AUTHOR: Robin Dugall DATE: 1:44:00 PM ----- BODY:

Yeah, I know...this could be a shameless post. Well, get over it. Because I am going to be doing a number of shameless posts. I just finished a paper for a doctoral class entitled, "Church Renewal". George Barna was our instructor. His challenge for our final paper - come up with an assessment of the church and a new vision for what church might look like in the future. You can imagine how I felt about that! Pick me! Anyway, here is the first 'course' for you to sample. Comments always welcomed and encouraged: Church Renewal paper - part 1 “the times they are a-changin’” – Bob Dylan “if you love somebody, set them free” – Sting I have to admit, I love oxymorons. In fact, websites dedicated to oxymorons are secretively bookmarked on my computer’s web browser. Truthfully, it is an addiction that I am not willing to openly admit in mixed company. So, call me “crazy” but every time I hear the classics like, “jumbo shrimp”, “working vacation”, “tame cats” or “government intelligence”, a smile appears on my face. I have never known exactly how to interpret my fascination with oxymorons. One of my friends who knows of this secret “issue” says that I am a person who is too easily entertained (which is most certainly true). Besides oxymorons, I have to confess I laugh at the stupidest jokes in the world. Yet, if I had to make an honest assessment, I would have to say that sometimes I just have too much time on my hands. I am a person who is too entertained by minutiae and trivia. Anybody who surfs the Internet on a regular basis knows how it is a smorgasbord of mindless information and entertainment. It is addictive fun. Whichever the case, for many years now, I have been enthralled with a new oxymoron having to do with the Church. Every time I think about it, I have a tinge of guilt because I have the sense that I am being either a bit cynical or sarcastic about the state of the Church. Sometimes I feel like I am actually being somewhat heretical given the climate of contemporary evangelical culture. Many leaders in ministry that I know throughout the United States have a much more positive attitude about the current and future state of the Church. Even so, the words, “Church Renewal” (and its relative, “Church Growth”) have become as much words that are oxymoronic as any on some of my favorite websites. Do not misunderstand me…the words “Church Renewal” appear to belong together. You would assume that the Church is committed to renewal. You would imagine that the Church is submitting itself to a process of constantly being made new by the power and presence of a Holy and Creative God whose promises of newness in life are numerous. Let your eyes scan simply a sample of some of what the scriptures tell us about the intentionality of “newness” in the Kingdom of God: Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning”. Isaiah 43:19 “Behold, I will do something new; now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Ezekiel 11:19 “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” Matthew 9:17 “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” Luke 5:36-38 “And He was also telling them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” Revelation 21:5 “And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’”1 As I have already stated, any honest reader and student of the scriptures would assume that newness and renewal is ingrained into the very character of the Church. Yet time and again, century after century, the Church has opted out for “reformation” instead of “transformation”. Obviously, reformation is a challenging process. That is something that history has demonstrated time and again. No one can do anything but thank God for the spiritual and institutional reformation that has occurred in strategic times in history. For example, the upheaval of ecclesiastical life and the increased faithfulness to the call of the Gospel that came in the 16th century through the period of the Reformation are undeniable. There are many other examples of reformation that have made significant changes in how church is done (i.e. Holiness movement of the 18th century, Monastic Movement of the 8th century, the Jesus movement in the late 1900’s). Even so, no movement of reformation goes far enough. Reformation is NOT renewal. Reformation is a rearranging of the chairs on the deck of the ship. Renewal is more aptly demonstrated when we either get new chairs or a new ship. Reformation will always seek to adhere to the proven and tangible. Reformation is always more comfortable for humanity. Reformation reorganizes and restructures but never makes anything intrinsically new. We get to keep that which makes us have a sense of security and control. Renewal is always more demanding and threatening. It implies and actualizes spiritual surprise. It epitomizes mystery and reveals a God who acts according to His desire, not ours. I do not believe in a God who appreciates reformation. I believe in a God of transformation. That is why the words, “Church Renewal” are oxymoronic in reality. It could be justifiably debated that the Church “being made new” has not authentically occurred since the Spirit of God fell on a group of people who could have never predicted the result (as recorded in the book of Acts, chapter two). In our intentional effort to avoid transformation, the Church has become experts at “arranging” and managing. We arrange and rearrange things that we know so well attempting to get different results. In actuality, we end up managing the key resources of the Body of Christ into oblivion. Scott Peck said it so well when he defined insanity as, “doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.”2 That is why as oxymoronic as it seems, that the Church is more in need of Renewal at this stage of history than any other time since its inception. This is a time in Christian history where there are more resources, more good ideas, more money, more books, more open ecumenical communication, and more information available to ministries and Christian leaders than any other time in recorded history. Yet it is a time of unprecedented insanity. Church Renewal is going to take Transformation. Once Transformation begins it will sweep across contemporary American Christendom in numerous, unique, and unorthodox manners challenging big churches and modernistic models of success. It will epitomize a spiritual, ecclesiastical and organizational freedom that we have yet to fully experience. For this to occur, faithfulness and obedience will have to be the new benchmarks of a renewed church or I suspect that the church will lose any resemblance to the Body of Christ so poignantly described in the Bible. Publicity, book sales, seminar and conference running institutions will no longer be the shining stars of the contemporary Church. Renewed Churches will be those that provide the foundation for renewed and transformed lives. People more and more resembling the person of Jesus Christ in our culture will be what will mark those fellowships and gatherings that are being “successful” according to a biblical standard more so than a cultural standard. Without embracing the times that are truly “a-changin”, I believe the future of the American Church is not as bright as some might suspect.

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