Early in my return to Christ, I was influenced by Pastor Ron Dingle, God rest his soul, who was one of the pastors who helped me in my return to Christ. He shared with me when people asked him, "Are you a Christian?" He would answer, "I am becoming a Christian." His response was to show that our journey in our Christian faith is never complete as long as we are walking in the fallen world but only comes to completion when we enter into Christ's full embrace in eternity.
As I remember this I have begun a process within the congregation that I serve in thinking about how we want to welcome in those who desire to become members and as we seek to become as a congregation. Below is the first draft of what I am sharing, but this will be something that I look to continue to develop along with other areas of our faith walk.
As a body of Christ, the goal is to bring people fully into the embrace of Jesus Christ. As a congregation, we want all who want to join us as members to engage them fully in congregational life and culture. So, the concept of Becoming is to introduce all members to the various aspects of life in the church. Sadly, many join congregations, but when they are not integrated into the congregation's life, they more often tend to fall away from the life of the congregation and sometimes outside of the body of Christ.
We are called as followers of Christ to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20, ESV). The issue of making disciples is that we are raising people in the faith of Jesus Christ and helping them to live that out in every aspect of their lives. We cannot do this unless we are doing this ourselves. So, ultimately, the hope of Becoming is that we will walk closer in our faith, too. Part of the life of a congregation is to take care of the regular needs of the life at the congregational level. We need to pay our bills and take care of our property, but the purpose of this is not like other businesses because we are not seeking to be “profitable” but to be missional. Our mission is multi-faceted, as highlighted in Acts 1:8, ESV, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We are not only called to serve the community in which we are located but to continue to extend and serve the work of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We must focus on how we best fulfill this calling as a congregation. Becoming will not be a template that will just be imposed upon us because its success will only come when we create it to be something from the majority of us who call St. John’s Lutheran Church our spiritual home.
So, to begin, we want to introduce those interested in joining us to our various teams within our congregation. This will give each an invitation to be a part of the life of our congregation and know what it takes to make St. John’s Lutheran Church the congregation it is today. Not only will this be an opportunity for the various teams to recruit new members who may eventually serve as leaders of these teams, but it will also introduce them to more people they will encounter regularly in our worship and life in the congregation.
As we implement this, the goal will be to continue to focus on becoming a congregation to fulfill the mission that God has placed us here to meet. Becoming is to be rooted in the history of our congregation and the community and where we have and continue to grow. The goal will also be to explore where we have had difficulty and where we would like to be even better as a congregation and address how we will engage the changing culture around us.
Here are some areas which Becoming will seek to address over time:
1) How do we handle conflict as a congregation?
2) In what ways do we desire to differentiate ourselves from the ways of the world?
3) Which ways do we want to explore in how we engage our community?
4) What does it mean to be a congregation grounded in the Word of God and centered in Christ?
5) Where can we develop in our congregation to deepen the prayer lives of those who call St. John’s Lutheran Church their spiritual home?
How do we handle conflict as a congregation?
We live in a conflict-averse culture, and most people dislike engaging in conflict. The reality is not “if there is conflict” but “when there is conflict.” Many of our Christian congregations are in conflict. Our world is in conflict with the biblical Christian faith. This is reality. Trying to avoid conflict is natural, but the best way to minimize the adverse effects of conflict is to be prepared to handle it healthily. The Bible guides us in this in Matthew 18:15-17, ESV, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Too often, people go to the negative when reading this and only see the punitive, i.e., if they fail to listen or repent to remove the offending brother or sister from the roster of the congregation. However, the goal of this process is not to remove anyone from membership or to disfellowship people. That is quite contrary to the desire for the guidance given by Jesus. Jesus knew the nature of humanity and gave this guidance to help us to be different. Disagreements and conflict cause far too many divides within the Christian Church universally and in local congregations.
LCMC's goal is to give us tools to assist congregations in dealing with conflicts. This can also be utilized to help congregations better handle conflict. One of my personal goals is to invest in the long-term plan of St. John’s Lutheran Church to become a congregation that equips our leaders first and then all our members in changing the patterns most prevalent in our communities in dealing with conflict. My hope is that this will differentiate our congregation through her members and will make us stand out in our community, in turn helping to bring more significant transformation in our community. As we develop our language and response to conflict, we may find that the opportunities for reconciliation are increased. So, often, conflict is made worse because of misunderstandings. The goal is not to further the divide prevalent in our world but to bring all followers of Christ closer together in the saving faith that our Lord has given us.
This is what leads to the next point: In what ways do we desire to differentiate ourselves from the ways of the world?
As a father, it is common to hear my children excuse behaviors that are unhealthy because “others do it.” This is no excuse for my children, and the same is true for us as followers of Christ. We are meant to appear differently. This can come as we take a different approach to how we work with people, the language we use, the things we choose to participate in, and those we don’t. Our faith gives us boundaries, but it also gives us a significant amount of latitude. As a congregation, we can discern and offer care and guidance as the Holy Spirit guides us and help our congregation understand the clear things that we should seek to avoid but also encourage us to live and do things that are most honoring to God and could have a positive impact in our workplaces and the places in which we normally engage.
Which ways do we want to explore in how we engage our community?
During our exploration, we can seek to identify some clear ways we would like to engage our community at St. John ‘s Lutheran Church. We cannot do everything, and we really should not seek to meet every need we see in the Gillett area, but we should seek to do those things we feel called to do and can be most effective in doing. This should not be something done solely by the Congregational Council or the pastor but be something that the entire congregation has some input. That is what it is important for us to clearly define our mission as the body of Christ in our community. This helps clarify the things we seek to do and those areas that we will step aside and let others do. Within Christ’s calling to care for the sick, needy, and poor, as well as the orphans and the widows, we have a broad mission laid out before us, but how we are best to contribute in this work does not require the work of a single congregation. In some areas, we may find it better to continue to partner with others, but in other areas, we may find that God has provided for our congregation a particular gift. This does not happen by accident, but we as a congregation work together in exploring.
There are many tools available to help our members to understand their gifting. One such tool I have been trained to use and am willing to explore options as to how we can best introduce to the community is LifeKeys. I attempted to introduce this earlier, but the timing was not right, and I learned that it would be best not to try to do this in an accelerated way but may best serve to do it over a period of weeks. This would be another avenue that we can explore as to how that would best look and the timing on when to reintroduce this into the life of the congregation.
What does it mean to be a congregation grounded in the Word of God and centered in Christ?
We have moved into a post-Christian age. What that means is that the assumptions that people have a basic understanding of the Christian faith and the Bible can no longer be assumed. Our community may not be biblically illiterate as many in larger, urban communities have become, but considering in our community, we have conservatively only about 50% of the residents in our city attending any congregation regularly, and that is assuming the majority of attendees in the local community are from the City of Gillett, which we know is not the case. We do understand that some of the people go to other congregations surrounding our community. Still, the data for the county shows that there is a large percentage of the population that would be considered unchurched or de-churched. What this highlights is the mission field we have surrounding us. For that reason, it is important for us to become more focused on the Word of God and be able to understand better our faith and how to share our faith in Jesus Christ in our regular interactions.
When we are better versed in the Word of God, we will become a greater influencer in the lives of others in a biblical way. This does not mean that we go out in the world ready to show others their sin but interact differently with others in a way that will make them desire to get to know us in a deeper way. In this way, we can begin to witness Christ in the community positively. This can open more evangelistic opportunities for each of us because it may cause one to ask more questions, which will open up ways to share the faith within us.
If we are not prepared in the Word, think of all the opportunities that will be missed? So, this will be a multi-faceted approach – Bible Study, Intentional Periods of Prayer in our congregation for the community, and Deeper Periods of Personal Study. The goal, ultimately, will be to create a community that is hungry not only to learn the Word but also to share the Word.
This is a deeper, culture-changing move that will take much more time. We need to help parents reclaim their role as the primary teachers of faith to their children. This will mean that we build within our Children’s Sunday School an expectation for parents to regularly lead devotions and Bible study in their homes as a family. This is a portion of what we work to do within the Children, Youth, and Family Ministry team. This is not something that can be forced and will have to begin by helping families realize how important it is to prioritize faith development in the home over and above all other extra-curricular activities that are often taking over so much of the lives of our children and youth. One of the great laments we hear is how children and youth sporting events encroach on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. The only way things like this can change is by refusing to let anything take priority over those events. It may mean that we encourage parents to say “No” to those events and be willing to teach their children that sometimes our faith will cost us. The true cost of not establishing a line is that our children are learning that faith is only important when nothing else conflicts with it. If more faithful Christian families begin to take such a stand, you will find that adjustments will be made. This will be a difficult obstacle to overcome. Still, if we are intentional in our teaching, it will become less and less of an issue, and I am confident we will see great benefits in the families that choose to make such a distinction for themselves. Families and the community will benefit greatly from this, and Christ will be more visible through us as a community of faith.
Where can we develop in our congregation to deepen the prayer lives of those who call St. John’s Lutheran Church their spiritual home?
I believe this will come as we take opportunities to come together for extended prayer. Special weekend events, times of established Prayer Rooms, and further development of our prayer team to tap more people in taking up prayer not only during the prayer time in service but also during the week when people can come together to pray with one another. Prayer Services and special prayer events that can be scheduled regularly as well as sending out prayer teams to pray over our community.