Study Leave Report: What a Joy to Grow!

I visited two churches of interest on Study Leave. Both were planted in the early 90’s. That is when they finished the first stage of their building. But they have around for some ten years prior to this accomplishment, meeting in homes, renting tore fronts and sharing space in other churches. Does this sound familiar? First Presbyterian in the Meadows has also held home meetings, shared space, and worshiped in non-traditional places.

Today these two churches are eighteen years out from the day they finished their first building campaign, and a good twenty-five years out from when they first gathered. That is seventeen to twenty-four years ahead of us.

My first observation is that we need to be patient and persistent. Growth is long and gradual. It does not happen simply because we build a building. So if anyone still holds that thought, it would be wise to discard it. In fact, this perspective leaves a church vulnerable to the biggest mistake it can make: thinking the accomplishment of one task means the work is done. What has marked these two churches’ continued success is their ability to adapt and mold their forms and structures so they can build and grow. Their defining mark has not been that they built a building, but that have been, and remain, willing and able to continue changing and adapting.

A growing church never ever stops. At Mountain View Presbyterian Church, even with 550 members and programs for all ages, they continue to build and grow because they continue to adapt. For about ten years their focus was towards a retirement community of Sun City. But as the church has begun to attract a broader spectrum of members, they have found themselves working at integrating children, families and youth where this was not an issue before. Pastor Linda Kelly clearly pointed out, “It is easy to relax in the familiar things that makes us comfortable and not struggle with the questions that make us change. For us now it is having to work at things like, ‘What do we do with children?’” What promotes the church’s growth is its willingness to let its comfort zone get a little lumpy if it means someone new to the fellowship finds comfort.

I remember a Sunday morning here at the Meadows when the church was full, the music was hitting every beat, and the sermon seemed to hook where people were at. There was a good spirit moving through the congregation. Afterwards a long-time inactive member who had come by to visit her old church stopped me in parking lot and said, “Well, it’s not my church.” It certainly is not. The church she left years ago has been alive at adapting to emerging needs and trends in order to grow and serve. We can't expect a stagnate perspective of a church life to grow a church.

We have challenges to address in the next two months as to how we will organize ourselves to enable us to be an effective presence in ministry and service.

Keep up the prayers. Share your ideas. Keep the discussion going. Be ready to move forward.

Study Leave Report: Encounter with the Lost

Encounter with the Lost:
Today I had an interesting conversation with a frustrated woman who has been looking for a church. Here is the verbatim story she told me, as best as I can recall…

"So I was wanting to go back to church since I hadn’t been there for a long time.. Something was just missing. My husband’s Episcopalian and I’m Catholic, so we thought we would look for something both of us could agree on, and we started looking around. We went to a church and I couldn’t believe what happened. We walked in and a man came over to welcome us, but instead of saying, “Hello,” or “It’s nice to meet you,” the first thing out of his mouth was, “You understand that if you are not a member of this Synod you cannot take communion.” I should have walked out then , but I thought it was so out of line that it had to be just this guy having a bad day or something. So we sat down and then the pastor came over. I thought this was nice for him to take the time to welcome someone he recognized as a visitor. You’d think so, right? Well you wouldn’t believe this. All he said was “I want you to know that you can’t take communion with us. “ I was thinking to myself, “To hell with you.” But it gets worth. We should have just gotten up and walked out, but we stayed around. After church? Someone else came over to greet us, and they handed us a membership card that wanted to know how much money we made. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I gave up looking for a church. Just look at all the crap that goes on, and they wonder why people don’t go to church? Shouldn’t they be living the virtue of the faith, and all they do is tell you you don’t mean anything to them but money and you have no business being there? It’s terrible.

"I left my last church because all they did was fight over one scandal after another. They would just get through with one problem and they would have to deal with another one. All anyone wanted to do there was fight about stupid stuff, and never do anything to help you find peace and virtue. It’s ridicules. I mean I’ve just stopped looking. It’s not worth the fight."

Three things I learn from this that all of us should take into account:
First, this woman made up her mind pretty much within the first 30 seconds of walking in the door. The man who greeted her had all the ability to set the tone for the visit. Think of it, the first person a visitor meets, maybe it’s you, has a great gift to extend the hospitality of our Lord, right then and there. This is not great program. You don’t have to be elected to an office to do this. We just need just a willingness to be a friend to the searching soul in the same way Jesus is a friend to sinners. After all, who of us is not searching for some sense of comfort and care on any Sunday when we also walk into worship.

Second, this woman was not interested in doctrinal barriers or church rules, but that is all her heard. She was looking for a place where the virtues of life would be exhibited and nurtured. How often does the religion, or the rules, or the doctrine (as important as they are) instead of being guidelines for being a church, become barriers to someone’s searching heart from finding God. Maybe it is a good idea to keep church business to the enclaves of committee debates, but when living the church, it is incumbent upon us to live with grace that welcomes, cares, comforts, nurtures and loves.

Third, the failures of this one church have hurt all churches. Simply because the experience was so offensive, this woman and her husband gave up all together on searching for a relationship with God through the church. That is a shame. It tells us that what we do and how we do it may have profound influences beyond the limitations of our walls.

In summary, whatever the program, whatever the denomination, whatever the rules and order, how ever we end up structuring the church for the next phase of our ministry and growth, the most critical component will be the warm and comforting heart of the parishioner who welcomes the lost and suffering soul into the fellowship of our Lord’s praise and glory.