| A Letter From the President Click here to return to the Church Innovations web site. For some time now it has been clear to many within the missional church movement that the present “culture wars” were symptoms of the deeper challenge of the new missional era. The most recent form of the culture wars being the painful separations, conflicts, and growing divisions regarding human sexuality make a poignant case in point. Without demeaning the substantial matters at stake in these disputes for human flourishing and living into God’s preferred future, it is important to keep clear that these disputes are only symptoms of the deeper challenge of the new missional era. And, I fear, one more example of how many churches are engaged in adaptive denial of their failure to form Christian community with those whom they believe God is calling them to join in God’s mission. Firstly let me make it clear I am not demeaning the importance of human sexuality. Surely no serious Christian would consider matters of sexuality as unimportant for the Christian life. Indeed, along with the general tradition of western culture, the sacredness of intimate life, especially marriage, remains a central shared commitment of the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a time when these intimate relationships seem under considerable attack and are truly threatened, it is critical that the church commit itself to supporting these intimate relationships, for they are literally the basis of sustainable human flourishing. However, the new missional era creates a profoundly different challenge. While it might have been possible in a previous time for Christians to dictate, instruct, and often control the conversation over such matters, this time has passed. Further, if the church is to keep the main thing the main thing, it is wiser to form Christian community first rather than presume cultural hegemony. Rather than excelling at attempts to regain moral chaplaincy, either of the left or right, for American society, it is wiser to take the challenge of explicit witness to Jesus while joining our neighbors in seeking to do God’s will. To accomplish this focusing on explicit witness to Jesus and forming Christian community with those whom we discern God is calling us to join in God’s mission, surely is not easy in this moment. It is so easy to get caught up in the moral rage, outrage, certainty and dare I say it, “self righteousness” that seems to govern those who take the culture wars issues to be the critical issues facing the church. It is equally easy to be confused, dismayed, demoralized, and exhausted by the mayhem and destruction being realized by those who consider these issues the main thing. In the last couple months I have spoken with three dozen or so bishops, superintendents, executive presbyters, area ministers, presidents, of mid-governing church bodies. Many of them are experiencing the fallout of these culture wars combined with the general societal reactions to economic stress and recession. They are regularly attending meetings where the underside of these conflicts and stresses show themselves. They are losing income and membership. In all of this it is extremely difficult to keep the main thing the main thing in their life and work. Most are making an effort to do so. In these conversations many explicitly thank me for the call as an opportunity to get some safe space and time for focusing on the main thing. They thank me for the prophetic voice that CI has had in both noting the evidence for the deeper challenges facing the church in the new era of mission and forewarning them of the present transforming of denominational systems. Some even admit they did not believe our witness when we first began to offer it over 25 years ago; some admit dismay at how true our take on the situation has proven. Most importantly, they have thanked me for CI’s clear focus on the missional future. CI has made many mistakes in our attempt to speak the truth and respond with cutting edge research and consulting. We have, however, stayed the course when it was not popular to say what we had to say or put a focus on innovating your church’s capacity to be renewed in God’s mission. We have, more often than not, been proven fair and accurate in our research and very effective in our consulting. Now that it is quite obvious to almost all in church leadership that what we have offered is critical in our time, we need significant support to meet the challenge. We, like most non-profits, have experienced significant downturn in financial support and we need that now more than ever. So as you who have been with us along the longer journey consider year-end gifts, remember CI. In Christ's Peace, Pat Keifert |
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