(5/5/10 I am thankful to Rev. Bill Koch, our regional conference minister, for the summary below to which I have added my own thoughts and perspectives)
The Frontier:
If one were to take the total number of inhabitants of the state of Ohio and divide by the square miles of that state, you’d come up with about 222 people per square mile. In North Dakota, that number would be 6 people per square mile. So many folks have moved away from less populous and economically depleted areas that some counties no longer have enough people to warrant having the designation of “county"! The state has declared those areas to be “Frontier.” There are just not enough people, and so earlier frontier images and operational modes have come back into use. Support for services, such as schools and trash collection, have been lost, but an incredible sense of adventure has been gained. Interesting… for some of our churches, the same thing has occurred: where there used to be three, four, or five hundred people in the congregation, now there are 70, 60 or less; there is often a resulting sense of distress, failure, uncertainty, and fear. But like North Dakota, this is a “place” those churches have been before. In fact, there was a time when these churches had even less people, had no building, and ever fewer programs to offer. But, there was a different feel, hope and vision. Perhaps it is time for such churches to recognize they are once again on a Frontier of existence. They will never again go back to being exactly what they were in former years; that simply isn’t going to happen. It is time to look to the future.. to start anew. And this is true for both local churches and our whole denomination, really! While in many places our churches might have been on the inner circle of community life, now we are on the fringe, out on the Frontier. Consider the Frontier… It can be a romantic place where stories are forged which immortalize courage, self-giving, and hard-won success. It is a place of struggle, hardship and pain, and also a place of excitement and creativity; it’s where people must rely on relationships, and where they can pull together to do amazing things… on the Frontier.
The Wilderness:
When we realize our church is on the Frontier, we will also then notice that we are surrounded by Wilderness. The image of the Wilderness is visited often in our scriptures… Moses and the Israelites knew that place well; for forty years! Their experience in the Wilderness is central to our faith. Jesus went there too; he had to go through his trials in the Wilderness before he could begin his ministry. He too found it to be a place of confusion, distraction, and temptation. It is easy to get lost out there. It is a dangerous, unforgiving place… poor decisions may well mean you will not be around to tell any story. Actually though, the Wilderness is not a bad place; as with the ancient Israelites and Jesus, it can serve as a place of preparation. Wilderness can also be a place where we have said "no" or "not yet" to God. When the right time and circumstances do finally appear, they can then be seen, recognized, and taken advantage of. The Wilderness… a place where we can perish OR get ready, gain focus, eliminate distractions and hone our vision.
The Border:
And when we are ready to move on, we then realize that we are facing Borders. There are separations between us and the places we might want to go and people we would want to reach. A Border is a real boundary that distorts or totally blocks communication, and prevents disparities and blessings from being shared. In this country today, less that 20% of folks go to church. Of the other 80%, many have little or no concept of who we are, what we do, or what we are about; and seem to have little interest in changing any of that. It almost seems we speak another language. In many places, our church has been relegated to the fringe of our communities. Looking back into our history, when our nation’s 17th and 18th century settlers moved across frontiers of this land they faced many borders, physical and humanly-created; they were well aware that lands beyond were already occupied by native peoples they did not know. Though later accounts and understandings of that history would mythologize that these new lands were being “discovered,” the truth was that our immigrant forebears had to carefully deal with the people who already called these lands “home.” (And how much different our history and this land would be today had those dealings been different and not constantly marred by oppressiveness, cruelty, and greed.) Today, we in the church look across borders at the people who do not know us and whom we do not know either. We must realize that to leave the fringe and get back toward the “mainstream” we are going to have to deal with those who already live there, who already have habits and patterns of activity that do not include church involvement, and who in some cases have already been injured, embarrassed, or excluded by the church. Though they do yearn for spiritual understandings, insight, and inspiration and do want to make significant, positive contributions to this world, they have little or no concept that our church can help them discern or grow in this vital and integral part of life. Interesting… one visual image of a border presented by Elena and DaVita was that of a huge river, the banks of either side being separated by such a wide expanse. And spanning that awesome river was an equally impressive bridge. That border had been traversed with a structure of beauty and integrity. That border had been overcome to the betterment of both sides.
The frontier spoke to me. Elena talked about the discomfort, the inconvenience of the frontier, but also about the excitement and sense of adventure that comes along with engaging the frontier.
I know that I am, and I feel that our church is, in the frontier stage. We have to be ready, we have to be entrepreneurial.
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