A New Year

It seems that I have abandoned my blog and I have decided that I needed to get back into writing. Partly for my benefit as it helps me collect my thoughts and helps me be better disciplined about my life. The start of this year has been one of many diverse feelings. The very first church that I served as a student closed last Sunday. The people there had come to the difficult decision that they could no longer afford to keep the church going. They had been faithful over their 125+ years of serving Dawson. The last decade or more they have been a student charge that have shaped a number of students including myself. They have done a wonderful job but like life itself there comes a time and a season that one has to move on. An interesting event was that a former member of the Barada Church which I also served as a student asked me to baptize her son. This happened at the same service as the deconsecration service. I was honored to be asked but also I felt that there was a theological message that even in death life continues. That there really is no end only new beginnings. And so it is with the people of the Dawson Bethel United Methodist Church, their ministry did not end but only has a new beginning.

As I reflect on this event and as I prepare to talk about the church that I am serving and asking the question, What is Church? I am mindful of the tragedy that is happening in Haiti. Part of being church is responding to the need of those who have suffered such a tremendous loss in lives and property. We are preparing to do a special offering to help with those who have survived. I hope that in the future we can send volunteers to help in whatever way we can.

I also wanted to close this with some quotes that I came across from my magazine Homiletics. I hope that you enjoy and reflect on what is said.
Advertising for a new church plant: “Has the heaviness of your old-fashioned church got you weighted down? Try us! We are the New and Improved Lite Church of the Valley. Studies have shown we have 24 percent fewer commitments. We trim off guilt as we are low-Cal ... low Calvin, that is. We feature a 7.5 percent tithe and a 35-minute worship service, with seven-minute sermons. Next Sunday’s sermon is on the feeding of the 500.”
________________________________________
Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys.

—Billy Graham.
________________________________________
In their book The Ascent of a Leader (1999), Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and Ken McElrath tell of a woman who has a dream in which she wanders into a shop at the mall and finds Jesus behind a counter.

Jesus says, “You can have anything your heart desires.”

Astounded but pleased, the woman asks for peace, joy, happiness, wisdom and freedom from fear. Then she adds, “Not just for me, but for the whole earth.”

Jesus smiles and says, “I think you misunderstand me. We don’t sell fruits, only seeds.”
________________________________________
The problem is not that the churches are filled with empty pews but that the pews are filled with empty people.

—Charlie Shedd.

The church is the great lost-and-found department.

—Robert Short.

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.

—G.K. Chesterton.
________________________________________
From an anonymous worship bulletin: “We have decided to have four worship services each Sunday. There will be one for those new to the faith. Another for those who like traditional worship. One for those who have lost their faith and are seeking to get it back. And one for those who had a bad experience with the church and are constantly complaining about it. After long discussions, we agreed to a name for each of the services: Finders, Keepers, Losers, Weepers!”
Kathleen Norris, in her book Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith (see the Homiletics Interview with Norris at HomileticsOnline.com), talks about “organized religion.” She writes: “I have begun to wonder what people mean, exactly, when they say they have no use for ‘organized’ religion. ... I have come to suspect that when people complain about ‘organized’ religion what they’re really saying is that they can’t stand other people. At least not enough to trust them to help work out a ‘personal’ spirituality. How can they possibly trust these unknown others, people with whom they may have little in common, to help them along on their religious journey? ...

“Joining a church is not like joining a hobby club; you will find all sorts of people there, not all of whom will share your interests, let alone your opinions. But there is a vast difference between the giant abstraction called ‘organized’ religion and religion as people actually live it .... [religion] organized enough to keep a city church going, one that offers an AIDS support group, perhaps a soup kitchen, services to the elderly and, wonder of wonders, the eucharist itself. In the rural area where I live, churches are still the only institutions capable of sustaining community ministries such as a food pantry and a domestic violence hotline. But they provide something more, that even the most well-intentioned ‘social services’ cannot replace. It is called salvation, but it begins small, at the local level, in a church that provides a time and space for people to meet a God who has promised to be there. People are encouraged to sing, whether they can or not. And they receive a special blessing, just for showing up” (258-61).