Granddaughter Time

I love my granddaughter, Isabella Smith.  I also love my grandson who does not yet have a name and will take his first breath by the end of May in Idaho.  For the past five days while her parents vacationed in California 15 month old Isabella stayed with us.  There is something about being responsible for someone that makes you think about their needs and desires.  Does she need her diaper changed?  Is she eating healthy?  How is she sleeping? 

Spending time with her helps me to know her more deeply.  It's not just a family tie that binds us together, but a love that grows from knowing each other.  And for me it was helpful to know that Isabella needed me during these past five days.  I experienced her smile when I picked her up at day care.  I know that holding her by the window watching falling snow helps distract her from whatever was causing her to cry. 

Scripture tells us that God knows us inside and out, our yearnings, our temptations, our struggles.  God is more in tune with my needs and hopes that I was with Isabella.  Do we know this?  Are we aware that God is able to spend time with each of us 24 hours a day?  If this is to be a relationship then we need to spend some of this time with God.  Living in the present moment.  Time together leads to knowing each other. 

I will build on my time with Isabella this past weekend and our relationship will grow.  The more we come to know one another the more we will want to deepen our relationship.  Thank you, God, for the gift of knowing and loving Isabella.  You offer yourself to each one of us with the dream of being in relationship with us.

Grace Always,
Dave

Where Do Clergy Rank in List of Best/Worst Jobs?

Okay, pastors.  What is your best guess as to where our profession is ranked in a list of 200 jobs in America?  Towards the top?  Middle?  The bottom?

CareerCast.com ranked 200 jobs from best to worst based on five criteria: physical demands, work environment, income, stress and hiring outlook. To compile its list, the firm primarily used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other government agencies.

The best job?  Software engineer.  Worst?  Coming in at 200 is lumberjack.  Clergy come in near the middle at 92, right behind funeral director at 90.  But we're ahead of security guard at 117 and flight attendant at 175.  

In another report I read that clergy have the fourth toughest job.  President of the U.S. was the toughest. 

All this is to say that pastors are very aware of the difficult parts of our jobs.  Let me invite the pastors reading this to comment on the toughest parts of their jobs.  Pastors have a hard time talking openly about this because for us it is a calling from God, affirmed by the Church.  Some of us have embraced this calling without question from day one.  Others of us have struggled with the calling like Jacob wrestling with the angel.  Sometimes this calling can mask inner feelings of inadequacy, hidden resentments, or being unappreciated.

Let me also invite the laity to comment on your perceptions of the hardest parts of the job done by clergy.  Perhaps you might send your pastor a note of encouragement acknowledging the difficulties your pastor faces.

If you want to see the full list check out this link. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303772904577336230132805276.html

Grace and peace,
Dave

Is March a Rough Month for Alaskans?

Last week was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for me.  I am so glad Holy Week is here!  How I need to see my fragile life in the larger context of our salvation story of Jesus' final days on earth and resurrection.

Being a systems person and a visionary I am always tempted to look at the bigger picture.  After 21 winters in Alaska I feel qualified somewhat to speak on the effects of these long winters.  I am wondering if March isn't one of the hardest months for Alaskans.  The cumulative effect of months of cold, darkness, snow, and ice is wearing us down.  The increased light is awakening our internal seasonal rhythms and drawing us outside with new energy to tackle projects, dig into the earth, and become more active.  But alas, this is what lurks outside my house today!

It clearly is not spring here.  All this is to say that I wonder how much of a factor this reality is for our churches in Alaska.  I have been here long enough to see significant conflict in just about all of our churches.  One thing I learned while serving our Soldotna UMC is not to engage in soul searching visioning during the winter.  With lower amounts of energy, seasonal affective disorder, and isolation from family we seem destined to become crabbier at this time.

My ultimate point is this.  Whenever our lay and clergy leaders face increased stress, anxiety, or conflict, think about the environmental effects that Alaska may contribute to our dis-ease.  Seeing the bigger picture may help us realize that we're in this Great Land together, the amazing beauty as well as the tough challenges.

Grace Always,
Dave

CHILD TAKES FAMILY'S ANGER AWAY

As we approach another Choose Respect rally season in Alaska our thoughts turn to the thousands of Alaskan families who regularly experience anger and violence.  Gordon MacDonald* tells this story.

 

   A Nigerian woman who is a physician at a great teaching hospital in the United States came out of the crowd to say something kind about the lecture I had just given. She introduced herself using an American name. "What's your African name" I asked. She immediately gave it to me, several syllables long with a musical sound to it. "What does the name mean?" I wondered. 

   She answered, "It means 'Child who takes the anger away.'"

 When I inquired as to why she would have been given this name, she said, "My parents had been forbidden by their parents to marry. But they loved each other so much that they defied the family opinions and married anyway. For several years they were ostracized from both their families. Then my mother became pregnant with me. And when the grandparents held me in their arms for the first time, the walls of hostility came down. I became the one who swept the anger away. And that's the name my mother and father gave me."

This could be another name for Jesus.  Oh, how our world thirsts for an end to the anger that does violence to women, children, and men.  Many families in our communities and even in our churches need to learn new ways of being family together.   

O God, how we yearn for those holy moments, like when holding a baby for the first time, you soften our hearts and melt away the anger.  




Grace and peace,

Dave

   * Citation: Gordon MacDonald, author, speaker, Leadership      editor-at-large, Leadership Weekly (11-6-02)

Spiritual Discipline

Lent is traditionally a time for Christians to focus on their spiritual disciplines.  Some choose to give up something for Lent.  Others like to add something.  Dr. Elaine Heath, professor of evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, and director of the Academy for Missional Wisdom, talks about the discipline for disciples with four steps.

SHOW UP

PAY ATTENTION

COOPERATE WITH GOD

RELEASE THE OUTCOME

Which one of these actions come naturally to you?  Which one does not?  With so much competition for our attention many of us have trouble showing up and giving God our undivided attention.  Once we know what God expects of us do we have the fortitude to follow through and cooperate with what God is doing in the world?  And then we often struggle with control.  We can't seem to let go and realize that this is God's work.

My prayer this Lent is that I could live these simple four steps each day as I act on my desire to follow Christ.

Grace Always,
Dave

Benefits from our Big Sister Conferences

I am sitting in a PNW cabinet meeting today in Seattle.  I always appreciate the hospitality they show me whenever I can attend.  I do listen to conversation and teaching about PNW conference matters.  And I always seem to pick up things for consideration in Alaska.

One example today is a process they are hoping to implement that will help churches who want to increase their health and vitality.  What is vitality?  Does it look different in Washington or Idaho from Alaska?  How do we measure vitality?  Worship attendance, baptisms, professions of faith are metrics that relate to the UM Church as an institution.  How do we measure vitality when it cannot be  counted?  How are our elderly disciples counted when they cannot attend worship?  How can we "count" people who participate with a church via social media?  How do new missional communities fit with the UMC institution?

As you can see I have more questions than answers.  My final question is this.  Should the Alaska conference engage in an invitational process to help local churches look seriously at their mission and ministry?

Grace Always,
Dave

Coaching

Coaching has been around for a long time in sports.  I grew up with a very negative image of coaches probably due to my youth football coach who treated us like marine recruits.  So don't think of coaching today as one who is towering over another screaming at them on how to be a better leader!  It is quite the opposite.

Coaches today are people who have received specialized training to engage leaders one on one in order to help them discover for themselves the direction of their professional and personal lives.  It's a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.  Throughout her journey to find her way home to Kansas she had the power all along.  But she needed the help of others to enable her to know it.

 

Last week the Alaska UM clergy and deaconess gathered at Anchor Park for our annual retreat.  Mary Huycke and Lee Hayward were our leaders to introduce us to the basic principles of coaching.

Our Leadership Team approved major funding not only to provide coaches for our leaders but also to provide learning opportunities both in person and online so that we can be prepared to lead our conference in reaching our mission to transform the world through discipleship in Christ.  I am seriously exploring becoming trained as a coach. 

This is a clip of our clergy practicing coaching with one another.

Grace Always,
Dave