Being a leader on the Strategic Planning Implementation Team (SPIT) I have been doing a lot of thinking about how to we make Holy Cross become what we should be? Not what Dan thinks it should be. Not what Pastor Jim wants it to be. But, what God has always wanted a church to be. We are in mission. Always! Not just when the youth load up the vans. We should always be in the mission for Christ. The Great Commission tells us to take the word of Christ out to the world. We need to start local but we need to move our influence outward. Are we doing that? Or are we waiting for others to come to us? Are we really ready to accept new people? Or do we want new members as long as they look and more importantly act like us? Do we want new members that will worship like us? Or are we willing to change to make the message of God understandable for them?
We Lutherans tend to not like change. If we want to change the setting of the Early service we have to announce it ahead of time and practice it or we will get complaints. We will really be berated if we try to make other changes to the worship service. I need permission to show videos of the youth at early service. This is not how to get the message out to the Millions of people that do not go to church. The book of Acts, chapter 15, tells of a crisis in the Early Church in that a sect of the Jewish Christians wanted the gentiles to conform to the laws of Moses and be circumcised in order to be more like them. Thankfully Peter and Paul realized that the Gospel is more open then that belief. The Gospel has and must be translated into a language of the local context. Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth tells us that he became like his audience in order to win them to Christ. Should we do Less?
We speak of the need to reach out to younger people but again we want them to come and be like us. Are we willing to change how church is done so we can be the church? So that we can reach the unchurched? But please understand that nothing we do inside the walls of Holy Cross matter if we are not willing to take Christ outside the walls. Until we are willing to share the Good News of Christ with our neighbors, nothing else matters. The days of build it and they will come are gone. They are not coming. They need to see excitement from us members and see us SHINING with the life of Christ and they will wonder what we got. Then we can build the relationships that will allow us to spread the Good News of Christ.
In the Exciting Peace of Christ!!!
Dan Johnson
