State of the Church

Every year, the President of the United States gives a “State of the Union” address.  This speech is usually designed to look back on the past year and to look ahead toward the opportunities in the future.  Today, I’d like for us to think about the “State of the Church” – specifically, the state of Mt. Haley Church of God.

photo by Brian Hathcock
photo by Brian Hathcock

Looking back on the past year in the life of this church, I see many high points.  We celebrated six baptisms on Easter Sunday.  We remodeled our youth room and have seen it begin to fill up on Sunday evenings with teenagers searching for God.  We have branched out with a weekly meeting for our sixth-grade youth, which has been very profitable and consistent.  We saw two adult discipleship groups spring up, a men’s and a women’s group, which met specific spiritual and relational needs for their members.  We worked with several local ministry organizations, such as the Mid-Michigan Teen Challenge and the Pregnancy Resource Center.  We held monthly men’s breakfasts for consistently strong groups of men from our community.  We learned about our spiritual giftedness and began thinking about how to put those gifts to use in creative ways.

Early in 2012, we asked the Lord for a reprieve from a series of deaths among our elderly members, and he saw fit to give us emotional rest for most of the year.  We channeled our energy toward positive improvements and ministry activities including our sound system upgrade, our upcoming Guatemala mission trip, and our sponsorship of a delegate to attend this June’s Global Gathering in Anderson.

We engaged in a fourteen-week study of the Book of Revelation on Sunday evenings.  A strong, consistent group of disciples came week after week to learn about this most confusing and challenging book of the Bible and about how the Church of God has interpreted it in the past century.  We were unafraid to ask difficult questions about scripture and our identity as people of God.  We found encouragement and challenge as we studied this book together.

All these and more are blessings from the Lord, reasons for us to celebrate his grace and give thanks for his guidance.  What, then, are the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead?  (These, by the way, can serve as areas of prayer for the coming year.)

We have seen new faces in our Sunday morning worship services, and for this we give thanks to God.  Yet our average attendance in 2012 was exactly the same as in 2011.  Real growth (numeric and spiritual) and consistent corporate worship are growing edges for us.

Our church council is in a prolonged state of transition.  Presently, we are searching for leaders to fill two specific leadership roles in the church.  This is an ongoing need for us, because the leadership of the congregation helps to set the tone for the congregation as a whole.

Our children’s ministry has relaxed in the past several months for many good reasons.  As we move ahead, this is one area that will need our collective attention:  how shall we minister to children?  (Hint: an effective way to attract adults to the church is to provide excellent ministries for their children.)

Our community and global outreach is continuing to shift and grow.  How can we become more aware of our neighbors and their needs?  How best can we meet the needs of people in our neighborhood so that the love of Christ shines through in all we do?  How can we make an impact for the kingdom of God in the world at large?

Our personal and corporate walks with the Lord must continue to move ahead.  We are called to grow in Christlikeness so that worship of God becomes something automatic for us:  not just Sunday morning attendance but an everyday kind of Christian faith.

My vision for Mt. Haley in 2013 is that we would become a people actively committed to our twofold mission, which is to grow in discipleship and to reach out to our world in the love of Christ.  Programs and people may come and go, but the goal remains the same:  to glorify God through our partnership together.  May God be blessed by our efforts in this new year!

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  (Matthew 22:36-40 NIV)

–Pastor David

Filling Midland’s Cup

On Saturday, September 22, five of us from Mt. Haley – four adults and one child – helped distribute food to people in the tri-county region at Dow Diamond.  In the span of six hours, we filled the trunks and backseats of cars representing about 950 families!  This massive food giveaway was organized by a group called Filling Midland’s Cup, which has grown out of the ministries of Messiah Lutheran Church.  I was impressed by the quality of the food donations that came in from individuals and groups from around the area.  People received a wide variety of healthy foods, including a good bit of fresh produce.  (I’ve never seen so many onions in my life!)

The five of us from Mt. Haley served in a variety of capacities.  Some of us were in the ballpark where people gathered to wait for their numbers to be called.  We greeted, talked with, and encouraged those who came.  We heard their stories and gave them the gift of our time and friendship.  Others of us worked in the food distribution system, filling carts with groceries, taking the carts outside to the waiting cars, and filling the cars with the greatly-desired and greatly-appreciated goods.

As I reflect on this experience, I have a few thoughts to share with you:

  1. There are many needs in our community.  I was amazed at the seemingly endless stream of cars – of people – that came to receive help with their personal groceries.  From 9am until around 3:45pm, there were perhaps one or two moments when the line of cars dwindled down to one or two.  The work was constant and unending.  When the final cars had left the distribution area, I had trouble believing that the work was really done.  I was struck by how many individuals within driving distance of Dow Diamond came for help with groceries.  That made me think:  do any of these folks live in the neighborhood of our church, so we might continue to reach out to them in Christ’s love?
  2. Some folks don’t have a car.  This is easy for us to forget, especially those of us who have a car (or two or three) and have always enjoyed ease of transportation.  Perhaps ten or twelve of the people who came through the line on Saturday did so on foot or on bicycle.  I helped a couple pack their backpacks full of food supplies and load bags of groceries onto their bicycles’ handlebars.  They made two trips before all their goods made it home, which thankfully was not far away.  Others arranged for their groceries to be driven home in volunteers’ cars.  That made me think:  what do we take for granted?
  3. Everyone was grateful.  I was blessed to serve at the main “point of contact” – where groceries and trunks met each other, where volunteers and guests met each other.  Through the span of over 900 vehicles, I never saw at individual upset, angry, frustrated, or disappointed, either with the long wait in line (several hours for some) or with the food gifts.  Some folks I saw were literally jumping up and down in excitement for what they were receiving; one lady called this “Christmas in September.”  That made me think:  how can we be more grateful on a daily basis?
  4. All of this was done in the name of Christ.  We didn’t push the gospel on people; we didn’t ask people if they knew Jesus as their Savior; we didn’t even check to see if they really needed this help.  This was a “come one, come all” event.  Anyone and everyone was invited to come and receive a blessing from God, orchestrated and organized and worked out by the hands of fellow disciples of Christ.  That made me think:  how can we continue to share Christ’s love with people in the future?

Here’s a short video about this event.  Please take a few minutes to watch it!

–Pastor David

Focus 40 is coming soon!

I am writing this on February 10, but many of you will be reading this in early March when our monthly newsletters are printed and distributed.  By that time, the title above should read “Focus 40 has come!”

This is the second year in which the Church of God movement has put together this event, “Focus 40,” which is to be an intentional time of prayer and fasting during the 40 days leading up to Easter.  Last year’s emphasis was on prayer and fasting for spiritual renewal and revitalization; this year’s emphasis is on prayer and fasting for specific people to come to know the Lord.

Prayer and fasting often appear together in our scriptures.  Perhaps most notably, Jesus spent 40 days fasting (and presumably praying) in the wilderness just before beginning his ministry on earth (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13).  In the Old Testament, Moses fasted for 40 days on two different occasions while he received the tablets of the law of God (Deuteronomy 9:7-21).  In the New Testament, the apostles appointed leaders for young churches after praying and fasting to determine God’s will (Acts 14:23).

This year, we are gathering together as Church of God people in a concerted effort to pray and fast regarding those friends, family members, and acquaintances we have who are not in a saving relationship with Jesus.  This is surely very important work!  We cannot keep the good news of the kingdom of God to ourselves; we are called to make disciples and to instruct others to keep Christ’s commands.

I encourage you, friends, in the time leading up to Easter (and beyond!):  invest yourself in prayer for people who do not know the Lord.  If you are able, skip a meal once in a while and use that time and energy to come before God in prayer.  If you feel led to do so, fast for longer periods of time.  (Remember that you should discuss any extended fast – even for a few days – with your doctor ahead of time.)

Let us pray that we will see a new generation of believers come to know the Lord in our midst!

–Pastor David

Another Year Older
photo by Aih

We celebrated Christmas Day in style this past Sunday with one of our largest-attended worship services of the year.  What a joy it was to be in the Lord’s house on Christmas Sunday!  In a sense, it’s a shame that this particular holiday (or “holy day”) falls on Sunday only once every several years.

I hope you had a positive experience during this season!  Tara and I had a very good Christmas week.  We shared Christmas meals with both sides of our family on consecutive days.  We gave gifts, sang songs, and consumed cookies – all the components that add up to make a pleasant Christmas experience.

On our way home the other day, though, I found myself wondering something.  We have just celebrated Jesus’s birthday once again (although, to be fair, we don’t know exactly which day of the year was his actual birthday).  Jesus is, in a sense, a year older.  (Although, to be fair again, Jesus is eternal; he has always existed as the second person of the Trinity, in fellowship with God the Father and God the Spirit since before the creation of the universe.)  If Jesus is now a year older, so to speak, then what might he be thinking and feeling?

Birthdays often produce introspective, reflective, and pensive feelings in us.  We marvel at how quickly time passes and, perhaps, evaluate whether or not the past year was “good.”  We might even look toward the upcoming year and the opportunities it might present.  Even if we celebrate our birthdays with family and friends, there comes a moment when each of us realizes, “I’m another year older.”

So Jesus is another year older.  We celebrated his birthday with a beautiful worship service.  After the celebration, though, we should pause to reflect:  our Lord is another year older.  How was this past year for him?  How have we, his disciples, grown in relationship with him and with each other?  How have we, his ambassadors to the world, worked to spread the good news of the kingdom of God to our neighbors?  How have we, his hands and feet, shown mercy, love, compassion, and kindness to those in need?  How has Jesus extended forgiveness, grace, mercy, and peace to us and those whom we know?

And then, the follow-up question:  in each of these areas, what opportunities lie ahead for the year to come?

–Pastor David

Three Tasks and Some Applications

This past Sunday, the sermon focused on the theme of “working in God’s vineyard,” based on the parable in Matthew 21:23-32 about how two sons of a landowner responded to his request that they work in his vineyard.  I thought it might be helpful to summarize a few of the points from this message so you can have them in “hard copy” form.

What does “working in God’s vineyard” look like?  What tasks are involved?  To what do we need to attend?  I see three general tasks that we as the people of God face:

  1. Personal spiritual growth.  Each of us is responsible for our own growth and development in Christ.  We must choose to follow him, to repent of our sins, to be baptized, to give up sinful patterns of behavior, and to invest ourselves in the life-long process of becoming more like Christ.  Since this process is life-long, we must always work towards intentionality about spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible study, regular church attendance, and so forth.
  2. Corporate spiritual growth.  Each of us is responsible for the growth and development of our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those in our own local congregation.  We do not live as “islands” of Christian faith; instead, we share life with each other, we support each other, we challenge each other, and we walk alongside each other through good times and difficult times.  The New Testament reveals that we in the church belong to each other and cannot live apart from each other.  Therefore, strengthening our corporate spiritual life is a high priority.
  3. Spreading the message of Christ.  Each of us is responsible to tend to the soil which has not yet produced a growing plant.  By this, I mean we are charged with the task of building relationships with people outside the Christian faith in order to share Christ with them, that they too might come to know the fullness of life which can be found in him.  We might till the soil, plant a seed, spread some fertilizer, water the ground – any of these agricultural activities can describe our work in sharing Christ’s love with those around us.

These three tasks are a beginning point to understanding what working in God’s vineyard looks like.  Certainly more tasks could be added to this list, such as working in society toward the goals of justice and fairness, striving to engender peace in our homes and cities and nations, and so on.  But I believe these three are a good starting point for us.

How, then, do we get to work on these tasks?  I see four applications at the present time for our congregation:

  1. Dealing with grief and hardship.  Many folks in our congregation are struggling right now; we have had more than our fair share of losses and crises in the past month.  Certainly the second task (corporate spiritual growth) is a high priority these days while we rally around those who are in distress.  However, there’s another level of application:  even though we grieve, mourn, and endure hardship, we are still called to work in God’s vineyard – we aren’t off the hook!  It might even be the case that our work will be more fruitful because of our reliance on the Lord in times of crisis.
  2. Sunday school curriculum.  We are experimenting with a standardized curriculum for our Sunday school classes this quarter.  I have heard mixed reviews at this early stage in our experiment; some people like the structure and content, but other people do not.  Remember that this is just an experiment, and the curriculum is only a tool to help us in our task of working in God’s vineyard.  Whether you like the curriculum or not, the tasks of personal and corporate spiritual growth are still on the table.  Let’s make the best of it!
  3. Youth group opportunities.  Pastor Jerry will soon be asking you (if he hasn’t already) to participate in our youth group ministry in more intentional ways.  For instance, he hopes to have adults in our church volunteer to bring in snacks for the youth group’s Sunday evening meetings.  He and Connie have several other ideas, as well – but I’ll let them reveal those to you!  Let’s become actively involved in ministering to our young people.  They really are an exciting bunch!
  4. Local Ministry of the Quarter.  I want this congregation to become more actively involved in partnering with local Christian ministries, of which there are many in our community.  Every three months, we will focus our energies on an individual ministry, which we will support with our finances, our resources, and/or our time and energy.  For instance, in the final three months of this year, we will support the Pregnancy Resource Center with a “baby bottle drive” – more info will come soon!

Let’s continue the process of learning how to work in God’s vineyard.  I’m looking forward to continuing this journey with you!

–Pastor David

How is it with your soul?

Many Christians and many churches are good about asking other people to turn to Christ, to express faith in him, to be redeemed and reborn.  However, our task as followers of Christ goes beyond that: we must constantly be involved in the work of discipleship, maturing in the faith and becoming more like the Lord.

I was reminded of this while reading Dr. Gil Stafford’s new book “Signals at the Crossroads,” which is a compilation of his two earlier “Crossroads” books with some new material he was writing at the time of his death.  In this book, Stafford mentions the preachers in the Methodist movement, which began in the early 1800s.  These preachers were very concerned not just with a person’s conversion to Christ but a person’s maturity in Christ.  One of the questions they asked frequently of their congregations was this:  “How is it with your soul?”

Often we are content – or we imagine we would be content – with pews filled with warm bodies.  Is that our goal?  Are we pleased with numerical church growth?  I think we should strive for that, yes!  We should continually reach out to our community so that more sheep might be brought into the Lord’s flock.  We certainly are called to make more disciples.

But of course the work does not stop there.  We are called to make better disciples, as well.  Once a person commits to Christ and begins attending church, the process of growth has begun.  That process, rightly understood, is never fully completed; each of us should continue to grow in Christ month after month, year after year.  Personal challenges must be overcome.  Our impulses and desires must be brought under control in the name of Christ.  Our relationships must be transformed to reflect the love of Christ to each other and to the world.

Each of us is on this journey of growth toward maturity.  None of us has arrived, because none of us is completely like Christ yet.  Part of our work as the church is to spur each other on to greater heights of discipleship.  We walk together and support one another as one body while we draw closer to the Lord.

So, fellow believer, consider this question prayerfully today:  How is it with your soul?  And the follow-up is this:  with whom will you share your answer to that question?

–Pastor David

On the Earthquake in Japan

Nearly a month has passed since the massive earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan, and the situation there has shown few signs of improvement in recent days. Not only are the people dealing with the loss of life and destruction due to the fifth-strongest earthquake in recorded history (and the subsequent tsunami), but they are also struggling to contain enormous amounts of radiation from various nuclear reactors in the area. What are we to make of these events? How should we as followers of Christ respond? We have a number of options:

Response #1: This is a sign of the end times. I don’t believe this is the case. Although Jesus did mention earthquakes and wars and famines in Matthew 24, we also read in 1 Kings 19 that God is not always to be found in natural phenomena. God created this world, but he created it to be constantly changing: seasons, tides, warming and cooling periods, and even earthquakes. If anything, Jesus’s words in Matthew 24 challenge us to remain faithful to him even when tragedies and suffering occur in our own lives – not just in the world around us. The technological advances in our culture allow us to see events all over the world almost instantaneously; I do not believe that the events themselves are any more significant than they have been throughout human history.

Response #2: We should spiritually support the people of Japan through this crisis. This is certainly a reasonable response, especially for people of faith. We have brothers and sisters in Christ in all parts of the world, so our extended family has been affected dramatically by recent events in Japan. We should mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice; we should lift up to the Lord those who are suffering through grief, destruction, and radiation poisoning. Prayer is a powerful tool, and we should not limit our application of prayer to our own personal needs.

Response #3: We should financially support the people of Japan through this crisis. This brings up the issue of stewardship of resources. The Lord has blessed us tremendously, whether we realize it or not. Consider this: have you thrown away edible food in the past month? If so, then you are quite rich when compared to the rest of the world. We have the ability to give to charitable organizations when disasters occur; last year’s earthquake in Haiti is a prime example. However, we need to take into account the financial situation of the people who are suffering. Haiti and Japan are in two very different financial positions. Japan is much more likely to be able to take care of its own needs; our charity and financial support will be more useful in other situations, even those in our own communities.

Response #4: We should prepare for the unexpected in our own lives. I think this is the most healthy response for us today. I don’t mean that we should stock up on canned goods and medical supplies, just in case the unthinkable happens in our part of the world. What I mean is this: we should be in constant relationship with the Lord, continually turning from sin and pursuing holiness. We should be ready to stand before the Lord as a result of tragedy or sacrifice at a moment’s notice. And we should make the most of every opportunity to share the message of Jesus Christ with those around us who are not in relationship with him. Even helping with the real-life issues facing people in our community is a way for us to witness to the reality of Christ, as long as we do these things in his name.

Your reading assignment for the week is 2 Timothy, the second letter written by Paul to Timothy, the young church leader. It’s only four chapters long, so see if you can read it all in one sitting. As you read it, ask yourself this question: what does this letter say our response should be to a world that is falling apart?

–Pastor David

Storytelling in the Information Age

Last week, I discussed how present-day American culture thrives on arguments and debates, especially in online forms of communication. This often affects our discussion of religious and spiritual topics in a negative way; our discussions turn into self-righteous monologues that all too easily ignore the point of view of the other person. (Even the word “debate” has lost some of its meaning: when election season rolls around again, will our candidates actually debate, or will they alternate giving monologues? Wait and see.)

At the same time, when we look at the state of Christian faith in our nation, we see a movement in decline. Young people are turning away from the faith of their parents in large numbers. Adults who were raised in the church have fallen into worldliness and spiritual apathy. Christianity feels outdated to many people, and I believe that is partially due to Christians participating in the present culture of one-sided arguments, degradation of opposing viewpoints, and self-righteousness. (Many, many comments on the blog posts mentioned last week fall into this category.)

What are we to do? How do we respond to a declining interest in Christian faith combined with an unwillingness to accept propositional Christian truths at face value? I believe we must reclaim one of our most powerful tools: the art of storytelling.

It is no accident that young people (and adults, for that matter) spend large amounts of time and money watching movies – indeed, series of movies. Many popular movies in the past several years are disconnected from reality in one way or another: Avatar, Harry Potter, Twilight, Star Wars, and so forth. Why are these so popular despite being unrealistic? Their special effects are captivating, true; however, I believe another reason for the success of these films is that they tell their stories well.

There is great power in a well-told story. It can transport both the speaker and the listener to another time and place, and it can encapsulate truth more powerfully than simply stating truth openly. Stories are also powerful tools for bringing about change in society. People don’t want to be told to change how they live, but a story told well can illustrate why a change might be beneficial. This is why classic bedtime stories such as Aesop’s Fables have withstood the tests of time: children need to learn how to behave, and these stories show them how!

Our world needs to know Jesus Christ. Many people are in need of a saving relationship with him. But the direct, argumentative, propositional route is not the best approach for today’s society. Instead, we need to tell our personal stories: how we came to know the Lord, how he has provided for us, how our ancestors lived the faith. And we need to tell our collective stories: how God provided for our church, how God spoke through the prophets of old, how God became human in the person of Jesus Christ.

There is great power in the telling of a story. Who has been a storyteller in your life? To whom have you told your stories recently? What stories do you need to study again in order to be able to communicate them to others? Here’s a hint: open your Bible!

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:34-35 NIV)

Even Jesus used the vehicle of the story to communicate deep truths to his disciples. We too should become better students of his stories – and better storytellers ourselves – so that we can share the truth with a lost and dying generation, especially one with a low tolerance for dialogue but a high interest in hearing a good story.

–Pastor David

Hunting Season

As many of you know, Tara and I are new to the area, and we are just beginning to learn what mid-November is like in central Michigan.  We are used to hearing gunshots in inner-city Indianapolis, but now we are hearing gunshots with a different purpose.  Regardless of how you feel about hunting animals, I hope we can all agree that this use of gunpower is preferable to the alternative!

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