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"The State of the Congregation" This past week we heard the President of the United States give the state of the union address. Today we will think together about the state of the congregation. I am going to use six pegs to guide our journey. One. The lectionary epistle is the great love chapter from I Corinthians 13. Today we used Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of it. We hear this passage used very frequently at weddings. But when Paul was writing this he was NOT talking about romantic love between two people. He was writing to a church, a church where there had been much division. And he encourages them to practice agapaic love—love that is not at all about feeling, but is all about commitment. It is love that puts the other person first, that does not insist on its own way, that forgives and on and on. Perfectly appropriate for weddings, but he was writing to a church. Let us love one another. And you do. Two. This summer and fall I attended 17 “Meet the Pastor” gatherings arranged by the deacons, and in addition I met with the middle school group and the high school group, to get to know people and to ask a few questions. I really misnamed these meetings because the focus was not on me, but on you. I was asking the questions. If you recall, the questions were: “How did you come to Oak Grove?” “What is your favorite thing about Oak Grove?” “What is your vision for Oak Grove?” “What do you need from Oak Grove?” and “What is God calling you to do/be?” In all, 191 people participated. Thanks again to the deacons for arranging, to those who hosted and to all who took part. It was very helpful for me and a lot of fun. There were lots of great individual ideas which I’ve related to the session. Let me share with you some of the general trends, not every answer to every question. “What brought you to Oak Grove?” The vast majority said that they had been Presbyterian previously and when they moved to Bloomington they simply came to the Presbyterian Church here. And that is how people used to come to churches. Most of those respondents have been here 30-60 years. That’s not how people come to churches these days. Very few people have denominational loyalty. Most people who have joined a church in the last ten years, when asked how they happened to come to that church, say, “Someone invited me.” Many people mentioned that the reason they came back to church a second time was because of Betty Johnson, the parish worker who was so good at remembering people and putting them to work. Ron Dubis, Sandy Crum and others do such a good job of that now. “What’s your favorite thing about Oak Grove?” Rollie DeLapp immediately responded, “Well, the fellowship,” like it was the dumbest question he’d ever heard in his life. “It feels like home.” “The people are so friendly.” You get the picture. People hang around and visit for a full hour after worship. I’ve never seen that. It’s fabulous! The second most-often mentioned favorite thing: The choir! In addition, many noted the children’s programming under Carol Osweiler’s direction and the mission emphasis, particularly how Dries has helped us be more visible in the community. Quite a number mentioned “open and growing.” “What is your vision for Oak Grove?” “To continue to be an inclusive church, with racial and theological diversity.” “More young people.” “Strong youth program.” “Programming for 18-30 year-olds.” “We want to grow, but we like not being too big.” “To be ‘the shining light’ in our community.” What do you need from Oak Grove?” “Just for it to be there.” “I need the extended family of Oak Grove.” “Ways to know people more.” A single mom said, “I need the village to help raise my child.” “To be put to work.” (I have given this recently-retired person two big jobs so far.) “What is God calling you to do or be?” Think to yourself. How would you answer that? One person said, “I’m ready to be used.” Another: “I’m called to be a giver and be faithful to the Word.” “I’m called to do the little things.” Those are good answers. “We are rooted, but we have wings.” “Faith without works is like a screen door on a submarine.” I wish I had thought of that. (I’m going to steal it and in a few years I’ll think I made it up.) You all went through some very tough times in the early 90s and the building project a decade ago was challenging, but at the moment it seems to me that there is a good feeling in the church now. Those of you who have been here a long time have an incredible loyalty and it’s clear that you are going to be here no matter what. I feel like I could announce, “Next Sunday we’re going to have a lutefisk polka mass,” and you would say, “Well, that’s not exactly my thing, but I’ll be here.” Three. We do a lot of things really well. We recently had the opportunity for a new interpretive brochure which came free with our picture directory order. I was given the task of writing the narrative. After a few false starts I decided simply to use bullet points. I did a rough draft and the session added a few and did some tweaking and this is what we came up with to describe to new folks who we are. (slides)
Now that’s a church I would join! I invite you to take three brochures home with you, one for you so you can give your “elevator speech” when someone asks you about your church and two to give to your unchurched neighbors and friends. Four. We have much of which to be proud. You do so many things so very well, that it feels like nitpicking, but I will share with you two areas we might improve. We have some really terrific opportunities for adult education on Sunday morning and Wednesday evening and occasionally other times during the week…but we have disappointingly low numbers of people involved. I feel like there are always new things I can be learning to help me follow Jesus more faithfully. I learn them from scripture, from other members of the church, from books. I wish we were more like the Baptists, where the expectation is that Sunday morning is a two and a half hour event: not only do we participate in worship every week, but we also are in an adult class every week. The other thing is that we have a lot of great programs that have been around for a few years and we don’t always do a good job of explaining them to new folks. Frequently these past six months my souse Kris would ask me questions about something that was in the blue sheet or newsletter and I couldn’t answer her, because I’m new, too. So we need constantly to “think like a visitor.” Five. Our gospel reading: Luke 4:16-30. Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah and this makes the audacious statement: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” He is claiming to be the messiah! And then he goes on to say, 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27And there were many in Israel with leprosy[b] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” 28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Why were the people furious, furious enough to want to throw Jesus off the cliff? What was it about the widow in Zarephath and what was it about Naaman? They were outsiders! In his inaugural address Jesus reminds his hearers that God’s love is not restricted to the Palestinian in-club. Did you ever make a treehouse? When I was a little guy we lived next door to the Melums just down the road here. Eric was a couple years older than I and he and a few of us built this tree house in what I remember to be a gian tree. It’s amazing we all lived through it. Tree houses are great! But as someone has noted, “It’s no fun having a tree house unless you can keep someone out.” The Tree House Syndrome it’s called. This is a club mentality not a community mentality. The club mentality was not Jesus’ model. Neither was it the model of Samuel and Gideon Pond. They traveled from the comfort of New England to the western wilderness to bring the good news of the gospel to the Dakota that lived here. Though as soon as I typed those words earlier this week it occurred to me that in the mid-19th century Minnesota Territory who were the outsiders? The outsiders were the few hundred Euro-American immigrants. The native Americans were the dominant culture. The Pond Brothers ministered to both. Gideon Pond started the first school in Bloomington in his own home and both native and settler children attended. As we move forward, will we be faithful to the vision of Jesus and the vision of Gideon Pond? I am delighted with the session action this fall declaring that we are “seeking intentionally to be a multicultural congregation.” I am also so delighted that as a congregation we continue to be engaged in the wider world, that we are seeking friendships with Muslims and Mexicans and even Methodists. Six. The session is beginning a process which we hope in a few months will result in a succinct, white-hot purpose statement for the congregation. A purpose statement that is brief enough that we can all memorize it and one that will encapsulate God’s vision for this congregation. But until then we already have some great foundational statements: Jesus in Luke 4 describes his mission: “to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners And our denomination has formulated the great ends of the church: What we as the church are striving to be in the world. The great ends of the church are (slides) the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness, and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. “The exhibition of the kingdom of heaven to the world.” What does that mean? I think it means that as the world looks at the church it should see what heaven is going to be like… Amen.
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