A great prayer...

A great but simple prayer, I am praying and invite you to pray along too...

"Lord, open my eyes and heart to see where you are busy working and then give me the courage to join you in that work!"

Yes is Yes

Jesus taught that when you say YES, then let it be YES and when you say NO, let it be NO. (Matthew 5:37)

When we make a commitment to do something, then we need to follow through on our commitment.  Otherwise, we are letting someone down.  I am aware that things come up that make us unable to keep some commitments, and when that happens, it is best to secure someone else to do what you said you would and now can't or at least let someone know that you are unable to make that commitment.  However, if you find yourself doing that often, then you need to take a serious look at what you are committing to and perhaps you should refrain from making those commitments.

In the church, we need everyone to use their gifts in ministry and when someone says they will do something and then don't do it, it makes it hard to be effective in our ministry.   So, let your yes be yes and your no be no!

Transformation or Getting Better...

Last post from the quotes of C. Kirk Hadaway's book, Behold I do a New Thing: Transforming Communities of faith....

"Since culture treats the church as an outlet for religious goods, the obvious commercial reaction is to make our product better.  We make our worship services more professional and powerful, we add new ministries to attract more people and keep them involved, and we even try to make God more responsive to our needs.  In order to draw crowds, churches provide more God and more Mammon."

So what do we do?  "Our business is to transform people, to wake them up; it is not to satisfy them with quality worship and engaging programs.  As with any system, our primary focus should be on the transformational processes that produce our product.  If the processes are in place, the output will be good.  And if the output is exceptional, it will be easy to attract the resources that will help us to produce even more.  People are our products.  Our product is not exciting worship, fun outings, craft classes, faith-based football or professional programming.  People receive benefits and enjoyment from a transformational system, of course.  The worship, preaching education, ministry action and opportunities for spiritual practice that make up the system cannot be objectively bad, boring, or old-fashioned.  If they were, they would not contribute to the cycle of transformation.  People would not be changed.... the primary benefit we get is the capacity to deal with our problems.

"We create a transformational vessel with the capacity to create humans who joyfully participate in the creative unfolding of God's realm - people who know how to live fully.  What we gain is not comfort, although the support we feel from others and form our connection to God will make us feel better.  What we gain is not control over our lives, although we tend o lose the sense that everything is out of control.  What we gain primarily is the ability to see the world as God sees it and the invitation to live in that newly-realized world."

Some very important things to consider for us at Community of Joy as we stand at a crossroads and prepare to join God in moving forward!

Church as Incarnational Community...

Here are some more provocative thoughts from C. Kirk Hadaway on church....

"The church as incarnational community does not define its purpose in specific, tangible terms, nor does it confuse its structure and programs with its purpose.  By understanding that the outcome of transformation cannot be controlled, such churches focus on becoming spiritual vessels with the capacity for transformation.  They produce people who see life differently and act accordingly.  The incarnational community allows ministries to emerge that fulfill the personal missions of each member."

"The church as incarnational community is a culture of transformation where members experience God and are transformed into persons of faith."

"The task of church leadership is to spark the transformational process and then allow members to work out their own transformations, individually and collectively through emerging ministries of the church."

"Christianity is a way of liberation from a bondage that seeks to co-opt religion in order to keep people enslaved.  It is not a once a week pass from imprisonment (into God's realm) nor is it a way to make our collective prisons better places to live."

"The church as incarnational community recognizes that its purpose is not to alleviate, educate, or motivate.  Rather its purpose is to liberate."

"The way of Christ is not a way of bondage that requires us to act in a restricted and predefined manner.  It is a way of liberation that enables us to live life as God intended."

What does a church make?

Here are some more thoughts from "Behold, I Do a New Thing: Transforming Communities of Faith" by C. Kirk Hadaway.

"If Disney makes people happy, what does the church make?  The goal of more people is similar to the corporate goal of more money- a goal that inevitably leads to corporate failure.  So if we are failing at our ancillary goal of growth, we should look first to what we are making.  If we adapt the Merck mission and say, "Churches are for the transformation; not for the growth, the growth follows," then the lack of growth implies that people are not being changed."

"A good set of programs does not necessarily add up to a good church, and setting goals is not the way to revitalize a church that is foundering.  The church is a system that works within a structure.  Changing, elaborating, or adding to the structure may not affect the system very much; it may only change the channels through which the same system flows.  The results may not change at all, because every system is designed for the results it is getting.  If you want different results you have to redesign the system."

"If we want different results, we must redesign the system so that declining membership is not what we produce.  This does not mean that our focus should be on membership growth, of course.  Growth is a by-product of institutional health and not our primary objective.

"Once a church begins to concentrate on its primary business rather than on attracting an audience, working a program, or satisfying its members, the decisions required for continued improvement should be obvious."

Restful, Relaxing Vacation

Each year for the past 17 we have met two other couples and their children at Greenwood Furnace State Park in PA, near Belleville.  We pastored in this area right out of Seminary in 1990 to 1996.  It is always a fun week and filled with time to rest, relax and refuel.

This year, I read two and a half books as well as spent countless hours just enjoying my family and our friends.  The couples play sequence each night into the wee morning hours.  Women against men.  And this year the Men won the over all year and each night we played!

We have enjoyed having two friends of our daughters go along each year for the past many years!  This year was no exception!

 

I always take my camera and the guys usually run out into the nearby Amish community of Belleville, PA and I take Amish photos.  Usually I frame one from each year and hang in our living room.  Like to think of myself as a Amish paparazzi....I try very hard to be discrete and not to capture their faces.   Here are some of the shots from this week.

 

 

We always conclude our time there on Sunday going to worship at the very first church we pastored out of Seminary, the Spring Run Church of the Brethren.  It is always fun to see the people and especially to see the kids who have grown up and now have children of their own.   It is always sad to see/ hear of those who have passed on.  We do very much look forward to spending time in worship there each year!

 

Camping is a lot of work especially when you do it so far away and with tents and 6 people, but we always enjoy our time there.  Already looking forward to next year's trip!  And grateful that we went last week, when it was cool and not this week when it is HOT!



What is the Church?

Final post for a week - taking a break till Tuesday July 16.  But here are some more thoughts from C. Kirk Hadaway, from his book, "Behold I do a new thing: Transforming communities of faith."

If we rediscover that the purpose of our church is to transform people- to bring down their self-constructed walls, dissolve their delusions, and help them see God - then we also have a mission.  That mission is to be a church that actualizes our purpose in a way unique to our congregation.  It is to form a transformational community.... The primary purpose of the church is to be the church - not to try to become something that it is not, however wonderful that new something might seem. Being oneself, and growing from there, implies doing something, of course, but our focus should not be on achieving goals or measuring output."

"At base, a church is (or should be) a worshipping community where people are transformed into citizens of God's Realm, into people who see differently and, thus, live differently in the world.  In order to be churches, all churches should be that .  How they worship, form community, and transform their members will differ.  But the doing of these things is always connected to their basic purpose as churches."
"If a church's mission is directed at its purpose and its members are being transformed through that mission, the congregation can and should dream about doing great things (ministries) that are in keeping with its purpose and unfolding incarnation.  A mission (to actualize purpose) should be "like a compass that shows us the direction to go in and that keeps us on course."

Some very helpful thoughts!

The Body Building Puzzle

Here is today's sermon....

 

Luigi Tenorio was a collector of fine violins.  Violins dominated his life.  They were his passion and had become in many ways, objects of worship.   At his death it was discovered that Luigi had 246 violins stored in his attic.  The violins in the attic represented over 146 years of family history.

Luigi had one very special violin which was a Statavarius.  He never played it.  Actually, most of his amazing collection had never been played.

246 violins!!!  What does one do with 246 violins?  I mean what is a violin made for?  To make music?  And what good is it if you don’t use it for it’s purpose!    Like Luigi, many of us aren’t playing our violins!

A few years back, I purchased this bass guitar.  But have you ever seen me play it?  Thought so!

I don’t know the first thing about playing bass guitar.  So, you might ask… what good does it do me to have a bass guitar and not be able to play it?

Good question… absolutely no good!   It does me no good to have something I am unable to play!

Sir Michael Costa was a great orchestral conductor of the 19th century.  It is said that one day he was conducting a rehearsal in which the orchestra was joined by a great choir.  Midway through the session, the piccolo player stopped playing.  It seemed innocent enough – after all who would miss the tiny piccolo amidst the great mass of instruments blazing away?   All of a sudden Sir Michael stopped the entire orchestra and choir.  “Stop, Stop!  Where’s the piccolo?  What’s happened to the piccolo?”

In an orchestra, every instrument is necessary and has an important part to play so that when an instrument doesn’t play it’s part – the sound is not complete!  It is missed!

I’m not much for jig saw puzzles, but I know that there are some among us who love doing them and spend lots of time in the winter putting them together.  I’m also sure that most all of us at one time or another, have put one together.  Have you ever gotten to the end only to discover that there is a puzzle piece missing?  Just one tiny piece? 

A puzzle without all its pieces is incomplete!

I have seen puzzles at yard sales with a tag saying… pieces missing.   I wouldn’t give you .05 for one with missing pieces!  A puzzle without all its pieces is incomplete and will NEVER be complete!

Preacher and story teller Fred Craddock tells the following story… One day, he saw a nine pound sparrow walking down the street in front of his house and he asked the sparrow, “Aren’t you a little heavy?”

The sparrow said, “Yeah, that’s why I am out walking.  Trying to get some of this weight off!”

And Fred said, “Why don’t you fly?”

The sparrow looked at Fred as if he was stupid and said, “Fly? I’ve never flown.  I could get hurt!”

And Fred asked the sparrow its name.  And he said, “CHURCH!”

Like the 9 pound sparrow that is too afraid to fly, when we don’t all use our gifts, we are not living into the potential God created us for!

The other day, I was watching the CoB A/C online and often during the business item they paused for a 5 minute table talk.   You see in the past two years we have made a switch in how we sit for the conference from rows of delegates (about 1000) (looks like political conventions you have seen on tv) to sitting around round tables with seating assigned so that you sit with people you don’t know and have time in the agenda to talk about focus questions that pertain to the business item.  This seating alone has been a very helpful transformative process for our denomination, inviting people to be part of the process.  

Anyways, when they went to table talk, I did other things.  In one of those breaks, I was cruising FB and ran across an ad that caught my attention.  It was about body building.  Since the topic for today was the body building puzzle, I clicked on it to see what it was all about.  The main message of the commercial was about all the things we have tried to build muscles but that didn’t work and that in order to get the results we want – we must go about things differently than what we have been doing.

In many ways that could be said of us here at CoJ!  We aren’t getting the results that we want with building the body and the missing piece to the puzzle is found in this passage of Scripture that Pastor Sharon read earlier.  From the teaching of Paul first shared with the church at Corinth.  I Corinthians 12:12-31

Here’s my summary of this passage.

Just as the body is many parts, so the church is like the body and is made up of many parts.

Each part has a role

We can’t discount each other.

God arranges the parts.

All parts are necessary and needed!

We are not our best without YOU!    Each of YOU!

I believe God has brought each of us here to CoJ and has a plan for us together.

When you fail to play your part we are like the 9 pound sparrow named church that is unable to fly!

You are the missing piece of the CoJ puzzle.  It takes all of us using our gifts – playing our part to make the puzzle complete or to fly.

And regardless of what part of the body you are, you are part of the body and are necessary for a complete and whole body.

Charlie plumb found himself in a North Vietnamese prison as a POW after his f-4 phantom jet was shot down on May 19, 1967.  And he was held prisoner for nearly 6 grueling years.  He was released from imprisonment on Feb. 18, 1973.  After he returned to the states, he and his wife Cathy were eating in a restaurant when a man came to the table and said, “you’re Plumb.  You flew jet fighters in Vietnam.”   That’s right answered Plumb, I did! 

And the man continued. “It was fighter squadron 114 on the Kitty Hawk.  You were shot down.  You parachuted to the ground and spent 6 years in prison.

The former pilot was taken aback.  He looked at the man trying to identify him, but couldn’t.  “How in the world do you know that?” plumb finally asked.

“I packed your parachute.”  The man said.

Plumb staggered.  All he could do was struggle to his feet and shake the man’s hand.  “I must tell you, Plumb finally said, “I’ve said a lot of prayers of thanks for your nimble fingers, but I didn’t think I’d ever have the opportunity to say thanks in person.”

ALL of us have a role to play.  Each of us is necessary!  We can not fly to our full potential without you!  No matter how insignificant you feel your role is, like the parachute stuffer, whatever your role is it is important!

The body building puzzle is we are all part of the body and a necessary part of it!

There are many tasks/ roles to play around here – some are necessary for what we do, week in and week out… some are necessary to fulfill our mission.

I confess that part of what we have been doing around here that has been keeping us from the results we want is that a few of us have been doing more than we should, thus keeping others from doing their part!

I am guilty!  And I am committed to doing better.  That’s why last week I advertised for help with the lawn and with stamping offering envelopes.  2 tasks that needed doing and that I could easily do, but if I do them, I rob one or more of you from doing what you can do. 

I am thankful for those who stepped up to do their part with each of those tasks!

We the church are the body.

The body has many parts

Each part has a role to play

We can’t discount each other.

God arranges the parts

All parts are necessary and needed.

We are not our best without YOU!

The body building puzzle is that you are an important part of CoJ and we are not our best or complete without you using your gifts in the mission and ministry of Jesus through CoJ.

I hope in the coming months that we will be taking a new/ fresh look at what we do here/ how we do it and ways that we can both receive love, give love and help each other and people in our community take that next step toward Jesus.

We the church are the body.

The body has many parts

Each part has a role to play

We can’t discount each other.

God arranges the parts

All parts are necessary and needed.

We are not our best without YOU!

Once upon a time there was a famous house builder and painter. After designing the homes, he would then build and paint them. As a painter, he was such an amazing artist that he didn't even need drop cloths. He had a steady hand, and he was finicky about using good brushes and quality paint, so there were no drips, just tight trim lines.

This craftsman always designed, built and painted the homes all by himself—with his own hands … but then one day he had remarkable idea. As he was standing by one of his houses, he saw a bunch of kids walking home from the local elementary school. They were minding their own business, laughing and carrying their backpacks, until he shouted, "Hey, kids." When they looked up, startled and awestruck (because everyone in town knew about his amazing skills), he asked them a surprising question: "How would you like to do some painting?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you what," he said, "I'll give each of you a bucket of paint and a brush, and you can paint my new house. Do you want to give it a try?"

"For real?" they squealed with delight.

The painter nodded as he said, "Yep, for real."

"Cool!" the kids said.

He opened up the back of his truck and pulled out a load of brushes and paint cans and then pried open the paint cans. They started splashing paint on his garage door. They got paint on the sidewalk, too, and some on each other. But they also got a lot of paint on the house—all different colors, especially on the parts of the house that were under 4 feet high.

As other kids came by on the sidewalk, they asked, "Can we do that, too?" And they joined in. In about an hour most of the first floor was now covered with paint.

The house painter's neighbors came over after dinner and took it all in. "What is going on?" they asked. Another blurted out, "Look, I gotta be honest, your house looks like a tornado ripped through Sherwin-Williams. What were you thinking?"

"Well," the house painter said, "of course I could have painted this house all by myself, but I've always built and painted houses in order to bring joy to others. So based on that goal, this is the most beautiful house I've ever made. Then dozens of their friends will want to come to this house. They'll bring their friends to show what they've painted. And each one will say, 'This is the home of the master painter and builder, but it's also our house.'"

In the same way, when God the Father, the master creator and painter of the world, pours out his Holy Spirit on his followers, he hands every single one of us a can of paint and a brush, and he says, "Go to work. Use your gifts and let's paint a beautiful house for the world."

We the church are the body.

The body has many parts

Each part has a role to play

We can’t discount each other.

God arranges the parts

All parts are necessary and needed.

We are not our best without YOU!  Each of you using your gifts for the glory of God!

 



Interesting Thoughts on Churches...

On July 4, our family went to the beach for the day.  We took my truck down the beach for a more private experience.  When we arrived at Assateague National Seashore, we were # 19 in line to get on the beach.  There were already 145 vehicles on and that is the limit.  It then becomes a one off, one on situation, so we had to wait about an hour and a half  till it was our turn...

 

But then once we got on, it was like having a private beach, compared to other places...

 

It was to be a holiday, but I had a book that I really wanted to read related to congregational transformation, so I sat on the beach under the umbrella reading...

 

Over the next several days, I will be sharing some of the learnings from this book...  Here is the first. 

 

"Once an organization reaches a point of stability, however - in that it is not constantly concerned about whether or not it will make it - a subtle shift begins to take place in the way the group adapts.  The primary impetus for change then comes primarily from within rather than from without.  Life within the organization becomes more of a concern to group members than the groups relationship with the outside world."

 

"What occurs is called goal displacement - a process by which the primary mission of an organization is replace by operative goals that have little if anything, to do with the organization's original reason for being.  In almost all cases, the new goals involve a focus on group maintenance and member satisfaction - particularly involving the satisfaction of group leaders and core members."  C Kirk Hadaway.

 

This explains a lot of what we have experienced over the years here at Community of Joy!



 

Some Worthy Questions...

Been doing lots of praying and thinking about the Future of Community of Joy Church lately.  The following questions have been on my mind and I think are worthy of consideration by our leaders...

1. Do we have a transferable Mission or Vision?

• Do our participants know why we exist?
• By what standard do we measure our success as a church...really?
• Which of these three drive the majority of our decisions: reaching people, keeping people, or paying the bills?

2. What have we fallen in love with that's not as effective as it used to be?

• What do we love doing that's not really working?
• What's off limits for discussion?
• Do we have an "old couches" that need to be thrown out?

3. Where are we manufacturing energy?

• What are we promoting that we secretly wish we didn't have to attend?
• What would we love to quit doing but continue to do because we fear the consequences of change?
• What dare we doing programmatically that we would never dream of inviting a friend to?

4. What do we measure?

• Is there a natural relationship between what we measure and our mission?
• Are there things we should be measuring that would give us a more accurate read of how well we are accomplishing our mission?
• What are we afraid to measure?

5. What do we celebrate?

• Is there a natural relationship between what we celebrate and our mission?
• Are there things we should be celebrating that would help reinforce our mission?
• Do we celebrate anything that reinforces a behavior that shouldn't be reinforced?

6. If our church suddenly ceased to exist, would our community miss us?

• If so, why?
• What value do we bring to our community?
• How do people outside our church view our church?

I am indebted to Andy Stanley for these questions from his most recent book "Becoming Deep and Wide"

Touched Deeply....

About 15 minutes before Sharon and I left the house yesterday to travel to worship at Community of Joy, the heavens opened and the floods began to fall.  I mean torrents of water.  On the way, I told Sharon, this will keep our numbers low today.  Lots of people will stay home because of the rain.   And sure enough I was right!   Our numbers were significantly lower than they had been in recent weeks.

As I was chatting in the lobby, with some who had braved the rain, I caught a glimpse of a person pushing a manual wheel chair by the window.   And in order to get to our front door, they had to go a good distance to get to the ramp that would lead them up to our door.  By the time they got in our building, they were SOAKED.   A third person joined them.   And between them, they had two umbrellas, but they did little good with this kind of rain.

One of our folks knew where there were some towels in our Ministry Center and she took off to get them.  Gave them to the three, so they could dry off.  I turned the air a little warmer because I didn't want them to get chilled.  At the end of the worship gathering, they all said to me how delighted they were that they had come this morning!  And I was touched deeply... humbled!

They had a great excuse and could have stayed home.  But they didn't!  How many others had no excuse and stayed home?     All who did, truly missed out on the blessing of joining others in worship of our Great God!

Increasing Awareness...

Been working at ways to increase our community's awareness of Community of Joy and opening the door to conversations with people about community of Joy and invitations to join the journey with us.
So, yesterday, I went to the Mall to visit with a friend of mine (he attended the Community Men's Bible Study group that I lead) to see what we could work out.  In about an hour he took my design and logo picture and created the kind of image he needed to print t-shirts.  And the really great thing is that he is giving us the cheapest rate for bulk shirts.  Even better is that each person can go there on their own and decide what size, color t-shirt and color print they want for a totally custom shirt.  And to top off the great thing is that it will be available by the next day (depending on how busy the shop is, it could be done in hours).   If you want one of these shirts, they cost $18 and all you have to do is go to Son Graphics at the Centre of Salisbury and get it.

And every time one of these shirts is worn in the community, Community of Joy is getting exposure!

New Horizons....

Out of the work I did in the Advanced Foundations of Church Leadership Experience, I have been thinking about how I can strengthen my leadership.  I am about to begin my 15th year of pastoring here at Community of Joy.  They have been 14 good years!  But I have not seen the congregation grow in numbers or influence like I had dreamed it would.

So, I am doing some intentional work on how to reorient and leverage my leadership gifts by changing the way I do things.  Getting some great ideas through prayer and from a book I have been reading for things I can do to change the way I lead and minister.

At the same time, I am thinking that it is time to have a conversation at the leadership level of Community of Joy about how we might reorient the way we do things and give new articulation to what we are about so that it might focus us in new ways and enable us to be more effective in sharing Christ's love with our community and world so that we would grow in numbers and more importantly in influence for Jesus!

Stay tuned!

What is the purpose of the church?

Found this in a book I am reading by Paul Borden..."Make or Break Your Church in 365 Days: A daily guide to leading effective change"...

1. Was the church established to be the custodian of the saints?
2. Was the church established to carry out God's mission of redemption?

"When I ask these questions, I ask them in a primary sense.  A church on a mission does need to care for the saints who are carrying out that mission.  A church that is a custodian of the saints does believe in and can employ strategies for mission and seeing the work of redemption accomplished.  However, tis the church fundamentally designed to be a place for saints to worship, grow, develop, and be prepared to carry out God's mission, or is the church by its very nature a missional entity that does worship, discipleship, and other activities in missional ways, designed more for what it achieves as an entity in the accomplishment of the mission, both corporately and individually?"

"I believe that church of Jesus Christ is doing so poorly in North America because the church is most often seen as a custodian of the saints.  Most Christians believe in mission, but I sense that most Christians don't view the church as a missional entity designed more to mobilize believers than to serve them."

Somehow, the task for us in Church leadership is to mobilize participants to RECIEVE LOVE.  GIVE LOVE.  REPEAT AGAIN AND AGAIN.   To view the community as a place to share God's love with others and to help people take their next step toward Jesus!

Teamwork is the BEST work!

Yesterday, Sharon and Caroline and I spent the afternoon and evening (till moon rise) on the beach at Assateague National Seashore.  We drove my truck about a mile and a half down the beach and enjoyed our time together waiting on the moon rise.   While there, I took a walk to see what animals I could see and came across a pair of piping plovers that were acting strange.  At first I thought they had a nest nearby and were trying to keep me from finding it.  One of them would do the "Wounded Bird" dance trying to lead me away.  So, I just sat still for a while and watched and soon I discovered that they didn't have a nest, but they had three fledglings that they were protecting.  So, I set up with my camera hoping to get some pictures ( a bigger task than I thought as they are fast)

I was able to catch a couple shots of the babies.  And a couple shots of one parent with some of the babies.  I had hoped to catch a shot of all of them but that didn't happen.  The pictures are not the greatest because the angle of the sun and the harsh light that it was still.

 

What caught my attention was the way the two parents worked together to watch over and protect their young.  One would stay near the young and the other would try to lead me away from them.  They would even reverse roles.

 

It occurs to me that in the church, we need to do a better job of working together in teams.  Teams share the load, increase the efficiency, and help everyone feel more empowered and part of the body.   God created us to live in community and gifted us each with differing gifts so that we will go farther together.