On a recent coffee run I saw a sign at a local restaurant located near a major freeway.   “No Public Restroom (Customers Only),” it read.

The sign was posted on the front door where everyone would see it – in fact, that and the hours were the only things posted there.  It reminded me of a church I interviewed with years ago.  The church was having trouble reaching out to younger people, but when teens started hanging around outside the church so they had posted “no skateboarding” signs all over.  “They chip the steps,” I was told.  “Couldn’t you put a concrete repair line item in the budget and welcome them in?”  I asked.  Needless to say, I was not invited to pastor that church.

Isn’t there a way that the restaurant with the “no public restroom” sign could use the traffic to their advantage?

I’ve written previously about some issues we face again and again in the church I pastor.  One of them is a concern about the cost of food and drinks after worship.  “Can’t they eat at home?” some ask.  “What’s wrong with asking for a small donation for food – for those who really want to eat?”

We’ve found that when we don’t charge for things like coffee, snacks, paperback Bibles, devotional books and  sermon CDs, people feel welcomed and loved.  And they come back!  Our family grows and our financial needs are met.

Some time ago, I visited another restaurant – a Round Table Pizza – when I was on the freeway with a child whose bladder was about to explode.  They had a sign that said, “Our restrooms are for everyone.  If you’re not a customer on this visit, we hope that one day you will be.”

• Which sign had more impact?  (Note that I remember that Round Table Pizza restaurant and its sign years later.)
• Who made better use of their chance to interact with the public?
• What model is a better one for Christ’s church to emulate?
• What opportunities might we be missing right now???

When we’re planning an event at the church, someone will almost always say, “What if we advertise it and 5000 people come?  We won’t be able to handle it!”  My usual response is that “It hasn’t happened yet, even when we want to invite the whole community.”

Denny’s took a risk.  A big, expensive risk.  Would anyone come?  Would any of them come back?  What if too many people came and left mad?  What if they got bad press?

The way I see it, they couldn’t lose.  Either a) People would come and enjoy a good breakfast, learning where Denny’s was and what it offered or b) too many would show up making it a big media event – showing priceless images of people lining up around the block to eat at Denny’s.  Either way you win, right?  It was a gutsy move, and they hit a grand slam.  (Sorry, I couldn’t help it.)  I didn’t get a breakfast, but I wasn’t angry – it wasn’t Denny’s fault!

Usually in the church, we play it safe.  That means when we accomplish out goals, not much happens.  What if we tried to be like Denny’s?  After all, our “CEO” rewards those who step out in faith!

“Ye know not what ye ask.” Matthew 20:22
There are times in spiritual life when there is confusion, and it is no way out to say that there ought not to be confusion. It is not a question of right and wrong, but a question of God taking you by a way which in the meantime you do not understand, and it is only by going through the confusion that you will get at what God wants.
(You can read the whole devotional at myutmost.org)

I understand that confusion thing.  My life as a pastor and the life of the church I serve are both a bit confusing right now.  Along with some amazing things that are happening, there are some other things happening that are really confusing.  Things are complicated…

I’ve prayed about it, and I have felt reassured.  God seems to be saying that we will be transformed by this confusing journey.  I will be transformed as a pastor – growing into what I am meant to be.  And our church will be transformed as well – letting go of our fear and growing into the mission we have been given.  But first, we have to go through the confusing time and see, in time, how God comes through or us.  In that way, we’ll learn faith – both the church and I will.

God has done this before and I expect that God will do it again.  In the middle of it, it’s confusing and stressful.  Later, it’s clear and peaceful.  I believe that God will continue to do this until it’s not stressful for the church or for me – until we can trust not only after the confusion is resolved, but in the midst of it.  OK, God.  Your will be done!

Edith Whitney at 102

My grandmother died almost two weeks ago now at 102, and I now have the bittersweet task of officiating at her memorial service.  My grandmother didn’t have an easy life.  As a polio survivor, her reaction time was slow and her sense of balance was unreliable.  She lived with a lot of pain at various points in her life.  But her faith kept her going.

Sometimes as a pastor, I find myself trying to package the good news of the gospel in ways that people can hear it.  So many words we use have been co-opted or redefined in ways that turn them into bad news.  But the truth can be so very simple.  My grandmother made it simple.  In a journal my sister gave her there was a place to fill in “something I would like you to know about me.”  Here’s what she led with:

I found Jesus.  Without Him, life would have no meaning.  Someday He will come for me and I will go to my real home.  Don’t grieve for me, but rejoice for I will now be happy. No more pain, tears nor handicaps.

It was so simple for her.  She never doubted that she would step out of this life and into the waiting arms of the Lord when her day came.  Now it has come.  We will shed our tears because there is a hole now in the place she held in our lives.  But she is now free.  Her pain is gone.  Her tears have been wiped away.  I can be happy for her and miss her terribly at the same time.

Please pray for me as I lead the memorial service this Saturday.  It is an honor but also a difficult task.

They started with some basic, practical ideas.  We’d like to have some younger people in the church.  We’d like to be able to meet our current budget.  (They church was a long way from that back in 2003 and was using a bequest to make up the shortfall.)  We need a new generation of leaders.  Then the big dreams started – we’d like to have an associate pastor.  We need a new church building – but let’s keep the existing one too.

Everyone was excited about those ideas then.  But it hadn’t occurred to me that part of the reason dreaming is fun is that the dream is not going to become real.  You don’t have to deal with the details, the scary parts, or what you might lose if the dream came true…

What’s happened at our church is that it looks like we will actually need a larger space in the not-so-distant future.  What will we do?  Dreams are a lot of fun.  Solving real space, staffing, and budget problems is real work!  Our church leadership will have to be very careful to bring along the whole congregation as we work toward being the church we’re called to be!

July 18th’s morning reading from Morning and Evening:

“They shall go hindmost with their standards.” — Numbers 2:31

The camp of Dan brought up the rear when the armies of Israel were on the march. The Danites occupied the hindmost place, but what mattered the position, since they were as truly part of the host as were the foremost tribes; they followed the same fiery cloudy pillar, they ate of the same manna, drank of the same spiritual rock, and journeyed to the same inheritance. Come, my heart, cheer up, though last and least; it is thy privilege to be in the army, and to fare as they fare who lead the van. Some one must be hindmost in honour and esteem, some one must do menial work for Jesus, and why should not I? In a poor village, among an ignorant peasantry; or in a back street, among degraded sinners, I will work on, and “go hindmost with my standard.”

The Danites occupied a very useful place. Stragglers have to be picked up upon the march, and lost property has to be gathered from the field. Fiery spirits may dash forward over untrodden paths to learn fresh truth, and win more souls to Jesus; but some of a more conservative spirit may be well engaged in reminding the church of her ancient faith, and restoring her fainting sons. Every position has its duties, and the slowly moving children of God will find their peculiar state one in which they may be eminently a blessing to the whole host.

The rear guard is a place of danger.There are foes behind us as well as before us. Attacks may come from any quarter. We read that Amalek fell upon Israel, and slew some of the hindmost of them. The experienced Christian will find much work for his weapons in aiding those poor doubting, desponding, wavering, souls, who are hindmost in faith, knowledge, and joy. These must not be left unaided, and therefore be it the business of well-taught saints to bear their standards among the hindmost. My soul, do thou tenderly watch to help the hindmost this day.

There are some big churches who seem to be marching in to conquer the Promised Land with great resources,  filled with capable people who seem to have it all together.  But many of us smaller churches find ourselves in the tribe of Dan’s position – bringing up the rear and gathering those who have wandered away or who have been left behind in the march. We have an awful lot of people in our congregation who have been hurt by churches. Welcoming them is a really important calling, and one that smaller churches may be uniquely qualified to handle.

It may not be glamorous, but Jesus had different ideas about position and status than we do. In Matthew 19:30, he tells us that “many who are last will be first and many who are first will be last.”  I believe that helping those who have been left behind by those ahead is something Jesus celebrates.

Have you thought of starting a new (small) church? I love the idea of small churches being so appealing that they multiply like bunnies.

It’s really a reasonable thing to think about too – a different model for ministry.  Assuming that God continues to bring growth, there will probably come a time when our church would make the decision to start a new church rather than growing endlessly…

In fact, someone who has been through a similar transition with a church suggested that we consider allowing the older people to have their more traditional church and taking the younger people to start anew church.  But we believe we are called to be a multigenerational church – which is counter-cultural and not the easiest way to grow a church in a world where many seek “instant community” through a common context.

You could still split a church to form two small churches that could seek to serve God in their own separate ways.  I think if we served a large geographic area, that would be a very wise thing to do. But right now, I think we want to stay together and gro together.  Also, we have a pretty big vision.  We see more unmet need in our community than we have resources to address.  We have more ideas for ways to help people grow and serve than we have people to lead them.  And we have have yet to reach a critical mass of younger families and young adults.  We thank God for the pioneers who don’t have to be part of a larger group, but we know that people are more comfortable in a community when there are others their age in the mix.  We strive for diversity and also for enough people that people can also find others who share things in common with them.  (Right now, several parents are helping each other with childcare, for example.)

So I won’t rule it out, but I don’t think that we’re being called to start another small church right now.  It will be very interesting to see what God does.

For those who are interested, we decided yesterday to start a Sunday evening worship service at 5:00 p.m., followed immediately by the Alpha Course (at least for the first 12 weeks).

You can read an article on my talk “Pastor Advocates Speedboat Ministry” at the Presbyterian Outlook Website.  Feel free to comment!  The comments on this site were broken, but KC Wahe clued me in and they’re fixed now.

Our church has experienced a lot of growth lately and we’re having growing pains.  That’s partly because our building is way too small.  It was built in a time when a) churches didn’t have parking lots – they expected to fill the whole property with buildings and b) neighborhood churches were the thing.  There was a plan for a bigger building across what is now grass and parking lot, (it would never be approved under current building codes), but the small “chapel” that was built first was the only worship space that ever made it off the drawing board.  On Christmas Eve or Easter or at the memorial service of a beloved person we can fit 144 people in the pews (6 per small pew), but nobody will sit at that density the rest of the time.  The more realistic four per pew yields 96.  The subtract the first three pews that nobody wants to sit in (maybe they don’t think I bathe) and you have 72.

We almost always have more than 72 people.  Adding the Trinity Cafe, our video venue with coffee and snacks, we can get 120 people on a good Sunday at our 9:00 service.  At 11:00, people don’t sit in the cafe so it’s stuck at about 100 tops.

So we need to do something to make space to grow God’s family!  How do you do that in a small building?  The simplest plan is to add another worship service.  That means either reworking the Sunday morning schedule and maybe shrinking the existing services and fellowship time to make it all fit.  Or it could mean installing seating that would allow more people in the same space (you can fit 20% more people in separate chairs than you can in pews).  Or it could mean moving an existing worship service off site to a bigger space.

The things least likely to mess up what we’ve got going already are adding a new evening worship service and changing the seating in our sanctuary.  Adding a service is a big commitment and it requires a number of committed people to keep it going.  Buying new chairs is expensive (maybe $20,000 to get 150 nice-looking, comfortable seats with wooden legs that hook together).  I find both of those daunting – mostly because the needed resources are out of my control.

There’s that word again!  We’re called to make leaps of faith and to allow God to do great things, but God rarely writes the plans in the clouds of the sky or delivers the plan engraved in stone tablets.

We meet tomorrow to see what the group’s discernment (fancy theological word for looking for God’s will) has been.  We may be able to make a decision and then move ahead with making it happen.  I’ll keep you posted.

What we’re not going to do is sit idly by and allow the momentum that God has provided to die.  We do not plan to “quench the Spirit.”  We will do something and it will be risky.  But – whether it succeeds wildly or fizzles – God will be there with us.

If you read this, please pray for us (and me personally) as we step out in faith!  Where are you headed, Lord?  We want to follow you there!

So last night, I was trying to figure out what “I need to do to fix this.”  That usually leads me to a bad place emotionally and spiritually so I thought it would be great to get up early with Eleanor and pray.  But I didn’t.

When I did get up, I was focused on all of the things everyone needed to do.  But in the background of my mind was a message I hadn’t noticed.  The kids at church had sung a song for Mother’s Day on Sunday, and it was running in the back of my mind, as a soundtrack for my own internal conversation.  “Our God is a great big God.  Our God is a great big God.  Our God is a great big God and he holds us in his hands.”

God has a plan, and God will hold our church and me as we move ahead in the things that God has planned for us.

Well, it’s not over.  Since I’m a white man, people sometimes think its safe to make racist comments to me. The vast majority of people don’t, but every so often someone does. And that means we haven’t arrived yet.

As a pastor, I am acutely aware of the cultural divisions in our society and how they affect the church. The old saying is that Sunday morning at 11:00 is the most segregated hour of the week. That’s not 100% true, but the effort to build multicultural churches isn’t an easy one. It’s much easier to gather around people who have as many things in common with us as possible. For example, many new “start-up” churches are built around that concept – build community around middle class parents between 25 and 45 with children between 1 and 10 – usually without a lot of cultural diversity. The families all share a very similar context so it’s easy for them to understand each other, make connections, and form community.

The problem is that the Body of Christ is made up of many different parts. Where do older people fit in? Or young adults? Or unmarried people? Or people struggling financially? Or people from other cultures?

I firmly believe that the church is at its strongest when it embraces diversity. Our Christian faith is enough to unite us. And when more voices are present in the conversation, we can challenge each other. We can challenge stereotypes and assumptions about who “the others” are.

And there’s a strictly practical reason too. Increasingly, American families are mixed. My wife is Mexican-American and my kids all have the middle name “Mendoza.” Our church is drawing more and more couples of mixed racial-ethnic backgrounds. Are we going to create a separate church for 50-50 European and Mexican background families like mine? Obviously that makes no sense. It’s impossible!

But becoming multicultural means giving up some amount of comfort. You don’t have “instant community.” Sometimes we have to work at it. For example, it’s not possible for every part of worship to speak equally to every person. Sometimes, something will be in a language that we don’t understand. Or a tradition will be unfamiliar and possibly uncomfortable. But we can learn from each other! And over time, we find the beauty in traditions that others bring.

Trinity’s church board has made a commitment to becoming a multicultural church. It won’t be easy. But it wasn’t easy to get from where we were 50 years ago to where we are today. Dr. King and those who worked with him were able to see a possible future that didn’t yet exist, and many paid a high price for that vision. The price to continue their work today is much lower because of the strides that have already been made, and the potential payoff is great.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12

I look forward to seeing Christ’s Church lead the way in bringing people together to become the very different, equally necessary, parts of the body of Christ.

Which is why the dinner conversation I had was so surprising.  At one of our meals, I had a conversation with two men from big churches who told me that the most important thing a church can do to attract people is to have a polished worship service.  You need professional-quality musicians, and if you can’t get them, you must do simple music.  “Aunt Millie missing every third note is not OK anymore.”

Yikes!  So the church is just like the rest of the world.  If you’re not sufficiently talented, you can’t serve.  And instead of having something that’s more real than what we find in the rest of the world, we must emulate it…  I just don’t think that’s what people are looking for.  I think they want worship that’s authentic and sincere.  Scratch that.  They need worship that’s authentic and sincere.  It’s not an infomercial for Jesus.  It’s where we have an experience of God’s presence, where we connect with God’s people, where we see a different kind of life demonstrated.  If what we demonstrate in worship is the same message that the wealthy, the beautiful, the talented are worth more than others, we have failed.

Yes, worship should glorify God, but I don’t think that towering spires, perfectly produced music, and seamless transitions between worship elements are the things that please God.

To quote the prophet Micah,

“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8)

Shouldn’t worship be about doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God too?

Jesus didn’t mention polish and “quality” when he spoke about worship.  He said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:24)

Let’s not clone the world and adopt its tactics.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God– what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)  Let’s keep demonstrating that we’re different because we know Jesus, making space for God to transform the lives of those who worship, and go out to change the world!