I’m just back from a week’s vacation in the rolling hills of Upstate New York where my family has been vacationing for more than 100 years—since a group of pastors and seminary professors built a colony on the shore of a beautiful lake and began passing the legacy on to six generations.
It is always refreshing to revisit the past amid God’s beauty. Reinvigorating! New life!
“New life” is a concept dear to Christians of many denominations. We celebrate it. We preach it. We say we value it.
But what do we do with it?
The new life which was gifted to us in the Resurrection is supposed to free us. We are free to worship and free to serve, free to think and free to interpret, free to tell.
What do we do with all this freedom?
Sometimes all we do is create new boxes, new restraints. We see it as creating order or tradition. Not bad, by any means.
But “order” can become confining. Soon the order we create defines our lives. We begin to serve the order.
The Resurrection freed us.
And so we worship on Sunday mornings, in much the same way our grandparents worshiped. We spend our offerings the same way. We maintain. We repair. We hold one potluck supper after another.
We pray for the whole people of God and hope that does the trick. Suffering will end. Disease will be cured. The poor will be fed, clothed and housed. What has been ravaged by man or nature will be rebuilt. Justice will prevail without a struggle. Our leaders will be wise.
How will this will get done? Who knows! We did our part. We prayed.
Time, perhaps, for the Church to take a vacation and rediscover “new life.”
Three Redeemer Ambassadors returned to Hartwick Seminary Church in upstate New York last Sunday. Hartwick is a small church. It has always been a small church. It has no illusions of ever being a large church. They are about to celebrate their 175th year in mission to their rural community which includes seasonal tourists.
On this Sunday, they were fulfilling their mission. Their attendance was about 30 and a third were tourists.
What a pleasant experience!
The congregation pulled together as a team. The organist was great. A wonderful soloist stepped up to fill some time while they were waiting for their pastor who was coming from conducting a service at a sister congregation. The leadership was obviously accustomed to rolling with the punches.
The sermon actually addressed the gospel in contrast to some of the churches we visit where the sermon is a meandering of thoughts.
The children were actively drawn into the children’s message, interacting with the congregation. All the visitors were invited to a potluck following the service.
They passed out a new hymn that was written by the pastor.
As we have often found, the size of the congregation has little to do with the quality of worship or the fulfillment of mission.
I’d seen this episode of Dr. Phil before, but it was just as compelling the second time. Dr. Phil was interviewing a mother and her adult daughter. The daughter was a family outcast. The mother did nothing but criticize the daughter, who could do nothing to earn her mother’s approval. The siblings were cautiously following the mother’s lead, shunning the sister.
At first, I was tempted to think the girl was given to hyperbole, but Dr. Phil was being unusually harsh with the mother. What was he seeing?
He pointed to various events in the daughter’s life which had drawn criticism. Sure enough, the mother was unrelentingly critical. There were plenty of good reasons to shut the daughter out of the family circle and she had no trouble recounting each one. Nothing her daughter said was true. Why waste time with her? The daughter was trouble. All drama. Always was; always will be.
Slowly, point by point, the doctor provided proof that the daughter was telling the truth in many of the accounts. She was truly deserving of the family’s attention or support in some difficult circumstances. The mother’s attitude, not the daughter’s actions, had poisoned the family.
At the end of the program, Dr. Phil pointed out that what the mother was doing was applying her expectations (which were low) to every interaction she had with her daughter. When the daughter slipped up, she was quick to point out that her failings were exactly what was expected, proof of the mother’s superiority. Every misstep had an “I told you so” waiting.
While she was busy counting her daughter’s flaws, she was failing to see anything good. A son was cheered; the daughter jeered.
It was hard to watch, especially when you’ve walked in the girl’s shoes.
We, at Redeemer, have lived this story.
Dr. Phil pointed out that everyone can fall into this mother’s habit. We have to learn to see beyond our expectations.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been picking on Redeemer in similar fashion for decades.
Someone at some time in the past — does anyone know who or why? — decided Redeemer was trouble. Ever since then, church leadership has looked to see their low expectations of this good congregation proven. Every little thing that might be construed as wrong was paraded before the entire church. Every good thing (and there have and continue to be many) count for nothing. Add the fight over property and the synod’s ongoing financial crisis and you have a whole new dynamic.
In the mother/daughter scenario, the whole family was drawn into the drama, finding it easy to take the mother’s side. We’ve seen the same behavior. The whole church—clergy and congregations—are willing to accept the bad, never looking for reasons. In this case, they stood to gain in doing so. It wasn’t just a broken relationship. It was a broken relationship with a $2 million property attached as the economy was making things difficult for everyone. The potential payoff made it all the easier to find fault.
SEPA cannot see beyond its expectations foreshadowed in 2006. Redeemer’s president at the time knew nothing of SEPA’s fault-finding with the congregation he and his family had joined ten years before. In fact, 95% of Redeemer’s members had joined in the last 10 years and knew nothing of Bishop Almquist and previous episodes with SEPA.
Redeemer’s president was trying to work with the Synod. He contacted SEPA offices many times. No response. At last, a synod staff member confided, “It doesn’t matter what your congregation does, the bishop intends to close your church.”
This was right after Bishop Burkat’s first election. All she knew about Redeemer was what she had been told. It did not come from any process of “mutual discernment.” Such claims are just part of the myth.
People find it easy to believe the story.
It’s Redeemer. What do you expect?
The situation wasn’t beyond hope in 2006. There was enormous potential. (Still is!)
There could be healing. Dr. Phil gives the recipe for reconciliation and healing. (A similar recipe can be found in the Bible.)
You have to look beyond your expectations, he advised. Start with small talk. Get to know one another again.
At the end of the program, Dr. Phil revealed the family incidents that had occurred when the daughter was just four years old. They were very real and horrifically tragic. The mother, the leader of the family, had not handled the situations well. She found a way to escape. The daughter became a reminder of a terrible time. A new child became the focus of all attention. A fresh start. The daughter was left behind, bearing the blame for something beyond her control for twenty years—throughout her entire childhood and into her adult years.
There are real reasons for the on-going tragedy in East Falls that continues to burden the SEPA family. There were incidents in the past that caused division. Many have no recollection of these incidents, but since then everyone in the church has been looking for only bad things from this congregation (while benefitting financially).
Multicultural ministry. Doesn’t matter.
Multilingual ministry. Doesn’t matter.
Blended worship. Doesn’t matter.
Neighborhood Christian Day School. Doesn’t matter.
Six-week, full day summer Bible School. Doesn’t matter.
Ground-breaking web site. Doesn’t matter.
Five-fold growth in two years. Doesn’t matter.
International fellowship. Doesn’t matter.
What matters is a history that none of us can remember. Can you?
It isn’t fair. It isn’t right. It could happen to any church. We wonder if it already is!
Any congregation could become the church’s whipping boy. All you have to do is dare to disagree. Write this church off. Collect its assets for your own use. No one was supposed to notice or care!
The good news. This can be fixed. Start with small talk.
We’ve explained this before but not for about a year. We’ve gained a lot of experience since then. Last year, search engines brought a lot of people looking for object lessons to 2×2 (about 16,000!)
Other websites present ideas for children’s object lessons. Redeemer contributed regularly to one site, posting our weekly children’s sermon. We didn’t have our own site at the time. We learned something in that process. The object lessons were enjoyed more by the adults present.
Adults have the ability to think abstractly. Children are developing this ability. Most won’t be ready to understand an object lesson until after they stop running to the front of the church and stay behind with the adults.
There are probably no studies on whether or not it works. We doubt it.
2×2 witnessed a children’s sermon last Pentecost. For once there were children in church!
A lay person was delivering this message. Often that is a good move. Many pastors lack training in teaching children and it shows.
The children were eager listeners.
The teacher had a few balloons. She blew one up and fwwooff. She let the air out and the balloon flew across the chancel and will probably be retrieved from behind a decorative screen 20 years from now.
Did the children understand the Pentecost message about being filled with the Holy Spirit? One child begged for a balloon the whole time the teacher was talking. Concrete thinking! The other children listened pleasantly and eagerly as the teacher filled a second balloon with air.
The concept she was teaching makes sense to adults. The adults present were observing and pondering the Holy Spirit and how we cannot control it.
The children were somewhere else. Interestingly, one girl was still thinking about the previous week’s children sermon. We weren’t present for that but it was clear that the teacher had directed the children’s attention to a stained glass window depicting the Ascension.
This girl had probably been thinking about this all week. She still had questions.
“Last week you said we were going to say good-bye to Jesus and we never did.”
A week has passed and it’s still on her mind! Can you remember last week’s sermon?
This exchange went unanswered—a teaching moment lost. In this case there was no object with a special meaning—just a story and a picture.
Children understand stories and pictures. Adults understand object lessons.
2×2 provides object lessons geared to an analysis of scripture for adult learners because object lessons work best with adults.
We are preparing to publish our first book of Adult Object Lessons which will follow the Standard Lectionary. We hope you will enjoy it.
I began my morning experimenting with a new plug-in called Anthologize. If you are blogging on WordPress, try it.
Anthologize allows a blogger to collect posts and categorize them—edit, rearrange, whatever— and then export them as a single document into Microsoft Word for publication as an ebook.
2×2 has posted a weekly Adult Object Lesson for a while. Had you asked, I’d have said six months or so. Object Lessons account for a lot of our traffic.
When I collected the weekly posts with Anthologize, I found more than 70 posts with object-based sermon illustrations geared to adult learners! Many can be adapted for children. More than a year! Half of Year B of the Standard Lectionary and half of Year C.
Quite a little ministry for a church that doesn’t exist (according to the ELCA)!
Imagine what all the churches that DO exist could be doing on the web!
Here are three images of this week’s gospel story from Luke—the story of dinner with Simon, the Pharisee.
The 18th century French artist, Pierre Subleyras, gives us a great deal to look at and ponder (1737). It is fun to see the depiction of a rich feast with all the hubbub of a modern meet and greet. There are servants, musicians, children, and even a dog nibbling at the scraps. Note the poignant side-show on the left.
Peter Paul Rubens, a century earlier, has the action front and center. Both artists have Jesus and company seated at western table. It is likely the real feast table was closer to the ground.
Since the biblical account is not very clear about just how many people attended this dinner party, here is a simpler depiction (below). My goodness, is that a Catholic friar in attendance? Could it be Martin Luther! And they were worried about the sinful woman intruding! Next time, hire a bouncer!
It’s by Dieric Bouts, from the 1440s. (It’s not Martin Luther in the painting! He came along a few years later!)
When people clip coupons, they care about only two things.
The promise of substantial savings.
The conditions and expiration dates.
The lure of savings is in large, bold and probably red type.
The conditions and expiration date are microscopic.
Coupons work this way. They save you money only if you buy the product the issuer wants you to buy when they want you to buy it. Coupons are a way of controlling the market—while giving the illusion that it’s the consumer they care about.
The issuer of a coupon is sure that their offering is worthy. They are well-branded—rich and important. Giving a tiny bit—while factoring the gift into the cost—will add to their wealth and status.
But a heavenly coupon is different. The offer of salvation is in big, bold letters.
The fine print may surprise you.
Today’s gospel addresses our tendency to presume that because we have chosen to follow God that we are suddenly better than the other guy. We are in a position to showcase our superiority. We are the bearers of a valuable coupon that, if we read only the large print, leads us to believe:
We are better than others.
We are certainly better than sinners.
We are better than the best people of other faiths and so much better than those who don’t believe at all.
Jesus addresses our self-satisfaction with a story of his own in today’s scripture. But for now, let’s stick to our own little parable.
The Pharisee read the coupon’s large print and issued his own coupon offer. At first, we are led to believe that Jesus alone has been invited to dinner. Later verses reveal that the dinner has many guests. So it’s a party! “Come to my party for Jesus. There is something in it for you!”
The Pharisee is maximizing his status. He is giving with the expectation of reward!
We in the church can do this, too.
The Pharisee’s dinner party is a show. A boast. The Pharisee can contribute to the cause and assure himself status in heaven and, for the time being, on earth.
Then, there is the small print. The disclaimer and the expiration date. The Pharisee’s coupon comes with conditions. Read carefully.
The Pharisee’s conditions are that you are already accepted in fine society, worthy to cross his threshold.
The woman who intrudes on this party has the original coupon. She read the small print. She saw the conditions — repent and believe. Expiration date? There is none!
This woman, already low in society’s ladder of importance, coupon in hand (so to speak), intrudes on a dinner party intended for the best of society. Not only is she a woman (not to be listened to) but she is recognized as a sinner. She is such a sinner that there is no need to address the sin. It’s taken for granted. Everyone knows.
The host and important guests are aghast. Who let her in?
Jesus, the guest of honor, applauds her daring. He points to her humility and sacrifice—her willingness to make a public spectacle of her devotion despite the shame and public ridicule she knows so well.
With the odds stacked against her, she wants her part of the promise. She read the fine print. She intends to redeem this coupon for full value.
I grew up in the Church . . . in a preacher’s family. A network of preachers’ families, in fact. Generations of pastors and numerous aunts and uncles representing several denominations working in ministry.
It was not until recent years that I heard the term “settled pastor.” But then, fifty years ago, most pastors were settled. It was so much a part of what being a pastor meant that there was no special term.
Perhaps we hear the term today because the Church is hanging on to a relic of the past. These are unsettling times!
What is a “settled pastor”?
A “settled pastor” is a pastor who is called by the congregation with no term limitation. Sometimes it is called a “regularized” call.
It’s not something lay people think about much. They should. The concept can make or break their church and cause lay leaders a lot of heartache. And they won’t see it coming!
There was a time when pastors were assigned to a congregation or called by congregational vote. There they stayed, baptizing, marrying and burying generation after generation of the faithful. A pastor might leave to serve a richer parish or to suit personal goals. The only other reasons to leave were seriously bad behavior or conflict. Poor performance was rarely a reason. Congregations can eke by with a poor, but beloved, pastor for years as resources dwindle.
Redeemer Ambassadors visited one congregation recently that had the same pastor for 18 years. It declined steadily despite the fact that their neighborhood was vibrant. They closed the week after our visit.
They had a “settled pastor” but where did that get them?
The reason the term “settled pastor” is used more frequently is that the concept is becoming rare. Pastors rarely settle into their communities intending to stay for decades—even when they accept calls as “settled pastors.”
Some accept calls to small congregations as stepping stones, proving grounds. Others don’t want a long-term commitment or even a full-time commitment. Their personal lives demand flexibility. Many enter the ministry as second careers and anticipate retiring within a decade or so. They will never be seasoned, full-time pastors. Frequently, they become “interim pastors”—also a new term.
It is probably the growing use of “interim” pastors that the term “settled” has become prevalent. The concept of “interim ministry” is short-term help while congregations consider long-term candidates. Interims terms should be a few months. They are often well over a year—intentionally so. The better to keep the stable of pastors employed.
Consequently, the goal of calling a “settled pastor” is archaic and unfair to congregations who buy into the concept that the pastor they are calling is deeply committed.
The modern congregation is likely to be equally unsettled. Demographics within communities can shift every five years.
So why is the Church pretending that “ssettled pastors” are either the norm or a good idea?
The concept serves another purpose that is rarely stated.
Settled pastors have significant constitutional advantages for clergy and professional leadership. In the Lutheran Church, the settled pastor can leave a congregation at any time with only 30 days notice. However, if a congregation is unhappy, stagnant, achieving none of its goals, declining in giving and attendance and facing a fragile future, they cannot make a leadership change without taking a vote—a two-thirds vote. Usually, twenty percent of an organization plays significant leadership roles. So lay leaders must convince three times their number, from a pool of less committed members, that a change is in the best interest of the congregation.
Having a settled pastor in place, means a problem for the regional body has been solved. A pastor has a job for as long as he or she wants it. Neither the pastor nor the congregation will be knocking on their door for a while!
Church lay leaders must be very careful. Making any kind of demand on a settled pastor can signal war. It won’t be declared as such but lines will be drawn. The settled pastor can easily use his or her position within the congregation and community to subtly rally support. The war will be fought with gossip and innuendo. “Hush! Did you hear ….?”
Lay leaders may be acting with the future of the church in mind, but soon they may be seen as malcontents and troublemakers. “Poor pastor! What he or she has to put up with!”
Their reputations in the community may be strong enough to bear it, but their voice in the church will be filtered.
Congregations will be divided. Conflict may take a serious toll and years to resolve—whether or not the pastor stays.
Perhaps it is time for congregations to insist on term calls as the norm rather than the exception, so that the comfort and security of being a “settled pastor” does not lead a congregation into long-term decline. If a course correction can be made, the existing pastor will have incentive to lead—create and meet benchmarks—and not take their call for granted.
“Unsettled pastors” might be the right servants to lead today’s church.
It’s more work for hierarchy and less secure for clergy.
But then church work is always hard and insecure for the laity.
Redeemer’s Ambassadors visited this congregation in Roslyn, Pa, on the morning they were hearing a sample sermon from a pastoral candidate. We expected a large crowd but there were only about 60 at worship.
They were considering the call to Rev. Ellen Anderson who was present with her family. One of the Ambassadors used to work with her recently deceased father, Arvid.
The opening announcements revealed the usual hodgepodge of good works. Their crocheters had contributed 243 squares to a blanket project and supporting an American Cancer Society event. Cancer causes are a focus of the congregation’s ministry.
The sample sermon was introspective of her own faith journey. After a brief recognition of the Gospel Story of the Widow of Nain, she witnessed to God’s influence in her personal life, calling it her Pentecost story. She invited the congregation to tell their “Pentecost” stories. Seems to the common theme this Pentecost. We heard a similar slant on Pentecost Sunday.
The bulletin was mostly “reminders.” Their web site says they use an overhead projector to eliminate the use of paper. Still, Redeemer managed to print the entire service and reminders on less paper than they used.
Overhead screens have some limitations. They shift the focal point from the altar to technology and there is really no guarantee that everyone can read them.
Their approach to offerings was innovative. They do not pass the plate at all but invite people to place their offerings in a box at the back of the church. Passing the plate has become awkward in many churches, because they really don’t pass the plate. They reach into the pew, never letting go of the plate. This is an interesting solution. Hope it works!
The service itself was simple, using a couple of standard hymns and a few newer ones.This is the first we’ve heard the Peruvian Gloria in our visits. We used it almost every week.
We did not stay for the vote.
The call process is seriously flawed. Basing so much of your congregation’s future on a sample sermon and limited knowledge is calling a pig in a poke, so to speak. Congregations need to know so much more before making a major commitment affecting their future. Today’s congregations need so many skills that the call process doesn’t tend to showcase. Making a course correction after the call is issued is problematic and often divisive. Yet we keep following the same process!
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
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Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
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On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
