Thomas Merton, wrote, “There is a hidden wholeness that lies beneath the broken surface of our lives. Church has a hidden wholeness for us to re-discover, but we must break up the institution to find the treasure buried within.”

The Shift

It was 1964 when Bob Dylan came out with his gold-selling album, The Times They Are a-Changin'. Trivia note: The now well-known tune was influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads, such as “Come All Ye bold Highway Men, Come All Ye Tender Hearted Maidens.” It was a response to the broad scale change that remains a characteristic mark of the 60's, and held Biblical implications:

The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

What was true of the sixties, is all the more true now. The order we have known “is rapidly fadin'”. We who serve the church in Canada know at a visceral level that change is in the air. We can smell it. We just don't always know what to do about it.

While I'm not sitting on top of a pile of statistics from Emerging Spirit or David Ewart, we know the future of the United Church in Canada and in BC will be rough. I also believe it will be hopeful and in some ways invigorating, but the great birthing of the emerging church will no doubt involve labour pains. Even for those congregations that are coalescing and about to do a new thing, the challenges we've known as a church in an increasingly secular society will only escalate by all accounts, making leadership all the more stressful, uncertain, and isolating.

I believe the work of the Spiritual Care Network and other systems of connection and support will become all the more essential to our ministry. From what I've read and conversations I've had over the years with a variety of people, these are a few of the developing trends I believe we'll have to reckon with in these changing times:

• More congregations will lose their buildings. Either through amalgamations or shifted ministry or flat-out property sale, more and more United Church signs will be lifted off church buildings where congregations have gathered for decades. This will often be demoralizing to laity and leadership, both, even if the congregation continues to meet.
• More congregations will come to a close. Those that lose buildings may not have the wherewithal to continue as a house church or in another configuration. The downward slide of membership in the United Church will continue to plummet, effecting Mission and Service support, and therefore the support we receive from the denomination (e.g. funds for campus ministry and mission support will be significantly reduced).
• An increasing gulf between rural and urban ministry will be felt. To the outrage of some, Emerging Spirit did not include rural ministry in its targeted population segment. This choice was made because research shows rural towns are not where most of our people are or will be. As the denomination becomes far more flexible on whether or not a graduating M.Div. seminarian will be settled, congregations who have benefitted from the support of settled ordinands will be searching for pastoral leaders. More and more congregations in rural areas will feel even more isolated from the denomination. Further, as economic viability shifts from rural to urban, from natural resources to service industries and technology, small towns will lose their cultural base and more rural United Churches will close.
• The dis-ease that exists between Diaconal and M.Div. clergy will increase, further complicated by yet another stream for Designated Lay Pastoral Ministers. Among the leaders themselves, there will be frustrations about who's “really” a minister, resentment about a perceived hierarchy, or, on the other hand, frustration that a person with relatively little training is able to do everything a person with an M.Div. degree can do, thereby diminishing the value of theological education. Understanding, trust and shared appreciation will be absolutely critical for healthy relationships.
• The place of church in society will continue to be marginalized. Concerned with the narrow-minded and closed- minded attitudes of Christian churches, fewer and fewer people will go to church as a place where their children receive a spiritual and ethical foundation, preferring instead the community service projects offered by schools and the programs of community centers. Fewer people will go to church as a place to connect and will find other avenues for relationship (for example, Starbucks is taking a new turn and has opened a gathering place in Seattle where people can come for food, beer, wine, coffee and share music, poetry and creative writing. It's a creative pub environment: the Philosopher's Café meets English Pub. Who wants to stand and sing Abide With Me?) Clergy will lose jobs. This will be a point of great, if quiet, contention. Who gets to keep their job, and who loses it? Who becomes half-time, and who stays full-time? Who needs to shift into tent-making ministry, and who won't have to? Who gets to keep their pension, and who will lose retirement security? The potential caldron of jealousy, anger and resentment towards the church, society, or directed toward other church leaders is not insignificant.

The Spiritual Care Network is in place to open lines of communication to help us work together, rather than apart as we embody Church in these changin' times.

The Hidden Wholeness

Where there are challenges, there is also opportunity; and where there are endings, we know there are also new beginnings. Over forty years ago the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, wrote, “There is a hidden wholeness that lies beneath the broken surface of our lives. Church has a hidden wholeness for us to re-discover, but we must break up the institution to find the treasure buried within.”

• Reconsider and clarify mission as we ask ourselves the question: What are we here for? What is our purpose?
• Take stock of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of “the Way.” If our secular society has concluded that church is no longer the place to go and be seen (thank God!), those who go to church attend for a reason. We might dare to believe again that being part of this spiritual community can actually change us, for good!
• When lost, pull together. As we grope in the dark trying to find our way through the sea of change, we have the opportunity to join resources and reach out to each other, to other denominations, and perhaps even to other spiritual traditions. 
• The demise of the patriarchal, European dominated church gives way to greater diversity. As the old center becomes moved to the margin, the new center is found on the margins. Richard Florida, a professor at Toronto University, found that the cities that are more likely to thrive share three characteristics: talent, technology, and tolerance. He calls these “open economies”, and they thrive because they are more likely to draw creative people. Closed economies, those that remain isolated from outside influences or change, wither. So, I believe, with the church. The greater tolerance we have for diversity, the more likely we'll be to draw forth the creative spirit from among us.
• Spirituality deepened. When do you pray most fervently? Most of us are driven to pray when the odds are against you and your back is against the wall. As we stand in the “tragic gap”, we may know at heart that we will not thrive without God.

Hopefully -- and we're called to live in hope -- the challenges and opportunities we encounter will draw forth a new vitality, commitment and energy from us all, ushering us to that hidden wholeness at the heart of this fragile yet persistent Body of Christ.

I'm encouraged by an insight from Wendell Barry:

It may be when we no longer know what to do,
We have come upon our real work,
And that when we no longer know where to go,
We have come upon our real journey.

I don't really know what we should all be doing, nor do I know in which direction we should all start sprinting, but I sense that we're being ushered into our real work, and our real journey. Even now.

(Dan serves St. David's United in West Vancouver, as President of B.C. Conference and as a member of the Spiritual Care Network core group.)