IF WE’RE REALLY SERIOUS - Part Two
Matthew 20: 20-28 I
Corinthians 9: 16-23
January 25, 2009
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
Click below for audio version of sermon.
First, let me say that for all those who were here last Sunday, I’m impressed by your courage in returning. The sermon last Sunday, the one today and the ones February 8th and 15th were not, are not and will not be easy sermons to hear and digest. In your bulletins you’ll once again find Eight Characteristics of Effective Churches compiled by Bishop William Willimon and other Methodist leaders. These characteristics are the products of conversations held by church leaders in the southeastern portion of our country. You may be interested to know that many experts are doing similar studies and that these Eight are typical of the findings by others in all parts of the United States. I’ve proposed that as we go into the future, we use these Eight characteristics as discussion starters.
Last week’s sermon basically was devoted to sharing the reality that our church and churches like ours are in critical condition. Membership figures are declining sharply. The average age of both church members and pastors is rising. Thirty years ago, approximately one-third of all United Methodist pastors were age 40 or younger. Now, less than 10% are younger than age 40. Similar percentage drop-offs for young church members are reported. Just look around on an average Sunday. It doesn’t take a church expert to look at our statistics as a larger church and our church in particular and conclude that we are heading on a path that is terminal unto death.
As I noted last week, this is not unlike the last church I served for two years in Norwalk and over whose death I presided. The people of that church, one of the oldest Methodist churches in New England begun in 1788, had decided it was time to let the grand lady die. You see, First Church had been the mother church of four other churches in Norwalk. One member put it beautifully when she said, “Mother is tired.” It was a privilege to serve those wonderful people for two years. But, not one moment of the dying was enjoyable.
I certainly did not come here to close this church. And, besides, if you decide to continue with present practices you can probably last for a couple decades more. But they will not be fun years. They will be marked, for example, by first letting staff go -- oh, wait, we already did that. Then by having a less than full time pastor – oh, that too! And then by not attending to things like roof leaks or peeling paint or replacing sound equipment or kitchen equipment or fixing the organ. Etc. Why? Because there won’t be any money for it. Nevertheless, continuing with the status quo is an option. But it’s a lousy, even cowardly option.
Last week we talked about the problems we face as a church, and briefly outlined where we go from here in deciding how to respond to our situation. A copy of that sermon was emailed to everyone for whom I have an email address. Printed copies are also available in the back of the sanctuary. We will continue to do this each week of the series.
Since the major agenda we are going to follow in the future involves talking with one another, we’ve also established a blog. Plus, Jeanette Baker and Joyce and John Rioux have figured out how to make the audio of the sermons available by clicking on to our web-page and blog-site. As well, these sermons will be the focal point of our Lenten study on the Sunday afternoons of March.
This morning, we jump in with the first two characteristics. The first reads, “Effective congregations love their particular community. Their pastors have found a way not only to love their congregations but also their neighborhood. Effective pastors help their congregations move beyond love of themselves, turning their congregations outward.”
Note some of the factors involved in this characteristic. “Church members love their community.” For us that would be Greater Bristol. Well, that’s not hard: of course we love our community. Hey! We’re doing great!
Next, pastors love their congregation. You might think this is equally simple, but it’s not. As a former district superintendent who supervised more than 75 pastors at any one time, I can tell you that it isn’t a given that pastors love their congregation. Why? Well for pastors to love their congregation, the congregation has to be lovable. And, believe me, not all congregations are lovable.
So, what makes a collective body of people lovable? The first requirement is that you love the pastor back. Simple human dynamics. You love your pastor, go out of your way to encourage and support your pastor and, bingo, you’ll find your pastor thinks you’re just peachy and will do anything for you.
However, if a congregation is prone to complaining about little things, doesn’t care about the appropriate needs of the pastor and family, treats its pastor more like a hired servant than a spiritual leader or if a congregation has the attitude of “what have you done for us lately?” then that pastor is not going to enjoy his or her association with that church. While he or she will most likely work hard for you, they might admit to a friend or DS that they aren’t crazy about you. And they will probably want to move as soon as they can.
Thus, one implicit part of this first characteristic must be continually thought about in your relationship with your future pastors: What can we do to show our pastor that we care? You’ll want your pastor to know without a doubt that they are cared for and loved.
So, let’s assume you do care for your pastor and your pastor is crazy about you. We then move to the part of this first characteristic that states that this pastor is also going to love the neighborhood.
The neighborhood. Where’s our neighborhood? It might seem a simple question, but it isn’t. And, honestly, I don’t have a final answer on how far our “neighborhood” stretches. After all, many of our active members come from neighboring towns. So, we don’t know for sure just how far our neighborhood reaches. But, we all know where it begins.
When it closed, the Norwalk church was made up of about 35 fairly solid members with an average attendance of around 30 and an average age of 75-80. At age 60, I was often the youngest person in church. If we would have had a children’s time, I would have had to call myself up to the front for the children’s time! The church council chairperson lived 30 miles away in Milford; the lay leader and finance chairperson lived 30 minutes away in Weston; the staff-parish relations chairperson lived 45 minutes away in Danbury; and the church treasurer lived in Virginia!
No church member really lived in the immediate neighborhood which was almost entirely Hispanic and African-American while the church was 95% white. And while over the years the church had had several Hispanic and African-American members, they were never of such number to be able to substantially influence the direction of the church.
It’s this latter point that will probably most make or break our church’s reaching out into our immediate neighborhood. Because if we invite our neighbors into our church we have to be willing to let them have influence in church’s direction and share leadership. If we don’t, then it won’t work.
Finally, regarding the first characteristic, the report says that “effective pastors help their congregations move beyond love of themselves, turning their congregations outward.” Now, note it doesn’t say that congregations can’t love themselves. It says, move beyond love of themselves and turn their focus outward.
What does it mean to be focused outward? Well, for one thing it means to be more concerned for caring for the world out there including our neighborhood than we are for being cared for personally. It means as we’ll see further in point #3, being as interested in persons who have never set foot in the church as we are for our dearest members.
I can’t even begin to tell you how hard this is for old, main-line congregations to accomplish. For somehow we pastors and we church members have come to believe that the church exists to meet the needs of members from cradle to grave.
In the Gospel we’ve just heard, Jesus said, “I came not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for others.” As his body, we, the church must to have the same self-understanding.
Pastors aren’t supposed to use military metaphors, but to further illustrate what I need to say, it’s the best I can think of. Think of soldiers who are part of an army. Think of the chaplains who are there for many purposes but in part to care for and support the soldiers so they can do what they’re supposed to do.
Now then, can you imagine the soldiers coming to believe that the purpose of being in the military is to be cared for? No, they’re quite clear about their purpose. They are, after all, the army. Church members are also part of an army with the job description to spread out in the world and love and serve the world in Christ’s name. Our mission is to so work and love the world until the world gives up and loves God and each other back.
And so what is the purpose of pastors? Well, using this metaphor, pastors serve for the main purpose of helping people serve on the front line. If someone is sick or struggling in a difficult marriage, the pastor’s job in what is traditionally known as pastoral care is not merely to help God heal the person or mend the marriage as if these were acceptable end results in and of themselves. No, the goal is to help God heal and mend and get those folks back on the front line in their work place, their neighborhood, their school, wherever they go so that they can continue in Christ’s name to do battle with evil and injustice and everything that is messing up God’s purposes.
Somehow, over the years, many church members have come to believe that being part of the church is all about them and their happiness. That being cared for is what the church exists for. But, that’s not New Testament in the least. Like the first disciples Jesus called, Christians are to serve; not to be served -- except as it enables us to get back out on the front lines and serve some more.
Churches that will be effective in the future will be churches that practice New Testament discipleship: they will know that they exist only in order to serve Christ by serving as Christ’s body in the world.
Next, we move to characteristic two. “Effective congregations rise above mere contentment with things as they are and do what is necessary to expect and welcome change, disruption, and movement, similar to that of the Risen Christ.”
Well. Talk about a conversation stopper! Why on earth would a congregation that is, say, enjoying success with a rising attendance in worship, a growing church school, taking in a bunch of new members, having no troubles with finances – why would such a church (and a few still exist); why would such a church willingly plan and even encourage change?
Why would such a church do such a thing? Because they’re smart and wise. And also because they’re being extraordinarily well led by pastor and lay leaders who know that nothing ever stays the way that it is. Indeed, like it or not, things change. And both people and churches have the choice to either change themselves or become irrelevant to the world.
In our case, we did not prepare for the changes that have come about. Don’t feel shamed – hardly any churches are capable of doing this. But, in any case, here we are. We find ourselves with no reserve money in the bank that we can tap, a declining congregation in terms of both membership and attendance, and this wonderful building that absorbs something like 30 cents of every dollar that we receive.
And yet! We have done something that is actually incredible: we increased our financial pledges substantially from 2008 to 2009. Plus, in our quest to find volunteers to handle the formerly paid positions of secretary and sexton, thanks be to God, people are stepping up in incredible numbers. This is no small accomplishment and proves that this old lady may still have a lot of life left in her!
So, here we are. What do we do now? To repeat what we’ve already said: we study our situation; we study these characteristics; we measure ourselves against them; we decide what we ought to be doing.
And then, we do what is absolutely counter-intuitive to all our instincts. We plan to fail. If that sounds ludicrous, it isn’t. By planning to fail, I mean we must try so many wild and crazy things that we know we’re going to fail as much as and maybe more than we succeed.
William Sloane Coffin once said, “I love the recklessness of faith. First, you leap. Then you grow wings.” In other words, to be a risk-taking church means not waiting until we think we’re fully prepared to attempt something for Christ. For, you know, we’ll never be fully prepared. We’ll never have counted all the costs. We’ll never have studied something as thoroughly as we might. We’ll never have 100% of our members on board with a project. To be very sure, we’re surely going to have to take several leaps of faith trusting that God will give us the wings that we need in mid-air.
Like what? Ah. I’m not even going to give you a hint of an example lest you think all you have to do is listen to me. No, you will need to come up with some wild and crazy ideas and then leap!
What’s the worst that can happen? You go out of business earlier than planned. But, if you do, you go down fighting not whimpering?
What’s the best that can happen? You live on to serve Christ by carrying out God’s agenda by serving others and face ever new challenges as his church.
Did you hear what I said? I said you live on to serve Christ by carrying out God’s agenda and by serving others. Amen.