Are you weary and discouraged by the stories and posts bemoaning the big-C universal Church’s failures and irrelevancy? Me too. It feels like the kinds of stories that make it into my feeds and headlines are about the big-C universal Church’s failures and irrelevancy. It leaves me feeling discouraged and disheartened, wondering what’s the point.
Yet deep down I know those headlines are not the whole story. There is much in the Church that is beautiful and worth celebrating even amid its headaches and hurts and dysfunction. There is a reason church-goers show up to worship and make time in their busy schedules for church meetings, musical rehearsals, and Bible studies. The reason is often hard to pinpoint, but it has everything to do with the mystical presence of God in our midst.
Over the past several months I’ve been working on a new project called Still a Beautiful Church on Substack, where I’ll share monthly stories from my own ministry that name what makes the Church worth it. (Read this intro to get the backstory and catch my nod to Ehrman’s Desiderata.)
To get my monthly “Hope Letter” emailed to your inbox, please subscribe here. It will be delivered to you on the last Wednesday of each month. These Hope Letters will be separate from the posts I share via this website, where I mostly write about devotional thoughts or theological reflections on parenting. These Hope Letters will be different – in them I’ll offer a hopeful theology of Church and celebrate the quietly sacred Church moments that rarely make the news. Yes, the U.S. Church is declining, and yes the Church is changing, but God is still here and God is shaping us into something new, something beautifully essential for our changing world.
I hope you’ll join me and help me create a community of stories that celebrate the beautiful, life-giving ways God is working in our midst.
“With all its scandals, failures, and political schemes, it’s still a beautiful Church. Be hopeful. God is still here.” @RevLauraJohnson
#stillabeautifulchurch
Rev. Laura Johnson 