Context Is Everything

      And context is an often overlooked factor for churches!  Usually, it is mostly when doing mission studies or transitional self-studies or trying to find a date that doesn’t conflict with events in the community when “context” rises to the level of consciousness for most congregations.

      Here’s an interesting context:  as the children attending the Community Nursery School downstairs arrive past the pastor’s study window or come tumbling out at day’s end, they’re speaking maybe a dozen different languages with their families.  And you hear all the world’s languages on the school campuses and on the Commons and at Wegmans and walking by you in cell phone conversations around town.  It is simply that First Congregational sits in an international community with diverse tongues.  That is an unusual context.

      Here’s an interesting context: modern U.S. culture is pluralistic, diverse, and much less accommodating to religious observance.  Most of the world’s major religions are here, which is also a significant context, of course.  But all of us worship and live in the larger social environment where soccer (football), hockey, football (American), and a dozen other games and competitions and practices encroach on times once sacrosanct.  For many of us, church is no longer the primary affiliation, but just one of many organizations and activities in which we participate.  That’s a new… and inevitable… context.

      Here’s an interesting context: for all the affluence around the church building, we know (because we drive through Ithaca and Tompkins County) that the median family income is $49k with close to and that the poverty threshold for a family of four is about $23k and that about a quarter of county residents are near or below the poverty level.  The median for Cayuga Heights is $89k.  Uneven economic conditions are an uncomfortable context.

      Here’s an interesting context: we have twice the percentage of young adults in our community as the national average.  No big surprise for a town with a major university and a college.  With 18.2%, Cayuga Heights has the highest percentage of doctorate degrees in the country, by one listing.  Los Alamos has 11.7%.  We are also one of the major centers of animal sciences and have nationally respected schools of all sorts.  So the academic industry is a singular context for us.

     This Sunday as part of our all-church self-study, we will review our community contexts (contexts, plural) to see both how they shape First Congregational and how First Congregational can serve our broader neighborhood and the people in it.

     Please join us as we look around us at our community.  We will also catch up a few things on our timeline, particularly recent years.  Even if you cannot stay for the discussion, please stay long enough to have lunch with each other!

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                        David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible          Joel 2:23-32
From the Epistles                  2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
From the Gospels                  Luke 18:9-14

Physical Therapy and the Interim Process

        Some of my very favorite people in the medical industrial complex are physical therapists.

        Not only are they generally cheerful, calm, considerate, and compassionate people doing a great job helping their clients, they have a distinct perspective on their work.  Physical and Occupational Therapists have as their overall outcome their patients getting back to their lives as successfully and completely as possible.  Much of the medical community is, by necessity, illness-based and centered on hospital, office, or care facility.  Physical and occupational therapists are health- and recovery-focused, and center their work on the patients’ home or workplace.  They aim for “real world” results.  People getting back to doing what they do and able to do as much as possible for themselves is their goal.

        Sometimes their work is not comfortable.  Often they are working on strengthening muscles and expanding range-of-motion.  They are well trained and very attuned to the person they are helping and understand what is needed.  Sometimes they can push people farther than they like and may often cause discomfort with their exercises, yet they encourage the person to push on through the discomfort.  I remember hearing one PT explain to someone, “this may be painful, but I will never hurt you.  I know how far to push you so you get better but not so far that you damage anything.”  Good physical therapists also help patients learn or relearn good behaviors, to adjust their motions to maintain good health.  A good sports therapist might not merely massage injured muscles or flex joints but help the athlete develop better form that doesn’t cause damage and good recovery routines.  Good practices avoid repetition of problems.  Their intention is that we get stronger and healthier so that we can do everything we can.  Like so many therapists, they are health-oriented and outcome-oriented.

        A number of us in the transitional ministry business feel an affinity.  We are focused on congregations getting back to doing what they need to do.  Unlike many consultants, we are hands-on with congregations.  We have research and experience to know what might be underlying a problem.  We may need to push to free up frozen joints or loosen adhesions, which may certainly be uncomfortable at the time, but allows fuller healing and recovery.  Helping develop better practices and behaviors helps a church get back onto its stride and get back out there in the game.  We sometimes have to torque things, and sometimes we have to give recovery time.  Like PT/OTs, we know the idea is to get people moving, and to help them establish good patterns that will last.  Like PT/OTs we know we only have a limited time working with someone, and like them, we know it is actually up to the person— or congregation— to commit to a healthier course.

        And, like PT or OT sometimes it takes a while to get back the range of motion or the strength or the new habits, and the process can be frustrating.  Or annoying.  But if you do the work, you get better.  If you work on good technique and good recovery practices, you decrease the chance of another problem.

        Another way to put this is that we are really early in the process of understanding what has happened with FCCI over the decades.  But remember that I like the image of PT/OT; this is not a post-mortem looking back.  It is helping us look forward and push forward and get back to being the kind of church members and community benefit from.  We need to understand the past not to dwell there but to find clues for doing things more healthfully into the future.  If we learn where the congregation has stumbled in the past, maybe a few adjustments will keep our stride from faltering again.

        We are still figuring stuff out.  In the second part of our all-congregation work we will be taking “the data,” drawing some perspectives from it, and defining a shared vision of the way forward.  After a break for the Thanksgiving through Christmas crush our question expands to “So, what’s next for us?”  From there we will elect a search committee to match up our vision with the right pastor or pastors.  I expect that our conversations and “ah ha!” moments this fall will lead us also to work on some ways to avoid some of the difficulties of the past and define our life together in ways that will work in years to come.  Already some themes are emerging after only two at-large meetings.  I suspect we will need to look at clearer structures and processes for working together and at pastoral relationship support.  Positively, there have been several times of tension around different subjects, yet the congregation and its leaders have dealt with them as they arise in fairly creative and practical ways.  Some of that history can provide insight for the future.

         All in all, you are to be commended for good work and good (very good) spirit.  Honestly, I think FCCI is rebounding remarkably well and is amazingly open to the work needed to get out there running again.  Yeah, there may be a few owowowow moments when something gets pushed past comfortable, but if you keep the main goal of a strong witness to God’s love foremost in your mind, you’ll get there!

        The secret?  The real spiritual therapist in all this is God!

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                        David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible          Jeremiah 31:27-34
From the Gospels                  Luke 18:1-8

Weekly Word from the Interim Pastor

        Our Hebrew Bible lesson this Sunday from Jeremiah 29 is, honestly, a bit odd.  It is the prophet’s words to the captives dragged off to exile in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE, telling them to settle in for the long haul, to raise families, and to become part of the city’s life.  This is not exactly what either the Jews deported to Babylon nor the ones remaining in the ruins of Palestine wanted to hear.  They, of course, wanted to know that they would promptly be repatriated and that the nation could rebuild.  Nope, says the prophet, it will take time, maybe close to a generation.  Instead of being put in a time-out chair in the kitchen for five minutes, you are grounded for months.  This isn’t just POWs, this is wholesale resettlement, like the British Expulsion of the Acadians to Louisiana, the Trail of Tears of the forced removal of native Americans to Oklahoma in 1830, and, ironically, the relocation of Arabs at the founding of modern Israel in 1948.  Jeremiah is telling the exiles that they very well may never see home again.

        But his words are not that downbeat.  He tells them not to live on the edge, to settle down (at least kinda settled), to go about life as if it was normal (or at least normal enough), to raise families, make livings, become good expatriate citizens of Babylon.  Resume your lives, even if displaced from your beloved Jerusalem.  The big reason they can do this it that God is just as present in Babylon as Jerusalem, that they are chosen and covenanted and precious no matter where they happen to be.  And this becomes a key turning point in Judaism.  From being totally centered on the temple in Jerusalem, the nation and religion become, for lack of a better word, portable.  The primary interaction between human and divine is no longer on the rock of the Temple Mount but in keeping Torah, keeping to the word of God in Scriptures.  Even when Cyrus returned the exiles home (and it wasn’t the same place as before), Judaism continued to be about a people and a promise more than a place.  You can be faithful wherever you are.

        In Jesus’ time, that strain of Judaism picking up on keeping Torah was represented by the Pharisees even as the Sadducees represented the strain focused on the Temple.  The Christ Followers centered on the relationship between the believer and Jesus Christ.  Both the Pharisees and the Christians had the advantage of carrying their belief with them in scroll and community, and in the case of the Church, in sacrament.  Those became advantages as Judaism underwent the Diaspora, the Dispersion, and as Christianity became a world religion, too.  Jeremiah prophesied more than he knew: be faithful wherever you are, be it Jerusalem, Babylon, Rome, or Ithaca!

        Join us for worship Sunday and for the second of our all-church self-study lunches.  As the old song goes, “grow where you are planted!”


                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible        Jeremiah 29:4-7
      From the Epistles               2 Timothy 2:8-15
      From the Gospels               Luke 17:11-19

Weekly Word from the Interim Pastor

       As you know, I’m from the Presbyterian tradition, and we just adore the whole ecumenical cooperation thing and, especially, World Communion Sunday, the first Sunday in October when many congregations around the world all witness to our unity around the Holy Table.

       But the United Church of Christ simply blows me away with its commitment to the unity of all Christ’s people.  Time and again I find references in UCC documents, liturgy, and writings a deep, abiding commitment to Jesus’ prayers in the Gospels that all his disciples be one.  That desire actually to demonstrate Christ’s desire that we be one church runs all the way through its life and structure.  In fact, it was the gathering of four very diverse traditions— the Congregational (mostly in New England) and Christian Churches (largely in the upper Midwest) which united in 1926, and the Evangelical and Reformed (primarily German Reformed) Churches which united in 1934.  Each pair was driven by the conviction that the many splintered denominations around the globe were an affront to God, and that humans should try to bring ourselves back together. Tthey realized that even bringing near-neighbors like the E&Rs together was plenty difficult.  Still they persisted, and, having united in those partnerships, responded to the post-World War II ecumenical impulse by entering negotiations to unite yet further. On June 25,1954 in Cleveland, the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Churches became the United Church of Christ.  The simple name reflects the witness, a united church worshiping and serving Christ.  It has been a passionate, progressive voice for social justice, spiritual renewal, openness, grace, hope, and the proclamation of God’s love in the world.  We can be proud to stand in that heritage.

        Which makes the celebration of World Communion Sunday right down our alley!  If there is any opportunity to demonstrate that all Christ’s followers are joined together, a world-wide exhibition of our unity is a great way to not only talk about it but act it out.  Even if it is one congregation at a time and a bit imperfect (in that we still can’t quite manage to get even all the congregations in a single town to set up a couple of block-long table down the main street and sit down together), it’s a way of at least pushing our boundaries and trying to symbolize that “we are one in the Spirit, one in the Lord.”

        In 1936 the first Sunday in October was celebrated “World Wide Communion Sunday.”  In a few years, the idea had spread.  And it’s still one of the best ways we have of visibly showing we believe in a deep spiritual unity as Christ’s disciples.

        A key part of our UCC celebration on any communion Sunday is the open invitation to the table.  Unlike some other denominations, we don’t have “requirements” or restrictions on who may or may not commune.  We take Jesus’ own invitation to those who believe in him seriously and welcome all to the table Jesus has prepared.  Who are we to stand between someone and our Savior?  That’s a truly “wide” invitation!  It’s one of the ways we live out the UCC national slogan, “No matter where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.”  Everyone is welcome around the bequilted wooden table at the front of our sanctuary at 306 Highland Drive in Ithaca.

        A little challenge: invite someone to World Communion Sunday on October 6th.  Seriously!  Ask some family, friends, coworkers, neighbors who haven’t been to a church in a while, or maybe even ever, or maybe who had a bad experience with church or who has felt left out or excluded, and offer to pick them up or meet them and walk in with them and show them the way.  (Studies show that people who have not been in a particular worship service are very afraid of making a mistake or of not knowing  anyone there, so accompanying them and helping them find their way around the service and the building is a huge help.)  If that first person isn’t interested, ask someone else.  Seriously!  Try up to three invitations, even if they don’t accept, but at least try, OK?!?   Seriously!

        Jesus invites everyone to share in the meal which he has prepared… everyone. No matter where one is on life’s journey, all are welcome here.  All.

        Let’s make Jesus happy by displaying our unity around the world and our welcome around his table.

What’s Next

            I often find when I have people saying, “What’s taking so long to get going?” and “Why so soon?” in about equal numbers that I’ve found the right timing!  (Of course, sometimes just calendar issues make a difference, but we are all used to that!)

            So I believe we are in about the right spot to be having our all-church conversations as part of this “time between.”  But I’ve had a couple of questions about practical matters.

            To reiterate: our first two conversations will be introducing the process and developing together a timeline of the events, seasons, and people in the last fifty or sixty years.  Those will be October 6 and 13.  We will look at the community and our context in Ithaca and Tompkins County on October 27.  Then on November 3 we will look at ourselves in the mirror and talk about the valuable missions and ministries done for God and neighbor by the congregation.  On November 17 we will use part of the worship time to fill out the excellent US Congregational Life Survey, one of the very few normed across the nation and the denominational spectrum.

            We will have a refreshment and conversation time after worship as usual, and then we will gather downstairs in the fellowship hall for a light lunch.  Part of the idea of that is to refuel so we can work for a while, but just as much to enjoy each other’s company, visit, and have a fellowship time in fellowship hall.  In fact, if you have other Sunday plans, stay for lunch even if you have to leave right afterward.  Even if you have no interest in the working session, come for lunch anyhow.  And if there are recent arrivals or first time attenders, invite them downstairs anyhow, especially!  I’ve heard lots about how enjoyable such communal meals have been here over the years, and encourage everyone to show up for that part at least.  Children are not merely welcome but encouraged to attend!  We can work out rides, too.

            Another set of questions have been about whether you have to be at all of them.  Nope!  They are connected, to be sure, but each should be valuable and interesting (and even some fun) in its own right.  We hope to be able to record some way or another (if you have ideas or video or audio equipment to help with that, let me or the office know), and we will have notes about the sessions both to catch people up if they could not be there and to preserve the ideas for the search committee we will be electing later.

            And folks have asked me, “How is this different than what we did before?”  First, being mildly impatient and easily bored myself, I like to keep it kind of compressed and tightly spaced, hence the packed schedule in October and November.  It’s also in order to be done before Thanksgiving and Advent and Christmas.  I try to keep it moving and interesting and fun.  But the biggest difference is that I keep the focus on the end product: the search for the next pastor.  We can do this partly because the good work done with the Gathering process last time gives us a head start on the data and vision parts of the process.  But our focus will be on understanding the history and processes and makeup of the congregation and how they relate to the pastoral relationship.  Sure, we have to refresh and reaffirm the vision we have of First Congregational Church, but my push will be toward understanding how that vision and the way this congregation functions will inform the search for a next pastor.  The goal of all this is a strong, productive, healthy partnership between pulpit and pew into the future.  That goal will drive the conversations and keep us on track.  The product is not a good study experience or a statement of mission, but a call extended to the right person to work with you to accomplish that mission.

            If you know people who have not felt good about the church for a while (or are one), please encourage them to join the all-church conversations.  The atmosphere will be honest, but I want to make it non-threatening and comfortable so people can share if they want.  It’s a chance to see how we got where we are and find out where God wants us next.  Please participate!

            This Sunday we have a group of guest singers from a Cornell Glee Club joining our choir, so I hope you can make it to worship.  Somehow, the combination of a “glee” club and the joy of God’s love in Christ Jesus amuses me.  Hope to see you Sunday at 10 am.

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible          Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
      From the Epistles                  1 Timothy 6:6-19
      From the Gospels                  Luke 16:19-31

Ecclesiastical Parbuckling

            It probably says too much about me that I have been entranced watching the work around the Costa Concordia off the coast of Sicily.  Lots of things about it make really good illustrations about all sorts of topics, even if they are not going to make it into a sermon ever.  But it can make it into a Weekly Word!

            We are about to begin the all-church self-study events in preparation for calling a search committee which will prepare a church profile and then seek candidates for the pastorate here.  This fall there will be four lunch meetings after church on a series of topics and a survey about church participation to which everyone— member, friend, new arrival, long-time hand, happy, disappointed, confused, younger, older, middler— is invited.

            This is a pretty early stage in the parbuckling, refloating, refitting, and resailing of First Congregational.  (Notice the difference there with the Costa Concordia, which will decidedly not cruise again.  FCCI will.  Period.)

            Many months ago, the Concordia wreck got stabilized, and then the divers and engineers started to figure out what they had to work with.  Then they spent a long time developing plans, testing scenarios, getting things thought out.  Another long period of time was building the equipment needed and getting it in place.  Finally, only last week, 20 months after the ship scraped bottom and capsized, did they get to the first big salvage effort.  Now that they have it upright, the have a lot to do for the next stage of effort.

            In terms of my gimmicky parallel, First Congregational and the people who love it want it not just upright and salvaged, but sailing the seas of the gospel. Now that things are more stable, it is time to see what we have to work with. At this point, that is all we are doing in the first conversations.  From there we will develop plans of action to undertake the pastoral search, then marshal the resources and people to do it.  But right now, we are learning about where we are and what has happened.  Then we can work on the engineering and the tasks of making it happen.

            Our first two conversations will be introducing the process and developing together a timeline of the events, seasons, and people in the last fifty or sixty years of First Congregational’s life.  Those will be October 6 and 13.  We will look at the community and our context in Ithaca and Tompkins County on October 27.  Then on November 3 we will look at ourselves in the mirror and talk about the valuable missions and ministries done for God and neighbor by the congregation.  On November 17 we will use part of the worship time to fill out the excellent US Congregational Life Survey, one of the very few normed across the nation and the denominational spectrum.

            In all of this, your participation… your honest, gracious participation… is key.

            We will gather for an informal lunch and working time after worship those four Sundays.  There will be activities and care for children so they can join in.  Older children and youth can sit in on the conversation.  If you can’t make a session or have to leave early, don’t worry; although they build on each other, each session should be interesting and valuable on its own.  We can help with rides and other things to help you attend.  Even if you don’t know what you might contribute, I would really appreciate you showing up!  And if you can’t stay for the meeting, at least stay for lunch and to visit with folks.

            It is my intention to keep the conversation lively and honest, to share some information on church dynamics that will be helpful understanding where we need to go next, not to drag things out, but to keep very focused on the overall purpose: discovering God’s direction for First Congregational and preparing for a healthy and productive partnership with a pastor in the near future.

            Are you with me? (I hope so.)

            And maybe on Sunday you’ll find out how this all fits with the scripture lessons!

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible        Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
      From the Epistles                1 Timothy 2:1-7
      From the Gospels                Luke 16:1-13

Welcome

    Welcome to First Congregational... for the first time perhaps.  Or welcome back!  With public school having started this week, this Sunday is the sort of “official” start of the FCCI program year, too.

    The choir is back to practicing, and the Children and Youth Ministry Team is back with the familiar Christian Education and faith formation program.  Most of the committees are back to meeting in September after their more “irregular” summer.  Folks who were less frequent over the school break are getting back in the rhythm of attendance.  The enjoyable and challenging AfterWord series resumes this week with Bob Riter from the Cancer Resource Center.

    We’re back in business!

    Some folks are not so much returning “back” as attending for the first time.  It’s up to we long-time attenders to make those first tentative steps past our threshold a meaningful, comfortable, and spiritually connecting morning.  I have no doubt that long-time attenders here are capable of a generous, inclusive, embracing welcome; my concern is that with the delight in seeing each other again it will be easy to overlook the first-timers and forget to enfold them into the flock gracefully and graciously.

    So keep an eye out for new faces, and be happy to see them!  If you approach them with happiness, you will probably find that sometimes tricky balance of welcoming without being overwhelming.  Many churchgoers fear that they will be too aggressive in pouncing on new people and turn them off, so we sometimes act “too cool” and keep away.  Lots of us have experiences visiting that have turned us off— usually by feeling too singled out too obviously— but don’t let that stifle your hospitality.  And remember that what you might think is “giving people space” can be experienced as neglect.  But just because that balance is tricky don’t give up!  Welcome like you like to be welcomed, and you will probably hit the comfort zone.  And if you are waaaaay introverted, just point a new face out to folks who are more comfortable saying “Hi” for the first time.  We’ve got the whole spectrum among us!

    Most times when we read the UCC slogan we focus on the “wherever you are on your life’s journey,” cherishing the openness and grace to all souls.  These Sundays in September, let’s run with the “you’re welcome here” part.  After all, God is happy to see everyone in church, whether for the first or ninety-ninth time.

    May you feel welcome this Sunday.  And share it!

                                                           In Christ,
                                                               
                                                                David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible       Jeremiah 4:11-12 , 22-26
From the Epistles              1 Timothy 1:12-17
From the Gospels              Luke 15:1-10