If you attended the congregational meeting this last Sunday, I hope you felt the same way I did – the positive energy was flowing and the excitement for the future of the church was abundant. What a change! Of course, with this change comes “growing pains.” Not everything is worked out in detail yet. There are questions, there is concern that perhaps there will be a problem leading to failure of a program.
All of these things are great signs. The concerns and questions show people really care about the church and deeply want it to succeed. The positive energy shows what has been there all along, yet remained under the surface. Now that we’ve uncovered it, we’re all addicted to it. What a great thing to be addicted to! One concern I keep hearing is that all this positive excitement will fall when I leave. This is a normal concern because we all believe “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But whether not this church loses its excitement is not dependent on me. Some are convinced it is, but experience has shown time after time, it’s not the minister – it’s the congregation. So it’s up to you. I believe this congregation will continue to thrive, to grow and to be an exciting place to belong. If you believe this, then the presence of one minister or another will not make a lot of difference. God has called you into being “a church”. You are answering the call. Keep up the great work! All of heaven is celebrating and all the saints of this church who have gone on before are smiling down upon you. Well done good and faithful servants! It’s great to be back! Both Angela and I had a wonderful time in Boston and the weather could not have been any better. One thing I noticed as we walked around the city of Boston – there was change. Some of the restaurants we used to visit are no longer there. New buildings are in place, some buildings are now gone. With each of our several visits, the city has changed each time. On this visit (as in others) we sometimes had to change our route to work around construction or sometimes we had to abandon our plan and come up with a new way.
Countryside is also changing. With these changes there is some discomfort. Like the city, there is discomfort in having to work around construction or renovation. Some people express discomfort with change, others are just fine. Change however, is the reality of life – people change, churches change, cities change, everything changes to some degree or another. To live is to change. As this church continues, it is going to experience change. Eventually, there will be a change in ministers. Some will be unhappy, others will be happy – but change will come anyway. The best thing to do is to think of this church as “under renovation”. So I would encourage you to do like you do with any renovation project – grit your teeth, endure the bumps and potholes, take a detour once and a while and know that in the end, you’re going to have a wonderful place to “be church.” I often run into what I call “the professional hazard of ministry.” When people find out that I am a minister, they typically want to ask some biblical question or about some theological issue. Almost without exception, the person asking doesn’t want me to answer what I truly know, they want me to repeat what they already believe. If I don’t repeat what they believe, then they can attack me as someone who “shouldn’t be in ministry” - thus the hazard. This field of landmines will sometimes get ministers in trouble, so the vast majority of ministers will either give some vague answer or attempt to deflect the question so they don’t have to answer at all. When ministers get together privately, it very frequent that they will mention some question posed to them and how they successfully (or unsuccessfully) dodged the issue. So the saying goes, “Tell them what they want to hear, not what you think.”
In the scriptural passage this Sunday, the Apostle Paul states that we should be ambassadors for Christ. I was thinking about this and the role ambassadors play in world politics. Frequently, the ambassador from one country will give a message to some official of another country. This may or may not be what the other official wants to hear. But (hopefully) this will begin a dialogue between the two countries which will result in agreement at some level. It is in this role that Paul directs us to follow. To be ambassadors for Christ to a world that really needs Christ in their lives. We as ministers need to stop dodging questions. On the other side, people need to quit trying to trap their ministers in some sort of “heresy”. Otherwise, the whole system of Christianity will be stunted in its growth. If we don’t start giving honest answers and being open to other perspectives, then people are not going to be challenged to come to church. And then we all lose. I just happened to stop by the grocery store this week to pick up a couple of items. As I was walking through the parking lot, I passed a small truck which was parked there. In the back of the truck was a bed liner and some junk items tossed about. What struck me was that between the edges of the bed liner and the walls of the truck bed, there were little tree seedlings growing! They were about six inches high and looked completely healthy. I thought to myself, “Life always finds a way.”
As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that programs within the church can also start “along the edges.” If you look at God’s creation, God doesn’t start with a full grown tree out in the middle of your yard. The tree starts as a seedling – small – and then it grows. Unfortunately for most church people, we have zero patience. We want it now. And we mean Now! I believe this is because most people think, “Well I’m only going to be here for a little while longer, so I want things to be set before I go.” But God doesn’t work that way. Time is not a limit for God. Perhaps the thinking of the church can be changed to think along God’s lines. Start small and know that it will grow. Life will find a way and church life is just the same. We all need the faith to believe in life – and keep looking at the edges for new growth. |
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This blog consists of reflections written by the minister each week for the Sunday bulletin. We hope that you enjoy the musings! Archives
January 2020
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