The beautiful now

Living in the moment used to be bad according to a lot of church teaching I grew up with. It was probably because people thought that living for eternity was more important and that eternity and this moment were two completely different things. 

I get it. Under the way we'd talk about God, heaven, and such, it made complete sense. Living in the moment usually assumed some kind of sinful behavior - usually sex, drugs, or listening to rock and roll. Or in my earlier years, it meant wearing shorts, playing cards, or going to the movies.

Religion and church have their own language and worldview. In our group that met Sunday/yesterday, we unpacked a little of the idea of how religious systems/churches paint a picture of limited choices that you HAVE to pick from and, if you're not a little more aware of something larger, you'll believe them.

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Churches are not the only culprit - other institutions have that thinking as well. I remember a time when private school and homeschooling had very narrow and negative connotations and now, for many, those are considered better choices, for a variety of reasons.

It took a long time and a lot of variables to enter culture and experience to change that vision of those educational options, but it 100% did - at least for many people and networks. Some people did a 180 degree turn from "all in" on public schools to "no way will I sacrifice my kid for a social cause".

And among the "die hards" of public school support, many of them will move heaven and earth to get their child into the ideal public school that has the better reputation for less violence, fewer reported problems, and such - even to the degree of moving into a different neighborhood to get a "good" public school.

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Over time, institutions DO change and usually they change after people realize that what did did for society (their function) has changed to the degree that it no longer makes sense to rely on that institution to provide what it, in theory, was supposed to be providing.

Churches across America are experiencing a bit of a rumble that is likely leading to a big shift in the next few years. Mega-churches are still popular, but coming under a wider amount of critique. "Regular churches" are gearing up to be more "woke" or more "back to our roots" - whatever works to pay the bills.

The cult of personality in churches is coming under greater scrutiny all the time with leaders being exposed for anything from sexual immorality, to manipulation and corruption for control of organization, to boring members to death, and anything in between. And that's probably a good thing, even if painful.

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Institutions or systems like religion, education, family, etc tend to struggle when other institutions don't keep on doing their "job" in meeting basic social needs. The family used to be where education took place and, as culture grew, we farmed it out to formal education systems, separate from family.

It was assumed that family would continue raising kids who were ready to be educated and learn. When family began to have struggles, the education system was given the task to pick up the slack and it has struggled terribly because it's not designed to be doing the raising of kids like parents did in the past.

There are many examples of institutions farming out their functions to other institutions and, as a result, becoming overwhelmed and doing a poor job of their original function.

Subsequent generations who don't know what things were like "back then", have no idea of what changes have occurred and, when talking about what could be, have a limited framework of vocabulary and ideas because of the assumptions given to them through experiences and a truncated, redefined history.

All of that is about to face some forced discussion in the next few months or years, if things keep moving in the direction it appears to be moving. And the discussions will be full of assumptions and vocabulary the reflect "the way things ought to be" as recent generations have come to think and believe.

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Back to churches and religion - in the months and years ahead, those in leadership will face a dwindling audience that is no longer interested in church as entertainment or church as a nice, safe place to help raise your kids, or even church as the place to know and serve/worship God.

On a societal level, religion and/or churches will mutate or evolve and find different ways to survive as we've seen in other developed nations - but they will be smaller and have less influence - again, if trends continue. Look at Europe today versus 30 or 40 years ago - that's were "we" are headed church-wise.

I don't celebrate that at all, but I do read the tea leaves and the writing on the wall. Newer generations don't buy it. Sure, there's a current conservative resurgence, but it's likely going to end up being more on the economic and law-and-order side of things and less on the religious.

Probably around the year 2000, there was a dramatic shift that we're just now seeing surface in behaviors and belief. When the current group of people who are parents and grandparents of today's young adults pass away, so will the pretending that many of their kids have done to avoid hard discussions.

THAT is where the rubber will meet the road when it comes to faith, religion, people's connection to God, church, and more. My hope is that many will "wake up" before that happens and have discussions now about what "being the church" will look like when grandma and grandpa die and are no longer around to keep you on the straight and narrow.

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Current religious leaders have little to lose in avoiding the discussion. They can ride it all out and keep getting a paycheck (for the full-time, paid people) and/or keep things going well enough so they can die happy, knowing that they got to keep on having church like they like it (for the volunteer leaders).

It will take (and it's coming) the same kinds of changes that made people change how they saw private school and homeschooling to get people in churches and in church leadership to wake up to know that something has to give. 

Until then, you'll get a lot of people saying "You know you're not being faithful to God if you don't come back to church" or "You know the right thing to do is to support your local church" or things like that. And I get that 100%. I'd probably say that too if I were still in church leadership. Mainly to save my own neck.

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So what are the alternatives? Like with education, people will, over time, wake up to the idea they have to choose a future for themselves and not wait around for a leader to tell them the next right thing to do. Those leaders aren't going to endanger status quo and people are beginning to see that and look around.

There are a whole bunch of directions different collections of people will take. Some will walk away entirely. Some will lean harder into church as their cultural and social base and become more exclusive, while trying to appear inclusive, while others will "compromise" and take anyone and everyone as long as the doors are open and bills are paid.

It's hard to read the future, though plenty of people will tell you in detail what it's all going to look like. Some will tell you that we are, again, in the end times and that you need to be ready to meet Jesus - like you're prepping for the Great Final Exam. 

Most will wait and see what happens and follow what seems right to them, in spite of not having any idea where they got their idea of "right" from.

This is a question I remember rolling over in my mind years ago, when my oldest children (28 and 24) were still in elementary school. "Do I really want my kids grow up thinking THIS church experience is what it means to have a relationship with God?" And, because of financial reasons, I kicked the can down the road and reasoned my way into thinking that "it'll get better, just move on for now".

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It did not get better, so I moved on. 

Today, I don't worry about any of that as much. 

Now I think about living in this moment. 

Church is still important to me with "church" being God's people and not a place or a time.

Now I realize that right now, as I am, God is pleased with me and not ashamed of me.

He's not keeping track of attendance or other metrics I used to use to measure faithfulness.

I think my hope now is that my kids and my fellow believers know that and allow his love for them to compel them and not anything else.

God's people, his church, will never go away. 

Different cultural interpretations of it will, but his people are always around and will not be destroyed.

I know that many of my contemporaries would love to see into the future to know what it will be like, but I think we can trust that God's Spirit will take care of things and isn't dependent on us being the braintrust.