if the church is the only hope, what is the hope for the church?

In this post, one of our missionaries on the field reflects on the American church. She is responding to my assertion that if the trend in America continues, one day the biggest mission field in the world may be the one we live in. I thought her response was interesting. How would you respond?

I don’t have any answers Rick….only questions….and it is driving me crazy. I keep rolling a Bill Hybels’s quote around in my head. Hybels says, “The local church is the hope of the world.” What is the hope of the local church?I honestly didn’t know what you meant when you said ‘our biggest mission field is the one we live in.’ Did it mean the biggest mission field is the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave?’ Did it mean that the biggest mission field is the one that surrounds you wherever you are? I guess I like the latter meaning better than the former.

I don’t know how I feel about our beloved country being the ‘biggest mission field.’ I know it is certainly A mission field. About that, there is no doubt. I have a friend who says that no one should be allowed to hear the gospel twice before everyone has heard it once. I don’t totally subscribe to this; however, it is an interesting line of thinking. And what do you do with Matthew 10:14, Mark 6:11, Luke 9:5?

Seems to me that Evangelical America spends enormous resources to share the gospel with people who have already heard it again and again and again…. While there are 1000’s of people who die everyday having never even heard it even once. Like I said, I don’t have any answers….only questions.

Do you think the established church teaches people that the central theme of our faith is being a good church member?What if we all lived like we Jesus lived? Or at least like he called us to live? I guess the big question is…what would that look like? I don’t know. I do know that if we lived like this then we wouldn’t even have to use words like ‘missional.’ We wouldn’t have to have discussions on how to market the church. We wouldn’t have to rely on churches and parachurch organizations to organize service opportunities. People wouldn’t know that we are Christians by where are car was parked on Sundays and Wednesdays, they would know we were Christians by our love.

This is a little dramatic, but maybe we should let the organized American church die so we could start over. It seems to me like we’ve strayed pretty far from Acts 2. (I’m sure there is a good illustration to use here. Something about a plant that comes back stronger after it lays dormant, or a sports team, or bug, or the church in China… something, but I’m too jetlagged to come up with anything…sorry)Maybe I’m just being naive. Maybe I should have worked all this stuff out when I was 19. Maybe the millions of believers who do nothing more than occupy a pew once a week are right and I’m wrong. I don’t know.Like I said, no answers, just questions.

Local church….hope of the world?