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14 August 200810:30 AM

The Once and Fearful Church

A few small and greater conversations I’ve been in during the past few weeks have brought me to this (not so surprising) conclusion:

Church folk are really fearful about the future of the church. Frightened. Worried. Anxious. Afraid.

In all honesty, it turns my stomach.

Because, a few other conversations and moments I’ve been in during the last few weeks have brought me to this (perhaps more surprising) conclusion:

Younger church folks aren’t so afraid.

Maybe we are young and stupid. Maybe in a few years we won’t be so idealistic.  Maybe the fact that we aren’t so afraid is a cause for the afraid people to be even more afraid.

But, in the past couple of weeks, I’ve been with high schoolers and then with young (under 40) pastors. And it was a good. And it was not about fear.

We didn’t all agree about everything. We are all sure the church won’t look the same in 50 years.

But we don’t seem to be afraid.

As a young pastor, I wish I could find a way to tell afraid people that it’s not helpful to get sucked into a big funnel-cloud of fear. I wish I could get people to sit down with this group of younger people and let them see that the church will likely be OK. Different. But OK. Still Jesus’s church.

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2 Responses to “The Once and Fearful Church”

  1. Meg Says:

    Its been awhile since I’ve been on the blogosphere but this post is so entirely dead-on. I’m not sure who to e-mail it to but word needs to get out.

    17 August 2008 at 8:58 pm

  2. terry Says:

    Being an older person in the church, at times I am afraid, maybe afraid is too strong, more concerned. Having struggled in my life time, I would like to think of Church as a peaceful place, no I know it is a peaceful place. I am at ease when at Church, it like all the burdens of life are gone or cannot find me, like a child in a TV box in the living room. I want that feeling to continue but it take work, money and a hugh effort by many to acheive this and this worrys me. We need to grow (not members but the entire Church needs to be reconstructed) and this is concerning. Debt scares older people, I want to be here to see the results. I have thought about this for a long time and read this blog many times and you are very observant. seeya.

    26 August 2008 at 8:56 pm