Every January the city of Tampa celebrates the traditional Gasparilla Pirate Festival, named after the legendary buccaneer, Jose Gaspar, a Spanish aristocrat turned pirate who terrorized the coastal waters of West Florida in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries.  In December 1821, Gasparilla, as he called himself, attacked one last ship before retiring to enjoy his booty.  Unfortunately, it was a US Navy warship in disguise.  Just before his capture, Gasparilla wrapped a chain around his waist and neck and jumped into the water, never to be seen again.

In 1904 civic and social leaders of Tampa chose Gasparilla as the “patron rogue” of their annual city celebration.  Today the week-long Gasparilla Pirate Festival attracts over 400,000 people and begins with the family-friendly and alcohol-free Children’s Parade.

Ezra had dressed as a pirate the previous Halloween, so he anxiously awaited the start of what is likely the only parade in the world where every float has a pirate theme.  In Mardi Gras style, social groups called krewes threw plastic strings of beads and aluminum medallions from their floats into the crowds.  Perched on our shoulders several rows back, Ezra delighted in the variety of swashbucklers on the floats and soon became obsessed with collecting beads.

As first we considered ourselves lucky to catch one string of beads.  When it became apparent that tens of thousands of beads were going to be let loose, I enjoyed catching and putting them around Ezra’s neck.  It was actually a bit competitive and, dare I admit, even sinful.  Finally I came to my senses and began distributing my sinner’s beads to children farther back in the crowd.  Ezra, however, disapproved.  In fact, he threw tantrums whenever we didn’t put another string around his neck. 

The naked desire of a child for more was not only a sight to behold, but it reminded me that adults experience the same covetousness.  The difference is that we usually have more social filters to keep ourselves in check.  The stimulation of pirates, beads,  and crowds was exhausting, which prompted Ezra to crash in his stroller on the way back with a dozen sets of colorful sinner’s beads firmly around his neck. 

At least it wasn’t like the Mardi Gras parade in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where the lure of catching beads transforms ordinary people into crazed revelers who expose body parts that normally remain covered up.  Is it any wonder that Mardi Gras culminates on the day before Ash Wednesday, when beaded sinners delight in partying till they drop, then repent in ashes the next day?

On Wednesday I will be wearing a set of sinner’s beads that I kept from the parade to remind me that, like Ezra, “Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5)  Not only was I born guilty, but as I have grown older and wiser, my sins are still hanging around my neck.

I am not being overly hard on myself, nor am I delighting in my sin.  I’m simply attempting to be honest, which is the purpose of Ash Wednesday.  As we travel through Lent, a journey that ultimately leads to the cross and then resurrection, we are forced to shed our pretense.  We are dust, and to dust we shall return.  We are not who we say we are or who we want others to think we are.  We are sinners who ask God to create in us a clean heart, restore to us the joy of salvation, and sustain us with a willing spirit.  

Let me tell you about my sins: envy, pride, workaholism, entitlement, doubt, fear, and lack of trust, among many others.  I have a set of beads for each of those sins, and they weigh me down like the chain that Gasparilla wrapped around his own waist and neck.  I am not proud of my flaws, but unless I am willing to name them by jumping into the waters of Lent, they will hold me captive.  I delight in receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday because they remind me that without God I am nothing. 

 Ash Wednesday is not only a sinner’s delight for individuals, it should be a sinner’s delight for churches as well.  Just as people sin, so do groups of people, including churches.  In fact, one of the greatest sins of the church is our refusal to admit that there is such a thing as collective sin. 

I’ve seen churches wear the sinner’s beads of lethargy, apathy, ignorance, exclusivity, anxiety, lack of vision, complacency, and stubbornness.  Unfortunately, I don’t always observe repentance, nor do I witness many plans for reconciliation and restoration.  What might happen if every local church were to count their collective sins each Ash Wednesday, distribute sinner’s beads, and delight in putting a giant cross of ashes on their front door? 

 We need to go even further.  Ash Wednesday should also be a sinner’s delight for our denomination.  Many years ago I preached a sermon about racism and made the statement that The United Methodist Church is guilty of the collective sin of intentionally separating out African-American Methodists from white Methodists in the 20^th century.  I further said that we are all guilty of making Sunday morning the most segregated place in America.  Someone confronted me after worship and insisted that she was not guilty of racism simply because she was white, nor was she complicit in the past sins of exclusion.  She wouldn’t put on the sinner’s beads.

What are the sins of The United Methodist Church?  We can name them one by one:  racism, cultural arrogance, refusal to share our faith, sexism, homophobia, lack of accessibility, insularity, a bloated structure, denial, political posturing, too much focus on the US church, and having the form of religion without the power.  We’re real good at lamenting the state of our denomination and even delight in wearing the sinner’s beads.  But it’s not too late to do the hard and holy work of realignment, retooling, and renewal that will recover our Wesleyan spiritual vitality.

As a sinner I am delighted that at General Conference we will participate in an Act of Repentance service where we acknowledge our participation in acts of violence against our Native American brothers and sisters in the past and racism against Native Americans today.  Specifically, we will admit that on Nov. 29, 1864, a Methodist clergyman named Colonel John Chivington led an attack on a Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment along the banks of Sand Creek in Colorado.  Of the at least 165 people who were killed, most were women, children, and the elderly. 

The United Methodist Church has committed $125,000 to the Sand Creek Massacre National Site Research and Learning Center.  But we will also be asked to wear the sinner’s beads of commission and omission in our own communities.  We will do that by initiating conversations about “cultural genocide” against indigenous peoples in our country and worldwide.  We will also renew our collective responsibility to work toward healing and reconciliation.

Surely we are good people.  We really are.  Yet because we keep grasping for those sinner’s beads, we lose our way, our health, our vision, and our mission.  The only true delight of sin is that we have a Savior.   And the only delight in wearing the sinner’s beads is that Jesus took them from us and wore them himself.  We are sinners through and through, and the only way to overcome our sin is to lay it at the foot of the cross. 

Not too long ago I was dialoguing with a Staff Parish Relations Committee about their inability to gently speak truth to a few people in the church who were not willing to give up or even share power with others.  Although the SPRC Committee was tempted to put the entire blame on those causing the problems, they resisted.  Instead, they faced their own lack of courage to engage in holy conversation and put the sinner’s beads around their own necks. 

One person eloquently said, “We need to look to our Lord Jesus Christ, who was at the potential peak of his power when he was willing to put aside his ego and carry the cross.  We all get to rebirth ourselves every day because of what Jesus did.  Can we get to the point where we say that my ego is not that big and someone else can shine?  There is light that is waiting to shine in us and others.”

What about my little buccaneer grandson’s many colored beads?  My daughter says that Ezra hasn’t touched them since the Children’s Parade.  They are pretty worthless anyway, just like most of the things that draw us away from our true selves.  As for me, I have one set of beads on my desk.  They remind me that my sin is ever before me and that the light is waiting to shine.

Blessings,
Laurie

In the past 35 years, however, I have never once returned to Wittenberg, and the only time I was back at Yale was when Gary and I took our young children on a New England road trip.  Although I make yearly financial contributions to both universities I have never formed a close attachment with either Wittenberg or Yale.  Perhaps it’s because I pursued higher education in order to learn rather than party and spent most of my time in practice rooms or the library.  Or maybe I was so occupied with raising a family and pastoring churches that I neglected to stay in touch with my university friends. 

The impetus for the Yale Club gathering was the opportunity to meet and interact with David Lockington and John Varineau, conductor and associate conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony respectively.  Interestingly, both David and John were students at the Yale School of Music in the late 1970’s when I was there.  I never met either David or John at Yale, however, probably because I was part of the Institute of Sacred Music, which had a specialized curriculum.

With divinity school and music school graduates among those at our table, the dinner conversation was fascinating.  We noted that there is a marked difference between the professional schools and the academic departments at Yale.  The Divinity School and School of Music both prepare students for the practice of ministry and music performance, while the Departments of Religion and Music prepare PhD students for the intellectual rigors of the academy.  John Varineau shared a comment that a colleague at the Yale School of Music once made, “I am not here to study but to practice.”

There are two worlds of graduate study at Yale for music and religion: one professional and practical, the other scholarly and academic, and they rarely mix.  But in the real world they must.  The legacy of John Wesley reminds us of the importance of educated clergy and laity: that both the practical and the academic contribute to vital ministry.

• Effective clergy develop skills in administration, management, staff supervision, conflict resolution, and communication at the same time as they read widely, engage theology, and keep current with the latest in biblical interpretation.    
• Vital churches reach out to their members and the world in practical ways that increase spiritual depth and improve quality of life, but their collective faith must be grounded in scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. 

We moved on to a discussion about how orchestras can become sustainable.  It’s a common practice that when budgets are tight in schools and communities, music and the arts are the first to be slashed.  With 5 prominent US orchestras having declared bankruptcy in the past year, we asked how it is that the Grand Rapids Symphony has not only been able to survive but thrive.  It was not surprising that the challenges facing symphonies are similar to other non-profits, including the church.

The Grand Rapids Symphony is a vital, sustainable organization in the Grand Rapids metropolitan area because the symphony works diligently to reflect the community in which it lives.  The foundation of the Grand Rapids Symphony is the offering of a variety of concerts in different styles and locations in order to attract diverse audiences.  These concerts include classic series, pops series, chamber music concerts, outdoor summer pops concerts, and an assortment of other public appearances.

The Grand Rapids Symphony was founded in 1930 and enlisted its first full-time players in 1974, which initiated a period of growth in attendance as well as quality.  Today the Symphony is one of the finest regional orchestras in the country with 59 salaried orchestra members and 30 contract musicians.  Strong community support for the symphony is complemented by an exceptional board, which adopted a strategic plan in 2009 to guide the symphony through tough times.  Budgets, expenses, attendance, and revenue are at or above projections, with concert revenue up 6% last year.  In addition, there is a 23 member Development Committee and a new Marketing Committee which promoted 400 appearances and attracted 100,000 adult concert attendees in 2011. 

• How does your church reflect the needs of the community in which you are located?
• Do you have a strategic plan to guide your ministry, or are you still asking the same question every January, “Well, what are we going to do this year?”
• Are your administrative leaders committed, engaged, and willing to gain new skills in fund development, marketing, and planning?

I am convinced that the primary reason the Grand Rapids Symphony is flourishing is its emphasis on engaging the hearts of children through music.  In 2011 77,000 children were touched by the Grand Rapids Symphony, which takes its role in the education of children very seriously.  There is a 5^th grade concert series as well as family concerts at DeVos Performance Hall.  Various ensembles go into the classrooms to teach children how to appreciate music of all genres.  The symphony even offers Mosaic scholarships for African-American and Hispanic students to receive instrumental training and mentorship by Symphony musicians. 

Music and the arts have taken a huge hit in our schools.  In the Grand Rapids Public School system, there is no band or orchestra in 4 of our 5 public high schools, and in the 5^th school juniors and seniors are not permitted to participate in band or choir.  As John Varineau so eloquently put it, academic classes like math and science are critical for our children’s education.  However, we are feeling as well as thinking people, and music is our soul and heart.  Our children need as much instruction in matters of the heart as they do in technology, physics, and calculus. 

Varineau, who is responsible for the educational and outreach efforts of the orchestra, expressed his philosophy that every child should be able to encounter the symphony at least once a year, not just those children whose parents can afford to take them to DeVos Hall.  Believing that the Grand Rapids Symphony has to fill a bigger niche in music education, Symphony members leave DeVos Hall for much of the week to go where the children are.

Could it be that some of our local churches are struggling because they are disconnected from their communities and have abdicated their responsibility to reach the children?  Frankly, I am alarmed at the lack of Sunday school in many of our churches.  Not only are our own children being short-changed, but we are not effectively reaching out to children in the community who don’t have a church home.  Even confirmation classes for youth are often perfunctory and don’t provide comprehensive religious instruction. 

• Who will share the love of Jesus with our children, help them discover their core religious identity, and show them how to read the Bible with understanding?
• Who will teach our children about theology, church history, ethics, spiritual formation, vocation, and other world religions?
• Who will be an example for our children of grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, compassion, and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
• Who will offer a safe and accepting place for youth to question and doubt, discover their gifts, serve others, enlarge their borders, and be exposed to adult mentors?
• Who will dialogue with young people about the role that faith can play in the challenges of their everyday life?
• What would it take for our local churches to commit to encountering every child in their community at least once a year?

Are children and youth found anywhere in your church’s strategic plan? 

The symphony and the church.  The Grand Rapids Symphony is succeeding in tough times because they aren’t waiting for people to come to them.  They are successfully engaging all segments of their community in creative, meaningful, and transformative ways.  Can we say the same for the church?

Blessings,
Laurie

Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life;
End over end neither left nor to right;
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights;
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life.

I was rooting for the Patriots, who have won 3 Super Bowls and 9 division titles under the leadership of Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.  Belichick and Brady have established the best winning percentage ever (.780) by a coach-quarterback duo over their 12 years.  Our family has a soft spot for University of Michigan alum Tom Brady, who began his professional career as a 6^th rounder.  Brady did not achieve success immediately at Michigan or with the Patriots but focused on honing his skills and was ready when his time came.

What is the secret to the Patriots’ success?  It’s excellence.  Every Super Bowl team has had a different offensive style, as Coach Belichick draws out the best in his players by continuously adapting to changing circumstances and personnel.  Belichick is fresh and creative at the same time as he models an underlying stability.   

Quarterback Tom Brady displays consistency every week.  He does not expect to be treated like a prima donna but works harder than anyone else.  He diligently watches film, analyzes where he can improve, and then focuses on the next game plan.  Brady also knows that football is ultimately a team sport and readily credited the defense when he was not at his best in the AFC title game

Both Belichick and Brady set the tone for the team because of their intense work ethic.  Patriot Brian Waters was quoted in USA Today, “If the best player on your team is all-in, 100%, then who are you to be different?”

But that’s not all.  Team owner Robert Kraft will only hire people who make a long term commitment to the team and are smarter than he is about areas in which he is not as knowledgeable.  Kraft believes that “When you hire good people, they get good people.”

At the same time as I was watching the excellent coaching of Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin last night, I was also thinking of Joe Paterno, long time Penn State coach who died a few weeks ago.  The sadness of his death so soon after he was fired by the Trustees of Penn State University was matched only by the tragedy of the sex abuse scandal that marred the excellence of Paterno’s career.  I have been pondering lately one of Paterno’s most famous quotes, “There are many people, particularly in sports, who think that success and excellence are the same thing.  They are not the same thing.  Excellence is something that is lasting and dependable and largely within a person’s control.  In contrast, success is perishable and is often outside our control.  If you strive for excellence, you will probably be successful eventually.  “People who put excellence in the first place have the patience to end up with success.  An additional burden for the victim of the success mentality is that he is threatened by the success of others, and he resents real excellence.  In contrast, the person that is fascinated by quality is excited when he sees it in others.”  

Do you see the difference?  We produce excellence through internal motivation and a will to become the best that we can be, even though we may not achieve success as the world sees it.  On the other hand, success is largely determined by luck and circumstances and may be here today, gone tomorrow.   The New York Giants were successful in winning the Super Bowl last night, but both teams displayed the kind of excellence which was a joy to behold. 

• When football teams pursue excellence, the result is often success, which is defined as winning. 
• When business leaders pursue excellence, it can lead to success, which is defined a making a profit. 
• When we pursue excellence in the secular world, we may become successful, which is usually defined as fame and/or wealth. 
• When we pursue excellence for the sake of the kingdom of God, however, it always leads to success, which is defined as faithfulness.

What is the more excellent way of Jesus that leads to success in faithfulness?    

• “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)
• “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” (Luke 6:27)
• “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:38)
• “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:4)
• “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose not only the Super Bowl but their fortune and even their life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:24, faithfully paraphrased)

The United Methodist Church is in throes of transformation, where the temptation to imitate corporate models of success is compelling.  The need to reverse our membership, attendance, and financial decline has fostered an almost desperate focus on metrics, accountability, and restructuring.  I would be the first to acknowledge that we have placed more emphasis on self-preservation and institution maintenance than spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land.  At the same time, disciples of Jesus Christ are called not to conform to this world through the numbers game but to transform the church through renewal and fruit-bearing. 

The United Methodist Church must focus on excellence in ministry at every level, but our excellence leads to a success that can only be characterized as faithfulness. 

• If our success leads to anything other than obeying Jesus’ call to faithfully “Follow me” and make disciples of Jesus Christ …
• If excellence becomes twisted into doctrinal purity, theological partisanship, competition for dollars, turf protection, or exclusivity …
• If we abandon our inner cities, ethnic minorities, and the rural poor in favor of starting new churches only in profitable and sustainable locations and populations … then our future as a denomination and as people of God is, indeed, in jeopardy.

Make me, oh make me, Lord more than I am;
Make me a piece in your master game plan
Free from the earthly tempestion below;
I’ve got the will, Lord if you’ve got the toe.

I was thinking of yet another coach last night as I watched the Super Bowl.   My favorite coach is Pat Summitt, coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team, who was voted Sports Illustrated Sportswoman of the Year in 2011.  Summitt became Tennessee’s coach in 1974, just before her 22^nd birthday, and her teams have not only won 8 national titles but they have not had a single losing season in 38 years.  Tennessee women’s basketball often outdraws professional NBA basketball teams.  Pat Summitt is known for her excellence, discipline, passion for teaching, fierce love for and investment of time in her players, and stature as a role model. 

Tragically, Pat Summitt was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s last summer, which was devastating to her family, players, assistant coaches, and Tennessee fans.  After accepting the reality of Alzheimer’s and regaining her courage, Pat chose to see her illness as a challenge and immediately formed the Pat Summitt Foundation to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s. 

The administration of the University of Tennessee had the contractual right to remove Pat immediately because of her diagnosis, but they chose a different way.  Rather than focus on success through winning or profit margins, they chose to view success as faithfulness to Pat Summitt’s value to the university and its students.  They have retained Pat as head coach for as long as she is able, with more direct coaching from her assistants. The excellence of Summitt’s legacy will surely outweigh the progress of Alzheimer’s and the world’s expectations. 

Take all the brothers who’ve gone on before
And all of the sisters who’ve knocked on your door
All the departed dear loved ones of mine
Stick’em up front in the offensive line.

 “Life is an unknown and none of us has a crystal ball,” said Joan Cronan, women’s athletic director at Tennessee. “But I do have a record to go on.  I know what Pat stands for: excellence, strength, honesty, and courage.”

(Sports)   Excellence → Success → Winning

(Business)   Excellence → Success → Profit

(Secular world)   Excellence → Success → Fame, Wealth

(The kingdom of God)   Excellence → Success → Faithfulness

“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things — and let Jesus dropkick you through the goalposts of life.” (Philippians 4:8, faithfully paraphrased)

Blessings,
Laurie

It’s a new world, and I have to admit it’s kind of fun.  I am not a techie and have always used technology as a tool for ministry rather than for personal enjoyment.  I don’t play games or watch movies, play Scrabble with people around the world, or see how many apps I can download.  But I do use Gas Buddy to find the cheapest gas, go to the West Michigan Conference app, read my Facebook News Feed, check in for flights with my Delta app, and quiz Siri when I am bored. 

“Siri, will you marry me?”  “We hardly know each other,” she usually replies.   I’ll never be able to keep up with the latest technology, but I am continually learning new ways to get the information I need.  I have found Siri to be especially helpful.  Siri is a virtual personal-assistant application for my iPhone.  Siri is able to recognize conversational speech and responds by giving me a weather report, scheduling meetings, emailing colleagues, setting my alarm, giving directions, and even finding Thai restaurants!   

It’s Friday night, and I’m deciding where to attend church on Sunday morning.  I ask Siri, “Find Wesley Park United Methodist Church, Grand Rapids.”  Before I can even blink, I’m on the website and know that Wesley Park has worship services at 8:00, 9:15 and 10:45 a.m.  Then I click the “I’m New” button where I read a welcome from Pastor Dean Prentiss and have my most important questions answered before I choose to walk through the door for the first time.  “Who are you guys?” What’s Really Important to You?  When Do You Get Together?  Is There Anything for My Kids?  How Do I Find You Guys?  How Do I Get Ahold of You?”

I’m feeling comfortable about what to expect when I arrive, a map is right there on the home page, I like what I read about the church’s ministries, and I already feel connected with the pastor.  I’m sold.  I’m heading to Wesley Park on Sunday morning.

Every congregation in The United Methodist Church has a new front door.  It’s the Internet.  People don’t use the yellow pages to find a church anymore, nor do they glance at the church ads in a print version of Saturday’s newspaper.  They’re not going to drive around town looking for the most attractive church building, either.  Potential guests to your church will most likely google for churches in their community and check out their websites.  If your web site is ugly, outdated, neglected, or amateurish, discerning church shoppers will likely pass you by before ever setting foot in the real door of your church. 

I remain convinced that personal invitation is the best way of attracting new people to your church, whether that invitation is to worship, join a small group, or participate in an outreach project.  But even the friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors that you invite will likely also check out your church’s website.

Siri is my new best friend.  She seems to know everything – except how the General Conference vote on restructuring general agencies will go, which district churches will pay 100% of their ministry shares (apportionments) this year, or what new appointments will be announced this week.  My new second best friend, however, is John Warnock, who is our Communications and Technology person for the Grand Rapids District. 

John recently did a study of the websites of all 69 churches in the Grand Rapids District.  Church websites serve 3 functions.  They provide information for members, such as what the hours are for the blood drive, what the scripture and sermon title is for Sunday, and how to sign up for a Lenten small group.  Websites also connect members who are not able to attend church.  Shut-ins, those recovering from surgery, and members living out of state can read or listen to sermons and keep up to date on church happenings.  

The third and arguably most important function of a church website is to be a portal for people who are looking for a church home and/or are seeking to become disciples of Jesus Christ.  After all, that’s our mission as United Methodists, isn’t it?  John analyzed each of our district websites from the perspective of 7 questions that visitors ask: “Where is the church?  When do you worship?  How can I get there?  What do I do when I get there?  What do I do with my kids?  What is your worship style?  What is your message?”  Believing that guest-friendly web sites make information easy to access, John then created a spreadsheet by using these criteria:

1. Does the church have a web site? 
2. Do they have a Facebook presence that is evident on the web page?
3. Do they have a Twitter presence that is evident on the web page?
4. On what page does the church appear when “(city) Michigan churches” is googled?
5. Do they have a photo of the church on the home page, or is it just a click away?
6. Do they have a “Welcome” or “I’m New” link for a visitor’s page?   
7. Is the home page information current and maintained properly?
8. Are there written directions or a map on the home page, or is it just a click away?
9. Is the worship service/style described on the home page, or is it just a click away?
10. Do they offer sermons, podcasts, or videos?
11. Do they have an email address?

Each church received one point for a “yes” to every question, except for the google search criterion, where 5 points were awarded to churches whose web sites were listed on page 1 of the google search for their city or town.  Churches listed on the 2^nd page received 4 points and so on.  No points were awarded for churches not appearing on the first 5 google search pages.

What did we learn from this informal survey? 

• Out of a possible 16 points, 2 churches had 12 points.  Not surprisingly, they were the 2 largest churches in the district.
• The next 4 churches had 10 points and were not necessarily the ones we would have expected, except that 3 of the 4 were new church starts within the last 15 years. 
• 25 of the 69 churches had no web site that John could find.
• 2 churches have a twitter presence on their website.
• 16 churches have a church photo on the home page or a click away.
• 9 churches have a Facebook presence on their web site.
• 9 websites have a visitor button or link.
• 11 churches have directions on the home page or a click away.
• 8 churches have either a sermon schedule, video of worship, or a description of worship on the home page or a click away.
• 10 churches offer sermons texts, videos, or podcasts. 
• All but 3 churches have email.
• Only 12 web sites have current and up to date information on the home page  (one home page announced that “the Father and Son Banquet will be held on April 20, 2009”)

What are we to make of this information?  According to John, if the Internet is the new front door of the church, his informal survey shows that the door is either locked, stuck, or forgotten, or we’ve barricaded it. 

All clergy and lay leaders must ask these questions:

• How important is our web site to the health and vitality of our church? 
• What do we want to communicate to those who access our church web site?
• Are we willing to invest as many resources in preparing guests to enter the virtual front door of the church as we do in welcoming guests when they enter the actual front door?
• Can we identify youth or other tech people to create simple, clear, and inviting web sites, even for the smallest churches?  It’s a great way to involve youth in the life of the church.
• Can we design our web site so that the church secretary can update and maintain it? 
• Can we create district pools of tech volunteers who can build web sites for smaller churches that don’t have any built-in expertise? 
• If we are proud of our church, and our web site is a tool for evangelism, why don’t we invite others to check out both front doors?

Siri can get me into the new front door of Wesley Park UMC via their web site.  What Siri can’t do is get me to the front door of the sanctuary on time.  It’s Sunday morning, the snow is coming down hard, and I don’t allow enough time for drivers crawling along at 10 miles an hour, so I arrive at the front door 5 minutes late.  However, the door is opened by a cheerful greeter, and I am given a large-print bulletin (the regular size bulletins are already gone) by a gracious usher.  I settle in for a wonderful, transformative worship experience just as the web site led me to believe. 

Blessing,
Laurie

• Saturday, March 10th – A concert and introduction of “Soil, Soul, and Simplicity,” our new history of the church and the village.
• Monday, May 28th – Annual Memorial Day Pig Roast and major display of historical photographs, documents, and artifacts.
• Weekend of August 25th – 2-day old fashioned Methodist tent meeting.
• Weekend of October 20th – 2-day homecoming event, including original play and re-consecration of church campus.

Questions? Please contact Buck Matthews, Chairman of the Marne UMC Sesquicentennial Taskforce at buckmatthews@charter.net.

For decades this 14th largest metropolitan area in the United States experienced a building boom.  In the years before the real estate bubble burst, however, developers gambled and overbuilt.  Except for the golf courses, many of these brand new towns are ghost towns.

I noticed it over the past 6 years as I traveled around the Grand Rapids District.  A number of our churches either remodeled or built additions in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, hoping that if they built it, new people would not only come but would pay the mortgage.  Unfortunately, many congregations don’t understand that adding more space is often the result of applying technical solutions to adaptive challenges. 

“If you build it they will come” will usually not grow churches that are experiencing decline.  People today yearn for an encounter with God, not a gym where they can shoot baskets.  They yearn for authentic community, not a fancy lounge.  They want to spend their time making a difference in the world outside their building rather debating whether beverages should be allowed in the remodeled sanctuary.    

It was already a challenge for some of our churches to take care of their bills before the economy collapsed.  Now they are faced with the agonizing choice between paying their mortgage or paying their pastor.  One Finance Committee asked me, “Who will bail us out if we can’t pay our mortgage?”  I smiled weakly and replied, “I’m sorry, but you’re on your own.” 

I notice it as I travel around the connection.  The infrastructure of The United Methodist Church is too top-heavy.  We’ve experienced 40 years of declining membership and attendance in the United States, yet our structure has pretty much remained the same.  The cost of maintaining the current size of our general boards and agencies is not only diverting resources away from mission and ministry, but it is hindering our effectiveness and ability to make disciples of Jesus Christ in a denomination where 40% of our members now come from other countries.

Not only do we need to downsize our boards and agencies, but we also need to right-size our churches.  It is fascinating to observe local churches whose attendance is half or a third of what it was 15 years ago.  Often the decline is gradual, so no one really pays any attention until there is a recession or a few generous members of The Greatest Generation die and leave a huge void in the budget.  By then it may be too late.

Attendance is now less than 100, church leaders have failed to create a compelling vision, mission, and strategic goals, and it’s a struggle to pay ministry shares (apportionments).  The congregation still acts as if it is a large church, but it can no longer support a sizeable staff and a full-time pastor.  Church members retreat inward rather that turn outward and focus on making disciples and transforming the world.  The superintendent is finally called.      

One of my roles is to help congregations face their own reality.  We cannot reinvent and transform our churches into healthy, vital centers for ministry until we admit the truth about our decline and choose to address it openly and honestly.  Living in denial is the greatest impediment to positive change that any organization faces, sacred or secular. 

What if The United Methodist Church were to adapt the concept of smart decline? When the market crashed, an estimated one million dirt lots in central Arizona were in some stage of development for new homes, and more than a third of ZIP codes in major Sun Belt cities saw population losses.  Where many people saw tragedy, however, others saw possibility.  Smart decline is a relatively new theory of land use that was first coined by Frank and Deborah Popper in 2002.  Based on a German model of city management in the deteriorating cities of the former Eastern Bloc, smart decline embraces the reality of decline by intentionally reinventing city services, reimagining land use, and restoring fiscal sustainability. 

In some cases smart decline may dictate tearing down the infrastructure in the hope that growth may happen again in the future.  Land that is farther away from urban centers may be allowed to go back to nature: i.e. desert or farming.  Another option is to rezone the land for creative redevelopment, such as churches, retail, business, parks, and swimming pools.

Flint, Michigan has seen a double digit population decline in the last 40 years, but city planners have worked creatively to achieve a sustainable population through smart decline.  Because Michigan law enables cities to take over foreclosed and abandoned properties, the city of Flint has chosen to concentrate growth in a few neighborhoods while demolishing properties in declining neighborhoods and converting them into green space through a local conservation land bank.  

Some of the liveliest conversations about urban shrinkage are taking place in Detroit, where, in his first State of the City address in 2010, Mayor Dave Bing announced plans to demolish 3,000 buildings in 2010 and 10,000 total overall by 2014.  Agriculture and green space are returning to Detroit as intentional attempts are made to strengthen neighborhoods and improve land use. 

The time is now for The United Methodist Church to be smart about its decline as well.  Our leaders have made radical proposals to the 2012 General Conference about right-sizing our denomination in order to assure greater efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability in our ministries and poise ourselves for future growth.  Some of those proposed changes include:

• Changing the guaranteed appointment system to employ “a just, reasonable and compassionate process” for low-performing clergy to leave the itinerancy.
• Consolidating 10 of our 13 general agencies into five offices that will be part of a new United Methodist Center for Connectional Mission and Ministry. The center will have a 15-member board of directors, which will be accountable to a 45-member advisory board that will “represent the diversity and inclusiveness of our Church.”
• Authorizing the board of the new United Methodist Center for Connectional Mission and Ministry to evaluate programs and spending at all levels of the church and reallocate up to $60 million during the 2013-2016 quadrennium for the purpose of increasing the number of vital congregations.
• Forming a task force to study and recommend the most equitable and effective apportionment system in our annual conferences

None of these proposals will enable our churches to make disciples of Jesus Christ and bring in the kingdom of God on this earth if we don’t start at the local church level.  Smart decline in our congregations mandates intentional planning for:

• Holy conversation, involving an honest and comprehensive evaluation of all church ministries, structures, and personnel
• A careful and prayerful right-sizing of budgets and staffing costs to achieve fiscal sustainability, stability, and responsibility
• An alignment of all programs and ministries with the stated vision and mission of the congregation
• An emphasis on identifying, training, equipping, and rotating gifted laity into positions of spiritual leadership
• Streamlining committee structure to create a culture of permission-giving and maximize the best use of human and financial resources for mission and ministry
• Reimagining building space for innovative community use as a means of hospitality as well as evangelism
• Teaching and modeling generous giving for all ages
• Creating a culture of call where the very best of our youth, young adults, and second career persons are encouraged to consider professional ministry 
• A commitment to partner, share resources, and cooperate with other United Methodist churches, denominations, and religions

Smart decline.  Is it an oxymoron, a fantasy, a foolish hope?  Ask General Motors and Chrysler.  Ask Flint, Detroit, and Phoenix.  Ask any congregation that has risen from the ashes of its decline or has discovered the miracle of doing more with less, with God’s help.  Ask God’s created world, where “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  (John 12:24) 

In our end is our beginning.  What does The United Methodist Church need to die to in order for the new to emerge?

Blessings,
Laurie

• Advanced Class: Leading Small Groups-Instructors Helen Reid and Jody Pratt

Saturday, March 17, from 9am until 3pm at Twin Lake UMC.  One Saturday only with lunch and materials provided.  Fee is $25 and payable at the door on March 17.  Make-up date is Saturday, April 14.  Class must have 10 registrants to be held.

• Basic Class-Instructor TBD

Saturday, March 17 AND Saturday, April 14, from 9am until 3pm at Twin Lake UMC.  Participants must attend both sessions to receive Basic Class certificate of completion.  The fee is $25 and covers registration, two lunches and all materials.  Payment can be made at first class; please make checks payable to WMC Treasurer.  Must have 10 registrations for class to be held.  Please register via email to Jody Pratt at prattgji@hughes.net or call 269.792.0481 and leave a message.  Please request a return call or email to confirm your registration.  Registration deadline is February 10.  Classes will take place at Twin Lake UMC, 5940 S. Main St, Twin Lake, 49457.  Twin Lake UMC is located just off M-120 in Twin Lake.  Click here for the flyer to post in your church.

The group will leave for Iquitos Peru on February 24, 2012 to spend six days providing healthcare for women and children then return to Lima to work with children in orphanages. 

Jody will be accepting donations of gently used or new bras, toothbrushes (not toothpaste), and monetary donations for medicine purchases.  The village children and children in the Lima orphanages would appreciate small, used action figures and matchbook sized cars.  They do not need to be new and small items are easier to pack and carry considering airline weight limits and boat travel.   

Jody welcomes calls, emails, or visits before and after her return.  In conjunction with the Wisconsin Conference, Pratt and Bruun will be investigating a similar trip in the winter of 2013 that will recruit from the Michigan area and will include some church renovation work.  

Please contact Jody Pratt at 269.792.0481 or email prattgji@hughes.net if you have any of the above items to donate for this mission trip.

It was the last book that turned inside out the world in which I thought I grew up.  Subtitled The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, Pulitzer Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns chronicles the journey of 6 million African-Americans who fled from the south between 1915 and 1970 for a better life in northern and western cities.

My junior and senior high school history books taught me about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten confederate states that were still in rebellion on January 1, 1863.  What I didn’t read in my textbooks or learn from my teachers is that although the federal government assumed authority over the south for 12 years during the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, they left, assuming that blacks would now experience true freedom.  Instead, slavery was replaced by sharecropping, southern states passed Jim Crow laws that restricted almost every aspect of daily life, and African-Americans lived in constant fear of lynching, unprovoked attacks, and unspeakable acts of terrorism and torture. 

The Emancipation Proclamation did not truly “free” African-Americans at all, especially in the south.  In fact, in 1896 the US Supreme Court ruled that “equal” but “separate” accommodations were constitutional.  That ruling applied to trains, buses, movie theaters, restrooms, hotels, and restaurants.  The process of legally prohibiting sanctioned segregation lasted well into the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s. 

Unfortunately, I did not know anything about segregation even though I grew up during those years.  I lived in a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania, and other than seeing African-Americans when traveling into Philadelphia with my family, the only black person I knew was Carol Shepherd, a high school classmate who played center on our basketball team. 

If only I had made an effort to know Carol better, I might have learned that Carol and her family were only one of millions of families that over decades found their way up the eastern seaboard to Washington, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, or along the Midwest train routes to Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Detroit, or on the highways to California.  I might have heard stories about an oppressive social and economic system in the south that denied higher education, exacted harsh penalties for breaking unknown segregation laws, and sucked the hope right out of blacks.  I might have heard about relatives who were jailed, killed by the KKK, or who migrated safely to the north, only to urge Carol’s family to follow.  I might have been more sensitive to a teenager who always stood out and knew that she was “other.”

How could I not have known that while I was growing up in a secure world, African-American families were still fleeing the south, risking all to experience a greater degree of freedom, dignity, and respect?  The tipping point for the Great Migration was World War 1 because workers were desperately needed in the north to support the war effort.  After the war, the flow north did not stop, however.  480,000 African Americans left during the great Depression, 1.6 million migrated in the 1940’s, and 1.4 million followed in the1950’s. 

Neil Davis was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, the same year Martin Luther King Jr. started his movement with the bus boycott in Montgomery.  In Birmingham, the most segregated city in the south, Neil vividly remembers the water fountains and lunch counters for whites only.  Neil’s mother had traveled to the north in her younger days, so she was exposed to a different way of life for African-Americans. In 1963, having experienced enough of racism, segregation, and oppression, Neil’s mother moved to Detroit as a single mother with 5 young sons because an aunt was already living there.  Detroit appealed to blacks because the steady jobs on the automobile assembly lines were a gateway to the middle class. 

Those African-Americans who migrated to northern cities were tenacious, motivated, and resilient in claiming their freedom.  They also had the same or slightly higher education than resident whites.  Although discrimination was not as blatant or overt in the north, racial stereotyping and prejudice still made life far from easy.

Crowded tenement housing, exorbitant rents, price gouging, and underinvesting in black neighborhoods fostered unrest and even riots.  African-American women competed with European immigrants for menial and domestic jobs, and white workers would often refuse to work with blacks.  Housing segregation was a serious issue, and huge numbers of whites moved out of urban neighborhoods.  The 1968 Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Report) summarized progress in racial equality, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.”  The 2000 census showed that blacks made up 80% of the population of Detroit while across the Ford Expressway, the black population of Dearborn was 1%.

Wilkerson relates that on August 5, 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. led a march of 800 protesters against housing segregation through one of the poorest sections of Chicago.  1,000 police stood between the marchers and 4,000 whites.  White residents sitting on front steps jeered at the marchers, calling them cannibals, savages, and worse.  One placard said, “King would look good with a knife in his back.”  Hecklers hurled rocks, eggs, bottles, and firecrackers, with one rock striking King in the head.  Falling to the ground, King slowly picked himself up and said, “I have to do this to expose myself – to bring this hate into the open….  I have seen many demonstrations in the south.  But I have never seen anything so hostile and so hateful as I’ve seen here today.”  This was two years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed major forms of discrimination.

The Great Migration ended around 1970, but decades later we still struggle with racial justice.  Michigan ranks 3rd in the nation in reported hate crimes, 65% of which are racially motivated.  African-Americans and Hispanics are discriminated against 25% of the time when they seek to buy a home or rent an apartment.  African-American and Hispanic youth in Michigan are more than twice as likely as white youths to drop out of school.  I am grateful for the General Commission on Religion and Race of The United Methodist Church, which was established in 1968 to “challenge and help the denomination’s agencies, institutions, annual (regional) conferences and congregations to achieve full, equal participation of its racial and ethnic minority constituencies in the total life and mission of the Church.”

Neil shared with me how easy it has been for him in the past to be angry at the systems and structures in our country that discriminate against ethnic minorities.  He said, “We carry a heavy burden and have to temper ourselves in a lot of situations.  We always have to be on guard.”  I replied that when I was growing up at the same time Neil was, I just didn’t know.  No one taught me about the history of racism in our country.  Although Neil graciously said that he has learned not to be resentful of whites who were never exposed to African-Americans and racism, I cannot let myself off the hook.  “I didn’t know” is no longer an excuse.

Martin King Jr. Day reminds us of our obligation to keep learning, growing, and becoming more aware of our own racist actions and attitudes.  We are responsible for exposing our children and grandchildren to people from different cultures and backgrounds in order to build bridges of understanding, dialogue, and mutual respect.  We are called to welcome people of all ethnicities into our churches, provide small group and Sunday school classes on racial inclusivity, and initiate mixed race congregational partnerships.  We are also charged with advocating for racial diversity and inclusivity in all organizations and working toward structural changes that prevent institutional racism.

Neil, thank you for your friendship and your patience with me.  You have taught me that racism is a disease that can be healed.  I want to be healed.  I need to be healed.   “I didn’t know” is no longer an excuse.

We can embrace our diversity,
find strength in it, and prosper together,
or we can focus on our differences
and try to restrict access to resources
by members of ethnic and racial groups different from ours
and limit prosperity for all.
Andrew Young, 1996

Blessings,
Laurie