Ready for a Change

The church has changed dramatically over the past decade or so.  These changes have happened not only at Old Union, but in churches within our community, across the Presbyterian Church, and throughout our nation.  The church is no longer the respected institution it used to be, and participation in a church is no longer a common expectation and regular part of people’s lives.  Even the definition of a “regular attender” has changed from someone who might miss one or two Sundays a year, to someone who is in church three out of four Sundays a month.  Here at Old Union we’ve seen worship attendance decline, and the average age of worshipers increase.  In other words, we are just like most churches in our nation.

Old Union is moving into uncharted territory, as we seek to be faithful to the mission God has given us in a changing society.  We could wring our hands in despair, or we could try to swim against the stream to bring back the “good old days.”  I’d like to suggest instead that we work together to pay attention to what God is doing, what he continues to call us to do, and how we can respond in faith.  The challenge is to adapt: continue to be who we are as we enter a strange new world.

From the reading and research I’ve done on this issue, I’ve realized that Old Union has all the pieces in place for us to do this well.  The experts say that for churches to adapt to new situations, they need several things.

1. TRUST: We are church that recognizes its leadership to be faithful, competent, and capable.

2. STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: We connect our lives with each other in harmony and compassion.  And we easily include new people into our church family.

3. SENSE OF PURPOSE AND VISION: Our theme verse, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, gives us a clear understanding that our mission as a church is to “encourage one another and build each other up.”  I hear people repeat this phrase often (and just at the conclusion of worship!) as we talk about the work and life of our church.

4. ACTIONS THAT MATCH MISSION: We do not merely say that our purpose is encouragement and up-building; we live out these goals individually and as a congregation.

5. PRAYER: The life of our church, and the lives of its members, are bathed daily with healthy doses of prayer for God’s guidance, mercy, and strength.

No one, other than God, can tell us what the future will hold, because our present situation is completely unlike any that we can remember from the past.  The way forward for Old Union is not to try what worked a decade or five ago, or to attempt quick fixes or to tinker with how we do the things we continue to do.  God is calling us into a future that we know nothing about, by remaining true to what makes Old Union what it is, as we trade the comfortable and customary for the difficult and unfamiliar.

Do we have the courage to seek and to follow where God is leading us?

The Too-Big Mortgage That Got Paid in Half the Time

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’” (Judges 7:2)

By the time you read this message, Old Union Church will have paid off the mortgage for our new building.  At a meeting on May 13, the session voted to cash in the building fund investments.  This money, together with the money in the building fund checking account and the expected profits from the garage sale and car cruise, are enough to pay off the final $26,000.  Generous donors and eager helpers at our fund-raising events enabled us to reach attain this goal far ahead of schedule.

Some background information may help you appreciate this accomplishment.  At a congregational meeting on June 2008, we voted to take on a $300,000 loan to build our fellowship hall.  The total cost of the project was $750,000, and we had raised $450,000.  It was not an easy decision to take on this loan, and many of us worried that it was more than our church could handle.  Construction began in October 2008, at the worst possible financially time for more than a generation.  The financial crisis that began the Great Recession took away a third of the money we had saved for the project.  In December we had to increase the loan by 50%, from $300,000 to $450,000, in order to complete what we had already started.  What had begun as a daunting challenge now seemed insurmountable.  And yet here we are, less than ten years into a twenty-year mortgage, making our final payment.

It would be easy to congratulate ourselves on what we have been able to achieve.  But if we do, we would fail to see God’s mighty action.  As I wrote in this column after we had to increase our loan, “If we could complete this building project on our own, where would the faith be?  But if we are brought to our knees and realize that the project will indeed succeed only with God’s blessing, then we are well on our way to living out our faith.”

When God called Gideon to battle the Midianites who had invaded the land, he mustered an army of 32,000.  But God told him that these were too many soldiers, and he whittled Gideon’s army down to only 300 men.  He did so in order that Gideon and his countrymen would realize that the victory came not from themselves, but from the Lord.  In the same way, when God called us to build, he whittled away our resources so that we would realize success could only come from his hand and not our own.  And now we see how God has provided for us beyond what we thought possible.

Paying off the church mortgage is only the most recent example of the astonishing things that God does in our congregation and through its people.  It is only the latest reminder that God is at work in his church.  As we make plans for the future of our church, and as we face challenges and opportunities in our personal lives, remember the lesson of The Too-Big Mortgage That Got Paid in Half the Time.

Christmas and Easter Christians

It’s just about that time of year again.  The faithful worshipers who show up at church every Sunday morning will once again be joined by “C & E Christians:” those who come to Christmas Eve and Easter services, but are notably absent the other 50 weeks of the year.  They make an easy target for clergy and for regular attenders.  These are the people who keep the church’s ministry and outreach going throughout the year, who deal with all the messy and complicated parts of church life: from Bible studies to community service to paying the electric bill to making sure the grass is mowed and the snow is shoveled.  I can almost hear the voices now: “Where are all these people the rest of the year?  Why do they think they can just show up a couple times a year and assume that the church will be here for them?  We could really use some more help to keep this church going.  If faith really mattered to them, they’d be here every week.”  And so on.

To some extent, these complaints are warranted.  Yes, a healthy and meaningful faith in God leads us to deeper commitment and involvement in his work in the world.  It is eager to learn more, to worship more, to serve more.  And yes, the church is an institution (among other things) that requires the participation and contribution of people to keep it going.  Even more importantly, however, is the message that is rarely spoken but underlies the cynical jokes made at the expense of the C & E Christians: we miss them.  We enjoy having them with us.  The life of the congregation is meaningful and exciting for us, and we want them to share it with us.  (Somehow, however, we tend to overlook the times and ways that people have been hurt, angered, or ignored in the life of the church.)

As true as all this is, however, sharing pews with twice-a-year worshipers is a testimony and a reminder for the regulars.  Sometimes we may get lost in the trees and fail to notice the forest that we’re in.  We become so accustomed to the ins and outs of our faith and of congregational life that we fail to remember the most important parts of all.  We gather to worship a God who took on flesh to share our humanity with us, and to redeem that humanity through his death and resurrection.

Christmas is meaningless without Easter, and Easter is irrelevant without Christmas.

Christmas is a celebration of God appearing in human form.  In the person of Jesus, divine and human are joined together.  In the defining words from the council of Chalcedon in 451, we worship Jesus Christ “at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man… recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.”  It is a divine mystery that theology can point to but never fully explain: how Jesus is both fully and completely God while at the same time being fully and completely human.  Perhaps uniquely among all religions (with the possible exception of the Hindu god Vishnu), the God of Christianity fully and completely shares our human experience.  We worship a God who knows personally the joys and struggles of what it means to be human.

Easter is a celebration of the redemption of humanity through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  One traditional way to understand redemption is that Jesus reconnects sinful humanity with its loving God; theologians have composed several “theories of atonement” to explain exactly how this happens.  I find meaning in the metaphor of a bridge: Jesus is the “bridge” that spans the gap created by our sin between humanity and God.  He reconciles the relationship between God and us that was broken by our sin.  But a bridge is only helpful if it is firmly anchored on both sides of the gorge.  A bridge that takes you only halfway across is no bridge at all.  If Jesus was only God and not human, or if Jesus was only human and not God, he would leave us stranded halfway across the span to reconcile God and humanity, and would not have accomplished the redemption we find in him.

The Christmas and Easter Christians may be on to something.  By adding their presence and their voices to these two special worship events each year, they help us to recognize their importance.  Without Christmas, the incarnation that it celebrates, Easter would be an action by God that never touches human existence.  And without Easter, Christmas would celebrate the creation of a “bridge” with no purpose.

So if you are a “Christmas and Easter” Christian, welcome.  I look forward to the testimony you will share, simply by being with us, about the importance of who Christ is and what he has done.  If you are a “regular” church-goer, make room in the pew and in your heart for those whom you only see twice a year.  They have something valuable to offer to us.

A Letter from the Apostle Paul

Archaeologists have recently discovered the following lost letter from the apostle Paul.

Paul, a servant of God who enjoys the status of education and Roman citizenship in the eyes of the world, but who finds his greatest worth as a child of the Father, chosen and beloved long before I could claim to have achieved this identity, and who is driven by the spirit of Christ within me to live as a citizen of his kingdom and to proclaim the joy of the good news of the redeeming love of Christ Jesus to a distracted and fault-finding world: to the church that seeks follows and enjoys his will, greetings.

I thank God every time I remember you in my prayers for the deep compassion you embody, not only within your fellowship but with all those in need whom you encounter.  I thank God for your generosity that is aroused in times of need, and for the joyful cooperative spirit you share as you work together in the name of Christ. Many lives far beyond the reach of your fellowship have experience the love, hope, and encouragement of God because of you.

The call of God the Father upon us all exceeds the imagination of any human mind. The exhortation of the Spirit upon our hearts seeks even greater compassion and engagement than we could know from our own sinful nature. And the actions of Christ Jesus are not limited to the deeds recorded in the Scriptures, but continue to move the mission of us, his beloved body.

For Christ did not set for us the example of a comfortable devotion marked by personal prayer, weekly gathering, and care for those close to us and similar to us. As commendable as these things may be, they are only the beginning. Your piety must lead you to action. Your awareness of needs that are close to home must drive you to seek out those whom no one considers to be close to them. Your study of my teaching must grow legs to carry you into a broken world so beloved by God that he left the glory of heaven to bring healing. And that healing comes almost always through his work mediated by the church he has established.

Look up from what is comfortable to see the uncomfortable path that God has opened before you. For God has not called you to a life of complacent worship and fellowship. He has already equipped you with all you need to be a beacon in the world, not only in in your community but wherever sinfulness and unrighteousness, injustice and impoverishment still dominate the lives of those whom Christ wills to share the blessings of new life.

Open yourself to the leading of the Spirit.  Do not be controlled by your sense of inadequacy, for all the riches and power of Christ are yours. Focus your attention not upon what cannot be done, but upon what God calls you to do. As you act in faith, he will accompany and empower all that you do in his name.

I commend to you my brother Peter, who carries this letter to you. Listen to what he teaches, but always with an awareness of his own imperfect understanding of The Way. Challenge one another as you progress more and more to the perfect knowledge and practice of the way of Jesus Christ, which will be realized on the day we will all encounter him face to face.

Greet one another with a holy hug or handshake.

Stronger Than You Think

To paraphrase the classic children’s song, “We are weak, but He is strong.”  We can never outgrow those words and the message behind them.  We never truly experience the power of God’s work in our lives until we acknowledge our weakness.  Otherwise, we keep pushing God out of the way and try to take control ourselves.  Once we abandon our prideful conceit that we have what it takes to manage our lives, we have opened ourselves for his power to work within us.  As Paul told his friends when he struggled with an infirmity in his life, “His power is made perfect in my weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

It is God who makes the sun rise, not us.  It is God who guides the course of planets and nations.  When we try to take matters into our own hands, we generally make a mess of it all, and eventually ask the Lord in humility to clean it up for us.  “Let go and let God,” as the old saying goes.  Don’t try to do for yourself what is ultimately in God’s hands.  Surrender your life to him.  Put yourself in his hands.  “Trust in the Lord, and lean not on your own understanding,” as Proverbs puts it (3:5).  We would all do well to live by these words

Perhaps, however, at times we learn the lesson too well.  While it is true that we depend upon the Lord for all things, and ultimately are powerless over the affairs of our lives, this does not mean that we should sit back helplessly and await God’s activity.  God will act; have no doubt about that.  But how?

I’m convinced that God prefers to act through his people.  He works his power by bestowing it upon the faithful, who then act in God’s name to do incredible things that no human on their own would be capable of.  It may be a great societal injustice, or a character flaw within themselves.  God could use them to turn their community upside-down, or to bring hope to a single person.

If you look at what God has placed before, and if you have heard his call to do something about it, you have several choices.  You can laugh at God and how absurd his plans are.  You can look around you for someone else to take care of it.  You can collapse in a pile of despair and depression, overwhelmed by the impossible.

Or, you can stand up.  You can claim the ability and the strength that God is giving you.  You can look the situation straight in the eye, and know that you can handle it with the Lord’s power at work in you.

Don’t ever hide behind the excuse that “I’m only human.”  You are a child of God.  He has given you, and all of us, responsibility to change the world, to change the lives of people around you, and perhaps most difficult of all, change yourself.

Yes.  We are weak and he is strong.  But that is not an excuse to hide behind.  It is a reminder that our weakness is irrelevant when we accept the strength he gives to us.

Helpful Suggestion or Harmful Criticism?

Years ago I learned something about myself that I try (sometimes successfully) to keep in mind.  When I talk with someone about plans they have or what they have done, I tend to focus on how they could improve it.  In my mind, I think I am suggesting how they can make something good even better.  Unfortunately, what they hear is criticism about what I think went wrong.  I’ve learned that people can hear my comments in the way that I intend if I begin by telling them what I appreciate about their work.  It’s best when I remember that the good quality of their efforts may not be as obvious to them as it is to me.  And I’ve learned that broad comments such as “You did a great job!” aren’t as meaningful as pointing specifics about what they did well.

I realized I still have a lot of work to do on this issue when I met with our student pastor recently to talk about a sermon he had preached.  He did an amazing job in so many ways, and the congregation members had nothing but good things to say about it.  But my brain automatically went to how his good sermon could have been even better.  I was surprised and saddened when I found out he had been dreading our conversation for that very reason.  I still have a lot of work to do in this department.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m alone in this endeavor.  Our church’s theme is “Encourage one another and build each other up,” but too often we discourage one another and tear each other down.  I know about comments that I believe people made with the best of intentions, but stung the recipient.  Some of the faithful servants in our church have confided in me about the criticisms they have received about their work, which sometimes even led them to question if they should continue in their labors.  I know of others in our congregation who choose not to get involved in the work of the church for fear that someone will criticize what they are doing.

Perhaps sometimes you may believe that a fellow church member is hurting our congregation by what they are doing.  If so, please put thought into how you can express your concern in a way that honors the value and worth of that person.

Other times, you have an idea about how their service in our church could improve.  Your thoughts may be exactly what we need to hear.  When you voice them, however, please be sure first to tell the person that you appreciate their efforts, and give specific examples.  Your words will more likely then be heard as an encouraging suggestion, rather than a discouraging put-down.

God often speaks to us through the voice of others.  You have the amazing opportunity to remind fellow members of your church family about the Lord’s great love for them, and the pleasure he finds in what they in his name, and the devotion they express in their service.  Your words of encouragement may be exactly what a struggling brother or sister needs to hear.

Are You an Ox or a Sheep?

Are you an ox or a sheep?  People in ancient times knew a lot about both of these critters, but these days they’re not as familiar to most of us.  However, they offer two different ways to understanding who we are, and how we can relate to God.

Sheep are led and fed; the shepherd guides and cares for them.  In return, they provide fleece, which becomes good sturdy and warm woolen clothing.  The sheep grow their wool without any effort and stress.  They simply go about their merry way under the care of the shepherd, and the wool comes naturally.  Research shows that sheep who are well fed and cared-for produce superior fleece.  And the sheep do it without any work of skill of their own.  It’s all up to the one who takes care of them.

Today’s dairy cattle live similarly to the sheep of ancient times.  The farmer monitors and manages their feed and living conditions, and the cows produce their milk naturally.  Good milk production comes not from the cows’ efforts or exertion, but from what the farmer does to care for them.

Oxen, on the other hand, are whipped and worked.  In the olden days, the ox was everyone’s powerhouse: pulling the plow, threshing the grain, powering the mill.  The ox driver pushed them to strain themselves and give their maximum effort to be productive.  Any rest the oxen received was simply so they could be more effective for their labor the next day.  The oxen endured difficult lives of hard work.  There were no green pastures for them; only the yoke and the stall.  The Bible frequently mentions the ox yoke as a symbol of oppression and punishment (for example, Exodus 6:6-7, 1 Kings 12:13-14, Jeremiah 27-28, and Galatians 5:1).

Scripture tells us that Jesus is our Good Shepherd (John 10:11), and we are sheep of his pasture (Psalm 100:3).  God did not intend for us to live like oxen; such an existence came from a life lived far away from him and his good plan for us all.

When we recognize God’s love and power in our lives, it is normal and healthy for us to want to respond by giving him our very best.  But the Lord is our shepherd (Psalm 23:1),who makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us to still waters.  He is not our harsh ox driver, driving us with whips and goads. The more closely we follow him and receive what he offers for us, the more fulfilling and blessed our lives become.  And what we offer to him in return flows as naturally from who we are as fleece grows on a sheep. 

God leads and feeds us.  As we follow him and receive what he offers, what we offer to him in return flows naturally from our lives.  Our service and devotion to him is not compelled with harsh discipline; it is rather an effortless response that flows from within.  For this reason, we discover joy instead of drudgery when we follow God’s leading, whether it is to care for those in need, express our faith to the curious, or act for justice.