Transcription
Hello everyone. Welcome to another session of Inspire, the Serve module. And it is in this module where we will be touching upon the general context, because it is very important to know what surrounds the church in order to also learn how the church should respond to it. Because as times change, we need to update our strategies and the way we do things. Today's world, as is widely known, is a globalized world, an interconnected world in which, again, we are no longer regionally isolated, but rather connected to the whole world. And this causes many things. One of the things it has caused is an acceleration in people's lifestyles and an increasingly stronger focus on having to be connected to an international market that never rests, with what is happening in the world around us. And in a way, it has caused what some call the "homo economicus," right? The human being driven by the economy is one who has time for very few things in their life because they are very focused on producing, on generating, and at costs, they have time for their family. So, often, they have even less time for God or for the church.
Along with this, this has also caused pluralism because now we are in contact with many ideas and religions from which we were previously isolated, or before it was only a lost cause that we felt exposed to those ideas, or we only read them in some encyclopedia. But now they are part of our daily lives: contact with people of different religions, contact with people of different beliefs, of different ideologies. And some people even question today whether it is okay to talk about Christ because we feel we might offend the people around us. Because what is taught to us is the importance of respect, which of course we must have, the importance of different cultures and beliefs, and all of that, which is, of course, very valuable. But the church must understand that we can never sacrifice the message of Christ. In fact, one of the things I will mention again later is the fact that precisely that was the context in which the church was born. The Christian church originally was born in an extremely pluralistic context, in a context surrounded by many religions and many different deities, and it is in that context that the church rises to bravely preach the message of Christ. So, if we are to follow the example we find in the Word of God, just because we are surrounded by different beliefs and different ways of seeing the world does not mean that we have to sacrifice something as important as evangelism, as we have reflected in the Word of God.
Furthermore, there is rapid technological change. We have all understood that, right? Technology changes faster than we have the capacity to change phones, computers, televisions, because everything is accelerating in technological change, accelerating in knowledge, accelerating in the way of doing things. And this, of course, also causes a greater radicalization of individualism. People feel increasingly more in control of their lives on an individual level, and in a way, this has also isolated us from the people around us. This technological acceleration has also made us connected to different networks of people at the same time, but without necessarily identifying 100% with each of these networks. Rather, we are part of this at work, but we are part of that on weekends, we are part of this during the week at night. So, there are like different networks where, in a way, we compartmentalize our lives, right? And we divide our time around them without necessarily having total commitment to any of them.
Furthermore, there is a phenomenon called postmodernity, and it is basically a phenomenon that has led us to question grand narratives, grand truths. So, there is suspicion towards anything that seeks to identify itself as truth. And we have been taught to be suspicious of everything and everyone, of institutions that claim to have the truth, so we will be suspicious of them. We will be suspicious of any person we see in authority, precisely because they are someone in authority. And that is like the spirit of our time: no one can be trusted, no one can be believed. And we also cannot believe in the Word of God because there are so many interpretations, so many ways of seeing it, so many ways of interpreting it. So, in a way, there is a lack of certainty in life.
Furthermore, we are connected as never before with an astonishing global need. What does this mean? That we immediately become aware of a plane crash in one country, after a military tragedy in another, we become aware of a storm in another place, one after another, one after another. And in a way, that burdens us a lot because we see the enormous amount of pain in the world. But in another way, it is like things are mixed in a very strange context for us to be able to process it with the weight it truly has, and that affects our response to the world's pain.
Furthermore, there is a return to Romanticism, in a way. We are ceasing to be so rational and we are more exposed to the experiential part. What is the experience? Personal experience. What is your experience? This is not necessarily bad, especially in a congregation like ours where we believe that the Holy Spirit leads us to have truly personal experiences with the Lord. So, if there is something valuable in personal experience, it is something we celebrate. But we also have to be careful that not everything is based on experience, because there are many ways to interpret things, of course, as we said now, and because the heart is deceitful, as the Bible teaches. So, it is something we need to be alert to.
Furthermore, all the technology and connecting with each other has democratized knowledge. This means that everyone in general has access to enormous sources of knowledge, and this is very good because precisely that allows for greater education, greater access. But along with it came something we did not expect, and that was all this fake news, false news, where then we don't know how to tell or discern what is true knowledge and what is false knowledge, what is something that is a lie, and what has been manipulated. But furthermore, knowing that we all have access makes it also easier, in a way, to question things. Because again, we have all these sources of information that may be unexpected. When we lead a discipleship group, when we lead some teaching or something like that, there will be people who will necessarily come up with things from authors we haven't read, with concepts we don't know, with the latest study developments that perhaps we are not up to date on. And that is part of it; it has become part of the normal life of every leader. And as leaders, we have to learn to deal with that reality, to understand that we don't know everything, that we don't have the responsibility to know everything, but we do have the responsibility to learn to guide and direct all of this in constructive dialogues, in dialogues that can truly edify the heart and not destroy, separate, or shame. Rather, as leaders, we can understand that this is part of reality and learn to manage it in a healthy way.
In all these changes that the church has experienced in the last couple of centuries, one of the most important changes, perhaps, has been that the church in general was the center of society, and everything had to respond to the church. Years ago, everything responded to the church: politics, science, economy. The church was at the center. But all those changes have caused that now faith, now the church in general, is not at the center but on the margins. And directing things and being influential from the margin is different from being influential when one was at the center. Because from the center, there is a way; usually, one assumes the forms of simply giving orders, of saying how things are, and that's it, because no one questions, because everyone has to respond to us. But now, in the reality we are living, in which the church is on the margins, it means we have to learn to develop new strategies of influence and leadership. And I believe that is the healthiest thing for the church. And I tell you that I believe that way because, as I mentioned earlier, that is the context in which the church was born. The church was not born at the center of all society; the church was persecuted. The church was seen almost as a sect of Jews who had strange ideas and worshipped a Lord who they said had risen from the dead. And from there, the church assumes its identity in the Lord and can, and is light, and sees all the miracles and all the power that we find in the New Testament, from the margins, not from the center. So, let us not be afraid that the church is not at the center of society. Let us learn to be brave as those first disciples of Jesus were. Let us follow their example and believe that the Holy Spirit can truly move with us as it did with them, because this forces us to depend much more on God and His power, and not on our influence, and not on our position, but rather we are urged that God manifest His grace and His power through the church and through all that we do.
Now, speaking of different changes, in North America, several studies have been done that try to see why people seem to have disconnected from the church. And they have found several things. They have identified that one of them has to do with the reaction to politics and the way the church in general has not known how to healthily manage its relationship with politics. And this has caused people, in the face of so much polarization as we live today, because it is no longer simply saying, "Oh, you are from such a party, I am from this one, and that's it." Today, we have been polarized to make us feel as if the one from that party is bad, that the one from that party cannot be a believer, that the one from that party knows nothing. And so, what it has done is confront us with each other, and that has caused people to separate from the faith. So, we should learn to manage it in a more mature and healthier way.
Another of the causes is how marriage has been postponed. It turns out that one of the things that really makes people mature in their faith in God and also seek support from the church is a married life, the desire to maintain a healthy married life. So, by not having it and by postponing marriage, people, in a way, then do not connect as before at those earlier ages with church life. Furthermore, there is individualism, which I already mentioned. People are increasingly disengaging from others, and now instead of wanting to spend time with others and seeing each other to spend time together, now we run to our televisions to watch the series we want to watch alone, locked in the house. Now we isolate ourselves on our phones instead of looking for points and places of meeting. And another, of course, is secularization. As secular ideas have grown, this has also caused people to disengage from their relationship with the church.
At Harvard, an interesting study was done called "How We Gather," or "How We Meet," and they realized several things. They realized that human beings still need that sense of community and that, despite everything, it is being sought and tried to be identified in certain places and in certain ways. And they identified that the new generations are indeed seeking a deep spiritual experience. That is, it remains valuable for people, for all human beings, to have a deep spiritual experience. And second, an experience in community, the ability to relate to others on a community level. And part of what they found in these different examples they have identified of where people find these types of experiences and how they live them are six. They realized that people seek a community where they can have deep relationships. Of course, this is paradoxical in a way, right? Because we want to have those deep relationships, but we also want to limit them in a way because we are very protective of our individuality and our identity, and we are very, very protective of our private lives. So, there is a struggle there, but in general, a sense of community is still being sought.
Furthermore, places are being sought for social transformation. People find it very important to be able to do something that transforms our society through ecological groups, through support groups for foundations. People continue to seek and place great value on this. Furthermore, places are sought where creativity can be cultivated, where there is space and time to develop imagination and to dream, and to awaken that which is in the human heart that always seeks to grow and create. Furthermore, places are also sought where personal transformation can occur. Yes, we want to grow as people; we want to develop ourselves in spirit, soul, and body; we want to develop ourselves socially. So, yes, we want to be able to develop ourselves in a complete way, not in an isolated way, not just one part of us, but we are realizing the importance of growing in an integral way as human beings, and that is very positive.
Furthermore, places where purpose can be found are sought. Human beings will always have that need to be able to live for a purpose, to live for something greater, for something bigger. And furthermore, yes, we respond to places that demand responsibility from us. It turns out that people have sought in different areas and different groups people who will demand responsibility from them, who will call them and say, "Why didn't you come to training?" "Look, we need your support more with this social project we have in the community, what happened?" So, people are not really afraid of being asked to be responsible with commitments. It is the way in which this is managed, and again, the struggle that exists with community versus individualism, which will always be a great challenge.
Now, in Latin America, there is a study that really caught my attention from the moment I saw it, and they tried to identify why people were moving from the Catholic faith to the Evangelical faith in general. And they found several characteristics, but I summarize these characteristics as people generally seeking a more moral faith, a more personal faith, and a more social faith. I believe the world is indeed seeking the church, and I believe the church has everything to offer, as I just mentioned: a place for social transformation, a place of personal purpose, a place for personal development and growth, a place to live community. The Church of Christ has all of that. But I believe the world is demanding that the church be more the church. I believe the world's problem is not that the church feels too much like the church. I believe the problem the world has is that it expects the church to be more the church than we often are, because it is indeed seeking a faith, a place where morality and ethical decisions are given weight, where personal relationships are given weight, but also where social transformation and making a difference in the world are given weight. And I believe that this is definitely part of what God has placed in the heart of our congregation. If there is one thing we Latin American believers must be very conscious of, it is that in the next 30 to 50 years, the great weight of the development of Christianity worldwide will be in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, which are the places where Christianity is developing for the next half-century or through the next century. And we have to assume that responsibility of how we are going to live our faith and how we are going to mark things for the global church so that the church and faith in Christ truly pass from generation to generation as we have been commanded and as we have learned.
So, I want to summarize several characteristics that I believe faith should have for today's world. Those characteristics are: a participatory faith is needed. We need to live a faith in which we understand that we can all be part of it. A style of leadership where we collaborate with each other, where we are accessible, where leaders understand that we are not the ones who simply order people around, but rather we collaborate with each other, following the example we find in 1 Corinthians, which teaches us that we are all part of the body of Christ and that we all have something to contribute to church life and to what the Lord wants to do in the world. Furthermore, we need a more honest faith, because today we have learned to live with suspicion. We are especially suspicious of what cannot be questioned. If there is something that cannot be questioned, that immediately raises our alarms, that awakens something in us that makes us uncomfortable. And we have to learn. In fact, in our congregation here at the center, our logo is a pair of quotation marks because what it illustrates is a dialogue, a conversation. We are a church that understands the value of dialogue, the value of important conversations, the value of having close mentors and of having environments where deep, weighty conversations can take place, and where a person can truly express the questions and doubts they have in an honest way and receive equally honest answers.
Furthermore, we need a tangible faith. James said, "I will show you my faith by my works." That is, faith is demonstrated; faith has to be seen. Faith is indeed the assurance of what is hoped for and the conviction of what is not seen. But James tells us, "but the grace of faith is that it can be seen one day, that it can be perceived one day, that it can be touched one day, that it can be felt one day." So, as a church, we have to learn to live a tangible faith in everything we do, so that people can see the effects of God's love, of His grace, the effects of a church that is committed to loving its neighbor.
We also need an educated faith, because we are complete people. And again, in an environment where people have never before had so much access to information and resources, we need to learn to be educated leaders in our faith. Again, we don't have to have all the answers. No matter how much one studies, no matter how much one strives, one will never know everything, one will never have all the answers, one will never have read all the positions, one will never have read all the authors, because we live in a world flooded with information. But that does not mean we are not responsible. And we have to educate ourselves; we have to grow and develop. Along with our spiritual growth, there must also be intellectual growth. And that is why the process of "Inspire" is so important: both "Inspire to Grow," "Inspire to Serve," and "Inspire to Lead." The ability to direct, the ability to continue growing and maturing in that faith.
Furthermore, we must understand something: faith must always be placed in Jesus. He is the reason for our faith. And we should not be ashamed, even though we live in a world that preaches many gods and many religions. We have known a Savior called Christ Jesus. The church that was born in a world where there were many gods and many religions rose bravely to preach Jesus. The human being was created for the gospel, and therefore, we have to learn that the human heart will respond to the message of Jesus.
Furthermore, let us have a flexible faith, a faith that learns to experiment, a faith that learns to try things, to live a missional lifestyle, that ventures to try, to try doing this to see if we can reach more people, to see if we can cause a greater social impact, to see if we can produce a difference. Let's try new things, new strategies, let's adjust things according to what we have learned, and above all, being faithful to the message of the Gospel. But let us not be afraid to experiment. And the thing with experiments is that often they don't work, and the fact that they don't work does not mean it is something bad; it simply means we have learned how not to do something, and we continue to grow and try new ways of doing it. Because I know that the Holy Spirit will guide each one of you as leaders in the work you are doing. So, we pray that we can be the church that the world needs today. God did not plant this church three or four centuries ago. God did not cause each one of us to be born 500 years ago. We are all here today, facing a reality. And this reality is one that reminds us of many things from the history of what the church has lived through. But we cannot deny that there are things the church has never lived through, and it is we who have to find ways to confront them, understanding that never before have things of that type been experienced, never before have they been seen. But it is for this time that the Lord has placed us, and our God is the God of times and epochs, Daniel said, He changes times and epochs. Our God is the God of history. So, no matter how much change there may be, we live secure, fulfilling the command of Jesus: "Go and make disciples," and that is what we will do as a church. [Music]