A Vital, Relevant Future for the Church // M-Note 7.13.24

I just returned from Northwest Arkansas where I attended the last of the big United Methodist Conference meetings of the year (it has been a lot). This Jurisdictional Conference is a meeting of the United Methodists in the south-central part of the United States. Typically, it is where we elect new bishops. This year, I was honored to be able to give a short talk to the conference about the future of the church. I talked about my deep belief that the church needs to become both more progressive and evangelical (invitational). Here is just a part of what I said
 
"If the traditional church is to grow in vitality and relevancy we must continue to progress. We mustn’t be afraid of confronting the injustices of the world with the beauty of the gospel. We can’t shield ourselves from systemic injustice like racism, climate, capitalism, and an acquiescence to an increasingly Christian nationalist distortion of our faith. The world is a messy, controversial, and broken place. We cannot run the same play a generation before us tried - sticking our heads in the sand, focusing on our local church, and hoping it all goes away. We don’t need to be afraid.
 
If a progressive church is to be vital and relevant, we must become more evangelical. We cannot live into the distortions that some want to paint us with. We cannot become solely a project in social justice but instead, we must lift up Jesus whose death frees us from sin and whose resurrection offers abundant and whole life. We must recover a passion and fervor to share the gospel with new people, invite them to commit their lives to Christ, and find ways to integrate them into the life of our church."
 
If you are interested, you can listen to the whole talk here.
 
I can’t wait to be back in worship tomorrow as we continue our series, Hello, I am…Jesus. I will be talking about Jesus as the bright morning star. We will learn some astronomy as we talk about the importance of not doing life alone.
 
I want to remind everyone that next Sunday, July 21, we will conclude this series with a big baptism Sunday at The Gathering. If you or your kids have never been baptized, this will be a great day to make that commitment. For all of us that have been baptized, this will be a day to reaffirm that baptism. Some of us were baptized very young, before we can even remember, and want to reaffirm our faith as an adult. Others of us have made a lot of twists and turns in our life and faith, and want to recommit to following Jesus. Still others of us just need to remember the promise we made to follow Jesus and recenter ourselves in faith.

Whatever your story is, I hope you will plan to be baptized or reaffirm your baptism next Sunday. We will have the immersion pools set up at all sites, as well as the baptismal fonts. I hope all of you will plan to be a part of it. You can let us know you are interested, or just come next weekend to be a part of it.
 
I hope you all have a great weekend, and I can’t wait to see you in church.
 
Peace,
 
Matt

P.S. If you haven't found the CoreGroup you want, it might be time to start it yourself. Or, if you do have a group you love, share your wisdom by helping a new group get off the ground for a few weeks. If God has nudged you to start a CoreGroup but you don't know where to start or you're unsure if you can do it, don't worry. You don't have to start a group by yourself! The CoreGroup Team is ready to help you succeed. Bring your questions, doubts, and ideas to the Start a CoreGroup Lunch & Learn this Sunday! Lunch provided.