A Church for Starving Artists

It’s going to happen, friends, sooner or later.

When we’ve hit our limit on alone-time.  When we’ve run out of coffee.  When we’ve realized that ZOOM calls just don’t cut it.  When we can’t remember how many days have passed since we’ve been physically touched by another human being.  (I’m ‘this close’ to adopting a shelter dog but who will walk that duffer if I get sick?)

The moment I broke was yesterday when I went old school and watched First Presbyterian Church Charlotte on Channel 64 at 11 am.  Familiar faces led us in familiar words and I ugly-cried through the whole thing.  First Pres Charlotte (who partnered with First United Pres Charlotte) is one of the few churches able to afford their own television presentation every week. Thanks be to God.

All our congregational leaders are straining to offer online worship, Bible studies, and business meetings.  One of our churches is planning what will essentially be a drive through congregational meeting to elect a new pastor.  Several are inviting members to grab whatever juice and cracker they can find for online communion together.  Another church I love invites everyone to light a candle – each in their own space – during YouTube worship.

Sooner or later, we will burst into tears over this new normal.  New Normal Times are often the points when we weep because a loved one is gone forever or the pain we feel is too much to bear.

And those ugly-cry moments are sacred.  They mark the points when we realize we need something Bigger.  We need each other.  We need something Holy.  We need eternal hope.

To all who offer eternal hope today – thank you.  We need you.  Keep at it.

This post is dedicated to all my colleagues who keep things going during these long weeks.  Please make an online donation or write and mail a check to any church comforting those who weep today. Image of 11am worship with First Presbyterian Church and First United Presbyterian Church on the Fourth Sunday in Lent.

Now that we are a mere five days into this self-imposed/CDC suggested Social Distancing Time (SDT) what are you finding are the most helpful distractions?

• Does it help to listen to Podcasts about the care and feeding of pygmy goats?
• Does it help to re-watch Season Two of Glee? (i.e. Blaine)
• Does it help to Kondo a closet?

After multiple Zoom Calls this week, it probably helps to go for a walk?  Maybe the best thing is to Telehealth with your therapist and then go for a walk.

Complete the following sentence:

I never realized how much I enjoyed ______until we shifted to SDT.

• I never realized how much I enjoyed eating in crowded restaurants by myself (as opposed to eating by myself in my apartment) until SDT.
• I never realized how much I enjoyed a simple touch on the arm until SDT.  (I have not physically touched a living thing – except for plants – in five days. Who has a COVID-free puppy?)

And so we distract ourselves in healthy ways.  I worry about our 12-Step Groups as there is so much time for day drinking.  And overeating.

Finding the thing that soothes us might be a weekend goal.  In the meantime, be gentle with yourselves out there.  And share – if you wish – what you are missing and what you are distracting yourself with.  Thanks.

Image of Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson with the Dalton Academy Warblers. Season 2 of Glee.

Humans are basically pain avoiders.  If we can put off the difficult conversation, the come-to-Jesus moment, or the painful decision we tend to put it off.

Some of us relish the opportunities that come with conflict (Hello Thomas-Kilmann Collaborators!)  But most of us avoid conflict.

So here we are in the throes of conflict and deep anxiety.  There are constant meetings to discuss “what to do?” and “how to do it?” in light of the coronavirus pandemic.  There is deep sorrow over cancelling everything from next week’s memorial service to long-expected events like Easter concerts, mission trips, conferences, and retreats – not to mention the secular cancellations (prom, senior day games, graduations, weddings, international trips.)

The grief is real.

As I look across the board at Church World, I see that many of us have been slow to make difficult decisions as a 21st Century Church because we are already grieving institutional losses:

• Tiny churches with less than 20 members have been putting off the decision to close because we are talking about closing the church of their childhood where they were baptized and married.  It’s the church where they felt close to God and loved ones.
• Churches of all sizes have been avoiding the decision to spend some of their endowment or to sell some of their property.  We have congregations who tell me how poor they are but there’s a half million dollars in the cemetery fund or they own 10 acres of land that they’ve wanted to keep for no particular reason.
• Congregations with long-standing staff members whom they can no longer afford have dreaded the moment when those staff members will be asked to retire or find new employment.  They have become institutions.  How can we let the 80 year old organist go?  How can we ask our 72 year old administrator that we need a different kind of staffer who knows how to use a computer?
• Congregations have ignored suggestions to use online tools because people are attached to holding hymnals, receiving paper newsletters in the mail, writing checks, and attending church meetings face to face.
• Congregations have tolerated ineffective leadership because they are waiting for their pastors to announce their retirements, but every year the ineffective pastor stays, the congregation’s viability is diminished.

Perhaps it takes a pandemic to be the nudge we’ve needed to close our beloved church, to spend our congregation’s rainy day savings, to sell off the unused parking lot, to honor the long term educator with a lovely retirement party, to stop electing officers without access to email, to offer Zoom meetings for all committees, to put a Donation button on the website, to have a frank conversation with the pastor about retirement.

It might feel like being pushed out of a plane.

And yet God uses everything – especially times of crises – to move the Gospel message forward.  There are great and small shifts we’ve needed to make for a long time for the sake of the Gospel.

Is it possible that God is calling us to use this crisis to nudge us forward into the unknown?

Few of us love loss and anxiety and conflict.  But these are tools that God sometimes uses for good.  It’s scary, but – in faith – the Gospel will always win.  Let’s take the leap.

Church leaders are concerned.  Some are afraid.

How can we pay our pastor and staff if we can’t collect financial tithes and offerings in actual offering plates on Sunday mornings?

Many congregations have a long history of using auto-pay or online donation buttons or giving apps.  Keep using those tools, people.  Believe me, your pastor and church staff might not look like they are working if they are quarantining themselves, but the work is different.  And stressful.

If your congregation depends primarily on cash and checks literally placed in an offering plate each week, these will be financially tight days.  It’s an excellent time to set up online giving or apps.  And then teach people how to use those tools if necessary.

The painful financial ramifications of this national emergency are countless.  Many restaurants will close for good before this is over.  The hospitality industry is hurting after hotel and flight cancellations.  Retails stores are hurting.  Movie theatres and other entertainment venues are hurting.

This is a good time to buy gift cards from your favorite businesses to use once things open up again.

And this is also a good time to be sure that your congregation and all the non-profits you financially support continue to receive your support.  If you can give more, please do.  If you can’t, it’s okay.  If you need financial support yourself, let somebody know so we can help.

Congregations are continuing to offer pastoral care, education, virtual worship, and safe haven.  But they can’t do that without resources.

Be generous.  Channel your inner fairy godmother.  Be someone’s Secret Santa (or Personal Leprechaun or Easter Bunny.)  And get a phone app.

Our Presbytery Staff is working from home now and yesterday – in between Zoom calls and phone calls and email checks –  I made soup and peach cobbler.  I didn’t hate working from home yesterday.

Too Bad. Everybody’s Observing Lent this Year

I’m wondering if we are not going to hate some of the alterations in the way we do Church in light of COVID 19 as we are “forced” to:

• Click on worship at our convenience while wearing sweats.
• Meeting via Zoom from the comfort of our kitchens.
• Work from home in our pjs.

I’m hoping we will not learn to love this way of being Church Leaders for the sake of essential human contact.  But this Lenten season is no joke.  We are giving up:

• In-person congregational worship
• In-person meetings
• In-person retreats
• In-person mission projects
• Long-planned conferences – and the hotel stays and flights that go with them.
• Hand-holding at the hospital bedside.
• Weddings and funerals and retirement celebrations.

This is not what we had in mind when we pondered what to sacrifice for Lent.

It’s possible that these alterations will help us make some excellent permanent changes like:

• Making scheduled online contributions.  (PLEASE make an online gift today to your church.)
• Downloading the giving app and using it.
• Continuing the spiritual discipline of checking on our vulnerable members.
• Continuing the spiritual discipline of offering random acts of service to the neighbors (gift cards for those laid off, etc.)

How do we prepare ourselves for an Easter that might require no in-person worship?  This is a possible scenario.

Of course Jesus will rise whether we sing “Up From the Grave He Arose” or not.  Jesus will rise whether there are lilies or handbells or egg hunts or fun bonnets.  Actually, if we must celebrate Easter alone in our homes, it will be more like that first Easter in the Gospels than the spectacle we usually experience.

What we can never give up for Lent or any other season: the need for community.  What we can never give up is our need for redemption.

Please be community for someone today.  Bring light to someone who feels alone.  Offer hope to someone who feels worthless. Bring relief to someone who feels overwhelmed.

Maybe this is the Lent we actually need.

Image from LifeWay.  They gave up all their brick and mortar stores – and not just for Lent – in 2019.

There is abundant Good News out there this morning and much of it is coming from secular organizations:

Fairfax County Schools in Virginia is not only providing food for their students while classes are cancelled but the school system is also paying hourly workers throughout the closure.

Edinburgh convenience store owner Zahid Iqbal is providing Coronavirus Survival Packs for the elderly and sick at no cost.  The packs include toilet paper, antibacterial soap, tissues and acetaminophen.

NBA teams and individual players are paying the salaries of hourly sports arena workers for the rest of the regular season after it was cancelled.

We in faith communities should consider these offers a challenge.  What will we do to lavish love on anxious neighbors in these days?  Ideas:

• Use church money (undesignated offerings, recent cash windfall) to ask elderly members to email their grocery list to the church.  Shop and deliver the groceries and leave them at the members’ doors.
• If you live in an area with Door Dash or Grubhub, send gift cards to vulnerable people in your neighborhood.  (Have church members suggest recipients, especially those who’ve been laid off.)
• Assign each elder/deacon with a short list of people to call on for checking in and prayer.  Keep touching base at least twice a week until the national emergency is over.
• If your local businesses (diners, independent coffee shops, small shops) have gift cards, buy them now for future outings and purchases to support the local economy.
• If you have hoarded hand sanitizer or toilet paper, make gift packs for homebound neighbors, thus redeeming yourself.

This is not a good time to keep your own needs to yourself.  If you need food, cleaning products, prayer, virtual face time let someone know today.

There is so much Good News and we who worship a Savior of Good News have the unique opportunity to be the Church we were created to be.  Make these days a creative outlet.

And wash, wash, wash your hands.

Video is Emma Moyer (soprano), Vivienne Longstreet (alto), Roy DeMarco (tenor) and William Butron (bass), students at Westminster Choir College and choir section leaders at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Maplewood, NJ. Video by Nina Nicholson, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Newark

Although I don’t believe that God has zapped us with a new virus to contend with, I do believe that God uses everything to bring some kind of good.  To reiterate: COVID 19 is not good.  But God takes what’s ugly, ordinary, scary and turns it into something beautiful, extraordinary, and comforting.

Our schedules are suddenly opening up because all kinds of events are being cancelled.  Some of the cancellations are heartbreaking.  Some are a relief.

Time is a huge gift and today I receive the personal gift of another birthday.  I’ve been given more time than either of my parents and I don’t take that lightly.  There are gifts in losing my parents early – like I never saw them get old.  But I particularly miss them on my birthday.

I’m grateful for these years and – with all these cancellations – I’m grateful for time that’s opened up in the coming days and weeks.  How will we use this newfound time well? That consideration is – in and of itself – a spiritual discipline.

What a wonderful time to find extra time. Enjoy every moment. And be safe out there.

Image of my mom just days before I was born. She was 23 years old.

Some of us need to be the smartest/prettiest/most important person in the room with a mike in our hand and our names featured prominently.  And some of us prefer to serve behind the scenes – so far behind the scenes that almost no one’s aware of our contributions – however profound.

This post is about honoring those national treasures who work behind the scenes.

HH and I were officiating at the memorial service of a retired parishioner from Hungary years ago in Our Nation’s Capital, and we were aware that he’d had some kind of role in WWII.

We realized that his role was more significant than we’d known when his former colleagues eulogized him with words like this:

• __ was always interested in keeping the women and children safe.
• __ risked his own life and reputation.
• __ never got credit for the sacrifices he made.

We had had no idea that our quiet parishioner had been a behind-the-scenes force for good in the Hungarian Resistance.  We’d just known him as a retired man with a lovely accent.

No organization – much less a church organization – can thrive without behind-the-scenes support.  It could be that they perform thankless tasks that nobody sees (clean out the kitchen refrigerator, dust all the books in the church library, regularly phone the home bound members to check on them.) Or it could be that they perform tasks that are so confidential that only the need-to-know people actually do know (the attorneys who donate their legal expertise, the wealthy member who pays a struggling family’s mortgage.)

Thank you, behind-the-scenes people.  Thank you for having the great idea but not getting credit for it.  Thank you for repairing the faucet in the ladies’ bathroom.  Thank you for representing us in court. Thank you for being a character witness at the court martial. Thank you for being on call for psychological emergencies.  Thank you for driving __ to chemotherapy every Tuesday.  Thank you for leaving oranges for the pastor’s kids.  Thank you.

We need you.  We appreciate you.  We can never repay you.

Image of the set of Hamilton as imagined (and eventually constructed) by one designer we know by name – David Korins – and countless carpenters, electricians, and artists we don’t know by name.  They did a good job literally working behind the scenes.

HH and I saw this sign painted on the side of a building recently and I was struck by the “take.” 

These days call for great courage but how do we get it? It takes courage to stand up to bullies.  It takes courage to speak the truth in love.  It takes courage to fall in love.  It takes courage to leave someone we love but sometimes we need to do that too.

How do we get courage? Do we simply “have” it somewhere deep inside?  Or do we “take” it from someplace else?

Greek word studies from Bible verses don’t help much.

And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” Matthew 9:2

“Take heart” seems tame.  Other translators say “be of good cheer.”  Imagine that you are crying your eyes out while drooling on yourself and making dying animal sounds and some fool says, “Be of good cheer.”

The Greek word is θαρσέω (tharseo) which literally means something like “be you having courage” or “be bolstered from within which supports unflinching courage.”  A mouthful.

I like the idea of Taking Courage.  We saw that sign painted on a building in London and maybe “taking” versus “having” is a semantic difference.  Brits say “take” and we say “have.”

But consider this:  Scripture tells us many times that God will give us what we need.  Maybe we won’t get what we want, but we will get what we need.

• The people wanted a political ruler. They got a poor rabbi who loved them enough to die for them.
• The people wanted power.  They got a teacher who told them to love people without power (“the least of these”)

I could go on and on but you get it.  Maybe God grants us courage deep within and when we need it, it shows up.  But what if it’s something that comes from outside ourselves?  What if we can’t possibly find in ourselves what we deeply need?

Imagine that God presents us with an overflowing platter of gifts every day: courage, patience, hope, goodwill, generosity, faith, love, resilience.  We can have anything we need from that platter if we will only take it.  Usually we either ignore the platter or we pick around it or we refuse what’s on it.

Especially in these days, we need to take courage off that platter and use it for the sake of other people and ourselves.  It’s a scary time, people.

Take courage.  Just take it.  I believe God is offering it to us.

. . . and antibacterial soap (purchased before everybody hoarded it) and antiseptic wipes.  We were there for a family event (TBC got engaged!) and I’m happy to report that we don’t seem to have Covid 19.

We wiped down everything from the airplane tray tables to the hotel TV remote, We disinfected the seat belt buckles and the door knobs and the elevator buttons.  We were those people.

[Note: we did not need our surgical gloves, but if anyone had needed surgery, we were ready.]

During the time we were away, Seattle Presbytery in the Presbyterian Church USA asked each of their 45 congregations to cancel worship for the sake of protecting the gathering parishioners. And Christ Church in Georgetown, DC asked each of their 500+ members to quarantine themselves after their Rector was diagnosed with the virus.

I’m reminded of the four Episcopal nuns in Memphis who refused to leave the city during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878.  They stayed to care for the sick while most of the city left to avoid the illness.  And each of them died.

How do we remain faithful in times like this?

As a church leader myself, I suggest two things:

1. Love God with your mind as well as you heart, soul, and strength.  Really, Jesus gives us permission (and the commandment) to do this.  God invented both science and scientists and we are called to use the brains God gave us.
2. Tempting God is frowned upon according to that time Satan tried it.

The Twitterverse reminds us that #SoapIsAmazing and all it takes is regular washing with soap.  You can sing “Happy Birthday” or just count to 20 while washing up.

God blesses us with smart people who share what they know and – we hope – tell us what they do not yet know.  And we are called to use our God-given brains.  This is not a good time to introduce a Common Cup for communion.  This is not a good time to encourage The Kiss of Peace every Sunday morning.

This is a good time to be compassionate and to pray for the sick, the caregivers, and those poor people in cruise ships.

This is a good time to pray for the scientists.

This is a good time to be patient with our decision-makers.

It’s not the first time there has been a pandemic such as this and it won’t be the last.  But it’s another opportunity to show people what faithful living looks like.

Be safe out there.  Wash your hands.  You probably don’t need surgical gloves.  You definitely don’t need to hoard the Purell.