dying church?

Ever feel like the church is dying? Ever wonder why?

I believe the church begins to die when we care more about worship than people.

When I ask people to tell me about their ministry, most people respond by saying, "I sing in the choir" or "I'm a lector" or "I'm on the altar guild."

That's amazing, given that Jesus never said, "Worship me."

What he said was, "Love one another;"  "Feed my sheep."

I'm not saying we shouldn't worship or that worship doesn't matter. Of course it does. People are often drawn to a church because they find sanctuary, strength, community, and healing in worship.

But worship shouldn't be all we do. Worship shouldn't trump our call to care for people.

I once heard someone say, "Worship is where I fill my tank. I come to church to get healed from the hurts of the week, and get renewed so I can go out there and do it again."

I have a different vision. I work all week doing my very best to make a difference for others. Team ministry, individual ministry, one-on-one, with groups, personally and professionally I'm listening for God's call and doing the best I can to answer. I try to accompany people on their journeys and be resourceful to them in their needs.

On Sunday, I come to celebrate the successes and beg mercy for the failures. On Sunday, I put my pride in check and give thanks that God partners with us. On Sunday, I join part of my paycheck with the gifts of other people to ensure that God's work in the world has resources. On Sunday, I'm drawn again to a vision of God's peaceable reign where all are fed and none have been forgotten. On Sunday, I pray with the community for strength and vision. On Sunday, I am reminded there is more work to do and find myself grateful that I am called to it.

Worship may be central, but it's not all we are called to do. Without our work in neighborhood and world, worship has little power or meaning.

I don't know about your church, but here are some neighborhood issues facing mine:

Eighty-five percent of the students at the elementary school two blocks from the church are statistically described as "economically disadvantaged" and 60% "at risk." The numbers aren't much better at the middle and high schools.  All three schools have been graded at "Academically Acceptable," the lowest passing grade for schools. School counselors say bullying is their biggest problem. On one school rating website, parents report it's teacher apathy. Two blocks in the other direction is a section-8 housing complex where every single family lives at or below the poverty line.

When the church cares as much about these people as it cares about its worship, the church will come alive again. We start by talking to them.

What good is, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? James 2:14-16  Want more? Click here to read James 2:14-26

song above all songs

The Songs of Songs, by almost all accounts, is a strange piece of literature to include in the Bible. There is no mention of God by name anywhere.  And this text, a bit of poetry sung from a bride to her bridegroom was rather racy for its time. So much so that the Interpreter's Bible reports that Jewish doctors use to recommend that their young patients not read it at all until age 30.

So why include it? Scholars say it was undisputedly included in the Hebrew canon and wholeheartedly adapted for Christian use because it works on the level of allegory, meaning everything stands for something else.  The bridegroom, flawless and sickeningly perfect, represents God (Jesus for Christians) and the bride, the body of faithful believers.

The Song of Songs helps a people image how God comes, redeeming everything that has gone wrong in the "winter" of life.  No matter how bad it gets or how much it has rained, there's nothing like the dawn of a new spring morning to revive hope.

And I believe there's more.

Unlike our own experiences of human love, that impregnable perfection we see in our new love interest never fades. And it's not our image of God that remains untarnished as the years pass, but God's image of us.

No matter how old we get, how many mistakes we make, nor how big they are; no matter how much we are disappointed in ourselves or our abilities, God always stands at the ready, speaking to us the way a young groom speaks to his bride. We are more lovely and ever the object of God's affection. God desires to stay with us, not only on the night we first meet, but all of our nights and all of our days as well.

God desires to partner with us and create a new kind of love, one that recreates the world in a way that could never be created if one of the parties were missing. We could never be more lovely to God than in the moments we say "Yes!" again and again to this God who loves above all others. Want more? Click here to read Song of Songs 2:8-13.