Because I’m less than 2 weeks post-surgery and not getting out much, I continue to wonder – sitting in my rental recliner – how I will deal with retirement (122 days) after 40+ years of seeing much of life through an ecclesiastical lens.
I’ve heard of pastors who continue to write sermons every week post-retirement. That will not be me. I am more likely to look at a dog walker with four unruly puppies and think “Church.”
So, regarding last Tuesday’s election: All the political analysis is wearisome, especially when pundits claim that “lessons learned” involve doing what successful candidates did. No.
Mamdani won because he captured what most voters in NYC need from their city government. Spanberger won because she seemed to address what most Virginians decided they needed (or didn’t need.) Same with Sherrill in New Jersey. There might be a thread that connects them, but Mamdani would probably not be elected in The Commonwealth, nor would Spanberger be elected as NYC’s mayor. Context is everything.
This is also why – when a church tells me they want to open a preschool because the church down the street opened a preschool and they seem to be growing – we will fail at “Mission.” What’s needed in our multi-cultural suburb is not the same as what’s needed in our rural small town. And the only way to know what our communities truly need (which is what it means to love our neighbor) is by having a relationship with them. It’s not about getting new members. It’s not about “growing.” It’s about Luke 7:22.
‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.’
Blindness, lameness, leprosy, deafness, lifelessness and poverty look different in different contexts. They are manifested in everything from domestic violence to unemployment to teenage mental health issues to hunger. Sometimes the blindness involves the fact that Church People don’t even realize that their neighbors are dealing with desperation. Even the prettiest neighborhood includes people who need life to be different.
I wonder why people join the church they joined. For many it’s family heritage. For others it’s connecting with the cool kids. A friend told me recently that she’s worshipping with a church because of the door greeter who was a hot mess – hair disheveled, clothes not matching the weather, clearly dealing with some thing in her life. The greeter had been included in a leadership role while in most congregations she’d be considered an embarrassment. “That’s my kind of church,” my friend said. And that is also Jesus’ kind of church. And also that’s not everybody’s context. Not everyone has homeless neighbors.
Do we even know our context? Do we want to know it? Or are we trying to follow some kind of ministry formula that works for another congregation?
These are things I ponder while hanging out in my rental recliner. I was expecting a more dramatic launch feature but it turns out to be a gentle push. Again, this reminds me of Church.
A Church for Starving Artists 