Part 2. I believe that through all of Van Gelder's issues, the center of the NA church is its people. In every issue he talks about how "we" need to do something or change something or look at something in order to bring the Gospel to the culture and the people living in it. I feel that this is right on and that we as a church truly do need to readjust our way of thinking and how we present the Gospel so as to increase God's numbers. However, humans by nature tend to not want to change. We are creates of habit and don't like to have to change things, especially how we think or act towards people. Therefore, the boundaries are then the world or the limits of the culture that your church is in. If you are part of a Hispanic church, your cultural lines will run differently than the cultural lines for a Catholic church. Not to mention that at times the cultural lines can and will cross. When this happens it tends to intensify the resistance to change and the uneasy feeling we feel.
An example is my church. During the past year or so, a fellow church found out they had water problems that essential closed them down due to safety concerns with the foundation. In brotherly love we offered for them to use our building. They gladly accepted. Several months after that our pastor, in an effort to connect the two churches set up a joint service with them. The church was excited and attendance was very good that day. What I have not told you is the fact that my church is primarily white and the church we extended a helping hand to was black. Obviously, a case for the cultural lines crossing. For the most part the service went well, however, as the other churches choir got up to sing that is when you could feel people from my congregation get uneasy and nervous. I mean they didn't sing like we did. They actually moved and showed emotion while praising God. What would they do next raise their hands? Sure enough. I want to say that I was laying on the sarcasm very heavy just then and am ashamed and upset by the way people from my congregation reacted, in that some actually walked out of the service.
I am a child of the 80's and love the music from that generation and love to quote songs from there. Having said that, Depeche Mode had a song in the 80's titled "People Are People". In it they ask the question of why do people "get along so awfully?". I agree. Why do we have to judge? Why do we have to treat others differently? If we are truly following Jesus as the perfect example then maybe we need to relook at the story of the Samaritan woman at the well.
In conclusion I feel that the mission of the Church is Matt 28:19-20. Go. Make. Baptize. Teach. The mission of the NA church is to figure out how to reconnect to the culture and society that we live in and bring the Gospel to those of us we interact with on a daily basis, from the clerk that rings us out at the grocery store to our neighbor. Jesus said, "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." (John 4:35) "Amber waves of grain" (America the Beautiful, Bates). Its all here all we have to do is open our eyes, open our ears, open our hearts and open our minds.