A Realization…

I had a realization today:

When a 2-credit class requires 50-100 pages of reading and a paper due every week and you’re taking 15 credits (mostly 3-credit classes) – life is going to really suck for the next 2 years.

I have a headache…I need coffee…

Filed under: Random

A Missed Opportunity

I now consider myself the world’s biggest idiot…

Earlier today, my Mishaela and I were walking around the mall. We decided to go to Kay’s Jewelers – not to buy anything, just to get our wedding rings cleaned. So we’re sitting at the counter waiting for our rings to finish and making small-talk with the guy behind the counter. We mention that we just moved here (I’m beginning to notice that dropping that in conversation tends to bring about an opportunity to invite people to church or whatever) and are still getting to know the area.

The salesman – naturally – asks what brought us here. So I mention Calvin Seminary. He then tells us this great story about being raised Jewish, then his parents converted to Christianity just before his 13th birthday, taking the family with them. He admitted to us that he never really caught on to the whole “Jesus thing.”

But as he went on he told us that his wife now makes him go to church every week. They attend a church modeled after Mars Hill – contemporary, high-energy, etc. The pastor performed their wedding. He likes the guy, he likes the worship style, he likes the people. But he knows He’s going to hell – he openly admits that’s where he’s heading.

So what did we do at that point? We smiled, thanked him for cleaning our rings, and left.

Have I mentioned yet that I’m just about the world’s biggest IDIOT?????!!!!!

So here’s the deal: I need to think up an excuse to go back in there while he’s working so that I can strike up a conversation with the guy and offer to buy him a coffee on his break on something. This guy is so close yet so far away.

Frankly, I’m too ashamed not to go back…

Filed under: Christian Living, Evangelism, Ministry

On CRC Leadership

The apparent lack of qualified or strong pastoral leaders in the CRC has been a hot topic lately. Churches are struggling to bring energy and enthusiasm back into their ministries and the brunt of the blame is being placed upon the leadership – or lack thereof – of the pastoral staff. Duane Kelderman, Vice-President of Administration @ CTS, has an article in the Sept. Banner entitled “Leading-Edge Pastors.” He begins with this:

“We need pastors who know how to lead a congregation!”

At Calvin Theological Seminary (CTS), we hear this cry for help regularly—from churches and from students. We’re keenly aware that many congregations today struggle to find a clear ministry focus and direction, and often need more help than they get from their pastors. We also know that many other ministries are looking for leaders too.

I wholeheartedly agree with his assessment – and I’m thrilled that CTS is taking steps to improve the quality of leaders they are producing and sending out into ministry in the CRC. My only concern is how long will it take to turn around the leadership void that currently exists and will it be too late?

I’ve been doing a significant amount reading on the history of the CRC. There’s a rich history on both sides of the border of church planting and growth. I was struck by the fact the CRC was almost single-handedly responsible for the Christian labor unions and organizations found in Canada. But there’s something else: Much of the growth the CRC experienced from its humble beginnings in the W. Michigan wilderness all the way up to the early 1960’s was a result of immigration.

I see the fact as neither good nor bad – it’s just the way it was. But it does describe the sort of church the CRC use to be. When the 60’s rolled around and societal norms of every sort were challenged and overthrown by the youth of the day, a lot of things were forced to changed. The Dutch-immigrant dominated church leadership struggled to keep up with the chaos that surrounded them. A number of highly controversial decisions were made – some of which are still being debated today.

To make a long explanation short, the CRC has experienced a general leadership void for nearly 40 years and the effects are starting to catch up with them big-time!

And so I’m delighted that CTS – our primary training ground – is beginning to take steps to combat the issue. What I don’t like, is that it took everyone this long to speak up and say, “We don’t have anyone to lead us!”

Also in the Sept. Banner, another article entitled “What is a Healthy Church?” attempts to describe the work of the Sustaining Congregational Excellence Program recently created in the think-tanks at 2850 Kalamazoo. I was looking at their official website and thinking, “The idea is great, but it looks very disorganized.” It’s hard to get a clear, concise, intentional purpose from the website. Which makes me wonder just how much thinking has really gone on over this program before it was launched. What happened to “excellence?”

The time has come in the life of the CRC that if some serious, strong, purpose-minded, visionary leaders don’t step up to the plate, we’re going to find ourselves in a world of hurt. Congregations are begging for guidance and instruction. Order and structure are absent from our ministries. Somethings gotta’ change…

Filed under: Church, Ministry

An Interesting Conversation

The other day, I was sitting at Starbucks when I truck up a conversation with an employee. We got on the topic of where we came from (Portland, OR) when a man sitting across the way joined in. He was originally from Southern CA, lived for a while in San Francisco, Florida, then eventually ended up in Muskegon, MI. Although a painter by trade, we caught up to him while in the middle of a political campaign in which he is running for Congress as a West Michigan representative in the Democratic party.

Frankly, I saw this as a great opportunity for me to stretch myself a little and work the conversation in such a way that I could invite him to E. Paris CRC’s Summer Celebration.

The conversation revolved around the idea of community. His optimism was magnetic and he had great energy. He confided that he had been raised Greek Orthodox but left the faith of his youth, and then about 6 years go began “formally” attending church again. Frankly (again) this sounded very much like politiqing, the words of someone trying desperately to earn votes by establishing common ground when he really has no idea what he’s talking about. (For the record, one of the things I find so attractive about Obama is that he claims he’s Christian and actually sounds and acts like too. With him, you know he knows what he’s talking about.)

I felt this political candidate was too idealistic – he was speaking as if community was the solution to all our problems: If we could only get people out of their houses and interacting with their neighbors – getting to know who they live next to – life would be so much more enjoyable (this is why I thought something like the Summer Celebration would be something he’d be interested in).

In an effort to plant a seed, I stated that I agree with him that building community is a need for our society. I went to say that unfortunately – from a cultural perspective – the only communities people have available to them are their religious communities. He responded with an observation that every religious person thinks they have God (can’t disagree with that). But then, the ultimate of damning postmodern statements (and the reason he won’t get the W. Michigan vote) came out of his mouth: “But God is bigger than any single group and people need to recognize that there is just as much validity to someone elses beliefs as there is to their own. Religion and spirituality are things to help people get through the ebb and flow of life and we need to respect what others have found to work for them.”

Do I really need to explain why his thoughts are a problem? Likewise, do I need explain why I think his sudden “church attendance” is more political than anything else?

A recent poll conducted by – of all duos – Associated Press and MTV found that nearly 85% of people between 14-24 consider religion to be a major part of their lives. We still have people running around trying to get elected to office, claiming that they best represent the ideas of the constituency, yet at the same time treat religion and spirituality as by-products of human life – as something that can and should be tossed aside for the benefit of society as a whole. With so many up and coming voters hold fast to their beliefs that idea has got to change…it WILL change. And a lot of people are going to detest every minute of it.

I suspect the Boomers will cringe at the thought of American politics re-invoking the name of God after so many of them fought for so long and so hard to do away with God in the public sector. God – in some form – is making a comeback.

Something else this study found (although I would hardly consider it a discovery since I basically fall into the above category and have been aware of it for a while) is that young people are also very tolerant of the beliefs of others, even when they contradict their own. That can be both a blessing and a problem. In any case, that’s much different than what the hopeful-Congressman was promoting. He was promoting a society in which religion remains a personal, never-talk-about choice, where-as young people see it as an integral, public display of who they are. One says that in order for there to be peace everyone needs to shut up about what they believe, while the other says that peace comes when we can be “true to ourselves” and accept one another exactly as we are in full. One sees religion as a crutch to help us do good things for our neighbors – on sort of weekly personal pep-rally. The other sees it as a defining trait intimately tied to the person they are – reject one, and you automatically reject the other.

I told E. Paris yesterday that the key to breaking into the apartments across the street will be to break down walls. The people who live there have a certain impression of what sort of church they are – right or wrong as it may be. I will agree with my congressional conversant, great things happen when people get out of their houses and become a real community. In order for real community to be established, stereotypes need to fall. In our case we need to crush the false impressions yet still maintain a message that Jesus is Lord! No “if’s,” “and’s,” or “but’s” about it…

Filed under: Christian Living, Christianity, Evangelism, Ministry

A Few Outreach Ideas

We’ve been attending a near-by church the past few weeks – so far we’ve enjoyed it, but have yet to make a decision on whether we’re going to make it our new church home. The people are great – mostly retired folk – and possess a tremendous amount of passion for reaching out to the neighborhood and revitalizing their shrinking congregation.

A few things that have stood out to me so far:

1. An elder made the comment to me: “Resources are not the problem. The problem is that we don’t know how to do it.”
2. The worship pastor: “We want to create a blended service, but the worship wars are keeping us from doing that…Would you be willing to help talk us through the process?” (The question was asked after I remarked that I had some experience with blended services and thinking things through with the goal of excellence.)

I admire their hearts, I really do. I wish I saw more churches with the desire that this group of seniors displays. I see a lot of great opportunities here for me to get involved doing the things I’ve excelled at in the past. And that gets me excited.

The situation is an interesting one. The church is directly across the street from several apartment complexes that all allow Section 8 residents. There is also a senior residential area just around the corner where many of the members live. The church is located on a major thoroughfare between Grand Rapids and Kentwood, and very close to one of the major comercial districts in the area. As I see it, there’s a lot of opportunity for growth.

So here’s some of my thoughts:

1. The church should focus on refining it’s ministry/ies before it begins heavy attempts at reaching out. By “refine” I mean – bare minimum – create a smooth flow to the services; the worship services should have the feel of purpose (i.e. this is happening because we intended it to happen exactly like this).
2. They should establish themselves as the neighborhood church. When people in the apartments and the villa think of church, this congregation should be what they think of.
3. Office staff/administrative staff/leadership should offer various free services: counseling, advice, shuttling, etc. But simply offering these things won’t do any good if the target group doesn’t know they’re there…
4. Shuttle service from the apartments and villas to the church, especially in the winter. Set up a rout, get a few volunteers, “advertise” it, and see what happens.
5. Oil change ministry (thank-you to Parklane CRC for this idea). This will give the church an opportunity to build relationships with a lot of different people (neighbors, each other, local auto parts store, etc.). Set up a “hospitality station” with cookies and juice where people can wait and mingle with church members while their iol is changed for free.
6. Recognize the administrative staffs at all the apartment complexes by bring them flowers or coffee or whatever. Keep them happy, and they’ll open the doors of ministry for you.
7. Offer the use of the church facilities for free for apartment events.

I’d love to present some of these ideas to the church…we’ll see what happens…

Filed under: Church, Evangelism, Ministry