Wednesday's thoughts

The Future of the Church

There is an ongoing debate about the future of the United Methodist Church and the opinions are a different as the people making their opinions known. There isn't going to be one simple answer to this but many options and each to be applied to each particular church. Given the variety of churches in our denomination and given that our church is international the cultural contexts will dictate the direction appropriate to the setting.

There are "church growth" people who think the church ought to take growth as its primary motivation. In truth, at some point we are going to have to address our decline as a denomination. We must pay attention to the patterns of decline and it is important to discover why we have declined and how we might reverse the decline. The concern I have for this approach is that it calls for some practices that lead us to a lack of integrity in the name of growth. We are directed to know how much people give and pledge to the church. I find that invasive and inappropriate and if that is what is required to call the members of the church into accountability I would rather not be part of it. The focus on numbers could also have a chilling effect on the program of the church and could tend to force us to develop a church program that appeals to the least common denominator at the expense of moving the church forward with a program that is launched from a position of excellence and greatness. In other words, if we appeal to what we think people want we may overlook what people need but don't know they want and the church settles for less at a time when it has a chance to reach for the most.

There are worship people who think the church ought to surrender to the will of a shallow theology and a worship quality that encourages a superficial relationship with Jesus Christ and music in worship that is mindless and strange. At First Church Rebecca has developed an alternative worship service that is interesting without being shallow with music that is singable but with words that have theological depth. She and Ryan have elevated alternative worship and have attracted a small, but dedicated, following.

I think we have addressed the church growth issue and the future of the church issue by maintaining a sense of integrity and excellence. It don't see radical change coming with the change of leadership and I am hopeful that First Church will continue to be a leader in the denomination and will continue to prove you can move forward without losing your mind and without surrendering your principles.

If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net

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I look forward to hearing from you.

Charles Schuster