Wine for the Wineskin
I’m looking forward to the New WIneskins convocation next week. Our session is sending two elders and myself, I’m really proud of them stepping up to the plate.
As we anticipate the Orlando gathering and as I’ve been reflecting upon the recent New Wineskins paper, I wonder what the future will be like. The image and metaphor I’ve heard is that of the Israelites crossing the Jordan into the promised land. A colleague and friend recently used the metaphor of water colors and painting. He may very well be right- the future will certainly be messy and joyful! (hit the link to see what I mean).
But, I suspect- suspect, that we (North American orthodox/evangelical/catholic mainline/oldline/sideline) Christians are not about ready to cross the Jordan into some sort of ecclesiastical promised land- but rather about ready to cross the reed sea with great fanfare and praise (Miraim's song!) into a cultural wilderness where we’ll learn what it means to be missional or we’ll perish. A place filled with doubt and uncertainty and longing for the pots of meat and security and certainty we had 'back in the day.'
Back in the day, when we knew how things worked, knew how to get stuff done, knew how bricks were made. But what good are brick-making skills when you live in tents? Faith, an experience of God, and a Holy Spirit empowered obedience to following him are the tools required to flourish in this wilderness. This place of meeting. To engage a culture and people who don’t know the hymns, and really don’t care for the organ. A culture where the one’s with tinted blue hair aren’t only the octogenarians but the 19 yr old girl with her nose pierced. A culture that longs for authentic connections, yet doesn’t have a clue how to cultivate, nurture or keep them.
And perhaps a generation who continues to say, "but we've never done it that way before" needs to pass, and a new one trained in the ways of walking with YHWH believing in a future hope- living empowered in that future hope everyday, with every ounce of their heart and square inch of their intellect.
As for leadership- we keep looking for a Moses figure to emerge, perhaps we're all called in this period to be little Moses' with no one to guide us but the empowering presence of God himself.
Thats the kind of thing I think about when I look at the future. Thats what I suspect the future will be like for faithful congregations and individual saints. Not a triumphant entry into a land where all is clear, but the intentional beginning - but an actual continuation of a long obedience in the same direction- to steal a title from Eugene Peterson.
A robust, biblical, confident, ‘mere’ Christianity, with a winsome missional posture, that forms and equips people to follow Christ as exiles in the world, for the sake of the world.
I confess, I don’t know how to do this well. Lot’s of competent folks are engaging in this conversation. Which is completely encouraging. But, I know- before I think much more about the wineskins, as necessary as that thinking is- I need more of the new wine those wineskins presuppose. The people I serve need this. I don’t want to just change horses, I want a new thing.
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