Mark 12:29
Romans 12:2
SLMF is beginning a summer sermon series on visioning. I wanted to include my sermons here so people who miss out can read them if they are interested.
You might be curious why we're starting a conversation about vision today, which is a fair question. Let me tell you! Last spring, we had two significant congregational conversations going at the same time.
The Building Committee reflected on our building-whether the space we meet fits our needs now, and will into the future. They put together a wonderful report that you should read you haven't already, it is a really useful document. The very quick summary is that we think the church building basically serves our needs now, and will likely serve our needs for the next 5-10 years, unless we have significant congregational growth-basically doubling in size. In that case, we might need to consider moving buildings or some sort of expansion at our current location, like reformatting our sanctuary.
At the same time, we spent time talking about whether to hire Jennifer Harris Dault as our associate pastor. This was a choice to stretch ourselves financially and spiritually, with the hopes of bringing her gifts to the congregation, so that we might expand our ministry and strengthen our momentum. At the last business meeting, we decided to step out in faith, and see if she, and we, could raise the money to allow her to expand ministry in the congregation. She is hopeful that she will hit her target before the August 15th goal.
And while these were both very good conversations, another theme came up as we talked about our building and about our staffing needs- The theme was this- it is hard to answer questions about staffing and space without knowing who we want to be as a congregation-without knowing where we are falling short, what new things we might do, and what old things we might let go of. A number of us mentioned that it felt like we needed to check in with one another about where we felt God calling in our congregational life. And that made sense to me, and it made sense to LCG, so that's what we're going to do now!
At our congregational retreat at Cuivre River State park the weekend after Labor Day-actually, speaking of retreat, I hope it's on everyone's calendars-it's free for all, and is always a wonderful time! Anyway, at retreat, we are bringing in Roland Kuhl, a professor of Missional Church theology and practice, as well as a Mennonite pastor, to lead our conversations, and for the rest of the summer, we are going to talk together as a way of preparing for that gathering.
A brief outline-over the next 5 Sundays, we're going to look at 5 questions:
1) Who We Are Right Now-what does SLMF look like today?
2) How we Got Here-what history brought us to this point?
3) How should we be? A reflection on best practices of successful churches.
4) What should we do? A reflection on what tasks we ought to be working on right now.
5) And finally, How can I help? A reflection on the particular gifts we as individuals bring to this work.
So that's the outline. But I do want to say a couple more things as we begin.
1) I know that it's summer, which means that lots of us will be in and out, which is fine. Each sermon should be self contained, and hopefully useful and interesting in and of itself, and retreat should be meaningful regardless of how much of this you get.
2) I know that not everyone is interested in vision. I've heard a little grumbling from a number of you, who suggest this isn't exactly their cup of tea, which is fine. It will all be over soon! But I am going to try and keep this interesting to everyone. I want this to be useful to everyone from the people who helped found the congregation to visitors here on their 1st Sunday. So I'll try to keep it light, Bible focused, and useful beyond just the congregational setting.
3) I also want to keep us focused-I don't want to try and reinvent the wheel. We know in broad strokes what we are called to do-you might remember my sermon from earlier this summer. We connect to God, we connect with one another, and we serve the world. Every Church on the planet is working on these three basic tasks. The question for SLMF is whether there are some specific ways we as an institution might spend our energy in the next couple of years that we haven't collectively agreed to yet.
4) I want to make this collaborative. There will be times for smaller groups in each of the sermons other than this one. This is our conversation, not my agenda!
5) On that note, if there are things we should really talk about-ideas that you think should be getting more play, things you're curious about, let me know! I love talking church with everyone, and I'd be happy to have coffee or lunch, or whatever, as would the LCG, who will be providing shape to our conversation, and if there are big ideas we should be considering, we want to get them on the table earlier rather than later.
That probably was more introduction than you needed or wanted, but sometimes I get caught up, and I like to start things off with directions! But before I close my sermon this morning, I wanted to think about this invitation to consider our vision from a little different perspective.
I've been thinking about why we chose goals, and set visions. When you think about your choices, your day to day practices, what comes to mind? What are the values that shape our practice? A desire for food and shelter, love of family and friends, the excitement of entertainment and the joy of play, a sense of purpose and a commitment to caring for neighbors, faith in God and obedience to Jesus, these are some of the things that shape our days and order our lives. Some of them are pretty hardwired into the human condition-no one has to tell you that eating is important, or that love is a significant motivating force. But the less basic goals, the more philosophical questions of life, those require more tending, and more discernment. Which is part of what I think Paul is getting at in Romans 12. “Do not be transformed to this world, but be transformed, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
We live in a world that greatly desires to shape our behavior and decide on goals for us. Advertisers spend billions to persuade us that we should buy one basically identical phone or washer or dryer or car over another, to add extraneous bells and whistles to our lives. And that would be bad enough if we were just called to useless consumption. But the desires of the world are much more pernicious. It is coming up to election season now, and there are some very interesting things on the August ballot here in St. Louis, and so we are seeing political campaigns setting up dualities between the good candidates and the bad, between the right and wrong way to vote on Amendments on transportation, dog breeding, and farming, and the mudslinging locally is nothing compared to the attempts that will fly this fall asking us to conform to the model image of Democrat or Republican, fitting ourselves into the mold of a party. Even deeper, wars in Iraq, in Ukraine, in Syria, in Nigeria, and other hot spots around the world remind us of the violence that permeates our society, and they remind us that the world assumes we must solve problems with force and death, rather than with love and hope. Victory is the goal we are always supposed to seek.
And we in the church can fall into these molds- measuring success based on dollars or bodies, falling into corporate values and conventional social structures, to forget Jesus' revolutionary message about the poor, about widows and orphans, and become a country club for middle class comfortable people, or an arm of politics, taking sides in battles over government, instead seeking first our real priorities of love of neighbor and praise to God. It is never easy to know what is good and acceptable and perfect-the will of God. We have to listen, and pay attention, and turn back. And it is because of this desire to wrestle, to struggle, to dance with the world, which so deeply wants us to conform, that we set vision for ourselves as a church. Vision is the practice of remembering again and again what we are supposed to be doing, to take stock again in the body we have created together, and ask 'are we acting according to the will of God?' So we come together, and ask the question asked of Jesus in Mark 12.
What is the greatest commandment? Mark 12:29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And so we will try, in the weeks to come, to consider how we might live this out together, seeking the vision that calls us forward, a peculiar people living in an upsidedown kingdom. In the name of Jesus, Amen!
SLMF is beginning a summer sermon series on visioning. I wanted to include my sermons here so people who miss out can read them if they are interested.
You might be curious why we're starting a conversation about vision today, which is a fair question. Let me tell you! Last spring, we had two significant congregational conversations going at the same time.
The Building Committee reflected on our building-whether the space we meet fits our needs now, and will into the future. They put together a wonderful report that you should read you haven't already, it is a really useful document. The very quick summary is that we think the church building basically serves our needs now, and will likely serve our needs for the next 5-10 years, unless we have significant congregational growth-basically doubling in size. In that case, we might need to consider moving buildings or some sort of expansion at our current location, like reformatting our sanctuary.
At the same time, we spent time talking about whether to hire Jennifer Harris Dault as our associate pastor. This was a choice to stretch ourselves financially and spiritually, with the hopes of bringing her gifts to the congregation, so that we might expand our ministry and strengthen our momentum. At the last business meeting, we decided to step out in faith, and see if she, and we, could raise the money to allow her to expand ministry in the congregation. She is hopeful that she will hit her target before the August 15th goal.
And while these were both very good conversations, another theme came up as we talked about our building and about our staffing needs- The theme was this- it is hard to answer questions about staffing and space without knowing who we want to be as a congregation-without knowing where we are falling short, what new things we might do, and what old things we might let go of. A number of us mentioned that it felt like we needed to check in with one another about where we felt God calling in our congregational life. And that made sense to me, and it made sense to LCG, so that's what we're going to do now!
At our congregational retreat at Cuivre River State park the weekend after Labor Day-actually, speaking of retreat, I hope it's on everyone's calendars-it's free for all, and is always a wonderful time! Anyway, at retreat, we are bringing in Roland Kuhl, a professor of Missional Church theology and practice, as well as a Mennonite pastor, to lead our conversations, and for the rest of the summer, we are going to talk together as a way of preparing for that gathering.
A brief outline-over the next 5 Sundays, we're going to look at 5 questions:
1) Who We Are Right Now-what does SLMF look like today?
2) How we Got Here-what history brought us to this point?
3) How should we be? A reflection on best practices of successful churches.
4) What should we do? A reflection on what tasks we ought to be working on right now.
5) And finally, How can I help? A reflection on the particular gifts we as individuals bring to this work.
So that's the outline. But I do want to say a couple more things as we begin.
1) I know that it's summer, which means that lots of us will be in and out, which is fine. Each sermon should be self contained, and hopefully useful and interesting in and of itself, and retreat should be meaningful regardless of how much of this you get.
2) I know that not everyone is interested in vision. I've heard a little grumbling from a number of you, who suggest this isn't exactly their cup of tea, which is fine. It will all be over soon! But I am going to try and keep this interesting to everyone. I want this to be useful to everyone from the people who helped found the congregation to visitors here on their 1st Sunday. So I'll try to keep it light, Bible focused, and useful beyond just the congregational setting.
3) I also want to keep us focused-I don't want to try and reinvent the wheel. We know in broad strokes what we are called to do-you might remember my sermon from earlier this summer. We connect to God, we connect with one another, and we serve the world. Every Church on the planet is working on these three basic tasks. The question for SLMF is whether there are some specific ways we as an institution might spend our energy in the next couple of years that we haven't collectively agreed to yet.
4) I want to make this collaborative. There will be times for smaller groups in each of the sermons other than this one. This is our conversation, not my agenda!
5) On that note, if there are things we should really talk about-ideas that you think should be getting more play, things you're curious about, let me know! I love talking church with everyone, and I'd be happy to have coffee or lunch, or whatever, as would the LCG, who will be providing shape to our conversation, and if there are big ideas we should be considering, we want to get them on the table earlier rather than later.
That probably was more introduction than you needed or wanted, but sometimes I get caught up, and I like to start things off with directions! But before I close my sermon this morning, I wanted to think about this invitation to consider our vision from a little different perspective.
I've been thinking about why we chose goals, and set visions. When you think about your choices, your day to day practices, what comes to mind? What are the values that shape our practice? A desire for food and shelter, love of family and friends, the excitement of entertainment and the joy of play, a sense of purpose and a commitment to caring for neighbors, faith in God and obedience to Jesus, these are some of the things that shape our days and order our lives. Some of them are pretty hardwired into the human condition-no one has to tell you that eating is important, or that love is a significant motivating force. But the less basic goals, the more philosophical questions of life, those require more tending, and more discernment. Which is part of what I think Paul is getting at in Romans 12. “Do not be transformed to this world, but be transformed, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
We live in a world that greatly desires to shape our behavior and decide on goals for us. Advertisers spend billions to persuade us that we should buy one basically identical phone or washer or dryer or car over another, to add extraneous bells and whistles to our lives. And that would be bad enough if we were just called to useless consumption. But the desires of the world are much more pernicious. It is coming up to election season now, and there are some very interesting things on the August ballot here in St. Louis, and so we are seeing political campaigns setting up dualities between the good candidates and the bad, between the right and wrong way to vote on Amendments on transportation, dog breeding, and farming, and the mudslinging locally is nothing compared to the attempts that will fly this fall asking us to conform to the model image of Democrat or Republican, fitting ourselves into the mold of a party. Even deeper, wars in Iraq, in Ukraine, in Syria, in Nigeria, and other hot spots around the world remind us of the violence that permeates our society, and they remind us that the world assumes we must solve problems with force and death, rather than with love and hope. Victory is the goal we are always supposed to seek.
And we in the church can fall into these molds- measuring success based on dollars or bodies, falling into corporate values and conventional social structures, to forget Jesus' revolutionary message about the poor, about widows and orphans, and become a country club for middle class comfortable people, or an arm of politics, taking sides in battles over government, instead seeking first our real priorities of love of neighbor and praise to God. It is never easy to know what is good and acceptable and perfect-the will of God. We have to listen, and pay attention, and turn back. And it is because of this desire to wrestle, to struggle, to dance with the world, which so deeply wants us to conform, that we set vision for ourselves as a church. Vision is the practice of remembering again and again what we are supposed to be doing, to take stock again in the body we have created together, and ask 'are we acting according to the will of God?' So we come together, and ask the question asked of Jesus in Mark 12.
What is the greatest commandment? Mark 12:29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And so we will try, in the weeks to come, to consider how we might live this out together, seeking the vision that calls us forward, a peculiar people living in an upsidedown kingdom. In the name of Jesus, Amen!
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