What is our purpose?

October 2015 Christian Crier
Pastor’s Column

In his well-known book, The Purpose Driven Life, Pastor Rick Warren begins by asking readers to consider some basic questions. “Why am I here?” “What is my purpose?” The sales pitch for his book says that while self-help gurus suggest that people should look within, at their own desires and dreams, for answers to these questions; for Christians the starting place must be with God and that real meaning and significance comes from understanding and fulfilling God’s purposes for putting us on earth. In short, God put us here for a reason. Our task is to figure out what that reason is and to fulfill it.

What is true for individuals is true for churches as well. Congregations that focus only on their own desires and dreams will never thrive. Instead, we find our real meaning and significance from understanding and fulfilling God’s purposes for bringing us together. We are not in charge. Christ is the head of the church. Our job is to follow.

Of course, that is easier said than done. It is hard to follow a shepherd we cannot see. Jesus is not present with us in same way he was with the first disciples. They saw him face to face. They ate with him. They recognized his voice. They could follow him because he was standing right there.

None of those things apply to us today. We have no incarnate Jesus to follow. However, we were not left alone. The Holy Spirit was given to the church as an advocate and a counselor. In today’s world, the Holy Spirit is the only one who can tell us God’s purpose for our church or how to fulfill it. This is why Larry Thompson keeps praying for the Spirit to guide us and why he has spent years reminding us to listen.

Unfortunately, the Spirit’s voice is a little harder to detect than was the voice of the incarnate Jesus. Our world provides many distractions. Those distractions often drown out the still, small voice we are supposed to be following. It is so much easier to simply look within and focus on our own desires and dreams. At least those are things we can hear amidst all of the distractions of life. However, easier is not always better. Our congregation has always been at its best when we looked outside of ourselves and followed the Spirit in new and exciting directions.

Over the past several years our congregation has found itself in a period of transition. Many things have changed. Christian education, music, worship, leadership, and even the building itself are all different than they were a decade ago. The world has changed as well. The economy, global security, and popular culture have evolved over that same period of time. Some of these changes are welcome. Some are not. However, change is as inevitable for us as it was for the people of Jesus’ day.

Given all of those changes, the question for our church is: why are we here now? What is our purpose now? While we will remain forever thankful for the faithfulness of the Christians who have gone before us and gave us the church we now enjoy, old paradigms may no longer fit the world in which we now live. The church that we inherited may not look exactly like the congregation God wants us to become. This is nothing new. The founders of the Disciples of Christ inherited a church structure that was inappropriate for the realities of life on American frontier. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit they created a new movement that spoke to the culture and times in which they lived.

That remains the church’s challenge today. For the past several months, the leaders of our congregation have been wrestling with many difficult decisions. We have had staffing changes. We are trying to figure out what do with the rent house. Music in worship is a perpetual question. Ministries that have been mainstays for years are seeing less participation. Other new ministries are springing up in unexpected places. Meanwhile, the community of Dexter continues to evolve economically and demographically. Given all of those changes, the question for our congregation is: why are we here now? What is the purpose of First Christian Church now?

In order to help answer those questions at the last board meeting the leaders of our congregation voted to enter a year of discernment. Discernment is a church word that simply means listening to God. We cannot follow Jesus if we do not first know where he is leading. Over the next year we are going to go on a journey together. Together we are going to ask the Holy Spirit to speak. Together we will seek to listen. Together we will follow where God leads.

Spending a full year in discernment is an intentionally slow process. The point of this journey is not to find strategies to better fulfill our own desires and dreams for our congregation. The point of this journey is to transform our ability to listen to the Holy Spirit. Together we are going to dig into Scripture. We are going to read books on ministry and leadership. We are going to use congregational transformation resources from the Disciples of Christ. We are going to celebrate the many gifts and talents God has given us. We are going break bread while we remember our history. Most importantly, together we are going to pray.

The year of discernment will officially begin at this month’s congregational meeting. More details of the process will be shared at that point. Things will conclude with a celebration at next year’s meeting. In between we are going to have an exciting adventure. If we let it, this will be a fun process. There is no crisis spurring this conversation. We are not on fire. It is simply that answers to all the decisions we face will only fall into place after we know who God is calling us to be. This is an amazing church full of incredibly faithful Disciples. It is an honor to be a part of God is doing in this place.

The question here is how to do we respond to the changes going on in the world today using the talents and resources we have been given. In short: why are we here? What is our purpose? The Holy Spirit already has answers to these questions, if only we learn how to pay attention. Will you join us in listening? Will you join us in following where Christ leads?