The Story We're Telling

Everyone wants to tell a good story. I believe my primary job as a pastor is to help my church to tell that story in a fresh way. We have only really two options when it comes to stories, we either tell a different story than everyone else, or we tell the same story but in a fresh way.

I’ve been trying to get everyone to see “Les Miserables” with Hugh Jackman. It’s fantastic. I also love the stage production and the book. The book is my favorite, but each brings something different and something fresh. Each is telling the same story in a different way. The same is true of the church in the United States. We are telling a story with who we are and what we do. It’s my contention (and I think clearly shown in statistics) that either the story itself has gotten old, or the way we’re telling it isn’t sufficient anymore.

The story, at its heart, is that God wants to help everyone to belong. Every human has a deep longing to be told that they are accepted and loved. So I have a hard time believing the problem is the story itself. I can only conclude that it is the way we’re telling that story that is failing. And possibly the way we’re telling it is altering the story itself.

Currently, the story the American church has been telling is one of consumer spiritualism. Come, receive something, be it “the gospel”, great worship, a good sermon, then leave and the actual acts of living out the faith should be done solo. If you are looking to serve, serve the mechanism that helps make better worship services.

I think there are a few problems with this. First, we are telling people that if their gifts do not serve publicly, if they aren’t a good speaker, singer, or (gulp) prayer, then they aren’t as valued. I don’t think this was ever an intentional decision by church leaders, but it’s where we are nonetheless.

Second, most of our time and energy is spent on making a more meaningful weekly worship experience. What we are saying with that is that the most important thing to the community life is that we worship in the same way and that we agree with the pastor’s doctrine. Or at the very least with his or her message from that week.

Third, it is that our individual kingdoms take precedent over the larger kingdom of God. As a pastor, I can verify that my ego is hurt if someone prefers someone else’s preaching. As a Christian, I can recognize that that is the reality in life. But as a part of the church universal, I have to ask why that should even matter. I don’t think this was ever anyone’s intent, but competition among churches is fierce.

So, with that said, I think that there is a better story for my church to live. I say “my” not in a possessive sense, but in a sense of belonging. Does that mean that this plan will solve all our problems or that this plan will change everything overnight? Not at all. Does that mean that I’m the only person to come up with this? I don’t think so, but I don’t really know.

This plan comes primarily from a place of recognizing the disconnect between Jesus telling people to “follow” and the modern church telling people to “accept.” What if we helped people to follow their way into acceptance? What if we challenged people that acts of community service and acts of deep fellowship were as important as acts of communal worship? What if we help people to truly realize the priesthood of the believer, to take their own spirituality seriously, and to stop allowing clergy or church structure to dictate their relationship to God?

So, I’m suggesting that Refuge moves to a “cycle of Sundays” rather than simply meeting for worship every week. I realized amidst a pretty difficult personal crisis (that’s not completely over) that, at the moment, our church values are merely lip service. We aren’t living our values authentically. If you looked at our church from the outside, you would say we valued worship and fellowship.

Our list of core values, however, are as follows: Mission, Discipleship, Service, Worship, and Fellowship. The problem is, I’ve been struggling for months, maybe years, to try to put a structure in place that really helps our people to live those values. I think this cycle of Sundays is a step in the right direction. With all that said, what will it look like?

Week 1: Mission- This is definitely the most difficult for me right now. How do we put wheels on it? As of now, I would like this to be a week that we are “scattered” as a church. Each is charged with finding someone outside of our community and being a blessing to them. Doesn’t have to happen on Sunday, but that’s a time that people have already reserved for something else that may be a good time. I believe that the creativity of our people can shape this and they can own this better than if I gave them a task.

Week 2: Fellowship- This is probably the firmest for me right now. We can gather at the Cozy Cottage each month and have a meal together. We would sit in family type tables of 5-9 or so and have a few questions to discuss but nothing too strict. We would have some greeters to help people feel welcome. We would then encourage people to bring board games or whatever to play after. This is a great week to involve those that are gifted with hospitality and service.

Week 3: Service- This week has also presented some difficulty. At its heart, I’d like to see us serving the community that we meet in and serving our own members. I’m not exactly sure what that looks like, but I do know that Jesus makes it clear that we are to serve. Service is like an antidote to the gospel of consumerism. We may look at having two options and just letting people choose, but this will be done as a community. People often dislike the Christian church, but I would suggest that if we served our communities more and judged them less then that would go a long way to repairing the damage done.

Week 4: Worship- This week is also fairly firm in my mind. We would spend the first part of the service looking back at the month that was, hearing testimony from Mission, Service, and Fellowship and then anticipating the month to come. I’d like to spend time commissioning to go and be the light of the world, and to let our folks know that God has called them to have an impact.

I am also suggesting weekly discipleship groups. My personal goal is to equip our people with the tools they need to study the bible and theology on their own. I realized that I need to commit myself more to that. People learn better in a dialogue than a monologue, and so time when questions and discussion can take place is often more effective than time without.

Statistics make it clear that the American church is failing. We can’t continue with “business as usual” and bury our heads in the sand. We must adapt and evolve or we will become irrelevant. We must tell the story again, but in fresh ways. Or maybe, to stretch the analogy, we must help people begin to tell the story themselves, so that they can hear it in fresh ways. The story is simply that God make us belong to his community, and now we have the blessing of helping others belong as well. Each is loved and accepted as they are, and each realizes that each other is also on a journey. This is what I believe we should do.