From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesian 4:16)

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2: 46, 47)

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.  (Matthew 28: 19, 20)

I had just a hilarious dream last night.  I dreamt that I had gone to a church in a mall (completely with a mall fountain and those pots of fake trees), The church had cushy blue pews and was surrounded by stores.  The sermon was a cartoon projected on the screen at the front, and at one point someone went through the congregation offering cake to everyone; it wasn’t a gluten-free cake so I knew that I couldn’t have it.  In the dream, I had the distinct thought “What a great church; there’s cartoons for a sermon and they serve cake!”. 

Then I woke up and had to chuckle.  After all, the dream was actually the ANTITHESIS of everything that I think makes good church!  In a Mall! Cartoons for a sermon! Cake that I couldn’t eat!  Cushy pews!  (O.k. – maybe I could get my mind around the cushy pews. 

And there was the rueful part of me that recognized that many many people in our world WANT this to be good church.  Many people believe that church should be a reflection of the values of our society; materialistic, entertaining and ‘snacky’, and the faithful remnant is trying hard instead to be relevant, thoughtful, and food for the world instead of just a select few. 

Yesterday, a colleague posted a question on a clergy social media page, asking what to do about the request from her Board to “attract young families” to the church.  I sighed when I saw that.  I have heard that some request from many directions.  I recognize the longing to have the church be something that would attract families because families reflect longevity, reflect privilege and seem to say “look – we must be important – we’re growing and continuing at a time when the church is in decline”. 

And many churches go to all sorts of lengths to make sure they are attractive to young families.  Budgets are stretched for new and exciting programming.  Events are held.  Invitations are sent. 

Sometimes people do come.  Sometimes it does actually mean that young families do come to church.  But also,

Sometimes it doesn’t.  And then the church is left with a stretched budget, unused programs and unattended events; and those that are left feel….well….disappointed.  Sad.  Demoralized.

Don’t get me wrong.  I really will, 100%, support a community that has discerned that the ministry that God has called them to is a ministry to young families.  I will 100% support them making decisions to develop programing and events that support this type of outreach. 

But, in all honesty, I don’t for a moment believe that that will be the salvation of the church.  And, I can also tell you that just in terms of plains numbers, the churches with young families are declining pretty much at exactly the same rate as the churches without young families.  Young families are not the answer to church social decline. 

Neither are cartoons and cake for that matter! (As good as they are).

Our scripture stories tell us that we, all of us, are important to the whole body of Christ.  Those of us with creaky joints and creaky buildings are just as important as those that have youthful vigour.  And it’s the continuing recognition of the importance of all, and the need for all to break bread and eat together, for all to have ‘glad and sincere hearts’ that will ‘add to the number, daily’. 

“Glad and sincere hearts”.  Interesting, eh.  So, its not a building, an event, or cartoons for a sermon.  The other things that’s important to notice about our faith stories, is that generally, the first church, wasn’t at all interested in keeping buildings open or having a full house on Sunday morning.  The early church was only interested in:

Salvation. 

Not attendance.

Changed lives.  Changed lives that recognize and tap into the eternity offered to us by God, rather than longevity offered by cushy pews, cartoons and cake.  We aren’t called by God to ‘attract young families’ to the church.  We aren’t even called by God to keep our doors open at all cost.  We are called by God to instead,  

To support each other in love.

To meet together with glad and sincere hearts, and,

To go and make disciples. 

For Eternity.  Not longevity. 

Blessings my beautiful Bethel community with our hard, uncomfortable pews and a sermon on Sunday morning instead of cartoons.  Remember you are Loved.

~Rev. Lynne