June, 2013 Survey -- Background

In March, 2012 Hilltop United Methodist Church made a bold decision to move from three Sunday worship services to a single service.  That decision was implemented on the first Sunday in May, 2012.  It was seen as an integral element fostering unity, where there was disunity:  bring us together.

 

While worship has been a highly visible element of the strategy, unity does not solely rest on one item.  We have spoken of the unity objective as a three legged stool.  The unity objective has three legs and they are:  Worship, Christian Education and Fellowship. 

One of the stated commitments within the unity decision was to examine where we were in December, 2012.  That commitment was, and is, in the mind of your key leaders.  Regular reporting within your Church Council has dealt with this topic as well as reporting in the newsletter and occasional comments from the pulpit. 

A template for how we might move to a second service was developed and presented to church council which discussed the recommendations and agreed to place before the congregation a survey instrument designed to help Hilltop leaders understand what we know about Hilltop as it relates to worship and education. 

Said another way:  The objective of the June survey will be to help your leaders develop a better appreciation of what we know about two elements of the unity strategy:  worship and education.

 

While the core purpose will be to help us better know what the congregation is thinking, it does not mean that every opinion or option presented in this survey will be incorporated into a future “New Hilltop”.  Some thoughts, at least in the short term, might be mutually exclusively i.e. cannot do both. 

We invite all at Hilltop to ask how a particular element of ministry leads to an incremental expansion of the Kingdom.  Pastor Dennis has quoted the church leadership consultant Reggie McNeal:  “God’s church doesn’t have a mission; God’s mission has a church.”  We believe that kind of thinking changes the nature of the discussion. 

If you need more background than this article, be alert to a brief podcast from Pastor Dennis that he will develop and circulate via an eNote before the survey is released. 

It is our plan to have the survey ready for use on the internet or manual input by June 8^th.  Be alert to the communication vehicles where we let you know how and where to access the instrument.  

(This article appeared in the Hilltop Newsletter for June).  

Seek, Lose, Keep and Throw Away

 (Pastor's Musings for the June Hilltop Newsletter)

Antiquity speaks to us through Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 with the following words:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;  a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;  a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;  a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;  a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;  a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

For me, these ancient words are part of my youth, part of my own passage from youth to young adult. When I read these words, my memory starts creating sounds in which I mentally hear the 1960s American answer to the British Invasion, The Byrds, reminding us in the Folk-Rock classic “Turn, Turn, Turn” that within life there is a time for all things. This is a true “golden oldie” drawn from ancient scripture. 

The book of Ecclesiastes is part of the Hebrew wisdom tradition. The title Ecclesiastes echoes from the Greek with sounds like “preacher,” “assembly” or “those who have been called out.” The root word in Greek is the same word that gives us the word “church.” For my purposes here, I want to focus on the translation “those who have been called out.” Within a community, those who have been called out pass along their wisdom from one generation to the next.  

On the first Sunday in June as we recognize our seniors, we will focus on graduation as a passage from one element of life and maturity to another. (I confess, the first time I heard the term “senior recognition” Sunday, I thought it was recognition of our older members and wondered what age qualified a person to be a “senior.” You have permission to chuckle at my lack of wisdom.)

Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is “a time to seek, and a time to lose.” I suppose that many of the seniors are ready “to seek” an adventure, while many of the parents are reluctant to “to lose” their senior.

Ecclesiastes also reminds us that there is “a time to keep, and a time to throw away.”

I offer that part of the passage of life includes knowing what “to keep” and what “to throw away.”  In fact, it is more than what, it is both what and when.  What do we keep and throw away?  When do we keep it and throw it away? 

What we keep and knowing why we keep it is foundational to understanding the future being created before us. Our ability to accurately see the present and vision the future is clouded by parts of our past that should not be kept, but rather discarded. All of us, to varying degrees, keep parts of the past that are better thrown away. This is a natural part of the human condition. Naming what needs to be kept and what needs to be discarded is important in creating our future. It’s what the Byrds tell us is necessary: to “Turn, Turn, Turn” in their paraphrasing of Ecclesiastes.

We should note that in the Hebrew Bible “to turn” includes the idea of repenting. In short, it is about looking at who we are, and turning the very direction of our lives.

Our individual and corporate goals are to understand who we are in order to allow us to connect with our best possible future and then shift our focus so that we can make that future a reality.

That is a passage worthy of the name.

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

Fellowship -- A Component of "The New Hilltop"

[This was written for the October, 2012 Newsletter.  I post it to my blog so I can reference it easily in other articles I may write/create.]

In March, key Hilltop leaders made several bold decisions aimed at recreating Hilltop. The belief was that unity would be realized by moving to a single worship service and using elements of the national church’s Vital Congregation elements to focus on Christian education and fellowship. When we talk about it, key leaders use the image of a three-legged stool to remind us that the elements—worship, Christian education, and fellowship—are to be understood in unity. If any leg of a stool is too long, or too short, the stool is improperly balanced and is less than it can and should be.

I was not here to witness the three different worship services that existed before the current unified service. Reports I hear are that bold moves by your leaders are proving fruitful in bringing a new energy to Hilltop worship. The New Hilltop will continue to seek avenues for us to experience in community through worship all that God plans for us.

In last month’s newsletter, I invited you to explore a deeper relationship with God through intentional growth as disciples. Some accepted that invitation, and I hope and pray that from those seeds we will experience a thirty, sixty and hundredfold harvest. This will continue to be a regular and focused priority with your leaders.  We will now turn our focus to fellowship which has received the least attention in our three-legged stool paradigm.

I believe fellowship and small groups go together.

Through the end of August, nearly four hundred different Hilltop people had participated in a small group of some kind this year. That is nothing short of fantastic!  That is about half of all who call Hilltop their spiritual home. Even with that success, I still want to invite those not part of that number to find a small group of some kind and participate on a regular basis.

We have consciously increased the small group opportunities that focus on our development as disciples. But small groups also include our music ministers, the men at Britton’s on Wednesday, the women in their regular meetings, the card crafting, and our ministry opportunities at Crossroads and with Family Promise. That list is illustrative and not intended to be exhaustive. We get to know each other by taking part with others in Hilltop activities. Jesus brought together twelve men from disparate backgrounds, and they transformed their world and ours. I strongly endorse our gathering together to fellowship across age and gender, for example, fellowship at 10 or 11:30 on Sunday morning or during pot-lucks.

 

I re-invite all to find and connect with a small group at Hilltop. That group might be one that is growing in discipleship, but it might be one that is in service, provides music, or gathers by age or gender.

I have recently challenged key leaders to ask themselves who is not a regular participant in the life of Hilltop and to discern what they might do to invite those not at the table to be part of the oneness of Hilltop. Jesus did not stand in the synagogue and invite the broken of his time to find their way to him, he rather went out looking for them. Those we invite to join us on our spiritual journey will be blessed and enriched through our three-legged paradigm of worship, discipleship through Christian education, and fellowship of fellow sojourning Christians.  That’s our prayer, our call, and part of our mission and vision.

Pastor’s Musings – October 2012

Hilltop highly resolves to … what?

There is a lot of energy present in the sanctuary when we have nearly 300 people present. As I stand in the middle of that gathered body I feel like I am at one with you. It is often extremely uplifting.  Why can’t we just keep it like it is forever?

Does anybody really believe that something that is not growing can hold a level of energy indefinitely? I would suggest that one of our New Year’s resolutions is that “Hilltop highly resolves to … keep growing.” Product innovator Robert Cooper sounds like a theologian when he writes, “Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity.” Paraphrasing a little what Jesus says in John 10: “I came that [you] may have life, and have it abundantly.” We have an enormous amount of untapped capacity at Hilltop to extend God’s Kingdom in the South Valley and share the abundant life that comes of knowing Christ.

We have begun the conversation necessary to start framing what a second service might look like. Here is what we are thinking:

· The current multiple musical groups and styles will be the framework at 9:00 am.

· Sunday School is retained for now at the 9:00 hour because we know there are parents who want to worship while their children are in Christian Formation.

· Launch in September.

· Make the decision if we are going to Launch in September, in May.

We would like to see attendance targets of about 275 as an average achieved for non-Easter Sundays in March and April along with clear covenants by enough, about 100, to make such a service well attended and have energy.

I believe we need to continue to grow. Yes, retain elements of our history but also to grow. The product innovator I quoted earlier, Cooper also writes that such thinking “…turns conventional thinking upside down…As … people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood.”

I believe that our Triune God calls us to constant and continued growth.

 

I suggest that one of our community resolutions be “Hilltop highly resolves to launch a second worship service in September, 2013.”

 (Pastor’s Musings – January, 2013)

Renewal Theme Article

(This is my April newsletter theme article.)

I looked up the word “renewal” in an online dictionary.  I like to be sure I know what a word means so I turn to the experts.  The dictionary said renewal was:   The act of renewing or the state of having been renewed.   Something renewed.  That was a little less than helpful, maybe even decidedly less than helpful.  My faith in the internet was momentarily damaged.

 

However, taking new hope, I tried again with “to renew” and, unsurprisingly given I used “to”, I got it is as a verb:  both transitive, the verb can take an object and intransitive, no object.  For transitive the verb might mean to make like new: restore to freshness, vigor, or perfection, to make new spiritually (offering that wonderfully theological word:  regenerate), to restore to existence, revive, to make extensive changes in, rebuild.

But the intransitive possibilities were also rich:  to become new or as new, to begin again, to resume.
 

Isaiah says on behalf of the living God:  “Behold, I am making all things new.”  Now that is decidedly helpful.  My faith in the living God was never at risk.

 

Easter is celebrated in Spring, a time when the world is renewed and we are invited after our spiritual Lenten Journey to see ourselves as regenerated, i.e., to be renewed spiritually.  I think I lost the object there somewhere, but never mind, I am sure your faith in me doesn’t hinge on my understanding of transitive and intransitive, but rather on how we understand what it is to be renewed.  The world is being renewed in a physical sense, but God is constantly in action making “ALL things new” over and over.  I know some of us love the idea of a static, unchanging world, but to paraphrase Bob Dylan, “the times, they are a changin’” and in reality, they have always been ‘a changin’.  If there is one thing that is a constant, it is that change is part of what surrounds us, a part of life.

We worship a God invested in renewal, a God constantly working to refresh the creation.

We worship a God interested in us being regularly renewed spiritually. We are renewed by our annual deep and intense reflection in the joy found in the ideas associated with the empty tomb and recognition that Jesus is calling us by name.

 

I invite all who call Hilltop their spiritual home to begin again their journey, or possibly to resume that journey,  with Jesus in the getting to Jerusalem.  We are now there:  the tomb is empty.  Jesus is calling you by name.  He is Risen, He is Risen indeed, Hallelujah!

 

Selah

Pastor Dennis

Are We There Yet?

I used to drive my parents crazy when we’d start out on a long trip by asking the question:  “are we there yet?” At some point, I figured out that driving from Atlanta to Tampa was going to take about twelve hours and as interstates were developed, the time kept dropping.

At the beginning of our own Lenten journeys we have some idea of what lies in wait for us at the end. We will have the smell of Easter Lilies and we will hear the choir and bells singing and playing Christ the Lord is Risen Today. Lent will be over and Easter beckons.

I took my first intentional Lenten Journey in 1995 and when we got to Easter, I was ready to explode in joy. My emotional response to the empty tomb and Mary being called by name was almost more than I could take.

Why?

I think it was because for the first time in my adult life, I had actually used the church season designed for contemplation and reflection for reflection and contemplation. I didn’t intentionally wear, like a leper might have, sackcloth and spread ashes in front of myself and utter “unclean, unclean” but I let the meaning of the Lenten experience create in me a wide-ranging set of spiritual responses.

First, the weekly reflection on key themes penetrated like never before. Words like “sacrifice” and “change” were given newer and richer meanings. “My journey” took ideas that I thought were previously understood and gave them new meaning. The cross took on a whole new meaning. Grace was a gift and more than a word to indicate a prayer or a kind remark.

Second, I wonder if I didn’t start to ask myself questions about who I was and what God was calling me to do? I used the Kirbyjon Caldwell observation a few weeks ago about the two most important moments in our life: ‘the moment we were born and the moment we discover why we were born.’  Slowly, in the mirror, dimly, I began to start to comprehend elements of God’s plan for the rest of my life. It most certainly didn’t evolve as a precise plan of do this for five years, apprentice in a Colorado Springs church for three years, get your own leadership experience for nine and then head to Utah. But it did include elements of making my journey deep and profound rather than quick and superficial.

What is God saying to you as you start your Lenten Journey?

    How might you make your own journey deep and profound?

       How might you get to the empty tomb bathed in the scent of lilies and have your heart explode in joy over the Easter tunes that take on deeper, richer meaning.

I suggest the answer to the question of “are we there yet” is probably no. But we can get “there” by simply getting started on that journey, and making it with Jesus. He is looking forward to being our guide.

Pastor’s Musings – Feb 2013

Countering Negativism

William Safire, before he moved to being a respected political opinion writer, was a speech writer for Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Agnew is ignominious for the distinction of having to resign from the Vice Presidency because he was under investigation for various crimes earlier in his career, which included his time as Vice President.

Safire create a characterization of people for Agnew that was quite the rage when it was first uttered: “nattering nabobs of negativism.”

To natter is to speak casually.

      A nabob is a person of high status.

          Negativism speaks for itself, but it includes skepticism as a vital element of understanding.

In my still not too extended time at Hilltop, I occasionally encounter those who start sentences with something like “I don’t understand” but then complete what begins as a quest for understanding with why what they don’t understand is clearly wrong, stupid, or something they strongly disagree with. To be totally fair, this is basic human nature:  it is part of the human condition.

My reaction when this negativity happens is to think “you must think you understand enough about this idea to say you don’t like it.” I hear the religious authorities of Jesus day saying “I don’t understand this Jesus dude, and I don’t like him.”

I confess I find this type of conversation jarring. I operate from an idea of hope and enthusiasm. I am enthusiastic about being the Pastor at Hilltop. I see hope in our future. Good things are happening here. I spoke to this at the last Church Council meeting and how negativity can damage the positive elements of our current paradigm shift that is ongoing. If fact, I operate in the faith that optimism, enthusiasm, and hope are contagious. I sense a renewed, positive self identity at Hilltop, and I see this as part of the New Hilltop we are trying to create.

May I invite all who call Hilltop their spiritual home to be part of the spreading the contagion of optimism, enthusiasm, and hope? May I invite all who call Hilltop their spiritual home that when you hear someone state they don’t understand but then immediately follow that up with a negative statement, invite them to replace in the quest for understanding the negative “I don’t like it” and replace it with the idea of “help me understand.”

In the 1951, John Huston movie “The African Queen” the character played by Humphrey Bogart laments that how he behaves is “only human nature” to which the Katherine Hepburn character answers:  “Nature … is what we are put in this world to rise above.” We are Easter people. Let us endeavor to spread the joy of the empty tomb in all that we do and not become casual but important people who spread skepticism in all that they do.

John Wesley wrote: “I have often repented of judging too severely, but very seldom of being too merciful.” 

     I think it can be argued that judging too quickly is a form of judging too severely. 

          I wonder if in seeking understanding, it might reduce the need to request mercy later.  

Peace! 

(The above article appeared in the Hilltop newsletter as Pastor's Musings for March, 2013.)  

Musings -- September, 2012 Newsletter

In my short time at Hilltop, I have tried to honor what has been “normative” at Hilltop.  This has been a consistent ethos in multiple areas.  As it relates to worship, I have been sometimes amused where my questions of “what is normal” for a particular element of worship are answered with “we don’t have a ‘normal’ on that.” For a new guy this is actually good! 

I pray that as it relates to worship and worship design we can be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Roberta and I work hard to create a truly worshipful aura or atmosphere for our worship time.  An example is we want there to be a clear beginning and end to worship and what happens in between that start and end is a combination of praise, prayer and proclamation.  That said, we are hopeful changes are subtle and enhance worship to the point they are not noticed.  We come back to the objective of creating an aura, an atmosphere, a mood.  It is our clear prayer that those who come to worship will depart spiritually fed by the harvest of music, word, prayer and sharing that goes on during our time together.  The entire worship experience contributes to a feeling of being spiritually sustained.

 

The church year is important to us.  For the foreseeable future, we will follow a flow of scripture provided by the church year along with special days designed to awaken in us memories from our past in community and how those memories and ideas shape us in the present and provide us an anticipation of the future.  The rhythms and themes of the year has historically given us a rich symphony that challenges us to live out our lives as Christians.  You will see us occasionally make a particular religious day important on a Sunday.  We will also endeavor to encounter some of our secular holidays and frame them looking for a less secular meaning.

French, Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote:  “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”  We pray that as you enter into the space that is our sanctuary you have a spiritual encounter with the sacred.

By Pastor Dennis but written on behalf of all who contribute to worship leadership at Hilltop.