Tidings

September 1, 2009

Greetings,

Big things have been happening at HPC this summer.  From the ice cream social to VBS, our church has hosted plenty of visitors.  The Mission Study team completed their work and submitted their final document to the Session.  We tried a number of new things in worship, including a time line of our history.  But did you know that we also began a Presbytery program of re-development? 

I’ve mentioned the Acts 16:5 Initiative once or twice in worship, but for most that name probably doesn’t mean much.  Yet.  I hope that changes in the next year. 

Many of you identified on your surveys (from the Mission Study) that you wanted the church to grow and attract younger members.   This is a complex problem with few easy answers.  The Vital Church Institute (one of our partners in this program) teaches that the core of the problem has little to do with demographics and much more to do with the vibrant and transformational theology.  People are attracted to churches that are passionate and engaged in being disciples in creative ways.  This program will provide us resources and consultants who will help us to find our passion and use it to develop our own approach to transformational vitality.  Elements of the program will include ongoing training for me and the your congregational leaders, support from other pastors in our area as well as coaching support from the Vital Churches Institute.  

While most of you won’t have much interaction with this program on a daily basis, I hope that it helps drive significant redevelopment within our congregation.  You will be hearing quite a bit about this program through the fall, so I wanted to take this opportunity to acquaint you and possibly even spark your curiosity.  Please, GET INVOLVED!  We still have many seats available around the table for folks who want to explore how we could be church in a new way!  Let me know if you have questions about the program or if you want to serve. 

 I look forward to the fall and this new challenge and for the ways in which it will enrich our life here at Highlands Presbyterian Church. 

God bless,

Greg

 

September 1, 2009

 

August 1, 2009

Greetings in Christ,

Last week, one of the families in my household had their first child.  Satchel is a beautiful, healthy, perfect baby girl.  Our house has been blessed to travel through their pregnancy with them and when time came to go to the hospital, the whole house went along.  Emily labored for 17 hours when the decision was made to do an emergency c-section.  We waited on pins and needles for word of mom and baby.  Finally we were allowed in to see Satchel and I was struck by her innocence and beauty.

Looking at a newborn baby, all you want to do is protect her and keep her world safe and happy forever.  Naturally, this got me to thinking about sin!  Presbyterians, like all Christians, profess belief in the concept of original sin, though we struggle with it in practice!  Human beings were close to God (having been created in God’s image) and thus perfect.  Original sin put distance between us and God and by distorting us, distorted the image of God in the world.  The Reformed Tradition takes this concept a step further and says that humanity is totally depraved.  This doesn’t mean that we are incapable of being good people, or totally rotten to the core.  Total Depravity means that we are all both good and bad but that sinfulness pervades all areas of life.  Sinners are unable to discern clearly which part is which, since the good and bad are all intermingled.  Original sin isn’t just about the internal sinfulness of the person but about the systems of sin we live in, the collective sins of humanity that form the air we breathe, and the fallenness of institutions in which we live.  Every action of the sinner is at least partially skewed, no matter how well intentioned:  Which is why we need the grace and clarity Christ offers.

Looking at Satchel, I got to thinking about all the ways that the world will try to distort the image of God within her – all the ways that the sins of the world will ensnare her as she grows.  I feel protective of her, which is only right – all Christians are called to be protective of the image of God within all of our children.  When a child is baptized, the congregation is asked this question – “Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ, promise to guide and nurture this child by word and deed, with love and prayer, encouraging them to know and follow Christ and be faithful members of this church?”   If we answer yes, then we need to take that obligation seriously.   Have you nurtured the image of God within a child recently?  In these last few weeks of summer, we have the opportunity to equip our young ones with the tools they need to get back to the business of growing into the men and women God is calling them to be.  Sign up to help out at Highland’s Vacation Bible School this month, join us for the closing barbecue, or just take a minute to let a child know you’re there for them.

Blessings,

Greg

 

 

July 1, 2009

Greetings Friends,

While skimming the Presbyterian News Service this week, I saw an article about the bi-annual Healthy Ministry Conference going on in Atlanta.  This conference is attended by Seminary representatives and staff from the many Presbyteries (In our denomination) and the focus is on producing better pastors.  One particular quotation from the article caught my attention:

Seeking change has its hazards, cautioned the Rev. Thomas E. Evans, executive presbyter for Sheppards and Lapsley Presbytery in Alabama. He said he has seen presbyteries and churches “punish” pastors and elders for being adaptive.

“Pastors naively come out of seminary believing they can change things.” Unprepared in how to initiate and institute change, they fail, are criticized and eventually stop trying.”

As a recent Seminary graduate, I could not agree more with Rev. Evans.  Managing change is difficult and many young pastors do give up whether from discouragement or fear or a desire to be employable!  And yet, pastors are not unique in this experience.  Any professional faces these challenges as they begin their career.  In fact, I would even say that Rev. Evan’s statement could be attributed to congregations as they begin new pastorates.

Change is one of those things that is easy to say but hard to do – most congregations can recognize that they either want to try new things, or they must do new things to survive.   Beyond recognizing the need or desire to change, however, change becomes a matter of trial and error and many congregations lack sufficient support from their Presbyteries or their sessions or even their pastors and grow frustrated in the process and slowly sink back into status quo. 

This is why I am so excited that we are trying something new by doing much of our mission study in worship.  This congregation has been surveyed and studied within an inch of its life in the last decade. It would be only natural for HPC to succumb to the status quo yet here we are, trying something new again.  This new thing has led to some long and unusual worship services but also to some wonderful conversation and reflection.  Hopefully you are enjoying this experiment.  Even if you aren’t, however, I hope you can experience the Providence of God that sustains us in our transitions and experimentations and the Spirit of God that continually calls us to renewal and reinvention. 

God Bless,

Greg

 

 

June 1, 2009 

Friends in Christ,

In early May my uncle died and I traveled to Pittsburgh to be with my family.  It is part of the divine mystery that God uses the strangest moments as teaching moments.   I had recently completed a weekend training seminar and was about to begin a week long class on interim ministry when my uncle passed and my experience of performing his funeral was an educational experience all unto itself.

Jim left his family and the state of Pennsylvania in the midst of a messy divorce when I was 8 years old.  He failed to pay child support and spent years hiding from state authorities.  He cut ties with his own kids and family because he became convinced that they would turn him in.  He lived an incredibly broken existence for decades.  His children will likely never completely get over the rejection and abandonment issues related to their dad leaving.  Eventually Jim remarried and had a second daughter.  His life with this second family was an opposite mirror-image of his life with his first family.  My cousins were high school dropouts.  One died under mysterious conditions.  They were always poor.   By contrast, his second family lived on an expansive farm, had horses, lacked for nothing and even went to college.  At the funeral, both families were present;  I had to preach to both and speak to the pain of both families.

I preached about the prodigal son.  In that story, the father needs only the effort from the son in order to forgive him and welcome him home.  Simply the act of coming home was enough.  And for some of Jim’s family, simply asking forgiveness and coming home was enough.  For some in the story of the prodigal, the humility of the son as he begs to be a servant in the house was enough.  More than a year before his death, Jim had begun the long over-due effort to reconcile with his children.  For some at his funeral, Jim’s real effort to reconcile was enough.  And in the story of the prodigal, some people still aren’t sure if they can be reconciled when the story ends.  Remember that the older brother is still in the barn…still deciding whether to come to the party.  The story ends unresolved.  And unfortunately, Jim’s life ended unresolved, with some of those he hurt still undecided. 

Life is complicated like that.  Jim’s life reminds me to never put off the amends I need to make or delay in making a much needed apology: when I know something in my life needs to change, I need to change it now!  Jim’s funeral also served as a reminder to me that God’s grace and wisdom can be found in even the most unlikely of situations. 

God Bless,

Greg

 

 

 

May 1, 2009

Dear Friends in Christ,

                The Presbyterian Outlook has been running famous sayings of John Calvin all this year to mark his 500^th birthday.  This month they ran this quotation:  “Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism that they will always avoid it in so far as lies their power, nor need it be any hindrance that some points of doctrine are not quite so pure, seeing that there is scarcely any church which does not retain remnants of former ignorance.”

As I prepared for the April Presbytery meeting, I found myself reflecting on these words from John Calvin and on the state of our connectional church.  Many Presbyterians today have no sense of connection to the Presbytery or the national church as years of controversy and budget woes have eroded confidence in these institutions as well as the reach of their programs.  This is something to lament.   As reformed Christians, we both celebrate and revere the fact that our congregation is not just one among a loose federation of congregations with different theologies and polities.  We are members of a living body bound together in common purpose, in theology, doctrine and in governance.  This connection is what allows church goers in Vermont and California and all points in between to place money in the offering plate of their local church on a Sunday and on Monday that money is being used in Mississippi and Louisiana for Katrina relief.   Presbyterians’ connectional identity has allowed us to weather all manner of controversies and conflicts over the years and that identity is one of the things I love and prize most of our church.

                The struggles within the church that threaten to break the bonds of brotherly and sisterly love are a reflection of the discord in the wider US.  In 2000, after the Gore-Bush election, Americans were told that they lived in either red-states or blue-states.   In the decade since, we’ve embraced a politic of polarization in alarming ways.  We can’t seem to disagree about anything, whether economic policy, education reform or even American Idol without questioning the integrity and intelligence of the opposing view. 

                The truth is, the church is at its strongest and most effective when we cleave together.  In this time of financial crisis and growing poverty in the world Calvin’s words loom large.  We are stronger, more secure and better equipped to serve Christ’s will in the world when we combine resources and work together.  We need not agree on every point to recognize each other as children of God.  Just weeks after Easter, it should be sufficient to agree that Christ lived, died and was raised for us and that in his resurrection and glory, Christ has made us new creatures and called us to do his work in the world – together. 

                As I sat through hours of committee votes and debate at the Presbytery meeting, I found this no small comfort!  I hope you find this connectional nature of our church to be a comfort to you, as well.  God bless,

Greg