Category Archives: Uncategorized

Worship space matters. 

While I can make a case that 1) God can and should be worshipped in all places and spaces, and 2) God is more impressed by holiness than flying buttresses, I personally find certain spaces to be more conducive to worship than others.  It doesn’t have to look like this.  It could also look like this or this or this.  Space feels worshipful if community is gathered and nourished there.  A sanctuary could be gloriously constructed.  But if there is no community, the church might as well close.  It’s no longer really a church anyway.

As church buildings that look like this and this are swiftly closing, my prediction is that the proceeds from selling their real estate will never again be used to buy space that looks traditionally churchy.  I especially feel for the struggling congregations that built mega-buildings only to find that they don’t now or didn’t ever really need that space; they just wanted to be like the megachurch down the street. 

The space where we worship is one of the new frontiers for faith communities in the 21st Century – especially for the formerly mainline church.  As we close the church with the traditional building on the corner, I’m hoping we are wise enough to start up the new church in the bar or the diner or the art gallery down the street.

Honestly I’m too tired to be creative tonight and so I’ll just sit and stare at something beautiful.  That’s the best I can do tonight.  Have a good Wednesday.

The majority of pastors are either overweight or obese, according to a 2001 Pulpit and Pew study at Duke Divinity School.  

(Ten years later, I wonder if we are even heavier.)

This factoid from Pulpit and Pew was recently shared at a church event during which we were served mega muffins for breakfast, chips & cookies with our sandwiches for lunch, and candy bars  for mid-afternoon snacks.  What’s wrong with this picture?

The general population is overweight in the United States.  But according to a 2010 Centers for Disease Control study, only (only?) 37% of Americans are obese and these numbers have held true for about five years for men and ten years for women.  In other words, if we believe these studies, clergy are heavier than the average American.  We are also more depressed and susceptible to heart disease apparently.  But today’s post is about donuts and cupcakes.

“If you feed them, they will come.”  We chuckle over this  adage at church meetings as we sample the lemon squares at coffee hour.  Church food tends to be heavy in the carb department and about as healthy as Lucky Charms.

But it may be harder to change the church food culture than the order of worship in our traditional congregations.  After all, no church has “salad committee.”  We continue to offer consecrated casseroles – delicious lasagna and macaroni and cheese-  to the sick.  The New York Times reported in 2005 that Radiant Church in Arizona spends $16,000 on Krispy Kreme donuts every year.

This post is not meant to make those of us who need to lose weight feel terrible about ourselves. The point is to ask how we might encourage congregations and their pastors to be healthier. 

Strawberries after worship anyone?  Better ideas?

Calling the Disciples by Eric De Saussure

As I preach to different congregations each week, I have a recurring nightmare:

I drive to an unfamiliar church building, in an unfamiliar neighborhood, thinking that worship begins at 10 am but when I arrive I learn that worship actually begins at 9:30 and while the people were waiting for me to arrive, they just sat there.  Waiting.

There is a corresponding fantasy that goes like this:

I drive to an unfamiliar church building, in an unfamiliar neighborhood, thinking that worship begins at 10 am but when I arrive I learn that worship actually begins at 9:30 and while the people were waiting for me to arrive, they started worship.  One person led the singing and another led in announcements and prayers.  One was prepared to share her faith story if I never showed up. 

I find that some church people know they are free to worship and serve and welcome guests and share their faith and some church people do not know this.  They erroneously believe that 1) they need a pastor to tell them what to do and/or 2) they can irreparably mess up if they do something the wrong way.

I’ve now seen sanctuaries with masking tape Xs on the carpet to ensure that the liturgist stands in The Right Place.  I’ve seen volunteers chastised because they didn’t arrange the cookies The Right Way.  I’ve witnessed  people staying out of worship because they arrived late and this sign greeted them:

And I’ve seen – like this past Sunday morning – a vast array of elders leading everything from the pastoral care to the pastoral prayers.  It’s not that they don’t need a pastor; it’s that the pastor (or somebody) has taught them how to lead and has set them free to do it.  That’s what I call a healthy church.

Last Friday I spent the day at the required Boundary Training  which has historically been about preventing sexual or financial misconduct.  But this workshop expanded the definition of inappropriateness and/or misconduct to include Staying Too Long in a parish.

Hmm.

Last spring, I left a parish after 22 years, and although I can’t seem to find a numerical definition for what constitutes a “long term pastorate” 22 years probably qualifies.  In fact anything past 10 years and certainly 15 years could be considered “long term” in our fast-paced, transient culture. 

Ed White of The Alban Institute  who has supported long pastorates for years says, “I used to think that long pastorates were a good thing.  I now think that they’re not just good, but necessary.”   After 10, 15, 20 years a pastor’s relationship with a congregation is sealed with history, loyalty, and devotion.  Especially if a pastor has been present for multiple generations of family milestones and years of community involvement, a congregation can find stability and deep transformation in those years together.  It takes a long, long time to change the culture of a church, especially if that church has experienced trauma or weak leadership.  And this shift from a 1950s Church to a 21st Century Church has been compared to turning an ocean liner.  It takes time.

But what if staying too long becomes a problem? What if it borders on misconduct?  It might be unintentional misconduct, but misconduct all the same in terms of a congregation’s health.

Frankly, I worried about this in the last years with my last parish.  I looked at other positions through the years, but nothing else felt like a call.  I did not feel called out of that congregation until circumstances nudged the move.  Was it healthy to stay for 22 years?  I don’t know. 

But what I do know, after just six weeks in my new call, includes this:

• Churches can become complacent when the pastor is not only present for 20+ years, but when the pastor does too much of the ministry for the congregation.  Christendom nurtured a culture in which churches paid people to do the ministry for them even though the Bible teaches that a pastor’s job is not to do the ministry but to train others to do the ministry.
• Our denominations offer incentives for pastors to delay retirement which makes it tough for younger pastors to move into those leadership positions.  Those nearing retirement worry about outliving their savings and churches can become stagnant if those pastors basically retire in place. 
• Some of us pastors find it hard to give up “the power” of being the center of a congregation’s life.  It’s fun being The Beloved Pastor or The Institutional Memory, even if it’s no longer healthy for us to be there.
• Pastors who have “always been there” can become an idol. 

It all comes down to the word “healthy.”  There are healthy long term pastorates and there are unhealthy ones.  There are pastors who consider themselves to be the center of the church and there are beneficent dictators and there are humble servants.  Maybe those of us who’ve served for multiple decades have a little bit of all those characteristics.

It’s not just about spiritual relationships and intimacy.  It’s also about theology.  God calls us to make earth as it is in heaven.  And that takes a long time.

It took me almost two hours to get to work Wednesday. 

Part of the delay involved the rain – that very strange variable that seems to freak people out and make traffic crazy, even traffic on a train.  I left my house at 7:15 am and arrived (wet and cold) in my office at 9 am.  Ugh.  I needed a (skim) mocha right on the bat to warm my bones.

On an average day, it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to commute to and from work from my house which is conveniently located just 7 houses from the train station.  It’s possible to 1) read books, 2) write sermons, 3) pen thank you notes on the train, but what I do is either 1) nap or 2) read the newspaper on my phone.  It’s the best I can do.

So, here’s my quandary:  I am losing about 3 hours a day on the road/train track.  Would it be more efficient to work from home a day or two?

I love the work-in-sweatpants-in-my-home-office idea.  I love having those 3 extra hours to answer emails while also doing laundry. 

I also love seeing my colleagues in the office and having people drop by to meet me and fill me in on what’s going on in their congregations/commissions.  Among the tidbits of information/questions shared as people walk past my office on a random day:

– “Why does THE PRESBYTERY come in to offer advice  like they are smarter than the congregation?”  (Good question. Note:  We aren’t smarter; we’re just trying to help.)

– Did I know that a commission is not the same as a committee?  (I did.)

– Would I like to attend their Octoberfest/Ham Dinner/Craft Fair?  (Probably not)

– Do I like my new job? (Yes.)

– Would I be their supply preacher on Christmas Day?  (No.)

So, what does a happy but needs-more-time-in-her-day commuter do? Do you commute to you job?  Do you have sage wisdom that will bring about the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven?  Please share.

According to Wikipedia   “Young adult” may refer to:

• Persons aged 20 to 40 (psychology)
• Novels targeted at ages 14 to 21 (young adult fiction)

I recently saw in a letter from Jim Singleton for The Fellowship of Presbyterians that –  at the January Covenanting Convention –  there will be a pre-conference event for leaders under age 45 in hopes of encouraging new leaders.  At the conference I’m attending in Pittsburgh, with a lot of gray hair in the room, people under the age of 45 seem to be considered “young adults.”

Noticing the ages of our church leaders interests me greatly.  I know some solid leaders under the age of 30 much less under 40.  They have fresh vision and fewer qualms about risk-taking.  They are quicker to toss ineffective practices out of  the church.

As a new Presbytery staff member, I asked someone why I was chosen and he said it was probably because I was “seasoned” but still “young.”  (How kind and blind of him.)  I am old enough to have 20-something children.  Actually, I’m old enough to have 30-something children. 

“Seasoned” is good but imagine having differently seasoned people in leadership positions – those with fresher memories of high school and college, those who don’t institutionalize everything (“Let’s do this every year!”),  those who long to learn how to be disciples.  Seasoned leaders currently lead our denomination.  Nevertheless, it would be wise to spice things up.  Differently seasoned leaders are out there.

We all know preachers with radio voices.  They could read the phone book and it would sound soothing and comforting.  Think Barry White in the pulpit.

They used to have lots of wavy white hair.  And an attractive wife. 

They used to be able to say (often banal) things and everyone would sit deeply engrossed.  But that doesn’t work today – or at least it doesn’t work for long.

Having a Radio Voice used to be the mark of an effective preacher/pastor.  But today, the 21st Century Church requires a Digital Voice, not a Radio Voice –  with all due respect to NPR.

A Digital Voice involves and includes people who haven’t had a voice.  A Digital Voice shares the mike and invites others to share their voices.

In the next chapter for Jesus’ followers, there will the need for Digital Voices.  There will be the need for people who don’t freak out when someone asks questions about Basic Theological Stuff or questions that make our orthodox hairs stand on the back of our necks.  We need to give digital natives power.  We need to speak Truth and Authenticity with all voices instead of Emptiness and Fakeness with radio voice.

I’m done with the guy who reads Scripture like he’s trying out for Shakespeare Theatre..

My question is not What Would Cher Do?  (Or Chaz or Calvin Coolidge.)  It’s not even a question but it’s an invitation to imagine What We Could Do as communities of faith that we are not now doing.

I remember a respected colleague who found much success serving an historic congregation which had previously languished with a tired, less imaginative pastor.  One evening when I was watching him in action at a Wednesday Night Live event, I commented on how obvious it was that the congregation was totally energized by his leadership.  His response:  “They are just now figuring out what the church could be and do.”

This is a new day for the institutional church.  My own denomination has a new permission-giving constitution.  Other denominations are similarly shifting from tired to fresh paradigms.

One of my goals in the coming months will be to encourage my colleagues – especially those under 40 – to talk about what we could do as a church, as a presbytery, as a community.  I don’t really care what others would do.  What will we do? And let’s do it.

It’s Ideas Week in Chicago and that means all kinds of innovators have come to town from Bill Clinton to Daisy Khan to Michelle Rhee to Rob Bell to share their creative reflections on making the world better.  Yellow banners adorn the streets.

I have some ideas too.  What if the church could be a change agent in our culture once again? 

I’m working on getting some innovators together for a couple of WWCD events:  What we could do.

Maybe we need our own Church Ideas Week.  Or maybe we can begin to ponder what we could be doing on our own or with a couple of friends.  More about this later.