Pay Attention to the Future

“The church had better pay attention to the future because that is where we will do ministry.”

Leith Anderson

      

     During my doctoral studies I had the opportunity to study with Leith Anderson. He is the author of Dying for Change and A Church for the 21^st Century, as well as the Senior Pastor of Wooddale Church in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a congregation of over ten thousand members.

   

     The singular most important comment that he made to the twelve pastors in his class was, “The church had better pay attention to the future because that is where we will do ministry.”

   

      Anderson continued that yesterday’s successes (in the church) often are the greatest obstacles to today’s innovation. Simply, because it worked so well yesterday, the leaders of the church are reluctant to change the method for doing ministry. Trouble is, what was state-of-the-art yesterday is often obsolete today, much like my old record player.

   

     What is the church to do? One answer, of course, is nothing. The church can continue to do ministry like it has for the past number of decades. What is likely, however, is that such a church will then begin to behave like an older person: Taking fewer risks than in the days of youth, concerned with paying off the mortgage and making plans for retirement and death.

      

     Another answer is for the leaders of the church to revisit the church’s core values (the question of what is important around here), the mission statement (the question of why is the church here), the vision statement (the question of what will it look like when we have achieved the mission) and a development of a fresh strategy for realizing the vision (the question of how will we get there). Such an approach will infuse fresh energy into the church and enable a witness to Christ that is relevant to a changing culture.

      

     Your Long-Range Planning Committee will be addressing these questions as they begin their work. I hope you will partner with them by holding their efforts in your daily prayers as they seek God’s wisdom and direction for this church.

   

Joy,

                       

Grand and Beautiful Testimony

     Craig Barnes is a Presbyterian pastor and president of Princeton Theological Seminary and someone whom I admire a great deal. Before his current presidency, Barnes was the preaching pastor for the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA. During his ministry with that congregation, the church undertook a renovation and expansion of their facilities. At the launch of the financial campaign for the work, he wrote a letter to his congregation. I share a portion of it here with you.

 

     “When someone enters your home, they learn a lot about you. The way you decorate and furnish the rooms, the art and photographs that hang on your walls, and even the way you maintain the house tells people who you are and what you value. The same thing is true about our church home. A church is certainly more than a building. It’s the people, centered in Jesus Christ, who make up the church. But every church expresses its personality and values by how they organize and maintain their building.

    

     Our church is a grand and beautiful testimony to our devotion to Christ. The great lantern that sits above our Sanctuary is a physical witness to our mission to be the light of hope to the community around us. Our grandparents who built this facility wanted people to follow that light into the congregation where they would find a ministry that can restore the human spirit. But after all these years, our church home is now in need of some significant renovations.”

    

     Perhaps what I like best in those words from Craig Barnes is the image that the church is a grand and beautiful testimony to our devotion to Christ.

    

     Years ago, during my first ministry in Florida, there was a young family in the church I served. The wife was a former Miss Florida. She was active in the church, he was not. One day she dropped by the office and told me how unhappy she was. As a former beauty queen, she had always enjoyed the attention, the affection that came with the title. When she married, she believed that the only affection and demonstration of devotion she needed now was from a husband. Yet, something happened. His affection for her evaporated – at least any demonstration of it.

  

     He was in sales so he drove a new car with all the bells and whistles.  It was necessary for him to make a favorable impression on potential customers. They couldn’t afford two nice cars, he thought, so he required his wife to drive an old pick-up truck that lacked air-conditioning. As she told me through tears, it wasn’t so much that she hated driving that ugly truck, though she did. What bothered her was that it didn’t concern her husband that she had to settle for the old truck. The old truck became for her a symbol that he no longer valued her, no longer desired the best for her, and no longer had a grand and beautiful devotion to her.

    

     The Bible teaches that Jesus has chosen to “dwell” in us – to take-up residence in our lives. The Lord of all, the One who rescued us from death now makes His home in each of us. The question we must ask is, “What kind of accommodations are we providing?” Do our lives resemble an old, ugly pick-up truck or a grand and beautiful Sanctuary? It is really a question of desire and intentionality. Are we following a purposeful path each day to grow-up into full maturity in Christ or have we settled for church membership and worship on Sundays. The difference is considerable.

    

Joy,

We Require Spiritual Nourishment

     Take out orders have become a commonplace alternative to home cooked meals in our increasingly frantic and busy culture. Physical nourishment has never been an option for when time permits – our bodies are designed in a manner that it must have the fuel food provides to function. Eating is not a choice. The question for busy lifestyles is what we will eat and how that food will be provided. Though fast food is often the food of choice for people on the go, there continues to be an increasing number of alternatives. Nevertheless, the pressing issue before us today is less the quality of the food but more the convenience of its availability. We have become a “take out” culture.

     What we often overlook is that we also have been designed by our Creator to require spiritual nourishment. The soul hungers for God as the body hungers for food. When the soul is neglected, the hunger often results in unhealthy addictions – sex, drugs, alcohol and excessive eating. Yet, those caught in the grip of addictions will readily confess that they fail to satisfy beyond the short term. That is because nothing can satisfy our spiritual hunger but God.

 

     Naturally, the best meal for the soul is regular worship and participation in a small, intimate Christian community of care, such as a small group. But just as we rarely have the time for home cooked meals, we find that regular worship and small group participation is difficult. We are a frantic and busy people.

   

     Certainly the church must continue to offer meaningful and dynamic worship and opportunities for small groups, but more is demanded. Just as we increasingly rely on take out food for the body, the church needs to provide take out food for the soul. Without the proper nourishment, we spiral into destructive addictions.

    

     I have become committed to our church making available “take out” for the bread of life, Jesus Christ. One resource that is available is printed sermons available in the Narthex (lobby area of our church) or on the church website. Each month, a new sermon will be added to those currently available. Passing these messages along to a friend or work colleague expands the circle of persons who are nourished by the preaching ministry of this church. Another resource is the weekly devotional, Heart & Soul, that is printed in the worship bulletin. This resource is also available on our website and includes every devotional I have written in the past year. You are invited to expand the ministry of our church by being a point of distribution of these and other resources, as together we seek to bless our community.

Joy,

Good is the Enemy of Great

“Good is the enemy of great”

     We must set high standards for the Lord’s work. This has become an obsession of mine. We cannot settle for less than the best. We cannot settle for good when God asks for our best. The proclamation of the gospel demands excellence. Anything less demeans the church of Jesus Christ.

     This striving for excellence must be seen in everything from cared-for buildings and manicured lawns to well-written and produced brochures and other printed materials.

     The practice of ministry also requires excellence. Excellence in ministry and programs demand both paid staff and gifted volunteers. Neither can be neglected. Growing excellence in ministry will require that we continually add to our paid staff and equip volunteers. In fact, research by the Alban Institute, a non-profit that studies congregational vitality, indicates that a church is optimally staffed when it has one full-time paid professional staff person for every one hundred persons in worship. Naturally, whenever a church seeks to move toward this model, financial resources must be available. That requires that a church culture of generosity be continually cultivated.

     Why one professional staff for every one hundred in worship? Volunteers alone cannot sustain excellence over a period of time. It is in the very nature of the word volunteer. Volunteers provide ministry leadership after hours from their “real” jobs. Persons may be retired but have other responsibilities. Volunteers may be parents and have sports events, rehearsals and other activities that require their time. Volunteers alone simply cannot sustain consistent excellence in the long haul.

     The ability of volunteers may also be less than what is expected or required for excellence and the ministry suffers. Paid staff receives consistent and ongoing training, performance objectives and supervision. Accountability to the Personnel Committee and Session raises the bar of performance. 

     I count it a great privilege to be the pastor of this congregation. As we move toward greater and greater excellence in ministry together, I continue to share here, and in other places, what moving from good to great will require.

Joy,

Five Faith Practices of Discipleship

“We can’t entertain people into discipleship. We (each individually) must develop practices that counteract culture and conform us to Christ.”

Roger Helland & Leonard Hjalmarson

     It is now widely acknowledged that people are continually being shaped by their culture and environment. Pop culture has formed us – discipled us – through the medium of advertising and peer pressure. We feel that we must dress like everyone else, live like everyone else, spend our resources and behave like everyone else. Certainly we work hard to have nice things but, perhaps, that is part of the problem…some are working to hard and missing what really matters, significant relationship time with those we love and with Jesus Christ. We have “conformed” to the world.

     The consequence has been disastrous for the church. Congregations are filled with people who say they are Christians, perhaps even sincerely wishing to be Christians, but who look less like followers of Jesus and more like the rest of the world. It all has to do with what forces we have allowed to “shape” us.  Some years ago I identified what I believed are the irreducible faith practices of those who follow Jesus; The Five Faith Practices of Discipleship. The hope, of course, is that if every member were to identify a few manageable and intentional changes in priorities, they would be less conformed to the world and more conformed to Jesus.

Here are the Five Faith Practices of Discipleship:

*    Worship Regularly

*    Pray Daily

*    Learn & Apply God’s Word

*    Participate in a Ministry

*    Give Financially to the Work of the Church

     Naturally, these are not the only practices that mark followers of Jesus. But they are the “irreducible minimum” of intentional discipleship. This is where someone begins who desires to honor the call of Romans 12: 2 – “Don’t continue to be like the rest of the world. Start taking on the image of Jesus Christ. (My paraphrase).

     It has been argued that the health of a local congregation never rises above the spiritual health of the individual members. First Presbyterian Church is a good church, no question. Here we see incredible people doing incredible things. Here we see incredible forgiveness being demonstrated and compassion and care given abundantly. But this church can be so much more and can impact the local community far more significantly. One thing is required, one thing…that more and more people reading these words begin to take seriously the five faith practices and allowing God’s power to shape them into something so much more than they are now.

Joy,

Do You Want to be Transformed?

 “Some years ago, social critic Neil Postman wrote an engaging book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Postman’s thesis was, in short, that we Americans are no longer interested in information, truth, or transformation. All we want is to be entertained.”

 From Preaching Master Class, William H. Willimon

     There is a fascinating story about Jesus healing a paralytic in John 5:1-9.  Jesus saw this man lying by a pool and learned that he had suffered as an invalid for thirty-eight years, so Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (verse 6).  At first glance, it’s one of the few occasions where Jesus seemed to ask a dumb question; anyone with an affliction spanning nearly four decades would want relief, wouldn’t they?

     This passage is a defining passage for many churches today – the question, “Do you want to be healed?” has become another, “Do you want to be transformed?”  Naturally, ask most church members this question they will respond, “Yes.”  Yet, if that question is followed by, “Then, what are you doing about it?” their eyes go blank.  Wishful thinking rarely translates into intentional behaviors or action.

     Each of you has heard, as I have, that our nation is literally dying from our “fast food diet.”  The popularly of fast food, of course, is not only that it tastes great but that it is cheap and … well, fast.  Our bodies – our health – would significantly be better served by intentional preparation of healthy meals at home.  With thoughtful shopping and the right recipes, we do not have to sacrifice either taste or inexpensive with such preparation.  But it does take time.  Preparing thoughtful, healthy meals that tastes great is not fast. And Americans seem unwilling to give-up “fast.”  Truth be known, they are not will to give-up “little effort” as well.

     The same is true for our growth in Jesus Christ. We want growth, certainly.  But we want it “fast food” style and “to go, please.”  We see this in worship by comments such as, “I go to church to be entertained” rather than “I go to church to express my gratitude for God’s love.”  As Tom Long once observed, when we realize that worship isn’t about us then we sing that hymn that we don’t like very much and speak the liturgy that – at that particular moment – leaves us cold.

     This is also true about efforts in spiritual formation.  I have heard from some of you, “Pastor, don’t give me homework to do, simply give me a video to watch.”  Translation: “I prefer to get there – spiritual growth in Jesus Christ – with little effort on my part.”  This is a “fast food” mentality.  Friends, we can change and become more like Christ but it will require intentional effort on our part.  The question remains, “Do you want to be transformed?”

Joy,

A Successful Plan

 “Any successful plan for spiritual formation, whether for the individual or group, 

will in fact be significantly similar to the Alcoholics Anonymous program.

-Dallas Willard

     Nearly ten months ago I preached a sermon about the need for Christian formation for strong faith communities. In that message I shared that such formation required the Vision, the Intention and the Means for personal spiritual transformation. Simply, there isn’t the possibility for developing strong faith communities unless there is individual transformation into Christlikeness. The general pattern for such individual transformation is described by Dallas Willard as the little acronym “VIM,” as in the phrase “vim and vigor.” Richard Schaublin actually remembers that sermon ten months later. Many Sundays he will tell me before worship that he has “VIM!”

     Willard argues that if we are to be spiritually formed in Christ, we must have and must implement the appropriate vision, intention, and means. Willard continues that not just any path we take will do. If this VIM pattern is not put in place properly and held there, Christ simply will not be formed in us.

     

      Let’s look closely at this pattern Willard calls VIM. Vision is something that is cast by leaders of an organization. Simply, the leaders of an organization have a view for what makes for success and attempt to convey that view to individuals within the organization through vision-casting. For the church, the primary leader is Jesus Christ and the teachings of Jesus make it clear that the primary vision for the church is one of a disciple making community. (See Mark 1:37, 38 among multiple other sources in the Bible)

      Intention involves decision – a decision by each member of the organization to participate in the vision. Not all will, of course. There will always be a few who will respond that they “don’t like homework.” But for the majority that catch the vision, understand the vision and recognize its value, they will be the ones who decide to advance the vision forward along with the leaders. When a church member agrees to participate in the vision of disciple making, they demonstrate that they have been captivated by Christ’s vision for something greater than their personal lives.

      Means is what follows the vision and the intention to obey Christ and is the specific thing or steps one will follow to realize the vision. Bottom line, it is what we do. It is “homework” or what I prefer, “soul work.” Since Jesus’ vision of the church is to be primarily a disciple making community, the means that is identified must be useful in developing disciples. Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden is perhaps the best resource available today for this. Dr. Ogden will be with our congregation this November. This will be an opportunity to interact personally with one of the best thinkers today in Christian formation. I hope you will participate in this weekend experience and become personally engaged in VIM for the future Vigor of this great church. Your “Yes” to intentional Christian formation will result in a greater impact for God’s kingdom here in Delray Beach.      

 Joy,