Go With Your Favorite View in 2012

I'm a month-at-a-glance kind of guy. My default view on Google Calendar is the monthly view. When I used the FranklinCovey planning system I preferred a two-page view of the entire month instead of one page with really skinny rectangles in which to make notes. Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate looking across a whole year or the hour-by-hour view of a day. But there is something about a monthly vision or view that energizes me. I see a month as a measurable, workable period of time for planning and organizing. Our church committees meet monthly. Most of my bills are paid monthly.

The Bible expresses monthly time frames in telling the redeeming story of God's love for us and the world. As our spiritual ancestors were being prepared by God to be liberated from slavery in Egypt in the first Passover "The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 'This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.'" (Exodus 12:1-2). The announcement of Mary's pregnancy has a month reference as well, "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God" to tell Mary "you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus" (Luke 1).

The liberating gift of Jesus is wonderfully described in Galatians 4:4-5, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children."

Part of the beauty of the Church is how God has given us different views of time. Some of us are long-range thinkers and planners; some of us are minute-by-minute people; some work by the week; and then there are the monthly people. Regardless of our time orientation, God uses us to accomplish divine goals.

Do you have a favorite life-giving view of time? What if we celebrated and served God and our neighbors in energizing and hopeful ways based on our favorite view of time in 2012?  527,040 minutes await us in 2012 (a leap year with 366 days). If that seems a bit overwhelming, how about an inspiring perspective from the song, "Day by Day", in the musical, "Godspell":

Three things I pray 

To see thee more clearly 

Love thee more dearly

Follow thee more nearly 

Day by day

May we experience the fullness of time together in 2012 from every point of view.

God is All In at Christmas

Special offers abound in the holiday shopping season. We dance in the tension of loyalty and benefits as businesses and customers. Loyalty cards and programs allow us to build up value points in the company's hopes that they will keep our current and future business. The thought is that if we find greater value elsewhere, we will simply go there. In other words, they doubt our loyalty and consider it fragile and temperamental. It must be maintained with vigilant customer service and daily special offers. And the funny thing is that this system works. Companies do keep our business by their offers and customer service.

On the consumer side, we play company offers against one another by threatening to take our business elsewhere in the hopes of securing a better deal for our money, commitment, or time. The whole process seems to be based on doubt, lack of faith and fear that we really won't maintain our commitments to one another as businesses or customers without constant reassurance and special offers. And the funny thing is that this system works. We can get better deals by using our loyalty and dollars as bargaining tools.

That's the retail side of life. But it produces some funny side effects when we try to use it on the faith side of life.

When we consider ourselves as customers/consumers in our relationship with God, the biggest retailer ever, then we end up acting in ways more characterized by scarcity and fear than love and trust. We make bargains with God for love and healing. We pray to God as if interacting with a vending machine to get our desired results. We pledge to change our ways to avert major consequences of our actions, hoping for some special offer to make it all better and stay on acceptable terms with God.

Knowing our fragile-fearful-hopeful-sinful condition, God turns our retail reality upside down by making a personal, irrevocable commitment to us in Jesus Christ. No loyalty cards or incentive programs are needed in God's relationship with the world, just the Good News that "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it...the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth" (John 1:5,14).

In other words, God is All In at Christmas. There's no holding back better deals and value until we show greater loyalty or clean up our lives. God acts first in love at the intersection of hope and fear so wonderfully expressed in the Christmas carol, "O, Little Town of Bethlehem":

"Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."

May our retail reality be wonderfully and lovingly redeemed by the great gift of Jesus Christ again this Christmas so that we may give appropriate gifts of love and loyalty to God, one another and the world. Merry Christmas.

After this post was published as my December 2011 newsletter article, I found this prayer by Rev. Dr. Ozzie Smith, Jr. at the end of his address, "A Sight for Certain Eyes":


Thank you, God, for giving us your All. Your All that the world would later see. We would learn later that a leper would see All in Jesus coming and saying, "You can heal me if you choose to." A Syro-Phoenician woman would not leave the table without having some of this All. Nicodemus would sneak in for a night class for this All. A bleeding woman would crawl to touch the hem of this All. Crowds would be fed by this All. Peter would walk on water towards this All. A dying thief would realize it and be welcomed to paradise by this All. Water would turn to wine by this All. Millions of men and women would accept calls to the ministry by this All, and slaves would sing, "Nobody knows the trouble I see," but this All. Teresa of Calcutta would be known as a saint of the gutter because of this All. And when evil thought that it had done all that it could do by putting this All away, All would get up again and say, "All power is in my hand." Saying, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men and women unto me." 

Thank you, God, for giving us your All, the Word made flesh in your Son Jesus. Lord, grant that we might have certain eyes in the midst of our present uncertainty. We thank you. We bless your name and we praise you for the giving gift of Jesus. Amen.

Behold the Grace of Your Life

What an incredible October. I have been blessed with gifts each week for Pastor Appreciation Month. Thank you (Hartford UMC) for valuing the role of pastor in the life of the church. We are just getting to know each other and you are continuing a strong tradition of gift giving.

And now comes November. Another great month that begins with All Saints' Day, traditionally November 1 (our worship celebration is October 30), and ends with Thanksgiving and the beginning of the season of Advent. I love this time of year because it bears so much spiritual significance.

The Kalamazoo District offered a Pastor's Appreciation Day yesterday at Westwood UMC. That congregation has special meaning for me as they were the home church for our family while I served the Wesley Foundation on Western's campus. The main speaker offered this insight in the context of reflecting Christ's glory (2 Corinthians 3:18):

What we look AT consistently,

we begin to look LIKE over time.

Where we focus our attention and energy greatly impacts the shape or dimensions of our existence. The value of thanksgiving or living gratefully is that it breaks the hold on our tendency to think we can provide for ourselves all by ourselves. For most of us, every day we live in houses we did not build, eat food we did not grow and wear clothes we did not sew. In other words, we are dependent creatures by design. We need each other and we need God.

The New Living Translation has this beginning to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: "God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them" (Matthew 5:3). In the version of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:1-21 (the other version is Exodus 20:1-17) the motivation for resting on the Sabbath is gratitude for God's liberating work in bringing our spiritual ancestors out of slavery in Egypt.

Living gratefully allows us to relax our bodies and release our anxiety, indeed frees us to love God and our neighbors. Such a view of our lives also renews our strength to prevail in the challenges of daily life.

Giving Rocks

Having prepared and officiated for the most weddings I can remember having in any year of ordained ministry, I can again affirm that the most common areas of power, potential, and pressure in marriage are relationships, finances, and sexuality. When those three areas are anticipated, talked about, and planned for, the couple is building a strong foundation for their marriage relationship. In premarital counseling we talk about these issues even though the couple may not be, and hopefully is not, in crisis about them. The conversations are insightful and give the couple the opportunity to consider the issues in non-threatening ways.

I hold a similar view in regard to stewardship and finances for us as disciples of Jesus Christ. That is, anticipation, conversation and plans for giving in a non-threatening environment contribute to strong faith in our life together as the Body of Christ. One early recognition we may make in talking about faith and finances is that our consumer culture leads us to view the goods of creation and community as commodities that can be bought and sold. When we have a "transaction" mentality about giving, then we might expect that our gift should be directly followed by faith, health or love.

I invite us to a "transformation" mentality about giving, where we realize that through giving we enter God's realm of blessing and abundance where strength may come from many directions and sources, not just as a direct result of our current gift. The wisdom writer of Proverbs noticed:

"One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed" (Proverbs 11:24-25)

In our life with God our giving is a response, not a stimulus.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth” (Genesis 26:22)

One cornerstone or solid practice in giving is a tithe, which is a tenth of some amount. I have shared in worship before that every gift we give is a tithe of something. Multiply your gift by ten and see what else it looks like in your economic world: a tank of gas; monthly electric bill; mortgage payment; weekly cost of groceries. Jacob's experience shows us a greater foundation for giving, "and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth." One sign of growing in faith is that the basis for our giving is what we receive, not some other expense in our personal economic world.

The presence of joy also affects our giving and the perspective we have on our wealth. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field" (Matthew 13:44). Each Sunday in worship I conclude the invitation to give this way: "We pray that our giving may come from, or lead us to a joyful heart." May you find ways to rejoice in sharing a portion of what you have received and be refreshed by God's generosity.

Music, Money and Mission

Good morning and God bless you. September brings the familiar opening of a new school year and re-entry to lives committed to education. It also brings new, refreshing and challenging developments in our church and Hartford communities involving music, money and mission.

Music: Did you know there are Directions for Singing in our United Methodist Hymnal? The last of seven directions from John Wesley on page vii is "Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven."

Since arriving here in July I have appreciated the way we have been led in music by Pete Laman, Mikha Sitorus, Bob Lightner, and Lynne and Dan Farmer. On September 11 we welcome Jenna Johnson as our new Church Musician. She has most recently been a music leader at the Cedar Springs and East Nelson United Methodist Churches north of Grand Rapids. She is a first year student at Western Michigan University. One of the many reasons I am excited about Jenna is the spritual sense she has of the gift of music in the church and in her own life as a child of God. Part of our congregation's welcome for Jenna will be providing transportation and lunch for her on Sundays. We are asking a family or household to adopt her for a Sunday each month. Our plan is for her to arrive at the church by 9:30 AM to prepare for worship and rehearse with any musicians or vocalists. Let Cindy Kent (Staff Pastor Parish Committee Chairperson) know if you are interested in taking care of Jenna on a given Sunday each month.

Money and Mission: The economic landscape changed here on August 30 with the opening of the Four Winds Casino. The United Methodist Social Principles begin with an affirmation of our "long history of concern for social justice." The Social Principles call us to thoughtful and prayerful approaches to contemporary issues and are "intended to be instructive and persuasive in the best of the prophetic spirit." Under the heading of The Economic Community is this statement, "Gambling is a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, destructive of good government and good stewardship. As an act of faith and concern, Christians should abstain from gambling and should strive to minister to those victimized by the practice. Where gambling has become addictive, the Church will encourage such individuals to receive therapeutic assistance so that the individual’s energies may be redirected into positive and constructive ends."

I shared a prayer request with our West Michigan Conference Prayer Center on August 30: "I request prayers for Hartford and surrounding communities as the Four Winds Casino opens today, August 30, at Noon. I celebrate the strong community-related ministry of our congregation and pray for fresh strength to continue being the Body of Christ shaped by compassion, grace and justice." I also have talked with colleagues who serve United Methodist churches in communities with casinos, and had an initial conversation at the local Chamber of Commerce. What I appreciate about our United Methodist tradition is how seriously we take the community context of local church ministry. To only criticize the nature of the newest business in Hartford is to fall short of a faithful effort to understand history and economic realities.

The same Social Principles statement on Gambling continues, "The Church acknowledges the dichotomy that can occur when opposing gambling while supporting American Indian tribal sovereignty and self-determination. Therefore, the Church’s role is to create sacred space to allow for dialogue and education that will promote a holistic understanding of the American Indians’ historic quest for survival. The Church’s prophetic call is to promote standards of justice and advocacy that would make it unnecessary and undesirable to resort to commercial gambling—including public lotteries, casinos, raffles, Internet gambling, gambling with an emerging wireless technology and other games of chance—as a recreation, as an escape, or as a means of producing public revenue or funds for support of charities or government."

While the economic landscape has changed, our calling to be the Church has not. I am challenged to see the threat to community stability, to encourage people overcome by gambling addiction to seek help, to create sacred space for dialogue and education on the tragic history of the United States and Native Americans, and to promote standards of justice that reflect God's gift of abundant life to all of us. How do you see us responding to these changes? I want to walk together with a renewed commitment to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves.

A Couple of Good Things to Keep in Mind

My late father-in-law was a good, avid golfer. He felt that with a couple more rounds each week he could elevate his game, but he was playing at an enjoyable level and chose not to devote the extra time and money to such an effort. He told me that a quality golf swing includes more than 30 things you need to do correctly and that he could only be mindful of about 3-4 of them at any one time. I get that.

Last month my article was about the multiple dimensions and big picture of our life with God and the Church. This month I offer a couple things I am mindful of in my life and ministry as a disciple of Jesus Christ and your pastor. First, hospitality. I came to faith in Jesus Christ in high school through the hospitality of Three Oaks United Methodist Church. My family and I were welcomed into the fellowship of the Church. I was given opportunities to explore leadership through worship, administration and being one of the church custodians. Out of those experiences and the gift of a social consciousness for my faith through the Wesley Foundation at Central Michigan University I came to discern a call to ordained ministry. The late Henri Nouwen is one of my favorite authors. He wrote that hospitality is not meant to change people but to offer them space where change can take place (Reaching Out). Such space and change have profoundly shaped my ministry.

Second, compassion. I believe the current and long-established practice of demeaning and condemning persons who hold different beliefs, or who significantly question traditional beliefs, does great harm to our spirits. Such interaction shuts down faithful inquiry and rightful confrontation of exclusionary practices. With compassion we recognize the God-given value of the other person, and establish a connection that allows for real conversation and the possibility of healing and wholeness.

Third, generosity. As I mentioned at the closing of worship on Sunday, 7/24, my friend had encouraged me, "Don't be so stingy with the blessing, use both hands!" That statement characterizes an abundance mentality and reminds me that in God's economy we get grace which we don't deserve and cannot earn. We are asked to share a portion of what we have received for God's greater work of salvation in the world through Jesus Christ. In being generous we become more like God, in whose image we are created. I am grateful for the generous ways I see in our congregation and encourage us to keep going!

What kinds of things help you return to the center of your faith? What do you need to keep in mind when you enter or are faced with a season of change? May we be blessed with ongoing conversations and interactions that reveal the best that God has for us.

More Than One Section at Once

Before and during my seminary education I worked in accounting. It was my major at Central Michigan University. My first job in a regional public accounting firm came with the expectation that I would soon pass the CPA exam which consisted of four sections. Several of my co-workers had a review class as part of their university/college curriculum and passed the entire exam on their first attempt. I did not have such a class, nor did I pass the exam the first or second time I tried it. On the third time I passed two sections. And on my fourth and fifth attempts I passed one section each to finally complete the exam.

You see, to get any initial credit at all you had to pass at least two sections. This approach prevented you from focusing on only one section at a time. You had to have a multidimensional understanding of accounting from the very beginning of the process. Looking back I am glad that was the approach. While we are not equally skilled in all areas, having a broad view of our profession gives us a stronger foundation and an orientation for facing the challenges that come our way.

The writer of Ephesians encourages us toward a multidimensional approach to faith and our relationship with God: "I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19). Another version goes this way, that "you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God" (The Message).

In every major change in my life God has shown me new dimensions of faith, extended the boundaries of wonder and knowledge, and brought me in to new relationships. I trust that God has been working out such plans for all of us in this transition. May we celebrate the wideness of God's mercy and love, the power of grace and the joy of service, not separately but all together.

A Living Part of Something Bigger Than Us

Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life (1 Peter 2:5a; The Message)

The Grundtvig National Church in Denmark was started in 1921 and completed in 1941 by seven handpicked masons. The masons, in turn, rejected all bricks that were not perfect. There is an entire community surrounding the church built from the bricks which the masons rejected (Henry N. Huxhold, Access to High Hope). While we can appreciate the value of using quality materials for our physical structures, I am more interested in the people living around the church because I believe that we are their neighbors; people whose lives are built with broken spirits, ideas that don't fit or beliefs that are judged unacceptable. Thankfully the Good News is that in such a life we can get acquainted with and be welcomed by another neighbor, Jesus Christ, who the writer of 1 Peter describes using Psalm 118:22-23, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."

I am leaving White Pines and Courtland-Oakfield United Methodist Churches to begin serving at Hartford United Methodist Church on July 1. Our life here since 2002 has been full, challenging, blessed, burdened and beautiful. We have built up and worn down each other on the journey. The energy and potential of White Pines partnering with the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA is exhilarating; and the country, traditional Courtland-Oakfield faith family truly offers "Hope on the Hill" along Myers Lake Avenue.

The heart of faith is accepting God's grace and love with a willingness to be built in to something bigger than us, a sanctuary vibrant with life. Building and restoring churches and communities calls for great investment, commitment and resources. Thankfully God has already provided a sure foundation for us in Jesus Christ, "a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame" (1 Peter 2:6). God bless you and may you find joy in giving yourself to a purpose that inspires and outlives you.

Winter Leaves While Spring Arrives

With the ice still glistening on the evergreens, prairie grass, bare branches and power lines, Spring has not exactly burst upon the scene. There is no clean break it seems between the seasons. Spring Breaks are alluring where we can make the change, usually to warmer weather, within a day. But the return home reminds us of the slower changes that are underway within us. In our human time and relationships we don't just turn our backs on the past and only move ahead.

Expecting something new (job, home, relationship) can come with some pretty intense pressure. "Out with the old and in with the new" sets us up for disappointment if we expect a sudden revolution and get instead a slower reformation. Author and educator, Parker Palmer, has observed that we act our way into new ways of believing. That's why I like the spiritual practices of the church like worship, baptism, open communion, prayer, funerals, fasting, service, reflection and Sabbath. They are reliable practices, in my United Methodist tradition we call them "means of grace", that shape our expectations and relieve our spirit-mind-body existence of unhealthy anxiety.

I like the wise affirmation Renita Weems, author and pastor, makes in her book, Listening for God: "I learned to trust the winter months of faith, when it's difficult to remember why one ever bothered to believe. I stopped being so hard on myself and demanding that, as a wife, scholar, and writer, I should always feel excited about what I was doing, or that I should, as a mother and a minister, always sparkle with alertness and insight. This was hard to accept in a culture where, at the first sign of dullness or tedium or monotony, it's all right to give up, walk away, or try something new in hopes of finding new meaning, new thrills, new satisfaction."

May God bless and transform all your seasons and changes with grace.

Keep Standing...Still Standing

So, how's it going with your New Year's Resolutions? Do you still stand by them? With the help of some wise advisers to consider a life of movement or training, rather than simple exercise, I am trying to work out three times a week at the YMCA. I achieved that goal the first two weeks and worked out two days last week. The odds are not good that we will keep our resolutions, whether they are tied to the new year or some other reference point. However, two positive factors involved in keeping resolutions are 1) having small, measurable goals and 2) going public with them to seek the support of friends. Pursuing general goals in isolation (get in shape, lose weight, improve finances) does not help us stand up to the pressure of daily demands on our time and attention.

Standing is a sign and act of perseverance. Years ago I attended the funeral for the child of a former member. The pastor led us in an encouraging two-part act of faith that still resounds within me. Early in the service as we entered the fullness of grief for the loss of this child, he asked us to turn to the person next to us and say, "Keep standing." Later in the service as we entered into the comfort of Scripture, song and prayer, he asked us to turn again and say to one another, "Still standing." The blend of encouraging one another and affirming our ability to stand was remarkable. It was a modern day reference to Saint Paul's affirmation, "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).

May you be resolved to stand in grace together with others in 2011. God bless you.