Dennis - December 2009

Worship or Word: Which will ensure Bethlehem's Future?
On Thursday, November 12, 2009, I was hit by a few messages about God while I was conducting the family business of getting kids up, ready and delivered to school and myself ready for another big day at work. In the middle of that daily routine, I drive my daughter and another child from our neighborhood to school and then return home to begin getting ready for work myself. In the car, I listened, as I often do, to Positive Life radio and at the time they were conducting their annual rice appeal campaign, relating stories of their focus on Cambodia and buying rice for the hungry through this campaign for donations. Later in the morning, as I had time to get myself ready for work, I listed to the 700 Club on television, a Pat Robertson production that focuses on God’s work around the globe. They continued with stories of real people really struggling, from a province in Pakistan where Christians were being killed and driven out of the area, to a mother who suffered divorce, a drug addicted child, a complicated teenage pregnancy in another that ended in complications for the baby, and just a plethora of issues that would make anyone reconsider God’s presence….yet she had listed God’s greatness by using all the letters of the alphabet, A-almighty, C-compassionate, F-forgiving….you get the idea….and she would focus on that and through that, sense God’s presence with her. She has written a book titled Don’t Worry About Tomorrow ….because God’s already there.

As I reflected on the various messages, they were all about God working all around the globe that day. None were about churches. One message was about the need to focus on what God wants from us in the message of the story of Jesus on earth. That one stuck with me. I may depart from traditional theology in my next few thoughts, perhaps, but I like to believe God just said one day “you know, those humans just don’t get it. I’ve given them laws and they break them, I’ve given them Noah’s story and they laughed, sent my prophet Moses to tell people what I want and they ignored him, etc. Maybe I’ll just send part of me down there and go walk in their shoes with them and simply show them how I want them to live.” And you know what? Many heard him through Jesus’ time on earth! But many didn’t and they actually rejected the message and tried to send it to the grave, didn’t they?

But we are left with Jesus’ story.

In that new testament story, did Jesus say “build me a church and all I want is for you to join each other once a week and pray to me, praise me, sing to me, and worship me? I want you to decide as a community the rules you will follow on how to commemorate the last supper, and I want you to appoint one person who will be my spokesperson to you and listen only to him, please only gather to read my Word if he is present to guide you, and please, oh please, don’t get too informal with this weekly focus on me.”

Or did he in fact want something more? And, if the answer to that question is “yes” how did we as humans go astray? And how did we go astray at Bethlehem?

Are we willing to gather as a community, review this story together by being with God in his Word? Are we willing to believe that Word speaks live to us in our circumstances today and wants us to hear Him? Are we willing to rethink what we are in light of what God really wants from us both as individuals AND as a church community?
These are very, very important questions.
They are critical questions!!

Dennis

Advent Community

The group formally known as the Acts 8 Bible Study will now be known as “The Advent Community”. We will gather in the fellowship hall at 10:30am every Sunday to listen for the call of God (and go there), to pray together, to support one another, and “do life” together. This is not “Bible Study” in a traditional sense, though we will read the Bible together. We believe God has something in mind for us and we want to be a part of it. Everyone is welcome. Come and see what God is up to among us. www.AdventCommunity.org

Pastor Erik--December 2009

God is going to do what God is going to do. The question is, do we want to be a part of it or not?

On Sunday, October 12 I preached a sermon entitled “What is holding me back from following Jesus?” (you can listen to it here) The Gospel story was Mark 10:17-31 about a rich man who wanted desperately to follow Jesus. He had been very religious his whole life, followed all the rules, done everything right. When he asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus tells him to give his riches to the poor and follow him. The rich man didn’t follow Jesus, but went away grieving because he had many possessions. We explored how Jesus asks each of us “What is holding you back right now from following Jesus?” is it money like this rich man? Is it fear? Is it your family? Is it tradition? Is it too much stuff? What is it for you?

After we pondered this individually (on our now classic sticky notes) I shared what the answer was for me, though it was difficult for me to do so. What is keeping me right now from following Jesus is trying to save our congregation. Over the past three years as we’ve engaged in transformational ministry together, I (along with many of you) have poured my heart and soul into this community, helping to lead us through some difficult but important work to discern where God is calling us, and how we might transform to be better able to go where God calls. This spring our council leaders realized that while many changes were happening and our life together was improving, our finances were still in trouble, and the path we were currently on was simply not sustainable without some deeper transformation and more changes. The council invited us all to take this seriously and make a decision to either step up in a whole new way with time, effort, and finances for the sake of mission or to find a way to live together that requires less resources and less energy to maintain. To either lay it all on the line for mission or to choose to maintain what we have as long as that lasts. And in those conversations, folks by and large enthusiastically said “Let’s go for it!”

But in the months that have followed, the actual response has been less enthusiastic. We’re having an unbelievably hard time getting people to participate, even in things like ushering, bringing cookies, and reading the lessons. Attendance on Sunday morning has gone down, not just the temporary summertime “dip” we have come to expect. Offering is below what we need for our budget, and because of that we’re nearly $10,000 behind in our commitment to the wider church and the world through our Synod. Nearly two thirds of members invited to our “member appreciation event” who RSVPed earlier that week, didn’t show up. Events planned by new members did not find support among the congregation, and now many of those new members have disappeared from our community (some are just not around much and some have decided to join other churches). There have been fewer and fewer children in worship. And complaining is high: about the liturgy, about worshiping downstairs during the summer, about all manner of changes that are taking place. And we are hearing more and more “When is this transformation thing going to be over so life can get back to normal?” This is hardly the “let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work” response any of us were hoping for.

And so, for the past 6 months I’ve been praying fervently for our congregation. “Lord, what is it going to take to save this place? Just when we need to step up into your dream for us it seems like we are taking a step back? What more can we do? What more can I do?” And as I studied and prayed over Mark 10:17-31 in preparation for that sermon in early October, the voice of the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear “Give up what is holding you back, and follow Jesus.” And I realized that in the previous 6 months (and probably longer) I’d been holding on to the “saving” of Bethlehem Lutheran Church as my personal responsibility—or at least to lead the charge that would save it. And God reminded me that this is not my job, and I was not called to “save” this community, but to lead efforts to transform it. And the transformation was not ours to make happen, but God’s. Our job is simply to figure out what God is up to and do what we can to join in. As rock star Bono of U2 once said: “Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing -- because it's already blessed.” And so, in the face of all this, “I let go, and let God.” And so I pray: “God, if it is your will for Bethlehem Lutheran to continue as your people in mission in this place, let it be so. And if it is not, help me (and all of us) face this reality and live and love one another though it.”

Since that sermon, many people have asked me if I’m “giving up” or “planning to leave.” And I can see how people might have gotten that impression. The answer to both is no. What I’ve given over to God is the “saving” of Bethlehem. I am not intending to fall short on my call to lead us into the future God has for us—even if it’s a future none of us was expecting. I was called to this community to lead our efforts to transform into God’s dream for us and the world—and that is still my calling here. But I had confused that with saving the organization known as Bethlehem Lutheran Church (and maybe you have too). I feel called to be a part of this transformation effort until I simply can’t be any more—at which point God will be calling me to other adventures.

I have to admit given the lower offerings, the threats to leave or withhold giving if changes continue, the lack-luster participation of these past 6 months, and the seeming rejection of the next stage of transformation raises my anxiety level. As the stewardship packets come in this month and we meet to discuss what we are going to do with our budget, I wonder if there will be enough support from the congregation to pay my salary—and I don’t know what this means for my family. And even if the finances come through another year, is it going to be sustainable in the long run? And what about participation and volunteering? The truth is, I simply don’t know what all of this means for us as a community of faith. But the call to follow Jesus is not always meant to be clear, and he certainly didn’t suggest following him would be easy. But it is easier together than alone, and it leads us into deeper community and authentic life together. I can’t imagine a harder, or more rewarding, way to live.

I hope that all of this doesn’t sound too pessimistic, because I don’t doubt that God has something in mind for us, and that God is going to transform this community for the sake of the world. It’s just becoming more and more clear that it’s going to be a different sort of transformation than any of us hoped. More “death and resurrection” than “resuscitation.” But I (and we) can trust that God will come through on God’s promises to us—to be with us on our journey even (maybe especially) in the wilderness. And God has a plan, even if the details are foggy (or frightening) to us. Ruban Duran, from the ELCA Churchwide division we connect with in our transformation efforts, once said “God is going to do what God is going to do. The question is, do we want to be a part of it or not?” And that, I believe, is the question before us all.

Dennis - November 2009

Four Things:
1. I’m frustrated;
2. I expect miracles from God,
3. I’m filled with hope!
4. Things you should know

Frustration! About two weeks ago, watching the evening news, I saw the story of a young man in a Christian High School in Spokane Valley who died playing for his school’s football team. Coming from a large family where he has 6 or 7 siblings, this tragedy is like an asteroid hitting the earth, for that poor family. The emergency run to the Ritzville hospital, subsequent life flight to Sacred Heart in Spokane, and emergency brain surgery has tipped the balance on the family’s finances and they may loose their house on top of this. My thought? It was a football game, not a late night drugged up street race. “There but for the Grace of God, go I.” I came within about ten minutes of letting Connor play football rather than run Cross Country in high school. For two full days, Connor gave me a “full court press” on letting him play football instead of Cross Country. So, this story hit me in the heart. I could almost feel what it would be like to walk in that dad’s shoes!

What would it be like to be a homeless family of 10? What services in our area would feed and house such a large family? Why does a family have to lose a house, go bankrupt, and perhaps even struggle to find a funeral home that can attend to the services cheaply, just at a time of tremendous, life changing grief? What would it be like to be a spectator at that game and watch your son be mortally wounded, your brother be sent to his deathbed? How does one drive the speed limit to Spokane while a helicopter rushes your son to a better hospital with brain surgeons in wait, not knowing if your son would still be alive when you arrived? Why would a God that involves himself in a church and especially in a Christian high school like this, allow such a tragedy to occur?

Then, I get mad! God seemed to not be letting me simply forget this story. I wanted so bad to write a letter to that family, enclosing a prayer I prayed for them. I wanted to send them a few hundred dollars I would normally have reserved in my meager budget to continue my regular contributions to Bethlehem. This family needed it. But so does Bethlehem. What makes me mad is that our churches are not working. Not just Bethlehem’s, but many others. Churches that can’t even pay their own bills, much less contribute much to the worries of the world. What would it be like if our budget was such that instead of sending all $15,000 of our tithing commitment to the Synod as a church, we could have sent this family ten percent of that: $1,500 from Bethlehem, because they needed it more right now? Oh! Wait!! We aren’t really going to honor our commitment to the Synod/ELCA fully because we can’t pay our own bills to keep our doors open if we did. So, I guess that isn’t an option.

Another asteroid hit not too soon after this event. This time, it hit a family which is friends with ours. Abby has had a friend join her in church sometimes, and last year, all the time, this friend and Abby went to the cluster weekly youth group meetings. This person is not a stranger to Bethlehem, even. But our families have been friends a lot longer than a year or two, solidified, for the adults, by having stood on the same corner waiting for the school bus for our two daughters for five years! Abby plays at their house, their daughter plays at ours….and frequently, overnights! We live one block away from each other. But, a couple weeks ago, their asteroid hit. The father died in the kitchen of his home, with his wife present, his youngest son upstairs, and Abby’s friend in the next room. He was forty years old. There but for the grace of God, Abby wasn’t spending the night that time. The situation surrounding his sudden death was not pleasant, so I won’t share it. But let’s just say that this family would love to never step foot in this home again, but he participated in bringing in the money for the family. So alas, they have not enough resources in his absence to even pay $500 for rent. You can’t find a one bedroom apartment for that, much less a house. But the house is paid for. They have to live there for now, and with the memory.

Brothers and Sisters! What are we to the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood? What are we to Spokane? What are we to our Synod and its ministries? What are we, you and I, to our neighbors across the street, around the corner? How can we be God’s Hands? What are we to the ELCA and thus the world? What are we to other local Christian churches and organizations who are suffering a tragedy in their church like the death of one of their own in a Christian high school football game? Here at Bethlehem, we have to struggle with fundraisers to do “mission work.” And I do mean “STRUGGLE” with capital letters. So, these occurrences are the source of my frustration right now. That frustration is deep and growing deeper. Do I help Bethlehem keep the lawn watered or mowed, or do I start helping people and families who don’t have a car big enough to live in when they lose their house or who can’t properly bury their lost family member? I think Bethlehem can eventually do both…but right now, we can’t.

Miracles! And yet, in the midst of it all, I see God’s miracles right at Bethlehem. How far we’ve come as a community in just about three years! Wow. Very new types of worship during our seasons; a great group of musicians in our midst; the courage to transform to make our church more visible to the world (trees down/sign up, art-work to come soon); a new and at first controversial hymnal; the discovering of guiding principles that fit like a glove; new members, even families; a need for and an attendant for our nursery; an effort to beautify our entry way with new doors and bulletin boards, woodwork and ceramic tiles for directions; people who will donate time, equipment and sweat to do serious landscaping projects over the heat of the summer; a steadily growing annual focus on global ministries (fair trade, etc); a transformative Pastor, who prays his sermon live each week, rather than from notes he scripted prior; most recently a church that just a year ago wanted to stay hidden behind some trees to a church living into its principle of “all are welcome” and inviting two very different church bodies to join us, and even fellowshipping with them after our first of probably several annual joint services, a council that conducts intercessory prayer and shares communion, not just business. The list can go on, and on, and on. God has been with us and has been sending miracles our way steadily. We need to expect them and we need to remember they have come and will continue to.

Hope! And finally, hope! Your church council has discussed and supported two very great recent events. One was the concert labeled Well, well, well. This was a benefit concert for water projects, mostly global. Don’t get me wrong, this was a STRUGGLE to pull off for a few people, but it was wildly successful. And as such, it might enjoy a following in future years should it become an annual tradition. The other was just today, as I write this message, the Reformation Sunday service with three other churches that joined us in a tent. I like to think of this one as an example of “expecting miracles” from God. We expected that if we built the tent, we would need it, that God would send enough people to fill it. And God did! I don’t think it crossed our minds to think the tent would be empty. And God gave us a worthy beneficiary to donate to during this service, and the people in the tent responded! More heartening to me than anything, was that lots of Bethlehem members were there, not just the young at heart, but also those who are founding members or close to it. And everyone from Bethlehem I spoke with afterwards seemed to have been very, very impressed, even though this worship was about as different from anything we’ve had in the history of Bethlehem as we could find! Wow! If we (Bethlehem) are around next year, it is simple to believe this would be a repeat. I want to do this again and next time invite friends. Most hopeful in this to me, was that we “expected” the miracle and it came. We need to learn to expect other miracles as we continue in our struggles.

And you know what else? Your council members were sitting around the table for the third month in a row this month, having an “off business” long-winded discussion about the future of Bethlehem, fretting about our finances and the looming difficult conversation that may be coming to us as we enter stewardship season in November. Toward the end, a member (not I) put forward a motion to take a portion, about half, of the income from the rent from Bethany and EMCC and give it to those outside our walls, the community at large that can’t or won’t come to Bethlehem, to use it to actually live our newly found mission/purpose statement, to put our money where our mouth is….and just live into our mission/purpose!

Now, lest you think I’m totally loony and simply stepped off the Bethlehem train of thought, let me tell you I can still feel the call from both sides of this fence, the side that says “keep our money inside until we can make our budget work” and the side that says, “let it go to God’s will.” I was about to suggest in this long, long meeting, why we should keep it. In fact, I had already designed a thermometer of giving you will see in the fellowship hall and elsewhere in this newsletter, that indicated it was part of our budget to keep our doors open. But the Pastor inserted the idea that we should measure our discussion about this interesting proposal from a council member against our new mission/purpose statement we had just been discussing. And out of that conversation, it became crystal clear to all, unanimously, that we should let a portion of this go to the world AND that it should be “first fruits” and thus positioned as the most important thing we spend on in our church. So, I’ve made the change and you will see this indicated at the bottom of thermometer this season because that is the most important thing we spend our money on first.

Things you should know! Did most of you know that the entire transformation team has been elected by you to serve on your church council? The transformation team will discuss in the November meeting the process behind which we might facilitate this new spending each month and bring that back to the council to discuss and vote on in their November meeting. From that effort, we expect members NOT on council and NOT on transformation team, to be nominated and to accept the responsibility, when called, to sit on a team that meets at least monthly, to read a passage from the book of Acts and to read and pray over the mission/purpose statement and then to decide God’s calling on where to give the $700 that month. This statement can go up in the “miracles” section of my message. For many of the years I’ve been at Bethlehem, we never gave $700 collectively outside our church. And now, we will do that monthly, in addition to some tithing as a church to the church wide. That’s a miracle, people! And it brings me hope!!

Did you know that the group meeting to read the bible during fellowship hour are learning to pray for and hear God’s calling to them as individuals and as a church collective? Did you know the Pastor and members of your council expect this group to be a big deciding factor in discernment of what happens to Bethlehem? Did you know that your church council members have committed to being part of this effort? This small group that meets during fellowship, and the council itself, may end up deciding the fate of Bethlehem in the next 1-3 months! You have been invited, each of the last two Sundays, to join that conversation, which rightly should involve prayer and hearing God through His Word. Council meetings are also open to everyone to attend and discuss issues. These are not closed meetings. The same goes for the transformation meeting. These three venues will be where we hear God’s decisions for Bethlehem, not in the sermon upstairs. The decision will come from members, not the Pastor. And it will come from prayer and bible. Please join us! If the table(s) downstairs looks full, we’ll pull up a third and a fourth, and a fifth, without a complaint. Just join us! If you want to talk weather and reconnect with friends in fellowship, then make a commitment to come to council meetings for a few months or the transformation meeting, just during this most important time of decision in our history. Just join us!

Council meets: Third Tuesday every month at 6:00p.m. at church (nursery).
Transformation Team meets: First Wednesday every month

Dennis - October 2009

Does God Need Labels?

I’ve been spending some quiet time rolling thoughts around in my head about religious issues and religion in general and God’s intent and purpose for humans.

It seems He has a big, big plan for us, to me. We have billions on earth right now, and the earth has already hosted billions who have passed onto their next task. That alone, should cause one to tremble! Billions and Billions of souls. Surely, not all will serve Him in His kingdom, but many will. What does He need billions for? Something grander than you and I can imagine, that’s what.
But He isn’t just looking for Lutherans. In fact, I’ve come to believe “Lutheran” is just a label for a certain people who follow the teachings of someone who was a Catholic priest some few hundred years ago and felt called to help God reach the common man faster than could be done through the rituals the Catholic Church put between God and man. Out of that movement, by that one rebellious priest, many believe came the birth of Protestantism, which, by the way, houses far, far more denominations of believing than just Lutherans.

It is us humans that create these titles. God didn’t tell Martin Luther to gather a people together and create a new belief system and label it Lutheran. We decided to do that all on our own. Why? Because humans feel a need to label. If we can label our environment, it makes the world easier for us to navigate, less complicated. We know what we can expect behind the labels we give for various things in our world, don’t we? We attach values to those labels. Presbyterians know what they can generally expect to experience in belief and worship practices behind the doors of their churches and they know that if they enter a Lutheran church, things will be different, perhaps less comfortable, more challenging to them and some of their habits and beliefs. Likewise for Catholics, for Methodists, for Baptists. Even funnier, to me, is that some denominations have even refined their own labels…Baptists and Southern Baptists; ELCA Lutherans and Missouri Synod Lutherans are only two examples.

While labels help us navigate a world populated with billions of people all with billions of their own ideas, and help us carve a small piece of those ideas into one category we can be comfortable with, these same labels can also serve to divide, to limit access, to even lead toward decay.

Does God need these labels? Is He not trying his best to get his work on earth done through most of them? Would He not be better off if we were all one? In our own denomination, our own second slice of the branch of beliefs that came from Martin Luther, we have churches in multiple countries, in multiple languages and obviously peppered with deep and lasting cultural influences in worship styles…yet we are all still “ELC” (Evangelical Lutheran Churches). From Spokane, to Cheney, Canada to America, America to Africa, Africa to Mexico…you get the message. Right here in our own Synod there are churches that have multiple services, full choirs, sometimes contemporary music. We have youth groups who attend rock and roll type spiritual music each week, children reaching for and receiving Christ’s presence in the woods at a campsite run from the Lutheran perspective.

Several of our Guiding Principles, as well as the property mission statement have called on us to respond to a request or two in a way that means we’ll be sharing our church with other denominations and beliefs and worship practices, for a period of time. Because of our labels (remember these are “ours” not Gods), we may find this a stressful time in that we won’t be quite sure how to make this work. The way I am seeing this, perhaps because I wasn’t always Lutheran, is to understand in my deepest soul that God is working with each of our new friends just as He is with each of us. He’s doing this from the comforts of our denominations, because our broken beings need those labels and that comfort. But God is just as present for each of us in whatever way we find the most comfortable to share our lives with him.

Some are concerned about one big first decision that was made which was to change worship to permanently (at least for now) be in the 9:00 a.m. hour. While I like early services, my other family members will struggle with that…so I too am ambivalent about this worship time change. But one thing is for sure, I am a Lutheran for now and will remain a member of Bethlehem as we grow to be more open to others and transform into whatever God calls for us in coming years. Along the way, if I oversleep and miss an early morning service, well, there will be one closer to the noon hour still held in the building the Lutherans still own and manage, a worship service God will also be at.

Peace be with you and yours this month!

Dennis

Dennis - September 2009

A Radical God needs your help!

I’ve been sooo very busy this summer that I have not had a day to myself since late June. No time to put a cupboard door back up in our kitchen, or repair a broken picnic table in our back yard, or take either Connor or Abby on one of many traditional bike rides. Likewise, I have struggled to find an appropriate message for the transformation thought I’ve been providing for a couple years in this newsletter.

I have a couple in the queue but not mature enough yet for publication. So, I was praying in a moment of silence recently and Christine handed me a letter from Camp Lutherhaven. It seemed to me that God wants me to lift this ministry up for you this month.

In March of 2007, I wrote about a ‘Radical God.’ In the body of a long message in our newsletter, were my words as follows: “Connor and Abby attended Camp Lutherhaven, twice. One of the catchier songs they sang, a song performed for us by all the children in a closing activity when the parents come to pick the children up, a moving song that grips you by the heart, probably because it was sung so persuasively by children...was about a “radical God.” A God the children were introduced to during their experience, a God that came to them in worship in a campground setting, a God that is doing radical things in the world.” You can go to our church web page, click on the “transformation blog” icon and scroll to March 2007 to read the context in which this comment was written.

This summer, Connor went for a week to Oregon to go backpacking with his Godfather. Abby was scheduled to go to camp for a week at Camp Lutherhaven. She’s been excited about that since well before school let out last spring. Recently, her week was upon us and with less than 48 hours’ notice we received word that the camp was closed by the Panhandle Health District for an e-coli contamination in their water supply (a well). Some campers were simply canceled and refunded. Others, including Abby, were transferred to Shoshone Base Camp. Abby’s been there before and is very, very familiar with the river and the recreation around that river in that area since that is where her grandparents live. She’s been recreating and swimming “up the river” this summer several times already. The cancelation of Camp Lutherhaven sent her to her bedroom crying uncontrollably. It took a long, long time to cheer her up, even though she still had a camp to go to. It was then, that it became apparent to me how important this was to her, this experience at Camp Lutherhaven.

I won’t go into a long story about how it turned out. You can ask her in church in coming weeks. But suffice it to say that it may have damaged her trust in the Camp to come through for her next summer. The experience at Shoshone, while still interesting, was very much less than she perceived she would have received at Camp Lutherhaven. I’m not sure she’ll give this another try next summer. But I believe it is important to support this program, regardless of whether someone from Bethlehem attends. The camp has suggested they are being required to drill another well for water supply and are suggesting a beginning price of $125,000 and are faced still with a robust fall education program they currently can’t serve without some work.

We don’t currently do much for children at our church. But God wants to. Right now there is child care for Sundays for the real youngsters. There the children get a story about God and then they are included in worship with the children’s song. But there really isn’t any other program internal or external to our church that is working for youth group aged “youth.” There are some real youth group aged youth in our church: Connor, Abby, Jeremy, Tim, Lindsay, Jake and Hanna. That’s seven! How much of their attendance concerns come from a perception that Bethlehem doesn’t have a youth focus or youth program? Looking back on the previous four or five years, what could we have accomplished to create a Christian youth group out of our own youth, a team of youngsters in our own church, that could have grown together in their Christian lives? It’s really almost too late for that, for this age set, as their peer connections have been made external to our church. But what about those many real youngsters in the child care on Sunday? Will we grow into a collaboration with our Lord to provide some quality program for them as they approach 8 or 9 years old so they can become a youth group together? At this point, I don’t see the evidence.

For now, we could use at least some prayers for those ministries that are Lutheran and outside our church which are at least partially available. Ministries of our Cluster: we could use prayers that our youth may become interested in participation in the Lutherans Together activities. We could use some prayers that some people in our church might actually offer to help those ministries with staffing, if only occasionally. We could even use some donations sent to those ministries on behalf of the youth from our church that have, over time, participated. Several of the Valley churches of our cluster jointly employ and pay a salary for a youth minister. Other churches donate time and space and fiscal resources for the programs. What do we do?

And now for Camp Lutherhaven. Wow….$125,000 dollars! Are there 125 churches in the area that see this camp as theirs to use? If so, do each have $1,000 to donate? Because that is what it would take! This makes me real concerned about what this camp will do, this camp that has been doing God’s work in a Lutheran way for over seven decades. Lutherhaven played an integral role in Christine’s faith formation. Every summer from the time she was in second grade through high school, she would get to spend a week at Lutherhaven singing, swimming, and learning about God. She fondly remembers signing the superman grace at meals, praying with other kids around the campfire, and mostly of how special they made her feel. For my own children, Lutherhaven has helped both of my children grow with other youth in Christ in ways Bethlehem has not, over the years. I wonder how many of you have benefited from this outdoor ministry.

So with that in mind, for those of you able to provide a token of assistance, Christine and I are willing to match the first $300 Bethlehem members or visitors submit as “over and above” donations in the name of Camp Lutherhaven Well fund.

But regardless, let’s please keep this ministry in our prayers for this month. And let’s begin praying that God show us the way He wants us to help him reach youth in our own walls.

Peace be with you this month!
Dennis

Dennis - August 2009

Finding our Way: Praying, Reading and Talking

I’ve been on vacation, mostly out of state, for the better portion of the month of July. Once I returned, toward the end of July, I was immediately wrapped up into attending to all the work that was waiting for my attention at my place of employment, and evening participation in a multi-day family reunion in Idaho. Suffice it to say I’ve been out of town and otherwise occupied for quite some time and haven’t made it to church for a while.

I’ve kept up with sermons in my absence that the Pastor has posted on our website. I’ve worshipped at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Roy, UT and Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Pinehurst Idaho. And I’ve done some quiet reflection upon those sermons and upon some other spiritual messages I’ve received in readings and in watching a couple of interesting television shows indicating where God is at work in our world. I have spent substantial time in open prayer and much time focused in this prayer on Bethlehem, its members, its challenges, and its callings.

We all know we have some decisions to make that will bring change in order to realign our ministry to one that God is calling for in our location. The more I reflect and pray on this conundrum, the less it seems I know.

One of the messages I reflected over in my vacation time was one by a respected man of God who responded to a question about what a pastor should do when he finds that his ministry gets conflicted between a demand to focus on ministry and the demand that he focus more time and energy into growing programs in a church that adds more and more programs. While the advisor made a lot of comments on this topic, most is for pastors to discern and not about what I feel called to share here. But one message that was buried in that conversation between the advisor and the person who asked the question, was the admonition that churches should caution against looking around at other churches for what works and simply adding some of those things they’ve seen work elsewhere. Additionally, the advice also suggested churches need to understand that they were originally called to be a “steak house” but in the pressures of unexpected decline in popularity, they began also serving chicken, and hamburgers, fish and specialty soups…(other programs). This was not what they were commissioned to do, but rather things they’ve added on, that tend to unintentionally derail many churches.

I do not think we have traveled too far down such a road. Not at all! But I worry, in our current situation, we might be tempted. The advice the advisor provided his guest was to remember it is God who provides the direction, that the answer lies in community prayer over the dilemma and a recognition of the “abundance” the church already has. I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about this concept of “abundance” thinking rather than “scarcity” thinking recently, so it was especially nice to hear someone else say this on a religious talk show. It makes me believe God will use the resources we all bring to the church to accomplish His purpose at the address we possess on Ray Street, in other words. We should not focus and fret upon our scarcity: the lack of ushers or lectors or minister assistants. We should not fret upon our current inability to pay our bills for our current ministry. We already possess, you and I, what we need to carry out God’s purpose in our location!

What I believe is required is to jointly pray and discern what God wants us to do. This has to be done in community, not assigned to committees or teams like church council. It also must be done while using God’s Word as provided in the bible. We will not find our answers, or at least the correct ones, if only a few take up this task! We will not find the answers without God’s Word and we will not find our answers without prayer!!

There are a couple of ways, at least, that transforming churches accomplish this ‘heavy lifting”:

1. The entire church goes on more than one weekend retreat to focus as a community on God, the Word, and prayer over this crossroads.
2. The entire church allows some opportunity for readings in the Word and prayer and conversation, in worship time, in lieu of formal liturgical worship for a few Sundays so this work can be done on the more convenient time of Sundays, we already grant from our lives to our Lord.

Many of your appointed leaders have decided the second version fits us right now. Not all Sundays will be this kind of different worship time, but please consider committing to attending all Sundays to avoid missing out on messages God sends us through our Pastor who has committed this part of his career to “transformational ministry” and also to those few times he invites participation in worship through conversations, prayer and table work. We will have to spend some time in this manner between now and late fall.

For those of you, like myself, who can’t attend as regularly during the summer, please listen to the sermons on our website, prayerfully, and when invited, respond via email as a participant. Also, consider committing yourself to reading the book of Acts and praying for the Lord to help you understand what he tried to accomplish through the world at the time of Acts and pray how He wishes us to reach our world outside our walls today. I believe He speaks to us today through His Word.

I truly have no clear idea what God calls us to do right now. However, I do believe that we’ve been granted only a few years to discover it and pick that calling up and we’re reaching the end of that “few years.” What I’m absolutely convinced of is that God is with us, is present and is not ignoring our plight. I’m also convinced that with or without us, He wishes to continue reaching our area of town on this site on Ray Street. The exciting and wonderful and truly amazing thing is that He’s giving us the first option of taking up that task!

Shall we? Let’s pray: Lord, we pray to you and ask you to bless our church community with the energy and the open minds and open hearts we need to remember you are our Lord and Savior and you use us ordinary people to accomplish your important work in the world. Father, bless each of us with a dash of humility as we struggle to let go of things holding us back and grab onto your transformative power in the weeks to come, so that we may renew your mission at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church for your modern day needs here in Spokane. Help me, Lord, know what you would ask of me in this situation so I can be part of your exciting work here. In Jesus I pray these things for our church and for my role in the church, Amen.