Lent: A Time to Focus on Mission

God always calls the church to do God’s mission.  In the season of Lent, the first Sunday of which is March 1, we’ll focus on the basic building blocks of the mission given the church.  To do this mission, the Church must grow in its understanding of God’s mission in the World.  We must think more about what the church is called by God to be.  We must grow in our commitment to be God’s people in the world.   For five weeks we’ll be digging deeper into these questions to help us articulate the mission God gives us. 

The language I’ve chosen above is carefully worded.  You’ll note that whenever speaking of the source of mission I’ve used language that does not claim the mission as something we own or create.  Mission in the Church, is something that comes from outside of us.  Mission is not something that we determine or set up on our own.  Rather, it is something we step into as a response of a calling given.  

Mission is God’s doing.  God leads God’s people.  God calls the Church.  God forms the community of faith.  God gives us mission and calls us to follow.  The question of mission, then, becomes not whether or not this church has a mission, but whether God’s mission has a Church in which it can flourish and take root. 

The theme for the weeks ahead is “What’s God Trying to Do Among Us?”   We pose this question as a five week exploration of God’s intent in the world.  It is put before us with the hopes that the more we understand God’s hopes for the world (God’s dreams) the more we will be able to understand what we are to do.  The more we come to see God’s involvement in the world around us, the more we will discover how God calls us to be. 

Each week a different aspect of this theme will be explored.  First, we’ll begin by exploring the work of God.  Then we’ll explore the work of Jesus.  Next will come a time to consider the work of the Church.  Then we’ll spend two weeks considering how God calls us as individuals to be active in God’s work. 

For us to end thirty four years of decline and to begin a new era of growth, we have to start with a consideration of the basic building blocks of mission.  The more we engage God’s mission, the better able we will be to turn from decline to growth.  For this reason, I hope all of you will be involved in our Lenten series.  Each week we’ll explore the theme on Sunday morning.  On Wednesdays we’ll focus on another aspect of the same topic introduced on Sunday mornings. 

As always, your prayers for this congregation are important.  As we commit ourselves to turning from decline to growth, your prayers are even more critical.  It will take determination and hard work to discern the work ahead of us.  Prayer prepares us for God’s work.  In your prayers, pray that God will give us both the desire and the courage to do the work needed to transform our ministry. 

Generosity: Preparing to Turn from Decline to Mission

Recently, we’ve I've been talking about the importance of keeping our focus on God’s mission. I'm convinced that as we discover God’s mission, we will have a better understanding of why God calls us to be a strong congregation. The leaders of our congregation and I hope that we will focus our attention on turning away from 34 years of decline. We hope that as a congregation we will dare to be transformed, so that we can be a church home of choice for people of all ages. We believe that God calls us to greatness.

But, to be the Church at its best, we need your financial support, now as ever, more than ever. If we are going to turn from a 34 year decline we will need to do some pretty hard work. Raising funds for ministry is hard work that can easily derail our efforts to focus on what matters most. Money doesn’t matter most to the church… Yet, when a ministry isn’t funded at a level to do what people expect from the Church, it causes us to struggle. Money struggles in the church divert our attention from what matters most: following Christ in ministry to the world around us.

We need to focus not on money, but on mission. To do this well, we need to make sure that money concerns do not divert our attention. God, in God’s wisdom, calls us to tithe: to give ten percent of our income to do ministry. If all of us dared do this, we could change the world. We could dream enormous dreams as a congregation and we could accomplish them easily. If all of us trusted God enough to give 10% of our income, as God calls us to do in the Scriptures, we would find our lives greatly enriched: we would all know the joy of living lives of generosity. We would find that our fears of scarcity would be replaced with joy because our priorities would shift.

God calls us to be the church at its best. Today we ask you to extend your hands in generosity so that what we do together in the name of Jesus Christ can make even bigger impacts. For us to move out of the 34 year decline that is our recent history, we need to be set free from our biggest concern. While none of us can make this happen on our own, when we work together, in the name of Jesus Christ, we can make it a reality.

Recently, you picked up your offering envelopes for the year. Please use them regularly. Consider using the Simply Giving program to make your offerings automatically from your own account. Do all that God calls you to do. Generosity is a spiritual gift that has the power to transform our congregation.

What is God calling you to give? Please prayerfully consider this question as you give each week.

The Healing Power of Faith

Time Magazine, this week focuses on "How Faith Can Heal." It sits along side other major articles such as "The trouble with talking to Iran" and "25 People to Blame for the Economic Mess We're in."

Faith has a healing power to offer the messes we find ourselves in. The articles focus on the experiences of faith and healing by exploring scientific understandings about religious experience. All of this is good and well.

In checking out the articles in Time, I think the deeper power of faith to bring healing is largely ignored. As the articles explore religious experiences of the individual, they completely ignore the role of faith communities as centers for God's healing and redemptive work in the world. We need to focus more on the power of faith to bring healing to the world.

Now, just in case you're starting to get nervous that I'm about to advocate for a return to a church-state relationship, where the church is an extension of the state or where the state functions on behalf of the Church, don't worry. I value the separation of church and state. I'm not interested in a resurrection of the Moral Majority, nor will you ever find me advocating for a reinvigorated religious right.

The healing power of God comes from the power released within the community of faith as it becomes and furthers the emergence of God's kingdom in this world. As God's way emerges in the world God's will is done. God's way emerges and things become as God intends them to be: the broken ways of this world are replaced by the ways God hopes for. This healing power of God's kingdom is unleashed when the people of God heeds the call of Jesus to live the new way exemplified by and lived out by, Jesus Christ. God's healing power is made real when God's people fall in love with God and the neighbors around us.

If we are serious about healing this fractured world, we have to come to terms with our responsibility to live as God's loving people who value all the neighbors of the world. This includes Iran. We need to commit ourselves to the tasks of peace and justice. This is not to say that we need to become a floormat on which the dangerous people of the world wipe their feet. Instead, we need to look at the needs of those around us and to love others by living the ways of justice.

The real power of faith to bring healing in this world is found in the ways we (the people of God) live in the various communities of the world. Imagine the difference it would have made if the twenty five notorious people listed by Time as the people to blame for the economic meltdown underway had used their power and resources to protect the vulnerable. Their lack of concern for the "least of these," their love of money and advocacy for that which pays big dividends for the rich and powerful led us to our current turmoil.

It's too late to go back and fix what has happened in the past. Yet, the future is still ahead of us. The call of Jesus remains before us. And as I quote from the book of Matthew below, I've noted where the original language makes a careful distinction between the individual and the community. The individual is singular. The community is plural.

Jesus said, "You (singluar) have heard it said 'You (singular) shall love your (singular) neighbor and hate your (singular) enemy.' But I say to you (plural) Love your (plural) enemies and pray for those who persecute you (plural), so that you (plural) may be children of your Father..." Matthew 5:43-45a

The healing power of God comes from love lived in and by the community. When God's people work together for justice and peace, the world is healed and what God hopes for in this world begins to emerge.

Let our prayer continue to be as Jesus taught us: "Our Father in heaven... (note the plural, it is a prayer for the community to pray) ...Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..." In seeking God's coming kingdom, we commit ourselves to the ways of justice: We live the ways of love.

Does the Church Matter?

I recently had somebody ask me whether the Church still matters, today. I responded that I definitely think the Church has a role to play. His question was posed more than three weeks ago, and yet it is still with me. It's been rumbling around in the back of my head and I don't always like some of the new answers I've been thinking about. Some answers are in the "yes" column... Others are in the "no" column.

When does the Church matter? The Church matters when it is the Church at its best: a community of God's people living out Christ's calling to be God's healing agents in the world. The Church matters when it provides food to the hungry, strength to those who struggle, comfort to the dying and friendship to those who are marginalized. The Church matters when it serves the community within which it is rooted: when it builds bridges between groups that present in the community that do not mingle with each other, when it provides space for addiction recovery, when it provides a home for flood recovery efforts in the driftless region. The Church does all these things and more. When the Church is the Church at its best, a community of God's peope living out Christ's calling to be God's healing agents in the world, the Church matters.

On the other hand, the Church doesn't matter much when it focues in on itself. When God's vision of being a blessing for the community is displaced by a myopic view that focuses only on the needs of the institution, the Church makes no impact in the community around it. When people focus more on membership in the church as a means to privilege or status than a calling to bring God's reconciling power to the world, the church loses its way. When we forget our calling (the calling to be God's reconciling agents for the sake of a fragmented world) the church becomes irrelevant.

God's love for us is shown through Jesus Christ. He sets us free from sin, death, and the powers of evil, so that we can be the Church at its best: God's reconciling and healing presence. How we live out Christ's calling to be the Church at its best will determine whether or not the Church matters. When the Church matters, it will be a strong and vibrant center for the community. When it isolates itself, when it fails to reach out in service and friendship to all, when it becomes overly concerned with self preservation, and/or when it values tradition over mission, the church matters little.

I am thankful for the good question of the one who left "organized religion" behind some years ago. He saw in his life that the church he experienced in his hometown had ceased to matter. It had become irrelevant. He wanted no part in a church that focused only on its own needs and failed to live out its values.

The challenge for us is to rise up as God's servant Church and to be the Church at its best. The mission to which we are called is what matters most. Our willingness to live it out determines the Church's value. May we be found faithful. May we always be the Church at its best: Christ's reconciling presence in the world for the sake of the world, a community not in and for itself, but a community that exists for the sake of the world.

MPS: Missional Positioning System

This week, I’ve been in Florida, attending a national event for senior pastors in the ELCA. It has been an incredible week. The speakers have been inspirational, the worship top-notch, and the opportunities to visit with other pastors about issues we face invaluable.

Some of the best conversations of the week happened during the down times of the week. Over beer and shared meals, pastors learned from each other while reflecting on topics covered in the daily sessions. Today, I drove with a colleague pastor to Miami’s South Beach. It was fun to see the art deco architecture and we enjoyed a good meal together along the beach. It was too cold to swim, but the car was warm, so we drove.

On the dash of the rental car was my GPS unit, a Global Positioning System. The electronic voice named “Samantha” told us how to get where we were going. “In point five miles, turn left on Ocean Drive.” Knowing our location, the onboard computer directed us in our adventure. Always calculating our goal, Samantha’s voice guides us.

There’s no such magical box for the Church. We know a bit about the future we want: we want to get to a point where we are the Church at its best, strong partners of Christ in ministry. We want to be a church of choice for people who wish to be followers of Jesus. We want to be vibrant proclaimers of God’s love and grace, challengers who lift up the call to follow Jesus into the acts of reconciliation for the world. We want to be a restored Church involved in God’s restorative work in the world.

We need to be the Church’s MPS. We need to be Good Shepherd’s mission positioning system. To know how we get to where we want to be we need to begin by describing our current position. A Global Positioning System takes readings from satellites to figure its location. As a church, we need to look to other constellations to help us get a good read on our current bearing.

There are constellations to help us discern our current location: Worship attendance figures, financial data, clarity present or absent about what God calls us to do and more. When we look at these things, we see that we have a ways to go before we are where we want to be.

We are a bit lost in mission: Since 1970 our congregation has lost half its membership. Since 1974, worship attendance has decreased by more than half. Five years ago, our staff included two full time pastors, an almost half time Christian Education Director, a Choir Director, and an Organist, a full time secretary, a full time custodian and a part time financial secretary. Today, to make financial ends meet, we have cut our pastoral staff to one and three quarters, we have eliminated our Christian Education Director, we have cut our secretarial staff. Still, financial concerns cloud our view. When we look at these constellations, these markers of our location, we see that we are not the strong congregation we once were.

Congregations experiencing decline often lose themselves in the fogs of anxiety and fear. As loss is experienced, the community of faith feels the tensions of the losses: conflict, strife, worry and blame cloud the path to recovery. When these fogs settle in and mission is not reclaimed, it is typical for a congregation to lose members, to see times of trouble continue, to experience declines in financial stability.

But we are not lost in these fogs. Perhaps, we are disoriented, maybe even adrift, but we are not alone in our straying. God, in Jesus Christ, comes for all who wander and who feel like they have gone off course. For the bewildered and the perplexed, the disoriented and aimless, God goes to work.

Like a foolish shepherd, God leaves the ninety nine behind and searches like hell for the vulnerable one that abandoned the safety of the fold. Good Shepherd has been found. God is with us. God calls us into ministry.

To find our way, we have to begin to ask anew what God is doing in this world so that we can understand more fully what God calls us, the Church, to be. Only when we know God’s mission will we know more about who and what God calls us to be. God’s mission must again become our mission.

Finding our way will take time and it will take effort. It will take resources and it will take commitment. With imagination and hope, we can do this. In worship and in prayer, we will find our way. I am dedicated to working with you to help us find our way.

To find our way, we must know where we are. Then, we must trust God's mission to guide us. God’s mission will guide us into the future God hopes for us . May God bless us in the journey. Practice your faith, give generously, and pray for the Church. God will lead us, if and when we are ready to be led.

Driftless, Not Aimless

Welcome to a blog I've started to collect and share thoughts I've been having about living out God's mission in the Driftless region of Southwest Wisconsin. In this blog, I hope to think about living as God's active mission partners.

My first audience for this blog is the people of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Viroqua, Wisconsin. Others are welcome to listen in. Good Shepherd is a church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is a congregation that needs to figure out its mission - it's reason for being the church.

I chose the name Driftless, Not Aimless for this blog for two reasons. I chose it because it communicates where we live. The Driftless Region is the context within which our Church. I also chose this name because it describes our determination to be purposeful. A church with a healthy sense of mission has direction and vitality. It is not adrift. It has direction.

I come to the task of writing this blog with some central convictions and points of view: I begin with the assumption that God is active in this world through Jesus Christ - that God's greatest hope is that God's intended and hoped for world (a world where all the brokenness of the world would be healed) is emerging for the sake of the world, and that the church is involved in this process. I believe I've said a lot in putting these convictions first. As I write them, I have many thoughts that enter my head, thoughts I plan to write about in the future.

In the months ahead, I hope to write about our need to reclaim a sense of Christian mission for the people of Good Shepherd. I hope you'll find this blog helpful and will welcome your thoughts and comments about writings I post. I invite you to share this blog with friends and family.