Risk-taking for God!
By Janine C. Hagan
Janine is the Sr. Consultant of FaithShapes! ® at www.faithshapes.com, and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of EcuMiniNet™ Online! She leads two adult Bible study classes and is a member of Edgewood Presbyterian Church (USA) in Birmingham, Alabama.

What does a vacation have in common with the Sabbath? According to Webster's dictionary, the word "vacation" means "freedom"…or "respite from something" and "Sabbath" means "…a day of rest and worship".. How does the understanding of separateness/respite/"time off" affect our rhythm of worship and growth in faith? Does Sunday now equal "vacation"? Is this why worship, Sunday School attendance, and thus church membership, is dwindling in most mainline Protestant denominations?

Or stated another way, does freeing ourselves from everyday tasks, the promise of rest and free time, hold a higher, different, or separate value from communing-with (God), and community? Or is it that our only family time is now on the Sabbath and the church is not meeting the needs of that reality? If any of this is true, then it is time that Christians asked some powerful questions about our homes of faith, our worship practices, our Christian faith growth and nurture, and our needs as a people "hard-wired" for God.

We live in a society that is desperate for love and community. Look at the emphasis on sex and physical intimacy. With the re-arranging of traditional family structures, we are even more dependent on other communities to provide the extra love and nurture that is given through the extended family. The sad fact is that we have forgotten, never learned, or are too fearful to venture out and build relationship vehicles that will create a new climate for faith. A new climate, which could foster the nurturing and love that, would draw people to the very heart of Christian faith. Isn't that what we want? Or are we afraid to be vulnerable for God?

And believe it or not, people are searching for the mystical. We are desperate to "touch The Holy"; to reach out in ways that have not been thought of in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. Many Christian teens, young adults, (and yes) Baby Boomers want to touch the "Face of God" in a way that has never been done before. Or we want to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit through that which speaks to our hearts….an extremely uncomfortable and new posture for those of us slumped in the position of early onset, or later stage, "pew-porosis".

Many mainline Christian traditions are burdened with relationship/faith nurture vehicles that are totally devoid of religious imagination. Where is the courage to change memories for the future; to make new memories and to speak to people that live in the 21st century? We do not seem to know how to build for children that will be adults when we are no longer here. It seems that we have lost our capacity to teach children and teens how to seek meaning in life. Could it be that we have lost it for ourselves?

We are not willing to risk our very selves in order to give life, in order to give faith. In my opinion, this is poor parenting. How can we expect "our children" to carry faith and to build for a future beyond them if they have no models for visioning, determination, and strength of God-Christ-Holy Spirit-purpose? We seem to be unable to trust the Holy Spirit to give us new visions designed to carry the most important information of all; God's love in Jesus Christ. If we still value Sabbath, what has happened to our understanding and therefore our teaching of God as Creator and source of all life?

However one understands "vacation", or "Sabbath" and that movement of resting, worship and faith nurture, it seems to me that we need to be about teaching God's love in Christ; about making disciples. We cannot afford to endanger our mission with machinery that is broken and is no longer capable of doing that for which it was designed. Time is no longer on our side. The question is not, "Can we move fast enough?" The question has become, "Are we willing to do what it takes to carry out the mandate?"

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