Jun

11

The Present Future—Part 1

June 11, 2007 |

The Present Future

Our church recently went through the book The Present Future by Reggie McNeal. We’re committed to becoming more missional, and that means changes from top to bottom. My husband and I enjoyed a class devoted to studying the book and while I always enjoy learning something new, I experienced the most amazing feelings about the book and it’s concepts. It was at the same time new and revolutionary—and familiar, as in “been there, done that.”

Reggie asks six “tough questions” that we’ll discuss for the next several days. Questions about what we in the church are doing and how it’s perceived by the people “out there.” He talks a lot about the church being a club and asks if we’re serving the club members or reaching out to the lost.

So why do I say, “been there, done that?” Well, when I first became a Christian, I was part of a singles group in San Francisco, which was a spin off from a group at Peninsula Bible Church (PBC) in Palo Alto. This was in the late ‘70s, just after the Jesus movement and just after peak of Body Life, made famous by Pastor Ray Stedman. The singles group from PBC met at a restaurant so as not to turn off the unchurched. And although the teaching was solid and orthodox, it was also pertinent and application-oriented. The SF group followed suit and perhaps was ever more so, because we weren’t sponsored by PBC or any church. We were an independent non-denominational church that met in restaurants, social halls, and when I arrived, a union hall! Although the leadership was clearly “church folks,” the focus was outward and missional. We were doing much of what Reggie talks about some 30 years ago! And as I’ve mentioned so many times, that group formed the foundation of my theology and missiology. It certainly formed my understanding of small groups, and was the place I first learned to deal with challenging people.

Since the book impacted me in so many ways, I thought we’d look at the six questions over the next week or so. I hope that as you read, you’re motivated to buy the book and allow it to challenge you as it’s challenged me.


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