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'What will you leave in your wake?'

By Alan B. Ward

A 'wake' refers to what something leaves behind after it passes through. Boats leave wakes, so do planes. What about churches? What are we leaving in our wake? As disciples, are we leaving a trail that future generations can follow into God's Kingdom?

Maybe a way to answer this question is to ask yourself: If your church closed its doors tomorrow would your community notice?
 
Now, obviously I exaggerate for impact; but we do need to honestly evaluate how much impact we are having on our community.
 
What evidence is there that we've passed through? Are we making an impact on our world for good, the way Jesus hoped we would? Are we spreading the influence of the Kingdom of God wherever we go? If we're not, what's holding us back?

In recent decades, we in the church have been most concerned with making ourselves comfortable and having a church that meets our individual needs. We've shown precious little concern for those in desperate need just outside our doors.

There also seems to have been astoundingly little thought given in recent years to what impact our decisions might have on future generations.

I think this criticism could be leveled against our entire society. Perhaps our churches are just byproducts of the culture we find ourselves in. But, for whatever reason, the needs of the young are often an afterthought in our churches.

The message communicated to these young people is that they aren't really important to our church and so their needs don't matter.

We tolerate having them in the worship service once in a while, but if they are there on a regular basis, people start to grumble and complain about the noise and the changes they want to make in the way things have always been done.

With these kinds of attitudes running rampant, unchecked, and un-repented in our churches, is it any wonder that our churches struggle to attract youth, young adults and families with small children into our midst?

They don't come because very often we don't make them feel welcome.

It's not enough to give them a warm hug and welcome when we see them at the coffee hour and then go on about our day. We have to invest time and effort in getting to know these new people and meeting them where they are so they can encounter Jesus Christ through us.

We also have to take these new people under our wings and teach them to do the things that we've been doing ? we have to be their mentors in the faith.
 
It's the rare person who is willing to invest time and effort in training someone who might someday replace them, but that's what discipleship is all about.
 
Perhaps most importantly, we have to be willing to change our church structure so that we have more flexibility to accommodate the kinds of activities that younger
people want and need in order to participate in the life of our church.

If we refuse to make those kinds of changes when they are needed what we really communicate to the younger generation is: 'You aren't really welcome here.'
 
I'm convinced that it is not our intention as people of God to inhibit people from entering the Kingdom, but we must come to grips with the fact that sometimes our refusal to change unknowingly puts up barriers that make it much harder for people to enter.

I pray that your church breaks down any barriers that prevent it from fulfilling its God-given potential and that it leaves something in its wake that provides a trail for future generations to follow into the Kingdom of God.

Alan B. Ward is a member of Lodge Forest UMC in Edgemere. His writings can be found online at The Ooze and the Next Wave e-zine.