This post contains my response to Josh Bode's blog on shame and guilt in the missional church conversation. To see Josh's blog entry, CLICK HERE.
Josh's piece is well written and helps identify why we feel awkward talking about declining churches. It also explains why I sometimes feel "beat up" when I hear the missional gurus talk (and I'm even in a congregation that most in our community would describe as missional, growing, and experiencing seasons of refreshing).
Perhaps a better place to begin (than setting new goals) is where Nehemiah did upon hearing that the people of Jerusalem were in great trouble and shame:
Nehemiah 1:4-10
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today....
The place to begin to change is first of all a place of repentance - and of mourning and fasting and praying.
I am moved by Nehemiah's first act upon learning of shame - he mourns.
Perhaps one key for the RCA's continuing decline to be reversed is to begin with acknowledging reality: we are in decline. Perhaps a second step is fasting and mourning and praying. Nehemiah did so for four months before taking any action.
I am all for setting the bar high and setting goals. I think the RCA needs some. They can offer challenge, inspiration, even hope. But the goal is not the achievement of benchmarks, it is the increasing in our love for God and our love for others. To that end there is always room for confession and repentance. Even in Nehemiah, the goal was not the building of the wall, but the restoration of the covenenat, which takes place in the second half of the book.
It will be wonderful if the RCA grows again; it will be even more won if times of refreshing come by God through his Spirit and Word and the church is renewed to be the presence of Christ in the world.
Thanks, Josh for your good work to stir the conversation.
Jon Opgenorth
Trinity Reformed
Orange City, Iowa