Family

This Sunday, I will explore the baptized family of God in worship. I share this post so that we can start thinking about what it means to be baptized in advance of Sunday. To balance this message out, I will be focusing more on the baptized universal church this Sunday.

In the Gospel of Mark: "Your mother and your brothers are outside waiting on you, calling for you," one of the disciples said to Jesus.  And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Over the last couple of months, two couples that sporadically attend worship at Plains have remarked that they will probably worship someplace different. This is hard for the small-membership church to hear. Of course, we asked them why. One couple remarked, “We want to go to a Church where we can blend in and not be seen.”  The other couple remarked, “We don’t want to be asked to do anything.”  I take these responses as compliments. If you want to be anonymous, then don’t go to the small-membership church.  

It's easy to slip in and out of larger churches and avoid being seen. The larger church blends well with our individualist/capitalist/consumerist society. If you prefer to slip in and consume then go to a larger Church. It is easier to become just a number.  Don't get me wrong--we need the large membership church. They do work that the smaller churches will never be able to do. Plus, they help keep the churches out in the sticks afloat.  

But the rural church cannot afford to have numbers for the sake of numbers. We want numbers because we desperately need our family to grow.  The field is ripe for the harvest, but the laborers are few. There is a lot of work to get done in the kingdom of God.  And family members have to pitch in on the farm. Don’t join a small-membership church and expect to never receive a hug or to never be asked to read Scripture on a Sunday morning. We won’t fit in that shopping cart; we expect discipleship and we expect family. This is a gift of the small membership church.

Last Sunday a gentleman returned to worship for the first time in years.  He slipped in the back door right after the service started. I don’t know if he wanted anonymity or not.  Like I said, privacy is not an option. We celebrated. We announced his name as we lifted up the joys in our lives; we greeted him with smiles and hugs. “Glad to have you home,” we said.  I shook his hand as he walked out the door and he replied, “See you at Sunday School next week.” 

If you want to be unseen during worship then you are free to go. If you ever decide to return we will slaughter the fattened calf and welcome you home to the family.

Abiding in Jesus after General Conference

General Conference was frustrating for many Methodists. There are also enough blogs commenting upon the futility of the two week Conference in Tampa, Florida. I have nothing unique to add to these discussions. Conversely, I was struck by the Gospel text for tomorrow.

We receive an important text after General Conference. John 15 is probably the most famous chapter in John and one of the most well known chapters in all of Scripture. Jesus speaks, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear much fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches and apart from me you can do nothing.” What does it mean to abide in Jesus? In the Message, Eugene Peterson translates these verses to read: “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.” Isn’t that beautiful?

A few verses later in John 15, Jesus proclaims, “I no longer call you servants , but I have called you friends.” We are friends of our Creator. Do you suppose that Jesus calls to each of us and says, “Abide in me. Live in me. Remain in me. Talk to me. Work with me. Sacrifice for me. Become my companion."

Most Methodists across the world wil celebrate Holy Communion tomorrow. The word companion literally means “one who shares bread.”It makes me wonder if Communion is really just about friendship. When we break the bread of Jesus Christ, all of the components of friendship come together—there is intimacy, there is trust and sacrifice, and there is love. As we eat the elements of bread and wine we are allowing the Holy Spirit to reform our bodies into a home for our God. Communion is abiding in God and allowing God to abide in you. We come to the table to strengthen our connection to the vine, make our home in Jesus, and finally, to become Jesus’ companion.

Let me end where I started. A friend, mentor, and delegate to General Conference told me not to worry about the outcome of Conference right before he left. He told me to worry about pastoring my own Church, to worry about fostering a community of discipleship, and to worry about being a "vital" congregation (whatever that means). His point was that one General Conference was not going to instantaneously change the world, but individual congregations can when we abide in Jesus.

Individual congregations engaged in mission and love can accomplish what General Conference did not accomplish. What will our next steps be as individual congregations across the world? Will we fully abide in God? Will we talk to God? Will we work with God and re-create the world? Let's start with being Jesus' friends; let's start with Communion.

Solving Problems

Advent and Christmas have passed and a new secular year has begun. December and January can be a time of reflection and new beginnings. Many of us will make resolutions—to shed a few pounds or to exercise a little bit more.  I want to make a resolution to “pay attention.”

Eugene Peterson’s memoir The Pastor has been very influential to me over the past month. Peterson makes the case that the Church often tries to function in the business realm and becomes an entity that exists to “get things done,” or to “solve problems.”  I see this all of the time.  Church becomes a “problem solver” when we do things for people without entering into a relationship with them. Church even becomes a “problem solver” when we merely try to fill up pews at the expense of discipleship.

Everything has the potential to be a technical problem that is solved in technical ways.  Problem: attendance decline. Solution: membership growth techniques and workshops.  Problem: membership decline. Solution: get a new pastor.  The technical solutions we propose often to do not fix the problems, because the problems are often infinitely more complex. These kind of technical solutions can fix problems briefly, but unless people change and are transformed the problems will keep coming back. 

It’s so easy for pastors to get caught up in solving problems at the expense of their congregations.  A pastor ceases to be a pastor and becomes a CEO when the Church becomes a “problem solver.” 

Conversely, Eugene Peterson paints a portrait of a pastor as person who “pays attention.” “Peterson says,

“As pastors, we’re not trying to get something done. We’re not looking at people and thinking about what we can convince them to do. That’s not the goal. As pastors, we’re trying to pay attention to what’s going on now, right here—right now. We’re trying to pay attention to what God is doing. And we’re trying to share that in the community.”

 I have felt called to pay better attention to what God is doing in our lives, Church, and community and then share that information in worship. The Church life can be busy—full of meetings, grand ideas and visions. I want to stop trying to solve problems, but to take more time just to pay attention to God, to my own life, to your life, and to our lives together.

It’s when we really start paying attention that change is going to take place. Because as we start to really pay attention to God and each other we will find ourselves being changed—our hearts, minds, churches, and communities will become transformed.

Problems are all around us. But so is God. Sometimes we have to put our own agendas behind us to see where God is really working.