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Those of you who are regular readers of my column may remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned, if only in passing, a challenge before me that had been testing the limits of my courage. I wanted to take a few moments this time around to share what that challenge is – and why I am just so excited about it.
For the past year, and in the last three or four months in earnest, I and a team of friends and colleagues have been hard at work planting a new faith community, or church if you like, here in Trumbull County. We call our community (Re)generation – a word of rich theological meaning, referring to new life, new growth, new vitality, or even, a fresh start.
Throughout the spring and summer, (Re)generation has been “in the womb,” but on the first Sunday of October, (Re)generation will be born, which leads to an important question: Why in the world do we need another church in our community?
This is a fair question. In fact, I have asked that question of myself, and our team has wrestled through why another community of faith is needed in our region. We have become convinced, after spending hours listening to our friends and family and colleagues, that this is something our area needs.
That said, it’s important that we are clear up front about something important: We don’t think our community, or any new community of faith, is needed because existing churches are failing or dying or wrong or irrelevant. It could easily be perceived that this is about rejection or rebellion instead of desire that existing churches have to create a new place for new people.
So what about our community is unique, or what about it meets a real need in our community? Generally speaking, the more churches we have, the easier it ought to be to solve the problems our community faces. Believe it or not, many churches in our community care about the same things you care about; we may not always go about solving it in the same (or even best) way, but we care.
(Re)generation is, in that regard, an added tool in our community toolbox to solve problems. If you’re interested, our community has a growing interest and investment in helping build a recovery movement in our area and in developing mentoring and leadership development for high school male athletes.
More importantly, we have found that there is a great need in our area for honest, calm dialogue about faith and spirituality.
Many people on our team have spent countless hours listening to friends and family tell their stories of faith – stories often marked by hurt, disappointment or just plain apathy. We want our community to be a place that’s safe to process all of those feelings.
You’ll have to forgive me for this shameless plug – I’m just so excited about the opportunity we have before us to offer something new to our community, but more importantly, to be a part of what makes our community better. (Re)generation is an invitation to do something unusual: To give church another chance.