies to switch their process to use new software is always a challenge. They have an entrenched process that involves building hundreds of prototype vehicles by hand and testing them in labs, on test tracks and on the road. The software I helped to design can change all of that, and companies can use a computer-driven process to design the vehicle much better and much cheaper! It’s exciting! It requires a new way of thinking, and willingness to let go of a more hands-on, but less effective, process. It requires trusting a virtual process where the car or truck exists in software long before it is driven on the road.

The Church?

Maybe because of these factors in my own life, or maybe because of some root inclination in my own spirit, I have always questioned the church. In fact, I feel that all of us are both qualified for and tasked with questioning the church.  As we know and understand, WE are the church, and WE need to get this right.

Definitely my questioning intensified in the last 5-10 years, and I started blogging and participating in the broad online movement to make Christianity more progressive.

It starts with “why”?

Why is the church designed and operated the way it is today? What is its mission, and is it accomplishing that mission?

After multiple times of working through these questions, I have improved my own understanding of the forces and issues facing the church today, and further, how I believe that we can respond to these issues.

We can’t sit still – if we see ourselves in the mirror and find that we need to change something, the only right answer is to embrace positive change. In Christianity we call this repentance! It simply means that we are willing to change our thoughts and actions, in response to what God is saying. With a humble attitude of repentance, the church too can change.  WE can change.  

More coming soon!...

These posts are excerpts from a full-length article and presentation.  For more information or the full documents, please email me at GraceEmerges@gmail.com