Things -and People- Change.

When you're young (if you're like me) you assume you'll put the world together in a certain way, just the way you like it, and things will stay that way. The right network of friends. The right spouse. The right children. The right job. The right house. Put everything together and then it will stay, right?

The truth is life is always changing.

I've been thinking about that a lot as our church staff goes through some changes.

Chris Lantz, a great young guy who has been our Trinity Life Center Director (and helped out with our visitation ministry to older adults), has moved on to be a seminary student and the student pastor at Cedar Lake UMC. Those folks are going to love Chris!

A wonderful young woman named Lori Grasty is coming in to lead our Upward Ministries (basketball and cheerleading) next season.

A wonderful couple, Steve and Sue Price, are going to step in and help lead our visitation ministries with older adults. Steve is also going to help us with pastoral visits to older adults.

Another wonderful TUMC member, Deb Smith, is stepping in to take over the part-time position of Director of Adult Discipleship & Small Groups.

Our Staff Parish Relations Committee was getting ready to look for a new leader of our Praise Team since Jacob Kisor will be leaving the area after getting married this coming summer when we learned that our Director of Music & Worship Ministries, Kristen Senne, will be leaving at the end of May.

So things change.

People change.

People come and go.

I don't like change. I don't like the work that goes into finding the right person for a position on our church ministry staff.

Except...except...God has a way of being able to work for good through times of change. As much as I hate to see good people, faithful people, live our team I also know that God is giving us a new opportunity to grow. In some new ways. In some new directions.

You never replace a person: I know that. People aren't parts in a machine where you can pull one out and replace it with an identical part. You don't replace people with a perfect copy of the preceding leader, but you go out to find someone who will do the job...in a new way. Someone who is gifted in their way. One person will never be their predecessor.

When there is change on our staff, we are looking for someone who:

1. Loves Jesus.
2. Loves the imperfect community that is the Christian church (because Jesus died to give the church life), and loves the mission and ministry of Trinity United Methodist Church.
3. Has the heart of a servant.
4. Is coachable.
5. Has a commitment to ministry as a team.
6. Believes their role is equip the people of God to do the work of the church. Someone who builds teams.
7. Knows their stuff...whether that is music, youth ministry, etc.
8. Is gracious. Understands they are imperfect and the people they work with are imperfect.
9. Committed to excellence in everything they do.
10. Good work habits and the ability to follow through.

So we are in a season of change on our church staff. Not because there is some new, grand staffing plan. Not because of any crisis. It's just that things change. People come and go. You know?

So my heart aches for the friends who leave our place...step out of being a part of our everyday lives. And another part of my heart is eager to see the people God will bring to us...and how God's church will grow and bear new fruit.

The Sky is Falling Approach to Church.

Money is always an interesting part of church life. People tell me they get tired of us, in the church, talking about money...faithfulness with that stuff in our wallets and 401.k accounts. Truth is I have never -that I know of- had a tither (someone who gives at least 10% of their income/monetary resources to God) ever make that complaint! Givers don't mind being encouraged to give because they find joy in giving.

I remind them Jesus talked about money a lot. Because you'll find our heart where our treasure is. I'm told Martin Luther said the last part of a Christian to get wet, when they are baptized, is their wallet. If Luther didn't say it, he should have!

The week before Christmas and the week after Christmas I came across two email messages from pastors of mega-churches to their congregations. Both messages were rather strident challenges for people to give generously at the end of the year. Rick Warren, a really extraordinary pastor of a great church, sent a note to their people at Saddleback saying the weekend after Christmas the offerings were down and the church was $900,000 in the red.

I don't know all the details (I know...then stop before you say another word!), but something feels very wrong when the church runs close enough to financial disaster that one bad weekend can shove the whole operation into the red.

Jesus talks about counting the cost before we begin a construction project. In the book of Genesis Joseph helps the leader of Egypt anticipate the seven years of famine that will follow seven years of above-average harvests.

Churches shouldn't be financial storehouses. Piling up every dollar they can get their hands on. i tell our people that God wants them to give, and the church should spend nearly every dollar it can on ministry and mission outreach. However, I think maybe church leaders should plan more carefully. Not be pushing the financial "red line" -even when God is doing great and creative stuff.

Things work best when church leaders are faithful and reasonable in their planning. And when the people of God are faithful in their giving.

Oh, by the way, the weather report for this weekend looks scary. Attendance could be down in our services. Which means giving drops. So I'm just saying...

What Do You Do with the Gift?

When we give time to something (or someone), we are announcing that it (or they) have value.

For the last three days I have been listening to preachers preach, and I have been leaning forward as theologians talk about faith and communication and what it means to follow Jesus in a world that isn't sure what to make of Jesus. I don't take three or four days away for something like this very often. But preaching is important.

Preaching is important. There was a time in the 60's and early 70's when Christian leaders and communication/worship experts thought preaching was an obsolete relic. Dramas, video clips, experiential worship...all of that was thought to be more "relevant" than preaching.

One of the ways I know preaching is important is that we see God using it to change people and change the world. The sermons of prophets like Elijah and Elisha put tyrants on notice that God is a God of justice. When God sent Jesus into the world, he spent his ministry doing a couple of essential tasks: preaching and healing. In Luke 4 he reads from the Isaiah and says, "The Lord has anointed me to preach..." The book of Acts records some of the sermons of people like Peter and Paul, and God used those sermons to turn the world upside-down.

Another way I know preaching is important is that as a lay person I have heard it done well - and badly. When it has been done well, my life has changed. My experience with God has deepened. I have come face to face with a kind of truth that challenged my ways of thinking and living. When sermons have been limp and lifeless, thrown together at the last minute, I have come away hungry...disappointed...frustrated.

As a preacher it is a powerful thing to be a part of a moment when the Word is declared with power and integrity. You can tell when the room changes and we all suddenly realize we are standing on holy ground. When I have preached and failed, you can tell. We can all tell.

I always do my best. You need to know that. One sermon is better than another. One message reaches inside your head and heart with the truth of Jesus. You can't avoid it or escape it. Another sermon doesn't get anywhere close to where you need for it to be. But I always do my best. I give everything I have to the task of preaching.

You may be curious to know what it takes to deliver one of those "talks," as some people outside the church refer to them. A couple of times each year I go away for two or three days to look ahead...open the Bible...pray...and plan preaching themes. I make notes. Identify possible points within the sermon.

The week before the sermon I spend part of Thursday outlining the sermon, and on Friday I begin writing around 9:30 in the morning. (Many people at TUMC think Friday is my day off, but it is usually the longest workday of my week!) The manuscript is finally finished around 6. I walk away. Let God have some time with the words put down on paper.

Saturday afternoon I read the sermon and re-read the manuscript. (It's usually about 10 or 12 pages long!) Before I enter the sanctuary, I jot down some key phrases on a piece of scrap paper, slip that in my Bible, and pray.

Somewhere between the writing of the sermon and the preaching of the message, I "cut out" about one-half of what I have written. Sometimes, from service to service, the message changes as I watch the clock and the eyes of the congregation. At one service a story is shared, and at the next service it isn't. The messages shifts through the weekend as the Holy Spirit works in my. heart and head..in you...between us.

My preaching has changed over the years. I once put a lot of time in making sure the "presentation" was polished. My preaching, like many other pastors, has become much more of a conversation with people. It is more of a dialogue than a religious lecture. So in some sense my preaching is more rough around the edges...and it is more real.

Another change is that the sermons have gotten longer. There was a time in the "Mainline Church" when sermons were 15-20 minutes. More and more, in healthy, vital, growing large churches the preaching time has become a serious teaching time that takes up 30-45 minutes. (Rob Bell up in Grand Rapids often preaches for 80 minutes! Heh...did some of you just break into a sweat?! Don't worry...we're not going to try and head in that direction!)

Preaching, I tell people, is like Jacob's wrestling match with the heavenly messenger. Some weeks I am drained. Some weeks the words come easily and quickly, and some weeks the process of sermon writing is exahusting. Frustrating beyond words. God refuses to let me get a hold of him.

If you find yourself vaguely dissatisfied with the preaching/'teaching ministry at TUMC, it may be your fault. (Didn't expect that, did you?) You play a key role in what happens in our teaching ministry! I challenge you to be praying for the service and preacher as you head to church. I invite you who attend the 8 o'clock service to join us in the Conference Room at 7:40 a.m. every Sunday as we pray for the sermon and the services. I encourage you to read the text of the day before the service begins. The sermon may seem lifeless and irrelevant if you wander in 10 minutes late to worship, work on a shopping list during the Bible reading, and only half-listen while you are trying to decide what you'll do for dinner. Your role in our church's preaching ministry is important!

The art of preaching is something I love to do. Some weeks I do better than others. But I always do my best...give my best...hold nothing back.

Jesus refers to himself, in John, as living bread. I love breaking that bread and sharing it with a hungry world.

You Can Do Your Best and Still Get It Wrong.

One of the first illusions to die, in middle age, is the youthful assumption that if you are bright enough, faithful enough, and wise enough - you'll avoid messing up.

We saw the previous generation doing their best, and we could see their blind spots. They made such foolish mistakes! They seemed so blind to injustice! We were going to do better. We would never send young men off to die in a military mistake. We would get this whole issue of racial injustice squared away in short order. Children in America -and the world- would never go to bed hungry at night when we got our chance to lead. The church, when we got the chance to lead, would be more creative...more faithful...and not so captive to traditional, middle class values. We would be more reckless, more radical for Jesus than those polite, white-glove-wearing, ushers decorated in suit-and-tie-and-white-shirt midwestern ushers of the 50's and early 60's.

There has been some progress made, but we still can get things so wrong.

Our church is in the middle of a major attempt to be radical for Jesus, and be more effective by doing fewer things better. People across the country talk about the church becoming "simple." This new emphasis is a good thing, I think. At Trinity we try so many things that sometimes we forget to focus on helping people grow in Christ.

A few months ago our staff talked about the request of an individual who wanted to lead an AA group in our church building. The man has no connection to the church, we didn't want to just provide a room to a disconnected group, and we wanted to do some sort of recovery ministry
- but we wanted to have that group connected to the church. So that people could, as they recovered, have the opportunity to follow Jesus. Not that they would be forced into being a United Methodists, or Christians, but that the group would be linked to the ministries of the larger church.

A friend heard about that decision and she -along with her husband- was furious. Puzzled. Hurt. Because they both have a heart of compassion, and understand that if the church isn't helping the least and the lost then it probably ought to take down the cross about the building.

We finally talked about all of this a week ago. She told me it was good we had waited to talk. "I would have been too angry if we had met earlier," she said, "and you would have been defensive. So this is good...I don't agree with the decision. But I feel heard."

I told her we may well have been wrong. I told her we tried to make the right decision for the right reasons -not to be high-handed or indifferent, but just wanted to make sure recovery ministries were connected to discipleship. We support hunger ministries, we have volunteers tutoring in the schools, we are working with folks out of work -we do a lot of good for God at Trinity but we may have blown this call. Missed this opportunity to do ministry.

We may have been wrong. I hate that. I hate that we make mistakes. As individuals and as a church and as followers of Jesus around the world. (And then, again, maybe it was the right call. If we said "yes" to every opportunity to do something good, in our large church, we would wreck ourselves.)

Wrong turns, missed opportunities, go with the territory, I fear. Make enough decisions, hang around and lead long enough, and you are going to make all kinds of mistakes. And I hate that. I would like to be able to bat 1,000 or hit every foul shot or sink every putt.

"Thanks for hanging with me...with us," I said. "Please keep praying with us...for us. That we'll do the right thing for God."

The whole conversation made me thing about an old Walter Wangerin story. Walter was a young pastor of an inner-city congregation down in Evansville more than 30 years ago. A prostitute was using the church's outside water source, after dark, to fill her own pails. Her water had been turned off so she used the church's water. Walter was outraged by this thievery and so he had the church turned off the outside water. A member of the church caught him. Shook her fingers at her pastor and told him he ought to be ashamed. Said that maybe the most important ministry the church had to that woman was letting her fill her buckets with the water the church had paid for. Jesus would have never turned that woman away, or turned that water off, the woman said.

Sometimes we get it wrong. And I am so thankful for all those lovers of Jesus who keep loving us, praying for us, and not giving up on us...or the church.

Roster Changes.

Today we blessed a pastor named Tom Thews who has been on our pastoral staff here at church for the last three and a half years. He is a tall man. With a kind and loving heart. Cares for people and loves Jesus. Tom loves food and photography and his Triumph sports car.

So we had people contribute to a love gift. We invited the congregation to come together today for a noon catered meal. Paula Dill had balloons and cool signs all over the Fellowship Hall where the meal was held. People went into the Sanctuary for a blessing time. We sang a couple of hymns, people said some things, we gave them a gift, and then people gathered around Tom and Linda to pray for them...bless them.

As the lead pastor here I do everything I can to help our congregation thank the pastors who have loved us and served Jesus with us.

I love Tom. He is going to be nearby in a South Bend parish. We'll stay in touch and I expect to see a lot of him.

Still, I felt some sadness. God is going to use Tom and Linda in the new place. Trinity has good things ahead. God is good...God is generous. But I still felt sadness watching people approach Tom and Linda...talk with him... hug them.

A friend tells me grief is cumulative. And I have said "goodbye" to a lot of good friends who have been in ministry with me. I left the staff at Trinity years ago, when I was an associate pastor, and said goodbye to my senior pastor, Mark Blaising. As a lead pastor I have said goodbye to people like Milly McCann, Ted Jansen, Kurt Nichols, Kerry O'Brien, Toni Carmer, and now Tom. I feel every departure. Most of the people I have served with have become dear friends.

I work hard to keep my game face in place. To keep leading. Do my best to see that our church is leaning forward. Moving on. But inside my heart sags a little.

It isn't just a roster change: a friend has stepped out and moved on. They're not walking these halls. They're not on the other side of the wall where I can talk to them, easily. Ask questions. Work together to solve a problem. Laugh at the nuttiness of life.

It isn't just a roster change. Something has changed. For me. For us as a church. A piece of us will be missing because God has tapped Tom on the shoulder and said, "I need you in a new place."

The cool thing, of course, is each one of these people has left something of themselves with us. There is more joy and kindness in our life at Trinity because of Tom. He leaves that with us as a gift.

Those People Love!

I have a place.

It's a little coffee shop on East Jackson. Another coffee shop out on highway 120 used to be my place to sit, outline a sermon, have a cup of coffee and breathe. But the old place closed up. The new shop is called Heavenly Brew. It's in a little, old house that used to be a florist shop.

HB is just right. Safe. Cozy. They know my name...and they know I like warmed-up 2% milk with my baked oatmeal.

I have a place.

This morning I noticed a woman noticing me. She was sitting with her college-age daughter, having a conversation, and as they got up to go she approached me. Held out her hand. Said, "Don't I know you...you're the pastor at the church?" I nodded and introduced myself. Told her, yes, that I was down the street at Trinity United Methodist.

She told me she lives a few blocks from Trinity. The woman belongs to a small church in Goshen. But she has slipped into Trinity a couple of times for worship or a class or a women's ministry thing.

Her face lit up. "Oh, that church!" she said. "There is great stuff going on, and the people are so welcoming...so loving! As soon as I walked in I could tell they cared...loved one another. And I felt so welcome."

Before the woman left the shop we shook hands. She threw her arms open wide and said, "Those people know how to love!"

I'll tell our people that, this weekend. Remind them about what others see and we may take for granted.

I have a place.

I think everyone wants to have a place -and often they are looking to the church to be just that place.

The Parade Goes On.

Parades are a part of the American holiday tradition. You might even catch the adults in the house watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The person in the recliner may have a Ph. D. in Semitic Languages and they'll be fascinated with that 7-story tall balloon of Snoopy. The football bowl season rolls around and people are glued to their tv watching things like the Rose Bowl Parade.

Churches have their own kinds of parades, but they usually don't include a 7-story tall Snoopy Balloon. Our parades involve people.

It's been thirty years since I first arrived at Trinity as an associate pastor fresh out of seminary. Oh, I slipped away -with the help of the Bishop- and served other churches in other areas for fourteen years- so we haven't been here non-stop for three decades.

But we've been with these folks, off and on, for thirty years. People who were in their late 40's are now in their late 70's.

What I've been privileged to witness is a parade of saints. Oh, I don't mean perfect people. Most folks get confused and think saints are perfect people. They're not. Saints are people who have been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, and who have been set apart by God for a mission...a cause... a holy purpose.

There has been this parade of saints. People like Ross Richey and Helen DeWeese and Hewitt Grove and Virginia Manley and Jeff Holdread and Alexis Bujtas and Randy Robertson.

Ross was a retired Methodist pastor who went blind shortly after retiring, and then kept loving...serving...figured out how to help other blind people. He's gone. Ross is gone. Helen was a parish visitor. She loved encouraging and visiting people who couldn't really get out any more. Helen is gone. Hewitt is 92 years old and he has suffered more losses than a soul should experience in this life. He walks with a cane, has a smile that lights up the room, and comes at the world with a handshake that can turn coal into diamonds. Jeff is a business executive who shares my love of IU basketball. He has this twinkle in his eye...loves God...and has a heart that beats with compassion for all sorts of folks. Alexis is in elementary school and had one of the leads in our Christmas pageant last weekend. She has a deep soul, I think...is well connected to God...and has this thing about telling people she is thankful for them. Randy is an insurance agent who visits the hospitals every week...handing out magazines for people to read. He is just an amazing man... And there is Virginia.

Virginia's body gave out yesterday. She'd been ill for a long time. Virginia was something! She was an educator. She loved children. She had a razor sharp mind, was a clear thinker, and demanded clear thinking from others. Virginia, after retiring, helped our community start a volunteer tutoring outreach in our elementary schools. When new lay leaders or church staff would take their place at Trinity, I would say something like this: "There are people who, when they speak, you need to listen to what they say. They won't be right all the time but they'll be on the money about 80-90% of the time." Virginia was one of those people. She touched more lives than I can imagine.

We'll have her "Service of Death and Resurrection" in the sanctuary on Wednesday morning of this week.

There is this parade of saints. They're not perfect. Each one has had their share of struggles. Made their share of mistakes. But God's light has this way of shining through each one of them...in a unique way.

Their example, their prayers, their faith and grace, have this way of nudging the rest of us along. Hebrews 12:1-2 says: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."

There is this parade. Sometimes you watch it. And sometimes you can't resist the impulse to step in, join the others, and start walking towards Jerusalem.