Supporting the Connectional Church

Supporting the Connectional Church: Why, Why Not & Because

Reverend Doctor C. Dennis Shaw, Retired Elder in the Mountain Sky Conference and a member of the Conference Council on Finance and Administration

This is a first in a series of thought pieces addressing elements of why and towards what end we are asked to support the United Methodist church beyond the local church.

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A frequent question in discussions of how we support the United Methodist Church beyond the local church is: “what does our church get back for paying our Mission Shares and Apportionment?”

I hear in the “what does our church get back” question, a “why” question. Help us understand “why” we support the Conference and levels beyond? Illustration: a university philosophy class had a one-word final exam: Why? A passing answer was “why not” but excellence was recognized when the answer was “Because.”

My answer to the “why” question is “because”, but I offer you more than one word.

Our “because” is we United Methodists are a connectional people. Connection is defined by the United Methodist Church as: “The principle, basic to The United Methodist Church, that all leaders and congregations are connected in a network of loyalties and commitments that support, yet supersede, local concerns.[1]” [Note:  footnotes do not automatically move you to the reference.  You will need to scroll down.  Sorry.]

Why do we support activities beyond the local church? “Because” it is who we are. We are a network, and within this network, we show loyalties and commitments to other United Methodist churches and other expressions of Methodism in other countries. Interestingly, this principle acknowledges that it both supports local concerns, but at times, supersede those same local concerns. I will return to this in another article, but not here.

As I read that UM definition of “connection” echoes of Jesus speaking of himself from John 15 as the true vine and how we are to remain in him merges in my head with Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 reminding us we are part of the body of Christ. If we remain in Christ and acknowledge we are part of the body of Christ, then the logic of connectedness through our denominational network suggests to me that our connectional understanding is grounded biblically. I will return to a biblical grounding in each article in this series.

Therefore, my “because” is because it is who we are: a connectional people, with a scriptural emphasis, and this principle was true in our creation story.

Duke theologian Laceye Warner writes: “The … heritage of Wesleyan, Methodists, and Evangelical United Brethren … emerged from a missional imperative ... This is distinctive since other denominational traditions often trace their roots to disagreements regarding confessional or doctrinal matters.”[2] Because it is who we are. It is a principle within the “method” that makes us “Methodists.”

I am mindful that “why not” in my philosophy illustration gets a passing grade and “why not” must be dealt with.

“Why not” and trust, most often the lack of trust, are related. Lack of trust rarely appears explicitly named in the unwillingness to share conversation. However, trust is in short supply across our nation and within our church. Laceye Warner, quoted earlier, observes that trust is presumed present in our overall connection, but “when trust is low, this becomes a weakness since there are few, if any clear structures for accountability that almost maintain the connection.”[3] I agree and expand that it is my take that what we don’t understand and when trust is not present there is an assumption of waste and lack of need. As I mentioned earlier, it is my plan that this piece will establish a baseline for discussion, but I will follow it up with other pieces addressing more specifically what the local church gets back. I believe it is considerable.

Our Book of Discipline places great emphasis missionally on both the local church and the Conference. The local church is “the basic unit in the connectional system” while at the same time, the Conference is understood as “the fundamental body.” Our mission statement reminds us that “Local churches and extension ministries of the Church provide the most significant arenas through which disciple-making occurs.”[4]

Disciple-making takes place at the local church (and extension ministries) but the equipping for that action is facilitated through development and deployment of leaders by the Conference. I believe the missional imperative for the Conference is leadership development and deployment and discuss it a little here.  My next article will focus on this more specifically. 

Fundamentally, the Wesleyan movement has understood sharing as a vital part of who we are. A favorite image of mine is a comparison of the Sea of Galilee with the Dead Sea. Both are nurtured by inflows of water from the River Jordan. But the Sea of Galilee releases what is received and gives back. The Dead Sea is not capable of this release, and the water that flows in, stays, to become brackish and filled with minerals. The Sea of Galilee teems with life, sustaining villages around its shores. The Dead Sea is just that: dead.

The Sea of Galilee is compelled to share, it is part of what it is. The Dead Sea is compelled to hoard, it is part of what it is. Part of who we are as Methodists, people who are part of a connection, says we are a people “connected in a network of loyalties and commitments that support, yet supersede, local concerns.” Our support is a both/and – both local and global. There are places around our world where the connection teems with life, sustaining others around its shore.

Again, I plan for this article to be an intellectual grounding in “why” and will unpack in a series to follow more specifically what is it the local church gets back from Mission Shares and Apportionments. Again, I think considerable.

References (and all will be linked to their URL):

Barbara Carroll -- Minnesota Annual Conference – “What Does My Church Get Back from Apportionments”

Dennis Shaw – Mountain Sky Conference – “Defining our Mission Around Leadership Development”

Erik Alsgaard -- Baltimore-Washington Conference – “Connection makes the UMC Work”

Laceye Warner -- UM-Insight “Sent in Love”

Laura Rainwater -- “What does my church ‘get back’ from our apportionments”

North Carolina Annual Conference (and adapted from Minnesota article) – “Faith and Money: What do churches get from paying apportionment?”

The 2016 Book of Discipline

This article as a PDF on Mountain Sky Website.   

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[1] Source: Sharing God's Gifts Glossary of United Methodist Terms. And I plan in a future piece to discuss a little about “supersede.”  My take on that is that there are times the greater good is superior to the local church, but for now, let’s not dwell on this. 

[2] UM-Insight by Laceye Warner

[3] Quoted in a Baltimore-Washington Conference News article from May-June 2017. Link is HERE.

[4]¶ 120. The Mission—The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Local churches and extension ministries of the Church provide the most significant arenas through which disciple-making occurs. United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2016.

Trust and Faith: Maternal Cousins

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.

In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 3: 5-6, New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Trust and faith are related, cousins, not twins. 

Faith, leaning on Hebrews 11, is about assurance and conviction (NRSV:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”). 

Trust is about character.  Our own character and how we feel about the character of the other.  Heart in biblical terms is usually about character rather than our bodily organ.  Both, organ and character, are vital, necessary, life giving. 

How we understand the character of the other is driven generally by experience.  It takes time for us to know someone well enough to get a full measure of their character, and after we do, it is often fixed:  concrete.  A great example of this is after Saint Paul gets metaphorically knocked off his horse in Acts 9 on his way to Damascus, Paul reaches out to the gathered community of Jesus followers, in Damascus and Jerusalem, but fails to connect.  Simple:  they don’t trust him.  ‘We know this guy; he has shown us who he is.  Don’t trust him.  It’s all an act.’  Even the intervention of trusted Barnabas fails until Barnabas gets his own appointment in Antioch.  He remembers Paul and puts him to work.  Paul is redeemed, and that redemption hinges on Barnabas’ trust in the character of Paul’s repentance. 

I expect we have all heard the phrase:  “In God we trust, everything else, we check.”  It says everyone else’s character is untrustworthy. 

That worldview, that statement of the human condition, is remarkably cynical.  

In fact, that cynicism is organizationally cancerous.  Like undiagnosed, untreated cancer, lack of trust is fatal:  killing vision, killing mission, killing hope, killing creativity.  Mistrust is a cancer on our view of much of our current world:  government, media, business, and the church.

But this is a reflection on leadership, not our entire culture:  Leaders must be open to self-examination.  Must.  Self-examination leading to self-awareness is a leadership imperative.  Leaders, true leaders, those who actually bring about change, must be willing to trust in their judgment, their own growth and maturity, and others.

What would have happened if Barnabas had trusted the judgment of the crowd in Damascus and Jerusalem, and allowed the mistrust of Paul to cause him, Barnabas, to not invite Paul to assist him with Antioch First UMC? 

Often mistrust is a function of fear.  1 John 4: 18 tells us there is ‘no fear in love’ and that ‘true love’ casts out fear. 

What is it we fear individually?

What do we fear organizationally?

How do we overcome those fears as individuals and within the organizations we are part of. 

Those questions will not be easy, and if one generates an answer quickly, reflexively, then the gentle, seeking completeness, reader might need to go back and re-read this short reflection until this dose of chemotherapy, this dose of radiation treatment, this surgery, has begun to excise the cancer of mistrust from our organizational body. 

Selah, Dennis

Moving On

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:14 (ESV)

On May 28th, during my sermon on Galatians 3, I posited “Paul is operating in the tension between already and not yet, remembrance and anticipation, [or] apathetic and aspiration."

 

Already and not yet suggests that God has already done a lot and that God is “not yet” finished.

   

Weekly, Roberta and I use this idea of “remembrance and anticipation” to help us create for you meaningful, thought provoking, challenging worship.  The idea plays off that already, not yet idea found in Paul. God has done a lot already: remember that. There is more that God is going to do: be in a state of eager anticipation.

 

Finally, we are presented with apathetic and aspiration. You might have on May 28^th when I spoke to that, wondered where I was going to go with that idea.  The answer is I didn’t develop it. I said it to introduce the idea for use later. Now is a good time to develop that idea.

   

I mentioned during the service that national historic words were at times aspirational, meaning that we should hear them and strive to make them be. I see a “not yet” or an “anticipation” element to the idea of aspiration. But when I plug into the computer looking for the opposite of aspiration, I get apathetic as an option.   Other words appeared, but I chose apathetic, or perhaps, it chose me.

 

Apathetic is shown to be an adjective, a word that modifies a noun. It means showing no interest, enthusiasm, or concern. Synonyms are: uninterested, indifferent, unconcerned, unmoved, uninvolved, or disinterested.

 

In the theme article for this newsletter (now on page 1), Leigh Anne Duff wrote:  “Are we challenging ourselves to graduate to a more mature spiritual level? This might be a good time to look back at what you’ve learned and then look forward to the next step in your Christian walk.” Those words are inspirational, invitational, and aspirational. They invite a reflection to invite interest, difference making, concern, movement, involvement, and interest.

I have loved my five years here at Hilltop.  Loved it. I have truly felt that my gifts, and the church’s needs were well linked, well suited. My assignment was stabilization and I have tried to honor that. At the same time, I regularly try and co-create with God in the community called Hilltop, restlessness.

I am urging restlessness, but I am not hoping or praying for restlessness rooted in nostalgia. Nostalgia is too often its own Golden Calf. I frankly think one of the things wrong in our secular and religious worlds is treating the past in such hallowed terms.

 

God has already done a lot through Midvale and Hilltop church.  More is yet to be done.

Looking at the past fondly with joyful remembrance is good. Our memory, for example, of the selfless service of the late Bill Tetrick is an important element of our past. At the same time, we need to be looking forward in anticipation to what God is yet to do with Hilltop. I never met Bill, but there is a positive restlessness with his widow Marilynn. I can’t imagine Bill would want us get “stuck” in nostalgia.

 

We aspire to be a place where all can belong, believe and become, but at times, aspiration is diminished by apathy.

 

Leigh Anne is ‘spot on’ in her article:  this might be a good time to ‘move on’ from the things that keep us locked into the already and remembrance and we thus forget to see the not yet with anticipation.

 

Apathy (understood to be synonymous with uninterested, indifferent, unconcerned, unmoved, uninvolved, or disinterested) needs to be replaced with aspiration:  both individually and in community.

 

I invite all at Hilltop to read, pray, study, and reflect on God’s call on your heart this summer.  I know for sure I am.

 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Threefold Fullness of Health

Remember

Last week I wrote:  “Next week I will address the threefold fullness of health:  grandparent, parent, and child.”

Before I do that, I want to re-refocus briefly on our why. 

This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday.  It is in part a remembrance of Jesus taking on his purpose with a clear focus.  Transfiguration is a positive, beautiful transformation.  Our own church purpose is transformation.  Our vision to be co-creators of new church life is bold, and it is about transformation.  As I indicated last week:  “Transformation is an intense process and it requires us to stretch. But, a critical element of that transformation, that stretching, has already occurred here:  Hilltop is reaching, stretching, beyond itself.  That is transformation.  Let’s continue that change.  Change like that requires rare people.” 

Health at every level matters

We are not alone in this adventure.  The “conference” is with us.  The conference is no longer a disembodied entity in Denver, if it ever was.  Too often, churches view the conference as where the Bishop is located and the place where we send money.  It is too often viewed as a one way street with everything going to Denver, and nothing coming back.  That is not accurate.  

I am personally here because Bishop Elaine listened to Hilltop.  The same can be said of Pastor Emily:  the conference listened.  But in ways other than pastoral leadership, the conference is sharing in this adventure.  All but $20,000 of the annual costs of this adventure are being paid by the conference.  The ability to do this is made possible by the 250+ churches of the conference, located in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.  In effect, a sliver of that $65,000+ to be sent to us in 2017 by the Rocky Mountain Conference is from Arvada (Colorado) UMC, LaJunta (Colorado) UMC, Laramie (Wyoming) First UMC, and Park City (Utah) Community Church just to name four.  Cantaloupe farmers from Rocky Ford, Colorado are invested in Hilltop and our bold ministry vision. 

Last year about half of all the churches in the conference met their financial obligation to the conference.  We were not one of them.  Our proposed budget for 2017 gets us incrementally closer to that goal, but still falls short.  The conference is in the resourcing business.  That is what it does:  equips people, both laity and clergy, as well as local churches for their transformation missions.  It can only do this if the local churches support the conference in its own financial health. 

Great gifts, great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities

Health of the parent – Hilltop – and our intentionally planned child matter.  In fact, only $21,200 of our 2017 planned spending is about the child, creating her in good health.  That is a little under 6% of expenses supported by current congregational giving. 

Threefold Fullness of Health

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible, The Message offers this glimpse at Luke 12:48b: "Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!"  We need to respond in a responsible way to the gifts we have been given. 

To repeat a mantra we have been offering since January:  “We are under-incomed, not over-expensed.”  I offer we are not under-led.  Your lay leadership at Hilltop is bold, leading to a vision that is bold. 

Roberta quoted an unnamed black preacher in the February Newsletter:  “God is not a monument, but a movement.”  Methodism was called a movement in our early days.

We can recapture the movement spirit by focusing on our transformation purpose.  Health beyond Hilltop, at Hilltop and the new life springing from Hilltop must all be factors.  Not simply the health of Hilltop as parent. You are at the center of this threefold fullness of health.  

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Write the vision ... make it plain ... so we may run

And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets,

 so he may run who reads it.”

                                                            Habakkuk 2: 2 (ESV)

Inspiration is a wonderful word.  Inspiration is something that causes someone to do something they might not normally have done. 

          That something is often an idea.  

                    Often, an idea that is greater than us. 

In the last several years Hilltop has been called to an inspiring vision.  

          The fact it is inspiring doesn’t make it less scary.  

                    But it is clearly inspiring. 

Your leadership has developed a vision for Hilltop to be an incubator of new church life.  The imagery of Hilltop giving birth often comes into our discussions.  Our language has led to practices that have been prayerful, scriptural and, we hope and pray, leading all of us here to do something we might not normally have done.  What we are doing in our conscious decision to give birth to a new church is refreshing and bold.  And after we are refreshed from that first birth, we plan to do it again and again.  We hope to be an incubator of new church life in this fastest growing state in the United States. 

What has happened here is nothing short of a call.  God has called our name in the night, and we have responded with “Here we are, send us.”

It is biblical and it is also literary.  In the Lord of the Rings, the Wizard Gandalf says to the hero Frodo, "you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and hearts and wits as you have."  

Hilltop must use all of that – wits and heart to be sure we have the strength. 

Our vision of seeing Hilltop as an incubator of future church life also calls Hilltop to focus on our own health.  The health of the church and the health of the church child must be factors in our vision.  Health here cannot be either/or.  Health must be both/and.  Hilltop Home as mother and our refreshing child must both be healthy, as well as Hilltop’s loving mother, the Rocky Mountain Conference. 

Where we are in 2017 is exactly where Hilltop was called to be. 

Last year, your leadership urged our mother, United Methodist leaders in Denver, to see the urgency of now rather than the tyranny of later.  Mother listened and prayed, and was compelled to act by the inspiring and inspired leadership in Sandy, Utah. 

We have spoken of this call in words that we hoped would compel you to follow your leaders in this call. We have some work to do to bring that call into line with insuring grandmother, mother and child are healthy.  We are going to spend some time in February coming back to you and inspiring you with the call we are on – an incubator of new church life while keeping Hilltop the mother healthy for future births. 

The road we are about to trod is not going to be easy. In fact it will be scary. We must reject the negativity in our history and continue to talk, inspire, and lean in because we are called to do so.  I confess we are now at a place where we could exercise caution when the situation calls for us to be bold and brave, when the situation calls for us to be inspired. We must choose bold, brave and inspired.

Let me ask:  Does the world now need our witness and call less … or more?

It is my fervent belief and hope that we can exercise a theology and practice of passionate biblical Christianity that will continue to push fervently ahead where the rest of the world would issue a call to pull back.

We can do this inspired, compelling church birthing work, and keep Hilltop a healthy parent, while continuing to keep our mother in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado strong.  

          All must be in our focus.  

                    All of those must be in our vision. 

I encourage us to now be worthy daughters and sons of Hilltop, of Methodism,  and of the Lord.

I commented earlier that your leaders urged our mother, that is key United Methodist leaders in Denver, to see the urgency of now rather than be satisfied with the tyranny of waiting for later.

I pray we are inspired – now – by the example of your leaders to go preach love, stand fast against traditional wisdom, and renew the face of the earth.  I invite you in February to listen to your leaders, and answer their call with a faithful, inspired response. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

A Prayer for January 12, 2017

O God of the past, present and future ages, we are mindful of your promises to be with us in this world and the next as you have been in the past.  Still our humanness balks at the untimely and early death of Saints.  Be with us in our pain and remind us that there will come a time when the former things do indeed pass away, but until it does, mourning, crying and pain, are still part of this age.  Amen.

Revelation 21: 4
John 3: 16
John 11:26

A Prayer for January 11, 2017

O God of excellence, remind us to be models of good works and in all our teaching, demonstrations of integrity and dignity.  Amen

Titus 2:7

A Prayer for January 7, 2017

O God who calls us to shout out your love, remind us that 'the stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it' should we not proclaim your love, your mercy.  Amen.   

Habakkuk 2:11

Luke 19:40

A Prayer for January 6, 2017

God of community, your vision to focus on the common good is long standing.  Sadly, we often wrestle with what the common good means or what the common good looks like.  Often we are like Jacob wrestling with the Angel on the lonely side of the Jabbok. 

May we -- your children, here, your children now -- emerge from wrestling with you spiritually changed.  

     May we make your vision clear.  

          May we inscribe it on the tablets of our day so that in reading, all creation's children may focus on your vision of common good.  

Amen.  

Habakkuk 2:2

November Pastor Musings

Dear ones:

We live in a world of constant sensory bombardment.  Sights and sounds of the world around us, wash over us and, frankly, at times, we are numb to them.  Unsettling news is broadcast on the radio or television or on the home page of our browser and we spin a cocoon around ourselves and sleep insulated from what is going on around us.  At least, that happens to me anyway. 

Then along comes Isaiah.  The status quo is being ripped apart, barbarians are at the gate.  But in the midst of that invasion, God provides words of assurance to the chosen people.  For example in Isaiah 43: 19, the prophet reports that God prophetically proclaims:  “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  

Starting with November 17^th, for five out of six Sundays in November and December, my primary source text will be Isaiah. 

One of those Sundays I will use the following text from Isaiah 65:17 – 18:  “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight” to speak to the new creation going on at Hilltop. 

Our worship experience has a different look and feel.  I see that as part of the new creation described prophetically in Isaiah.

The way we do our budgeting and income assessment is going to change.  I see that as part of the new creation described prophetically in Isaiah.

We have new leaders getting ready to emerge into their new leadership roles for 2014.  I see that as part of the new creation described prophetically in Isaiah.

God’s prophetic words were intended to pull the chosen people out of their own sensory bombardment of conquest and barbarians and see the new that was going on in front of them – and a new perception about a new reality was being invited.  That invitation is just as true today. 

God’s reminder is that in the newness, the New Jerusalem is to be a “joy” and a “delight.”  I confess, that sometimes, change and newness is not universally seen as “joy” or a “delight.”  Perspective matters.  I pray that we can see the new with a joyful, delightful perspective.  The past and future both matter.  It is my view that the historical Bingham Canyon, Midvale and Hilltop epic narrative frames our theological discourse about the future. 

I am proud to be the pastor of a church that has so readily embraced the concept of change grounded in the historical narrative. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Team and Hilltop

And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.  —2 Corinthians 3.18

Being a member of a “team” has been part of the fabric of my life for a long time. I started my musical life when I was about twelve.  Most of that early time was spent in a band (or “wind ensemble”) driven by my age, grade or ability. Choirs became a part of my life in my early twenties and still are a part of my life. I started military training at eighteen, and before I was twenty-three was in the U.S. Army. We used to say in the Army “there is no I in team, there is no me in Army.” Who I am draws strength from a life as part of teams.

My sermon of April 21^st was about recognizing that there is an organic connection that invites everyone to be part of the fruitfulness of the vine. At its core, it was a sermon focused on unity of purpose and teamwork. Our purpose is to be fruitful in our faithfulness. 

The theme article on passages this month is at its core about teamwork. It uses material from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth (reintroduced at the start of this article) where Paul is laying out for the church an opportunity to live out their ministry in a new covenantal relationship drawn from the gifts of the Spirit.  Paul says to choose life, Spirit, righteousness, and a permanency that is drawn from the Light of Christ.  That might sound like individual tasks, and to be sure, there is an element of individualism in how those are applied but Paul’s pronouns throughout the material surrounding the quoted passage are uniformly plural.

Paul is saying that being in relationship with Jesus leads to profound and deep transformation in community.

We are approaching a number of special and potentially transformational days. (You might wonder what would happen if we treated them as days about passage, as days about transformation, within a framework of team?) Might we look at these days of passage as a framework for transformation as a team? 

Mother’s Day is for many a remembrance of transformation from couple to family. That is transformative. For many, parenting moves them to a different understanding of the importance of community on the idea of nurture.

 

Pentecost this year will in part be about confirmation, where individuals will move from being an individual to being part of a larger community.  For many, that movement is transformative.  We fully intend to use the diversity of the community as a reminder that while we may be different, we do actually understand each other.

 

Memorial Day weekend will in part be about remembering where individuals gave up their lives for the larger community. For many, the sacrificial element of that movement is sacred, leading to transformation. For many, the depth of that sacrifice leads to a different understanding of community

  

Senior Recognition Day will in part be about celebrating a change in a key element of their individual stories. Our music and our proclamation will be about blessing the transition and simultaneously acknowledging that the quest for adventure may take some away from this community. The community supports that adventure, and will proclaim that we are praying for them and will welcome them back when their adventure is complete.  That element of the story may require a different understanding of community.

 

There will be other passage days this summer, fall and winter.  What might they say to you about transformation?

I am not the same person I was four hundred sermons ago.  I see the world differently.  I see that we are consistently being invited to see that all of us are, hopefully and prayerfully, “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”  It is more than a little scary.  It is also more than a little biblical.

 

To be clear, I am not advocating blind assimilation into an unthinking hive.  There is tremendous power in the varied intellects of Hilltop, intellects created in different places by different experiences that draw strength from diverse traditions.  We are richly blessed with high quality leaders.  I am advocating reflection on the idea of community.

Let this coming time of multiple passages invite you to go deeper into your faith and explore what it means to be part of this community, to be part of the oneness of Christ, to be part of the “true vine” that is Jesus Christ. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Renewing Hilltop -- April Pastor's Musings

Renewing Hilltop

Because Christianity grew from roots that were Judaism, it should not surprise us that Jesus was firmly rooted in the Jewish tradition.  Examples abound:  his followers acknowledge him as “rabbi” (teacher) and his preaching is drawn from material in the Hebrew Bible.  The Passion narrative is best understood within a context of Passover.  Pentecost is a spiritual “first fruit” built on the idea of a Jewish “first fruit” festival.  Jesus’ ministry was a renewal movement, not one to create a new religion, but one to introduce spiritual renewal among God’s chosen people.   Our calling here at Hilltop is about spiritual renewal to all who come through our doors.

I talk at times about “The New Hilltop.”  I wrote in our annual church conference report as a goal for 2013:

  

Define The New Hilltop:  Acknowledge that a “new” Hilltop is being created before our eyes and we are creating it with God’s help.  How do we use the various metrics of Vital Congregations augmented by our own metrics to measure that vitality?  We will, as a community, identify what it means to be a church that wants to grow through an intentional and concerted focus on families with children and youth?   This time next year we should be able to align our resources, i.e. building, people, and budget with that identity. 

While those words focused on the idea of “families with children and youth,” the idea was in reality more than a “New” Hilltop; it is about a “Renewed Hilltop” full of people of all ages and backgrounds who are renewed in the Spirit.  I want to focus on one result of the “The Renewed Hilltop” -- the need to add a second worship service.

 

How can we best provide meaningful, spiritual worship as our faith community expands?

For many years Hilltop had three worship services.  Hilltop made an important decision last year to move to one.  This decision was bold.  Part of the covenant to consolidate into one service included revisiting that decision at a future date.  At the March Church Council a proposal to create the paradigm for a second service was presented by the Worship Committee and me.  The simple idea of the proposal was that when a six-week moving average (not including Easter or Cantata Sunday) reached more than 275 worshippers and when we had 100 members in covenant to support the second service, we would launch at a future, yet-to-be-determined date (but not immediately.)  

Discussion from the council encouraged us to go back and re-think some basic assumptions.

It is always important to ask: “how do you know what you know?”  When that question emerged this past month, we were not precisely sure what we knew, why we knew it, or how we knew it.  We did know facts, e.g., attendance at the three services, attendance since the merger.  Even though the leaders have talked to various groups about going to a second service, we do not know exactly what the congregation as a whole thinks.  We agreed that it would be good for us in our continuing attempt to “renew” Hilltop to take some focused time to ask the congregation very specific, directed, and targeted questions about worship and, importantly, Christian Education.

 

We plan to discuss some of this following worship on April 21^st if at all possible, and between April 21^st and May 19^th present a questionnaire (or survey instrument) in which the congregation can express their wisdom and insight.  I heard loud and clear during last summer’s “ice breakers” that we had done enough “surveys.”  That said, I think the critical element of that lament was the congregation saw little relationship between any survey and direction of the church.  Your church leadership believes for us to understand renewal at Hilltop, we need to receive congregational feedback about options and potential directions of renewal at Hilltop first.

 

Paul in his 1^st Letter to the Church in Corinth focused on an idea of “the body” and how each part of the body was important to the whole.  It was an entreaty to the idea of “oneness” and an appeal for genuine appreciation of the other.  I pray that our need to go through the process of discussion and planning for expansion to another service at some future date enhances the “oneness” we have felt since going to one service.  I pray that our quest for “oneness” produces fruit for Hilltop’s spiritual “renewal” and our own.

Selah.  Pastor Dennis

Leadership 201

Last night, at the church, twelve souls gathered and we talked about leadership.

(I can send you a copy of the presentation if you would like to see it ... click  here and send me a note ..and let me know if you have PowerPoint or not.  If yes, I will send you the PowerPoint version.  Otherwise, I will send you a ubiquitous link that will allow you to see it in a continuous run mode you will have to start and stop if you want to slow it down.)  

We reviewed what we had said was important six months ago.  We went to John Kotter (Kotter Change Principles) and reviewed his Eight Principles of Change.  Finally, we came back and went over the areas of people, programs, building, and finances.

What did we "learn"?

• Most important, we have people who desire that Stratmoor be a positive force in the Community.  Ideas of branching out into the community and sustaining programs we have were blessed by the group.  
• We embraced Kotter and Jim Collins (Good to Great) in our quest for understanding and insight.  We went over the eight principles, and repeatedly we tried to engage their guidance on the quest we have in front of us.  For example, we are swimming in a river of information.  We must use every opportunity and medium possible to tell our story.  Clearly, communication was an area that has so many answers and so many challenges for us.  More work here.  
• Key elements of Collins are 'getting the right people on the bus, the right people off the bus, and getting the right people in the right seat on the bus' and the idea of foxes as opposed to hedgehogs.  Collins says companies, and by implication churches, that went from Good to Great are led by hedgehogs -- rock steady and diligent in the central idea that is the key and essential core of the change paradigm.
• We are following the Collins/Kotter model of getting the right people (i.e. coalition) together before the key issue of exactly where we are going to go is formulated.  That is not to remotely suggest that we are not moving:  we most assuredly are.  Some of our moves now are a combination of obvious and intuitive (i.e. community focus) along with pragmatic (i.e. air conditioning) that our precise end-state is secondary.  
• A continued core value is that we are reluctant to mortgage ourselves very much, if at all.  It is not off the table as an option, but some kind of combination of grants, potential sale of land, and internal fund raising is the preferred approach.  Debt is an option, but one we have to get to after some other things are done first. 
• We all got excited about an opportunity for ministry expansion w/in our demographic and community that warrants exploration.  Details to follow.   

The group was left with a homework assignment -- look over the landscape at Stratmoor and decide who is a hedgehog, present last night or not, whom we need to provide leadership:  talk to them and then talk to our Lay Leader -- Nell Grindstaff (Nell Email).  The role of Church Council Chair comes open in November/December time-frame and getting the right person on that seat in the bus is key and essential to us moving ahead.  But leadership opportunities exists in multiple areas

Good food complemented our conversations:  Ms Marilyn provided us a repast that was quality and quantity.

Selah.    

Pastor's Corner -- August 2, 2011

Good things are happening at Stratmoor Hills.

I have often said that I vision us being “light and leaven” to our community.  We are lighting spiritual candles and kneading yeast into the dough that is our community at the Community Center on B Street and the after school tutoring.  This past Sunday, we returned to God during our offertory, food that will be used both here at Stratmoor for internal needs as well as at the Community Center cooperative venture with Westside Cares, Broadmoor Community Church and Meadows Park Community Center. 

Good things are happening at Stratmoor Hills.

I expect us to continue to be in relationship with Fox Meadow Middle School continuing our fruitful relationship with them through our weekly tutoring. 

Good things are happening at Stratmoor Hills.

I pray that these initiatives can be sustained and new initiatives that are light and leaven in their own ways can be started.

Towards the idea of starting new ministries, I have invited the Reverend Paul Howard, formerly ofRedemption Fellowship and now at Montclair UMC in Denver to come and speak to the men on September 11th.  This will be a simple meal starting at 6:30 PM at the church, and Paul will speak to us from his heart about the life changing ministry that is Redemption Fellowship in Denver, a ministry of Denver Trinity UMC.  I pray every man who participates in the life of this church can be there that night to hear Paul and ask how we might create a Redemption Fellowship-like ministry here at Stratmoor.  Save the date. 

Good things are happening at Stratmoor Hills.

Our United Methodist Women continue to produce prayer shawls and bears that are being used in a ministry of compassion.  These are being gathered on Tuesday mornings and if that time is not convenient, speak to any member of the UMW about how you might help here.  This entire ministry is not being done only on Tuesday in the morning, it is happening throughout the week. 

Good things are happening at Stratmoor Hills.

Our annual budget assumes an income of $9,000 a month.  We averaged for the first 7 months over $10,000 a month.  Most, if not all, of the extra $1,000 a month were resources earmarked specifically for items that were not budgeted i.e. the new clavinova and mortgage assistance for a family.  That said, while we do need to celebrate the sustained accomplishment of our $9,000/month goal, and also realize and be aware that our monthly needs are closer to $13,000/month to accomplish church goals.  We are making good progress here, and our belief is that as our membership and attendance continue to increase, this will follow along. 

Good things are happening at Stratmoor Hills.

Our membership is now at 123 with the seven who joined on July 31st.  This is the highest our membership has been in more than a decade.  Our attendance is holding at 100.  We have had sixteen Sundays so far in 2011 where our attendance was at or over 100.  I expect us to exceed 2010’s achievement of 25 Sundays in this area with a solid final third of the year. 

Good things are happening at Stratmoor Hills. 

I am proud to be the Pastor of a church that sees itself in such hopeful, caring, and growing ways.  

Pastor Dennis

My Personal Story

I was asked to write a little about who I am in story form.  This was my effort.

**

The river that is Dennis Shaw was created by different streams of varying intensity, width, depth and color.

I am a musician, soldier, nursing attendant, holder and practitioner of graduate degrees in business and theology, son, brother, husband, father, and, at one time, a well trained elite level athlete. Several of the streams that formed me storied that hard work and education can overcome almost any life obstacle. Those same education and industriousness streams understood that what might appear to be fords and crossing points for possible entry into those life streams for me might be denied to others based on gender and race. Justice oozes from the springs of a particular familial creek, diluted at times by less justice based waters, but the minerals and nutrients from that spring are rich and have not been easily diminished. Fairness and equity are core values that have been and are part of my story, in the river I am, in the streams that came to me, and the rivers I flow into.

At 62, I continue to be a student and adult learner. I have learned to speak Spanish in the last ten years. I have a UCC pastor who provides me monthly “supervision”. I am blessed by experienced pastors who said “if you need help, call me” and I called. I confess, I reluctantly responded to God’s call into pastoral ministry. My primary problem was one of unworthiness for the task not understanding that my own life story may be of value to the creator of all life stories. As with all of us, our stories provide us unique and specialized wisdom. I have been well equipped to be a current within the flow of this wondrous river called pastoral leadership, but in truth I am probably only a leaf upon that surface moved at one and the same time by the springs, streams and rain that created and sustained me, buoyed by God’s three-fold fullness of Grace.

This position at Stratmoor Hills may be the most meaningful leadership role I will ever be called upon to accept.

It is both intensely exhilarating and profoundly humbling.

Joy and Renewal at Stratmoor

In 2008, we had one Sunday where we had 100 or more worshippers.  That was Easter.

Last year, we had fifteen Sundays where we had 100 or more worshippers.  That included Easter.

We didn't get a count on the Sunday I was gone to DC, but of the five Sundays in 2010 where we have gotten a count, we have been at or over 100.  That is five out of five.  We haven't gotten to Easter. 

Last week, we had over 120, and yesterday, we had 109.  That was without a lot of the usual and customary crowd.  A number of people were gone to visit family around the country. 

We are at one and the same time in awe, and humbled by what seems to be happening.

I commented to the church leaders yesterday, that we were getting a lot of return visitors in part because of things we had done to make our little church be what we said we wanted to be.  Child care is an excellent example.  We provide quality child care from about 8:45 AM to 12:15 PM every Sunday.  We say we are child friendly and that is one "system" set up where our rhetoric and our execution are in synchronization.  The same is true with providing Children's Church and Sunday School for those twelve and under.  That is not to say that at times getting it all pulled together is easy, it isn't. 

Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to make something look effortless.

The key to this is that God is doing something at our little church.  God's something is taking us to a new, and yes exciting, place.  (I might say:  Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it.)  Clearly we need to stay humble about what is happening.  A lot of people deserve a lot of credit, but at the end of the day, God is sending us people who have both gifts as well as crosses that they bear.  We need to be able to receive, and recognize, both.  

The Sermon was drawn from 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11.  Part of the Paul's theme was that after Jesus had been raised, he sought out a series of people to have a sacred encounter with them, the least of which by his own testimony, was Paul himself.  I wonder if that isn't a message for all of us:  We have experienced this Easter moment, and as a result we want to see others to share with them that God is still involved in our lives, faith in God does make a difference, and that God can rescue all of us from a place of darkness and death. 

We can all be raised from a metaphorical as well as a real place of darkness and death.    

God is blessing us with a dramatic change in the life of our little church.  It is a blessing that calls us to be sure and seek out new and exciting ways to involve others in this life of this community ... 

Jesus like, that is the Sharing of the Joy and Renewal of Easter with others around us ... a Sacred Call.  

Amen.   

Darkness to Light

Yesterday, we celebrated the lives of people who have passed away in the last three years at Stratmoor. Some sixteen Saints, associated with Stratmoor Hills have passed away in the past three years. There is a "hole in our soul" from their losses.

In addition to those sixteen names, we also encouraged people to submit a card on anyone who had passed away, whenever it was, and we called their name as well, and we lit a candle for them.

We are a low-church church, and this looked to me when we first talked about it, like a high-church ritual.

I was wrong.

By the time we had all the candles lit, we had read and called into the light, over fifty names at each service. It was an example of where ritual, making a dark room lit by memory, was a powerful sermon in and of itself. My sermon at both services was only a few minutes. I personally was left with the feeling that the sermon was the candles.

I wonder if that isn't part of the intent in the history of this All-Soul's Day remembrance for the church: to light our lives with the power of their memory?

We are going to do something very similar next week for Veteran's Day .. living as well as those who have passed away ....

Selah.

Our Creation Story

In Hebrews 11: 1 and 2 we are told that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”

That story is our own story here at Stratmoor Hills.

It is faith in addressing the spiritual need of a new neighborhood and a vision of answering that need by those founding saints that is a core value of the Stratmoor Hills United Methodist story.

It is faith that caused some members and clergy of First Methodist Church in Colorado Springs to approach the developer of the new neighborhood of Stratmoor Hills near Fort Carson with the idea of starting a new church.

It is faith that has been the foundation on the vision and the mortar which held the congregation together in hard and yes, occasionally desperate times.

It is by such an act of faith that less than ten adults gathered at Gorman Middle School to call into existence out of the creation raw materials the Stratmoor Hills Methodist Church.

It is by such an act of faith that Gladys and Fred Abrahamson donated the land and the building we use today.

It is by such an act of faith that the Reverend Paul Murphy went to Mississippi in 1964 facing death and jail in order to seek justice for the least of our brothers and sisters, a prophetic act for which, in the opinion of some then, too much truth was spoken too clearly to power, which saw a congregational rejection of that faith story which set the congregation on its own wilderness journey.

It was by faith the congregation was sustained in that wilderness journey by the blessings of leadership quail, manna and water.

It was by such an act of faith in that wilderness journey that the congregation was tested and refined to be resurrected in a new Century as an Easter Congregation.

It was by such an act of faith that Kenny and Wilma Carpenter sustained the building and the property and it was by such an act of faith that Bonna Campbell and Jerry Zoebisch as well as other saints that the congregation held together the congregation during parts of the wilderness journey by their labor of true love.

We could go on but we don’t have the time to hear the entire story of all of the saints who have faithfully done so much for our little church! Their faithful story is our faith story, and their faith in the future, a faith in each of us.

A new story of old faith is being created by the new Saints who have joined us in our journey in the past five years and are walking to Jerusalem with us now.

Do we really understand what this means? Those saints who went before us were pioneers who blazed the way. Many of these pioneers have finished their race, but stand in that heavenly grandstand cheering us on. Our faith story calls upon us to understand that the race is one of relays, the baton being handed off over and over again: a handoff of faith in faith. These Saints call upon us to take the baton from them and to run our own good faithful race with strength and endurance in order to hand it off again to those who come behind us, having run our own good and faithful race. Look at that word faithful – faith full!

This means we have their faith to inspire us and we are asked to run our own faithful race. Their example is before us. The next verse in Hebrews tells us that we are to: “Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it.” (Peterson, Hebrews 12: 3) We have the biblical faith story; we have the story of those who have gone before us here, and the story of all the Saints who have run this race in all of the Churches of all of the world. When we find ourselves growing tired in our faith and losing our energy or our focus, we should go over our own creation story again, name by name. That will surely give us that dose of Starbucks’ coffee we need for our tired souls!

We are certain of what we do not yet see, and we know that by our faith in what is as yet unseen, we will surely call that unseen into our world. Our eyes are truly fixed with the Saints, on Jesus! Amen.