Two of today's popular terms to describe the Church of the future are "missional" and "emerging". We are still deciding what these terms really mean. I've often said, we don't really know what the future church will look like, what new forms it will introduce, what old forms it will carry on or jettison. We only know that, once again, "the times they are a-changin''.
Vi Nagley shared the following article from her daughter's church in Maryland. I discovered a lot of myself in it. I wonder if you will, too. See you in church, APUMC-
Pastor Carl
I suspect that I'm not alone in being enamored of the the wisdom I fantasize I've acquired with age; lots of experience, many miles under the wheels, so much to teach the next generation, no? Well, we've just finished our annual Vestry Retreat, and it was fascinating and wonderful. One of our main subjects of exploration together was "The emerging church". It should have come as no surprise that, while everyone participated energetically in the discussion, one of the most cogent and eloquent views of the emerging church came from the youngest new vestry member. In this regard, at least, many of us in the upper age echelons of the church are probably the most out-of-touch. I certainly am firmly rooted in the past: the Barry Goldwater of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
We have a major task ahead of us..from the church that we have worked so hard to bring along, we must create the church which others much younger than we will embrace. We really have one opportunity to get it right. How do we do that? Well, we must listen, for starters. This will be difficult, because many of us will be inclined to be enamored of our wisdom. Perhaps we think we're seeking to recruit persons of our own generation, people likely to see things as we do. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. We're seeking persons who are quite young and more disposed to see tings differently. Although I have ample reason to believe that younger people will value what we elders have produced (and properly so), I am a fool to believe that they have little to add to that.
We are going to have to adapt, as our predecessors did. The church that is coming is likely quite different from the one we've known. This is going to be difficult for people like me, who are firmly rooted in the old traditions.
Though I know it's déclassé , I really love Rite One. I love it because it's the Rite with which I grew up. It recalls a time that seems simpler to me because I was a child then. I know there are problems with the verbiage, but I don't really listen to it anyway, so it's fine as is. In music, I listen to the melody, I really don't hear the lyrics, and it's much the same with the liturgy. I hear the musicality of the words, which, as spoken, blend into a soothing cadence. The "these and thous and thines" are terribly comforting, much as are the hymns of my childhood.
Some of these traditions are important to retain; some are expendable. Discerning which is which will require real work, risk-taking, and wisdom, but we're up to it. A major portion of our collective job over the next few years will be to decide what to take with us on this journey and what to leave behind.
Leaving aspects of the traditional church behind will be unsettling to some of us. It will seem as if we're disloyal or abandoning part of who we are, and perhaps we'll be unsure of our security in what will follow. We'll have to be open and forthright in our conversations about these things, as well as be willing to listen to and understand the fears and hopes of other parishioners who are engaged in this wonderful place. We owe it to our peers and promise it to our progeny.
-Ched Bradley