1st Sunday of Sabbatical

The bagel place my brother wanted to take me this morning wasn't open yet, and it was too early for the 8:15 service at his church, so we decided to swing by The Maryknoll Center, the headquarters of the Catholic Mission Society of America.

What most interested me about this was the extent of Chinese influence on the Center's architecture. The reason is simple -- the Society's early missionary efforts, around 1918, were directed toward China. Schools, orphanages, homes for the blind and aged, leprosariums, as well as churches, were early priorities. From the very beginning, the Maryknoll missionaries sought to develop an indigenous Catholic clergy. It was fascinating to look at international missions from a Roman Catholic perspective.

After our Maryknoll walk-around, we then headed for the service at Tom's church, St. Paul's on-the-Hill (yes, that's the actual name). And, before too much longer, we drove from Ossining to Manhattan so we could attend The Journey church. What a contrast! From liturgical service to Sunday morning rock; from an older congregation to a distinctly younger congregation.

My head is swimming with the goodness and grace of a God who inspires such diverse worship and ministry. So often, we wade in our own pool and call it the ocean, when we have not explored the wonders of the deep. "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond finding out" (Romans 11:33, NIV).

Experimenting with My Netbook

Here's the first picture I'm posting using Susie's camera and my new Picasa account. I'll try to post some pics every few days while I'm on my sabbatical.

Aren't they cute?

The Greatest Challenge

The greatest challenge churches face is to keep from becoming internally focused. Most churches spend 95% of their resources--their time and money--on themselves. This is our default position. It is what we will return to time and again if we do not intentionally focus on reaching "outsiders." By "outsiders," I simply mean those who are not yet followers of Christ.

Too often we operate on the basis of personal or group preference. We ask, "What is best for me or my family? What is preferable for my Sunday School group?"

However, what would happen to us if we began to make our main question: "What would Jesus want us to do?" Jesus was always the friend of outsiders. He said, "I came to seek and to save that which is lost." Shouldn't we do the same?

Change

Ben Franklin once said that, in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.  Death's inevitably is obvious, and on April 15 no one questions the inevitability of taxes.

However, I think Franklin failed to mention another certainty:  we will resist change unless the status quo becomes intolerable.

Churches aptly illustrate this truth (although it is obvious in many other areas of life).  In a world where change swirls around us, we long for stability, and we hope to find that at church. After all, churches are formed around certain ideas and unchanging truths, so why should we change anything?  

The problem, of course, is that this confuses the substance with the form--the "payload" with the delivery system.  The essence of the gospel--who God is in Christ and what He has done for us--must not change.  However, the way in which we communicate that essence should be constantly changing.

Allow me one illustration.  Prior to the invention of the printing press, copies of the Bible were printed by hand.  Consequently, very few people ever had the opportunity to read the scriptures for themselves, but it didn't matter that much, since so few people were able to read at all (including the priests).  When Bibles began rolling off the printing presses of Europe, the Roman Catholic Church tried to keep them out of the hands of ordinary people.  The Church tried to resist this change, but, of course, it was unsuccessful -- praise God!

The same was true of hymn-singing, musical instruments, and Sunday School.  These were all resisted because they were "modern" innovations!

Our church has changed a lot during its 50+ years.  But, we must continue to embrace change or we will become irrelevant.  I know that not every change is a change for the better, and I'm not in favor of "change for the sake of change."  But meaningful changes--changes that make us more effective in reaching our community with the gospel and in leading people to deeper levels of discipleship--are worthy of our prayers and time and energy.  

And . . . aren't you glad for Easter?  Because Easter changes everything!