The contemporary church scene is really in trouble. Declining attendance and participation are rampant. Sexual Scandal and cover-up are commonplace. There are countless books and sermons that are being written and preached that are cataloguing the failures of the church and offering solutions. From conservative evangelicals to radical liberals all are offering prescriptions and prognostications. Denominations are in survival mode, trying to maintain and protect a museum like faith from being lost.
We have entered a time where there are many voices, some down right wacky others more plausible about the future of the church. Behind the doubts, the defeatism and beyond the many debates about emerging churches and post modern contexts there is something brewing among the grass roots that I think pleases Jesus. It seems to me that even in the midst of the solutions that are being offered to us on a plate by senior church leaders there is a deeper God given answer that is being breathed upon us by the Spirit of God himself. HUNGER FOR MORE
Hunger for a more deeper, more wider, more higher and more longer lasting community that genuinely and organically transforms the communities that we belong to and the ones that surround us. A hunger for more that goes beyond the individualized, self absorbed, bloated faith that is common fate for most churches and denominations.
I can see a hunger for the Power of the Gospel – Not only to forgive sin but also to transform what makes us sinful in the first place. Bringing healing, freedom and deliverance. I can see a hunger for grace – to see all those excluded and hurt by the church and society brought into life changing contact with Jesus and His bride and told of the their pricelessness. I can see a hunger for joy – transcending our techno-isolation and consumer orientation, hunger to taste the joy, wonder and awe of the world and people around us. I see a hunger for justice – to see the gospel proclaimed and lived out in word and deed, corporately and individually, structurally, personally, globally and locally. I can see a deep hunger for worship – to see the offering of our whole selves as the only fitting response to God’s mercy, holiness, love and grace. I see a hunger for truth – tired of talking heads proffering countless human opinions, always in conflict, we hunger for a definitive word, a voice with authority, a way of discerning what really matters and why? I see a hunger for honesty – disgusted with the scandals of our churches, our society and our own hearts, we hunger to find places where we no longer have to hide ourselves from God or from each other.
This hunger for more, when combined with the great many upheavals in our culture and society has provoked many questions, both for the emerging church and the inherited church, both for Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis – This hunger for more and these questions place us in the midst of a new reformation. Like it or not the generations to come will see this period in church history as a massive reevaluation of all things “Church” Let them see we were so Hungry for more that we discovered afresh who Jesus is, that this hunger for more urges to rediscover what Church really is and that we were so hungry for more change in society that it was like heaven on earth.
This series of small group studies is about that hunger for more. In this series of studies be prepared to to open up your thinking, challenge your perceptions about Jesus, the church, and the world.
