We come again to that familiar, comfortable season of the year – the four weeks leading up to Christmas. It is Advent – the season when we look back to the first coming of our Lord, and we look forward to the second coming of our Lord. It is the time when we remember that Christ has come once into this broken world of ours to set things right, and that Christ will come again to set things right. What was begun with Christ’s first Advent will be brought to completion with his second. The work that God has started will come to an end – and it will be a good end, an end in which hope will vanquish despair, peace will vanquish war, love will vanquish hate, joy will vanquish sorrow, and life will vanquish death – once and for all. It is a time of eager expectation and longing, as we recognize the gap between what is and what ought to be, and as we recognize anew the way in which God sent Christ to bridge that gap – once and for all.
As we begin this Advent season this particular year, there are a several important developments in the life of the church that are worth bringing to your attention:
Cancer Support Group: We are starting up a new venture here in the life of this congregation – a faith-based support group for cancer victims and survivors. You will find more details about that elsewhere in these pages. As we all know, cancer seemingly can strike anywhere, anytime – in my own life, I have lost two grandparents to cancer, as well as a brother-in-law. The goal of creating this new group is to provide a place for those people afflicted with this disease – as well as those people who may yet become afflicted with this disease – where they can find strength, courage, inspiration, and meaningful relationships to support them through their journey. Our Parish Associate, Fred Graham, who has direct experience with cancer himself, will be the primary facilitator. The first meeting is on December 5. More details inside!
Contemporary Worship Task Force Report: About thirteen months ago, a task force was created “to carefully and prayerfully think through all the various aspects of the contemporary worship service, including vision, style, format, behind-the-scenes organization, and integration with the life of the congregation, and to develop a new written proposal to be submitted to the Worship and Music Committee and the Session for approval.” Nine members of this congregation spent many months talking, reading, learning, and debating about the role and place of contemporary worship here in this community of faith. There is a long, ten-or-so-year history here of experimenting with contemporary worship in a wide variety of ways, most recently, by having a contemporary service twice monthly on Sunday evenings. One of the learnings of the task force is that the very word “contemporary” is fraught with difficulties; good worship should always be both traditional and contemporary at the same time – meaning, that we should always be steadfastly holding to the great tradition of the faith, while simultaneously expounding and interpreting that great tradition in ways that are meaningful and relevant in contemporary culture. We are trying to move past the labels “contemporary” and “traditional,” though it is a bit of a challenge to find more appropriate words. Really, we are talking about matters of worship and music style. The report is now publicly available – there are copies sitting on the table outside Sheren’s office. The basic thrust of the report is a recommendation from the task force that we create a second Sunday morning service that would be stylistically different from the current service. Reactions to this report are, naturally, running the gamut; I have heard some of you say things like, “It is so obvious to me that we need to do this,” some saying, “I agree we should do this, but don’t expect to see me at that service,” and some saying, “I’m really not sure we’re ready for this.” No final decisions have been made, and it seems evident that we need some greater clarity as to how this proposal would affect the existing Sunday morning schedule. Ultimately, it is more important that we consider what will be in the best interests of promoting the overall mission of the church, than what we personally might want to see happen. We must always be thinking about the purpose for which this church exists in the first place, and make decisions that will be faithful to that purpose. If you haven’t yet read the report, I heartily encourage you to do so.
Budgetary concerns: We are facing some budgetary challenges again this year. We made tremendous strides last year towards a balanced budget, but economic circumstances have been taking their toll on various members and friends of the congregation. Some of you have lost your jobs; others of you have been forced to work reduced hours; still others of you are living off of less income from your investments. All of this is taking its toll on the financial stability of the church. We are not in dire straits – countless other churches, non-profit organizations, and businesses are in far worse shape than we are – but things are not as stable as they had been just a few months ago, or as stable as would be ideal. I had hoped, earlier this year, that we might be able to end the year in the black (for once!); now, I am not sure that is realistic. We still have a few weeks left in the year, so I still hold out hope that we will at least come close.
Meanwhile, pledge cards for 2010 continue to roll in. On the whole, things are looking pretty good . . . but again, not ideal. I understand that many of you have chosen to increase your pledge (thank you!), that we have a number of new pledges (thank you!), and that some people have made a difficult decision to reduce their pledge due to personal financial circumstances (we understand!). We’re still hoping to receive pledge cards from some people whom we haven’t heard from. As of Thanksgiving, the total amount pledged for 2010 is just over 90% of the total amount that was pledged for 2009. That’s pretty good, especially given the tough economic times in which we live . . . but there is a gap. I’d like to extend a special invitation to those of you who haven’t yet turned in a pledge card: we really need to hear from you. We need your support to help fund the ongoing mission and ministry of this community of faith. We can’t continue to do all the things that you care about without your support. The mission of the church needs people like you. Jesus Christ needs people like you.
Natural Church Development Implementation Team: On a more upbeat note: Several months ago, Session decided to pursue an initiative called “Natural Church Development” (abbreviated “NCD”). NCD originated in Germany twenty years ago in response to the dramatic decline of Christianity in western Europe. A team of researchers studied churches that were growing rather than shrinking, and identified eight characteristics that the growing congregations have developed strengths in. Those eight characteristics are empowering leadership, gift-based ministry, passionate spirituality, effective structures, inspiring worship, holistic small groups, need-oriented evangelism, and loving relationships. The NCD researchers developed a diagnostic tool that churches can use to assess how strong they are in those eight areas; that tool has been used in over 45,000 churches in 70 different countries around the globe. The results generated from the diagnostic tool are then used by local church leaders to help determine what they most need to work on if they want to see the best possible positive change in the church’s overall life together. The goal is to improve the overall quality of the experience people have in church; the goal is to create situations in which more people are voluntarily choosing to invest their time and energy into the life of the church (not through guilt or pressure tactics); the goal is to create happier, more satisfied, more involved parishioners.
But the journey from good to great is not necessarily an easy one. It typically means taking a good, hard look in the mirror, identifying areas that need to be improved, and then having the discipline to actually make those improvements. It’s like going for a personal health checkup and being told, “You need to stop smoking,” or “You need to get more exercise,” or “You need to eat a more balanced diet,” and then actually having the discipline to do that, to make those difficult adjustments in your daily life. As we all know – that’s not necessarily easy to do!
Session has authorized the creation of an “implementation team” that will be leading us through the NCD process. Don’t expect to see instantaneous results; this will be a project that could easily take several years before we start seeing tangible fruit. The team that will guide us through the various stages of a multi-year process. The team members – at least, for now (it may change over time) – are Phil Gamber, Rex Hauser, Suzanne Lang, Joan Meinke, and myself. I would invite you to keep these people in your prayers. They will be learning (a lot), then they will be teaching the rest of you what they have been learning, and together they will be leading this community of faith on towards a brighter tomorrow.
In the name of the One who is, and who was, and who is to come, Jesus Christ, our risen Lord, the Christ child born in a manger. . .
With hope, love, peace, and joy,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
December 1, 2009
November 1, 2009
On Communication
Let’s talk about communication! Good communication matters. The goal here is to help create a happier, healthier, better organized, more well-oiled framework for how we conduct our life together as a community of faith.
Over the course of the 2008-2009 program year, a variety of minor issues arose that all had something to do with matters of internal communication within the church. It became clear to me and to some other people who are familiar with the day-to-day operations of the church that we lacked clarity about how we were going to handle certain kinds of situations. We were being inconsistent about some things – sometimes saying “yes” to certain requests and “no” to other similar requests – without having a clear set of principles upon which we were making those decisions. It increasingly became apparent that we needed to bring a greater degree of order to what sometimes felt like chaos. That led to the creation of a “Communications Task Force” – a sub-set of Session members – charged with the task of considering our overall communications strategy, and making some recommendations back to Session. The Task Force met several times over the course of the summer and presented its recommendations to Session at its September meeting. Bruce Archer, in his Clerk’s report last month, briefly summarized the actions that Session took last month in response to those recommendations from the Task Force. In what follows, I am going to comment a bit further.
I should say, before proceeding, that there were some questions paramount in our minds that had to do with matters of purpose. Why does this church exist? What are we here for? What is our mission? What are we trying to accomplish? Those are great questions – well worth asking in any age – and I’ll have some things to say about those questions in the months to come. But suffice it to say, for now, that the decisions that we made regarding these matters of internal communication were decisions that were made after giving some careful consideration to our overall sense of purpose. Here is where we are now:
There will be no commercial advertising within the church. Periodically, we have found business cards, posters, advertising calendars, flyers, or brochures on bulletin boards or in various racks on tables. Effective immediately, we are no longer going to permit commercial advertising in our building. Why not? Because we’re not here to provide free advertising space for area businesses; we’re here to promote our own mission – Christ’s mission. Besides, any advertising that is visible here implicitly suggests that we, as a faith community, might be endorsing or supporting those businesses.
Advertisements or other communications from non-profit organizations will be permitted, but only for such organizations that have received support or endorsement from the Session, the Board of Deacons, or one of the Session committees. We all have our favorite “pet projects,” our favorite non-profit agencies. (I certainly have mine!) There are loads of organizations that do lots of good work. Every week, I get mail from still more organizations (usually wanting money); most of those requests make their way to the Mission Committee for their consideration. But, over the years, there are certain organizations with whom we have developed strong partnerships – Capital Area Community Services, to give one obvious example – and it’s important that we give special effort to promoting those organizations that we actively support, as a community of faith. Every now and then, we decide to give our support to an organization that is brand new or that we simply haven’t supported before, in which case we can begin promoting that organization’s work within our church. We need to make sure that we are promoting the organizations that have the support and backing of one of the existing boards or committees within the church – not individual people’s “pet projects” – and that means we need to make distinctions between those that do have support from existing church boards or committees, and those that do not.
Information of events or activities that are taking place in or are sponsored by other churches will not have priority in our communication to the congregation. We routinely receive a multitude of requests to advertise events or programs that are sponsored by other churches. The simple truth is that if we published information about every such event or program that we receive word about, you would be bombarded with way more information than you want. We already have a large smorgasbord of events, programs and initiatives going on here (and we keep adding more!) that we want to be advertising and promoting and encouraging you to be aware of or to participate in. Those events, programs, and initiatives that we are putting on will necessarily have priority in our communications over events, programs, and initiatives that other churches ask us to promote. This does not mean that we will never tell you about events happening at other churches – we have strong connections, for example, with the dozen other Presbyterian churches in the greater Lansing area – but it does mean that, ordinarily, when we receive requests to provide you with information about goings-on at other churches, the answer will typically be “no.” That’s not because we’re trying to be insensitive; it’s because we’re trying to preserve and promote our own mission, programs, and initiatives. Churches that want to “get the word out” about their programs and initiatives can always send information about their events and programs to the Community News.
We will not send out mass e-mails to the entire congregation except in the case of church-wide emergency notifications. By “church-wide emergency notifications,” what we mean are things like “Worship services are cancelled tomorrow because there is six feet of snow blocking our doors” or “Part of the ceiling in the sanctuary fell in this week, so we’ve made arrangements for Sunday’s worship service to be held at [fill in the blank] instead of here.” We’re talking about major acts of nature here! We will not send out mass emails from the church office about births, deaths, illnesses, or any regularly scheduled events or programs. The prayer chain typically communicates information about major life transitions in people’s lives, and each committee and organization within the church is responsible for publishing information about its own upcoming events and programs (including schedule changes). Committees and organizations within the church may certainly maintain their own email lists and send out email messages to parties they believe will be interested in their activities. Which brings me to:
The Cornerstone and the Sunday bulletin are the primary methods of communication within the church for promoting upcoming events and activities. Both publications have submission deadlines that need to be respected and honored (for the Cornerstone: noon on the 15th day of every month; for the bulletin: 9:00 a.m. every Thursday). Time and again, the office has received requests to put information in the upcoming bulletin or newsletter well after the deadline has passed. Sometimes we have been able to accommodate those requests; sometimes we haven’t. Lately, there have been so many announcements that committees and organizations within the church have been wanting to make that we’ve been having trouble figuring out how to fit them all in. (That’s a good problem to have – it means there’s a lot of really great stuff going on around here!) Those requests that have been received by the publication deadline will necessarily be given priority. That means that committees and organizations within the church need to be disciplined enough to make sure that they are submitting materials in a timely fashion. There’s a wonderful saying: “Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on our part!” Committees and organizations within the church may find it beneficial to designate one person within the committee or organization as the primary person responsible for submitting materials to the church office (and that person does not have to be the chair or moderator). That will facilitate a greater ease of communication between the committee or organization and the church office, and will help guarantee that each committee or organization’s publications and events are getting appropriate publicity.
Information on the bulletin boards about upcoming events should be posted only one month in advance of the event but no more than two months in advance, and shall be removed immediately after the event. The Task Force had some extensive conversations about bulletin board space within the church, and there may be more issues here that will need to be revisited at another time down the road. But for now, we want to make sure that we don’t have old information lingering around for too long. It doesn’t do the church any good when people look at a bulletin board and see information posted there about “upcoming events” that have long since passed! We also believe it will be best if we don’t advertise about upcoming events when they are still a long way off in the distance – because that just adds more papers to our already-crowded boards.
I realize that these new communications policies may seem a bit pedantic. They may even sound a bit tedious. Believe me, we wouldn’t be talking about these things if the Session didn’t feel that we needed to. Aren’t there more exciting things we could be talking about? Yes, of course! But the reason we’re talking about these issues right now is because it became clear last year that a lack of clarity about these matters was getting in the way of us being able to effectively promote those more exciting things that we want to be talking about. We’ve taken some time to come to some greater clarity about how we’re going to do things around here, so that we’ll be able to do those things better and run into fewer difficulties along the way. We want this year – and all future years – to “flow” more smoothly!
Thank you very much for all your efforts – past, present, and future – to help create a happy, healthy, well organized, well-oiled framework for how we conduct our lives together as a community of faith. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
Over the course of the 2008-2009 program year, a variety of minor issues arose that all had something to do with matters of internal communication within the church. It became clear to me and to some other people who are familiar with the day-to-day operations of the church that we lacked clarity about how we were going to handle certain kinds of situations. We were being inconsistent about some things – sometimes saying “yes” to certain requests and “no” to other similar requests – without having a clear set of principles upon which we were making those decisions. It increasingly became apparent that we needed to bring a greater degree of order to what sometimes felt like chaos. That led to the creation of a “Communications Task Force” – a sub-set of Session members – charged with the task of considering our overall communications strategy, and making some recommendations back to Session. The Task Force met several times over the course of the summer and presented its recommendations to Session at its September meeting. Bruce Archer, in his Clerk’s report last month, briefly summarized the actions that Session took last month in response to those recommendations from the Task Force. In what follows, I am going to comment a bit further.
I should say, before proceeding, that there were some questions paramount in our minds that had to do with matters of purpose. Why does this church exist? What are we here for? What is our mission? What are we trying to accomplish? Those are great questions – well worth asking in any age – and I’ll have some things to say about those questions in the months to come. But suffice it to say, for now, that the decisions that we made regarding these matters of internal communication were decisions that were made after giving some careful consideration to our overall sense of purpose. Here is where we are now:
There will be no commercial advertising within the church. Periodically, we have found business cards, posters, advertising calendars, flyers, or brochures on bulletin boards or in various racks on tables. Effective immediately, we are no longer going to permit commercial advertising in our building. Why not? Because we’re not here to provide free advertising space for area businesses; we’re here to promote our own mission – Christ’s mission. Besides, any advertising that is visible here implicitly suggests that we, as a faith community, might be endorsing or supporting those businesses.
Advertisements or other communications from non-profit organizations will be permitted, but only for such organizations that have received support or endorsement from the Session, the Board of Deacons, or one of the Session committees. We all have our favorite “pet projects,” our favorite non-profit agencies. (I certainly have mine!) There are loads of organizations that do lots of good work. Every week, I get mail from still more organizations (usually wanting money); most of those requests make their way to the Mission Committee for their consideration. But, over the years, there are certain organizations with whom we have developed strong partnerships – Capital Area Community Services, to give one obvious example – and it’s important that we give special effort to promoting those organizations that we actively support, as a community of faith. Every now and then, we decide to give our support to an organization that is brand new or that we simply haven’t supported before, in which case we can begin promoting that organization’s work within our church. We need to make sure that we are promoting the organizations that have the support and backing of one of the existing boards or committees within the church – not individual people’s “pet projects” – and that means we need to make distinctions between those that do have support from existing church boards or committees, and those that do not.
Information of events or activities that are taking place in or are sponsored by other churches will not have priority in our communication to the congregation. We routinely receive a multitude of requests to advertise events or programs that are sponsored by other churches. The simple truth is that if we published information about every such event or program that we receive word about, you would be bombarded with way more information than you want. We already have a large smorgasbord of events, programs and initiatives going on here (and we keep adding more!) that we want to be advertising and promoting and encouraging you to be aware of or to participate in. Those events, programs, and initiatives that we are putting on will necessarily have priority in our communications over events, programs, and initiatives that other churches ask us to promote. This does not mean that we will never tell you about events happening at other churches – we have strong connections, for example, with the dozen other Presbyterian churches in the greater Lansing area – but it does mean that, ordinarily, when we receive requests to provide you with information about goings-on at other churches, the answer will typically be “no.” That’s not because we’re trying to be insensitive; it’s because we’re trying to preserve and promote our own mission, programs, and initiatives. Churches that want to “get the word out” about their programs and initiatives can always send information about their events and programs to the Community News.
We will not send out mass e-mails to the entire congregation except in the case of church-wide emergency notifications. By “church-wide emergency notifications,” what we mean are things like “Worship services are cancelled tomorrow because there is six feet of snow blocking our doors” or “Part of the ceiling in the sanctuary fell in this week, so we’ve made arrangements for Sunday’s worship service to be held at [fill in the blank] instead of here.” We’re talking about major acts of nature here! We will not send out mass emails from the church office about births, deaths, illnesses, or any regularly scheduled events or programs. The prayer chain typically communicates information about major life transitions in people’s lives, and each committee and organization within the church is responsible for publishing information about its own upcoming events and programs (including schedule changes). Committees and organizations within the church may certainly maintain their own email lists and send out email messages to parties they believe will be interested in their activities. Which brings me to:
The Cornerstone and the Sunday bulletin are the primary methods of communication within the church for promoting upcoming events and activities. Both publications have submission deadlines that need to be respected and honored (for the Cornerstone: noon on the 15th day of every month; for the bulletin: 9:00 a.m. every Thursday). Time and again, the office has received requests to put information in the upcoming bulletin or newsletter well after the deadline has passed. Sometimes we have been able to accommodate those requests; sometimes we haven’t. Lately, there have been so many announcements that committees and organizations within the church have been wanting to make that we’ve been having trouble figuring out how to fit them all in. (That’s a good problem to have – it means there’s a lot of really great stuff going on around here!) Those requests that have been received by the publication deadline will necessarily be given priority. That means that committees and organizations within the church need to be disciplined enough to make sure that they are submitting materials in a timely fashion. There’s a wonderful saying: “Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on our part!” Committees and organizations within the church may find it beneficial to designate one person within the committee or organization as the primary person responsible for submitting materials to the church office (and that person does not have to be the chair or moderator). That will facilitate a greater ease of communication between the committee or organization and the church office, and will help guarantee that each committee or organization’s publications and events are getting appropriate publicity.
Information on the bulletin boards about upcoming events should be posted only one month in advance of the event but no more than two months in advance, and shall be removed immediately after the event. The Task Force had some extensive conversations about bulletin board space within the church, and there may be more issues here that will need to be revisited at another time down the road. But for now, we want to make sure that we don’t have old information lingering around for too long. It doesn’t do the church any good when people look at a bulletin board and see information posted there about “upcoming events” that have long since passed! We also believe it will be best if we don’t advertise about upcoming events when they are still a long way off in the distance – because that just adds more papers to our already-crowded boards.
I realize that these new communications policies may seem a bit pedantic. They may even sound a bit tedious. Believe me, we wouldn’t be talking about these things if the Session didn’t feel that we needed to. Aren’t there more exciting things we could be talking about? Yes, of course! But the reason we’re talking about these issues right now is because it became clear last year that a lack of clarity about these matters was getting in the way of us being able to effectively promote those more exciting things that we want to be talking about. We’ve taken some time to come to some greater clarity about how we’re going to do things around here, so that we’ll be able to do those things better and run into fewer difficulties along the way. We want this year – and all future years – to “flow” more smoothly!
Thank you very much for all your efforts – past, present, and future – to help create a happy, healthy, well organized, well-oiled framework for how we conduct our lives together as a community of faith. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
October 1, 2009
When We Stumble
Sometimes, as we go through the course of our life, we stumble. Sometimes, things are going so well – in our work life, in our family life, in our personal life – and then, suddenly, whammo, something happens – and we stumble.
I stumbled recently.
Things were going so well. I had run two 5Ks this spring. I had never done that before. Prior to December of last year, it had never occurred to me that I could do that. Remember, I was always the kid who didn’t seem to have an athletic bone in his body.
In June, I spent a night at Camp Greenwood in preparation for a presbytery meeting to be held there the next day. Early in the morning, well before breakfast, I wanted to go for a run. I found Greg Hoekman in the dining hall and asked him directions for a good three-mile running route. He gave me clear directions – right here, left here, left here, etc. – that would bring me in a big loop right back to the camp entrance. I headed off. Within twenty minutes, it was clear to me that this was going to be farther than three miles. But I kept going. Within thirty minutes, it was clear to me that this was going to be significantly farther than three miles. But I kept going. I started trying to guess how far I was running – was this four miles? Could it be five? Eventually I made it back to the camp entrance, rather sweaty and still running strong, just in time for breakfast. Later that day, after the meeting was over, I drove the route that I had run, to see how far I had gone. Three miles, yes; four miles, yes; five miles, yes – it turned out to be 5.6 miles. Five point six miles! Nearly the length of the two 5Ks that I had run in the spring, combined – and I could have gone farther. I emailed Greg and told him that he needed to work on his distance measurements, but I also thanked him for the challenge that he had inadvertently set before me – because, thanks to his directions, I had reached a whole new level that I didn’t know I could reach.
And if I could do that – if I could run 5.6 miles in one stretch and still feel good and strong at the end of it – what more could I do? I looked at the schedule of running events in the area. There’s an 8K in Haslett on September 20 – gosh, I just did an 8K, without even trying! There’s a 10K in Lansing on October 10 – could I possibly do that? And then – there they were – two half-marathons this fall, one in Lansing on September 27, and another in Detroit on October 18. Surely I couldn’t aim for one of those – could I?
I started talking to more experienced runners. I joined a running group. I began working with a coach. I asked lots of questions. And the answer I kept getting back – from person after person after person – was, “Yes, Bill, you can do this. If you can do what you’ve already done, then with a little bit of discipline and a little bit of perseverance and a little bit of stamina, you can do this. You can run a half-marathon.” So, with a training schedule in hand and some new running partners and a lot of useful information about running form and stretches and nutrition and hydration, I set myself a new goal: a half-marathon. Thirteen point one miles – more than double the distance that I had run at Camp Greenwood.
I kept track of my progress. 5.6 miles. 5.8 miles. 6.5 miles. 7.2 miles. Every Saturday, a bit further than I had gone the previous Saturday, with a reduced distance every third week to give my body time to catch up, and with two shorter runs during the week (but “short” had become a relative term). Then, breakthrough, on the beautiful summer morning of August 1 at Hawk Island Park as my running partner and I were both gently urging each other on, 10 miles. Ten miles! Talk about a runner’s high – I was euphoric! Once again, I had accomplished something I didn’t know I could do. Ten miles! The half-marathon was so tantalizingly close – trainers say that one you can get to 10, the remaining 3.1 is really no trouble at all, that your adrenaline and excitement will just carry you the rest of the way. So close!
That’s when I stumbled.
On the Tuesday after that ten-mile run, I ran two miles before I just simply had to stop. My legs just couldn’t go any further. On Thursday, I managed five – but my legs were still sore, particularly my right. On Saturday, I managed eight in pouring-down-rain. But the following week, it was obvious that something was very definitely wrong. We were on vacation, in Mexico for my sister-in-law’s wedding. I ran five miles through the streets of Playa del Carmen . . . but it hurt. Two days later, I thought to myself as I rolled out of bed, “Okay, my leg’s feeling sore, but surely it’ll feel better once I get it moving.” Not! Know how far I got that day? A quarter of a mile. Barely three blocks. That’s it. It just hurt too much.
The following week – back home – I headed off to an injury clinic. After a variety of tests, the sports med person concluded that I had strained one of my quads. “Take it easy,” she said. “Slow down. Let your body heal.”
But what if I don’t want to slow down? That half-marathon – it’s coming soon!
You know, there are times when you should just listen to what your body is telling you. I did slow down . . . but I didn’t stop. I ran less often . . . but I still ran. I ran shorter distances . . . but I kept going. And my leg responded in kind. When I rested . . . it didn’t hurt. When I ran . . . it hurt. Connection? Probably. Was I bright enough to pay attention? Not!
So now, finally, after a visit to my doctor – who ordered an x-ray and wrote a script for physical therapy and told me that the half-marathon would have to wait till next year – and after a visit to my new physical therapist – who did all sorts of interesting tests on my legs and concluded that my case was “quite a puzzle” – it seems that the problem isn’t simply a strained quad, but that what’s really going on is that my left leg has a significantly greater degree of flexibility than my right, and when I run I’m pacing myself according to my left leg, which is causing the right portion of my pelvis to shift in odd ways to compensate for the lack of flexibility in my right leg, which is then in turn causing strain in a muscle that’s apparently underneath my quads. Bottom line: my right leg needs more flexibility. And the solution for that? Stretching. Lots and lots and lots of stretching.
Great. What fun. I want to go running – I want to get out there and feel the breeze and feel my heart pumping and feel the rush of adrenaline and enjoy the sights of this beautiful world that God has created. I know stretching’s important, and I’ve been trying to be diligent at it – but I don’t want to have to do that much stretching! My P.T. wants me to be doing over 30 minutes of stretching a day. Stretching – when I’d rather spend that time running!
So, you see, I stumbled.
You know, there are times when God sends messages our way that we need to pay attention to. There are times when God tries really hard to get our attention. There are times when we humans just want to ignore the evidence, the hard facts, the brutal realities of life. There are times when we just want things to be our way, when we want to call the shots as they pertain to our individual lives, when we try desperately to be in control . . . but, truth be told, they aren’t, we can’t, and we’re not. The sooner we realize that, the better. Sometimes, things happen in our lives remind us of us that. We would be wise to pay attention to those reminders!
Moreover, sometimes we want to find someone or something else to blame for our troubles. We want to look around and say, “This bad thing that’s happening to me – it’s all someone else’s fault.” Or, sometimes we look for excuses: “Well, this bad thing that’s happening to me, it’s really because of this other factor over here, that I have no control over.” But you know what? At least some of the time – that’s just balderdash. Truth be told, at least some of the time, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the fixes we get ourselves into. I’m laid up because I wasn’t doing a good enough job stretching. That’s it. Pure and simple. There is no one else I can blame. There are no outside factors that I can use to make excuses. It’s my fault, my responsibility, and I have to own that.
When we get in trouble at work because we’ve failed to meet a deadline . . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because we’re not very good at time management. When we have troubles in a relationship with a spouse or significant other. . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because there are some things that we’re doing that are causing strain in the relationship. When we’ve volunteered for a task or an assignment but constantly find ourselves frustrated . . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because we didn’t make a very good choice. When our children are acting up . . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because we’ve still got some things to learn about good parenting skills. When we come down with a medical condition that might have been preventable . . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because we haven’t been very good stewards of our bodies. Granted, there are certainly times when there is nothing we could have done to prevent the situation we find ourselves in now. But, at least some of the time, the reason we’ve gotten ourselves into a fix is because we’ve done something – or failed to do something (like adequate stretching!) – that has directly contributed to the mess we find ourselves in.
So what we need to do – on a regular basis – is engage in some prayerful self-reflection and introspection. What am I doing (or failing to do) that is contributing to the mess I’m in right now? What do I need to do – what changes to I need to make to my work habits or relationship habits or exercise habits or dieting habits or other habits of life – if I’m going to get out of this fix? Then – once we’ve figured out what we really need to change about ourselves – then we have to have the guts and the stamina and the discipline to actually do it, to actually make the changes that we oh-so-desperately need to make. (Reminder to self: don’t forget your stretches tonight!)
When we do that – when we actually make those changes that we know, deep down, that we really need to make – well, my friends, I believe that’s one means – one very, very important means – by which we grow in our spiritual walk. God speaks to us in all sorts of ways . . . the question is whether we’re paying attention to those messages, and whether we’re willing to make difficult changes in response to those messages we receive.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
I stumbled recently.
Things were going so well. I had run two 5Ks this spring. I had never done that before. Prior to December of last year, it had never occurred to me that I could do that. Remember, I was always the kid who didn’t seem to have an athletic bone in his body.
In June, I spent a night at Camp Greenwood in preparation for a presbytery meeting to be held there the next day. Early in the morning, well before breakfast, I wanted to go for a run. I found Greg Hoekman in the dining hall and asked him directions for a good three-mile running route. He gave me clear directions – right here, left here, left here, etc. – that would bring me in a big loop right back to the camp entrance. I headed off. Within twenty minutes, it was clear to me that this was going to be farther than three miles. But I kept going. Within thirty minutes, it was clear to me that this was going to be significantly farther than three miles. But I kept going. I started trying to guess how far I was running – was this four miles? Could it be five? Eventually I made it back to the camp entrance, rather sweaty and still running strong, just in time for breakfast. Later that day, after the meeting was over, I drove the route that I had run, to see how far I had gone. Three miles, yes; four miles, yes; five miles, yes – it turned out to be 5.6 miles. Five point six miles! Nearly the length of the two 5Ks that I had run in the spring, combined – and I could have gone farther. I emailed Greg and told him that he needed to work on his distance measurements, but I also thanked him for the challenge that he had inadvertently set before me – because, thanks to his directions, I had reached a whole new level that I didn’t know I could reach.
And if I could do that – if I could run 5.6 miles in one stretch and still feel good and strong at the end of it – what more could I do? I looked at the schedule of running events in the area. There’s an 8K in Haslett on September 20 – gosh, I just did an 8K, without even trying! There’s a 10K in Lansing on October 10 – could I possibly do that? And then – there they were – two half-marathons this fall, one in Lansing on September 27, and another in Detroit on October 18. Surely I couldn’t aim for one of those – could I?
I started talking to more experienced runners. I joined a running group. I began working with a coach. I asked lots of questions. And the answer I kept getting back – from person after person after person – was, “Yes, Bill, you can do this. If you can do what you’ve already done, then with a little bit of discipline and a little bit of perseverance and a little bit of stamina, you can do this. You can run a half-marathon.” So, with a training schedule in hand and some new running partners and a lot of useful information about running form and stretches and nutrition and hydration, I set myself a new goal: a half-marathon. Thirteen point one miles – more than double the distance that I had run at Camp Greenwood.
I kept track of my progress. 5.6 miles. 5.8 miles. 6.5 miles. 7.2 miles. Every Saturday, a bit further than I had gone the previous Saturday, with a reduced distance every third week to give my body time to catch up, and with two shorter runs during the week (but “short” had become a relative term). Then, breakthrough, on the beautiful summer morning of August 1 at Hawk Island Park as my running partner and I were both gently urging each other on, 10 miles. Ten miles! Talk about a runner’s high – I was euphoric! Once again, I had accomplished something I didn’t know I could do. Ten miles! The half-marathon was so tantalizingly close – trainers say that one you can get to 10, the remaining 3.1 is really no trouble at all, that your adrenaline and excitement will just carry you the rest of the way. So close!
That’s when I stumbled.
On the Tuesday after that ten-mile run, I ran two miles before I just simply had to stop. My legs just couldn’t go any further. On Thursday, I managed five – but my legs were still sore, particularly my right. On Saturday, I managed eight in pouring-down-rain. But the following week, it was obvious that something was very definitely wrong. We were on vacation, in Mexico for my sister-in-law’s wedding. I ran five miles through the streets of Playa del Carmen . . . but it hurt. Two days later, I thought to myself as I rolled out of bed, “Okay, my leg’s feeling sore, but surely it’ll feel better once I get it moving.” Not! Know how far I got that day? A quarter of a mile. Barely three blocks. That’s it. It just hurt too much.
The following week – back home – I headed off to an injury clinic. After a variety of tests, the sports med person concluded that I had strained one of my quads. “Take it easy,” she said. “Slow down. Let your body heal.”
But what if I don’t want to slow down? That half-marathon – it’s coming soon!
You know, there are times when you should just listen to what your body is telling you. I did slow down . . . but I didn’t stop. I ran less often . . . but I still ran. I ran shorter distances . . . but I kept going. And my leg responded in kind. When I rested . . . it didn’t hurt. When I ran . . . it hurt. Connection? Probably. Was I bright enough to pay attention? Not!
So now, finally, after a visit to my doctor – who ordered an x-ray and wrote a script for physical therapy and told me that the half-marathon would have to wait till next year – and after a visit to my new physical therapist – who did all sorts of interesting tests on my legs and concluded that my case was “quite a puzzle” – it seems that the problem isn’t simply a strained quad, but that what’s really going on is that my left leg has a significantly greater degree of flexibility than my right, and when I run I’m pacing myself according to my left leg, which is causing the right portion of my pelvis to shift in odd ways to compensate for the lack of flexibility in my right leg, which is then in turn causing strain in a muscle that’s apparently underneath my quads. Bottom line: my right leg needs more flexibility. And the solution for that? Stretching. Lots and lots and lots of stretching.
Great. What fun. I want to go running – I want to get out there and feel the breeze and feel my heart pumping and feel the rush of adrenaline and enjoy the sights of this beautiful world that God has created. I know stretching’s important, and I’ve been trying to be diligent at it – but I don’t want to have to do that much stretching! My P.T. wants me to be doing over 30 minutes of stretching a day. Stretching – when I’d rather spend that time running!
So, you see, I stumbled.
You know, there are times when God sends messages our way that we need to pay attention to. There are times when God tries really hard to get our attention. There are times when we humans just want to ignore the evidence, the hard facts, the brutal realities of life. There are times when we just want things to be our way, when we want to call the shots as they pertain to our individual lives, when we try desperately to be in control . . . but, truth be told, they aren’t, we can’t, and we’re not. The sooner we realize that, the better. Sometimes, things happen in our lives remind us of us that. We would be wise to pay attention to those reminders!
Moreover, sometimes we want to find someone or something else to blame for our troubles. We want to look around and say, “This bad thing that’s happening to me – it’s all someone else’s fault.” Or, sometimes we look for excuses: “Well, this bad thing that’s happening to me, it’s really because of this other factor over here, that I have no control over.” But you know what? At least some of the time – that’s just balderdash. Truth be told, at least some of the time, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the fixes we get ourselves into. I’m laid up because I wasn’t doing a good enough job stretching. That’s it. Pure and simple. There is no one else I can blame. There are no outside factors that I can use to make excuses. It’s my fault, my responsibility, and I have to own that.
When we get in trouble at work because we’ve failed to meet a deadline . . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because we’re not very good at time management. When we have troubles in a relationship with a spouse or significant other. . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because there are some things that we’re doing that are causing strain in the relationship. When we’ve volunteered for a task or an assignment but constantly find ourselves frustrated . . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because we didn’t make a very good choice. When our children are acting up . . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because we’ve still got some things to learn about good parenting skills. When we come down with a medical condition that might have been preventable . . . well, truth be told, maybe that’s at least in part because we haven’t been very good stewards of our bodies. Granted, there are certainly times when there is nothing we could have done to prevent the situation we find ourselves in now. But, at least some of the time, the reason we’ve gotten ourselves into a fix is because we’ve done something – or failed to do something (like adequate stretching!) – that has directly contributed to the mess we find ourselves in.
So what we need to do – on a regular basis – is engage in some prayerful self-reflection and introspection. What am I doing (or failing to do) that is contributing to the mess I’m in right now? What do I need to do – what changes to I need to make to my work habits or relationship habits or exercise habits or dieting habits or other habits of life – if I’m going to get out of this fix? Then – once we’ve figured out what we really need to change about ourselves – then we have to have the guts and the stamina and the discipline to actually do it, to actually make the changes that we oh-so-desperately need to make. (Reminder to self: don’t forget your stretches tonight!)
When we do that – when we actually make those changes that we know, deep down, that we really need to make – well, my friends, I believe that’s one means – one very, very important means – by which we grow in our spiritual walk. God speaks to us in all sorts of ways . . . the question is whether we’re paying attention to those messages, and whether we’re willing to make difficult changes in response to those messages we receive.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
September 1, 2009
The Times, They Are A-Changin'!
As we head into the fall and the beginning of the new program year, there are five very important changes in the life of this congregation that you need to know about!
1. Welcome (back) to the Rev. Fred Graham! We are delighted to be bringing Fred Graham on board as our Parish Associate. A Parish Associate is a retired minister of Word and Sacrament who enters into a contractual relationship with the Pastor and Session of a local congregation, with the approval of the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry. In our case, Fred will be providing us with periodic preaching, pastoral care for members and friends of the congregation when I am out of town or tight on time, weddings and funerals and baptisms upon request (subject to my approval), and we might even be able to persuade Fred to teach a class every now and then. Many of you remember Fred from his occasional service to the church over the past several decades, including a one-year stint as Interim Pastor during 1975-1976. We won’t see Fred every week (he has an ongoing relationship with Eastminster Presbyterian Church in East Lansing), but we will see him pretty regularly in worship, at Wednesday night dinners, and in other activities in the life of this church. I am delighted to welcome him on board, partly because of the many gifts he brings to us, but also because it will be a huge relief to me to know that there is now built-in pastoral back-up for me during those times when I am away, ill, or just generally swamped. Many of you have expressed to me your interest to see this congregation grow both numerically and spiritually; having Fred on board will help make that possible, as it will be easier for me to engage in my primary responsibility here – namely, “to provide leadership that advances the spiritual development of the congregation.” Please join me in joyfully welcoming Fred to our staff!
2. Lori Pollitz’s new adventure: Lori, our Director of Christian Education, has been diligently listening for God’s voice speaking to her as she continues to grow in her walk of faith and her desire to share faith with others. In particular, Lori has felt God nudging her to apply to the Master of Divinity program at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, and recently learned that she has been accepted. The Master of Divinity is the academic degree required of those called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, but can also be pursued by people who feel called to seminary but aren’t yet sure what the future will hold. (In my case, I felt a clear call to go to seminary years before I felt a clear call to ordained ministry!) This particular program at Western is a part-time distance learning program, which will take five years for Lori to complete (instead of the traditional three years full-time) and which she will engage in while she continues to fulfill her responsibilities here. Lori is not leaving! Her participation in this program will require periodic on-campus two-week intensive sessions; we are working out an arrangement with the Personnel Committee that will enable Lori to complete her requirements without causing hardship here. Over the course of the next five years (and beyond!), we will benefit immensely from the increased level of training and experience that Lori will be gaining. I would invite you to keep Lori in your prayers as she begins this remarkable adventure, and to rejoice with me in her willingness to follow God’s call.
3. Sandy Wright-Auge’s shift of responsibilities: Sandy, our Director of Music, has also been listening for God’s call in her life. Sandy has been feeling led to explore new opportunities for service in the life of this congregation, especially in the area of worship arts. As she begins to discern what that will look like in actual practice, she has asked to be relieved of her responsibilities for the children’s and youth music programs in this church, specifically the Good News Singers, the Elementary Handchimes, and the Middle School Ringers. You will continue to see Sandy behind the organ and the piano on Sunday mornings, and she will continue to engage in all the other responsibilities she has engaged in for the past thirteen years, including the supervision of all other musicians on staff. As I write these words, a search is underway to find a highly qualified candidate to fulfill the responsibilities that Sandy has carried with our children and youth, and we will let you know when those programs are ready to resume. I would ask for your prayers for that search process, that God will lead the right person to us, and us to the right person. I would also invite you to keep Sandy in your prayers as she continues to discern how God is calling her to use her gifts in this congregation here and now.
4. A new opportunity for spiritual growth: I will be teaching a class this fall that is designed to help people discover their God-given gifts and talents and to consider ways in which those gifts and talents may be put to fruitful use. The basic idea is that God has given each member of the body of Christ a few spiritual gifts that are to be used for the building up of the church (see Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; and Ephesians 4). Every single one of us has been gifted by God with certain abilities that are intended to benefit other people! Some people may have a gift for artistic creativity while others have a gift for craftsmanship; some may have a gift for hospitality while others have a gift for counseling; some may have a gift for teaching while others have a gift for leadership; some may have a gift for organization while others may have a gift for evangelism. Many people do not know what their own gifts are – according to one survey of 1200 Christians, only 20% indicated that they knew what their spiritual gifts were and used them. The class I will be teaching is intended to help you discern the gifts that God has given you through Bible study, prayer, conversation, and a survey instrument that you and two people who know you very well will complete. You will likely discover gifts that intuitively make sense to you, and you will also probably discover some “latent” or “hidden” gifts within you that you didn’t know you had which you might want to begin exploring. This class will be open to any interested participants (you don’t have to be a member of the church) and any age from senior high to senior citizen. The class will begin in mid-September, will run for eight or ten sessions, and – this is important! – identical sessions will be offered several different times throughout the week, to facilitate the maximum possible participation by members and friends of the congregation. Some of you may have explored your spiritual gifts using another curriculum at some point; even if you have done something like that in the past, I would encourage you to participate in this class. The curriculum we will be using is designed to be mutually beneficial to you as individuals and to us as a whole community of faith; not only will you gain a better understanding of your own God-given gifts, but I and other leaders will also gain a greater ability to offer you opportunities to serve in the life of the church in ways that truly match your areas of giftedness, that you are likely to find particularly meaningful and fulfilling, and that will be rewarding to other people. (Once upon a time, I signed up to do something in a church setting and reasonably quickly realized that I had made a mistake – I was not gifted for that task, and I was discouraged and frustrated and had to find a graceful way to step out of that responsibility. Maybe some of you have had a similar experience. If everyone serves in ways that mesh with their God-given gifts, everybody benefits and everybody wins!) Participants will be asked to purchase a workbook that costs $6.50 per copy; a couple copies will also be available in the church library. A calendar showing the full schedule will be available in early September. I would encourage everybody to take advantage of this unique opportunity; I truly would like to encourage every member of the church to participate in what promises to be an exciting opportunity for self-discovery and spiritual growth.
5. A new title for this newsletter: For the past few decades, this newsletter has gone by the name Parish Pages. That name was contributed by Mary Schrock’s mother, Dorothy Fink , way back during the tenure of the Rev. Charlie Herrick (who left twenty years ago, after serving as Pastor for thirteen years). It was a good name and was appropriate for that era in the life of the church; that name, like Dorothy herself, had a good, full, fruitful life. Now, it’s time for a change. As we celebrate this congregation’s sesquicentennial anniversary, as we both look backward with celebration and forward with anticipation, we are giving this newsletter a new name: The Cornerstone. Why that name? Two reasons, really. First: This church is a stone church sitting on the corner of the courthouse square. Second: the name will be a constant reminder to us of why this congregation exists, and whom we are called to serve. That word “cornerstone” is a metaphor that is used to refer to Jesus several times in the New Testament. Jesus Christ is “a cornerstone chosen and precious” (1 Peter 2:6); he is the “stone that the builders [i.e., the religious and political leaders of his day] rejected” which “has become the cornerstone” (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11); he is the “cornerstone” of the “household of God” which has been “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” and of which we ourselves are members (Ephesians 2:19-20). It is a fitting name for our newsletter. Special thanks are due to Mary Schrock for helpful background information about the previous name and for giving her blessing to proceed, to the Parish Life Committee and the Session for supporting this change, and to Sandy Clark for creating a new graphic design for the newsletter’s masthead. May the name The Cornerstone be a constant reminder to us over the years to come of why we are here, and whom we are called to serve.
Peace and blessings!
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
1. Welcome (back) to the Rev. Fred Graham! We are delighted to be bringing Fred Graham on board as our Parish Associate. A Parish Associate is a retired minister of Word and Sacrament who enters into a contractual relationship with the Pastor and Session of a local congregation, with the approval of the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry. In our case, Fred will be providing us with periodic preaching, pastoral care for members and friends of the congregation when I am out of town or tight on time, weddings and funerals and baptisms upon request (subject to my approval), and we might even be able to persuade Fred to teach a class every now and then. Many of you remember Fred from his occasional service to the church over the past several decades, including a one-year stint as Interim Pastor during 1975-1976. We won’t see Fred every week (he has an ongoing relationship with Eastminster Presbyterian Church in East Lansing), but we will see him pretty regularly in worship, at Wednesday night dinners, and in other activities in the life of this church. I am delighted to welcome him on board, partly because of the many gifts he brings to us, but also because it will be a huge relief to me to know that there is now built-in pastoral back-up for me during those times when I am away, ill, or just generally swamped. Many of you have expressed to me your interest to see this congregation grow both numerically and spiritually; having Fred on board will help make that possible, as it will be easier for me to engage in my primary responsibility here – namely, “to provide leadership that advances the spiritual development of the congregation.” Please join me in joyfully welcoming Fred to our staff!
2. Lori Pollitz’s new adventure: Lori, our Director of Christian Education, has been diligently listening for God’s voice speaking to her as she continues to grow in her walk of faith and her desire to share faith with others. In particular, Lori has felt God nudging her to apply to the Master of Divinity program at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, and recently learned that she has been accepted. The Master of Divinity is the academic degree required of those called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, but can also be pursued by people who feel called to seminary but aren’t yet sure what the future will hold. (In my case, I felt a clear call to go to seminary years before I felt a clear call to ordained ministry!) This particular program at Western is a part-time distance learning program, which will take five years for Lori to complete (instead of the traditional three years full-time) and which she will engage in while she continues to fulfill her responsibilities here. Lori is not leaving! Her participation in this program will require periodic on-campus two-week intensive sessions; we are working out an arrangement with the Personnel Committee that will enable Lori to complete her requirements without causing hardship here. Over the course of the next five years (and beyond!), we will benefit immensely from the increased level of training and experience that Lori will be gaining. I would invite you to keep Lori in your prayers as she begins this remarkable adventure, and to rejoice with me in her willingness to follow God’s call.
3. Sandy Wright-Auge’s shift of responsibilities: Sandy, our Director of Music, has also been listening for God’s call in her life. Sandy has been feeling led to explore new opportunities for service in the life of this congregation, especially in the area of worship arts. As she begins to discern what that will look like in actual practice, she has asked to be relieved of her responsibilities for the children’s and youth music programs in this church, specifically the Good News Singers, the Elementary Handchimes, and the Middle School Ringers. You will continue to see Sandy behind the organ and the piano on Sunday mornings, and she will continue to engage in all the other responsibilities she has engaged in for the past thirteen years, including the supervision of all other musicians on staff. As I write these words, a search is underway to find a highly qualified candidate to fulfill the responsibilities that Sandy has carried with our children and youth, and we will let you know when those programs are ready to resume. I would ask for your prayers for that search process, that God will lead the right person to us, and us to the right person. I would also invite you to keep Sandy in your prayers as she continues to discern how God is calling her to use her gifts in this congregation here and now.
4. A new opportunity for spiritual growth: I will be teaching a class this fall that is designed to help people discover their God-given gifts and talents and to consider ways in which those gifts and talents may be put to fruitful use. The basic idea is that God has given each member of the body of Christ a few spiritual gifts that are to be used for the building up of the church (see Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; and Ephesians 4). Every single one of us has been gifted by God with certain abilities that are intended to benefit other people! Some people may have a gift for artistic creativity while others have a gift for craftsmanship; some may have a gift for hospitality while others have a gift for counseling; some may have a gift for teaching while others have a gift for leadership; some may have a gift for organization while others may have a gift for evangelism. Many people do not know what their own gifts are – according to one survey of 1200 Christians, only 20% indicated that they knew what their spiritual gifts were and used them. The class I will be teaching is intended to help you discern the gifts that God has given you through Bible study, prayer, conversation, and a survey instrument that you and two people who know you very well will complete. You will likely discover gifts that intuitively make sense to you, and you will also probably discover some “latent” or “hidden” gifts within you that you didn’t know you had which you might want to begin exploring. This class will be open to any interested participants (you don’t have to be a member of the church) and any age from senior high to senior citizen. The class will begin in mid-September, will run for eight or ten sessions, and – this is important! – identical sessions will be offered several different times throughout the week, to facilitate the maximum possible participation by members and friends of the congregation. Some of you may have explored your spiritual gifts using another curriculum at some point; even if you have done something like that in the past, I would encourage you to participate in this class. The curriculum we will be using is designed to be mutually beneficial to you as individuals and to us as a whole community of faith; not only will you gain a better understanding of your own God-given gifts, but I and other leaders will also gain a greater ability to offer you opportunities to serve in the life of the church in ways that truly match your areas of giftedness, that you are likely to find particularly meaningful and fulfilling, and that will be rewarding to other people. (Once upon a time, I signed up to do something in a church setting and reasonably quickly realized that I had made a mistake – I was not gifted for that task, and I was discouraged and frustrated and had to find a graceful way to step out of that responsibility. Maybe some of you have had a similar experience. If everyone serves in ways that mesh with their God-given gifts, everybody benefits and everybody wins!) Participants will be asked to purchase a workbook that costs $6.50 per copy; a couple copies will also be available in the church library. A calendar showing the full schedule will be available in early September. I would encourage everybody to take advantage of this unique opportunity; I truly would like to encourage every member of the church to participate in what promises to be an exciting opportunity for self-discovery and spiritual growth.
5. A new title for this newsletter: For the past few decades, this newsletter has gone by the name Parish Pages. That name was contributed by Mary Schrock’s mother, Dorothy Fink , way back during the tenure of the Rev. Charlie Herrick (who left twenty years ago, after serving as Pastor for thirteen years). It was a good name and was appropriate for that era in the life of the church; that name, like Dorothy herself, had a good, full, fruitful life. Now, it’s time for a change. As we celebrate this congregation’s sesquicentennial anniversary, as we both look backward with celebration and forward with anticipation, we are giving this newsletter a new name: The Cornerstone. Why that name? Two reasons, really. First: This church is a stone church sitting on the corner of the courthouse square. Second: the name will be a constant reminder to us of why this congregation exists, and whom we are called to serve. That word “cornerstone” is a metaphor that is used to refer to Jesus several times in the New Testament. Jesus Christ is “a cornerstone chosen and precious” (1 Peter 2:6); he is the “stone that the builders [i.e., the religious and political leaders of his day] rejected” which “has become the cornerstone” (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11); he is the “cornerstone” of the “household of God” which has been “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” and of which we ourselves are members (Ephesians 2:19-20). It is a fitting name for our newsletter. Special thanks are due to Mary Schrock for helpful background information about the previous name and for giving her blessing to proceed, to the Parish Life Committee and the Session for supporting this change, and to Sandy Clark for creating a new graphic design for the newsletter’s masthead. May the name The Cornerstone be a constant reminder to us over the years to come of why we are here, and whom we are called to serve.
Peace and blessings!
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
July 1, 2009
The Joy of Financial Stability
I have good news to report: this church is operating in the black!
Every month, we publish a brief report showing our financial status at the close of the previous month. If you look closely at the report on page 12 of this issue of the Parish Pages, you will see that we finished the month of May with a positive balance of $8,654.01. That is fantastic news. The last time we posted a positive balance at the end of a month was back in March of 2008. When I arrived as your Pastor in May of last year, we were over eleven thousand dollars in the red; now, slightly more than a year later, we are eight thousand dollars in the black. This is fantastic news – thanks be to God!
This achievement has come about because of your generosity, and also because of some difficult and disciplined work on the part of the leadership of this church. Last year, your Session established as its #1 priority the creation of a balanced budget for 2009. While this church had a strong habit of passing balanced budgets in years past, we did not have a balanced budget in either 2007 or 2008; in fact, the budget for 2008 was a budget showing that the expected spending for the year would exceed the expected income by nearly $97,000. That created a very challenging and very stressful situation for your leadership. Determined not to do that again, your Session and Finance Committee worked extremely hard last fall to create a balanced budget for 2009. With a significant (and very successful) appeal to the congregation, and with some budget cuts in a few places, we were able to create a balanced budget for the current year. The Finance Committee has been monitoring the budget very closely so far in 2009. There were some hefty bills to pay early in the year – our expenses are not the same from month to month – and we can now joyfully report that, at the present time, we are in solid financial shape. Praise be to God!
So – thank you. Thank you for your generous contributions to the church that have made this possible. Thank you for your ongoing support of the mission of this congregation. Thank you for helping to fund the ministry we do here in the name of Jesus Christ. You did this. You made this happen. Rejoice in this celebratory moment. We are truly blessed!
I can’t tell you what a difference it makes in this Pastor’s life to know that this congregation is on solid, stable financial footing – especially given the challenging economic situation our world is in right now. That reality means that I don’t have to worry whether we will have the funds to do the things we have budgeted. Last year, I did; last year, to give just one example, the Mission Committee was not able to fully fund all the programs and initiatives that they had planned on supporting. This year, thanks be to God, they will be able to do that. We have the cash to make good on our promises. Praise be to God!
I am hopeful that we are going to end the year in the black. I am hopeful that there will be no need to hold a “catch-up” luncheon this December – as has been done in the previous several years – because there won’t be anything that we need to “catch up” on. I am hopeful that your generous contributions to the ministry of the church will continue through the summer months and into the fall. I believe we can do this, thanks to God’s generous grace and your steadfast commitment to the ongoing mission of the church.
With prayers of joy and gratitude,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
Every month, we publish a brief report showing our financial status at the close of the previous month. If you look closely at the report on page 12 of this issue of the Parish Pages, you will see that we finished the month of May with a positive balance of $8,654.01. That is fantastic news. The last time we posted a positive balance at the end of a month was back in March of 2008. When I arrived as your Pastor in May of last year, we were over eleven thousand dollars in the red; now, slightly more than a year later, we are eight thousand dollars in the black. This is fantastic news – thanks be to God!
This achievement has come about because of your generosity, and also because of some difficult and disciplined work on the part of the leadership of this church. Last year, your Session established as its #1 priority the creation of a balanced budget for 2009. While this church had a strong habit of passing balanced budgets in years past, we did not have a balanced budget in either 2007 or 2008; in fact, the budget for 2008 was a budget showing that the expected spending for the year would exceed the expected income by nearly $97,000. That created a very challenging and very stressful situation for your leadership. Determined not to do that again, your Session and Finance Committee worked extremely hard last fall to create a balanced budget for 2009. With a significant (and very successful) appeal to the congregation, and with some budget cuts in a few places, we were able to create a balanced budget for the current year. The Finance Committee has been monitoring the budget very closely so far in 2009. There were some hefty bills to pay early in the year – our expenses are not the same from month to month – and we can now joyfully report that, at the present time, we are in solid financial shape. Praise be to God!
So – thank you. Thank you for your generous contributions to the church that have made this possible. Thank you for your ongoing support of the mission of this congregation. Thank you for helping to fund the ministry we do here in the name of Jesus Christ. You did this. You made this happen. Rejoice in this celebratory moment. We are truly blessed!
I can’t tell you what a difference it makes in this Pastor’s life to know that this congregation is on solid, stable financial footing – especially given the challenging economic situation our world is in right now. That reality means that I don’t have to worry whether we will have the funds to do the things we have budgeted. Last year, I did; last year, to give just one example, the Mission Committee was not able to fully fund all the programs and initiatives that they had planned on supporting. This year, thanks be to God, they will be able to do that. We have the cash to make good on our promises. Praise be to God!
I am hopeful that we are going to end the year in the black. I am hopeful that there will be no need to hold a “catch-up” luncheon this December – as has been done in the previous several years – because there won’t be anything that we need to “catch up” on. I am hopeful that your generous contributions to the ministry of the church will continue through the summer months and into the fall. I believe we can do this, thanks to God’s generous grace and your steadfast commitment to the ongoing mission of the church.
With prayers of joy and gratitude,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
June 1, 2009
Bodybuilding
You are a body part.
Yep, you heard me: you are a body part. Maybe you’re a foot. Maybe you’re a hand. Maybe you’re an ear. Maybe you’re an eye. You are some kind of body part.
You are a part of a body that we call “the body of Christ.”
Paul put it like this: “Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.” Elsewhere, he said: “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Still elsewhere, he said this: “We must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”
You are a body part. You are a part of the body of Christ. You are a member of the household of God – a valuable member of the household of God. You have a role to play in keeping this body functioning in a healthy way. If you’re a foot, you help the body to walk. If you’re a hand, you help the body to write, or to draw, or to hold on to things, or to reach out to somebody else in love. If you’re an ear or an eye, you collect important information and send it on to the brain. The parts are interdependent. They depend on each other. The feet know where to go because the ear listens to directions. The hand knows what to do because the eye sees what needs to be done. We need the different parts of the body. We need all the different parts of the body. We need the heart, we need the liver, we need the kidneys, we need the lungs, we need the bones, we need the muscles, we need the nerves, we need the blood vessels – on and on it goes.
Every part of the body is important. There is not one part that is insignificant or without value! It seems that even the appendix – that supposedly superfluous body part – may have an important role to play in keeping the body healthy, according to a study published a year and a half ago by surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School. Every part of the body has value! Every part of the body has some kind of job to do to help the body function. So it is with the human body . . .
. . . and so is it with the body of Christ.
At least, that’s the theory.
Paul felt it necessary to remind the Christians in Corinth of this truth. “The eye,” he said, “cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” No member of the body can dispense with any other part of the body. If we think some part of the body is insignificant . . . well, we’re just wrong. If we think we’d be better off without some part of the body . . . we’d be wrong again. Every body part matters. Every member matters. Let us never think otherwise!
The unfortunate reality is, sometimes some of us body parts don’t see or understand or appreciate the valuable contribution made by other parts of the body. Sometimes, in our arrogance, we think not-so-kind thoughts about other body parts. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would speak or act more like we do. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would stop disagreeing with us. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would just be quiet, or even just disappear for a while. The unfortunate reality is, sometimes we just aren’t very good at respecting or appreciating the other parts of the body.
A specific example: In one of the several different congregations I have been involved with over the nearly four decades of my life so far, there was a particularly memorable congregational meeting. It was memorable because literally nothing was accomplished at the meeting. It turned out that we did not have a quorum. We found out that we did not have a quorum when one gentleman in the congregation – who had a bit of a reputation for being something of a “troublemaker” – raised a point of order, shortly after the moderator called the meeting to order. He demanded a head count. A couple of ushers stood up and literally started counting heads. The gentleman was right: we did not have a quorum. According to our bylaws, that meant that no business could be transacted at that meeting. We all went home. Many people were frustrated. Some complained about that gentleman who caused the meeting to end prematurely. His actions that day certainly didn’t help his reputation, but he was absolutely right: it would have been improper to conduct business in the absence of a quorum. He performed a valuable service that day; he was doing his part to keep the body functioning in a healthy manner – and when other people reacted negatively to his action and began complaining (mostly behind his back), they were the ones who were causing the body to function in an unhealthy way. And I . . . yes, I’m sorry to say, I was one of those who complained. I realize now that I – and many others – didn’t handle that situation very well. I – and many others – undoubtedly owe that man an apology.
The point is, sometimes other members of the body are doing their job, doing their part to keep the body functioning in a healthy way, and we’re so caught up in what’s going on over in our part of the body that we fail to understand or appreciate the gifts and services that that other body part has to offer. When we’re really involved in one part of the church’s life, we sometimes make hasty judgments about what’s going on in some other part of the church’s life. Sometimes, we question people’s motives. Sometimes, we wish “those people” would just get out of the way so we can do the things that we think are important. Sometimes, we put a lot of time and energy putting together some kind of proposal to send to Session, but Session doesn’t greet it as enthusiastically as we wish. Sometimes, that sort of thing happens because other parts of the body are simply doing their job. Sometimes, other body parts are thinking of issues or implications that we haven’t thought of yet. It’s not that they’re trying to be difficult; it’s not that they’re being mean; it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t support the proposal.
It just means that other body parts are asking some questions about the implications this proposal will have on the whole rest of the body. No body would want its arm going off and doing one thing while its foot is headed in a completely different direction – imagine the pain it would cause your physical body if your arms and legs were all trying to head in four completely different and unrelated directions, and each were trying to get there as quickly as possible! It’s important for us to look around at the whole body – at all the other members – and recognize that there are plenty of people who may not think the same way we do or care about the same things we care about, but that those people, in their own way, are performing a valuable service here in this particular local version of the body of Christ. We are all parts of one body. We are, together, the body of Christ. We absolutely must have respect and appreciation for all the other parts of the body – even (or perhaps especially) those body parts that seem particularly far away from us. All body parts are important! Every member is essential! Every body part has some kind of job to do to help keep the body functioning in a healthy way!
At least, that’s the theory. That’s the way things are supposed to be. The reality is a bit different than that. We have, in theory, about two hundred and thirty “body parts” in this particular local version of the body of Christ. I wonder how many of those two hundred and thirty could actually identify what specific job they do to help keep this body functioning in a healthy way. (Can you name your job?)
One of the (many) things I want to work on in the years to come is to help every single member find some kind of meaningful, productive, satisfying, and enriching job to do in the life of this congregation that helps us to carry out our mission. Some of you reading this already have some kind of job to do here that meets those criteria. Some of you may find yourself thinking, “Well, I have a job to do, but I’m not sure I find it meaningful, productive, satisfying, or enriching.” If that’s the case, we need to help you find some alternative job that would better match your gifts, interests, talents, and skills. Some of you may find yourself thinking, “I’d love to have some kind of meaningful job, but I don’t have a clue what it might be;” if that’s the case, we’ll need to look at your gifts and then match it up with some kind of meaningful task. Perhaps some of you are thinking, “Gosh, do I really want a job?” – and if that’s the case, let me simply remind you that when you became a member of this church, you made a promise to us and to God that you would offer your time and your talents in helping us carry out mission and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Every member needs some kind of meaningful job to do; every member needs to carry some kind of responsibility, unless physical illness absolutely prevents it. (I bet we can even come up with some meaningful and rewarding tasks for our LAMs to do, ones that they would find meaningful, productive, satisfying, and enriching!) The challenge will be building a system in which we are truly utilizing people’s gifts in the fullest and most meaningful ways possible. It’s a major task, and I know full well that it’s not going to be completed overnight – or even in the next year!
Together, as one body in Christ, as one group of people all united on the same team, we will seek to build this body up to become the strongest and healthiest body it can possibly be. Together, we will seek to find meaningful ways for every body part to be involved responsibly in helping this body to carry out mission and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Together, we will engage in . . . bodybuilding.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
Yep, you heard me: you are a body part. Maybe you’re a foot. Maybe you’re a hand. Maybe you’re an ear. Maybe you’re an eye. You are some kind of body part.
You are a part of a body that we call “the body of Christ.”
Paul put it like this: “Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.” Elsewhere, he said: “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Still elsewhere, he said this: “We must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”
You are a body part. You are a part of the body of Christ. You are a member of the household of God – a valuable member of the household of God. You have a role to play in keeping this body functioning in a healthy way. If you’re a foot, you help the body to walk. If you’re a hand, you help the body to write, or to draw, or to hold on to things, or to reach out to somebody else in love. If you’re an ear or an eye, you collect important information and send it on to the brain. The parts are interdependent. They depend on each other. The feet know where to go because the ear listens to directions. The hand knows what to do because the eye sees what needs to be done. We need the different parts of the body. We need all the different parts of the body. We need the heart, we need the liver, we need the kidneys, we need the lungs, we need the bones, we need the muscles, we need the nerves, we need the blood vessels – on and on it goes.
Every part of the body is important. There is not one part that is insignificant or without value! It seems that even the appendix – that supposedly superfluous body part – may have an important role to play in keeping the body healthy, according to a study published a year and a half ago by surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School. Every part of the body has value! Every part of the body has some kind of job to do to help the body function. So it is with the human body . . .
. . . and so is it with the body of Christ.
At least, that’s the theory.
Paul felt it necessary to remind the Christians in Corinth of this truth. “The eye,” he said, “cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” No member of the body can dispense with any other part of the body. If we think some part of the body is insignificant . . . well, we’re just wrong. If we think we’d be better off without some part of the body . . . we’d be wrong again. Every body part matters. Every member matters. Let us never think otherwise!
The unfortunate reality is, sometimes some of us body parts don’t see or understand or appreciate the valuable contribution made by other parts of the body. Sometimes, in our arrogance, we think not-so-kind thoughts about other body parts. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would speak or act more like we do. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would stop disagreeing with us. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would just be quiet, or even just disappear for a while. The unfortunate reality is, sometimes we just aren’t very good at respecting or appreciating the other parts of the body.
A specific example: In one of the several different congregations I have been involved with over the nearly four decades of my life so far, there was a particularly memorable congregational meeting. It was memorable because literally nothing was accomplished at the meeting. It turned out that we did not have a quorum. We found out that we did not have a quorum when one gentleman in the congregation – who had a bit of a reputation for being something of a “troublemaker” – raised a point of order, shortly after the moderator called the meeting to order. He demanded a head count. A couple of ushers stood up and literally started counting heads. The gentleman was right: we did not have a quorum. According to our bylaws, that meant that no business could be transacted at that meeting. We all went home. Many people were frustrated. Some complained about that gentleman who caused the meeting to end prematurely. His actions that day certainly didn’t help his reputation, but he was absolutely right: it would have been improper to conduct business in the absence of a quorum. He performed a valuable service that day; he was doing his part to keep the body functioning in a healthy manner – and when other people reacted negatively to his action and began complaining (mostly behind his back), they were the ones who were causing the body to function in an unhealthy way. And I . . . yes, I’m sorry to say, I was one of those who complained. I realize now that I – and many others – didn’t handle that situation very well. I – and many others – undoubtedly owe that man an apology.
The point is, sometimes other members of the body are doing their job, doing their part to keep the body functioning in a healthy way, and we’re so caught up in what’s going on over in our part of the body that we fail to understand or appreciate the gifts and services that that other body part has to offer. When we’re really involved in one part of the church’s life, we sometimes make hasty judgments about what’s going on in some other part of the church’s life. Sometimes, we question people’s motives. Sometimes, we wish “those people” would just get out of the way so we can do the things that we think are important. Sometimes, we put a lot of time and energy putting together some kind of proposal to send to Session, but Session doesn’t greet it as enthusiastically as we wish. Sometimes, that sort of thing happens because other parts of the body are simply doing their job. Sometimes, other body parts are thinking of issues or implications that we haven’t thought of yet. It’s not that they’re trying to be difficult; it’s not that they’re being mean; it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t support the proposal.
It just means that other body parts are asking some questions about the implications this proposal will have on the whole rest of the body. No body would want its arm going off and doing one thing while its foot is headed in a completely different direction – imagine the pain it would cause your physical body if your arms and legs were all trying to head in four completely different and unrelated directions, and each were trying to get there as quickly as possible! It’s important for us to look around at the whole body – at all the other members – and recognize that there are plenty of people who may not think the same way we do or care about the same things we care about, but that those people, in their own way, are performing a valuable service here in this particular local version of the body of Christ. We are all parts of one body. We are, together, the body of Christ. We absolutely must have respect and appreciation for all the other parts of the body – even (or perhaps especially) those body parts that seem particularly far away from us. All body parts are important! Every member is essential! Every body part has some kind of job to do to help keep the body functioning in a healthy way!
At least, that’s the theory. That’s the way things are supposed to be. The reality is a bit different than that. We have, in theory, about two hundred and thirty “body parts” in this particular local version of the body of Christ. I wonder how many of those two hundred and thirty could actually identify what specific job they do to help keep this body functioning in a healthy way. (Can you name your job?)
One of the (many) things I want to work on in the years to come is to help every single member find some kind of meaningful, productive, satisfying, and enriching job to do in the life of this congregation that helps us to carry out our mission. Some of you reading this already have some kind of job to do here that meets those criteria. Some of you may find yourself thinking, “Well, I have a job to do, but I’m not sure I find it meaningful, productive, satisfying, or enriching.” If that’s the case, we need to help you find some alternative job that would better match your gifts, interests, talents, and skills. Some of you may find yourself thinking, “I’d love to have some kind of meaningful job, but I don’t have a clue what it might be;” if that’s the case, we’ll need to look at your gifts and then match it up with some kind of meaningful task. Perhaps some of you are thinking, “Gosh, do I really want a job?” – and if that’s the case, let me simply remind you that when you became a member of this church, you made a promise to us and to God that you would offer your time and your talents in helping us carry out mission and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Every member needs some kind of meaningful job to do; every member needs to carry some kind of responsibility, unless physical illness absolutely prevents it. (I bet we can even come up with some meaningful and rewarding tasks for our LAMs to do, ones that they would find meaningful, productive, satisfying, and enriching!) The challenge will be building a system in which we are truly utilizing people’s gifts in the fullest and most meaningful ways possible. It’s a major task, and I know full well that it’s not going to be completed overnight – or even in the next year!
Together, as one body in Christ, as one group of people all united on the same team, we will seek to build this body up to become the strongest and healthiest body it can possibly be. Together, we will seek to find meaningful ways for every body part to be involved responsibly in helping this body to carry out mission and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Together, we will engage in . . . bodybuilding.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
May 1, 2009
Confessing the Faith (Or: Telling the Story)
In the last chapter of the book of Joshua, after leaving Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and after traveling forty years through the wilderness and entering the promised land that flows with milk and honey, Joshua - Moses' successor - summons all the leaders of the people to a place called Shechem to remind them of God's mighty works that they have experienced in history. He tells them a story. He tells them their story. Beginning with the decisive moment when Abraham heard God calling his name (see Genesis 12:1), then retelling the story of the major events that have led them to this point, Joshua reminds the leaders of the people of Israel and who their God ishow they have experienced God working in the here-and-now. Many of the events Joshua reminds those people about were events that happened long before they were born, but no matter: this story is their story, whether or not they were alive when those events happened. This is the story that identifies who these people are: they are the people who worship the God who has done these things in their communal life.
Some of the Psalms tell similar stories. Some of the Psalms recount God's works in creation (see, for example, Psalm 104); others recount God's works in history (see, for example, Psalm 105). The events recorded in these psalms happened long before poets composed these psalms and long before people sang them in worship, but no matter: these stories are their stories, whether or not they were alive when those events happened. These stories identify who these people are: they are the people who worship the God who has done these things in their communal life.
Much later on in the biblical story, in the days shortly following the resurrection, as the apostles of Jesus are telling other people about who Jesus is and why he matters, they routinely tell stories. On the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), after the Holy Spirit has manifested itself in surprising new ways, Peter stands up and gives a big long speech in which he tells a story, a story about how they have experienced God in the here-and-now through the person and work of Jesus Christ. After Peter heals the lame man at the gate of the temple and a whole crowd gathers to see what has happened (Acts 3), Peter tells a story, a story about how the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob has glorified his servant Jesus, and about how it is faith in Jesus that has made this man walk. When Stephen is arrested for blasphemy, is brought before the Jewish high counsil, and is given a chance to defend himself (Acts 7), Stephen tells a story, a long story that begins with Abraham and culminates in Jesus.
Other New Testament books tell similar stories. When Paul writes to the Corinthians, he reminds them of their central story (1 Corinthians 15:1-11, a passage I preached on just a few weeks ago), and of course none of the people he was speaking to were present in person for any of the events he describes. Over and over again throughout the biblical text, the people of God tell a story - their story - about who their God is and how they have experienced God working in the here-and-now. Most of the events reported in most of these stories happened long before these people were born, but no matter: this story is their story. It is the story that identifies who these people are: they are the people who worship the God who has done these things in their communal life.
Over the course of the next two thousand years, there have been a multitude of occasions when the Christian community has paused to retell the story. When adults were joining the Christian community by baptism in the ancient city of Rome, they would retell the story using words that look remarkably similar to what we now call the Apostles' Creed. When there was some confusion about matters of faith and doctrine during the fourth century, representatives from the church in diverse places gathered together to figure out which portions of the story really matter, and the result of that gathering is what we now call the Nicene Creed. When the Protestant Reformers were trying to figure out what really stands at the bedrock of Christian faith, they retold the story yet again. During the chaos of the English Civil War, learned churchmen gathered at Westminster Abbey in the city of London to figure out what elements of the story really matter in the here-and-now. When Adolf Hitler was rising to power in Germany in the early 1930s, some concerned clergy and theologians gathered in a city called Barmen to boldly proclaim that Hitler's programs and policies stand in contrast to the gospel story of Jesus Christ. When our country was going through a turbulent period of strife and division in the late 1960s, Presbyterians affirmed that the gospel story is a story of reconciliation, reconciliation between us and God, and reconciliation among humanity. When South Africa was struggling to outgrow its history of racial bigotry and apartheid during the 1980s, leaders in the Dutch Reformed Mission Church gathered in a suburb of Cape Town called Belhar to articulate how that gospel story of Jesus Christ cannot tolerate racial injustice, since Christ calls all people to be one in him. When the historic "southern" branch and the historic "northern" branch of the Presbyterian Church in the United States rejoined in 1983, after 122 years' worth of division that began with the Civil War, representatives from both branches gathered together to retell our common story, articulating who God is and how we have experienced God working in the here-and-now.
The result of all these labors of love are what we call the "confessions" of the church. Each confession is, basically, a story - a story about who we understand God to be, a story about how we have experienced God working in the here-and-now. In our tradition, there are eleven official confessional statements: two from the ancient church (the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed), three from the days of the Protestant Reformation (the Scots Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Second Helvetic Confession), three from the days of the English Civil War (the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the Westminster Larger Catechism), and three from the past hundred years (the Barmen Declaration, the Confession of 1967, and A Brief Statement of Faith). All these confessions can be found in our Book of Confessions, which is the second most important book to us Presbyterians (the first is the Bible, and the third is the Book of Order). Banners representing all those different confesions - all those different stories - hang along the rear wall of our sanctuary. Currently, discussion is under way about possibly adding a twelfth confession to our Book of Confessions, the Belhar Confession from South Africa.
When leaders take office in this tradition - when people are ordained and installed as Deacons, Elders, or Ministers of Word and Sacrament - they are asked to make several promises. Vows, really. These ordination and installation vows are kind of like wedding vows - promises made publicly before God and in the presence of one another, promises not to be taken lightly. One of those vows is this: "Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?" The leadership of the church - your Pastor, your Elders, and your Deacons - all have affirmed the central importance of these confessions in our living faith today.
We Presbyterians have a particular heritage, a heritage similar to and yet different from the heritage of countless other Christian traditions, and that heritage is not something to be neglected. We are Christians, yes, but we are also unique Christians - Christians with a particular kind of identity, an identity that has been shaped by prayer, thought, and experience within a living tradition. Our particular tradition has a number of distinctive themes that surface again and again: the affirmation of the majesty, holiness, and providence of God, who creates, sustains, rules, and redeems the world in the freedom of sovereign righteousness and love; the election of the people of God for service as well as for salvation; covenant life marked by a disciplined concern for order in the church according to the Word of God; a faithful stewardship that shuns ostentation and seeks proper use of the gifts of God's creation; and the recognition of the hyman tendency to idolatry and tyranny, which calls the people of God to work for the transformation o society by seeking justice and living in obedience to the Word of God. These convictions, and others like them, stand at the core of our understanding of what it means to be Presbyterian Christians, faithfully seeking to live out God's story in the here-and-now. So long as I am your pastor (which I intend to be for a good long time!), I will work diligently to uphold the vows that I took when I was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, vows that I reaffirmed when I was installed as your Pastor. I will work diligently to lift up these themes, and others like them, again and again and again - because that's my responsibility, and because that's who we are.
In recent years, it has been the custom here in this congregation to recite the Apostles' Creed (or, less frequently, the Nicene Creed) every week during worship. That's a good practice - reciting the story of the central convictions of the Christian faith. It keeps the central affirmations about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit front-and-center. Yet reciting the same exact formula week after week after week runs certain risks. It's possible that the words might become hollow. It's possible that we might fall into the trap of simply "going through the motions." It's possible that we might not be thinking about what we're saying. It's possible that some of us might not readily identify with those words as much as we might with some other different-but-similar words. It's possible that we might find ourselves wondering what these ancient words have to do with a contemporary faith.
Therefore: we're going to diversify.
In the months and years to come, we're going to continue to affirm our trust in God in worship. We're going to continue to retell the story of our faith. Just as the people of God retold their story (our story!) in the days of Joshua, just as the psalmists retold their story (our story!) in poetry and song, just as the apostles retold their story (our story!) following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, so too are we going to continue to tell and retell our story. But we're going to expand and diversify the maner in which we do this. Just as, in the Bible, the story was told and retold in a variety of different ways, so too are we going to tell and retell the story in a variety of different ways. In the Bible, when the story was retold again and again, it wasn't always told the same way. Sometimes, different themes were emphasized. Sometimes, certain portions of the story were told that weren't told on other occasions. Sometimes, the story was short; sometimes, it was long. It's important - vitally important - that we keep telling and retelling the story, because this story reminds us who our God is and how we have experienced God working in the here-and-now, but there's no rule anywhere that says we have to do it exactly the same way week after week after week. In fact, if we take the biblical witness as a guide, perhaps there's some benefit to telling and retelling the story in different ways. Perhaps it's important not to tell it exactly the same way time and time again. Perhaps a little diversity in our storytelling is a good thing.
So here's just a little taste of what's ahead, in the months and years to come: (1) We're going to continue to use the Apostles' Creed periodically. But, in addition to the "traditional" translation that you're pretty familiar with, we'll also be using a more contemporary "ecumenical" translation. Sometimes, we'll say it all together as one body; other times (as you've seen already, at our installation of officers in January and at our reception of new members on Easter Sunday), it will be in a question-and-answer format. There are even some musical versions of the Apostles' Creed that we'll start using! (2) We're going to continue to use the Nicene Creed periodically (somewhat less often than we use the Apostles' Creed). The Nicene Creed is the most ecumenical of all the Christian creeds; it's the one creed that is used by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and many Protestant churches. (3) We're going to begin using the most recent Presbyterian confession, "A Brief Statement of Faith." (You can find the whole text of "A Brief Statement of Faith" in the pages of this newsletter.) As mentioned above, A Brief Statement of Faith was created following the reunion of our denomination in 1983, by representatives from both our "northern" and "southern" branches, as a way of affirming what we hold in common. It is a Trinitarian creed - affirming our trust in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit - that deliberately borrows many phrases from the Bible itself and that was intentionally written in a way to facilitate its use in worship. It is too long to recite all at once (it is brief compared to the very large confessions written during the Reformation - but it's not that brief!); we will use certain portions on some weeks, and other portions on other weeks. You'll notice, as you start to become familiar with this confession, that it includes - among other things - a poetic summary of Jesus' life and ministry (not simply moving straight from his birth to his death, as most older confessions do), an ecological concern for our stewardship of God's creation, an articulation of the manifold ways the Holy Spirit works in this world here and now, and affirmations that we hold both women and men to be created equally in God's image and that we believe God calls both women and men to all offices in the church (which are two affirmations that set us apart from many other Christian traditions). (4) From time to time, we'll use classic portions of some of the other confessions in our tradition - portions that have withstood the test of time. (5) All of this will be tied to the liturgical year, or other special celebrations: we'll use some form of the Apostles' Creed every time there is a baptism . . . we'll probably use the Nicene Creed on World Communion Sunday . . . we'll use one of the ancient confessions every time we celebrate communion . . . we'll use the portion of A Brief Statement of Faith that pertains to the Holy Spirit in the weeks between Easter and Pentecost . . . and so on. In other words, we'll be putting some careful thought into what confessions we use when, and why. Slowly, over time, I believe you will come to have a deep and abiding appreciation for the richness of our tradition. (One of the things I love about being a Presbyterian is that we have such an incredible degree of depth in our tradition - when we take the time to "scratch the surface" and really look at what's there!)
So we, the people of God, will continue to tell a story. We will continue to tell our story, a story about who our God is and how we have experienced God working in the here-and-now. Most of the events in these stories happened long before any of us were born, but no matter: these stories are our stories. They are the stories that identify who we are: we are the people who worship the God who has done these things in our communal life . . . praise be to God!
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
Some of the Psalms tell similar stories. Some of the Psalms recount God's works in creation (see, for example, Psalm 104); others recount God's works in history (see, for example, Psalm 105). The events recorded in these psalms happened long before poets composed these psalms and long before people sang them in worship, but no matter: these stories are their stories, whether or not they were alive when those events happened. These stories identify who these people are: they are the people who worship the God who has done these things in their communal life.
Much later on in the biblical story, in the days shortly following the resurrection, as the apostles of Jesus are telling other people about who Jesus is and why he matters, they routinely tell stories. On the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), after the Holy Spirit has manifested itself in surprising new ways, Peter stands up and gives a big long speech in which he tells a story, a story about how they have experienced God in the here-and-now through the person and work of Jesus Christ. After Peter heals the lame man at the gate of the temple and a whole crowd gathers to see what has happened (Acts 3), Peter tells a story, a story about how the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob has glorified his servant Jesus, and about how it is faith in Jesus that has made this man walk. When Stephen is arrested for blasphemy, is brought before the Jewish high counsil, and is given a chance to defend himself (Acts 7), Stephen tells a story, a long story that begins with Abraham and culminates in Jesus.
Other New Testament books tell similar stories. When Paul writes to the Corinthians, he reminds them of their central story (1 Corinthians 15:1-11, a passage I preached on just a few weeks ago), and of course none of the people he was speaking to were present in person for any of the events he describes. Over and over again throughout the biblical text, the people of God tell a story - their story - about who their God is and how they have experienced God working in the here-and-now. Most of the events reported in most of these stories happened long before these people were born, but no matter: this story is their story. It is the story that identifies who these people are: they are the people who worship the God who has done these things in their communal life.
Over the course of the next two thousand years, there have been a multitude of occasions when the Christian community has paused to retell the story. When adults were joining the Christian community by baptism in the ancient city of Rome, they would retell the story using words that look remarkably similar to what we now call the Apostles' Creed. When there was some confusion about matters of faith and doctrine during the fourth century, representatives from the church in diverse places gathered together to figure out which portions of the story really matter, and the result of that gathering is what we now call the Nicene Creed. When the Protestant Reformers were trying to figure out what really stands at the bedrock of Christian faith, they retold the story yet again. During the chaos of the English Civil War, learned churchmen gathered at Westminster Abbey in the city of London to figure out what elements of the story really matter in the here-and-now. When Adolf Hitler was rising to power in Germany in the early 1930s, some concerned clergy and theologians gathered in a city called Barmen to boldly proclaim that Hitler's programs and policies stand in contrast to the gospel story of Jesus Christ. When our country was going through a turbulent period of strife and division in the late 1960s, Presbyterians affirmed that the gospel story is a story of reconciliation, reconciliation between us and God, and reconciliation among humanity. When South Africa was struggling to outgrow its history of racial bigotry and apartheid during the 1980s, leaders in the Dutch Reformed Mission Church gathered in a suburb of Cape Town called Belhar to articulate how that gospel story of Jesus Christ cannot tolerate racial injustice, since Christ calls all people to be one in him. When the historic "southern" branch and the historic "northern" branch of the Presbyterian Church in the United States rejoined in 1983, after 122 years' worth of division that began with the Civil War, representatives from both branches gathered together to retell our common story, articulating who God is and how we have experienced God working in the here-and-now.
The result of all these labors of love are what we call the "confessions" of the church. Each confession is, basically, a story - a story about who we understand God to be, a story about how we have experienced God working in the here-and-now. In our tradition, there are eleven official confessional statements: two from the ancient church (the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed), three from the days of the Protestant Reformation (the Scots Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Second Helvetic Confession), three from the days of the English Civil War (the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the Westminster Larger Catechism), and three from the past hundred years (the Barmen Declaration, the Confession of 1967, and A Brief Statement of Faith). All these confessions can be found in our Book of Confessions, which is the second most important book to us Presbyterians (the first is the Bible, and the third is the Book of Order). Banners representing all those different confesions - all those different stories - hang along the rear wall of our sanctuary. Currently, discussion is under way about possibly adding a twelfth confession to our Book of Confessions, the Belhar Confession from South Africa.
When leaders take office in this tradition - when people are ordained and installed as Deacons, Elders, or Ministers of Word and Sacrament - they are asked to make several promises. Vows, really. These ordination and installation vows are kind of like wedding vows - promises made publicly before God and in the presence of one another, promises not to be taken lightly. One of those vows is this: "Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?" The leadership of the church - your Pastor, your Elders, and your Deacons - all have affirmed the central importance of these confessions in our living faith today.
We Presbyterians have a particular heritage, a heritage similar to and yet different from the heritage of countless other Christian traditions, and that heritage is not something to be neglected. We are Christians, yes, but we are also unique Christians - Christians with a particular kind of identity, an identity that has been shaped by prayer, thought, and experience within a living tradition. Our particular tradition has a number of distinctive themes that surface again and again: the affirmation of the majesty, holiness, and providence of God, who creates, sustains, rules, and redeems the world in the freedom of sovereign righteousness and love; the election of the people of God for service as well as for salvation; covenant life marked by a disciplined concern for order in the church according to the Word of God; a faithful stewardship that shuns ostentation and seeks proper use of the gifts of God's creation; and the recognition of the hyman tendency to idolatry and tyranny, which calls the people of God to work for the transformation o society by seeking justice and living in obedience to the Word of God. These convictions, and others like them, stand at the core of our understanding of what it means to be Presbyterian Christians, faithfully seeking to live out God's story in the here-and-now. So long as I am your pastor (which I intend to be for a good long time!), I will work diligently to uphold the vows that I took when I was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, vows that I reaffirmed when I was installed as your Pastor. I will work diligently to lift up these themes, and others like them, again and again and again - because that's my responsibility, and because that's who we are.
In recent years, it has been the custom here in this congregation to recite the Apostles' Creed (or, less frequently, the Nicene Creed) every week during worship. That's a good practice - reciting the story of the central convictions of the Christian faith. It keeps the central affirmations about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit front-and-center. Yet reciting the same exact formula week after week after week runs certain risks. It's possible that the words might become hollow. It's possible that we might fall into the trap of simply "going through the motions." It's possible that we might not be thinking about what we're saying. It's possible that some of us might not readily identify with those words as much as we might with some other different-but-similar words. It's possible that we might find ourselves wondering what these ancient words have to do with a contemporary faith.
Therefore: we're going to diversify.
In the months and years to come, we're going to continue to affirm our trust in God in worship. We're going to continue to retell the story of our faith. Just as the people of God retold their story (our story!) in the days of Joshua, just as the psalmists retold their story (our story!) in poetry and song, just as the apostles retold their story (our story!) following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, so too are we going to continue to tell and retell our story. But we're going to expand and diversify the maner in which we do this. Just as, in the Bible, the story was told and retold in a variety of different ways, so too are we going to tell and retell the story in a variety of different ways. In the Bible, when the story was retold again and again, it wasn't always told the same way. Sometimes, different themes were emphasized. Sometimes, certain portions of the story were told that weren't told on other occasions. Sometimes, the story was short; sometimes, it was long. It's important - vitally important - that we keep telling and retelling the story, because this story reminds us who our God is and how we have experienced God working in the here-and-now, but there's no rule anywhere that says we have to do it exactly the same way week after week after week. In fact, if we take the biblical witness as a guide, perhaps there's some benefit to telling and retelling the story in different ways. Perhaps it's important not to tell it exactly the same way time and time again. Perhaps a little diversity in our storytelling is a good thing.
So here's just a little taste of what's ahead, in the months and years to come: (1) We're going to continue to use the Apostles' Creed periodically. But, in addition to the "traditional" translation that you're pretty familiar with, we'll also be using a more contemporary "ecumenical" translation. Sometimes, we'll say it all together as one body; other times (as you've seen already, at our installation of officers in January and at our reception of new members on Easter Sunday), it will be in a question-and-answer format. There are even some musical versions of the Apostles' Creed that we'll start using! (2) We're going to continue to use the Nicene Creed periodically (somewhat less often than we use the Apostles' Creed). The Nicene Creed is the most ecumenical of all the Christian creeds; it's the one creed that is used by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and many Protestant churches. (3) We're going to begin using the most recent Presbyterian confession, "A Brief Statement of Faith." (You can find the whole text of "A Brief Statement of Faith" in the pages of this newsletter.) As mentioned above, A Brief Statement of Faith was created following the reunion of our denomination in 1983, by representatives from both our "northern" and "southern" branches, as a way of affirming what we hold in common. It is a Trinitarian creed - affirming our trust in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit - that deliberately borrows many phrases from the Bible itself and that was intentionally written in a way to facilitate its use in worship. It is too long to recite all at once (it is brief compared to the very large confessions written during the Reformation - but it's not that brief!); we will use certain portions on some weeks, and other portions on other weeks. You'll notice, as you start to become familiar with this confession, that it includes - among other things - a poetic summary of Jesus' life and ministry (not simply moving straight from his birth to his death, as most older confessions do), an ecological concern for our stewardship of God's creation, an articulation of the manifold ways the Holy Spirit works in this world here and now, and affirmations that we hold both women and men to be created equally in God's image and that we believe God calls both women and men to all offices in the church (which are two affirmations that set us apart from many other Christian traditions). (4) From time to time, we'll use classic portions of some of the other confessions in our tradition - portions that have withstood the test of time. (5) All of this will be tied to the liturgical year, or other special celebrations: we'll use some form of the Apostles' Creed every time there is a baptism . . . we'll probably use the Nicene Creed on World Communion Sunday . . . we'll use one of the ancient confessions every time we celebrate communion . . . we'll use the portion of A Brief Statement of Faith that pertains to the Holy Spirit in the weeks between Easter and Pentecost . . . and so on. In other words, we'll be putting some careful thought into what confessions we use when, and why. Slowly, over time, I believe you will come to have a deep and abiding appreciation for the richness of our tradition. (One of the things I love about being a Presbyterian is that we have such an incredible degree of depth in our tradition - when we take the time to "scratch the surface" and really look at what's there!)
So we, the people of God, will continue to tell a story. We will continue to tell our story, a story about who our God is and how we have experienced God working in the here-and-now. Most of the events in these stories happened long before any of us were born, but no matter: these stories are our stories. They are the stories that identify who we are: we are the people who worship the God who has done these things in our communal life . . . praise be to God!
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
April 1, 2009
Introducing . . . "Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love"
Part II in an occasional series on “How Shall We Handle the Tough Stuff?”
(Part I appeared in the February issue)
(Part I appeared in the February issue)
Inside this issue of the Parish Pages you will find a one-page document entitled “Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love: Commitments for Christians in Times of Disagreement.” This document is adapted from a document with the same title that is published by the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center. Lombard is a non-profit Christian ministry that works to encourage the nonviolent transformation of conflict in relationships in homes, workplaces, schools, churches, and throughout our world, and whose programs and resources address ways of resolving conflicts and building healthier relationships in all of these various settings. (You can learn more about them at www.lmpeacecenter.org.) Many of you participated in a Lombard workshop held here in this church several years ago; I, too, have attended several Lombard workshops as a participant over the past several years, most recently a week-long mediation skills training institute just last summer.
I have found Lombard’s biblical insights and principles to be immensely helpful as I try to walk in the ways of Jesus Christ and as I try to lead the congregation that God has called me to serve with responsibility and integrity. That doesn’t mean that I’m always good at applying the principles that I have learned – sometimes, learning new skills requires un-learning others that can be pretty deeply engrained into our psyches; sometimes, I fall short and I catch myself doing those very things that I know I ought not to do. I am not perfect, and I know it! But, hopefully, with diligence and discipline and dedication, and the grace of God, I will continue to grow in my application of these insights and principles throughout the course of the rest of my life.
Your Session has recently spent several months reflecting on matters pertaining to conflict management. I initiated that conversation. I did so because (as most of you know) there has been a painfully acute conflict here in the relatively recent past, and I know of countless other congregations that have experienced painful conflict. I was a member of a congregation that went through painful conflict a number of years ago, and not long ago I was geographically close to a congregation that was mired in painful conflict. I want to do everything possible to make sure we never have such a painful experience here, ever again. I want to do everything in my power to ensure that we will be working cooperatively together to create a climate here in which important issues get addressed (not avoided!) and in which people don’t get hurt in the process. This whole conversation is intended to be a preventative measure. Yes, there are issues in church life; things come up; decisions have to be made; we are continually striving to discern where God is calling us to go next, and sometimes people disagree about what that will (or should) be. If you’re at all familiar with the broad sweep of church history, you know that important issues have come up again and again over the course of the past two thousand years, and Christians don’t always agree about the “right” answers. That’s just a reality of life. We can even find instances in the New Testament itself of times when the early Christians had to make difficult decisions and they did not all agree with one another about what the “right” decision should be – take a look, for example, at the story of the council of Jerusalem, recounted in Acts chapter 15. The church had a big issue to solve; different people felt very strongly about their beliefs and opinions; they had a big meeting to work it out, and then they had to communicate the decision that was made at that meeting through the whole church. Was there conflict in the church? You bet! Was there disagreement? Absolutely! But those early Christians managed to work their way constructively through the disagreement, towards a peaceful resolution. There were differences of opinion that needed to be addressed, and they managed to handle that conflict without people getting hurt in the process. It’s a good model to learn from.
The document that you will find in these pages articulates a dozen “commitments” about responsible ways in which we might handle disagreements that might come up in church life. The first commitment is this: “Acknowledge together that conflict is a normal part of our life in the church.” Yes, conflict is normal. Conflict is simply what happens when there is more than one opinion about an issue in the same room at the same time – which, of course, happens a lot. Conflict, by itself, is neither good nor bad. The question is always, When there is conflict, how shall we handle it? There is such a thing as destructive conflict . . . and there is also such a thing as constructive conflict. Destructive conflict is what happens when the issues are getting dealt with in ways that are harmful to the people involved. Constructive conflict is what can happen when issues get dealt with in ways that are fair and kind and respectful, and the whole body grows as a result. I want to see us work to learn and implement skills so that whenever there is conflict about any issue – no matter how large or how small – we will take steps to ensure that the conflict is constructive and not destructive.
I would ask that you read the enclosed document, carefully. There are biblical references attached to each of the twelve commitments, and I would encourage you to look up those passages to further reinforce the concepts. I would also ask that you keep this document; please don’t just recycle it with the rest of your Parish Pages. Keep it somewhere where you can refer to it and study it from time to time. Then, I would ask that you make an effort to begin to apply these commitments in your life – not only in your church life, but in every other aspect of your life as well (work, school, family, etc.). The fourth through eighth commitments give you direct steps that you can apply whenever there is some kind of issue confronting you that requires that you talk with other people to reach a mutually agreeable resolution. You will probably find that, as you work to apply these commitments, you will discover that you are growing in your spiritual walk (see commitment #2!). The tenth commitment introduces the concept of “skilled help” (such as a trained counselor or mediator), if you find that the issues you are dealing with are so complex that you are not able to resolve them on your own. The eleventh principle has to do with major conflict within a congregation (which we will hopefully never have to worry about, if we are diligently working to apply the first ten commitments!). And the twelfth commitment affirms the importance of working to solve church disputes within our own community of faith – within the body of Christ – rather than turning to the secular courts.
Lombard regularly works with congregations (and other human organizations) experiencing conflict of one sort or another; these commitments (which we have adjusted slightly for our own use here) have been proven to be effective in a wide variety of different settings at promoting peace and reconciliation – and (surprise, surprise!) they’re even biblical.
This is a lot to chew on. Please spend some time with this document. Your Session has officially adopted this document for use throughout the congregation. It is now, essentially, a “policy” document for the church, indicating the ways in which we seek to live our common life together, striving to be faithful to Jesus Christ, even when there might be disagreements. That doesn’t mean that there will be punitive measures if people fail to follow this document – but it does mean that we might lift it up from time to time as a gentle reminder of the kind of values we want to foster and embody here. I intend to teach about this document in future officer training workshops and in future Explorers’ classes, and you can expect that you will see or hear occasional reminders about this document from time to time. This is not something that we simply intend to check off our list of things to do – “okay, now we’ve done that, so we can move on” – rather, this is something that we want to work to live into, now and in the future.
If you find yourself not sure how to apply this document in your own life, or would appreciate a little bit of coaching (“hey, I’ve really got a problem with somebody that I need to solve, and I know I need to talk to them but I’m not sure how to do that”), please find someone whom you trust and respect who can help you. I’m certainly willing to work with interested learners, and I’ll be returning to certain key points in some future articles here. John McElhone also recently offered a children’s sermon (remember the broccoli?) and taught a “special topics” class (and before that, led a “coffee and chat”) on this very subject, and I’m sure he would be happy to talk about these issues with you. (Mind you, I didn’t ask John directly about his willingness to do that before I put this in print, and maybe I should have . . . John, if you’ve got a problem with what I just said, then I guess we’ve got a conflict, so you and I can model for everyone what this process should look like!!!)
Let me close by just reiterating: adopting and publishing this document is intended to be a preventative measure. We do not have any kind of major conflict going on here at this church. Are there some issues that need to be addressed? Sure. Are there some challenges that need to be worked on? Yep. (That’s normal!) Is there major conflict? Nope.
I promise you that I will do everything in my power to keep it that way.
But to do that, I’m asking for your help: take this document, study it, and work to practice the skills. And I promise, I will work to do the same. . . .
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
March 1, 2009
Caught in the Act!
Okay, I admit it. You’ve caught me. You’ve caught me doing it. You’ve caught me doing it in public.
You’ve caught me running all around the city of Mason.
Some of you have caught me running in front of the courthouse. Some of you have caught me running while you’re on your way to school in the school bus. Some of you have caught me running on Okemos Road, or on Kipp Road, or on the Hayhoe Riverwalk, or through Maple Grove Cemetery, or past the fairgrounds. A small handful of you have caught me running on the treadmill at the gym. Two of you even caught me wandering into Bestsellers one really cold day in the middle of winter wearing my jogging shorts, and you looked at me as if I had completely lost my mind.
Well, maybe I have. Maybe I have lost my mind . . . because I’ve decided that 2009 is going to be the year when I run my first 5K.
Now you have to understand, I’m not a runner. At least, I didn’t used to be. If I were to tell the members of my family, or my friends from elementary school or middle school or high school or college or seminary – all those old friends that I’ve been reconnecting with recently on Facebook – that I’m about to run a 5K, they would cock their eyebrows and think to themselves: “Bill? A 5K? Really?!?” Because I never was a runner. In gym class, when the teacher made us run laps around the gymnasium, I hated it! I was, in my childhood and youth, a first-class geek/nerd/wimp. I sat and read books, and when I wasn’t reading books, I was sitting in front of the computer, or the television. I didn’t go in for sports. Sports and I, we just never got along very well. I tried Little League . . . and didn’t like it. I tried gymnastics . . . and didn’t like it. I tried soccer . . . and didn’t really like it either. (Is it blasphemy to say that in Mason?) When I played kickball, I was lousy. I did competitive swimming for a while, mainly because my big sister and a lot of my friends were doing it, but I was never stellar at it, and eventually I got a nasty ear infection and had to quit. I went to dozens and dozens of football games when I was in high school because I played in the marching band, but to this day I still don’t understand what a “down” is and why you count to four of them. (And believe me, some of my band friends tried hard to explain that to me!) I just never seemed to have an athletic gene in my body. None whatsoever.
And now I’m about to run my first-ever 5K.
Obviously, something changed inside me somewhere along the way.
It all started back in Maryland. I discovered, within a year or two after becoming a pastor, that this is a pretty stressful job. Sometimes, quite honestly, it’s a really stressful job. Here are all these people, who all have opinions and ideas about the way things “should be” in the church and about the way I should be doing my job, and many of them don’t agree with each other, and some of them don’t agree with me, and I’m caught in the middle of it all, somehow trying to help lead the congregation to a better place, when I have very little executive power at my disposal. I had done lots of hard things in my life up to that point, but never had I experienced that degree of regular, ongoing stress until I became a pastor. I needed a stress-relief, and I knew I needed a stress relief, if I had a prayer of doing my job and doing it well.
So, I took up running.
I’m not quite sure how that happened. I think it was a gradual thing over time. I think one day I just thought, “I’ve got so much pent-up energy inside me; I need some way to release it; I think I’m going to go run around the block.” (Which was difficult, because we lived on a hill, and it was a pretty steep hill!) I went running around the block – and it felt good.
So I did it again.
And again.
And again.
And then the runs became more regular, and they became a little longer. And I found myself enjoying the feeling of getting the adrenaline pumping, of getting the blood circulating, of getting the endorphins releasing. Running, I discovered (to my surprise!), feels good.
Meanwhile, I was reading stuff about healthy churches (I’m not quite the nerd I once was, but I still do like to read!), and some of what I was reading was about the importance of being good stewards of the bodies God has given us, and some of it was about how healthy churches tend to have pastors who make efforts to maintain (and improve) their own emotional, physical, and spiritual health, and I found myself being challenged to become healthier, in all sorts of ways. This wasn’t an easy journey for me. Becoming healthier – whether it is physically healthier, or emotionally healthier, or spiritually healthier – requires commitment and motivation and discipline, and a ton of hard work. Some days, you just don’t feel like it. But, since I had made a commitment to become the most effective pastor I could possibly be, it slowly became clear to me: it was time to become healthier. That was going to require some work.
You see, for me, taking up running – a very physical activity – was a necessary development in my own spiritual journey. I discovered – much to my surprise! – that in order to promote my own spiritual health and well-being . . . I needed to get physical.
So this running thing began while I was in Maryland. It continued – and expanded – when we moved here.
I joined a gym.
Yes, world, you heard that right: Bill, that once -upon-a-time geek/nerd/wimp who couldn’t stand gym class . . . has joined a gym. And I even enjoy going there. Actually, I enjoy it a lot! Granted, on some of these really bitterly cold mornings we’ve had the past couple months, it’s hard to roll out of bed in the darkness and motivate myself to make the trek outside to get there. But on the days when I do go – which has been averaging about four days a week – I come home feeling great. I’ve discovered that I’m happier, I’m more energized, I’m more focused, I’m less likely to get annoyed at little things, I’m more creative, and I’m just generally more effective. That alone has been a great benefit to me (and also to you – whether you realize it or not!)
I discovered there were other benefits too. One day, a few months back, I made a startling discovery: I had muscle in parts of my thighs where – for the last twenty years! – I used to have fat. “Whoa,” I thought. “This is weird!” It was as if my body was beginning to reshape itself before my very eyes. Yes, my friends, there’s fat on my body. I know I look skinny, but believe me, for a long time I’ve been carrying around some fat that I didn’t want – ever since I stopped swimming, way back in high school. (It certainly didn’t help that throughout my senior year of high school, I ate fast food every single day. . . .) So yes, there’s fat on my body. And yes, there’s less fat now than there was a year ago, or even six months ago. I discovered one day, not long after that, that I could fit into old pairs of pants that I haven’t been able to fit into for the past several years. That was a pleasant surprise too!
By Christmas, just a couple months ago, I had developed enough self-confidence that I found myself thinking: “You know, I think I might be able to run a 5K.” Remember – I was once the kid who hated running laps! I know there are a good number of you who could run a 5K easily, and have been able to for a long time, so you might not be able to appreciate just how dramatic a moment this was for me. It was a tremendous realization, filled with excitement and anticipation: “I think I can actually do this!”
A week or two after that thought flashed through my head, I discovered – on the treadmill, one morning at the gym – that I really could do it. I came home elated. “I can do this! I really can do this!” That was a terrific feeling of euphoria. Here was something that I never imagined I could do – and, with a little bit of discipline, and a little bit of dedication, and a little bit of perspiration, now I knew that I actually could do it. I’ve been successfully running a 5K at least once a week ever since the beginning of January. It feels great!
So I’m running my first “official” 5K this month. I’m signed up for a real, official event. No, I’m not going to tell you when or where it is. Give me a chance to just do this one by myself. Let me prove to myself that I really can do this, “officially.” I know I’m not going to be one of the fastest runners; indeed, I’m quite sure that I’ll be one of the slower ones. There are people who can do this twice as fast as I can. That’s okay. I don’t care. I just want to be able to say, “Hey – I did it.”
I’m also signing myself up for Mason State Bank’s 5K on Friday evening, May 1. Yes, if you want to see your pastor make a fool out of himself in public, that’s the time when you can come watch. That’s the time when you can really catch me in the act.
It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it, when you set a goal for yourself – a goal that, with a little bit of discipline and dedication and perspiration, you can actually accomplish.
And you know what? I’d love to see you out there too. I’d love to see you out there, on Friday, May 1, at the Mason State Bank’s 5K Run/Walk. And not just as a spectator. Some of you might be up for running; that’s great; I’d love some company (or you can leave me behind in the dust; that’s okay; I promise my feelings won’t be hurt!). But if you’re not up for running, why not try walking? Many of us could stand to get more exercise than we do. Believe me, all those years when all I wanted to do was to sit and read a book, or sit in front of the computer or the television, it would have benefited me greatly to get up off my duff and do something physical . . . even if it was just going for a walk.
So I’m going to be out there, in public, on May 1. You – and all the rest of Mason – can catch me in the act. If our 150th anniversary t-shirts are ready by that point, I’ll be proudly wearing mine. I’d love to see a whole bunch of you out there as well. Let’s see you get caught in the act as well. Let’s get these legs pumping. Let’s get these muscles moving. Let’s get this fat burning. Let’s become better stewards of these bodies God has given us.
Believe me, from one who never thought he could do this . . . it feels great.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
Coming soon: “Bodybuilding” – and no, I won’t be talking about my body, at all.
You’ve caught me running all around the city of Mason.
Some of you have caught me running in front of the courthouse. Some of you have caught me running while you’re on your way to school in the school bus. Some of you have caught me running on Okemos Road, or on Kipp Road, or on the Hayhoe Riverwalk, or through Maple Grove Cemetery, or past the fairgrounds. A small handful of you have caught me running on the treadmill at the gym. Two of you even caught me wandering into Bestsellers one really cold day in the middle of winter wearing my jogging shorts, and you looked at me as if I had completely lost my mind.
Well, maybe I have. Maybe I have lost my mind . . . because I’ve decided that 2009 is going to be the year when I run my first 5K.
Now you have to understand, I’m not a runner. At least, I didn’t used to be. If I were to tell the members of my family, or my friends from elementary school or middle school or high school or college or seminary – all those old friends that I’ve been reconnecting with recently on Facebook – that I’m about to run a 5K, they would cock their eyebrows and think to themselves: “Bill? A 5K? Really?!?” Because I never was a runner. In gym class, when the teacher made us run laps around the gymnasium, I hated it! I was, in my childhood and youth, a first-class geek/nerd/wimp. I sat and read books, and when I wasn’t reading books, I was sitting in front of the computer, or the television. I didn’t go in for sports. Sports and I, we just never got along very well. I tried Little League . . . and didn’t like it. I tried gymnastics . . . and didn’t like it. I tried soccer . . . and didn’t really like it either. (Is it blasphemy to say that in Mason?) When I played kickball, I was lousy. I did competitive swimming for a while, mainly because my big sister and a lot of my friends were doing it, but I was never stellar at it, and eventually I got a nasty ear infection and had to quit. I went to dozens and dozens of football games when I was in high school because I played in the marching band, but to this day I still don’t understand what a “down” is and why you count to four of them. (And believe me, some of my band friends tried hard to explain that to me!) I just never seemed to have an athletic gene in my body. None whatsoever.
And now I’m about to run my first-ever 5K.
Obviously, something changed inside me somewhere along the way.
It all started back in Maryland. I discovered, within a year or two after becoming a pastor, that this is a pretty stressful job. Sometimes, quite honestly, it’s a really stressful job. Here are all these people, who all have opinions and ideas about the way things “should be” in the church and about the way I should be doing my job, and many of them don’t agree with each other, and some of them don’t agree with me, and I’m caught in the middle of it all, somehow trying to help lead the congregation to a better place, when I have very little executive power at my disposal. I had done lots of hard things in my life up to that point, but never had I experienced that degree of regular, ongoing stress until I became a pastor. I needed a stress-relief, and I knew I needed a stress relief, if I had a prayer of doing my job and doing it well.
So, I took up running.
I’m not quite sure how that happened. I think it was a gradual thing over time. I think one day I just thought, “I’ve got so much pent-up energy inside me; I need some way to release it; I think I’m going to go run around the block.” (Which was difficult, because we lived on a hill, and it was a pretty steep hill!) I went running around the block – and it felt good.
So I did it again.
And again.
And again.
And then the runs became more regular, and they became a little longer. And I found myself enjoying the feeling of getting the adrenaline pumping, of getting the blood circulating, of getting the endorphins releasing. Running, I discovered (to my surprise!), feels good.
Meanwhile, I was reading stuff about healthy churches (I’m not quite the nerd I once was, but I still do like to read!), and some of what I was reading was about the importance of being good stewards of the bodies God has given us, and some of it was about how healthy churches tend to have pastors who make efforts to maintain (and improve) their own emotional, physical, and spiritual health, and I found myself being challenged to become healthier, in all sorts of ways. This wasn’t an easy journey for me. Becoming healthier – whether it is physically healthier, or emotionally healthier, or spiritually healthier – requires commitment and motivation and discipline, and a ton of hard work. Some days, you just don’t feel like it. But, since I had made a commitment to become the most effective pastor I could possibly be, it slowly became clear to me: it was time to become healthier. That was going to require some work.
You see, for me, taking up running – a very physical activity – was a necessary development in my own spiritual journey. I discovered – much to my surprise! – that in order to promote my own spiritual health and well-being . . . I needed to get physical.
So this running thing began while I was in Maryland. It continued – and expanded – when we moved here.
I joined a gym.
Yes, world, you heard that right: Bill, that once -upon-a-time geek/nerd/wimp who couldn’t stand gym class . . . has joined a gym. And I even enjoy going there. Actually, I enjoy it a lot! Granted, on some of these really bitterly cold mornings we’ve had the past couple months, it’s hard to roll out of bed in the darkness and motivate myself to make the trek outside to get there. But on the days when I do go – which has been averaging about four days a week – I come home feeling great. I’ve discovered that I’m happier, I’m more energized, I’m more focused, I’m less likely to get annoyed at little things, I’m more creative, and I’m just generally more effective. That alone has been a great benefit to me (and also to you – whether you realize it or not!)
I discovered there were other benefits too. One day, a few months back, I made a startling discovery: I had muscle in parts of my thighs where – for the last twenty years! – I used to have fat. “Whoa,” I thought. “This is weird!” It was as if my body was beginning to reshape itself before my very eyes. Yes, my friends, there’s fat on my body. I know I look skinny, but believe me, for a long time I’ve been carrying around some fat that I didn’t want – ever since I stopped swimming, way back in high school. (It certainly didn’t help that throughout my senior year of high school, I ate fast food every single day. . . .) So yes, there’s fat on my body. And yes, there’s less fat now than there was a year ago, or even six months ago. I discovered one day, not long after that, that I could fit into old pairs of pants that I haven’t been able to fit into for the past several years. That was a pleasant surprise too!
By Christmas, just a couple months ago, I had developed enough self-confidence that I found myself thinking: “You know, I think I might be able to run a 5K.” Remember – I was once the kid who hated running laps! I know there are a good number of you who could run a 5K easily, and have been able to for a long time, so you might not be able to appreciate just how dramatic a moment this was for me. It was a tremendous realization, filled with excitement and anticipation: “I think I can actually do this!”
A week or two after that thought flashed through my head, I discovered – on the treadmill, one morning at the gym – that I really could do it. I came home elated. “I can do this! I really can do this!” That was a terrific feeling of euphoria. Here was something that I never imagined I could do – and, with a little bit of discipline, and a little bit of dedication, and a little bit of perspiration, now I knew that I actually could do it. I’ve been successfully running a 5K at least once a week ever since the beginning of January. It feels great!
So I’m running my first “official” 5K this month. I’m signed up for a real, official event. No, I’m not going to tell you when or where it is. Give me a chance to just do this one by myself. Let me prove to myself that I really can do this, “officially.” I know I’m not going to be one of the fastest runners; indeed, I’m quite sure that I’ll be one of the slower ones. There are people who can do this twice as fast as I can. That’s okay. I don’t care. I just want to be able to say, “Hey – I did it.”
I’m also signing myself up for Mason State Bank’s 5K on Friday evening, May 1. Yes, if you want to see your pastor make a fool out of himself in public, that’s the time when you can come watch. That’s the time when you can really catch me in the act.
It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it, when you set a goal for yourself – a goal that, with a little bit of discipline and dedication and perspiration, you can actually accomplish.
And you know what? I’d love to see you out there too. I’d love to see you out there, on Friday, May 1, at the Mason State Bank’s 5K Run/Walk. And not just as a spectator. Some of you might be up for running; that’s great; I’d love some company (or you can leave me behind in the dust; that’s okay; I promise my feelings won’t be hurt!). But if you’re not up for running, why not try walking? Many of us could stand to get more exercise than we do. Believe me, all those years when all I wanted to do was to sit and read a book, or sit in front of the computer or the television, it would have benefited me greatly to get up off my duff and do something physical . . . even if it was just going for a walk.
So I’m going to be out there, in public, on May 1. You – and all the rest of Mason – can catch me in the act. If our 150th anniversary t-shirts are ready by that point, I’ll be proudly wearing mine. I’d love to see a whole bunch of you out there as well. Let’s see you get caught in the act as well. Let’s get these legs pumping. Let’s get these muscles moving. Let’s get this fat burning. Let’s become better stewards of these bodies God has given us.
Believe me, from one who never thought he could do this . . . it feels great.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
Coming soon: “Bodybuilding” – and no, I won’t be talking about my body, at all.
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