Problems or Heroic Opportunities

I hate problems. I grow tired of solving problems. I especially hate other peoples problems that become my problems. But here is what I know about problems, they are usually heroic opportunities. If you help somebody solve a problem, if you create solutions where there don’t seem to be any or find ways around obstacles you become a hero. Now you are not a hero in the Supeman understanding of heroes, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but to the person who was struggling you become a hero. A hero is defined as, “a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act.” It is, therefore, a matter of perception. Some people see problems as obstacles, others as heroic opportunities. Some see them as a chance to pass the buck or avoid work or find an easy way out, others as a chance to “make some one’s day” or improve the lives of others, even if for only a short time.

My friend Tawana looks for heroic opportunities. When a problem lands in her lap, she marshals her resources, makes phone calls and does everything within her power, and sometimes beyond her power, to solve the problem. Some of the problems may be small, like helping a youth worker find a computer to use to check email from home or making sure their room has extra towels, but other problems can be much more serious. Like the time when one of our speakers needed a glucometer to check their blood sugar because they were diabetic or when a staff member was struggling with problems at home. In either situation she saw their problem as her problem and found ways around obstacles to find solutions.

I know another person, Jim Mousemount we will call him (not his real name) whose primary talent if finding problems and complaining about his problems. Then, instead of finding solutions, he attempts to pass the buck. He doesn’t see a problem as a heroic opportunity as much as a chance to fall short and make excuses. “We don’t have enough money.” “We don’t have enough staff.” He has a “we don’t” attitude and it infects everybody he comes into contact with. What is particularly aggravating is when the organization he works for internal problems become problems for their clients. When, instead of finding creative solutions, he attempts to pass his problem along to the person who is paying him to solve the problem. This, my friends, IS a problem!

I have this ridiculous notion that a client’s problem should be our problem and that our internal problems should NEVER be the client’s problem. That the reason they come to us is to help them find solutions and to provide them with answers to their needs. and their problems If we fail to be creators of solutions then we will have a problem, since then our clients/customers will find another place to solve their problems.

So, where does that leave us? It leaves us in positions to become heroes. I demands that we find creative solutions, explore unheard of ideas and open the box of our minds to possibilities that have never been tried before. Like I said earlier, I hate problems, but I love heroic opportunities.

Missing Church

On Saturday I visited St. Lukes United Methodist Church, Lubbock, Texas. I stood in the sanctuary. I stood in the sanctuary, like many other sanctuaries built in the 1970’s with is wooden curved pews and comfortable cushions, its rich new carpet and hardwood altar. It smelled clean, like polished wood and candles and had the feel of three decades of prayer soaked into its beams. There was a giant cross and a choir loft off to one side that seems to be waiting for the resonating sound of the baby grand piano to strike a worshipful chord. The rich, dark wood pulpit with etched cross stood on the left with the communion table centered against the wall under the cross. I could not bring myself to climb the six or seven steps up to the chancel area and look out over the congregational seating feeling that its pull may overwhelm me. I sat in the third row and just listened to the stillness of the worship space that would fill with worshippers less than twenty four hours from then. I sat there a few moments until I saw something drop upon the legs of my slacks and realized it was tears from my eyes. Then I felt the hot tears streaming down my face as I sat there waiting upon my host to do some last minute tasks to prepare to lead music the following morning. I got up and went out into the foyer to insure that he did not see me in such a state. I stood there looking out the front door at the weathered parking lot and tried to get myself back together.

I sat down this morning and tried to figure out why I had that response to being in a church. I have been in dozens of churches in the past three years since I left the pulpit to work at Lake Junaluska. There was something familiar about the place, something about the way it looked and smelled that triggered some powerful pastoral memories. Whether it was the look of Trinity UMC in New Bern or how it smelled like the sanctuary at Trinity UMC in Fayetteville or just how it felt to be in a church that really felt like a church again? I am not sure. So, I made a list of what I miss, and don’t miss about pasturing a local church.

Things I don’t miss:
• Contentious church members.
• Endless meetings.
• Charge conference forms.
• Colleagues with a competitive mindset about ministry, always comparing worship attendance and offering numbers.
• Proofreading bulletins.
• Vacation interruptions.
• Budget meetings.
• Tax headaches.
• Hospital visits at 2 a.m.
• Temperamental music leaders and staff conflict.

Things I miss:
• Knee hugs from children on Sunday.
• The smell of fresh flowers in the sanctuary.
• The taste of communion bread soaked in grape juice.
• Rehearsing and rewriting my sermon in an empty sanctuary on Friday or Saturday afternoons.
• Doing funerals for the saints of the church.
• The smell of infants on the morning of their baptism.
• The hugs of new members who found a church that they can feel loved and accepted in.
• Reading Christmas stories to pajama clad children before Christmas Eve worship.
• Good Friday worship ending in darkness and bolting the door.
• Weekly Eucharist and holding the loaf up and breaking it.
• The rhythm of the church year.
• The pressure to write a better sermon this week than last week, fifty-two times a year.
• Writing sermons in coffee houses and asking myself at the end of all the work, “so what?”

My call is here, now. So here I will serve until Christ leads me to another place. Until then I remain:

Consumed by the Call,
Marty

God, who makes the rough path smooth, and the winding path straight, grant me the ability to be fully present in the ministry I am living out right now. Show me what you would have me to do and be and keep me from vain ambition or change for the sake of change. Light my path with the light of the One who knows the way, Jesus. In whose name I pray. Amen.

Highest and Best Calling

Arlene Hewitt sat in her office one particularly reflective, dreary afternoon and said, “So I often wonder, is this the highest and best calling for this time in my life?” We had been discussing our work and our institutional frustration, irritation with bureaucracy and just the vocational angst that often accompanies those in ministry. If she had taken out a sock, put a brick in it and hit me in the head it would have been no less jarring. That was an incredible question. The question is far deeper than it initially seems.

First, is what I am doing my highest and best calling? Is it the most God-honoring thing I can be doing (highest) and is it the most effective use of my time (best)? What would the highest calling look like? Would it be constantly certain that I was in the presence of God in all that I do?

My highest calling, it would seem, would be actions that lead to eternal results. I mean, my job is to engage youth and young adults in matters related to their spiritual formation facilitate significant faith decisions and put them on the road to being fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. That seems pretty significant, even if I rarely get to actually see the fruits of my labor. I have stacks of commitment cards from last summer indicating that serious decisions were made, yet the question remains, is this the highest calling for my life? Is this the vocation that resonates with my heart song?

Next, is it my best calling? Am I doing what I can do most effectively to yield eternal results? Does ordering two-thousand Hawaiian leis count as a spiritual venture? Am I playing to my strengths and fully engaging my spiritual gifts? A lot of what I do does seem counter-intuitive to my gifts. I spend a lot of time in meetings and doing administrative tasks which are certainly not life-giving for me. Additionally, I spend precious little time communicating and teaching. Being one whose primary joy of the local church was the time I spent leading Bible study or preaching each week, it seems that I don’t often get to do what I used to love to do. Actually, I have even begun to doubt my abilities in these areas, partially from being out of practice I am certain, and also due to simple exhaustion. Is this my best calling?

The other part of the question is just as impactful as the first. When she said “for this time in my life,” it called into account our mortality. How often do I live my life certain of tomorrow? I’m not being morbid but I do have to realize that at 42 I am more than half done with the active, functional time of my life. Let’s say I make it to mandatory retirement for the United Methodist Church, 72. I essentially have only thirty years to make whatever mark upon this world I will make. When you are sixteen, thirty years seems like a lifetime. When you are 42 it looks significantly shorter.

There are books to read and, maybe, books to write. There are sunrises to see break through the dark of night and reflect upon God’s continual testimony of hope. There is laughter to share and tears to shed. So, is this the highest and best calling for my life right now? I honestly don’t know. I do know that it is what I am called to do at this moment and I will continue to honor that calling until God shed light upon the next path I am to travel because I continue to struggle and remain:

Consumed by the Call,

Marty

Gracious God, lead me in Your highest and best calling for my life for this time in my life, in the name of the One who lived that out with every breath, Jesus, I pray. Amen

Vocational Redemption

What is the most important result of your work? At the end of the day, week, month or year, if you have accomplished X then you will know that all of the time and effort has been worth the sacrifice. Is it a positive number at the bottom of the profit and loss statement? Is that the most important thing? Is it the lives that have been improved by your product, service, church or ministry? Is it the building of a building or the care of the poor? What is the most important result of your work?

You don’t know do you? Most of us don’t. We are seldom given clear direction and information about what we should consider vital and essential to our daily tasks. That is highly frustrating, especially for those of us Type A personalities that like clear objectives and goals. We spend nearly 2,000 hours a year (more for us work-a-holics) at our vocation without clear institutional priorities. Our supervisors try to give us “pep talks” and motivate us but their objectives are ambiguous. Yes profit is important, but so is quality and service. Of course we want you to make other’s lives better and serve the poor, but only if a profit can be generated in the process. Make disciples and make money, yeah, that’s your objective. We have carefully crafted mission statements, purpose statements, and value statements. We then have statements about our statements. Definitions about the words in our statements, reformatted vision statements. Most of these statements in placed carefully on the cover of a three ring binder or hanging on the wall over the entrance or water fountain and promptly forgotten. Then we go back to work and try to please everyone, customers, supervisors, CEOs and board members, never quite sure who is the most important master because it changes by the day.

Didn’t Jesus say something about not being able to serve two masters? Don’t I recall something about you will love the one and hate the other? He didn’t define which was the “right one” and which was the “wrong one,” just that one will resonate with your heart song and the other will annoy you and cause you heartburn.

So what is the answer? If we aren’t going to get a divine pronouncement from above about what is vital and essential, what do we do? There are a few things we can do to help us keep the main thing, the main thing.

• Focus on your passionate strengths: Marcus Buckingham does a great job teaching people to play to their strengths. He advises us that we should spend 50-80% of our day doing things that “strengthen us.” We should do things that we love, that resonate with our heart song, that are the reason you took the job in the first place. Now very few people can spend all of their time playing to their strengths, as he says, that’s why they call it work. But if we can spend some significant time each day doing things, activities, tasks and building relationships that we enjoy and are passionate about, it makes the other stuff bearable.

• Define what is important to you: This is key. If nothing you do during your daily existence really seems important and vital to you, then you either need to reformat your vocation or change it. You can starve your soul to death by simply doing things that drain it and empty it day after day. If it doesn’t matter then why is it being done? The days I feel best when I return home are the days when I feel like I have accomplished something important. It might just be one thing, one phone call, one contact, one task, but that one thing was important to me and it puts the rest of the day in perspective. On the contrary, on the days when I go home without feeling like anything I did mattered, like I just went through the motions and filled the seat behind my desk, then I feel worthless.

• Plan your day: You need to know your rhythms. Are you a morning person? Then do what you love at the time you are best, save the email and mundane tasks for your least productive time of the day. I am freshest and most productive in the morning. That is when I need to do things that require my utmost attention. I go into a slump around 2 pm. That is when I should answer mundane email, go through the mail and do things I dread. Why waste my optimal time doing the most dreaded tasks. But that is exactly what we do isn’t it? We go into work, if we are morning people, full of caffeine and energy for the day and then get bogged down with email and busy work, forgetting to utilize our best hours of our most enjoyed tasks. Master your day, make a plan.

So, how do I deal with lack of real, institutional priorities? I have to set personal priorities and work from there. Working from my strengths, knowing what is important to me personally and making an action plan will redeem the time and allow me to deal with the frustration of the lack of true institutional priorities. So my goals will be:
• To spend the first hour at my desk writing and reflecting every day.
• Begin defining the task that is most important for me to do that feeds me each day.
• Spend fifteen minutes each day to maximize the important and minimize the mundane.

How about you?

Consumed by the Call,
Marty
Gracious God, who grants me 1,440 minutes each and every day, help me to live in the awareness that You should define what is most important in my day and help me live in the shadow of your will. In the name of the One who lived every day on purpose, Jesus the Christ, I pray. Amen

Theological Foundations of Ministry with Young People
To navigate the passage from attempting to do ministry in the middle to transformational ministry with young people a theological foundation is essential. A well-defined theological foundation provides the under girding for solid transformational ministry. Being United Methodist, the appropriate beginning of a solid theological foundation begins with finding the balance and living in the tension between Scripture and reason, tradition and experience. It must fight the tendency, especially in youth ministry, to polarize the two opposing ideas that salvation and spiritual maturity comes from “faith alone,” often represented by emotionally made decisions during events and rallies, and “holy living” and mission activity, where social justice and righteous causes are substituted for real faith development. Therefore, my theological foundation has five key components:

1. Graceful: grounded in grace and the realization of God’s unconditional love toward all of humanity.
2. Incarnational: beliefs and practices that reinforce the imago dei, the understanding that all of humanity is created in the image of God.
3. Transformational: willing to embrace and struggle with mystery.
4. Missional: balancing proclamation of the gospel and social action.
5. Communal: formed in the context of community where the whole people of God are welcomed.

Grace, God’s unconditional and underserved love toward humanity is foundational for a theology that will govern ministry at the crossroad. It is at its most basic, “God’s gracious activity…has been and is being offered to every human being.” Being grounded in grace means, as Lesslie Newbigin wrote, “we shall expect, look for, and welcome all the signs of the grace of God at work in the lives of those who do not know Jesus as Lord.” This theology embraces that understanding that God is already working in the lives of those outside of our “camp” or “group” and is present and beckoning every person, indeed all of humanity, into a relationship with God through Jesus. A relationship that is welcoming and stable in a world of instability. A theology of grace that expresses God’s desire to be in a real, intentional and ever-present relationship stands as an answer for the acute pain of abandonment so often felt by emerging generations. Grace, as God’s self constantly and consistently extended as love toward humanity, fills in the void left by human relationships and their inherent frailties. A theological foundation that is graceful embraces God’s continual movement toward humanity.
Not only is grace essential to a theology that serves in the crossroad, but also so is the understanding that all of humanity is created in the very image of God. Indeed, practicing the idea of imago dei requires that it is understood that we see something of God in every heart, hear something of God in every voice. That Psalm 139’s voice rings in our ear that God knows every person from his or her mother’s womb. That every person is known by God fully and completely and is not beyond God’s constant and consistent love and concern. A theological foundation that affirms the presence of the imago dei in all of humanity affirms its presence in the most difficult individual. It embraces them with the same unconditional love and affirms the presence of God, pre-existent in their life, no matter what their actions or life-choices may indicate. Indeed, as Dean reminds us, “the imago dei remains faint but visible.” Essentially “to every human life God is antecedently and enablingly present.” Our theology must recognize God’s presence in all of humanity, but more vitally, in each individual. An incarnational theological foundation seeks and find’s God’s presence even in, perhaps especially in, those far from God.
The struggle with mystery and transformation is vital element in a solid theological foundation for youth and young adult ministry. It allows and embraces a struggling with mystery and realizes that true transformation is a work of God. The mystery involves that struggle that occurs through the transformational nature of the sacraments where God’s presence is evident and encountered in ways that are not rationally explained. In the Eucharist, for example, there is “a physical taking of bread and wine, and a spiritual appropriation of the true body and blood of the Lord.” The struggle with mystery means that, particularly with young people, we may be “moved ecstatically beyond the boundaries of the self to the posture of awe.” The embracing of mystery allows us to “fill the existential cavern—Pascal called it a ‘god shaped void’: that is present in every person. The pursuit of transcendence and the seeking of the eminent presence of God in us and through us can only be found by embracing mystery. It is in the embracing of mystery and the allowance that everything of God is not so easily explained where transformation occurs as an essential element of a sound theological foundation.
In addition to struggling with mystery, a theological foundation of ministry with young people must be missional in nature. It is easy to focus on the experiential and powerful expression of ministry that mystery provides and neglect the moving beyond self to self-sacrifice. To balance this, a solid theological foundation of ministry must strive to form missionaries and not simply spiritual consumers. Reflecting back to the need for this theology to be graceful in practice, to be missional is the realization that God’s grace comes through “words and deeds that [meets] the person’s deepest needs and [offers] that person salvation.” By missional in nature, the practice should not be the self-serving practices where we are actually “meeting our own needs (wanting to feel good about what we do) rather than truly serving others.” Often, especially in youth ministry, activities reinforce the idea that we have a “superior sense of what the world needs.” “We have to affirm that redemption is never salvation out of this world (salus e mundo) but always salvation of this world (salus mundi). Being missional requires that we respond to two central “mandates.” They are “the commission to announce the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ; the second calls Christians to responsible participation in human society including working for human well-being and justice.”
Lastly, a solid theological foundation of ministry must be communal in practice. This, like the call to be missional in nature, is a counter-cultural ideal. It must move beyond a religion of me that reinforces the consumerist nature of our culture to seeing the individual as part of a greater, divine whole. The theology must struggle with the revelation that no one is self-made. Indeed, as Stanley Grenz writes in A Primer on Postmodernism, “Individuals come to knowledge only by way of a cognitive framework mediated by the community in which they participate.” We are formed and transformed by a God who models living in perfect community and whose story is the foundation of our belief. Community, by its very existence, invites the sharing of stories. A crossroad theology is one where our stories are shared. We, as the people of God are called to be narrators of our stories, or as Newbigin states, “The human story is one which we share with all other human beings—past, present, and to come.” It is these stories, shared in the midst of community that is the locus for transformation. “God’s chosen location for transformation is the Christian community.”
A theology of ministry at the crossroad holds many factors in tension. It strives to be graceful, incarnational, transformational, missional, and communal. It is a theology that is informed by scripture, honors traditional, allows reasonable discussion and doubt and allows credibility to be given to the experiential nature of faith. All of these factors mold a solid theological foundation for ministry with young people.

Ministry in the Middle

Today I had a revelation about why real ministry is so hard. It is hard because it involves living in constant tension. It is what I am beginning to call “ministry in the middle.” Ministry in the middle requires that you stand treacherously in the middle of a four quadrant plane and attempt to balance seemingly opposite forces delicately so as to be both effective and faithful.

The first balancing act is between sound, orthodox theology and pragmatism. To do ministry in our postmodern, deconstructed culture there must be a balance found between right teaching (orthodoxy) and practicality. If one errs on the side of being overly traditional, the messages and ministries of the congregation are completely irrelevant to the community. On the other hand, if one sacrifices foundational beliefs to connect with the community, then the integrity of the community is at stake. Real ministry has to be both theologically grounded and practically designed.

The second set of scales balances the mysterious and transformational nature of the sacrament with the desire to be culturally relevant. If you become overly focused on the mysterious and sacramental nature of ministry, you loose all contact with the world beyond your monastic walls. On the other hand, if you become so culturally relevant and “hip” that you loose all sense of mystery because your are busy being “in the world” you loose footing on your faith and end up doing ministry by holy sound “to do” lists and end up with a self-help philosophy rather than a transcendent faith.

So we stand in the middle. Being pulled by four forces that we must hold in tension. Keep the faith and hold fast to ministry in the middle.

Peace,
Marty

Gracious God of tensions who lived in divine tension give me strength to be both theologically sound and practical, to be both sacramental and relevant so that Your Son Jesus might reach me and mine for You. In the name of the Savior who held humanity and divinity in tension I pray. Amen.

Work and Worth

I get my self worth from my work. I’m not proud of that, it has been a constant struggle since I can remember. I started working when I was thirteen, scraping dozens of black-green shutters in ninety-degree weather for about $2 an hour. I hated the work, but I needed money for school clothes and, at the end of the day, there was something that was different in the world because I exerted effort. School was, or maybe still is, the same way for me. Worth is derived from the papers produced and the grades earned. While my grades were never perfect, they were always good. The effort produced a positive result. It was measurable and determinable.

I liked things that were measurable when I was growing up. I liked things that stayed the same and could be understood. So much of my life was not understandable. I didn’t understand why I was the only kid in my class with no dad in the house (or at least it seemed that way), why we never had money to do the fun stuff or why I sat in the library during class trips (also because there was no money). Life was complicated, but work, work was simple and understandable. By the time I was in fifth grade, I began to understand that the marks on the report card were definitely correlative to the effort you put forth. I hated vocabulary tests and math tests, but I would spend hours making flash cards, memorizing facts and figures trying to get the best grade possible. Maybe then my life would be better. Isn’t that the deal? If you get good grades you grow up to be a success, have plenty of money, live in a big house and buy what you want?

All through high school, I continued on fostering my addiction to work and its support of my worth. I found other ways to work, I could join clubs, work with the student council, participate in plays and choral ensembles, all while working thirty hours a week at a grocery store and trying to keep my grades up. I was busy, and I equated busy with valuable.

I still work hard and find myself believing that how productive I am equates to my self worth. That financial remuneration equals value. Since I have been working with SEJMYP I have had to have a gut check on that, however. For two of the years I have been here we have had a freeze on raises, not even give cost of living raises. For somebody that grew up believing the harder you worked the more you would get paid, this has been a hard blow. Does lack of financial reward equate to worthlessness?

Additionally, results in this job are hard to measure. When you do events, you never see if there are any long-term results. You do everything you can to facilitate life-changing decisions, but you don’t get to go home with the youth and see if they stuck. You negotiate contracts, go to meetings, plan and implement the plan with no ability to determine whether your job matters, whether my job matters.

Of course, this is not different from pastoral ministry. My days in the parish had a similar ring. Change in the hearts and minds of a congregation, or an individual for that matter, are often slow to manifest themselves and when you are closest to them you can see it the least. Those of us in ministry, heavily influenced by the American culture of productivity feel as though we need to produce a product rather than facilitate discipleship. In the church I attend the pastor spent last Sunday describing a cold mechanical process that the church was implementing for stamping out disciples. He used the metaphor of the Toyota plant he recently visited and how they stamp out cars out of sheet metal. I don’t want to be stamped.

So how should worth be measured? I think that perhaps it should be measured by proximity to the Holy One of God. The closer I get to Jesus, the more aligned I will be with what God wants me to be about. That is so much easier said than done. It requires a re-writing of a forty-plus year old internal script. It requires a re-centering of my life. It requires a re-alignment of my focus. For me not to measure my value with my paycheck and the numbers who show up at the events I arrange will be a radical departure from my definition of success. I am not sure I can do it and I know that the process will not be fast. It will be slow and painful but if it can be done, I will be closer to God than I have ever been before. Until then I will struggle with finding my worth in my work. I remain:

Consumed by the Call,
Marty

Gracious God who defines us as Your children and as keepers of the Imageo Dei, give the ability to re-define who I am by your measure. In the name of the Holy One of God, Jesus, I pray, amen.

Youth Culture: Struggle, Identity and Community

Youth culture is about struggle. It is a complex confluence of historical influences, societal forces, developmental stage and the need to settle two primary needs in the young person’s life, the need for identity and the need for community. This confluence of forces has created a youth culture that forms and shapes youth into seemingly indecisive, self-absorbed individuals who can maintain seemingly opposite views and beliefs simultaneously. They are struggling to self-identify and to discover a place in community where they fit. “Youth culture,” therefore, it literally a season of struggle.

Historically, the move from childhood to adulthood has been much clearer than it is today. With the removal of rites of passage and clear lines of demarcation, the adolescent is often left to self-determine the definition of adulthood. While certain lines are still part of the overarching culture, such as obtaining a driver’s license and the ability to vote, we have moved away from a definitive mark of adulthood. To complicate the loss of lines of transition, the Baby Boomer generation grew up as the first group of young people with time and money to waste, the ability to delay, as long as possible the acceptance of adult responsibilities and the ease and availability of dependable birth control. The current youth culture is the product and offspring of the Baby Boomers. They have continued the pattern to delay adulthood as long as possible. It is now acceptable to delay the acceptance of full adult responsibilities until the late twenties or early thirties. What this means to youth culture is that they have the “privileges” of being an adult (ability to drink, have sex, etc.) without the previous generations constraints (marriage, children, mortgage, etc.). They can put off commitment and obligation for more than a decade. The struggle that used to last only a couple of years to make the breakthrough to adulthood can now last a decade and a half. That is a long time to struggle.

Societal forces also influence the youth culture that emphasizes struggle. Society rewards accomplishment. Standardized testing focuses on measurable, concrete objectives rather than abstract thinking. At the same time, society is formed by the non-competitive ideals of the 1960’s & 1970’s where everybody wins and everybody is “special.” There are exceptions to every rule. Even though everybody is “special” there are always those that are more “special” and who get privileged treatment. Societal structures have proven, like family structures, to be unreliable and inconsistent. Their struggle continues as they attempt to determine what is fair and just amidst changing societal targets of success. The seeming invincibility of the United States was threatened by a small band of radicals. The President “gets away” with having oral sex with an intern. Society speaks about consequences but inconsistently applies them. There is always an exception. Youth culture is fueled by the tension between everyone winning and there being only one winner, between non-competitive sports one day and high school coaches encouraging victory at all costs the next. The struggle continues.

The adolescent life stage is also a time of struggle. The hormonal changes, occurring younger and younger, along with improved physical health and early maturation prove to force the young person into appearing more mature than they actually are. They struggle with an unparalleled level of sexual temptation fueled by dozens of sexualized images per day in media. While they seem physically to be an adult, the delay in their cognitive functioning and inability to think abstractly means they have the ability for sexually function like an adult without the full awareness of all the consequences, emotionally, spiritually or psychologically. This combined with the normal move of personal allegiance from parents to peers, as part of the adolescent stage of life, creates even greater struggles. They struggle with parental boundaries and peer influences.

Lastly, the struggle culminates in the tension between the young person’s need to discover their own identity and their need for community. Clark is partially right when he observes that youth culture is a reaction to abandonment. Young people are looking for stable structures after watching both familial and societal structures crumble. They are desperate to discover a holistic community of hope and care that will embrace them for who they are without the desire to sell them something or make them into idealistic clones. While struggling to find community they are also struggling to discover their own identity. To find the person they are and where they are truly unique in the world. How is it that they can be so different from everyone else and so much the same? How can they feel so alone in the world and be surrounded by others sojourning on the same path? They cluster to find community. They blog, pierce and tattoo to express identity.

Youth culture is struggle. Struggle with maturation, socialization, historical forces and the need to find identity and community. It is struggle and crisis. Out of the struggle will come adults who will face the world either fearfully or fearlessly, but the season of struggle cannot be avoided.

The Starbucks Experience
Lessons We All Could Learn From Coffee!

By my own admission I am not a Starbucks fan. I usually prefer the funky, fair-trade coffee shop to the large chain. This book The Starbucks Experience, though, has really opened my eyes to the total package of a large corporation Starbucks represents. The more I read this text, authored by Joseph A. Michelli, the more passionate I become about the importance of this book, both in my work at Lake Junaluska, but also about how the Church works to connect with those normally outside of its bounds. This book is a word in due season, not only for businesses struggling to understand the “experience economy” but also for those seeking to build bridges to the postmodern world.

The book highlights five seemingly simple, but important principles that guide the coffee giant:

1. Make it your own.
2. Everything matters.
3. Surprise and delight.
4. Embrace resistance
5. Leave your mark.

While I wont’ go into detail about each of these, I will say a word about “Everything Matters.” This principle is the most forgotten, both in ministry and in business. We forget that it is the details that make the difference. That both success and death are in the details. In the book, and on Michelli’s podcast, he talks about the decision to continue using two-ply toilet paper rather than saving thousands of dollars by switching to one-ply. Starbucks understands that every moment of the experience, even the one’s most overlooked by the business, make an impression.

This chapter reminds me of another blog I wrote a couple of years back about what I learned from Walt Disney World. How they manage every moment of your experience, down to the moments you spend in line waiting. They have understood these five principles longer than anyone! Where else can waiting be part of the adventure?

It is time for us to realize, in the Church world, that everything matters. That the thing you didn’t think of is the thing that will cause your downfall. The little thing you think will go unnoticed is what causes the biggest problem. Surely, if running out of wine at a wedding mattered to Jesus, shouldn’t the details of every experience matter to us? I remain:

Consumed by the Call,
Marty

Gracious God, who knows every detail of our life, help us to realize that everything matters. Make us people who create experiences that open the door for soul transformation. In the name of the one who knows me, Jesus, I pray. Amen

Sanctified Consumerism…the disgust with buying church.

I was sitting in worship recently when I realized that I had heard the message before. I had seen the graphics before. I picked up the bulletin and it dawned on me, I had seen the design before. I had seen it hundreds of miles away in another church. Same message series, same topics, same graphics, same bulletin covers…another case of buying church. I have noticed that many congregations, of all sizes, are practicing the copycat syndrome of purchasing an entire worship series and importing it into their church. To be honest, when I was serving a local church I, too, did the Purpose Driven Life series, but normally I developed and designed the service, the music and the metaphors based upon the needs and concerns of the people I served and community I lived in.

All ministry is indigenous. It is only done well within the context of where we served. The practice of actually listening to the people is disappearing. The discipline learning the environment and studying the circumstances seems to be quickly being replaced by four point pithy messages downloaded from a favorite sermon site along with slides, bulletin covers, skits and metaphpor support material. The only thing missing is having the pastor who actually did the intellectual and theological work actually present the sermon on video (which is also available for some markets/circumstances).

The first cause of this syndrome that I will call Sanctified Consumerism is the professionalization of ministry. By paying ministry staff we place upon them the expectations of leader, visionary, administrator, manager, servant, counselor, teacher and administrator. I have known a lot of pastors and none of them can do all of those tasks equally well. Some are amazing communicators but cannot administrate. They may be visionaries but not able to manage staff. The professionalization also serves to excuse those in attendance from any responsibility to do ministry. It makes we who sit in the sanctuary “giving units’ or simply consumers.

The second cause of Sanctified Consumerism is closely related to the first. The “professionals” think that in all cases they know best. That nobody can preach better than they can. No one can organize, perform music, arrange worship or create an environment better than they can. How could they? They are the paid professionals. They are the resident experts who are the keepers of the knowledge. This is a place of insecurity because what is really going on is that they are afraid that an “amateur” may have talents and skills that surpass those of the professional. They don’t want to be proven to be less than the best by somebody who is not the professional.

Lastly, the pressure to perform drives Sanctified Consumerism. These three are all closely related but this one is often self-imposed. The “professional ministers” go to a great seminar or workshop and see something that is awesome. They wonder to themselves “ why can’t I do something as cool as that?” They are pushed to produce by their church but are given little in the way of creative time or resources. The easy thing to do is to simply purchase the “new and improved” version of “church in a box” and bring it back and implement it carte blanche. They feel pressured to perform by the audience, which has lost its cohesion as a congregation and become a gathering of spectators with the “let’s see what you got” mentality. So the professionals, with no time to prepare and no desire to do the hard work of ministry, open the box o’church and roll out the pre-packaged program, never taking time to do the theological and intellectual reflection necessary to determine whether this product fits the need of the people being served.

Faith…Packaged for your Convenience

I hate microwave pizza! It isn’t really pizza. It is cardboard covered with “cheese product” and pre-cooked to mediocrity. I like my pizza done New York style buy some guy named Al who makes the dough every morning, then when I walk in he pulls it out, kneads it, throws it up in the air and then spreads it out on a pan. He takes real pepperoni, thick tomato sauce and unhealthy handfuls of mozzarella cheese and creates a masterpiece that he then fires in a brick oven for twelve to fifteen minutes. When it comes out, it is messy, cheesy and delicious. That’s pizza!

My son loves microwave pizza. You know why? Because he hasn’t really grown to have the experience of delight that a real pizza brings. Of course, he also things peanut butter is a gourmet food, like all seven year olds do. There will come a day when he “gets it” and realizes that one good pizza is better than a hundred microwave specials.

That is what is happening to church. We are forgetting what authentic church is supposed to be about. It is supposed to be messy but real. Churches are resorting to buying the package rather than building the ministry from scratch. Why don’t they do the work? There are several reasons:
• It is hard work! It takes time, effort and energy to produce a solid, theologically sound product each week. Exegesis (intensive Bible study) is laborious and means you have to understand more than three pithy points that all rhyme or start with the same letter.
• It takes reflection. When was the last time you just stopped to think and reflect? We do not value reflection in our culture, we value productivity. Building an authentic worship experience requires reflection, setting aside time to listen to God and God’s people as well as the mission field outside of your door.
• It requires the practitioners to think theologically. Theological reflection is lost when pre-packaged material is purchased. There is the assumption that the person or persons who developed the material did good, sound theological reflection. Their work, however, does not excuse us from our work!
• It requires the practitioners to think practically. Will this work in the community I serve? Will it work in the space that I utilize? Does it make sense? If the sermon was designed for a thousand listeners and we have a hundred, some things just won’t translate. Get real.
• It requires an understanding of the total environment. All ministry is indigenous. Pre-packaged ministry does not take into account who is in the seat in the local church or the unique community the local church serves.

It is easier to buy that to build. There is no doubt about it. Our culture encourages us to buy rather than to build. Evern homes are not “modular” so that they require little assembly by the carpenter. They are just giant puzzles, screwed together and placed on a foundation. We like things packaged four our convenience, I’m am just not convinced faith is one of those things that is best served from the microwave.

How to Build…steps to indigenous ministry.
1. Know who you are. That sounds obvious, but it is not. This takes personal reflection and time alone with God. It begins with the practitioner, a process of self-discovery is undertaken. Then it moves to the church and community. Who is actually in the pew, not assumptions but actual data? Who lives in the community? Where is the disconnect? Where can bridges be built?
2. Know where you are. Every community is unique. Do research to understand the congregation’s and the community’s history. How are they woven together?
3. Know who your mission file is. You cannot reach everyone in the community. You must determine who you are best suited and uniquely gifted by God to reach. That is not to say you can’t reach beyond that point, but you have to start where you are most likely to connect and move from there.
4. Determine your direction. Planning is the most neglected discipline of the church. Create a map with checkpoints along the way where you can make course corrections.
5. Listen to the Holy Spirit. There are people in your congregation that are gifted and crying out to do ministry. Listen to the hurts and concerns, the burdens God has placed upon their hearts, then equip them and get out of the way. God uses those who aren’t on staff.

My prayer is that we will move away from Sanctified Consumerism to authentic ministry, even if it isn’t as polished and pre-packaged. I hope it is as messy as a good New York pizza! I remain:

Consumed by the Call,
Marty

Gracious God, call us back to your heart. Help us lay aside ease for effort, lay aside convenience for connection and let us be the Church again. In the name of the one who chose the path of difficulty rather than the path of ease, Jesus, we pray. Amen

My new terms for this type of church:
Plug and Play Christianity
Sanctified Consumerism
Faith…Packaged for your Convenience
Buying Church

Reflections on Selling Ministry

We all do it. Whether in the local church trying to get our folks to bring their friends, through mass mailings or newsletters, or like me, on the floor of Youth Specialties this weekend. We are selling ministry. I have spoken to hundreds of youth workers trying to get them to see the advantage of bringing their youth group to Lake Junaluska for their next winter or summer youth retreat. I have passed out countless posters and brochures, stood for hours on the concrete floor and explained what our ministry would do to enhance theirs. Why do we have to sell ministry?

I have struggled with this since I was a pastor in a local church. When I discovered that my entrepreneurial tendencies suited ministry and my salesmanship helped build my attendance I have wondered whether that is really a good mix. Does the end justify the means? Is the life change affected by a youth attending an SEJMYP event justify the slick marketing, hours of negotiation with bands and speakers and the time building a set? On one level the obvious answer is yes. There is no price to put upon a soul. That one youth could one day lead dozens, hundreds or thousands to Christ. In that way the work is certainly worth it.

The question I struggle with is how is this better than the world? I mean, Apple has a minister of evangelism to get people to convert from Microsoft to Mac. Should we have to talk a youth worker into bringing their youth to a life changing experience? Should we have to convince them that our program is flashier or will have a great impact than somebody else’s?

I often hear stories of when the LJ events were filled to the gills. Across the SEJ the thing to do in the summer was to bring your youth to have an LJ experience. It was in the culture. If you were Methodist you’d never consider taking them to a “Baptist” or “non-denominational” camp (not that there really is any such animal as ‘non-denominational’, but that is another blog). You wanted your youth to experience your theology. It mattered what was taught. It made a difference what they heard. It is not that you discriminated but that you were more discriminating. Now, youth workers aren’t concerned about theology but about splash. Is the production the best? Is the show the coolest? Is the destination the hottest?

We wonder why we are loosing youth? One reason may be that we have sold out and cheapened our theological commitment. That we don’t expect or even care of our youth believe what we teach as “long as they believe something.” Theology matters, and because it matters I will continue to sell ministry…one youth worker at a time. So if you want a youth event where mainline, orthodox teaching matters, I’ll see you at the LJ. I remain:

Consumed by the Call
Marty

Gracious God, who calls us to live out our faith and walk our talk, lead us to think before we act and not to buy what is best but what is needed. In the name of Jesus, AMEN.

Open the Door but Where are the People?

Churches are closing all across American and I am beginning to understand why.

I witnessed this weekend perhaps the most manipulative political maneuvering I have ever experienced and it was at a meeting of church people. When asked why they are leaving the church, young adults say that one of the key reasons is a blatant difference between spoken values and lived values. This weekend whole sets of people were de-valued and silenced so that they could not raise questions about an issue that would shape their future.

I am not sure what is more disturbing. The fact that the political process was so shamelessly manipulated or that nobody who could speak seemed to care. In one sweeping motion ethnic ministries across the jurisdiction were marginalized and ministry was diminished to profit generating programming all in the name of expediency.

What about those of us most affected by the change. We were forced to sit in the back of the room in silence. It reminded me of Thanksgivings years ago when the kids sat at the children’s table and were told that they were to be seen but not heard. So we sat and watched people who did not fully understand what was happening wipe away two decades of progress in ethnic ministries and discipleship.

When questions were raised, they were glossed over with phrases like, “that will never really happen,” or “there is no need to duplicate ministry that is happening in other places.” One defender even spoke of a very capable and effective leader as a “token employee.”

Even a cursory look at several of the annual conferences and their free fall in membership and, more importantly, worship attendance, proves that even if ministry should be happening there, it isn’t. That national “comprehensive plans” are merely paper until a person acts as advocate and catalyst for ideas of implementation.

One friend, sitting silently in the back while watching her ministry dissolve without question from the floor said it best, “I thought this was the Church?” It wasn’t the Church; it was politics, plain and simple. Politics that manipulate the system to get a desired end without fully explaining the long-term implications of actions or providing adequate time for reflection and input. It was top-down policy making. If it was the Church, then it is no wonder that the Church is in danger.

What now? I do not know. The implications of this action have kept me awake for four nights. How many more of our churches will fall to ruin upon the altar of political manipulation? Let us save money but continue to loose souls.

Gracious God, who brings dry bones to life. Let us live again, give us hearts filled with courage to speak for those who are silenced and hands to work for those whose hands are tied. In the name of the author of resurrection, Jesus, I pray. Amen

Marty

Real; Relevant & Revolutionary

To keep young adults in our churches we must find a way to connect where they live. What they seek is not much different from what their parents sought twenty or so years ago, but of course that was when we were “anti-establishment” rather than being the establishment. It is time to find ways to be real; relevant and revolutionary and to foster those tendencies in our young adults rather than fighting against them.

This generation knows that the Christian faith is not about “happily ever after.” They are the products of single parent homes, gangs, drugs and STDs. They realize that just because you bend an knee at an altar and commit to Christ doesn’t mean that when you get up your life won’t be just as difficult. They understand what it is to be “real.” To be real is to be completely authentic and to tell the hard truth. They are the product of about 3,000 commercial messages every day and don’t appreciate infomercial Christianity.

How does this translate to the church? First, no false promises. Don’t promise their lives will magically come together or that they won’t have existential struggle once they let God in. Rather, help them understand that our power is in the power of the shared community, the mystery of the sacrament and the foundation of a faith system that will endure even when our lives are unendurable. Help them realize that this is a battle not a theme park and that it will be a struggle. Let them know that faith is a daily decision and not a mushy feeling you get at camp, that way when they go home they are ready for the fight.

Secondly, look around. This is not the world of the past, it is the world of now. Wil Wilimon once said when he teaching at Duke Divinity School that if the fifties ever come back the United Methodist Church will be ready. Amazingly (at least to me) being relevant is not about having electric guitars and fancy graphics as much as it about helping them connect the unchanging Gospel to an ever-changing world. They are saturated by the culture and only get a sprinkle of the Truth. We have to give them real tools to help them cope rather than generic platitudes and churchy clichés that fall apart when assaulted by their real lives.

Being revolutionary is even more of a struggle than being real and relevant. It is against our nature to embrace revolution. The status quo is where we have learned to live; allowing a complete turnover of all that makes us comfortable is hard to embrace. If we have done our jobs and been good mentors, allowing them to test their leadership skills and grow in their faith, we should feel fine with giving over the reigns of leadership to them. Let them create, develop and lead. Provide areas where they can stretch their revolutionary muscles. Let them fail. That’s right, helicopter parents and hovering pastors, let them fall flat on their face and flop. There is no better way to learn than to fail, as long as failure is done in a loving community that will pick you up and give you another chance.

Lastly, embrace the revolution. Support it and make way for it. Certainly, serve the congregation that is but make way for the community that is coming next. Were it not for the life-lengthening work of modern medicine most mainline churches would already have given the reigns of leadership over to this generation or have ceased to exist. Just because we are living longer does not, necessarily mean we deserve to strangle the church and mold it to our preferences. Remember, its not about you…it’s about the Gospel.

Gracious God, who created out of chaos, grant that we can embrace the chaos of revolutionary creation once again and let your Holy Spirit lead our church back to life. You who lived in a real world, allow us to be real, You who caused a revolution, let us embrace the revolution that you are bringing again. In the name of the real revolutionary, Jesus, I pray. Amen

Marty

Pile it High!

Consumerism has become the plague of our culture. We want more and more for less and less. We want it fast, instantaneous if possible. Somehow we believe that if we have more “stuff” then we will be happier. We have supersized our lives. When we run out of room for our junk in the house we fill up our garage. When that’s full be rent a storage space down the street and fill that up. Soon we can’t find anything because of the everything that we have in the way. I’m not sure we were designed to accumulate.

I understand the primitive nature of those who, due to some trauma or significant loss in their past, have a reluctance to throw anything away. These are the people who save every newspaper, magazine and grocery bag. However, many of us grew up with plenty. We never really worried that we would have dinner on the table or clothes to wear; yet still we are filling our closets to the max. We tend to accumulate for a few reasons. First, we are told we need it. We think it will make us feel better. We have culturally infused competitive natures and we find our security in what we have rather than who we are.

The average person sees more than 3,000 advertisements per year. We are inundated with the media telling us what we need. There are banner ads on our email, commercials on television, direct mail and now, the bane of my existence, cell phone telemarketing. Each ad is designed to tell us that the product or service they are providing is just what we need to fill that last remaining gap in our lives. There are choppers to smash stuff and super glues to put it all back together. There are toys that entertain and cases for those toys to keep them safe and make them even more stylish.

Not only do we need it but also if we have it we will feel better. There is a sensation that is commonly known as “buyer’s rush” which is that surge of adrenalin that you get when you make a purchase. There are even those folks who so crave to that feeling that they addicted to shopping. That feeling is fleeting, however, and is only fueled by another purchase. Before long you are watching infomercials and trying to find what will make you feel better if you purchase it next.

Competition also fuels our consumerism. We want to keep up with the Jones. Make sure that we also have the newest SUV and the biggest, flat screen television. Since we were children we have had the philosophy that “my dad is bigger than your dad.” That has grown into “my SUV is cooler than your SUV.”

Stuff also makes us feel secure. We like to be surrounded by “our stuff.” We begin this with our teddy bear or blanket as a small child. Every parent has stories about forgetting a prized stuffed animal and driving back an hour to get it fearing that their child would never get to sleep if they didn’t have it at bedtime. As we grow, we accumulate more security stuff. Before long we have closets filled with memorabilia. We fear that if we get rid of that ceramic doll painted by great aunt Sue or the journals from middle school, a part of our “selves” will be lost.

Jesus told the disciples to go and serve with only the clothes on their back. How often has my stuff held be back from doing everything God has called me to do? Have my physical possessions tied me to the past rather than freeing me to live out my call to the future.

Gracious God, who is the giver of all good gifts. Forgive me for worshipping stuff rather than You. Grant me the ability to clean out my closets and clean out my heart. In the name of the one who gives us the gift of freedom, Jesus, I pray. Amen

People Don’t Pay for Average

Each year I attend a conference that provides me with tons of material to reflect upon. Ever since I first attended, seven years ago, I have tried to boil down my key learning point for each day into one, powerful moment when I got what I needed to learn most. This year it was the central truth that “people don’t pay for average.” My friend, Tim Elmore said it to me first on Thursday morning and then I heard it again at least three more times that day.

People pay for excellence. That’s why we pay 25% more for a Toyota of the same size than we do a Kia…we trust Toyota. Everywhere boutique specialty shops are springing up, leaving the big box stores to fill their stores with average, to sell the exquisite. Their shelves are filled finest cheeses and wines and imported, organic vegetables. Somewhere along the line we have grown sick of average. Our lives are filled with average but we crave something more. Something better.

Then we go to church where average is rewarded as excellence. So often the church, as a whole, has often settled for average. We have failed to give our very best, holding that back for our personal or professional endeavors. The church has spent the last few decades doing the bare minimum to survive, mortgaging our tomorrows by making shortcuts today. We have let our facilities decay by delaying maintenance; we have cut our staff to the bone and forsaken missional commitments for short-term survival. The more average we become the more our resources dry up. People don’t pay for average.

Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe that’s how we know what’s working and what is a desperate attempt to cling to the past. I’m not saying that every church that is growing is excellent, or even Christian, but I am saying that it is time for Christ-followers to be willing to give their very best in pursuit of what God wants to do with their life. To step back and ruthlessly evaluate what is the best we have and offer that as a thanksgiving offering to God. We must stop living our faith life on leftovers and live it in radical discipleship.

Gracious God, help me to give you my first and my best and to not just give you the leftovers of my life. You who gave us Your best grant me the strength to do likewise. In the name of the divine gift, Jesus, Amen.

Consumed by the Call,
Marty

Why we are loosing ground with young adults...

I have the amazing privilege of working with spiritual sensitive and passionate young adults from across the southeast every summer. I am also charged with understanding why the Church, and The United Methodist Church in particular, is loosing ground with young adults. Why are they leaving our churches to attend college or enter the job force and never returning? What is it about the mainline church that seems to be alienating young adults who seem to be committed to Christ but never darkenour doors after they turn eighteen. After dozens of conversations during the past year and some in-depth input from the young adults with whom I work closely seem to be some common strands that run through their choice to leave the Church, or at least our version of it. Their reasons include: passionless worship; incongruity in spoken and lived values; greater focus on political agenda than spiritual formation; lack of a clear, unified vision; extreme criticism of things of little importance and finally tokenism regarding their presence. These perceptions that they carry, true or not, determine their actions.

Mainline churches seem to have worship based in the head and not the heart. The perception of passionless worship came up again and again in conversation. The music is mundane and mediocre, the pastor reads a sermon without inflection or conviction and the people fail to respond to either what is sung or what is preached. This is not to say that young adults do not care for traditional worship or liturgy. They just will not tolerate watered down, unexplained ritual and liturgy or poor quality, half-hearted worship. There is actually a resurgence in higher forms of liturgy among young adults, but the churches that they flock to for this type of experience do it very well and make it very clear why they do what they do. There is not the feeling of just going through another set of motions, another set of creeds and movements without understanding. This generation desires to experience God in wholly different ways than did their parents. They want passion in their worship. As long as they perceive our worship as passionless, they will be unlikely to return.

Secondly, the obvious incongruity of spoken values and lived values plagues them. They see this type of behavior in their culture and it sickens them. To see a Greenpeace bumper sticker on a Suburban bothers this generation of revolutionaries. Since their birth they have been told that they can change the world, and they intend to do it. Why do they perceive this lack of incongruity? First of all, within The United Methodist Church, we created a new division, the Ministries with Young People division, but did not adequately fund the division to allow it to do all that is required of it. Our denominational agencies affirm Fair Trade practices but fail to follow them at their conference retreat centers, preferring lower price to the welfare of small, struggling farmers. The rhetoric about wanting young adults in our churches and ministries while slashing funding for college ministers, Wesley foundations and campus ministry offends their sensibilities. Many of our Methodist “related colleges” do not even employ a chaplain and have removed all spiritual focus and demands from their curriculum and academics. Some have even removed the name Methodist or Wesleyan from their names to make them “more approachable.” Is there any wonder that there is a correlation between the percentage of funds going into campus ministry and the failure of young adults to return to United Methodist Churches? Or the fact that more conservative movements are experiencing growth proportional to their investment?

Another factor that plagues The United Methodist Church’s ability to reach young adults is the constant political in-fighting. As the 2008 General Conference approaches the denomination will once again be defined by its political agenda and not its commitment to make disciples for Jesus Christ. Year after year annual conferences fight over the same political issues while their membership continues to decline. Even in growing annual conferences they are failing to keep pace with population expansion. The Church’s persistent nature to make mountains out of molehills seems ridiculous to this highly practical and pragmatic generation. This is complicated when it becomes apparent that even our clergy do not have a clear understanding of our theology. Whatever happened to Wesley’s mandate to be clear in our focus and to follow his statement: “In essentials unity; in all else charity.”

Much of this confusion stems from a lack of clear, unified vision. Without grassroots understanding of the Church’s purpose and its vision for the future, it is difficult to reach young adults who desire clarity in a world filled with uncertainty. The abandonment of our heritage’s commitment to balancing social justice with evangelism leaves us without the needed bifocal emphasis that would be most appealing to young adults. They want to change their world and they realize the necessity of beginning at the local level. We must find a way to clarify our vision and renew our commitment to making disciples and changing our world.

Criticism of things of little consequence also drives young adults from our doors. Churches that balk at having a young person with blue hair or a pierced nose as part of their congregation are essentially assuring their absence. This is a generation of individuals seeking community. They are striving desperately to identify who they are and where they fit into a loving community. If that accepting, loving community is not found in the local church they will find it elsewhere. Does it really matter how many piercings or tattoos they have?

Finally, the Church’s token attempts at placating is actually alienating and not attracting young adults. Implentation of miserable “90’s style” praise services designed “for” them and not “with” them. A complete disregard for their input in the mission and vision of the local church and hypocritical statements about their importance and then complete disregard for their input. This is a generation of “doers” and not “watchers.” They do not want to send money to missions as much as they want to go be part of a missionary endeavor. They desire to put their hands where their heart is.

There is hope, however. The young adult movements that are growing have some powerful similarities. First of all they are sharply focused on spiritual formation. These movements worship with complete abandon in services filled with symbolism and depth. They realize that this is a culture of micronarratives and Myspace© accounts desiring to tell their own story and how God intersects them where they live and listen to them. They put young adults in positions of influence and responsibility and they empower them to live and lead boldly into the future. These movements have a clear understanding of their purpose and vision and are guided by them. Lastly, movements that are growing have the bifocal focus of local mission and a global vision to change the world.

Panic is setting in as The United Methodist Church continues to grey and its young adults continue to stray. Conferences are seeing their membership drop by hundreds, sometimes thousands, per year. We are loosing our connection with the next generation of church leaders allowing them to either leave the Church or migrate to other places of worship. There are several steps that will have a dramatic impact.

First of all there is the need for the Church to validate youth and young adult ministry as a primary calling especially for the best and brightest of up and coming United Methodist clergy. For years the Church has made college chaplains and campus ministers feel like they were not doing “real” ministry because they were in an extension connection. Since they were not in revenue generating ministry positions, their ministry was not considered valid. Most have stories about fellow clergy asking them when they are going to return to “real ministry” in the local church. These women and men are on the front line of ministry but often feel as though they have little connection with the Church that needs for them to be there.

Secondly, we must seal the hand-off gap between church youth groups and college ministry. Pastors need to make actual contact with the campus ministers where they are sending their youth. More than just completing a form, these interactions need to include introductions, information and contact details. Then, the campus minister needs to take pastoral responsibility for these new members of their “flock.” The lines of communication between the local church and their college students must reinforce the importance of spiritual connectivity.
The Church must reinvest in campus ministry. This may mean capital improvements to outdated facilities that have deferred maintenance due to fund shortfalls. Salaries for campus ministry must be comparable enough to be attractive to the best and brightest.

Additionally it is time to call our colleges back into the connection to claim their spiritual heritage. These institutions were founded with for the purpose of combining academic study and spiritual formation. It is time to encourage them to either take this charge seriously or for them to break their ties with the Church.

Lastly, the Church must empower entrepreneurial ministry including the intentional planting of emerging churches. Churches must be planted, in missional ways that are designed to reach young adults with the understanding that these will be mission churches rather than revenue sources for the annual conference. They will require greater investment that typical church plants and returns will need to be measured in life-change rather than in offering plate receipts.
It is not too late for those of us in the mainline trying to reach youth and young adults. The key is to redouble our efforts and refocus our mission toward being prophetic and effective in our intentional ministry toward them. We must stop with token attempts and make the next generation a mission effort. The United States is the second largest mission field on earth. It is time we become missionaries and stop loosing ground!

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10 Things I’ve Learned from Staff Training

1. Validity: I’m convinced now more than ever that team building and value understanding is more important than task training. Understanding the inner why helps with the outer performance.
2. Intensity: Training must be intense. The intensity helps break through resistance and helps the staff move beyond superficial into real depth.
3. Pace: I still have some work to do here. Next year’s schedule will reflect my learning about the pace. The campfire needs to be the last big session of self-revelation. The fun time at Fun Depot was an excellent counter-balance to the heavy stuff we’d been doing. Lastly, a plan for a couple of check-in sessions will also prove helpful.
4. Questions: Life and ministry have no easy answers, only questions. I am glad Maria brought that to a head making them think by never answering a question. By struggling early they will be better equipped to work with youth who have questions as well without easy answers given by “bobble-head” Jesus types. Live in the questions.
5. Tension: good training made the inter-personal tension much more positive than last year. There will always be tension, spiritual tension, inter-personal tension, theological tension, etc. The key is to be able to live in that tension and let it strengthen you, not consume you.
6. Focused Fun: Danelle did a great job helping them have fun but learn something at the same time. Often they had to dig out what they were learning because at first glance the activity was so fun, they didn’t realize how much they were learning. How often do we treat rubber chickens more importantly than glass balls?
7. Direction: Nilse did a great job helping the teams have direction. She is the list master, after all. This provides meaning and understanding to the overwhelming tasks at hand. She is definately a "navigator" in her leadership style.
   
8. Variety: Having a variety of trainers allowed everyone to do what they do best and connected with the staff in completely different ways. Having a variety of activities allows for creativity of expression and balance between physical, spiritual, intellectual and emotional.
9. Values & Goals: Revelation came for a lot of the staff when they had to actually start defining what they valued. For some it was the first time they sought to understand their “why” and not just their “what.” Goals as tangible and measurable objectives means being accountable to yourself and others for what you are striving to accomplish and become. I think that this section is where the staff realized that this isn’t just another job, it is a ministry.
10. Learning from the Learners: Here is where I personally grew the most, learning from those who were being taught. Seeing what connected, what caused struggle and hearing great ideas. Jessica completely re-focused the Cross Walk on Thursday night and it was far better than I had originally designed. There were several times when we (the trainers) had to re-work our plans to make sure we were helping the staff on their journey. I’m sure I’ve learned as much or more than any of the staff.

What I’m keeping…

Here are the things I know I’ll keep for next year and beyond:

• Values and Goal Setting
• Staff Manual and Ministry Values
• Habitudes
• Nooma Videos
• Danelle’s workshops (hopefully Danelle will continue to be willing to volunteer to help!)
• Theological teaching times
• Cross Walk (though it will be last thing)
• Rafting
• REAL workshops
• Collages
• S’mores & campfire
• What else? Email me and let me know!

What I may change….

Here are the things I’m considering changing:

• Pace
• Location (my allergies were really affected by Colonial though I liked the space)
• Schedule (better balance of reflection and tasks, maybe afternoons off instead of evenings?)
• Environment design (a way to get people to move around to get to know each other better)
• More staff contact prior to training
• What else? Email me and let me know!

Praise God for a great staff. I look forward to a summer that is:

Lost in Grace,
Marty

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Richard Ramsey was a precise man. This seems to be the year I loose the few men who have known me more than half my life that are not blood-related to me. Richard, aka Dick, taught me a lot about life. He was a man who modeled stability and discipline to a fault. I have never known anyone, before or since, who was so organized, structured and focused. A lifetime IBM-er, he modeled the phrase, measure twice, cut once.

I think the first time I heard that phrase from him was a cool autumn Saturday when we were building what would become the garage on his retirement lot near the intercoastal waterway outside of Bath, NC. The wind was brisk, and so cool it felt as though my face was being stretched across my cheekbones. I was helping, as best as an inexperienced carpenter can, him frame the structure. I noticed that he measured ever cut from at least two directions. He either measured top to bottom and then bottom to top, or left and right then reversed. I asked why and he said, “measure twice, cut once.” What does that mean? It means to weigh your actions because every action has a consequence. In this case he was determined to waste as little as possible during the construction process because he was on a tight budget. As a matter of fact, so little was wasted that I was amazed.

This is not the way they build houses (or garages) today. They build in a certain amount of “waste” counting on speed to make up for it. The philosophy is that faster is better, that 87 degrees is close enough to 90 that it won’t really matter and that somebody else down the line can make up for your sloppy work. I’m not sure Dick knew how Biblical the principal he taught me that day was. The Scripture tells us that we are to do our work as if it were for God and not just our earthly bosses. That we must live into a calling, not just scrape out a living. Our work is our testimony.

I am really trying to embrace this concept in my life. To measure each decision I make whether personally or professionally much more carefully than ever before. The loss of these two men really makes me aware of how fleeting life is and that every decision matters. I love Richard Ramsey as though he were my own father. His focus and determination was a model that I only hope I can follow in some small way as I try to “measure twice and cut once.” Until then, thank God I remain:

Lost in Grace,

Marty Cauley, Pastor

Gracious God who calls us into account for our lives, grant that I may follow you completely, weighing every decision with prayer and discernment and living a life that reflects my love for You and respect for those who have mentored me to follow in your path. In the name of Jesus I pray, AMEN.

Real Influence

Last Saturday I did a funeral for my best friend’s father. I did the funeral in the same chapel and the graveside standing beside the grave where my best friend is buried. I did that funeral twelve years ago. On Saturday it seem like I did it yesterday. These funerals were more like family events than friends. I spent a significant part of my childhood playing in their yard, eating at their dinner table and playing games on their den floor. As the child of a single parent in the seventies I was an anomaly. The Evans family essentially adopted me into their lives as a surrogate son. Mr. Evans has definitely taught me life lessons I carry with me to this day.

Thomas Earl Evans is probably not a man that you know. He never wrote a book or climbed a mountain. He was the son of farmer who moved to Raleigh from Louisburg to marry his childhood sweetheart, Janet. They eventually scraped together enough money to buy a small starter home in an unassuming neighborhood filled with blue collar families, children up and down the block and several retirees. He went to church every Sunday, served in the National Guard for more than twenty years, worked hard all of his life and loved his family with every ounce of his being. He was a good man in an age where good men are rare things.

Mr. Evans (I just can’t call him Tom, even though he tried to insist that I should) taught me three life lessons that have molded who I am today. He taught me about how life brings sacrifice. He helped me understand the true meaning of success. He taught me about the importance of accepting a Savior in my life to help me navigate the tough waters of adulthood. Mr. Evans was a mentor with far more influence than I am sure he ever imagined.

Sacrifice is not a popular word. It was, however, a way of life. Mr. Evans worked hard, very hard, often double shifts, so that his wife could stay home and raise their two children. This was a mutual decision. A decision that they made early in their marriage. He drove older vehicles, pinched pennies and made things last to provide stability for his family.

Sacrifice, according to Tom Evans, is what brings success. Now if you measured success with bank accounts, annuities and possessions, then he may not measure up. He taught me long ago that this was not how you measure success. You measure success by the laughter of your children, the number of friends that you have and the depth of your faith. Success is more about inner contentment than outer possessions. Success is living a life without regret.

Lastly, Tom Evans taught me about the Savior. He used to take me to church with his family every Sunday morning and back again for youth group on Sunday nights. He lived out his faith daily. He taught me the value of praying before every meal as a spiritual discipline, no matter where you are. There was something about him that let you know that he was connected to God and wanted you to be connected too.

These are lessons I have learned from a good man. A man who lived with integrity and intensity. A man that if somebody told me I was like, I would take it as a compliment. I do not believe I will ever be able to fill his shoes but it is certainly a goal to strive toward. Thank God for people in our lives that mold us without ever knowing that they have real influence. I remain:

Lost in Grace,

Marty Cauley, Pastor

Gracious God, who loves us deeply and puts people in our lives to point us in the right direction, help us to embrace these mentors, to learn from their lives and to live for You with every ounce of our being. In the name of our Shepherd, Jesus, I pray. Amen

The Dumbing Down of the Church

I never thought I’d agree with Marva Dawn when I first read her diatribe against so-called “contemporary worship.” In her text, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down she sharply critiques the move toward the simplification of liturgy and the modernization of worship services. At the time I read the book I was embroiled in worship wars with a church that practiced inbred liturgy and had a very cliquish attitude about worship. Any attempt to make the liturgy or worship service warmer and more welcoming to those outside of the faith was seen as an abandonment of tradition. Unfortunately we have now, in a desperate attempt to be “relevant” and make up for staggering membership losses, have thrown the baby out with the bath water. Now churches, striving to connect with people long neglected, are practicing Wal-Mart liturgy, sacrificing the power of mystery for acceptability and following a discount Jesus. Essentially they are abandoning depth because there is the belief that if it is deep it must be offensive to the non-churched ears. Quite the contrary is true. Our world craves depth, they are searching for meaning. If the Church does not provide it they will search for it elsewhere.

During a recent Palm Sunday service there were no Palms. Holy Week is historically practiced to allow the Church to experience the days from the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem through the Last Supper, facing crucifixion on Friday and glorious resurrection on Easter morning. I went with friends and family to the Palm Sunday service expecting palms and celebration and singing. The proclamation of the Messiah was to be proclaimed. I arrived on the scene knowing it would be a celebration that contained crucifixion tension to be experienced on Good Friday. There were no palms. Instead there was a vague message about nailing our difficulties to the cross (a practice usually reserved for Good Friday). There was no liturgy, no Psalm of praise or Old Testament prophesy being fulfilled in our hearing. There was just a Wal-Mart liturgy, barely a liturgy at all.

The abandonment of deep liturgy is a cheapening of the power of mystery that surrounds and is embodied by resurrection. We are a people of mystery. We practice the mysterious presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We live out the mysterious presence of God constantly with us and in us through our salvation and living out our baptism. Let us not abandon that which proclaims God’s mystery. Let us, instead, embrace it anew!

Not only do we practice Wal-Mart liturgy, we follow a discount Jesus. Jesus, creator of heaven and earth, true God of True God, light from light is now a self-help method. There are four steps to a better marriage, three ways to love your kids, how about one way to a True God? Jesus calls us to bear a cross, not become the owner of a Land Rover. Ours is a faith of sacrifice and delayed reward. Christ came to give us real life, not the easy life! “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” That is not a discount Jesus, that is a Savior!

Lastly, we crave depth. I know I sound like a broken record but look at the movies, listen to the music of our culture. There is an undercurrent that is rising that is seeking something deeper the Wal-Mart liturgies and a discount Jesus. They know that life cannot be understood in ten easy steps. They realize that there are things we will never know and that our soul craves mystery. The abandonment of depth does not have to occur when we design worship to connect with those outside of the faith, it just has to be explained. The disciples asked Jesus, “teach us how to pray.” Why, because they wanted a pattern? No, because they wanted the passionate, deep, abiding prayer life of their rabbi. The church’s charge is not to be user friendly, simplified and easy to swallow. It is to be a real, authentic body of Christ that teaches people how to get connected to God and live in a world gone mad. Let us be the people who burn so brightly that the world comes seeking light and warmth from the depth of our faith.

Gracious God, who calls us to follow you, to count the cost and to abandon ourselves that we might have real life, make us a people, make me a person, who is willing to live deeply and faithfully in a land of Wal-Mart liturgies and discount Jesuses. In the name of the One who made the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus my Messiah I pray. Amen