I was thinking as I was driving this morning about the future of the church; a whole lot of thoughts converged at once. It was probably spurred on by my stopping at a church that I would consider "aging" or "old school" (choir, everyone in suits, etc.), studying Daniel and finishing the book "unChristian". (Note: this is not meant to be a comment of arrogance; it reflects my style preference. This church is doing a good work.)

The encounter with the church made me think about the future of my church. Sure we are culturally relevant now, but in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years will it be? Will people who are now 10, 12, 14 years old consider my church "old school" and not relevant in 30 years?

These thoughts were spurred by the perspective that the world has on Christians as reflected the book "unChristian". How are we to meet our commission of being Jesus ambassadors in a lost world, when we can't get over the "Christian" hurdle, let alone get them to come to a place where a bunch of us "Christians" meet?

I think the key to this problem is taking the church to them. Relevance will be essential because we will have to bring the gospel to their context, not expect them to come to ours. (It will not matter how "old school" we look as a church because we are not designing the church programs for them.) We will REALLY have to understand how to bring the good news of God into brokenness like Jesus and Paul and Daniel and Moses did.

This will be messy for sure. It will take a long time. It will be done in the strength of the Spirit. It will require us to show up (see my last post). Novel concept isn't it?