
Last weekend was typically busy…a staff & vision board retreat, three worship services (including jazz liturgy, baptism, two Eucharistic services, three sermons) and the obligatory Sunday afternoon meetings. By the arrival of Sunday evening the wearying voice inside my head whispered, “Go home and crash!” My calendar encouraged otherwise. I am pleased that I ignored the inner voice and honored my commitment to Todd Hunter, noted emergent church guru and, for this evening, presenter at Christ Anglican Church. Several vision board members and staff joined a group of two hundred or so souls interested in learning more about our changing culture and the manner in which the church is called to engage that culture differently. Todd entitled his presentation, “Anchored to the Rock…Geared to the Times.” (With permission I have collected his slides and placed them on our website and my blog. explore them at www.atoneluth.org.)
Todd left an enduring image with me. Beneath the phrase “Things are changing!” (words that are received with varying levels of discomfort by most mainline Protestants) he projected the image of a bridge. I am not sure where this bridge is now located…except that it is the ‘wrong’ place. The river that one would assume the bridge was intended to traverse approaches the bridge and then meanders around it. Todd explained that some years ago the bridge indeed helped persons across this river until a terrific storm relocated the river’s course. Now the bridge has been rendered somewhat…well… disconnected and irrelevant. It’s not that the engineers of the bridge erected the structure irresponsibly or foolishly. In its time, it served well. Problem? The context has changed. (Again…find the picture on the website and blog.)
Those who are not living with their heads in the sand realizes that our cultural landscape has undergone rapid, drastic and sweeping change in the past several decades that are unparalleled by those in any other era in history. We don’t need the shelves of relevant books at Barnes and Noble (or the pages of books at Amazon) to chronicle this seismic shift for us. It is undeniable, the result of the “perfect cultural storm”. Yet it often seems that the segment of culture least responsive to this change is the church. I picture the traditional colonial church located in the center of town. Outside and around it the decades race by in quadruple time. Automobiles, clothing styles, street signs and people all change. Yet the church continues in standard time, changing very little and operating as those inside perceive it has always operated. Eventually, the stream of culture ends up meandering around and ignoring the church altogether. We are deemed “irrelevant”.
The scope of this article certainly doesn’t allow me to address this issue in any depth. It is the subject for volumes of books and our continued faith conversatoins. My only goal here is to present the image and have it rest with you for awhile. I have encouraged the same for our congregation’s leadership. We are constantly conspiring, “How do we build gospel bridges into this changing world that God loves so?” It is a “missional” question.
Last weekend, in the midst of a typically busy schedule, God called me to pause and consider differently the world around me. Let me invite you to do the same this week. How does the church extend the tentacles of mercy into your typically busy week? How do we bridge the widening chasm growing between the church and wider culture? These questions are borne of our Lutheran DNA. We are, by heart, reformers of institution and translators of the best news the world will ever…if we connect with them…know.