Letter to the Board of Pensions

(In October of last year, the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church USA announced a new dues structure to ward off a projected shortfall in revenue. There was much protest to the proposed changes which would potentially place a greater burden on young ministers with families and small churches. In response, the Board pulled back on its plans, and has announced a spate of 5 options to be discussed and voted on in June of this year. Here is the short letter I would like to send to the Board, but feel it might be more appropriate to discuss in other venues:)


Dear Board of Pensions:

The Apostle Paul speaks quite eloquently of the call of Christians to be "in the world, but not of the world." Has the Board considered that all of the options for restructuring dues represent an "of the world" mentality - looking for answers in models adapted from the secular world of finance and insurance, and in models that in fact contribute to the profits of these companies?

This crisis in our pension and health care coverage presents our church with the opportunity to truly make a break and return to a Scriptural model of caring for one another. May I propose that one more option be added where the leaders of the church come together and pool their resources according to the example of Acts 4:32 - "All the believers were of one heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had."

What a witness it would be if the Presbyterian Church displayed to the world that we have made the same kind of commitment to one another as the earliest Christians did!"

In Christ,
Rev. Jim Moss

Sweet Tomatoes and Hallelujahs

Last spring, my 6-year old son Samuel became fascinated with the compost pile in our back yard. He helped me shovel the rich, dark compost and begin to mix it with the soil; he helped me plant the crops, water them, and watch them begin to grow; and by mid-summer, he was able to help me enjoy the delicious tomatoes and cucumbers that we harvested.

As we completed the cycle of a garden’s life, the light bulb finally went off in his head.  He began to eagerly look for new items to place in the compost. I had already explained to Samuel how compost worked, but he had to live through the whole process – from one tomato’s scraps going into the compost one year, and helping grow a new tomato the next year – to truly appreciate the beauty and the joy of the yearly cycle.

 

It’s the same way for us as we approach the celebrations of Holy Week. It’s one thing to learn about great traditions such as spiritual disciplines, special worship services, and the fact that we burn last year’s palms to make this year’s ashes. It’s another thing to actually carry out those traditions with faithful consistency. Just as Samuel didn’t fully understand the process of composting until he experienced the whole cycle - we can’t fully comprehend what Holy Week means until we actually live and taste the whole cycle of the season.

In other words, the movements of Lent and Holy Week require us to have more than an intellectual understanding of the process, and they require more than occasional adherence. We must have an understanding of the heart that, much like Samuel’s love for compost, is born through consistent devotion over time. I encourage each of us to embrace the full experience of Holy Week. I encourage us to make a priority of attending the services that are on the church calendar, as well as engaging in personal acts of service and devotion.

If we do, we will know the truth of the resurrection not only in our minds, but deep down in our core being. And the “Hallelujahs” we sing on Easter will taste sweeter than any tomato from the garden.

 

Spiritual Discipline: Breaking Away From The To-Do List

Writing a blogpost is the last thing I need to be doing right now. It's 8:30 on a Wednesday morning, and I'm staring at a full day that includes the following:

- An appointment with an elder to discuss some issues within her committee.
- Putting together the bulletin for Sunday's worship service.
- A funeral at 2:00 that I'm mostly ready for, but have some finishing touches to add.
- A Bible study tonight that I'm in no way prepared for.
- Sunday's sermon, which I'd like to get a handle on before the weekend arrives.
- Several health issues in the congregation that I need to catch up with.

All in all, it's a typical day in the life of a pastor, and I'm not complaining. This is the work I enjoy and feel called to. By the time choir practice is done at 8:30 in the evening, I will go home tired but fulfilled. Why, then, am I writing a blogpost this morning, when there is so much necessary and meaningful work on my plate?

I'm writing this as part of my new spiritual discipline. Despite all of these necessary and meaningful tasks that demand our time and energy, church leaders of today are called to something more. We are called to open up our time and our to-do lists, to allow our ministries to be re-formed - if not completely, at least in partial ways that are carried out with freedom and intentionality.

Let me explain what I mean. My father, who is also a minister, has maintained for years that ministry is never finished. There is never a point in the day when one can say, "Everything is done here, so I'm going home now." There is always one more phone call to make, one more nursing home patient to visit, one more Bible study to prepare for, etc, etc."

Perhaps the best self-care skill that a minister can develop is the ability to lay pressing business aside until another day, and just go home. This proper sense of balance between work time and personal time is what allows a minister to flourish and stay healthy.

In current times, when the church is struggling with issues of institutional decline and how to adapt in a rapidly changing culture, we are being called to break away from the busy tasks of the day for more reasons than self-care. The never-ending to-do lists of ministry can prevent us from being open and responsive to the new things the Holy Spirit is doing in our churches and our communities.

The full day of necessary and meaningful ministry tasks that I listed above is a day that, if I allowed it to be, would be a day lacking in Spirit-led surprises and spontaneity. Every item on that list is a ministry task I can perform competently and to the satsifaction of my church members, but that also will help perpetuate a way of being church that, in my opinion, needs to evolve.

Or to put it another way, the overwhleming busy-ness that is reality to most ministers can all too easily become the weeds that choke off the new growth the Spirit is trying to create. I could easily spend all day, every day maintiaining the church as it was in the previous century. Or, I can intentionally carve out space to allow the Spirit to do a new thing. And that is why I am writing this blogpost, even as I have so many pressing things to do.

My new spiritual discipline is this: Every day, for at least an hour, I will set aside the to-do list and the traditional tasks of minsitry, and I will take time to let the Spirit lead. Yesterday, I sat in my backyard and just listened. Today, I'm writing a blospost. Tomorrow, who knows?

Beyond Business As Usual - A Call To Leadership

The reelection of Barack Obama will certainly be 2012's most remembered story - but in my mind, two other events are more indicative of the situations facing both the church and the government in America.

In June and July, several mainline denominations including the Methodists, Episcopals, and Presbyterians held their national conventions. Each devolved into the ugly sort of infighting over hot-button issues that we've grown to expect from such meetings.

Frustrated with "business as usual," a group of participants and online observers (mostly comprised of younger adults) banded together in concurrent movements that became known as "The Mainline Summer." The purpose, as I understood it, was to focus on prayer and Scripture, and to invite the Holy Spirit to move our church bodies beyond the the partisan bickering and into a more hopeful and Spirit-led future.

Six-months later, many of us are feeling that same anger and frustration toward our nation's leaders. The now infamous "Fiscal Cliff" negotiations have not brought us the compromise and pragmatic bi-parisanship they were supposed to. Instead, it's been more "business as usual," featuring the same posturing and brinksmanship that has prevented our nation's fiscal problems from being addressed for years.

It's only been a few hours since the "Fiscal Cliff" dealine passed without a resolution, and many partisan folks are predictably laying all the blame on the other party - but I'm also noticing a current bubbling up that is similar to what produced "The Mainline Summer."

Many people are frustrated with the system as a whole. They understand that the two sides are so consumed with defeating one another that they can't see how they are harming the entire body. They are longing for leaders who can transcend the partisan warfare and can lead the nation into a more hopeful and more unified future.

So as 2013 begins, both the church and the nation find themselves with similar challenges and opportunities. Both find themselves mired in old categories and old partisan struggles, and both need fresh voices, fresh ideas, and fresh methods for dealing with their problems.

With this in mind, I am calling on myself and on my generation to make 2013 a year to step up and step into a new level of leadership, and a new type of leadership. Movements like "The Mainline Summer" are a great start, but we need much more - and we need to be more intentional and more practically-oriented about it.

Over the coming weeks and months, I invite you to join me in a conversation that is more than just talk - but that is action and talk,  where we can share our experiences in seeking this new type of leadership.  Let's work together in leading our church and our nation beyond the "business as usual" that is crippling us.

Bored of the Dance

(Sung to the tune of "Lord of the Dance" - my apologies to Sydney Carter)

I danced in November when the budget talks began

I danced when Obama told the House, “I have a plan.”

I danced when Republicans, they said “No way!”

And we knew the debate was here to stay.

 

Dance, dance, wherever you may be. I am so bored of the dance, said he.

And I’ll lead you off the fiscal cliff, said he, and I’ll lead you off if we can’t agree.

 

I danced for McConnell, Boehner, and Reagan’s ghost

They said, “No new taxes on those who make the most.”

I danced for Harry Reid, who finally had the guts.

To tell the GOP, “You can’t have those spending cuts.”

 

Dance, dance, wherever you may be. I am so bored of the dance, said he.

And I’ll lead you off the fiscal cliff, said he, and I’ll lead you off if we can’t agree.

 

I danced for O’Reilly, for Jon Stewart, and for Rush.

They danced with me, just to send their ratings up.

But they could not tell us what we already know,

That this whole debate is just one big show.

 

Dance, dance, wherever you may be. I am so bored with the dance, said he.

And I’ll lead you off the fiscal cliff, said he, and I’ll lead you off if you we can’t agree.

 

(Slowly and mournfully)

I danced for the lobbyists and all of the PAC’s

It’s hard to dance with Grover Norquist on your back.

From the way they all were fighting, it began to appear

That another Great Recession, it would soon be here.

 

Dance, dance, wherever you may be. I am so bored of the dance, said he.

And I’ll lead you off the fiscal cliff, said he, and I’ll lead you off if we can’t agree.

 

But just before we plunged into the breach

The announcement came, a compromise, it had been reached

That allowed each side to sing a victory song,

Kick the can down the road, and let the dance go on!

 

Dance, dance, wherever you may be. I am so bored with the dance, said he.

And I’ll lead you off the fiscal cliff, said he. And I’ll lead you off if you can’t agree.

 

Evangelism, or Membership Transfer?

Evangelism is the way we help spread the good news that is faith in Jesus Christ. Within mainline churches, however, there are two distinct attitudes for how this is done:


1) Evangelism as Membership Transfer This method operates on the assumption that there are already people in our community who are looking for a church, possibly even a church of our particular denomination. The job of the church, then, is to:

A) Make the church building clean, neat, and welcoming to visitors .

B) Do advertising and publicity of worship times, Bible studies, and special events.

C) Encourage and educate members how to invite friends, neighbors, and new residents who might be looking for a church.

D) Make the worship experience for visitors as welcoming and meaningful as possible.

E) Follow-up with visitors through contact by pastor and church members, and by cultivating them toward the decision to join the church.

The Membership Transfer method is focused on convincing people who are already disciples of Christ to attend our church instead of another church. It can also be good for re-energizing the faith of those who have drifted away from church. It rarely, however, helps new believers to make a confession of faith.

　

2) Evangelism As Reaching Out To Those Who Do Not Know Christ We can no longer assume that most people in our community have a background in church - especially younger people. The mainline church essentially lost a generation (ages 25-45), and now this generation is raising a lot of children who have no church experience. In this new environment, the job of the church is to:

A) Be a visible example in the community of what it means to follow Christ and love one another as he loved us. (We must counter a lot of negative media coverage.)

B) Listen to young adults and their attitudes about church and faith (to them, those are two very different things). Understand why they don‘t attend without pressuring or judging. Take seriously the unique concerns of their generation, and what they say about where they find spiritual fulfillment.

C) Be willing to “think outside the box” (and willing to fail) when it comes to reaching the missing generation and their children. What worked 20 or 30 years ago might not work today. We are exploring new territory without a map.

D) Continue to be welcoming and affirming to those who do have a church background and are looking for a congregation.

E) Be willing to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and to resist the temptation to be “numbers-oriented.” Understand the difference between keeping the church vibrant and functioning and becoming too focused on attendance figures.

　

　
So is your church doing evangelism, or just membership transfer?

From The Pulpit: From Cynicism To Wonder

Several years ago, when Margaret and I were living in South Carolina, I was sitting in my office on a hot summer afternoon when I heard a rumble of thunder. I ran outside to the parking lot, and sure enough, an ominous black cloud was rapidly beginning to fill up the western sky.

 Now the church just happened to sit at the top of a small hill on the eastern end of the downtown area, so I had the perfect vantage point to watch the storm roll in. It was awe-inspiring to experience first the building of the dark clouds until the entire sky was covered, then the flashes of lightning and rumblings of thunder, then the wind whipping in, and then the line of heavy rain marching right up Main Street and over the church.

 It was an experience  that was both thrilling and frightening at the same time, and was probably quite similar to what the author of Psalm 29 wrote about in the Old Testament reading for today. For he writes about what must have been a massive storm using images such as these:

 “The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders.”

“The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon” – which, by the way, were considered some of the strongest trees in that part of the world.

“The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.”

“The voice of the Lord cause the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare” – which brings to mind the devastating images of hurricane and tornado damage that we often see today.

 Now speaking of tornadoes, Margaret is always horrified that whenever we get a tornado warning, I don’t run for the closest room without windows. Instead, I head out the front door to get a good look at what is going on!

 But this storm on that day at my old church wasn’t a dangerous situation. It was just some moderate wind and a lot of rain. And the people rushing indoors didn’t look very awe-struck -  just annoyed. They weren’t rushing inside to jot down a powerful piece of poetry like Psalm 29. They were simply trying to stay dry, to keep their hair from getting messed up, and to maybe find someone to listen to their complaints about having their busy day interrupted.

 And how often are we like that? How often, when God’s power is so close and so immediate that it literally moves and shakes us and gets us soaking wet? How often, when we have the chance to run outside, and be a witness to that power, or to run inside so we don’t have to feel it – how often do we choose the indoor option?

Of course, when we ask ourselves this question, we’re talking about a lot more than thunderstorms. We’re talking about all the ways God’s power and God’s transforming grace are made manifest in our lives. How often, because we don’t want to feel the winds that the Holy Spirit is blowing, or because we might be afraid of what that wind brings, or because we might just be too busy to want to deal with it – how often do we, in our faith lives, choose a safe, indoor, out of the way place to hide when the storm rolls in?

Too often, it seems. And that goes for all of us, including myself. In today’s church – and I’m speaking of churches all over the country – in today’s church, we’ve lost in many ways the ability to embrace the storm, to have faith that God is at work in the wind and the rain, and to stand and witness to the storm in awe and in wonder like the author of Psalm 29 did. Because I have a feeling that when he wrote that powerful piece of poetry, he wasn’t just talking about a literal thunderstorm, either. Certainly, he was thinking about some sort of chaos or conflict that was going on in his life or in his religious community or in his nation.

And the reason that we might lose the ability to be amazed by the power of God is because, in many ways, we have grown cynical. According to Webster’s dictionary, cynicism is the belief that the human condition is motivated wholly by self-interest – that there really is no virtue or no good or no decency in the world – that anyone who appears to be doing something loving or compassionate is really just trying to get something for themselves. In other words, a cynic believes that the world is dominated by sinfulness, and that anything we might want to call grace or the goodness of God is an illusion.

Cynicism, therefore, is the opposite of wonder. It’s the opposite of the child-like faith that Luke talks about in today’s Gospel reading, when he says this: that “whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a child will never enter it.” That doesn’t mean that we should be childish or immature in our faith, but rather that we should look at the world and look at what God is doing in the world with a child-like sense of awe and wonder – that we should strive to find the heavenly point of view that allows us see that the world is more than just a sinful mess - that even though we are sinful, and even though there are storms, there is also a lot of grace and a lot of goodness to be found if only we open our eyes to it.

As some of you might know, this past week was when the Presbyterian Church USA held its General Assembly. This a gathering of commissioners from Presbyteries all over the nation, and it meets once every two years to make important decisions regarding national church policy. As expected, it was a rather contentious assembly, because the Presbyterian Church, much like our country in general, is sharply split along partisan lines. I won’t go into the details of the controversies, other than to say that people on both sides left the meeting feeling angry, bitter, and cynical – as if the church body could never come together, even as if the future of the denomination itself might be in jeopardy.

Now I was not at the assembly, but thanks to the marvels of modern technology, I was able to follow some of the debates on Twitter, which is an Internet social media site. By Friday night, after perhaps the most contentious debate was held on an extremely controversial issue, I too was feeling quite cynical. I, too, was beginning to believe that no amount of God’s grace could ever overcome the bad feelings coming out of this conflict. I found myself wanting just to turn the computer off, and to seek shelter from our denominational storm by ignoring what was going on.

But then, yesterday morning something amazing happened. I logged onto Twitter just to see what people were saying in the aftermath of Friday’s storm, and I was blown away. I learned that two young women – one a youth minister who just recently graduated from seminary, and the other still in seminary – were inviting people to join them for an online prayer meeting to be held later in the evening. I logged on last night not sure what to expect, concerned that it might end up being a partisan rally, or even a continuation of the debate.

But joyfully, my fears were misguided. It turned out to be a beautiful moment where Presbyterians from all over the nation, and even some folks from other denominations, gathered together and poured their hearts out in prayer for the future of God’s church. Now I don’t know how any of these folks feel about the controversial issues of the day, and that didn’t really matter - because here are a few examples of the types of prayers people lifted to God:

 “God, enable us to speak and listen to one another, to gain understanding.”

“God, give hope to those who are called to lead others to hope.”

“God, give us courage and wisdom to know when to speak and when to be silent.”

“God, help us to grow and go deeper in faith through study, prayer, and discernment.”

And finally, my favorite one – “God, may your will be done, whether in me, through me, around me, or in spite of me.”

When the prayer ended, it was amazing to see a chorus of “Amens” floating across my computer screen. For me, it truly was a moment where God transformed my cynicism into wonder.

And perhaps the most amazing aspect of that prayer service is that I was one of the oldest people participating in it. It was organized by two young women in their 20’s, and although there were a couple of 40ish and 50ish folks there, it was mostly young adults, and even a few teenagers who had gone to the assembly as youth advisory delegates. While not children in the technical sense, this was a prayer that was lifted by a group representing the youngest generation of leaders in the church – and the fact that they lifted such a beautiful, honest, non-partisan, non-divisive, non-selfish prayer for the future of God’s church gave me a palpable sense of awe and wonder – enough to bring me to tears as I sat in front of my computer last night.

That’s the kind of feeling that inspired the author of Psalm 29, and I pray that each one of us, if we find ourselves succumbing to the cynicism that is so common these days. I pray that each one of us can have these beautiful kinds of moments where God moves us back to a place of awe and child-like wonder. Amen.