...After the Burning Bush

Are we surviving? Even better!

2011-06-28T14:36:00.001-07:00

We have just completed year number one of the bi-district experiment. I have frequently been greeted in recent days by people wanting to know how it is going. Most often the questions begin with "are you surviving it?" While the supportive nature of the question is valuable, I think it heads us off in the wrong direction. It is, after all, not about me.

I suspect the better question is "are the congregations and pastors surviving it?" Better yet, we might ask whether it is leading to stronger relationships among congregations and pastors as they seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

To get some feedback about that, we handed out a survey during the just-ended session of annual conference. We asked whether people felt a stronger relationship with other congregations than one year ago, whether they felt more connected to their superintendent than one year ago, and whether they were more confident that these two districts could be served by one superintendent than they were a year ago. Sixty-three clergy, 70 lay persons, and 2 who didn't report which they were, responded to the survey (57 respondents were from Pony Express and 78 were from Heartland North).

When asked whether they felt more connected with other congregations, the majority (77) of the 135 respondents said they felt about the same as a year ago. However, 51 felt more connected while only 4 felt less connected. All four who felt less connected were clergy.

When asked whether they felt more connected to their superintendent, 66 were neutral, 53 felt more connected and 15 felt less connected. Most of those who felt less connected to their superintendent (12 of the 15) were in the Pony Express District. Still, even in the Pony Express District there were more (19) who felt a stronger connection with their superintendent than there were those who felt less.

When asked whether they had more confidence that the experiment would be successful, the majority (72) said they had gained confidence. Forty-one were neutral, and only 17 were less confident. The most positive change occurred in the Heartland North District where 49 were more confident as compared to 7 who were less confident.

What does all this mean? It suggests that the experiment was generally positive in its first year. We have reason to believe that we can continue to make progress, and there are signs that we still have progress to make.

You may remember that our primary goal was to begin experimenting with models that increase the sense of connection between and among congregations and pastors, and that we wanted to enhance the sense of collaboration across district congregations. Our hope is to make the superintendent less of the focal point in our sense of connectedness while focusing on how folks relate across congregations. There is at least one indicator in the survey of the significance of this goal. The greatest predictor among clergy who feel less connected and less confident in the process was that they are less likely to have participated in groups such as Pastoral Leadership Development (PLD), Preaching Peers, etc. It almost seems obvious, but those who take advantage of collaborating with other pastors also feel more connected to them and to the United Methodist connection. Similarly, lay persons who participated in Lay Leadership Development (LLD), Lay Speaker training, or served as congregational visitors in our Fresh Eyes Ministry, were also more likely to have a positive/neutral sense of being connected and confident in the process.

It may take a few years, but we may well prove what many have said: the strength of our connection is among us rather than in a hierarchical system. While we need an organization that includes superintendents to help us stay focused, the real fruit of our connection will occur when we recognize the need to strengthen and learn from our brothers and sisters just a few miles down the road from us. When we try to work in isolation, we eventually falter.

In the year to come, we will continue to seek ways to bring congregations and pastors into relationship with each other. However, the connection will not become real until it becomes part of the DNA of every pastor and every congregation. We will truly see success when it is no longer the superintendent who strategizes to find ways to get folks together. In that day, working together will be the norm rather than the exception. Collaboration will not be an option, but an expectation.

The survey may have taught us that people feel more connected to the system when they find ways to be connected with others in the system. Those who do not take advantage of connecting events are more likely to feel isolated, whether or not those events include the presence of the superintendent. Perhaps this is what Paul was describing when he talked about the Church as the Body of Christ. We were designed to require the gifts of one another.

So, I invite you to begin the process of continuously asking the following questions: What is our congregation trying to do alone that it might better accomplish with other congregations? Who could we be teaching, and from whom could we be learning? How would I/we be more effective if a peer from outside the congregation was observing, evaluating, and/or holding me/us accountable? What are the unique connections available that could help my/our ministry blossom?

In the long run, it will not matter whether we do the work as one district, two districts, or six districts. What will matter is whether we have pastors and congregations who sustain one another in the process of being healthy, vital, and fruitful. But, just for the record, the answer to the question as to whether I am surviving is: Yes, I am more than surviving because I am surrounded by a group of pastors and congregations who love God, love one another, and who are invested in transforming the world in which they live. What more could I ask?

They Laughed

2010-11-18T14:08:00.001-08:00

"They laughed at him. They knew she was dead." (Luke 8:53-The Message)

We were in the middle of a conversation about the difficulties of being the Church in today's society. I asked those who were gathered for this annual review of church life to discuss the barriers that stand in the way of effectively leading members to a deeper and richer relationship with Christ. As usual, their answers included lack of commitment, too many other priorities, too many things to do and too little time to do them, people whose lives are going so well that they don't feel they need God, and other similar ideas. I then invited them to think about what one spiritual practice (prayer and worship, fasting, study, participating in Holy Communion, generous giving, Christian service, etc.) would have the greatest power to transform their members if their congregation practiced it with great consistency and intentionality.

After some small group conversations, I asked who had chosen prayer. A few hands went up.

I asked who had chosen fasting. No hands…then laughter…then a few side comments about how ridiculous it would be for Methodists, lovers of the fellowship meal, to consider fasting.

Laughter? Have we truly become so undisciplined that the pursuit of a spiritual practice is laughable to us? It was as if I had asked a 300-pound person to run a marathon. I might as well have asked a 4 year-old to sit down at the piano and play one of the classics.

Now shift to the following story. In the last part of the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is called to the home of Jarius to tend to Jarius's dying daughter. The daughter reportedly dies before Jesus can get to the house, but he insists on seeing her anyway. Jesus allows only his three closest disciples and the daughter's parents to enter the home with him. That makes sense. They were the ones most likely to believe in his power. Once inside the house, he tells them not to worry because the girl is just sleeping. They laughed at him. It was obvious that she was dead.

We know how the story turns out. Jesus takes the girl by the hand and suddenly she is breathing, eating, and full of life.

This all leaves me to wonder whether many of us have concluded that the Church is like the little girl. She has already died, so how could we expect her to have the discipline required to be in relationship with Christ? After all, few of us are comfortable being called on to pray in a public setting. Most church members give at a rate that approximates 2% of their income rather than 10%. Only perhaps 1/3 of those who are Christian in our area say they think that attending worship is important in their life, and more than half are absent from worship on any given Sunday. Few are willing to teach others the faith because they willingly admit that they do not have a sufficient knowledge of the Scriptures. If not dead, it sure appears that the breathing is very shallow.

Imagine for a second that we have Jesus to our house because our little girl, the Church, is dying. Once in the house, he breathes new life into her, raises her up, and tells us to give her something to eat so that her new life might be sustained. What would be it take for us to give the Church the nourishment she needs to be restored to health? I suspect it goes back to the basic essentials. Learn to pray again. Study the Scriptures together. Worship as if our life depends on it. Celebrate the Eucharist as if we really believe we are receiving Christ into our daily lives. Rediscover how fulfilling it can be to be self-emptying through habits of generous giving. Fast in order to learn the discipline of obedience and the art of knowing the difference between our wants and needs. Feed the Church with our daily spiritual practices.

"Then, Jesus, gripping her hand, called, "My dear child, get up." She was up in an instant, up and breathing again! He told them to give her something to eat." (Luke 8: 54-55—The Message)

P.S. During the Charge Conference season, I used a series of questions for leaders to ask about their church. Several have asked for a copy of the questions. I am pasting them here for you to use as you wish.

If every congregation…

Invited people to faith the way your congregation invites people to faith, would there be more Christians 20 years from now or fewer?
Taught those who have accepted Christ to pray in the same way that your congregation teaches its members to pray, would prayer be a stronger component of church life 20 years from now, or less?
Taught those who have accepted Christ to know the Bible and history of the Church in the same way that your congregation teaches the Bible, would Christians be more knowledgeable in 20 years, or less knowledgeable?
Taught those who have accepted Christ to give generously in the same manner that your congregation teaches generous giving, would the giving habits of Christians come closer to the Tithe in 20 years, or further from it?
Encouraged service in the community (beyond the walls of the Church) in the same manner that your congregation encourages service, would Christians have a better reputation for serving others in 20 years, or would the reputation be of a closed community?
Worshipped with the same passion, earnest desire, and sense of expectation as your congregation, would more people be seeking to worship 20 years from now, or fewer?

Based on the answers you gave above, and on a scale of 1 through 10, how would you rate your congregation on its capacity for leading its members to a deeper and richer relationship with Jesus Christ?

The Make-Believe World of Reality TV

2010-10-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

When I first received a call inviting me to perform a wedding on NBC’s Today Show, I wasn’t quite sure whether I was dreaming. As it turns out, that vague feeling of living in two worlds at the same time continued until the wedding was over.
During my first conversation with an NBC producer, I was assured that they intended to air the entire wedding live. I commented that I had expected they would need to have a commercial break within the normal time frame of a wedding. That was when the producer told me the rest of the story. The wedding did have to fit within their parameters. “How long is that,” I asked. “Five minutes,” she said.
“Five minutes? It takes three minutes to walk down the aisle. How in the world can we do a wedding in five minutes?” Having said that, I was already thinking I had been optimistic about the time it takes to get down the aisle.
“Well, it is five minutes from the time you start talking to the end,” the producer told me. “I will send you a link of a wedding from two years ago, so you can see.”
We continued to negotiate the length for the next couple of weeks. Finally, I was able to get the length all the way back up to five minutes, after a brief reduction to four and a half minutes. In the meantime, I learned that the event was the major story of the Today Show for about 2.5 hours of airtime. The day would include a toast by the stars, conversation about the honeymoon between the stars and the couple, descriptions by the stars of the food, drinks, reception site, cake and almost everything else related to the event. I finally began to understand that even though this was being advertised as a wedding, the world’s view was that the wedding is more about the stars and the party than the ceremony. I suppose I have spent a little too much time living comfortably in my little theological world.
NBC was interested in creating a day of fantasy while I thought we were trying to enter into a life-changing moment for two people. NBC wanted to explore the idea that expensive rings, clothing, and parties can bring happiness, while I wanted to caution against such ideas. NBC understood this as a simple commitment between two people that required little more than an “I do.” I understood that it was a commitment between two people and God, along with the support of the faith community. That takes a bit more time. The couple, fortunately, was in agreement with me, but over a month of percolating on the idea made me wonder if maybe we were truly the minority in our society.
NBC was producing a TV reality show in which its primary characters (Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera, Al Roker, and Natalie Morales) got to go to a wedding together. While there they would toast the couple that just happened to be living out a Cinderella fantasy. The storyline was helped by the fact that the groom had been off to war and was returning home to safety. It was a wonderful fairytale story, aside from the fact that Jeremy and Melissa really have lived with the separation and anxiety of war.
The fantasy experience was there for me as well. A limousine driver picked me up from the hotel and whisked me to the studio. I was escorted to the room where my make-up was done and my hair gelled so I wouldn’t be bothered by the real wind and rain. My robe and stole were sent to wardrobe for pressing. A keeper watched over me throughout the morning. One of the stars greeted me and asked me if I knew my “lines.” A person stood just beyond range of the cameras and pointed at me when it was time for me to start. He also stood ready to tell me whether to slow down or speed up, depending on whether we were behind or ahead of schedule.
I had to frequently ask myself whether I was “talent” in a show, or I was a minister performing a wedding ceremony and service of worship. I am sure that was also true for the bride and groom, and for the guests at the wedding. It didn’t get any easier for me after the show, I mean wedding. Almost immediately, I began to receive notes on my Facebook wall (This is a good thing because my Facebook wall has been mostly empty until now). Video links to the wedding showed up in many places, some of the text from the wedding was quoted in a news release posted on MSNBC, and my family began to claim that they know me. That hasn’t happened with any other weddings I have done.
As I think about all this, I am beginning to understand that I really was participating in two worlds at the same time. Yes, it was a show, and it was make-believe, and it placed the focus in the wrong places and the wrong values. At the same time, it was a real couple that was just as committed to their future life together as other couples I have married, and it was a service of worship, and this couple will live a life as complicated and as real as any of us. They will have future moments when their fantasies come true, and they will have days that feel like nightmares. God has still pledged to be beside them in all of those days, and they have pledged to seek God’s guidance along the way.
I can understand those who would condemn the whole thing as making a mockery of a solemn event, but that wasn’t my experience. What seems most important for me at this point is to be able to clearly understand the difference between the two.
During the wedding, I reminded the couple of their dreams and imaginings as they looked toward their marriage and then suggested that they had cast aside those dreams because the real thing was so much better. I pray that my statement will speak truth for the rest of their lives. The make-believe wedding seemed pretty good, but I pray it will feel empty when compared to life lived as one. The make-believe will fade, but the real will endure.
Now, back to real life.

Doing it Differently

2010-05-21T09:52:00.001-07:00

The neighborhood in which I live has what is for me a new fangled way of mail delivery. Instead of each family having a personal mailbox at the end of the driveway, the postal service has provided a group mailbox for a cluster of households.

All of us in the cluster walk to our common box, place our outgoing mail in the same receptacle, and then get our personal mail out of a private container that has been designated for our household. No house is more than four lots from the box. It is a few extra steps, but it means we don't have to worry about maintaining our own box, and we don't have to worry about those late Saturday night visitors who enjoy smashing them. We have traded one convenience for another.

I was wondering why the postal service had decided to provide such boxes for us until one day I saw the mail carrier stop at our group box. He opened the front of the container to expose our private boxes, and in a matter of seconds he was able to gather our combined outgoing mail and deliver our incoming mail without getting out of or even moving his vehicle.

Wow! What had once taken the mail carrier 15-20 minutes now took only 1 or 2 minutes to complete. No wonder the postal service was willing to provide the boxes for us! Imagine, though, what it was like for the mail carriers when they first heard their number of daily deliveries was being multiplied 10-fold. It couldn't have made sense until they could visualize the plan.

I hope that story is a metaphor for what is happening in the Pony Express and Heartland North Districts, beginning July 1. Most have probably heard by now that I will be serving as superintendent of both districts. The normal responses to me have been that it is too many churches, or too many pastors, or it means that some churches or pastors will be ignored, or that I will be over-worked. All those responses are predicated on an understanding that we are continuing with the same model for superintending.

However, like the postal service, we are seeking to accomplish our mission by doing things in a different way. We have some ideas about improving the way we do charge conferences, pastoral supervision, and pastor-parish consultations. We will use a few of the resources that we used to spend on the second superintendent to contract with folks who have specialized skills and will perform specialized tasks. I also suspect that we will discover even better methodologies in the year to come. During the summer, we will hold a series of meetings to explain what this all looks like and invite your suggestions.

In the meantime, let's answer a few basic questions/concerns. First, we will continue to have two distinct districts, with both offices continuing as before. I will work out of both offices, though my real office tends to be in churches and restaurants and wherever else you are gathered. If you need assistance, you will continue to call the same numbers and use the same email addresses.

Some have worried that the superintendent will ignore the small churches. Actually, large churches tend to be the ones who ask very little from the superintendent. So, who can you expect to get my attention? I plan to continue devoting my attention to congregations that are actively attempting to interact with the community that surrounds them and are looking for assistance in taking the next step. Congregations that are just keeping the doors open until the last person dies do not need my help. Congregations that are already functioning with a high level of clarity do not need my help. It is the ones that are transitioning who can best utilize what I have to offer.

However, answering the above question probably leads us astray. Our ability to accomplish the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ will not be measured by whether churches get the attention of the superintendent. Having the superintendent simply show up at a worship service or fall sale will not make the Kingdom come into fruition. From the district's perspective, we must ask whether the district is effectively helping congregations develop the financial, spiritual, and leadership resources they need to do what God is calling them to do. It won't matter whether the church is small or large, rural or suburban, or served by a part-time or full-time pastor.

This will be a great adventure for us, and we will do our best to follow in the direction of God. As always, stay focused on the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ. Seek ways to serve the community that surrounds you. Follow the Wesleyan rules: Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.

13. Giving a Little Extra

2010-02-16T14:09:00.001-08:00

I almost brought this up a year ago, but I chose the cowardly act of silence. Now I am gathering up my courage, and I will dare to ask the question: "Is it possible for a district in the Missouri Conference to pay 100% of its conference apportionments?" Perhaps I should be bolder. Is it possible that Pony Express District churches could pay their conference apportionments in full in 2010?

Before answering, here are some facts. Our district completed 2009 with contributions equaling 95.1% of what we were apportioned as a group. Seventy-nine of our 92 churches paid 100%. Thanks to the commitment of our churches, we came very close to hitting that 100% mark last year!

Of the 13 that did not contribute all that was asked of them, only two gave nothing. (Both of those either have or will soon have given something in 2010). Nine of those who did not make 100% have allowed it to become habitual. Those nine have missed on anywhere from 4 to 18 consecutive years. Quite honestly, though, almost all of them have extenuating circumstances that tend to impoverish them as congregations.

So, the first thought would be that we will never pay 100% because we will always have one or more congregations that don't quite make it. The very fact that I am writing this, though, should tell you that I have a second thought.

Our problem may not be that we will always have some churches that cannot pay 100%. Rather, our problem is that we don't have churches who consider paying more than 100%. For some reason, we have tended to believe that 100% is a cap on giving rather than a minimum standard. That is like saying no person should give more than a tithe of their income to God. It misses the Bible's invitation to be extravagantly generous.

The Apostle Paul suggested a similar idea to the people of Corinth. He wrote, "It is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance." (2 Corinthians 8: 13-14) In other words, if you are having an extra good year, if you have received an unexpected bequest, or if you just somehow end up with money in the bank because your need was less, then share some on behalf of those who didn't have the same kind of year. Someday, their time will come to help you.

As it turns out, that already happens in a neighboring annual conference. It traditionally pays 100%, I am told, not because every church can do so, but because churches than can pay 105%. There are a few churches here in Missouri that are doing the same—none so far from our district.

Is it worth it for us to go to that effort? I believe so. Our connectional giving lays the groundwork for everything else we do. If there were no apportionments, there would be no church camp, no new churches, no Africa University, no training for pastors, no safe sanctuaries, no communications system for helping us work together, no United Methodist Committee on Relief, no disaster response team, no Volunteer in Mission organization. Each church would simply be on an island picking a pastor from among the flock and teaching whatever theology was most popular at the moment. When we give connectionally, we make each other stronger.

I have mentioned this idea of giving 105% in a couple of places now. So far, I have been met with laughter. Well, Sarah laughed, and she ended up pregnant with hope. Is it possible for our district to be the first to give 100%? Sure. Will it happen? That will require a few pregnant churches!

12. Ponies, Pews, and Pipe Organ People

2009-08-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

Those of us living in the northwest corner of Missouri should have been among the first to learn the lesson. It was, after all, taught as far back as about 1860 by way of the Pony Express.

The organizers of the Pony Express devised a system by which the mail could be delivered from the western edge of Missouri to the western edge of the country. It was a daunting undertaking that required planning a route, finding quality horses, developing a human resources department that could convince riders to risk weather and safety, and building outposts along the way. Simply making it happen once was a great success. Making it last was even more difficult.

Unfortunately, soon after the developers established the route, the railroad came along. The Pony Express began as a system for delivering mail. However, instead of taking advantage of the new technology, the Pony Express became a useless delivery system. Apparently, it thought is business was the "pony" while its real business had been mail.

Within a few years, the railroads began to criss-cross northwest Missouri. Every seven to 10 miles, small communities sprung up along the path of the rail lines. The railroad was a can't miss proposition. It offered a quick way to transport people, goods, and mail. It was an upgraded delivery system when compared to the Pony Express. It appeared to be the wave of the future.
That only lasted until the gasoline powered family car came along. The railroad should have recognized the new technology as an improved way for it to carry out its deliveries. Had it taken advantage of cars and new roads, it might have become the postal service, Fed Ex, UPS, and a nationwide public transit system all rolled into one. Instead, it allowed its rails to get it off track.

More recently, the postal system has been making news because it is not making money. It is losing customers and revenue to a new technology called the internet. Well, the technology isn't so new anymore. The postal service failed to take notice of a new method for it to do its job. Even though electronic mail was quickly recognized by the public as a way to do what they used to do with stamps, the postal service continued to try to deliver messages by requiring the sender to write a letter, put it in an envelope, out a stamp on the envelope, walk the envelope to a mailbox, and wait a couple of days for the receiver to get the message. That is like trying to get a pony to do the work while a train comes whistling past. The postal service has failed because it kept hiring postal workers rather than computer programmers.

So, what does all that have to do with the Church? Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who become part of the community of faith called the Body of Christ. For a time in our society, that meant gathering people in buildings that had stained glass windows, pipe organs, and a tower spire out front. It meant putting people in rows of seats so they could listen to the more educated preacher who was delivering the message to them. It meant sending the people off to Sunday School in groups divided by age so they could learn the faith. It meant reserving Sunday morning as church time.

In many of our places, we are delivering our message by way of a system we were using, in some cases in buildings we were using, when the Pony Express began its 18-month venture. While we sit in our pew and listen quietly to the preacher, the people outside our walls are chatting on Facebook, twittering their tweets, and recording four shows at the same time on their DVR. It may well be that when they see one of our churches, they are reminded of the postal service, railroads, and maybe even the Pony Express.

Here, then, is the question: Are we called to be the Sunday morning place where people go to sing the old time favorites and have the sermon delivered on the pipes of an organ, a sermon, and a prayer, or are we called to make disciples of Jesus Christ by using the technologies the people are using to communicate with each other?

11. Chasm Lake

2009-07-13T14:07:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I, and our adult children and their families, spent a few days vacationing in one of our favorite spots, Estes Park, Colorado. During the first four days, we had perfect weather that allowed us to complete our family rituals at the alluvial fan, up Trail Ridge Road, and around Bear Lake.

The hikers among us hiked, and the non-hikers shopped. The three year-old in the group danced and sang her way around a flat lake trail, taught all the adults a new way of playing pool, and joyfully announced the beginning of the party wherever she happened to make an entrance.

On the last day, my son, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, and I planned to take a hike to Chasm Lake. The trail to the lake is a 4.2 mile hike in one direction with an elevation gain of 2,300 feet, starting at about 11,000 feet above sea level. That is a huffer and a puffer for us flatlanders.

If you have ever hiked in the mountains, you know that when clouds start developing you have to be concerned about lightning storms, so it is always best to start when there are no clouds in the sky. Throughout the week, every morning had dawned with beautiful blue skies and no hint of the afternoon showers yet to come.

That morning, for the first time all week, we awakened to significant clouding. Worried about the likelihood of deteriorating weather, we almost stayed at the house, but decided to drive to the trailhead. By the time we got to the trailhead, it was misting. We almost turned back, but we decided to begin the hike with the hope that the sun would burn through the clouds.

For the next 2 1/2 hours, we hiked uphill. We never saw the sun, but neither did we encounter any rain. We finally came to a spot where we could see that Chasm Lake was on the far side of a ridge and probably 200 feet in elevation above us.

We started along the ridge until we came to two snowfields. One that was probably 100 feet in length, followed by another that was double the length of the first. The snow was on a 45-degree angle with a small path carved out by hikers.The pathway was barely wider than the width of one of my feet, so it meant putting one foot in front of the other. One slip meant we would slide downhill until we came to a huge pile of rocks. It looked like death to me. It also brought to mind the warning given us by a ranger the previous day. When we mentioned where we were going, he had told us he had been there just a day earlier. He said, "I wouldn't want to try it without poles and a good pair of shoes." Well, we had one pole among us, and there might have been two good pair of shoes among us, but we weren't really in a position of sharing our resources.

My daughter-in-law, the adventurous one, went first. I was sandwiched between my son and son-in-law, and I suspect there was an unspoken reason as to why the young ones placed the old man in the middle. I chose not to bring it up.

After Melissa got most of the way across the first snowfield, she shouted back that she didn't think we should try. I had only taken three or four steps, and was finding is very difficult to keep from looking down the ravine while my body was trying to curl into a fetal position. I gladly agreed with her, and turned around before anyone could disagree. In a short time, we were all back on dry ground, congratulating each other on the fact that the small lake below us was just as beautiful as Chasm Lake anyway.

A couple of minutes later, a man came along the trail by himself. He was sauntering along as if he didn't notice that he was nearly 13,000 feet above sea level. My memory tells me he had no backpack, was wearing shorts and sneakers, and was barely noticing the scenery. The man could just as easily have been shopping in Estes Park. He greeted us without slowing down and walked across the snowfield as if it was a wide sidewalk.

I guess the reader can draw various conclusions from this story. For me, though, it is that we had to make decisions throughout the day as to whether to keep going or stop. From hindsight, I think we made good decisions in each case, including the moment when we stopped.

I still want to go to Chasm Lake, but on that day I was not prepared for taking those last few steps. The other man was clearly prepared and seasoned from other experiences, and I tip my hat to him in terms of his ability. Interestingly, though, a few minutes later he came back in an apparent state of confusion. After visiting with him, we learned he had missed a turn, and had headed up that trail for no reason. He was supposed to turn to the right before he even got to the snowfields. Even though he had gone farther than us, he had simply wasted his time going in the wrong, and more challenging, direction. He had the skills, but he failed to read the signs.

I don't know where your trail is taking you, but I pray that God will grant you wisdom to know when to stop, when to keep going, and when to follow a new trail.

10. Contrary Faith

2009-06-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

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.”

8. How Would You Answer

2009-03-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

The pressure is on. You are in a city council meeting for your community. One of the members of the council has just asked you to stand and give a report. The Council person says, “What benefit does the property on which your church stands provide to the city?”
What is your answer?
Time’s up! Did you have a ready response? Is there one answer, or do you have a host of possible answers?
In the book, “The Externally Focused Church,” the authors tell of such an experience for Tom Shirk, pastor of Calvary Bible Church in Boulder, Colorado. He was able to tell that his church had built a Habitat for Humanity house, renovated a house for runaway teens, and the church building served as an overflow homeless shelter for the city. Not a bad response.
How about your congregation? Most of us aren’t in congregations large enough to have a list that long, but all of us should be able to demonstrate that we are an active and vital part of the community we serve.
While it is good for us to worship each week and provide Christian education for our members, all of that only amounts to taking care of ourselves. Jesus commanded us to love God, but Jesus also told us to love our neighbors.
As it turns out, there is ample opportunity for loving. We can do simple things such as hosting funeral dinners in the community without charge or hosting Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts in our building. We can take it up a notch and offer our Christian education space as a day care during the week even though the children scuff the floors and scratch the paint. We can go outside of our building and into the school to do tutoring, or over to the clothes closet to keep its doors open during the week.
In our society’s current context, we can hold career fairs or hold classes about balancing our financial checkbooks (Financial Peace University is a popular offering these days). Here in north Missouri, we have a need to work with community leaders to stop the meth labs that set up in our communities, and we need to help create business that will add to our population in the community. Our teens need healthy and safe places to gather, and we need to help improve the quality of housing for those who are moving into our communities.
As I travel across northwest Missouri, I often hear church members say that the new people in the community don’t want to come to church. I am told that the newcomers are different from the old-timers, and they don’t care as much about the community.
It could be that our problem is that we keep thinking those new people should be coming to us rather than us going to them. Perhaps they are not interested in our churches because they don’t see us making a difference in the lives of people. It is normally true that people will participate in what they value and where they find value. The more we can do to make a difference in the lives of others the fewer excuses our members will have for being in other places each Sunday.
Are our people too busy to be in church these days? Do they often say they have just gotten out of the habit? Do they seem to make it less of a priority? If so, our best bet for getting them back in the habit is to turn them on to serving others. If the new people in our community don’t want to come in our doors, it may be that our best way to get them involved is to wander over to their house to see how we can help them.
When we do that, we will always have a ready answer when the questioner challenges us to show how we are making a difference.

7. Keep it Simple

2009-03-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

It is simple.
At least that is what Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger concluded in their book, “Simple Church.” They contend that we struggle as congregations because we make things too complicated. We try to do too many things. We wander in too many directions, and we have trouble keeping our focus.
I suspect they are right. Over the years, we have tried to be many different things in our society. We once thought we were the ones to start the hospitals and colleges across the land. At another time, we initiated the pre-schools, day cares, and Parents’ Day out programs. We went through a phase of thinking we were responsible for building the recreation buildings on behalf of the communities that surround us. Early in the 20th Century, we considered ourselves the social gathering spot where folks could get together and catch up on the news in town. Soon after that, we thought our task was to offer the place where people could get together and salute the flag and talk of patriotism.
And that is just a partial list of the phases we have gone through in the United States. It seems that the Church is constantly tinkering with its mission as we try to figure out what we offer the world. Looking back at the list, we have done much good for our society. None of those phases were bad when they started because they started as an outgrowth of our mission. In several cases, though, they quickly became our mission and we took our identity out of their success rather than measuring their success by how they helped us accomplish our mission.
Rainer and Geiger call us back to a simpler approach. They suggest that all we really need to do is 1) Know, believe, articulate, and live out our mission, 2) Implement a step by step plan for accomplishing the mission, 3) Align all of our resources toward carrying out that plan, and 4) maintain focus to the point of choosing not to do many of the good things that are not helping us accomplish our mission. Each part of this process is vital to the success of the others.
Our mission is simple. Though we spend many hours writing mission statements and trying to use just the right words, all we really need to do is go back to our Book of Discipline. It describes our mission as “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.“ Our mission is not to have the nicest building, not to take in the most money, not to keep church members happy, and it is certainly not to keep the doors open until we die. Rather, our mission is to seek out those who don’t know the love of Christ, offer them this life-giving love, help them mature in the faith, and send them forth offer that love in the world.
Our process of implementation is simple. It often doesn’t seem like it because we try to do so many things. However, our process doesn’t have to be complicated. Some have said it is Know God, Love God, Serve God. Others would add some connecting steps between those three. However, we might express it, though, we simply need to know the steps and be sure we connect them to one another. We should keep asking, “where does worship fit in the process,” “what are we doing to help people mature in the faith,” “what opportunities are we giving for people to reach out to others in the community?”
Alignment is simple. Every employee and every volunteer should know her or his role in carrying out the process. As long as each person knows that they are helping the congregation carry out its mission in a specific way, he or she can be more effective. Do we offer Parents’ Day Out? The answer doesn’t lie so much in whether the community would benefit from it as much as it lies in how it helps the church make disciples for the transformation of the world.
Focus is simple, but hard. Over the years many of our congregations have begun projects that are worthwhile and sometimes profitable. They may have helped accomplish the mission when they started, but more recently they have simply become something we always do. Focusing requires us to have the courage to quit doing them. Is that fall sale helping us make disciples, or is it simply the project that helps us pay the bills? Is the day care program bringing new people into the church, or is it simply draining the energy of those who might be able to focus on something else. If we are going to get back to simplicity, we have to know what God calls us to do and be and what God is not calling us to do and be.
Keep it simple. Make Disciples. Nourish their growth. Send them out to transform the world.

6. The Lost Sheep

2009-02-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

I attended worship in one of our country churches last Sunday. I arrived a few minutes early and found they were having Sunday School in the sanctuary, so I waited in the entry area for it to end. I waited along with about 50 of my closest friends, or so they seemed after huddling in that tight space for a few minutes.
I learned about the local basketball scores, found out that Dan was back in church for the first time in months after receiving a new pancreas, caught up on who expected the Steelers to win the Super Bowl, and that sort of thing.
Eventually, the doors opened and we found our seats in the sanctuary. The pastor walked up and down the aisles greeting people while neighbors checked in with one another. The pastor’s wife saw me and took a seat beside me as a sign of welcome. By the time all had settled in there were about 100 of us.
Then I noticed a quiet flurry of activity behind me. I looked back and saw that an older gentleman was having what appeared to be a diabetic seizure. The pastor was already at the spot and was working with family members to give assistance. The Sunday School superintendent called for an ambulance, then invited the congregation to enter into a time of prayer.
During the prayer, a member came from a back room with grape juice for the man. Someone else happened to have some Coke to give to him. Perhaps it is the old preacher in me, but I believe it must have been the grape juice and the prayer that did the work. Within seconds the man began to become alert again. Still, for a few more minutes, the congregation cast aside the intended plans for worship and attended to one person’s needs while waiting for the ambulance.
I was struck by the fact that in that moment 99 of those present were healthy and fully capable of carrying out the task that had brought them to church. Only one person was out of sorts. I thought of the Parable of the Lost Sheep while the 99 waited for the one to be restored.
Eventually, the man was feeling a bit better, so worship continued. The ambulance finally came while the congregation happened to be singing “How Great Thou Art” and praying the Lord’s Prayer. By the time the prayer had ended, the man was in the ambulance and getting his vital signs checked. The pastor mentioned that if he ever needed an ambulance, he hoped it would happen while a congregation sang “How Great Thou Art” and prayed the Lord’s Prayer. I had to agree with him.
The service continued, but I think worship had already happened. The congregation had been about the work of worship all along, joining together as a community, praying for one in need, caring more about their neighbor’s need than their own, acting to bring healing while trusting God to act, living out the Scriptures they had come to hear proclaimed.
Often we think that worship is an orderly process, defined in advance, printed in a bulletin, and requiring certain words or actions. We think that the Word is only proclaimed when it is pronounced from the pulpit by an inspired orator.
Truthfully, though, the definition of liturgy is “the work of the people.” Sometimes, God finds a way to proclaim the Word to us at a moment and in a way that surprises us. Often, worship is not the result of what is printed before us; rather, it results when our hearts take over, we forget about time and schedule, and we become a community in the presence of God.

5. Get Motivated

2009-01-16T05:40:00.000-08:00

One of the more frequent complaints pastors have had over the years is that many of the lay people seem unmotivated. “The folks are too lackadaisical,” the pastor will say. “They just come when there isn’t anything more interesting for them to do, and it is like pulling teeth to get them to take a position of leadership.” Truthfully, I also know lay people who have the similar complaints about their pastor.
Those grumblings came to mind as I was reviewing the book “Good to Great,” by Jim Collins, recently. He wrote, “Spending time trying to motivate people is a waste of time and effort. The real question is not, ‘How do we motivate our people?’ If you have the right people, they will be self-motivated. The key is to not de-motivate them.”
Hmmm, I thought. All we need is the right people. That is easy for Jim Collins to say, but who are the right people. The question was ruminating as I thumbed backward in the book—something left-handers are apt to do. Suddenly, I found Collins’ answer: “Whether someone is the right person has more to do with character traits and innate capabilities than with specific knowledge, background, or skills.”
So, all this time we have spent trying to get our people excited has been mis-spent. Rather, we should have been spending our time in search of the right folks. I wondered whether this would pass the “Jesus” test. That is, would this be a description of how Jesus did it?
Strangely, as I thought about it, I began to realize that Collins might be right. Jesus picked 12 people to be his closest associates. Many have wondered why those 12 were picked. They came from outside the set of religious leaders. They appeared to have little education or wealth. They didn’t appear to be well connected in their community. They hadn’t been to seminary, so they had poor backgrounds and little skill development for starting the Church.
A few of them, as it turns out, were out fishing on the lake rather than listening to Jesus teach when they got the call. Think about that. Jesus had a multitude of onlookers wanting to hear what he said, but he turned away from them and picked out the folks who were ignoring him.
We, of course, have to guess at what character traits Jesus was seeking. Maybe it was a person like Thomas who would say, “Let’s go to Jerusalem and die with him.” He might have liked the questioning mind of Nathaniel who dared to ask, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Jesus might have preferred a disciple like Peter who was willing to cast a net in an apparently fruitless attempt to catch fish just because Jesus gave the command.
For whatever reasons Jesus picked these 12, we also know that he chose not to pick other more obvious choices. He did not pick Nicodemus, a member of the top religious leadership at that time. He did not pick those who thought they already knew the answers. He didn’t pick people simply because they followed him around looking for signs and miracles. He didn’t pick those who were in the synagogue every Sabbath making sure no one else sat in their spot.
All of this suggests to us that we may have been looking for motivated people in the wrong places. It is possible that we have a number of strongly motivated leaders in our communities. Our problem is that they could be the ones who are working at the gas station we pass on the way to church. Or they might be the ones who are in the fields on Sunday morning because they have concluded the church is for other people. All that is missing for them is for someone representing Jesus to come by and invite them on the journey.
Pay attention to who you meet this week. It might just be one of those people who has just the right character traits to become the highly motivated disciple of Christ your congregation needs. Take a moment to invite them to cast their net on the other side of the boat. In doing so you may just find the motivated leader you have been seeking.

4. Not Just Any Night

2008-12-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

The night before Thanksgiving Anita Greeley, mother of Gina Lucas, was killed in a car accident. (Gina is the spouse of David Lucas, a local pastor appointed to the New Hampton/Martinsville/Mitchelville Charge.) Anita had celebrated her 50th birthday just a couple of years ago, and she was a very active participant in the lives of her children and grandchildren.
David’s mother died when he was young, and he has shared with me that Anita, his mother-in-law, quickly took him under her wing. When he made the decision to begin serving churches, she took him shopping and bought him four suits. She was a strong encourager for Gina. I know that the entire family is going to miss her immensely.
David sent me an email on Thanksgiving Day to tell me what had happened. Unfortunately, I turned off my computer on Wednesday evening and didn’t turn it back on until I returned to work on Monday morning. I celebrated the holiday with all the various family gatherings and did some charge conference business on Sunday without knowing of David and Gina’s loss.
Strangely, as I put on the coffee pot on Monday morning after arriving at the office, I had one of those “I shouldn’t have thought that thoughts.” It occurred to me that I was grateful to be working in a position where my schedule is more dependable, and I don’t get called out on emergencies on holidays anymore. Immediately, I knew that I shouldn’t have thought it. Sure enough, as soon as I opened my email, I discovered that I had almost missed the opportunity to offer a compassionate response to one of our clergy families.
However, David’s email, written back on Thanksgiving evening, told something more important. As it turns out, Anita was a member of Elmo United Methodist Church. Connie Eighmy, a lay minister assigned to the church, had gotten word about the accident and had already responded. I have received permission from David to share the following paragraph from his email to me:
“By the way the Pastor from Elmo came to the family home tonight and did a wonderful job!! I believe she helped to start the healing. As I write this e-mail I hear lots of talking in the house and some laughing. My wife is busy cooking in her Mother’s kitchen a Thanksgiving meal for her family. Her Mom would be proud of her. I know I am!”
Connie is in her first year as a lay minister. It could be considered a very part-time job. I imagine she had other things planned for Thanksgiving Day and the week-end that followed. I am sure there wasn’t time in her schedule to plan an additional service and sermon on Monday, call the right people in the church to be sure the family meal was covered, and get the building ready for the Sunday night visitation and Monday afternoon celebration of life service. But she did all that, and she did it well.
I don’t write this to give thanks to Connie for doing what other pastors wouldn’t. Rather, I write it because I know that almost every holiday one of our pastors gets such a call, and they respond just as Connie did. Pastoral responsibilities are unending, often untimely, and usually unrecognized. The tasks often require missing a family gathering and/or quietly wondering what to say in the eulogy while sitting at a family holiday celebration. After reading David’s email, I wrote this note to the other superintendents in Missouri : “Today, I am giving thanks for a very part-time lay minister who was willing to leave her Thanksgiving celebrations in order to be with a family in need. It probably happened in other places around the state. Pastors give up their holidays and give up time with family to do their jobs, and they do so without expecting anyone to notice. Then, they get the sermon ready for Sunday, drop by the visitation that evening, and prepare an additional service of worship for Monday while wondering what in the world to say to the darkness. I am humbled to be called their leader when it is clear they are the ones in the lead.”
Thank you, pastors, for the care and compassion you offer when most of the world is off celebrating. You truly bring light in the darkness. May it be that the next emergency call you get be one that takes you to the Bethlehem stable where the light shines for you.

3. Small Group Worship

2008-11-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

Over the past several years, there has been a lot of conversation about how congregations should worship. We have added names to styles, such as traditional, contemporary, emergent, relaxed, and blended. We have experimented with times of day and days of week. We have debated the use of video screens, power point presentations, and what music we ought to be singing.
For the most part, though, these conversations seem out of context for the half of the Pony Express District congregations that average fewer than 30 in worship. Is there a place in all of this for something that might be called small group worship? How should we preach differently, sing differently, and pray differently when the group is small enough that the passing of the peace means passing it to everyone present?
Those questions made me wonder about Jesus and the disciples. What was their style of worship when they were together? We really don’t read a lot about those daily or weekly gatherings while out on the road. We do know that they weren’t using either organs or video screens, they didn’t have printed bulletins, and they didn’t have pews in which to sit.
It seems to have been more informal. They prayed when they needed to pray, and Jesus taught whenever he had something to teach. The concern about style was so low that no one even thought to explain it to us.
So, what should our 20-something or less worship services look like? We might expect them to be less formal and structured. Folks might be sitting in a circle rather than in rows. Prayer time might flow from person to person rather than being led by a single person or read in unison. Preaching might feel more like teaching or discussion rather than a formal presentation.
We could expect that the sharing could be more personal and in-depth. The experience would unfold as it went along rather than being planned well in advance. Each person would have a greater responsibility for contributing to the worship rather than attending as an observer of the preacher. The Sacrament of Holy Communion would have greater relevance as the small group supped together.
As I think about this, I can visualize some great strengths of intentionally worshipping as a small group. Truthfully, when I name the most meaningful worship experiences in my life, many of them occurred in a small group setting, such as at camp, a youth group meeting, or seasonal special service. If done well, small group worship has the potential to be more relational, more personal and focused, more participatory, and more relevant.
Unfortunately, many of our smaller congregations are still worshipping as if they were larger. In many cases, we have 10 to 40 people seated in sanctuaries that are designed for 100 to 200 people. Those who are present separate themselves as if they don’t want to hear their neighbor singing, and they sit as far away from the leader as the sanctuary will allow. They use formal styles that are intended to be used with large crowds. If Jesus were to walk in on one of these services, he would certainly not recognize it as worship.
It is time for one or more of our congregations to try something new. It is time for worship to regain its sense of integrity, timeliness, and relevance for those who participate. It is time for all of us to go to worship thinking about what we will offer rather than wondering whether the preacher will have anything to say. It is time to find a way to downsize the space in which we worship so that it is designed to be no more than twice the size of what would be needed to seat our expected crowd. (You may have heard the rule that if a sanctuary is more than 85% full, it is already full. I would contend that if a sanctuary is less than 25% full, it is already empty. Any space that is too full or too empty will lead to a smaller crowd in the future.)
I would like to hear from others about this. Is anyone already designing small group worship in an intentional way? What other ideas do you have that would be helpful? What can we do to add passion to the worship gatherings of our smaller congregations? Post a comment.

2. Decline, Recline, then Incline

2008-10-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

I decided to do some research on the population trends of the Pony Express district recently. I found a few surprieses.

It wasn't surprising to find that the 13 counties that comprise the district have a declining population. What surprised me was when the decline began. Was it the farm crisis of the 80's, or was it the beginning of the demise of the family farm in the 60's? Turns out it was neither.

Since 1900, almost every county in northwest Missouri has had a population reduction in almost every decade. With a few exceptions, we have been losing people on a continuous basis for more than 100 years. Wow! That is a staggering statistic.

After that little discovery, I began looking at the history of our congregations. I haven't completed an exhaustive look, but so far I have found only two congregations that were started in the 20th Century (one of those was actually a merger of two congregations started in 1869). For all intents and purposes, every person who has spent their lifetime in our district has never seen a successful church start, and at the same time they have watched their church decline as people moved out and/or died.

Those are the kind of stastistics that make one want to recline at table and eat doughnuts while waiting for the sky to finish falling. However, that really isn't the reason I share them with you. While it would be easier to take our ease and assume it is just a matter of time until no one is left, I hope we might be spurred to a different response.

In order for us to change reality, we must first name it and claim it. The truth is that we have gone from 350,000 as a population base to 200,000 during the past 100 or so years. That still leaves 200,000 people, though, and there are signs over the last 20 years that the decline is bottoming out. The good news is that our towns and communities have plenty of space to put new people. That is an interesting thought: Almost every town in our district, and every church in our district, was designed to be bigger than its current population. All we need is people!

So, what does this mean for our congregations? I am still trying to figure that out, but here are a couple of hints. First, we have to think differently about how we do church. When we meet in sanctuaries that have the sense of being empty, old, and dilapidated we exaggerate the feeling that the end is coming. Perhaps we need to consider going back to the old concept of the house church. We might need to create more small groups that meet in smaller spaces. A living room filled with 15 people creates energy while a sanctuary with 15 sends new people running for the exits. In spite of the decline in population, a great majority of our small churches could double in size by starting a couple of small groups designed for new people that meet in homes of church members. ( Note to self: I plan to write more about this in a future blog.)

Second, we need to remember that the world is our parish. I am suggesting that we have to become community leaders who bring ideas for developing a stronger economic base to the places where we serve. It may be something as simple as recreating hope and stronger self-esteem among our people. It might require more intense work such as brainstorming about new businesses and jobs that might be appropriate in our towns. Quite honestly, we are serving an area that is filled with good people who unconsciously assume that there must be something wrong and unattractive about their towns (and their churches). Maybe it is time for the prophets of the return from exile to speak and act!

We have reclined long enough. Incline your ear--I am sure that had a positive connotation when Jesus said it. We have been called to this time and this place in order to restore hope to God's people, those in and outside the Church. We have a great challenge before us, and we won't meet it by simply doing things the way we have been doing them. We may not be able to meet it by staying within our buildings to do the work. I am beginning to suspect that we won't even meet it by changing from traditional to contemporary or emergent or whatever form of worship is named in popular workshops. Rather, I believe we may have to be the pioneers of a style that fits rural life in the 21st Century. (It makes me wonder how Jesus worshiped with the 12 disciples--but that is a different blog.)

I value the ideas of others. Post a comment if you have some thoughts.

1. The Bush Still Burns

2008-10-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, I wrote a bi-weekly column for the Missouri West United Methodist Review. I titled it "...After the Burning Bush" for a couple of reasons. First, I recognized that I have been chasing after burning bushes, as in the bush that burned for Moses in Exodus 3, throughout my life. It is sometimes hard to know whether God started the search with a bush that was burning for me, or if I started it because I was looking for God. The starting point is pre-memory for me, and it probably doesn't matter since it has been a dance ever since. One bush burns when I don't expect it, then I go looking for another bush to burn when I can no longer see the last one.

Second, the title was an attempt to answer the question, "What do we do after the bush has burned in front of us?" The instructions and expectations were clearly stated to Moses. They have not always been as clear for me; however, I have always known that I don't get to stay on the hillside and enjoy the view. While it would be nice to sit down and muse about the greatness of one who can burn with out wilting, that would be missing the point. God did not pay a visit to Moses in order to impress Moses, but to spur Moses to action. The same is true for me.

So, the original newspaper column was designed to help me both search for and respond to the burning bushes in my life. This blog will serve the same purpose, though for a different audience. While it is fine for anyone to listen in, my focus will be on the pastors and lay persons of the United Methodist churches in northwest Missouri. That is because one of the more recent bushes called me to this place and these people. We do have a Phaoraoh to confront, some plagues to avoid, and miracles to behold. Perhaps there will be some others who journey with me through this blog. If so, welcome!