{"id":5329,"date":"2013-10-22T14:36:37","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T21:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=5329"},"modified":"2013-11-01T12:08:20","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T19:08:20","slug":"musings-the-state-of-the-modern-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/musings-the-state-of-the-modern-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Musings: The State of the Modern Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\np.padding {padding-left:.5cm;}\n--><\/style>\n<p><center>For more information on these images, visit<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/praying-soldiers\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/bit.ly\/praying-soldiers<\/a> \u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/jesus-drawing\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/bit.ly\/jesus-drawing<\/a> \u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/sinking-ship\" target=\"_blank>http:\/\/bit.ly\/sinking-ship<\/a> \u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/camp-worship\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/bit.ly\/camp-worship<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Musings &#038; Younger Perspectives<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>By Megan Ernst Kilpatrick | Montage by Jesse N. Love<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<h3>The state of the modern church<br \/>\nhas been in the news a lot lately,<br \/>\nand the news ain\u2019t pretty.<\/h3>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNones\u201d are on the rise, as are the \u2018spiritual, but not religious\u2019 folks.  Mainstream church is dying&#8212;a slow, protracted death that we should have seen coming but didn\u2019t and now it\u2019s upon us and good grief, what are we to do?  Our churches are dying, closing, and we\u2019re all in a downward spiral, just circling the drain.<\/p>\n<p>Ugh.  Dude, I know.  I get it. Enough already.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m tired of hearing the doomsday predictions.  Seriously.  I start tuning it out once I hear a conversation going that direction.  It\u2019s sad, and depressing, and completely hopeless.<\/p>\n<p>Why on earth would I want to be a part of that? It\u2019s like saying \u201chey, come aboard the ship\u2026it\u2019s sinking, but it\u2019s really not that bad!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more How on earth is that attractive, life-giving, faith-affirming, or hope-giving? (More) -->How on earth is that attractive, life-giving, faith-affirming, or hope-giving?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah\u2026it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m tired of hearing that the church is dying.  I\u2019m tired of hearing that the state of affairs is awful.  But mainly, I\u2019m tired of people talking (complaining) a lot and not taking any action.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a reason I became Methodist.  It was a conscious choice, and had nothing to do with my parents or my traditions or the fact that I felt something was \u2018missing.\u2019  I became Methodist because my church is where I find God.  I find God in community, in service, in outreach, in relationships.<\/p>\n<p>As Methodists, we do great things.  We stand with the poor, the oppressed, and the hopeless.  We are agents of change in very positive and tangible ways.  We \u2018walk our talk\u2019 in what we support, how we minister, how we help people.  Really.  Take stock of all of our ministries, from local church ministries to global church initiatives.  We have a lot to be proud of.  But you know what else?  We do a crappy job of telling other people about it.  We aren\u2019t good at tooting our own horn.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m tired of hearing the church is dying.  Because the church I\u2019m a part of is living its mission every day.  We aren\u2019t perfect, but we\u2019re working on moving in that direction.  I didn\u2019t become Methodist to jump on a sinking ship; I became Methodist because I wanted to live Christ\u2019s mission in this world, in this time.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m tired of the negative stories.  I\u2019m tired of the doom and gloom.  I want to be a light in the darkness, bring hope to the hopeless, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, live Christ\u2019s mission every day.  We are more than a sinking ship.  We are awash in opportunity, in possibilities, in \u2018what if\u2019s?\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>I get that mainstream churches are dying\u2026.but we are alive in Christ. We are the agents of change for a better future &#8211; each one of us.  How have we, individually, lived out Christ\u2019s mission?  How have we made the world a better place by our words and deeds? This is our calling\u2026every single one of us!<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want to be a part of sinking ship.  I want to be on a ship that is going great places, doing great things, and empowering each and every person do to amazing things in the name of Jesus Christ. We do amazing work every day.  We have a lot of opportunities to grow, but we have much to celebrate.  The work is plenty but the laborers are few.  So, let\u2019s get to work.  Let\u2019s turn the gloom and doom into a beacon of hope and opportunity.  Let\u2019s go sail this ship to great places.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/download\/channels-67-november-2013\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Channels 67\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Channels67.jpg?w=696\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td>\n<p class=\"padding\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/download\/channels-67-november-2013\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>DOWNLOAD CHANNELS 67 HERE.<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\nDes Moines UMC feeds in Body, Mind and Spirit \u2022 #givingtuesdsay \u2022 WJC Stepping Out Event \u2022&nbsp;Make It Happen at Assembly 2014 \u2022 Clarkston UMC and Highland Elementary School Pumpkin Patch \u2022&nbsp;Dr. Monica Coleman speaks at The Well \u2022 Rethinking Our Camps in the Midst of Change \u2022&nbsp;Listen, Listen, Love, Love: Working with At-Risk Youth  \u2022 On the Shelf: Advent Resources \u2022 Journeys: Certified Lay Minister Training \u2022&nbsp;Musings: The State of the Modern Church \u2022 Bishop: Testing our Assumptions \u2022 To subscribe to Channels, e-mail <a href=\"mailto:channels@pnwumc.org?Subject=Sign me up for Channels!\">channels@pnwumc.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em><center>Megan Ernst Kilpatrick is a member of Puyallup UMC (Puyallup, Wash.).<br \/>\nThis article will be featured in Channels 67, November 2013 &#8211; COMING SOON.<\/center><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For more information on these images, visit http:\/\/bit.ly\/praying-soldiers \u2022 http:\/\/bit.ly\/jesus-drawing \u2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":5334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,6,113,112],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-conversation","9":"category-opinioneditorial","10":"category-ministries-with-young-people"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/INSIGHTS_Musings_Sinkingship1.jpg?fit=699%2C357&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-1nX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5329"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5649,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5329\/revisions\/5649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}