It is easy to get caught up in our own little world and believe that is all there is. What is happening here is only happening here. We are the only ones experiencing this!
That has been especially true in my world, the world of church. Daily, it seem, we get word of the demise of church—another church closing (predicted to be over 5,000 in the US this year) declining attendance in worship; the challenges of Covid and online worship (the two do go hand in hand now.). It is enough to make a pastor think about “selling earth shoes” as one of my mentors liked to say!
The horrible thing is, all that is true! Church is changing. The ways in which we organized our faith, “did” church, worshiped—they are all changing!
And I don’t like it!
Not one bit!
But those of us in church aren’t the only ones experiencing this upheaval.
In an unusual column in today’s Washington Post, a writer wrote about the demise sports section. It isn’t that the Times won’t have a sports section. The Times bought The Athletic for $550 million and will use it to replace their sports section. Barry Svrluga, while understanding that sports news is still available (when was the last time you waited until the next day to find the score of a game?) He laments the excellent writing and insight that the Times writers had shared.
It is not that sporting news is going away. It is just changing into something different.
In my times of grief over the loss of church as I have known it, I needed to hear that. Church is not dying. It is undergoing a metamorphosis. It is changing! Ministry is still talking place—just in other new and different venues. Just check out Invested Faith to discover some! (Full disclosure, my wife works with Invested Faith, so I know about their work.).
Years ago I learned about the Acumen Fund, a way to help individuals improve their lives. It is missions if there ever was, just not using religious language.
Years ago a friend told me that the only thing the church does that is not replicated anywhere else is worship. I think he’s right, only now the style and form and time of worship is changing.
Changing.
Not dying.
Might we be willing to change? Or are we going to see it as death?
Tomorrow morning I am going to wake up and read about tonight’s games in the New York Times, or rather in The Athletic.
Then I will go “to church” online as I am on vacation this week.
It is different.
I still miss it!
But I hope.