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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!

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!

how the church gets it backwards

how the church gets it backwards

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Jesus was always on the move.

Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest.

Jesus was always on the move, going to the people, seeking out the people.

The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Jesus was always on the move, seeking out the people, and inviting them to follow.

Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people.

Any fisherman knows — you don’t even have to be a good fisherman — you don’t catch fish by waiting for them to jump in the boat! You catch fish by seeking them out, by knowing their haunts and their habits, by learning to think … like a fish!

It seems to me that much of the time the church gets it backwards. Much of the time, I get it backwards. We aren’t moving, seeking, catching. We are holed up in our sanctuaries wondering why the masses aren’t streaming in the doors asking to be saved. We build it and wonder why they don’t come.

Jesus tells us to follow, to go where he goes, to do what he does.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

Which means in the same way, in the same fashion. Instead of developing evangelism strategies designed to get people in the doors and grow the membership of our churches, we need to develop evangelism strategies designed — to evangelize! — to get the Good News to the people who most need to hear it. There are churches that do it well, but most of us need to stop doing it backwards, turn ourselves around, go out the doors, and follow Jesus.

fixed on jesus

fixed on jesus

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Let us run with determination the race that lies before us … keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.

There are a few phrases in scripture that speak with particular clarity and power. This is one of them. It speaks a word the Church needs to hear! This is what holds us together. This is what gives integrity to the Church’s mission. In the face of broad disagreement about theology, about ethics, about church and culture, about worship style, about evangelism, about mission itself, if we simply keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will not lose our way.

Sure, we will even disagree about Jesus! But the key is not what we think about Jesus, or what we think Jesus is telling us or anybody else to do. The key is not what we think. The key is keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus! The key is not letting our attention be captured by other commitments, other priorities, other loves.

This word speaks to the Church, but it also speaks to me. In the midst of struggle and pain, joy and sorrow, success and failure, exhiliration and disapppointment, clarity and confusion … I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus. It is the only way …