Transforming the Self, the Church and the World

Transformation is the church's business.  We are not called to fill every pew on Sunday mornings.  As soon as we begin to live to be the Church we are no longer living.  We are called to be alive with Jesus and bring Jesus' light to the nations.  One of the institutions that has done this thus far has been the Church.  However, God will find a way to bring God's light to the world if we fail or if we cannot.
I had a very enlightening discussion with a Bishop this morning.  We disagree on many issues, but it was amazing to see how much we agree on.  We are both convinced that the Church must change in order to continue being the Light of Christ.  We both understand that this change will be radical and painful for all, but that without this change our Church is not able to live into the life that the Holy Spirit is putting before us. 
He spoke of the assumption that people would come back to the Church when they have children.  Right now, there are not many young adults in the Church.  There are also trends showing the people in the US are waiting longer to have their first child.  If we expect people to leave the Church during the formative years of early 20's, college and post-college work we are losing the opportunity to inform the decisions that have life long ramifications for many.  Jesus did not only call those that were married and had children.  He did not only call those that were living the normative life.  Jesus called his disciples into a transformed life.  He called them into a new life.  If our plan for growing the Church is to wait for those who grew up in the Church but then left in their 20's to come back once they have children we have missed the point.  We are holding onto tradition at the expense of the Church. 
During our conversation this morning this Bishop explained that, as Episcopalians, we are very good at creating loving communities of believers.  We are very good at asking people of faith to grow and challenge themselves.  However, we are not very good at bringing people into the faith.  We have become so afraid of being exclusive that we have forgotten to tell people that there is more to our inclusivity than a social club.  The discussion of open table theology brought up the idea of open baptism theology.  We are so quick to share God's love through Christ that we often forget to share that Jesus also called us to die.  This death is necessary in order to have new life.  We cannot have one without the other.  God's love is magnificent and available to all, but then we must show that love in the world. We are calling people into something new and different.  We need to define what that is so that we can challenge people to follow this crazy carpenter that has been changing the world for thousands of years. 
The change that this Church needs is massive.  We are all aware of the necessity for change.  If we focus on living out our calling to follow Jesus we will be able to transform the lives of those around us and the world.  It will take time and it will be challenging.  I am renewed and enheartened to see that all of us, no matter where we stand on certain issues, are looking to be the nomadic people of God that live in tents, going wherever the Holy Spirit is leading us.  As we follow the Holy Spirit we will be transformed, the Church will be transformed and the world will be transformed into something we cannot imagine, but something that brings a small piece of the Community that God is building into reality.