New Month & Faith

For most of us, perhaps hope is a better word than ‘faith?’ The passage of time presents an ever unfolding present and future. Often starkly different from the past, change embraces us willing or not. What will be will be. Or maybe not.

Months tick off the calendar rapidly these days. Just the other day it was April, or May. Today it is September. That means the days dwindle down toward December and a new year. Impossible! Breathtaking evaporation of time.

In a few days my first granddaughter will fly to England and Oxford for a term of foreign study. My other granddaughter starts her senior year of high school. My two grandsons start kindergarten and first grade. Winter comes closer. The car’s lease will expire in February forcing another decision. Doctors require more frequent visits and alter therapies and medications. Births, birthdays, weddings and anniversaries, celebrations of life changes and of course deaths and funerals. A constant rhythm of time passing. Work, career, study, and change; it is all part of life.

Facing change requires hope. Hope for better and for good. Not long ago we claimed faith in the future. Increasingly we do not claim religious faith in the future. Whether this is an avoidance of religion, or a broadening philosophy will be learned with the passage of more time. Perhaps this is only a shift in vocabulary while religion anchors us still?

Studies have claimed for years a waning interest in church, religion, and theology. Along with that has been a marked decline in church attendance. As new generations form religious activity lessens. This is fact and history. Upticks usually follow major upsetting events – World War I, and WW II, 9/11, enormous natural events of destruction (tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods). Once a nation of faithful, our culture shifts toward individualism and personal freedom. Social context remains but changed. How well we look upon life and the world surrounding it, is now a function of intellect and feeling. The overwhelming edge lies with feeling.

How do churches cope with this? What message do they have that will serve the unchurched?

In 1968 I felt compelled – called – to enter seminary. I hoped to help change the world, to battle racism, war, incivility, and broad social change spurred by technological advancements. Fifty-three years later we still have racism, wars, a revolution of technology, and declining church attendance. I still have faith, much more than hope. The church, however, remains befuddled as to what to do. They continue to change their music, their worship, their prayers, their language, their cultures, but they do not attract attendance and practitioners. Without that they have fewer dollars and members to perform their mission. The mission itself becomes rusty and obscured. Vision attracts attention but that is not the same as mission. What will they do? Do they have the will and the faith to keep going?

My own situation contains faith, resolve and purpose. I’m going it alone these days as the church hunts for relevance and resonance with its communities. Faith messages are blurred by individualism, but they continue with age old traditions. Ministries change but people find their own way to survive and thrive. It helps if that is done with likeminded people. If those are not available, it is a personal ministry that serves.

With each new month, new faith – personal or institutional – is needed. The quest continues. What will it bring?

September 1, 2021