In the 1986 drama, The Mission, Robert De Niro plays Rodrigo Mendoza, a mercenary slave trader who kills his younger brother in a fit of rage. Although acquitted for the murder, he spirals into a life-threatening depression and undertakes a grueling act of penance in order to be freed of his guilt. He drags a heavy sack of swords and armor up a sheer cliff toward the very indigenous Guarani people that he once enslaved and sold. Upon his arrival, the natives recognize their persecutor and somehow manage to forgive a sobbing Mendoza. In one of the more dramatic movie scenes of all time, an indigenous man takes a sword and instead of cutting Mendoza’s throat, he cuts away his heavy burden. His bundle of heavy swords and armor falls, crashing down the cliff. Only with this weight removed did a new future, one serving the mission, become possible.
In our work with “stuck” churches, we are discovering a common theme: the weight of the past is being dragged into the present, keeping the church from moving into the new future that God might have in mind for them. In order to move forward, we need to experience liberation from the bonds of the past. But this work can often be counterintuitive.
Us pastors have our own personal struggles as well. Our failures get dragged along with us as well. We’ve poured our hearts and souls into churches only for our efforts to go nowhere. We’ve championed revitalization efforts, building projects, and vision campaigns that have either flopped, or left us so burned out we cringe at the thought of doing it again.
If you’ve served in lay leadership at the church, you’re likely also carrying the weight of poor leadership, decisions that caused church splits, or a lack of trust between leaders and congregants that can’t be shaken.
The Real Problem
Although these failures and traumas are definitely worthy of repentance, forgiveness, and reform, in our experience they are not what most often keeps churches stuck in the past. We are finding that what often keeps churches stuck in the past is not their failures, but their perceived successes.
Many churches are looking back towards the good old days when they were healthy and flourishing, when their pews were filled and their programs were working. They look around and wonder why these same strategies aren’t working today the way they used to. So they double down, summon all the leadership, finances, and congregational belief possible, and try again. But like chasing a mirage only to find more sand, these churches are left exhausted and disillusioned.
The thing about the past is that it rarely, if ever, remains there. The past has a habit of creeping back up into our imaginations for the future and influencing everything we are doing in the present, often compromising our efforts, even when we have the best intentions set in place.
We are finding that what often keeps churches stuck in the past is not their failures, but their perceived successes.
Story of Transformation
I recently worked with a church that was struggling with the former things. They were carrying a lot of baggage with them into their present, which was prohibiting them from moving into the new thing that God was calling them to. It was a conflicting time for many of the church members, many of whom were stuck romanticizing the past, reflecting back on the good old days. They knew what worked well before, and they struggled to envision a new future without those things. Change can be intimidating, particularly when the future is unknown.
The Former Things
I lead their team towards an obscure passage in Isaiah. Then, as we do in all of our work with church leadership teams, we simply created space for God to immerse us in God’s Word, to cut from us the burdens of the past, and to stir our imaginations for the future.
Here’s the counterintuitive passage of Scripture we read from Isaiah:
Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? –Isaiah 43:16-19, NRSV
The story of the Exodus was foundational to Israel’s existence as the covenant people of God. They were delivered from slavery to ultimately inherit a good land. But then there’s a twist. Immediately after calling the Exodus to mind, God asks Israel to forget about it. Forget the past; forget the former things. Evidently these former things, even though they were stories of past success, were being dragged around behind Israel like a heavy burden, keeping them from seeing the new thing that God was up to.
Isaiah Scholar J.A. Motyer writes this:
“Isaiah knows human psychology only too well. The past can become an idealized world into which we retreat when the future becomes too frightening to face, or it can be a springboard from which we launch ourselves into the future with new strength. Isaiah does not want Israel to retreat into the past.”
–J.A. Motyer
Story of Transformation
As a team, we immersed ourselves in this passage, and wondered what kind of baggage they were carrying around from the past. I could feel the grief in the room as people realized that not all of the things that got them to this moment as a church were going to be the things that took them into the next chapter of ministry. They realized that they wouldn’t be able to pass along to the next generation the exact same things that were passed to them; they would have to discern anew God’s mission and presence in their context and learn how to be church again. Only when we were able to grieve the past, even the successes of the past, were we able to engage in open and honest dialogue about where to go from there. With God’s help, this team found the courage to release their burdens in order to embrace a more hopeful future.
Reflection
- How is your church looking back by idealizing or romanticizing the past?
- Identify the former things that your church is dragging into the present.
- What makes the weight of the former things feel too great to cut loose?
- What is needed most in your context to cut this burden loose?
- What new thing do you sense God might be up to?
Encouragement
Mendoza’s armor was not only a symbol of his guilt, but also his former successes. Much like the Guarani people cutting off Mendoza’s burden, God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, knew that if the Israelites kept living in the past, they would never be able to perceive the new thing that God was doing. Remember, the Israelites were in Babylon, and in order to get back to Jerusalem, they would certainly face innumerable obstacles. Instead of hoping that this journey would turn out just like the Exodus, the Israelites trusted that the same God could do a new thing. They let go of the former things and embarked on a new journey through a dangerous wilderness. May your church have the courage to trust God in new ways, let go of the past, and discover a new future together.
