My New Year’s Wish List

I have always enjoyed the music of Christmas.  In my mind Chris Rice’s Welcome to Our World captures the impact of the Savior’s birth in a most meaningful way.  I still marvel at the way Michael W. Smith can take traditional carols and enhance them in a contemporary format.  For Barb and I, one of our memorable evenings was hearing Michael W. Smith and the Dallas Symphony in a Christmas concert a few years back (made even more special since we were in the front row). 

During the most recent holiday season I found myself drawn to song I had previously viewed as a little "simplistic.”  The song, Grown-Up Christmas List, was first made popular by Amy Grant.  The chorus expresses a desire to see some things that on the surface might seem idealistic; “a world where wars would never start and everyone would have a friend.”  We might be moved to ask, where is the message of the Christ Child in the lyric?  This year as I listen I I found myself thinking but isn’t that what Jesus desires from his followers; a world where grace and peace over-rule conflict and war. 

Now I would like to offer my “grown-up” New Year’s list.  They are dreams that I have for the New Year.  Granted, like the words of the song they might seem a little idealistic but they are things I truly believe Jesus desires from his disciples. So, here are the dreams that I have for faith communities in 2017.

No Prejudice: We need to seek to know and understand those who are different from us.  The obvious is to try to reach across cultural lines and get to know those who come from different ethic and spiritual traditions.  Less apparent is those within our worship communities that have different perspectives and values.

A Church without Walls: For too long we have thought of the church as a building.  The church is really the people of God.  That is why I choose to use the word “worship community.”  In my mind the people who gather for worship on Sunday are a worship community.   The church is those same individuals when they leave that experience and venture out into the world.  This has all kinds of implications from Bible studies that meet in a local restaurant instead of a church classroom, to a pastor who makes the local Starbucks his part-time office.

Less Emphasis on Number and More on Relationship: The number of people who occupy the pews on Sunday morning is not as important as the number of lives those individuals touch during the week.   Consider the life of the Savior.  His ministry never happened inside the walls of the synagogue.  He met people where they were at.  With few exceptions, there is little indication they ever became part of his community of followers.   Still, there is no doubt that because of their contact with The Savior their lives were never the same. 

That is my prayer for The Church is 2017 and beyond.