10. Contrary Faith

Occasionally, I run into a congregation that is a bit contrary. Sometimes it is a church that thinks the pastor should work as a volunteer. Or it may be a group of people whose mission is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but a desire to keep the building open. You may find it hard to believe, but there are even a few controlling individuals who have found they can wield power by running a congregation, and they almost always attend meetings the superintendent.

I have to admit that there were also times when serving as pastor of congregations that I was confronted by a person who was a bit hard to get along with. He or she was not usually the best giver in the congregation, or the most compassionate, or even the most fervent in prayer. Nonetheless, the person often felt a need to tell me how to do my work, as well as the need to offer similar advice to everyone else.

On those occasions, I have comforted myself by saying that the Church is just much harder to lead than it was in earlier times. Surely, it must have been great fun to be one of the early disciples when the Church was adding thousands to the rolls every day.

Whenever, I begin feeling that way, I just take a little time to re-read The Acts of the Apostles. The great Apostle Paul began his career by participating in the stoning of Stephen. It turns out that Stephen, the saint and not this blogger, was stoned because he remained true to the faith. Even while being killed, he prayed that those who stoned him would be forgiven. I guess you could say that he was serving one of those contrary congregations!

Then Paul saw the light and began carrying the Gospel message around the world. He had a wonderful opportunity to meet people from many walks of life. His witness brought many people to the faith. There is no other person who did more to spread the Word, tell the story, and encourage the growth of the Church than Paul. Sounds like a romantic and exhilarating life.

Well, it depends on how you look at it. Paul was imprisoned, hauled into court, and threatened with death—and those were some of the good days. He was also beaten, dragged out of town, and badgered by people who made up stories about him just to get him in trouble. In some cases, the people ran him out of town, then when they heard he was in a neighboring community, they went to that town to pick on him there.

While reading his story recently, I started wondering what kept him going. One would think that you don’t have to be left for dead on the side of the road too many times before you start considering retirement. In spite of the good days when people came to faith, there must have been times when Paul woke up with anger about what he had endured the previous day. Surely, his prayers occasionally voiced a desire to let someone else do it. Paul didn’t have a pension program to worry about, neither did he have reason to mark off the days until Social Security kicked in. Paul, in fact, didn’t have a career to sustain, or a job to keep. He could very easily have just stopped preaching and gone back to making tents.

So, why did Paul stay on the road? Why did he hightail it out of one town to save his life, and then calmly walk into the next filled with confidence and conviction? Why did he wake up every morning and go back to the same job? I don’t think it was because it was deeply satisfying, nor was it because of other great rewards. Rather, I think it was because it was the only thing he could do and be true to what he believed.

He didn’t tell the story to make people happy; he told the story because it was the Truth. He didn’t live the missionary life because of the retirement program—at least not the one in this life. Instead, he traveled the world because to not do so would have been a betrayal of his calling.

Similarly, pastors today don’t preach because they love being in front of people; they do so because God keeps pushing them out front. They don’t comfort people in hospital rooms or confront people in church council meetings because of a desire to either be compassionate or prophetic; they do so because it is the only thing they can do in that moment.

We serve a risen savior who is in the world today. In good days and in bad, in sunshine and in rain, we follow where he leads. Where else could we go?

9. The Mission Field

Two of our Pony Express pastors, Terry Cook and Jenn Klein, participated in a panel discussion during this year’s session of annual conference. Both were invited to the panel because they have shown tendencies to be willing to share their faith with the people who are “somewhere out there.” While the entire panel was excellent, I took a little extra pride in listening to Terry and Jenn.

Interestingly, both of them seem to intuitively understand and assume something that I have just learned in the past few months. In fact, I have been trying to figure out how to articulate and communicate this new insight around the district in a way that would make sense to people. It turns out that I only need to take Terry and Jenn on the circuit with me to do the interpreting.

During the panel discussion, Terry commented that he is not just the pastor of the Hammer Memorial and Star Chapel congregations, but he is pastor to the King City community. It was clear that he sees the family living in the farmhouse down the road, or the man walking down the street are his parishioners as much as are those who sit in the pews come Sunday morning. Other panel members agreed, then asked lay persons who were present to encourage their congregations to intentionally give their pastors permission to focus their energies on those who are outside the walls of the church.

Later in the weekend, Bishop Schnase commented that the Cabinet has begun asking similar questions when making appointments. Rather than just asking whether a specific person is a good fit for church members in a potential appointment, we now ask whether the pastor is a good fit for the mission field that surrounds that church. It is in some ways a small and subtle shift, but it is a significant one that can have major implications in how pastors spend their time, and in how they understand their ministry.

Throughout my career of serving local congregations, I have always planned the worship service with an eye toward those who already attended the church. The Bible studies I led were designed for church members I invited through the church newsletter. I could just as easily have invited neighbors or held the studies in the homes of church members who had invited their neighbors.

It occurs to me now that I have always assumed that those who pay the bills (Put money in the offering plate) are my customers; yet, the Gospel teaches us that those who give gifts are trying to be extravagantly generous. They are giving out of gratitude rather than expecting something in return. Donors should not be expecting to also be the benefactors. If that happens, it just becomes a circular activity of give and take it back, give and take it back.

So, the better way to think of our ministry process is that church members give gifts so that their church can reach into the world and offer the love of Christ. Our gifts pay the pastor so that she or he can pass the love of Christ along. Our gifts build buildings for the ministry of Christ’s love to be offered to others. Our gifts are passed along to be joined with the gifts of others to do a larger ministry than we can do by ourselves.

There is a kicker to this. On Monday morning during the session of annual conference, Bishop Schnase asked a question for each of us to answer. He asked, “If everyone in the congregation—the pastor, secretary, Trustees chair, Sunday School teacher, person in the pew next to us, etc.—acted just like me, would the church be growing or shrinking?” In other words, do I bring others to Christ? Do I invite others to participate in the ministries of the church? Do I tell my faith story at work, or in my neighborhood, so that others desire to know Christ?

As it turns out, it isn’t just the pastor who is appointed to the mission field. It is also you and me. As the bishop suggested, it is time for us to get a “go out” attitude and let go of our “come to” attitude. Come to think of it, Jesus said it first. “Go into all the world,” he said, “and preach my Gospel to every nation.”