September 19, 2015

“But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children—” Deuteronomy 4:9

“In crafting a sermon on this or another passage, we have occasion to reflect on preaching as necessary repetition of the story and of the commandments that strengthen faith and lead to life. It is not necessary to find or invent new stories each week. Moses cautions the people against adding on to the word God has given. He also cautions against holding back, or subtracting, whether by conscious effort to trim off the parts we do not like or by quiet omission and neglect of the parts we do not understand.

We share Moses’ hope that our children will have the blessing of life. We want them to cross into a place where we will no longer carry them, where they will enter and claim the inheritance God has prepared for them. Our children stand at a threshold. We — preachers, parents, catechists, neighbors, priests, deacons, elders — are their teachers. We are entrusted with our people’s memory and testimony. May our preaching and our life together show to our children the wisdom and justice of God’s teaching, so they may trust in God’s promise and receive abundant life.” Dear Working Preacher, Commentary on Deuteronomy 4, Anathea Portier-Young, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC

Moses says “…take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.”

How are we doing? With the mass migration of young people away from the Protestant Church, I am not so sure we have done such a good job. It is hard to answer the question “why?” The major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. And yet many of the Millennials will report themselves as being “spiritual” and report praying with the frequency of their grandparents.

I guess it is possible that the “old ways” just do not resonate with those between the ages of 18 years and 25 years of age. That means that our churches need to find some alternatives — so we can meet the needs of the aging Baby Boomers and the millennials. That will be a challenge, but most likely the beginning of any change will happen on the local level. As pastors and congregations assess their individual context including the makeup and needs of their community, it may be possible for people of all ages to find meaningful worship and ministry opportunities — that is if the congregations will trust G*d to lead them to new landscapes and new opportunities — just as the Israelites trusted Moses.

The question is: Will we be able to make those changes in time, or will the church lose another generation of people?

Pastor Dave