Coming Up Sunday, January 3

On Sunday, we begin the new year with a new sermon series: SPIRIT. During the first six Sundays of 2010, we will look at our shared vision for the upcoming years, as presented in our new strategic ministry plan. S.P.I.R.I.T. is an acronym for key parts of our ministry together.

This Sunday, we begin with "S": Share the Gospel. We will focus on the story, found in Acts 8, of Philip's encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch. Guided by the Holy Spirit, Philip encounters an important man -- the keeper of the queen's treasury -- reading the prophet Isaiah. This man, a eunuch (which placed him outside of the bounds of Judaism, which frowned upon such treatment of the physical body) is frustrated that he cannot understand a specific prophecy in the Bible. Philip shares the gospel with him, explaining that Jesus fulfills the prophecy. The eunuch is so excited, seeing some water, he desires to be baptized.

This story sets a wonderful example for how Christians are called to share the good news. It reminds us that no one falls outside of God's love, or of God's reach. Regardless of foreign nationality, political position, or previous acts of bodily transformation, the eunuch is welcome to seek God and become a Christian.

More than this, though, the story reminds us that we can play a part in this. The eunuch demonstrates his desire to learn about God by reading from the scriptures, but Philip's role is to help him understand his reading. In different times and places, we are each meant to act like Philip, drawing on our own knowledge of the Bible and our faith experiences to lead someone else closer to God. We may not anticipate these moments of faith sharing, but we must be prepared for them. More than that, we must be on the lookout for such opportunities.

Sad News about DisciplesWorld

Last week, DisciplesWorld announced that they would cease publishing the magazine and maintaining the Internet website, with it's daily news updates, at the end of 2009. Given the good variety of the magazine, and its editorial integrity, this is a disappointment in the life of our denomination.

Unfortunately, the news was not entirely unexpected. The magazine has struggled with funding -- it always has been a self-supported, not-for-profit entity -- from its beginning eight years ago. For a time, it looked like subscriptions were increasing, but those numbers have decreased in the past couple of years. Also, the magazine has benefited in recent years by a couple of large charitable grants and individual donations. Depending on such money to meet expenses, rather than advertising and subscriptions, was not a viable long-term financial solution.

I know that I will miss the magazine. While I think it took a couple of years for the editorial staff to find the magazine's voice (which is understandable), I think that DisciplesWorld coalesced around a solid vision. They saw strength in trying to represent the diversity of our denomination; they believed they had a role in pushing the regional and general ministries to be more transparent in their work. They were comfortable raising difficult and sometimes painful issues, confident that readers would appreciate their work.

It's Been a Good Weekend

A brief word of thanks for the great weekend, despite the limitations imposed by the weather conditions. As a congregation, we juggled our plans (want to make God laugh... mention your plans). Unlike many other churches, including some south of us, we had electricity, and tolerable road conditions, which allowed many of us to worship together this morning, and to have our concert this afternoon. And I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who gathered today -- there were many more people than I expected.

And, of course, it's good to spend time with family, especially when they've had to travel through winter weather to visit. I'm glad my mom, brother, and my brother's girlfriend were able to make the trip (even if the unexpected cooking yesterday stretched my pantry to the brink).

Many people were involved in making decisions, and doing things to make today possible.

Brooks, Leigh Anne, Nathaniel, and I were able to reschedule the concert (and squeeze in some rehearsal time). The reception that had been planned to follow Saturday's concert morphed into a light lunch between worship and the concert -- many thanks to Linda and Karen for spearheading that, and for all who helped including Cathy and Edna for baking.

Given the compressed schedule, I was pretty busy today. For myself, I wish I had had a bit of time to enjoy being at church, instead of just trying to make sure many of details got taken care of (but sometimes that can't be avoided). I wish I had more time to talk to everyone who was there, but so it goes.

Still, I think it was a really good day. I don't say this in order to take pride in my part of the day -- though I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm mostly pleased with my contributions. Mostly, though, I think it was a good day for us to be together, to worship together, and to celebrate a bit of this Christmas season together. And I'm grateful to have been a part of it.

Concert Postponed

Tonight's concert, "The Memory of Christmas," has been postponed due to the winter weather. It will take place following Sunday's service, beginning at 12:00 noon. We will have some refreshments available between the service and the concert, and during the concert intermission. Hope you will be able to attend.

(Re)Thinking Church Administration

I've been catching up on some articles from past issues of The Christian Century recently. I came across an interesting piece on church administration by the former president of Union Theological Seminary in New York; he encourages pastors and congregations to view administration as part of their essential ministries.

Louis Weeks writes:

The fact that effective leaders and healthy congregations usually go together is not a surprise. What is a surprise is that pastors and laypeople often dismiss the very work that keeps them vital: the myriad of mostly invisible jobs that constitute administration. How meetings are run, how new leaders are apprenticed, how the books are kept, how communication is structured, how events and programs are implemented and evaluated -- all of this is crucial to congregational life, but rarely understood as ministry. (from "God is in the details" by Louis B. Weeks, The Christian Century, vol. 126, no. 2, p. 10)

This is an interesting insight, I think. So often, churches are quietly (or not so quietly) criticized for their bureaucracy. Even most Christians believe that 'bureaucracy'-- the impolitic equivalent of administration -- is something that the church should be embarrassed about. Administration is what distracts us from our true ministry. It's about pushing paper, instead of prayer or pastoral care. We'd rather not think about it.

But administration encompasses much of the church's ministry. Administration doesn't offer prayers, but it does share prayer requests. It doesn't preach, but it can allow people opportunities to prepare for sermons by studying upcoming scripture lessons -- or it can allow people to revisit sermons after worship services. Administration doesn't save souls, but ensuring that we share information with visitors, have an updated website, communicate with the press,etc. can let people know how seriously we take our faith, and what the faith is exactly that we're taking seriously.

Administration is not everyone's gift. But it needs to be one of the congregation's gifts. It's not all that our faith is about, but it will help us share our faith with others. It will help us to discern where we're going as a congregation. It will help us mentor our newer leaders more effectively, not to stifle the work of the Holy Spirit, but to create an environment where the Holy Spirit can flourish in their leadership. It's something to think about, as we prepare to enter the New Year.

Stewardship Idea

As we continue our pledge season, in order to plan for next year's budget, it is interesting to consider non-traditional means of raising money for the church. 50-50 drawings, bake sales, bachelorette auctions, renting out the building for various activities -- the list goes on (and gets much weirder).

But I've never seen such an audacious idea as this one. To be sure, this is a for-profit venture, not a church-sponsored thing. But as this article asks, one wonders about how many people will be interested in something like this. $9.99 is not exactly chump change.

Then again, if you're "spiritual but not religious" and not affiliated with a church, there may be times when you feel like asking for a prayer, but you don't know who to ask. Here, in the faceless void of cyberspace, armed with an email address and a credit card, you can reach out to meet that need -- and get a personalized confirmation email in return. So maybe there is a market here. Or in evangelistic terms, maybe there is a spiritual need here that Christians -- particularly church-going Christians -- should recognize and be aware.

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Perhaps you're feeling a little overwhelmed by the Christmas season, with the lengthy to-do lists, the extra cooking, shopping, cleaning, decorating, etc. If so, there are three basic ways you can respond.

1) Ignore the stress. Carry on. If you can do this, good for you. You don't need anything from this blog entry.

2) Lash out at Christmas. You too can be like the Anglican bishop who hates most Christmas-related hymns, and you can write a book complaining about how wrong they are. Or you can read his book, Why Wish You a Merry Christmas. Or you can get the gist of his argument by reading the article here. If this is you, I hope that you feel better. But please remember that most people don't want to hear your cynical comments this time of year. (Bad-mouthing "Away in a Manger"? Give me a break.)

3) Take a break from all of the Christmas-related activity to smile at something unrelated. Here is a recent gem from the Muppet Studio, a new rendition (a skillful, appropriate for all ages, homage to the original video) of "Bohemian Rhapsody." If this is you, click on the video, and enjoy. Then get back to your to-do list.

Coming Up Sunday, December 6

This Sunday, we will continue our Advent series on the first part of G. F. Handel's Messiah. Last week, we considered the happy prophecies of Isaiah 40 that open the work. This week, we have the more confrontational -- or even violent -- prophecies of Malachi 3 that follow.

Here are YouTube clips of this week's selections (nos. 5, 6, and 7 if you're following along in your own personal Messiah score at home). The Bass recitative, "Thus Saith the Lord":

The Bass aria, "But Who May Abide the Day of His Coming,":

And the second chorus, "And He Shall Purify":

In this scripture, the prophet tells how God will help his chosen people by purifying them of their sinfulness, particularly the Jewish religious leadership ("the sons of Levi"). This is an important corollary to last week's consolation to Israel -- while they may take comfort that God is coming, they should be aware that part of God's coming will be painful and even confrontational.

This is something that we tend to forget as Christians. We always imagine a benevolent, nurturing God -- the protective "Mother Hen" who protects us and loves us unconditionally. We forget that sometimes so-called "tough love" is necessary, especially if we need to be shocked out of our delusions or addictions. I am convinced that God will use any means necessary to reach out to us and to save us from our own sinfulness. Sometimes God will nurture; sometimes God will prod.