Looking into the Future: The Top 10 Changes for the American Church
3. Relational
For many years the trend has been that larger churches are continuing to grow larger while smaller churches continue to decline in membership. In some megachurch settings it is very easy for someone to attend worship and remain anonymous and have little or no interaction with other people. Another trend that has now spanned a few decades is that of emphasizing programs. Many congregations place an emphasis on the creation and development of new programs and expend significant resources to continue successful programs.
In contrast to anonymity, the new way is the way of relationship. Instead of putting programs first, people are primary. Connections matter more than programs. Larger congregations must be creative in developing local church culture that creates community. There is room for programs and even programmatic means for creating smaller community groups within the understanding that programs are one of many tools for developing the relational component of the faith community.
So What?
Do your church mission statement, your congregational culture, and your use of budgetary resources clearly show that being a relational parish is a top priority? If so, how so? If not, why not? How might you become increasingly relational in 2010?
Consider the example of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church’s identity statement: Created for relationship with God, all people everywhere and creation itself through Jesus Christ.
In the words of their Lead Pastor, Steve Sylvester:
The Christian faith knows and speaks of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit-The Trinity. Understanding God as Triune tells us something very important about God: God is about relationship. For human beings to be created in the image of God, then, means that we are created to be in relationship.
21st century American culture is a culture of individualism. “To be an individual means to be divided out of relationship. Divided out of relationship to the point that one can be divided out no further and stands alone.” At Our Savior’s Lutheran Church we believe it is our calling as Christians to stand against the culture of individualism and reclaim our relationship with God, our relationship with all people everywhere and our relationship with creation itself.
At Our Savior’s our identity is not wrapped up in negatives. We do not believe that Jesus Christ tells us who to hate, or whom to stand apart from. We believe, rather, that Jesus gives us the ability to stop living for ourselves and start living with and for God, all people everywhere and creation itself. I invite you to come explore with us what it means to be created for relationship.
Watch how this statement came to be.