Frustration

Urgency.

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I spoke with a good friend of mine, Kyle, and he talked me off the edge today in regards to a great frustration that I have.

Over the past several days I have become frustrated at what I can only describe as a lack of urgency in the church I serve (both local and regional). This is not a knock on the people of the church but I find I am beat down sometimes by some aspects of the church culture - what I perceive as a lack of urgency.

After talking a bit with others I think my sense of urgency is deeply rooted in my lack of friends my age involved in the church. I thank God for Kyle to help me see this.

As I look to the older leadership of the church they have a lot of friends in the church. They have other ministers and even friends whom they have been in ministry with for years. They are around the same age or they have kids who share the same youth group. The older leadership of the church seems to have a lot of friends within the church.

I do not.

I have watched more and more of my peers become de-churched and are not coming back to the church. I have seen youth involved in youth programs and leadership in the youth programs, but then move out of the youth group only to find the church is not doing much for that age group. The resources are lacking.

And so, over time, most of my peers have left the church. I have few friends within the church. I have more friends my age who are outside the church, and the latter group grows by the week.

I wonder if my frustration with church work is rooted in this concept.


Would you "do" church differently if you gave your life to the church only to find there was no one your age?

Would you have a sense of urgency?

I pray for a spirit of urgency (not panic or stress or anxiety) in the lives of church leaders.

I am just frustrated, but that is just the world I live in.

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Paul Jones, in his book Theological Worlds, writes there are five different "theological worlds" in which people line in and move through. I do not want to take time to talk about all the worlds, it will be sufficient to say that I find myself in a theological world of frustration.

Jones called world two "Conflict and Vindication" Below is a bit of the verbiage from Jone's book regarding world two:

In this World, history and its various institutions are tainted with self-interest. Conflict seems to be at the heart of life, even of nature, with many persons deprived of the means needed for living. Wherever one turns, the scene is a drama of winners and losers. Death is the final enemy, symbolizing the hostility which resists the crucial goal of humanizing this world. The foe is widespread, for even the cosmos is beset by entropy, so that such hemorrhaging seems to give to each part a sense of being violated. Thus threatened by the possibility of chaos, persons are tempted to grasp for power, escalating into the threat of nuclear destruction. Nations seem willing to "bring it all down" rather than lose. At one level or another, then, one keeps being pushed into being a "warrior.” Our reaction to often one of anger, sometimes even of rage. Reform is called for, even rebellion. Yet even though one is determined to change the world, such efforts sometimes feel like a never-ending defeat.

Hope for resolution is rooted in the vision of a new heaven and a new earth, to be realized as liberation within history. Since death in all forms is God's foe, resurrection then provides promise, not only to the individual but to history itself. In behalf of that goal, God takes sides, being committed to the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed--and so must we. God calls us to be co-creators in this completion of creation. History will be vindicated by its completion, flowing back to give meaning to each part as means to that end. "Thy Kingdom come on earth, as it already is in heaven." One way to work toward that vision is live as if the end is already here. Such hope in the God of the future makes us never satisfied with what is. This is why the prophet believes in a hope worth dying for.

I have found the past two weeks that I have become more and more frustrated with with I see around and within me.

I recommend Jone's book. Or at the very least the self assessment. Just like any other self assessment you answer the questions and then score yourself. And although we do not only dwell or live in just one world, I think this assessment is helpful.

Here is a link to the assessment if you are interested.
http://multiplex.integralinstitute.org/Public/cs/files/23677/download.aspx