Incarnation

My husband and I shared a chuckle the other night. We ran into some friends who recently had a baby. They looked worked over. Their hair was unkempt, bags under their eyes, shoulders slumped, and their pace slowed. When we asked them how they were doing, their eyes lit up and they responded, “We’re great.”

We chuckled, not to poke fun, but in certain memory. We have two children of our own, ages 6 and 7. They were born a year apart. Overnight, our priorities become so imminently connected to the priorities of those newborns. We gave our bodies in service to the grueling demands of our infants who required utter devotion while they violated countless boundaries (think a third feeding at 4am).

Never once did we consider quitting and not because the work was so rewarding or because we were always joyous (think a third feeding at 4am), but because there was no other choice for us. We were captured and we remained in faithful sacrificial service because we belonged. 

There is no better way to compel us to closeness or to urge us to belong, than to come into our lives as a vulnerable demanding newborn. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, effectively brings us into relationship with our God in the most irrational and humanly way possible. He is born.  

Abba! Father!

I had an extremely happy childhood. Like most Americans I grew up wanting for much but needing nothing.  My family lived on a hobby farm with horses and chickens and dogs and cats…lots of cats. I was raised in an atheist household. My parents never baptized me. I have fond memories of sleeping in on Sunday mornings and waking up to a hot breakfast.

My mother taught me about hard work and perseverance. My father taught me that one could have strong beliefs and convictions and still be nice to other people.

My happy childhood ended a month before my sixteenth birthday when my father passed away.

Leadership Musts

Great insight that match what I'm seeing in my ministry. Ideas Week: Beyond Sizzle. I love how the author leaves the conversation.

So many times we "come to church," we participate in Bible studies or discussion groups, we volunteer for mission projects, and we leave inspired or smarter or gratified.  But what has been the result beyond our own edification?

It's great to have all of these wonderful ideas. Not for their own sake, but for the sake of the one who calls us. 

In anticipation of my sabbath retreat next week, I found great insight from Matt Steen, A Church Leader's Soul and Crisis Management.

Young Clergy Perspective

A well informed quick read. I think it was implied, but it is worth being more specific...this is not just a commentary on clergy but includes other young leaders who are holding back on their passionate ministry because it will be misunderstood by others or worse yet, unaccepted. I also think that older pastors who are concerned with leaving a legacy of growth rather than decline are caught up in these same issues.

What Young Clergy Want You To Know

More Voices from the Wilderness: Ideas for Presbyteries

Here is another blogger offering up some interesting ideas for Presbytery meetings.

Experience the examination of candidates for professional ministry to be a teaching moment during which they teach us.

Check out the 3 things that you would change about Presbytery Assembly Meetings

Theresa Eungyong Cho has a wonderful blog where she opens conversations about many different aspects of our faith and work together.

I began my moderator year for the Presbytery of San Francisco January of this year. My focus for this year is to change the way we meet during our Presbytery meetings. Like most presbyteries, we sit in pews for 5-7 hours listening to reports and voting on important issues. What is clear is that people are tired of meeting this way and often times hate going to presbytery meetings. More and more presbyteries are looking at alternative ways to do business and Presbytery of San Francisco is one of them.

Check out Teresa's blog post on different ways to do Presbytery meetings.

Embracing Your "Onlys"

This past weekend I worshipped in a community with a small youth group. As I was leaving, the Sunday School teacher expressed her concerns about having such a small group. “It is a nice youth group, but we only have a few kids.” I’ve used those same words. When my husband and I were volunteering for a program over a decade ago we were working with a vibrant youth ministry that boasted 24 junior highers on Wednesday nights. These kids were devoted to the program, coming every week, and bringing friends. But Sunday mornings were a whole other story. We were lucky on some mornings to get five kids. Usually it was three.

Where Two or More are Gathered...

Paul Moore, organizing pastor at the Chain of Lakes Church in Blaine, wrote an accurate account of the Presbytery meeting I attended the other night. It was the first Presbytery meeting I’ve been to in awhile. On several occasions throughout the meeting, the gathered body made references to trying to include more people in their 20s and 30s, but I was hard pressed to envision a room full of 20 and 30 year olds abiding the length and structure of a meeting that lasted nearly six hours not including the pre-Presbytery event.

It’s not that 20 and 30 year olds don’t care or aren’t willing to devote time and energy to something. It would be a mistake to attribute that sentiment to a group of folks who have already bucked the generational trend to leave the church altogether. But, six hours of sitting in a pew listening to reports doesn’t work for us. Based on the number of people still at the meeting at 9:30pm on Tuesday night, it’s not working for a lot of other people as well.

Pain and Promise

Now that my kids are in school full-time, I’ve started to think about my future. I’m at an age where I will probably work for at least another 30 years.  I’m a youth director. I love being a youth director. I am really good at being a youth director. I feel called by God to this particular ministry, but I wonder if there is a future in working with youth?

The average church is declining in membership and resources and numbers of children and youth are leveling off or falling. Combine these factors with a deteriorating infrastructure and it is clear to me why churches are opting to let go of staff or to reduce their hours and packages. The challenge for someone like me, someone who is called by God to minister to young people, becomes how to interpret God’s call within our current context.

The Millennial Church

So, you are part of a church that has recently discovered that you need to start reaching Millennials. Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Let’s start with the bad news. The cultural context in to which our youngest generations are coming of age has shifted dramatically compared to 40 or 50 years ago. There are vast alternatives which are competing for relevance with our early and mid-century mason-esk style churches. And they are winning.

The Boomers with their individual-oriented mindset have left the church and those who have stayed, transfer membership from church to church as they seek to fulfill their needs at different life stages. The Gen-Xers abandoned the church, if they were ever there to begin with, but Gen-Xers are dark brooding sloppy independent types, so who cares, right?* There are strong signs that the Millennials, are like the previous two generations, at risk of leaving the church and never coming back.

That’s the bad news.

A Changing World

When did you discover your calling? I discovered mine 13 years ago when I responded to a little yellow postcard asking for volunteers for the youth program at my church. I met with the youth director where I shared with him that because of my relatively new found faith I was probably best suited to work with senior highers during their fellowship time. I walked away from that meeting assigned to teach Junior High Sunday School. Yikes!

So, on the second Sunday of September 1999, I found myself sitting with my boyfriend, soon to be husband, and two dozen junior highers trying my best to look sure of myself. I was clueless. I certainly never imagined