Over the past several months, I have had the privilege of working with the project team chartered by Session to review and make recommendations regarding Central’s structure.

A premise that I have found to be valid over the years is that: for any organization or team to work effectively, structure is important but strategy must be in place first. The natural order of effective organization performance starts with strategy (where are we headed, and why?), proceeds to structure ( how do we organize ourselves to achieve our strategic objectives and fulfill our mission?) and then to staffing (who do we need in what roles in our team structure to enhance our success?).

Our Butler basketball team for example (with apologies to the Purdue community), strives to win basketball games while also developing the character of young adults and providing a rallying point for students and the community at large. The way Brad Stevens goes about setting his structure for offensive & defensive schemes, the number of type of assistant coaches he hires, as well as the frequency and focus of practices sessions are all aligned with the vision and the objectives for that season (note that these goals are not so much about “wins” as about player and coach development but rather “how our students play the game”). Said another way, how do we develop student athletes who discover lives of Purpose, Meaning and Contribution, in part through the experience of being on a focused, high performing team. If we play well and pay attention to how we play the game, the wins will follow.

So too, our work on structure at Central has stayed true to the overarching Vision, “Changing Hearts to Change the World” while adding specificity to what structural model will best support achievement of the Vision. The team has worked diligently to gain input from Session, Deacons, Trustees and the congregation via surveys and conversations last summer. More recently, the team has discussed and tested structural models with Session, Deacons and Trustees. The resulting recommendations are now being adjusted reflecting that input and implementation is targeted for March/April of this year.

These adjustments in structure respect previous approaches to getting things done in the church, ie, what has worked well at Central in the past and can be built upon…. as well as what can be improved. They are not ‘changes for change sake’ but rather adjustments that keep pace with a changing world and community while remaining committed to the Vision/Mission.

All parts of the organization play a key role in making the congregation function effectively. I am confident that the adjustments in structure will add value to Central as many of you in the congregation play key roles in helping it operate smoothly. You all play an important role in the Central community, no matter how formal or informal, or large or small the role may be.

“As Paul so accurately described, when one part of the body fails or is undervalued, all the other parts struggle. So it is with the system we call the church. ….we need to see all inputs for our ministry in the context of the larger system that is the body of Christ.”
John Wimberly in The Business of the Church.

Jerry is an Adjunct Professor and Executive Partner with the College of Business at Butler University and has over 30 years of human resources and organization leadership experience in both for profit and not for profit organizations. He also serves as an executive coach and organization consultant. Longer ago than he would like to admit, he received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Iowa and has also been named a Diplomate in Counseling Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Some among us believe that 2012 will bring the end of the world. Most of those who embrace this belief seem to be folks who like conspiracy theories and prophecies of doom, without being overly concerned about facts or reality. As I understand it, the fear or fascination surrounding 2012 as the end of time stems from the discovery of an ancient Mayan calendar in the ruins of a temple complex somewhere in Central America. The calendar, which is carved in stone, ends in 2012 because the carver ran out of space after carving December 21, 2012. I do not understand why some folks take lack of space to mean the end of the world, but they do. I want you to know that I’m already planning for a series of meaningful Christmas Eve worship services on December 24, 2012, and I hope you’ll join me here at Central!

Figuring out what 2012 means in more personal terms – in our lives, in our church, in our community and country and world – is no less challenging than worrying about the end of time. We can point to and anticipate certain dates – anniversaries, graduations, weddings, retirements, birthdays, etc. – but we cannot know or plan for all the twists and turns and opportunities and surprises that the year will bring. Some of these events and prospects will bring joy and hope, while others will certainly offer us more difficult and challenging feelings and emotions.

As I look to the coming year for our congregation, I see 2012 as a year that will invite us at Central to step into God’s future in bold and perhaps scary ways. As we all know, Central’s Session has had a task group in place for most of 2011; and this group has been charged with developing a new organizational structure for how we do ministry together at Central. After a feedback process with the congregation and church boards this fall, the details of our new structure are undergoing final revisions. In the first months of 2012 the plan will be put forward for approval by the appropriate bodies, with a hoped-for implementation date of the Congregational Meeting on March 4.

While putting together a new structure has involved a lot of hard work for the task group and others, the real challenge, as I see it, will be for all of us as a congregation to embrace new ways of doing ministry together for this day and age – for 2012 and beyond. Change is hard and often times scary. Most of us don’t care for change, because it takes us out of our comfort zones, and means we have to learn new things and possibly have to think and act differently! And yet without an openness to change, a church quickly ceases to listen to the whispers and callings of the Holy Spirit, who is forever inviting us into God’s future. Without an openness to change, the worship and fellowship and education and caring and mission that we so value in our church is put at risk as we fail to stay connected to the changing culture around us, and other people become less and less interested in what we say and do. (challenge of change)

2012 will be both exciting and scary in ways we can anticipate, and in ways we cannot foretell. I believe that regardless of what is to come, our individual and corporate life is always and only possible because of God’s loving presence with us. We know this presence most personally and most completely in the earthly life of Jesus Christ, whose birth we’ve just remembered and embraced once again. As we prepare to exit one year and enter another, let us make sure that Jesus is our continuity – for in him, all things are indeed possible.

See you in worship in the New Year!

My prayer for you, and for me, and for all of God’s children, in this expectant season of new possibilities, is that we allow the love of God to fill us to overflowing…that in love, and with love, and through love…we may join Jesus in changing the world!

Merry Christmas,

Pastor Bill

“For all the marvel of these blessed, cherished, and well-rounded verses of Saint Luke; for all the magic that I never fail to feel when I hear them read aloud in church on Christmas Eve; they tell, at least until the angels come upon the scene, of totally mundane and commonplace events.”

“New taxes may be newsworthy, but they are hardly information one would hand down over centuries. A weary couple traveling far from home because of government regulations, even an expectant girl without a place to lay her head, these are not the stuff one might expect to find immortalized. And this birthing of a first-born son, the wrapping him in covers, the laying of him in a feed box for a bed: this has happened since the birth of time itself.”

“Death and taxes, birth and taxes, things one can be sure of, can rely on to endure upon this human scene… Why do we make such a fuss about it all, Lord? What is there in these every day events to justify their annual remembering, rehearsal, repetition?”

“Might it be that in the very ordinariness of your Son’s birth there lies the first disclosure of his message, of the great good news? Might it be, this very night, that you are telling me to look for meaning, mystery, and miracle right here inside the matter-of-fact problems, pains, potentials that make up the daily round?”

“I pray this may be so, Lord God, because the miracle of Christmas that I need will not be found in far-off Bethlehem, or even on the decorated altar of the church, but in the birth of hope and trust and love deep in my ordinary heart. Amen.”

J. Barrie Shepherd, A Child Is Born; The Westminster Press, 1988.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, is credited with the statement “change is the only constant.” Few things in our lives avoid changing on a regular basis. Some changes are readily visible, others are much more subtle. Within our body, many unseen life-sustaining changes continuously occur. Without these changes, our body would quickly stop functioning. Time offers an ability to look back and better recognize change. As we look back, we more fully comprehend the magnitude of the changes that have occurred in each of our lives. As unsettling as change can be, it also represents an opportunity to use our knowledge of the past to better prepare ourselves for the future.

Over the last 12 months, Central has been reviewing our current structure and working on ways to revise that structure to enable us to better respond to and prepare for change. Some might question the need to go through such an exercise. Central has a rich history. Our church is one of the larger churches in Wabash Presbytery, has a wide variety of programs and is noted for its community involvement and mission work. Why consider change when so much is going well?

A trip to the sanctuary basement offers an example of how changes can drastically alter programming and resource use. The basement houses a wide array of equipment that was once an integral part of our youth programming, drawing large numbers of eager participants. Changes in time demands for our youth, program leadership and power tool safety requirements led to this once vibrant program becoming a part of Central’s past. I suspect many in our church and community have fond memories of their participation in our program and wish we could once again return to those days. Could any of today’s program offerings suffer similar fates?

Discussions with our church leaders and congregational surveys indicate significant concern about how we will be able to address future challenges. Change is difficult and our present structure is not very nimble in reacting to problems. Opportunities exist to improve efficiency and to more effectively coordinate our vision with our activities. Our present structure uses small numbers of members in leadership roles, sometimes with those leaders directing multiple program areas. Meetings are abundant. As a result, burn out occurs as more and more time and effort is required. Leadership training and succession planning can be more robust to make our volunteers more effective and have more help in carrying out their work.

A new structure has been developed that strives to offer better coordinated, more efficient use of the effort and resources which support our church’s overall vision of building connections to God, building connections to each other and changing the world. Over the next two months, this new structure will be shared with everyone. Tweaks can occur based on your feedback. Our new structure is targeted to be in place following our March annual meeting. However, work to improve that structure will be ongoing and Central’s structure will continue to evolve to better meet the challenge of change.

Your patience, understanding, thoughtful suggestions and prayers for how our new structure can allow our congregation to fulfill God’s will for Central and our community is, and will continue to be, crucial to the success of this project.

Tenacity is a quality that I think we are going to need at Central as we begin to move into a new structure for doing ministry.

The Structural Consultation Team has been and remains hard at work on creating a new structure for our congregation. With the help of our structural consultant, Jerry Toomer, the Team has been building a structure model that will allow us to fulfill our three congregational goals – 1) Connecting with God through worship and education; 2) Connecting with each other through fellowship and mutual care; and 3) Changing hearts to change the world through reaching out to the people and community around us in mission.

The initial draft of this new structural model has been shared with the Session, Deacons and Trustees, and is now being tweaked based on the feedback received. In the early part of the New Year the revised model will be ready for further review, and hopefully implementation will begin in the spring!

Dandelion-like tenacity will be important to us as we embrace and live into a new structure for doing ministry, because as we all know change is hard. Doing new things, organizing ourselves differently, letting go of familiar habits and meeting patterns, saying goodbye to old traditions, starting new traditions, being the disciples of Jesus Christ that God needs for this day and age – all of these steps are challenging, and will not be accomplished easily.

When doing new things, when thinking in new ways, it is so easy – especially the first time we meet any resistance, or don’t like the new thing – it is so easy to want to return to doing things ‘as we always have’, in ways that are known and familiar and safe. But in my experience, new things need to be given a chance. New practices and new structures need to be tried for a year or even two before they begin to work. In other words, if we at Central want an organizational structure that is going to match our vision, and help us carry out our vision, we’re going to have to be tenacious in embracing the newness. We’re going to have to be like dandelions that poke up through the frost that is trying to kill them, so that they may live. Jesus doesn’t invite us to the safety of discipleship. Jesus invites us to pick up a cross and follow him, so that we may discover the abundant life of God’s Kingdom! Following Jesus takes tenacity!

Following last week’s blog post in this space about “The Gap”, Central member, Terry Phillips asked me to explain myself a bit better. I appreciate his question. Terry lifted up two sentences from the post – “Churches that are going to survive and thrive in the 21st century need to be nimble, and make faithful choices more quickly. Churches that are going to function well in the 21st century will employ a decision-making strategy that is less-formalized and relies on trust and consensus building.” — ‘How can a church be both nimble and consensus building, he asked’.

Here is my answer:

I believe the Session of a Presbyterian Church needs to be more nimble in its decision making. A Session needs to be continually looking at the big picture, and making vision decisions – how and where is God calling our church into the future. These ‘big picture’ decisions must be made at the speed of our culture. As the pace of change in our culture accelerates, we as a congregation must keep up or we will slide into irrelevance. Nimbleness is a must.

At the same time, smaller groups of church members/friends who desire to take on a particular common ministry, must approach their agreed-upon task together. They need to have common agreement on what they are going to do, and they must trust each other to carry out their common commitments. Trust and consensus are always important; and even more so, I think, when we work together on common projects.

Terry, I hope this answer is of use to you and others. As always, I appreciate the questions and the continuing conversation!

See you in worship this Sunday, where we’ll light the third candle of Advent, and work at being the tenacious disciples that Jesus invites us to be!

While we were in the museum my attention was drawn to a woman wearing a full Burqa – which is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some, usually more conservative, branches of Islam to cover their bodies in public places. The only visible parts of her body were her eyes and fingers. Before this encounter, I had ever only seen pictures of a woman in a Burqa. With my very different religious and cultural backgrounds, I was somewhat startled by her at first glance.

Even more fascinating to me, however, was that fact that this woman who was almost completely ‘hidden’ from the world around her, was using an iphone to take video of the Circus Parade exhibit, which clearly excited her two young children. I was struck by the ‘gap’ between her practice of faith and utilization of technology. Without trying to be critical of, or make fun of, how this woman chooses to be faithful, I think the ‘gap’ between religious practice and cultural evolution is worth thinking about. While I believe this ‘gap’ affects nearly all religions, it is certainly a major issue for Christianity in 21st century America – and an issue confronting Central Presbyterian Church.

While a very brief internet search this morning informs me that the ‘veiling’ of woman is an ancient custom that has stretched over many cultures and faiths, it seems to have been embraced by the more conservative practitioners of Islam during the 10th century. So here is a woman wearing 10th century style clothing and utilizing 21st century technology. Perhaps in her home country, with presumably a very different cultural tradition, this gap would not appear to be so extreme. Yet, here in the United States, this 1000+ year gap suggests to me that her faith has lost touch with the culture in which it is practiced. And when a faith loses touch with its culture, it is my experience that it quickly grows irrelevant.

Because of the pace at which American culture evolves, and the speed-of-light evolution of technology in recent decades, a gap between faith practice and culture in our country happens quickly and widens rapidly. Irrelevancy transpires much faster than it once did.

Most American churches are struggling for members and money these days. It doesn’t make any difference whether the congregation is independent or affiliated with a denomination, most churches are dealing with a smaller, aging membership, and are on less-solid financial ground. Even with those few congregations that are thriving these days, church participation as a percentage of total population is declining. Certainly there are a variety of reasons for this waning, but I think much has to do with the growing gap between church and culture.

Set against a culture that is growing more open and accepting of differences among people; that easily embraces new knowledge and scientific/technological advances; that more readily adapts to an ever-increasing pace of change – set against this cultural backdrop, Christian churches…individually and as a whole…often seem mean-spirited, and anti-intellectual, and stuck in the past. Unfortunately congregations like Central that are trying to live faithfully and connected to our culture, often get lumped in with all the churches that are not. When congregations that thrive on hate and ignorance in the name of Jesus get a great deal of media coverage, a less-churched population assumes we’re all the same!

One of the church-culture gaps that most concerns me at present is the organizational gap. Most Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations, including Central, utilize an organizational model that has been in place for nearly 100 years, and perhaps longer. Church boards provide leadership, committees or clusters or teams as we call them here are the organizational building blocks, and Robert’s Rules guides a formalized approach to decision making. Each of these pieces has played an important role in the ‘decent and orderly’ organization of a Presbyterian congregation over the years. Each of these pieces is also out of touch to some extent with our larger culture…and thus there is a gap.

Churches that are going to survive and thrive in the 21st century need to be nimble, and make faithful choices more quickly. Churches that are going to function well in the 21st century will employ a decision-making strategy that is less-formalized and relies on trust and consensus building. Churches that are going to thrive in the 21st century need to have a clear focus and purpose, and cultivate the ability to practice positive change in the face of an evolving world. In other words, church in the 21st century is going to be faithfully different and stimulating, and challenging.

I am excited that Central is currently in the midst of working with a consultant on our organizational structure. This tells me that we are a congregation that wants to journey faithfully into God’s future by lessening the gap between us and the culture in which we exist. We want to be relevant disciples for Jesus Christ, and we’re willing to work hard and risk what is known and comfortable and safe to be so.

Embracing new ways of doing things as a congregation in order to lessen the gap between the faith we embrace and our culture will be challenging. I’m guessing that we’ll need to do fewer things better. I’m guess that we’ll need to think and act and organize ourselves differently. I’m guessing we’ll have to let go of some cherished traditions and work hard to create some new ones. I’m guessing we’ll have to learn to like change – which may be the most difficult thing of all for we Presbyterians!

A 1000 year gap between the faith we profess and the culture we inhabit is too much. A 100 year gap is too much. A 10 year gap is too much. Jesus invites us as his disciples to live in, but not of the world. He never really describes how we’re supposed to accomplish this feat. Jesus simply says ‘come, and follow me’. My sense is that as we follow him, he’ll teach us how to lessen the gap.

See you in worship this Sunday, where we’ll work at gap-reduction…

Mostly, however, folks are thankful for the people in their lives – spouses and partners and children and extended family and co-workers. They are thankful for the love and support, the caring and nurturing, the presence and continuity of these significant relationships. What I hear deep down, below the surface of this thankfulness is an abiding sense of gratitude for not being alone.

As we all learn from the moment of our first breath, even before conscience awareness, we need the physical presence and the compassion and grace of others to simply survive, let alone thrive. Despite the constant cultural messages about our needing to be pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps individualists, who exist as independent islands from all others, we were made for each other. We were created to be in community and completely interdependent.

While I have chosen not to list the things for which I am thankful on Facebook this month, I can acknowledge my abiding thankfulness for the people who bring such richness and joy to my life – my family, and church community, and friends, and even the stranger encountered along the way with whom nothing more than a nod of the head or a few words are shared. I’m sure I would go mad if I had to face life alone; if there were no larger community in which I can continually know place and purpose. One of the privileges and gifts of being a pastor is all the people – even the occasionally grumpy ones – with whom I get to interact.

As we come to Thanksgiving tables and gatherings in the coming days, my hope is that we thank God for more than just the blessings of harvest and a great meal. My hope is that we also give thanks that one of the aspects, the images of God in which we are created, is the deep and abiding connections with each other that we need and know. In the gift of Jesus, God reminds us that our interdependence is a vital part of who we are, and a purpose toward which we must constantly strive.

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday…where we will be thankful together!

When I was 20, the only nuclear power plant in the state of Missouri was being constructed about twelve miles from the little town of Fulton, where I was going to college. I was then, and remain today, skeptical about the benefits of nuclear energy. Until science has a better way to safely deal with the radioactive residues of this type of energy production, I believe that we as a nation and a world have to be very careful here.

With the near meltdown of a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania fresh in everyone’s mind, a protest march was scheduled at the Callaway nuclear plant construction site. Those organizing the march announced that they planned to be arrested for trespassing on the site as an act of civil disobedience!

Like I said, I was 20. A protest march, and the possibility of being arrested for something in which I believed – that nuclear power is a danger we don’t fully know how to control – seemed like a good idea. So I found a friend who shared my beliefs, and early one Saturday morning, Melinda and I drove out to the protest site not knowing what the day might bring.

To make a long story blog-short, it was an amazing experience. We were allowed to march at the end of the line, because we had not gone through the training of how to be arrested peacefully. There were state troopers and security guards with guard dogs everywhere. The air was filled with the sound of police and news helicopters, and the shouts of news crews and protest chants and official warnings issued through a bullhorn.

We marched in. Those who had been trained to be arrested were arrested, and then we marched back out. The march out was done by everyone in line simply turning around. Now instead of being at the end of the line, Melinda and I were the front line of marchers…and that is how we appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition of the local newspaper. A fact that the Dean of Student Life noted when he called me Monday morning!

I’m thinking of the passions of 20, and of the things we do at that wonderful age, in the wake of the last two days of commentary from politicians and the news media criticizing the students at Penn State for marching in protest Wednesday night over the firing of the football coach, Joe Paterno. This morning I watched a clip of the Pennsylvania Governor calling the students ‘Knuckleheads’.

Let me be very clear, I have no argument with the personnel decision made by the Penn State Trustees. They did what they had to do. They did what they needed to do, in the wake of the horrible revelations of recent weeks!

I do feel, however, that the Trustees set the student body up for failure with the timing of their announcement. An unpopular late evening announcement, delivered at the time of day when most college students are most fully awake and engaged in life; without any forethought as to how the student body might take the news; with no understanding of how quickly they would spread the news electronically; and no pre-planning for properly channeling the passions of thousands of upset 20-somethings. I think the Pennsylvania Governor may have directed his ‘knucklehead’ remark in the wrong direction.

Culturally we are more than happy to tap into the passions and energy of 20-somethings when they are the men and women at the battlefronts of our nation’s military conflicts. We are pleased to marshal these same passions in rooting for the home team. But then when the passions of 20 lead a group of young people in a direction that frightens the majority of us – when older and wiser heads can and should have made better decisions – we (again culturally) are quick to complain and accuse and vilify.

We can’t have it both ways!

As I’ve been typing away this morning with great passion, I’ve been wondering if my rant has anything to do with the faith we profess in Jesus Christ. What has struck me is that Jesus always took people seriously where they were. He may have wanted people to take God more seriously or for them to live more faithfully, but he always started with them in their physical and emotional and spiritual place.

Perhaps if those of us who are a little older and grayer, could remember something of the passions we felt at 20, and engage our 20-somethings where they are instead of where we think they need to be… perhaps we could tap into some of their passion for the life of our church, and for our faith journeys.

As always, I look forward to sharing worship with you this Sunday…

An important part of the sabbatical experiences funded by the Lily Foundation, is that the congregation served by the pastor going on sabbatical, also have the opportunity to grow and learn. The growth and learning experiences for Central will take place between now and next May, as three important speakers and spiritual seekers come share their gifts with us.

The first speaker, Marjorie Thompson, will be with us November 11, 12 & 13 – with a variety of events open to the entire congregation and public over the course of the three days. All this information is available on the church web site or in the weekly church email from which many of you accessed this blog post. I want to challenge all of us at Central to be part of at least one of these experiences! I believe, no…I know, that time with Marjorie will be good for our individual and collective souls – but only if we participate.

The grant that allowed Jeff to go through and enjoy such an amazing sabbatical is a gift to him and all of us. Yet, if he is the only one that grows in faith through the experience, all the rest of us will have wasted an amazing opportunity. Sign Up! Participate!! That as God’s people here at 7th & Columbia we may learn more and grow deeper!

See you in worship this Sunday…

As is so often the case, however, a change in route and perspective – even when it is forced – can be a gift…as this recent detour has been for me!

Instead of walking on asphalt paths, I’ve been able to tread the trails through the woods along the bog. The brightness of the yellow Maple leaves, even in the pre-dawn greyness, has been a beautiful surprise. One morning the murmur of the ducks floating on the inky surface of the bog provided a wonderful accompaniment to the Mozart clarinet concerto playing on my ipod. The frenetic energy of the squirrels searching through the underbrush for one more fallen walnut has reminded me of the chilly barrenness that will soon be upon us.

Autumn has always been my favorite season of the year. I am overwhelmed by the blaze of colors all around. I delight in the sound that the fallen leaves make as I kick through them. I am awed by varying patterns and intensity of light as earth hurtles along on its ever-changing journey. I like the theology of autumn as well. The new life – the resurrection – of spring is so powerful, only because of the Good Friday of Autumn and the Holy Saturday of Winter.

Here is an Autumn poem I recently shared with the Central staff at our weekly meeting:

God of autumn,
help us to be more like nature,
accepting the changing seasons;
like the changing of the trees:
not a dying as life sometimes feels,
but a stripping bare in preparation for inner growth,
knowing that to shed the outer layers
will reveal the strength that is hidden underneath.

God of autumn,
it’s so hard to let things go:
the shields,
the camouflage,
the flimsy covers…

We cannot hide from you;
you are our strength,
you see our inner beauty.
You see beyond the human dressings
and wish to clothe us in your love.

God of autumn,
help us to be more like nature,
accepting the changing seasons
not because they are out of our control,
but because they are in your hands.

by Katrina Crosby in Acorns And Archangels

In these waning days of autumn, let us give thanks to the God of Autumn, who has not and will not let death be the final word…ever; the God in whose hands we live!

See you in worship this Sunday…

IN THE FLESH

Lord Jesus, it’s good to know
that you lived in the flesh;
walked where we walk, felt what we feel,
got tired, had sore and dirty feet,
needed to eat, and think about
where the next meal was coming from.

But it’s even better to know
that you enjoyed your food,
the feel of perfume on your skin,
the wind on your face, a child in your arms,
and the good wine at weddings.

You didn’t mind when people touched you,
even those who were thought of as unclean.
You kissed people with diseases
and laid your head on a friend’s shoulder.
Thank you for understanding our bodily pains and pleasures
and for valuing them.

by Kathy Galloway in Growing Hope

The last two lines of this poem in particular, really grab me. Jesus knows us so completely that he understands – because he has felt them himself – our ‘pains and pleasures’. He knows all of this about us, and still he loves us and values us. What a gift it is to be Jesus-Valued!

I believe that being Jesus-Valued gives us the ability to do some pretty amazing things:
• As people who are Jesus-Valued we are able to talk confidently with God in prayer.
• As people who are Jesus-Valued we are able to love our enemies.
• As people who are Jesus-Valued we know that the goodness of God lies at the core of every human being.
• As people who are Jesus-Valued we are able to share compassion, because we know what it is like to be on the receiving end of grace.
• As people who are Jesus-Valued we are able (and I might add ‘expected’) to join with Jesus in changing the world.
• As people who are Jesus-Valued we are gifted with talents and with spiritual gifts and with resources, and we are expected to share all of these pieces of ourselves.

This Sunday, October 23, is when all of us at Central are asked to share our financial pledges for 2012. By knowing the portion of our Jesus-Valued talents and gifts and resources that we plan to share with the church in 2012, Central’s Session can begin to plan a realistic budget for the worship and programming we find meaningful, and for the staff that helps make it all happen.

It is no secret that it costs money – a lot of it – to be a church like Central. It is also no secret that the present economy continues to be tough on many of us financially.

But beyond costs, and beyond a sluggish economic climate, we are first and foremost Jesus-Valued people. We are people who lookout for the good of all, and not just ourselves. We are people who know that our welfare depends on the welfare of our neighbors. We are people who know that Jesus invites us to live changed lives, and nothing less!

As I said to us last week, Stewardship is a way of life; a way by which we reflect the awesome reality that Jesus values us, and knows us intimately!

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday…

But as I reflect on my choice of words, I’m finding that I am not so pleased with them. To talk about a ‘season of stewardship’ seems to suggest that stewardship is a topic only for October, and is only about the money we give to the church. But as we all know, stewardship is about much, much more!

Stewardship is about what we do with the abundant blessings of God. Stewardship is about the choices we make – intentional or not – with the resources God has entrusted to our care. Some of the resources God invites us to watch over and nurture are financial. But the relationships we have with family and friends; the community in which we live and work and play and pray; the specific skills and gifts God has given each of us; the earth that provides us with food and water and air and beauty – all of these things are resources over which God expects us to provide good stewardship as well. And these resources are ours to tend, not just for a few weeks in October, but every day, all the time, year round, all our lives.

Stewardship is not a season. Stewardship is a way of life!

The invitation that is being made to us via the Stewardship Committee here in these early weeks of October, is for us to look at and ponder and pray about the ways we are dealing with God’s abundance in our lives. Are we wisely watching over and nurturing God’s abundance? Are we using God’s abundance, as it was intended, for the well-being of others? (See what Jeremiah 29.1-9 has to say about this!) Are we squandering God’s abundance on things that do not last, that do not have meaning, that are without purpose? What kind of stewards are we being?

Now to be completely honest, it is my hope, and the hope of the Stewardship Committee, and the hope of Session, that as we ponder the kind of stewards we are and are called to be, that we will share some of our abundance with Christ’s Church…and specifically with Central. As a congregation we rely completely upon all of us being disciples who understand stewardship as a way of life. Our common ministry and mission is financially supported completely by generous stewardship – here in October, and all throughout the year.

This past Monday I sat with Central’s Fiscal Committee, and together we pondered the fact that September was a difficult financial month. In order to fulfill our annual budget, we need to receive $45-50,000 in contributions each month. In September receipts totaled about $30,000. The good news, is that thanks to wise financial planning the church is not in the ‘red’…yet. The bad news, is that our small financial reserve is being hard-pressed and will not last much longer.

As the Fiscal Committee talked about what might be done, I’m pleased to say we steered clear of hitting the ‘panic button’ and announcing that Central’s financial sky was falling. Instead we decided to share this news with all of you, to pray for God’s continuing wisdom in our financial life, and to trust that all of us here at Central know that Stewardship is A Way Of Life that we live out and practice every day.

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday, where we will be overwhelmed with God’s abundance once again!

Training to be a Stephen Minister is a big time commitment – 50 hours of in-class time over six months! I am privileged to be part of a team of Stephen Leaders who are sharing the teaching responsibilities for this new class. As Stephen Leaders, each of us has received at least 50 hours of additional training in order to be able to do all the things necessary (teaching included) to maintain a faithful and healthy Stephen Ministry program. Central is blessed to have this kind of Stephen program!

One of the curriculum resources for the class is the book,

Christian Caregiving: A Way Of Life

by Kenneth Haugk, who is the Lutheran pastor who created the Stephen Ministry program. Haugk devotes an entire chapter of this book to the issue of “Servanthood vs. Servitude”. While he certainly has in mind a Stephen caring relationship between a caregiver (the Stephen Minister) and a care-receiver, I find Haugk’s thoughts on this topic applicable to all of us who are involved in any ministry or program in the life of the church.

Servanthood – caring for/serving the needs of another – says Haugk, “incorporates the ideas of willingness, choice and voluntary commitment”. Servitude, on the other hand, “connotes bondage, slavery, and involuntary labor”. Haugk believes that when ‘servitude’ and ‘servanthood’ are confused, a person’s service to others and a person’s service to the church become burdensome and guilt-producing, rather than grace-filled and life-giving as such acts are intended to be.

Using a small chart, Haugk identifies four basic problems that arise when an individual seeks to serve with an attitude of servitude. Alongside each of the identified servitude problems is a suggested solution that comes from acting out of servanthood:

Servitude (problem)

Overidentification – taking on the problems of another at the expense of losing your own identity.

Servanthood (response)

Empathy – feeling with another while retaining a good measure of objectivity; maintaining your own identity.

Servitude (problem)

Superficial Sweetness – compensating for frustration or anger by covering
up feelings.

Servanthood (response)

Genuineness – being yourself, wounds and all; acting congruently.

Servitude (problem)

Being Manipulated – allowing another to abuse your relationship

Servanthood (response)

Meeting Needs, Not Wants – being straight-forward about your feelings, speaking the truth in love; confronting another when it is called for.

Servitude (problem)

Begrudging Care – Complaining about your ministry involvements.

Servanthood (response)

Intentionality – Choosing to be part of a ministry, or getting out when it ceases to serve God or bring you joy.

Haugk’s distinction between Servitude and Servanthood are giving me a lot to think about…like how I enter in to particular ministries, how I conduct myself, how I know when I need to let go of a particular ministry or let others take it. I hope this servitude/servanthood distinction invites us all to think about the ways each of us are involved in ministries – here at Central and elsewhere.

Jesus is certainly our model for how we can best serve others. He is one who clear understands the distinction between ‘servitude’ and ‘servanthood’; and serves with a reckless and joyous abandon! I invite us to gather in worship on Sunday, and literally sit at our master’s feet, so that we may be renewed and energized for our service to the world in his name!

Maybe it would be best to begin with an explanation of why there is a preaching theme in the first place. As I understand Central history, when the Celebration service began ten years ago the idea of ‘series preaching’ was embraced. In this approach, a guiding theme is selected for a particular month or for a season of the church year, like Advent or Lent. Then all the sermons for that time frame are based on that theme, and so become a series.

I really like series preaching. I first started preaching this way at the church I served in Kansas City prior to coming to Central. A sermon series allows me to explore a block of scripture, or a question at the intersection of life and faith, or an idea that I think is important to the faith journey of our congregation, in great detail. I believe a sermon series also helps us as a congregation – by allowing us all to join in a larger conversation and experience.

One of the challenges of series preaching is that the series can be disjointed. One series will focus on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, and the next will be on the Gospel According to Dr. Seuss, and the next will be on the connections between Sunday Church & Monday Work, and so on. Sometimes in this approach the series fit together well, and sometimes they do not.

A few years ago, in an attempt to provide a larger connection between sermon series, I asked the participants at our annual worship planning retreat where potential series ideas are first imagined, to focus their creative efforts around an overarching, program-year-long theme. Our first overall theme was ‘Called To…”, followed by ‘Disciples Are…’, and then for the 2010-2011 program year, ‘The New Outline’. The 2011-2012 overall preaching theme will be ‘Seeking The Welfare of the City’.

This theme is based upon Jeremiah 29.1-9, where the Prophet says to the people of Israel who have been taken away into exile by the conquering Babylonians, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

I believe this overarching theme will invite us at Central to have a renewed sense of responsibility for the Greater Lafayette community, and to embrace God’s call to play an important role in the larger public arena. But this sense of responsibility to the larger society does not, come from a sense of superiority or a position of societal power and control. Like the Israelite community to whom Jeremiah is speaking in chapter 29 – a community of exiles living in the strange and unfamiliar city of Babylon – I believe the inhabitants of the 21st Century Church, including all of us here at Central, also exist in ‘a foreign land’.

The dominant values of our society – hyper-individualism, self-determination at all costs, widening economic disparity – that includes 25+% of all children in the United States living in poverty, a numbness toward violence of all kinds – these are foreign values to Jesus and his disciples. As a percentage of total population, church membership and active participation in a congregation continue to decline. The Church of Jesus Christ no longer holds a central position in America. It has been exiled to the margins of culture.

Jeremiah’s message to those in exile is two-fold: 1) You must embrace your exile, for it is where God is now calling you to obedience; and,
2) There is long-term hope for return and restoration – hope which provides energy and space for faithful living. The discomfort and disorientation of exile is the place where the hope of God is most powerfully and characteristically at work. In exile, God’s people have to rely completely on God, and as such are a people who live in hope!

Through Jeremiah, God instructs those in exile to work for the well-being of the city where they have been sent; making clear that their well-being is dependent upon that of the city. The exiles in Babylon are not allowed to withdraw into a safe, sectarian existence, but are expected to make a difference where they are.

In a similar way, I think God expects all of us at Central to act with integrity and faithfulness from the margins of our society; joining Jesus in his holy work of changing the world. Just like our long-ago parents in faith, today’s church community has been given a great responsibility to care for and improve our larger community!

I believe a lot of great worship and service possibilities will bubble up in our midst over the next several months from this overall preaching theme. I look forward to our worship together, exploring the meaning of exile, and thinking and praying about all the ways we are and can work together ‘Seeking The Welfare Of The City’.

In the book, Designing Worship Together: Models and Strategies For Worship Planning, authors Norma deWaal Malefyt and Howard Vanderwell, lift up several factors that they believe contribute to spiritually vital worship. The ‘factor’ on this list that really caught my eye is as follows:

“Congregational worship should be integrated with the whole life of the congregation. It can serve as the ‘source and summit’ from which all the practices of the Christian life flow. Worship both reflects and shapes the life of the church in education, pastoral care, community service, fellowship, justice, hospitality, and every other aspect of church life.”

‘Source and Summit’ is a great description of worship…for our worship is all about God. We gather in worship to offer God our thanks and praise for the blessing of life. And then we are gifted even more by the fact that God chooses to meet us in worship. The image that springs to my mind when I consider worship as ‘source & summit’ is that of a large fountain set on a hilltop, or even better a mountaintop, shooting a constant stream of living water (see John 4.7-15) high into the air. As this water falls back to earth, it cascades down the sides of the mountain bringing life to everything and everyone it touches.

Worship is our source of life as a church. Worship does shape our desire to learn more about God in Jesus Christ, our care for one another, our service to others, how we spend time together, our practice of justice, the welcome we extend, and everything else about the community we share at church.

Most of all, worship shapes us!

As we attend to God in worship by listening for God’s word to us, by lifting up our greatest joys and deepest fears and most relentless brokenness, by embracing each other as sister and brother, by filling ourselves with the goodness of God’s table, by offering up every fiber of our being to God’s glory, by drinking deeply from the living water that is flowing all around us – as we do all these things in and through worship, we receive the resources we need to make it through each day, and we are changed forever!

Bring a friend with you to worship this Sunday, that they may join us in drinking deeply from the living water that is Jesus Christ. And if it has been a while since you’ve worshipped, I hope you’ll come this Sunday, and reconnect with the Source & Summit of life!

The Presbyterian Directory For Worship says the following about prayer in general and confessional prayer in particular:

“Prayer is at the heart of worship. In Prayer, through the Holy Spirit, people seek after and are found by the one true God who has been revealed in Jesus Christ…Prayer may be spoken, sung, offered in silence, or enacted. Prayer grows out of the center of a person’s life in response to the Spirit. Prayer is shaped by the word of God in scripture and by the life of the community of faith. Prayer issues in commitment to join God’s work in the world. In prayer we respond to God in many ways…In confession we acknowledge repentance for what we as individuals and as a people have done or left undone.”

Even more foundational to understanding the Prayer of Confession is the witness of scripture; especially the words and witness offered by the prophets in the Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament. The prophets did not mince words, even and especially about God’s people. Amos indicts the people of his day because they “trample on the poor…and afflict the righteous” (5.11-12). Isaiah speaks of the people of Israel as a “sinful nation…laden with iniquity…who have despised God…who are utterly estranged” (1.4), and whose “hands are full of blood” (1.15). Ezra, speaking about his own people says, “our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens” (9.6).

In the Old Testament the prophets are understood as being raised up by God. The prophets are invited and expected to critique the leaders of nation and temple, as well as individual behavior. When the king or the priests or the people are straying from God’s expectations that everyone will be treated justly and that all will know righteousness, the prophets point it out. They are the collective conscious of God’s people, calling everyone back to the goodness in which God originally created them.

It is important for we in the Christian Church to remember that a large part of Jesus’ self-understanding was of himself as a prophet (see Luke 4). He was sent to invite God’s people, including you and me, to return to our God-given role of loving and caring for all.

I think that our use of Confession in worship is directly tied to the prophets of the bible, including Jesus. Confession is the way we regularly remind ourselves that God expects us to live toward each other and all others in very specific ethical and moral ways. Confession serves as our collective conscious, calling us back to the goodness in which God originally created us. Confession is how we recall that life is not all about what we want, but is about the purposes for which God made us.

I hope you’ll join me in worship this Sunday, where we will pray and think confessionally as individuals and as a community about all those things we have done or left undone!

(For a fuller discussion of the connection between prophecy and confession, see The Old Testament & The Significance of Jesus by Fredrick Holmgren – especially chapter 1)

Without much introduction, Mayer began presenting his music as part of the lectures and worship services that made up the conference. It was quickly apparent that he is an incredibly gifted musician and amazing guitar player. As he introduced himself and his songs, we learned that Mayer is the son of a Lutheran pastor; and that while playing for Jimmy Buffett is great, Peter’s real passion is sharing his faith through song.

The more I listened to him, the more I came to appreciate what he was offering to us. Mayer revealed his faith as deep and alive; full of questions, and yet rooted in awe of God and love for Jesus Christ. His songs have great theological integrity – meaning that they speak about the person and nature of God, the love and grace of Jesus, and the mysterious presence and power of the Holy Spirit with words and images that are not trite or simplistic. Mayer is interested in his songs and lyrics reflecting the abundant generosity of God, rather than being ‘catchy’ or ‘slick’.

Writing contemporary Christian praise music with theological integrity is incredibly hard to do. Sadly many artists opt for simple lyrics and easy-to-sing music, rather than take on the harder task of describing the glory and majesty of God.

I liked Mayer’s music so much that I purchased one of his CD’s. This week his song, ‘Loose In The World’, has been on my mind and Ipod a lot. Mayer’s description of Jesus has really captured me, and I want to share it with you:

We better lock him up the crazy man
He’s causing trouble, brewing storms
Traded fashion for compassion
The revolution fought with kindness not a sword
The word went leaping off the pages
Breaking in the windows and leaping over walls
All you ask for was a cool glass of water
And you got a waterfall

Hey…Hey this mercy moves
Love is loose…hey…hey
Love is loose in the world
Hey…Hey the universe is singing
Loose hey…hey…God is loose in the world!

Through the Holy Spirit, and through our words and actions, God in Jesus Christ is loose in the world! In the face of uncertainty and pain and fear, what a wonderful and comforting image – God loose everywhere…making a difference for everyone!

A overwhelming gift!
A gift to celebrate!
A gift to share!

Some definitions and history will be helpful here. The document that outlines Presbyterian structure/governance, also called ‘polity’, is known as the Book Of Order. The Book Of Order contains three sections: 1) The Form Of Government; 2) The Directory For Worship; 3) The Rules of Discipline. While all three sections are interesting in their own way, my focus today is on the first section – the Form Of Government – which details how we organize ourselves as individual congregations and as an interconnected denomination.

Since 1983, our denomination has been governed by a FOG that was the result of the merger of the northern and southern Presbyterian Churches in that year. While a very useful document, it had two major challenges:

First, this FOG took a one-size-fits-all approach to everything. A church of 50 members, and a church of 600 members (like Central) and a church of 4,800 members were all treated alike. Even though the context for ministry and the leadership needs of individual congregations are very different, the 1983 FOG required every Presbyterian congregation to organize itself in the same way. In my experience this approach did not work well at all.

The second challenge faced by the 1983 FOG was the weight of history. The northern and southern Presbyterian Churches has existed independently from one another for 122 years (since the beginning of the Civil War) when they reunited. In that long span of time, the two denominations evolved in very different ways, creating unique cultures. Since reunion in 1983 there has been something like a tug-of-war going on between those from these two different streams of Presbyterianism; and the FOG has been the ground upon which all the tugging has taken place. In the past 30 years the FOG has doubled in size, as well-intentioned, faithful people/congregations have encouraged the whole church to amend the FOG so that the denomination looks and feels more like the stream of Presbyterianism out of which the person/congregation originally came. FOG had ceased to be a forward-looking document. In fact, our FOG was literally crumbling into irrelevancy under its own increasing weight!

For the past several years a task force has labored to develop a New FOG; charged with creating a document that is simpler and very flexible. The fruit of this group’s labors was given to the denomination in early 2010; approved at the 2010 General Assembly; and since that time, ratified by a majority of the 173 Presbyteries. On July 11, 2011, New FOG became the guiding polity document of the PCUSA.

What does all this mean for us at Central? I can’t say yet, as it will take all of us in the PCUSA some time to wrap our heads and our hearts around this new way of doing things. Remember, we Presbyterians are not big fans of change! The largest difference that I see at this point is a huge philosophical shift – a shift that I believe is in the right direction. With the adoption of the New FOG, the PCUSA is shifting from a prescriptive polity to a permissive polity; from a regulatory approach to one of freedom to act within a set of broad principles; from polity as a set of rules to polity as a description of common life.

I think we’re going to like our New FOG as we get used to it, because it should allow the present and future leadership of Central to more quickly adapt to the changing ministry needs of the community/world around us; so that we can more faithfully follow God’s call into the future.

Worship is where we together embrace God’s call most fully. I’ll see you there this Sunday…

The roof over the eastern end of the Education Building – the newest part of the building, added in 1967-68 – has been drawing attention to itself for several years now. At first, this roof only raised minor notice with a few stained ceiling tiles in the area of the internal roof drains and exterior scuppers. These issues were addressed with some minor patching/repair work, and then went away…for a while! In the last year, however, minor problems have become major leaks, and it is now time for this portion of the education building roof to be replaced.

Several months ago Central’s Trustees commissioned an engineering study of the two roofs that cover the Education Building – the one over the original 1933 structure, and the one over the 67-68 addition. This study has given the Trustees a game plan for making sure these roofs stay as unglamorous and unnoticed as possible. But before the roofs can fade into anonymity, and we can go back to ignoring them, they will need to be made new again.

The 67-68 roof will be replaced in the next month or so, beginning with tuck pointing work to exposed brick that none of us can see from the ground, followed by removing the current roofing material and installing a brand new roof. Interior work to plaster and paint and replacing ceiling tiles will follow once the leaks are stopped. Thanks to the wise planning and fiscal prudence of those volunteer leaders who have watched over the church’s financial resources for the last eight years, there is money saved to cover the $90,000+ costs of this project! The main roof is a project that will require another two to three years of planning, and will certainly come with greater cost. But that is a topic for another day.

I began by saying that a church roof really doesn’t make any difference to the mission and ministry of a congregation, but we all know that isn’t true. When visitors walk into a building that is well-maintained and looks inviting (meaning it doesn’t have water-stained ceiling tiles everywhere), they are more likely to come back. When the heads and belongings of those spending the night at Central with family promise remain dry, our week of caring and service is more successful. When the participants in an adult education study or Sunday School class are not distracted by dripping water, they learn more about living their faith. As unglamorous and unnoticed as it is, a roof is really a critical ministry tool; a tool that we must care for, and from time to time in which we must invest!

Let’s gather in worship this Sunday, and enjoy the safe and cool and mostly-dry spaces in which God invites us to do ministry!

One of the hymns that we sang at our wedding is Beethoven’s great ‘Ode To Joy’ from his Ninth Symphony, which in the Presbyterian Hymnal is entitled, ‘Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee’ (#464). The first verse goes like this:

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, Opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the gloom of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day.

Gina and I chose this hymn because it spoke of the joy we felt in each other, and of the joy we knew our wedding would bring us. But greater than either of these two joys, was the gratitude we felt toward God for bringing us together and giving us the opportunity to journey through life with one another.

Joy is a great way for all of us to approach God; for God takes such delight in Creation, and finds such joy in every one of us! We have been created out of God’s joy. We have been created for joy. Joy is what we are to offer, and to expect, from each other. The second verse of the hymn is:

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, Center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, Flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain, Call us to rejoice in Thee.

Now, has every moment of the past twenty-eight years been joyful? Of course it hasn’t! Gina and I have known the ups and downs, the good and bad, experienced in any marriage. We have felt disappointment and heartbreak. We have faced challenges we never could have imagined, and never wanted to know. We have disagreed and fought. We chose to spend a difficult year apart when I accepted the call to serve Central, and she stayed in Kansas City so that our son could graduate with his class. There have been many times in our marriage that we would consider joyless; and yet even in these times we were watched over by our joyful God – whose love for us, and joy in us knows no end; whose joy sustained us when joy was hard to come by on our own. The hymn ends;

Mortals, join the happy chorus Which the morning stars began;
Love divine is reigning o’er us, Joining all in heaven’s plan.
Ever singing, march we onward, Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us sunward In the triumph song of life.

On this day, I thank God for Gina, who has and continues to bring me such joy. And I remain ever grateful to be a child of the God of joy!

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday, when we will celebrate the joy that is ours in the love of Jesus Christ.

This past week I participated in the Board of Deacons monthly meeting. I don’t usually sit with the Deacons, since Jeff Cover is their staff representative. With Jeff away, however, enjoying a well-deserved sabbatical, I wanted to make sure the Deacons know they continue to have the support and appreciation of their pastoral staff.

As different Deacons offered reports about the various ministries of caring and compassion in which they are involved, I was humbled by the service they provide to our church. Almost every weekday a Deacon is on call to visit and pray with members and friends of the congregation who end up in the hospital. Deacons make sure that those who are homebound and those in care facilities are visited regularly and receive communion if they wish. Plans for the Back-To-School Jubilee in August, where a number of children who attend Miller Elementary School are taken shopping for new clothes, were discussed. Cards for those who have recently lost a spouse were passed around and signed.

It takes a lot of people for a church as large as Central to provide proper care and support for its members. And the Deacons at Central have a primary role in this effort. Through their often unseen gifts of presence and prayers and smiles and support, the love and compassion of Jesus Christ is shared and allowed to make a difference.

Thank you, Deacons, for all you do!

Last week in this space I encouraged us to learn and practice the acronym H.A.T. for ‘Hug A Trustee’. Let our acronym to practice this week be H.A.D. for ‘Hug A Deacon’; so that through our appreciation and our prayers, the Deacons of Central may be spiritually strengthened for all the caring they give us!

See you in worship this Sunday, where we will hug Deacons; and learn more about caring for others, through the caring we receive from Jesus!

“T.O.M.” is one of the specialized terms I had to learn when I came to Central. Is it a term with which you are familiar? If not, you need to be!

“T.O.M.” is short for ‘Trustee of the Month’ – the member of Central’s Board of Trustees who is responsible for opening and closing the church each Sunday morning during a particular month. Trust me, however, when I say that T.O.M.’s do a whole lot more than just lock and unlock doors. Starting at or before 7:00 a.m., and working with the Sunday Morning Custodian, the T.O.M. turns on lights, places ‘no parking’ signs on the 7th Street sidewalk so that those who ride the church bus can get into church more easily, makes coffee, makes sure rooms are set up, checks the heating and cooling systems, deals with any surprises that happen – like a roof that leaked during a Saturday night rain storm, shovels walks and spreads ice melt in the winter, is constantly alert to make sure that the members and friends and guests of the church are safe, works with an Elder to count and secure the offering monies from each service, and on and on. It is usually 1:00 p.m. or later before the last light is off and the last door is locked, and the T.O.M. goes home!

What Central’s Trustees so graciously give to all of us in the T.O.M. role is the gift of hospitality. Their labor makes it easy for all who attend Central to enjoy worship and Sunday School and fellowship and all the other things that happen here on a Sunday morning. Because the Trustees do their job so well, most of us never see their giving. We just know that church was an inviting place, where we were able to worship God and enjoy connecting with each other in comfort.

Central’s Trustees don’t like to call a lot of attention to themselves. They serve as T.O.M.’s, and do a whole lot of other work to care for our buildings and property, because they believe they have been called by God to serve Christ’s church. Our church is able to do what it does because of this unseen giving by the Trustees and so many other friends and members of the congregation.

While our thanks is not expected, it is surely appreciated. So take a moment this Sunday to thank a Trustee and others who provide the unseen gifts of hospitality that make our life together possible.

Perhaps we need to coin a new specialized term at Central – “H.A.T” = Hug A Trustee!!

See you in worship this Sunday, where we’ll hug Trustees and Celebrate the God who loves us so deeply in Jesus Christ.

Congregations in America today are frequently shaped by anxiety, Friedman believes, because they reflect the culture in which they are located. “When anxiety reaches certain thresholds,” says Friedman, “reasonableness and honesty no longer defend against illusion, and then even the most learned ideas can begin to function as superstitions.”

When I look at and listen to the world around me these days, I hear a lot of voices screaming at the top of their lungs about things of which I should be afraid. It seems like all of us are being constantly invited to define ourselves in fearful reaction to other people, other cultures, other faiths, other ideas, other whatever. When fearfulness is the only alternative being offered, anxiety is the result. Ten minutes of reading a newspaper or blog, of watching a newscast, of listening to a politician, of conversation with friends – all demonstrate pretty well that anxiety has replaced reasonableness and honesty as the currency of dialogue in our day and age.

Anxiety creates a vacuum into which illusion and superstition flood. Regardless of our feelings about President Obama and his policies, the long-running conversation about the validity or even existence of his birth certificate, is a great example of how silly thinking can become when anxiety directs our thoughts and words. This so-called “debate” also demonstrates how anxiety keeps us from focusing on more important issues and conversations. Given all the major issues facing us as a country and a world, the anxiety-driven distraction of conversation about a birth certificate was simply a form of denial.

What about closer to home? Given the cultural anxiety in which we exist, what are the questions and conversations about the life, mission, ministry and future of Central Presbyterian Church that we should be having, but are maybe avoiding? Perhaps questions like – Are we doing too much? Are we doing too little? Are we focused enough on our spiritual needs? Should we be more focused on the needs of others? Will our children have faith? Will our faith have children? Are we motivated by God’s abundance, or are we driven by a sense of scarcity? I’m sure there are other questions that should be listed; other important, vital questions that inhabit your mind and heart!

As a child of the culture in which I exist, I must confess that my thinking and questions and conversations and actions are more driven by anxiety than I care to admit. I know what makes me afraid, but my deepest desire is for talk and for living and for common action in our church that is driven by reasonableness and honesty. I cannot reach this goal for more authentic conversation and living on my own…but if we tackle it together, as a community of faith, I am very hopeful about what we can do as a people…as a community that is guided by the Holy Spirit.

In the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus responds to the anxious question of his disciple Thomas with these words – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” In this anxious day and age, Jesus continues to respond to us with the same words of comfort and promise. My prayer, is that we can embrace this great gift, and so find the courage and the energy to move beyond anxiety into the exciting possibilities of God’s future!!

See you in worship this Sunday!

I found this paraphrase of Psalm 23 so meaningful, that I am also sharing it with you. Here it is:

The Lord “IS” my Shepherd.
However I am not some docile sheep, easily led.
I buck, I fight, and I resist every step.
Yet he is a good Shepherd.
He does not try to break me, he does not crush my spirit, and he does not force me.
Rather he waits patiently.
He knows my limits. He will not let me take on more than I can handle.
He has set my soul to rest, assuring me peace and comfort when my time is through.
I am not afraid, for he has given his promise, and that is enough!
I know that he will guide me even when I least expect to be led or might not know that
I need to be led; he tends me always.
He “IS” my Shepherd.
In spite of myself, he leads me!

By Michael Clickner

What draws me to Michael’s version of the Psalm, is his willingness to acknowledge that we human beings do not make it easy for God to watch over us and guide us. So often it seems, that even when we do not know what to do…or the way to go, we charge on blindly or hide in fear, stubbornly refusing to let anyone lead us – even God! And when we refuse to let ourselves be pointed in God’s direction, life can often grow confusing and get messy. Mercifully, as Michael points out, God waits patiently for us to realize the mess into which we’ve gotten ourselves, and is ready and willing to help us out of it.

Are there other insightful versions of Psalm 23 out there in your heads and your hearts? I would love to see your version of this amazing Psalm. I hope you will share it with everyone by responding below.

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday…where we’ll work on our thankfulness for and openness to God’s leading!

Well, Juli went to Sunday school, sang in the children’s choir, confirmed the baptismal promises that Mom and Dad made for her and became a member of the church in 9th grade, was active in the youth groups, went on mission trips, served on an Associate Pastor Nominating Committee, and after college she served as a youth group advisor.

Sometime during her college years, Juli became more aware of, more comfortable with, more able to claim her sexual identity and orientation as a lesbian. One of the challenges posed by this awareness, however, was Juli’s sense that our church – the church that had baptized her and promised to raise her to know Christ, the church that had nurtured her and welcomed her into membership, the church that was grateful for her service to senior high youth, the church that named her and claimed as one of their own – Juli knew that to openly claim her sexual identity would cause the majority of the people at church to want to distance themselves from her, and to certainly not want her working with the youth of the church. Sadly her concerns were justified. I remember conversations with Juli about her being who she is and leaving the church, or hiding her true self to stay. She was anguished by the choices before her.

Ultimately Juli felt her only option was to leave the congregation where we were all raised, and leave the Presbyterian Church as well. She chose to go quietly. I know Juli made the right choice for her, but it saddens me deeply that the church of her birth didn’t see its tent as being big enough for her. Juli went down the street a couple of blocks to the United Church of Christ congregation, where she found welcome, and where she and her partner are now raising my two nephews.

I tell you Juli’s story, because what has transpired in the Presbyterian Church (USA) this past week. On Tuesday, the 87th Presbytery voted to remove language from the Book of Order that excludes gays and lesbians from being ordained as Deacons and Elders and Ministers of the Word and Sacrament. This means that the majority of Presbyteries have concurred with the action of last summer’s General Assembly, and that the language will be removed. With 24 Presbytery’s still to vote, the margin of support for this move will more than likely be large enough for it to be permanent.

The new, more-inclusive language reads:

“Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life (G-1.0000). The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation (G.14.0240; G-14.0450) shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities of office. The examination shall include, but not be limited to, a determination of the candidate’s ability and commitment to fulfill all requirements as expressed in the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003). Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.”

As there is with any significant change within an organization, it will take a period of years for local congregations and Presbyteries and the denomination as a whole to understand and embrace this new way of being the church of Jesus Christ. The good news, however, is that we have experience with such major change. As history goes, it wasn’t that long ago that the church embraced slavery as biblically justified, and then moved beyond that sinful position. It wasn’t that long ago that the church prohibited the ordination of women and those who had been divorced – again using biblical justification. Mercifully a deeper, more faithful wisdom has prevailed on both accounts. As Presbyterians we firmly believe that the Holy Spirit is constantly calling us and pushing us, and sometimes dragging us kicking and screaming into God’s future. I believe the Holy Spirit moved our church to embrace the ordination of all faithful disciples long ago, and that with the vote this past week, we’re finally catching up with the Spirit.

I am grateful that the Presbyterian tent has become larger this week; that there are more seats at God’s table for God’s children. But I also know that change is hard for most of us, and that this change will be difficult for many. One of the facts that I think is very important for us to remember in this moment, however, is that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Christ are not strangers sent from the outside to infiltrate and ruin our church, they are not people to fear…they are our children, our siblings, our partners, our friends, those to whom we have made significant promises at baptism…they are my sister, Julianne, whom I love very much!

Why I recall this incident so clearly, is because when the video of the bodies hanging from the bridge was shown on CNN and other television channels, local Iraqis were pictured dancing around the bodies in celebration. American outrage at the dancing before the bodies was overwhelming. The person on the street, the politicians, military leaders, news anchors, clergy and others, myself included – all unanimously decried the desecration, and questioned the humanity of those who danced!

These bitter memories came to mind this past Sunday night, as I watched crowds of people gather at the White House in Washington D. C., and at Ground Zero in New York City, and dance and celebrate over the death of Osama Bin Laden.

To be sure, comparing these deaths is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. The deaths of civilian contractors doing a job, and a wanted terrorist master-mind are not the same thing. Bin Laden was certainly dealing with the consequences for his role in the murder of nearly three thousand people on 9/11, and thousands of others at countless others times. Yet, the dancing just doesn’t feel right. As my seventeen year old reminded me, the taking of a human life, no matter how hated the person was, is never an occasion for joy.

Bin Laden’s death will not bring back a single one of the lives lost on 9/11. His death does not end the fear of unanticipated terror that is now part of our daily life. His death does not fill any of the emptiness continually experienced by those who lost loved ones due to his leadership.

One of the hard realities of following Jesus, of being his disciple, are his words to us in the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” Matthew 5.38-41

I find these words much easier to say and to read, than to actually practice. Yet, Jesus doesn’t give us any wiggle-room here. He invites us and expects us to love our enemies…even when they are bad, evil people. I expect I’ll spend my whole life trying to live up to this expectation.

Bin Laden’s death may mean there is one less ‘bad’ person in the world, but dancing isn’t the right response. It seems to me, that as disciples of Jesus Christ, this is a time for humility.

Over the years I have come to value Maundy Thursday and Good Friday more and more, because these observances acknowledge the ‘low points’ of life. These two events, more than any other in the Church Year, deal with brokenness and darkness – realities that most of us know pretty well.

Over time we are all bumped and bruised by life; and we also inflict our fair share of pain on others. We have our heart broken by someone we love. We fail miserably in a relationship or a job. The life of someone we value is ripped away from us. We hurt someone because of our selfishness or ignorance or because we want to. We observe others suffering mightily from poverty and injustice, and are frustrated by our inability to make any difference. We do something stupid and have to deal with the consequences. We cannot see a future – ours or God’s or anyone else’s. Too often, it seems, the road we know is dark; and we are feeling our way along, hoping that we don’t run into someone or something or careen off a cliff.

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are reminders to us that even for Jesus, everything can go to hell; that darkness can be overwhelming and all-consuming; that despair can seem like the only option! And yet, Maundy Thursday and Good Fridays are reminders that even in the darkness – that which we have made or ourselves, or that has been imposed upon us – that even in the darkness, we are never alone…God is always present with us.

The quote from the Gospel of John above, reminds us that as disciples of Jesus, darkness will never have the final say. Even when we are encased in darkness, overwhelmed by darkness, torn apart by darkness – like Jesus was on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday – even in these times, we disciples follow the one who is the light of the world, the light which darkness has never and will never overcome. The light that is Jesus is life, and this light will lead us to life, even and especially when the road we are on and the road ahead is utterly dark.

I hope you will join me in worship this Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and then again on Easter Sunday. At first, the darkness will be deep and disorienting. But we will have each other…and most especially, we will have Jesus…to show us the way, to be a light unto our path…the light that will be born anew in Resurrection, on the other side of darkness!

One of the definitions of ‘holy’ in my dictionary is, ‘devoted entirely to the deity, or the work of the deity’. So, following this lead, the time between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday is called ‘Holy Week’, because it is a week in which God was and continues to be intensely at work on our behalf, and on behalf of all creation. God’s actions and reactions in and through Jesus make the gift of these days particularly holy. As disciples and as God’s children, we pay attention to Holy Week, because we are invited and called and expected to respond to God’s holy efforts on our behalf.

‘But do we have to pay attention to all of Holy Week?’, is a question that I think many of us struggle with in our time. We are products of a culture that ‘likes to keep things positive’, that ‘likes to enjoy life and have fun and be happy’. Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are easy to embrace, because they are grand celebrations of life and hope and God’s abiding love for us. I am amazed by the number of church signs and church television ads I’ve seen in recent weeks that are only focused on Easter. ‘Come Celebrate…’, ‘Come Enjoy…’, ‘Come Receive…’, are the gist of the ads singularly fixated on Easter. These invitations are factual. Easter is about joy and celebration, and about standing in awe before the unlimited nature of God’s love for us…but joy can only be understood when one has known its absence…celebration is only possible when an individual and a community have experienced the defeat of despair.

For me, a huge part of what makes Holy Week ‘holy’ is the full range of emotions I am invited to experience. The joy and hope of fresh possibilities contained in Palm Sunday. The despair and deep self-questioning resulting from the post-Last Supper chaos of Maundy Thursday. The utter brokenness and overwhelming loss and outright guilt that controls Good Friday. The dark and brooding silence of Holy Saturday. The shocking surprise and abiding gift that comes unexpected on Easter morning.

Holy Week touches upon every aspect of our humanity, and reaches into all of the significant emotions we have and will experience in life. Holy Week lets me know that in and through Jesus, God has been everywhere that I have been or will ever go. The God whose work is significant enough to be called ‘holy’, knows the pain of loss, knows the ache of betrayal, knows the surprise of unanticipated possibilities, knows the darkness of death, knows a hope that grows despite all evidence to the contrary. Most of all, Holy Weeks, tells me, tells us all, that God will never be done with us, and that there is no place so broken that we ever lose God’s compassion and love!

Here’s what Holy Week looks like at Central:

Palm Sunday, April 17 – we’ll celebrate Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem with our own bagpipe led parade at both, 9 and 11 a.m.!

Maundy Thursday, April 21 – we’ll gather in the sanctuary to share communion and remember panic and betrayal, at 7:30 p.m.

Good Friday, April 22 – we’ll gather in the Large Fellowship Hall to ponder our mutual darkness and brokenness, at 7:30 p.m.

Easter Sunday, April 24 – Jesus is Risen! He is risen indeed! We’ll embrace the surprising gift of Resurrection, at both 9 and 11 a.m.!!

Please note that the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services will be starting a half hour later than the time previously published. Due to a major program at the Long Center on those two evenings, this later start time will guarantee places to park in our lots.

Also, don’t forget to invite and bring a friend or family member or neighbor or co-worker. There are people around each and every one of us that need to know that God has experienced all that they have…that God loves them and always will. Your words of invitation can and do make a huge difference.

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday, where we’ll have a parade. It will be quite a celebration!

If you have been watching the Decorah eagles, how did you first learn about them? The camera filming this pair of eagles has been in place each spring since 2008. Some number of people knew about the camera and have been watching since then, but in the past week viewership has exploded. I think Central Presbyterian has something to learn from this exploding viewership.

In the Smutz household, Gina discovered the eagle cam last Friday. When we began watching, the counter at the bottom of the screed indicated that just about 65,000 computers were logged on the site. Well, we so enjoyed the view that we moved the computer into the family room to keep an eye on progress in the nest as we ate dinner, and even as we later watched a movie! It dawned on us that our young nephews would also enjoy the eagle cam, and so we called my sisters and gave them the web address. Our very active 8 year-old nephew, Luke, apparently sat stock still for a couple of hours watching the eagles until bedtime. News of the eagle cam then spread as my sister, Jennifer, who is a 4th grade teacher, let her class watch the eagles between lessons all this past week. Facebook has been another way the word has spread. At least a dozen of my Facebook friends have shared the link to the eagle cam in recent days. When I logged on to the cam this morning as I started writing this post, 113,000 computers were viewing the eagles. Now, just about forty minutes later, over 125,000 computers are logged on!

I have no idea why watching eagle eggs hatch has become so popular in recent days. Perhaps more people have better computers and better access to the internet, and the watching is easier. Perhaps, as the symbol of our country, Bald Eagles just stir something within us, and we can’t help but watch. Perhaps baby eagles are just that darn cute. The one thing of which I’m sure concerning this present eaglemania, is that most people began watching the eagle cam because someone told them about it.

In the days following his resurrection and then ascension into heaven, word about Jesus spread because those who believed in him told others. Disciples, excited by the good news of God’s generous love made real in Jesus, shared his story with family and friends and neighbors and any who would listen. They talked about how belief in Jesus had made a difference in their lives. They retold the parables Jesus had told. They shared about the miracles – feeding hungry people and healing broken bodies and souls. Those who knew Jesus, invited others to enjoy abundant life in him too.

Two thousand years later, people still learn about Jesus because someone tells them; and this is where I think we at Central Presbyterian have something to learn from the Decorah eagles. What if each one of us told a family member or friend or neighbor or anyone who would listen what Jesus means to us, about the difference he makes to us, and then invite them to worship with us? How many people might come to know, or remember, God’s love for them?

Now, for many of us, faith is more private, something we hold in our heart and don’t always speak aloud. But what if we quieter ones shared a video of Central’s praise band or choir on Youtube, and said all are welcome to worship at Central? What if we extended an invitation to all our Facebook friends to experience Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter at Central?

I hope that the membership at Central might grow, because those of us already here take the time to share our church with others. We need a larger critical mass!

But more than numbers at a local church, as disciples of Jesus we should want to tell others what Jesus has done for us and what he means to us, so that they might also know God’s abundant love!

It’s another twenty minutes later, and now 131,500 computers are watching the eagles. If excited eagle viewers can make this kind of difference in a few days, imagine what we excited disciples can do today and tomorrow and forever!

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday, where I hope some who are invited, join us!!

As I walked along pondering this uncertainty, it dawned on me that my approach to the season of Lent is much the same. Logically I know that during this season of the church year – these forty days leading up to Easter – I am to spiritually join with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem; using this time to consider how I can be a better disciple, more open to God using me for God’s purposes. But instead of enthusiastically welcoming this time of spiritual exploration, I tend to be wary and uncertain.

What if forty days of trying to be a better disciple changes me?! What if thinking about how Jesus consistently went out of his way to help and care for other people, causes me – even just a bit – to imitate him? What if, like Jesus, I am asked to die for what I believe? With ‘what ifs’ like this, you bet I’m uncertain!

I’m guessing that most of us are uncertain when it comes to Lent…uncertain of following too closely in Jesus’ footsteps as he makes his way to Jerusalem…uncertain of what lies at the end of our Lenten journey. We’re not alone in this uncertainty. When I read the Gospels, it appears that Jesus was also uncertain at times about his journey of faith and life. Yet, he never let the uncertainty stop him. The times when he was most unsure, are the times when Jesus leaned most on God in prayer.

This Sunday a whole bunch of us uncertain disciples will gather in worship, and we will pray! I’ll see you there.

I feel for those involved. I pray that these fellow citizens of planet earth, that my sisters and brothers in creation and possibly even in Christ, may endure their present pain, and that God may grant them peace and healing in the midst of their deep brokenness. But beyond concern and prayers, and perhaps a financial donation focused on relief and restoration, I struggle to know how to respond.

Like I said, the number and frequency of disasters numbs me to them. The issues seem so far away and so large, and I feel that there is so little I can offer as an individual. There is also the reality of the immediate needs of my life and family and work that relentlessly press in. Unwilling or unable to deal with these frustrations, I fear I have fallen into the trap of ignoring and hoping it will all go away.

However, the images and stories from Japan this past week have been so unsettling, and have so pierced some of my deepest fears, that I have been shaken out of my numbness. The issues still seem frustratingly beyond my ability to make any difference, and yet… I can’t begin to imagine the horror of a wall of water consuming all in its path. I am humbled by those who are undoubtedly sacrificing their lives attempting to control a series of nearly uncontained nuclear reactions. I am amazed by those who have lost everything that makes for normal life, and still persevere.

And so what can I do? I think the ways I can respond are the same that they have always been. I can pray…pray for hurting people…pray that God’s people offer God’s abundant compassion to those in need. I can reach out and listen. I’m sure that there are many folks in the Lafayette area who have loved ones in Japan who are affected. A word of concern and safe place to pour out one’s fears can make a huge difference. I can give. Here at Central we will receive the One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) offering on Easter Sunday. One of the primary recipients of OGHS funds is Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). PDA has already sent $100,000 to Presbyterian-related agencies in Japan; and more will follow. As I have said to you in the past, when there is a disaster, church people and money are some of the first in, and often the last out many years down the road.

Perhaps the most important thing I can do is shake off my numbness. When I am numb to the needs of the world around me, I am not being a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus was always engaged with the individuals he encountered, and aware of the bigger issues of his day. Through his words and actions, he always made a difference in both arenas.

Join me in worship this Sunday, where we can help each other be less numb, and ask God to guide us in becoming better disciples!

In her poem, “We All Have Our Courtyards”, Ann Weems, answers this question for me:

We all have our courtyards,
those times and place we face
like Peter
when we must decide
to stand up and say
whether we know him or not.
Those crossroads in our lives,
when we go along with things as they are,
or we say, as Luther did,
Here I stand, I can do no other.
We all have our courtyards…
Lent is the time to prepare
for our courtyards,
the time to listen to who he says he is.
And he did, you know,
He did tell us who he is.
He is that one who brings good news to the poor,
freedom to the oppressed,
sight to the blind…
that Holy One who said,
Follow me.
Feed my sheep.

The courtyard that Ann references, is the place where the Disciple Peter found himself on the night that Jesus was arrested (see John 18.15 and following). It was the courtyard outside the home of the High Priest in Jerusalem where Jesus was being interrogated. It was the courtyard where Peter repeatedly denied knowing Jesus; and where the cock crowed, signaling that Peter’s denial had happened exactly as Jesus predicted it would!

Each of us as a disciple faces courtyard opportunities, sometimes many of them in a single day, to say that we know Jesus and follow him, or like Peter, to deny Jesus. Lent is a season when we can and must work on our answer.

Do we know Jesus? Do we know him by what he does?

See you in worship this Sunday, where together we will come to know Jesus better!

Ann Weems, From Advent’s Alleluia to Easter’s Morning Light, Westminster John Knox Press, 2010

At the conference I had the opportunity to talk with several staff members from the national Presbyterian Church office in Louisville. They informed me of a resolution made by the General Assembly (our highest governing body) when it met in Minneapolis last summer. The resolution forbids the national church from holding any meetings in states that adopt anti-immigrant legislation similar to the legislation which was passed in Arizona last year.

At present Indiana legislators are considering an Arizona-like anti-immigration bill. If this bill, SB 590, becomes law in Indiana, the Presbyterian Church will be forced to cancel an event called “The Big Tent” which is to take place in Indianapolis this coming summer. “Big Tent” is when many Presbyterian Associations and Ministry Groups hold their annual meetings together. At present, approximately 2,000 Presbyterians are expected at the 2011 “Big Tent” event.

Closer to home, and a greater pain to my heart, is the reality that the denomination will also need to find a new location for the Presbyterian Youth Triennium!

Triennium, the big high school youth conference that is held every three years, takes place in Indiana because our state is the geographic center of Presbyterianism in the US. The first Triennium took place at Indiana University in 1980. The past ten Trienniums have been held at Purdue.

At Triennium last summer, just over 5,000 Presbyterian youth and their adult advisors from all across the United States and from many countries around the world, spent the better part of a week on the Purdue campus. Those of us who had the privilege to participate in this event will testify how amazing and faith-shaping Triennium truly was. The next Triennium is scheduled to take place in July of 2013. The passage of SB 590 would prevent it from occurring at Purdue.

Triennium is one of the largest summer conferences Purdue hosts. The loss of this event would certainly have an economic impact on the University and surrounding business community. The loss of Triennium would also have an impact on admissions at Purdue. I know a number of people, at present and over the years, that have chosen to attend Purdue because of the time they spent on campus at a Triennium.

More than the potential loss of dollars and prospective students, it is my hope that SB 590 does not pass because it is dreadful legislation. I believe the bill is mean-spirited and narrow-minded. In my opinion it is not legislation designed to make Indiana a better state in which to work and live, but rather intends to make Indiana a state of fear. While I would not pretend to lecture anyone on the practice of democracy, and do not want this post to become a sermon, I was always taught in my US history and government classes, that while the political majority had won the right to govern as they saw fit, they were also charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the minority – even if that was something the majority found distasteful and limiting to their governing desires. It seems to me that the majority party has lost sight of their responsibility to the minority in SB 590.

I look forward to our gathering on Sunday to worship our God, who is more inclusive and all-encompassing that we can imagine!

For Presbyterians, an Annual Meeting is one measure of the movement of time, and signifies the never-ending transition from where the congregation has been to how it will be in God’s future. The Annual Meeting is the singular moment each year when we pause as God’s people in this particular place, and look back in gratitude at the many ways God has been at work among us, and then peer briefly at how God might possibly use us going forward. Yes, we hear reports and elect officers and receive a budget and ponder terms of call – all important work for a congregation. Mostly, however, we acknowledge that God is able to do much, much more with us together, as a people, as a community…than any of us as individuals could ever accomplish on our own. A foundational idea of Presbyterianism, is that thanks to the Holy Spirit, we are always greater as a whole than the sum of our parts. Annual meetings are an important celebration of our wholeness, our oneness in Jesus Christ!

The Central community will also be marking another important transition this Sunday as we bid farewell and Godspeed to long-time custodian, Ben Bol, as he leaves us to begin a job on the maintenance staff at Purdue.

Ben has been our full-time custodian for the past 15 years; and was the Sunday morning custodian for 2 years before that! In the last 17 years Ben has served the friends and members of Central in countless ways; cleaning up our messes, preparing rooms for our use, and helping us always look like we are expecting company!

There will be a reception for Ben, including a brief presentation, this Sunday, between services at 10 a.m. in Fitch Parlor. I hope that all of us will take a few minutes to thank Ben for his service on our behalf and wish him well on the next leg of his journey.

The life of Discipleship is forever marked by transitions, as we seek to be the people God desires us to be.

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday, where we’ll celebrate these transitions, and together seek wisdom and strength for the transitions to come!!

There are a number of reasons for the break between the two churches – distance and the difficulty of sending messages, the egos of particular leaders, competing political claims and goals, and cultural traditions around issues of education and authority. The most basic reason for the break, however, seems to be language.

The leaders of the Orthodox Church wrote in Greek. The leaders of the Roman Church wrote in Latin. When these leaders sent letters to each other, they had to be translated. Often those doing the translation had at best a rudimentary understanding of the language out of which they were trying to make some sense. And to make the translation issues even worse, Latin has a much smaller vocabulary than Greek. In many cases, Greek has a number of words that subtly define variations of the same idea; while Latin only uses one word for the concept.

Start with these basic translation issues, add individual egos and political desires, and it is a wonder that the greater Church lasted as a unified entity as long as it did!

I share this brief history lesson as an illustration of how difficult communication always is, even in the best of circumstances. When we say or write something that is important to us, we may or may not succeed in declaring our intentions or opinions or hopes clearly to others. It all depends on if those with whom we are communicating understand our words choices and the context within which they are offered.

I watch us – the many different parts and people of Central – struggle to communicate with each other at times…and we primarily speak the same language, share the same context, and have pretty easy access to each other! I wish I could magically make our communicating easier, but I know I cannot. I can only encourage all of us to work hard at our communicating with and listening to each other. It doesn’t take much effort to ask someone to clarify what they have just said, or to make sure what we intended to communicate has been heard. It does take a little more time to communicate with each other in this way. We all have to listen with a little more trust and speak with a little more grace – both skills of which we are very capable.

While I’m fascinated by the history of the schism between Eastern and Western Christianity, I’m also saddened. There has been so much waste over the centuries, in time and energy and resources and human life, all because brothers and sisters in Christ were having difficulty hearing each other, and didn’t take the time or make the effort to clarify!

What is that definition of ‘madness’? Repeating the same thing over and over, and expecting different results?!

I’ll see you in church this Sunday, where we’ll continue working at communicating – with God and with each other.

How should we read the bible?

Is the bible simply an historical document that describes how our ancestors in the faith lived thousands of years ago? Is our task with scripture to read about what God’s people did long ago, and try to figure out what their actions and failures and successes mean for us as faithful people today?

Is the bible a living document…where our readings of its stories is combined with the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst, to help us understand how God wants us to live as disciples of Jesus today?

The great Reformed theologian, Martin Luther, believed that the bible is something very personal for people of faith. ‘It’s talking about you’, Luther said when speaking of the bible.

I find Luther’s approach intriguing.

If the bible is talking about me, then when I read the Gospels, Jesus isn’t just speaking to Peter or Mary or the Pharisees or Zacchaeus, he is addressing me. Suddenly his expectations for how the disciples are to live and treat other people are not abstract commands to those who lived long ago, they are Jesus’ expectations for how I am to act today! When I read the bible with the premise that it is talking about me, it’s a lot harder to ignore.

Now, certainly there are those places in the bible that I see as so specific to the time in which they were written, that I struggle to understand how they could be talking to anyone in the present. Most of the book of Leviticus, and certainly the part known as the Holiness Code, is meaningless (in my opinion) for disciples who follow Jesus’ call of love and grace. I’m sure we can have a lively discussion about the different parts of scripture that challenge our understanding!

I invite you to take a few minutes and ponder what it means for the bible to be talking about you. Consider especially the invitations that Jesus makes to his disciples. Instead of reading the names of the particular disciples…John, Thomas, Peter, Martha…insert your own name. How does hearing your name on Jesus’ lips, and on the receiving end of his invitation to think and act and live differently…how does this change your reading of scripture…and how you try to live as a faithful disciple?

I’ll see you in church this Sunday, where we’ll help each other listen to the bible like it is talking to us!!

We took our middle son, Noah, back to college (Kansas University) earlier this week. I find that it is always hard to let your children “go” and continue growing up as they need to…yet also gratifying to see them in a place where they feel part of a community and are genuinely excited to be.

In an attempt to avoid a major snow storm, we took a new-to-us route back to Lafayette – Highway 36 which runs east and west across northern Missouri. About thirty miles west of Hannibal, MO we passed a large roadside billboard. It contained a message that I continue to ponder.

The major feature of the billboard was a large hourglass showing nearly all the sand having flowed out of the top portion of the glass into the bottom – indicating that time had nearly run out. Superimposed across the top of the hourglass image in large letters, probably three feet high, was the word “JESUS”. In smaller letters, at the bottom of the billboard, was the phrase “Before it’s too late!”

Now obviously, the church or group or individual who placed this statement alongside the highway has bought in to a fear-based approach to faith. The billboard is an attempt to convince people that they need to believe in, and commit their life to, the saving powers of Jesus before they die…before it’s too late. What is not said, but is certainly implied, is that non-believers will miss out on the joys of heaven and probably experience eternal damnation in the fires of hell! Fear…Fear…Fear!! This is not a kind and gentle billboard.

Personally I don’t think that it is ever appropriate to scare someone to faith. Such an approach is completely foreign to the person of Jesus that I read about in the Gospels. Jesus is always inviting people into a deeper relationship with God and a more expansive understanding of God’s kingdom through healings and feedings and blessings and questions that encouraged people to think about others rather than just themselves. Jesus would never tell a child of God that it is “too late” for them to receive God’s love and know God’s grace. By the way Jesus lived…by the way he died…by the way he lives again, Jesus made sure that it is never too late for any of us!

Still, the language of that billboard in northern Missouri has continued to be on my mind. I find myself wanting to turn that message of fear into a positive statement of faith, because I believe that Jesus offers a lot to his disciples and to the world ‘before it’s too late’. Jesus invites us to live peacefully before it’s too late and violence is the chosen option. Jesus commands us to feed others before it’s too late and they die of hunger. Jesus leads us to offer grace before it’s too late and relationships are broken by hardened hearts.

How would you turn this scary billboard message into a positive statement of faith? Use the response option and share your thoughts. I’d love to know them.

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday, where we will receive God’s gift of love in Jesus, and be empowered to share this grace with all others…without fear and without scaring them!

One of the realities of medieval life that Mr. Frost lifts up, is that in those days, “an oral account was given greater value than the written text because…..God was thought of as always speaking to human beings, not writing to them.” (p. 92) This belief was based on a close reading of Second Corinthians 3.6, where Paul says, “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”.

I was struck by how differently we tend to approach texts today – especially the biblical text. We often start with the assumption that the bible, because of its great age, speaks with a deeper wisdom and faithfulness than the thoughts and ideas of someone in the present. And while we acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is alive and well, we often look at those who claim to be speaking for God today, as if they are seriously ill.

I do think scripture requires our respect and careful reading and listening. As a resource that has helped guide God’s people for thousands of years, the bible must continue to be a vital resource for us. Yet scripture also lifts of our need to listen to and be led by the Holy Spirit (see especially the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10 & 11), and see God as speaking to us still in this day and age.

What does God’s speaking sound like and look like? Does God speak to us in dreams? Does God speak to us in ordinary conversation? Does God speak to us in community? Yes, certainly, perhaps…perhaps also in ways we can’t describe or fully comprehend. I wish I could say for sure that I know how God communicates to us. The only thing I can affirm with certainty is that God desires to be in relationship with us, and is speaking to us still. And like the residents of medieval Salisbury, my prayer is that we will listen for God, and take seriously what we hear.

I do believe that we best hear and comprehend God together…that we hear God more clearly as a community…

So I look forward to seeing you in worship this Sunday, where we will listen carefully for our God!

Joe Micon, LUM Executive Director, never told me why he wanted to hold the press conference at Central. He asked, and I was more than happy to offer what assistance I could to an organization that Central has supported for 25+ years now.

Included among the information shared at the press conference was a list of the top eleven donors to the fund. I’m proud to say that Central was on this list, with a contribution of $50,585! Of the twenty-two area congregations that gave to the appeal, Central’s gift was the largest.

Now, I don’t share this information so that we as a church can “blow our horn”. I think what Central has done is great…but in my book, humility is always preferable to the deadly sin of Pride! I share what Central was able to contribute to LUM’s Campaign For The Future because I think what is represented in the gift is important to us as a congregation.

Central’s gift has three component parts. The largest portion of the gift was given by church members and friends who contributed to LUM in the name of Central. A second part of the gift came from funds in the Central Foundation that have been established over the years to support the mission-related activities of our church. The third part of the gift came from the annual budget – a portion of the funds that are distributed in the Lafayette community each year by the Mission Cluster.

I like that Central’s gift to LUM’s Campaign For The Future is composed of this many parts – individual and church-wide gifts, money from the present, and money from the past that is still at work today. These component parts are reflective of who we are as a congregation…many different individuals, with many different interests, and many different theological perspectives, working together to help Jesus in his vital work of building God’s Kingdom.

I am grateful! Grateful to be part of a congregation that reflects God’s abundance through generous giving. Grateful to be part of a congregation that wants to help care for some of the least and last and lost of Lafayette – all children of God – through the important work of LUM. Grateful for the community of worship and mutual concern we share as disciples of Jesus Christ!

Thank You Central!

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday, where we can practice our gratitude to God…

Tonight, when we journey to the stable in Bethlehem once again, let us be captured afresh by God’s love and newness, and transformed forever.

Merry Christmas, my friends!

POVERTY OF WORDS

How is a year of spent love
emptied into Christmas letters
for distant friends?
Can nerves and sinew,
tears and laughter,
be pressed between wet pages?
How is friendship – love – ever shared
through the aching insufficiency of words?

These are questions that
rent God’s heart for centuries,
in his own breakage of language.
Until, at last, God tore from his side
the son of his anguished old age
and sent him,
bloody, squalling, and alive
to Bethlehem,
where language and love
and even God
became new.

by Belden C. Lane

Here, a week or so before Christmas, as we ponder our lists, I’d like us to also consider our state of spiritual readiness. Have we taken time beyond Sunday morning to think about, really think about the language and images of Advent? Have we considered the extraordinary lengths that God goes to in order to show us love in a new way? Has God’s action on our behalf changed the way we demonstrate love to others? In the midst of our physical pain and emotional turmoil and spiritual uncertainty, have we thought about what it means for us to call Jesus ‘the light of the world’? Can we live differently because of his light? In the face of the anger and violence and bloodshed and warfare that affects too many homes and communities and nations, should claiming that Jesus is the ‘Prince of Peace’ cause us to act in different ways…lead us to expect our political leaders to find new ways forward in places like Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan?

In this season where many of us place great expectations on ourselves, I don’t want to minimize the challenges of making self and home ready. And yet, as important as these things are to us, I believe the kind of readiness that God desires from us is about very different things. God desires us to be prepared to love more deeply than we ever imagined possible. God desires us to be prepared to place the needs of other people, other nations ahead of our own. God desires us to be prepared to embrace gentleness and humility as defining goals in life. God desires us to be about changing the world…so that out of God’s great abundance, everyone has enough.

Are we ready for Christmas?

I’ll see you here at church this Sunday, where we’ll work some more at making ourselves ready!

Jacob’s friends were in the Grant Street garage on the Purdue Campus, skateboarding from the top of the structure to the bottom. Now, let me clearly state that I don’t think these two boys were engaged in a wise activity. Skateboarding is great, but not, as far as I’m concerned, in a public parking garage. Though this must be a popular form of recreation, for as Jacob’s friends were getting ready to wheel down the garage ramps, they were joined by two other young men, who had the same idea.

An important part of this story is the fact that Jacob’s two friends are white, and that the other two skateboarders are black.

After all four of the skateboarders had successfully rolled down to the bottom of the parking garage, Jacob’s two friends went back up to the top of the structure for another go at it. When they reached the top floor, skateboards in hand, they were greeted by Purdue police officers, who correctly and politely told the boys to take their skateboards and go home. It sounds like the officers were very professional throughout the conversation. When I’ve had dealings with the Purdue Police force through my involvement with the Presbyterian Youth Triennium (held at Purdue every three years), I’ve always found the officers to be quite impressive!

My heartburn with this story has to do with what the officers told Jacob’s friends they were investigating. Whoever called the police about the young men skateboarding, reported that four black youth were causing a disturbance in the garage. According to the caller, the four young men were not simply skateboarding…they were doing something much more serious…they were ‘causing a disturbance’. And it seems that the caller didn’t even take the time to look at the skateboarders very carefully, as s/he reported them all to be ‘black’.

My son, Jacob, grasped the racial overtones of the story immediately. He realized that the person who called the police about the skateboarders made assumptions about the identity and purposes of all four young men based only on skin color. Jacob who has grown up in a racial climate very different and much improved from 20 or 40 or 80 years ago, lamented that he thought our country had grown up more than this incident indicated; that as a people, we had grown beyond making assumptions on skin color alone. He and I talked about the depressing fact that many forms of racism in American society are sadly alive and well and rearing their ugly heads on a frequent basis. I told him that the racism that still pervades our society, that still infects us, may be less overt than it was in former days, but it hasn’t gone away.

One of my former Heads of Staff, who grew up in the deep south in a wealthy household that employed black servants, and who has spent his adult life battling the injustice of racism, frequently said that those of us who are white “are all tainted” when it comes to race. He meant that we have to work especially hard to live differently…to grow beyond the past.

My hope is that today’s youth and children will be less tainted when it comes to race than previous generations. Certainly large shifts in cultural attitudes about race are under way. And yet, reality is that our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren learn from our example and our attitudes and our language and our humor. A different and better and less-racist future can only begin with us today.

We will light the third Advent candle in worship this Sunday. Our annual journey to Bethlehem and the life-changing gift of the Christ Child is nearing an end. Jesus was sent, the Gospels tell us, so that all people might know that God loves them and values them. Jesus never said that certain skin colors were a prerequisite for receiving God’s abundance!

As disciples of Jesus we carry this same message of God’s love and valuing. As disciples of Jesus we live as new beings…even when such newness is scary…even when such newness is different from how we were raised…even when such newness sets us at odds with family and friends and the culture around us.

My prayer for myself, for my children, for our congregation, for our community, for our culture and country, is that this Christmas the gift of Jesus will sink deep into our hearts, helping us to think and live and care for each other in surprising new ways.

See you in church this Sunday, where we’ll continue to pray for such gifts…

I enjoyed reading the Harry Potter books as they appeared. The battle of Good versus Evil always makes for a compelling story. As is so often the case unfortunately, a book-based movie is generally a weak reflection of the original. Nevertheless, I’m sure I’ll feel the need to check out the latest film in the near future.

I found one of the Potter-related radio stories I heard in recent days to be particularly intriguing. The story described the Harry Potter Alliance, a world-wide organization of young people, who, inspired by the values they discovered in the Harry Potter books, is seeking to make the world a better place. The group’s motto is: “The Weapon We Have Is Love”.

I wanted to know more, so I looked up the HPA web site, and here is what I found:

“The Harry Potter Alliance fights the Dark Arts in the real world by using parallels from Harry Potter. We work for human rights, equality, and a better world just as Harry and his friends did throughout the books.

Mission Statement
The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) is a 501c3 nonprofit that takes an outside-of-the-box approach to civic engagement by using parallels from the Harry Potter books to educate and mobilize young people across the world toward issues of literacy, equality, and human rights. Our mission is to empower our members to act like the heroes that they love by acting for a better world. By bringing together fans of blockbuster books, TV shows, movies, and YouTube celebrities we are harnessing the power of popular culture toward making our world a better place. Our goal is to make civic engagement exciting by channeling the entertainment-saturated facets of our culture toward mobilization for deep and lasting social change.”

Foci of the HPA are to:
• Work with partner Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in alerting the world to the dangers of global warming, poverty, and genocide.
• Raise funds for partner NGOs to support equality, literacy, and human rights
• Encourage our members to hone the magic of their creativity in endeavoring to make the world a better place.

I have absolutely no idea if Jesus would be a fan of Harry Potter, but I think he would like the work of the Harry Potter Alliance…their concern for people…their desire for justice. And it goes without saying, that Jesus is always interested in we his disciples seeking to act out of love, and coming together to work at fighting the darkness that is forever trying to claim human life and dignity and the very essence of God’s creation.

In a day and age when there is so much darkness in the world, it is easy to despair and think that love is a pretty weak response. But as we are reminded by Jesus, and as we are reminded by the passion and energy of those young people who make up the Harry Potter Alliance, love is a force before which even the greatest evils quake in fear!

See you in church this Sunday, where we’ll celebrate the God who loves us by sharing this love with others…

Keilor spoke of growing up in the country outside of Lake Woebegone, and of attending school in a one-room school house that he walked to. When he reached 7th grade, however, he started riding the bus into town to attend the junior/senior high school. On the very first day of 7th grade the principal handed every kid who rode the bus in from the country a slip of paper with a name and address on it. This is the name of your ‘Storm Home Family’ he told them – where you will go if a blizzard strikes in the middle of the day and the school bus can’t get you back home.

What immediately popped into my mind when I heard the term ‘Storm Home’ is that it can and should be a wonderful description of the church…not just of the physical structure of the church, but of the church community as well.

When the blizzards of life strike, making it impossible to get home – whether home is a particular place or a state of emotional security or bodily well-being – the church can and should be the ‘Storm Home’ for us and others in need. A welcoming place where we know we are loved and valued and will be cared for. A safe place where we can get out of the storm for a bit, and warm up, and dry our wet clothing. A compassionate place where someone is willing to listen to our hurts and pray for our well-being. A hospitable place where we can find the resources we need to keep going. A faithful place where we are sure to encounter Jesus – who is the ultimate ‘Storm Home’ for every one of us!

To be sure, being a ‘Storm Home’ is not always an easy thing for a church. One of the challenges for a church is that the blizzards from which people need to take shelter happen year round, and not just in the winter. Another challenge is that often the storms from which we all need to take shelter from time to time are complex and long-lasting. There is also the reality that sometimes church people and even entire congregations are dealing with storms of their own, and struggle to focus on the needs of another.

Being a good ‘Storm Home’ generally requires special training and extra resources and a great abundance of patience, and even more love. Yet, being a ‘Storm Home’ is not really our choice. It is part of our calling as disciples of Jesus.

Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…..” (Matthew 11.28) Garrison Keilor might paraphrase Matthew this way – “When the blizzards of life grow overwhelming,” says Jesus, “let me be your ‘Storm Home.” To those of us who seek to be his disciples, Jesus says, ‘Come, follow me into the storm. People are getting lost out there, and need our help!’.

Winter weather will be upon us before we know it or are ready for it. The Trustees and the Church Staff are already at work making sure that we will be able to get into Central safely despite the snow and cold that is on the way. But even before the snows fall, we all know the storms of life in which we are caught…in which friends and loved ones and fellow disciples are being consumed. The ‘Storm Home’ is needed today. My prayer is that Central is and will always be a place where those who are caught up in a blizzard or any other kind of storm, can discover the rest that only Jesus can offer.

See you in worship this Sunday…where we know rest for ourselves, and as a gift to share with others!

The article quotes a recently published book, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, by Harvard professor of political science, Robert Putnam. In his research for the book, Putnam discovered that, “organized religion is suffering, particularly among people in their 20s and 30s, from being too closely tied to divisive political issues, and that it will take decades for that association to wear off.”

Putnam continues, “The marketplace for religion has changed very dramatically, and I don’t think new sermons or new hymns or new seating will help until the overall public association between intolerance, as young people see it, and religion fades.”

I haven’t been able to get this last quote out of my mind since I read it…for far too often these days the public face of Christianity in our culture is shaped and controlled by congregations and individuals who seemingly revel in their intolerance.

Think of the tiny Baptist congregation in Wichita, whose members regularly appear at the funerals of American service men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, holding signs that blame the deaths on God’s displeasure with America’s acceptance of homosexuals. Or the pastor from the less-than-50 member church in Florida, who got so much air play a couple of months ago when he spewed all sorts of grossly false statements about Islam and threatened to burn Korans on September 11th. Or just this week, the young man who was a member of the school board in a small town in Arkansas, and who posted all sorts of dreadful, bullying statements about homosexuals on Facebook…and then hid from those who questioned the appropriateness of his words. Even when he eventually appeared on television to offer and apology and resign from the school board, he continued to say that his intolerant personal beliefs about gay and lesbian people, based on his reading of the bible, would not change.

Here at Central Presbyterian we work hard to be a different kind of church community…one that welcomes and accepts all people, because, like us, they are children of God. Are we perfect on this account? Sadly, I do not think we are. We are very human after all. Yet, we never quit trying to be more hospitable to our guests, more welcoming to the stranger…more like the disciples that Jesus calls and expects us to be.

Our practice of this kind of hospitality doesn’t mean we agree with each other or our guests about all sorts of matters. We practice hospitality and tolerance because this is how Jesus lived, and how he expects his disciples to follow him.

The Good News of Jesus who welcomes and expects all, is the story that we have to tell again and again and again, my friends. We need to speak it and sing it…and most of all, we need to demonstrate Jesus’ welcoming through our actions!

This Gospel story of God’s abundant grace and love refutes the intolerance of a few that stains the whole of Christianity here at the beginning of the 21st Century.

This Gospel story invites and expects us to be a community of refuge, a safe place for all who are weary and heavy laden and beaten down with unwelcome.

Worship is where we practice being a joyously tolerant community of abundant grace. Worship is the place where we gather each week and invite Jesus to continue working on us and through us. Worship is where we are welcomed by God despite ourselves…the place where our welcome of others begins!

See you in worship this Sunday…

Respond to God’s abundance as Stewards…respond with what we will give of our time through our participation in Every Member in Ministry activities at Central, and through our involvement in other important community groups…respond with how we will share the spiritual gifts or talents that God has made a part of who we are…respond with the financial resources with which we’ve been entrusted, at church and elsewhere.

I started to say, ‘respond with our money’, in the previous sentence…but then quickly realized that I would be falling into the trap of seeing Stewardship in only monetary terms.

To be sure, Stewardship is about money. Central, and any other church, and many worthwhile organizations in our community/country/world would not survive without our money. I hope and trust that all of us will give money as generously as we can to Central. Our collective financial generosity greatly impacts the kind of church Central can be. And yet, Stewardship is also about so much, much more.

What has become clear to me over the years, is that Stewardship is all about abundance…God’s Abundance. God blesses us with Abundance…abundant life, abundant spiritual gifts, abundant love in Jesus Christ, abundant resources – other people, community, money, etc. Our calling as stewards is to faithfully deal with God’s Abundance…to use all that God gives us as respectfully and intelligently and as lovingly as we can.

There is no one right way to be a steward. To my mind, Stewardship is an art form. We take all that we have learned over the years…about being in community, about faithful discipleship, about following God’s call into the future…and make creative and joyful and authentic responses to God’s Abundance. No two of us respond to God’s call to Stewardship the same…and our response can and should change from year to year and even moment to moment, as our relationship to God, and our experience of God’s Abundance evolves.

The art of dealing with God’s Abundance is not drudgery, but neither is it easy and simple. Faithful Stewardship requires our prayers, our hopes and dreams, our reflection on the community we know at Central…and ultimately it requires our courage…courage to respond to God’s Abundance with our own generosity and abundance.

This Sunday we will gather for worship in gratitude for God’s Abundance, and respond with our 2011 pledges and commitments of time and talents and money. It will be a holy time. I’ll see you there…

The last place on earth I would have ever expected to find myself was standing knee-deep in the Betsie River at 5:30 a.m., with only moonlight and the glow from the little light attached to the brim of my ball cap, to guide my feeble attempts at casting. The beauty of the woods, the powerful rush of the river, and the determination of the salmon worked together to form what was a magical experience for me. Just so you know, the fish won the competition! Nevertheless,I hope that I’ll be able to match wills with them again next fall!

On my way back to Lafayette, I had the opportunity to stop at a summer camp in the little village of Stony Lake, Michigan, where I had worked for several summers when I was in high school. Miniwanca is 400 acers of sand dunes and woods, and enjoys over a mile of unspoiled Lake Michigan beachfront. I like to think of it as ‘God’s country’.

I was 14 years old the first time I glimpsed Lake Michigan from the Miniwanca dunes. It is a moment I remember like it was yesterday. Something stirred deep in my soul that day. This stirring continues even now…every time I see the big lake.

During my stop at Camp, I walked a long way down the beach. My footprints were the only ones that marked the sand. As the waves crashed beside me, and the sun sparkled on the water, and the wind silently continued its ceaseless shifting of the sand, the immensity of Lake Michigan overwhelmed me. In the midst of this feeling, it dawned on me that the Lake symbolizes for me the immensity of God. I think the reason I am so drawn to the Lake is because I am reminded of God’s overwhelming presence and my insignificance. I am reminded that God is in control, and that I am not called to compete with God for being in charge…but rather, I am called to trust…to trust in God’s love for me, and for all of creation…to place myself fully and completely in God’s hands.

This timely reminder was a good thing for me. Sometimes…often times, I get so busy trying to take care of my responsibilities, trying to make things work, that I begin to think and act like I am in charge. Lake Michigan reminds me that God is bigger and more powerful than I can imagine or ever pretend to be…and that my job as a disciple, is to let God be God, and to care for those to whom Jesus calls me…nothing more, and certainly nothing less!

It was hard to get back in my car that day, and continue the journey home. I was anxious to get back to Gina and the boys…anxious to get back to all of you…but I hated driving away from that constant reminder of God’s immensity. For when the Lake is not right there in front of me, I have to remember on my own that God is in charge…and on all too many days, that is a hard thing to do.

Worship is the place where we gather each week to give God thanks, and to remember our proper relationship to God.

I look forward to seeing you in worship this Sunday, where we will help each other remember…where we will celebrate God’s abundant goodness!

The email was from Sara Stallings, letting me know about the transition that has recently taken place in Central’s Family Promise Leadership Team.

I met Sara and learned of Family Promise my second day on the job at Central. I was visiting with current Elders and Deacons to get a sense of the leaders at Central, and learn what was important to them about our church. Sara, who was on Session at the time, excitedly told me about a new ministry for homeless families that Lafayette really needed…and how Central had a great opportunity to play a key role in helping Family Promise happen. I was recruited on the spot!

In the following months, Sara helped persuade Session to sign on as a Family Promise host congregation; she tirelessly told the Family Promise story to every group in the congregation she could visit with, and recruited them to the cause; she worked with the Trustees to make sure the education building has proper fire alarms and smoke detectors and emergency exit lights so that overnight guests are safe…which means the rest of us are safer too; she applied for and received a three year grant totaling $30,000 from the Presbyterian Church USA on behalf of Family Promise. This grant had to be coordinated with our Presbytery and Synod, which is no small task!

Now, Sara will be the first to tell you that she has done nothing on her own…that there are many people at Central involved in making Family Promise work, and many people at other churches in the community doing the same. Sara is right, Family Promise is thriving at Central because so many of us are involved in some way…and yet I can honestly say that in 20+ years of serving as a pastor, I’ve never seen anyone take a ministry opportunity on her back like Sara did with Family Promise, and by sheer determination, help make it happen.

Now that Family Promise is a well-established outreach ministry of Central, and is on better footing in the community, Sara is continuing to demonstrate important and faithful leadership by stepping aside so that others have the opportunity to rotate into Family Promise leadership. I’m sure she will continue to be involved during the four weeks that Central hosts Family Promise each year…and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sara is still part of the larger Family Promise Board. But by stepping aside, and recruiting new people into leadership, and welcoming the new ideas and directions that new leaders always bring, Sara is making sure that Family Promise remains a vital and vibrant part of Central’s efforts to join Jesus in his calling to Change The World for God’s Kingdom.

Somehow “Thank You” just doesn’t seem enough. Yet, when a disciple has done what she or he could in answer to Jesus’ call, a simple “Thank You…..thank you for using your passion and gifts to make a difference for God’s people,” is very appropriate.

Thank You, Sara!

See you in Worship this Sunday, where we’re always trying to become more faithful and more fearless disciples…

What do we do in the face of disappointment, and is that different from what we should do?

Do we have a pity party and enjoy feeling sorry for ourselves? Do we get angry with those near at hand as a way of dumping the negative feelings we are experiencing on someone else? Do we take our ‘ball’ and go home? Do we look for a scapegoat to blame for issues that rightly belong to us? Do we live in denial, pretending that disappointing things don’t happen to us? Do we think about what we could have done differently, or more completely, and forge ahead?

I’d love to say that when moments of disappointment come along I always look for the lesson to be learned and the new way forward, but that would be a lie. So often my reaction to disappointing news or events is just another disappointment! I whine. I grow angry or sullen or both. I look for someone or something to blame. I am less than honest with my feelings. I think it would be easier to run away!

It seems to me that Jesus was one that dealt with a lot of disappointment in his life. The people he came to tell about God’s love, often weren’t interested in what he had to say. His disciples were generally so busy worrying about their safety and their place in the Kingdom of Heaven, that they didn’t pay very good attention. People accepted healing from Jesus’ hands and went away without so much as a thank you. The Pharisee’s message of fear kept trumping Jesus’ declaration of grace. And on and on…

When disappointment came for Jesus, he usually responded with reflection and prayer. Sure, there was the fig tree that got cursed, and a few tables ended up overturned in the temple…but by and large, Jesus reacted to disappointment by finding time to be in conversation with God. He usually tried to pray alone…pulling himself away from the disciples and the people and any potential distraction, so that he could work through the disappointment with God…and find a new way forward with God.

While I wish it was different, dissapointments will always be a part of life. What is ours to control, is how we respond. Let it be our hope that we can learn to react differently when they come…with prayer and reflection and trust in God’s future.

See you in worship this Sunday, where God never disappoints!

Most of the time the rabbits that I encounter along this particular walking trail barely note my presence. They may lazily cast a glance at me as I pass by, but never stop munching on the grass in front of them. There is so much human traffic along the trail that we are no longer viewed as a threat. So whatever scared the rabbit this morning, must have been pretty frightening…more frightening than running into a noisy human walking along the path…more frightening than running across forty yards of open field, where a rabbit is most vulnerable.

Fear works that way. Fear causes the abandonment of all instinct and common sense. Fear leads to choices that may seem reasonable in the moment – like running blindly into obvious danger – but that can have serious and damaging and even fatal consequences.

Fear can lead some to believe that burning the sacred text of another faith is an act of Christian piety. Shouting “BE AFRAID” loud enough and long enough seems to be the ticket to a lot of media coverage these days, and even nomination for political office. Fear can lead to horrible and misguided assumptions about the nature of what is ‘sacred ground’ and what is not, and about who a person is and what they think, simply because of the faith to which they subscribe.

When we are guided by fear as individuals…and when fear of another group of people or of their faith becomes the guiding principle for enough of us…we begin to act like that scared rabbit that nearly ran into me this morning…we make poor choices, and we are in trouble…serious trouble!

We who name ourselves Disciples of Jesus, follow the one who says to us: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” (Luke 5.10); “So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10.31); “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12.32); “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last and the living one.” (Revelation 1.17). Jesus invites us again and again not to be afraid, but to live lives sure of, and powered by, God’s abundant love and grace.

When we place our trust in Jesus, whom we proclaim as Lord and Savior, we never have reason to act as a scared rabbit. In fact, it is just the opposite. Jesus invites us, Jesus expects us, to live and act beyond fear, and be an example for all people of just how different it can be to live trusting in God’s abundant love. May it be so for us!

I’ll see you in worship this Sunday…

What struck the group as we worked through this fascinating yet challenging story, is the great lengths that God goes to in order to stay in relationship with Jacob. Jacob is someone who spent a lot of his life on the run…running from his brother, Esau…running from his father-in-law, Laban…running from himself…running from God. All this running made Jacob a hard target to catch. Yet, God had made a great promise to Jacob – “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.” (Genesis 28.15); and God kept this promise, even when it meant coming to Jacob in human form and wrestling with Jacob all night just to make him slow down a bit!

God knew something about Jacob that Jacob didn’t know about himself. God knew that Jacob was worth catching…that Jacob was worth staying in relationship with…that Jacob would remain faithful to God, despite all the evidence to the contrary. ‘Jacob’, meaning ‘trickster or deceitful’ was a well-deserved name. Because God knew so much about Jacob’s worth, God was willing to enter into a very personal relationship with Jacob. You don’t wrestle with someone for an entire night, as the story describes, if you don’t value them. Jacob was worth wrestling for!

Now, the study group was also very aware that as disciples of Jesus, we are always wearing our Christian glasses – even when we read an Old Testament story…that how we read and understand any part of scripture is always conditioned by our belief in Jesus. What dawned on us as we read about the great lengths God was willing to go to on Jacob’s behalf, is that in Jesus, God has done the same thing for us. In Jesus, God enters into our lives in a very personal, human way; saying in essence, that we’re also worth wrestling for!

Knowing how far God was willing to go on his behalf, made Jacob a different, more faithful person. My prayer for each one of us, is that this same knowledge – knowing how far God is willing to go on our behalf in the person of Jesus Christ – makes us a different, more faithful person each and every day.

See you in worship…this Sunday!

PS – I’m going to take a couple of weeks of vacation, and try to recharge some very run down batteries. I look forward to offering new posts when I return.

To a bunch of adolescent boys, the play on words using the letters within ‘assume’, was pretty funny. Yet, Coach’s warning has also proven to be a lesson I’ve never forgotten…and a reality I generally find to be sadly true.

Coach’s warning about making assumptions began to ring in my head as soon as I saw a video clip from Bryan Fischer’s radio show that aired on Tuesday, August 10. Mr. Fischer is the Director of Issue’s Analysis for the American Family Association (AFA). AFA is an organization that exists at the intersection of fairly conservative Christian and political beliefs. After spending some time on the AFA web site, it seems to me to be an organization that spends most of its time and energy telling people what they should be afraid of. If you want to know more about the AFA, I suggest you visit the web site.

But back to Mr. Fischer… On an AFA-sponsored radio show this past Tuesday, Mr. Fischer said that the building of mosques should be banned in America. He declared that it was OK to leave already existing mosques in place, but that no more should be allowed because, “Each one (mosque) is a potential jehadist recruitment and training center.”

To be sure, there are many conflicting views and feelings about Muslim-Americans and Muslims in general in post-911 America. Fear of the unknown leads even the most rational of thinkers in very strange directions. However, with his xenophobic statement about not allowing the construction of new mosques, I believe Mr. Fischer to have fallen squarely into the assuming-trap that my football coached warned me about all those years ago.

Mr. Fischer’s assumption that he knows the purpose of every mosque has no basis in reality. It is an assumption that seems to be built on nothing more than fear and intolerance. He seems to believe that every Moslem believes and thinks and acts the same. His accusation is like saying that Fred Phelps, a Baptist pastor from Topeka, Kansas, who claims that the deaths of US Service Men and Women in Iraq and Afghanistan are due to American society tolerating homosexuality, speaks for all Christians. Phelps does not speak for me or for millions and millions of other Christians. The thoughts and attitudes and actions of one believer or even a group of believers, can never define an entire faith.

Mr. Fischer’s assumption also flies in the face of the constitutional protection of religious freedom – a protection that allows Mr. Fischer to worship in ways and places that seem right and faithful to him – a protection he would deny to other people and other faiths, because he is afraid of them!

Assuming seems to me to be the first step down a very dark road of mistakes. I know I always get in trouble when I assume. I become what my football coach warned me about!

Jesus invites us as his disciples not to assume, but to love; not to fear, but to serve; not to harbor hate, but to forgive.

May we continue to struggle today and every day to live as Jesus invites us to…to be the faithful disciples we are called to be.

See you in Worship this Sunday…