SO WHAT'S THE STORY?

 

One of the themes in my work this year is teasing out the story of what God is up to in particular congregations.  "Tell me about the story you are in the middle of." This is what Gospel writers did way back when: they looked at the varied incidents and anecdotes and cobbled together a narrative that was true to their faith understanding.

There are varied narratives with each church.  Sometimes they actually align!  There is what church leaders see happening and tell themselves. There is the reputation of a church on the street.  And there’s aspirational narrative - “Open doors, open hearts, open minds” is an example of the latter.  Aspirational narratives don’t always match lived experience and can come off sounding like cheap marketing spin.

Of course, the narrative on the street is often a blank. “What church? Where again?”

As I reflect on three different churches in my life that had vitality (in the 1970s, at the turn of the century and in the 2020s), I see that each has developed a sense of the unfolding God story, and that it has aligned with what outsiders perceived in significant ways.

In one place the narrative grew up around worship. There came a sense that God was in the house.  The music was electric. The weekly anticipation, palpable. And, it’s no wonder that attendance tripled in a three-year period.

In another place the narrative grew up around grace and relevance. In a context where most churches tended toward fundamentalism and had a reputation of judgmental spirit, this church was known as a place where it could truly be said: “Life can beat you up six days a week.  This is a place of healing, that can build you back up on the seventh.”  And the people flocked in.

In a current place where I work, the word on the street is that our church really cares about the community.  We handed the fellowship hall over for several months to be used as a shelter for homeless persons during a record hot summer. The newspapers and TV stations have regularly echoed this story. Members have been serving meals six days a week to the very poor for years. Last year, we provided portable showers in our parking lot.  Even now, this ministry isn’t outsourced away. Members eat and fellowship with the shelter residents (who are so happy to be there that the place stays spotlessly clean).  The shelter people don’t typically wander into worship services, but real church is going on around tables. Meanwhile, ten folks joined the church a few Sundays back who were captured by the church’s community focus and service. Momentum is building.

Church leaders talk about vision a lot. Talking about the story re-frames the vision question from a static reality to something with movement, something going places. The Bible is all about the acts of God lived out in real time in and through the lives of real people.

What’s your church’s story these days?  What do you long for it to be? What can the neighbors see?

These are powerful questions to ask as the disruptions of life-as-we-knew-it continue.