Partners in Ministry 9/17/09

Submitted by Bishop Pete Weaver, Posted by Pastor Gwyneth on the Peoples UMC Blog at www.peoplesumcnews.blogspot.com

Dear Partners in Ministry,

"MY LIFE FLOWS ON IN ENDLESS SONG, above earth's lamentations....Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?" I love this great old hymn by the nineteenth century preacher/poet Robert Lowry that is now in our "The Faith We Sing" hymnal (2212). I don't know about you, but it feels like we just started summer, but here we are "flowing" into fall. A huge maple tree down our street has already turned brilliant reds and yellows and created a crunchy, colorful carpet under foot where our dog and I sometimes walk....she looked up at me the other day with her toes tangled in leaves as if to say, "What is this....already???"
But our lives flow on. Out of summer into fall, out of renewing vacation into reenergized vocation, out of the past into the future. Beyond lamentations into celebrations. With the Lord of love how can we keeping from singing...and being glad to be partners in ministry.
Last Sunday, the lay leader of the church where I was preaching told the congregation that he was glad I had made it, because, lifting up the local paper, he noted that my picture and a little blurb about my coming was on the obituary page. I'm glad in Christ our lives flow on....no matter what!

"OH, WE LOVE OUR TIMES TOGETHER..." The congregation where I was preaching last Sunday was really two congregations: North Haverhill and Woodsville, N.H. They are doing great things and they are needed in their two different, but nearby communities. Ordinarily they worship in their two different communities, but they also "love their times together" as one woman put it. They do some mission projects together, share youth events, and worship together at various times through the year, as they did last week. The sanctuary was full that Sunday, and you should have heard the two choirs together...wow. The vitality, joy and vision to reach out into their larger area for Christ seemed to mutually lift both congregations as they are connected in the one Body of Christ and as the connected United Methodist witnesses in their region. It's great when our congregations find ways to bring&nbs p;their various gifts together, and to share their strengths as they serve their areas. Is there another church nearby that your congregation could be working with more closely.....and experiencing the joy of Christ even more richly?

HOW'S THE TEMPERATURE OF YOUR COFFEE HOUR? At the Pastors’ Assembly this summer the Rev. Jack Johnson who is the Executive Director of the Mass. Council of Churches (and former D.S. from New Jersey) talked about the experience of visiting many different churches on Sundays in his position. The pastor often invites the congregation to a "coffee hour" (or fellowship time, or, as I heard in one church, a "chat and chew" time). Jack reported that the coffee may be warm, but the atmosphere of welcome is too often chilly or downright cold. Regular members of the congregation head for their friends and leave visitors standing alone...Oh well, if there's no one to chat with, chew a little more and head home. That "last impression" of a church is often what sticks with visitors....who rarely come back....unless they like being left out in the cold.
Make sure you intentionally have some people prepared to "greet" and get to know visitors after the service in these "fellowship" settings. They should be ready to introduce visitors to others in the congregation who may live near them or have the same profession or be around the same age. They should be able to talk about other programs and activities that the visitor might be interested in, as well as offer to show them around the church and point out pictures on a bulletin board or creative posters in the fellowship area that show activities of the congregation in the community (missions, youth activities, kids’ picnic, helping at a shelter, worship on the beach, etc.). Sensitize the whole congregation to welcoming visitors...."But, we're such a friendly church"...yea, to each other, but what about the stranger? Check the temperature of the welcome in your church.

A LAMENTATION: RACISM One of earth's deepest "lamentations," to use Robert Lowry's word again, is the persistent, pervasive sin of racism that is alive and well in many of our hearts, churches, communities and most recently exhibited in our body- politic. We have always had political disagreements in our democratic political processes, which can be healthy, but we have never had a member of congress shout "You Lie" at a President of the United States as he spoke to the Congress about a critical issue in our nation's life. I do not believe it would have happened had the President been white.
Racism happens in our lives when we believe we have the power to act out our prejudices....the power to breach civility....the power to keep others from moving into our neighborhood....the power to shun others who enter our church.
Last week I gathered with fifty or sixty other New England United Methodists for three days of reflecting on racism in ourselves and the systems we are a part of. The Council of Bishops has regularly addressed racism in our own ranks as well as the larger church and society. The first session on racism I remember being a part of was in 1958 when I was a freshmen in a highly diverse urban high school....and there have been many, many such times since. And every time I realize more about my own "white privilege" and power.....I find myself with confessions from my own heart and for our own church....and I experience the blessing of God's grace that keeps me growing...and making new commitments to be a part of ending racism. For, like you I hope, I truly do want to "love my neighbor as I love myself," "Do unto others as I would have them do unto me," and to " ;do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God." This is not just a political matter, it is a profoundly spiritual matter.
Again and again, I have learned that each of us has our own personal work to do, and we have the calling from God to confront racism in every form around us....be it in systems, jokes, schools, housing, our politics, etc. And we have the ability to influence others and invite them into this ongoing journey, until lamentations turn to celebrations.
I hope that you are having these discussions in your church, with family and friends. Let God lead us to be the people and church and community that reflect God's will done on earth, even as it is in heaven!

Grace and Peace,

Pete