Rethink Church

United Methodist Communications has started a new marketing campaign for The United Methodist Church. The title of this campaign is "Rethink Church." In our staff meeting, we debated if this meant that non-Christians were to rethink what church was or if church-goers were to rethink how they understood and conducted church. In the end, we pretty much decided that it was both/and. Personally, I believe this is a step in the right direction, but its going to take awhile.

Part of this campaign is a changing of emphasis on the United Methodist mantra, "Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors." This has previously meant that we were to be a church and a people who had open hearts, open minds, and open doors. The new campaign calls for a new emphasis on the word "open" being a verb. Thus, we are to be a church and a people that OPEN hearts, OPEN minds, and OPEN doors. For me, I like this emphasis. It reminds us that faith is not to be an idle thing, but lived out. The new emphasis reminds us as churches to not sit around and rest on our laurels. I have always advocated the activeness of our faith. People in my church are used to hearing me say during our services that worship is a verb.

So, does this mean that we let go of the old understanding of being a people and a church with open hearts, open minds, and open doors? As a fellow staff member reminded us: its both/and. That tends to be the case with God, but that's a topic for another time.

Chris