It's in the Cards

Like many churches, Wellington Fellowship has a care ministry that sends greeting cards to people going through all manner of situations. It's a great ministry, because it offers a bit of intangible support and connection from the congregation to people outside of the church setting.  Keeping up with it requires a tremendous effort, and we are blessed to have a very dedicated volunteer that does the majority of the work. However, since I am the pastor, I do to sneak one in every now and then. This morning was one of those times, as I wanted to send a personal greeting to one of our families that just welcomed a new baby into the world.

Our card volunteer usually has her own supplies that she works from, so I use a stash in one of my office cabinets. Many churches have such a trove. It is a decently sized pile, and the cards range from recent purchases to some that are about 20-30 years old, complete with phrases I imagine were popular when Reagan was president (can't throw anything away in the church after all!) So after putting on my mining helmet, I dove in trying to find the one to properly celebrate a new life. Little did I realize how difficult this would be! After 10+ minutes of digging, I discovered that the cards broke down into about 4 categories. There were a select few depicting festive holiday scenes (Halloween, Christmas, etc), and some with floral imagery and the words "thinking of you" written ornately on them. There were also a number of religiously themed cards (we are a church after all) with the happy animals of Noah's Ark expressing thank yous, birthday/anniversary wishes or perhaps a blank space for another greeting. There were plenty of these, yet I was surprised to find they did not represent the majority of the pile. Rather, the bulk of cards I found seemed to denote bereavement. They wished people well who had moved far away, or abstractly promised support during many different life issues. There was not a card for a new birth in the bunch! Instead there were many for people going through life situations or non-descript periods of decline, interrupted by the occasional holiday or minor celebration. It was discouraging to say the least. So I ended up having to jury rig one of the Noah's Ark Birthday cards by writing my own message in conjunction with the card's text. But it did get me thinking . . .

What does this pile of cards say about the church?

We buy cards to commemorate the events going on in the life of the church, or to literally "be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep," (Romans 12:15 NLT) as the Apostle Paul would put it.  Essentially, these cards reflect the current state of things. With so many negative ones seemingly detailing decline and misfortune in my pile, it appears the outlook for the church is not overly good. Unfortunately, this jives too well with of the statistics surrounding the decline of Mainline Christian Denominations (Methodists, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc). It is well documented that our message is not reaching younger people, which means that the majority of churches now consist of elderly members who are sick, aging, or dying. Worse yet, the decline is steadily increasingly and there are church leaders  who estimate that the Methodist Church (among others) have less than 50 years of life left if nothing happens. My card pile would seem to support this hypothesis, as is contents relates to many of the situations behind the statistic.

Thankfully, our churches are living things, so there are always shifts occurring on in the life of a congregation. For example, Wellington Fellowship is currently in an upswing of hope. We have had 4 babies born in the last year. Furthermore, in looking at our statistics, 20 of the 60 people involved in our 5-year-old congregation are under age 18. This means we have a lot of youthful vitality that we can harness and a new partnership with First Church, Fort Collins that can provide stability for our efforts. Between the two, I know we can buck the trend in our pile and similar movements in card ministries across the country! I have seen it, because I had joyful situation that was not present in overly negative cards we normally use. This sends a powerful message to us. For while the cards may tell us what is currently going on in our congregations, they can never restrict the future promise of God and the growing power of the Gospel when a church chooses to live into it. Our church, like many others, are living proof that we can change.

On that note, I need to buy some new greeting cards because I sense there will be plenty of new life, new possibilities and new frontiers in the future. Hope you are having a blessed week, my friends.

A Season of Prayer

 

If you weren't able to worship with us at Wellington Fellowship this morning, you missed the start of an important time in the life of our congregation.

Our service today focused on prayer and the effect it has on our faith lives. And what an effect it is! To sum it up, prayer is a practice through which we humans communicate with God and establish a relationship with the Divine.  It is also a primary means for God to provide grace, or the unmerited love that restores us and brings us into closer relationship with God and Neighbor. This relationship is critically important to say the least, as it links our entire belief structure together. In addition, Prayer is also one of few constant elements in our lives. We can pray in the best of times or the worst of times and know that God will hear us. In other words, prayer is a lifeline that pumps us up with Divine Love and Presence during life’s ever-shifting course. 

Since a new church setting like Wellington is a prime example of an unstable situation, my clergy coach recommended that we pursue the consistency that prayer provides. She reasoned that the many changes in our five years of existence have made it difficult for us to grow, so we desperately need some steadiness.  She is totally right. Having six pastors and three iterations of a leadership team in five years is tough for any church, let alone a new church start like us. Thus, we can greatly use the consistency that prayer provides. Plus, it will also help heal the pain of the past while opening us to the direction that God wants to give us for the future. This is exactly what we need, so I this morning I invited us all to join together for a Season of Prayer.  

So what is a Season of Prayer exactly, and what would it involve? Well, a Season of Prayer is an extended time to intentionally deepen our prayer lives and focus them on specific issues. To translate this into the life of our congregation, we are asking for every member of Wellington Fellowship (and First Church, Fort Collins if they would like to join in) to individually and corporately pray for the good of our church until New Years. So how can you help with this? It’s simple. During your individual prayer time, ask for strength for the people of this church and guidance on decisions. I would also invite you to ponder the gifts that God has given you for ministry. How can God help you use them in this congregation? How can the church empower you to live into where God is already working in your lives?  Then as your participate in prayer with our congregation, ask how we can use our collected gifts to bring forth God’s kingdom. Basically, where is God wanting us to go? Asking these questions as a congregation will help us discern God’s path for us while building up relationships within our community.  

This season is exactly what we need to tie into God’s plan and establish us permanently in the Wellington Community. As such, it will be a constant feature in our worship, leadership meetings and other church events going forth. I look forward to living this season with you and seeing how God’s grace will tangibly change us and transform us into the congregation that we all know we can be! Of course, there is much to be said about how God answers prayer. Or the motivations and methods we humans use in prayer. Those will have wait for a different post, or maybe a late night rant if I can’t sleep tonight. We shall see. So let us head forth into this season and I pray that God blesses you my friends.

 

A New Babel?

I recently entered my third decade of life here on this planet. I am not sure how I feel about this yet but I imagine I will get used to it. One thing is for sure though, celebrating it in style on a  Chicago vacation certainly helped ease the transition!

Honestly, I have never seen anything quite like Chicago. It is by far the biggest city I have ever visited. It is so vast and so loud. There is always a dull hum of commotion, like a dull roar of people and cars broken up by the periodic wailing of emergency sirens. The cacophony is deafening and the amount of people walking by you on the street is overwhelming. Good gracious, I have never seen so many people in all my life. Heck, even the sky was busy. Looking up at the plethora of skyscrapers surrounding me, I felt like a small ant navigating a complex parade of enormous metal giants. Basically, the city engulfs you. It's like you are in the heart of a great beast. There is no where you can look that does not remind you that you are in the middle of an entirely different, urban culture.

After a couple days of this, I was getting a little frazzled. I did enjoy many of the cosmopolitan experiences (Wrigley Field baby!) but since I am an introvert, I relished the quiet time I spent sitting with my wife in a coffeeshop at the foot of the Willis Tower. It is a fascinating vantage point from which to watch the city function. I saw men in expensive three piece suits darting around like hummingbirds, talking on bluetooth headsets and arguing about trade deals with distant countries. Then there were the large groups of tourists in bright, comfortable clothes, gawking at the Willis Tower and snapping pictures every couple feet. And, of course, there were the homeless who resigned themselves to shaking their change cups to get your attention. They hardly said a word, they just shook their cups as if that was all the explanation needed to garner a donation. As I sat there, all these people went about their business. Each had their own goals and lives in mind and were undoubtedly unaware that I was watching them. Some of them even seemed oblivious that they were walking around some of the biggest structures on earth, it was just a normal day for them.

As I sat there, I began feeling something that I am just now able to articulate. Looking at the Willis Tower,  I began hearing the story of the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11 run through my brain. I am not sure why this happened as there seemed to be very little in common with that story and what I was seeing around me. In the story, the people of Earth unite to construct a large tower in the hopes that it would make them famous and prevent them from being scattered across the planet. However, their efforts attract the attention of God, who is unhappy with the people's hubris and  decides to confuse their language so the project could not continue. In doing so, God shows humans the error behind excessive pride. It causes us to overly focus on our own issues and wants while isolating us from the needs of those around us. In the case of Babel, the people had taken this to an extreme. They were building a prideful monument to themselves, to call attention to their own abilities and achievements, instead of giving glory to God who's creation and influence allowed them to do such a feat.

It seems the lesson of Babel did not stick too well, because Chicago is filled with such towers. Most large cities have them nowadays. The Willis Tower is a prime example, it was built to be the largest in the world and draw attention to human achievement. It dominates the skyline and inherently draws attention to toward itself. I think this inward focus has also affected the city's inhabitants. Throughout the trip, I saw many, many people walking with their heads down, totally immersed in cellphones, Mp3 players and their own lives. They road the elevated trains in silence, not daring to talk to their neighbor. They worked silently in cafes, looking up only to make sure they weren't in someone's way. It was like people had become their own Towers of Babel, monuments to the separateness and importance of their own lives.Granted, my wife and I weren't speaking many people either, which is why I had such a great epiphany in the coffeeshop. I was feeling isolated, which is a bizarre concept in a city of millions. I had passed thousands of faces and hardly said hello. In fact, I vividly remember the only person we did talk to. It was outside Wrigley Field as the person taking our picture decided to introduce herself. Her name was Sarah and she was from Minnesota. She was also a tourist and had come to see the legendary ballpark. Our conversation didn't go much beyond that, but it made her stand out. She became a person amongst the throngs. We made a few other contacts while we were there, but that one will always stand out in my mind because of how it broke the seclusion.

Of course, I am unfairly describing Chicago in all this. There is no doubt my opinions are skewed by my experiences in smaller, more community oriented towns. Chicago is a fantastic place, but I think it's size makes humanities inherent prideful tendencies much more visible. That trait extends far beyond Chicago. It is everywhere and in everyone, and is always calling us to build our own Babel-esque towers. This isolating effect is what the church must always combat. It must help us walk the line between the individual and group identity toget us to a point of balance where we can look away from our selves to needs to others. If we do this, we can honor everyone and see that a tower is never the answer. What is important is that we use our resources for the good of all; that we build a structure where all can live with ample room for God and neighbor. It can happen in Chicago, or anywhere for that matter. So why not here? And why not now?

True Ministry

In my brief ministerial career, I have had many pastoral roles. Some of them are functions that people normally associate with clergy work. Specifically, I have been a caregiver, preacher, shepherd, social justice advocate, etc. If I had to estimate, I would say these things take up about 85% of my time. The other 15% consist of random roles that pop up from time to time in the life of a congregation. These situations, however, usually baffle me with their sheer bizarreness. For example, I have been a taxi driver, taking elderly people to various places. Then there were the moments when I had to put on my traders hat during a church garage sale to deal with a person who was trying to get $100 worth of merchandise for .10 cents. And, of course, there were the many times when got up early to help people move; often multiple times in the one year! At one point I did so many (I was the young, youth pastor after all, so I was the first line of defense in the church!) that my back is throbbing at the very thought! It was hectic!

Nevertheless, these random roles pale in comparison to what I am doing this week. For today, I am starting a five-day stint as a puppeteer. Namely, I am "Godwin Merrifeather" the pun making, big-bird wannabe, carnival-calling master of ceremonies from Wellington United Methodist Fellowship's "Fun Fair" Vacation Bible School program.  I am sure all you children's ministry vets out there are laughing at me right now. You are no doubt used to the craziness of a VBS and the many odd things the leaders do. After all, to be an effective VBS leader you have to get down to a kids level, which involve doing some crazy things! I was never one of those people. I was always able to work in the background and watch as my wife or other church members engaged in the madness. But not this year, no, no, no. This year, I am the bird of birds right out there on center stage. Oh boy.

I must say, my opening performance was far from academy award worthy. The voice I chose for Godwin sounds like Don Knotts on acid and I audibly crack when I go too high (I can actually hear my wife making fun of me outside my office right now, which does not help my case). Plus, I operate from behind our small pulpit, which is disguised as a ticket booth for this week. It does not give me much room to operate with, so I end up crouched, using this faux voice and feeling like an idiot afterwards.

However, seeing the kids reactions and hear many excited voices asking "where is Godwin????" as I walk by has caused me to rethink my initial reaction. Acting like a fool has helped them better connect with this Godwin character and the God that Godwin is so excited about. And if God is reaching these wonderful kids with the gospel message through such a silly messenger, who am I to stop it? In fact, I think I need to ham it up even more! In this, I am learning a Kind David-esque lesson. In 2 Samuel 6, King David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant back into Jerusalem after a long absence. It was a celebration to be sure (VBS like maybe???) but David made it more so by beginning to dance. Apparently, he was a big hit and he danced even more wildly, bringing the people with him into a state of passionate worship. However, when he got home, his wife was angry at him for acting so unbecoming as the people's king. His chiding response to her echoes through history and reminds people like me not to let our own assumed roles stand in the way of God's work:

“I celebrate[d] before the Lord. ²² Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!  --- 2 Samuel 6:21-22 NLT

In other words, David was willing to be even more undignified if meant better connecting with God  and helping others to see the Divine.  This certainly happened in my premiere performance as Godwin. Furthermore, as I think about it, this sort of feeling happens  any time I have experienced a role from the random 15% of my ministry life. Every time I drove someone, moved them, or dealt with them; I experienced God in a new way because I abandoned my comfort zone and embraced God in the moment. During these times, I connected with people without the polite "he-won't-understand-he-is-the-pastor" barrier that usually arises in clergy-lay relationships. Experiencing this is always a brief blast of authentic experience in which God works so powerfully. That experience is available to us all. So what would happen if all of us were "more undignified" for God in the random moments that pop up in our own lives? We love to experience God in such formulaic ways, so what would God teach us if we sought God out in new passionate ways in the moments that are not so familiar? Maybe then we can see that true ministry can occur anywhere and at anytime and that we need to be prepared to engage it.

On that note, I need to go wash up. My palm has been itchy ever since the opening act and I don't want to think about how many little hands have been playing with Godwin since then. . .

A Community of the Broken

I had an interesting experience up at Harvest Farm this morning. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Northern Colorado ministry scene, Harvest Farm a faith based addiction facility in Wellington where the residents work with crops and livestock a part of their treatment.  It is not an easy life. You literally live on a farm, so you are up with the sun to do backbreaking chores and take care of the animals.  On top of that, the residents are battling addiction, so they are constantly fighting multiple battles at once. It is difficult to provide for people going through this, but I must say I was impressed with the facility and its resources for its residents. It is a place of hope and I was honored to be there to support a good friend who is graduating from the program.  He has enough experience for two lives, and I am absolutely amazed about how God is working to transform him. Or as he put it so well "God didn't lead me here to fix my old life. He made me a brand new person." It was riveting!

I also found myself transfixed by the community he was speaking to. Now, when you think of a graduation ceremony, you might assume that we were in an auditorium full of graduates and bunch of well dressed people. That was definitely not the case. Instead, we were in the farm dining hall at 7:45a with 100+ men dressed for work (i.e. overalls, boots and junky work shirts) and finishing a hearty breakfast. The graduation was actually not an official event per se. Rather, it was a simple announcement that my friend had completed the program before he was given time to speak. It was a ceremony with minimal pomp and circumstance, but I don't think I will ever forget the reaction his fellow residents had to his speech. They watched with rapt attention. No one said a word. There were look of envy, happiness and sheer pleasure as the residents watched one of their own reach the storied hallmark. In this, their own stories were clear. They had come from similar backgrounds and were ecstatic about the progress God had in one of their comrades. And I hope that, from the look in their eyes, that they were eager join him someday.

All things considered, it was definitely  a worship service. The elements were all there. God was present, all were in community and the Good Word was preached. Yet, it was unlike any worship experience I have ever had. But why? Was it the setting? No, I have been to church camps before and worshiped in a similar rural atmosphere. Was it the content of the "sermon"? No, I have heard testimonies like his before. Although his was by far one the best. So what was the difference? Why was it so powerful? After a lot of thinking, I think it was the "congregation" that made the difference. But why? What was the difference between them and the people who normally attend a church? Perhaps it was their background; the different family dynamic, or some of their life choices. It could be, especially on a superficial level. But when it comes down to it , is there any difference between them and us? They were broken; just as I am broken; just like everyone on earth is broken. However, I think the signs of their brokenness were more apparent, just below the surface, while we try our best to hide our issues.

 All too often, I think we out in the pews take our forgiveness for granted. We overlook our common brokenness and the commonalities we all share. This is not to say we need to revel in our sinful past, or use it as a club to beat ourselves into a constant state of fear. But what if we remembered that we are always a work in progress and that we should be desperately trying to live into God's kingdom instead of our own? If we walked into church with that in mindset, what would happen? I think we would again find our worship as stimulating as a Harvest Farm graduation and our lives couldn't help but be changed. There is so much we can learn from them, so let's keep an open mind, amen?

It Begins. . .

Today is a big day in the life of First United Methodist Church, Fort Collins. For today, we are officially uniting with Wellington Methodist Fellowship and beginning our new partnership effort! As of now, we are essentially one church that meets in two completely different venues, each with its own identity and characteristics. It is a bond that we hope will allow our congregations to share strengths and move forward into a very exciting future.  My dream is to look back five years from now and see this as the day when Wellington began taking steps towards stability and growth, while First Church reinvigorated itself into an even more dynamic congregation. It is a wonderful vision, but bringing it about will be quite a challenge. However, I am excited at about this opportunity and how God has lead us into it. Together, with God leading us, our united church can  and should change the world!

Thankfully, I have been able to preach on this topic at both campuses within the last two weeks. In my sermon, I shared how we see our churches growing into relationship to bring this wondrous future about. However, I got several questions I was not expecting. Most people have not been in on the intensive conversations that brought this partnership into reality, so they were curious about our motivations. They were also wondering why I have been tagged as the "primary pastoral presence" for Wellington and what that really means.  And, of course, there were many queries about the future.These are great questions, so I thought I would address them here and tell how and why I feel this partnership came to be:

1) How did this Happen?  Back in January, we, the pastoral staff at First Church heard that Wellington Church was looking to drop down to a half time pastor. This was a very difficult decision, as Rev. Susan Warren had done an absolutely fabulous job there. Unfortunately, new church starts operate on a shoestring budget, so it is difficult to maintain the salary package required for a full Methodist Elder. So since it appeared that a change was imminent, the FC clergy put our head to see if we could help our northern neighbors. At the same time, I was feeling nudged by the Spirit. I began feeling that Wellington was a place I could live out my dream of helping a large, existing congregation (Fort Collins) explore new multi-site models of church and methods of worship. So we began exploring the possibility of this multi-site partnership and I am thrilled about how it has all come together. So, starting today, I have the chance to help Wellington do something new with the backing of an awesome church in Fort Collins.

2) What Does this Mean for My Presence at FCFUMC? Since we are technically one church, the pastoral staff at Fort Collins now serves both partner campuses. I, however, will be the primary pastor for Wellington and spend Sundays/half my weekly time up north. The other half will be spent at Fort Collins working with Outreach and Stephen Ministry. This system has a lot of benefits. Most notably, I can easily rotate back for Sunday's at Fort Collins and have another of our capable pastors preach up here. I can also draw on First Church's experienced lay leaders and ministry areas for help.  For those of you use to Methodist jargon, my appointment will remain at First Church and they will continue providing my salary package. Wellington will be able to contribute however, and offset some of the cost. This (in conjunction with some other staff movements) has allowed us to bring on Rev. Linn Zink to cover congregational care. She is an absolutely fabulous addition to our clergy team and from the ideas she is talking about, I think she is going to revolutionize how our church cares for its members.

3) What is the Future Going to Bring? As I said in my sermon yesterday, we don't know! However, we think that the two most likely outcomes are that Wellington grows and 1) becomes an independent congregation again or 2) it becomes a permanent campus of First Church. Either path is honorable and has amazing prospects. So we just need to wait and see what future God calls us to experience!

I hope this answers some questions for you all. But if it didn't, or if you have other concerns, do not hesitate to ask! The clergy team is seeking to keep this process as transparent as possible and we would love you input. And we welcome you  to come check out what we are doing in Wellington! That is the great thing about being one church with multiple expressions, there is always something different to experience! I look forward to walking the journey with each and every one of you. And may God reside inside us as our Strength, beside us as our Companion and ahead of us as our Trailblazer, leading us to an awesome future.

Freedom from the Slavemaster

Greetings from my couch! It is currently 2:30pm in the afternoon, though I could have swore it was much earlier than that. Unfortunately, multiple hours simply disappear when you are recovering from surgery. The medication knocks the living daylights out of you and even when you are awake you feel listless. At the moment, I am floating along on some oxycodone and an anti nausea med because the narcotics make me feel sick. This is good because my knee is in a contraption that constantly bends and straightens it in order to improve my range of motion. It is torturous enough process with the meds, so I am thankful for the cloudiness in my head at this point.

Recovery is slow work let me tell you, and it is made slower by the fact that the surgery was much more invasive than they expected. Contrary to popular belief, this is actually a good thing . If there was nothing to be done, the docs would have kept it purely arthroscopic and cleared out all the debris. My knee would have had a lot less cartilage as a result and I would likely need more surgery down the road. Thankfully, they saw that they could fix most of my kneecap , so they popped it out (literally!) and rebuilt its support. Thus, I have a much stiffer recovery ahead but my knee should be almost normal in a few months.

 Throughout this process, I have continued to learn about the perspective of the care receiver (read my last post to see where I am coming from). Lately though, I keep getting drawn back to a comment I received after I preached on "Bondage to Sin" during Lent. In that sermon I reflected on how sin acts like a slave master, which forces you to act according to its mandates (see Romans 8, where Paul explains the concept pretty well). I used multiple illustrations to explain it, primarily broken relationships and how it is easier to make them worse instead of seeking forgiveness to resolve them. I always thought of sinful bondage as a social/spiritual malady. However, as I was shaking hands afterward, a little old woman came up to me. She was a frail, bent little person, but she spoke with a very clear voice. She told me "I realized how I am being kept in bondage. It is my rheumatoid arthritis that keeps me from living my life and I need to trust that God will free me."

It was a fascinating statement. Granted, the relation between pain and sin deserves its own analysis. It is probably a deep topic, however, from my limited experiences, she seems to be on to something. There is a relationship there. When you are sick or in pain, that situation becomes the slave master. It dictates your schedule. You work when it allows you  to and even then it focuses your efforts on itself. For example, I would like nothing more than to catch up on the ever growing pile of church paperwork, but it seems like whenever I really get going my pain meds set in. Or I get derailed because I have to spend some quality time with my bending machine. Yes, this pain does control me, and it frustrates me to no end. Thankfully, I know that it will not last forever. I will be back to normal soon (well, hopefully).

Still, my parishioner is right. Even though her situation is much different and more intense than mine, God offers us both freedom. That freedom is in the form of hope and the knowledge that the pain is not forever. Or as Psalmist tells us "Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning," (Psalm 30:5 NLT). Remembering this will help slacken the hold of the slave master and return control of your soul to the proper owner. So where can God free you today? What pain are you harboring that God could help you address? Gotta go, pain meds are setting in again and I am worried I will start writing verses from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon."  Thanks for all the prayers and support. As for now, its time to fly away . . . (Wheeeee).