"What Do We Do Now?"
It's time for the church to re-engage in mission
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Text: 2 Timothy 4:1-8 & 22
It is safe to say that I was brought up in the church. As a son of the manse, from the ripe age of about two weeks, my attendance at church services was required. When I was five my father was moved from central Ireland to a blossoming, newer congregation in Belfast and some of my earliest memories are of a large, packed building, a full choir, wonderful music (although as a Beatles fan, I was unaware of how wonderful it was at the time). The church was burgeoning with young families. Our Boys' Brigade Company boasted 40 Life-Boys and 60 teenagers in the brigade. The girls' brigade had similar numbers. Members of the boys' brigade were required to attend Bible Class every Sunday morning which meant that 20 or 30 of us stayed on with others for morning worship. And even though the minister sometimes had to chide us for making noise during the service, I'm sure that he was glad that we were there.
In the spring of 2001, I had the privilege of venturing back into that church one Sunday morning, while on holidays. I looked around the building before the service. It had aged well. With some pride, I peeked into the chapel that had been dedicated to the memory of my father who had ministered there before his untimely death. When the time came for worship, I noted that attendance was down, but there were a good number of people that I knew and I was glad to see them. I was in a bit of shock, however, at the makeup of the congregation, because most were from my parents' generation. Of all the people who had attended children's and youth programs when I was a lad, there were only two in the service that morning. As I spoke to David and Christine, it was clear that it was just the two of them on most Sunday mornings. For whatever reason, it seemed that a generation had been lost to the church.
Unfortunately, that church is not alone, many churches have witnessed declines that seemed to begin in the late 60s. John Drane has written:
For the last forty years, the statistics have reflected an accelerating crisis in church life, and we are now faced with the serious possibility - likelihood even - that the Christian faith might disappear entirely from our culture within the first half of this century…Our churches are in incredibly bad shape. Moreover, the decline is affecting all Christian traditions. Every denomination faces the same issues, and they extend right across the theological spectrum.
One writer, speaking of the British situation, says that church attendance could well be down to four per cent in the next few years. He quotes statistics that show that if the current rate of decline in British Church is not arrested, the Methodist Church will have zero membership by 2037, the Church of Scotland will close its last congregation in 2033, the Church of Wales will be unsustainable by 2020, and the Salvation Army and United Reform Churches face similar prospects. He states, “Though we should treat such projections with caution, recognising that wipe-out is unlikely, denominational non-viability is looking increasingly probable for these groups of churches.” The numbers who have left churches over the last generation are incredible.
I am reminded of an article Nicky Gumbel refers to in his Alpha Course from the British “rag” Private Eye. The headline read, “Even God to leave Church of England!”
Following the precedent set by leading former Anglicans, God has indicated that he too is to leave the Church of England. Friends of God believe the issue of women priests to be behind God's sudden decision to leave. Sources close to God said that God had been unhappy for some time with the direction of the Church. A Church of England spokesman said, ”˜Losing God is a bit of a blow, but it is just something we are going to have to live with.'
The Church at large has been in decline for years now, and as it goes on, it is having an effect. The numbers being baptized, the numbers entering into Sunday Schools, the numbers being confirmed, the numbers in youth programs, the numbers getting married in churches are all in decline. Ignorance of Christian things is increasing. I read a report, for instance, of one individual who dropped by a church building to collect something for his partner who worked in the building during the week in a creative arts project run by the church. This man arrived as the morning congregation was leaving. He recognized the minister, went up to him, and with a look of surprise asked, “What are all these people doing here? I didn't know churches were open on Sundays!”
We are moving into a different world in which very basic knowledge of church and Christianity is just not there. Unlike a generation or so ago, the majority of individuals no longer construct their identities and their sense of self around Christian values. The Church is becoming marginalized and its influence in life and the world of public affairs that was so important to the founding fathers and mothers of the United Church has waned. In just over one generation, the reign of Christendom in the West has come to an abrupt end. Oh, there are still vestiges of church life and Christianity out there, but broadly speaking Christendom has ended, not many of our friends and neighbours attend or have faith, and a generation, perhaps two, have been lost to the church.
So, what do we do now? Do we put our heads in the sand and say, “It is not happening.” Do we shake our heads and say, “What a pity,” and go about our business. Do we join the voices that say, “We are presiding over the death of the Church.” Well, before we throw in the towel, before we cast our heads downward, kick the proverbial dirt, we do well to remember the words of columnist Malcolm Muggeridge, who said 30 years ago that we may be facing the end of Christendom, “but it is not the end of Christ.” Perhaps the church has become small in our country and grown weak, but “it is not the end of Christ.”
Many times when I read the New Testament, I see great parallels between what the Church faces today and what it faced in the first century. The apostle Paul had given his life to Christ. He had extended himself and suffered to make the good news he had found known. Yet, some 30 years after he had begun his mission, the Church was still not strong. It was plagued by persecution, wonder, and ridicule from without and heresy from within. Christianity was a fledgling faith and Paul was deeply concerned for its future well-being.
Some scholars think that 2 Timothy was written just before Paul's death. Paul was back, under custody, in Rome. He writes, “I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness” (4:6f.). Paul knows he will be with Christ no matter what but as he see the end of his earthly journey, he is concerned about the work. He writes to his young friend and partner in mission, Timothy, encouraging him to keep going for the cause of truth and in the power of Christ.
Paul and Timothy lived in what was a largely pagan world. Like our world today, various peoples worshipped various gods. Like our world, it was a pluralistic environment; many people recognized various gods, and various powers, in various locales. Christianity was one faith in the midst of others, a small movement not even officially recognized as a religion by Roman law. There was threat from without but threat from within its own ranks was, perhaps, greater. In days before the final codification of the written Gospels, when the message was carried orally by eye-witnesses who could not be in all places at all times, there were those who would adapt the story of Christ to fit their own tastes. The Church was in great danger of not even getting off the ground when Paul encouraged Timothy and said, “The time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths” (4:3-4). We see similar things today as individuals leave the church in search of something else. Pollsters keep telling us that, in spite of church decline, the population at large is still quite interested in spiritual things. It suggests they are wandering off into other faiths and, more often, spiritualities that are more fuzzy, but suitable for their needs, as though their needs trumped all in terms of religion and truth.
We are in decline. What shall we do now? Within a situation that was not dissimilar to ours, Paul utters a few little words to Timothy that may prove useful for us today. In the midst of his concern for the fledgling faith in Christ, Paul tells Timothy to keep going and “Preach the word!”(4:2). “The word?” What is the “word” Paul refers to? Well, it is the same word he referred to in chapter one when he asked Timothy to guard the good treasure that had been entrusted to him (1:14). The word, is the same word that he told Timothy to continue in, in chapter three (3:14). It was the word that one day would bring him “The crown of righteousness (4:8). It is the word of Jesus Christ, the gospel that Paul had imparted to him (2:8; 3:14). This word was no warm, fuzzy thinking that is the mark of some spiritual traditions that are so in favour today. This word had a concrete element in its historical base. It was the word about Jesus of Nazareth. In the midst of an environment that was polytheistic and pluralistic, an environment that was filled with all manner of myth and thinking about life, eternal youth, and heaven, Timothy was charged with carrying the word about Jesus about whom many witnesses said they had seen incredible things. They had seen him live, heard him teach, seen him die and, yet, rise again. They staked their lives on what they had witnessed for it was not a feeling or thought, but concrete and true.
Paul exhorted Timothy to preach that word and continue witnessing to truth. “Be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.” The first generation of apostles was getting older. They had witnessed something in their earlier years that had knocked their socks off. They had encountered someone who was greater than any human being could be. They had seen God at work as he had raised Christ from the dead. They could do nothing else but go out and tell others of what God had done. But who would continue the work? Who would speak truth to the next generation? Paul encourages Timothy to preach the word … and I think if he were with us today, in the mist of difficult days for the wider church, he would tell us the same thing, “Preach the word;” tell of all that God was doing in Christ.
Recently, I have been reading some of the writings of founding fathers and mothers of United Church from in and around 1925. The writings reveal people of deep faith, people who wanted to encounter the world because of their faith. They foresaw a great union of Christians helping people in every walk of life, helping them concretely where there were social needs and helping them spiritually align with the truth of Christ. They wrote of how valuable the gospel message was to humankind no matter how bad things were. Joseph McClelland, Professor Emeritus at McGill University, recently conveyed his anger at his own denomination's position. He said that they were running scared of the future, afraid of what tomorrow may bring for the church. But “He's alive,” he writes, Christ is alive and the church needs to emerge from its recent past and enter a wonderful new world in the power of Christ. E. Stanley Jones encourages the church, in difficult times, to rediscover the power of God's truth. He says, “We must become on fire with it, until people shall see that we really believe it.”
So what shall we do now? What will Timothy Eaton Memorial Church do now? A couple of weeks ago, as Dr. Stirling was preaching, I looked out into the congregation, and it struck me that in spite of our strength and all the good things that are happening here, there is one thing that we hold in common with so much of the church that is faltering; we have all but lost a generation of church goers, and we must be careful to plan for the future so that the future of this church is as strong as its past. What shall we do now? The apostle Paul would say to us, “Preach the word.” TEMC has an opportunity now, while it is still strong, in addition to all the good things it is doing, to engage a new generation, a post-Christian generation, a generation that has largely not heard of Christ.
I read a story this week of a teenager with no church connections. One day he heard the Christmas story for the first time. His teacher told it well and he was fascinated by it. After the lesson, he thanked her for the story but there was one thing that disturbed him and he asked, “Why did they give the baby a swear word for his name?” Like it or not, that is what living in a post-Christian environment is like. We may lament the fall of the church, but before us is a tremendous opportunity to present the truth of Christ afresh, sometimes for the first time, to a generation which largely has never heard.
The question is, “Do we dare?
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.