Praying Hands and Dirty Fingernails

Today's chapter from Bishop Schnase's book Remember the Future, he speaks of John Wesley's acts of piety and works of mercy.  These acts which are essential the the our life in Christ, have become words that leave a sour taste in our mouths.  The Bishop writes, "Piety brings to mind self-righteous, sanctimonious arrogance. And no one want to be at the mercy of anyone else. Mercy connotes weakness, dependence, surrender."


For Wesley piety meant praying, worship, receiving sacraments, fasting, and belonging to a society of Christians that hold one another accountable for our growth in the knowledge and love of God.  These acts allow us to experience the inward transformation of the Holy Spirit within us.  These acts of piety nurture our relationship with God.

Works of mercy then are ministries of compassion, service and justice that relieve suffering, feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, and heal the sick. We do these out of obedience to Christ.  These are the ways that we love our neighbors and work towards healing a suffering and broken world.

What happens is that sometimes these acts lead congregations to emphasize one over the other.  A congregation becomes very inward focused when piety is emphasized over mercy. A congregation that does acts of mercy without care for their personal relationship with God will burn out.  The Bishop tells of the British Methodist general secretary Martyn Atkins who said, "Acts of piety and acts of mercy are like two wings of a bird; without either one, we cannot fly....Following Christ involves praying hands and dirty fingernails."

• How well does our congregation cultivate both ministries of piety and ministries of mercy?
• For deeper exploration, read Matthew 25:31-46; Matthew 20:27-28; and Romans 14:7-8

Four Thousand Shalls

In today's reading of Bishop Schnase's book Remember the Future, he talks about the book Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie.  This book explains how organizations create a giant hairball by creating so many procedures and policies that no one is really able to accomplish anything because of all the rules, standards, guidelines and accepted models of established patterns of behavior.

Orbiting then is the creative ways that persons who are pulled towards the hairball are able to interact with the organization without being deadened by the hairball nor going so far out that they are left out in empty space alone.  The Bishop writes, "Hairball is policy, procedure, imperative, rigidity, and regimented similarity in how we do our work, while Orbiting is originality, initiative, experimentation, flexibility, agility, risk, and adaption."

With this in mind we begin to think of our own systems of shalls and shall nots.  Our own Book of Discipline has 4,835 "shalls."  There are thousands of paragraphs explaining what committees, boards, councils, congregations and pastors can and cannot do.  And this does not include the number of dos and don'ts of our own Missouri Conference Journal. 

Bishop Schnase illustrates the hairball within congregations in the following way.  A young woman is inspired to help rebuild homes in a community hit with a tornado.  She asks her pastor if she can do something, the pastor tells her that the missions committee has to approve it, they meet quarterly, and they just met last night.  She waits three months.  She meets with the missions committee who is a group of people who agreed to meet 4 times a year not to travel places working on roofs and what not.  They say that in order for this to happen the Council will have to approve it, they meet quarterly and they met last week.  This type of system only hinders the mission of the church.

Now imagine this young woman who feels called to respond to a disaster in a neighboring state, but this time the pastor encourages her to invite others who are wanting to respond to this disaster to a meeting the next Tuesday.  At church Sunday the pastor invites anyone else who feels God is calling them to help to also come to the meeting.  Imagine the energy in the room as this group gathers.  They figure that the project will cost $2,000 and they figure out how to raise the money.  They plan to meet with the Church Council propose their plan and report that the money is pledged, their are volunteers ready, and ask for the blessing of the congregation. This is a very different system, but the second is a permission giving system.  The Bishop asks, "How can we foster systems that help us soar spiritually, and how can we develop practices that are conducive to our mission rather than restraining our mission?

• How does MacKenzie's notion of an organizational Hairball help you understand some of your experiences in church leadership?  How have your decisions contributed to the Hairball?
• Can you think of a time when you navigated organizational restraints to offer fresh and innovative ministry? How did you do it
• For deeper consideration, read John 3:1-17.

Challenge of the Ages

In this chapter of Bishop Schnase's book, he talks about what the community looks like and how often the make up of the church does not reflect the community.  For example, having a congregation with a median age of 59, white, middle class, 52% female in a surrounding community of median age 28, Hispanic/Black/Asian, poverty line, 51% male. And he asks how does a church, who is growing older, struggling to cross ethnic boundaries, and is dieing, how does it reach the next generation of leaders whom we seek to serve?

And yet there are many young people willing to serve; however, their ways are not our ways and yet they still want to hold onto what is important to the church today and they can help us to "remember the future."  We are to be the one's passing the mantle on to the next generation.  Passing the mantle; however, is not expecting young adults to do things the way we did them. Sitting on boards, serving on committees squeezes young people into a mold that does not fit.  Bishop writes that often times "worship styles, internal squabbles, organizational structures, and approaches to ministry--seem impenetrable, archaic, and out of touch to real human need and authentic spiritual ways."  Younger people often want to skip the meetings and put their hands and feet to work, not reviewing minutes and past discussions that have nothing to do with serving others.  Maybe there is something we can learn from our younger sisters and brothers, they offer us a different perspective and challenge us in new ways.  The world is filled with young people, the average age being 28.  Let's go and be with them where they are.


1 Timothy 4:12 in the Message says, "Don't let anyone put you down because you are young.  Teach believers with you life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity."

*When reading this chapter I am almost wanting to say that my community of Canton doesn't look like that though!  But when I do look at what Canton looks like does our congregation look like it?  The average age of Canton is 40, 22.5% is families and early empty nesters followed closely at 20.6% ages 5-19

Bishop Schnase asks:

• What would a church look like that goes where young people go and cares about what young people care about? How well does your congregation do at cultivating the spiritual life and leadership of young people?
• What would you estimate is the median age of our congregation is and how does it compare to the community we serve?
• How do we unintentionally put people down because they are young?

Destination

In today's blog from Bishop Schnase's book Remember the Future, he utilizes a quote by Dr. Joy Moore, an associate dean at Duke Divinity School.  She said, "The church is not the destination any more than the plane and a successful flight are the ultimate destination on your next trip."

So let's unpack this a little.  Yes a safe plane ride and landing at your destination are important but they are not the end purpose.  Its seeing our family after a completed business trip or enjoying time together on vacation. This goes the same for the church.  The church is not our destination our overall purpose is "the way of salvation."

Now let's unpack "the way of salvation" a little.  This is the Wesleyan understanding that both the end and purpose of our Christian journeys are growing in grace and in the knowledge and love of God, serving neighbor and seeking justice, pouring our lives out in service to God. On "the way of salvation" we are to be grounded in Scripture and fully participate in acts of piety and works of mercy.

The Bishop pushes this metaphor a little further in his book and questions:  If church is not the final destination, does our worship, community life, and service ministries take people to the destination or not? Does our worship take us to more profound connections with God? Does it help us to see the world through God's eyes? Do our service and justice ministries pull us into the fullness of Christ's compassion for a hurting world?  And he goes on to ask even more questions. He even pushes the metaphor further to say that just because people board the plane along with other travelers that if there is not a trained driver they will not get there either.  He writes, "Like planes, some congregations never leave the ground.  Others circle the airport, while people enjoy the snacks but never move toward a destination.  Some congregations don't take us where we need to go...And how do seasoned travelers and flight attendants treat first-time flyers who don't know the seating charts, the protocols and the etiquettes of airlines? Are they treated with impatience and rudeness or merely tolerated for the inexperience? Or are they offered good-humored support and encouragement and welcomed aboard?

God uses congregations to change the human heart and to reach a hurting world.  Congregations are a means of grace, a concrete and personal way God reaches into our world to work God's purposes in us and through us.  They open us to the way of salvation. They bring us Christ, and through us, they bring Christ to the world.

The mission is not ours; it is God's. The invitation is not ours; it is Christ's. Its not about us. It's about God's mission in Christ and how we embody that in our churches...Otherwise, we will never reach the destination."

• How does God use your congregation to fulfill the purposes of Christ? How would you describe the purpose of your annual conference?
• What do you think should be the destination, end, or purpose of your congregation? How well do we, as leaders, keep this clearly in focus?

Read Luke 4:16-21; Matthew 28:16-20, and the many "I am" statements by Jesus in John.  How do these passages help us understand the purpose God has for the church?

Shouts of Joy and Sounds of Weeping

      Bishop Schnase wrote a blog prior to General Conference in looking at the Call to Action plan.  This book is a re-writing of that blog focused on congregations.  In this book he calls congregations and their leaders to ask questions and begin conversations about our ministry and how we are accomplishing our mission on Making Disciples for Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World. 
     In the first reading, Bishop Schnase writes that the signs of change are shouts of joy and sounds of weeping.  When we recall the Book of Ezra, we read that once the foundations were laid for the new temple shouts of joy were heard throughout the land for such a great accomplishment.  At the same time the older generation was heard weeping, for the foundation was not like the previous temple by any means.  This story shows us the complexities of change and the range of emotions felt by change.  Even our founder John Wesley found himself feeling vile, when he began preaching in the streets and not from the pulpit; however, he felt great joy at the people he was able to reach now that he had left his comfort zone.  As we look at our church, our congregation and our community we realize that if we want to Make Disciples for Jesus Christ we have to change, but change takes courage.
     How might you address these questions?

• What are the sources of loss you have experienced as your congregation has changed its way of offering ministry of Christ?  As you conference has changed? What have been the sources of joy resulting from these changes?
• How does a desire for change sometimes feel disloyal to our forbears and mentors?
• Have you ever experienced an "Ezra moment" (joy and weeping at the same time in the face of change)? Have you ever experienced a "Wesley moment" (successfully experimenting with a ministry you would have avoided at an earlier point in you life)?

     If you want to go deeper, read Ezra 3: 10-13

Day 4

Come, true light.
Come, life eternal.
Come, hidden mystery.
Come, treasure without name. 
Come, reality beyond all words.
Come, person beyond all understanding.
Come, rejoicing without end.
Come, light that knows no evening.
Come, unfailing expectation saved.
Come, raising of the fallen.
Come, resurrection of the dead.
Come, all powerful, for unceasingly you create, refashion and change all things by your will alone.
Come, invisible whom none may touch and handle.
Come, for you continue always unmoved, yet at every instant you are wholly in movement; you draw  
     near to us who lie in hell, yet you remain higher than the heaven.
Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips; yet who you are and what 
     your nature is, we cannot say or know.
Come, Alone to the alone.
Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me.
Come, the consolation of my humble soul.
Come, my joy, my endless delight. 
~Symeon the New Theologian, 949-1022

Scripture:  1 John 5:1-21

Observations: 1: Those who believe in Christ love God and those who love God love God's child. 2 How do we know we love God, by loving God's children and obeying God's commandments. 3-5: The commandments are not burdensome and they help us to overcome this world and you can only overcome if you believe in Christ. 6: Christ came by water and blood, not just water. (Christ did not come by baptism alone but by baptism and sacrifice). 7-8: Three things testify to the truth Spirit, water and blood. 9-10:  We believe a person' testimony; however, God's testimony is greater and will make a liar out of a non-believer. 11-12: The testimony is eternal life which is the Son. 13: Believe so that you might know. 14-15: Our confidence is that if we ask for what is according to God's will, God hears us.  16-17: We need to pray for all sins, and sin that leads to death. And we should pray especially for those whose sins have not led to death.  18-21: Those born of God keep safe from sinning and beware of idols.

Application:  Some times I wonder if I am loving others as God wants me to.  How do I be mindful that everyone is sinful, including myself; not coming across judgmental while still bringing awareness to individual sins, and then empowering people to overcome their sinfulness as a community and not individuals on their own.  How can I empower others to live according to God's will without being a strict officer of the law, but recognizing the intention of the law being a close relationship with God that in time produces fruits of the Spirit.  Beyond these wonderings, I realize that it is important to pray for others no matter their situation and that is why it is so important to have prayer partners within a congregation.  Overall, just keep returning to God and loving helps me to live in the water and the blood.

Prayer:  Dear God, thank you for all that you have given me.  Thank you for allowing me to be in ministry to all the world and may I continue to do your will.   Thank you Lord.  Amen.

Day 3

Scripture:  Ephesians 2: 1-10

Observations:  1-2: God is at work in ALL people, even disobedient. 3: If we are not currently disobedient at one time we were. 4: But God's love was able to change us. 5-6: Christ lives in us and works through us even when we are sinful, so that we are no longer sinful. 7-10: God works through us in our sinful state so that we might know the extent of God's love.  We do not gain love by our work, but our faith in God and in God's love is God able to help us overcome our sinfulness. 11-13:  We are brought closer to God by Christ's sacrifice not by outward acts such as circumcision.  (OH I got carried away:-)

Application:  What special gift have you received recently?  In terms of physical gifts, I have received a bracelet that a young girl made for me, the time and effort she put into it is precious to me.  In terms of emotional gifts, I have been able to see 2 young Confirmands grow in their faith and commitment to Christ and I have received support in some unlikely places.

      What in your life is due only to God's presence and goodness?  My ability to be a pastor.  God is able to continually work through all my insecurities and inabilities, to minister to others.  I am always shocked at how sometimes I am able to help others when I feel unsure of what I am doing.  As long as I continue to live in Christ's humility, God continues to use me for God's Will.

Prayer:  Dear God, thank you for using me who is still a sinner.  May I continue to grow in Your Grace.  May I continue to help others experience Your Grace.  And Lord, never let me sleep until I have stretched my hand over Your village and invoked Your blessing Amen. (Bouttier)

Day 2

Prayer by Pope Gregory I, c. 540-504
 Lo, fainter now lie spread the shades of night, 
     and upward spread the trembling gleams of morn,
suppliant we bend before the Lord of Light,
     and pray at early dawn,
that this sweet charity may all our sin
     forgive, and make our miseries to cease;
may grant us health, grant us the gift divine
     of everlasting peace.
Father Supreme, this grace on us confer;
    and thou, O Son by an eternal birth!
with thee, coequal Spirit, comforter!
   whose glory fills the earth.

Scripture: Romans 9:30-10:21

Observations:  9:30-32 Righteousness is attained by faith not works; works are a fruit of faith.  10:6-9 Faith is in the heart; words alone do not show faith.  With your heart you believe, with your lips you confess.  10:14-21 People can only believe if they hear the Word of God, so people must witness; but just because people witness does not mean that others will hear.

Application:  Because I have faith, I am able to preach the Word of God to others.  I can only preach because I have faith that God is using me.  I cannot be discouraged when it feels like no one is listening because the only way anyone can hear is if someone is speaking the Word of God, but I cannot control what others listen to; therefore I must continue on in my faith.  It sounds a lot like circular logic, but it makes sense to me about persevering.  Believing in Christ is a very personal relationship, but it does not mean that others will listen or follow.  Being Christian does not make my life easier, and actually challenges me everyday.  However, if I continue on with my faith, I allow others the opportunity to believe.

Prayer:  Gracious God, grant me the words and wisdom to share your love with all those I encounter today.  May words not be harmful but encouraging and empowering.  And Lord, help me to not overlook all those who are silent and need Your voice of truth.  May Your blessings fill this community and world.  Thank you Lord.  Amen.

Day 1

I have never blogged and don't really know how this all works so I apologize as I get adjusted to how everything works.  I am starting this blog as a way to help those in my congregation and who are interested in doing daily devotions.  I believe that daily bible study is one of the key elements to growing in a deeper relationship with God.  It usually seems a lot scarier before I get started.  I have decided for my first time doing a blog and devotion that I will use the Serendipity Bible.  I am using the Spiritual Formation plan 43 track 2.  I will supplement my readings with A Time to Pray and the utilizing the S.O.A.P journal method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer).

Scripture:  Colossians 1:15-23

Observations: When reading this passage I am drawn to verses 22-23.  I am one who believes in Christ's sacrifice for my life and yet I struggle because despite knowing that I am made new in Christ.  Like Paul I struggle with doing that which I do not want to do and not doing that which I want to do.  I find that I find my strength in verse 23 that as long as I continue on in faith and hope with my eyes focused on the gospel I can keep trying day in and day out.  I am also struck with Paul claiming to be a servant, can I joyfully claim my servitude to God?

Application:  Don't give up, don't give in.  Keep focused each day.

Prayer:  Dear God, I ask for your strength in my weakness and your courage in my fear.  I pray that I can be reminded of Christ's love for me despite me.  Help me to not dwell on my flaws but to see your gifts and talents working through me.  May I truly be your vessel for your people.  Thank you Lord. Amen.