Reviving the church...

As one who loves and feels called to serve the smaller churches (83% of all UMC's in New England have less than 100 in worship on a Sunday morning), I believe this revolution needs to call forth the members of those churches to a revised understanding of what the local church is. As one who grew up in a small church, I understand the thought process of believing one must have a full-time pastor in order to be a church (I was recently at a meeting where one church considered the appointment (1/2 or 1/4) very important to how the town viewed it) and the difficulty of paying for such a position. It becomes a focus on the dollar and not the cross!

If we continue to live with such an image of church, we will be closing more and more of them rather than seeing them as outposts from which God's amazing work can be done within the Kingdom. Our challenge in beginning this revolution is to empower people to look at what they have, not what they want; at who they have, not who the wish would enter; and at what they have done, not what they wish they had done. In many revolutions, people grab what they have and then fight for their lives and their ideals. God has given us many tools and gifts, let up pick them up and go forth, growing God's kingdom according to God's plan!

If God can create such beauty as this picture, how exciting is it to consider what God will be creating in this revolution to reimagine and revive the church!