Something Has to Change!
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)
“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17)
How does my faith in God make a difference in the violence in our community that leads to homicide, family mourning, and growing fears of simply being in my own house? I’ve had enough of the ongoing economic instability combined with news of the surge and wane of COVID. I’ve grown almost numb to floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. The ongoing war in Ukraine with its geo-political consequences has faded into the background, except when I’m at the gas pump, and for those that rely on food supply chains from Europe. Vitriol and discord in my news feed and a political divide that is only becoming more polarized has pushed me away from social media.
This is the backdrop against which we live and work these days. It is the context in which I as a pastor have wrestled with how to minister and support our church and each of you. Sometimes it’s hard not to just be cynical.
Something needs to change! We’re tired! We can’t keep doing this. These are the sentiments many of us feel, some of which are at the heart of why some are leaving the broader “C”hurch. Where’s God in the middle of all this pain and strife? Why does He allow it? And what difference does a Sunday service make? Or my faith in general?
Short Term
As pastors, we’ve encouraged John Eldridge’s routine of benevolent detachment, and many of you really took that to heart. We simply are not wired to carry the burdens outlined above in ongoing, ever-increasing ways. The burdens, and the solutions, are best left in God’s hands more often than we do. Sometimes we just need to be reminded that we are seen and loved! You are! Please keep practicing this exercise of benevolent detachment and grow in your trust that God can and will carry these burdens for us and better than we can.
Long Term
But I know that detachment is not a long-term solution. We still want to try and make a difference. The driving question has been how do we engage in our community in fruitful and productive ways and not ask more of ourselves when we’re already stretched thin and exhausted? So many of us are tired, burnt out, or over-committed, and while we desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves, the opportunity or even will to connect and serve eludes many of us. The church is cultivating some of several opportunities to serve, but often it’s out of the leftovers of our time and energy that we have to decide where to engage.
Benevolent detachment will, if observed regularly, create some margin for us to hear more clearly from God on what we can do while knowing we don’t have to fix it in our strength. But, in recognition that we know more is needed, we as leaders of your church want to try some new engagement strategies as well.
The combination of reasons has led us to make plans for adaptive reuse of 1 Sunday a month. We’ve chosen 2nd Sundays for planning purposes. The main idea is to use the time we are already together and focus on outreach, service, and learning opportunities that we believe can put faith into action and help us feel like we’re doing something to address the mess.
Context & Terms
I define our community in 2 ways: 1. Our immediate church community. We want to keep growing in our awareness of needs, ways to meet those needs, and the interpersonal aspects of building relationships among us that will cross divides and foster healing and wholeness. We need to make space for that in ways that don’t add more to your plate but do get us all engaged. 2. The community we are situated in. Our geographic, and social location needs to continue driving more of who we are, and what we do. We want to reach into, and serve our community and draw more people into the hope of Jesus Christ that we share together.
We define “doing something” as engaging our hands (activity) and being more interactive (i.e. engaged) with each other. The primary change you will notice is with the structure of 2nd Sundays. We have yet to work out all the plans for each one, but we anticipate a variety of different things. For instance:
One Sunday could include a round table or town hall style of sharing about needs from people in the various agencies/organizations we’re partnering with. We’ll make space for Q&A in addition to focused sharing.
One Sunday we might be assembling books bags, or care packages, or food baskets.
One Sunday we could be walking the neighborhood either engaged in cleanup or prayer or both.
Each of the 2nd Sundays will vary in format, but the goal will always be active over passive participation, and more focus on building partnerships with our community and raising awareness of the partnerships we have. A hoped-for byproduct is that we get to know each other better on the journey.
Why Sundays? It is a time when we’re all together already, and most of us make church acitivies a priority. We believe that part of learning is doing, and actively engaging one Sunday a month is a form of exercising our faith that will enhance, not detract from our spiritual formation. And we simply don’t want to keep doing things as usual and expecting something to change. We want to try something new.
Practicing what we Preach
Big picture, we have talked a lot of our theme this year of becoming a truly beloved community. We want to live this out and reach outside the walls of the church to do so. Thematically, our emphasis in recent years has been focused on matters of justice and righteousness. We have pressed deeply into understanding racism and its impact on community, culture, and our church. We have pressed deeply into gender discrimination and understanding violence against women. We will be digging more deeply this fall into poverty and its devastating impact on families, children, and communities at large. And, of course, we have pressed deeply into how to live a life that addresses all these with the character and heart of Christ as our goal for spiritual formation.
Fostering an alternative use of 2nd Sundays will allow us to actively practice what we have preached in a sustainably engaging way. And we won’t be starting from scratch. Over the years we have cultivated many relationships within our City/community. We have also started several ministries. However, some of you know little or nothing about many of these. We have struggled to build effective partnerships in recent years (let’s be fair and remember COVID interrupted some of this) and communicate about each of them.
Who Are We Connected to?
We have started the Immigration Legal Services and have served hundreds of individuals and many families with expert advice and wisdom on navigating the complex process of immigration. We want to learn more from ILS, partner better, and find ways to become knowledgeable advocates for immigration reform.
More recently we have created a Community Development Corporation and are building relationships with people in the Marketview Heights and Beechwood neighborhoods as we prayerfully seek opportunities to use that tool (the CDC) for ministry. It is already bearing fruit in new relationships and support for the community garden on First Street in the Marketview Heights neighborhood.
We continue to have a relationship and partnership with Family Promise of Greater Rochester. They serve families in housing crisis and transition. Our ongoing partnership has changed from hosting families they serve 4 times a year in our building, to now finding new ways to serve those families by volunteering time, money, and talent to meet their ongoing needs. We will be raising more awareness and communicating those opportunities more clearly as part of a 2nd Sunday format.
We have new opportunities to partner with the schools, particularly East High School and School 33. Those partnerships have been facilitated by Bill & Nicky Gibbons, and we will cultivate those opportunities more this fall. The needs of children and families outside our church are more accessible through the schools and it is simply one of the best ways to address poverty, meet social and educational needs, and overall to connect to our community. It is also one of the best ways to change the long-term trajectory for kids and their future by investing in their education and removing barriers to the same.
We also have tremendous resources within our church community that we want to tap more effectively. Pastor Marissa and a few other church members lead the Genesis Justice Network for the Genesis Conference of the Free Methodist Church. There are a lot of ways we can learn through this network about how to be more aware of historic implicit bias, and how racism has historically undermined the ministry and influence of the church. In our goal of becoming a truly beloved community that reflects the multi-cultural, ethnic, and diverse racial composition of eternity, we simply must be committed to overcoming the barriers, both implicit and explicit, that undermine our efforts to live into it now.
To be sure, we cannot all do everything that is available. However, the goal is for everyone to do something periodically. Our commitment as leaders and pastors is to facilitate those opportunities that both fit our mission, and lead to both short and long-term impact. Thus, our 2nd Sundays will build around these existing partnerships and resources.
What Else is Coming?
We’ll build a monthly rhythm that largely follows our Mission Statement where:
1st Sunday’s we “Love God”: A Traditional service with Communion
2nd Sunday’s we “Serve the World”: An alternative gathering focused on raising awareness, and actually engaging in activities that put our love into action
3rd & 4th Sundays we “Love Each Other”: Traditional and non-traditional services that serve to also cultivate the other parts of the mission.
In September we will also re-engage our small groups after a small break in August. Small groups will continue to form the foundation of our relationships and are the primary ways in which we hope to draw new people in and grow in faith and Christ likeness.
We expect to offer ongoing children’s ministry opportunities most Sundays, as well as Bible Quizzing for youth each week. In addition to Bible Quizzing, we are making plans for a youth ministry this fall that will complement Bible Quizzing and be available to youth ages 6-12 grade who need another place to grow in their faith journey with peers.
Periodically throughout the year, we’ll be offering newcomer orientations, membership classes, and Alpha groups for new believers. We’ll be continuing with some form of fellowship gatherings for fun on Friday evenings. We’ll host special speakers, offer virtual viewings of various conferences, and promote other learning and enrichment opportunities such as hosting the Perspectives Course again starting in January.
I hope this gives you a little insight into how we are hoping to equip, resource, and help you, and your family, and any friends you invite to grow in your faith journey this year. We know that you are busy. All of these activities, and ministries will be evaluated on the basis of their effectiveness, sustainability, and participation. Will you pray with me for ongoing clarity and Holy Spirit guidance?
I’m with you!
I feel your burden and work hard to not carry my own. Benevolent detachment has been a huge help to me. But, I also want my faith to make a difference. I want to shepherd your desire for the same without layering on more than most of us can handle.
As a church, we want you to know that you are loved and that your gifts and talents are part of God’s plan for building His Kingdom in spite of any sense of feeling like it doesn’t matter or you’re not really making a difference. Those gifts, talents, and resources are often best put to work right where you are, and our efforts at engaging with our community on 2nd Sundays will hopefully inspire and equip you to be even more engaged in your everyday ministry/work, with hope, including right in your home.
You are loved, and our driving motivation is to make sure you know that; in addition to helping you find ways to demonstrate that love to our community. If it feels like too much, let us know. And if for any reason you feel like we’re simply not seeing or understanding your needs, I would be honored to know that as well. We serve our Lord together, and when any one of us feels like we’re not connected to the whole, we will atrophy and become discouraged. We can avoid that by sharing and working together to make sure we are all seen, heard, cherished, and loved.
You are loved!
Pastor Scott