12. Tip It Over

How do we do church if start with the idea of where we want to end?  If the purpose of the church is to be the opening act for God's kingdom among us what does that mean to our Sunday gatherings?

I enjoyed this chapter--I found it challenged me to think about not only leadership and structure but also discipleship.  Much of what was said made sense but I found myself feeling anxious about translating this into an already existing church.

What experience have you had with discipleship that grew fruit and moved a church forward in being the church in the world?                                            -Nicole

10. Another Angle

How do we as United Methodists move forward in ministry in light of where we find ourselves today?  Chapter 10 talks about various approaches, all of which I have used--

+the Attractional Approach - this is the "get the church cleaned up, update the signage and deal with the nursery" way.  This is usually important and a first step in turning a church toward vitality.

+The Incarnational Approach- this is "being the message," both as individuals and as a church.  it is the dealing with dysfunction and confusion about what it means to follow Jesus and how that looks in the everyday Christian's heart.  This is more work and more about cultural change than the attractional approach.

In this context, discipleship is discussed--how do we apprentice people, how do we create space for people to explore and belong?

One thing I have recently found is the power of asking for a big commitment.  We are not only using a covenant as part of the membership process but have found people excited about reading the whole Bible in 90 days.  In my suburban context I was thrilled to have 90+ people sign up (having 185 average worship attendance) to be part of our Bible in 90 Days--it has really pushed me to think about asking for more from people.

While this has been great, I do also have to admit that we had to cancel a very outside the box gathering that church folks could only attend if they brought someone with them who had no church.  We canceled because there was trouble finding unchurched friends.   One person said to me, "i don't know anyone in a way where I would know if they have a church----we don't ever talk about that and I don't want to."  (We will give this event another try in June, so we will see...)

So how are you living an incarnational approach to conversion?  Is there still a place for the attractional?  How do we grow as congregations in today's world --do we ask a lot or as little as possible of people?  How do we do this faithfully?

Rev. Nicole

9. Jipped

(Yes, we are back, thanks for hanging in...)

What is "the gospel"?  I think our inability to answer this question in our current context is one of the biggest issues in moving churches forward.  So, what do you think?

Our authors do a good job in exploring this in chapter 9.  "Do you think it might be possible that the primary reason Christianity in the West is in such marked decline is simply due to the fact that we don't know what the gospel is?  I know that sounds akin to telling professional basketball players that they don't know how to dribble, or a librarian that he doesn't know how to read very well..."  (page 84).  "If the gospel is what people think it is, it's no wonder that it's not worth adding church to a busy recreational weekend." (pg 88).

I'd love to hear a sentence or two from each of you about how you would describe what 'the gospel of the kingdom of God" is. Anyone willing to start?  

-Nicole

8. Paradigm

Look at the chart on page 78.


Where do you find yourself?  Where do you find the church?  


Yesterday I had a conversation with a young adult where I serve--we talked about the future of the church and the significant decisions the congregational leadership needed to make about its future.  As I was trying to express the road blocks I had experienced I mentioned that the church's DNA was one of its biggest issue.  This congregation was founded by a group of people (who are wonderful, really great people) who were nevertheless somewhat ambivalent about starting a church.  


Why?  I am thinking it has to do with the very hard and exhausting work of founding a "traditional church " (meaning a church with ordained clergy and land/buildings).  Think about it, these were folks just starting our with young families and working to get a church up and running was one more thing in a very busy life.  I also think the world is just so different than it was when the majority of our churches were started.  Knowing founding members of two churches (one 50+ years old, the other 20+ years old), I see two very different worlds.

I find this to be one of our biggest issues as we look at starting new faith communities.  I keep going back to Elaine Heath'sbook where she talks about alternative models for faith communities.  One model that struck me was a group of clergy are leaders at the church and also work other jobs.  The offering goes to mission and to support those who go to seminary so they can become prepared to lead in a local church.  I am liking this model more and more as I think about change, church and success in today's real world.
-Nicole

7. The 1,700 Year Wedgie - Reflection by DS Catie

As I have gone around to churches for Charge Conferences, I have asked the question: if something happened tomorrow to all your church buildings, would you still be ___ church?  In every case, the group gathered together says yes.  The importance of that is not that they say yes, but the experience of saying yes, because in that moment they are affirming something important about who they are and who they can become, that they are more than their buildings. 

 

I have preached from Acts 2 more than any other text.  That description of the early church community says something quite tangible about what it means to be the beloved community, that is not about where we meet but who we are.  I have been on my own journey in trying to imagine that.  Some of us are working on a project that is classified as a new church start, but it is about reaching 20 somethings, and is not defined by a place.  I find that hard, as the steward of all things tangible in the district, to imagine a ministry without imagining a place, but what a great faith journey that is!  My sons play Xbox live, and I am aware that there is a sense of community when they gather friends, old and new, to play whatever the game is of the moment.  I can hear them as they talk, and for them, they gather with people they’ve never met, by my definition of having met face to face, and yet they meet in this video community; they get to know one another on a certain level, they experience something together, and it is community.  Not the beloved community, but community, and it pushes for me on the concept “church suddenly became a place you went to instead of a people you belonged with.”  My sons both have felt they belonged with the people at church, and those ties remain even as they go off to live somewhere else; I am not always so sure how they experience God in the midst of that.

 

The book asks us to wrestle with “what are the personal tensions you are processing as the church is transitioning from the center of culture to the margins of culture?  What tensions will this cause in most churches.”  I know all about the tensions it causes in most churches, and we can either circle the wagons until the last man or woman is standing, or we can open up, change the direction we are facing, reach out from the margins into the center of culture, redefine who we are as a church or the church and look for how we can be more than our buildings. We can take seriously the community of Acts and have that help shape and define who we are, what we do, and who we become.  It may take us out of our comfort zone, actually it is guaranteed to, and pushes us to reexamine what we know to be true, and yet there are core beliefs that remain to give enough stability that it is really not all that strange.  This last Saturday, 5 or 6 churches in the SF Valley  gathered together to put together Health kits for Haiti, over 1000, and we were the beloved community in that moment together; there were people there I never exchanged names with, but we belonged.  We were “defined as a people who”, and not “a place where.”

 

Chapter 5 (part: B “Moving Forward”)

From Stan Ferguson

In Chapter 5, in the section entitled “Moving Forward,” the author talks about a pastor who left behind his large church pastorate in order to minister to a couple of families in inner city San Francisco.  Referring to this pastor as well to as his daughter said, “Such people are all humble; they don’t rely on past experience or present ministry posts to define them.”  How do we compare?  Are we eager to get to Annual Conference to compare size?  For the large church pastor friend of the author, he did not settle on the large church as his goal for life.  “He didn’t talk about church,.  Instead he kept wrestling with the Kingdom of God.”

You can pastor a large church like a high powered CEO; but if you have not loved, you are nothing.  (I Corinthians 13:14)

How many of us are willing to reduce or eliminate our compensation packages and “start all over.”  Is the large church pastor willing to go to the small church, where with the experience of the past he can help the small church of the present see the Kingdom of God?  

The concept of working out of Starbucks like a branch office to meet new people within the community is very intriguing; but for the pastor who is over extended, how likely?  For the author,  he interpreted it as a “personal quest to be able to spend time with people outside the church.”  You know the ones, tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes.  All this because he “longed for something more.”

Who knows, maybe it’s time to forget our press and read how we are to humble ourselves like Christ (Philippians 2:8)  

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
 6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
 7but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
      being made in human likeness.
 8And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
         even death on a cross! 

 

4. U-Haul

I went to my new appointment full of hope and excitement.   I felt called to this congregation and was excited about what I knew of them. 

Of course,  you know how these things go: things turned out differently than I expected.  The church was in crisis mode and had been for a while.  Leadership was unsteady.  Staff was most all gone.  Bills couldn’t be paid the month after I got there. 

But I didn’t want to see it.  Because the one thing I didn’t want to do in my next church was a revitalization.  But here it was and I was faced with the question, OK so now what am I going to do?

I share this because sometimes we think, if I go to another church things will be better there, it won’t be so hard, the hours won’t be so long and people will be more friendly.  I do understand that there are bad matches between clergy and laity but in general I am a firm believer in the idea that the best congregation you are ever going to get is the one you are in now.   So learn to love them and join with them in listening for God.

Change is brutal.  It is much easier to just do what we always have and pray there will be enough for some young pastor in 10 years to turn around.  But my sense is there won’t be and those of us who are willing need to do this work now. 

Even if you have a lot of Milos and Mittens—.(I loved that story…). 

Even if you have no idea what to do first.

Even if you don’t think you have it in you.

So….what are the essentials needed to turn the church toward relevant, life changing discipleship?  What do we need to let go of in our own ministry to put our attention on these essentials?  What will you do to care for your own soul in the midst of the hard work of change?