When the Old Ways Don''t Work Anymore
I believe that Nazarenes, regardless of age and personal culture, are deeply committed to Christ and His Church. We care about its mission to reach lost people with the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ.
However, we seem to be struggling with how to connect local churches with a culture that began to change significantly in the 1960s, and now we see changes still zooming toward us at warp speed. The North American mission field is every bit as complex as overseas mission fields, and in some ways even harder to reach. Increasingly we face the tough reality that time-honored strategies to reach people for Christ and to draw them into the local church are no longer effective.
Eight years ago I spoke with a retiring pastor whose tenure, long and successful, was ending after several particularly challenging years. I can still hear his comment: "Lee, the programs and approaches I've used in 30 years of ministry no longer work!" This is the challenge.
We are culture-bound people. We quickly embrace the need for our churches to be 'apart from' the prevailing culture. "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould" (Romans 12:2, PHILLIPS). But it's not enough for us to simply to be on the alert so that we don't get caught in that squeeze. We must consider the whole cultural issue.
Perhaps it's time to uncompromisingly evaluate the culture of the local church. Is this culture one we have developed based on personal preferences? Is it dynamically connected to the mission of the church? Is it a biblical culture fueled by our core values as a denomination to be holiness—and mission—driven people? Does our church culture drive us to seek and to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10)?
If we really are the holiness people we claim to be, and if the experience of heart cleansing is not just a doctrine but a passion working itself out in real lives, our personal preferences will quickly take a back seat to the issue of how we can reach this culture with the good news of the gospel. That is, after all, Christ's mandate and the reason the Church exists!
Let's bring it closer to home.
Our purpose is not just to reach our culture, but also to connect with our own children and grandchildren who ask questions about church that we find increasingly difficult to answer.
The challenge we face goes beyond questions of contemporary or traditional, hymns or choruses. Even what we call 'contemporary' is quickly dated.
These kinds of issues focus on our preferred church culture and are innately self-centered. We will always face debates over personal preferences in our congregations. Over time, however, those personal preferences can become brittle wineskins that are ready to burst because they can no longer hold the new wine.
Our greatest fear should not be whether our church is being squeezed into the mold of a secular culture.
Our fear should be the possibility that our comfortable and predictable church culture has become a brittle wineskin and that we are at risk of losing not only the wineskin, but also the wine.
As a district superintendent, I am struggling with these issues and trying to get a handle on them for myself as I lead my district. I am a troubled observer as well as an active participant, trying to understand what God is saying to His Church, and more specifically to the Church of the Nazarene, which I love and to which I owe so much.
I see signs of awakening. Efforts are afoot to focus on the revitalization of established churches. But this revolution that is taking place includes significant stresses, with significant costs to the local church. This revolution involves conflict and energy drain from our primary mission, not to mention the consequences for any pastor who would lead such an effort. By and large, we have not trained pastors for this task of developing missionary congregations.
A couple of years ago I spoke with a retired gentleman who had been heavily involved in the church all of his life. He was just one of a mass of deeply committed people who have built the Church of the Nazarene. He and his wife were part of a congregation facing a significant change in effort to connect with their community and win people to Jesus. As we discussed this issue of change, style, and culture, he made a statement that impacted me: "Our music and worship is not my personal preference. I'm a Gaither Homecoming person. But when I saw all the young families that started coming, I realized I'm not the target we are aiming to hit. But I sure can be part of the gun aiming at the target." Maybe we need to spend more time considering who our target is—and what kind of 'gun' we are shooting.
Perhaps Paul's words can edify us: "I am not anyone's slave. But I have become a slave to everyone, so that I can win as many people as possible . . . I do everything I can to win everyone I possibly can. I do all this for the good news, because I want to share in its blessings" (1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23, CEV).
Lee Woolery has been a pastor and now serves as superintendent of the Northwest Indiana District.
Holiness Today, May/June 2006
