Today the Roman Catholic Cardinals chose a new pope. Pope Francis of Buenos Aires stood on the balcony in St. Peter’s Square and asked for the faithful to join in prayer. He stood in silence for a long moment before saying a word. We are encouraged that the cardinals chose a man known for humility and servanthood and pray, as he requested, that he will nurture such traits among all religious leaders.
Best wishes as the Roman Catholic Church enters a new era.
We talk about servanthood and sacrifice but there is always the temptation to accumulate wealth and prestige.
In order to accumulate wealth and prestige you must make people happy—especially people who already have some wealth and prestige.
These people hold power over the whole Church. They, by virtue of their status, are responsible for the Church’s success—and its failure. Don’t wait for them to admit it.
We are now watching the celebration of power, in its highest Christian form, with the activities in Rome.
But the Roman Catholic Church is not alone. Most church bodies are tempted to organize around power.
It’s funny. All this power doesn’t seem to help the Church grow.
Living within a power structure causes the people of God to look over their shoulders. The smallest idea or initiative, regardless of its potential, is likely to die before it can be tested.
An individual brings an idea to a committee.
The committee has to check with its version of elders.
The elders have to check with the pastor.
The pastor has to check with the bishop.
The bishop doesn’t have time.
Everyone promises to pray.
Nothing happens.
Perhaps one definition of “saint” is a Christian who steps outside this power structure and gets something done.
Your adults are surely familiar with today’s gospel story. Jesus comes to visit Mary and Martha who become indebted to him for resurrecting their dead brother, Lazarus.
Mary sits at Jesus feet and anoints his feet with very expensive perfume. At least one disciple is upset. The narrator of this story, John, does not hold back in letting us know how he feels about Judas.
In comes Martha. While Mary has been doting on Jesus, Martha has been preparing to feed and entertain Jesus and his entourage. Dinner for at least 16—no small feat in the pre-appliance age.
Jesus responds with a lesson in values and priorities.
If you can share this video with your members, please do. Show it in church, during fellowship, or at least include a link in your weekly email newsletter. (You do have a weekly email newsletter, don’t you?).
If you can’t show the video, tell the story. Your object can be a cup of coffee — or two cups of coffee—one paper, plastic or styrofoam cups and one more elegant. You might conduct your own experiment and offer an assortment of cups to your group. You might show the video at coffee fellowship.
Note that the professor in this video serves coffee to his guests after listening to a gripe session. He is not unlike Jesus in this regard. The former students were feeling put upon by the world — like Martha.
This story is not so much about right and wrong as it is about priorities. Weave the video’s message with Jesus’s message about how we determine what is important in our lives. Discuss the viewpoints of each key figure in the story—Jesus, Mary, Martha, Judas, and Lazarus. You might also include the author of this gospel, John. He chooses to tell this story for a reason!
What is going on in Rome right now might be of interest only to our Roman Catholic neighbors. But when one denomination boldly claims to be the one and only true church, they invite the attention of the rest of us neo-Gentiles.
Protestant leaders tend to emulate the Roman Catholics, often forgetting the reasons we separated 500 years ago. Some of the reasons have disappeared. Other have not. It’s probably envy for the attention the media gives to the pope.
Truth be told, Protestants have their own messes to clean up today—lots of them, in fact. We don’t really need to be watching so closely.
Nevertheless, beginning this week, all eyes will be on Rome. The process promises to take us close to Holy Week. Guess how much attention Protestant churches will get from the media this Easter season.
We don’t know how things will turn out. One learned church authority described the process and closed his statement saying, “In the end, it’s God’s choice.”
Really? God needs the help of 115 old men, each with considerable self-interest, to name his new Saul or Peter?
Why is the process so secret? Tradition is not a good enough reason anymore. Tradition has led to horrific abuses. Furthermore, tradition has condoned the abuses and made a habit of victimizing any voice of dissent. Again, Protestants share in these atrocities. For once, they can be glad the media concentrates on the Roman church.
Can we, perhaps, learn and adapt traditions so they make sense?
Secrecy in choosing leaders reveals distrust in any human ability beyond the chosen elite. It leads the Church down the road of management not leadership. Managers tend to preserve what they have as they seek to maintain and expand the same power structure. The privileged will remain privileged. Outsiders will fight for a voice.
Leaders, on the other hand, assess the existing resources and add dreams—their own and those of others. This is what the Church today — Roman and Protestant — needs badly.
Leadership has been with us always. In recent years, sparked by the Renaissance, the Reformation and the rise of Democracy, the concepts of leadership have been studied. Much of this research and analysis emerged during the last century but it continues as the world is redefined by digital communication. Old principles will be applied in new ways.
We know now that heredity does not ensure good leadership.
We know that occasionally the best leaders come from outside a given structure.
We know that genitalia is not a predictor of effective leadership.
We know that there is no chosen race that excels in leading.
We know that the most effective leaders are often unarmed.
We know that input from all leads to better decisions.
We know that any voting process is not foolproof.
We know that any power, however and once bestowed, needs to be watched.
We know that future power might be sitting today in a jail cell.
We know that power need not be a life-long mandate. Power can be passed on to successors peacefully and former leaders can return to “civilian” life.
And with all this new knowledge about leadership, we know mistakes can still be made and power can be abused.
Yes, we know more than we did some 2000 years ago, when someone had to figure out what to do upon the demise of Christ’s hand-picked favorite — the mercurial and passionate Simon Peter. They got it wrong a few times, terribly wrong for a while, which brings to question the conclusion that this is God’s process.
We have ample experience these days with dictators and despots—some benevolent, some ruthless.
We have learned that secrecy and exclusion is a predictor of problems.
Good leaders operate in open ways, building trust with honesty and accountability.
The Church has been very bad at this.
Protestants fall into the same trap. In our denomination there seems to be a behind closed doors vetting process. You have to play to have a say.
The archaic processes are designed to evoke mystery and keep the sheep at the far end of the fold with a few barking dogs between them and the emerging leaders.
Just look at the customs that are revealed on the evening news.
The papal apartment is sealed. Against what?
The stoves and chimneys are installed so that smoke can signal the cardinals’ progress. Come on! Even Pope Benedict used Twitter.
The mind games, always part of the process, become tiresome in the media. They would have us believe none of the cardinals aspire to stand on the balcony with the world watching. They are all so engaging as they describe their reluctance. One candidate is out of socks. Another just wants us to know he bought a roundtrip ticket. Coach or first class?
But again. This is all the business of the Roman Catholic church. It doesn’t involve the various branches of Christianity, including the Orthodox who were the first to leave the self-proclaimed one true Church. (Or did the Roman Church leave the Eastern Church?)
The difficult thing to understand is why Protestant leaders, excluded from the club, travel to Rome for photo ops with the pope. There is zero benefit to their denominations, which are surely footing the bill.
The reality is this: the papacy and all church leadership face a new age in which hierarchies as we know them will topple.
It could come hard. It could come easily. It’s going to come. Whomever God or the conclave chooses will be managing or leading God’s people into a new religious era.
Next Sunday’s gospel features a moving image that has never quite caught the imagination of artists. He starts his discourse sniping at Herod, calling him a fox. But he quickly moves on. Jesus compares his feelings for Jerusalem to a hen protecting her brood — but the brood is unwilling.
The headline art simply depicts Jesus contemplating the city which housed God’s earthly temple.
Today, in modern Jerusalem, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, there is a mosaic with the words of scripture surrounding the image. “But you are unwilling” drips in red at the feet of little chicks.
Artists seem to be much more comfortable with other biblical metaphors. There are numerous images of rushing streams, stars, bread, the lion and the lamb—even the rooster crowing, but this poignant image of a mother hen never grabs us.
Perhaps this is because the metaphor was first delivered by a disillusioned Jesus. Do we feel guilty?
Perhaps it is because it is a feminine image in a religion long-dominated by men
It is less likely to be taken on by today’s artists. There was a day when most homes had a few chickens pecking the ground in the back yard — a living refrigerator. But the sight is uncommon today.
Most bloggers covet their subscribers and feed off the statistical attention. Why would any blogger encourage loyal readers to leave?
Well, this blogger took an inventory of just how many words he had been sending to his readers—many of them free, some of them for pay. He wondered if the heart of his message might be lost in the abundance of words.
He was moved by Paul’s closing words to the people of Philippi, with whom Paul had shared some trying times.
“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
It’s Lent, he concluded. Take a break from listening to me, search your hearts, and put what you might have learned into practice.
Many congregations are interested in adding Social Media to their ministries. And so they dabble. They find someone to start a Facebook page. They lean back and relax. That’s done. Innovation isn’t so hard, after all!
Here’s the thing about Social Media.
Social Media is more than Facebook. Much more!
If your congregation embraces Social Media it will mean everything changes.
Social Media, fully embraced, is not a simple add-on — like adding an extra worship service.
It is transforming.
Transforming? Isn’t that what our church leaders have been demanding of congregations for the last decade with little definition of exactly what they mean?
Social Media—fully embraced—will affect every aspect of your ministry in positive and profound ways.
People need to be prepared. The only way to prepare people is to involve them and encourage flexibility. It helps to actually get started!
My family had lunch today in a historic inn along the famous Lincoln Highway. We got to talking about the history of the highway. It seems the opening of this newfangled cross-continental roadway that followed the introduction of the automobile came with no small amount of angst.
The big fear was that the horses of the early 20th century would not be happy.
Unhappy horses meant unhappy drivers.
A plan was developed.
Step 1: Prepare the horses. Warn them. Something new is coming.
Early drivers of horseless carriages were encouraged to carry flares with them. Upon approaching a horse-drawn carriage, they were to shoot up a warning flare. (Bet that went over big!)
Step 2: Protect the horses’ sense of security.
If horses were not reassured by flares (and why would they be?), then drivers were encouraged to carry camouflage. At the sight of a distressed horse, they should be prepared to pull to the side of the road and drape their automobile with a sheet designed to make the car disappear into the surroundings. What the horse doesn’t see will not be scary.
Step 3: Dismantle the horseless carriage.
If a horse is still disturbed by its new competition, drivers should be prepared to dismantle their automobile and hide the pieces along the side of the road until the horse passes as if nothing has changed.
All of this is, of course, absurd — especially to us Pennsylvanians who share the roads with our Amish neighbors. The horses seem to have adapted!
But this is a typical agenda for those who fear change.
Warn people of innovation.
Protect them from innovation.
Be prepared to dismantle all the progress and benefits possible from innovation at the first sign of distress (real or imaginary).
Churches intent on incorporating social media must be prepared to meet the same sorts of resistance.
It will mean doing things very differently — across the board. The very structure of church will change.
Expect something like this:
Social Media is clearly too much work for one pastor. But pastors are used to controlling communication in the church. Lay people cannot be expected to handle so much responsibility. Best to wait. And wait. And wait.
What do we do if Social Media actually works and lots of new people join a church? (This was a problem Redeemer was dealing with as 49 people joined in one year.) What if those 49 people become a voting block with the potential to ruin any plans made before they joined. Our congregation was dealing with this issue head-on and making progress. But our denomination, intent on Redeemer failing so they could claim our property, couldn’t deal with change they hadn’t orchestrated. They skipped right to Step 3: Dismantle everything! They kicked out the 49 new members along with the 25 or so older members and locked the church doors.
These are real problems but they are good problems that need solutions. Dismantling everything because things aren’t like they used to be is just plain silly—and it is counter to Christian mission.
Fortunately, there are real solutions waiting to be discovered.
The automobile is now the norm.
The new church that arises from the use of Social Media will soon be the norm, too — and it all may happen just in time to save the mainline church.
Social Media is the greatest evangelism tool the Church fails to embrace.
It’s never a priority, so it never gets done.
If it is attempted, it is relegated to volunteers who follow their interests and skills in their available time. There is no plan or accountability. If your congregation has an especially skilled volunteer with dedication, you are lucky.
We live in the information age. It is time for churches to recognize that church communicators are people with valuable and specialized skills. They have the best potential to help congregations of any size to grow.
Communications has become a skilled specialty. Church communicators should be key members of any ministry team. Compensation should be considered. Otherwise, the work is likely to be inconsistent and potentially detrimental to ministry.
But churches are structured to pay pastors, organists, musicians, secretaries and sextons first. There is rarely money left for other skills—no matter how vital they have become as the world has changed.
In the day of the mimeograph or photocopier, communications was expected to be a skill set of the pastor with the assistance, perhaps, of the church secretary and maybe a committee that might meet once a month. Most communication took place before well-filled pews. It became the Church way because it was the ONLY way. Good-bye yesterday.
Communications today requires daily attention. This is good news!
The potential for Church Communicators to influence ministry has grown beyond exponentially.
It is beyond the skill set and/or time availability of most pastors. Without a plan or structure and only the expectations of volunteer efforts, effective communications mission work is unlikely. Congregations will wallow in unfulfilled potential.
A major mission of any congregation is to TELL THE STORY of Jesus and His love AND to tell THEIR STORY.
That requires planning and skill.
We’ll tell part of our Communications Story in the next few posts.
You don’t have a magic wand? Use any kind of pointer, stick or even a straw. Remember, it’s magic!
Today’s gospel tells the story that has come to be known as the Transfiguration.
Four men (Jesus, Peter, James and John) climb a mountain to pray. Suddenly, there are six men!
It has all the trappings of a magic show. People appear from nowhere. People disappear. There are clouds obscuring their vision and brilliant lights to direct the eye.
Keep in mind that Peter, James and John climb the mountain with the knowledge of Moses and the stories told of his mountaintop encounters with God. When Moses and Elijah appear, it may be to them as if they are experiencing history. We might liken it to suddenly seeing Abraham Lincoln and George Washington on the podium on Inauguration Day.
Climbing a mountain to pray is nothing new. Moses had a habit of climbing a mountain when he wanted to talk to God, too.
The experience was a bit ho-hum at first.
While Jesus was praying the three disciples were fighting sleep. Seems like this is a recurring temptation for them. They sleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Peter later falls asleep while praying on a rooftop.
That prayer is a challenge is nothing new. We want to talk to God. We hope to listen to God, but when given the opportunity, we feel inadequate. We fall asleep. An escape!
Talking to God is daunting.
But on this particular day, the three disciples were to experience the profound. What they were about to see was so like magic that they dared not talk about it until after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
(Wave your magic wand dramatically as you retell the story.)
They saw Jesus transform. Presto!
He became like light itself. They had heard about this. It had happened to Moses. The great and powerful Moses. The giver of the Law.
Speaking of Moses . . . there he is. He appears with Elijah, the prophet, no stranger to magical occurrences.
Abracadabra! They are here. Presto! They are gone.
The disciples are left listening to God. And what does God say?
“This is my Son. Listen to him.”
The Bible texts which follow this story reveal that Jesus is growing impatient with his disciples and their inability to make connections between what he teaches them and how they should apply his teachings.
The magical part of prayer isn’t so much in how we speak to God. It’s in listening to God speak to us. Elaborate on this.
Willis points out that large churches are historically a new phenomenon—only 100 years old!
2×2 has made this point for a while. Most churches set out to serve their own communities with little thought of growth.
When churches grow, it is usually because of societal change, not a dedication to mission, fueled by a carefully drafted mission statement.
Willis points to the rise of mega church as a result of mobility in society made possible by mass transit and a reliable highway system.
The article quotes Tony Pappas, an American Baptist minister:
So for the first time in human history, thousands of people could get to a one- or two-hour event and get home for lunch! So large churches, big steeples, big pulpits, Old Firsts came into being. As we think of them today, large churches have only been around for a little over a century–only 5% of the history of our faith.
Before the concept of mega church, most congregations were pretty much the same in their needs and mission. Pastors were expected to do the same things and there was little mobility. There was no need. Pastors served the same church for decades.
Today, a pastor may, in following a call, carefully calculate how accepting the call will position him or her for a “better” or more lucrative call in three years.
Meanwhile, the congregations still think they are calling a pastor for the long haul.
The article makes a case for the mega church as an attractive business venture. Business entrepreneurs supported large congregations as an investment.
The early mega churches included congregations of just 1000 or 2000 members. Today, the mega church aims for five times that number. (Churches with 1000 or more members are called corporate churches. There aren’t many of them either.)
A model church budget today relies on the support of 1000 members. Most churches with 1000 members have only 10% worshiping on a typical Sunday morning.
In our 55 Ambassador visits, we have encountered only a handful of churches with worship attendance of more than 100. Most of those were on holiday Sundays. The average attendance of all the churches we have visited has been under 50. One congregation listed its average attendance as 400 in its Trend Report. Attendance at the 11 am service the day we visited was 27 (including us, the pastor and the organist).
In the last 100 years, we have created a model that the Church and its volunteer memberships never set out to support. And can’t.
So here we are in 2013, looking at the ruins of our church. And we are still thinking — if everyone can just change and be like the one or two percent of churches that manage to reach “mega” status, all would be wonderful.
Pastors are still trained to serve congregations as if they are neighborhood congregations. When expectations don’t match reality, the laity are blamed.
Most lay people just want to join a church to worship. They never set out to reinvent it.
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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
Today the Roman Catholic Cardinals chose a new pope. Pope Francis of Buenos Aires stood on the balcony in St. Peter’s Square and asked for the faithful to join in prayer. He stood in silence for a long moment before saying a word. We are encouraged that the cardinals chose a man known for humility and servanthood and pray, as he requested, that he will nurture such traits among all religious leaders.
