So...
Tomorrow AM, I, and fellow C@PC'ers, Ben & Angie Walker, Andrew Moyer, Jerold & Christy Jay, along with Corey Godbey (Great Plains Hispanic Min. Coord.), Gabriel Marrero (Great Plains Hispanic Min. Evangelist), will all be heading North to Norfolk, Nebraska ,to be part of leading a District Training for Pastors and Lay Leaders from the Elkhorn Valley District of the Great Plains Annual Conference. At this training we will be working from a "Zombie" message theme and talking about Awakening the UNdead, Revitalizing the Local Church, and Redefining the Mission Field.
Below, is a blog post from back in February of 2010 when I was first bouncing this idea of a Postexilic Church around. I ran across this old entry as I prepared for this upcoming District Training. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts. And, as you do, let me know your opinion, is there still hope for mainline denominational churches like the United Methodist Church?
Tomorrow AM, I, and fellow C@PC'ers, Ben & Angie Walker, Andrew Moyer, Jerold & Christy Jay, along with Corey Godbey (Great Plains Hispanic Min. Coord.), Gabriel Marrero (Great Plains Hispanic Min. Evangelist), will all be heading North to Norfolk, Nebraska ,to be part of leading a District Training for Pastors and Lay Leaders from the Elkhorn Valley District of the Great Plains Annual Conference. At this training we will be working from a "Zombie" message theme and talking about Awakening the UNdead, Revitalizing the Local Church, and Redefining the Mission Field.
Below, is a blog post from back in February of 2010 when I was first bouncing this idea of a Postexilic Church around. I ran across this old entry as I prepared for this upcoming District Training. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts. And, as you do, let me know your opinion, is there still hope for mainline denominational churches like the United Methodist Church?
The
"Postexilic" Church!?! (Redux)
"'So, what the heck is a 'Postexilic' Church?' A good friend of mine asked me that question
as I tried to explain to him the concept of the re-awakening of denominational
churches all across our state and nation. "That, is a good question," I said. And, here is my answer as best as I can
remember it...I believe that there is an "awakening" going on in "mainline" denominations all across our nation. And, as a Lifelong United Methodist, I refuse to believe that the "mainline" denominational church is terminal. Oh yes, we may be, or may have been terminally ill. But, we are NOT dead! We are NOT hopeless! We are NOT beyond the reach of the Spirit and the Plan and the Purpose of God. And, I absolutely refuse to believe that God is done with us.
We may have lost more life than we can even really conceive, or comprehend. We may have made some significant blunders as we have "coasted" through the last 3-5 decades of our recent past history. And, we may have purposefully closed far more churches than we have passionately planted. But today, at this moment, there are local churches that are arising, in communities all across our nation. And, they are awakening from their deathbeds and their comatose stupors, and they are breathing deeply again, praying passionately, taking drastic action, and refusing to be those who "keep on waiting... waiting for the world to change."
All across our nation there are churches, leaders and pastors arising. They are "returning from the exile" if you will, and they are calling on God to show them the way to rebuild. They are hearing the message of the Spirit deep in their hearts, just as the prophet Zechariah did in Zechariah 4:1-14 where he was given a message for another postexilic leader. A message for a person of his time, a leader, a rebuilder, a visionary, a man named Zerubbabel.
That message "then" and "there", to a postexilic people, is our message "here" and "now" as the postexilic Church. Here it is... There is sufficiency enough in God for the task at hand. We can be rebuilt, reconstructed, reassembled, and restored to relevance and significance in the lives and the eyes of a people who are still searching for something far more vast and real than anything this world has afforded them. Even though we are now truly the result of what we have done and that which we have been, we are not yet fully that which we will or can be. And, the message now is that we can live to see the task completed. We can be a part of this great reawakening. We can be used by God in this enormous task of reconstruction. And, as we let God use us in this work, the people who watch and see it will shout "Grace, grace to it!"
Our time is now. The hope is returning. I can see new life in the eyes of the body of Christ.
Rob Schmutz,
2/17/2010"
2 comments:
I like it. Yes we definitely need an awakening in and out of all of our churches. If your not standing firm in your heart and in your personal believe then things around you can and will crumble. You must seek for truth. All the time. You must get to know your right and left hand people helping you. All the ones immediately around you aren't always the right ones. This making waves. Jesus walked on water yes. The boat was there for saving. Yes. The ones I want in the boat with me are the ones that won't sink the ship.
Your post about the Postexilic church is very well written. I enjoyed reading it. It's a great half time speech for when the team is down. OMG take me now, I've done a sport analogy. What did you really say? (I'm thinking of the scene in Bull Durham where Costner's character gives Nuke a list of sayings to use when he's interviewed.) We're down now. We've been down before. We rested on our laurels. I believe in us. I believe in God. Can we do it team?! You should add a link of Micah doing a cheer.
This is going to sound funny but I read very similar reawakening commentary about labor unions from labor leaders. I was in a reformist movement at the time. We banged away at them for eight years. Labor Leaders spent eight years fighting against us tooth and toe nail every, and I mean every, step of the way. It turned out that they were very interested in talking about reform just not in doing the part that affected them.
Let’s take it past the church and talk about a reawakening in Christianity and an interest in leading people to Jesus and salvation.
What is currently getting the most press in regard to the faith? “Religious freedom” as put forth and defined by various religious and political figures. Look to Uganda if you want to see how these teachings bear fruit. A freedom defined as the right to deny service to a specific group of people. In this instance homosexuals. Is that the best face of Christianity? Is that the best agenda that we could define Christianity with?
Whether it's right or wrong to compare what is taking place with gays to the same right to deny service to people because of their color is immaterial. It's where the majority of our population is being positioned on the issue and no amount of religious hate spew is going to change that.
I am from the time when black people were openly discriminated against. Christianity was used as a defense of that discrimination: I served with officers who would quote scriptures in defense of racism.
As Christians we're supposed to provide service to people. We should (and I most assuredly include myself in this failing) have been there on steps of our state government in support of gay people.
It would have caused a major, and I mean major, schism in the United Methodist Church if the call had gone out to all of our pastors and religious leaders to stand in support of a minority of people and call out their congregations in opposition to their being denied their basic human rights.
What most often catches my attention is that young people, including those often-maligned teenagers, show up on the side against discrimination. I was with high schoolers when they rallied against the hate-filled scripture-spewing Phelps clan. How many young unbelievers saw the Phelps family as the representatives of our faith?
How many unbelievers see what's taking place across the country under the guise of religious freedom as being representative of our faith? The comments I see time and time again in the news and hear in conversation is that church people need to keep their beliefs in their churches.
The leaders of the faith had the choice of being the tip of the spear in championing the rights of those being persecuted, reaching out to them in love and support rather than hate and denial. Religious freedom isn't selling. We already have that. Giving Christians the legal right to refuse to act like Christians is going in the wrong direction.
Pastor Rob, you mentioned once about me going into the ministry. In the current world of the Methodist Church, I would only last as long as the first gay couple that asked me to marry them because I would marry them in a heartbeat. I would not anguish over the decision. My heart would not be troubled. There is no turmoil in my soul. It's why I picked Matthew 22: 39-40 as my life verse.
So, as for what churches should do I'll just refer to my blog post about getting the list ready to place on the door as to who is welcome and under what terms.
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