I’ve been in full time ministry for fifteen years now and in that short time things have changed a lot in how ministry needs to be approached. Coming to NoDa Church was a refreshing change of being in a new environment with unique challenges. In many ways, this has been uncharted territory for me and for us as a congregation. We cannot do traditional church in a nontraditional setting. We’ve had to adapt along the way.
A while back, I was discussing a hard situation with a mentor of mine. I was at a loss as to what the “right direction” was in moving forward with the situation. It was a little disheartening when I explained the dynamics of the situation and his response was, “Boy! That’s a hard one. I’m not sure I know what to tell you.” After forty plus years of church work, training ministers, counseling church leaderships, and teaching in universities, I brought a situation to him that he had never dealt with. His next comment to me was one that has stuck with me for a while now. He asked, “What do your instincts tell you?” This question assumes prayer and seeking God’s guidance are taking place.
At the beginning of this year, we did a series called “Canoeing the Mountains” where we looked at Lewis and Clark’s expedition to find a northwest passage to the Pacific. They thought they would canoe up the Missouri river, carry their canoes over some small mountains, and drop their canoes in another river and it’d be easy sailing down to the Pacific. Three hundred years of exploration assumed this would be the way forward. When the Corp of Discovery arrived at Lemhi Pass, they saw what all the tribal leaders had warned them about: “There are mountains ahead.” They dismissed these warnings because they assumed the mountains would be like the Appalachians. What they had in front of them for as far as the eye could see were peak after peak after peak of the Rocky Mountains.
The canoes they were carrying that brought them so much success up to this point were nothing better than firewood. The successes of their past were not going to work in this new terrain. With all the changes around them, one thing remained the same: their mission. They didn’t have the option to say, “I wasn’t trained for this!” or quit because the terrain just got substantially harder. Their mission didn’t change. They had to learn new skills, trust their instincts, and listen to those who knew this new land.
The church in America is standing on Lemhi Pass and is struggling with the reality of the changing terrain. Some are still in their canoes paddling as hard as they can though they’ve run out of water. Others have set aside their canoes for bulldozers in hopes of creating a waterway where they can place their canoes. The church cannot fight against the terrain. We must be faithful to the mission of God to carry his Good News where we go and into whatever terrain in which we find ourselves.
At the beginning of the year, I asked for a group from our church to meet with me and study the changing terrain to see what potential struggles and opportunities we have ahead of us in the church. This Corp of Discovery was a blessing to me in this last year as we discussed the success and struggles of the past to learn how we might develop better instincts for the future. Over the next eight weeks, we will be going on this journey as a church. I will be sharing what this group discovered and guiding us through scripture to help us determine the paths ahead.
God promises that the gates of hades will never overcome the church (Matt 16:18). His mission has not changed! The question I want to wrestle with in the coming weeks is whether the church in America and our fellowship of churches will be relevant to the mission of God or will we hold tight to our canoes?
Read Philippians 3 in preparation for Sunday. What instincts do you see Paul working from? What is most important to him? What do we learn from this chapter?