ON MISSION
The Rev. Dr. Blair Morgan
Director for Evangelical Mission
Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, ELCA
From the January, 2011 issue of "The Echo", newsletter of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod
I am reading a book by Dr. Pat Keifert, Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary as well as President and Director of Research for Church Innovations Institute (www.churchinnovations.org) entitled We Are Here Now: A New Missional Era. It describes the latest work that Church Innovations is doing toward the renewal of mission in local congregations. Dr. Keifert worked closely with a number of congregations in this synod back in the 90's around evangelism and Kennon Callahan's 12 Keys to an Effective Church.
I found a quote from Chapter Three to be very interesting:
"Indeed, the most frightening discovery we made in our early research in local church renewal was how seldom members of local churches describe their lives in sentences that include God as the subject of action verbs. They almost always describe worship, for example, as something "we do" or "I do." I worship God. I participate in fellowship. We sing hymns and pray. God, in the vast majority of these descriptions gathered by churches' own members and in their own words, is at best the object of human action. Rarely did we hear of God doing something in worship, much less in the community or neighborhood around them."
I think it is an interesting analysis worth thinking about from the context of mission. What does this mean? I agree that it has been my experience that it is uncommon for many in local congregations to speak of God as the subject of sentences dealing with their own lives and their experiences in their congregations. I rarely hear someone say, "God is powerfully at work through our Sunday School." Or, "God really touched my life through that worship service this morning, or in the sacrament today." Or, "God really spoke to me through your sermon this morning, pastor!"
Some of this grows out of the fact that Lutherans tend to hold in our faith experiences. If we have a touching event of the Holy Spirit, we are almost embarrassed to reveal it. If we have an amazing experience in which we truly believe God has taken part, we have few places where we feel safe to reveal it and few models to show how we might share it. One would think that one's congregation would be that community where this could be revealed, shared or even celebrated. Yet, as the book states, it seldom happens. In fact, we may even find that if it is shared it can be interpreted as so unusual as to be unLutheran. This is not so much unLutheran in substance (although it would be possible, and certainly feared to be), but this is more likely unLutheran in style.
I believe we have to find ways of modeling more God talk in the context of our congregations. We pray in the Lord's Prayer 'Thy kingdom come." Luther reminds us in the Small Catechism that 'God's kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us." I know that it is coming to us. I do think sometimes it comes and we miss it. Other times I think it comes and we don't know how to share what has taken place. What might your congregation do differently to provide models and opportunities for this sharing to take place? It's worth talking about.
