Mary, did you know?

Membership is down - give more?

No sooner had I posted about Christian Stewardship being cheapened by equating with money than I noticed (on this blog) the news item from UM Reported, "Changing demographics impacts funds".

The article has several interesting facts and figures. One negative action popped out at me, though. The GCFA governing board, in response to the decline in giving, has penned legislation that, "among other things, the legislation aims to hold leaders at all levels of the church accountable in their responsibility to promote, support and model Christian giving."

Whoa! So let me get this straight. The denomination is seeing a decline in membership and a decline in giving. The solution is to give more? It sounds like the old semi-joke about some office managers, "Management has observed that morale is low. Beatings will commence until morale improves." Maybe we are getting more concerned with funding than with meeting the spiritual needs of the least, the lost, and the last.

Perhaps if we focused our actions on them, as Luke shows us Jesus did, we'd be getting more members, who would want to contribute to the great spiritual work being done. Are we putting the cart before the horse? Are we failing to see the spiritual forest for the financial trees?

Stop demeaning Christian stewardship!

It's fall and the most common time for "Stewardship campaigns" a phrase that makes me cringe. Christian stewardship encompasses a very broad area. As Clarence Stoughton said, "Stewardship is everything you do after you say yes to Jesus Christ.". Churches demean stewardship and ignore the many needed actions areas of Christian Stewardship when they make it all about money.

What churches usually really mean is "annual financial campaign". Using the word "stewardship" makes some people feel better about asking for money, but it seems disingenuous. Sometimes churches add little "talent" cards to justify calling it a Stewardship campaign. But that too barely scratches the surface of Christian stewardship. And it's tacit admission that the campaign is a financial campaign running under cover of the term "stewardship".

Churches do need financial support. There's nothing wrong with a financial campaign. Let's be more honest about the process and call it just that. Doing so may also defuse criticism by unchurched people that churches are sly, world-like, or hypocritical.

And let's have true Stewardship campaigns in our churches. Ones where we inform members about all aspects of stewardship and encourage their daily involvement as stewards for Christ.

Let's stop equating Christian stewardship with asking for financial support, needed though it is. Let's be up front and honest when we conduct our annual financial campaigns.

[cross-posted from Open Mind Dave blog]

Rushing on the Day of Rest

"Hurry" sickness. Most of us have it. And it's not good. A recent sermon at our church was about rushing around on the Sabbath and the need for a true day of rest.

Rev. Dave referred to Blue Laws, child labor, and the impact of our computerized world. Some points he made:

• Blue Laws "protected" Sundays for Christians, but now that most State legislatures allow businesses to be open on Sundays, guess who's patronizing them? Christians.
• Sunday school started as education of children on their only non-work day.
• Computers were supposed to give us more free time. Instead, they we have let them get us to do even more work in the same period of time. We are busier than ever, even on Sundays.
• We have increased the amount of business work we do, even taking more of it home.
• We need to find the courage to "Just say no" to added work.
• Learn to accept God's gift of rest.
• Slow down, stop, and let your cup fill with true inner peace -- Shalom.

Americans are the most productive workers in world, but it's because we work long and hard, even taking it home. (Mea Cupla!) That's great for a business' bottom line, but we need to take a hard look at work vs. rest.

When asked by a rabbi why he was rushing by, a man replied, "I'm running to work to make a living."

"Are you sure", asked the rabbi, "that your livelihood is running away from you and you have to rush to catch it up? Perhaps it's rushing toward you and all you have to do is stand still and let it catch up with you." [link]

On the seventh day, God rested. Do we think He was a slacker? Do we think we're better than God? Is it even really restful to try to rush around and squeeze in as many non-business activities as we can on a weekend, even Sunday? Do we incorrectly consider resting to be "doing nothing"?

Related links

• Are you missing out on a blessing from God? (Good News Magazine)
• Child Labor
• Child labor in America, 1908-1912
• Blue Law (Wikipedia)
• Keeping the Sunday Sabbath - Does such a Thing Still Exist? (UMC.org)
• The origin of Sunday School
• Report: U.S. Workers Are Most Productive (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Robert Raikes and Sunday Schools
• Sabbath-keeping is a discipline and a blessing (Interpreter magazine)
• sleep. sabbath. surrender.
• Take back your Sabbath (Christianity Today)
• What religious groups say about the Sabbath
• When it's Rush Hour all Day Long: Finding Peace in a Hurry-Sick World (book)

Cafe sermon prep?

The Allan R. Bevere blog, host to the "Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup", has periodic polls.  I found one interesting -- "Where do you prepare your sermons?"

 

http://arbevere.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/098

 

The interesting part is that more pastors now prepare sermons at a cafe than at church, though most do at home.  Perhaps cafes are getting more popular as a sermon preparation spot because many have Internet available (for research) as well as good lattes. The poll size is not large enough to warrant a high confidence level (+- 5%), but interesting nevertheless.

Religion videos

The advent of YouTube has brought a slew of videos to the web. Here's a few that are tagged as "religion" or "church":

• Moving a 100-year old church, complete with choral music - 4 min.
• Church-hunting (King of the Hill) - 9 min.
• The Orthodox Church - A Visual Journey - 9 min.
• The Spirituality of Early Christianity - 26 min.
• Mr Bean Goes to Church (a classic) - 4 min.
• Baby got book - a rap about "I like big [KJV] Bibles" - 4:24 min.
• Inside Scientology (From Britian's "The Big SHow") - 21 min.

Why people leave churches

Dr. Richard J. Krejcir, a church consultant, in his "Why Churches Fail -Part 1" article says that in his study of over 1,000 churches for more than 10 years, he found that people who leave a church other than to move out of the area do so because of:

• Conflict or gossip in the church
• Hypocrisy and judgemental attitudes and actions of the leadership
• A lack of hospitality or concern
• Unwillingness to deal with sin.
  People need a place to feel at home and to grow in their faith; a place that helps them cope with the sins of the world -- their sins.

Krejcir says that we should be stressing:

• Prayer
• Bible literacy and it relevance
• Discipleship

We should avoid trying to add "consumers" of Christianity to the pews instead of participants and disciples. He says we go for what's glitzy, what's popular, what the most "mod". We concentrate on dumbing down worship to the pew-sitters instead of encouraging the congregation to worship God. We put the focus on ourselves instead of God, he says.

• Why Churches Fail - Part II
  Are you willing to take a hard look at why people are not attending your church?

ReligioNews blog changes

The "sidebar" (right column) items on this blog are not set in stone, nor is the design for that matter. Over the past months I have moved the order of the sidebar sections as well as added and deleted some links.

Today I added "The Revealer", a daily review of religion and the press, to the "Methodist, Other Blogs" sidebar section. For example, today's main feature at The Revealer is "Fundamentalism's Colonial Drag", which also links to the original "Newsweek" article.

So remember to check the sidebar links for changes now and then.

I'll try to remember to plug new features in the blog. For example, I'm excited about some new features being tested by Google right now, including an install poll (survey).

To robe or not to robe

Matt, a United Methodist pastor and author of the Catching Meddlers blog, asks if wearing of robes can get in the way to communicating the gospel message. John the Methodist, author of Locusts and Honey blog, picked up on this and his entry has over a dozen comments already.

My two cents -- if a particular vestment gets in the way of communicating with the pastor's current congregation, change the vestment. It's the message that counts, not the garment. Or as my Dad used to say, it's the potatoes that count, not the potato sack.

Some congregations may feel that wearing of robes is being "overdressed". Heaven forbid [pun intended]. Others may have a tradition of the pastor wearing robes in winter and a suit or even less casual in the summer. Others may prefer a less formal vestment such as an alb or even just a clerical shirt and collar.

The key appears to me to be the pastor and congregation arriving at a "dress code" that does not distract nor detract from the spiritual message being delivered via the worship service.

I did find David's comment at the Catching Meddlers blog educational:

"... the robes traditionally worn by Methodist pastors are known as "academic robes" and are testament to their accomplishments in that arena. To me, an alb is a symbol of humility and service that does more to link me with the congregation rather than to highlight how "smart" I am."

Faith videos

Christianity Today has a slew of videos about faith. Though they sell them, you can watch a small version online for free. Some examples:

• An audience with God
• Money - the world's narcotic
• Follow (does it matter what we wear to church?)
• Jesus ministered slowly
• 3 minutes with 3 lost people