A Church for Starving Artists

I hesitate to answer this question because it feels self-serving or self-righteous.  We moved from our home of 22 years to a new part of the country to follow God’s call about a year ago.  It was:

1. clear that this was where God was leading us and
2. traumatic

But we did it.  My husband was called to serve a wonderful congregation halfway across the country.  I was eventually called to an interim position where there is more than enough good work to do.

Especially in certain parts of the U.S. – DC, San Francisco, Chicago, NYC  where real estate is expensive and it’s difficult to afford a home – pastors seem to stay within those metropolitan areas and move from one church in that city to another if they move at all.  But throughout the U.S. – because of working spouses who cannot easily leave their jobs, not to mention kids who are happy in school,  adult parents who are close by, and other family issues –  there is less moving from one geographic region to another.  We like where we are.  And moving is an extraordinary hassle.

One of the issues with churches calling new pastors and pastors seeking new calls seems to be that we are hesitant to move to unknown parts of the world.  Honestly, it’s more than disrupting.  It can be gut-wrenching.  Even if we have a sense of adventure, it’s hard to leave home.

We come from a long Biblical line of people who up and left because of a call from God:  Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Paul.  Some moved under duress.  Some said, “Here I am” without hesitation.  But God still calls some of us to move.

What would move you to move?  

Is it about God’s call?  Happy kids? Being closer to family?  Better weather?  Cheaper real estate?

What keeps you from moving? I’d love to hear what you think.

Short answer:  Yes.

What if we deployed gifted leaders all over the city?  Or rural villages, suburbs, exurbs, or parks?  What if we sent teams of people out into their communities to make connections, serve the local needs, and offer lavish hospitality?

Obviously these leaders need to support themselves financially.  They’d probably like health insurance and a retirement plan.  They’d like the resources to pay for space, refreshments, music, and community needs.

Bi-vocational ministry is one answer, but this feels overwhelming unless the new church is a community endeavor.  I have friends who work construction, create websites, or practice law by day and pastor churches by night.  But they can’t do it for long.

We know pastors who serve congregations part-time and serve in some other specialized ministry the other part of their days being pastoral counselors, college teachers, or hospice chaplains.

There are pastors whose spouses support them financially.  Or maybe they have an account in the Cayman Islands.  But I don’t know many of these people.

But funding new churches allows for leaders to focus on building that community.  Time is freed up to meet over coffee, lunch, or a run.  Churches are rarely funded according to what they really need which adds additional stress.

And then we could start churches without any money.  People could simply get together to talk about God, life, purpose, pain, community.  They might pray with and for each other.  They might even sing spiritual songs and celebrate the sacraments together and study the Bible.  A committed community might share relational tithes to fund ministry and support each other.

“We don’t have the money to start new churches” sounds like an excuse.  Do we really need money to create new communities of faith?

PS – Check this out from our friends in Minnesota.

Newsweek magazine includes stats this week about the percentage of Jewish Americans who go to temple.  I have Jewish friends who self-identify – spiritually –  as atheists which has always felt foreign to me. Being Jewish for these friends is about being culturally, but not faithfully, Jewish.

We Christians all have friends who are culturally, but not faithfully, Christian.  It sounds judgmental and a bit obnoxious to make this declaration, but the truth is that followers of Jesus do not “go to church” like we used to.  According to the Newsweek article, less than 40% of all Christians “attend religious services.”

Hmm.

I visit lots of congregations these days and I sometimes ask other visitors, “So, what do you think?  Did you find this worship service to be spiritually nourishing?”  Actually, they often say that “worship is boring.”  They want to love it.  They want to find spiritual depth.  They want to find community.

And yet “nobody goes to temple.”  Or “to church.”  Your thoughts?

One of my job requirements involves “the ability to sit in long meetings.”  Really.  It was in the job description.

So yesterday and today were two of those long meeting days.  And in spite of sitting in a chair for multiple hours, at the end of today, I am either punchy with exhaustion OR peculiarly hopeful about the state of the church:

• J. is already a bivocational minister and he’s still in seminary.  And there are several others like him.
• People with way too many things to do in their own families, jobs, and churches are serving congregations beyond their own so that healthy ministry can happen.
• Disciples on opposite sides of some theological issues are praying for and with each other, attending each others events, and going to bat for each other when necessary.

I’m too tired to share much more.  But there’s nothing that cures a meeting hangover like 1) a good night’s sleep and 2) hope for tomorrow.

High School Prom 2007

Diversity is not an ancient wooden ship. In the 21st Century Church, neither is it about quotas or representation either.   But it is still about culture and context.

One of the issues that I’m sometimes asked about when congregations are seeking a new pastor involves race.  “Would your (African American) congregation be interested in interviewing white candidates?”  “Could you help us (a predominantly white congregation)  interview some young Latino pastors?

Tim Cargal – PCUSA teaching elder and preparation for professional ministry expert – spoke to a group of us today about the trends in calling new pastors to serve our congregations.  One of the factors he discussed was race and ethnicity.

It used to be true that Asian pastors primarily served Asian congregations.  It used to be true that predominantly white congregations only called white pastors.  It used to be true that African American pastors only served predominantly African American churches.

Our children do not live in this world and increasingly neither do we. My kids notice (not positively) when everyone in a worship service/restaurant/grocery store is as white as they are.  It strikes  them as abnormal.   They’ve grown up in a world in which inter-racial dating and marriage are barely noticed.  They have gone to public schools with people from all over the world.  I have wondered about whether or not this has been their experience because they grew up in an urban setting.  But now that my job involves visiting the burbs and small towns around Chicago, I’ve noticed that they are many suburban areas with large populations of immigrants living side-by-side with Whites and Blacks who have lived in those neighborhoods for generations.  I live in a town of 9000 and I see people of every color standing side by side waiting for the  morning train.

This is not to say that racial tensions are gone and racism is no longer an issue.  But Martin Luther King Jr’s assertion that 11 am on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America is no longer true for many of our congregations.

Nevertheless, while our Gen X and Y seminary graduates might be willing to serve congregations which are predominantly a different race from their own, the congregations – which are filled with Baby Boomers and older generations -may not be as open to this.  Or maybe they are.

I believe the Spirit always moves when congregations call new pastors.  When I witness a predominantly White congregation call a Black pastor, the presence of the Spirit feels especially strong.

As Fred Willard’s character in Anchorman said, “Diversity means that times are changing.”  My hope is that our congregations will be as willing as our pastors to recognize that “a good match” has more to do with the gifts of a pastor and the context of a congregation than race.  This is the future of the church.

My name is Jan Edmiston and I am an evangelical Christian.   I believe that ministry is about making disciples of all nations and expanding the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven (i.e. making this world heavenly as it was created to be.)  I am also interested in lavishly supporting new missional communities wherever there are people in need of good news.

I believe that narrative annual congregational reports are an excellent idea – more authentic than statistical reports (which often report false numbers to make a congregation look healthier than it is.)  I believe that holding each other accountable is not only a good idea but a holy one.

I also believe that God calls all kinds of people – not only to follow the way of Jesus but to be leaders in that ministry.  God calls people that I would not call – but I am not God.  God is wiser, more creative, and more generous than I would ever be.

I believe that the historic confessions of the Reformed faith are guides directing our future, but they are also road markers showing us where we have been and reminding us that the world has changed.  I believe, for example, that Chapter XX of the Second Helvetic Confession marks where the church was in in 1566 but it does not reflect God’s will for the church today.  I do not believe it is sinful it for me to baptize someone in the name of Jesus Christ because I have ovaries.  That confession is dated and no longer orthodox according to our current understanding of Holy Scripture which are indeed the unique and authoritative Word for our lives.  God’s Word doesn’t change.  But our understanding of God’s Word changes.  As one of my perfect grandmothers used to say:  “It’s amazing what the Lord has let us learn.”

We don’t know everything.  Yet.

I believe that God calls us to be in covenant relationships which are sacred and obedient to God’s will for humankind.

I believe that sin is the refusal to be the people God created us to be.  In other words, it is sinful to pretend to be or to act as if we are something that we are not.

I believe that God created some people to be gay.  All of them are called to ministry in the name of Jesus Christ – whether they know it or not.  Some of them are called to leadership in the church.

I believe that the people who have created and now live or will live in the new denomination called ECO Presbyterians – The Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians are good and faithful people.  But we disagree on a few things.

I’m fine with that.  But please don’t presume that those outside that order are not Evangelical Covenant believers as well.

I posted on FB yesterday that a party had broken out on the Metra Electric Train heading home at the end of my work day on Wednesday.  Cupcakes and chardonnay were served as we – some strangers and a few friends – celebrated Amy Jo’s 48th birthday party in Car #8 on the way to the southern suburbs of Chicagoland.  It was the first time that some of us ever met Amy Jo.

In a matter of minutes I got several comments on FB about The Search for Community and how the church is not the place people usually consider in their search.

Ugh.

People seem to want to have fun.  People seem to want to connect in meaningful ways.  People seem to want to love each other.  The Amy Jo party on the train reminded me of Agnes’ birthday party as told by Tony Campolo.  Amy Jo appeared to be a 50-something woman who worked in Chicago and was loved by random people who took the same commuter train home every day.

My friends, this is church.  Or at least, this is the church the way I imagine it to be.

It occurred to me yesterday that I haven’t baptized a baby in seven and a half months.  I haven’t baptized an adult either but yesterday, I became strangely overwhelmed with the reality that I may never baptize a baby again.  While I am still in ministry, I am no longer serving a specific congregation as their pastor.

One of the things I did as a parish pastor after I baptized a child was give the  parents a letter to save for the child to open on his/her 10th birthday.  The letter was about the baptism day and how I hoped that – now that he/she was much older now and able to make some of her/his own decisions,  that one of those decisions would be about trusting God.

Over the weekend, I received an excellent surprise:  a letter written to me by a child I baptized about nine years ago.  It was penned in perfect cursive on lined notebook paper from a ten year old.   “I am in the fourth grade and I am happy,”  she wrote.  I will treasure this letter forever.

Let’s be clear:  pastors might hold the babies and speak the words of baptism and splash the water, but it’s the church that baptizes people.  But I have to admit that I loved being that person who held the babies and introduced them to the community of people who would minister to them.

I now serve many congregations and most of them have pastors.  Many of these congregations – the small ones with older members – have not celebrated a baptism in years.  These congregations bemoan the fact that they “don’t have any young families.”  But baptizing babies is not the only – or even the most meaningful –  initiation into the faith.

Growing congregations have a growing number of adult baptisms. Yes, they also baptize babies, but the sign that a church is thriving is when people who have not known God come to know God for the first time as adults.  They find an authentic circle of spiritual friends and they realize that following Jesus is the best way to live.

Most of our churches trade members as people move from one neighborhood to another, from one state to another.  But the sign that a church is making new disciples is that adults are choosing to be baptized.  I crave this for the church.

Many of our congregations offer stirring music in worship or excellent children’s programs or impressive local and global mission projects.  There are congregations that do not offer any of those things.  But it doesn’t matter.

We are called first and foremost to follow Jesus.  Those communities which are inspiring this kind of discipleship are truly Being the Church for the 21st Century.

Again, I crave this even more than I miss looking into a baby’s eyes and saying, “Welcome to this ministry.”

You cannot just believe part way,                       
You have to believe in it all.
My problem was doubting the Lord’s will
Instead of standing tall.
Elder Price in The Book of Mormon

HH and I saw The Book of Mormon over the weekend – and it’s fabulous, of course – in terms of entertainment.  But the play also sparked some interesting theological conversation.   Is it true that to be a faithful Christian (much less a faithful Mormon) we have to “believe it all“?  And what does “believing it all” mean?

Our Roman Catholic friends are often accused of being Cafeteria Christians  – picking the parts of RC theology they like and ignoring the parts they don’t like.  All of us do this actually.

Maybe we rationalize our picking and choosing based on interpretation of scripture.  Or maybe we fundamentally reject the plain words of Jesus because they rub us the wrong way.

From a recent conversation during a church coffee hour:

Parishioner from Belize:  What I like about the United States is that you execute criminals.  We no longer execute criminals in my home country.  This is what I like about being a Presbyterian in America.

Me: (?!)

PFB: In my country, you cannot even kill your enemies.

Me:  But what about what Jesus said about turning the other cheek and loving our enemies?

PFB:  I prefer to believe what the Old Testament said.

The truth is that we don’t all believe the same things, even within the same Christian traditions.  In my tradition, we speak of agreeing on the essential tenets of our faith, but nobody has spelled out exactly what those are.  I could take a crack at it:

We Presbyterians, for example, all basically believe that

• we are saved by grace through faith
• God is known to us in Three Persons
• there is a priesthood of all believers
• Holy Scripture is the unique and authoritative Word of God

And there are others, but then again, there are still other tenets that some call essential and some call non-essential (like who God calls to serve, for example.) And honestly, even among The Essentials We All Agree On, there are faithful followers of Jesus who have some doubts about those.  If I hypnotized a roomful of church leaders, they might admit that they don’t quite get The Trinity.  Or they don’t exactly believe that the whole Bible is equally authoritative (e.g. Is Leviticus 11:5 as important as John 3:16?)

But back to Mormons.  Maybe our next President will be a Mormon.  In fact, Mr. Romney became a bishop and stake president serving approximately 4000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Boston when he was still a young adult.   He was and still is a prominent leader in his church.  What bothers me about this is not the incredible beliefs (e.g. Jesus will rule from Missouri in the Second Coming) because my own beliefs are fairly strange (e.g. Jesus turned water into wine.)  Spiritual faith involves mystical pieces that don’t make sense.  Not a problem for me.

What is a problem is the All Or Nothing requirements of any faith.  It’s not that I’m in favor of picking and choosing the doctrines we like best.  It’s that – if we believe that God is God and we are not (another one of those essential tenets:  only God is sovereign) then we also have to believe that none of us has cornered the market on Truth.  For any of us to say we know the mind of God is idolatry.  And while I believe that I understand many things about God, I could be wrong about a few of them.  Because I am not God.

What would it be like to have a President who is so certain that he is right about theology that he has participated in excluding people who questioned or ventured from that “right theology”?  What would it be like to have a President who believes he can become a god?  (Note:  we have had many Presidents who acted like they were gods, or at least they believed that they were God’s gift to the nation.)  An interesting read, albeit from a culture magazine, is this.

I would love to hear your thoughts – not necessarily on Mormons – but on this notion that – if we are part of the same faith – we all must embrace the same value judgments, live within the same social parameters, and believe the same thing about women’s leadership, marriage, and what we can eat and drink.

What do you believe?

I believe that there are many different ways to follow Jesus.  I believe that there are many different ways to worship God.  I believe that the Spirit speaks to us in a variety of ways.  Again, what do you believe?

PS  I do not believe that MLK was either a god or a perfect man.  But I believe he tried to live out some of the more difficult ways of Jesus.

Churches can do very basic things to shift their paradigms – which should be a priority in this New Year.  I have suggestions.

#1 on our 2012 Ecclesiastical To Do List:  Improve Our Social Media Skills

This is not about being cool.  This is not about generational church politics.  This is about functioning in the 21st Century.

Social media already benefits pastoral care, community-building, record-keeping, file-sharing, and worship creating.  We have a responsibility to our congregations to be skilled in these tools.

I have long said that every congregation needs someone under the age of 30 on staff or on call to offer tech work days to other staff members.  I will be always be grateful to MP for being that person for me for two years.

You can also send yourself, along with staff and volunteers to a Social Media Boot Camp.  Whether you consider yourself savvy technologically or a beginner who wonders about this thing called Facebook, this is an excellent use of $125 and seven hours of your time.

Doug Pagitt shared in yesterday’s Boot Camp in NYC that in the near future we will have our own apps.  I look forward to the Jan Edmiston app – whatever that might be, and I will want to check out your apps as well.

Do yourself and your church a favor and make this a priority in 2012.