Ministry in the Middle

Without question, one of the weirdest things that happens in my ministry is when someone in the church quotes me to others.  It is particularly weird when I find out that my words have been shared in a newsletter article or meeting beyond our congregation. As far as I know, it doesn't happen that much.  The few times that it has been mentioned to me, though, I have caught my breath, hoping that what they had remembered was something good and worthwhile, rather than the alternative.  Frankly, I desperately hope that I haven't led them in the wrong direction. I don't know what I expected when I was preparing for ministry.  I frequently quote things that I've learned from books, articles, and presentations, including from teachers I have had.   Given that much of my ministry is centered on public communication -- preaching, teaching, and writing -- I hope that what I am doing is valuable and nurturing for many people. Don't get me wrong.  I'm not a ...

Over the weekend, I attended a service project with my local college alumni group.  Per usual, I enjoyed it.  We do this once a year, and the organization we volunteer with only asks for two hours of work.  So we talk, we do some basic labor, and we are finished before lunch. Sadly, not many of us participate from year to year.  This year, I could have opted out.  First, I had multiple church responsibilities that day, including one I chose not to go to so I could support the service project.  Second, I had to arrive before 8:30 on a Saturday morning.  Third, I drove through torrential rain to get there that morning.  I wanted to be there.  I wanted to show my support of the alumni service project (which we do in coordination with alumni groups in many other cities) with my presence.  I wanted to see other alums that I know in the area -- all of us there had important things to share about recent things in our lives.  I wanted t...

Like many Americans, I paid close attention to the public Senate hearings regarding allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh.  While I could not watch the hearings in their entirety, I watched or listened to roughly half of the proceedings. That was more than enough to find the entire conversation demoralizing.  While many of those involved paid lip service to seeking truth, mostly it was an exercise in political warfare, pitting one side against another.  Both Republicans and Democrats railed against the questionable tactics of the other side related to hiding or revealing evidence and rushing or slowing the process. Others have written extensively about the increasing tribalism in our culture, in politics and beyond.  Without question, this tribalism stretches into the church as well.  We join our teams and we stick by them.  We circle the wagons when others threaten or challenge someone in our own tribe....

The church, we are told, is shrinking.  Statistics suggest that overall American church membership is declining, sometimes drastically.  In most of our congregations, we see the decline.  There are fewer people in the pews and fewer people participating.  In most congregations, this becomes painfully obvious once a year when leaders begin to prepare the next year's budget and nominate the next year's officers.  Financial support of the church lags behind the expenses of the church, creating pressure to cut programs, cut outreach giving, or even cut staff time or positions.  There never seem to be many new options for officer position, forcing people to keep serving again and again... and again, and sometimes requiring people to serve in multiple capacities to keep programs going. In the season of planning, it is easy to lament that our church is too small.  If we just had a few more people and more reliable financial giving, things would be easier ...

In the past few days, the news has been dominated by an anonymous editorial written by "a senior official in the Trump administration."   It suggests that many people appointed by the president are working to protect the country from the president's "worst inclinations."  Like many people, I have found the entire affair fascinating, though I recognize there are some rather horrifying implications to the op-ed and some of its details. One paragraph caught my eye, not only for its political implications, but for a trend in behavior that I have often observed in church settings. Given the instability witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president.  But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis.  So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until -- one way or another -- it's over. Presumably, people who have the...

This summer, the elders in my congregation and I have exchanged a specific piece of the worship service that we lead.  Since before I began serving as senior minister in this congregation, the pastor has been responsible for providing a short meditation before Communion each week.  This summer, each of them has had the opportunity to offer this meditation/invitation to the Lord's Table.  In exchange, I provided an offering meditation and prayer for the gifts offered -- typically something that the elders have led. In our denominational tradition, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Communion is the centerpiece of worship.  In key ways, it represents the heart of our shared theology of Christ's presence in our midst, of radical grace and acceptance, of the teaching of the New Testament about the centrality of the Lord's Supper and Baptism.  Personally, I love the chance to reflect on part of what it means for us to gather and share Communion in the name...

Last week, the Pennsylvania attorney general released a grand jury report detailing credible accusations implicating more than 300 Roman Catholic priests in sexually abusing more than 1000 children since the 1940s.  As in other parts of the church, bishops and other church leaders protected the priests, downplaying and ignoring accusations of abuse and misconduct. This news provides more opportunities for outrage about people who should have accepted responsibility and done things differently.  Priests, those entrusted with sharing and teaching about the love of God and Jesus, perverting that message into a weapon for pursuing their own selfish desires through abuse and rape.  Church leaders, who were entrusted with holding priests to account for their behavior, but who instead protected their friends and colleagues behind a wall of silence and a tendency to simply move accused priests to other parishes.  Police and prosecutors who felt powerless to question the a...