Archive for Words to the Church

An Open Letter To The Church

Posted on February 3, 2012 by revnick

My friends,

The future of the United Church of Canada concerns me. The statistics over the last 20 years have been alarming, and the projection for the next 20 years are heart-breaking as we watch a once influential and well respected church decline so dramatically.

And we’re letting it happen.

To say I’m frustrated with the state of the church today is an understatement. I came into this church by the clear call of God in my life, and all I do is bump against bureaucracy and resignation for what is to come.

The latest straw laid upon my back is the recent letter informing us that pension contributions will increase by 2% for both ministry personnel and pastoral charges effective January 1, 2013. I know full well there will not be cent left for me in 30 years, should I be able to retire. Does this seem particularly fair given that the shortfall should have been predicted a number of years ago.

Couple this with the immense greed shown to us by our government and financial institutions in recent years where boomers approaching retirement seek to find the golden goose on which they can live comfortably into their golden years.

This goose ain’t got no eggs to lay. Much less golden ones.

But this issue is more than about financial comfort and retirement for me. This is about the future of the church of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, or at least it should be.

The stats do not lie. 50% of the clergy of the United Church of Canada will reach the age of retirement in the next 10 years. For the mathematically challenged, that’s half, or every other minister.

We as a denomination and a presbytery already acknowledge that we have too many churches and too few people. As I look forward over the next 30 years, I don’t like what I see.

In this presbytery we have 5 young ministers. Each of us passionate for the church and for Jesus Christ. We want to lead a spiritual church. We want people to be excited about the Gospel and we want people to love the Lord as much as we do.

But we are in palliative care. We run our churches with an end date in mind. We may not know the date, but we know it’s coming, so what we are doing is making ourselves as comfortable as possible as the end draws near.

I can’t speak for the other 4, but it disturbs me greatly that we, as a presbytery, are missing out on opportunities to create life in our churches because all we can focus on is death. This is not what I have signed up for.

Suggestions for change, suggestions for opportunities for renewal, shared ministries, spiritual events, all have been for not as people ignore what we do and settle in for the short trip to death.

We are looking at inheriting leadership of a church with dire financial projections, too many buildings, too few people and too few clergy. What in the world are we going to do with these things? What are we doing to address the problem TODAY? Not tomorrow, next month, or next meeting, but today!

Think carefully about how you want to respond. None of us have any strong ties to this part of the world. Yes we love being here, the people are wonderful, but I for one will not stand and watch the church die. It is just too draining of my energy. So I’ll have to consider leaving, to a church, a region, or even a denomination which is willing to work by the guidance of the Holy Spirit into a time of renewal and new life. A place where Jesus Christ is Lord and people take to heart his message for sharing and growing people in him. I cannot continue to sit around and mourn something that isn’t dead yet. I wasn’t ordained to help the church die.

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The Importance of Leadership

Posted on January 12, 2012 by revnick

Photo by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/TheUsher

Sometimes we find little nuggets in places we never expect to find them. In fact, I have to say I’m going to refer to someone I might never have predicted I would refer to on this blog.

There was a recent article in the United Church Observer magazine where they interviewed Rev. Brent Hawkes.

While Brent and I have very different approaches to ministry, there is one very key value we share.

Leadership.

Hawkes correctly identifies that the United Church of Canada is making a huge mistake in de-emphasizing the role of clergy.

To be perfectly honest, if I were to consider starting over again in ministry, I would not have chosen the path I have taken. I would have probably saved myself a lot of time, money, and frustration had I taken a lay leadership approach. To many of us, it feels like the church is lifting up lay leadership to be equal to trained, ordained, called, clergy. This is disturbing on many levels to me as one who has undergone scrutiny of call and years of discernment and training. It also raises the point as to whether I have a valid claim to ask for reimbursement of cost and loss of wages over those six years. But I won’t go there…

The church is facing a huge clergy shortage in the very, VERY near future. It’s response? Enable lay people to take their place. People who have less training and scrutiny and let them loose in our churches.

Now, I am not saying all lay people are not cut out for this role, but clearly there is a certain percentage that are capable of doing great amounts of damage.

What the church should be doing is addressing the issue of why we have found ourselves in such a place, and look at emphasizing the role of clergy while finding ways in which we can assist presbyteries and churches in identifying those who have potential calls to serve in professional ministry positions.

Our church is at a point in its life where leadership is going to be a critical element in looking to the future of the church. De-emphasizing the role of the minster is not going to help in this leadership gap. Our churches and the identifiable leader (clergy) need to be visible in our communities and show we are there. Otherwise, we’re just a club that meets in Sunday mornings with elected boards and leadership.

Say what you will about enabling the laity and equipping people for ministry. I agree with this. But, in the end one thing is clear, people still look to their trained, recognized clergy for leadership and direction in the local ministry of the church. As much as I might like it to be different.

I know everyone may not agree with me on this, but in my experience, this is the truth.

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Words to the Church: What are you called to do?

Posted on September 29, 2011 by revnick

Continuing on a series I started this summer that I called “Words to the Church” where I share some things that come to mind when I think of rebuilding the church into the earthly body of Jesus Christ.

Today I want to look at what our primary calling is to be.

Do you know what the primary calling for your church, in your community is?

I’ll give you a hint… i

t’s the same as every other church.

It’s the same as the church down the street. It’s the same as the one across town. It’s the same as the one in some small village in Africa.

The primary call for the church is to create disciples.

It’s Jesus’ final instructions to the 11 disciples.

On the day of Pentecost, they left the room they were hiding in and began to share and preach and to teach people about Jesus Christ. And when people joined the first church, they were cared for, they were taught, they were led to understand the significance and meaning of Jesus Christ in their lives.

From there, more leaders emerged, and more churches, and more Christians, and more leaders, and so on and so on.

Discipling the focus of Paul’s ministry. He taught, he encouraged and he even corrected the churches he communicated with, all in an effort to grow their relationships with Jesus Christ.

So what is the mission of your church? Is it to keep fundraising so you can keep the doors open so things can remain the same? Is it to keep doing the same things over and over again which hasn’t produced new members in the last 10 years?

Your mission is to build disciples. Your mission is to foster new Christians into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Your mission is to look like the first Christian church after the day of Pentecost (well, hopefully without all the Christian leaders going to jail or being murdered).

Jesus Christ gave clear instructions to those he left behind, the one’s he built this church on.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

How are we doing?

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Words to the Church, Part 6 – Know Jesus

Posted on September 1, 2011 by revnick

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to spend a bit of time sharing my thoughts to the church. As a young(ish) clergy person I have some ideas after observing the state of the church over the last 10 years. Frankly, to be honest, if I wasn’t clergy, I’m not sure I’d be going to church.

So over the last few weeks I’ve been exploring some thoughts, or suggestions, I have for the church. This isn’t targeting any one particular denomination or congregation since many of us are struggling in similar ways. I started with a number of points I wanted to address. This could very well continue as I explore the church with new eyes. Eyes looking for new ideas in circumstances of dying churches. We are approaching a desperate stage in our churches, and maybe this desperation will lead to new life. For now, this is my last post on the topic, “Words to the Church”, but don’t be surprised to see more in the future.

If you’ve missed my previous posts on the subject you can view them at parts [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Know Jesus

What is key part of our worship? Is it the music? The prayers? The sermon? The coffee?

I’ve been to a lot of churches which pride themselves on one or all of the above. They’ll say, “Come and hear our choir!” or “Come and hear our pastor preach!” Where then someone will ask “Oh? What did she preach about?” Response, “I don’t know, but she’s good!”

I don’t believe we are needing to downplay these highlights of our church. If your church has amazing music or prayers or coffee, then you need to use the gifts you have been given to their fullest extent.

But we also need to know what the focus of our worship should be. Our focus should be on God, Jesus and what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. We are being invited into a special relationship with our Creator.

A relationship so deep that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to show us the way back to him. Jesus came and lived so that we might know how God would like us to live in the world. Helping others, showing the love of God with all people. After Jesus spent his life doing this, he then sent us the Holy Spirit to continue to show us the way.

We go to worship to be invited deeper into this amazing relationship. We have been invited to explore in a more intimate, communal setting just how much God wants to be in relationship with us. We go to be drawn deeper. To be refreshed with God’s Word. To be with others in prayer as we pray for each other and for the needs of our communities and to seek God’s answers to our prayers.

Now church is not the only place this can happen. We can have deep, personal encounters with our God anytime anywhere. But worship is an opportunity to come together and share our experiences. A chance to be renewed in our spirit as we gather into a Holy Moment with our church family. It helps set the tone for the rest of our week.

Worship is not an event for entertainment. It is not a chance to catch up on the local gossip.

Worship is an encounter with the Holy. A time to share in the mystery and meaning of our lives, and to invite God into that space so we can gain clearer direction.

We need to know Jesus. He is the reason why we gather. He is the one who calls us into this relationship. If we know him, then it makes the steps 1-5 that I already identified that much easier to follow.

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Words to the Church, Part 5 – Open the Doors 2

Posted on August 29, 2011 by revnick

This month I want to spend a bit of time sharing my thoughts to the church. As a young(ish) clergy person I have some ideas after observing the state of the church over the last 10 years. Frankly, to be honest, if I wasn’t clergy, I’m not sure I’d be going to church.

So I’m nearing the end of a few weeks exploring 6 thoughts, or suggestions, I have for the church. This isn’t targeting any one particular denomination or congregation since many of us are struggling in similar ways.

If you missed parts 1, 2, 3, or 4, there they are.

Open the Doors… And See Who Comes In

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/smartannie/

Sometimes people are interested in church. Sometimes they wonder what it is that is so important that we’ll get up early on a Sunday morning, get dressed and head to an old building in town.

These people may be at a point in their life that maybe they are almost ready to risk entering the building themselves.

I use the term ‘risk’ here because for many it is a risk. If they didn’t grow up in the church then they probably feel like an alien walking into Area 51. They don’t know the language or the customs like when to stand or when to sit down. They don’t know what to do when praying. They don’t know how to sing the songs. They can feel completely lost. How would you feel if you went to another country and found there were no signs anywhere telling you where you are or where you might be going?

If you want to know how welcoming and accessible your church is, sit next to someone completely new to your church. See how they struggle with different parts of the service. See how comfortable they feel when they are singing the songs and saying the prayers.

But even better, help them in these spots. And then take what you have learned back to your pastor and the leaders of your church and tell them what you’ve found and work together to make it easier for people to be integrated into the worship experience.

Because if you are starting to do some of the things that I have been mentioning, then there will be people thinking about coming to check out your church some Sunday morning. People who will be very hesitant and worried they might “do something wrong” and make fools of themselves. Of course we know they can’t, but that’s how they might feel.

So make your doors open and inviting. Make your worship experience friendly for new people, maybe even assign some hospitable people to sit with or near new folks to help them find their way through the service. Help them know where the Sunday School or nursery is and other pertinent information about the building.

Open the doors. You never know who might come in!

One more post on this series to come… who do you know?

 

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