The Future Lies Unseen Ahead, Sortof

I spent part of the evening with a group of 20 somethings - all seminary students, all experienced in various aspects of ministry inside and outside the local church setting, all bright and committed to Christ, all learners, all seeking to understand the greater picture of what God is doing. They were eager to learn, competent in sharing their faith with each other and with others, and concerned about the future of ministry.
As we went around the group, each was asked to look beyond seminary and what their future plans entailed. With two exceptions, none of them spoke of working in a local church setting. Only one (a non-North American) spoke of having aspirations of pastoring a local congregation. Each in turn expressed a varied group of desires, some clear and some muddled, about their future ministry. They talked about teaching, working in some kind of parachurch setting, or finding ministry outside the local church and being a support to the church. They were Baptist, Presbyterian, Conservative, Liberal, working in Youth Ministry, Children's Ministry, College Ministry - they spanned the gap of the modern church in America. But what was clear is that they saw a disconnect between ministry and the church. And I believed them.
If the church today is plagued with any one disease it is the disease of self interest. We have come to believe that the church is important. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those who don't go to church don't sit around and wonder what those who do think and believe. They go about their living and dying without thinking much about what goes on inside our ivory towered schools and stain glassed sanctuaries. The church is being influenced by the society in which we live. The tragedy is that the church does not affect the society in which it ministers. Compare that to what you read in the Book of Acts or in the writings of Paul.
The sanctuary walls have to come down. The church was never designed to hide behind them. If the future is ever going to be realized the way that Christians pray it will, the sermons are going to have to be written on the sidewalks and the crossroads of the city; in the fields and the sprawling farms of the countryside. Pulpits must become like John the Baptist - places people seek out to be filled with the Spirit so that they can go back to where they live and become leaven in the loaf of society.
I have been writing and corresponding with a blogger named, appropriately enough, TheRandomBlogger. You can read our conversation under the heading of "Renewing Our Passion" in this blog. His questions are questions that the next generation is asking. What shall we say? Saying to them that the future lies unseen ahead, sortof, isn't going to be enough. What shall we say? Something helpful, I hope. We will see. We will see.