PASTOR'S NOTES
by Gary N. McCluskey, Pastor

The times they are a changin'!  Actually there is nothing new about that.  Time has always witnessed change. It is the speed at which things now change that seems to be different now. We have little chance to get used to one new thing and suddenly we are past it and on to something new.

We have often seen the church as a place of sanctuary and stability in the midst of such sea changes. Yet the church is not immune from change. Nor is it immune from the rapid pace of today's change. Recently I spent time at a synod retreat for deans, the Bishop, the synod staff, and the synod council.  We spent time looking at priorities given the economic realities of the past year and further anticipated financial cuts following the ELCA assembly in Minneapolis.  We did not only look at current budget items, but spent some time brainstorming about what the church of the future might look like.

What we have witnessed throughout the church's history is a transition from conventional premodern religions, to an early modern period of institutional religion, to a late-modern religious collapse and replacement by secularism, to a growing dissaticfaction with all of the above---premodern religion, institutional religion, and modern secularism.  This dissaticfaction in some cases has led to a reactionary resurgence of pushy fundamentalism-fearful, manic, even violent and apocalyptic.  And in other cases it has led to a serach for a new kind of spirituality.  The success or failure of this search will, no doubt, play a major role in the story of the 21st Century. It will certainly play a major role in the story of the 21st Century church.

The chief danger I see in all this is if we pretend this is not so. If we pretend that church will always be what it always has been. For one thing, that would be neglecting church history which tells us the church has constantly been in change. And it would be neglecting our own Reformation heritage that said the church was always in need of reform.  We need also, of course, be on the alert to those who seem to think of any change as good.

This could be scary if if we think the church belongs to us.  Yet if the church indeed belongs to Christ who has been its head for 2,000 years, we can enter into these waters with trust.  Trust, not that we will always get it right, but trust that Christ will always allow us more opportunities to get it right.  Our Reformation hope is always the same: "Built on a rock, the church does stand".  Always Christ makes room on that rock for us.