Ground Zero Mosque

I'm not much of a Keith Olbermann fan.  He's often an agitator and a blowhard.  Though I usually agree with his opinions more than others of his ilk (O'Reilly, Beck, Limbaugh, etc.) his antagonistic approach is tiresome.

He has recently taken an unpopular viewpoint on the controversy surrounding the Muslim community center that will be built within a few blocks of the World Trade Center memorial in New York City.  His main point, among others, is that "there is no 'Ground Zero Mosque'" and that it is un-American (and even bigoted) to deny freedom of religion.  He even quotes Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoller, in a way that seems contrived at first, but makes more sense as he expands his thesis.

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Aside from the political rhetoric about conservative foes and the over-simplification of a few details, I find myself with Olbermann on this one.  He makes a compelling, intelligent, and sobering case for why this community center should be allowed to exist in downtown Manhattan.

What do you think?


thanks to Erik "Pub Pastor" Samuelson for sharing this video via Facebook.

Missional Advocacy

USA Today recently ran a story addressing issues facing youth ministers.  Mark Ostreicher weighed in with his perspective, which (of course) led to several comments on his blog.  Joe Mele offered a blurb that caught my attention:

Imagine a youth minister that had no contact with teens. Instead their contact was with adults within the community whose gifts and talents are transformed into moments of apostolic opportunities of disciple based mentoring and formation. Instead of visiting high schools, the youth ministers visits parents in their communities to discuss adolescent discipleship and praying with children. Instead of mission trip, the youth minister coordinates opportunities for families to sign up and serve within the local community. Missiological advocacy focuses on holding up a vision of discipleship not just for adolescent but for the entire community to be a congregation of active disciples of Jesus Christ in the world today.

Is it possible for a youth minister to be an adult-equipper and not a teen-buddy?  


Should youth ministers get out of the business of doing relational ministry and start talking to parents, grandparents, etc. about how to relate to the young people in their midst?  


Can a youth minister speak have credibility with other adults if they aren't "in the trenches" with young people on a regular basis?

Director or Doer?

Here's something I wrote for the August newsletter where I work.

I keep a copy of my original job description on my desk.  It’s helpful for me to remember what I was called to do here in the first place.  Much has changed since then, and some of these changes have caused me to modify how I function. Programs have been added.  Staff transitions have required that I phase into new roles.  Changes in my gifts and interests have also impacted shifts in my duties and responsibilities.

Despite these (and other) variations in the past several years, one thing hasn’t changed: this position is for someone to be the director of family life and youth ministry; not the sole doer of this ministry.

In the past couple of years, as we have lost many key adult leaders in our youth and family ministry, I have (against my better judgment) taken on some additional doer tasks instead of requesting, equipping, and even directing Spirit-filled members of our church to do ministry to, for, and with our young people and families.  This may have been a necessary way to keep ministries and programs happening in the short-term, but it is an unhealthy and ineffective long-term solution.

I have asked the Youth Committee to spend the remainder of the 2010 revisiting the job description for the Family Life & Youth Director.  We are a very different church than we were in 2002, when the original job description was crafted.  We need to make sure that this position continues to meet the needs of our congregation and community.  

In the meantime, I will be praying and seeking for people to serve as [I go on to list several congregational ministries that are in need of help].  Working with our amazing young people isn’t just our congregation’s obligation, it is our joy.  I look forward to collaborating with these people to continue being present the lives of our young people and increasing their positive adult interaction at church.

This was a tough article to write, because it required me to be honest about some of my own shortcomings, as well as offer a critical analysis of how our congregation has evolved in the past few years.  In speaking with youth ministry friends, I realized that others make similar mistakes.  Many of us get to the point where "It takes me longer to train someone for a particular task than it does for me to just do it myself"...and yet, most ministry experts agree that the doer approach leads to siloed ministries, pied-piper leadership, and youth director burn-out.

At the heart of this, for me and others, are two unfortunate traits:

Insecurity.  Sometimes we feel the need to be busy in order to demonstrate how important or necessary we are to the congregation.  If we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off, it will show the people who pay our salaries that we are worthy of their tithe.  We are filled with insecurity about how to do effective ministry because, in many cases, it barely resembles the way in which most of our members function in their jobs.  Prayer, study, discernment, reflection, patience...these are not virtues in the high-paced world of business, and yet these are the attributes that we should be extolling for our ministers.  (This is related to the "We're paying you to do the youth ministry and turn our kids into Good Christians" mentality that plagues many congregations and seeps into the psyches of youth ministers.)

Control.  We are passionate about what we do, which makes it difficult to turn it over to somebody else.   In many cases, we do most of the behind-the-scenes tasks to put events/programs/ministries together...so it's natural (yet unhelpful) to want it done our way and on our time table.  This means less involvement from lay people and more isolation for the youth minister.

Do you know of youth ministers that do a good job of balancing the director vs. doer roles?  How do they go about living in both worlds?  What kinds of boundaries exist?  Who is in charge of laying out the expectations for how ministry plays out?  I'd love to know of some examples!

Gospel Writ Large

I am unabashed in my affection for Nadia Bolz-Weber...but not because she's edgy, or tattooed, or "emergent", or even because she's unapologetically Lutheran.  I love Nadia because she is the pastor of the only church home my sister, Krista, has known since moving to Denver in 2003.  Pastor's kids can have a difficult time finding a place in the church; especially 500 miles from their hometown.  Krista's spiritual journey collided with Nadia a few years ago, and it has been fun to be connected to her strange faith community from afar.  In that time, Nadia and I have become friends - again, not because of our Lutheran connections, but because we both love Krista.

I was excited when I found out that Nadia was preaching at the ELM Rite of Reception service last weekend in San Francisco.  I knew that she, more than anyone, wouldn't make the sermon about anything other than the proclamation of the gospel.  It would have been easy, mind you, for a preacher to claim the kingdom of God is at hand by admonishing the "conservative, Bible-beating, gay-hating modernists" and claim victory over the "evil church system" that oppressed these seven openly gay pastors for so many years.

Instead, Nadia, citing the Parable of the Workers / Landowner, talked about the kingdom of God in these terms:

The kingdom of God is like a glorious mess of a kingdom where Paris Hilton and Hilton Perez and Fred Phelps and Fredrick Beuchner and ELM pastors and CORE Lutherans all receive the same mercy we never saw coming because we were too busy worrying about what everyone else is doing.

And again:

...the kingdom of God, is founded not on the quality of the people in it but on the unrestrained and lavish mercy of the God who came and got us.

And finally:

...what makes it the kingdom of God is not the worthiness or piety or social justice-yness or hard work of the laborers…it’s the fact that the trampy landowner couldn’t manage to keep out of the market place. He goes back and back and back interrupting lives…coming to get his people.

You can watch the sermon video and read the transcript here.


Tucked away in the comments section, but no less beautiful than the sermon itself, is a reflection from a prominent member of Lutheran CORE:

While I disagree with the CWA votes, while I disagree with the new policies, while I disagree with what happened in the service yesterday, (taking a deep breath), there is much in this sermon that I know is the Gospel writ large. Pastor Megan, peace be with you and with your ministry, now recognized in this church body that we both labor in and love. From South Dakota and Lutheran CORE, 

Your sister in Christ,

Erma Wolf 

Wouldn't it be great if we could stop all of the inflammatory, partisan bullshit and start treating others like brothers and sisters in Christ?  Wouldn't it be nice if our leaders and preachers wouldn't use the privilege of their status to tear others down, cast judgment, and exalt their own piety?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could find a way to live in the tension of our religious and philosophical disagreements without fearing the wrath of a God that we have made in our own image?

I think Nadia's sermon and Erma's response could spark a change in the way we approach differences.  I'm grateful for their witness and continue pray for the renewal of the church.

Unwinding

I'm always amazed at how young people unwind after a long day on a mission trip.  For example, we stayed at a church in Huntington that used their basement for a Zumba / yoga studio.  We made use of this space by...well...just watch and see for yourself:



Irreverent...silly...spontaneous...somewhat dangerous.  Much like young people.

I love my job.

Ecumenism According to Cheers

I love this bit from Cheers, where Woody Boyd and his wife, Kelly, experience marital strife when they discover that they espouse "different religions" -- LCMS and (E)LCA.

Is it possible that Christians (especially Lutherans) sound this ridiculous when airing our disagreements?

Thanks to Erik Samuelson and Dave Brauer-Rieke for posting this on Facebook earlier today.

Where To Live

"Where is the best place to raise a family -- city, suburbs, or small town?"

My wife and I have wrestled with this question dozens of times since our oldest child was born.  Many friends have joined in the conversation as well, bringing their own perspectives on pros & cons of various places to live.  Most of the opinion is swayed by experiences / baggage from each person's upbringing.

The question arose again this afternoon when taking a drive through the country.  We came across a beautiful home in a tiny town, about 25 miles from where we work.  The house is currently owned by a bank, after the owner went bankrupt.  It was built in 2002 with 2,000 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 4-stall garage, 1/2 acre lot with a neighborhood sweet corn patch next to it...all for less than $100K.  Obviously, the allure of buying that kind of home for way below market value (and the possibility of living debt-free) is more than a little enticing.

But what about the rest of the stuff that comes with it?

The town has fewer than 1,000 people and has consolidated their school with a larger, growing community nearby.  We met some of the neighbors, who appeared genuinely friendly (sipping beer while tending their flower beds on a Sunday afternoon, waving at the crop-dusting airplane that flew overhead).  Across the street from the home is a park with lots of grass, some swings, and a big slide.  Simple, quiet, not much to look at...sort of like the town.  The focal point of the community is a grain elevator in the middle of town.  There are no gas stations, restaurants, or even a business district.  It's nothing more than a little bedroom community with a slowly blossoming group of young families moving in.

We have lived two years in a rural area, four years in the city, and the last three years in the suburbs.  There was a charm about living in a small community, though I often felt suffocated by the "everyone-looks-out-for-each-other" mentality.  The city was enjoyable for its diversity and proximity to downtown, though rising crime rates and deteriorating public school funding were concerns.  Our time in the suburbs has been wonderful, and we are by no means seeking a move.  We love our neighborhood, the close proximity to everything, the excellent schools, and (above all) our home...and yet, there are aspects of suburban living that are making us spoiled; and not in a good way.

My wife grew up in a small town of 2,500 people, whereas I lived most of my formative years in a community of nearly 100,000.  Both of us had positive experiences and would be comfortable raising children in a similar community...and both of us can see the benefits of trying something different.  In a way it's good to have lots of options, but it would be much easier if the answer were staring us in the face.

Which brings us back to the original question:
"Where is the best place to raise a family?"

There are so many variables in life (and in the lives of our kids) that it's impossible to predict the "right" decision.  Will Isaac want to go to a big school so he could compete against high-caliber basketball players, with the hope of playing D-I hoops?  Will Anna wish she had gone to a smaller school so she could participate in a variety of activities without narrowing her focus at a young age?  Will Evan wish he had gone to a academically diverse school that gave him an opportunity to take a full year of college-level courses before graduating high school?

At the core of this question is a desire to create the best possible scenario for our children...but it is also a futile attempt to exercise some measure of control.  There's no way to anticipate which teacher, friend, coach, or neighbor will make a positive or negative difference in our kids' lives.  I'm reminded of this every time I watch Finding Nemo.  The dad, Marlin, is a neurotic, over-protective parent who learns that letting go comes when your child is very young.  He also discovers that trusting his kid's ability to navigate the turbulent waters of life can be rewarding beyond words.

So here's what I think -- at the end of the day, our kids are ours to teach, love, discipline, nurture, and empower...and that can be done no matter where you live.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the the good/bad aspects of living in different kinds of communities.