In our media and popular culture there has been a heightened interest these days in a once largely ignored population. Suddenly movies, books, video games and television shows are popping up left and right all with this one “people” group at the forefront. 

I’m talking about Zombies, of course. 

Shows like “The Walking Dead”, video games like “Dead Rising”, movies like “Zombieland”, and books like “Pride, Prejudice and Zombies” have all seen widespread success in the past few years. We are utterly fascinated with the idea of creatures existing in an undead state terrorizing the townspeople as they try and feed their appetite for human brains. With all this in mind I think it is high time that the church jumped on the Zombie bandwagon! 

The thing is, if we are really honest with ourselves, I think the church has been on the Zombie bandwagon a lot longer than we’d like to admit. Let me explain.

In my years as a pastor, I’ve loved to ask people, both inside and outside of the Church a simple question: “What is your hope for the future of the Church?” 

Sometimes people will offer some tangible ideas: “I want to see a better Sunday School program,” or “I want our congregation to be more mission-minded,” or “I want our church to have more members and more young families.” These are all admirable hopes, but in a way, all of these hopes are elements of the broader statement that I hear most often. When I ask different people what they hope for in the future of the church nearly every time people will eventually say, “I just want to the church to go back to the way it used to be.” It might not seem like there’s anything wrong with a statement like that, but the problem with longing for the past to return is that God has never worked like that.

We believe that God is continually making all things new. We believe that God is a God of Resurrection not a God of reanimation. When Jesus was raised from the dead, he wasn’t a zombie! The disciples didn’t recognize him; he was alive again but somehow different. Something new was beginning in the Resurrected Christ. 

The problem is that when we long for the future church to look exactly like the church of the past, we’re hoping for a Zombie Church. We’re hoping for that which is dead to be reanimated into a world that is vastly different than it was 50 years ago. The Good News is that God is a God of resurrection and the future is filled with hope because God is breathing new life into the church, and into this world. 

Peace,

Pastor Nate