Cottage Grove church should heed Luke 15:4

Sometimes a news report is "stranger than fiction." Sometimes you almost have to be suspicious that a certain item might be parody.
So, we all know church membership is aging and there is existential concern among churches. Maybe there are legitimate reasons why so much of the young i.e. "millennial" population does not feel the love. Let's apply an inquisitive eye toward the younger crowd, get into their head. Maybe they'll tell you some things you don't want to hear. Topping that list, I'll suggest, is the political tone surrounding so much of USA Christianity. It's a tone from the political right wing.
Listening to young people might mean having to take a fresh look at political ideas that are not right wing. Young people believe in over-arching inclusion. Their attitude ought to be seen as wholly consistent with Christianity. In fact, it should be the clarion call keeping Christianity relevant. We saw a shot fired across the bow of the right wing crowd by the "Christianity Today" publication. It should not have been a big deal. It was wholly reasoned opinion. The fact it was treated as a "bombshell" says something.
Why should we be surprised by such an essay? Perhaps the media get excited because they really think the right wing, Trump-oriented stuff is embedded in USA Christianity, when in fact it might just be the loudest element. We hear of polls saying that a large percentage of the USA population wants the president not only impeached, but removed from office. This fact is reported but it doesn't seem to sink in with much of the media whose denizens are maybe gleeful that they have so much conflict to report about.
You would think that the skeptics re. Trump are on the outside looking in, asserting themselves in vain and in a defensive posture. "What's the use?" Well, it certainly doesn't help that the president and his associates including the attorney general are not having to defer to the law.
So, young people see all this and they associate high-profile Christianity with ideas which in their mind are clearly regressive. Why should they go to church?
I have tried hard keeping the faith as my late mother would want me to. I guess I'm like the Jimmy Stewart character in "Shenandoah," basically a crotchety guy who pledged to his wife before her death that he'd be loyal to church. He rounded up the family on Sundays and arrived late, opening the door on the rear end of an usher on one amusing occasion. He kept his word and once inside, tried to have his heart in it.
So up until now, yours truly has likewise tried to stay supportive. This afternoon, however, I have received an email from a friend with a link to a highly disturbing article from the Willmar newspaper. I scanned the first part of the article and almost had to wonder if it was a parody type of thing, really. I was astonished. It is well-known that churches are getting older and grayer. As churches strive for a broader age spectrum, what exactly is the answer? In Cottage Grove MN we are seeing bizarre behavior regarding this.
Warning: reading about this might make you want to reject church forever. I'm of a mind that way. I'm not even conscious of how I should be perceived age-wise. I'm a boomer and we never consider ourselves "old." But hey, I went on Medicare on the first day of this month and my birthday is on the 28th, same date as when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up. As a full-fledged Medicare person I could well be designated "old."
So the question arises: Am I part of the problem? Would more young people and those coveted "young families" come to church if the older people would just mosey on, disappear? That sounds so absurd, it's hard to even weigh seriously. But this is what's happening as a small Methodist church in Cottage Grove strives to stay in existence.
If you're going to ban anyone, why not ban all the Trump supporters? But at Grove United Methodist Church, Cottage Grove, "united" is just a word. It's a slogan like how advertisers use slogans. We're united but not united enough to welcome "old people." At least not for a while. It's so disgusting, I'm discouraged having to write about it.
The church with its dwindling and gray-haired membership plans to close temporarily in June. Then it plans to reopen in November. I'll have to quote the paper article because it's hard for me to type these words otherwise: "The church wants to attract more young families. The present members, most of them over 60 years old, will be invited to worship somewhere else. A memo recommends that they stay away for two years, then consult the pastor about re-applying."
 
Not from The Onion
I was going to type "chutzpah" but that's too mild a word. What I'd really like to say is "f--k you Grove United Methodist Church in Cottage Grove."
The Rev. Dan Wetterstrom points out that Cottage Grove is "under-served by churches." He explained that the benchmark is one church for every 1000 residents, so 37,000-population Cottage Grove might be expected to "have 37 churches. In fact, it has only 13." Such a cold and sterile analysis by someone who might be weighing demographics for a TV ad campaign.
Do you think Jesus Christ would want any part of this? It's bad enough that Christianity is the reason why we have the foul-mouthed and ignorant Donald Trump as president.
If Cottage Grove has seemed lax about "faith," I'd be inclined to compliment them, to cite them as a progressive example.
Rev. Wetterstrom said "Jesus said we are called to reach new people."
So, it's up to me of all people to straighten out his thinking? Sheesh. Maybe people who make their living in religion can't see the forest for the trees. The truth, Rev. Wetterstrom, is this: Let's look to Luke 15:4 which posits: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home."
 
I'm sure Cottage Grove is a fundamentally welcoming place. The mayor should put out a statement.
 
Addendum: It is hard to put this issue aside. Maybe there's a broader cultural phenomenon involved here. You might say it's about objectifying everything. We don't just admire a baseball player for his beautiful swing, we use "analytics." It's an outgrowth of marketing in our Darwinian business world. The stock market swoops up, never mind that much of this is deceiving as a reflection of what the Federal Reserve does. We think we can study our "markets" and scientifically devise solutions or strategies for maximizing quantifiable results. Jesus Christ was not interested in "quantifying" things this way. He promoted unconditional love.
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com