Our church was caught up in our culture's growing nativism. As a result, it seems US Disciples could get our heads around sending missionaries to the frontiers of other lands, but we had difficulty seeing the new and emerging frontiers in our own backyard. We lost the urgency of a clear mission. What we need is a renewed mission clarity, and the will to step out in faith. These suburban homesteads are, in essence, frontier settlements, filled with sojourners needing a faith foundation.
Younger generations are another huge and largely unexplored frontier.
As a generation, the young baffle, intrigue, even repulse some church folk. They remind us of ourselves, yet seem so alien at the same time. We are at a loss as to why the young don't want the church we are handing them. Maybe it's because their Boomer generation parents were the same way. Boomers strive to shape anew the church's relevancy, yet they have not fully taken over leadership from their parent's and grand parent's generations.