Toolbox For Faith

I was recently talking with a woman who has received new job responsibilities thanks to changes in staffing at her company.  The individual is more than capable of accomplishing the new tasks and really isn’t all that upset that the new responsibilities have not been accompanied by a raise in pay.  What has been tough for her is the fact that she is no longer able to accomplish everything that needs to be done by the end of the day.  For years, the end of each day was accompanied by a sense of completion.  The day’s tasks were done.  Things were put away.  Tomorrow would be a new day.  Now when her workday ends, there are always four or five things yet to be completed that will be waiting for her tomorrow.

As I listened to her talk, it occurred to me that she was describing ministry perfectly.  There are always more things to be done.  There are always more people to visit.  There are always bulletins, Sunday School lessons and sermons to be written.  To me, and I think to most people in ministry, this is normal.   There are very few neat and clean endings to the day where everything is accomplished and put away.  In response to these constant possibilities for ministry, I have found it helpful to learn the phrase - “enough for today”.  I don’t every try to accomplish everything.  I simply try to do what needs to be done, what I’m inspired to do and then to take satisfaction in what is accomplished.  Will there be more to do tomorrow?  Yes, of course there will be.  Will there be things that didn’t get done on a particular day?  Yes, of course there will be, but when I focus on accomplishing “enough for today,” I find that it helps me to discover a sense of balance and accomplishment in the midst of a never ending stream of tasks that I want to undertake.

For additional thoughts on how to balance the time demands of ministry, take a look at a recent post by Landson Whitsitt.  He has some interesting thoughts on the topic: http://landonwhitsitt.com/2012/12/08/the-8020-rule-or-how-to-be-a-pastor-in-8-10-hours-a-week/.

The little boy playing the innkeeper in the Sunday School Christmas Pageant knew the correct line but couldn’t stand to turn Mary and Joseph away.  When Joseph asked if there was any room in the inn, the little boy adlibbed, “Sure, come right on in.”

We echo the words of the little boy when we invite people to church and say, “Come right on in.” Yet, many do not accept the invitation and even when they do, many do not return.   That is why I was intrigued by the article by David Hansen in the December 2012 issue of The Lutheran entitled “Why don’t people come to church?”

The author’s conclusion is:  “The No. 1 thing that keeps people away from the church is the people who are in the church.”  He says that “programs are at the bottom of the list for why people don’t come to church.  One step above that are questions of preference and style.  But far and away, the top of the list is dominated by the behavior of people who bear the name of Jesus.”

One helpful thing that I learned when I studied Celtic Spirituality during our trip to Northern Ireland is their great emphasis on hospitality.  They placed the importance on the other person and how to help them as they walked the journey of life and faith.

When I go home from the church where I am serving as interim,  I pass by a church sign that says, “Worship with us.”  That bothers me because the phrase implies there are two groups—the insiders and the new person coming to worship with them.   So often, what we do with people who walk in the door is to tell them what we are doing and expect them to fit our mold.

Unless we restructure our thinking, our words will make people feel that they are not welcome so they do not come back even though there is plenty of room in the inn(side).  I am convinced that all churches are friendly—to those who are on the inside.   Celtic spirituality helped me to move from being friendly to true hospitality.  True hospitality thinks first about the new person and their needs rather than trying to sell people on the programs at our church.  That is much more than simply being friendly.  We must take time to let the other person tell their story and for us to listen carefully with ears of compassion and grace.  We are then welcoming a child of God into God’s family rather than selling them on all the wonderful programs that we have.   Our vision then moves from what we are doing to how can we help people all around us so that they feel welcome in the inn(side).  

Of all the sentences in the recent blog that I wrote about benchmarks, this one attracted the most attention–to my complete surprise.

“When we are making a difference for our Lord in our congregation and our community, we become united.”

The challenged word was “united” and the responses that came to my email box were all about “unity.” The writers lamented the lack of unity in the church. My emphasis that unity comes as a congregation does mission and ministry was completely lost.

I had almost forgotten about it until I read a line in the local newspaper on Sunday afternoon. “We should strive for unity, not uniformity.”

“That’s it,” I said aloud to the football game on TV. “That’s it.”

The people who had written me were defining unity as uniformity. My impasse was that I had never associated unity with uniformity. I was thinking unity with diversity where different people unite for a mission rather than unity which comes about because everyone was the same. When I checked the dictionary definition of unity, I discovered to my surprise that I had not been considering the third one listed which defined unity as the absence of diversity.

All of this has given me a clearer understanding of the Acts of the Apostles that we are studying in our Sunday School Class. I had been emphasizing how in Acts, the unity came from the Holy Spirit as the first followers of Jesus felt the power and guidance of God. In our discussions, I discovered that the class did not understand unity the way that I did. Their responses make sense now that I know they were thinking uniformity when I said unity. We were using the same word in two different ways.

A great example will be next week when we will read from Acts 10:45 in The Message:
“The believing Jews who had come with Peter couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on “outsider” non-Jews…”

The blindness of the believing Jews with Peter was uniformity—all should be the same with no “outsiders.” The Acts of the Apostles teaches me that unity comes in the mission and ministry they received from Jesus. Never once does it indicate that we must all be the same.

Unity with diversity allows each person to be whom God created while unity without diversity seems to be artificial because we are not all the same.

I have learned an important lesson–I have to explain what unity means to me when I discuss it.

In a previous time, I believe that people came to worship, learned about God, and then explored ways to put their faith into action.  Today, I think many people have a yearning to make a difference in the world, so they begin serving and helping.  Through their service, they begin to ask questions about God and eventually come to worship, Bible Study or a small group to discover more about who God is and what God can mean for their life.

The implication of this shift for congregations is clear.  If you want to help under-church, un-churched, never-church or dis-churched people connect to God or grow in their relationship with God, don’t plan another “Bring a Friend to Church” Sunday, develop and implement a ministry in the community which delivers effective, meaningful compassion, help and hope.   By living out your faith in action, you will not only be following the example of Jesus, but you will be opening the door for someone to discover the love of God in their life.

Micah’s Soup for Seniors

What does the Lord require, but to do justice,

to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.

- Micah 6:8

Micah’s Soup for Seniors is a feeding ministry for low-income senior adults designed to provide a food bridge at the end of the month to help reduce hunger among this vulnerable population.  On the fourth Tuesday of the month, volunteers deliver bags of food which contain food items like soup, saltines, instant oatmeal, applesauce, and canned vegetables.  In addition to providing food, Micah’s Soup for Seniors also provides socialization and client choice through a monthly menu.  When a senior receives a bag of food, they fill out a menu for the next month.  The menu provides a place for the senior’s name and other contact information, allows for input on future food and gives volunteers the chance to check in with the seniors.

What a Tuesday looks like . . .

Volunteers gather at 5 PM at the church to prepare bags.  The food is placed on tables and volunteers are give an individual’s completed menu.  The volunteer then uses that menu as a guide to fill a plastic grocery bag (doubled) with the items on the menu.  Once the bag is complete, it is tied and the menu is stapled to the bag.  Typically, we fill additional bags to be distributed to new participants.

By 5:45 PM, cars are loaded with volunteers and food.  By 6 PM, we arrive at the three low-income housing buildings where the distribution takes place. Teams of up to six people are responsible for distributing food and working with the residents at each building.  Typically, all the food is distributed by 6:30 PM.

Leading up to the distribution . . .

During the month between distributions, volunteers review the menus to prepare a list of items needed for the next distribution.  Once the list is prepared, then volunteers review the amount of food received through food drives to prepare a shopping list.  Currently we work with Feeding America and Sam’s to purchase food which has not been donated.  The menu for the next month is prepared.  While the menu is the same at all three buildings, it is copied onto three different colors of paper to make it easier to sort the bags after packing.

Monthly Cost structure . . .

The goal is to keep the cost of each bag below $10.  Since we provide choice and some participants do not select the maximum amount of food, the average cost per bag will be less than $10.  Since Micah’s Soup for Seniors is still relatively new, there is not currently enough data to get exact costs.

Start-Up Costs . . .

The start-up costs were extremely small.  We purchased nametags for the volunteers to wear during packing and distribution and clipboards to make it easier to fill out the menus.  Because of the menu system, Micah’s Soup for Seniors tends to only keep the food need for each month on-hand, so most of the storage is short-term and no new shelving was needed.  The church provided the copies and copier paper needed for brochures and menus.

Partnerships . . .

Micah’s Soup for Seniors is sponsored by St. Michael Lutheran Church and has initial partnerships with Warm Hearth, a local senior community, AARP, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, The Blacksburg Sports Club and the Community Service Learning Class at Virginia Tech, plus individuals from the congregation and the community.  The partners provide volunteers, financial support and conduct food drives.  Micah’s Soup for Seniors is a part of  Micah’s Caring Initiative which sponsors feeding ministries in the Blacksburg area.

A few weeks ago, I heard Mark Allen Powell say that “The mission of the church is to love Jesus Christ. Everything else is just strategy.”

Now I freely admit that I am a person who loves ‘the strategy’. The books on the self behind my desk range from Twelve Keys to an Effective Church by Kennon Callahan to Real Faith for Real Life by Mike Foss to America’s Four Gods by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader. I’ve enjoyed reading each of them. These ’strategy’ books and many others have helped me discover wonderful tips and ideas about how to live faithfully and about how I can lead the people of God as a pastor. Not every ’strategy’ book I’ve picked up, however, has proved worth reading and Powell’s observation helped me understand why. All the ’strategy’ books I’ve read the that have proved helpful have been firmly rooted in loving God and following Jesus. All the books based around a marketing gimmick fall flat for me because I am interested in growing God’s mission in the world, not simply growing an institution. As Powell points out, loving Jesus Christ is our foundation and when strategies flow from that foundation, then I think they can have real value for key leaders in ministry.

With that in mind, take a look at the bookshelf behind my desk. I’ve arranged my books like this for years, but until this morning, it never occurred to me that there might be a subtle message in the way I shelved my books.

A quick look through the hymnody of the church reminds us that people are constantly looking for images to help express God’s relationship with us and our relationship with God. To some, God provides peace like a river while for others, God is a mighty fortress and for still others, God is a beautiful savior and a king of creation. The proper images can help us quickly communicate complex ideas which can take theologians an entire book to express.

Yesterday in a Sunday School Class, I was reminded that the most helpful images often come from our current context. As our group was discussing whether or not the saying “God has a blueprint for my life” was Biblically accurate and helpful, Doug Veit suggested that in our context it would probably be far more accurate and appropriate to say, “God provides a set of specifications for a positive outcome.” Now Doug’s suggestion might seem out of place in a farming community, but in a college town with lots of scientists and engineers, “a set of specifications for a positive outcome” is an amazingly helpful image to facilitate discussion about the guidance and direction God provides for our lives.

The Gospel may be unchanging, but like the everyday images Jesus used in the parables, I am convinced that preachers and teachers need to mine their community and their context to identify images which will helpfully communicate the good news of God’s love to a constantly changing world.

During October, my congregation is helping to host a series of conversations on end of life issues.  Each session features a different topic ranging from legal issues to medical issues to grief.  During yesterday’s session, I was introduced to a resource to help individuals and families share what is important to them at the end of their lives.  The tool is a card game called: Go Wish,  During the game, you go through the cards and consider whether the statement is very important to you, important to you or not important to you.  Here are a couple of sample statements: “To Have a Doctor who knows me as a whole person”, “Not Dying Along” and “To have Human Touch”.  Given the fact that many people invest their time and energy in listing all the things that they don’t want to happen at the end of their lives, Go Wish seems like a helpful tool to encourage people to start focusing on what they want to happen at the end of their lives, too.

You can learn more about the game and play on online version at: http://gowish.org/.

George Bullard posted an interesting article last week on his blog which invites leaders to rethink how they measure participation in their congregation. Instead of simply tracking average worship attendance, Bullard suggests measuring the total number of households participating in the worship life of the congregation. Since attendance patterns and average household size have changed over the last twenty years, it is possible that you may have fewer people in worship on an average Sunday, but more total people participating in the worship life of the congregation.

Here’s an example of the type of change Bullard is seeing in his work. “First Church has decreased in weekly attendance by 35 percent in the past 20 years. The average size of the households connected with the congregation has decreased from 3.4 people to 2.6 people. Twenty years ago 147 households were present on a typical Sunday, and now 163 households are present on a typical Sunday.” Average attendance has dropped, but the reach of the congregation has actually grown over the same period of time.

Certainly there are cases when declining average worship attendance is an indication of a weak or dying congregation, but l think Bullard makes a compelling case that previously reliable statistical measures like average worship attendance and, I would suggest, membership totals, no longer provide a complete picture of the health and size of a congregation. In today’s world, total number of households present in worship or total number of active participants in the life of the congregation is probably a far more helpful statistic to track.

You can read Bullard’s complete article here: Is Attendance in Your Congregation Declining? Think Again

12 tables - each one labeled with a month of the year, 12 different birthday cakes and a wonderful lunch prepared by cooks from the congregation makes for one fantastic inter-generational fellowship event. The Birthday Dinner is an annual event at St. Michael that allows us to celebrate all the congregational birthdays at once. During the dinner, there is a brief activity to encourage conversation, a few games for kids and as you might expect, we sign “Happy Birthday”. The most exciting aspect of the day for me, however, is the seating arrangement. Instead of sitting with your family or friends, everyone is encouraged to sit with other people who share the same birthday month. If I asked people to mix up their informal small groups at a normal luncheon, I’d see very low participation, but at the Birthday Dinner everyone seems happy to move a little outside their comfort zone and sit with someone new. If you are looking for a fun fellowship meal that also successfully breaks down the barriers between people from different worship services and different small groups, I’d encourage you to give the Birthday Dinner a try.