If Everything Has Changed, Why Isn't Anything Really Different?
Several years ago my wife Amy and I took our youth group from our church in Lamesa, TX on a combo mission trip/fun trip. We had experienced severe flooding that year, which never happens in Lamesa, and it had wrecked one of the poorest neighborhoods in the town. One of those affected was a single mom who had recently and tragically lost her husband to an illness. So for the mission part of the trip, we painted and caulked the entire exterior of her house. For the fun part of the trip we took them to Amarillo to eat and explore the scenery.
If you know anything about Amarillo they have a destination people from all over the world visit called “The Cadillac Ranch”. Yes we also ate at the Big Texan, but skipped the 5lb steak eating challenge, I shudder to think of the enclosed 2.5 hour ride home had we partaken. We took the kids to hike in Palo Duro Canyon State Park as well.
While we were at the Cadillac Ranch we bought the kids spray paint to paint graffiti on the cars. It’s what you do at the Cadillac Ranch, it is a unique form of art that everyone gets to participate in creating. The kids were working very hard on leaving their mark on Amarillo, TX and taking pictures with their phones. I’ve been cursed with the gift of truth telling, so I brought to their attention they better take good pics because all of their hard work would probably be gone by this time tomorrow. I got that look that only teenagers can give.
The Cadillac Ranch changes every day. But nothing ever actually looks any different. Its just cars planted in the ground covered in graffiti. The only real value you create is in the memories and bonding that happens while you are placing your momentary stamp on the basic structure that was created by some other artist. The experience changes your mind and heart in some small but important way, and that will last the test of time. But understand that the effort you put in to the work you produce isn’t going to last. And it shouldn’t, we need to let go, move on, and allow others their place in participating in the experience.
There are some good lessons to be learned here for the church. In the church, our experiences with God and the relationships we build with others will be eternal. But the structures we build and the ministries we participate in creating with our money and energy will come and go. They are neither sacred nor eternal. Sometimes when you remind church folk of that basic reality their face suddenly remembers how to give looks like a teenager.
As Methodists, there are very clearly things we need to do differently, beyond just changing some things. Unless you like the results we have seen since we were merged into the United Methodist Church in 1968? What was up until that time simply called “The Methodist Church”, the largest denomination in the United States, when formed into “The United Methodist Church” began to decline every single year with no exceptions.
And we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that just because we’ve changed a few things and left that sinking ship that we will automatically begin to see any different results. Take inventory for just a second, while a lot of things have changed here over the past year, what is really different?
I am going to propose that unless we take this season of change and begin to do some things differently we have no reason to expect any different results from what we have seen collectively as Methodists over the past 50 years.
Let me explain to you Methodism in as simple of terms as I can. It is an attempt to restore New Testament Christianity in our own corrupt day and time. That is what John Wesley called, “primitive Christianity”. And if you know anything about the early Methodist movement in Great Britain, they were willing to do anything to continue seeing the results they were seeing.
To be clear, it wasn’t their clever and creative ministry strategies that were producing the results. This is the trap that most churches get stuck in. Because the real results were produced by a laser focus on three key things based upon what our father John Wesley saw in a key verse in the book of Acts.
Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship (gathering together), to the breaking of bread (holy communion) and the prayers. 43 AND AWE CAME UPON EVERY SOUL
John Wesley wanted to see those results, and so he figured he should focus on making it PRIMARY to do the things that the primitive church did.
As a result Wesley and his cohorts dedicated themselves to living a life focused on these three things he referred to as the Primary Means of Grace. These means of grace are a commission to the body of Christ to exercise extreme discipline to get laser focused on these three things:
GROWING in our understanding of scripture.
PRAYING.
GATHERING together as the body of Christ on a regular and consistent basis in worship and in receiving the sacraments.
In correspondence with these three things in which we are instructed by scripture and our father John Wesley, I would propose that we are commissioned together to remember who we are and where we’ve come from and to let go of our artificial expectations of how things were done in the 1950’s. I believe we have a commission both from God and our heritage to get laser focused on building these three things together:
A HOUSE OF WORSHIP
Acts 20:7 “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.”
Article XIII – Public Worship (From THE TRANSITIONAL BOOK OF DOCTRINES AND DISCIPLINE THE GLOBAL METHODIST CHURCH)1
We believe divine worship is the duty and privilege of man who, in the presence of God, bows in adoration, humility and dedication. We believe divine worship is essential to the life of the Church, and that the assembling of the people of God for such worship is necessary to Christian fellowship and spiritual growth.
We believe the order of public worship need not be the same in all places but may be modified by the church according to circumstances and the needs of men. It should be in a language and form understood by the people, consistent with the Holy Scriptures to the edification of all, and in accordance with the order and Discipline of the Church.
A HOUSE OF LEARNING
Jeremiah 33:2 “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: 3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
Malachi 2:5 My covenant with (Levi) him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
1 Timothy 4:16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
A HOUSE OF PRAYER
The great eighteenth-century Wesleyan revival in England was birthed in a prayer meeting on the New Year’s Eve of 1739. In his widely-published journal, John Wesley described it like this: "About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from the awe and amazement at the presence of his Majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.’"
Acts 1:4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but TO WAIT for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
I don’t come to any place that God has brought me to make changes. I but I refuse to spend my time and energy wherever I am without making a difference. I hope you have the same mind as me about your own time.
We don't usually stop dreaming; we just stop believing. That things can change. That this year could be different. That God will use us.
What could happen if you stirred your dreams up, instead of just managing your expectations?