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Let Them Be! — Part 2

Let Them Be! — Part 2

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I am grateful to Shirley Duncanson who, in a comment on my original post, provided links to news articles by CNN, Slate, and the Washington Post that give broader context to the situation with the Cottage Grove campus of Grove United Methodist Church as well as a link to a letter sent by Grove’s lead pastor, Dan Wetterstrom, to the people of both congregations of the yoked church. You may read his full letter here.

I am grateful for the greater clarity provided by the letter and by the in depth reporting, nevertheless, my primary objection remains. For the sake of a church that may come to be, Methodist officials are prepared to sacrifice a church that is. The “re-launch” of the Cottage Grove congregation will mean closing the church as it is and starting over. Current members will — eventually — be welcome to worship at the “new” church, but “Wetterstrom did say that the current members who simply want to attend worship at Cottage Grove are encouraged to wait 15 to 18 months to return.”

Why encouraged to stay away for up to eighteen months? Surely because the Methodist leadership wants to allow time to ensure that a “new” culture takes root in the church, and that the existing culture — patterns of worship, congregational leadership, social interaction — are erased. Because in their view, this culture has failed. Wetterstrom again …

The town of Cottage Grove is not a dwindling rural outpost. It is a fast-developing suburb of the Twin Cities, expected to grow in population by more than 20 percent in the next 20 years. By definition, a church in a setting like that is failing if it is not attracting any of its new neighbors.

Is failing. Cottage Grove is failing because it is not adding more people. William Willimon, a United Methodist bishop and well-known author and speaker, is cited by the Slate article …

Willimon, who has made his own similar decisions to close and relaunch struggling churches, said that accusations of age discrimination paint the church’s last remaining members as victims. But he views younger people in the community as victims, too, because they do not have a church that meets their needs. Meanwhile, he said, the United Methodist Church has effectively been subsidizing a small weekly gathering of friends.

It is hard to say otherwise than that the decision is a matter of numbers: bodies and money. The church as it is is failing because it is not attracting greater numbers and it is not “paying its own way.” Now I do understand the desire to renew and grow the church and I do appreciate the mission of the church “to make disciples of Jesus Christ” too among the many newer residents of Cottage Grove not presently served by the church. But I question the way this “re-launch” is being handled.

Current members of Cottage Grove are being invited to serve on a transition team, but they were not permitted prior consultation or vote in the decision itself. And they are being asked to stay away for eighteen months! Jim Baker, the church founder and still member of the church says …

It was a bolt from the blue, handed down from on high and very shocking to the current members. The congregation was eager and totally open to a new approach, and particularly to [the idea of] a new minister [being] appointed or to start[ing] a renewal process. But they really wanted to be included in that.

He continues …

If the policy is to go into these ‘dying’ congregations and clean them out to make way for new blood, that’s really not very kind, and I think it’s counterproductive.

“Dying” merits the quotation marks, because though the present Cottage Grove congregation is small and elderly, it is very much alive. In Baker’s words, it is “tightknit, loving, and committed.” Yes, there may come a day when it must close its doors, but in the meantime, the church is being church.

In my opinion, this is the crux of the issue: What is church? Is the church an idea, an ideal, an imagined notion of what a church in Cottage Grove “should” look like? Or is the church not an idea or an ideal, but the people, the people who are there, the people who gather week by week, worshipping God and serving each other and praying for the world? The measure of a church is not growth, but faithfulness, and my faith tells me that God honors and rewards faithfulness, that God is blessing and will bless the folks of the Cottage Grove church as it is.

And the leadership of the United Methodist Church would do well to acknowledge and honor that faithfulness, too, not so easily terminating and disregarding this faithful and beloved community, but supporting them and encouraging them and working with them to be the church God is calling them — and us — to be. Disciples will be made, not by remodeling worship spaces and updating liturgies, but by faithfulness itself in action.

For God’s Sake, Let Them Be!

For God’s Sake, Let Them Be!

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It’s hard for me to be charitable about this …

Struggling Minnesota Church Asks Older Members to Go Away

For the sake of a church that may or may not come to be, Methodist officials are prepared to sacrifice a church that is. Because? Because growth is good. Because bigger is better. Because numbers matter. “Cottage Grove is growing quickly and the church should be growing with it.”

“Should.” “Should” implies judgment. “Should” implies that if Grove United Methodist Church is not growing it has failed.

So many questions beg to be asked! What does growth mean? More people? More money? Or growing in faithfulness? Growing in love? Growing in understanding of who God is and what it means to love God?

What does church mean and what is church for? Does the church exist to aggrandize itself? Is growth, numerical growth, an end in itself, the proper mission of the church? Or does the church exist to love God and love neighbor and serve the world?

Grove United Methodist Church has not failed! The church has a regular and steady attendance of twenty-five: twenty-five men and women and children created in the image of God, twenty-five children and women and men that matter, twenty-five women and children and men that are growing in faith and in faithfulness.

For seven years, church members have been preaching week by week because Methodist officials will no longer pay for a minister. They are doing ministry — not merely an “audience” but active participants, grappling themselves with the meaning of following Jesus and leading themselves in offering God thanksgiving and praise.

And they love each other. Jon Knapp, who along with his wife Stella, are the youngest church members and only family bringing children to church says: “This church is very kind to us and our children.” Stella says that if the church “re-start” comes to fruition, if the current older members are asked to stay away while the church makes it its sole aim to attract a younger crowd, “I wouldn’t come here anymore.” Because the people she loves, the people who love her, would be gone. Because it wouldn’t be church anymore.

And because it will have failed its purpose. “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world,” the apostle Paul urged the Roman church of his day. But that is exactly what the Methodist leadership in Minneapolis has done. They have adopted the standards of this world, this economy, this culture. They have bought into the lie that bigger always means better, that institutions that are not expanding are failing, that if the population of Cottage Grove is growing, then, for God’s sake, we have to keep up.

For God’s sake — I mean this quite literally — for God’s sake, leave God’s church be! Let them be the church: loving God, loving each other, serving the world. Let them reflect not some data driven idea of what the “successful” church “should” look like, but the kind of church God intends, the church made up of the two or three, or ten or twenty-five whoevers that gather in Jesus’ name.

Jesus is there with them. He said he would be. And it just may be that when those old folks are asked to leave, Jesus may leave with them!

Chosen

Chosen

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I was invited to lead worship again this morning at the Deer Isle/Sunset Congregational Church as their pastor is out of state until Thursday. This was my sermon for this second Sunday of Christmas …

So, how many of you ever listen to EDM?  How many of you even know what EDM is?  EDM is electronic dance music, a musical genre characterized by strong rhythms, lavish electronic orchestrations, ethereal vocals, and cosmic themes.  I first heard of EDM about a year or so ago when I discovered an artist whose music I instantly liked by the name of Laura Brehm.

Laura Brehm does some beautiful singer-songwriter stuff of her own, but also regularly puts out EDM recordings in collaboration with other artists.  Just this week, I was listening again to a song she released about ten months ago with Anna Yvette and a German dance music composer and producer who goes by the name, The Fat Rat.  The song is entitled, “Chosen,” and these are the lyrics …

Greetings chosen
I’ve been waiting here for you
Since the beginning of this universe
You know the world is fading
There’s a secret power hidden in your soul
Don’t be afraid to use it
‘Cause you’re the one

You’re the one
You’re the chosen one

There are voices in your head
Saying that you’re a failure, misfit
You’re not good enough but you know
That’s not true
There is a secret power hidden in your soul
Don’t be afraid to use it
‘Cause you’re the one

You’re the one
You’re the chosen one

See what I mean about cosmic themes?

I’ve been waiting here for you
Since the beginning of this universe

The song taps into an enduring and powerful motif in our human story: the chosen one, the “reluctant hero,” the one born into a particular time and a particular place to fulfill a very particular and world-changing purpose, the one chosen but reluctant and hesitant, feeling not good enough, feeling unworthy, unready, not up to the task.

The reluctant hero must learn to accept and embrace their calling and commit themselves to a purpose much bigger than themselves.  Think of Luke Skywalker or Katniss Everdeen or young Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone.

Or think of Moses.  “I am nobody.  How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  Moses was right, at partly right, because the reluctant hero is no hero at all, but simply one chosen, one chosen to fulfill a timely and vital role, not so much hero as servant, serving the plans and purposes of something far beyond themselves, or of Someone far greater than themselves.

We are waiting for such a hero, for such a servant, a chosen one who will not be too afraid to use the power planted in them to rescue this fading world.  This new year, 2020, is an election year in the United States.  Did you know that?  To be honest, I think that’s what so many of us are looking for, for one who will emerge from the crowd of career politicians and self-important candidates to claim the mantle of the one chosen for this time, one who will lead us out of our malaise and divisiveness, one who will help us reclaim our identity as a people united by higher principles and our destiny as a harbor of liberty and justice for all.

But you will not find such a candidate.  Even though some may have been anointed by their followers as the chosen one, it is simply not true.  I know that for a fact, because I know who the chosen one is.  I know who the one is we have been waiting for, the one born into this time and this place with a cosmic purpose.  It’s you.  You’re the one.  You’re the chosen one.

Or, I should say, we are.  We are the ones we have been waiting for.  We are the chosen ones: “Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us.”  Do you need to hear that again?  “Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us!”

How does that make you feel?  Reluctant, hesitant, not ready, not worthy?  But think of what it means!  To be chosen!  By God!  From the very beginning!  It means our lives have meaning … for this time.  Our lives have purpose … for this time.  We are called to serve God’s purpose … in this time.  We are chosen.

Being chosen means being blessed.  “In our union with Christ, God has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing.”  It’s right there on our banner: “Enjoy this life.”  We can enjoy this life because we are blessed.  Regardless of the course of our lives, regardless of any hardship or trouble or loss, we may have joy in this life because we have the blessing of being chosen by God to belong, to belong to him, to be made God’s own children in union with Christ, and “there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from God’s love which is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

But we are blessed to be a blessing.  We are chosen to fulfill a purpose, God’s own purpose.  And that’s all about the rest of our banner: protect the environment, care for the poor, forgive often, reject racism, fight for the powerless, share earthly and spiritual resources, embrace diversity, love God.   Be the church!

You see, being chosen isn’t a matter of being pulled aside from the rest of humanity to be given some seat of honor, some special status.  Being chosen is a matter of being given a task, of being offered the role of a servant.  We are chosen by God in this time and in this place … to be the church!

You’re the one.  You’re the chosen one.  There is a secret power hidden in your soul.  Don’t be afraid to use it.

Paul declares: “God made known to us the secret plan God had already decided to complete by means of Christ.”  Our secret is knowing God’s secret.  And what is God’s secret plan?  God’s secret plan is “to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.”

But why is it a secret?  Because no one would guess it.  So much of human history, so much of our own history, is about pulling things down and tearing things apart, about getting ahead of them, about protecting ourselves from them, about overcoming, about defeating, about separating the good from the bad, friend from enemy, mine from yours.  Who would guess that God’s plan is not about any victory of God’s people over their enemies, not about separating sheep from goats, but about bringing sheep and goats together, about bringing all creation together? 

This is what we are chosen for.  In union with Christ, we are chosen for this time and in this place to play our part in Christ’s task of bringing all creation together.  Every time we share what we have, every time we care for a neighbor, every time we forgive our enemies and pray for our enemies and love our enemies, every time we embrace a stranger, every time we do whatever we can to heal the earth’s wounds and nurture its health, every time we refuse to divide people into us and them, we fulfill our calling.

But every time we divide the world into us and them, every time we judge and condemn, every time we are care-less with what we have and with our earthly home, every time we refuse to share not only what we have but also who we are, we betray our calling, we work in direct opposition to God’s purpose which is to bring all creation together.

Sometimes I wonder …  If we just read our Bibles, if we just listened carefully: “God has chosen us to be his in union with Christ … and has made known to us his plan to bring all creation together.”  If we just listened …  Would we still be so divided: evangelicals from progressives, conservatives from liberals, evangelicals divided among themselves, Methodists divided among themselves?  Would we still argue about what it is that matters most?  Just listen!  Jesus already told us what matters most.  Jesus already told us the key to bringing all creation together: “Love God with all your heart and mind and strength, and love your neighbor, just as you love yourself.”

It’s that clear.  It’s that simple.  And when we try to make it more complicated, when we are divided even among ourselves, we fail our calling, we fail to be the church.

You’re the one.  You’re the chosen one.  You know the world is fading, but there’s a secret power hidden in your soul.  Don’t be afraid to use it, ’cause you’re the one.  You are chosen by God for times like these.  Embrace your calling!  Be the church!  We are the ones we have been waiting for!

A Place to Call Home

A Place to Call Home

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From one of my favorite poets and good friend, David Walters, a poem written while ministering some years ago to a small New England congregation …

A Place to Call Home
In New Hampshire’s Baker River Valley a small country church
Brims with friendly people who savor common sense,
Neighbors ready to laugh or share a garden’s bounty with another,
Surrounded by big churches preaching hell-fire and damnation.
At Sunday services with the gathering of its faithful people,
He arrives early and waits, rain, shine or bitter snow storm,
Finds his favorite spot as he rests in the center aisle,
Like the church he’s brown and a friendlier dog can’t be found!
Greets those arriving as he wags his busy tail,
Dreams peacefully through sermon and liturgy,
Doesn’t mind if you scratch his ears, demands nothing,
Helps visitors or those hurting know they’re invited!
Furry, breathing parable who lives at the bottom of the hill,
Brings us gentle calm, soothing weary bodies and spirits,
He knows he’s loved and loves right back,
We leave assured of a home in heaven’s mansions.

david walters

David shared this poem with the national office of the United Church of Christ in response to a request for stories about local church life and they made a video of his poem! You may view the video here:

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Dancing to the music

Dancing to the music

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From Steven Hayward’s sermon this morning at St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church, quoting a friend and colleague …

Hope is like hearing the music of the future … and faith is dancing to the music.

Worship as protest

Worship as protest

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For many years, it was my job to go to church. But now that I am retired from active ministry, I still make the choice to get up on a Sunday morning, as many of you do, put on some decent clothes, as many of you do, and go to church, as many of you do.

There are a variety of reasons we choose to go: for the experience of community, to see friends, for comfort, for edification, out of a sense of duty, out of a desire to express to God, to demonstrate to God, our gratitude. And by going, we serve a variety of purposes: maintaining an institution that serves us and the public, nurturing and strengthening that sense of community that we desire and so many need, helping to motivate and mobilize our communal mission, and honoring God, simply honoring God by our worship.

But as I drove home from church on Deer Isle a couple of Sundays ago, I thought that, regardless of what I might get or of what I might give, the simple act of going to church, by itself, is a powerful act, an act of protest.

Worship is an act of protest, an act of civil disobedience, protesting, disobeying, defying the “rules,” the laws, written and unwritten, that form the basis of accepted social norms and expectations: more is better, stronger is safer, the will of the majority is primary.

When we go to church, we go to hear and to declare allegiance to a gospel that turns these norms upside down! We declare that our love for God, our allegiance to God, supersedes all other loves, all other allegiances: to party, to creed, to nation, and even to family. We will do will of God, not the will of the people, not bend to the pressure of popular opinion or pledge allegiance before all else to a flag or a president.

We declare that one matters, any one, even the tiniest, weakest, poorest, sickest, “most expendable,” even the one who is our enemy. Especially the tiniest, weakest, poorest, sickest, “most expendable.” Especially the one who is our enemy.

And we declare that power, true power, is manifested, not by overcoming, but by serving, not by securing borders, but by welcoming the stranger, not by protecting our future (as if we could!) but by taking risks to live fully in the present.

We live in a tumultuous and perplexing and scary time, in a world torn apart by division and conflict, by accusation and recrimination, by bitterness and fear, all seemingly ruled by the law of self-protection, self-actualization, self-aggrandizement, self-entitlement. When we go to church, we register our protest. We say, “No!” There is a better way to be. There is a better world, envisioned in God’s imagination and now in ours, a world that not only could be, but will be.

Your will be done! Your kingdom come!

So help me, God

So help me, God

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Robert Kraft, George Pell, Donald Trump. Three men at the height of their powers, having reached the pinnacle of their professions. The owner of one of the most storied sports franchises, the third highest official of the Roman Catholic Church, the president of the United States. Three men called to represent the best of the worlds of business and government and the church. And three men in the last few days all credibly accused, and in one case convicted, of sexual exploitation of vulnerable persons.

It is alarming. We expect better from those who should, by all rights, command our deepest honor and respect. I am a Patriots fan, a fan of the team the Robert Kraft has built, a fan of the way this team wins, by utilizing every player, by motivating every player from one to fifty-three to fulfill their particular role. The reports of Kraft’s solicitation of sexual favors from likely victims of human trafficking are embarrassing, shameful, baffling, disgusting.

George Pell is supposed to represent Jesus, my Jesus, the protector of the poor and vulnerable, the bearer of mercy and grace, but instead he is the newest face of the deepest failures of the church of Jesus Christ. He makes gospel a lie by his actions. May God have mercy on us, on all those whom he has hurt and all those whose faith he has undermined. And may God have mercy on him.

The news of a campaign worker’s accusations of an unwanted kiss from Donald Trump doesn’t command much attention, because that’s the kind of behavior we have come to expect of him. He has bragged of his power to take what he wants from whomever he wants whenever he wants. And we hardly bat an eye …

It makes me tremble. I tremble at the frailty of the human condition. Exploitation, deceit, hypocrisy, selfishness, callousness are rampant. And, if we are honest, the seeds of all of these things, if not the fruit, are in all of us.

It brings me grief, great grief, because there seem so few who can honestly command our honor and respect, so few among who should be the archetypes of human accomplishment who genuinely model fidelity or integrity or selflessness or righteousness, which is simply to say, doing the right thing because it is the right thing.

We cannot expect our icons to be perfect. We are all equally human, all of us equally fragile in heart and will, in our ability to choose always what is best, to do always what is right. Which is why the most essential of human virtues for any of us, president or school teacher, entrepreneur or soldier, priest or convenience store clerk, is humility.

Humility means knowing what and who we are, acknowledging and admitting our frailty, acknowledging and admitting that we need help, that each of us need help, in being and becoming who we are meant to be as human beings, help from each other and help from God. “So help me, God” is not an oath, but a plea, a heartfelt plea for God to guide and strengthen, and, when we fall short, to forgive.

Film Review: “First Reformed”

Film Review: “First Reformed”

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I watched “First Reformed” last evening, the 2017 film written and directed by Paul Schrader.  Actually I only watched about an hour of the movie, then turned it off and returned it to its Netflix envelope. So I don’t know what becomes of Rev. Toller or what transpires at the celebration of the 250th anniversary of First Reformed, but I can guess.

I turned it off because the film disturbed me, and not in a good way. I like movies that disturb me, in a good way, movies that provoke a struggle of thought and emotion, movies that challenge or reframe my way of thinking about the world and myself.

I was eager to see “First Reformed” because I expected it to be that kind of movie. I expected to see a nuanced portrait of a minister in crisis, struggling with the relevance and efficacy and authenticity of the faith, of the God, to which and to whom he was called to witness.

But there was no nuance here, no faith, and no God. Rev. Toller is an empty man, empty of any meaningful relationships, empty of meaning in his ministry, and empty of faith. He does not pray, but journals, substituting that as a kind of prayer, since he cannot pray. But his journaling is narrow in scope, little more than a diary, focussed entirely on himself. He does not invite God in or open his life up for examination as another soul searching for the place of God in this world did: “Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way.”

But what disturbed me most about the film, as a minister, was its caricatured portrayal of ministry. At every point, the possibility of the presence of authentic faith, of genuine seeking after God, was undercut. The teenaged singer rehearsing a praise song with the Abundant Life choir tries to “feel up” the girl standing in front of him. The female director has slept with Rev. Toller and now is crazy to have him. The pastor of the “big box” Abundant Life church jokes that Martin Luther wrote “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” while pooping. And his televised devotional is canned, cliched, overproduced.

Ministry itself is assumed to be inauthentic, self-serving, a sham, a scam. Nobody really believes in what they are doing. That is not to say that much of what pretends to be ministry today is not inauthentic, self-serving, a sham, a scam, because much is. But it can only be shown as such in contrast to a kind of ministry that is authentic, humble, sincere in its desire to help and to serve … and to be faithful and accountable to God.

But here there is no contrast.  Ministry itself is no more than showmanship and the church either a soundstage (Abundant Life) or a museum (First Reformed). And the only way to find meaning is to escape (or destroy) the church and to abandon even any attempt at faith.

I can imagine a film beginning in the same place with the same people in the same circumstances as this film and telling an entirely different story.  I wish “First Reformed” had been that film …