Four Opportunities For The New Year

“The secret of the Christian life is a series of new beginnings” George Sweeting

In my home area of northwestern Wisconsin there is a village which is prospering and attractive.  It’s not my home-town, I’m sorry to say, it’s ten miles up the road.  Back during my adolescent years, my village was prospering and the town up the road was pretty dumpy looking.

What happened?  A great new mayor or village administrator?  A big, shiny new factory?  No.  What happened was a tornado.  My sister got a cat as a result (it showed up in her yard) but the village got a fresh start, after it was just about wiped out by the twister.

In a sense, we’ve all been through a tornado.  We were hit by: (1) the COVID virus itself (2) the controversy over our response to the pandemic (3) a season of political strife we haven’t seen in America since the Civil War.  As a result, most of our churches are “running” at 50% capacity on Sunday mornings.

In the aftermath of our “cultural tornado” people are staying home out of fear of the virus, they are discouraged about the political scene (even angry with God, in some cases), confused about the role of the church in our nation, wondering what happened to the pre-tribulation rapture and angry with their churches.

I would never want to diminish how hard this has been for church leaders.

But all is not lost.  Like rebuilding after a fire or a tornado, the situation does present some opportunities.

1. We have the opportunity to re-think the role of the Christian and the Church in the world.

Maybe we didn’t teach this clearly or strongly enough.  Maybe people just weren’t listening.  If our members had understood, they wouldn’t be angry with God and their church’s leaders for allowing the “bad guys” to take over the country. In any case, we have the chance to “re-disciple” our people concerning Christian social ethics.

I won’t tell you what to teach, but I encourage you to take some time – as much time as your church needs – to reset our Christian expectations for life in a post-Christian nation.

2. We have the opportunity to re-consider our own congregation’s God-given mission.

If we’re not here to control or fix the government or stop every social injustice from occurring, then what are we here for?  There’s no question that many American Christians are confused about the purpose of the Church, so this is our time to ask the basic strategic planning questions: “Why are we here” “What are we supposed to be doing?” “Who are we here to serve?” “Are we trying to be the best church in the community or the best church for the community?” “How  are we going to do what we have been placed here to do?”

3. We have the opportunity to re-invent our churches as we re-open for business.

Many pastors are telling me that they are taking strategic advantage of the closing down of their programs.  Do they all need to be restarted?  Can they be re-started in a new form?  Are our “old” ministries the right ones for working our mission and pursuing our dream?

Certainly this needs to be done carefully and prayerfully, but if inertia  means anything, than it has to be easier to not re-start  a program than to stop  one which is already in progress.

In a timely move, Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger are launching a new, post-COVID-world edition of their classic book, Simple Church.

4. We have the opportunity to offer vibrant hope and loving community to unbelievers.

If Christians are struggling with having life-transforming hope and loving fellowship during this time of stress and loneliness, think of how hard it has been for people who are outside the faith and outside the Church!  If ever our nation needed to see us at our best, it is right now.

We’re supposed to have this unity thing down pat (John 17, Romans 14:1-15:7, Ephesians 4:1-6, Philippians 1:27-2:11).  We’re called to “do love” like nobody else on earth (John 13:34,35).  We’re expected to have an attention-grabbing hope (I Peter 3:15)., We have the resources of the power and presence of Christ to make all of this happen (Ephesians 3:20, 21, 5:22,23).

Can we help our people to see the urgency of this, right now?

It’s true that we’ve historically had our struggles with these callings, for the simple reason that achieving such hope and extraordinary fellowship is so hard for sinful human beings.

But this means that when we do achieve unusually loving, welcoming, hope-filled cultures, it is truly something spectacular.  A genuinely Spirit-filled, healthy church is a glorious thing.  Let’s set before our congregations the challenge to be – by God’s grace – what the world needs us to be.

Maybe God is giving us the new beginning which we needed.