I have been reflecting about the church lately – its past, present and potential future(s). It is one of those topics that has dominated my reflections for a number of years but has surged to the surface through recent podcasts, readings, discussions, blogs, etc.

What frequently annoys me are individuals who continually complain about the church, it’s past and present, without offering solutions or at least thoughts on it’s potential future. I also have to admit that I have done just that in the past because, basically, it is easy to do and doesn’t involve a lot of risk. That being said, I don’t have all the answers, I may not even have any answers but I do have some thoughts that I want to begin sharing.

Therefore, I thought I would begin to offer some of my reflections about the future of the Church in postmodern North America (Church as being defined as the Universal Church rather any specific Local Church). I thought I would attempt that by finishing the following sentence:

I think the North American Church, in order to effectively engage our culture must…

…begin to define itself not by it’s physical structure, but by it being a community of Jesus followers. If you do a Google image search on the word “Church,” you get a multitude of church-building pictures. Is that the Church? I think we need to redefine it through our methodology and our theology to be what it was meant to be: a community of believers.

…redefine success in the Church. God working in the Church is not evidenced by square footage of the physical building, number of staff members, number of buildings, flashiness of logos or web pages but in what God is doing in people’s lives. Let’s face it, we can get a crowd a lot of different ways, but God is more interested in changing people’s lives – bring healing, hope and freedom.

…rethink the role of Pastor. I don’t think the Pastor should be seen as the CEO who runs the business of the church. Instead I think the Pastor is the primary servant leader who shepherds the church into its God honoring future through prayer. Related to this is the fact that I don’t believe the Pastor is the sole receiver of the church’s vision but the leader who helps the community of faith discover it together.

…”invert the church.” This is a phrase I began using about a year ago to refer to the fact that we have looked at evangelism as drawing people into the church to hear the gospel. Instead, I think the church must enter the world and in many ways, earn the right to be heard. We need to realize again that the Great Commission is the mission of the church. Going further, the Great Commission is not just a corporate thing the church does though its programs but through real people’s lives. We need to “go into the world” again instead of just inviting people to come to church to hear the Good News. We have compartmentalized our lives so well that, as Christians, we see it as something separate. Instead, I believe we need to reintegrate our faith into every aspect of our lives which would consequently have us share our faith with those around us.

…recognize that church was meant to be messy. Why do the majority of Elder’s/Leadership Meetings focus on budget, facility issues, etc. and not on questions like: “Why are people not coming to know Christ through our ministry?” or “Would the community we are located in notice if this local church didn’t exist tomorrow?” or “How do we deal with X situation in X’s life, giving guidance when Scripture seems less than clear on it?” Although these questions seem hard to answer, they are the questions we need to begin asking.

…honestly evaluate itself and be self-critical at times. If I ever pastor a large church with a large multiple staff, I think I would seriously encourage the church to look at hiring an in-house scholar whose ministry would revolve partially around teaching, but also a major part of his/her role would be critiquing what the church is doing from a philosophical and theological point of view as well as contributing to the realm of scholarship from a local church perspective. I, too often, see churches dive into a direction, program or vision without really critically and honestly thinking about the theological or philosophical implications (both long and short term ones) and think we need to begin really thinking about the implications before making these important decisions.

…seek to work cooperatively. We have embraced a fortified attitude in church, that often for very weird reasons, doesn’t look at working with other ministries. We see people of different denominations through their differences first rather than our commonality – we have to reverse this. I know that at times and with some organizations there will be irreconcilable differences but I think, too often, we have focused on these differences at the expense of seeing God at work.

…see each member of the church as an ambassador of the Gospel in their world of influence. It is interesting that often the only community service/ministry that seems to count in the church is that which is done by the church as a corporate program. What if, instead, we commission people for the places they are already serving in, seeing the work they are already apart of as part of the larger ministry of the Church because it is done by an extension of the church – the community of faith.

…help people discover their ancient roots and learn from the past, seeing it as important rather than obsolete. In many ways, we have rejected ancient forms of Christian spirituality because they are old. Like an old B/W TV that is tossed with the garbage because it isn’t new, we have abandoned so many of the practices of the Church that have served it well.

…call people to deep reflection on their beliefs. We have too often not educated but instead have indoctrinated. This works at first but its eventual outcomes are like painting your vehicle with water based kids paint that when the rain comes will be washed away and most likely damaged. We must help people know why they believe rather than just what to believe.

…embrace and work through the hard questions rather than avoid them or create simple and thus unsatisfying answers.

…be inclusive to all, seeing the important contribution that everyone makes to church regardless of their physical or intellectual situations… seeing possibilities rather than limitations. In the world of inclusion for people with disabilities I find it deeply sad that the church isn’t the one leading the way?

These are a few of the thoughts I have had. This is a fluid process and one that I have been and will continue to work through now and into the future. I have incredible hope for the Church and the world and know that the Good News of Jesus is relevant in every culture, language and time in history and the mission of the Church has stayed the same through it all… I desire to be faithful to both.

Also note that these are not about a specific local church but about the church in general in North America and my ideas and opinions concerning them.