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Elma United Methodist Church |
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Raising Up New Ministry |
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Elma United Methodist Church |
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Raising Up New Ministry Dan Shelly Elma United Methodist Church May 28, 2006 (Acts 1:15-17, 21-26)
I was on the way down to Elma on Friday evening when I first realized that this was again going to be one of those weeks. It was around 9:30 and I was on Highway 8, just heading into the Black Hills when I got a call from Nona on my cell phone. She had just arrived home from a sewing class in Federal Way to find a message from Garnet on our answering machine. And Garnet’s message said that Olive Low had fallen, broken her hip, and was now up at St. Pete’s hospital. On my way down, I’d already driven right by there. In fact I’d even stopped at the Dairy Queen in Lacey to get a Mocha Mega Moo-latte just about the time that Garnet was leaving her message!
If you’ve never had a Mocha Mega Moo-latte, consider this your fair warning to avoid them, because they are totally addicting! They’re a wonderful blend of coffee, chocolate, and ice cream blended together and topped with whipped cream and even more chocolate. In fact they’re essentially a large cup filled full of all of the stuff I tried to give up for Lent!
While I was stopped in Lacey, I’d called Sonny Crawford and arranged to meet down here at the church on Saturday morning to bring him our van for the High School youth’s trip to CONVO this weekend. Now I got a call from Nona letting me know about Olive’s accident. And just as she tried to give me Garnet’s number so I could call her back, Nona’s voice started breaking up. I actually heard the last 4 digits, all most of us need here in Elma, but then I hit the Black Hills cell phone dead zone. So I waited until I knew I had a signal again and called Garnet to find out that Olive was going to have surgery for her hip on Saturday morning. It was too late to turn around and go see her that evening, but because Garnet let me know about this, I was able to stop and see her husband Bob and their daughter Susan on my way up to our home in Elma, and I knew that my Saturday schedule was about to change. Once again, God was saying, you might have had your plans all laid out for the weekend, but they weren’t My plans. So here’s what I’d like you to do instead Pastor Dan…
And those plans didn’t include spending all day Saturday working on our worship service, writing a sermon, making the bulletin. Instead God’s plans included spending time with people, being there with our youth Saturday morning as they gathered together for a weekend of worship and renewal, and being present and available with Olive & Bob Low and their children during a hard time in their lives. You see, God is much less interested in our doing than in our Being. That’s what Jesus was all about in his ministry and that’s what made him so remarkably different. He didn’t spend his time organizing - building a political or even a spiritual movement. He didn’t spend his time erecting buildings or creating new programs. Instead, Jesus spent his time Being, being with those who had spiritual and physical needs. And this is what he asked his disciples to do as well.
And I think that this was Peter’s concern in our text today. Their master was no longer among them in the same way that he had been before his death and resurrection, but their mission and ministry hadn’t changed. Jesus had asked them to continue his ministry, to share with people the Good News of God’s Love and the liberating freedom of God’s forgiveness. And Peter saw this not as any one person’s work but the work of all the disciples. And Peter was trying to figure out what to do not only about the loss of Jesus, but also the loss of Judas. He told Jesus’ followers who were gathered
Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus— for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.
But now his share in the ministry was no longer being addressed. There were still as many needs as there had been before, in fact there were probably more needs following the loss of Jesus, but with the further loss of Judas, some of the remaining leadership had been removed.
The apostles had several ways they could have dealt with this turn of events. They could have panicked thinking that the world as they knew it had come to an end. They could have thrown in the towel and said, “That’s it, It’s finished and over, let’s just go back to fishing.” In fact, early on they tried that but Jesus showed up and he called them to task for that behavior. They could have said, we’re an exclusive club, we’re the only ones Jesus called, so there’s no way anyone else can fill the shoes of a real disciple. But that would have been a recipe that ensured this early Christian movement with it’s message of hope and new life eventually died out, because as those in leaders either left or died no one would be there to take their place. Instead, they chose a better way.
They saw the loss of one of their leaders as an opportunity for new ministry to rise up from within their midst. Notice that they didn’t form a search committee, they didn’t go out and advertise to fill an open position, or look outside for new talent to help them out. Instead, Peter said, “Here are several people who have been with us throughout Jesus’ ministry. They haven’t served as leaders before, but now perhaps it’s time for one of them to step into a new ministry, perhaps it’s time for one of them to pick up that share of ministry that was allotted to Judas in the past.” And then instead of Peter choosing which of them should serve in this way, they gave the process over to God. They prayed and asked for direction and for guidance.
And that’s somewhat of a different model for leadership then we sometimes use within the church. I’ve actually attended a church in past where a member showed up on Sunday and was congratulated for becoming the new head of a committee. When asked what they meant, she was told “Well, we met last Tuesday and you weren’t there, so we all took a vote and unanimously decided that you should be the new head of the committee!”
God is continually raising up new leaders to help with mission and ministry within the Church, but the process of finding them is somewhat different from that. And it’s somewhat different then what was recorded for us in the Book of Acts as well. In Acts, they prayed and then they cast lots to see who should pick up the share of ministry previously allotted to Judas. That’s a little like holding a craps game to determine who God wants to place into a position of leadership. And while sometimes our own Methodist appointment system may SEEM a little like that, trust me when I assure you that Bishop Paup and the appointive cabinet spend long days in prayer and discernment trying to find the best pastoral appointments for all of the churches within our Conference. And when I talk about leaders of mission and ministry within the local church, the pastor is NOT the person I’m talking about. The reality is that any United Methodist pastor will be here for a time and then will be reassigned based on the needs of the Bishop and the Conference. Yet the mission and ministry of each local church continues on precisely because the leadership for this ministry arises directly out of the congregation. And it’s not our Bishop or our District Superintendent who assigns this leadership. Instead, it’s God who calls to each of us and places concerns and desires upon our hearts. Then God leaves it up to us to respond to these invitations into ministry. A pastor may provide a spark of enthusiasm or fresh insight, but it’s up to the people to fan that into a flame and keep it burning.
And you know that a church is alive and thriving when people feel led to stand up during worship and share how we can help a family in need, or give of their time to take our community’s youth to CONVO or work with our Youth Group, or put together a VBS program for kids who’ve never heard about Jesus, or organize and teach an evening adult class, or give of their time and talent to make sure we have music for worship on a Sunday morning, or teach a Sunday School class, collect quilts, or clothes, or food for those in need, gather funds for outside ministries, support missionaries extending God’s love throughout the world, visit those who are sick or shut-in here within our community, serve in various ways throughout our community, put on community dinners and festivals, maintain and wonderfully improve our church buildings, or do the never-ending paperwork required to keep our lights on and pay our bills. All of that, and so much more, requires leadership and that leadership arises from right here from within our faith community.
As we step back and look at this it’s amazing to see just how much of an impact that we have as a faith community here in Elma and in the World. But there’s something else that we see as well. It isn’t stepping back that allows this to happen, but stepping forward. Stepping forward and saying yes to those God-given urgings and callings that each and every one of us hear within our lives. For God is a God of growth and new life, and God continually invites us to step forward in new ways into new ministry.
There will always be those who see any time of change as a time of loss and a time of distress. May God grant us eyes to see these times of change as times of new life and new ministry. And may we be faithful to hear and answer God’s call as we’re led into new opportunities for ministry within God’s faithful community – that community called United Methodists here in Elma. |