The Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret

My mentor, Rev. Dr. Robert R. McGruther taught me many things, not the least of which was a love of the line "save us from weak resignation" from the hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory".  There has been a flurry of words recently around the question "Why Church?".  The numbers over the years tell the tale.  People are leaving the church.  Why are they leaving?  What can the church do to transform the way it goes about its work to stem this tide of folks leaving.
Probably lots of stuff.  Communicate good news more regularly and effectively.  Be more open, inviting and welcoming.  Feel less clubby.  Love everyone.  Serve.  Lots of stuff.  One thing I'm thinking we should not try is "weak resignation".  In reading some of the "Why Church?" pieces I find myself thinking that if what I was reading was what church was I wouldn't want any part of it either.
Let's start here.  Imagine that a store has a complaint box.  The store is not perfect, far from it, but it's hanging in, doing some things better than others.  Now let assume we want to work on the less than perfect part of the store in order to work at upgrading from hanging in - a good goal.  I am thinking that the way to do that would not be to expect a clear picture of what needs to be done by going through the complaint box.  Should we take a look at the complaint box, yes.  But should we build our strategy for where we should be going forward by allowing the complaint box to paint the picture of who we are in the present.  No.  Because it's not even close to an accurate picture.
Building the future by placing complete trust in the complaint box leads to "weak resignation".  It leads to the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret.  The church needs to reflect and it needs to do better and it needs to take into account the places where we've gotten it wrong in the past.  But who wants to hook up with the beacon of light, or rather the quickly fading battery powered flashlight of the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret?  What do we have to offer?  "Hey, we are so sorry in so many ways."  Do we need to say those words.  At times, absolutely.  Should they be our go to invitation or welcome message?  I think we can do better.  If you have the complete Winnie the Pooh gang at your disposal are you going to always run Eeyore out first.  He may be perfect some of the time, but on occasion Tigger may not be a bad choice.
Why church?  Because it is a place where God is not a complimentary bit of scenery.  Because it is the living, breathing, acting, redeeming, transforming, life giving body of Christ.  Because people care about each other.  Because it's an excellent place to live through hurt and pain.  Because it's better when you are here.
Why church?  In this one instance, let's try over-promising and then  live towards it.  Because if we are right about this Kingdom of God thing, we cannot over-promise.  We can mess up, get it wrong, fail spectacularly at times, true.  But we cannot over-promise.  Save us from weak resignation and from dragging around the standard of the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret.

Oprah Said...

Morning Joe recently aired an interview with Oprah Winfrey.  At one point she was talking about the kind of people she needed to have around her in her attempt to build her cable network OWN.  She spoke about the importance of discerning the difference between people who are gifted at talking about vision and people who are capable of executing vision.  Leadership, I believe she was intimating, has to do with doing less of the talking about and more of the doing of.
As with most things that I hear, I tossed these comments into the context of the church.  In her musings I believe Oprah spoke truth to church and specifically to clergy.  We speculate on why people are leaving the church.  We speculate on how to get people to come to church.  We speculate on why ministry is so difficult.  We speculate.
Oprah's contribution to our speculation might be to recommend that we speculate less and minister more.  It's not that we shouldn't have our minds engaged as we consider where we are or where we are going.  It's more that we have to understand that we are indeed going.  It feels at times like we (clergy/church leaders) are driving around in a car.  We are often not happy with the car and will share critiques about the construction of the car, the efficiency of the car, where the car should go, but with a lack of attention to the reality that it is indeed a real car and it really is going somewhere right now.  To borrow from Oprah, we might benefit from talking about driving the car less and attend more closely to the actual driving of the car.

(Not So) Endless Summer

Let's see.  June - went to Annual Conference in Northern Kentucky for about three days and hung out with my Methodist brothers and sisters.  They are kind and more than tolerate, they welcome the married into the family Calvinist.  Then it was a quick Saturday run down to Nashville to retrieve Eliza from basketball camp at Belmont and swing through the Opry Land Commercial Industrial site.  And eat at the Rainforest Cafe.

Onward to July.  Eliza to Aldersgate and Cameron in Lexington working his summer internship at the Herald-Leader so Julie and I intended to slip away Monday through Friday to the Smokies and Lake Junaluska.  Then several families in the Hebron congregation lost loved ones which took an emotional toll on the church, but they rose to the occasion and embraced the hope in the midst of the loss and extended the ministry of hospitality to the families and friends in their grace filled style.  Then a wonderful Vacation Bible School with a great Middle School group leading to the launch of a new Youth Group at Hebron - very exciting stuff that!  Then Eliza and I off to the Presbyterian Youth Triennium at Purdue.  Eliza's first and I believe she enjoyed it and my seventh or so and I know I enjoyed it.  Then home for a few days before closing out July and beginning August on vacation at Jekyll Island with Julie's mom and dad and our family.  Jekyll Island is great and the trip was a treasure.  And now Eliza gets ready to start her Sophomore year of high school at Bullitt East on Wednesday.  Cameron has a a little while longer before heading back to Western Kentucky University for his Sophomore year.

June and July - what I have come to think of as the summer months (with August being a transition to fall more than summer because of school schedules) feel at times like the old Mr. Toads Wild Road at Disney when I was a kid.  Kind of a short ride in Fantasy Land that took you here and there and never really felt scary or dangerous, but jerked you around a lot in ways you didn't really anticipate.  Summer lacks continuity.  It jerks you here and there and leaves you both coming and going and feeling like you have all the time in the world and no time at all - all at the same time.  It stretches out in front of you with small surprises waiting along the way - endless like the Beach Boys said - and then, poof, school starts Wednesday.

Crossroads has been doing a study called 24/6 by Dr. Matthew Sleeth around the subject of Sabbath.  The two months of summer 2013 have been illustrative of what folks are up against when we consider Sabbath.  It seems like a great idea.  It sounds wonderful.  Virtually everyone agrees we would be better off being better Sabbath keepers.  But agreement that it would be a good idea and realizing that good idea can be a challenge to bring into relationship with each other.  

As I reflect on the summer I see God all over it.  I look forward to unpacking and considering  some of the events of summer in sermons, in Bible Study, in conversations, at prayer groups, in quiet moments, waiting for the light to change at the intersection....in ways planned and spontaneous.  Looking back at the whirlwind before heading off towards what lies ahead, the ride is occaisonally wild.  And challenging.  And wonderful.