Greetings from the Moderator MARCH 2024
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I hope March finds you all doing well as we continue through Lent to the Cross.
You might remember I used the term “piercing the towers” in this column last month. It means how to get the attention of people who live around my church, near downtown, that may be faithful, or not but seem to have no interest in hearing the Goods News of the love and grace of God. As I was continuing to contemplate the idea of “Piercing the Towers,” I came across a term I hadn’t seen before: ietsism. Jos Buurman, a Netherlands Author, stated: “iets is Dutch for something. Ietsism means believing that there is something. For a long time, the number of people attending churches has been declining in the Netherlands. There is also a declining number of people who identify as theists. At the same time, we see fairly stable numbers of believers of other religions and also atheism and agnosticism remains roughly the same. This means that the people who left the churches and do not identify with the traditional beliefs and also don’t identify as atheist (in me there is no belief in gods) and agnostic (knowledge of god is unknown or unknowable) have to belief something else. And with that ietsism was born. These people belief in something, this something being a higher power or a future destination/afterlife. Yet this something is not further defined. . . I would say that ietsism is on one side the belief of those who stopped identifying with traditional religions and stopped seeking for further explanation and on the other side the inability to create meaningful questions to polls and interviews about the beliefs of people. With that iets/something will become the option to answer even though the actual belief of these people might be far more complex than appears.” The telling phrase to me was that ietsism is talking about people who stopped identifying with traditional religions. I see that as saying the messages and teachings they were receiving from our churches no longer resonated with their experiences and beliefs. Could it be that instead of the message from Jesus Christ’s ministry of love for all of God’s children, they had experienced exclusion, guilt, and anger? As the Mission Insight survey showed, there are “towers” of unchurched people surrounding our churches. These may be physical towers of apartments or simply neighborhoods of people who have other things to do than attend church. Many of those folks would identify with the concept of ietsism – they believe there is something more, but they just don’t “buy” this Christianity thing they were taught. They may have been excluded or told they were not welcome. They may or may not been exposed to studying any religion when they were younger. But they end up with the feeling that God is only the entity of Exodus 34:7, and not the Lord of Exodus 34:6. How do we seize the megaphone back? How to explain the love of God manifested in Christ Jesus is for all people and it feels good to do good. Our challenge is to challenge their beliefs of what our beliefs truly are. We must, by whatever means, show them that their “something” is none other than the Triune God ¾ the Holy Spirit that ministers to us, carries us; Jesus the Son who heals us, loves all of us, and teaches us to love; and God the creator and protector. So, what means will work? Do we take to the streets with bullhorns? Do we set up revival tents and offer up potluck dinners? Do we ask them to join us in our ministries to the poor, homeless, and transient? Are we prepared to welcome all the Children of God into our midst every Sunday? May you and your ministries be blessed by the Almighty God. Blessings, John
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Ruling Elder John Rogers
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