Emerging Church

What was the church of your youth like?

For me it was a place of worship.
It was a cocoon of safety where I was nurtured by the believers on Sunday I saw throughout the week.
It was a place where I went largely because my friends were there.
It taught me faith was deeply personal.
Adults went on mission trips only if they were chaperones for the youth.

It did not teach me how to bridge between my culture and others.
Service was raking leaves of Senior Citizens in the community. It was an activity not a way of life.
Faith was personal ethics with most of the training coming from family. Biblical study, theological dialogue and spiritual disciplines were not assumed or taught.

I love my home church and am grateful for what they gave me. I do not blame for what wasn't given to me, it was not given to them either.

How different the church is today.

Today our youth learn early mission and service is an expectation of the witness of our faith. They have taken more mission trips and service projects by the time they graduate high school than their parents and grandparents have their entire lives.
Biblical study is at least exposed to them if not yet fully embraced. Some are even wanting Bible Study and ask for it.
Worship is important, thought they often struggle to find a style that helps them enter into a deeper relationship with God.
Their passion is to serve, their blind spot is to understand how worship and prayer is critical for the spiritual foundation required.
Adults are going on mission trips without the kids.

The church has changed so much and told the world so little about how or why.

How is the church of your youth and present experience alike or the same?

Differences

Twenty people make up the core of the Study Committee of our congregation. Naturally, effort was made to ensure these persons reflected the broadest possible representation of our consitiuency. Some are long time members, others within the past five years. Different areas of ministry, worship experiences, gender and life experiences are represented.

After three months of meeting, the diverstiy of this group is beginning to be clear. After the last session, one of the members said to me, "People sure see things from different perspectives don't they!?". My response was, "Welcome to my world."

My position gives me the opportunity to listen to people as they share their stories and perspectives. It is no surprise that not everyone sees things from the same perspective. Lovitt Weems comments how individuals and subsets of the community see ministry through a narrow telescope ring true. The goal is to turn the perspective so each ministry and personal agenda can be measured from the focus of greatest good and overall ministry fulfillment.

That is easier said than done. Especially if we do not address the deep personal/emotional places where we all live. Recently, I have been in conversation with a family where the ability to understand each other is limited unless each moves from the cognative to the emotional to understand each other completely. Those who are strong lose empathy for others whose pain is at a level they have never experienced. Some keep waiting for the other to, "get their act together". The reality is, those who are in emotional hell don't want to be there. They are at least as frustrated as the others around them, usually more so.

I see this in the life of our connection as Elders. I believe the best way to begin the work of taking the next steps of strenghening our connection is to begin by having holy conversation and relationships with each other. We can not hold each other accountable, support each other, or work in harmony together unless we are willing to truly know each other. There is no one way to accomplish this, but it at least begins by talking and listening to each other. This includes the knowledge we have and the truth we feel.

We talk about effective ministry, accountable relationships, and true covenant. To live it, in our congregations, families and Orders is to first be willing to understand that indeed, "We do see and feel things from different perspectives". Yet in those differences can come our greatest chance for creativity, growth and power moving forward. In those differences, we also can find what holds us together. "May I come to understand myself by truly understanding you and discovering the we God has always intended for us to be."

Foundation

My favorite hymn continues to be, "The Church's One Foundation". Since my youth I was drawn to the tune and the message of this great hymn still inspires me.

The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is his new creation by water and the Word.
From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride;
with his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died.

Jesus Christ is still the foundation of the church. Recently members of our church gathered with delegates from the other 450 United Methodist churches that constitute the Detroit Annual Conference. These churches are small and large, urban and rural, multicultural and multi-theological. They face significant challenges. Over the last 40 years, the membership of that collective body has lost half of its members. If our decline continues at the same rate, by the year 2050 there will be no United Methodist church left in Michigan.

However I come home from conference more hopeful this year than I have in a long time. It is true that many of the same struggles remain. We still spend more time on protecting what was once important and ignore the new ways God is moving in the world. We often see our differences faster than what we have in common. Something though is changing.

This year I felt the stirring of a new spirit. The conversations were more focused on what we can do and less about what others were not getting done. New ministries are emerging that begin at meeting the needs of the world in the name of Christ. New faces and passionate hearts alive for the sake of Christ are rising up focused more on doing than talking. The jury is still out on whether Michigan Methodists will rebound to its former strength. I believe it will. Clarkston UMC is my assurance it is possible. Christ is doing a mighty work in our midst and we have been wise enough to not get in the way. This is not to brag or falsely believe it is because of us. It is the work of Christ. It is the church living upon our true foundation.

The fact is the hope and foundation of the church remains.

Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,
and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we
like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee

Almost

Titles mean something. They tell others where you are and where they will travel with you. They suggest the topic(s) that will be covered and sometimes even the spirit of the conversation.

I am launching this blog to create a forum to talk about the almost. Some define their reality by the negative. Some by the positive. I tend to see the almost. The almost is a place where you can see possibility and hopes even as you try to be honest about the broken and unfulfilled.

Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God with his disciples. I can only imagine when those listening heard him talk they were struck by two realities. One was how great the Kingdom of God was. Their souls certainly wanted to lay claim to such a kingdom. It became their hope and their calling. The other reality that must have been clear was that they were not yet in it. The Kingdom was not yet fully realilzed in their experience. To a certain extent this must have been disappointing. Between those two realities is the almost. The Kingdom of God is fantastic and we have had experiences of it. There are moments when it seems so far away and foreign to our truth. Yet, the Kingdom of God for me and maybe you is actually neither fulfilled nor completely removed from us. It is almost. There are amazing moments of grace and painful brokeness. The almost allows me to rejoice in the Kingdom when it brushes against me and keeps me from complete despair when pain surrounds me.

I am neither an optimist or pessimest. I am a child of the living Lord who has promised me the Kingdom of God which I have experienced - almost. There is my hope and joy!

Why the blog? Because there are times I will want to articulate what I need to think out loud. There are times I want to share my thoughts so in the revealing they may gain clarity. If anyone ever responds, then the best can happen - we can share our ideas, hopes, fears and belief and in the sharing find new truth.

Topics to cover....who knows. Life, ministry, vocation, faith, questions, fears and so much more. Some will be specific in nature, some so general I may not even know where it is going.

So here is to starting......and thanks be to God for the almost of today!