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go here to buy my stock photography Alan Creech
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aaron klinefelter
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Perhaps I should qualify the context of the question since many are likely lost at this point. What do people want - from church - from a church - in church? What do people want? That's the question of the day. So, with that now in mind, of course there is often some kind of weight behind that question when asked. When a pastor or a church planter asks it? Oh my, look out. And you see who's asking it here don't you? Just be careful. Why it is asked is possibly most important. What will you do, as I said before, with the answer? I don't know, is this a Barna kind of question? Perhaps. So, what do they want? I think I ask to try to gauge how generally sick the Church is. I know that sounds bad but I care. It's like a "stick out your tongue and say aaahh" thing. Mostly, I can't do anything about what the whole Church wants or how sick they are in their expectations. I can do something about what's happening around me though, in my own community, in those with whom I have relationships. So, if I find skewed expectations of church, of what it should be, then I can address that. We can work on that together. That's really what we have to do - work on it together - each in their own role. To figure things out, questions must be asked. And to ask questions, you really should have relationships with people. So, things take a long time - building all that takes a long time. I think I'm rambling. I put that post up yesterday, the excerpt from the letter, and talked about Vine & Branches and what we are and why we do what we do. I look at those answers I gave and I'm very comfortable with what we do and why. I think it's right. Sometimes I'm not sure what I or anybody else wants, but I think, mostly, I'm sure what we need and I try to help that to happen for us. What we need. I was talking to Liz the other day, who did not at all grow up in a tradition that saw the Eucharist as anything more than symbolic and didn't think about it most of the time - but she said something about it that stuck with me: about how, even if we don't fully understand it but are trying and are saying yes to the reality of it, that we should do that and take it like taking our vitamins. We just do it. We are showing faith if we say yes and eat His Body and drink His Blood. If it's real, it will be effective to change us. That's what we need. Now, some may not want that. Some may not "get into the whole communion thing," but they certainly need it. What do I do with the information, should I find it out, that someone in our church thinks such a thing (no one does that I know of - hypothetical for the story)? Well, I keep doing what I believe will give them what they need. Same if I see that someone wants from the church something that will harm them. I cannot take that answer and try to give them what they want. That would be to give your friend what will harm them. I could go on and on with analogies like this. I would hope you get the drift. So, basically, if you want entertainment so you won't be bored, a twisted half-truth or a lie so you can stay where you are and not change, or anything of that sort, I will have to say no. We should all agree to say no to that. I think that's at least part of the point I wanted to get across. What do people want from the church? Well, I'm not sure that's the question we should be asking at all, at least not so that we can craft the church in a certain way according to the answer we get. Definitely not. Who are these people? Who am I? Who and what has God created us to be? How can we faithfully be and do that? What do we need? Give us the Grace, God, to bend our wills. Give us strength so that we will accept what we need instead of being concerned with what we want. technorati tags > church, ecclesiology, eucharist, spiritual formation, pastoral theology, philosophy of ministry, pastoral theology, wants, needs, christianity :::
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three quotes |:: "Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." "Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." "...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
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