Prelude: Do You Read the Aquila?

Do you read the Aquila?   If you don't, you might want to give it a look.  It is a publication of our Conference that is beautifully written, visually exciting and filled with great articles.  December 2009 Comments Page spoke so honestly, it made me cry.  The topic?  "Why do young people leave our churches?"  That is a great question and thoughtful answers by our youth and young adults give a real sense of their struggles and concerns.

But do we need anyone to tell us why people leave our churches?  Don’t we know?

Some point to the music.  Yes, it is probably impossible to reach many of today's people with organ music.  Some point to the old churches that haven't been updated since they were built 50, 60, 70 years ago.  Some point to the lack of churches willing to change.  I can nod my head yes to all of those, but that really isn't why, is it?  So, let's add bad sermons, bad coffee and bad nurseries to the list.  Does that cover it?  While these are also issues, they too are not the reason.

Many of us in the Cal-Pac Conference (lay and clergy) eat, dream and burn to see our churches vital and live.  So we try various things. We fast.  We pray.  We go to conferences.  We read. Every gathering we go to clergy share ideas.  I cannot remember the last time I attended any clergy get together (no matter how informal) where we didn't try to fix the church.  We care, deeply, totally care.  Even in the midst of all the bad news (or at least not any great news), we believe that God has a better day for us all.  We show up and don't give up.  We are sad when those we love go off to the Saddleback Churches of our community (were I serve we are 5 minutes from this amazing church), but we stay on the bus and pray that God would take our anger, our confusion, our exhaustion and save us once again.

This is why I like “The Tangible Kingdom”.  It lifts up my head and speaks a word that makes me go, “OMG, THIS IS TOTALLY HELPFUL AND ENCOURAGING! The Tangle Kingdom’s focuses on what gets lost in the desire to revitalize our church:  theology—and in this case, theology about the Kingdom of God, this new way begun in Jesus. 

Jesus lived a different story and he invited us to watch and learn and take that to the world.  This is what The Tangible Kingdom is about. 

I know you are busy.  I know you don’t need one more thing.  But this book will be worth it.  So join us next week and enter into the dialogue.

Rev. Nicole Reilley

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