church – Page 11 – Salvaged Faith

opportunity knocking?

Posted on February 3, 2009Leave a comment

I got an email from my college chaplain yesterday, wanting to know if I wanted to apply for his job.

He’s asking for a pastoral appointment in the conference and so my alma mater is hiring a new chaplain.

I kind of freaked out a bit when I got the email. I really wasn’t quite sure what to think, although I was honored to be thought of. I’ve been stuck in a rut this week, really wanting more professional colleagues, more intellectual discussions, wanting to get out of the cycle of having to preach. every. week. And so 10% of my being thought… wow – this could be exactly what I need right now!

But I really feel called to be in this congregation. We are only just beginning to really get things moving and started and the momentum is good. We are going to shake up this town in the next two years, I can completely feel it. And I’m ready and they are ready and I can’t leave them right now. We are just getting settled into our home, we are close to our family, and working on building those relationships… my dad wouldn’t be close enough to come fix my car when it breaks down… lol.

I am where I need to be. And while I might want some of those things that working in the college setting would offer – I am needed here. and I need to be here to grow in the ways that God is challenging me to grow.

Ask me again in five years, and I might have a different answer.

ka-clunk

Posted on January 25, 2009Leave a comment

My ghetto cruiser decided to fall apart on Saturday morning. I was stopped at an intersection about three blocks from my house (after driving to Des Moines and back on Friday and to my parents and back right before this incident) when I began to turn the corner. And heard a big clunk and felt the front right side of my car drop to the ground.

My stupid ball joint broke on the tire, which caused the suspension to fall to the ground and the tire to tilt periously within the wheel well. And then I got to sit there, in the frigid cold waiting for my husband to bring the phone book and then wait with him in his car while we waited for the tow truck and guarded my car – which was in the middle of the intersection.

I was secretly praying that it would be a major repair. if it was $1500 or more – I was going to say screw it and just get rid of the car. But alas, the ball joint costs only $50 and my dad is coming over Saturday to fix it with my little brother. I so desperately want a newer, more fuel efficient, potentially hybrid, vehicle. I’m the type of person who should be driving around in a cute little VW beetle or a Prius. Maybe that’s a bit yuppy of me, but it just suits my personality so much more than this big black Lincoln Towncar with the chrome side panels. *sigh*

In other news, church went pretty well this morning. I had a pretty long teaching sermon on the Lord’s Prayer that I think got kind of wordy and long. I would definately do it differently next time. We are doing a six week study on the Lord’s Prayer based on “Becoming Jesus’ Prayer” and this week was all about what the prayer teaches us about what it means to be faithful. Perhaps I could have broken the sermon into two sections, but then it wouldn’t fit nicely into my Epiphany Season series. Oh well.

I did find a great children’s sermon where we made a prayer sandwich – putting five themes of the prayer: praise, hope,depend, forgive, goodness – between two slices of bread. The kids really liked the silliness of it all.

Assistant

Posted on January 22, 20093 Comments

I’m all alone in my work at the church – at least as far as paid help goes. There are great volunteers who come in to fold the bulletins and newsletters, who take care of the sanctuary (candles, communion), and who help with other areas. But to really be effective in my ministry, it would really help to have a paid administrative assistant – even for 10 hours a week.

As I have been thinking about this a lot lately, I talked with my cell group Monday about what kind of job description this would entail. And I realized from talking to one of them that I am really looking for someone tech oriented. Her parish secretary uses a computer like its a typewriter – and I need someone who can help me utilize technology to help us do the work of the church.

Here is the start of my wish list:

1) send out weekly postcard reminders for upcoming meetings
2) format and print the bulletins weekly (volunteers can still help fold and stuff)
3) collect newsletter articles, format, and print monthly newsletter
4) update our website with relevant information and stories
5) order supplies/books, keep resource room/office stocked and organized
6) maintain electronically (computer and web) as well as on paper (large wall calendar) a master calendar of church activities.
7) be contact for scheduling of weddings/meetings at the church.
8) NOT be a church member

What would you add to this list? How many hours a week would be reasonable for these tasks?

Amen.

Posted on January 21, 2009Leave a comment

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I got to watch the inauguration after holding bible study at church. Three parishoners joined me quickly in my office to watch the cnn.com live feed on my laptop.

I’ve been watching tv pretty much all day and really feel like there isn’t a lot left to say. It’s all been said, or at least I’ve had all the rhetoric and ideas and phrases spun around my sphere of influence that I’d probably just repeat other people’s profound thoughts.

I thought of all the moments I wanted to share, to remember, to really carry with me, the first was Rev. Lowery’s benediction. It was real and authentic and funny and gave glory to God and moved the crowd and he’s a United Methodist.

Second, how cute President Obama and the First Lady look while dancing (and how amazing was Beyonce’s version of “At Last”… which got old after the second time… although they didn’t) They kind of did the same spiel at each ball stop, although I was really touched by some of the things he said at the youth ball.

They really just have this aura of real and true love and confidence in one another and just seemed to be having such a good time. It was refreshing and beautiful – Rachel Maddow said something about how it must never get old to dance with your beloved. Beloved is a really good word to use to describe at least what I saw today.

Third, it really is amazing how much technology has played a part in this inauguration. I just looked up at the t.v. and there was an image of a crowd waiting and the stage lit up waiting for them to come out and there were all of these little blue squares. I realized they were all digital cameras, held up by the crowd, pointed at the stage. All of those little screens waiting to take pictures, like lighters held up at a concert. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m paying attention this time, but I can’t remember other inaugurations bringing this many people together in so many ways and all of this technology being employed to bring the message, the celebration to so many.

Winter

Posted on January 12, 2009Leave a comment

Yeah, I know it’s been winter for like three weeks now, but we are getting some pretty heavy winter weather in Iowa this week.

I normally take Monday mornings off – to recouperate from the weekend – and then head in to the office after lunch. But I didn’t really feel like shoveling the driveway, and I didn’t really feel like turning on the heat over at the church just for myself, and I didn’t really think that I could accomplish anything there that I couldn’t accomplish just as well at home.

So I stayed in my pj’s and worked from the couch today. And it was great.

There are definately some advantages to being a solo pastor at a small church with no other staff. Like being able to make my own schedule the way I have and the flexibility that comes with it. But there are also serious disadvantages.

Sometimes I need the accountability of others. It’s easy to decide to come in late if no one is there and no one cares.

But it’s also sometimes nice just to have other people to talk with in an office. My last church office situation was three interns together in one office with couches… and we definately spent 2/3 of our time chatting… about serious stuff! Bouncing ideas off of one another, talking about ministry plans, doing some tough theological work… and yes, complaining when the moment called for it. I miss having a couch in my office – but more importantly, I miss having people in my office.

Theologically, I’m very relational. I believe strongly that the Holy Spirit moves through many people and that only in community can we truly discern the Spirit. I believe that God wants us to be in relationship with others and that we cannot do this (the journey of faith) alone.

Now, I do have lots of groups that I connect with. I’m part of a sub-district group of UM pastors who meet once a month. I’m part of a group of young clergy that meets once a month. And I have breakfast every week with another pastor and DCE in town. So that fulfills some of that.

Most days, though, the internet is my connection to others. It is my source for theological discussions and brainstorming. But it’s not always there when I need it, and it can’t go out for a margarita after work. (or during work.)

Whose Baptism?

Posted on January 12, 2009Leave a comment

For a few weeks, I have felt a bit off in my sermon prep. The pieces I wanted to come together hadn’t, and it just seemed like the message wasn’t connecting with people where they were.

This week, I surely had a much different focus going into the sermon than what was produced, but I for some reason got into a roll on a modern interpretation of the passage from Acts this morning. I talked about a group of guys heading to the big city to see this crazy preacher lady. They just wanted to see the spectacle, but they were moved and were baptised by Jane B. in the river. And they headed home and while they wanted things to be different, nothing really was.

A few years went by and suddenly this traveling preacher came to town named Paul and he told them about what they had been missing out on – that they only had half the story – and immediately those believers were filled with the Holy Spirit.

I hope to post on this in a few days, but I read the book “The Shack” last week. It absolutely amazed me. Yeah, there are some theological points that I don’t agree with, but if I’m honest with myself, there are far more that resonate with my own theology than don’t. Especially when it comes to really being open and trusting that God can dwell within you. That your life can be different because God lives within you.

In my sermon this morning, I tried to move from that story of missing pieces to talk about how we don’t fully understand the power of the Holy Spirit that is given to us in baptism. We underestimate its power. We don’t trust it. And so we are not able to do the things we know we are called to. We get caught up in fear and hesitation instead of resting in the knowledge that God is within us, God has filled us, God loves us and God is for us.

In the service we also had a time to remember our baptisms and I think the morning went very well. I had a number of people come up to me after the service and talk about how meaningful it was for them. And what was even more amazing about the service is that I felt like I really worshipped this morning too.

Afterwards we had our first ever worship committee meeting to talk about plans for Lent and Easter. Getting answers and ideas out of them was like pulling teeth, and I’m not sure if that’s because I’m asking the wrong questions or if they just aren’t used to being asked these kinds of questions. I think we did come up with a general theme for the lenten season: Simplicity and Spiritual Disciplines… about what we need to let go of in order to really enjoy our relationship with God… as well as some songs to guide us through the season. We talked about plans for Holy Week, Ash Wednesday, and then Easter Sunday.

To my amazement, someone suggested that we scrap the Sunrise Service – because it doesn’t have a large attendance, and the youth aren’t really involved in it anyways. And then someone agreed. And someone actually said: just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean that it’s worth doing. WOO HOO!!! Last year’s Easter Sunrise service was something the youth group helped me put together – complete with hard rock songs instead of hymns… and then none of them showed up. So this gives me permission to not do it… yay!

The rest of the day was spent on the couch watching moves. Lots of movies. “I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry” “Music and Lyrics” “Burn After REading” “Hancock” “Ratatouille”… it was just one of those kinds of days.

Numbers.

Posted on January 8, 2009Leave a comment

This Wednesday morning, like almost every Wednesday morning, I headed over to the local cafe for breakfast with other area pastors. Normally it is me and the LCMS pastor and the DCE from his church and it’s quite an odd combination. But we get along really well and have some fantastic conversations.

Occasionally we are joined by one or another pastor from town… this morning it was the Presbyterian pastor. If the ELCA Lutheran pastor comes, then I’m not the only female, but I haven’t seen her for a while.

I’m pretty routine about what I order. A cup of earl grey tea and a pancake. Sometimes a side of bacon. It depends on how much I want to clog my arteries that particular morning.

After breakfast with the lectionary group, I head back to church to study the bible with a small group of parishoners. They like to read through whole books at a time, so when I arrived last January, they were in the middle of Isaiah. They got through the prophets and decided to start at the beginning, with Genesis. We started Numbers today and I am always amazed at the repetition of so many passages in the bible. So and So’s family number forty thousand two hundred and fifty men, over the age of twenty, who were able to serve the lord. So and so’s family numbered…. you get the picture. We skipped some of the repetition this morning =)

It is so hard to imagine that the numbers describe in Numbers are possible. That over a million people would have been moving nomadically together through the wilderness. As we listened to each other describe each clan’s task in the movement and protection of the tabernacle, I got to thinking about a book I read recently, Water for Elephants. It describes the journey of a young man who joins a circus train, and I got to thinking about how the whole circus comes to town and how the big tent and everything gets unloaded and put up seemingly in a moment. And when the circus is ready to move, everything gets torn down again in the blink of an eye. It seems like as close of a paralell as anything else I can imagine for what it must have been like to travel with the tabernacle of God.

I spent the rest of my day at work finishing my candidacy continuance interview forms. In our church, you are commissioned first and then must be continued for the next two years, and then finally you can apply for ordination (complete with about 50 pages of papers and lessons and sermons). I’m grateful in the busyness of this year that I didn’t have to write all of those papers. But even getting the short questions I had to answer done seemed like a chore. So many copies to be made, so many envelopes to be addressed. I’m looking forward to my conversation with my interview team in March. There are more people on my team now, I think only two of them are the same as my previous two teams, so it’s exciting to talk with them about my ministry and where I can grow and what resources they might have for me.

Epiphany

Posted on January 6, 2009Leave a comment

Today I really got back into the swing of church work because our regular groups started meeting again in the new year. This morning, it was the Sharing As Caring Christians fellowship, or SACC. They meet around food and take turns sharing devotions and then a lesson for the day.

This is one group that I really feel blessed to be a part of, because normally, I’m just another member of the group. I don’t have to have my pastor or teacher hat on, unless I want to have it on. I can simply come and be.

For the next six weeks in the group, I will be leading our lessons based on Joyce Rupp’s “The Cup of our Life.” It is a study that I have been wanting to do with others for some time now, and I’m really looking forward to it. A hidden desire out of this is also to get the group to each bring their own mug for use each week, so that we aren’t constantly using styrofoam cups.

After SACC group, I took some time to finish work on the bulletins for Sunday. I am a very rudimentary piano player… I can pluck out a tune with one hand, and sometimes I can get some harmony in there if I am really slow about it. But it is always easier to pick hymns if I am at the piano and know what each one sounds like. It lets me know how easy they are to sing, how familiar they might be, and something that is also important to me – how well they each fit together.

One of my passions in worship is a well fit together service. I want the message in the music to match the message in the written word, to match the message in the spoken word, to match the message in the prayers. Then, at least in one way or another, the congregation will have the gospel come to them, and hopefully reinforced.

What makes that difficult, is that it takes a lot of time to put a service together. And because I change the order of worship and the liturgy to match whatever season we are in, it also is a challenge each time a new season begins to craft the structure for the next few weeks. The upside is that the congregation never fully settles into a routine in worship, and at least while I’m here, they can’t ever say “but we’ve always done it this way…”