Monday, November 25, 2013

Thankfulness

This being the week of Thanksgiving, I hope for every reader of the Shiloh Insider an exciting, restful time with family and friends. Lisa, my wife of more than 27 years, and I will share brunch with our adult daughter, Casey, and her fiance, Justin. Afterward, we will be doing Christmas decorations, watching football and cooking together an intimate Thanksgiving meal for two. We appreciate the invitations that we have received to share the afternoon with good friends and family, but we treasure the times that we can take as a couple.

I thought that this Thanksgiving was a good opportunity to lift up some people, or groups of people, for whom I am particularly thankful this year. These are the Top Ten Folk of Thanks, 2013:

10. I am thankful for my good friends, who allow me to be myself without confusion of title or position or expectation. It is nice to be with those who love you unconditionally.

9. I appreciate the fabulous Shiloh Church staff. It is rare that persons genuinely like and appreciate those with whom they work. You are as much my friends a church staff.

8. I love my extended family, on both my side and my wife's side of the aisle. You are a constant source of humor, fun and support.

7. I have come to treasure my Association family. The people of SONKA have been a constant source of renewal and excitement. Even while I grumble about wider church responsibilities, I love the opportunities.

6. I sincerely marvel at the ministry and leadership of Kathryn Anadein, SONKA's designated Association Minister, who is guiding us creatively and boldly into an uncertain future. Thank you, Kathryn!

5. I give thanks for the satanic physical therapist, Whitney, who forced me into more pain than I thought possible, but who, in doing so, has given me much greater mobility.

4. I give thanks to the medical community who strive everyday to provide excellent care to persons, having to cope with insurance companies, patient avoidance, and the money that, unfortunately, determines who does and who does not receive the care that they need.

3. I appreciate the members and friends of Shiloh Church. You refuse to be an audience to faith. You are the actors, playing on a stage that desperately needs to see the face of grace in Christ.

2. I thank God for our daughter, Casey, and her partner in crime, Justin. Your lives together have begun marvelously. Thanks for the wisdom with which you make decisions and the responsible manner in which you have conducted yourselves.

And the number one person for whom I am thankful this season is...wait for it....drumroll...

1. My incredible wife, Lisa, whose hard work and dedication make it a joy to share what is now the majority of my life on this good Earth. Your personality and sense of humor is a constant source of happiness. Thanks for spending your life with me.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Monday, November 18, 2013

A Foot in Each Camp

The contemporary call to clergy is unlike it has ever been.

When I came from seminary, way back in 1987, cultural change was just beginning to be seen in the aisle of our churches. It could be seen in the changing values of those in the pews, those who rest on the periphery of our congregations, and those who stand outside of them. From that time onward, I have been involved in studying and analyzing the effects of cultural change on congregations and Church movements, both historically and in our contemporary situation.

Today, the Church and the world are altogether different places. The American culture has almost completely turned its back on the institutions of the past, including and especially religious ones. What contemporary culture is asking of religious institutions is only now becoming clearer, and it is quite a divergence from the historical, traditional paths of religious institutionalization.

The culture wants the Church to be an authentic resource for community spirituality and service. I mean by "community spirituality" the notion that the Church is called to represent the mercy, grace and love of Christ in, to and with its wider community. The culture demands now of religious institutions that they do precisely what they proclaim, establish God's kingdom for all people. This suggests that churches spend their time developing, establishing and maintaining faithful representation of the grace of God in Christ. Then, the culture asks of churches that they dutifully represent Christ in what they do "for the least of these." Church program and policy must be shaped around service ministries, particularly in the neighborhoods where those congregations are located.

While clergy are aware of these new trends, and while many are being equipped to help congregations meet the required cultural changes, this is distinctly contrary to what the churches want of their clergy leadership. Churches want the traditional, historical course. They want the comfortable prayers, hymns, liturgies and programs of the past. Even if it means that they will not survive in the developing culture, churches would rather die than change.

So, clergy today have a foot placed precariously in both camps. We are serving churches that seek values, practices and promises of the past in an atmosphere that demands authentic spirituality and genuine, passionate service to hurting communities as a means to building kingdom in the presence and future. The tasks of each are difficult. Together, they are impossible.

So what are clergy today to do? Do we dare choose? Do we opt for one avenue over the other? What do we teach? How do we, as Pastors, lead?

I know one thing for certain. As the gap between the cultural environs of the Church and its own demands and requirements widens, clergy who place a foot in both camps will be torn apart. These are times, instead, for new faithfulness, new leadership, creativity and imagination. The old ways are over and gone, despite the best efforts of our churches. The spiritual evolution is being necessitated, as it always has and will, by the culture in which we find ourselves. Whether or not we can and will change to meet the cultural demands of churches determines whether or not we become part of the developing culture.

I hope and pray that we can and will move forward and outward together, for Christ's sake.