Pilgrimage Ponderings
Power, Prestige, and Security
Len Sweet has some interesting things to say about the church in the podcast "Strip Joints and the Church's Junkie Problem" that you can download at http://www.fastcastblast.com/podcasts/info/3.
He says that our culture is addicted to power, prestige, and security, and the church is right in there with the culture.
From where I sit, our biggest addiction is to security. So many folks are uninterested in change taking place at church because it's the one place in their life where they can maintain the illusion of security. Things seem like they will always be the same at church. We want to sing the same hymns we've always sang, say the same creed we have always said, and see the same people we have always seen. If we like the preacher, we want him to stay forever.
The tremendous irony in all this is that as congregations, if we are not growing, we are dying, whether we can see that or not. I think if you looked at every congregation that is on the verge of closing and asked them to tell their story, they would probably talk about the "good ol' days" when everything was going well. And then they would share about some key person either dying or moving away. The story is always one of loss. And for whatever reason, there is seldom a discussion of how they tried to reach out to new people and welcome them into congregational life as equals.
Jesus said that those who would save their life must lose it. And I think for our congregations to be vital places of growth and discipleship, we have to be willing to give up our dependence on security, on keeping things familiar at the expense of closing our circle to new people, new ideas, and new movements of the Spirit.
To have the security of knowing that our church will be here for a long, long time, we have to let go of the security that comes with keeping things the same.
