Welcome to Advent (again)!

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