Over the past year or so, I’ve come to know a person through our church who has gone through a really rough stretch of life. Still going through it in some ways but it’s getting better day by day. “Down and out” is how she describes  her circumstance. I’ve watched her flat-out transform over this past year. It’s been a privilege to witness. How has she done it? By finding a faith community where she could gently but earnestly open her life to God and by making a conscious, deliberate decision to serve others who are struggling as much or more as she is. She decided to get outside of herself and become part of the solution for a whole community of hurting people. And, wow, what a difference it’s made for her, for the people she serves, and for our church, too. I’m honored to call her my friend.

She’s still down and out but now she also lives with this growing hope. This week, her car gave up the ghost. Not repairable (repair would cost more than the car is worth). Even so, she has no money to repair or replace it.

Every now and then, I notice folks who have a third or fourth car – usually a beater, but not always – and it just sits around never used. Are you that person? Do you know that person? If so, pray and consider the possibility of giving it to a person who is making a difference in her own life by making a difference in the lives of others. You could title the car to Faith Community Church, get a receipt for the tax deduction, and we’ll title it over to her. If it has some basic repair work to be done, we can see to that, too.

I can promise you that it would be a worthy investment of your generosity and love. If you can help in this specific way, please [contact-form] .

Let me stop here and ask you a question: Could the forecast be any more specific and consistent? And you know what happened next: People (and/or the companies they work for) determined, “Oh…we’re midwesterners, we’re Chicagoans…we can handle this. Those warnings apply to other people, not to me.” A ton of people headed on over to Lake Shore Drive at an opportune time – 3 p.m. – the time we were all told the life-threatening-blizzard-of-a-century would begin in all its fury. What happened? All those people got trapped on Lake Shore Drive overnight. It was scary. It was brutal. It was life threatening.

The next day, media pundits, performance journalists, and politicians all began railing at the City of Chicago for not magically clearing the blizzard out of the way so that people could travel safely in it. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s chief of staff, Ray Orozco, went as far as to apologize for people being trapped on Lake Shore Drive and for the inconvenience of people who were snowed in!! That’s when I wanted to throw a snowball at the TV. If an apology was in order, it was from the people on Lake Shore Drive to the firefighters, cops, paramedics, plow and tow crews who had to brave the snow and cold to get those people and their cars off Lake Shore Drive. Why? All those people suffered from the sin of and fell into the trap of exceptionalism.

Exceptionalism is “the perception that a country, society, institution, movement, or time period is “exceptional” (i.e., unusual or extraordinary) in some way and thus does not need to conform to normal rules or general principles” (Wikipedia article). Fall into the trap of exceptionalism and you end up, well, trapped. Without exception.

That’s the condition of a lot of churches today. We’ve struggled with it at Faith Community Church. A recent report in a publication called The Presbyterian Outlook is just one more report of what everyone by now should know:

U.S. membership has increased in the Roman Catholic Church – the nation’s largest Christian body – but the No. 2 Southern Baptist Convention, along with most traditional Protestant denominations, reported continuing decline, according to new figures released by the National Council of Churches.

…Eileen W. Lindner, editor of the Yearbook since 1998, said many experts cite “an increasing secularization of American postmodern society, and its disproportional impact on liberal religious groups” as the cause of decline in some American churches.

Jack Haberer, editor of the independent The Presbyterian Outlook magazine, said the trend has been long in coming, prompted by Baby Boomers who went off to college and confronted “the Beatles and rock `n’ roll and post-Vietnam distrust of bureaucracies and a kind of an anti-traditionalist youth movement.”

“Baby Boomers who are also Christians, in general, have been drawn more to churches that are more informal, less institutional, and more rock ‘n’ roll-ish,” Haberer said. “Presbyterians and other mainline denominations have been very slow in reading those trends and thinking through a way to accommodate without compromising the theological integrity.”

Wow. I wouldn’t have thought to trace it back to the Beatles. But okay. It’s been a hard days night for churches for a long time. Distrust of bureaucracies? Check. Anti-traditionalist? Check. (And don’t confuse tradition and traditionalism. One’s good, one isn’t). “Slow in reading those trends and thinking through a way to accommodate without compromising the theological integrity”? Well, I’d argue not so much slow as mostly defiant or in total denial. And with the possible exception of Episcopalians, most mainline Protestants would have a hard time proving a liturgical form, or a traditional body of music, or a traditional form of church governance, as being integral to the “theological integrity” of their respective traditions.

Think about this, too: Baby Boomers are in their 50s and 60s. So a church that won’t adapt the form and style of their worship to be compelling to even Baby Boomers are basically writing off all unreached people age 60 and younger. Coincidentally, peek in a stubbornly traditional Protestant worship service and what age group do you see? Primarily 65 and older.

Please don’t read this as me saying “let’s write off the 65 and older crowd so that we can reach the rest of the world.” It’s me saying that if someone’s been warming a chair or a pew for 65 years or more, their hearts should be formed in Christ sufficiently that they are ready and willing to surrender form and style in order that their children and grandchildren will know and have a relationship with Jesus. Indeed, at Faith Community Church, there are a bunch of 65+ saints who feel exactly that way (and a handful who don’t).

We’ve been praying and discerning and seeking God’s will intensely at FCC. We believe God is telling us that FCC is supposed to be viable and strong for  a significant number of years to come. We believe God is telling us to get busy reaching people in our area who are not currently being reached. 244 people were together in worship at FCC this past Sunday. We hear God and see God telling us that 400 per weekend would be much stronger and much better and that we can do this before Easter of this year. And we believe God is telling us to pay attention to the data and to not suffer from the sin and trap of exceptionalism that would delude us into thinking that we can remain the same and yet achieve different results. So…non-delusional…non-exceptional…but faithful…with faithful results. At FCC, we’re calling it Chapter 2. Welcome to it.

• “Radical change is the heart of the Christian message”
• “The power of the gospel changes everything”
• “The truth is transformation is non-negotiable for the Christian church.”
• “We are supposed to see transformation, but too often we see stagnation.”
• “As leaders, we sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that just managing the status quo is good enough.”
• “Some leaders take a ‘don’t rock the boat’ approach. They think that if we all remain very still in the boat, it won’t turn over. But it also won’t go anywhere.”
• “Rather than missionary disciples for Christ going into the world, we have a group of people content to go in circles.”
• “What we lack, keeping us from moving from ruts and routines to transformational mission, is the clarity of focus that comes from finding the grace of God more enthralling and exciting than anything else.”

Those highlights are from just the first six pages. I think you’ll be challenged and inspired by Ed and Thom. Here’s a link to get your own copy of Transformational Church from amazon.com.

Here are some big questions we need to have big answers for at FCC:

1. If radical transformation is at the heart of the Christian message, what/whom is supposed to be transformed?
2. Who is supposed to do the transforming? (Hint: Jesus is always the right answer. And, since the church is the body of Christ in the world – now – then there are probably two right answers).

Gotta answer question #1: What and/or whom is supposed to be radically changed? How? How will we know it’s working?