In September, we explored renewal on an individual and personal level. The case for renewal was made, we reflected on how listening to and for God undergirds our renewal, and how the renewal of God’s image within us was one of the “fruits” of the process. The series concluded with a revisiting of the faith practice of rest or Sabbath as a key cornerstone to renewal.We give thanks to both our preachers, Becca Cramer and Burt Yin, as well as our wonderful faith sharers in the Messenger: Charlie Ho, Derek Lang, and Jane Yin.
This month, we turn to renewal in a communal context. We ask the questions: What might it mean for us, as a church, to be renewed? Where might we need to be renewed as a body? How do we go about renewing ourselves as a community?
We have invited a dynamic group of preachers and pastors to be with us over the next 5 weeks. Each brings a unique perspective and practice of church that may look nothing like we are used to. For some, church happens in the streets and at the gates of immigration detention centers. For others, it unfolds on college campuses and in the midst of missional service. For still others, church comes alive in partnerships of transformation and shalom. Each preacher will help us wonder together about who and what God has called us – Chinese Community UMC – to be, here in Oakland Chinatown, and now in the 21st century. Our hope for the series is that it will spark our imaginations, urge us into discernment, and to start some great conversations about possibilities. We want to be renewed!
Here, for further reflection, is an excerpt from the website RethinkChurch.org: What if church were not just a building? Not a noun, but an action verb? Jesus gave the Great Commission, and told us to “Go into the world” doing the things that he did: teaching, healing, feeding hungry people, speaking out about
injustice, and calling the world to more faithful living. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to empower the disciples to begin a movement.
The early Christians did not see themselves as "church." Until Paul and Peter agreed upon a division of labor, one attending to Jewish followers of Jesus and the other taking the gospel to the Gentiles, the followers of Jesus spoke of themselves as the people of "the way."
In too many places, we have lost that sense of being a movement and have convinced ourselves it was enough to gather in our buildings and wait for people to come and find us. Jesus sent the disciples, and sends us, out to meet the world. We do that when we encounter the world at its points of greatest need.
The term we might use for these touch points is “doors.” Jesus consistently used a door as a metaphor to present opportunities to engage and invite his listeners to be part of the building of God’s kingdom here on earth.
Just as the early church then was on the move, so too, we are calling churches to move beyond bricks and mortar to engage a world longing for love, compassion and hope.