God was calling Abraham to leave his country, his kindred, his father's house, or in other words to leave familiarity, comfort, long-held traditions for the unknown, the uncomfortable, the new. God did not initially tell Abraham where God was leading him, nor did he say how long it would take to get to wherever God was leading Abraham and his family. God simply said, "Go and I will show you the way to the land where I want you to go." And it seems that without too many questions or even a hint of hesitation, Abraham went. Quite a leap of faith, I would say--especially at his age!!
As a pastor of an aging church, I know that while change is not easy for anyone, change is especially not easy or welcomed by people near and around Abraham's age. But just as God sought to bring about change in the world through Abraham, so too is God seeking to bring about change through the people sitting in our pews today--many, if not the majority, of whom are Abraham's age and older. And so, as I read this verse about Abraham's age and his willingness to walk by faith and not by sight into God's mysterious unknown, I am both encouraged and discouraged.
I am encouraged because these verses give me hope that God can and does so often work miracles to bring about the impossible through impossible beings--such as Abraham and Sarah who were aging and barren and yet, God used them to be the parents of generations as numerous as there are stars in the sky. There is hope in these verses for our aging church that has been steadily declining for over a decade. We are the seed of Abraham, and so we--the collective "we" both young and old--inherit Abraham's bold faith to follow God into the unknown, uncomfortable and new, knowing that we are partnering with God to bring about God's promises and glory in this world. This is something both young and the more seasoned in life need reminding of for fear of becoming too rigid and stuck in our ways. Our purpose is God's purpose--God's way, not our own; this is true of God's people regardless of age. But we need the Abraham's and Sarah's of our church--the chronologically gifted--to be willing to lead us through these changing times; the young look to the Abrahams and Sarahs who boldly lead and embrace where God is leading today's people.
But these verses also bring me angst, discouragement and fear because I know the majority of Abraham's fellow 75ers in our churches today, and I do not believe they are so welcoming of change--even if that change is truly being led and guided by God. There are some very loud-voiced aging congregants among us, in very non-Abraham fashion, who are resistant to change, to leaving the familiar, comfort, long-held traditions even though we watch as our tower of Babel--our Christendom church--crumbles and declines before our very eyes. Even such awareness of the state of our church today has not motivated some aging congregants to embrace change, allowing God's promise of his presence to guide and comfort them through the unknown, the uncomfortable, the new with the promise that such a journey will bring glory to God.
No, instead any attempt or the mere mention of change leads to toddler-style temper tantrums, the digging in of heels and threats to leave the church. Nothing could be further from the example Abraham and hundreds of others in the great cloud of witnesses has set for us as people of faith--people who are called to walk by faith and not by sight. Of course this is a broad-brush generalization because not all of Abraham's peers in the church today are resistant to change in the church; there are several Abrahams among us, but this post is largely informed by past experience. No matter our age, we all need reminding that faith is the assurance of things hoped for and certain of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). And such a faith does not fear change, but recognizes that even in the midst of change--however uncomfortable, inconvenient, and unwanted it may be--God is present, guiding, leading, loving us through the difficulties and adjustments that accompany change.
My DS posted an article by Rev. Gary Brinn titled, "Secrets Your Pastor Can't Share in a Sermon." Number 8 on Gary's list was this: "When you insist on 'the way we do things in this church,' I'm wondering when you stopped worshiping a living God and started worshiping a building and its resident bureaucracy. Give me half a chance, and I'll help you drop the average age of worshipers and give this church a future. Many thousands of churches close every year. This doesn't have to be one of them. But it's your choice. When you are ready to look forward instead of backward, I'll be there to lead the way. That is, after all, what you keep telling me I'm supposed to do."
At the heart of Abraham's no-hestiation leap of faith into the unknown must have been the heart of God. All we do--including church--is not for ourselves, but for God. Gary's words resonate all too deeply in me and my context and present experience of church, and such words are connected to this story of Abraham. Too often many of us--both young and old--double speak, saying one thing while really meaning something else. We say we want to grow the church and make disciples for Jesus, but what we really mean and want is to grow the church and go about making disciples our way, at our own pace, within our comfort zone and where and when it is convenient for us.
Abraham had to let go of control to bring about God's vision, promise and blessing. Abraham had to submit to change God's way, not his own way, and guess what that meant for Abraham?!? Leaving EVERYTHING known, familiar, comfortable, easy, convenient behind. How, we might ask, did he do this? Paul says it so perfectly in Hebrews 11:8, "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going." All Abraham carried with him into the unknown were the promises of God.
What will the church of post-Christiandom, of today, of the future look like? I do not know. What I do know is that God is calling me to lead the church into the unknown, the unfamiliar, the new while leaving the "way we've always done church" behind. It would be nice to have a few Abrahams on my side because without the aging congregants leading and ushering the church into a new era as Abraham did in Genesis, we will not make it very far.
I daily pray that God will raise up Abrahams in my congregation because we are one step away from shutting our doors, and frankly, I am depleted as a pastor and preacher, hanging on to hope and burdened with dead weight that refuses to admit and submit to the radical changes that are needed in our churches today. God's call for Abraham to leave everything was extremely radical, and I imagine not easy on Abraham, Sarah or any of their household. The only thing certain about the future was God's presence, and that was enough for them to give up their comfort, their home, their traditions, the known, the familiar and take a leap of faith. May it also be enough for us, as we decide to walk in the footsteps of Abraham rather than to continue to live according to our own wills. Because like Abraham, we are God's hope for God's people to be as numerous as the stars in the sky. It is up to you, to us, church, to participate with God in bringing about his glory in this world. May we not be so short-sighted or limited in our vision of the future that God's glory days are behind us.
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