Friday, October 26, 2018

Sunday Morning Sports

In the postwar years, following the end of World War II and the Korean War, churches were packed with people on Sunday mornings.  In addition to sanctuaries, educational buildings and fellowship spaces were soon constructed.  Sadly, many of those spaces are underutilized today, if they are used at all.  Much has changed in the past seventy years.

I have often listened to elders complain about cultural changes that have encroached on Sunday mornings.  At every planning retreat I have attended, there someone who offers a sharp critique of the culture.  That long-time member starts railing, "When I was young, we didn't have all these sports on Sunday mornings.  Families made worship a weekly priority.  Now there are games, even on Sundays, and families travel for the whole weekend to make sure their kids have the best sports programs."  Often the lament ends with blaming younger families who have abandoned their church, leaving the seventy and eighty year olds to shoulder all the responsibility and do all the work.  That finger wagging and blaming is both endless and exhausting.

In my earlier days of ministry, I wrote and spoke a lot about "commitment."  I preached about the commitment that is required of Christ's disciples.  Yes, there is a cost of discipleship, but there is also a joy.  In the book we are studying in our adult education this fall, Diana Butler Bass points out that sports provide an opportunity for corporate thankfulness.  People need to be together to play.  We need to cheer on our team, to hope for its success and victory, even when that is elusive and a long time coming.  Being on a team and being fans of the team is fun.

Sports are meeting a deep need.  It's not that we imagine that our children will all become professional athletes.  Rather, we need a setting to gather, to be playful and grateful.  So, what good does it do to shake a pious finger at families who are absent from worship on Sundays?  In most cases it only serves to drive folks further away.  Guilt is not a source of gratitude and joy.  It does create a joyful congregation.

Rather than becoming hypercritical, it is time to be creative.  What really brings us together and causes our hearts to beat with joy?  Where is the playfulness in our worship?  I often find that in music.  God speaks through the singing of choirs and congregations.  There is joy in baptism as we remember how we are enfolded in God's love and life.  There is joy in sharing the loaf and the cup, when Christ is remembered and shared.  There is joy in the cooing and crying of children, watching them skip down the aisle and dash away to Sunday school.  There is joy in realizing that we are not all alone and that our lives matter to God and to our friends.  The United Methodist Church once posted a large billboard along a busy highway in St. Louis.  It pictured the a basketball team, sitting court side in a gym.  The caption read:  "Teamwork begins on the bench."   I still remember passing by that sign and smiling.  I looked forward to seeing it.   We are all members of the same team.

So, perhaps it is time for us to examine our churches, to become more creative and playful when we worship.    This is not to imply that we should discard our cherished traditions, our rites and rituals, for those give us identity and purpose.   But, perhaps it is time to imagine a new church, to sing it into being, to practice together on Sunday mornings, to be simultaneously prayerful and playful.  We are all on the same team!   Play ball!  Thanks be to God!

Friday, October 5, 2018

A Minor Milestone

Earlier this week, I completed the course of one year in my new ministry with St. Peter's United Church of Christ.  That's not a long time in the sweep of the 175-year history of this congregation.  I am "running the race" that is set before me in company with a congregation and wider community that I am learning how to love.

It has not been an easy year, for I have often lived with the feeling that I left my previous ministry prematurely.  I have grieved deeply in the past twelve months, having severed the ties that bound me to the churches, the members, and staff of the New Hampshire Conference, United Church of Christ.  I have missed being a leader in the wider settings of the church.  Diana Butler Bass in her book, Grateful, notes that nostalgia creates unrealistic pictures of the past.  We glorify the good old days and forget the pain and difficulties of those days.  A year later, it is clear to me that I am gone.  And now, a new Conference Minister has been called there, who will lead and love in the field that I once tended.  I remember Paul's words in I Corinthians 3:6ff.: 
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.  For we are God's servants, working together, you are God's field, God's building.
New Revised Standard Version

I'm here.  I am grateful.  The finish line is not yet in sight.  This is a sprint and a marathon.  I am pressing on in this race.  

Here is what I've seen thus far, just twelve months into this race:  
  • St. Peter's United Church of Christ is a strong congregation of Christ's people.  
  • There are few occasions where both congregations (Saturday night and Sunday morning worshipers) ever meet together.  
  • We still many members, perhaps a majority of members, who are still out there in the shadows somewhere.  Maybe they are waiting for just the right time to return and be actively involved; perhaps they will always stay at the margins, or perhaps they will never return because they are already gone.  Writing them off is not the answer.  Inviting them to come home is.  
  • We have many others, in and around Washington, who feel that a church will look down on them or their lifestyles.  They need to know they are loved and included, accepted and embraced by God and God's people.  We all have "something" that might seem to disqualify us from grace.  Even so, God loves us.  We need each other and all others.
  • I have also observed that some cherished traditions have eroded away, especially with Sunday school, youth ministry, and confirmation.  Perhaps a church of older adults does not need to spend precious energy being anxious about such things.  We are who we are--who God is calling us to be.  
  • Sometimes it seems to me that our priorities are misplaced with too much energy and emphasis on money and "paying down" (not "paying off") the old, weighty debt.  
  • I have also seen the toll that deferred building maintenance takes.  Thankfully, the major roof repairs are done.  What's next?
  • I celebrate the active social service ministries that happen because St. Peter's decided to stay downtown and to care for the poor close-up in our community.   I wonder though whether we can really see Christ in the shelterless and hungry ones who come through our doors.  Why do we do what we are doing? 
  • I am inspired by the beautiful music that fills the sanctuary as we worship together. The musicians and choirs are the best!  We are blessed!
  • I see how hard many others work as they run along beside me.  Your commitment and care for Christ's church are a source of encouragement and great joy.

Yes, there is a race to be run.  I am here.  I am exceedingly grateful.

O God, who calls us all to the race, give us grace to run this course with persevering love.  Give us space to breathe and be in the presence of your Spirit.  With gratitude for the wonder of life, the joy of being in this blessed community of your people, and hope of what is yet to come, I pray:  Come, Holy Spirit!  Amen.