A New Thing

Once every so often in the history of the worshiping community, going all the way back to Moses, something happens and there is a major change. They may come quickly, like in the time of Moses. We could even argue that it literally happened overnight, but reading the rest of the book of Exodus shows us how it took years to re-set the community and its relationship with God. 

Church historians have found that these types of things happen about once every 500 years. There was Moses, then the united monarchy, then the Babylonian exile, then the birth of Jesus, the way the church became synonymous with the Roman empire, the times of the Crusades, and the Protestant reformation. The church has continually changed over time.

It has been just over 500 years since the Protestant Reformation, and something new is coming. It may be spurred on by a global pandemic that changed the way we all meet and worship. Whatever is coming, I hope the church will become what it once was, an open and welcoming community for everyone, especially people who have been ostracized by society in some way. The church has always been considered a haven. Anyone who comes there for help will surely not find harm.

Sometimes people have come to other harm at the hands of the church than physical harm. Sometimes they have been told they don't belong. I think that is at the heart of the drop in membership in many churches. Saying everyone is welcome and then treating some as if they aren't welcome is hypocrisy. In our modern world, that type of hypocrisy will never fly.

My dream is that all those who saw that hypocrisy in the church and left it will now come back and together we can make the church a place of true welcome. Many of us church leaders know we aren't there now. We know we need you, you who gave up on church, to help us re-make this beautiful institution.

If you are wondering where to start, please message me, and I will share what I have with you, but we need you, just as we need all people made in God's image.

I will make sure the door is open for you. You are loved, you are valued, you are needed, and if the church ever told you otherwise, I'm so sorry.