I caught myself reminiscing of my childhood church friends the other day. While we have all scattered across the country, my church friends have always held a special place in my heart. Undoubtedly we share many great memories of heart transformation, pig piles by the bonfire, and countless other laughs we had together before we graduated. We all came from a similar mold, a comparable upbringing, and the same loving church family who helped raise us to know our Heavenly Father. It’s interesting how we have all grown and changed into our own unique creations God made us to be. Some of us now live our disguised Christian lives as a teacher, a college professor, a nurse, a farmer, a cement pump operator, a pastor, and a children and youth coordinator. (I’m guessing you might know the last one. J) I can say for certain those mentioned above are raising their families in a similar manor – a few in the very same sanctuary and Sunday School rooms.
Something that does not seem as similar in our lives is the world we live in and are now raising our children in. Growing up my parents thought nothing of me riding my bike all over town for the afternoon, as long as I was home when the whistle blew. We didn’t have to wonder about our neighbors because we knew our neighbors and called them friends. I always thought my Sunday School teachers were a bit silly when they told me to invite my friends to come to church because all my friends already belonged to a church. Now, fast forward 25 years, and I find myself in a slightly larger community, I have had to get the plat book out to figure out my neighbor’s last name, and am faced with the sad reality that I am handing Bibles to children who have never heard the Gospel – right here in Luverne. Our world has changed.
At a conference I was at several weeks ago I heard the speaker say, “The church has never been the church in the 21st Century.” Those words have continued to echo in my mind and have led me to wonder about many of the methods we use to teach within the walls of our church. Could it be the ways I was taught about Christ will not serve the children of today the same?
Growing up, the mission field seemed to be miles and miles away; probably because it was miles and miles away. We sent our offering to our missionaries, who were usually across seas, and they worked with people who did not know Christ; that was my understanding of missions as a child. As an adult, I now realize our world has changed and it has brought the mission field right here to our front door within our own community.
Jesus’ instructions to His disciples, and us, were pretty clear. At the time of His ascension into heaven He instructed them to be His witness to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Just as God sent Jesus, Jesus has now sent us (John 20:21) into this world and we have been called to go and make disciples, of all nations (Matthew 28:19) including our own.
As we march forth in the 21st Century and continue our call to live and love as Jesus, some of our treasured methods of learning may not speak to our children or nonbelieving neighbors as they once did to us. May it not be so with us that we turned a blind eye to the changing world and stayed within the comfortable walls of the church. Rather may we follow our marching orders to go and be a witness of Christ’s love in the community around us seeking those who have not heard the Good News we find in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Marching on, Becky Ossefoort