Dying and Rising

Here are transformations that are not only possible but are also likely. They fit the “dying and rising” metaphor that belongs to the church:
• Dying to hopelessness and defeatism, and rising to fresh new life.
• Dying to worrying about or obsessing over numbers, and rising to passion for authenticity.
• Dying to self-absorption, consumer thinking, and the desire to have one’s needs met, and rising to passion to reach others with Christ and to attend to the poor, powerless, and disenfranchised with the compassion of Christ that has no boundaries or limits.
• Dying to worship wars, and rising to new openness for worship that embraces all.
• Dying to saying, “We can’t,” and rising to asking, “Why not?”
• Dying to fear of conflict, and rising to welcome conflict as healthy and needful to keep clarifying that the main thing must remain the main thing.
• Dying to fiscal fears and an ethic of scarcity, and rising to lavish generosity and an ethic of abundance.
• Dying to clergy-driven ministry, and rising to ministry owned by all.
• Dying to programs, and rising to witness.
• Dying to negative energy and bashing the church, bishops and judicatory executives, and the seminaries, and rising to an awareness of being advance scouts for an emerging new church.
• Dying to a sense that the church is necrotic, and rising to a new day of optimism and vitality.
• Dying to deals, causes, and spiritual self-help, and rising to a childlike passionate love for Jesus Christ and his church.
--Rick Barger, A New and Right Spirit