May 14, 2001
I appreciate the thoughtful response of some of you to last weeks offering under this heading. You do seem to agree that we are not isolated in Mauston from the world of change in which we live. So perhaps it would help if we postulate a possible response by the church to the initial questions. Here I of course mean by the church not the building that houses a worshipping congregation but the people that enter its doors seeking or committed to making Jesus, Lord, and following Him as He leads us as we live our lives in this world.
Question 1 dealt with a world of revolutionary change. Can our children and grandchildren find a meaningful place in it? Question 2 dealt with a world of many cultures. It identified language as a prime example but there are many others, traditions, music, attitudes, dress, faith, relationships for example.
To deal with this kind of a world the church’s response must be to continually learn. We have to discover the answer to the Psalmists question "How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:4) It’s true that we are not geographically displaced but we often think and speak in a "churchly" atmosphere that isolates us from the world around us and then complain that no one listens to us.
We need to learn that this world won’t stand still long enough to be studied, stay still long enough for us to adjust to it, and certainly not be still without change. It won’t hold still long enough to be thoroughly researched. So what do we do? To live creatively in this world we must have a core vision. For Moses it was the Burning Bush, for Paul, the Blinding Light on that Damascus road, for Jesus, I and my Father are one and I came into the world to testify to the truth.
To find our core vision we must answer the question for ourselves, "What is it about our experience with Jesus that our world (read this community) cannot live without?"
Once we find this core vision it becomes our compass and we can begin to navigate skillfully in the world and find our creative place in it. No matter how young or old we are each day is a new day for exploration and discovery. The hymn echoing the Psalm (118:24) says, "This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." This is my constant prayer for all of us.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
201 Oak St.
Mauston, WI 53948-1333 608-8474555
Past Weeks Thoughts: