Still Living in the Tension

 

I began my professional ministry in 1969.  I was called to youth ministry at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, located just south of Perry County, where the Saxon Lutherans established their first church and seminary.  Lutheran tradition ran deep in Cape Girardeau.  It was a town of 35,000 with four active and growing Lutheran Church Missouri Synod congregations, plus a Lutheran campus center that served the students of Southeast Missouri State University.

Trinity was not only the largest Lutheran congregation in town, but one of the largest in the LCMS.  There were three traditional services held each Sunday.  All three were well attended.  The 11 am service was broadcast live over the local radio station. 

I immediately sensed a tension.  Winds of change were wrestling among the teens.  Part of it was having a youth center that was located just a block from a major state university.  The Jesus Movement was beginning.  That was happening amid anxiety over the Viet Nam war and racial conflict.  The reality that the town was highly segregated was obvious to the kids who made up my flock.

There was fresh spirit among the kids.  They were very much aware of the guitar driven music of the of the Jesus Movement.  I had been introduced to contemporary Christian music in my youth ministry classes in college.  Now it was avital part of my ministry. 

It did not go on noticed, and quickly led to a response, “It is okay in the youth room but don’t even think about bringing those guitars into the sanctuary.” 

It was not just worship style that caused tension.  My youthful flock was very aware of the cultural tensions.  We actively discussed the issues in the youth room.  We did Bible studies on how scripture applied to the issues of the day.  The core group of youth leaders had grown up in the church and attended the parish school.  Lutheran sacramental theology was in their blood, but so was a desire to speak to the needs of a changing world.

Reflecting, more professional church workers came out of those three years than in the rest of my ministry combined.

I share these memories now because in many ways the same anxiety still exists today. 

Our church body still is in tension.  How do we maintain our rich theological tradition and still meet the needs of contemporary culture?  How do we navigate change while staying true to our heritage? 

People often asked me about my feelings on the church, particularly the future of the LCMS.  I see the reality of a denomination that like other Protestant bodies has been in decline for decades.

My experience tells me that we are going to be okay.  I say that because I am confident God has me, in the palm of His hand.  God is faithful.  We need to personally stay faithful and focus first and foremost on our own relationship with Him. 

I say this reflecting on 55+ years of ministry.  I have seen many changes, including a split that deeply affected the church and impacted my own family.  I have seen leaders come and go.  Each decade seemed to have a new program that was going to impact and change things. 

Through it all I have been okay, because my God is faithful. 

We just need to tone down the voices and listen more to the Spirit of God.

 

He Made us Uncomfortable

 

The tension was high in the boarding area as I waited to board a flight back to Dallas.  The increased anxiety was brought about by an approaching storm.  The sky was darkening outside. People checked the weather app on their phones. It was obvious our flight was going to be delayed. 

Above the anxious murmurs came a boisterous plea, “Can anybody tell me the gate for the flight to LaGuardia.”  It was the distinctive “New York accent” that caught my attention.

The lack of a response caused an additional, “Can somebody help me.  I need to catch the flight to LaGuardia.  It’s an airport in New York.”

I looked up and immediately identified the source.  He was wearing a Yankee’s cap and T-shirt.  My life experience also told me he was likely a functioning autistic adult. 

There was a sense of uneasiness in the gate area. All seemed uncomfortable and threatened by the man. 

Suddenly a strong female voice, addressed him.  “I can help you, but you need to come over here.”  It was a Southwest Airlines gate agent.  She called to the man but was also headed in his direction.

Once at the podium, their conversation was not private.  He used the same animated tone.  I was close enough to hear her calm response. “Can I see your boarding pass.”  Once that was secured, she was able to reassure the man that he was at the right gate, but the flight did not leave for another two hours.  Other flights would leave from that gate before then.  She also explained the weather, “there might be a delay in your flight.”

She pointed to an open chair that was convenient to the podium.  “Wait there, and we will keep you informed.”

“Thank you!” the man proclaimed in the same unsettling tone.

I had observed but I also took time to reflect.

We are surrounded by people who are calling for help.  Often their cries make us uncomfortable.  Because of their demeanor, their skin color, their ethnicity or social status, we ignore, or turn away.  All of us in the gate area heard his cry, only one person responded.  She also had the information needed.

What the man required was someone to listen to him, to hear his problem and help him find his way.  Basically, he needed to be reassured he was okay.

During his earthly ministry, many times Jesus interrupted his journey because someone was calling out in a voice of panic and pain. He always stopped and rendered aid.  In some cases, the demeanor or physical state of the person made the disciples anxious. 

I believe he is calling us to do the same.  It might make us uncomfortable, but that should never keep us from being Jesus to others.  By showing care and compassion, we might nudge them closer to a personal relationship with The Savior.

 

Family Legacy

 

As I write this, I am concluding a brief trip to Michigan where I joined with others in celebrating the 50^th anniversary of my brother Jim’s ordination in the pastoral ministry.  It was great family gathering has my siblings and I had the opportunity to spend some time together.  It also served as a reminder of how blessed we are as a family.  We all have various aches and pains that accompany the senior years, but we are all still relatively healthy and mobile. 

The reunion caused me to reflect on our family’s ministry legacy.  In addition to my brother Jim and his pastoral ministry, my sister, Carol, is a retired Lutheran educator and my brother David, while not in full-time ministry, has always been an active layman, singing in the church choir and currently serving as an elder in his congregation.

It continues with the next generation.  All three of our children are in full-time ministry and so are my brother Jim’s, his son is a Lutheran school principal and daughter a director of family ministry.  My brother David’s son in also an ordained pastor, in addition to his full-time job. 

Recently our son Peter’s oldest boy started a DCE internship at a church, making us a three-generation DCE family.  While Peter is a pastor, prior to that he was a certified DCE. 

I share this not to be boasting, but rather to focus on our faith legacy.  I point to my parents, and before that my grandparents and aunt and uncle.  While none of them were trained ministry professionals, they were all involved in the life of the church.  Faith, church and family were the cornerstones of our existence.  Church attendance was not an option.  Family celebrations were an opportunity to celebrate faith milestones. 

I view three things as being vital if the faith legacy is to be passed on.

The foundation is personal faith.  It begins with daily devotions, prayer and personal Bible study.  It also requires that we be in community, in terms of worship and Bible study. We need people to hold us personally accountable.

Secondly, it requires intentionally passing on our faith heritage.  That requires both intentional teaching and modeling faith in action.

Lastly, we must live grace-fully.  Family life can be messy.  Siblings do not always see eye to eye on issues.  Feelings can get hurt, but we must always be quick to forgive.  Healing always begins with us and our relationship with Christ.  The fact that Jesus is Our Lord and Savior is the most important fact.  We always live under grace.

I become more aware of this as I age, joyfully waiting in expectation to join those who have gone before me in the heavenly choir.

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily Newspaper

 

We are one of the few families in our neighborhood that still has a daily newspaper delivered in the morning.  Five days a week I retrieve it from the driveway.  The other mornings it is delivered online.  I will be honest.  I do not like reading online versions.  I am old school and prefer to hold it in my hand while I sip my coffee.  Somehow, that feels more personal, and I feel a connection to the writer.  I do not mind shopping online or even reading the baseball scores that way, but my connection to the news must be more intimate.

My relationship to the daily paper goes back to my childhood.  In those days our family had two papers delivered daily.  The Detroit Free Press came in the morning and The Detroit News in the afternoon.  I will admit, The Free Press was my favorite.  I could always count on reading about the previous night’s games. It was a great way to start the day. 

For a time, I even delivered The Detroit Free Press.  That meant getting up at 5 am.  The papers would be on our front porch, bound with wire. The papers had to be hand-folded and placed in a cloth bag that would hang from the handlebars of my bike.  I delivered over a hundred and fifty papers each morning, completing my route before 7:00 am.   I had a real connection with my customers too, because I had to stop by once a week to collect my fee, so I could pay my bill.  All the money leftover was my profit for the week, usually around twenty dollars.

Much has changed.  We pay an annual subscription fee, so I have no connection with the carrier who delivers the paper.  Also, the paper has gotten smaller.  They have eliminated the baseball box scores because people read those online.  There are also few classified ads, people do not list things for sale in the newspaper anymore.  Now we have Zip Recruiter and similar websites so there is not need for a “help wanted” section.

There is more than just nostalgia that keeps me committed to my daily paper.  Reading the daily paper provides me with a personal connection to the news.  There is also more depth than when I just watch the news on tv.  In addition, I can pause and reflect. 

Probably the biggest reason for continuing to subscribe to the Dallas Morning News is that I can hear opposing perspective.  My daily paper does a good job of making sure multiple voices are heard.  While I do not always agree, it is important that I hear and understand viewpoints that are different from my own.  I will never understand or value others unless I hear their story.

I truly believe that is what Jesus calls us to do.  During his earthly ministry he connected with all kinds of people, representing lot of religious and social perspectives.  Nothing is accomplished if we only hear from those who share our perspective or opinions.

Daily newspapers are disappearing.  Unfortunately, many communities are left with no local paper at all. We need to support and encourage the local papers that remain.  We need them to not only keep us informed but to help us understand each other.

 

 

 

 

Discipling the Next Generation

 

Reflecting on my years in youth ministry, I must admit I was more often motivated by numbers than I was in discipling teens.  Cutting myself some slack, there were some members of my youth group with whom I had a close relationship.  I was very intentional when it came to equipping them to live out their faith.  Still, I was very aware that in the eyes of others, especially the pastor and church leadership, I was going to be evaluated on the level of participation.  I also must confess that self-pride was involved when I met with peers and we started comparing numbers. 

These thoughts came to mind as I read a recent article published by the Barna Group.  Barna identified five measurable characteristics of a holistic and active faith.

 

Spiritual practice - Praying and reading the Bible regularly

Evangelism – Sharing faith with others

Service – Volunteer and use talents to serve others

Belonging – Spend time with church friends

Calling – Feel called to integrate their faith with future career plans

 

As I considered the list, I was drawn to the reality that those are the same characteristic. we look for in disciples across the generations.  I need to be striving for the same goals in my ministry to older adults.

In the case of the Barna report, while over half of Christian teens participate in youth group, only one in four (18%) showed signs of a holistic and active faith.

The unfortunate reality is that we, as a church, usually do a poor job of discipling people of all ages.  Again, we still are drawn to evaluate our ministry in terms of numbers.  These days, if we can just keep the pews full and the budget balanced, we feel we are doing okay. As a result, often our goal is to just keep people happy and maintain status quo, rather than reaching the lost. 

We must be discipling people of all ages, but especially the next generation, it needs to be a community effort.  While we might add staff members to coordinate youth and children’s ministry, we must be ready to partner with them in the effort.  Discipleship is a community responsibility. 

 

 

The Catholic Archdiocese of Metro Detroit is facing a situation that is too familiar among church bodies.  They are looking at declining numbers, combined with increasing costs to maintain decaying urban cathedrals.  The situation was recently the focus in an article by sociologist Ryan Burge.

For clarification, that Archdiocese includes six counties in the Detroit Metro area.  Four of those counties are experiencing growth, while the other two, including Wayne County, which includes the city itself, are in decline.  When you look at the numbers, the church should be poised for growth, but that is not the case.

In 2011, 238,000 Catholics attended mass on a regular basis.  By 2024 that number had declined to 138.000.  The report also notes that since 2000 the number of infant baptisms has shrunk from 18,300 to 5,300 in 2024.  At the same time the number of funerals has declined from 9,700 to 6,000.  Did you catch that, at the current rate, the number of births is not keeping up with the number of deaths. 

From a business perspective, this is not sustainable.  Too much money is being spent to prop up aging urban cathedrals and not enough to invest in growth in the suburbs.  Additionally, there are fewer parishioners to support the ministry. 

My own church body, The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, is facing a similar situation.  Today, the LCMS is half the size of what it was at its almost three million members in 1979.  Across the board, most urban congregations are struggling.  So are most rural and small-town churches.  The average congregation has less than a hundred people in worship on a typical Sunday.

In my opinion, too much attention, time and money is being spent to maintain what we have and not enough on growth.

In our case, the church’s leadership has shown through recent decisions, it is more interested in preserving tradition than it is on growth.  Notice I said traditions and not doctrine.  From my perspective, Lutheran theology is not the issue.  It is more an issue of practice, and how the Gospel message is presented. 

One reality is common among both the Catholics, the LCMS and other mainline denomination.  While maintaining our doctrine, we must become more focused on equipping the people we have to reach the lost around us. 

 

When someone recommends a book, I usually say thanks, but unless it is a topic that really excites me, I move on. When two or three people endorse a book it gets my attention. Such is the case with Joe Manchin’s new book, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense.

When someone recommends a book, I usually say thanks, but unless it is a topic that really excites me, I move on.  When two or three people endorse a book, it gets my attention.  Such is the case with Joe Manchin’s new book, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense.  To be honest, I have avoided most books written by politicians, but my friends insured me that this book was different. 

I admit that going in I knew very little about Senator Manchin.  I knew he was a democrat who had a reputation of being fiercely independent.  What impressed me early on in the book is how grounded and highly principled Joe Manchin is.  Raised in the Catholic tradition, he is also anchored in Christian principles.  I also valued the insights he provided on how we as a country can begin to heal from the current polarized environment.

At the close of the introduction, Joe Manchin shares his rules of the road that continue to guide his life.  One in particular caught my attention because I believe it holds the key to how our country might find its way again: “Listen with an open mind, embrace different perspectives and lead by bringing everyone to the table.”

During his time in Washington D.C., Joe Manchin made his home on a 65’ houseboat moored in a marina in the Potomac River.  He was known for hosting other members of congress from both parties.  Often over pizza and beer they would swap stories and share insights.  Joe Manchin wanted to hear all sides and never considered those from the other party to be the enemy.

Many years ago, on a visit to Williamsburg, Virginia I had the opportunity to have a meal at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern.  Early in the day, a tour guide had told us that it was George Washington favorite evening gathering spot.  Indeed, after all days debating foes in the Capital, Washington would hold court at night discussing the issues of the day informally with those who opposed him. 

It seems to me there is a powerful lesson here.  Our country just celebrated our 250^th Birthday, but to be honest my personal celebration was a bit subdued.  From my perspective, we are a divided nation.  We have established camps and find our greatest pleasure in hanging out with those who are like us.  The truth is we are a diverse country, but at the same time know very little about each other. 

We owe it to the next generation to learn from Joe Manchin and listen with an open mind, embrace different perspectives and making sure everyone has a place at the table.”  We need to find a way to be the United States again.