“GREAT CHURCHES ARE NO ACCIDENT!!”
Had I been blessed to be a “fly on the wall” back in the mid fifties, when the founders of Morning Star gathered to create a new Lutheran church in “west Omaha”, I’m pretty sure I would have heard a conversation laced with faith in what God was doing in this area of the city. Faith would have been coupled with commitment to the cause ahead supported by a sense of excitement for the future of the Kingdom of God in this place.
In the now 55 years following, as pastor after pastor took on the mantle leadership of God’s people, as family after family and person after person grew into discipleship in this congregation, as dreams for space became buildings, there has been a sense of accomplishment and thanksgiving to God for the overwhelming blessings poured out in this place.
Entering now into the 56th year of ministry and “bringing the light of Christ to all creation”, Morning Star finds itself right back in that same meeting of 55 plus years ago – the meeting where the seeds of a church in West Omaha first were sown and spouted –asking the same question – How can we identify what God is doing here and align ourselves to be part of it? The question may also be framed in words like, “How can we regain the energy and enthusiasm we once had for being Morning Star?” “How can we deal with what seems to be a decline in our participation?” “How can we over come what feels like a general malaise in our life together?” “How can we renew our sense of mission and ministry to serve and glorify God?”
Recently, some significant research has gone into what makes some churches grow while others fail to thrive. From my ministry experience and from the reading I’ve done, as well as from the experiences of my peers, I’d suggest that these are a few of the key elements that separate healthy mission centers from churches that find themselves declining or dying.
The past is a new beginning. Healthy growing mission centers recognize that the present generation of mission and ministry stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before. Healthy growing mission centers know that good beginnings always help contribute to continued successes. These congregations also understand that yesterday is gone. Tomorrow, with new challenges and opportunities, beckons the church in mission forward.
Welcoming atmosphere. The process a congregation has for welcoming the stranger is telling about the atmosphere of a place. Expressions of welcome beginning in the parking lot, multiple hands of welcome and introduction from everyone from the greeters to the ushers to the people in the same pew (even before the visitor has a chance to meet the Pastor) is a sure sign that this is a place where I will be accepted and find a sense of "home" in the church family.
Long term pastorates. It seems like congregations that thrive, grow and mature have a series of long term pastors, those who remain in that congregation for 10 or more years. From my experience productive ministry and leadership is unlikely to present until year 7 or 8 of a pastor's tenure. The ensuing years are rich for congregational deepening, growth and the development of a strong active laity in ministry.
Spiritual Deepening. In today’s world, where "spirituality" and "spiritual journey" are spoken of with some regularity, it appears that mission centers that experience growth, spend a fair amount of time teaching and practicing spiritual disciplines (worship, prayer, Bible Study and devotions, generosity and witness) and participating in small group or worship group activities that help support spiritual deepening. This deepening usually occurs though a variety of worship expressions that are theologically sound, life changing, challenging and are created to bring the worshiper into a closer relationship with Jesus Christ.
Smaller caring communities. Within the larger congregation there are smaller caring communities, small groups, sub “congregations”, women’s and men’s circles, youth groups and the like. Congregations that grow recognize that these smaller “congregations” are the key to success. They also find a way to become comfortable with a multitude of smaller communities within the one community. These smaller communities are where relationship are forged, ministry blooms, learning occurs and God is glorified.
Financially committed membership. Disciples in growing mission centers recognize the importance of their financial stewardship as a matter of faith. These disciples are generous not because the bills need to be paid, but because they need to give as a faithful response to God’s blessings. Disciples in growing congregations recognize that they have been financially blessed in order to be a blessing to others churches have members that recognize the importance of their financial stewardship. Growing churches aren’t afraid to talk about tithing and sacrificial giving. Members of growing churches recognize that they have been financially blessed with a trust that comes from God in order to be a blessing for others.
So, the future awaits. Maybe one or more of these key elements apply to us. Maybe one or more will help us unlock the door as we move into a time or recommitment and resolve for our future.
I look forward to the journey with you.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Living "His Story"
The more and more I dig into the Bible the more and more I realize the Bible is NOT a very safe book. In fact, it is a pretty “dangerous” book. Unless you’re just reading superficially and for pleasure, even simple stories like David and Goliath, Joseph’s coat of many colors or Jesus healing little children, it can still be pretty un-safe
You see, even the simple “children’s stories” are there to tell us of God’s bigger purpose—that is to rescue sinful and broken people who are dearly loved by our God who gave his Son Jesus to show grace, mercy forgiveness and love. The overall goal of the stories of the Bible is for us to see beyond Jesus and to begin to see ourselves in the story. It is for us to see ourselves in God’s big story.
Some years ago a Bible teacher make this connection, one that makes a great deal of sense as far as I am concerned. That is that “my story” is “our story” in “God’s story.” That is to say that my story is ultimately, at some level, the story of every human being. And our collective story makes sense only in the contest of His (God’s) Story. The message of the big story, God’s big story, is not some doctrinal proclamation. It is not some theological treatise for preachers and seminary professors to debate. Finally, God’s big story (His – story) is the unfolding of God’s greater purposes for the beloved of his creation, you and me, made in his own image, out of his own imagination of us.
The task of Bible study, the goal of devotions and Bible reading is to find ourselves in the story of God’s grace, love, mercy, forgiveness and ultimately in the life giving death and resurrection of Jesus. Our goal is to connect with the Jesus who is the culmination of God’s redemptive plan.
To carry it one step further, the goal of outreach and invitation (sometimes called “evangelism” is to invite people into the God story, into the story of Jesus, into our shared story of being the blessed and redeemed of God. It is to challenge folks to see themselves in light of Jesus, The Good Shepherd or Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life. When we (and others around us) are able to find themselves in the middle of the story of salvation, there is no doubt they will find a new meaning and purpose of the “dangerous” story of following Jesus.
Of course, our world sends a different message. Our world wants to give us the option of leaving God out so that we can pursue “life on our own”, that we can be “in charge of our own destiny.” It is easy to engage our world’s story because it is safe; it leaves us in control.
People of God, on the other hand, are called into His story, the bigger story of God, to be shaped by God, redeemed by His love and to live where true joy and hope reigns. That feels like a more “dangerous” place to be.
As people of God, then we engage the story. We connect ourselves to God’s story. Live out what Jesus has modeled. And, in the end, God will write the final chapters, chapters of victory and renewal, redemption and resurrection.
You see, even the simple “children’s stories” are there to tell us of God’s bigger purpose—that is to rescue sinful and broken people who are dearly loved by our God who gave his Son Jesus to show grace, mercy forgiveness and love. The overall goal of the stories of the Bible is for us to see beyond Jesus and to begin to see ourselves in the story. It is for us to see ourselves in God’s big story.
Some years ago a Bible teacher make this connection, one that makes a great deal of sense as far as I am concerned. That is that “my story” is “our story” in “God’s story.” That is to say that my story is ultimately, at some level, the story of every human being. And our collective story makes sense only in the contest of His (God’s) Story. The message of the big story, God’s big story, is not some doctrinal proclamation. It is not some theological treatise for preachers and seminary professors to debate. Finally, God’s big story (His – story) is the unfolding of God’s greater purposes for the beloved of his creation, you and me, made in his own image, out of his own imagination of us.
The task of Bible study, the goal of devotions and Bible reading is to find ourselves in the story of God’s grace, love, mercy, forgiveness and ultimately in the life giving death and resurrection of Jesus. Our goal is to connect with the Jesus who is the culmination of God’s redemptive plan.
To carry it one step further, the goal of outreach and invitation (sometimes called “evangelism” is to invite people into the God story, into the story of Jesus, into our shared story of being the blessed and redeemed of God. It is to challenge folks to see themselves in light of Jesus, The Good Shepherd or Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life. When we (and others around us) are able to find themselves in the middle of the story of salvation, there is no doubt they will find a new meaning and purpose of the “dangerous” story of following Jesus.
Of course, our world sends a different message. Our world wants to give us the option of leaving God out so that we can pursue “life on our own”, that we can be “in charge of our own destiny.” It is easy to engage our world’s story because it is safe; it leaves us in control.
People of God, on the other hand, are called into His story, the bigger story of God, to be shaped by God, redeemed by His love and to live where true joy and hope reigns. That feels like a more “dangerous” place to be.
As people of God, then we engage the story. We connect ourselves to God’s story. Live out what Jesus has modeled. And, in the end, God will write the final chapters, chapters of victory and renewal, redemption and resurrection.
Late Spring Fashion Shows
“Spring is a really choice time to put on a fashion show. A time when nature begins to arouse from her winter death-like sleep and burst into her own splendid show of color and life.
Tulips and daffodils dance in their new spring hats, covering the hillsides with a rainbow of color.
Forsythia are proud to display their new yellow frocks.
Magnolia and flowering crab compete with each other to see who can come up with the most beautiful spring outfit.
And tall graceful trees, not at all embarrassed about their high hemlines begin to display their glorious green; starting out with a delicate pinafore or light green soon changing to a lush forest green robe.
This yearly display is always very moving, for it is a reaffirmation of Christ’s rising from the dead and his promise that we too, through his grace and mercy, shall have an eternal spring after our winter sleep. We too shall be gifted with life after death.
As winter drags on, I begin to get bogged down in small worries and plans for this and plans for that. By the time winter ends, I have everything planned out for the next ten years and I’m worrying about all the details now.
But as spring blossoms, I feel a great relief and joy. I feel like running and enjoying and savoring the changes that each day brings. The new leaves on the trees, the flowers sprouting up through the ground, the early blossoms.
By Jan Kane
(Seen during a hospital visit)
Tulips and daffodils dance in their new spring hats, covering the hillsides with a rainbow of color.
Forsythia are proud to display their new yellow frocks.
Magnolia and flowering crab compete with each other to see who can come up with the most beautiful spring outfit.
And tall graceful trees, not at all embarrassed about their high hemlines begin to display their glorious green; starting out with a delicate pinafore or light green soon changing to a lush forest green robe.
This yearly display is always very moving, for it is a reaffirmation of Christ’s rising from the dead and his promise that we too, through his grace and mercy, shall have an eternal spring after our winter sleep. We too shall be gifted with life after death.
As winter drags on, I begin to get bogged down in small worries and plans for this and plans for that. By the time winter ends, I have everything planned out for the next ten years and I’m worrying about all the details now.
But as spring blossoms, I feel a great relief and joy. I feel like running and enjoying and savoring the changes that each day brings. The new leaves on the trees, the flowers sprouting up through the ground, the early blossoms.
By Jan Kane
(Seen during a hospital visit)
May 2011 Sketchings
EASTER PROMISES
If you were regular in worship during the weeks leading up to Easter, you will know that our lessons all had a focus of lives transformed by the power of Jesus to renew (the woman at the well), to bring sight, spiritual sight, to those who cannot see the presence of God (the healing of the man born blind) and the power to resurrect a life from the grave (the resurrection of Jesus’ friend Lazarus).
One of the stories we missed, due to the length of some of the readings, was one from Ezekiel 37, the “valley of dry bones.” You may know this story from a Sunday School Song, “Dem Bones” which has a chorus that contains “The thigh bone connected to the knee bone, The knee bone connected to the shin bone” etc.
You know, I love to preach this story and I was sorry to miss it this time around. I love to preach it because sometimes when I look out into the world, into the congregation, into the lives of individual people, even into my own life and faith, I see bones. I see the bare bones revealed in grief and the hurts and pains of life. I see lives dried up by fear and insecurity. I see death walking around in the cares and concerns about where the world and the church are headed. I see and feel the rending of relationships and the tearing of hearts. I hear people talking about the mad nightmares that are sometimes the reality of life.
And I wonder, as did Ezekiel, “Can these bones live? Can these bones ever have life again like they did last week, or last month, or last year, or back when it felt like everything was all right? Can these bones ever recover from their dried up death to find life and hope again?
Oh, yes, I’ve wondered aloud, as did Ezekiel. Lord!! Can these bones live? Lord!! Can these bones find the breath of life? Lord!! Is there hope at all for these bones?
And just about at the moment of despair, I hear God’s promise of new life in the resurrection of Jesus. Just about at the moment of giving up, I see God fulfilling God’s promise to breathe new life into these bones and these lives of ours. Just at the moment of hopelessness, God’s Spirit comes to blow in the powerful breath of renewal, even of creation’s life giving power, “he breathed into them the breath of life.” Just when we need it most, God’s Spirit blows like a mighty wind (Acts 2) to fulfill what God promises: life for these bones. Life for this life. Life like never before.
Oh, dear friends. Oh, God’s people. We are not bones. We are not in the tomb. It just seems that way. No, dear people, we are God’s people. We are those who have been brought to life in our Baptism. We are those who have been called from lifelessness to new life. Called to be living examples of what it means to have a faith that is active in our lives.
We are those called forth from the tomb as God breathes the breath of the Spirit over us, as God breathes into us life. We are not bones on a plain. We are not dead in a tomb. But we are full and blessed with abundance because God is God over even death, even grief, even changes, even over all that will be unknown and uncharted before us.
You know on Easter we declare with certainty, with enthusiasm from the depth of our beings, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.” We proclaim with certainly that God has ultimate power to give life, to raise from the dead, to open the doors to a new eternity and to overcome everything, even death itself.
So, now, in the promise of Easter, in the power of the breath of the Spirit of God over us, we do what we’ve celebrated and proclaimed. We rise and live. We let God’s spirit breathe new hope into us.
Because, you see, ultimately this isn’t about us. It isn’t about death. It isn’t about the darkness or despair that seems to close in upon us.
Finally, it is all about God, the God who gives us life, breathes into us meaning and ministry, the God who in Jesus Christ calls into a resurrected so that His name and His power can be glorified.
This Easter, we pray for God to breathe on us the breath of life—the breath of NEW life so that we can continue in what is charted before us, looking forward to the kingdom, when all will be seen in the perfection of His light, in the perfection of the life we long for.
T. O. M.
If you were regular in worship during the weeks leading up to Easter, you will know that our lessons all had a focus of lives transformed by the power of Jesus to renew (the woman at the well), to bring sight, spiritual sight, to those who cannot see the presence of God (the healing of the man born blind) and the power to resurrect a life from the grave (the resurrection of Jesus’ friend Lazarus).
One of the stories we missed, due to the length of some of the readings, was one from Ezekiel 37, the “valley of dry bones.” You may know this story from a Sunday School Song, “Dem Bones” which has a chorus that contains “The thigh bone connected to the knee bone, The knee bone connected to the shin bone” etc.
You know, I love to preach this story and I was sorry to miss it this time around. I love to preach it because sometimes when I look out into the world, into the congregation, into the lives of individual people, even into my own life and faith, I see bones. I see the bare bones revealed in grief and the hurts and pains of life. I see lives dried up by fear and insecurity. I see death walking around in the cares and concerns about where the world and the church are headed. I see and feel the rending of relationships and the tearing of hearts. I hear people talking about the mad nightmares that are sometimes the reality of life.
And I wonder, as did Ezekiel, “Can these bones live? Can these bones ever have life again like they did last week, or last month, or last year, or back when it felt like everything was all right? Can these bones ever recover from their dried up death to find life and hope again?
Oh, yes, I’ve wondered aloud, as did Ezekiel. Lord!! Can these bones live? Lord!! Can these bones find the breath of life? Lord!! Is there hope at all for these bones?
And just about at the moment of despair, I hear God’s promise of new life in the resurrection of Jesus. Just about at the moment of giving up, I see God fulfilling God’s promise to breathe new life into these bones and these lives of ours. Just at the moment of hopelessness, God’s Spirit comes to blow in the powerful breath of renewal, even of creation’s life giving power, “he breathed into them the breath of life.” Just when we need it most, God’s Spirit blows like a mighty wind (Acts 2) to fulfill what God promises: life for these bones. Life for this life. Life like never before.
Oh, dear friends. Oh, God’s people. We are not bones. We are not in the tomb. It just seems that way. No, dear people, we are God’s people. We are those who have been brought to life in our Baptism. We are those who have been called from lifelessness to new life. Called to be living examples of what it means to have a faith that is active in our lives.
We are those called forth from the tomb as God breathes the breath of the Spirit over us, as God breathes into us life. We are not bones on a plain. We are not dead in a tomb. But we are full and blessed with abundance because God is God over even death, even grief, even changes, even over all that will be unknown and uncharted before us.
You know on Easter we declare with certainty, with enthusiasm from the depth of our beings, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.” We proclaim with certainly that God has ultimate power to give life, to raise from the dead, to open the doors to a new eternity and to overcome everything, even death itself.
So, now, in the promise of Easter, in the power of the breath of the Spirit of God over us, we do what we’ve celebrated and proclaimed. We rise and live. We let God’s spirit breathe new hope into us.
Because, you see, ultimately this isn’t about us. It isn’t about death. It isn’t about the darkness or despair that seems to close in upon us.
Finally, it is all about God, the God who gives us life, breathes into us meaning and ministry, the God who in Jesus Christ calls into a resurrected so that His name and His power can be glorified.
This Easter, we pray for God to breathe on us the breath of life—the breath of NEW life so that we can continue in what is charted before us, looking forward to the kingdom, when all will be seen in the perfection of His light, in the perfection of the life we long for.
T. O. M.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Finding Directions
While traveling "Google Maps" is such a wonderful tool. Locating the quickest way to one's hotel, finding the best restaurant in town, locating a "Starbucks" or even finding one's way around a traffic jam -- "Google Maps" can quickly take care of the process. Quickly, efficiently and usually accurately.
In the journey of life and faith, we have the equivalent of "Google Maps." It is God's word recorded in the Bible. And it is our relationship with God through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit. It is keeping in touch with the God who moves in our lives to guide and direct our choices and directions in living faithfully. In addition, God's leading in never wrong. God never gives the wrong directions.
"Google Maps" is a great tool for traveling. But it isn't the only tool for living!!
In the journey of life and faith, we have the equivalent of "Google Maps." It is God's word recorded in the Bible. And it is our relationship with God through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit. It is keeping in touch with the God who moves in our lives to guide and direct our choices and directions in living faithfully. In addition, God's leading in never wrong. God never gives the wrong directions.
"Google Maps" is a great tool for traveling. But it isn't the only tool for living!!
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