Mission

More processing…

/ The Pastor / 20 Comments

O.K….I am back, writing about “the vote” at the ELCA CWA, but all I want to do here is share with you a couple snippets and let you process/respond to them.

FIRST — a woman came into my office last week to express her feelings about where the ELCA is going.  We had a very fruitful discussion, even though we have differing views.  She stopped in again today and handed me a piece of paper with 2 Cor. 6:14 – 7:1 written on it.  She said that this is where she is coming from.  She was on her way to another appointment so we couldn’t talk about it.  What do you think about this scripture in relation to the homosexuality discussion?

SECOND — I received this link on Facebook today.  It is a news release from the ELCA titled “The Church’s mission is bigger than one issue”.  I found this helpful.  What do you think?

Like most other people I am still processing.

Praise be to God!

-edh-

ELCA cwa09 and Twitter

/ The Pastor / 15 Comments

The ELCA Church wide assembly is underway.  Day one is in the books and Day 2 is up and going.  Yesterday was debate about parliamentary procedures.  One of the big items was the passage of the rule to only require a simple majority for passage of ministry recommendations concerning homosexuality.  I did not listen to this debate via live streaming through the ELCA website but entered the discussion afterward on Twitter.  It is really fun to see the number of people Tweeting the assembly via Twitter.  But if you are doing that make sure you are getting accurate information.  Go to the the ELCA website for updates or follow “pglutherans” on Twitter.  She is posting Tweets of news stories and other information about assembly action; a reliable source of information (pglutherans is reliable, maybe not so much the mainline media).  You can also follow the ELCA on Twitter for up-to-date information as well.

Last night, as I was following various people on Twitter about CWA news, I got into a discussion with a fellow Tweeter about what was going on.  Obviously we hold different views about homosexuality.  One of my Tweets indicated that I hope and pray that the delegates are not just following societal trends.  By the time we were finished with our discussion/debate I was accused of being “uncharitable towards those who disagree with me”.  At that Tweet I stopped the discussion…not because I didn’t have a response, but rather I wanted to process that discussion we were having and respond later.

Well…later is here…

“Uncharitable”?  Without giving you the full text of the conversation I want to respond.  And in all fairness to my colleague (who I follow on Twitter and on her blog…and whom I respect) I am not going to take shots or anything like that but rather respond in a general sort of way.  Our discussion/debate last night is between the two of us and anyone else following us on Twitter.

“Uncharitable” — I have heard similar terms such as that when connected to the debate about homosexuality.  The other terms I have heard are: “Unwelcoming”, “Intolerant”, “Unloving” and even “Homophobic”.  I am not suggesting that my colleague was eluding to any of those terms, but rather I have heard all of them in the same debate.  Am I “uncharitable”…NO.  Am I passionate about what I believe…YES.  For the record:  I believe in the traditional view of marriage between ONE man and ONE woman. But…if a gay couple walks through the doors of the church I am serving will I welcome them…ABSOLUTELY…and I hope and (frankly) expect everyone else to as well.  Will that gay couple be welcomed as members of the congregation…YES.  I will preach the Gospel to them; pray for them and serve with them…just like everyone else.  I just can’t support their lifestyle.  If a gay pastor comes to serve a congregation in Jackson what will my response be…I will work with my colleague and that congregation in an ecumenical way as I always have.

I may sound “uncharitable” to those who disagree with me but maybe that is because our view of scripture is so different.  Maybe it is because we are at a point where debate about homosexuality is not going to change the view of people who are already entrenched in their view.  Maybe I sound “uncharitable” because saying that you disagree with the homosexual life style proponents generally hear that you have “closed your doors”.

I am not “uncharitable”…I am just passionate about my beliefs and I hope the delegates remain faithful to their convictions and beliefs as well.  I hope and pray they do not get swayed by societal trends or media/societal pressure.  I hope and pray that the delegates remain and continue in prayer…and remember to listen.  I hope and pray that people are respectful.  And…no matter the out come of the vote this week…I hope and pray that the ELCA can get back on track and proclaim the Gospel, continue in mission and be evangelically focused.

There’s much work to be done, but nothing will happen through our own strength and understanding.  May God be praised and glorified in all we do.  And remember…be charitable to all people…regardless of beliefs.

Praise be to God!

-edh-

More reading — Missional Congregations

/ The Pastor / 9 Comments

I started reading a new book today (I often have a couple I am working on at the same time).  This book is called, “A Field Guide for the Missional Congregation” by Rick Rouse and Craig Van Gelder.  It is an Augsburg Fortress selection that was recommended to me.

I am just getting into this book but I wanted to share something with you that has already struck me and got me thinking.  Here’s a short excerpt:

The premise of this book is that becoming an effective witness to the gospel in today’s world — becoming a missional congregation — requires us to revision the way we ARE the church in order to more faithful DO church.  Consider the following shifts in an understanding of what the church is and does.

FROM:                               TO:
Maintenance                  Mission
Membership                   Discipleship
Pastor-centered           Lay-empowered
Chaplaincy (Self)         Hospitality (Others)
Focus on ourselves     Focus on the world
Settled                              Sent

That above list got me thinking about my own setting and context.  Are we a missional congregation or are we satisfied with the status quo?  Are we inward focused or outward focused?  Or consider this question:  If this congregation ceased to exist, would the community miss us?

More from this book later.

-edh-

Church success

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

The following is a “tweet” on my Twitter account that I received yesterday (Tuesday).  It’s by John Piper and goes as follows:  “The success of a church should not be judged by its seating capacity but by it sending capacity.”

BRILLIANT!

Church membership doesn’t really say much about a congregation except how many people call that congregation their church home.  Worship attendance starts to get at the core issue but doesn’t tell the whole story.  Sending capacity (however one can measure that) tells us that people are being fed and sent to advance the mission of Christ to the glory of God.

A church that measures its success by seating capacity is inward focused.   A church that measures its success by its sending capacity is Christ (outward) focused.

-edh-

God is awesome!

/ The Pastor

I really want to share with you some details about an encounter with a gentleman (Q) last night, but I can’t because of confidentiality.  But I do want to say that God is awesome and works in wonderful and powerful ways.  I also want to say that I am thankful for the priesthood of all believers because without faithful people living out their faith, this gentleman would not have received the care that he desperately needed…not just last night but for the last couple months.

I want to give a big shout of thanks out to these two parishioners but I won’t.  Rather I will give and big shout of thanks and praise out to God for working through these two people to share the Gospel with Q.  I want to say that it was pure chance and dumb luck that they found me last night so I could talk to Q (I was out for a run and hence away from my home and phone).  But I won’t say that…rather I will say that God is awesome and works in wonderful and powerful ways.

I don’t know what is in store for Q but I can rest assured that he will be cared for and love for the rest of his life.

Praise be to God!

-edh-

God’s grace revisited

/ The Pastor

As I mentioned on Monday, I am working through the book of Acts this month, following the First Lesson for each Sunday.  Last week I preached on Acts 8 – Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.  This Sunday the text is from Acts 10 – Peter and Cornelius.  Both texts deal with the grace of God coming in “usual” circumstances and coming to people that the new church did not expect.

In Acts 10, Cornelius is a Roman centurion who was considered a “God-fearer”.  He did total subscribe to the Jewish faith but was still seeking for God.  Cornelius was generous to the poor and was an example to his family.  It seems that he was on the verge of something but just couldn’t put his finger on it.  Cornelius needed a witness and Peter was it.  So Peter and Cornelius have “visits” from the Spirit and the two eventually meet.  While Peter was proclaiming the Gospel to Cornelius and his family, the Spirit came upon Cornelius’ group and they began speaking in tongues.  Peter and all who were with him were amazed that the Holy Spirit was poured upon Gentiles…of all people.  This was a significant turning point in Acts where the new church realized that Gentiles were also included in the mission of Christ.

After Peter witnesses this amazing event he asks a similar question the Ethiopian Eunuch asked in Acts 8, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water?” Or rephrased, “Can anyone keep these people from receiving the grace of God?” Obviously the answer is NO since the Spirit came upon those Gentiles and there wasn’t anything anyone could do to stop it.  The grace of God is for ALL people.

Who around us do we consider “Gentiles”?

Who in our communities do we consider “outside” the church?

Is there anyone we know (or group of people) that we consider unworthy of attention?

Who’s not worth the effort?

In Acts 8 and Acts 10 we see that the mission of Christ does not stop at the “boundaries” of the church building or at the group of people who call themselves the church.  The grace of God extends across boundaries and shatters our expectations.  In Acts 1:8 Jesus says “…and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.”

Who are the “Corneliuses” out there that need a witness?

Who is the Spirit leading you to?

Listen and pay attention.  Someone out there needs a witness.

-edh-

The grace of God

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

I have been slow to update anything here and for that I apologize.   I guess vacation really threw me off my blogging routine.  Let’s see what we can do to change my past habits.

In any case (enough with the excuses)…I am preaching my way through the Acts texts this month.  After Easter the first lesson is from the books of Acts so I thought I would spend some time here with my congregations.  So far it has been a fun journey.  Yesterday (May 10) the text was from Act 8; Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.  After Philip spends some time sharing the Gospel, the Eunuch sees some water and asks “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

What a great question…

…but I phrased the question like this yesterday, “What is to prevent me from receiving the grace of God?“ Ultimately…I believe this is what the Eunuch was really asking.  So I turned the question and threw it back at the congregation and asked them: is there anything that can prevent us from receiving the grace of God? Can sin do it?  Can our dark past or embarrassing secrets do it?  Can hardship?  Well…the (very) short answer is…NO!  Nothing can prevent us from receiving the grace of God.  We may be able to turn our backs on God, but God is not going to stop giving us His grace.

The Ethiopian Eunuch is so overjoyed and blown away by this amazing grace that he returns home praising God.  How could he possibly keep this to himself?  This was indeed amazing grace.  But…is it really amazing grace for us…right now?

I believe the problem with the church today is that we have taken grace for granted.  We are so used to hearing about grace.  We are comforted by songs like “Amazing Grace how Sweet the Sound”.  We discuss grace as a good Bible study topic.  But how often do we really contemplate God’s grace…for us…right now.  I mean think about it…each breath we take is an example of God’s grace.  Each time we wake up in the morning we experience God’s grace.  The birth of a brand new baby is an experience of God’s grace.  And…coming up to the table to receive the body and blood of Jesus is an experience of grace.  But yet we take this for granted.  We should be going through our days overjoyed with what God has done for us.

Nothing can prevent us from receiving the grace of God.  Period.  Don’t take it for granted, rather, praise God always and forever…so much so that people think that you are on something.

God’s grace is indeed amazing…what a sweet, sweet sound.

Amen!

-edh-

P.S.  Next Sunday (May 17) is Acts 10…Peter and Cornelius.  I will have some thoughts on this text coming up later.

Amos and injustice

/ The Pastor / 5 Comments

Today I am making the “bold move” and not preaching on the Gospel text.  Rather I am preaching on Amos.  I don’t think I have ever done that before, but I am looking forward to it.  I think the reason Amos caught my attention this week was the fact that we served at The Banquet (I’ll write more about this experience later) a couple days ago and then I read Amos talking about injustice.  2 + 2 were put together and the answer came back…preach on Amos.  So that is what I am doing.

One of the questions I hear being asked is:  What does God want? The answer comes in verse 24 of Amos 5 where God says through Amos, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”  I think we miss way too many injustices that go on around us.  We get so focused on doing what we think is so supremely important that we can’t see those who truly need to experience God’s love through us.  We try to let ourselves off the hook by falling for Satan’s excuse that injustices only happen in poor countries thousands of miles away and that there is nothing we can do about it.  Well…that’s not true.  We can do something about it AND injustices don’t just happen across the sea…they happen in our own backyard.  It’s funny…we can see injustices in Africa and Central America, but we can’t see them in our own communities.

I think we need to read Amos more often and listen to this prophet speak to us right now…here in this place so we can “…let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

Have a very blessed day with our eyes wide open.  Amen

-edh-

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 3

/ The Pastor

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 1

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 2 

I have appreciated the discussion that has taken place around this “new” model for my church council and I want to highlight comments/suggestions that were submitted.  If you have any thoughts about encouraging a church council to be more mission minded please submit them.

Scripture
One thing that I suggested is that after the assigned council person for the month lead devotions, that I would lead the council in reading scripture; maybe the texts assigned for the upcoming Sunday.  Then Carolyn stopped by and suggested that after the first month of doing this I should encourage a pair of council people to lead the reading of scripture instead of the pastor doing it every month.  Scripture is something that all people are encouraged to engage and is something that anyone can read.  Carolyn is right.  Even though I did not intend to communicate that the pastor has be the one to read scripture the unwritten message was just that.  We are indeed the “priesthood of ALL believers”.

Prayer
Unlikely left a comment where he suggested starting the council meeting asking people what they are praying for.  At first people were a little hesitant, but after a few years Unlikely is filling up an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper.  I believe this is also a great way to connect people with one another.  When you know what/who someone else is praying for, you get a glimpse of that person’s heart.  It also makes the assumption that everyone is praying (and as Christians we should be).
 
Then Eric left a comment just recently about prayer and scripture.  He said, “Can you imagine the apostles of the early church getting together to make decisions without prayer and Scripture?”  That seems unheard of, yet we need to make an effort to include prayer and scripture more when we meet as a church council.  I have found that many people are just not comfortable praying in front of others, yet they are comfortable talking to their best friend.  I/We need to help people understand that prayer is not something that has to be done a certain way but rather it’s simply talking to your best friend.  Maybe this could be a devotional topic/discussion for an upcoming council meeting.  Maybe Unlikely’s suggestion about prayer will help here.

Thank you for the comments that have come thus far.  They have definitely given me (and hopefully you) something to think about.  If you have anything else you would like to contribute to this discussion please leave a comment.  This series will be continued…

God bless!

-edh-

Ministry model vs. Business model — Part 2

/ The Pastor / 6 Comments

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 1

…I’m alright.  My mom called me this morning thinking something was wrong.  I did not post my usual “Sunday morning prayer” yesterday and had not posted my usual “Monday morning check in” yet today.  Sorry mom (and little sis)…I didn’t mean to worry you two.

Anyway…I am here.  Yesterday morning got a little busy and this morning has been the same.  It is hard to believe that September is right around the corner so that means Sunday school, Release Time and Confirmation is upon us.  Wow…where did the summer go?

Council meeting update
Last week I resumed talking about the business meeting model vs. ministry meeting model for my church council (See the above link for part one of this series).  In July we did some brainstorming on how we can better advance the mission of Christ.  I was very excited and encouraged about the outcome of that meeting.  I then mailed out some “homework” for the council; encouraging them to continue this ministry planning.  My hope was to discuss what they did at out August.  Unfortunately we did not get to do what I wanted to do.  It didn’t work out to start the meeting with mission planning and by the time we got to that agenda item it was getting late and people were getting restless.  I need to sit down with my president and make sure we are on the same page here.

Then today I got an email from a council member on how we need to spend more time in scripture and prayer at council meetings.  She felt we need to start our meetings reading the Bible together and praying more.  She must have been reading my mind these past few weeks and months.

So here is part of my plan to transform the Salem church council into a ministry meeting model over a business meeting model. Let me know what you think:
(1) On a piece of poster board that is hung in our meeting room, I have a list of our ministry priorities that we feel will advance the mission of Christ (this is our brainstorm list from July).  This will serve as a reminder each and every month why we really are taking time out of our busy schedules each month.

(2) The assigned council member for the month will lead the group in devotions as always.

(3)I will then lead the group in reading scripture.  Maybe the focus texts will be the lectionary texts for the upcoming Sunday.  Discussion and prayer would follow.

(4) Begin the “business” meeting portion of the ministry meeting.  This way, if the meeting starts running long, whats really important will not get the shaft.

So one of my priority do-to items this month is to sit down with my council president and share with him this plan and make sure he is on board.

What are your thoughts on this plan so far?  What would you add or do differently?

Series to be continued…

Take care and God bless!

-edh-