ChurchNow

I’ve been praying and thinking a lot lately about the intersection of church and culture. I feel as if there has been some major road construction underway, but the church seems to have either ignored or disbelieved the rerouting signs. Here’s one example:

Pastors spend about twenty hours a week preparing their sermons, and another 3-4 hours preparing to lead the other parts of worship, yet the Sunday morning worship hour is becoming less and less the touchpoint for connection to church and faith. We have to disabuse ourselves of the notion that the work of church happens on Sunday and takes place inside the walls of the building. If the church is going to be a beacon of the gospel that Jesus, as God in the flesh, revealed, we have to understand the schedule correctly.

We are not on an NFL schedule, where all week is practice for Sunday's performance. Sunday is the practice, and every day of the week is the real deal. We are not quarterbacks, who learn how to call and execute a series of plays. It isn't a game, or even a competition at all.

It is a dance, and the music, which we must be open to hear, is Love, and this Love is beholden neither to a particular tune and beat, nor to a select set of instruments. The steps we must learn to take cannot be  memorized. They morph, moment by moment, situation by situation. We must learn to feel them in our bones, and to trust that what we feel is enough. It won't always be right, but it's not about correctness and certitude. It's about relationships and community. The dance, which is only learned step by step, as we go along, is Grace.

Stumble on, sisters and brothers. The world is dying to step with us.

© 2014 Todd Jenkins