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The Agile Church.
Big Coulee Lutheran Church stands a mile away from where I grew up. It closed about forty-two years ago, primarily, because it ran out of people. It continues to be a part of my spiritual landscape. With that said, the church that once gathered in that building no longer exists.
The church is going through significant change. We heard this sentiment back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This was about the time when this whole idea of denominational decline begins to roll down the hill. It has never stopped rolling. It is coming up on its own fiftieth anniversary. There has been, over these fifty years, many calls to be adaptive, fluid, flexible, nimble, and agile. And yet….
COVID-19.
Never did I imagine that in-person worship would come to a screeching halt. Never did I imagine corporate worship would move from our sanctuaries to the homes of people. Preaching became different. Communication was altered. Congregational care moved in different directions. Educational classes called for different platforms. Organizational structures for mission and ministry, across the board, will likely go through revision.
If we have never heard the call to be an agile church…we are hearing it now! Oh, to be sure, we continue to swim in the waters of uncertainty as we continue to learn and unlearn what we thought we knew. It can be an unsettling time, and yet, new ways of ministry are emerging. Different strategies of missional engagement are rising to the surface. Discipleship, that is, following Jesus in daily life, is becoming more pronounced. Faith practices are increasingly mobile. Through it all – it is a good and hard and exciting time to be church.
What is God doing in this season?
What does God want to do in and through us?
I like going back to Big Coulee Lutheran Church. I like to reminisce about that church, my family, and that rural setting. I like going back…but I cannot stay there. It stands today, for me, as a parable for an agile church.
I will close with these words from that great hymn entitled The Canticle of the Turning:
Could the world be about to turn? My heart shall sing of the day you bring. Let the Fires of your justice burn. Wipe away all tears, for the Dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn! Rory Cooney
-- Pastor Marty
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