Heaven breaking into earth--Kingdom moments in 2018

One of the purposes of my life is to help bring in the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a realm, a space, an experience where everything for a moment is right.  Heaven breaking into earth.  On this last day of 2018 let me share three moments when I experienced the Kingdom in 2018.  My hope for everyone reading this blog is you will have many moments yourself of experiencing the Kingdom in 2019.

One was on our family trip this past July.  My parents, sister’s family and us decided to go to Ely.  We were able to rent a cabin on a beautiful lake.  On the first night Amy and I went canoeing.  The experience we had is one that calls many to go north in the summer.  We started paddling and stopped talking.  The silence was beautiful. The sound of the paddle in the water was all that we needed to sustain us.  Soon we saw a loon—that beautiful bird that Minnesotans have identified as our own.  The bird that very slowly takes off from the water in an angle that is closer to 180 than 90.  The loon issued its call.  It’s a call that will stop a conversation between people.  The conversation will stop because something feels right about the world when that sound is heard.  Amy and I took our paddles and placed them on our lap.  We listened.  That’s all that is needed when something so majestic is around us. 

Sitting in a canoe on a beautiful July evening watching a loon with silence calling us.  This is heaven breaking into earth--the Kingdom.

A second is a series of moments that took place over time at Chain of Lakes. This past February the Building Team at Chain of Lakes was commissioned.  The Team was asked to develop plans for a first phase building.  As Presbyterians we naturally started brainstorming different types of community partnerships that could be established in the creation of a building that would address needs in the community.  Day Care, Pre School, maybe even a gym.  I volunteered to be part of a sub-group who would examine the possibility of building a gym. 

Our sub-group contacted the Blaine Basketball Association.  We asked them if a need existed for gym space.  Was there a need?  They shared that if we would build a high-school sized gym that it could be rented every night of the week from September through March.  Chain of Lakes could have thousands of people coming into our facility. 

We never would have imagined this.

Over time the Building Team embraced the concept of building a gym as part of the first building.  The Building Team told the Session of Chain of Lakes.  The Session embraced it.  The Session shared this idea with the congregation.  The congregation embraced it.  And over a period of six months Chain of Lakes was united on the concept of our first building.

I’m not surprised because building a gym makes so much sense.  But I’m surprised because reaching a place of unity is never easy.  It’s delightful to get to a place where a group of people can look at each other and say, “We agree on this.”  This realization didn’t happen in one particular moment.  This unity happened among a series of moments that “magically” seemed to be directed by an outside force.  I can’t prove that an outside force was directing these moments,  of course, but the ultimate landing place is so improbably and so delightful that I can only conclude that something was directing us.  This is heaven breaking into earth—the Kingdom.   

And a third moment was when Hannah passed her Driver’s Test in September.  She hadn’t been able to pass her Driver’s Test.  I didn’t doubt her ability to drive a car safely, but it didn’t matter what I thought.  The State of Minnesota made if very hard to even get a Driver’s Test.  As I tried to sign her up for a test in August I discovered there weren’t any openings for three months.  We even looked at driving to a faraway Minnesota town, staying overnight, and taking a test.  A three month backlog for a Driver’s Test? That is a system that needs changing.

One day in September I drove over to the Arden Hills Driving Test with hopes that I might be able to set up a test for Hannah.  When I got there I realized I was too late.  The door was locked.  I saw a flyer on the door and looked at it with hopes that it would have some information.  As I was doing this a car drove up.  A voice beckoned from the car, “Can I help you?” I walked up to the car saying that I was trying to set up a driver’s test for my daughter.  I told the man that I couldn’t get a test for a month.  “I tell you what,” the man said.  Come on Friday and ask for Mark and you can get in.”

Ask for Mark and I can get in?  After going on-line and not finding a test for three months?  After far-away places around the state and considering a road trip?

“Ask for Mark and you can get in.”

I called Hannah and told her the news.  We came on Friday and asked for Mark.  She got in right away.  She took the test.  And, of course, she passed.  For some back-up help I asked for prayer support from a small group of mine while she took the test.  And the date was Amy’s birthday

I couldn’t have planned or even anticipated that this would happen in such a way on this date.  This is Heaven breaking into the earth—the Kingdom. 

I experienced these moments, but they aren’t mine.  I believe they come from God who sustains us and who promises that these moments will continue to happen.

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The Unchurching of America

Yesterday Jean Hopfensperger completed a series in the Star Tribune called “the unchurching of America.” This is the final article of four she ended up writing.

The first was about how a way of life is finishing as churches close and denominations fade away http://www.startribune.com/as-minnesota-churches-close-a-way-of-life-fades/486037461/. 

She wrote about the burden on local churches with fewer pastors http://www.startribune.com/fewer-men-and-women-are-entering-the-seminary/490381681/

And she wrote about the growing segment in American culture that profess “none” as their religion.  http://www.startribune.com/fastest-growing-religion-in-minnesota-the-nation-is-none/498664191/

I wrote responses to in my own blog.

In July I wrote this: https://chainlink-chainoflakesncd.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-unchurching-of-america.html

In September I wrote this: https://chainlink-chainoflakesncd.blogspot.com/2018/09/who-gets-to-write-this-stuff-responding.html

Last month I wrote this: https://chainlink-chainoflakesncd.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-unchurching-of-america.html

Yesterday Hopfensperger wrote about how no one model fits churches as they take their message to this culture of the growing “nones.” She shared examples of different types and styles of ministry. She wrote about a new church called “New City” a new congregation founded led by Rev. Tyler Sit.  According to their web site New City is dedicated to environmental justice.  It took me some searching on their web site to discover that they are a United Methodist congregation.  She also wrote about a Liberian congregation in Brooklyn Park and the mega-mega church in the north Metro called Eagle Brook.

One quote from Hopfensperger's article that resonated with me was by Scott Thumman, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research who said, “The model that fits with modern society are malls are boutiques. There will be very large churches and smaller niche churches.  Dinner church.  Bluegrass church.  Pop-up church.  We’ll have a greater variety of styles.”

This is the reality of the religious landscape in Blaine.  Here we have the mammoth Eagle Brook who is the large mall.  The rest of us fit in the boutique category.  We have a new church just starting down the road who is committed to starting new congregations. We have a Catholic church and two main-line churches (Lutheran and Methodist), and then we have all sorts of “flavors” of church.

For now Chain of Lakes Church—the congregation I serve—fits the boutique.  We were started using an old model of starting church—the parachute drop.  Parachute the pastor into a new area, who will gather the denominational adherents and then start a church.  With only seven families who came to the first meeting on my first day, this model revealed its flaws.

But since then Chain of Lakes has constantly improvised to learn how we can find our niche in the community.  We’ve become known as the church who will help homeless youth.  Despite our young age Chain of Lakes has received awards for our ministry with homeless youth.  Just recently we started a musical theatre ministry called “Common Good Theatre.” We believe that youth and kids will want to be involved in theatre, even if it’s being led by a church.  As Chain of Lakes moves closer to building a gym in a first-phase building, we will have more recreational ministries.    

As my coach, Tom Bandy, has often told me, “go find what is missing in the community and then create a ministry that meets that need.  And then go do that ministry very well.” 

I have conversations all the time with people who have hard questions about God and church.  They might have had a bad experience in their own faith journey that has caused them to question the need for faith.  A person can just open the newspaper and read about how the Catholic church protected priests who abused children.  No one wants that.  In these conversations I do the best I can to encourage these hard congregations.  Then I share that our congregation (though certainly not perfect) takes the safety of children extraordinarily seriously.  “Check us out and see for yourself,” I’ll say.  Some do; some don’t.

Church leaders who haven’t developed “the mall” will continue to have to wrestle with their own niche in the community.  Finding this niche can work and it can work in an extraordinary way.  Though it takes plenty of starts and stops and changing and adapting.  One of the mantras I share often at Chain of Lakes is “we’re masters at Plan B.”

The good news is that inside almost every human is knowledge that there is something out “there.” Most know at some level that what we see on this earth is not the end.  There’s a force or goodness or “something” out there that wants to connect to us.  It’s the spiritual quest.  Even though the church is struggling that spiritual quest hasn’t changed.

So even though Hopfensperger is right that the unchurching of America exists, church leaders who can respond to these spiritual questions can design faith communities that work.  We can’t just open up the denominational hub and expect the adherents to come.  We must be aware of the needs in the community and then create ministries and experiences from a faith-based perspective that meet them.  Those who do this well will succeed.

Feeling Stressed? Take the Advent pledge

Andy Williams was right in that this is the most wonderful time of the year.  It's also the most stressful. Whether you call this the Advent season, the Christmas shopping season, dealing with family season or “root for the Vikings” season, this time period presents plenty of challenges.   

Statistics bear this out.  According to a survey by the American Psychological Association, 38 percent of people said their stress level increases during the holidays.  The Principal Financial Group, revealed that 53 percent of people feel financially stressed.  In my research for this blog I discovered that there is an active debate about how many pounds the average person gains between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Without going too deep into that I think we can agree that the potential for weight gain exists. 

Jesus didn’t come into the world so people grow in stress, financial debt, and weight.

In the sermon I shared yesterday at Chain of Lakes Church I encouraged people to take the Advent pledge.  Everyone present took the pledge.  Let me share this Advent pledge as one way to stay centered during this (wonderful) (stressful) time of year.  If you’d like to watch the entire sermon go to the Chain of Lakes Vimeo page at: https://vimeo.com/chainoflakes

Advent Pledge

I will live complaint-free for the rest of Advent

I will bear with people who push my buttons

I will not lose my cool in an aggressive or passive-aggressive way

I will always take the high road

Are you willing to take the pledge?
Share your thoughts in the comments section or on my Facebook page.

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A New Social Network--Parties for the Homeless

I’m guessing that I’m like most preachers in that Advent is one the hardest seasons to share a sermon.  The story of the birth of Jesus is one of the greatest stories that humans have been given.  Every time I peer into this story I’m touched that God would choose to enter the world in such a way. The setting wasn't one into which I would imagine the future Messiah would be born.  Assuming Luke and Matthew have it right, there were no other adults present when Jesus was born.  Mary was a teenager and not married.  Joseph had planned to divorce her before an angel showed up and told him to get married.  The two had walked about a hundred miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  They did this so Cesar and the invading Roman government could received a tax.  After Jesus was born he was placed in a manger or a feed trough. 

This was messy—and Jesus was born into the mess. 

The Advent question I always ask is what is going to change because the world has celebrated the birth of Jesus.  Will the lives of the followers of Jesus look more like the life that God calls us?  Will our spirits look more like the Fruit of the Spirit?  Will we be filled and grow in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?  Will the world look more like the Kingdom that God envisions?  Will there be fewer homeless people, will the poverty rate decrease, will nations give up their weapons, will there be fewer incidents of violence against women?

Okay I get it.  My expectations for the season are high.  And I’ve lived enough of these seasons to know that for much of the time the answer to the above questions is “no.”  Or even worse, the answer is an indifferent, “huh?”  Once Thanksgiving is done many are catapulted into the busiest and most stressful time of the year.  It’s doesn’t help that it is dark and cold.  Most of the time crossing off all that needs to be done on the “to-do” list makes the season a success.  Just making it through Christmas without adding too much more to our credit card debt or adding to our waist line or having a family fight makes the season a success.

But I still have hope.  And I still preach sermons with hope.

Yesterday at Chain of Lakes Church I started a new Advent sermon series called, “The Ultimate Social Network.” The sermon can be viewed at the following link: https://vimeo.com/304128199?fbclid=IwAR2IyYzCKWzJj6Vqpu7t3LCr_oqb19zNHhrPHX8PbkFpcNtJUYfzq9cSU  
In the sermon I shared that as soon as Jesus was born people started to be networked to him.  What’s most amazing to me is the first people who visited Jesus were the shepherds.  Living outdoors, a shepherd will go for extended periods of time without sleeping under a roof.  Watching the sheep, a shepherd will have to risk safety to repel an invader.  Making quick decisions, a shepherd will have to decide whether to risk the safety of the flock to go find a sheep who has gone astray.

           

In sharing the message of the birth of Jesus first with the shepherds I think we learn about the character of God.  There’s a morality to what God was doing. It is as if God was saying, “I have a special place in my heart for those who don’t have a roof over my head.  I have a special place in my heart for those who are vulnerable.  I have a special place in my heart for those who are struggling.  I chose to make my announcement to the shepherds.

Thousands of years later we know about these shepherds.  This is networking on the highest level.  That is the networking that God can do. 

I closed the sermon with a challenge which I’m encouraging you as a reader to accept.  I’m asking people to give $15 to HOPE 4 Youth for every Christmas party they attend before the end of the end of 2018.  The challenge is simple, but could make an impact on the lives of homeless youth in Anoka county.  I’ve started a Facebook page called, “Parties for the homeless.” If you have a moment, consider liking the page.  The link is here: https://www.facebook.com/Parties-for-the-Homeless-535340900314773/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Would you take the challenge?

I have no idea how much money could be raised for homeless youth in Anoka County. And to be honest, this was a spur-of-the-moment idea that came to me.  It would have been better if I had this idea two months ago and had more time to think through how to set this up.  But I’m willing to give the idea a try.  This preacher is always looking for new ways to share and live out the Christmas story.  This new social network could help change the world!

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