Book challenges Transition Team to consider how church can be ‘missional’ in 21st century
Among the many things I read – fiction/non-fiction, e-mails, snail mails, histories, and the like – one of the more fascinating pieces of late has been a book by Patrick Kiefert called We Are Here Now, which our Transition Team has been perusing. It talks about the new shape of Church in the 21st Century, a church that is “missional” in nature, focused in its spirituality, program, and way of life towards proclaiming Christ in a hands-on way in our communities.
Pastor Bob Brite.
The central question that the Transition Team and others keep coming back to time and time again in the life of FCC is: What is the ministry of First Christian Church of Minneapolis? Numerous surveys have been taken over the years, numerous goal-settings and projects have taken place, numerous things have been tried in the life of the body, but the challenge of answering that question concretely has loomed over everything that’s been done. Transformation in ministry cannot take place unless that question can be answered.
Of course, part of the answer, expressed concretely in conversations about three years ago, is that the church exists for the spiritual comfort of its members; in other words, the church is for “us.” That’s true, but only a small part of the truth; if a church exists for itself it’s only a social club that invokes God on occasion, and such a body without a defined ministry will die, and perhaps should. Two years ago the elders defined goals of transformation – in worship, in spirituality, in leadership, in diversity, and in ministry to the neighborhood (remember those, folks?) We’ve made progress in a lot of those areas, but the central question still remains: What is the ministry of FCC?
One of the points that came up in Transition Team discussions last week was that starting a new worship movement in FCC wasn’t going to give the church a future unless we ALL work on transforming who we are now. So what is the ministry of the body of FCC to be? I hope you all work hard, thinking and praying, to answer that question, and share that answer with a Transition Team member?
I’d like to see YOU on Sunday!
Bob
