In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Last month there was an article in the National Post entitled, “Will the last Anglican please turn off the lights?” The article chronicled the work of a retired marketing executive who had been hired by Canadian Anglican Bishops to study the topic of church growth. Now this executive saw something surprising. He studied the actual parish membership rolls instead of the suspect census data and what he discovered is that the last Canadian Anglican will turn out the lights sometime around the mid-part of this century.

It seems the Anglican church has declined in membership by 53% since 1960. Project those trends forward and the last Anglican exits in just about a generation or so. Now, of course, membership is falling in almost all the mainline or sideline Protestant denominations. According to the article the United Church of Canada has lost nearly 50% of its members since 1961. We, the Presbyterians, are down 39%.

For some the response to these figures has led to despair-quietly for the most part. And we can understand their discouragement. It is a tough time right now for us. But despair has not been the only response. At the various denominational headquarters across the country the decision is made to launch another evangelism campaign in order to get people back in the pews.

In my time, I have experienced “Double in the eighties”, “Live the Vision” and the recent FLAMES intiative. For those of you who are older you have probably seen others. Each of these campaigns were designed with evangelism in mind.

But the very word “evangelism’ evokes such negative connotations that we don’t want to have anything to do with it. The trouble with the concept emerged when individuals who called themselves evangelists appeared on the scene, preaching first at tent meetings and later on radio and television. Many of them were honest but there have been enough charlatans and frauds to give evangelism a bad name. Even the twinning of the words Presbyterian and evangelist strikes us as an oxymoron-like military intelligence or jumbo shrimp.

But neither despair nor another national evangelism campaign is needed at this point. Given a measure of grace and some imagination we can see in our current situation the will and providence of God. Our theology insists that God is at work in the midst of history and the Holy Spirit creates, recreates and renews the Body of Christ. What is happening to us then is not devoid of purpose. The hand of God is in it.

One sign of hope – mercifully – is that perhaps our denominational leaders are
     sensing this need to pause, in silence to listen for the Holy Spirit – instead of another
      evangleism program – the church as a whole has been called to first prepare for,
          and then beginning in Advent 06 to enter a Sabbath year –
     A time to call the church to prayer, to discerning the way the Holy Spirit is
            calling us to be the church for another generation, for a new time . . .
    without preconcieved notions of what this time of prayer and reflection will bring . . .
       In silence, in prayer – God through the Holy Spirit will lead . . .

As we discern then, let us turn then to our reading from 1 Corinthians. In this passage Paul is outlining his method for evangelism.
“Though I am free, I make myself a slave to everyone
   To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews
   To those not having the law I became like one not having the law
   To those who were weak I became weak
   I have become all things to all people…for the sake of the gospel”

Whether dealing with his fellow Jews or with gentiles, Paul’s method of evangelism remained the same. He adapted himself to the style and culture of others rather than encouraging them to be like him all for the sake of the gospel. He accepted the risks of either losing control or losing his cultural identity.

And this has been the approach that the church has taken for two thousand years. Throughout the ages we have adjusted both the form and the content of our message for the sake of evangelism. We have ‘Christianized’ pagan festivals. We have used various philosophies to carry the gospel.

Right now the newest phenomenom are ‘seeker churches’ like Willow Creek in Chicago. The worship services feature elaborate sound systems and Jumbotron screens. The sermons, though based on the Bible, are mercifully short. The messages are entertaining and they emphasize the positive for experience is more important than theological doctrine. In some cases the cross has been eliminated replaced by a dove.

Looking at the size of these congregations, there approach to evangelism seems very successful. But as one critic put it, “Rather than making America more Christian, they have tried to make Christianity more American. They have molded Jesus to the world instead of molding the world to Jesus.

So a question emerges at this point. How far should we go in adapting ourselves to other cultures for the sake of the gospel?
Now in seeking to answer this question we must return to the basics. In the New Testament, Jesus calls his followers, the disciple community, to distinguish itself from the world but also to be in the world. Certainly this is an awkward position to be in and none of us like to feel to awkward so we try to overcome it as quickly as possible, often by giving the people what they want.

But what if we remained in this position, not of the world but in the world, and searched our tradition for wisdom so that we are first of all able to distinguish between the message of Christ and culture-religion. The two are not synonymous. For the message of Christ is marked by the cross. One of the true marks of the church is the cross.
It is a mark of rejection-something that we are experiencing a great deal of lately. But it also a mark of weakness in which there is strength, it is a symbol of love poured out, emptied for the sake of the world.

We cannot be all things to all people, at least not in the way that it has manifested itself over these many decades. If you look at our Christian story, at our vision of reality, we are different from the consumer culture around us . . .
I experienced this difference most profoundly when I was in L’Arche, the little communities founded by Jean Vanier. It was living in community with mentally and physically challenged and other assistants where I experienced this way of the heart.
Vanier is quoted in Saturday’s paper saying:  “The individual and community can be transformed by doing little things….meet someone who is lonely, broken, and rejected and become their friend. You will find that you will begin to change. And you will get…. a friendship that is transforming.”

It is a community where those who are weak are welcomed and valued, and in fact are the core or the heart of the community. Where community and relationships are more important than position and power. Our role as Christians, as the people of the cross, is precisely what Jesus said it was: to be salt, yeast and light. Our Lord’s descriptors for his community of followers were all modest ones, a little salt, a little yeast, a little light. We once tried to be great, large and magnificent but now we find ourselves constrained by the Holy Spirit so that we may become “little flocks”.

But little flocks of salt, yeast or light that the world desperately needs . . .
At this point perhaps it is difficult to conceive that such a calling be worthy of the name Christian.  But it is an exciting and hopefilled time to be the church!
For if we as God’s people are marked by the cross, no other calling would be faithful.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.