New Roles in 2012

I have been fascinated with identity over the years and nearly finished a book on the subject 5 years ago. Specifically, I am interested in distinguishing between identities we choose and those that others choose for us.

Last Saturday, Dec. 31 I gained a new identity as a grandfather when Isabella Kay Smith was born. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I received a title on that day. My identity as a grandfather is one I gladly choose and which will require my love and energy. I will make time in my life to think about her, pray for her, spend time with her, and get to know her. This is what it will mean for me to choose and nurture my new identity as a grandpa.

I wonder if this applies to our identities as Christ followers. Are we simply assuming this identity because we grew up in a Christian home? My guess is that a Christian identity for many is a default identity. We did not choose it to be our own, but was chosen for us. And because we did not feel empowered to fully choose it for ourselves we simply defaulted to what we were given.

What would our lives be like in 2012 if we consciously made a choice to take on the identity of Christ follower each day? What if we embarked on a journey to wrestle with the questions of life and faith for ourselves? My sense is that our spiritual, emotional, and physical lives would be much enriched if we choose each day to invest ourselves into a relationship with God in Jesus Christ. And in the process the world will be transformed.

From a happy grandpa,
Dave

Asking the Right Christmas Question

Many years ago when I was the pastor of Soldotna UMC I was asked to come to Soldotna Middle School and read my stories about conflict to the students.  It was an invitation I gladly accepted.  In my other life I was a middle school teacher before becoming a pastor. 

We were discussing one of the stories when one of the students shared the frustration she felt when her parents would ask her every day after school, “Well, how was school today?”  The student felt that such a question was almost an invasion into her privacy. 

Many of the other students echoed her feelings.  But one young lady spoke out, “How would you like it if no one ever asked you how your day went?  You guys should be grateful for what you have.”  It was a powerful moment. 

As a parent of four students I heard again the need for parents to ask good questions.  Instead of “How was school today,” I have learned to ask, “What did you do in math class today?” or “What was the most fun thing you did today?”

It is the art of asking questions that many of us need to learn.  Perhaps it applies in our relationship with God.  For many the most basic question is “Do you believe in God?”  I propose a more fundamental question.  “God, do you love me?” 

This is a question humanity needs to ask this Advent and Christmas.  Sometimes we view God as distant and far off.  Life is hard and we feel that God is a million miles away.  At Christmas God answers our question with a baby in a manger, God’s own Self.  He is Emmanuel, “God with us.”

“Do you believe in God?” is a question most of us ask from our minds.  “God, do you love me?” is much more personal.  It has to do with the deep places in our hearts. 

This Christmas will once again answer this question with a resounding, “YES!  I DO LOVE YOU!”  The answer will be proclaimed from the heights of heaven to our earthly reality no matter how dark. 

The pastors and laity of all our Alaska UM churches are in my thoughts and prayers this Christmas.  And may the Christ Child be the answer to the question we are asking this year.

Grace Always,

Dave

Advent Is a Time to Wake Up

Father Alfred Delp, a German priest who was imprisoned and executed by the Naziis in WW II wrote this from his prison cell.  “Advent is a time for rousing.  Human beings are shaken to the very depths, so that they may wake up to the truth of themselves.  The primary condition for a fruitful and rewarding Advent is renunciation, surrender ... a shattering awakening; that is the necessary preliminary.  Life begins only when the whole framework is shaken.”[1]

Advent can be a time for the framework of our lives to be shaken and stirred.  It can be a time to be roused from sleep into wakefulness.  If nothing in life has awakened us then we have a need to waken ourselves.
            There are several tests out there that offer Christians a chance to show how much they really know about Christmas.  It’s easy to get tripped up and think there were three wise men standing next to the manger, or that the Little Drummer Boy was there, too.  But these tests are challenges of the details of the story, and do not speak to the spirit of it.  Mastery of the facts isn’t what Christmas is about; the Advent season is one where the mystery of God’s love is opened to us as we progress toward Jesus’ birth.  

           That wonderful line of Kierkegaard comes to mind: “It is so much easier to become a Christian when you aren’t one than to become one when you assume you already are.”  Advent is a time to shake loose of all the assumptions we make about Christmas, ourselves, the world, and the Christ child.  When we assume we already are awake and alive to Christ we may discover that our soul has been asleep. 


Grace Always,
Dave

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[1] Alfred Delp, S.J., The Prison Meditations of Father Delp, 1960 MacMillan, p. 40.

Thanksgiving Connections

Our family has a tradition of sharing thanksgivings as we sit down to a Thanksgiving feast.  We also pass around a cup where each person gives some money which goes to help people in need.  One year we bought restaurant gift cards and kept them in our cars to give to those on the street corners asking for help.

Last week we gathered the gifts but didn't know for sure where to give them.  Then I had the chance to meet Pauline, from Cameroon, Africa, who was speaking Sunday at St. John.  Pauline is the widow of a pastor with an amazing ministry to her neighbors.  St. John has been sending teams there for the past several years.

Pauline wanted to thank me for supporting the mission efforts when I was pastor at St. John.  She gave me a gift.  A bottle of peanuts that she raised and harvested in her garden.  It was an amazing gift of love...to imagine how she cared for these peanut plants and picked them when they were ripe.  I want to keep them as a visible reminder of the love of a disciple of Jesus who is sowing seeds of God's love in a tough place on the planet.

God had shown me what to do with our Thanksgiving offering.  When I gave it to Pauline with the hope that she would spend it on herself she was grateful and said it would be used to buy windows for her home.  It was a special moment for me.

One of the ways we can recover our missional identity is to be intentional about creating similar experiences for our congregations.  Yes, we will continue to send checks to food and shelter ministries.  But we also need our people to be in relationship with the poor.  Face to face.  Hand to hand.  Heart to heart.

I invite you to pray for Pauline and all of the dear saints of God working for good in the world.  I also encourage you to pray for God to open a door for you to be a friend to someone in need.  Consider going on a Volunteer In Mission trip.  Pray about stirring your church to be in ministry with the poor.

Grace Always,
Dave

Changes on the Horizon

Alaska lay and clergy will want to know about some changes to start in 2012.  One is about the Advance which is how people give directly to mission projects in the United Methodist Church.  Beginning in January we will have one Advance number (931027).  We will still receive all donor documentation so we can send thank you notes and newsletters.  And all funds given to a specific pastor or current project will be honored if we have the documentation which GBGM will send to our treasurer's office.

If a church has a general project Advance number it can be used for salary support.  In other words these churches need to choose to use the single Alaska number or one of their general project numbers.  This decision needs to be made soon.  Just let me know.

Another change involves moving of missionary pastors to and from Alaska.  Beginning in January, 2012, GBGM will no longer handle moving pastors and their families.  They will give us the money although not at the actual costs and we will handle these moves.  Hopefully, we can be more efficient with local control and contracting.  We will need to examine GBGM's moving policies and create our own.  For pastors returning to their home conferences we may need to ask for moving assistance from the receiving churches and/or conferences.

With any change in our system anxiety may be present.  We are open to ideas on how to best communicate these changes.  GBGM will send a letter to pastors, donors, and supporting churches.  We could use our Fuze online meeting service to allow these changes to sink in.  Mostly, let us hold fast to our Lord, his grace and the mission given to us all.

Dave

From Leap of Faith to Faith of Leap

Ten Alaskan UM lay and clergy have embarked on a two year journey of faith and discovery.  We are enrolled in the Academy for Missional Wisdom.  The goal is that we would begin new missional faith communities.

In our first online course called Missional Imagination we are reading and writing about "Faith of Leap" by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost.  It is an attempt to write a theology of risk, adventure, and courage.  It is about a life of faithfulness to God that includes risk, adventure, and courage.  The temptation is, and this happens a lot in the Church, to settle into safety and security.  When I was single I was fairly adventurous and courageous when it came to my faith.  When I was married and our first child entered our lives it became easy to shift into safety and security mode.

I could spend a couple of blogs and sermons talking about how the Church has retreated from risk when it comes to being missional.  According to the authors the main thing to recovering a missional identity is to create a sense of holy urgency.  This connects with the business world and the authors cite John Kotter's book "Leading Change" with eight necessary steps for bringing significant and lasting change to an organization.  The first and most important is to create a sense of urgency.

"The adventurous church thrives on a sense of holy urgency, and missional movements are built on it.  Says Kotter, "If the sense of urgency is not high enough and complacency is not low enough, everything else that we seek to do will become much more difficult."  p. 40.  The authors go on to describe how to create holy urgency in Church.

Those of us in the Academy are looking for ways to share what we are learning.  If you have a desire or a suggestion of how this interface can happen please let us know.  We are:  Cindy Roberts, Karen Martin-Tichenor, Robert Hicks, Sandra Wagenius, Jenny Smith, Eric Treider, Nelma Treider, Lonnie Brooks, Janice Carlton, and myself.

Grace Always,
Dave

Church Leadership Ideas

I subscribe to "Leading Ideas" which comes as a free resource from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership.  The first article by Reggie McNeal is "Fast Forwarding Your Church's Community Engagement."  As we all rediscover what it means for our churches to missionally reengage with our communities this article is very helpful.  Reggie reminds us that one in five Americans are sure about their belief in God but never attend church.  So people are out there ready to be engaged about their faith.  Click here for the link.  http://bit.ly/tm8Opv

A second resource is about asking good questions.  Author Debra Meyerson suggests some questions when fearing consequences of potential actions.

• What might happen if you take this course of action?
• What are the worst things that could happen?
• Why are you afraid of these outcomes?
• How bad would it be if feared outcomes materialize?

I offer these resources to you as Alaska lay and clergy leaders working to make disciples of Christ to change the world.

Grace Always,

Dave