“After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’” –Revelation 4:1, NRSV
The United Methodist Church as you may from my last post has started a new campaign called, "Rethink Church." This campaign is not a campaign us to rethink our theology or wesleyan traditions, but our ecclesiology, how we run our church. It begs the question,
"What has God called The United Methodist Church the 21st century?"
As a young adult in the United Methodist Church I think it is very important for us to "rethink" how we "do church," because study's show that large percentages of people even in my generation alone are considered "outsiders" to the church because of how they feel. It's not that they feel rejected by Jesus. They have no problem with Jesus, but they feel rejected by Christians. The church.
So, knowingly all we should realize that there is something drastically wrong with our ecclesiology, or how we do church. Is the church a physical place? Yes, it is, but is it only a physical place? No, it is not. As little kids we learn that the Church was the people and that through their actions they were actually bringing the church into the dark, broken, and scared parts of the world. Cause that's what Christ did right. He embraces the brokenness of the world and gives that brokenness his awesome love. As christians and followers of Jesus Christ we are empowered to do just that. So, let's rethink this thing called church.
Just for your information, according to the Barna Group the Adult Mosaics and Busters Generation which is the ages between 18-41 has a percent of 37% that are considered outsiders to Christianity and the Church. That's roughly about 34 million people in the United States. Something is just not working here.
