I do not accept the narrative about the death of the church, in general, or the Presbyterian Church (USA), in particular. I have seen too much evidence to the contrary. New ministries are popping up across the country. New churches are being planted. Established churches are being renewed, reused, and repurposed. When I go and meet with Christians at conferences, meetings, and other gatherings, again and again, I encounter people filled with life and hope. I refuse to accept that we are surrounded by death and withering on the vine.I am also not blind to the reality of these days. I see the churches we have closed. I am aware of the number of churches that have been dismissed to other denominations. I agonize over the struggles of so many churches in the PCUSA dealing with declining membership and crumbling buildings. I know these things. With the places I serve in the larger church, I know them very well. I simply refuse to read these signs of the times as the indicators of the end of anything.This season of Lent is a time in the church calendar for self-reflection. What do we truly believe about Jesus Christ and his church? In what do we put our faith? What does the bible lead us to believe about this world? The self-reflection of Lent will give way to the reality of Holy Week and Easter soon. Death, resurrection, and new life will be our themes.I believe God is doing a new thing in us and through us for the life of the world. The church and the PCUSA are not dying. They are simply changing… perhaps in very big and challenging ways. Structures are falling. Institutions are coming down. Our life together is being recast. I am hopeful. Like Mary returning from the empty tomb, I am hopeful.Live into hope. Believe in what God is doing. Participate in the new life that God is breathing into the world. Change the narrative of the church from despair to joy and excitement over what God will do next. Happy Easter!
Observing Lent
I grew up in a non-religious family. My mother and father both had bad experiences in the church, so faith was almost always kept at arms length. I was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church and from time to time we attended, but the church was never really a part of my life. When I reached high school, I was more aware of the wall of separation. My friends attended youth nights at their churches, lock-ins, and mission trips. There were days I felt left out, but mostly it did not bother me.From time to time, my world and the world of the church would meet. I remember as a child going to Detroit and being in a glorious downtown Catholic church for a wedding. In my early teens, I spent the night at a friend’s house and went with him to church and then roller skating with the youth group the next day. My more religious relatives would occasionally give me a bible for a gift that I would thumb through and set aside. In my later teens, I attended Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sapulpa with another friend sporadically. There was contact with faith and God, but never enough to get me through the door of the church on my own.I did pray though. When my great-grandmother was dying, I prayed for her. When any number of tornadoes came by our house, I prayed. I prayed on the difficult days and gave thanks on some better ones. The most consistent spiritual practice was giving something up for Lent. My mother made us do that. For the better part of fifteen years before I started to regularly attend church and was on course towards ministry, I observed Lent. I gave up chocolate, soda, or ice cream. One year, I pledged to play outside more or even to be nice to my two younger brothers (needless to say I did not make it all the way to Easter). For the relatively non-religious, this was as close as we got to holy practices.Looking back now, I see that as a beginning: prayer, observing Lent, an occasional visit to a church. Too often we look down upon the beginning stages of faith or the easy spiritual practices. “You should be doing more”, we say. We do a disservice to the entire life of faith and the entire journey of faith when we denigrate a part of it, particularly for those outside of the Christian faith or just starting. We are all in different places. Our faith is individual. Sometimes those spiritual practices lead to much more later on. Sometimes giving up chocolate for Lent leads to being a minister. I know it did for me.
New Year, New Look
If you have not yet, you will begin to notice soon the new logo above showing up across our print and digital media at the church. The new logo was developed alongside a new website that will appear in the next months. The logo and website will serve as a first impression and first encounter for many as they discover Southminster. The hope is that these two elements will reflect the flesh and blood and brick and mortar Southminster they will find. The logo incorporates a style of cross that is present throughout the church and on the east steeple particularly. The blued stained glass windows reflect our Presbyterian heritage and contains a map of the Brookside area. The Heart of Brookside motto is front and center under the church name and with a heart in the logo. This new logo and eventually the new website will serve as an attractive and updated welcome to visitors and lifelong members alike.This change is also symbolic of the work that has been going into developing a new mission plan for the church. Through the fall, we discussed the past, present, and future of Southminster and Brookside. We celebrated past ministry successes and looked forward to future ministries that would impact our church and community. We also acknowledge the challenges that our church faces. At the annual Officer Retreat, your Elders and Deacons began the process of distilling those conversations from the fall into an actionable mission plan. That process will continue through the spring as Session and then the committees discern future ministry needs. A fully developed plan should be coming into focus during the summer. The new logo helps to mark this transition and the hopeful future we are building for Southminster.Sometimes a church logo is just a church logo. It is something that appears across letterhead and on business cards. It does not have to be though. My hope is that we live into the message this new logo presents to the community who sees it. We are The Heart of Brookside. We can be guided by its call to care and be in the community we serve. As we discuss the future of this church and make plans for it, I see this vision is just below the surface of those conversations. We are The Heart of Brookside.
Following Stars
On Epiphany of the Lord, we journey with the magi as they follow a star in the east to the young Jesus. This holy day concludes the twelve days of Christmas. It often falls during the week, so we celebrate it the Sunday after Christmas. It is a story we will encounter this Sunday on New Year’s Day. Their journey becomes a model for our journey of faith in the days after Christ’s birth. These magi were searching over hundreds of miles after a king, but discovered so much more. In my sermon for this Sunday, I will pose this question “What would motivate you to cross the desert like that? What would be that important to you?” I hope you take some time to ponder that question, especially as it relates to our lives of faith.One of the primary challenges of our faith lives is continuing to grow in faith. Over time we have a tendency to feel stuck or feel that our faith has plateaued. “What am I getting out of this worship service? Bible study? Prayer group?” “Isn’t this the same thing we have done before?” “Where has my energy and enthusiasm gone?” When we are new to faith it seems that the sky is the limit. It is easy to grow in faith, love, connection, and more. Everything is new. This can slow over time, so much so, that some churches are finding that by the third, fourth, or fifth year of membership, people are increasingly looking elsewhere for a new church home to start the process again. For folks that have been a member of the church beyond that window, it can mean an even longer period of feeling that your faith lacks life.The magi serve as a good example of an alternative path. You can imagine that these magi were not new believers. They had practiced their faith for, perhaps, all their lives. Maybe their faith was suffering from the repetitiveness of the everyday. And yet, they make an incredible journey to seek out something new. They cross a desert to find the new king that had been born. I like that as a model of faith.Like the magi of the Epiphany story, we must seek out whatever our star in the east may be. It is also up to each of us, individually and as the church together, to cross the desert, to discover, to be curious, to seek situations to grow and be challenged. As we mature in faith it is essential that we become even more active in our faith. Converse. Teach. Volunteer. Lead. Endeavor to discover more about our faith and about Jesus Christ. Seek out challenges. Look for a geography to expand your faith.My resolution in 2017 is encourage and challenge you all in this process. I want to challenge you to cross the desert or the globe or the boundary of the out limit of your faith at present. What will you seek this year? What star will you follow? What will be waiting for you at the end of your journey?
A Living Nativity
The story of Christmas is really many stories of Christ’s birth. Matthew’s gospel contains the conception of Christ by the Holy Spirit, the angel visit to Joseph, Jesus’ birth, the wise men’s visit with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and then Mary and Joseph’s escape to Egypt with the baby Jesus. Luke’s gospel adds another angel visitation, this time to Mary, Mary’s Magnificat, the census trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the manger birth, the shepherds visit, and still more angels.[i] Taken as a whole, these individual narratives make up the larger story of Jesus’ nativity according the bible.We have, of course, added to this Christmas story over time, as well. Jesus was probably not born on December 25th of year 0. The wise men, shepherds, angels, and animals were probably not all orderly gathered around Joseph and Mary with Jesus in the manger as so many nativity scenes depict. And for that matter, I am relatively certain that they did not sing Silent Night or any other Christmas carols, exchange gifts, decorate a Christmas tree, or were visited by Santa Claus. It may or may not have been the white Christmas of our dreams, but Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney (the stars of the movie White Christmas for all of you under 40 or unfamiliar with this holiday classic) were definitely not there.We continue to add to this Christmas story. For us, it becomes a living nativity story. It is a living story not only in the sense that Jesus Christ was born and lived (and still does), but in the sense that the story of Christmas, of Christ’s birth, is still alive in us. We tell this story again and again even if we conflate it. We sing about Jesus and Mary and Joseph and the whole scene surrounding the nativity even if we add details to the story. We experience the generosity and joy of this day even if it is usually connected to Christmas presents and parties. We participate in this nativity even if we are at a historical distance. We continue to add to the story of Christ’s birth by adding ourselves into the ongoing telling of the story. We participate in it.My hope for you this Advent and Christmas season is that the story of Christ’s entry into this world will come alive once more for you. Tell the story, but also notice that we are a part of it. We are living it.
Dinner Conversations
Meals define a lot of my childhood memories. I was lucky that most of my life my immediate family gathered around a table two or three times a day for meals. I remember the food, the fights, stealing the last ear of corn, and so much more. Even as work schedules changed and even as my brothers and I became more responsible for making the meals, we ate together as a family. With my family scattered across the state now and after my mother’s death, those meals mean even more today.Until I was about ten years old, Saturday brought my extended family together for lunch at my grandparents’ house. My aunts, uncles, cousins, and more would gather to eat and catch up on the events of the week. We were a close knit family and these meals reinforced that bond. Around the holidays, the head count and amount of food would soar. There was no hope of everybody eating at a table so plates on laps and kids cross-legged on the floor became the order of the day. No matter the size of the gathering or the topic of conversation, we were blessed to be able to eat together and interact with one another.One of the things I deeply appreciate about being at Southminster is your love of food, cooking, and eating together. The Fellowship Luncheons are an integral part of our identity and community life. They bring us together at table and over food and help us to live into the hopeful promises we encounter at the table for the Lord’s Supper. We truly are the body of Christ united together at those Sunday luncheons.For the last two months and concluding in November, Session and I have been using those gatherings to have important conversations about the past, present, and future of this church. Those conversations will guide the plans we make for future ministries for years to come. I have enjoyed hearing and getting to know so much more about many of you through those conversations. I have appreciated seeing people’s eyes light up talking about former missions of the church or current ministries. There is an infinite amount of love for Southminster evident in those conversations.The final of these Mission Planning Process Conversations happens on November 13. It may be the most important conversation of all. This discussion will be future oriented. It will deal with our hopes and dreams for all of the tomorrows of Southminster. In a way, the other two conversations were leading us to this conversation. As we call to mind the best of our past and present, where do we see the future of this church? Where is God calling us? How are we being sent to impact the Brookside community and beyond?I encourage you to make a special effort to join us on November 13 for Sunday school, worship, and then the luncheon. Enjoy the great food. Stay for even better conversations. Help us to move from memories of Southminster’s great past to the promise of God’s even better future for this church.
Planting and Growing
This is the first year in almost a decade that I did not plant a garden. We always had a garden growing up and once I reached adulthood this became a labor of love for me, as well. Normally, my backyard and patio are filled with tomatoes, onions, peppers, lettuce, squash, herbs, and more. We built raised beds and collected planters at our last house. Something was growing everywhere. I would spend the summer watering and tending to the plants, guarding them from rabbits, frost, and hail storms, watching the plants grow as Evan and our dog Sidney played in the backyard. With the move and preparations for a baby on the way, I did not get to plant anything this year. I am thankful for the abundance of Farmer’s Markets in the Tulsa area to make up for my lack of homegrown produce.As a society, we have largely gotten away from growing our own foods. Everything arrives ready-made at our local grocery stores. If you need a tomato, whether it is in season or not, it is there waiting on you. Stores are even providing pre-packaged chopped fruits and vegetables for us now. Being so far removed from the process that makes our food, we lose track of how it grows. We do not see the effort and energy. We do not witness the growing process and care. We do not know the dedication that it takes to go from a seed to plant to fruit or vegetable to eat.As we move into October and the start of Stewardship season, I am thankful for the dedicated planters, farmers, and growers of Southminster Presbyterian Church. Southminster has a long history tilling and planting the field of Brookside and beyond. You establish and grow ministries. You tend to them through long years. You reap the harvest after loyal service.Our Stewardship Campaign speaks to that spirit of planting and growing: Together We Grow. We are the sowers and growers of this church and of this community. Together we change for the better and impact our community. Together we show the love and grace of God. Together our spiritual lives expand. Together our mission increases. Together we see more lives enriched in worship and study. Together our lives are stirred to new action. This is a process and it takes time, but it is a labor of love that we do together.Soon you will receive a Together We Grow Stewardship Campaign letter and pledge card. As you prayerfully consider your pledge for 2017, consider the growth you would like to see in the Southminster community. As a farmer of this mission field, what are you willing to commit to make that growth happen? How are you willing to participate in this new planting season?I love seeing my garden grow. I looked forward even more to seeing all that God is about to do in this church. Together We Grow.
Next Steps
Summer has been a whirlwind of activity at Southminster. We hosted presbytery. We had great worship services week after week. We enjoyed wonderful potlucks together. We began to plan for the fall. We celebrated my installation on August 7. And we did all of that in the midst of so many vacations, staycations, international trips, and weekend excursions. In the church or out, summer is often a time to slow down and relax. Instead, our lives have been joyfully full of activities.I spent the majority of summer getting up to speed about the history and ministry of Southminster. I read through years of session minutes, shared meals with many of you learning about the church, and enjoyed many conversations getting to know members. I have appreciated getting to know so many of you over the last few months and getting to learn so much about the church.As summer gives way to fall (if only in the church calendar), we will mark the occasion with our annual Celebration Sunday on September 11. We will have donuts, juice, coffee, and balloons before Sunday School that day. Classes that took a break for the summer will reconvene. A new Feasting On The Word curriculum for Sunday School classes will be offered for preschool and grade school age kids, youth, and adults. This curriculum utilizes a common bible passage for all learners, making it easy for families to learn and live out their faith together. My hope is you will take advantage of one of our new or ongoing Sunday School classes as you continue to grow in faith.Celebration Sunday will also mark the beginning of an important next step for Southminster. At its July meeting, the session approved a Mission Plan Process that will take place over the next year. The result of this process will be an actionable Mission Plan that will guide decision making and goal setting, ministry and mission for the next three to five years throughout the church. This is designed to be a collaborative process. The entire church will be involved in the first stage which is a series of conversations that will take place at the monthly potluck lunches in September, October, and November. Each of these three conversations will be guided by session members and a series of questions meant to gather information, feelings, hopes, dreams, perceptions, goals, history, and more from the congregation. God has a bright future for Southminster. We just need to discover and discern what it is. I encourage you to actively participate in these discussions at the monthly potlucks. More information about these first three meetings and the rest of Mission Plan Process will be available in the near future.I am looking forward to the fall and I hope you are too. Let’s start it off right on Celebration Sunday!
