Major Changes Happening Now

One of the truly prophetic voices of our time, for culture but especially for the Church, is that of Bishop Will Willimon, who oversees the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church.  I read his most recent blog entry earlier this week, and believe he shares a truth that many are awakening to.  It is the truth that the church is in the midst of possibly the largest transition in the 'ways' of doing and thinking church since the Reformation of the 1500s.  And before that, since possibly the Apostles stood on that mount and watched as Jesus ascended into heaven.

His entry in its entirety can be read here, Major Moves in Ministry.   I highly recommend taking a few minutes and digesting it.  But I offer his five points about the moves churches are called to make, in brief right now:

• Move from caregivers to passionate, transformative leaders
• Move from contented church of monopoly, to church in competitive, missional environment
• Move from nonchalance about results to attentiveness to results
• Move from preservation and sustaining to adaptation and supple, flexibility
• Move from the pastor as head of an organization to the pastor as spiritual leader and congregational catalyst

His point, driven home by repetition, is beautifully true: God's Church is called to be moving and active.  Of course, many of our churches are active, only it is the sort of exhaustive activity that is focused on programs, events, and calendars.  Willimon here is calling for us to actively engage in a thought-filled, Spirit-led process of change from one way of being to another.

Such lofty ideas are not-within easy reach.  But then again, nothing that is worth chasing ever is.  But imagine what our churches would like like - who we would attract, what suffering we could alleviate, what fractures we could repair - if we even made a little progress.  We are called to be about ushering in the Kingdom of God.  I believe it will happen through the efforts of churches on such a journey.

Things Grow Brighter Here

I pulled out my phone just before the start of worship this past Sunday to check the time, as they are synced up with towers and satellites.  So it was to my surprise that after worship I noticed a large, ominous black spot on the display where just an hour before I has seen the time and a picture of my two boys.  At some point in worship the display on my phone broke.

  

I'll get it replaced, paying the small deductible, and will soon be communicating with many of you and others from around the world on it.  But the irony is stark: The face got dark during worship.  That is not biblical!

Quite the opposite, in fact.  There is this amazing and even challenging story from the book of Exodus where Moses would go up the mountain to stand in the cloud that covered God's very presence and receive the Law and Commandments.  But when Moses would return from being in the presence of God, all of the people were afraid, for Moses face shone brightly from having been so close to God (read the whole story in Exodus 34).  

I believe the same still happens today.  I also believe it happens in worship in our sanctuary.  When a person stands before the congregation to profess their faith in God, or to share their story of God's power, we are changed.  Our lives are made brighter.  Listen to Paul's interpretation from that story of Moses and how Easter has changed who and how we now access God:

All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

2 Corinthians 3:18, The Message translation

Bankrupt of Money, What Next?

In the news this week, a local Detroit man has filed for bankruptcy, as his debts exceed his ability to pay.  I imagine you are asking, "What is newsworthy in that?  This headline is all too familiar in this current economic climate, especially in Detroit."

Would it help if I said the person in the news was Derrick Coleman?  Coleman is a retired professional athlete, having played for 15 seasons in the NBA after a very successful stint at Syracuse University.  What makes this more tragic, is that investigation shows Coleman's salary over those seasons exceeded $87 million.  You can read more here...

It seems Coleman meant well.  He bought properties in Detroit with the intent of revitalizing the a downtown area.  He invested in local projects.  But, alas, the money is gone.  And all of us are saying, "That's a lot of money to be gone."

Where do you turn when it is all gone?  When you had something - maybe a lot of something - but nearly all of it is gone?  The disciples were asking themselves that very question in the hours and days following the crucifixion.  Standing along Jesus, prior to that fateful Friday, they were rich.  Not monetarily, but they were rich in vision, rich in potential, rich in what they believed their place would be in His coming Kingdom.  Then everything, it seemed, was lost.

We are fortunate to have the rest of the story.  We know that Jesus returned to show them another way. His return addressed the fact that investments in worldly materials and dreams limited only to this world don't last.  They began to hear, in those amazing days after Easter, what he had been saying all along; being rich in the things of heaven cannot be taken away, even by death.  We read it in Matthew 6, spoken as many as 2 years earlier to a crowd gathered up from the Galilee on a hill.  Jesus was teaching that there is a greater currency that does not wither, does not depreciate, and will not go bankrupt.

What would it mean for us, also in these amazing days after Easter, to invest ourselves in that which is eternal?  Can others see evidence in how we live for what we believe?

Two Critical Easter Messages

While we've spent most of our time this year listening to the story of Jesus as Luke's Gospel tells it, I could not pass up important details from the Gospel of Matthew. It is the message the angels, sent from heaven as messengers from God, deliver that has life-altering effects. Two parts strike me:

"Do not be afraid"

Some of us will remember that this is standard operating procedure for all angel appearances. Throughout the Scriptures when angels appear, they offer this word. Do not be afraid. Why, you ask? Because we are human. We fear change. We fear what is new. We fear what we do not understand; all of this is precisely what the truth of Easter brings. The world works differently now. Death has no hold for those who believe. God is bringing about change in ways you could not imagine before.

"He is Not Here"

The angels go on to point out that Jesus' body is no longer in the tomb. Jesus was not where they were looking, not among the dead. He could not be found in the cemetery. Instead, he is among the living. He is not dead, but instead busy with the stuff of life - redemption, affirmation, and fulfillment.

Easter calls us to something new; to life without fear and to live differently.  We are called to look for God's work - as Jesus made God present in a new way here on Earth - in places we never thought to look before.  This is the power of the Resurrection.  This is Easter.

A Holy Week

Just a few weeks ago, the Church gathered for Ash Wednesday and started this journey called Lent towards Jerusalem, the Cross, and Easter’s empty tomb. Now, in this the last week of Lent, we remember Christ’s Passion. It is a week of special devotion. The word ‘Passion’ comes from the Latin word patior, meaning “I suffer”. It was Athanasius, an early church theologian and later a bishop, who referred to it as ‘holy Paschal week.’ Greek and Roman worship books called it the “Great Week” because great deeds were done by God during this week.

In the early church, only Friday and Saturday were observed as holy days. By the late 4th century the various parts of the Passion story given to us in the Gospels had been separated out, and people began commemorating them on the days of the week on which they had occurred. You’ll recognize these:

Palm Sunday: Jesus’ triumphal entrance into the city
Maundy Thursday: Judas’ betrayal and the first Holy Communion
Good Friday: The crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus
Holy Saturday: Jesus’ body rests in the tomb
Easter Sunday: The Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ

It was actually the ancient Christians in the church in Jerusalem that first organized dramatic ceremonies during Holy Week at appropriate local holy sites that had been restored by the Emperor Constantine. Visitors to the city were so moved that these ceremonies have spread from Jerusalem to churches worldwide. We celebrate many of them this coming week, as we remember and are transformed by story of God’s love and overwhelming grace. I hope you’ll make every effort to be frequently in worship this week.

Grace and Peace to you, Scott

Our Vision for Church

Life is a journey. Journeys require movement. They call for preparation. Journeys of significance always lead to change. They lead to growth within the persons on them.
We believe our life with God – who is Creator and Lord of our lives – is a journey. We believe the church is God’s vehicle for achieving God’s intentions for the world. God is putting all things back together. God is making things right, again. This is our vision of what part Waverly Hall UMC plays.

We are…

Gathering to grow as mature followers of Jesus Christ. Going out to lead lives of significance for God’s Kingdom.

Do you get the sense of the movement within the statement? First of all, there is the gathering of persons. This happens primarily in worship, and without question, exclusively because our members are inviting others to join us here. The purpose of the gathering is that we might grow. Grow into God’s best desires for us. Grow to be like Jesus.
That is not enough, though. Inward movement, this gathering of persons, even for the high goal of growth, is not sufficient on its own. We are always going out from this place to be engaged in our community. We want to be significant in how we influence and serve others. We are called to work for God’s Kingdom purposes. We are making disciples for the transformation of the world.
Our leadership is continuing the long journey of living into what these ideas mean for this great church. I am thrilled that you are a part this. Otherwise, join us.

Deep Reading and a High Calling

Just last week I spent hours, literally the equivalent of a few days really, reading theology. Not from the classics. Not from the pen of any famous author. Instead, I was poring over the answers to theology and doctrine questions posed to the candidates that appeared before our South Georgia Conference Board of Ordained Ministry on Monday and Tuesday of this week. These are persons seeking to be admitted as ministers within our church.

The questions are deep and broad; it takes 30-50 pages to answer them completely. They cover essential terminology (repentance, Kingdom of God, resurrection, eternal life, etc.) and expansive ideas (what is the mission of the church, what role do pastors play, what can be said of humanity's need for divine grace, etc.). They also ask specific questions about the candidates personal life, their call to ministry, their ambitions, their strengths and weaknesses, and their willingness to submit to the highest ideals that are truly asked of every person called 'pastor' by any church.

It is a blessing to be a part of the process. It was not many years ago that I was going through it myself, as I sought to be affirmed and set apart by the church for the ministry of leading the church, and serving God's Kingdom purposes. But to now sit on the other side and read through answers that show evidence of deep reflection and conviction is humbling, to say the least. These women and men will serve churches across our conference, and serve God around the world. They will be asked questions and put into positions of great responsibility, and a solid theology of God's grace and Jesus' salvation will sometimes be to only thing of which they can be sure.

The same is true for us. We are tested, but rarely do the questions asked of us appear on paper. Instead, we find our lives examined by the world that wonders, 'Do we live out what we believe?'

On Dealing with the "Second Loneliness"

Henri Nouwen's From Fear to Love, offered this on Friday as a Lenten devotional.

"It is important to learn to move from a "first loneliness" to a "second loneliness". The first loneliness is a kind of emotional loneliness: needing friends, family, and home. But when all those needs are more or less met, you learn there is second loneliness. God is calling you to deep, personal intimacy, an intimacy that is wonderful and very demanding. God asks you to let go of many things that are emotionally, intellectually and affectively very satisfying. You must grow into the trust that this deeper loneliness is not to be overcome, but lived. You must live it with trust, standing tall. You must try to say, "yes, I am lonely, but this particular loneliness sets me on the road to intimacy with God. It does not pull me away from God or my deepest self, but brings me closer to the source of love in the depths of my being."

It's very important for us to dare to welcome the fullness of our second loneliness because it relates to the oldest mystical traditions about the spiritual journey. The "dark night of the soul" is another expression of the second loneliness. In a way, this loneliness opens us to personally know the true God. When we touch the darkness we know that God cannot be owned or grasped within the affections of the human heart. God is greater than our hearts, greater than our minds, always alive, always longing for a response.

O everlasting God, lead me from fear to love and from loneliness to communion with you."

(Henri Nouwen, From Fear to Love, Friday, First Week of Lent, p.8)

He has captured the human condition. He is speaking about the place where such an overwhelming majority of people find themselves. They have, but feel as though they are empty. They are in relationship - often with more people than they can keep up with, really - but can go long lengths of time without connecting deeply with anyone.

Oh, to find a place where this is talked about, and confronted. Where people are real, and push you to be real, as well. Oh, to be a part of something larger than yourself, to be found in the embrace of God and in connection with people who are similarly embraced. Oh, to be in the Church.