• At Redeemer, Springfield, PA (congregations average 135) Prayers of the People are limited to make room for the praying of occupations on a rotating list such as praying for airline pilots on Thanksgiving weekend. The whole intercession list is in the bulletin with only twelve read aloud from that list, also on a rotating basis.
• Edward Lee, the retired bishop of Western Michigan, now an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Pennsylvania and one of the mentors for follow up, suggests looking for those “entry points” [see Basic Tools 17 for 55 of them] that do not look like a whole new, concrete program.
“1. The Prayers of the People on Sunday can be an entry point – e.g., ‘Let us pray for our members in health care / law and the courts / parents (followed with their names).’ We would be praying for baptismal vocations.
2. Another, grows out of everyone coming forward for birthday and anniversary prayers. Why not ask people to come forward on the Sunday nearest to the anniversary of their baptism?
3. Then, as a bishop, I can create an entry point in those 20 - 30 parishes where I do visitations. I ask confirmation and reception candidates not to kneel before me as ecclesiastical authority but to stand on their own feet as they affirm their baptismal promises, covenant and ministries before the gathered assembly. I'm not there to make or mint new Episcopalians. Confirmation only has meaning in relationship to baptism. No more, no less. Therefore, the whole baptismal community is confirming and validating the candidates' affirmations, not just the bishop. As a sign of that I invite and want other clergy, parents, siblings, godparents, grandparents, key fellow parishioners – the entire congregation if it is so inclined! – to join with me in the Laying on of Hands. Thus hands become the operative sign of this sacramental rite. They are the daily sign, reminder and instrument for baptismal life, living and ministry."
South Carolina Baptists adapt member mission
During July in her role as Director of Missions Mobilization for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, Debbie McDowell came to www.membermission.org while searching the Internet for “every member a missionary” and “missional church.” In a major step some years ago, the Conference had combined evangelism and missions on the same team. Congregations helping their members to live better Monday to Saturday is now just what they want to do in South Carolina. They had been working for a year to find “environments that would help every member to be a missionary and the training and other resources” to do it.
Debbie works through 43 regional Directors of Mission. A regional association of churches can number from 15 to over 100 or more congregations. Four of them had been working intensely to this end. After reading WTMATM and a draft of the workbook, she convened a conference call with these four DOMs in September. All four had been supplied with copies of both resources. By the time of the call, one of them, Ron Davis, had already adapted the member mission resources in both a single session and a six-session presentation. Since then, he has presented member mission to his association of 114 churches with enthusiastic response and a number of churches asking for more. A second, Johnny Rumbough, has adapted the resources for a five-year plan that he will start in January with ten churches in his association. Johnny has just added five other associations each of whom will start with five pilot churches in 2009. Member Mission meets regularly with these four DOMs and Debbie via conference calls with mutual benefit to all the participants.
Contact: Member Mission as in the masthead.
“Table talk” and a “narrative budget”
Seeking to tell “who we are and what we are doing in mission and ministry in the church,” Trinity in Milford, MA used a “narrative budget” for the first time for their October pledging period. In 12 pages [see http://www.trinitychurchmilford.org/pdf/NarrativeBudget.pdf], it told the “story” of what was being done in and through worship, pastoral care, outreach, parish life and leadership development, and education and spiritual development. Pie charts and dollar figures showed the allocation of funds for each area. For those preferring “spreadsheets and hard numbers,” a chart supplied the usual categories of staff, facilities, materials and supplies, and outreach. The last page offered guidelines for proportionate giving. So far, the average pledge has moved up 13% from $998 to $1,133 and 20% of the pledgers are new.
For the vestry-hosted “harvest supper” supper on the Saturday night before the ingathering of pledges the next day, 115 came (congregations average 160-195) in spite of very bad weather. The rector spoke briefly about what the church was doing and asked the table groups to talk about what was going on at Trinity and in their lives. Most of that talk was social – people connecting and reconnecting with one another – and made for a “huge success” and a “loved event.”
While such a budget is not a new idea, it may be new for your church, so, give it a try. For more information on a "narrative budget," go to: your communion's stewardship office; search the Internet for “narrative budget;” independent groups such as TENS at http://tens.org; or judicatory groups such as the Colorado Episcopal Foundation at www.coef.org.
Contact: The Rev. Mac Murray, Trinity Church, 17 Congress St., Milford, MA 01757-4152; 508-473-8464; mac.murray@gmail.com
On mission at home
[Eric, Raquel, little Raquel, age 4 -- Eric, Jr., age 2, was napping.]
How do you see God at work in your home?
Raquel, an at home mother: “God helps me to pay the bills! When things look tight, money is there! More, God keeps us healthy. For instance, we get up each day and walk when so many others are disabled. We give thanks for our health.”
Eric: “God helps me to be kind; gives me hope; and makes me thankful. I’ve been a State Trooper for six years; and, before that, in correction for six years. God gets me home safe at the end of the day! I get help to keep to my principles to be fair and to treat people as I want to be treated.”
RESOURCES
Young adulthood now 21-45! Dan R. Dick, Research Coordinator for the Methodists, summarizes Robert Wuthnow's After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty- Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion (Princeton University Press, 2007) in his Executive Summary #24 available at ddick@GBOD.org. The very definition of "young adult" is changing. As more and more adults in the United States put of marriage and children until their late thirties and early forties, the demographic definition of a young family creeps toward middle age. The current span for young adult is most appropriately 21-45. Whereas young adulthood ended in the 1960's and 70's when a first home was purchased, the children were all in school, and first promotions meant economic stability usually in the early thirties, these milestones are passed in today’s culture seven to ten years later. (pp. 9-36 – these refer to pages in Wuthnow’s book) . . . .
The amount of information and options available in America today makes it easy for young adults to be "tinkerers," (13ff.) pulling together bits and pieces from different cultures, traditions, belief systems, and backgrounds to create tapestries of meaning. Concepts like orthodoxy, tradition, heritage, and continuity are continuously challenged. . . . Phase of life is more important than generational contingent. Married couples in their forties with preschool children have more in common with younger couples of twenty-five years ago than they do with single adults their own age today. (51-69) . . . What has changed is primarily technological. Young adults today have more access to information, a more global perspective, more gadgets, and more opportunities to experiment and explore than previous generations. (44-50, 71-86) . . . .
While fewer young adults are attending church and supporting established ministries than older adults, they are no less involved than previous generations. What makes the biggest difference is that they are engaging in two fundamental life experiences that have traditionally brought people back to church: marriage and having children. Married people are much more likely to participate in a church, and the more children a couple has, the more likely they are to be churchgoers. . . . Young people are seeking (actively) spiritual/supernatural experiences. Churches provide just one option among many for such experiences. (112-117) . . . There is a difference between church shopping and church hopping. Church shoppers are looking for a place, while church hoppers are looking for an experience. (115-117) Young people tend to be hoppers instead of shoppers. . . . [Dick closes with an analysis and critical questions for churches.]
Muslims and Christians reach for each other – Muslim leaders, 138 from around the world, wrote to Christian leaders around the world in October calling for both groups “to come together with us on the basis of what is common to us, which is also what is most essential to our faith and practice: the Two Commandments of love” – love of God and love of neighbor. They began the letter with: “The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.” Four Christians responded with over 300 cosigners affirming these common grounds: the need to work for peace and justice together; God’s love for us and call for our ultimate allegiance; love of neighbor even when your neighbor is an enemy; and meeting together as our next step.
For the Muslim letter: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_10_07_letter.pdf
For the Christian reply: http://www.yale.edu/faith/abou-commonword.htm
Pro-religion Darwin! Although Darwin died an agnostic and is still assailed by conservatives for his groundbreaking work on evolution, cultural historian Mark Graham of Grove City College says that Darwin never was against religion. In fact, Darwin's first publication after his worldwide voyage on the HMS Beagle was a public letter defending missionary work in the Pacific. “The march of improvement, consequent on the introduction of Christianity, through the South Seas, probably stands by itself on the records of the world,” Darwin wrote in 1836. Says Graham: “I don't think Darwin would recognize his defenders today and probably wouldn't understand his attackers” (Journal of Religious History, reported in USA Today, July 1, 2007 as reported in The Christian Century, 7/24/07, p.6).
FOR MEDITATION – Will preachers and teachers deal with relevant issues? Not just a campus issue?
“Religion on Campus” from Religion and Ethics Newseekly of 11/9/07
Bob Abernethy, anchor: We wondered how religion is faring on college campuses. Lucky Severson visited Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island to find out.
Severson: Rabbi Alan Flam is a chaplain who heads the school's Center for Public Service. He says students are searching for spirituality through public service.
Rabbi Alan Flam (Swearer Center for Public Service, Brown University): I also think the language of social justice is speaking more and more to students -- that they want to live out their convictions not necessarily from a religious doctrine but from a commitment to other people and the world. And I'm not certain our institutions have responded as nimbly as they should to some of those challenges. . . .
Severson: Reverend Nelson (University Chaplain, Brown University) is concerned that more and more students will be skeptical of organized religion if religious institutions don't start dealing with more relevant issues.
Rev. Nelson: We are going to be faced with everything from stem cell decisions to genetic engineering to evolutionary questions to moral questions in this society about whether there should or shouldn't be torture.
Severson: You think that churches ought to be dealing with issues like that?
Rev. Nelson: I think they must deal with them, and when they don't, students then say religion is inadequate. Spirituality is where I belong. And they're right if religion is not about those issues that are framing a human life.
Severson: If Brown students are typical, and most surveys show they are, the good news is that today's college kids are resolved to find something to believe in and to make the world a more just place.
For reflection: Is it time to talk with leaders and members about public issues that sermons and classes might include? For motivation to start such an exchange, read Jesus and Politics: Confronting the Powers, by Alan Storkey (Baker Academic, 2005).