"We're Not in Kansas Anymore"

I enjoyed preaching the sermon Sunday, which reflects the energy I have around the topic of being Christian in the 21st century. Sunday's sermon focused on being church in the 21st century. I am certain that I don't have a handle on exactly what it means that the church is experiencing a seismic shift in how it lives out its calling as the body of Christ. But, it certainly feels like we are in a time of dramatic change. I struggle with what that change might be because I serve a church with stained glass windows, I wear a robe, and we are fairly liturgical. Much of what I read about the changing church sees those attributes as hindrances as we live as the church. But, I see so much value in the traditions and ministries that this church (and others like it) have. How to claim the ministries, while still engaging the next generation seems to be our challenge.

Here are my sermon notes from Sunday.

Move 1: Does church seem different to you?

a. an older couple moves to a Midwestern town. They begin looking for a church home. They self-identify themselves as conservative and evangelical, so they visit churches with that theological bent first. Never finding a comfortable church to join, they end up attending, but never joining a mainline Presbyterian Church. Why? Because the conservative, evangelical churches all have contemporary worship and the Presbyterian church has traditional worship.

b. a young couple have their kids and decide it is time to start to church. They visit a very large church in the area. There is a lot they like about the church – lots of different programming; they can worship Sat. night; Sunday morning early, or Sunday late morning; there is babysitting provided any time there is a function at the church. They love the upbeat, contemporary music. But, they never feel the sense of community they long for – too many people; changing faces each time they attend a different function. They never seem to meet the same people twice.

So they try a smaller membership church. There is much to like about the church. Each week they see the same people sitting in the same pews; the people are friendly and inviting; they feel a sense of community and connectedness they do not feel at the larger church. But, those traditional hymns are kind of boring and the formality of the worship (the minister even wears a robe) is less exciting that worshiper at the larger church. And, with worship only on Sunday mornings and Christian education only on Sunday mornings, their busy schedules with the kids make it hard to make it to church.
So, they end up going nowhere.

c. Studies of people's religious affiliations show the number of Americans who claim to be spiritual, but not connected with a community of faith rapidly rising.
As you experience church, do you feel this pulls and tugs at the church as you know it?

d. Phyllis Tickle – church has a major shift every 500 years or so. Tickle began by referencing the work of Anglican Bishop Mark Dyer, who contends that every 500 years the church has “a giant rummage sale.” She cited the Great Reformation of the 16th century, the Great Schism of the 11th century, the Great Decline and Fall of the 6th century, and the Great Transformation 500 years before that as examples.

1. “Rummage sale.” Church shedding what it no longer finds valuable, and moving in a new direction.

2. If we move forward from the early church that grew out of Christ's resurrection, then we are in the next great shift, following the Reformation (which gave birth to the Presbyterian Church).

Do you feel this shift? This fall we will be reflecting on what it means to be the church in the 21st century.

Move 2: We begin with an affirmation – God's church will survive.

a. not the first time

b. Psalm 137

1.can they be God's people if they are not living in Jerusalem and cannot make pilgrimage back to Jerusalem?

2.Learn to affirm that they can worship God, they can be God's people, even in a foreign land.

c. Acts 2

1. the beginning of the early church.

2. Radically different than the faith community of God's people.

3. Living in response to the resurrection.

d. The church will survive because Christ called it into being.

Move 3: Role of technology

a. cartoon with two people leaving church. One comments to the other, "You know God Googles us to see how we're behaving."

b. some people see technology as the shift;

1.In fact, technology may be playing an important part in the changing church.

2.But it is not the shift, but a tool.

c. Lots of opportunities

1.Presbyterian Today

2.Prayer chain; elink

2.Web-sites

d.lots of challenges.

1.How to be community if you seldom see each other face-to-face?

2.How do we deal with the massive information available to us?

Move 4: Church is “called out”
a. Greek word “ekklesia”

1.Called out

2. Called out of the world to be the body of Christ.

3. Called out and then sent back into the world.

b. Called out to a new life.

1.as followers of Christ, we ought to be changed.

2.The church models that change to the world.

3.Our task is not to justify the ways of the world, or align ourselves with the world, but to live as Christ' body in the world.

4. One of the hallmarks of the 21st century may be less emphasis on Head and more emphasis on heart. One of the primary characteristics of emergence Christianity is that it is more interested in narrative than in doctrine. Tickle recounted a favorite story in which she was addressing a group in Atlanta about the virgin birth. After her talk, a young man, who had abandoned his role scraping dishes to listen intently, came up to her and said, “I don’t understand what their problem is. [The virgin birth] is so absolutely beautiful, it has to be true whether it happened or not.”

c.called out to be a part of a faith community.

1.Acts 2.

Conclusion: Dorothy: [has just arrived in Oz, looking around and awed at the beauty and splendor] Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more....
As we look around, we notice that we are not in the Presbyterian Church of the 1950s anymore; or the 1850s anymore; or the 1750s
But perhaps we can see the beauty and splendor of the opportunity to be the body of Christ in the world in the 21st century.