This Ain't Your Daddy's Church

Those of us of a certain age (OK, old-timers) can remember a car commercial from about 20 years ago with the tagline, "This is not your father's Oldsmobile." Apparently, it wasn't anyone's Oldsmobile, as the brand disappeared shortly afterwards. But that phrase kept going through my head for the past 24 hours as I sat and listened to the "rock star" preachers at the Festival of Homiletics in San Antonio. But in my mind, I kept hearing the tagline, "This ain't your Daddy's church."

If I could find one theme that bound together the first four speakers that I heard (Rob Bell, Walter Brueggemann, Nadia Bolz-Weber and Amy Butler) it is this: The old paradigm that we have of church and Jesus and Christianity is no longer relevant in today's world. We need to sweep away what is in the past and speak into the future, even if it makes us, or our congregations, uncomfortable.

"Do not remember the former things, or consider things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:18-19)

The church and Christianity that suited our parents' generation - that of a country club or family reunion, where you go on Sundays and Wednesdays to get a little Jesus, have a committee meeting, enjoy a potluck supper and distribute a little charity to the less fortunate, is no longer meeting the needs of our 21st century world. The idea of the church as its own little microcosm, "in" the world but not "of" the world, is not meaningful to people who are reading the papers, watching the news, commenting on social media and participating in marches. More than ever, the church needs to be confronting the world head on - speaking the truth to power and bringing an alternative vision of love and grace into the brokenness of our communities.

Brueggemann spoke to the realization that God is doing a new thing in world and our churches. God is (and I paraphrase) moving us from exceptionalism to internationalism, from white patriarchy to inclusiveness, from consumerism to sustainable living, and from Christendom to ecumenism. It is up to us, as preachers, to help our congregations embrace this change, and quit living in the past or longing for things that are gone, or never were. We are called to stand in the intersection between the old and the new, and point our people toward the new - what God is doing and where God is acting.

Rob Bell spoke of a similar need to be fully aware of God and Creation speaking and singing and moving us, all the time. Nadia and Amy spoke about how to preach in a time of conflict and violence and despair. As people of God, we should not ignore or gloss over the real hurt in our world, but instead speak prophetically. Name the evil, lament and protest, but don't allow evil to have the victory. Help people see the good and the merciful and the peaceloving. Be facilitators for reconciliation and understanding both inside and outside the walls of the church.

I feel that the only way for the church to be relevant to the majority of non-church goers is to provide an alternative to what our mass media culture is providing. Specifically, not just talking but doing, and helping people find their own ways to confront the evils around them. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a call to action to confront those who tell us and our children that power and wealth and status are the keys to success. God, in sending Jesus as a homeless baby, showed us that true power comes in the form of love and humility and healing.

This ain't your Daddy's church, and the God I worship may not bear a whole lot of likeness to the one our culture has long worshipped. But I know that She is calling me and countless others to stand up to the powers and offer hope when the institutions that we thought were so stable are crashing in around us. If you haven't tried church in a while, or you are getting frustrated at the shallow answers that you hear in yours, look around. There are plenty of pastors who feel like I do, and we are growing in number and our churches are a force to be reckoned with.