Synod School

This past week I had the opportunity to attend Synod School at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa.  This is the 65^th consecutive year (I’ve attended at least five times) that the Synod of Lakes & Prairies has offered Synod School.  Approximately 650 people attended this year.

What is Synod School? Think of camp at a college with morning worship and a lecture, all sorts of classes in the late morning and afternoon, worship in the evening along with some more classes after that. Class options ranged from a three hour study on the New Testament to an afternoon class on outdoor cooking. Food is offered in the cafeteria.  No cooking, no cleaning, many activities for families, opportunities for spiritual and personal growth--Synod School. 

This year I had the opportunity to co-teach a class on prayer with Sarah Dickinson, pastor of Discovery Presbyterian Church in Omaha. The class came out of a conversation the two of us had last year at Synod School about the importance of prayer in local congregations. As Presbyterians we should be “best in prayer,” the title of the class. Both of us were surprised that close to thirty people signed up for the class. We each believe that many Presbyterians want to be taught about how to improve their prayer life. 

Jason Brian Santos was the main speaker in the morning. He shared his experiences and research on the Taize community in France, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiz%C3%A9_Community. An important part of his teachings during the week was on creating Sabbath community. He shared that four spritiual practices that are essential to Taize are prayer, Bible reading, communal work and silence along with spiritual friendship.  He encouraged participants at Synod School to develop intergenerational, spiritual practices in their own churches that would help create a Sabbath community.

I enjoyed listening to Jason Brian Santos teach during the week and loved his stories about the Taize community. I loved his commitment to helping churches create Sabbath communities. If I had had an extended amount of time with him I’d like to push deep into how Sabbath communities can be created and how Sabbath communities can experience growth in the number of people who participate in a local congregation.

I especially enjoyed taking a class by David Barnhat on “story.” He has produced a number of award-winning documentary filsm for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Just watching some of the videos he has made was worth attending the class. Check out the following web site to watch some of these very moving videos: https://vimeo.com/pdacares

One of the best parts of Synod School is the community that is formed during the week. Relationships are made and re-made; fun and goofy activities are shared; memories are created; new learnings are taken back to congregations.

No event is perfect. I wish that the racial composition of Synod School was more diverse; and I wish that even more young families were attending, though the number of children in the picture above is heart-warming.  However these wishes do not at all take away from the reality that Synod School is an outstanding experience. If you’re reading this, think about attending in 2019.

I look forward to the ministry of Synod School for at least another 65 years!

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Thoughts, Questions and Our Own stories about Immigration

Even though the glare of media attention to Immigration has lessened in the past month, this is a week where that glare could be present again.  This is significant week for how Immigrants will be treated in the United States.  According to National Public Radio, 2,551 children age six and older who were separated from their parents as part of the government’s Zero Tolerance Policy are supposed to be reunited with their parents by this Thursday.  That was an order by Judge Dana Sabraw.  What happens will be widely reported.

I still am shocked that children were separated from their parents at all.  Separating children from their parents should have never been used as a deterrent to prevent people from coming to the United States.  No matter what a person’s view is on Immigration, I hope that we can all agree that separating children from their parents and then putting children in a cage is not acceptable in the United States.

But until we can talk, tell stories, and ask questions about Immigration my fear is not much will change.  It's extremely difficult to talk about Immigration.  These conversations almost force each of us to share our own opinions about President Trump, our thoughts on the morality of breaking the law when a person crosses the border without being a citizen, and our own views about the threat to safety from people who enter the United States without being a citizen.  These are all emotional issues.  And the emotion can overwhelm a conversation.  Add to this toxic brew of conversation the issue of race, and ...  

What’s lost in the recent glare about Immigration is that 11-12 million people currently live in the United States who don’t have citizenship papers.  That number has remained relatively stable for the past ten years.  Seventy-five percent of that population has lived in the United States for over a decade. Separating children from their parents has existed for a while, but it intensified in when Attorney General Jeff Session announced the Administration’s Zero Tolerance Policy in May.

Ultimately it's important to tell stories about how a person came to their views on Immigration.  My perspective on “Illegal Immigration” was formed when I worked for the farm workers in California in the late 80’s, early 90’s.  Then as now farm workers performed work that was extremely difficult; they received low pay and lived in conditions that many in the United States would not tolerate.  Most farm workers were Hispanic, some didn’t speak English, and some were not citizens of the United States. 

Whether a farm worker was a citizen of the United States or not didn’t matter to me.  Farm workers were performing work that many middle class Americans would never do.  They wanted to help their family, so they would endure very challenging conditions.  Their work allowed me to purchase fruits and vegetables in the grocery store.

When I served the Presbyterian Church in Plainview, Minnesota, I got in touch with some of the migrants who worked at Lakeside Food.  Lakeside Food was a local canning company.  Many of the people who worked there in the summer came from Eagle Pass, Texas.  They came to work and perform work that others in the community wouldn't do.  Lakeside Food would never have had people from Texas come into the community to work if enough folks from the community had done the work.  The community benefited from their work.  If Lakeside Food had left Plainview, the local property tax base would have been significantly lessened. 

I looked at farm workers or the people who came to Lakeside Food as people who were willing to work and who were willing to participate in the American Dream.  They were doing hard work to give their families a chance to a better life.

They didn’t bring crime, they weren’t rapists, and they didn’t bring drugs.  They were good people.  They aren't flooding the United States.  According to the United States Border Patrol the number of people who illegally cross the border is much lower in 2018 compared to 2014 and much smaller than in 2008.

An important part of developing an Immigration policy that is fair and just is coming to terms with how we view people who come across the border.  Are they criminals because they are here?  Are they people trying to make a better life for their families?  Are they people who are doing jobs that most people wouldn’t?  Are they making life better for the country?

I don't have the answers to that would develop a policy about Immigration.  But until we can tell our own stories about our views on Immigrants, it seems to be that the United States will be locked into polarizing views with little change.

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Helping creation

Yesterday the people of Chain of Lakes Church enjoyed a wonderful service of worship on the church property. Once a month this summer the congregation I serve is leaving our current worship location on Davenport to worship at our future location—the church property.  The day was warm as we worshiped yesterday, but because of pop-up tents and plenty of water the large group who assembled was comfortable.

As part of a summer sermon series called “Need 2 Know” I preached about what is important to know about creation. The series is more than just sharing information with our head. I want to communicate what’s important to know with our heart and with our feet regarding creation.

As part of the series I encouraged people to spend at least 20 minutes in nature this week. Nature revives the heart like prayer does. One of my favorite places in the local area to be revived is the community gardens on the church property. I grew up in southwestern Minnesota and grew to enjoy the wide open spaces of the area. The north metro doesn’t have many wide open spaces. But when I stand at the community gardens my heart receives a taste of openness.

I shared in my sermon yesterday that today I would spend twenty minutes at the Community gardens on the Chain of Lakes church property. This morning I stood at the gardens for a while, and then I hiked the perimeter of the property. I enjoyed listening to the wind and the birds and seeing many beautiful wild flowers. I always enjoy taking pictures of the cross located on the southeast part of the property. The above pictures are of the cross on the property and the community gardens sponsored by Chain of Lakes. I shared more pictures on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/hmoorepaul

At the end of the sermon I talked about what each person can do with their feet to put a dent into global warming.

It’s hard for me to think about what I—one individual among the 7.4 billion who live on the earth—can do to prevent global warming.  Yes I can drive my car less, and set the temperature in my house higher in the summer and lower in the winter.  But this doesn’t seem tangible enough.

In my research for the sermon I came across a web site called onetreeplanted.org. It’s a non-profit created by a man named Matt Hill in Vermont. The organization is a public 501c3. The web site offers an easy way to reduce global warming. They promise that for every dollar given to the organization a tree will be planted. According to the web site every fully-developed tree absorbs 48 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year. Forty-six trees can absorb one ton of carbon. The average person contributes to the emission of 20 tons of carbon a year. Through a $46 contribution any person's carbon emission can be lessened by a ton.

I don’t know anything about onetreeplanted.org besides what I read on their web site and their Facebook page. They seem legitimate to me. (I do plan on sharing with them via email how I talked about their organization in my sermon yesterday.) I made a contribution this morning that will plant forty trees. I’m trusting that when those trees are developed I will have helped reduce 1920 pounds of carbon emissions a year.  This is one step. I know that I’ve taken a small step with my feet. I’m trusting that that it’s a helpful step.

The unchurching of America

Yesterday, Jean Hopensperger wrote an article in the Star Trbune about the decline of churches called, “As Churches Close, a Way of Life Fades.” (http://www.startribune.com/as-minnesota-churches-close-a-way-of-life-fades/486037461/)  Underneath the main headline was a smaller note that this is the first in an occasional series.

The article was popular.  It was the most-read article on the Star Tribune’s web site and generated over 700 comments with many more comments being added.

In the article Hopensperger shared the story of La Salle Lutheran Church who will be closing in August.  She also shared statistics about the decline of Mainline Protestant churches. The Evangelical Lutheran in America has lost almost 200,000 members since 2000 and about 150 churches have closed.  The United Methodist Church has closed 65 churches in Minnesota in the same time period.  As a PC(USA) pastor I remember when 28,000 people were part of the Twin Cities Area Presbytery. Today the Presbytery has approximately 16,000 members.

It is a tough time for the mainline church.

The religious landscape in the United States is changing.  According to the Pew Research Center 27 percent of Americans saw themselves as spiritual and not religious in 2017 compared to nineteen percent in 2012. (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/)

As someone who helped redevelop a Presbyterian church and who started a new Presbyterian church virtually from scratch, I live and breathe the question(s) of how to build a church ministry from a mainline perspective that is appealing to the wider community.

Do I think it is possible to build a growing, vibrant, mainline congregation in 2018?  Of course I do!   I’ve seen it happen in the two contexts I’ve served.  And more importantly God hasn’t changed in the last 18 years; the stories of Jesus haven’t changed in the last 18 years; the possibility of individuals and the wider community having their lives transformed in the last 18 years haven’t changed either.  

I don’t think that the path to building a growing, vibrant, mainline congregation is easy. And the ways to do this are many. 

I do believe that one essential way to growth is to adapt continuously.

What is ironic to me about the article in yesterday’s paper is it was placed directly above an article entitled, “Theaters find more ways to keep you glued to your seat?” (http://www.startribune.com/sterling-sequels-aren-t-the-only-thing-bringing-people-back-to-theaters/487573171/) The article went on to say that movie theaters and Hollywood studios are having a near-record year. One sentence from this article has stuck with me. “From the seats to the food and drinks, theater owners are splurging to add the amenities to remain appealing to people who can now see movies virtually anywhere, even on their phones.”

Movie theater owners are adapting. From reclining seats to new food & drink options to subscription pricing to new projection systems. Theater owners are making changes.

Mainline churches have to adapt too.   

Is adaptation easy? Of course not. It leads church leaders to ask hard questions about making changes, about what is important to the culture and what traditions (if any) are important to keep.

But to ask a new person to walk into a church community and encounter something that hasn’t changed in 18 years won’t work (for the most part) in bringing that person back. I do believe that churches who continually ask themselves the questions, “what’s working, what’s not working, and how can we adapt” will have the possibility of experiencing success.

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