LOVE GOD. LOVE PEOPLE. STILL.

By Jacob Brown

“Americans are getting stronger. Twenty years ago, it took two people to carry ten dollars’ worth of groceries. Today, a five-year-old can do it.”  – Henry Youngman

Youngman, a 20^th century musician and comedian, paints a vivid picture of inflation. Irony aside, his comedy hits at something else all too relevant –

That the world is changing, and today, even our five-year-olds have noticed.

It’s not just the decades long, slow, grueling development of inflation, but life and its rhythms, our habits and schedules, and culture and technology that have now suddenly changed and are hunting for a new normal that feels so elusive. Sands that have taken decades to shift in the past now flow on rapids that can change day-to-day.

Sure, we could debate the pros and cons of modern progress or argue the putridity or advancements of their course, but the lack of stagnancy is ground we can all stand on firmly together.

Do you remember Blockbuster Video? It feels like forever ago. They were leading the market with an economic moat that was crushing all competition. But where are they now?  Can you believe it’s been a decade since they disappeared in a flood of bankruptcy and irrelevance?! New competitors, willing to tackle and adapt to emerging social and technological landscapes, took the market. Redbox and Netflix have become household names.

The mission of these rising giants to provide accessible entertainment was the same as Blockbuster, but their model was willing to try new tactics in efforts to tackle the new terrain and leverage new (and previously unavailable) opportunities that the shifting currents brought with them.

You see, the world is changing, and the old “normal” rhythms may not return any more than Friday evening stops by the local Blockbuster.

These developments didn’t change their mission of entertainment, they just capitalized on models more apt to new contexts.

And I think there is something here for the Church to learn. Andy Stanley put it this way: “Date the model, but marry the mission.”

The mission is absolute. It is essential. It doesn’t change and we don’t divorce it for something newer, shinier, more attractive, or seemingly less difficult. We’re married to it, no matter the changes or trials that come. For better or for worse.

But how we accomplish the mission is fluid, and our models change. They are contextually oriented. They come and go in various forms which we believe will best help us achieve our mission in a certain context.

If traveling to Hawaii were our mission, then our model could be to take a plane instead of a boat, or a boat instead of a train. 

But if we’re trying to get to Reedley, a car may do just fine, and that better than a horse and buggy unless you favor the flavor of dust and sweat.

At Sanger Bible Church, our mission is to Love God and Love People.

This mission is essential, and it won’t change. We’re to die on the hill of this biblically mandated and Spirit empowered mission. But we’re not to die on the hill of our contextualized models. 

With all the shifting sands right now, we’re forced to ask questions about how we can best adapt, and what things we best not adapt, regardless of the difficulties.

You see, there may be a better model out there for our mission, and leaving the horse in the stable and trying a plane may open the door to a whole new tropical oasis. Or, since vacationing in Hawaii is not our goal here, it may open the door to reach new people groups who were formerly inaccessible by cars and buggies, even groups within our current community. 

The world and our contexts are changing, yes, so how do we remain true to our mission in a new context?

A relative of mine recently challenged me, “If you want to say something relevant, then say something eternal.”

During all this upheaval, I’m having to consider what parts of how we’ve “done church” are essential to the mission and are eternal, and which parts are just contextualized models.

What hills does God call us to die on? 

What models of doing our mission maybe need to adapt?

Are there any “sacred cows” that we may need to sacrifice (if possibly just for a time?)

In Matthew 5-7 and Acts 2, you’ll see that teaching Scripture, prayer, discipleship, fellowship, forgiveness, unity, loving our enemies, suffering with joy are all essential to the Church.  All these fit our mission to Love God and Love People. 

But we do much of these in a different form than in the early church. We’ve kept the mission of teaching, but our model is to teach in English, not Egyptian or Phrygian. It’s contextualized. 

On the other hand, a building, non-profit status, online giving conveniences, 9:00am and 10:45am Sunday services, and even bad church coffee are all aspects that have helped us to serve our greater mission in the past, but must never be confused with the mission itself. 

There are things we’ll need to be willing to let go of. A hard one for me to give up these past months has been Sunday services together. But this was always just our model, not our mission, and until our context allows for this to be the best model again, our mission remains the same – “Go be the church!” not, “Come to Church.”

One of our pastors was just sharing with me how “folks holding on to things being the same as they were are missing out on what God is doing right now.”

Think about that. Are you trying to MapQuest Blockbuster instead of leveraging a newer model more apt for our current circumstances? God and his gospel are not bound by context. His work adapts to every language, tribe, tongue, people, nation, time, and technology.

It seems clear that some new models are needing to emerge to help us in accomplishing our mission in our current landscape. It may even come to be that some of these “new” models are actually just a return to some very old ones.

Maybe it’s leveraging technology while we aren’t meeting corporately. Maybe it’s shifting our weight into smaller pockets of life groups who gather to pray and study in homes while not gathering in a building with large groups. Maybe it’s utilizing a website as a new front door to the church while the building itself is locked down. It could be more phone calls while Starbucks is closed for in person meetings. It could be more blogs where we get to see deeper into one person’s thoughts than countless conversations about the weather after a Sunday morning service.

At the same time, we must also be intentional to invest in models which reach demographics who don’t have access or skill with the newest technology. Maybe we need to take up the pen and ink and dust off some old stamps and try our hand at snail mail with some.

Truly, God has stripped us in many ways of what we’ve been comfortable with, of what was normal. While it’s not an exact equivalent, He did the same to Israel when He brought them out of Egypt.

I don’t believe He’s calling us simply to “go back,” but He may be opening doors (or ironically closing them) to push us toward something new for now. I don’t know exactly what this looks like, but I know that as the Church we need to be desperately dependent on Him for direction, whether it be the wilderness or the promised land that lies ahead.

In the midst of our own chaotic, turbulent, and ever-changing environments, He is Constant, Unchanging, Eternally Relevant, and the Prince of Peace. And He swore He’d build His Church.

Pressure, discomfort, and often bloody suffering among God’s people have nearly always been catalysts for the advancement of the gospel, the expansion of God’s blood-bought Bride’s mission. I am hopeful and confident that these ever-changing times He is doing no less. And we get to join him as we hold true to our mission and adapt our models.

We need to be willing:

• to leverage technology for our mission like Paul used the new Roman roads for his
• to be willing to try new mediums of fellowship, teaching, prayer, and discipleship while not compromising on the mission
• to hold the old normal in an open hand, but have a firm grip on the even older essentials

Sanger Bible Church, would you join us in desperately depending on God to lead and guide, grow and sustain us as we navigate these times? Would you pray for our leaders to seek and discern how to model God’s eternal mission in our current, ever changing world? Church, there are exciting times ahead.

Grace and Peace,

– Jacob

(Jacob, one of the pastors at Sanger Bible Church, along with his better half Thais, are being raised by their four kids.With no surprise, Jacob takes the cake on writing the longest blog to date.)