Does CPC do a good job in sending members out into the
community and the world, or is it's focus simply to get more people to come to
church? Do we at CPC evaluate our progress in terms of filling our seating
capacity, or by our sending capacity?
Author and church development expert Dr. Leonard Sweet says,
"A missional church faces outward toward the world. . . . . For too long,
churches have faced inward, offering religion as a benefits package for members
---- something that 'meets my needs,' or simply offers comfortable
social opportunities with one's friends."
Dr. Sweet reports that many churches ask, "How can we
get more young people involved?" He believes this is the wrong question,
because it is an "inward-facing" question. A better question,
he says, is to ask, "What are the hurts and hopes of our community and how
can we respond to them?"
To truly connect with their neighborhood, church members
must not just look at data on a page, but listen to the people in the
community. They must get out and talk to the people who live around the
church ---- in Summit, New Providence, Berkeley Heights, and perhaps elsewhere
in Union and Morris Counties.
So, is CPC an "outward-facing" church? In
many small but meaningful ways, CPC members regularly have been caring for and
working to transform the community around us. Members offer service on a
committed and regular basis. You know about our participation in Family Promise
(homeless care), S.H.I.P. (Summit Helps It's People ---- meals for the
homeless), daily visitation at Overlook Hospital and Runnells Specialized
Hospital, and a variety of other organized, outward-facing efforts.
Over the years, CPC has built an enviable record of
community involvement. For example, our members were prime movers in
developing Senior Citizen housing and low-income housing in Summit. Now
we have new challenges and they will be solved with the help of some of our
more recently welcomed members, with renewed energy and new ideas,
building upon a strong foundation.
So, Dr. Leonard Sweet might praise CPC as an
"outward-facing" church, but is there more to our story? Don't
we have some evidence of waning interest in Bible literacy? While our
worship services and Sunday sermons are compelling, perhaps some of our
members, more and more, have become merely Bible "spectators," with
their working knowledge of the Bible becoming less and less sure over time.
Is this not a bit ironic? While we have a continuing
track record of reaching out to others and giving of ourselves to others, are
those relationships really "spiritual" in the old-fashioned
sense? What are we doing today? Is it that today we evangelize to
outsiders more by example, than by Bible lessons and the re-telling of
Jesus' parables?
This is different from the practices of earlier generations,
but perhaps it is not a bad thing. We must, indeed, respond to the
changing tastes and interests of American culture and society, and today many of
the strict denominational borders within and around Christianity are
fading. We are encouraged to befriend and respect people who may be very
different from us. But, in a very real sense, is this not what Jesus
would tell us to do, even if many of us cannot recite a specific Bible verse in
support of such practices.
Here is a question for us: If the time and effort
required to gain and retain Bible literacy is increasingly replaced by
"action" programs to help others in need, in the long run might that
change our relationships with God, but in a good way?
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some personal growth this
year at CPC.
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