Out the Door

Promoting a Christmas Miracle

   This Christmas we at the Sumner United Methodist Church will help make a Christmas miracle happen!  Rather than buying into the American culture and lavishing gifts upon one another this Christmas, we're promoting something really countercultural and lavishing gifts upon the One whose birthday we celebrate.

  Jesus told us that when we feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and care for those who are afflicted, it is as if we are doing it for Him.  We will be showing our love for Jesus through our Christmas Miracle Offering.

  The Christmas Miracle Offering works like this.  For every dollar a person spend purchasing gifts for family, friends, co-workers or others, they give a dollar to Jesus.  The money we receive will further the work of Phakamisa (a Zulu word meaning to uplift.), a ministry that cares for 5,000 orphans and 10,000 other children in South Africa.  On Sunday, December 24, Christmas Eve, we will witness a mighty work of God as we receive the Christmas Miracle Offering during our morning worship.

Many of our members were touched when a few weeks ago Julie and I shared the story of a little girl named Khanya, aged 7, who arrived at school wearing adult clothing.  Thinking it was some kind of silly joke, her teacher sent her home to change.  She came back wrapped in newspaper, for she had no other clothes to wear.  Thanks to the ministry of Phakamisa, Khanya now has clothes that fit.  There are thousands of little girls and boys who are in desperate need of the basic necessities of life. It doesn’t have to be that way.  You can make a miracle happen for them.

  Now certainly, being a part of this Christmas miracle will require that most of us change our Christmas spending habits.  But think about it, how badly do the people on your Christmas list need more stuff?  Why not help them remember the real meaning of Christmas by honoring Jesus with your gift?

  One of the ways Julie and I are making sure we fulfill our commitment to the Christmas Miracle Offering is by writing a check to the church in an amount equal to what we spent when we arrive home from Christmas shopping.  The reality for us, and I think most people, is that it’s easier to write several checks for smaller amounts than it is to write one big one.  Plus by doing this, it will be  an ongoing reminder of what we believe is important.  It’s easy to get sucked into the consumeristic mindset of our culture.  When we’re trying to do some so countercultural and break out of old ways of thinking and acting, we have to use tactics which are maybe unconventional.

  That one way we will be remembering whose birthday it is.  What will you do to make a Christmas Miracle happen where you are?  I'd love to hear your ideas so that we can pass them along to others.  Leave a comment that will be an example for others. 

New Website Up & Running

For about six weeks I have been working off and on to upgrade our congregation's website.  The new one is much more interactive, with a Prayer Board, Discussion Forum, on-line event calendar, and several other features I hope will be increase my congregation's ability to communicate with one another and the world.

The site isn't exactly what I had in mind when I began the upgrade.  I only have so much time to give to this and after a number of very early mornings and much head banging, I decided that I have to get it to the point where I can live with the results even if it's not what I had envisioned.  Besides all that, it has taken time away from my blogging, so I'm looking forward to getting back into a more regular schedule of writing.

I hope you check it out.  Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

A Further Plea for Passion

I understand those who are hesitant to move toward passion-based ministry either at a local or general church level.  It involves a lot of risk and trust.  There are ministries that I am very passionate about that have little support from my congregation.

For instance, Julie & I have financially supported the ministry of some friends of ours in South Africa to the tune of $10's of thousands of dollars over the years.  They have spoken at my congregation on a couple of occasions and have received some support from church members, but their ministry clearly isn't a passion for my congregation.  And that's ok with me.  I don't expect everyone in my congregation to share my passions.  What I do expect is that they will live out of theirs.  That is an idea which doesn't have wide acceptance throughout United Methodism.  Because we as UM's expect consensus and wide spread support for a ministry before it is undertaken, many people never have the opportunity to live out of their God-given passion. 

This isn't the Biblical understanding of the Church.  The Biblical picture of the church is a body made up of many different parts, all that have different purposes to serve within the body of Christ.  The body functions properly when all the individual parts are doing what God designed them to do.  However, rather than expecting an ear to do the hearing, and an eye to do the seeing, we have morphed these parts with others and come up with some type of mutated sense of touch that allows us to grope our way through the darkness.  Is it any wonder that many congregations are without any real vision for the future?

The surgery required to put the parts back into the proper place, so that they can fulfill their God-given purpose is not easy.  People are so accustomed to being connected that the idea each one should function separately from the others while within the unity of the body is scary to say the least.  There's the fear that if we allow the eye to be the only source of seeing, what if the eye doesn't do what's needed by the body.  Or if we let the ear be in charge of the hearing, what if it gets upset and shuts itself off from the rest of the body. 

Sadly, we don't trust people to live out their passion and thereby fulfill all that God intends for the church.  So we come up with cookie cutter ministries and say to people, "If you're faithful you'll support each and every one of the ministries."

I would suggest instead that

We allow those who have a passion for social justice and the gift of prophecy to proclaim the message of peace and justice for all. 

We allow those who have a passion for caring and the gift of mercy to give their support in helping  their neighbors who are in need.

We allow those who have a passion for children and the gift of teaching to have control over the education programs of our church and see to it that they have the supplies they need.

We allow those who have a passion for worship and the gift of creative design to formula our worship services in ways that will connect people with God.

The list could go on, but the point is the same.  When we allow individuals to minister out of their passions while using their gifts, all the church's needs will be met and the body of Christ at both the local and general level will function as God intended.

The Importance of Passion to Connectionalism

After reading Alan & John's comments, I felt I needed to explain my position further.

I believe very firmly that every Christian and every congregation should do ministry out of their passions.  When people minister out of their passions they do it more cheerfully and enthusiastically. 

I suspect most everyone has been forced at some time in their lives to do something that they had no passion for and really didn't like doing.  They did it begrudgingly because they had no choice.  Because appointments require people to support things they have no passion for, they end up giving half-heartedly or reluctantly because they feel that have no choice.  Either that or they don't give at all.

What the Task Force's recommendation did was provide congregations a means to support the portion of the Conference's ministry which they felt passionate about.  The basic needs of the Conference, salaries, General Conference appointments, and other fixed costs were to be paid out of a tithe of each congregation's general giving.  Other ministries would then be supported by allowing people a choice of what they wished to give to.

For example if my congregation has a passion for camping ministry but could care less about legislative advocacy, then my congregation will give more cheerfully and generously knowing that their money is going toward ministry that they are passionate about.  If your congregation has a strong passion for social advocacy but evangelism  is not a high priority, then your congregation will likely give more cheerfully and generously if they know their money is going toward what they feel strongly about.  If some other ministry exists that not enough people feel passionate about to support, then it should be abandoned.

My point is that in the present system, passion for ministry does not come into play whatsoever for no one can be passionate about everything the Conference does.  And in fact, the opposite is true.  People are expected to give to things they are opposed to.  Why, because if they don't they are accused of destroying  the connection. 

The UMC needs to wake up and face the facts that people in the 21st century are not going to give to things they don't support.  And as long as we expect them to, we can expect that appointments receipts will continue to be paid at less than 100%.

Part of what I was trying to say in my previous post, is that the church's liberal leadership doesn't want people to give out of their passions because they know that their programs and ideas can't generate enough support from the people in the pews to fund them.  Thus they fall back to the institutional giving model, that is you're a UM so it's your duty to pay your appointments and support the connection.  Unfortunately, that model of giving lost its effectiveness about 40 years ago.

The New Atheism

Wired magazine's cover article for November is "The New Atheism" by Gary Wolf.  Wolf interviews three prominent atheists in an attempt to decide if he wants to join their ranks. 

First among them is Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford.  I suppose I shouldn't be amazed that a outspoken atheist teaches at the same institution that produced the likes of John and Charles Wesley.  Dawkins is an "evangelist" of sorts, writing and "preaching" the message of atheism.  He said, "I'm quite keen on the politics of persuading people of the virtues of atheism."  He "does not merely disagree with religious myths.  He disagrees with tolerating them." (p. 186)

Wolf also interviews Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett.  As I read what these men had to say and Wolf's take on it a couple of things struck me.

First was how deeply they have bought into the religion of Darwinism and with it the assumption that when it comes to human being it must be survival of the fittest.  Why would an atheist care what happens to a starving child in Africa? There are no Mother Theresa’s among the atheists. 

Second was their absolute disdain for other human beings.  Central to my faith is the belief that every human being is of infinite worth and deserves to be treated with respect because ultimately all of life is rooted in God.  Obviously, the new atheists don’t hold to this belief.  And that is why atheism ultimately fails.  The idea that human beings are no more than a mutation of nature, who have no intrinsic value is a sad philosophy.   Compare these quotes, “’We’re lagging among the lower 95 percent,’ says Adams.  ‘You are kings anointed by God’ says Pastor Matt” (emphasis mine).

All the logic in the world will never replace compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice all of which are central to the great faiths of the world.  Human being have been wired for God and in Jesus Christ can find something far greater than reason, love.