Christianity for the Rest of Us

Index	Chapter Summary	A Vision for StDavids	Discussion
Summary Notes - Ch 15, 16, 17. Transforming Lives, Congregations, the World
Bass uses the metaphor of pilgrim to advantage. And in these final chapters, she considers the consequence of these changes as the churhes reach out. The gospel has ever been characterized by transformation, and she expects these pilgrims will change the world. "...pilgrims find that transformation is communal and corporate. Changing the self empowers pilgrims to change the world." "...they had gone on a different kind of journey, one they would never have experienced had they remained tourists, one that became incresingly less self-direct and increasingly aimed toward God's love and shalom."
A Vision for St. David's - Transformation, Conversion & Stability - George LeDrew
I am serving St. David’s as your Interim Minister for a 2-year appointment concluding June 30th, 2008. I will then be returning to Newfoundland to retire after 45 years of service to my church. ASDM has invited me to share my vision for St. David’s United Church. Being a very practical person I therefore asked my self “If I were, staying what might I do to help nurture and grow this church?” I believe that if we wish to discern God’s will for the church one way to do this is to identify the gifts and strengths that God has given to the church, build on these strengths and then expand on them. For example one of the strengths of St. David’s United Church is our music program. We might strive to increase and improve that ministry. Then expand that program by focusing on reaching out to and encouraging youth through our music program. Identifying, building on and then expanding on our strengths is to take a positive approach to church growth. We have a cottage in Newfoundland. On the shaded side there is a lot more moss than grass growing. I asked one of my brothers for advice on how best to kill the moss (a negative approach). His advice was “nurture the grass” (a positive approach). I hope that St. David’s United Church will take a positive approach to growing the church by identifying, building on and expanding our areas of strength. I would encourage St. David’s to become an intentional ‘Caring Community’, striving to include every person in some aspect of the church’s ministry. God has given every person gifts and abilities. God values every person. So should the church. I have copies of an article “The Caring Community” by Milly Malavsky from Exchange Magazine (Winter 1996), which describes the program I helped develop at St. Andrew’s United Church when I was minister there (1985- 1993). (This article is scanned. Click HERE to read it.) This article describes the visioning process used at St. Andrew’s, and how we developed the program. A young father was reading the paper when his little daughter asked him what he was doing. He replied, ‘Your daddy is looking for a better job’. To which the little girl replied, ‘But your job is to be my daddy.’ What is our job? Our job is to be the church. We must always remember that ‘faithfulness’ is more important than ‘success’. ‘Being’ the church is our first priority. Providing a caring pastoral presence for our people, as our pastoral care “pedal groups” do here at St. David’s United Church, is vital. Never under estimate the contributions that even homebound folk can make. As Christy Brekke said “Prayer is not the least we can do. Prayer is the very best we can do”. I hope that St. David’s United Church will be a praying church where everyone prays for every other person and for the ministries of the church. Growing the church is important and possible. Census Canada indicates that most people self identify as part of a Christian denomination even if they seldom attend church. These ‘affiliates’ are our best opportunities for mission. Over the last 5 years at St. David’s United Church we married (matched) 78 couples; baptized (hatched) 130 babies and conducted 125 funerals (dispatched). That’s a total 333 households who asked St. David’s United Church to assist them in a transitional time in their lives. What a wonderful opportunity to reach out to people. Lives can be blessed and transformed. Growing the church is not complicated but it does require a willingness to reach out in an intentional, coordinated way. Proactive caring is putting faith into action. It is about being faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ – “To go into all the world.” Let me say a little about social justice as I see it as part of a caring church. The familiar story of the Good Samaritan tells of a man who was beaten and robbed. He is helped and cared for by a Samaritan. I have often wondered what that Good Samaritan might have done next to try to prevent this kind of violence happening again. Did he try to organize travelers so they could travel together for safety? Did he ask the authorities to send out military patrols to capture the brigands? Did he try to reach out to the thieves in some way or strive to change the social conditions of that society so that people would no longer need to victimize others in order to survive? St. David’s United Church is a caring church and actively reaches out to the needy (charity) but she also strives to increase awareness of social issues and challenge society (social justice) so that all people may find justice, hope and opportunity. Amos called for justice. “But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” (5:24) A great theologian on the world stage was once asked to summarize his faith. He shared this line from a children’s hymn from his youth. “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”. Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes, of Harvard University tells of speaking with the Queen Mother after worship one Sunday. The Queen Mother said to Gomes - “I always like to hear some good news’. May St. David’s United Church always be a place where people can hear the good news? St. David’s United Church has been a place where many lives have been transformed. St. David’s has been blessed. St. David’s is a blessing. May we strive to be faithful to God’s call to be the bearers of glad tidings in the world in which we live. George passed an article out "The Caring Community" by Milly Malavsky from Exchange (Winter 1996). The article is about pastoral care at St Andrew's River Heights Church in Winnipeg. (The article is scanned. Click HERE to read it). The article describes the visioning process I used when I first came to St Andrews, and how we developed our new programs. An important part of this was to have a "retreat" (which I'd rather call an "advance"), to be apart for a while. To ask who are we, and who do we want to be. But a retreat that lists problems is self defeating. Rather, to go apart and build on strengths and discover God's calling.
Discussion
Q. Lately the conversation is about the business of the church (mark the recent stewardship focus). We need to offer a product a better product that invites people to try out the product. Peter Drucker wrote that management is the art of making peoples strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. A. My son told me the the job of business is to help the workers get the job done. Hospitality is a need at StDavids to develop. I recall a man last spring who had no one approach him or reach out to him. Q. About vision. Should we choose a few strengths of identity or should we name a bit of everything? A. Better a few and work on them and then expand from there. Q. Our present mission statement is too broad. A. When working with families in crisis, the hard part is to get them to focus on what was possible to work on. I found it best to help them choose one thing. They tend to either want everything or nothing. Mission statements are general. There are always various interpretations. Q. Some of the (christian) language is taken over by others (denominations). So it is difficult to identify oneself as christian. We can more safely say we are spiritual. Calling ourselves christian seems often a liability. A. Agreed. In the villa where we live, a neighbour who is a muslim said a similar thing to me because of the stereotype of the muslims today of the extreme (factions). The middle voice needs hearing. People are suspicious. As a minister, people want to tell me why they don't go to church. If you get to know some one on a given plane, the opportunity comes to talk of other things - sometimes even religion. I am a runner. Other runners become a community of sharing. Many people cannot understand why we come to church. In the prodical son story, the eldest son is jealous. The prodical has squandered and yet is given welcome. But the father tells him he has been with him always - namely, he has enjoyed the steady fellowship of the father. Maybe the church is that eldest son. Q. How can smaller groups in church find a larger community. A1. Centre Street Church assigns everyone to a small group. A2. (Geo) Linda & I had a promotion (at St Andrews) of a Bible study group. It required a 13 week committment for 3 years. It was demanding and challenging. A3. In the 1980's a large group of StDavids people took a St Stephens training. It was very successful. We didn't repeat it in the '90s. A4. (Geo) United church philosophy is to provide a place to equip people for the world. It is not for the world. It is not to replace the world. In many praise churchs, the church provides everything for you - for your whole life. In some ways it isolates one from (the larger) community. The UCC rather invites members to participate in the world and they may not. Q. Pro atheletes often give credit to Jesus or God. The Colts coach Tony Dungy was a man who used clean language and encouraged people to their best efforts. (LINK - Dungy says he's proudest to be a christian coach) The team continues to pray before the game even after he left. A. The challenge is how do we witness in our day and not be perceived as fanatical. When I was finishing my studies and was looking for a first church, I remember wondering what God wanted me to do. On an Air Canada flight, he had bowed his head to consider this, and this triggered the fellow next to him commenting later "you're a christian, what church are you from?" "Well, the United Church" I said. "But the United Church doesn't believe in the Bible! What does the United Church believe in salvation?" And so it went for a while. He was the principal of a Hamilton evangelical school. "Are you going to heaven?" "Well I don't know" I said. "Unless you accept Jesus ..." I interrupted with "I think that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard". This surprised him. "What about those who have never heard of Jesus?" I asked. "They're going to hell" said he. "Well then" I said, "it seems to me that you're going to hell too." This got his attention. "Well, you know there are people in the world that are going to hell and aren't doing anything about it." I felt then, a call to Pleasant Heights. For God must surely love more than I do. Story. There was a person on a stewardship drive who said that the church was offering "fire insurance".

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