A Happier Person

My beloved wife of eight years (our anniversary is today) passed along a quote to me a few weeks ago. This quote has become increasingly relevant for me in the midst of congregational life.

"If you want to be a happier person, it's critical to remember two things. First, certainly not all, but most people really are doing the best that they can. Really, they are. The second thing to remember is that almost everything is more difficult and complicated than it looks."

~ Richard Carlson, PhD

Jay Bakker once said that churches are hospitals for broken souls...the only difference is that, in the church, there are no doctors; only patients. I agree. Sometimes people (clergy and staff included) bring their baggage to church and function below prime capacity. In moments when I vilify and demonize people who mistreat me, I am reminded that they are almost always trying their best...even if I think they can do better.

God's grace is sufficient for them...and for me, too.

Contemporary

Christian worship is a hard thing to understand, and an even harder thing to lead. It's amazing, really. Think about another time in your life when you regularly gather with people you rarely see, listen to stories, sing songs, snack on a wheat cracker and grape juice, and attempt to communicate with a deity that you can't see or hear. It's a construct that is unlike any other aspect of our life...and over 1 billion people do this every week all around the world.

Strange.

This past weekend our old-ALC, German Lutheran congregation tried something new – contemporary worship. The term “contemporary” is a bit pejorative in the sense that every time people gather for worship it is, in essence, contemporary. Worship is a unique expression that relies on God's Spirit to move through those who have gathered at a specific time and place. Even if a few friends and I sing some plainchant Kyrie from the 9^th century, it’s still contemporary. Henceforth, if I refer to contemporary worship I am using it merely as a brand name…like “praise service” or “seeker worship” are similar (but distinctly different) brand names of worship.

But I digress.

After a few intense months of a mini “worship war”, our church agreed to try our hand at contemporary worship at all three weekend worship services once a month this summer. Basically, this was the way our worship committee could balance the polarities of “we need to offer a more contemporary service to reach the unchurched in our community” and those on the other side proclaiming “if you change the way we do worship, I'm leaving and taking my checkbook with me.”

It was quite a risk.

* * *

I’m not a big contemporary worship guy. Unlike most of my colleagues, when I want to listen to Christian music, I rely on Mozart or Bach…not Third Day or David Crowder. Some people hum tunes from Christian radio…I tap my toes to the liturgy or chorales from the 16^th century. The short wispy hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention whenever a church does communion before the creed or a pastor preaches on something other than the gospel text from the Revised Common Lectionary. So when I was asked to sing and play guitar at our church’s first contemporary worship service, I panicked. I literally broke out in a sweat and paced around the room for a few minutes.

I’ve never been more conflicted.

In the past five years, our congregation has doubled it’s programming for youth and families, and subsequently seen over 50% of our young families leave the church. The reasons for this trend are the subject of another blog post (or maybe not). The emergence of a contemporary worship movement at our stoic congregation might be the thing we need to make an impact on the community and bring young families to the church. It could also lead to our own version of the Great Schism. Furthermore, from a church politics standpoint, I felt I was in a no-win situation. I would be a fool to reject a passionate group of people who were using worship as a vehicle to bring young families to our congregation. At the same time, worship leadership is not in my job description. I don’t personally tend to connect with churches that offer that particular style of worship.

So I took the plunge.

And lived to tell about it.

I overheard a wide spectrum of opinions shared by people after the services. None were surprising. I tended to resonate with folks who said, "I don't know that I'd attend a service like that again, but I think we need to offer it every week." If a change in worship format is linked to outreach, I'm all in. I am the anomaly in the sense that most people my age see traditional, liturgical worship and are reminded of the forced boredom they endured as a child...and they want no part of it. This is more than a fad; it's a trend. I don't think that offering contemporary worship at our church will make most of our current members happier, but it might be an entry point for people in the community who are unaffiliated with a church. As one of my friends said, "If I want that kind of worship, I'll go to a different church."

Duly noted.

*** Epilogue ***

Nearly 36 hours after our contemporary worship weekend, I am haunted by an image that just might change my perspective on this whole topic. For the first time, I saw my six-year old daughter fully participating in a worship service. She didn't have to know how to read music, juggle a bulletin and a hymnal, or understand the convoluted numbering system in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship book. The only thing young Anna had to do was look up toward the cross and see the words to the songs, prayers, scripture, and statements of faith. She was engaged. She made connections. She was participating in corporate worship. She was a part of the body of Christ in a new and special way. It wasn't because her parents were telling her what to do....it wasn't because her dad works for a church...it was because, for the first time, she was in a worship service that stripped away the barriers to her participation. What more could a parent want for their child?

Knowing what this weekend's worship did for Anna doesn't eliminate some of my misgivings about contemporary worship...but it does give me a different lens through which I view the conversation.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Solving Seminary

I am not a seminary student. I have friends entering seminary...currently in seminary...and long since completed seminary. I have poked and prodded around Lutheran seminaries literally since birth. I recall thinking in my early teen years that I would eventually spent significant time at a seminary. As I've gotten older, I'm finding it to be less of a viable option for me.

Why?

I think education is important. I think it's important for would-be-pastors to be part of a thorough vetting process prior to ordination. I value the holistic learning that comes from living in community. I just don't think the way we're doing seminary makes any sense in the 21st century.

In addition to an ongoing wrestling with an internal sense of call to ordained ministry, I have five major issues with the current ordination-track seminary system:

1. All of the required education happens before a person ever becomes a pastor. This is mind-boggling to me. The way we Lutherans do it, a pastor has three years of course work and one year of internship before they are ordained into word & sacrament ministry. Once they have their Masters of Divinity, we impose no additional educational requirements. Has a pastor learned everything they ever needed to know from seminary? How does a seminary education in the 1960s serve, equip, and empower an aging pastor in 2010?
2. A Masters in Divinity is equated with pastoral preparedness. From what I understand, a Masters degree is an educational acknowledgment - a piece of paper which certifies that a person passed the course work required by academia. A Masters degree means a person is, for lack of a better term, book-smart. I've never seen a letter of call or a pastor's job description that lists "book-smarts" as one of the requirements. Of course, theological training is essential for any pastor...but why a Master's level? Why not a Bachelors...or a Doctorate, for that matter? Receiving a degree doesn't ensure a person has gifts for ministry; nor does the absence of a degree mean a person is void of those gifts.
   
3. Potential pastors are learning from scholars, not fellow pastors. Why does a seminarian spend three years in a community that doesn't resemble congregational community? Why are students only spending 15 months (CPE + internship) in the field of ministry and 3 years taking tests, writing papers, and learning from people that haven't served a congregation as pastor for years (if ever)?
4. A Bachelor's degree is a formality that is void of value. If I would have attended a Lutheran college, double-majored in Religion and Church History, and went on to seminary to be an ordination-track M-Div student...do you know how much of an advantage I would have over someone who majored in basket weaving? None! At best, I might be able to test out of my Greek requirement, but I wouldn't spend less time in seminary or have a smaller tuition bill when it's all said and done. The current system invalidates a Bachelor's field of study and boils it down to nothing more than a generic prerequisite.
   
5. Move, Move, Move, Move, Move, Move. I've said it before in this space, but I really think this is a big, BIG problem. A pastor-in-training moves to seminary...moves to do 3 months CPE...moves back to seminary...moves to internship...moves back to seminary...moves to their first call. 6 moves in 4 years. Why does it work this way? I'd love an explanation. Please enlighten me! What is gained by intentionally creating such an unsettling four years? What if someone is a second-career person with a spouse and children? Does the spouse's vocational identity not matter? Do the kids need to sacrifice "normalcy" because their parent feels called to be a pastor? What about the primary call to be a parent and spouse? Luther was big on the "domestic call" stuff, so why doesn't our Lutheran educational model reflect that?
   

As with any human institution, there are some other flaws and inconsistencies with the current seminary model. The aforementioned five items are what I consider to be the biggies.

So how do we fix it? If I may be so bold, here is one idea of how to change the ordination / seminary landscape:

1. Bachelors of Divinity. This would be offered exclusively at a seminary for anyone that is at least 18-years old. A student could transfer some applicable credits from another non-seminary institution, but would still need to complete a significant amount of 300 and 400 level classes through an accredited, ELCA seminary. A highly-motivated person could complete this degree in three years...most would take four.
2. Three-year residency / apprenticeship. This would include one year of internship upon completion of the Bachelor's degree. The candidate would then be ordained and called to the same congregation for an additional two years. During these two years of ordained ministry, the candidate would participate in required "First Call Theological Training", which is reflected in the current practice. Above all, residency provides stability for the congregation, supervising pastor, and the resident pastor.
   
3. Ongoing, required, masters-level continuing education. A pastor would need to be working toward a Masters of Divinity during their first 10 years of ordination. This ensures that a pastor continues learning new things about ministry - different preaching techniques, how to evaluate cultural trends, changing worship styles, youth ministry models, counseling refreshers, etc. It also requires congregations to regularly provide for a pastor's continuing education and sabbatical...and requires the pastor to use that time and money in an intentional way (not just to buy books that collect dust or skip out on seminars and workshops at conferences).
   
4. A similar pursuit of a Doctorate by the 25th ordination anniversary. Why not? Don't we want pastors who continue to evolve as leaders? I would think that the best time for a pastor to take seminary courses is while they're serving a congregation. The pastor can make a contextual application of what they've learned. The local church has fresh, new, relevant ideas being brought in from time to time. The pastor gets to work toward a degree that the congregation pays for. What's not to like?

I think this model could work for all concerned parties.

Seminaries would have many more outlets for education because EVERY pastor would be required to take classes through the seminary throughout their ministry, not just at the beginning.

Candidates don't have to move around as much. They would spend equal time - 3 years - learning in seminary classrooms and in a residency congregation.

Congregations would have pastors who are regularly improving themselves and, by extension, the churches they are serving.

Bishops would not have to deal with pastors who refuse to take continuing education and, therefore, find their skills eroding. If a pastor doesn't have a Masters in 10 years or a Doctorate in 25, they're off the roster.


I know it seems a tad naive, but I really think this could work. Of course, nothing will change until a core group of people within the seminary sub-culture considers this to be a viable option. The whole church will also have to embrace the notion that some of the most valuable educational training for pastors happens through experiences that can't be graded by a professor.

The Life Span of a Christian

I had a conversation the other day with a friend from church. "Jeff" is in his late-40s and has been an active member of the church for a very long time. I could tell something was troubling Jeff, so I asked him to share.

"Where are all the young people?"

I asked him to say more.

"It makes me sad that there aren't more youth and young adults in worship. I look around and all I see are people my age or parents with small children. Where are the kids in their teens and 20's?"

As we continued to talk, my friend shared the story of his faith journey. It was not unlike most others I had heard. He was reluctantly taken to church as a child, drifted away after confirmation, worshiped on Christmas Eve as a young adult to make his mom happy, got married, had a kid, and got reconnected after his child's baptism. It was a that moment that the light bulb went off.

Jeff came to the astonishing conclusion that he was no different than the very people he was chastising for being MIA.

We continued talking about how important it is for the church to continue reaching out to youth and young adults. We covered the main buzz words like "creativity", "innovation", "renewal" and "emerging". We knew that, just because many young Lutherans drift away after confirmation and (hopefully) return in adulthood doesn't mean that's a good thing. We just didn't have any ideas of what that kind of ministry looks like.

* * *

Later that night, I couldn't sleep. I thought about my conversation with Jeff...contemplated my own journey...and considered the stories of two Biblical big shots.

Moses -- he lived the life of an Egyptian prince, fled to the desert, farmed for a while, got married, and eventually came back to lead God's people to freedom. Moses was well into adulthood when he claimed his identity as a child of God, after having nothing to do with Yahweh up until then.

Jesus -- we know a lot about his birth and a "Home Alone"-style fiasco in the temple when he was 12...and then...nothing until he's about 30-years old. He grew in "wisdom and understanding", but what does that mean? He made nice shelving units in his dad's carpentry shop? He did miracles and signs and wonders around the neighborhood? What happened in his formative years? When Jesus finally appeared on the scene as an adult, had 3 good years of ministry, and then died.


There are many other examples of faithful God-followers that started young and continued throughout their lives (Jeremiah, Samuel, David, etc.). However, in light of the inverse bell curve of Christian involvement in many churches, I began to wonder:

What is the life-span of a Christian?

Are we wired to be people that are constantly growing in faith until the day we die?

Is it acceptable to ride the waves of doubt and certainty throughout our lives?

Does everyone have their time in the desert, a la Moses?

Does a person who remains active in a church during their young adult years become disconnected in their 40s & 50s, when other people their age become reinvested in their faith community?

Are churches needlessly banging their heads against a wall while trying to figure out what to do with the 13 - 30 crowd?

Should we invest our denominational efforts in creating para-church entities that take the place of a congregational focus? (A.k.a. create a theologically-sound alternative to Young Life or Campus Crusade for Christ.)

* * *

My tendency is to say that the church, which is the body of Christ, must remain central in the ministry that it does with people of all ages and stages in the journey. I'd like to think that we can be all things to all people. I subscribe to the theory that most churches have become (for lack of a better word) LAZY when it comes to engaging youth and young adults in meaningful ways...and there are lots of people / organizations that will gladly fill the void.

The big question, of course, is "how do we do this?" How does an established, mainline, intergenerational congregation go about nurturing faith among those in their teens and 20s?

Please provide the correct answer below. Thanks...

You Go Girl!

Dwight mentioned this video in the comments section of the Confused post. I thought it was worth embedding here:




I have gotten to know Tammy through synod coordinator work for the 2006 & 2009 ELCA Youth Gatherings. We usually sit together in the back of the room at the "naughty table" during meetings. I love her passion, fire, and attitude about Youth & Family Ministry. Here's hoping that her address to the NC synod assembly inspires other leaders like her!

"Make a New Plan, Stan"

It's the time of year for many of us in church work to shift gears. Youth ministry types tend to follow the academic calendar (Labor Day -- Memorial Day) in their regularly occurring activities. Sunday school, Confirmation, Youth Group, and Bible studies all happen regularly - usually weekly - during the school year.

Summer is a completely different animal.

We're not any less busy...we're just a different kind of busy. Weekly routines and rituals give way to mission trips, special event weeks, and planning sessions. Relational ministry opportunities are more prevalent because of kids' flexible (read: unpredictable) schedules...and regularly scheduled programs are a little trickier for the same reason. Youth workers also take time in the summer to recharge their batteries; either in the form of planned vacation time or ambiguously determined "comp time".

But what about the planning?





Very few youth workers are trained to efficiently and effectively cast a long-range (9-12 months) plan for ministry. We'll force ourselves to create events a few weeks in advance so it will appear in the church's monthly newsletter, but the descriptions are nondescript so we don't lock ourselves in to something too far in advance. We plan youth group a few days ahead of time...and we're even better at pulling something out of an orifice-of-choice on the spot. We might even think far enough ahead to put a 6-week topical series together...but even that is subject to change if a kid shows up a Bible study and they just failed a math test or broke up with their boyfriend. We are masters of tending to the here-and-now.

Not only are many of us not trained how to do long-range planning, but it goes against our very nature to think 12 (or even 6) months in advance. We're wired to think, act, speak, and react to situations in-the-moment. We're the ones who are supposed to have a fun game, relevant pop culture analogy, or quirky movie quote at the ready. We're good at those things, which is why we get paid the big bucks.

Manifesting a curriculum plan for 7th & 8th grade faith formation doesn't come so easily.


Here are the 10 things I try to do when coming up with a plan for the year ahead:

1. Ask and Listen. Solicit the opinions of a small sample of youth, parents, and adult leaders. Don't ask specific questions. Offer carefully crafted, guided questions that allow the person to think creatively and expansively about ministry. Emailed surveys tend to work best for me.
   
2. Be Still and Shut Up. Take time to pray and reflect on what happened in the past year. Don't plan anything new. Just think about what worked and didn't work...and WHY.
3. Location, Location, Location. Going off-site, preferably a place with no distractions, can help give a fresh perspective on ministry. Camps, parks, or other churches in town are great.
   
4. Think Seasonally. Lots of natural themes and topics arise at different points in the year. How does your ministry plan reflect what's going on in the world...holidays, weather patterns, etc.
   
5. Coordinate Calendars. You'll never find a perfect day / time for your groups to meet...but make sure you're avoiding the big things. If you have a ton of musicians in a particular youth group, don't plan a spring retreat during Solo & Ensemble Contest. Don't have a lock-in the weekend of Prom.
   
6. Put Something on Paper. By this point, I usually have enough ideas to start writing (in pencil) on a calendar. (However, this year, I'll probably just use a Google Calendar to do all the planning...mainly for ease of sharing and transferring data to what will become the final copy of the schedule.)
   
7. Share. Allow people you surveyed to see your draft copy of the program year. Assure them that it's still a work-in-progress. Ask for feedback on what you've come up with.
   
8. Walk Away. Let your plan simmer for a few days or weeks. I try to get the rough draft of the schedule done before I'm out of the office for a week. That way, I'm not tempted to tinker with it right away.
   
9. Revisit. Gather the feedback and take another look at the schedule. Are there things you overlooked? Does something just not make sense? Carefully analyze the plan. What would your most critical parent / youth / staff member say about it? Does that criticism have validity? Are there any potential time bombs that you can be proactive about ahead of time?
   
10. Tweak. Embrace the natural ebb and flow of the year. Just because you made a plan doesn't mean you can't make a few changes. Your group will grow and change throughout the year; so will you. You might get to next February and realize that the event you planned six months earlier just won't work. I try to not cancel these events, but instead, replace them with something better / more relevant.

This is how I do it. It's not necessarily a comprehensive list, but it's what has worked for me. We'll see what happens this year.

How do you craft a long-range ministry plan?

Worship Reflections

My friend Sonja posted some reflections on worship at her Facebook blog. I thought they were worthy of a re-post...

--

Sonja's Blog: Crossroads

April 27 at 5:21pm

You will have to forgive my recent tendency toward the religious. However, I find myself once again compelled to post on the topic. Humor me.

We are finding ourselves at a crossroads at our church. The traditions that have served us well for years are being challenged, and there is a ever-growing call for renewal of our worship practices (otherwise known as “adding a contemporary service”).

Those who feel strongly have weathered the tide of transition after a long-tenured pastor’s retirement and the upheaval of losing our next lead pastor after a few short years. Being in a constant state of transition, this multitude has been encouraged to be patient, not to push for change during such tumultuous times.

And so the din is rising. Will we ever not be in transition?

My thoughts on the subject of transforming our church go beyond the worship experience to the entirety of how we do or do not look to understand the needs of the “ordinary” people in our immediate community (i.e. not necessarily homeless/jobless, etc) who have needs (parenting/marriage/general life challenges) and how we become a safe, welcoming, nurturing place for to find guidance that then reveals the far-reaching effect God’s grace and a life of faith have in transforming our ordinary lives to the extraordinary that we crave (and expect!) but cannot achieve on our own.

In my opinion, we need to first formalize the process of getting to know new individuals by offering a variety of more intimate gatherings through which they can get to know others in the church (often known as small groups – Bible studies, discussion groups, child-rearing, mothering, marriage … etc.) When a new member joined the church an invitation would be extended to join a group that may be of interest to him/her.

When we welcome new members and then leave them afloat in a sea of new people to somehow find their way, we set ourselves up for failure. Only those who are bound and determined to make this particular church their home will have the fortitude to keep attending events, volunteering and being present until people quit asking “Are you new here?”

That’s not how Jesus did it, and it’s not how we should be doing it either. Jesus went to the people … Jesus turned the conventions of the day on their head and challenged us to a live a life of love by extending ourselves to others.

Second, just like schools have to rethink many of the ways they conduct outreach to parents (i.e. going beyond open houses and parent-teaching conferences) who may have never finished school or have terribly negative associations with “traditional” school outreach, we need to figure out how we become less scary to the individual who has only ever seen church as a place of negativism, hypocrisy, obligation and hurt. Whether those in established religion want to believe it or not, these are some of the reasons young families don’t just NOT go to church but AVOID anything with a religious connotation.

Those same traditions that bring us comfort and peace are representative of a time and place where a hurting soul came to be loved, nurtured and transformed and instead found judgment. By being willing to shed these traditions in favor of a worship experience that is still liturgical, worshipful and gospel-centered but is also in tune with the needs and styles of these individuals, we acknowledge that we are truly a “Christ-Centered Community of Hope and Belonging for ALL.”

By being willing to put words on the screen and sing with guitars and piano, we remove the stigma that only musically-inclined people who appreciate pipe organ and three part harmony attend church. By incorporating dramatic elements that provide real-life examples to make otherwise foreign and difficult concepts relevant and real, we acknowledge that the purpose of a sermon is the message (the GOSPEL centered message) not how it gets to you. By providing moments of intimacy during the worship service (communion in the round, sharing of the peace at the beginning, opportunities for personal connection) we acknowledge that we are a community that cares for and responds to the needs of our members and the world while focusing on God’s message as we worship Him.

The most important thing to understand is this is not an “us” versus “them” discussion, and it can never be. We are called to serve.

To SERVE.

To serve.

Young families not attending church are raising the next generation … do you want to have a say in introducing those children to Christ and shaping their values, or not? Will you turn your backs on them and hold fast to tradition while they drown in a sea of anger and self-doubt or will you “not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2 New International Version).

Galatians Bible Study

Ellen Rothweiller is a friend, youth ministry colleague, and fellow T.O. (theologian's offspring). She wrote a cool Bible Study on Galatians for one of her religion classes. In the spirit of koinonia Ellen has allowed me to share it with y'all.

COVENANT
A Bible study on Galatians

Warm-up Question:
Why do you make promises? Why do you break promises?

Read Genesis 15 and 17(have students read in turns)

• What covenant did God make with Abram(Abraham)?
• How did God fulfill his covenant/promise?
• What became a sign of God’s promise to Abraham?
  (Be sure to make the connection between covenant and promise. This also may be a good time to discuss the symbolism and purpose of circumcision, as a physical sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendents. Many youth may only know its purpose for today’s context.)

Opening Discussion:
What are some signs of a promise?
(jewelry, tattoo, etc…)

Activity:
Give each student a piece of paper. Ask them to fold it into fourths creating four squares. Write the following titles on the top of each square:

Promises I've Kept

Promises I've Broken

Promises Others have Kept to Me

Promises Others have Broken to Me

Give students time to fill this out and think about promises in their lives. After most students have finished, invite them to share one promise from each quadrant as they feel comfortable. On a whiteboard draw the same squares and fill them in with key words as the students share their promises. Leave these words on the board for the remainder of the study, both as a reference for conversation and to keep these ideas fresh in the students’ minds.

Read Galatians 3: 15-29

• What do you hear?
• What does Paul say about the promise? (conditional??)
• What does this mean for us?
  

Read Galatians 5: 6, 13-15

• Why does Paul say it is not necessary to be circumcised?
• What does Paul say about the law?
• Where do we get this freedom Paul says we have?
  (Again leave these questions open for discussion. Affirm all answers, and avoid interjecting with your own ideas until necessary. Be open to any and all conversations this discussion may lead to.)
  

Revisit the promise quadrants. Ask youth to reevaluate their promises in light of what Paul said in Galatians. After some discussion on this, point out that in the middle of the four squares there is a cross. This signifies Christ as the unbroken promise in our lives, and God’s promise to Abraham and to us, his descendents, fulfilled through Christ on the cross.

Closing Prayer:
Close in prayer with a “squeeze prayer”. Have each student think of a promise God has kept for them. Join hands in a circle and offer a general prayer to open and then squeeze the hand of the person on your right. This signals their turn to share their promise, or squeeze the next hand to pass. The prayer continues around the circle. When the squeeze comes back to the leader, offer final thoughts and end the prayer.

Ellen's Notes on Galatians Bible Study

I was intrigued with the book of Galatians and thought it held some valuable faith building passage for young people. In my ministry as the Youth Director at St. James Lutheran Church I wanted to find a way to present this book of the bible, and the Gospel in it, to youth in a way that was relevant and understandable.

I patterned my Bible Study after the ELCA format used in Faith Lens. They have a warm-up question that serves to get the kids on topic by using language that they understand. In this case when talking about a covenant we are really talking about a promise. I also used the activity to bring their personal experiences into the conversation, which helps to keep them engaged and relating to the topic.

I questioned how much to include about circumcision. I decided because it is such a prominent theme and the issue at hand in Galatians it would be necessary to address it. I am also sure that many youth wonder why it is discussed so much in the Bible since nowadays it is considered to be more of a private matter. Also, it served as the symbol of the covenant for Abraham, and so I brought symbols of promises into the conversation so the youth would have a frame of reference.

Death of Institutions

Chide me all you want for reading sports blogs, but I thought Will Leitch's reflection on the death of Harry Kalas was poignant:

There aren't many broadcasters like Buck and Kalas left...they are relics of a more permanent era, when people really did have one job for 50 years and couldn't be happier about it. (And back when people listened to the radio, the one station they could get, only if they happened to be on a hill.) That doesn't happen anymore, in any field. The people who have been doing this for so long, whether they're a broadcaster, or a newsman, or just the guy who does your taxes, are the last of their breed. We are a transient society, constantly moving, looking for the next thing, never sitting still for too long. There isn't much constancy. This makes for a more vibrant, exciting life. (Theoretically, anyway.) But it also casts darkness on all our institutions: When nothing lasts for too long, those things have lost value. We appreciate them more ... but we find ourselves mourning them less when they're gone. There's always something else.

I think Leitch is right. I see that in our congregation - dozens of households (usually young families) have come and gone in the past six years. Lots of new faces around the church; and many familiar ones are gone. Perhaps this is just the way of things for Xers and Millennials. If so, what does this mean for the church - one of the oldest "institutions" in history. Will it exist two generations from now? If so, what will it look like?

Don't Blow It

Jeff Jarvis (Huffington Post) has some sobering words for the newspaper industry:

You blew it.

You've had 20 years since the start of the web, 15 years since the creation of the commercial browser and craigslist, a decade since the birth of blogs and Google to understand the changes in the media economy and the new behaviors of the next generation of - as you call them, Mr. Murdoch - net natives. You've had all that time to reinvent your products, services, and organizations for this new world, to take advantage of new opportunities and efficiencies, to retrain not only your staff but your readers and advertisers, to use the power of your megaphones while you still had it to build what would come next. But you didn't.

You blew it.

I can't help but wonder if someone will be writing a similar letter to the church 10 years from now.

Have we misread (or turned a blind-eye from) the ways in which communication and culture shifts have impacted our mission field? Are we holding on to the right traditions? Do we fight the wrong fights and, in the process, ignore the fights worth fighting?

What would happen if our proud denomination of 4.8 million members removed the inactive or disinterested members from their roster? Would 2 million people remain? 1.5 million? How many members would be under the age of 40? How big / strong / vibrant is our church today? What things are in place to ensure that the church is still the church for the next generation?

Are mainline, protestant churches destined to suffer the same fate as newspapers?

It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. We're at a pivotal moment right now. It doesn't have to end badly. We don't have to keep closing more churches than we grow. We don't have to keep shrinking in membership, worship attendance, and giving. These can be avoided if we stop complaining about the way the world is changing and embrace what's going on. We can find our voice in the midst of the Information Age. I believe we're poised to not only survive but thrive in a postmodern (and post-postmodern) universe, if we hold true to what is at the heart of our theology...and get our hands a little dirty in the process.

Here's hoping we can learn from the mistakes of some in the newspaper industry...for the sake of the church and the sake of the gospel.

(article ht: @paulyeager)

Orthopraxy

The great Mike Stavlund serves up an intriguing post about the "Orthodoxy of Orthopraxy". It's intellectually heavy for a Monday morning, but I gobbled it up nonetheless. Here's an excerpt:

My fear is that-- for me and my friends-- orthopraxy has become the new orthodoxy. That in our strong (and correct!) affirmation of the importance of doing stuff, we have become like the anti-fundamentalist fundamentalists that we smirk at so frequently. The dangerous thing about my elevation of orthopraxy is that the very act of doing so exempts me from needing to do anything about my orthopraxy. It is enough to affirm the theoretical value of orthopraxy, and to then find a comfortable spot in my cozy home where I can be right. Orthopraxy, then, is the new orthodoxy, which requires little from me other than my stalwart intellectual ascent toward the tennets of orthopraxy. Handy, huh?

BishVid

As a bishop's offspring and Lost & Found apologist, I rather enjoyed stumbling across this YouTube video. I believe it's a promo for a Facebook group where you give the gift of your Lutheran Bishop to your friends. It's a little goofy -- but don't think for one second that I didn't add the application and send "my" bishop to 20 of my friends!

(video ht: George Baum, via Facebook)