Transformation With a Passion

Newark Matters

2012-02-11T16:08:00.002-05:00

Our presbytery takes its name from New Jersey’s largest city and we are proud of the past and current Newark ministries demonstrating God's love. We are exploring new ministry opportunities among our ten Newark congregation's leaders, community partners, schools, and organizations such as Young Life. Open tables for conversation will be set for celebration and discovery to strategically resource current and emerging visions. Setting conversational spaces to develop new ministry is critically important for every organization see kings to employ innovative strategies to change the world.

2012-01-30T08:40:00.002-05:00

Your Spaces Matter. Your congregation’s ministry blesses the entire world and ensuring your buildings’ safety and usefulness is vital. Unfortunately, the aging-out of our buildings is posing unprecedented stress on many congregations. Our presbytery offers sessions access to resources to help assess and remediate the condition of your buildings.

Review your ministry goals and evaluate how well your buildings support your mission. Consider inviting an experienced team from the presbytery's board of trustees for a walk-thru with you. As a result, many churches have discovered new ways to reduce costs, repurpose space, leverage repairs, and put more money into mission through presbytery partnerships.

Your building is a community assess point where you to deliver Good News experiences. Optimize your spaces. Your spaces matter.

In what says have you repurposed your space to meet current and future mission objectives?

Thank you pastors!

2012-01-30T08:34:00.001-05:00

Pastors Matter. A part of my call is supporting and coaching our pastors. I can share with you that some struggle to keep discouragement at bay. The challenges our pastors face can be daunting, and their faithfulness is deeply appreciated. Teaching elders and ruling elders strive to resolve sometimes differing expectations and outcomes from ministry. Many stressors are historically rooted and should not be the pastor’s burden to bear.

Pay attention to your pastor’s needs. Give your pastor access to tools and resources that provide a more efficient or effective service to your congregation and to the community. Invest more money for their continuing professional and spiritual development. Encourage them frequently and pray regularly for them. The Committee on Ministry stands ready to support your session and minister so that ministry honors the work and the gifts our pastoral leaders generously offer us. Thank you pastors!

A New Job Intersection

2011-11-21T15:35:00.001-05:00

Rule or Teach? What's your job description in the PC(USA)?

Presbytery is now a council of teaching elders and ruling elders, no longer a governing body. According to Joe Smalls, formerly of the Office of Theology and Worship, the foundations of Presbyterian polity and the form of government reveal that ruling elders does not refer to power or governance, but to their ruling-out, (measuring as with a ruler). This is great news. Ruling elders are called to discern their faithfulness to the Gospel in the life of the congregation. Effective elders discern and lead in innovative, contextual mission.

Teaching elders, on the other hand, are called to a responsibility for teaching the Faith. “Teaching” does not simply refer to formal educational events, or preaching. Teachers of the faith clarify the Gospel in the real world context as a congregation celebrates the sacraments, prays, learns, and works together in outward-directed service to the world. Healthy teaching elders collaborate with one another and understand the necessity for skill improvement, and learning about their community and world, to fulfill that responsibility faithfully.

At the Intersection of Faith and Context.

Teaching elders deepen congregational understanding of the whole gospel at the intersection of faith and context. Ruling elders discern the “growth” of the congregation and mobilizes its gifts in their community context.

These teaching and ruling elders become presbyters as they gather from many congregations in what we can now call, thankfully, a council. When presbyteries were governing bodies, “council” was the term many used for a subset of the presbytery rather than the whole. But “presbytery council” was really a kinder way of saying “executive committee.” Newark Presbytery, for example, is a council, as is the whole session, and the whole general assembly. The name indicates an assembly to consult together, discussing how to change and grow to become more like Jesus Christ. We are not organized to hear reports and vote. Councils are called to give prayerful, thoughtful, sustained attention to the faith and how to live authentically in our context as disciples of Jesus. There should be positive outcomes for individuals, congregations, community and world from our council gatherings. When you hear “council,” think Nicaea, or Barmen, rather than the local school board or the Congress.

Governance is not the remedy to building the church; courageous discernment leading to missional outcomes is. God invites us to realign, regroup, retool, and rebuild our ministries on the foundation at the intersection of faith and context as ruling and teaching elders.

Where's your job intersection?

Future's Foundation

2011-11-20T20:40:00.001-05:00

As if on a wilderness journey for forty years, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been rebuilding its crumbling foundations in an attempt to keep its ministry strong. We can rebuild and strengthen our foundation, but we are increasingly unclear about what the building emerging on the foundation should look like. What is the church to be like in years ahead? Everything has changed, even Legos.

Building Blocks For What? I remember Legos in a container of assorted colors and sizes that I could assemble into whatever I imagined. Now, Legos are primarily kits of over specialized pieces. My grandkids don’t just want Legos, they want Star Wars Legos, or Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, or Prince of Persia Legos theme sets. There’s even an Advent Calendar Lego set! Where is the imagination in that? Though still fun, it has evolved into a prescribed step by step process that yields whatever is on the box, not what’s on the mind.

Forty years ago, church in North America was prescribed. Presbyterian churches depended on people who grew up in the church to continue what was previously learned. Back then, it might have been fine if churches were primarily pastor- and program-driven. Seminaries produced pastors the churches needed and churches nurtured candidates to keep the church going as it had been. Expectations were well established and communities depended on the stability associated with the Church to help stabilize its citizens.

We depend on Robert’s Rules of Order when the presbytery functions as a governing body of debate and regulation. Jesus warned us about the dangers of building a house on the sand. We need foundations. But the foundation Jesus’ was referring to in the Sermon on the Mount was not our rules, but his rules when he said, “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on (Matt. 7:24a). Jesus’ foundational words included:

Don’t pick on people or criticize their faults; Don’t play a holier-than-thou part, just live your part; Don’t be flip with the sacred; Don’t bargain with God; Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them; Don’t look for shortcuts to God; Be wary of false preachers.

The Apostle Paul invited everyone to embrace, and be embraced by, a Christ-centered life. Jesus is the foundation and we are cautioned to build upon that foundation with care.

Building on the solid foundation using old directions, tools, and guides will not produce the church this world deserves to experience God’s love today. With no prescribed set of building blocks and no Presbyterian building kit with step by step instructions, we have new roles to live into to get us to the next place of building mission.

“But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish person who built their house on sand” Matt. 7.26.

“Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! ” 1Cor. 3.10-11.

Community Matters

2011-09-26T17:06:00.002-04:00

Who benefits most from your team or session mission? How much more could be realized if new partnerships were nurtured the community at large, not just the "faith" community? Our newly emerging Newark Presbytery Community Transformation Corporation is redoubling its efforts to bless our neighbors. By engaging in new ministries sited at our existing properties, opportunities for sustainable initiatives will transform not merely the host church, but help reconnect and empower new relationships and new futures.

A congregation must not seek to experience health and vitality if the community around the congregation is not included in that same experience.

Newark Presbytery, Elizabeth Presbytery, and Palisades Presbytery have been exploring how realigning our resources could lead to new health, growth, and vitality of all our congregations. We ask God to use us to bless the 4.5 million people that live within our bounds. Imagine… 28,000 plus Presbyterians (our tribe) discovering new, innovative, authentic, and tangible ways to demonstrate God's love in the name of Jesus Christ to the millions of our neighbors (God's tribe). Now, that's a really something that's worth exploring.

Throughout the Synod and national church, God's listening people are setting aside preconceived, ineffective notions, self-interest, and former ways of being the Body of Christ so that more and more people experience joy and abundant living.

After all, our mission is to resonate and represent the love God has demonstrated for the whole world. Community matters. What matters to your church?

Got Courage?

2011-09-25T22:05:00.001-04:00

It takes vision and courage for a leadership team or session to consider a realignment of mission objectives. To achieve a strategic redeployment of property assets for alternative or shared ministry, it requires us to contemplate a different way to respond to God's Spirit in collaborative mission. We know we must change. We just choose not to. Scared? Sure. Hard work? Yes. But to remain the same, expecting different results, well, you know what that indicates, right?

The mission critical moment comes when we, or when our team, or session and congregation choose to change with a sense of hopeful urgency and get courageous. Ready to change is not changing. Changing our actions and behaviors in authentic, humble, and intentional ways is changing.

What new could emerge if our focus as a church was not actually the church, but the community the church is located in? What does a session need to be equipped to re-tune its spiritual radar to see opportunities instead of only obstacles? What would it take for your team to take responsibility for its own future instead of blaming others? It takes courage.

How useful is your church site, buildings and property to help you achieve the unique mission God is sending your congregation out into the world to fulfill? We need congregational transformation, but also property transformation. Instead of feeling stuck with your existing building, or overwhelmed by negative outcomes of deferred maintenance, what might emerge as a blessing if you considered alternative ways of gathering, worshipping, serving, teaching, and transforming by collaborating with an adjacent congregation?

Got courage?

Focus Leads to Collaboration

2011-09-23T16:32:00.003-04:00

When a congregation, or team, focuses on itself, it never grows beyond itself.

The true gifts they could offer the world are shut up tight within their walls of preoccupation and selfish ignorance. Though the sign outside says, "All are welcome!" nothing could be further from the truth.
Jesus put it this way; "If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me" Matthew 10.39. Additionally, when you forget about yourself in an authentic, humble, and intentional way, you begin to grow, improve behaviors, and become the blessing to others God created in advance for you to do (Eph. 2:11).

When a leadership team has a clear, other focused, focus, a clarity in mission, a congregation soon discovers they can't think they can do it all alone. This collaborative energy is freeing and energizing and I have seen it lead to exciting, new, emerging approaches to ministry.

When churches become less the point and the communities they are located in become the point, it is no longer about "My" church, but "Our" community, and when geographically proximate to other fellowships and congregations with a similar out-ward vision, collaboration is natural and compelling. Two or more outward-focused teams can choose to focus on achieving their mission goals together and not surprisingly, new options appear.

In consultation with teams such as the Committee on Ministry, Board of Trustees, and Mission Council, new energy has emerged from new, adaptive structures and relationships.
For example, Elmwood United PC in East Orange and the former Central PC in Newark found mutual blessing when they explored what could happen when more resources would be released by uniting together. Instead of focusing on what was, or what is, the leaders began to focus on what could be. The opportunities for congregational and community transformation was discovered together. Today, God has blessed the collaborative mission with multiplied outcomes.

Driven by a similar kind of mutual vision, leaders from three West Orange congregations aligned their resources to unite as the United PC of West Orange. With the collaborative effort of a Newark Presbytery Administrative Commission, new opportunities for common ministry took shape with many cascading benefits that have rippled throughout the region. By selling deteriorating buildings and repurposing property into more liquid resources, the new united congregation now occupies a common site that is shared equally with Elmwood United's other growing worship site.

What can your session or team do to have a better future, to grow? Where they focus their mission is the key to uncovering the enormous and awesome outcomes of collaborative mission. Your community deserves nothing less.

Clarifying Mission is #1 Task for the #1 Customer

2011-09-22T12:33:00.004-04:00

Who is the #1 customer of your presbytery?
If you responded the sessions of your congregations, you answered wisely.

18 months ago, I initiated a missional intervention in conversation with other key committees in Newark. I asked the moderators and clerks of session to invite me to a meeting of their choice and give me 33 minutes on the docket.

Within that time I wanted to achieve one primary objective: To express our belief that the session is the #1 customer, the focus, and the priority, of the presbytery. Its been a great experience. They sometimes believe me! (It's a shock to their time-tested experience.)
40% of our sessions have intentionally set aside time to join me to listen and lead in new ways. They are clarifying their congregation's unique mission and refocusing their ministry on new initiatives. Using demographic, survey, and other tools, they are realizing that every church can take responsibility to rekindle their mission passion to love their community in tangible and sustainable ways.

Reliable data leads to better decisions. Like in Moneyball, when your session gains clarity about what matters most, and the real Wow emerges. (More on this in a post to come.)

When a session and congregation discern and choose a clear, focused, mission, they begin to make better choices. They can say “Yes” to what achieves their unique mission and they can confidently say“No” to actions, programs, and ministries that are not aligned with their mission.

By constantly listening to the Spirit, the focused mission becomes part of a new DNA for the church and the blessings sure to follow will reinforce the new direction that has begun. It is at this fundamental level that the presbytery, the collective spiritual energy of our congregations, can provide resources needed for the transformative work.

Clarifying mission is the #1 task for the presbytery's #1 customer. Its working already.

Moneyball Wow and Church Radar

2011-09-21T14:42:00.001-04:00

In his book Moneyball, Michael Lewis wrote about how baseball scouts and managers were wrong about what makes a great baseball player. They argued about it and invested millions in trying to understand it. They used the wrong radar, they looked for the wrong “Wow” factor of what makes the best player. When statistics taught a few teams what the real Wow was, the balance of power shifted. I pay attention to that information.

Do you know what the real Wow is for authentic and effective congregational mission? Consider the Gospel story recorded in Mark when people appeared like walking trees to a blind man healed by Jesus.

Mark's rapid-fire, cascading, accounts of Jesus' actions included the feeding of thousands of hungry people. That's good, but Jesus wanted more than a full belly for his team of disciples. Sure, they ate with the crowd that afternoon, but after lunch, Jesus quizzed, “And the seven loaves for the four thousand—how many bags full of leftovers did you get?” “Seven.” He said, “Do you still not get it?” Just like us, we thought the Wow factor was in the miraculous feeding, but Jesus wanted his team to understand the leftovers. The outcomes. The Wow was in the leftovers.

Jesus met a blind man and continued to heal him. The outcomes of the miracle were amazing. A person who knew only darkness saw light. This healing experience was not over. He saw people, but the people appeared to be upside down. The Wow was yet to come. If the blind man was in a hurry, if a little was enough, if getting by a bit better was sufficient, he would have walked away happy to see "any" light at all. Jesus knew the Wow was yet to come. As if Jesus said, "Wait, we can do better than this." Touching the man's eyes, full sight was restored.

Where can we see the real Wow emerging?

Do you know what the Wow church looks like?

What's on your radar today that matters?

What is Home?

2011-09-20T11:58:00.003-04:00

What is home to you?

As I travel throughout the 150 square mile bounds of our presbytery, visiting our congregational “homes,” I am constantly reminded of the incredible ministries of healing, hospitality, proclamation, and compassion that flow to neighbors nearby and around the world. I celebrate our sessions’ robust faith and resolute spirit as together we embrace the opportunities ahead. By stepping up with new, innovative programs and speaking out on behalf of those with little or no voice our elders point everyone to the Good News found in the risen savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for your ministry!

We sometimes call our church building our “home.” We speak about our hometown, opening our homes to strangers as a gesture of love, and at the end of the day, we anxiously wait to get back home. Our own references to death or the funeral of a loved one are often tenderly conveyed as a final “home-going.” Our music, books, and movies are filled with “home” titles and themes. Even in sports, we favor our home team and every baseball player focuses on the goal achieved when touching home plate.

Ecological homelessness is on the rise. It refers to the sense of displacement and fragmentation that alienates us from family and as citizens. We can also experience this homelessness within our own spirits. God is our secure home. If “home” that represents wholeness and peace were not that important to us, I doubt we would be as comforted as we are by its embrace, or find such motivation to experience it.

From the first book of the Bible to the last, there are hundreds of references to home. God told Abram to trade the comfortable home he knew, for a home he would claim in the distance. The incarnation of Jesus meant that God was making his home with us. In a few weeks, we celebrate the gift of the indwelling Spirit of Pentecost ensuring us, and assuring us, that God’s home is within us. God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! (Revelation 21.3).

Like all things we value, there is a cost to pay for establishing, seeking, or maintaining a healthy, safe home and neighborhood. In my conversations with elders, the increased operational costs of our buildings, frequently paired with reduced income and economic climate have created serious stressors. In some cases, the building has almost become our mission. The costs of operating the physical plant in some cases exceed the costs of ministry.

We honor our congregational homes, but we have become somewhat attached to them. Our aged buildings have suffered the effects of deferred maintenance and, in some cases, have become a disproportionate distraction to the mission of the church. In my visits with elders, I know these stressors are deeply felt and remedies are urgently sought. Sometimes our existing buildings and their upkeep have sapped energy away from having those needed conversations about innovative ministries, shared ministry with another congregation, and ministry re-alignment.

Decide today what is home to you and your ministry.

Do You Have a Memory Organization or an Imaginative Organization? Choose Carefully

2011-05-27T11:26:00.002-04:00

What do you remember? There are three main types of memory functions in our brains: Sensory, Short-term, and Long-term. Sensory memory fills up with what’s happening now. Short-term memory processes information for a few minutes longer. If we attribute importance to it and repeatedly access it, it becomes a working short-term memory. Information that has great value to us is kept indefinitely as Long-term memory. This is the “remembering” part of the brain that is encoded with meaning, smells, colors, and other sensory attributes. These memories can deeply affect our future behaviors and attitudes. Being aware of what we remember informs our future.

Memorial Day represents one day of personal (and national) awareness and reverence, honoring those Americans who died while defending our Nation and its values. Our national “Remembering Day” emerged before the end of the Civil War when women who lost family and friends annually gathered to place flowers on the graves of those who had fallen in the service of their country. A hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920).

In what part of your brain’s memory is Memorial Day remembered? In what ways will your religious community participate in a gratitude-driven day of remembering?

Not only do individuals have memory, but so do communities and groups, and institutions and companies. Listening to each other’s “memories” and honoring the values attributed to them is a great way to build a sense of team-work, solidarity, and a spirit of humble gratitude.

But be careful. Deeply felt memories can be seductive and, though as familiar as a pair of comfy slippers, they can lock us in to debilitating sentimentality, fear, and pettiness. People gathering as congregations or teams can devolve into being more of a Memory Organization (stuck in the past) than growing into being an Imaginative Organization (co-creating a new future). There is no ministry from memory; memory is the past. But memories can inform new, creative, learning resulting in fresh ways of authentic, intentional, and effective ministry.

Many of our memories can enrich the lives of those around us as we embrace a hopeful future. Do you have a Memory Organization or an Imaginative Organization? Lead carefully as you honor the past and create a future of new possibilities.

-Kevin

Our narrative is powerful, no matter what our church "home" is like today.

2011-05-26T20:36:00.000-04:00

Our narrative is powerful, no matter what our church home is like today.

In what ways can our church homes become more welcoming? They can be places to invite people into conversations we haven't had before, with people we do not know, so that we can experience God’s love and peace in a safe place? What does your neighborhood need more than anything else? What can your congregation do to salve the fragmentation and homelessness experienced in your neighborhood?

Paying Attention to Kids

2011-03-28T12:31:00.002-04:00

Youth matter. The topic of kids come up in most every one of my conversations with congregation leadership teams. Typically though, its a recounting of by-gone days when kids were more present and involved. Our experience of membership decline has not only led to institutional despair and trauma, but severe generational gaps in our churches. The challenges and opportunities concerning our youth have taken center stage before, but often languish amid unfulfilled expectations of the under trained youth worker, unsupported associate for youth ministries, or the rapidly disappearing Director of Christian Education.

The increasing median age of our congregations is a big part of the result as well as the challenge we face. Though we can learn best practices and develop more effective responses to the needs kids face today, one simple thing we all can do now is to focus and pay better attention to our kids. Pay attention. Respect. Listen. Have you or your team really tried this recently?

We need to pay attention to kids. Period. Not just kids within our church, or circles of families and friends, but those who are our neighbors and residents in our communities. When we choose to focus on kids, our mission priorities and resource allocations would shift to support that commitment.

One way we are resourcing this youth intentionality is creating Multimedia Academies in some of our locations. Grants have provided the technology, we recruited proven leadership, and now are starting conversational and creational spaces in our buildings where caring and responsible adults can show love for kids while the youth learn technical and life skills in a safe environment. Our MultiMedia Academy is one way we can pay attention to our community youth.

If your team has been effective in reaching youth in your community, I would like to know more about your experience. Resources abound and together we can demonstrate God's love to young people in more sustainable and creative ways. I'm trying to pay better attention… you with me?

Thanks for all you do today to pay attention to kids.
Kevin

2011-03-19T12:47:00.001-04:00

Community and Congregational Health:  What’s the Connection?

Expecting a donation of money since he could not work, a man needed to make a change in his life. More importantly, he was ready for change in his life. His pattern included seeking donations in the plate, but these gifts, even generous ones, did not ensure a sustainable future. Who would have been able to offer the intervention he needed? Though this story could be relating an actual occurance I observed last week. It's the apostle Peter’s experience with a disabled man at the Beautiful Gate of the Jerusalem temple in the first century impressed historian Luke so much so that he gave this story prominence (Acts 3:1-6). It’s a favorite story of mine.

In Acts, Peter embodied, and even extended, the very ministry of Jesus as recounted in Matthew’s gospel when the tax collector reports that, “People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all.” Could that be said of your church? Peter saw the inextricable link between spiritual health and physical vitality. A wholeness of body, mind, and spirit leads to a sustainable and hopeful future.

We offer what we have. The man received what he needed. He got up and walked! A few coins would get him through the day. Two strong legs would now get him to a job for a lifetime.

As faithful and eager as the church is to focus on spiritual concerns, we have a long way to go to practice the theological convergence of spiritual, emotional, physical, and public wellness. Often regarded as an unmentionable topic in church and governing body conversations, our individual and corporate mental health, and its advocacy, is mission critical for a missional church to be a compassionate blessing in the world.

I believe Newark Presbytery’s churches are increasingly poised to intentionally, humbly, and authentically become an agent of community wholeness, not merely an example of it. How's your team doing? Congregations can choose to promote community wellness and wholeness, not just in being generous with funds placed in a plate, but helping people walk in the newness and in the fullness of life. We must address the fragmentation our communities, and churches, experience.

Healthy communities self-correct. Healthy communities make for healthy congregations. What can our churches do? More of what we are already doing! And much more.I will post a few missional ideas for your leadership team and congregation to explore. I hope you find them helpful.

What has worked for you?

A Personal Thanksgiving

2011-01-27T12:26:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends in the Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.),

I am deeply moved by your expressions of love and sympathy in the recent death of my mother, Martha, on January 14th. Many pastors, sessions, and presbytery and denominational leaders, have expressed their prayerful care and concern. The cards, emails, visits, and calls have been an exceedingly buoyant and needed gift to my family and to Melissa and me. Thank you.

Loving and steadfastly supportive, my mom's gentle, self-effacing demeanor made the entire family feel accepted and special. Because of my mom, our family enjoyed many blessings. She was in great health for 88 years until just after Thanksgiving when her condition rapidly deteriorated. Her, and our, confidence in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a comfort of consolation. She will be always celebrated and fondly remembered.

Feeling your support and love has made the grief of loss much lighter to bear. I m grateful for you.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Sincerely,
Kevin

Tragedy In Tucson and Mental Health

2011-01-10T14:15:00.001-05:00

We were all shocked when we learned of the shooting tragedy in Tucson involving Congresswoman Gifford on Saturday. Phyllis Schneck, a member of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Ariz., was among those killed in the shootings on January 8, 2011, that left six people dead and 14 injured. We offer our prayers for the Gifford's (whose husband is from West Orange, New Jersey), the Schneck's, and the other families affected by this event.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders issued a statement today in the wake of the shooting tragedy. Elder Cynthia Bolbach, Moderator of the 219th General Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reverend Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, and Elder Linda Valentine, Executive Director of the General Assembly Mission Council, expressed anguish over the shootings and horror over “this kind of assault on public discourse.”

The assault on public discourse is truly reprehensible. But like other recent and similarly tragic events in the United States, the attack on public discourse may have been initiated by an individual who desperately needed mental health intervention. The mind matters.

As faithful and eager as the church is to focus on spiritual concerns, the church has along way to go to demonstrate an awareness of the theological convergence of spiritual, emotional, physical, and public wellness. Often regarded as an unmentionable topic in church and governing body conversations, our mental health and its advocacy is mission critical for a missional church to be a blessing in the world.

My wife, a licensed professional counselor and mental health professional, received today's statement from Mental Health America on the tragedy in Arizona. They recognized the point of intervention is not merely the act of violence, but an intervention with the individual contemplating such violence. I excerpt below from their statement. (For more information, contact: Steve Vetzner, svetzner@mentalhealthamerica.net.)

"It will likely take many days to understand the reasons and motivations behind this national tragedy… People with mental health conditions are no more likely to be violent than the rest of the population. And we have science-based methods to successfully treat persons with even the most severe mental illnesses. A very small group of individuals with a specific type of mental health symptoms are at greater risk for violence if their symptoms are untreated.…

"The nation’s mental health system is drastically under-funded and fails to provide Americans living with mental health conditions with the effective community-based mental health services they need. Sadly, in the current environment of strained state budgets, mental health services have been cut drastically just as demand for these critical services has risen dramatically.…

"It is also important that, as a community, we assist persons with signs and symptoms of mental illnesses to seek treatment. Although rare, when a person becomes so ill that he/she is a danger to themselves or others state laws provide a way to get them help even if they don’t believe that they need it. The best strategy, however, is to have an accessible system of care that is easy to use.…

"We do not know if the mental health system failed in this situation or if there were missed opportunities or if effective treatment might have averted this tragedy. We do hope that we can find answers and create solutions that prevent this from ever happening again."

The church, (referring both to the people and as a place of gathering), has an opportunity to once again become the town's Meeting House it enjoyed centuries ago. The church seeks new ways to reconnect to the real world. In Newark Presbytery, we are experiencing many successes including food and clothing distribution, housing, training, and education and support programs, in addition to worship experiences, that seek to serve the community. We can do much better in regards to the mental health of our communities by providing a welcoming place for groups to gather to discuss concerns, learn, and create spaces for more and more voices to be heard in a safe and inviting place. This gathering can be effectively facilitated online and via social media. These groups of individuals and conversations can grow and become self-correcting, nurturing, and build the capacity of the entire community. When faith becomes the basis of this activity, even more resources are afforded the community at large.

Let's get connected so we can realize the possibilities. What would help you be better connected? Connected internally regarding your whole self… spirit, mind, body. The church needs to be connected before we get people reflecting about the future.

The tragedy in Tucson is a cry for help. In what ways will you pay better attention to your inner-self and health? What stressors in your life seem out of control right now? Where will you go for resourcing or intervention should you need it? How will your organization or church pay better attention to the mental health of your community? It's risky to get involved. Nothing is going to change unless we take our mental health seriously, and empower others to do the same for themselves.

Public discourse can be most effective when its citizens are healthy and connected.

I hope you will experience that healthfulness in 2011.

Kevin

Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. Matthew 4.24

Where Is That Star Pointing?

2010-12-22T17:20:00.002-05:00

Where Is That Star Pointing?

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory—this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-3)

Provoked by an unmistakable indicator in the sky, a discerning band of scholars were determined to worship the new King. God’s incarnation, our redemption intervention, was promoted by a star. The star, that point of light, was pointing to the Light of the world, Jesus.

God is with us, and within us. The Spirit sends us into the world to demonstrate —to incarnate— the incredible life-changing, transformational possibilities of God-with-us living through Jesus Christ. The event of incarnation is inextricably bound up with the whole salvation story of the Good News.

As it did in that first Christmas, the Star continues to point to where God meets people —incarnationally— with intentionality, humility, and authenticity. The Star points to places where a restorative community, family, or fellowship creates a future of emerging opportunities. From isolation to engagement, retribution to restoration, from fault-finding to gift-bearing, from timidity to courage, from self-interest to generosity, the Star points the way. As those scholars of old discovered, the Star points to where God’s presence transforms life.

Look around. Where do you see that Star pointing today in your home, church, community, or world? I am grateful for your acts of grace and kindness. Let's both do more of that! As the proclamation of the Word and the worship of God are experienced this Christmas week, I hope that you are bathed in the Star’s glow of forgiveness, hope, and joy.

How will you change so that your community sees the Star today?

Merry Christmas,

Kevin

If Not For Profit, What Are We For?

2010-11-12T19:58:00.002-05:00

The community has gathered today. We are a community! I look forward to every meeting. We all do. The presbytery has gathered today, but what for?

We identify social agencies and institutions that serve the public good as “not for profits.” The “not for profit” label seems to suggest that all we need to know about “not for profits” is just knowing what it isn’t.
Can you imagine introducing yourself by a name you are not? “Hello, my name is not Alice.” “Friends, I would like you to meet my friend, not Roger.” Or referring to your church as, “Welcome to not First Church,” or even, “Thank you for gathering at, “not Peace Lutheran Church.” There is insufficient information conveyed by describing what something is not. Identifying what you do —by what you don’t do— is an essentially purposeless effort. Recently there has been some national conversation referring to “not for profits” as the “public benefit” sector. Maybe its a good idea.

Thankfully, Jesus asserted ideas and purpose with much more clarity.

In the Luke 19 story (below), a relationship of expectation is established between a ruler and servants. This led to a conversation of possibilities. What would these servants do with the investments while the owner was gone? Some of the citizens focused more on trying to change the relationship than on investing the money.
Citizens have the capacity to change the community story, to reclaim the power to name what is worth talking about, to bring a new context into being. Instead of problems (the past), citizens can invest in possibilities (the future).

Those of us who help create the current dominant context for the community conversation drive the conditions that nurture either a retributive or a restorative community context. If we do not choose to change this context and the strategies that follow from it, we will produce few new outcomes for our institutions, neighborhoods, and towns; nor for our churches or presbytery.

Not for profits are for the public good, right?

Take one example I recently read in USAToday: A Christian-founder who created a not for profit to distribute anti-Muslim information, collects hundreds of thousands of dollars. His same “not for profit” group, formed a separate “for profit” that pays the founders (him) to produce the anti-Muslim information. Who is that founder “For” ? It appears he is “not for profit” but in actuality his organization is for inciting misinformation about Muslims.
The marketing of fear is not just “for profit.” It also holds a political agenda. Fear justifies a retributive agenda, fundamentalist in the extreme have been on the rise for some time.

The retributive agenda’s focus is a civil, just society that gives priority to restraints, consequences, and control, and underlines the importance of rules.

The communities our churches are in, and the faith-community in our congregations, each require a context shift. Fear, fault finding, and retribution fragments our lives and diminishes our social capital, (what we have that we choose to intentionally and authentically offer as a gift to others in a spirit of generosity and joy).
Citizens of civil societies, and citizens of presbyteries, can give voice to an inclusive community and restore a healthy listening context for unconditional mutual positive regard, collaboration, dissent, possibilities, and hope.
What is the presbytery for? As a restorative community we can create a hopeful future together, without retribution. Take a look at the chart derived from Peter Block’s, Community: The Structure of Belonging (2009).
What can we create together as a presbytery?

Newark Presbytery is, and can be, for many things. We are for every congregation living into their unique mission. We are “for” 800,000 neighbor-citizens that live within our bounds. We are “for” the city of Newark and all people in its adjacent urban centers, and “for” the ring communities, suburbs, and towns. We are “for” the poor, disenfranchised, abused, and suffering, and for peace, justice, and wellness. We try to become a healthier context where each citizen (member) chooses to be accountable rather than entitled.

Accountability means that each of us can be “possibilities” of willingness to care for the whole. (Entitlement is a conversation about what others can or need to do to create the future for us.) We can create the kind of conversations about the new story we want to take our identity from, and build our future upon.

You have been gifts to me. I am grateful for each of you; every minister, congregation, session, committee, and team. I am honored to listen and help co-create and initiate possibilities of an alternate future with you. We are gifts to each other. I know you try to do the same as you serve your congregations.
“What, then, shall we say in response to this? Since God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8.31). This Good News of Jesus Christ will drive and sustain our transformation as we gather.

What possibilities do you offer your team or community today?

Kevin

What's a saddle for?

2010-10-28T12:40:00.001-04:00

When Henry Ford’s car’s started appearing on the dusty roads of America, a lot of people wondered, “Where do you put the saddle?,” thinking the car was just a faster horse.

The car was way more than a faster horse. Besides not needing a saddle, this sublime transportation technology not only helped us get from here to there, it changed the way people regarded geographic boundaries and interacted with each other.

Just as the car is not a faster horse, email is not a faster fax. And, as Seth Godin adds, online project management is not a bigger whiteboard. And Facebook is not an electronic rolodex. Get it?

When we do not embrace or internalize implications of change, we close ourselves off from the world. Technology, for example, is not just a way to do things faster. If it were, then we could better understand some people’s reluctance to embrace what’s new; they simply decide fast is fast enough.

Chinese printer Pi Sheng invented movable type in 1041 A.D. It was similar to the technology that German printer Johann Gutenberg used four hundred years later to produce his famous editions of the Bible. The technology promoted the sharing of ideas and the Reformation itself could hardly have occurred without the writings of Erasmus and Luther being widely distributed. This promoted an accessible faith, the development of schools, resulting in more people reading, who in turn learned new ideas. Attitudes and behaviors changed, resulting in repeated cycles of inspiration, invention, and innovation. The printing press was not just a faster way of producing books.

Similarly, thinking the iPod is just an easier way to listen to music, or that the iPad is just a bigger iPhone misses the game-changing reality that millions and millions of people are using these new tools to profoundly interact with and change the world.

Putting a big screen in front of a congregation, instead of holding hymn books, is not just a faster or easier way to sing. It is an incredible sociological and liturgical game-changer. Exploring how social media intersects faith and church is an emerging ecclesiastical challenge. Some consider the recent phenomena of social media to be just about faster communications, merely having an impact on those who use the services. Facebook and Twitter offer a magnitude of influence on the world that could rival that of Gutenberg’s printing press. Imagine that.

In what ways are you becoming more humble, intentional, and authentic as a human being? What, or who, will you pay more attention to today?

So, we don’t need saddles to drive a car. What game-changing tools are you mastering to make a better world? I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Sincerely,

Kevin

PS -For my friends in the Presbyterian Church…one more thing:

When it comes to middle governing bodies in the church, we get stuck because we do not internalize the change we all agree we need, and think we are just doing things faster or better with each iteration of meetings and projects. In reality, everything’s changed around us and new tools are revolutionizing the way the people think about themselves and their communities. When we resist internalized change, we diminish our precious spiritual and emotional energy. When it comes to the Presbyterian Church middle governing bodies, we may not have enough time to catch up to the world we wake up to each day. We seem to be speaking to one another in rooms where no one else is gathered to listen.

For more than forty years, our mantra has bellowed about the possibility of change, the challenge of change, the need for change, even sometimes trying to promote a readiness for change. Yet, we have not changed our position in order to fully present and better connected to the physical and virtual world.

We are acutely aware of unintended and un-welcomed change all around our churches, presbyteries, and synods. Yet we keep looking for a faster way to do more of what, sadly, is not working.

We fumble at integration, rarely grasping the game-changing implications of a world that passed the church by long ago on its way to the future.

Instead of leading a helpful and timely conversation in the public square down the road or online, our best intentions seem sabotaged by those of us who are paralyzed by fear, impaired in mind or spirit, or simply unconscious.

If our mission is to avoid risk. We have achieved it. No Special Commission of the GAMC will help, even if summoned. Our consolation is that a few determined presbyteries can collaboratively realign their mission and their assets to produce healthier, more effective, outwardly directed congregations, irrespective of how the synods stumble forward, as if resurrected like Lazarus, but still holding tightly to their grave clothes.

We need more than the nineties’ deep change analysis and form of government upgrade. We need a spiritual and mental reboot. Let’s agree that we don’t need a “faster” church, but a more humble, intentional, and authentic church (and by church I don’t mean a building on the corner). We must be transformed from within to look more like the one we follow as disciples, namely Jesus. That’s the change that matters. Living inside—out, mastering game-changing tools to be fully present (incarnate) in the physical and virtual world.

What is your church doing today to make your community a better place in which to live? What is one thing you will do this week that humbly, intentionally, and authentically shows your community you care and that God loves them?

Singer/Songwriter david m. bailey died. Music Keeps Us Walking

2010-10-04T22:06:00.001-04:00

david m bailey, a singer/songwriter who moved audiences as much with his story of personal courage in the face of terminal cancer as with his music, succumbed to Glioblastoma on Oct. 2 in hospice care near his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 44. See a thoughtful press release at: http://www.pcusa.org/news/2010/10/4/david-m-bailey-succumbs-brain-cancer/

I am very sad to learn of David's death. I personally came to know David and his music about six years ago. Our presbytery's transformation event design team invited him to be our musical keynoter. Shuttling him from the hotel to the venues, never-ending stops at Starbucks, and watching him capture the hearts of the audience were experiences I'll fondly remember for a long time.

David took real life seriously, authentically, and loved his family he joyfully lived with and loved those who enjoyed his music. He emailed me one day and said he added a link to my website on his site and this news made my day. Joking he said, not many pastors make it to his list. I laughed. One of David's signature bandanas (which he proudly offered to remind others to pray for those stricken with cancer) is still a treasured keepsake.

His music will always be in my playlist and his family in my prayers. Keep On Walking... that's what he practiced, now perfected in Christ, as we all in our own way try to do the same. Now, David's learned to fly, and he will be deeply missed.

Kevin Yoho
General Presbyter, Newark Presbytery PC(USA)

www.twitter.com/kevinyoho

What Do You Truly Stand For?

2010-09-23T20:25:00.001-04:00

(Whatever it is, that’s what people will remember about you.)

My Post-It® note starred right back at me. I’ve seen it a hundred times before. The ubiquitous sticky note was the marvelous invention of a church choir member named Arthur Fry who needed something to mark pages in his hymnal. Happily for the world, he was a scientist at 3M and in 1970, they turned his adhesive invention into what was to become a billion-dollar business. Nice work, Art. Thank you!

My Post-It note has a digital counterpart on my computer that pops-up on my calendar, but last Friday, it was different. My Post-It note read, Why do you do this every, single, day?

Last Friday, I travelled to Canton, New York. I knew I was in a small town because I would have had to drive to Canada, only 90 minutes away, to find the nearest Starbucks. It turns out that my visit there was the ideal place to ponder my day’s Post-It note message without the ordinary distractions. Canton is the “Mayberry-RFD” of the Northeast. Last weekend’s quaint Hope Festival welcomed people of every age with music, cider, and tables brimming with handmade crafts and home-grown produce, cakes, and honey.

Canton was where my friend, the Rev. Clinton A. McCoy Jr., made his home and it was the place where he would have his final home-going. Clint, 62, died suddenly on Sunday, September 12, 2010.

Clint was known and loved by many in Newark Presbytery and across the church as the Synod of the Northeast’s Executive for Partnerships. In that role, Clint effectively helped guide and resource the Synod and its twenty-three presbyteries. To many presbytery leaders like me, he was a listening leader, a wise coach, and I regarded him as my pastor. He will be deeply missed.

I arrived early enough in Canton to personally offer love and support to Clint’s family, to his wife Barbara and his grown children. I also had the honor of extending gratitude for Clint’s ministry on behalf of Newark Presbytery, the New Jersey presbytery leaders, and the Synod’s executive collegium. I enjoyed the stories, (mostly fishing stories, Clint’s signature activity), as I listened to them being tearfully recounted, shared photos were passed around in tribute to a man who added so much joy to so many people.

Walking from Clint’s home, past the Hope Festival, on the way to the funeral home for services, my Post-It note message replayed in my mind: Why do you do this every, single, day?

I thought about how Clint would have responded to that message’s question. Why do you do the things that you do? The family stories I had just heard hinted at the answer, but I could’t quite decipher it.

Clint got up every day, I imagined, as I did, right? Gratefully embracing the gift of life from a gracious God who, in Jesus Christ, sends us out into the world to be a blessing. Check-in with family and with God. Read the news. Write and pray. Review the calendar, tasks, and priorities. Miles to go before I sleep. Get moving! (Repeat daily.) Why do you do this every, single, day?

Arriving at the funeral home early, I thoughtfully gazed in solitude at the myriad photos of Clint on easels and images dissolving into one another up on the big screen. Why do you do this every, single, day?

I was with Clint less than a week before at the New Jersey Presbytery Partnership Group meeting at our West Orange Presbyterian Center. He looked great and more rested than he appeared at July's Minneapolis General Assembly. We spoke about the fading summer and calendared several meetings ahead for African-American ministry, college chaplaincy, and middle governing body challenges to be discussed soon in Louisville. Clint offered the same great insight and nurturing guidance we all expected of him. Why do you do this every, single, day?

As I stood there alone in the funeral parlor just ahead of the hundreds of others that would soon be arriving, I looked again at the photos and the “recreation” of the McCoy refrigerator-door gallery. Finally, as if I solved a riddle, it became glaringly obvious to me; There were no photos depicting Clint’s work. No photos from his long pastoral ministry, no photos of his Synod connections, no photos from the scores of Presbyterian meetings he attended. None at all. Why do you do this every, single, day?

Well, one thing’s for sure— “work” as I typically regarded it, was not what got Clint up in the morning. Clint was real. He stood for something that matters.

What you truly stand for is what people will remember about you if you were to move away. What did people remember about Clint? Whether at home, on the lake, online, or in worship and work, Clint expressed his “gift” of life rooted in family and expressed with intentionality, humility, and authenticity. Christ-in-Clint was visible in abundant faith and love, perfectly captured by the gathered stories and photos.

Now that I have thought more about it, that’s what Clint made me feel like— his family. The work he did was important because others were important to Clint. His life’s work was fundamentally about family, the family of faith, and the world.

What does your church stand for? What you truly stand for will be how people will remember you. What would the neighbor’s say? What would they remember about your ministry? What would the “refrigerator-door gallery” look like?

“The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere (1Thessalonians 1.8 MSG).”

To effectively contribute to the change we want to see in this Presbytery, the community and in the world, we need to begin by understanding and appreciating each other, and those around us.

You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you have to make choices. Clint made his choices. We were all blessed. Hopefully, our choices and those of our churches will come from a deep sense of who we really are.

It’s never too late to begin living our lives with intentionality, humility, and authenticity. Christ-in-us is visible in abundant faith and love and through tangible and coherent actions. We know what photo’s are on Clint’s refrigerator door. What’s on your refrigerator door?

Kevin

Loss of a Listening Leader and Friend- Clint McCoy Died

2010-09-15T00:23:00.002-04:00

I just blogged about carefully choosing who you model your life on. I loss my listening leader and friend when Clint McCoy died Sunday. I am now abruptly staring into a future absent a special model who was taken by the Model Maker. I am sad. I feel badly for his wife and children, his neighbors and co-workers, and countless colleagues in the Synod of the Northeast and across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

As much as I'd like to think its true, and in spite of my improvement, I am no listening leader like Clint was. The Rev. Clint McCoy served as the Co-Executive for Partnerships for the Synod of the Northeast and in that role he helped me grow and change. My wife Melissa and I enjoyed every conversation we had together and both affirm the debt I owed Clint for his contribution to my work of helping 8,000 Presbyterians in Newark Presbytery make different the lives of its 800,000 neighbors.

Clint has been a good friend and colleague to me for many years, helping me be my best in countless ways. He understood me. He believed in me and welcomed my gifts. He was committed to a transforming Presbyterian Church as we courageously followed where the Spirit led us. He somehow evoked the best in others and with the skill and patience of a fisherman, he always served up a feast of joy using the simplest of tools.

I was with Clint on Saturday at the New Jersey Presbytery Partnership Group meeting. He looked great and more rested than he appeared at July's Minneapolis Assembly. We spoke about the fading Summer and calendared several meetings ahead from African American ministry, to college chaplaincy, to middle governing body challenges; all of which he fully welcomed. Clint offered the same great insight and nurturing guidance we all counted on.

Returning to his home expecting one last Summer day on the lake with his wife, Clint died. In the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, please keep his wife, Barb, and their entire family in your prayers as they grieve this unforeseen and devastating loss. I spoke personally with the McCoy family and synod staff, trying to encourage them by reminding them of God's love and the support and prayers of Newark Presbytery and the Synod Executive Collegium,

Its painful to loose someone you admired, someone whose traits you sought to emulate. My Listening Leader now listens from a different vantage point. Clint is not sitting next to me at a presbytery meeting in the same manner. We are not on conference calls any more. He is no longer encouraging me to figure out how to release the health and vitality of churches and their leaders in a stressed but changing system. The hopeful counsel I sought must now come less from Clint and more from what I learned of Clint, as he followed Jesus.

Life is not a dress rehearsal. I hope I paid attention. I will be forever grateful knowing Clint did.

Kevin

Doing Your Creative Best

2010-09-05T12:08:00.002-04:00

Who impresses you? Hopefully lots of people do. People who model the very best actions and deliver value in whatever sphere of influence or discipline they engage in often serve as actual or distant mentors and help us achieve our creative best.

In order to determine who impresses us, we must make a judgement. Sometimes our judgement is sound, other times it is deficient. When our judgement is a bit off when looking at others, it can be disappointing, but when looking at ourselves with deficient judgment, it can be disastrous.

We all need to improve our skills in making accurate evaluations or judgements about events, ourselves, others, and the world. In stressful situations, our ability to make accurate judgements is diminished. When functioning in a less than optimal way, or when impaired by internal or external factors, we often substitute our biases, preconceived notions, and false assumptions as a way to cope. Rather than becoming self-aware of deficient judgements so we can take responsibility for what we actually see and have evidence for, we settle for misjudgment in making an evaluation about the situation or person.

Planning to participate in a meeting? How we make sense of the world is a critical skill worth improving because it affects more than just ourselves. Since our judgements are not always right or helpful, we can repeatedly assess our internal resources and choose more positive and constructive attitudes so we are open to new data, receptive to new perspectives, and responsive to God's preferred future of hope and growth.

Sometimes we settle for believing we know what's going to happen in the future. Am I thinking that I can predict the future? How likely is it that that might really happen? Becoming aware of our own needs for approval or our misjudgment about others can impair the preferred outcomes for a meeting even before the meeting starts. Gaining clarity with reliable data can set the stage for true engagement and mutual growth.

Our history and experience affects our emotional reasoning, sometimes in adverse ways. We conclude that since I feel bad, it must be bad! I feel anxious, so I must be in danger. Just because it feels bad, doesn't necessarily mean it is bad. My feelings are just a reaction to my thoughts and thoughts are just automatic brain reflexes. Differentiating between real and imagined danger is essential to healthy living. Being more aware of our history and experience, dealing with it in a constructive manner, can free ourselves to being more invested in the moment and respect the situation or person in a more authentic way.

As you work you plan this September by planning your work, consider the advice of the Apostle Paul: "Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life" Galatians 6:4-5 (MSG).

What's your creative best? You are more likely to experience your creative best when you are fully aware of your own judgements and open to the preferred future God is impressing on you.

Changing Your Mental Filter

2010-09-03T19:11:00.001-04:00

What are you thinking about? Whatever it is, pay attention to it because what we think about affects our actions.

Psychologists, pastors, and educators all know that our thinking is influenced by our actions and attitudes. Visualization coaches and trainers recognize that realizing high achievement requires mastery over our thoughts. Take a minute and consider your thinking habits.

Getting control over our thinking begins by changing unhelpful thinking habits into more productive ones. Once you can identify your unhelpful thinking styles, you may become aware they often occur just before and during distressing situations. If this is your experience, you can try different techniques to refocus your mental frame of reference and choose alternate thoughts empowering yourself to see the situation in a different and more helpful way.

The Mental Filter- Some thought habits can function like filters allowing us to notice only what the filter allows or wants us to notice, and we dismiss anything that doesn't. Like looking through dark lenses or paying attention to only the negative stuff, anything more positive or realistic is dismissed. Ask yourself, Do I only notice the bad stuff? Am I filtering out the positives? Am I wearing those dark glasses that cloud my thinking? What would be more productive and realistic?

"Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse" Philippians 4:8 (MSG).

What thoughts help you grow and change?

Good Enough

2010-09-02T14:07:00.000-04:00

Good Enough?
I love technology and gadgets (I know you're surprised, right?). Just after high school, I worked for the Naval Surface Weapons Center in White Oak, Maryland as an electronics apprentice. It was great. Secret security clearance, cool technology gadgets, and I learned about design, production, PERT charts, and saltwater specs for electronics. (Most of what we built went on really big ships.)

Many times during the day I would submit my apprentice-level project for inspection and the senior engineer would say, "That's good enough for government work," and pat me on the back. I soon learned that Good Enough was the best you could do given the circumstances of skills, resources, and the timeframe for completion.

Good Enough has nothing to do with mediocrity. It has to do with rational choices, as opposed to compulsive behavior, or making decisions with ourselves at the center of attention, (like, that's good enough so I can go do something I'd rather be doing.) Good Enough is not low-balling or just getting by. Good Enough for a team or office could express itself as opportunities to:
Learn on the job,
Learn from failure,
Cope with complexity,
Cope with humanity,
Continuously improve on delivering your mission more effectively.

Good Enough thinking encourages smart skepticism and helps you get to the key deliverable of your work or ministry quickly. It helps us realize that benefits always come with problems. We have to be really smart to be Good Enough. Our task is not to blindly eliminate all problems. (Can't be done in the real world.) What can be achieved is to understand well enough a projects's problems and benefits to:
Eliminate (or prevent) the right problems;
Deliver the right benefits.

By focusing on how your clients/customers/members/community interacts with your product/service/ministry/deliverable you will begin to wisely evaluate what the "right" problems to eliminate are and what "right" benefits must be experienced.

Experiment with Good Enough where you work. I'd like to know what Good Enough means to you. To get started, at your next team meeting, or one-on-one with your directs, prepare to discuss the "Top 5 Right Problems I Will Eliminate (or prevent)" list, and a separate list of what you think are the "Top 5 Right Benefits I Will Deliver." See what happens.

Where could Good Enough take our mission? If it's Good Enough for government work, is it Good Enough for you?

Top 10 “Working Properly” Tips

2010-06-30T14:09:00.000-04:00

Top 10 “Working Properly” Tips for Commissioners and Presbyters

What will you make better? I just think things should work properly.

“So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit” (Galatians 6:9).

I really enjoy inventor stories. Inventors are people who are crazy enough to imagine that something can work even better. An inventor sees something that could work more effectively. The vision is to clearly focus on what could be. As the vision takes shape, the inventor fails miserably a million times trying to bring about change that works. The solo inventor's passion and vision can catch on. A team of inventors collaborate. The cycle of trial and testing, measuring and assessing, continues. Learning occurs. Its really hard work to invent something of value. Then, the progressive spirit of inventing finally yields results, often with surprising aspects that cascade into new challenges. An adaptive process emerges from a collaboration driven by the spirit of inventing. Hope, passion, mutual respect, and competency are the inventor 's mantra.

Take vacuum cleaner man James Dyson, for example. Recall the Dyson ad? At the end you hear the voiceover by Dyson himself, “I just think things should work properly.” That’s just awesome to me. “I just think things should work properly.” Dyson epitomizes hope, passion, respect, and competency. He is a true inventor. His company exudes that inventor's spirit in its culture, employment practices, and environmental responsibility. (Take a look at the Dyson story for some needed inspiration. Here’s a link to a summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_(company))

“Working properly” is a great objective that applies to more than just vacuum cleaners. Most of us know when things work properly. When things are working properly, expected outcomes are realized. When they’re not, we are not satisfied.

The church we grew up with is severely stressed, and has been for decades. A lot of people we care about have experienced pain because the things that we thought would work, don’t. Every day, I speak with ministers and elders who give, and have so much more to give, but have been wearied, distracted, blamed, bullied, or frightened enough to hold it back. They have difficulties managing the stress of ministry. They try to add needed competencies and skills. And they are severely challenged in trying to fund church infrastructure that, even in the best of year’s, is nearly impossible to sustain. These dear colleagues have become victims, or have victimized themselves, desperately looking for that joyfulness they once knew in serving and participating in church. Sadly, ministries suffer and the promise of Christ’s redemptive love having an impact on the world often falls short of its potential.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2Corinthians 5.17). Though sometimes painful to hear and difficult to act on, the old has gone and we need to let it go. The new is coming. It’s time to find a way to move forward.

There is good news. We have a choice. We can choose to stop settling for what’s good enough, or whatever seems to get us though another week, or through to retirement. We must realize that there is a great deal a stake, and we can choose a different future. If not for us, then for our children, and for the communities we live in.

We often say our ministry is about God’s reconciling work in the world, and we’re right! Since it is God’s world, and it is God who sends the church out to bless it, I think we can leave all that with God. What we can do is turn investing in the old into inventing what’s next. Turn what doesn't work so well anymore into ways of being the church that works in more authentic, vital, and effective ways.

We can choose to move forward beyond our well-worn maps. There is no map for what’s coming. We move where the Spirit empowers us to go! Let’s stop asking what’s in it for us and start giving gifts that change people. We can choose to be those gifts that help others grow. Only then will we realize our true God-potential.

Thank you for being a key part of Newark Presbytery. Each of us possess that inventor’s spirit. It just needs some cultivating and practice. Christ “in you” is the hope of glory. You have an incredible contribution to make. Its about hope, passion, mutual respect, and competency becoming more internalized within ourselves and within our culture as a church. Nothing will promote the forward movement of your church, or the forward movement of the entire presbytery, more than hope, passion, mutual respect, and competency. The whole church will be blessed. Our 800,000 neighbors will be blessed, too. You will be blessed. We can choose to change and grow as Presbyterians…as human beings, to love the world in even greater ways in Jesus’ name.

The Apostle Paul urges us to keep focusing on what works. Be attentive to what’s working properly within the presbytery. As you look to the 219th General Assembly, pray with and for the commissioners. Contemplate how you, like an inventor, will contribute value to our denomination’s health and effectiveness through your own lifestyle and ministry.

Your time and attention, along with your unique contributions, are core gifts. Thank you for sharing them so generously.

It is also important for us to practice ongoing self-compassion and self-forgiveness. While aiming for our best, working properly means we must recognize our limitations personally and professionally. We can let go of what cannot change and instead, focus on what we can make better. We can rejuvenate our sense of life and hope with simple practices including spiritual disciplines, enjoyable social activities, moments of exercise, healthy eating habits, journaling, and restful sleep, which all contribute to our working properly on the inside.

I offer you my Top 10 “Working Properly” Tips for Commissioners and Presbyters. I recently shared them with our 219th General Assembly commissioners, General Assembly staff, presbytery leaders, and I hope you find them useful. I look forward to your comments.

Trust. God loves you and the whole world.

Be mindful of your physical, emotional, and spiritual path.

Maintain intentional rhythms of active engagement and disengagement.

Keep your spiritual nourishment and support system fresh.

Clarify your personal boundaries. What works for you? Know what doesn't.

Invent something. Reinvent yourself. Be open to God's preferred future.

Make meaningful promises and keep them.

Deliver more than expected and be proud of it.

Remember, we are all connected. Treat others with respect.

Enjoy life in hopefulness.

(Note: When in doubt, see #1)

We do not gather to make a better vacuum cleaner; we gather to glorify God and make a better world for everyone. I just think things should work properly. How about you? What will you choose to make better?

Sincerely,

Kevin

Kevin Yoho

General Presbyter

Newark Presbytery

Presbyterians are ready for a change. GA219 is the opportunity.

2010-05-20T11:42:00.011-04:00

I think Linda Valentine, Executive Director, and the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) are leading the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) toward the right path. They are inviting all of us, at every ministry and governing body level, to courageously embrace God's preferable future with hope. We talk about changing how we faithfully internalize being sent into the world, yet we do not move. We agree we must change the approach to and delivery of ministry, yet rarely evidence growth. We have difficult decisions to make in the years to come, not unlike the recent releasing of long-term staffers in Louisville. We need to courageously act to realign our ministry to achieve the objectives God has called us to.

I believe Presbyterians must again be empowered to be the salt and light in more pervasive and effective ways on the street, across the nation, and around the world. The 219th General Assembly meeting in Minneapolis in July offers a unique opportunity to gain a better understanding of what’s important, to internalize it, and initiate responsible action. If not now, the opportunities that present themselves will be gone in two years, when we hold the next national gathering. So if not now, never. A spirit of prayerful urgency and courage must be divinely inspired and evoked from this assembly. I believe we are ready for a change. How ready are you for change? What do you need to move forward in hope?

Presbyteries and their Customers

A presbytery evidences effectiveness when its congregations are vitally and effectively fulfilling their own unique purpose as sent by God into the world.

If a congregation's session is not locating expected and necessary resources for its own unique mission from its presbytery, synod, and General Assembly, then it should, and no doubt will, find resources elsewhere. It’s well past time for presbytery leaders to learn and embrace to new opportunities. We can do a better job of collaborating with our congregations and other community assets to build the capacity of our mission. Sessions constitute a presbytery’s number one customer, therefore presbyteries have a strategic responsibility to ensure a session’s continuous ministry improvement, vitality, and sustainable change. We have often acquiesced to the status quo, or mistakenly believed that we have time for incremental steps. Our persistence of decline experience will continue to impair our capacity to grow and change unless a remedy is implemented.

According to change theorists, decline is the label we give to an organization’s trajectory when neither adaptation nor learning takes place in the face of massive membership dissatisfaction. Under these circumstances we ought to expect the demise of the organization. Though the PC(U.S.A.) membership is restless, we are also increasingly disappointed with our direction. We display symptoms of increased institutional trauma and decreased institutional intelligence.

We are not bereft of information, we are bereft of the right information that helps us learn. By raising our institutional and emotional intelligence we gain insight of mind and spirit. This will fuel our courage to act differently, to act better, to act authentically in our communities and in the world. Without relevant and reliable data we remain subject to tyranny and guesses about ministry direction.

Change in Practice

All across the country, many governing bodies are taking a new approach. In the Synod of the Northeast, presbyteries and their leaders have been learning together and initiating ministry adaptation within their own structures and congregations. In Newark Presbytery, where I have the privilege to serve as General Presbyter, we have begun to internalize a commitment to redirect our energy outward, away from a flatline of self-destructive congregational survival and deficit-defined ministry to a baseline model of “everyone can choose to grow.” By authentically reconnecting out of our abundance to the 800,000 people that live within our bounds, and beyond, the world can be different.

New Jersey’s Presbytery Partnership Group’s (NJPPG) eight presbyteries have also begun to chart a new course. In March, our presbyteries were offered a learning strategy called the Listening Project to help them assess their own presbytery’s mission clarity, vitality and effectiveness. This is huge. Every presbytery in New Jersey, in its unique historical and geographic setting and phase of organizational life, can come to its own place of readiness and take responsibility for itself to grow and change. Now needed assessment tools and funds have been provided to provoke that change. Are our presbyteries ready? I believe they are. Without courage to choose God's preferred future, however, our will lead to our demise. Clarity from the NJPPG Listening Project promises to provide the catalyst. Time will tell, but time is short.

A Remedy for Forty-Years of Decline

Recently we learned that in 2009, our denomination’s membership declined 3.3%, representing in the aggregate a net loss of 1,800 people every week, a higher rate of decline year over year. This information increases our knowledge. I think this decline rate is not only unacceptable but preventable, yet the GAMC and few other church leaders have even mentioned it. The point is that this information alone does not increase our intelligence to act differently.

We need insight that derives from intelligence. Realize that the PC(U.S.A.), along with all other major denominations, are continuing a 40-year decline. A wilderness experience of a vast scale. But there's more: Our church appears unaware that every major volunteer association in North America has experienced the identical decline in membership during the same 40-year period. In our denomination's peak membership years, few knew in 1970 that the preceding years’ rising growth rate were about to become a slippery slope of decline, and even fewer knew that the decline of all churches, and all other volunteer associations from PTA’s to bowling leagues, could be attributed to the same cause. The cause for the decline? Member’s disconnecting from an increasingly fragmented community life in America. We can do something with this information. It adds to our institutional intelligence as a church. Reconnecting to our communities can reverse the cause for this decline. This is a remedy that fits our missional and social context, empowered by God's Spirit.

I humbly point you to my presentation on SlideShare, http://www.slideshare.net/kryoho, entitled The Reciprocal Church. It offers a correlation between the 40-year decline of volunteer associations to the decline of the PC(U.S.A.), and offers guidance and remedies that every congregation regardless of its capacity or location, and even the GAMC itself, can put into practice this week.

Incarnational, missional behavior transcends every current challenge and obstacle we face as a denomination and members of communities. Let’s get our heart around the world and our head out of the church long enough to not just make a difference in the world, but make the world different.

The executive team in Louisville deserve our support and prayers as they lead us as God sends us to love the world more than we love the church. When our heart is for the world, we will choose to act differently as disciples of Jesus Christ in the church. Pray for our world, our leaders, and our 219th General Assembly and its commissioners. I think Presbyterians are ready for a change. GA219 is the opportunity. Do you think we are ready? Are you?

Sincerely,

Kevin

.............................................................

Dr. Kevin Yoho,

General Presbyter

Newark Presbytery

192 Broad St., Bloomfield, NJ 07003

973-429-2500 (phone)

kevin@newarkpresbytery.org

http://www.newarkpresbytery.org

http://www.twitter.com/kevinyoho

The Readiness Factor for Growth

2010-05-11T18:07:00.005-04:00

Readiness to Change The Future

“Start walking” never looked so good.

The Readiness Factor for Growth

People, organizations, even complex organizations like churches, change when they are ready to change. There has to be a readiness to change. In the John 5 story (see below), the paralyzed man by the pool was not ready to change until that day he met Jesus. Not ready? Nope.

Instead of taking responsibility for his situation, he made excuses. Remember he offered the excuse, “Someone always gets to angel-troubled waters before me!” (when you hear an excuse, somebody’s not yet ready to take responsibility.)

So Jesus does a little intelligence gathering and then walks over to the paralyzed man who was likely readying another excuse when he must have heard himself. Ta Da! In that moment, he saw what Jesus saw, what everybody else saw, too; a man with thirty-eight years of excuses, avoiding responsibility. He recognized that in thirty-eight years, he was no better off. He was only more miserable, still alone by the pool, and oh yeah, older too.

Jesus did not argue with the man about the past, about the angels, about the others who got in first, about his waiting such a terribly long time. Jesus essentially asked, “How’s that working for you?” Jesus said don’t jump into the pool, but into the future. He had to take responsibility for himself and take the first step he alone could make. Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.”

Organizations are like people.

They are alike and they are different. Not every church is at the same place developmentally, spiritually, organizationally, or operationally. These are the psychological and sociological implications of the metaphor of the Body of Christ.

It is characteristic of island cultures to believe that the people on the island are substantially different from those on continents even to the point that the same medicines that are effective in other places will lose their efficacy when applied locally. Crazy, right?

But followers of Jesus are the Body of Christ. If we focus too heavily on our differences, we cannot learn from one another, cannot collaborate, and cannot commune. We loose the potential of a united witness to the world.

If we focus too heavily on the sameness, we stifle individualization and creativity and our unique sent-ness into the world by the Holy Spirit. So the question is not whether all a presbytery’s congregations are large or small; new or old; urban, suburban, ex-urban; predominately mono-cultural or multi-cultural; theologically diverse or unified, well financed or lacking resources; racially and/or ethnically diverse or not.

We need clarity about what is common and what is distinctive.

Common to all the people, “Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem,” by the pool was they were all in need of a hopeful future.

Distinctive to all was their individual readiness to change.

Each person, team, organization, group, or church will vary widely in their readiness to change, and what that change should look like for them. Some may be essentially decided and determined to change. The leaders can explore the depth of such apparent motivation, and begin consolidating commitment.

Others will be reluctant or even hostile at the outset. At the extreme, some groups may feel coerced by finances, context, or history to change, or remain unchanged. I respect that position. It is important to recognize, however, that remaining in that pre-contemplation stage of change is unsustainable in the longterm.

For churches, most congregations, however, have already entertained some change initiatives and perhaps even created history to express the process somewhere in the contemplation stage. They may already be dabbling with taking action, but still need consolidation of motivation for change, or clarity for their vision. This may be thought of as the tipping point of a motivational balance. If your congregation is at this stage it is critical that you move away from a seesaw that favors status quo versus the other that favors change.

There are perceived benefits of changing, and feared consequences of continuing unchanged. The man by the pool had to decide if the hopeful, promised future captured in the words, “Start walking” was more compelling than the compromise endured by of the hundreds remaining as they were; life passing them by, counting the wasted years.

Our task together, in a presbytery and session partnership, as members of a team, is to shift the balance of weight in favor of change and growth. The man by the pool learned the consequences of a lack of readiness. We can move toward God’s preferred future of hope. Let’s get up and start walking.

Intelligence Break: The readiness for growth is uniquely determined by the person or group contemplating change.

What is the biggest downside to not growing, to the status quo winning?
How do you know when you’re ready to take a step in a new direction?
What is something you will change?
How will you know it has changed?
How will you know you have grown?

Tell someone you trust you are ready for growth. Get up, start walking!

See previous blog: The Process of Growth

John 5:1-8 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people; blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”

The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”

Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

The Process of Growth

2010-05-11T18:04:00.004-04:00

Readiness to Change The Future
“Start walking” never looked so good.

The Process of Growth
The Gospel of John tells the story of God’s love for the changing world. The passage from John 5 (below) tells a story of “one man” healed among “hundreds” sick by the pool and conveys both the promise and the compromise of hope.
Thirty-eight (38) years could be considered a long time. Thirty-eight years ago I was a recent graduate from Parkdale High School, Class of 1972. Go Panthers! Yeah, thirty-eight years is a long time. Happily, I changed. I grew.

We all can change. We all can grow.

Sometimes getting ready to change takes time.
Thirty-eight years ago your house cost $25,000, the White House broke into the Watergate, the Dow-Jones hit 1020 while Hotel California hit #1, people landed on the moon, the HP-35 calculator landed in your hand, HBO handed you the first cable program, and IBM’s supercomputer filled a room. Amazing.

Thirty-eight years ago the Presbyterian Church (USA) counted 4,000,000 members. Newark Presbytery had 18,000 members in 52 churches with more than 900,000 neighbors within its bounds. Few knew in1972 that growth was on the slippery slope of decline, and even fewer knew that the decline of all churches, and all other volunteer associations from PTA’s to the bowling leagues could be attributed to the same cause; organizational disconnect from an increasingly fragmented community life.

This is huge.

Back to the story from John 5. What about that “one man” at the pool? The scope of change during thirty-eight years he experienced in real time would be as if that man settled down by the pool paralyzed with Nixon in office, and (thirty-eight years passing) ended up meeting Jesus when Obama was in office. He laid down by that pool expecting somehow or another to get better. (He was there for his health, right?) In the same way, the time it took The PC(USA) to go from 4M to 2M members; that man waited, and waited, and waited for something to change. We should not be surprised at the Master’s question upon learning how long the “one man” had been lying there when he asked: “Do you want to get well?”

Intelligence Break: The process of growth is a process, not an event.

Do you want to get “well,” change something?
How to you experience the process of change?
What is something you wish to change?
Why does growth matter to you?
Are you ready for change?
See next blog: The Readiness Factor for Growth

John 5:1-8 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people; blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”
The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”
Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

Readiness to Change the Future

2010-04-07T17:00:00.005-04:00

Readiness to Change The Future

“Start walking” never looked so good.

The Process of Growth

Our task together, as a neighborhood community, or a denomination, presbytery and congregation partnership, is to shift the balance of weight in favor of change and growth.
The Gospel of John tells the story of God’s love for the changing world. The passage from John 5: 1-8 (text below) tells a story of “one man” healed among “hundreds” sick by the pool and conveys both the promise and the compromise of hope.

Thirty-eight (38) years could be considered a long time. Thirty-eight years ago I was a recent graduate from Parkdale High School, Class of 1972. Go Panthers! Yeah, thirty-eight years is a long time.

Happily, I changed. I grew. We all can change. We all can grow.

Thirty-eight years ago your house cost $25,000, the White House broke into the Watergate, the Dow-Jones hit 1020 while Hotel California hit #1, people landed on the moon, the HP-35 calculator landed in your hand, HBO handed you the first cable program, and IBM’s supercomputer filled a room. Amazing.

Thirty-eight years ago the Presbyterian Church counted 4,000,000 members. Newark Presbytery had 18,000 members in 52 churches with more than 900,000 neighbors within its bounds. Few knew in1972 that growth was on a slippery slope of decline, and even fewer knew that the decline of all churches, and all other volunteer associations from PTA’s to the bowling leagues could be attributed to the same cause; organizational disconnect from an increasingly fragmented community life. This is huge.

What about that “one man” at the pool? The scope of change during thirty-eight years, would be as if that man settled down by the pool, paralyzed, with Nixon in office, and ended up meeting Jesus when Obama was president. He laid down by that pool expecting somehow or another to get better. (He was there for his health.) In the same way, the time it took to go from 4M to 2M members; that man waited, and waited, and waited for something to change. We should not be surprised at the Master’s question upon learning how long the “one man” had been lying there, “Do you want to get well?”

The Readiness Factor of Growth

People, organizations, even complex organizations like churches, change when they are ready to change. There has to be a readiness to change. The paralyzed man by the pool was not ready to change until that day he met Jesus. Instead of taking responsibility for his situation, he made excuses. Remember he offered, “Someone always gets to angel-troubled waters before me!”

In that moment, he must have finally heard himself. He recognized that in thirty-eight years, he was no better off. He was only more miserable, still alone by the pool, and sadly, older too.

Jesus did not argue with the man about the past, about the angels, about the others who got in first, about his waiting such a terribly long time. Jesus essentially asked, “How’s that working for you?,” and invited the man into the future. He had to take responsibility for himself and take the first step he alone could make. Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.”

Organizations are like people.

They are alike and they are different. Not every church is at the same place developmentally, spiritually, organizationally, or operationally. These are the psychological and sociological implications of the metaphor of the Body of Christ.

It is characteristic of island cultures to believe that the people on the island are substantially different from those on continents even to the point that the same medicines that are effective in other places will lose their efficacy when applied locally.

But we are the Body of Christ. If we focus too heavily on our differences, we cannot learn from one another, cannot collaborate, and cannot commune.

If we focus too heavily on the sameness, we stifle individualization and creativity and our unique sent-ness into the world by the Holy Spirit. So the question is not whether all forty-one congregations in Newark Presbytery are large or small; new or old; urban, suburban, ex-urban; predominately mono-cultural or multi-cultural; well financed or lacking in resources; racially and/or ethnically diverse or not.
The question to ask is: What is common to all of us and what is distinctive.

What was common to all the people, “Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem,” by the pool was they were all in need of a hopeful future.

What was distinctive to all the people was their individual readiness to change.

Meeting With Sessions

As I have the privilege to meet with our sessions (introduced in January), I understand that each church will vary widely in their readiness to change, and what that change should look like for them. Some congregations may be largely decided and determined to change. The session can explore the depth of such apparent motivation in their congregation, and begin consolidating commitment.

Others will be reluctant or even hostile at the outset. At the extreme, some sessions and/or congregations may feel coerced by finances, context, or history to change, or remain unchanged. I respect that position. Remaining in that pre-contemplation stage of change is unsustainable in the longterm.

Most congregations, however, have already entertained some change initiatives and perhaps even created history to express the process somewhere in the contemplation stage. They may already be dabbling with taking action, but still need consolidation of motivation for change. Or clarity for their vision. This may be thought of as the tipping point of a motivational balance. If your congregation is at this stage it is critical that you move away from a seesaw that favors status quo versus the other that favors change.

There are perceived benefits of changing, and feared consequences of continuing unchanged. The “one man” by the pool had to decide if the hopeful, promised future captured in the words, “Start walking!” was more compelling than the compromise endured by of the “hundreds” remaining as they were; life passing them by, counting the wasted years.

Our task together, in a presbytery and congregation partnership, is to shift the balance of weight in favor of change and growth. I look forward to listening, and helping your session listen, and move toward God’s preferred future of hope. Let’s get up and start walking.

Sincerely,

Kevin

Dr. Kevin Yoho
General Presbyter
John 5:1-8 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people; blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”

The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”

Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

Twitter Teaches Church How To Bless the World

2010-01-08T14:48:00.005-05:00

By definition, the word Twitter refers to drivel amounting to little more than blah, blah, blah. Even in the animal kingdom Twittering can refer to a sparrow's blah, blah, blah in bird-talk. It was Blah, Blah, Blah, that is, until 2006 when Jack Dorsey created, expanded and with friends, developed the free Internet social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages called tweets.

Twitter.com initially posed a simple question to the Twitter user, What are you doing? This launched a million 140-character or less messages with pretty much what you'd expect, pointless blah, blah, blah. Eventually, the blah, blah blah majority of tweet content expanded with news, spam, self-promotion, conversations, and value-content messages. In November 2009, Twitter chose to focus on their news and information network strategy by changing the question it asks users for status updates from "What are you doing?" to "What's happening?" From doing-reporting to happening-reporting. From action to results.

Twitter teaches the church how to bless the world by taking responsibility for results.

How much are you willing to change your behaviors to achieve your goals? If your goals matter to you, if your goals are meaningful and important and return value to the world, it will require deep-change to achieve. The only way to know if your doing is working is to pay attention to what is actually happening. This is what Twitter's question-change helped me realize; fixating on what we are doing must give way to focusing on what is actually happening.

What’s Happening? (Together, our response could transform our future.)

In the church, we spend an enormous amount of time talking about what we are doing. Dare I describe it as blah, blah, blah twittering? (Yes.) It is often meaningless twitter. OK. Some of the doing is pretty cool stuff. (But only some.) The tragedy is we don't know the good-doing from the bad-doing. We just do what we do. We keep drinking from the once living, now-stagnate, stream. We are drunk on ourselves. We think the world owes us respect and response even as we furtively replicate, celebrate, and propagate the blah, blah, blah. We keep doing everything except reciprocate. (When is the last time your religious institution had to pay a property tax bill, or your spiritual leader had to pay taxes on housing? And you think your church owes nothing to its community? Don't get me started.)

We know better. We don't do better.

That's why the church could answer the earlier incarnation of Twitter's invitation (if it knew what Twitter.com was, that is), What are you doing? with up to 140 characters. Sure, we're doing. See, we proudly still do what we did when we learned how to do it from those that did it like we do.

The medical profession aspires to an (even higher?) oath beyond that of many clerics (I'm talking to my Presbyterian tribe, so don't take offense). They promise to Do No Harm. We don't even know most of the time what we are doing. Our church reality distortion field has taken over. We have been so busy doing (something, anything), we forgot (refused) to consider the outcomes of our do-do.

How much are you willing to change your behaviors to reach your community with the Good News empowered by your faith? (You got good news, right? If not, quiet please.)

The Apostle Paul had the same question posed to him from the moment he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Rigid, legalistic, controlling Paul was empowered to change his behaviors to become a resilient and adaptive change agent. Paul became increasingly authentic as he centered his life on the Risen Christ, a continual spiritual transformation connected his call to his context. He became real and realized that people he met did not have to have the same spiritual encounter that he did. As lead ambassador, he did not expect a Pentecost Experience to be normative in the life of the burgeoning church. In fact, the menu at church suppers were totally changed when Paul got into the kitchen. Paul surmised, like Twitter, that his doing could not be detached from outcomes of what he did. He noticed what was really happening. He observed his world. He paid attention to people from the rock stars to the starving. He connected to the web of life in the public square and took responsibility for his behaviors as he understood the consequences of his actions. Paul set goals. He changed. He correlated his doing with happening and with great personal sacrifice and by setting aside his personal preferences, he learned and loved; and the world changed.

The implications of this are huge.

Whatever our unique context, our opportunity is to become a servant of all so that everyone has an opportunity to experience God's love where they are, their way. Laying aside our preferences and expectations empowers us to more effectively connect to our changing context. We have to pay attention. We have to take responsibility for our behaviors as pastors, elders, deacons, and every other connected person in congregational life. It matters.

We must choose to reciprocate. We do not live in a vacuum.

Our congregations are not in a dress rehearsal. There are no stand-ins to do the ministry for us.

We cannot lease space in our buildings pretending to serve the world by proxy.

Our doing matters when we take responsibility for what happens when we do what we do. By God's grace, we ought to be practicing patterns of forgiveness, restitution, restoration, transformation, generosity, and hope which turn our do-do into blessings.

We want to make a difference in the world. God wants to make a different world through is. We can increase the capacity of our communities to raise the level of hope. The church can become volunteers who know that a growing and vital church results when it empowers a growing and vital community.

Can we, like Twitter, grow and develop to report less on what we do and more on what is really happening? Without reliable and valid data we are subject to tyranny and guesses. What’s Happening? Your response can transform your future.

Follow me on Twitter and see what's happening: twitter.com/kevinyoho

(Scripture reference: 1 Corinthians 9:19-25 (Message) "Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!")

Thanksgiving Is Our Mission

2009-11-25T12:29:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Recently I have challenged our congregations to think about what they have in abundance they can give away. What do our 8,000 members have that can be a blessing to 800,000 neighbors? I believe that every congregation has been uniquely blessed to be a blessing. Here's a simple suggestion of something you have to give away, especially today... THANKS!

Psychologist Dr. Robert A. Emmons, in an article on "The Joy of Thanks," says the physical and psychological benefits of being in a state of gratitude is almost equal to that of actual therapy:

"My colleagues and I are finding that gratitude, which we define as a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation for life, is more than simply a pleasant emotion to experience or a polite sentiment to express. It's, or at least can be, a basic disposition, one that seems to make lives happier, healthier, more fulfilling- and even longer." (Spirituality & Health, 4 [Winter 2002], 38ff. The Psychology of Gratitude published by Oxford University Press, USA, February 26, 2004.)

According to Emmons, recent psychological research shows that:

A person experiencing gratitude is protected from the destructive impulses of envy and greed;

The practice of gratitude as a spiritual discipline may cure excessive materialism and its attendant negative emotions of envy, resentment, disappointment, and bitterness;

Gratitude supports well-being by displacing resentment, regret, and other psychological states deleterious to long-term happiness;

Grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions-happiness, vitality, optimism, and hope-and greater satisfaction with life.

In other words, Thanks-giving is good therapy.

I like Thanksgiving. Everybody can participate. Young, old and in between, traditional and customary rituals blend with the new. No gifts are required. It is not a parochial religious holiday. It is the least commercial holiday we have. Our national holiday of Thanksgiving is one of our country's better habits.

By the time of the Revolutionary War, official days of thanksgiving were common in the colonies. But it was President Abraham Lincoln that set the annual day of Thanksgiving to be the last Thursday of November.

Thanks-giving is what grateful and blessed people do. It's what transforming and growing congregations do in worship and in mission, inside the sanctuary, and outside on the corner. A spirit of thankfulness is a sign of God's presence and an indicator of vitality. Thankfulness is our mission! I am blessed to belong to, and serve, such a thank-filled presbytery.

I hope your plans include special family and community gatherings as we give thanks wherever we are. May a spirit of gratefulness overflow in your life as we experience each day's surprises and joys ahead.

Gratefully,

Kevin

And as you do it, you'll say,
"Give thanks to GOD."
Call out God's name.
Ask God anything!
Shout to the nations, tell them what God's done,
Spread the news of God's great reputation!
Isaiah 12.4

"Thank God! God deserves your thanks. God's love never quits" Psalms 136.1.

"Thank you! Everything in me says, "Thank you!" Angels listen as I sing my thanks" Psalms 138.1.

"I couldn't stop thanking God for you-every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks" Ephesians 1.16.

"You need to know, friends, that thanking God over and over for you is not only a pleasure; it's a must. We have to do it. Your faith is growing phenomenally; your love for each other is developing wonderfully. Why, it's only right that we give thanks" 2Thessalonians 1.3.

(Texts from The Message)

Abundance v. Scarcity; Whose side are you on?

2009-11-04T16:53:00.006-05:00

There's a battle raging in our churches. The outcome is being decided every day the congregation is sent into the world. Abundance v. Scarcity; Whose side are you on?

A few weeks ago, the PC(USA) Middle Governing Body (MGB) staff met with executive and general presbyters from the 173 presbyteries to listen and respond to the challenges of common ministry. The annual Association of Executive Presbyters meeting and the Polity Conference was held in Minneapolis to give attendees a preview of the city that is hosting next year's 219th General Assembly.

I appreciate the openness I observe at these national events. Louisville (our denominational headquarters) and Syracuse (our synod office) may seem a bit removed from our life in Newark Presbytery, but these meetings help me better understand their connection to our transforming work as communities, congregations, sessions and pastors.My last visit to Minneapolis was about ten years ago for a youth violence reduction initiative exchange and clearly, the city was undergoing a visible transformation with new buildings, skyways, business expansion and wonderfully hospitable residents.

Shortly after registering, I told a staffer of the host Twin Cities Presbytery what a great city Minneapolis was, to which they responded, "Oh, we have nothing to do with that." Nothing to do with that, indeed.

That remark made an impression on me. How disconnected was that staffer's view of the relationship between their own presbytery's mission and its city? As it turns out, this disconnect became almost a theme as I listened to a denomination perpetually focus on its own survival, even as it tries to help its member presbyteries and congregations to survive. Have we become so detached as congregations and presbyteries, synods, and denomination that we regard ourselves has having little or no relationship to help with the vitality of our region, cities, towns, or neighborhoods we live in?

Our own understandable fight for survival seems contrary to the prophet's advice when he wrote: "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper" (Jeremiah 29.7).

This principle of reciprocity throughout Scripture incentivises our interaction. We are not alone. We are in community. We have responsibility to our communities, and as our community is blessed, we will be blessed, too. Taking Jeremiah's admonishment a step further, we hear Jesus say: "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:35) NIV. Eugene Peterson adds even more emphasis to Jesus' words:"Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self" (Mark 8:35) The Message.

Survival as individuals versus survival in community is the case in point from Mark 6 in the feeding of thousands of hungry people on a hill. When confronted with their own, and the crowds' hunger (survival), the disciples saw a problem that could only be solved individually: "Send the people to town so they could buy food," they advised. But Jesus saw something different. Instead of a scarcity of resources, Jesus saw abundance. Not limited by individual survival, with money as the solution, Jesus assessed the collective resources available to the disciples (five loaves and two fish), and then extended the frame of reference for a greater blessing to emerge in community.

Jesus organized the thousands into groups of fifties and hundreds. Was this, as theologian Dr. Francis Taylor Gench of Union-PSCE suggests, an example of early community organizing? With the blessing of Jesus, abundance prevailed with plenty of time, food, and resources for everyone. Individually, there wasn't much. That's what the disciples missed. Scarcity was about individuals. Abundance was evidenced in community. Only by transforming together was a transformative blessing experienced and twelve baskets of leftovers remained for even more abundant sharing with those not even present.

Around our world, abundance is winning over scarcity. For example, a previously limited, government controlled resource like clean water is freely given away to allow hope and economic vitality to flow into South American villages once held hostage by scarcity. In Philadelphia, local community newspapers faced closure when their content controlled subscription model failed. Now, partnering with a Presbyterian congregation which invested $100,000 in the project, news is now free, in print and online, promoting community and business life.

We are painfully aware of what we don't have as congregations. I hear that a lot. We can't. We don't. Our understandable response may be to conserve, protect, control, and limit. But Jesus invites us to take another look, not at what we don't have, but instead asking ourselves: "What does our congregation have in abundance?"

Our new Community Transformation Corporation is an example of Newark Presbytery's response. Your congregation offers other examples. It may require imaginative and creative thinking, but every one of our forty-one congregations has been blessed to share. What can we creatively and responsibly give away to show the Good News in new ways, alternate times, maybe in even more compelling venues?Our survival will not be found in saving ourselves. Our Synod has already begun steps in this direction with its new funding priorities.

The PC(USA) cannot save itself through control and reorganization motivated by self-help. Instead, lets ask in what ways the Presbyterian Church (USA) can more boldly release resources to bless a nation and world? This to me is the essential challenge for the 219th General Assembly. For example, could the Presbyterian church in North America be so in love with Jesus Christ and connected and committed to the vitality and wellness of a nation, that Presbyterians would lead a resurgence of volunteerism in every community in America? Imagine the difference we could make.

I look forward to your invitation to listen and learn together with your pastor and session to explore ministries inspired by God's abundance. I want an opportunity to view your communities through your eyes and, with our presbytery, view the world through God's eyes and grow through abundance.

Steps to get started: Could you organize resources differently, organize neighborhood challenges differently? Jesus said, if you want to emerge with vitality, give yourselves away. Pastors and elders: What can your congregation imaginatively redirect, release, empower, collaborate, or time-shift that would evoke more praise to God as it blesses others? The possibilities are endless. Giving ourselves away, establishing new links in our communities through our unique ministries, will result in our own growth and vitality. I am grateful for all of you. As our communities are blessed through our ministries, let's be able to enthusiastically say, "Yes! We helped with that!"

Abundance v. Scarcity; Whose side are you on?

In abundance,

Kevin

(Here's the text referred to in blog)
Mark 6.35-43: By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But Jesus answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take eight months of wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” …They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.

Newark, NJ Blessed in Late Night

2009-10-17T14:57:00.005-04:00

For weeks now, the Mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, has been sparing with late night TV host Conan O'Brien on NBC's The Late Show with Conan O'Brien. Always up to Conan's challenges about Newark's transformation, Mayor Cory Booker continued to step up and lift up Brick City. Last night on late night, Conan surprised the Mayor, and the watching and blogging audience, with a gift of $100,000 for Booker's project, Newark Now, which is advancing the quality of life in Newark, New Jersey. NBC, along with Conan and his wife, donated the money in order to not be part of the problem, but become part of the solution. Conan commented that $100,000 made for one expensive joke, and further promised to donate $500 to a Newark Joke Jar for each future jab at Newark's expense.

Newark Presbytery's eleven congregations in the city of Newark are places of hope, delivery stations in the name of Jesus Christ. In the months and years to come, along with people like Cory and Conan, we will continue to be channels of God's blessings to help build a transformed Newark and grow the lives of its 280,000 residents in the name of Jesus Christ. Newark Presbytery's Community Transformation Corporation is another ministry vehicle just beginning to organize to bring blessings not only to Newark, but to all of Essex and parts of Bergen and Hudson counties.

Newark Presbytery celebrates the $100,000 gift to Newark Now and is grateful for the leadership of Mayor Cory Booker and the generosity of Conan's family.

Become part of the solution. Is your community unraveling? How can your church help your community reconnect to itself? Who are the key connectors? I know forty-one Presbyterian congregations who are, and who are committed to be, key connectors of God's blessing.

Following adapted and edited from Jeremiah 29.7

“Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare. Pray for Newark's well-being. If things go well for Newark, things will go well for you.”

More information can be found at Newark's: StarTribune and StarLedger .

Building Brick City, one brick at a time.

Kevin

Compassion Fatigue or Satisfaction: Your Choice

2009-09-23T16:56:00.001-04:00

Compassion Fatigue or Satisfaction: Your Choice.

Acts 15:36-41
Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing." Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

When it comes to Bible texts that bring out the "Dr. Phil" in us, the conflict between Barnabas and Paul concerning John Mark's suitability for work could make the Top 10. The Acts 15 text is a pivotal one in the growth of the Church as Barnabas sails out of our frame of view with John Mark, while Paul sails off into fame and glory with Silas. To me, more than a drama about conflict or temperament, this story is about how we handle the severe stressors of career and the toll it takes on us as disciples of Jesus. It is difficult, if not impossible, to be effective in our work if we are not taking care of our health; mind, body, and spirit. The importance of good health also applies to congregations and their ministry.

Each person in the Acts account was doing the best they could with the resources they had. Barnabas was not wrong in challenging Paul. Nor was John Mark the bad guy in the story. Paul was not mistaken in his assessment of the work he had to do and that John Mark was ill-suited. What is clear to me is that the very reason Barnabas wanted John Mark to go with him, was the same reason Paul did not want him to go.

The issue: What is the most effective response to life stressors and the fatigue of ministry and other compassion occupations?

While many of the people we serve function very well, there are countless others who experience emotional, physical, spiritual, and economic stressors that take a sever toll on them, and the relationships and systems they participate in.

Some members of our community are fragile. We serve those with acute mental illness, addiction, loss, and trauma requiring not only highly developed professional skills to address, but hero strength, and an abundance of compassion. Wise counselors refer severe cases to outside providers who possess additional necessary resources and training. As we share empathy with others at this level, we can experience chronic stress called Compassion Fatigue.

Empathy is a necessary attribute in offering effective care, but unmanaged empathy can overwhelm us with another's distress and leave us fatigued, angry, and even unable to care anymore. In the religious community, caregivers know that to care for others is a high privilege and a compelling mandate modeled by Jesus himself: "That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served-and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage" Mark 10.45.

We tend to overlook our own needs. No one likes to talk about these feelings; they seem selfish, shameful, or defeated. If compassion fatigue is ignored, and appropriate, ongoing, self-care practices are absent, we will soon be the one requiring care.

Congregations can experience fatigue and stressors, too, either in overlooking or hyper-focusing on their own needs. Seeking appropriate and on-going care, such as that offered by colleagues or committees and staff of the presbytery, can help move us forward to a healthier place.

The mission in Acts 15 was to visit the brothers and sisters in all the towns where they had preached to see how were doing (Acts 15.36), which resulted in Paul and Silas strengthening the churches (Acts 15:41).

What factors weighed so heavily on John Mark that he did not have sufficient capacity to help strengthen others? John Mark experienced what we might call compassion fatigue. The word compassion literally means "to suffer with another" and John Mark, in that moment, was drained and perhaps in personal crisis from his previous work. Barnabas intuitively knew of John Mark's stress (being away from home) and was determined to get John Mark to a better place emotionally, if not physically. In that moment of time, Paul and Barnabas were optimized to strengthen others while John Mark was impaired and needed the strength of others. Paul set out to strengthen the churches and Barnabas set out to strengthen John Mark. Each one fulfilled their respective tasks.

If we sense that we are suffering from compassion fatigue, chances are excellent that we are. Our path to wellness begins with one small step: Awareness. Each of us, whatever our role, must develop an individualized approach and commitment to self-care for every aspect of our life. We cannot be effective with others if we ourselves are impaired from unattended stressors. A congregation can become impaired from compassion fatigue too, and become drained of energy it once had in abundance. When we take responsibility for our fatigue awareness, we alert those around us who will help resources to flow.

With the appropriate information and support, awareness will empower a journey of discovery, even healing issues that currently serve as obstacles to a healthy, and effective ministry. It is also important for us to practice ongoing self-compassion and self-forgiveness. Knowing that God loves and forgives us is wonderful news! While aiming for our best as disciples of Christ and as congregations, we must also realize our limitations personally and congregationally, then let go of what we cannot have an impact on. We rejuvenate our sense of mission and hope with simple practices including spiritual and physical disciplines, enjoyable social activities, exercise, healthy eating habits, journaling, and restful sleep which reduce compassion fatigue.

We all need a Barnabas or a Paul from time to time. Make use of your upstream of support. In the Presbyterian Church (USA), each presbytery delivers services through the Committee on Ministry and Executive or General Presbyter, or other staff. Seek out those in your professional loop that are committed to empowering your health and effectiveness. God offers abundant opportunities for health and wellness. With an increased of compassion satisfaction we can derive satisfaction from doing our work well.

Gratefully,

Kevin

Newark General Presbyter Responds to PCUSA Report of Steepest Member Loss in 25 Years

2009-07-30T15:10:00.001-04:00

Newark Presbytery General Presbyter Responds to PCUSA Report of Steepest Member Loss in 25 Years

This news of the steepest membership loss in twenty-five years comes as no surprise to Newark Presbytery. Or any other presbytery in our region. We address the evidence of these statistics every day. I am proud of our growing effort to build collaborative energy to increase the capacity of every one of our congregations to be viable, healthy, and effective. Each of our churches is a delivery station of the Good News. How do we respond to this news?

I continue to listen and engage in conversation with our denominational upstream in Louisville about our decline. The PC(USA) messages have included: Try harder at what you have been doing; Try something new; Invite neighbors to church, Blend your worship, Become multicultural, Support General Assembly Mission directly; Apply for under-funded grants; and in the meantime, Louisville will downsize the denominational structure (again).

The reason that these directives often fail to alter our experience of institutional trauma or the congregational outcomes from decades of decline is that Louisville attributes the decline, at least in part, to death, people being removed from the rolls, and to a "gradual" drifting away from our congregations. Gradual drifting? What's gradual about twenty-five years of consistent decline?

Even the Pew Forum, whose research was referenced by denominational execs, seems more like a distraction than a reason as it identifies why people change religious affiliation rather than addressing the real reasons people do not affiliate at all.

North Americans have consistently reduced their volunteer association affiliation for more than thirty years. The questions we ask define our assumptions. In this case, the PC(USA) and Pew, ask the question: "How do our neighbors choose between Protestant or Roman Catholic affiliation?" suggesting that the focus of their concern is religious affiliation. The critical question is not Protestant v Catholic, or Christian v Muslim v Jewish, etc. The critical, core, question we must consider together is: "Why do people fail to affiliate with volunteer associations at all, church or otherwise?" Almost every volunteer association in America has been in decline for decades. From the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, AMA, PTA, Elks, Lions, etc., to the political, civic, religious, and professional groups, membership is down.

There is a direct correlation between the membership decline of volunteer associations in North America and the associations' lack of community engagement. Even more consequential, corresponding benefits from these association networks to influence reciprocal behaviors (doing things for each other) have diminished.

It has been documented that Americans have steadily reduced their investment in "outside the family" activities. Our North American cultural milieu has normalized self-engagement and isolation. Our increasingly time-shifted ways to connect has corresponded to the rise of social media sites and technologies. We no longer derive value from connecting in person. In short, the church has experienced a reduction in its membership. However, the reduction in membership corresponds to the church's prior failure to return sufficient value to the community outside itself which could have sustained the community gathering "at the church." This destructive cycle has been perpetuated over the decades.

As Presbyterians, we have focused on ourselves, mistakenly believing that our "decline" was a Presbyterian one. We seemed to think it was our problem. How many curriculums, conferences, coaching, and action plans directed us to do something within ourselves and our space without realizing it was our almost narcissistic framing of the problem and our solution that made the situation worse. As a denomination, we missed opportunities to lead a revival of the re-investment of social capital, volunteerism, and instead, with little reflection, followed the status quo.

The good news is that our decline can be reversed by swift and decisive realignment of our congregational resources to tangibly benefit the communities we are located in. Our disconnect from the community reduced the community's connection to us. Instead of merely asking our congregants to bring a friend to church, (a fine but insufficient remedy), we must ask our congregants to re-engage in their communities. We need to invite our congregants back into their communities.

The Church is peculiarly well-suited for this transformational mandate of re-engaging communities since God has sent the Church into the world, not to be served, but to serve. We can lead our congregations as servants, empowering them to become a Reciprocating Church. A Reciprocating Church is a church that reinvests its experience of God's love into the world, so that their community knows God loves it, too. A Reciprocating Church will ensure congruence between its congregation and building capacities and by God's grace, be a healthy and effective demonstration of the Christian gospel in the Church and the world. The opportunities to be a Reciprocating Church are huge. Let's explore them, transforming together.

Kevin

.............................................................

Dr. Kevin Yoho,

General Presbyter

kevin@newarkpresbytery.org

http://www.newarkpresbytery.org

Twitter: @kevinyoho

The Season of the Church: What Time Is It?

2009-06-18T12:58:00.002-04:00

The Season of the Church: What Time Is It?

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. -Ecclesiastes 3.1-8

It’s interesting that the most familiar title of this ancient Hebrew Scripture is Ecclesiastes, taken from the Greek translation meaning “to gather.” The Greek-speaking Jews translated the Septuagint from the Hebrew so that Hellenized Jews, who out of necessity abandoned their ancient language, could read the Scripture. The title is taken from the word used for the Teacher (qohelet, tRl$RhOq) who “gathered” the words and the audience to listen. The title Ecclesiastes uses the same root used in the New Testament for church (ecclesia, ekklhsia). The gathered were sent out by Jesus when he said at his ascension, “In your going, make disciples of everyone” (Mt. 28:16-20). That expectation of the church “going” and “growing” was energized and empowered on the day of Pentecost. In the liturgical calendar, we are now in that season of Pentecost, the Season of the Church.

In the season of the church, what time is it? The Teacher says that there is a time for everything and the wise hearer will discern what time it is, what time just passed, what time is just ahead. If we do not humbly and honestly recognize the seasons of life, and the seasons of our church, we might be left with little more than Ecclesiastes’ pronouncement of life’s futility. The Teacher admonishes the hearer to remedy the futility with amazed reverence for God, when he writes,

“The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what God tells you (Ecc. 12:13).

As to the seasons, we have a tough challenge in reconciling what time we want it to be with what time it actually is. To make matters even more complex, the season we are in, even if recognized, will lead to yet another season that requires more adjustment, different thinking, actions, and priorities. The Teacher of Ecclesiastes’ message to the Church is to embrace what God is delivering in the present and urges us to be open to what is emerging.

As a presbytery before God, we take courage from Jesus’ ever-presence in the Spirit as we struggle to recognize the time we are in and together in faith, embrace what God is bringing into our experience. We seek to be wise disciples followers, servants, leaders, as we move, grow, lead, and serve.

To crudely paraphrase Dylan, a church not busy being born is busy dying.

The Pentecost Church was busy being born, and kept being born, and born again, and again. We are here today due to the essential fact that the births exceeded the deaths.

For birth to occur in a sustainable period of time some things must change, be replaced, even die, as new things are being born. Every stage is humbly and deeply respected. Each person has a critical role in every time and process. Each stage leads to the next. One stage is not better than another. In the aggregate, the times of the seasons reflect the dynamic Creative, Redemptive, and Sustaining work of God. Our own Presbyterian motto, reformed yet always reforming, reflects the life cycles of the church. In awe of God’s presence, we can be empowered to recognize the times of the season of our life, and of our church as we seek to love the whole world as God sends us out to demonstrate love, kindness, justice, forgiveness, and hope.

I am proud of every congregation in our presbytery for many reasons. One reason is the incredible love each church uniquely expresses for God in Jesus Christ. Another is the positive ways each is moving away from the outdated and under-serving metaphor of mission as a Map (where predictability of the path was confidently known), toward the image of mission as a Compass (where we discern a vision for where God is leading us to go, true north, and adjusting our path to align us in that direction). I observe a sincere devotion to one another and a respect for our congregational history and place of worship. Other reasons include generosity and selflessness despite great hardship, giving to others in their communities, joy in the midst of staggering challenges, a desire to make a difference in the world, and the determination to accept God’s invitation of new possibilities.

What time is it? Consider this question for your church as a pastor and session. In what ways is your church being born anew? Soon, the Mission Council will lead the presbytery in a comprehensive review of our mission design to help make it more congruent to the time we are in, and the time that is approaching.

The Teacher knew that if there is to be room to embrace what’s coming, we must respectfully adapt or sometimes say good-bye to those notions, ideas, and forms that are ill-suited for the time we are in, and entering. Newark Presbytery is busy being born! We are birthing it together. We are not only to be changing, but growing in faithfulness, health, and effectiveness. I am grateful to serve among you as your colleague and am listening to assist you as your General Presbyter. May God bless your “going” and “growing” now, and in the time that’s coming.

Gratefully,

Kevin

Building a Smart Church

2009-01-15T14:23:00.004-05:00

I have been thinking about how the church and business can learn from each other in my Quixotic attempt to realize the presbytery (local governing body of all ministers and elders; all churches within our geographic boundary, i.e. district, clasis). as a whole, not just the staff, as a learning community. Many critique those who espouse any business/church commonalities with Inquisitor judgement, defaulting to say, "if the world does 'this,' the church will do 'that' instead." Others may embrace inquisitive and synergetic resonance between business and church but sadly be dismissed by their critics of mistakenly applying so-called "business principles" which considered contrary to so-called "Bible-principles forgetting that all truth is God's truth from the start. So the Jesus-saves folks sometimes spend more time in saving "their" Jesus then leading salvific responses and market-place, town-hall Eucharistic responses to God's grace in the world through authentic actions of compassion and justice.

The church is unique, of course, and is unlike business in many, many respects, but at the heart there is something a smart church (referring to both the people and institutions) and a smart business (referring to both the people and institutions) should have in common: their persistent focus on others. I simply call this mission, or missional, but whatever the term, the inside of the church must get out! A church is not smart when it drinks its own Kool-Aid, focuses its self on its self, and hoards its content in inaccessible crypts and catechisms instead of giving away what it itself received free by the Grace of God.

I am particularly interested in the pastoral/congregational/presbytery opportunities during this financial crisis, so I am offering this as a blog. It would be easy to observe that the church has not conducted its mission with clear objectives or strategies or vision. The church is inextricably bound up with its own survival, taking everything in and holding its incredible content within its grasp. The church has been a ship, no, more like a boat, or sometimes more like a piece of barely floating sail-less plank moving with the water currents (as aquanauts), not where the Spirit-the wind (as pneumanauts) sends it, yet complaining along the way of their predicament. There are many full-sailed spirit-driven vessels out there, of course, but sadly, too few. To congregations with less capacity, impaired for one or more reasons, they view the sailed vessels as lucky or opportunistic betraying a deep hurt and pain of from years of decline and loss of meaning, and even more tragically, ignoring that a plank does not become a ship by accident nor the whimsy of chance, but from an intentional love for the sea, not the vessel they ride on.

There is no quick fix in economic or any other kind of down-turns or upswings. There are though many creative and proactive action steps besides putting off that second-home purchase, buying off-brand peanut butter, reducing mission giving, or turning the thermostat down; or once again, complaining about the pastor's salary relegated mistakenly to the last page of the budget as overhead instead of taking the pastor's costs and apportioning them throughout the budget coinciding with the value-add the pastor brings to the various categories of the budget, a/k/a the mission of the church.

In the real world, smart businesses use downturns to, yes, make strategic cost reductions where necessary, but more importantly, they refocus their mission on the key mission-critical tasks, even reaching out in expansion and extension of programs that would lead to optimized growth in services and/or goodwill to customers. Additionally, smart companies do not chase the decline or downturn, reducing where necessary in incremental bits of dollars thirty to ninety-days behind the reporting period. Instead, smart companies lead the downturn by drastically cutting from unproductive areas ahead of the indicators and drastically increasing line items and resources to the mission-producing parts of the business, the mission of the church.

Smart companies try to remain right-sized so they don't have to down-size when provoked by unexpected financial situations. There is no crystal ball, but the definition of a surprise is insufficient insight. Smart companies do not need to layoff staff in a knee-jerk reaction somehow admitting they did not need that staff all along. Or, maybe they simply were too arrogant to consider alternative future scenarios. Most churches and middle governing bodies and executives, me included, set a limited, artificial, local, horizon to craft our work when at the end of the day it is too little, too late to matter anyway. Smart companies take advantage of market bargains and opportunities they already had their eye on, consistently trying to increase their market value, market share, or just increased value to their shareholders and customers. For God so loved the world is a claim to a territory that God chose to make a difference in. We don't need churches to make a difference. We need smart churches to be different, to bring about different lives, different communities, and a different world.

Smart companies try to make good choices now that are in-line with their values and ideals. They are not pre-occupied with the past, with boxes of dusty trophies, or memorial plaques, or ruinous routines of resuscitation of that which should be brought back to life. Instead, moving forward with skills and competencies, a smart church and smart businesses will build on what was done before without longing for what used to be done. It is the living that need raising from the dead; from the death of irrelevance, the death of meaninglessness, the death of self-righteousness.

Churches have values and their people exemplify those values and ideals in everything they do. In crisis, companies and churches show their true values and commitments in their responses to the crisis. Their attitudes, their behaviors. Presbytery staff should look at this indicator in their churches very carefully. How a church responds in crisis reveals their default values at a DNA-level, their driving force of that church organization and organism. The insight gained after careful assessment can help presbytery staff and committees frame assessments on the move that lead to strategic transformational rebuilding during and especially after the immediate crisis subsides. History teaches us that every crisis subsides, though while experienced, it often renders us immovable. But our immovability is an illusion for the Spirit's wind of change knows no limits or boundaries it cannot push with us to the other side.

Smart companies pick up the pace, not cut back and see what happens. There are seasons to life, to economies, and to social ecologies and communities too, and smart people try to prepare for the eventualities, and when a true outlier, something unexpected, comes along they still pursue the opportunity and position themselves for the eventual upswing. In other words, even in crisis, a congruent, authentic company or individual will continue to pursue their previous corporate or life goal, modified or scaled appropriately. This line of thinking has enormous implications for middle governing body work we can explore later.

For now, let's consider a shopping experience I had in a shopping mall last week. I saw store front after store front with signage that spelled out: big SALE, 50% OFF, 10% off, REDUCED PRICES, 2nd CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION GOING ON NOW!, and the like to woo shoppers inside. From the GAP to GUCCI to RITE-AID, merchants were actually reducing their product's perceived value evidenced by the price by inadvertently admitting on that big 50% OFF sign that the products for sale now were actually never worth their full asking price prior to the sale at or before Christmas. Not every store had a discount sign, but almost all did. And in spite of the discount-mania, almost all the stores were empty. Their sales strategy for the downturn was to reduce their content's value, but the content was not worth even the lower price, apparently, or the product was just not needed, or people just had too little money to spend even on a supposed bargain. You can't save money on something you don't want and don't actually purchase.

In stark contrast, while walking that shopping mall, the Apple store had no discount sign posted in its big windows. There was nothing on sale, no price reductions, just photos hanging up of their products, and on display were countless computers, iPhones, and iPods on the tables ready to touch, feel, play with, and helpful staff to answer questions. They didn't have cash register lines because store clerks walked around with little computers in their hands ringing up the purchase and printing the receipts out on the store floor. And by the way, there was a line of shoppers out the door trying to get in! Why? Insanely great products. You don't have to discount great products to attract people because they are worth the price, they add value, they meet many people's needs so perfectly. They fit right, they work out of the box and they work the way you would expect they should, they maximize and honor their users talents. Price points are important, but people are drawn to great content and they will exchange their money, time, talent, and resources to get what they want and need.

So if a church, for example, put a sign out front and said NO MORE OFFERINGS COLLECTED, or NEW PEW CUSHIONS, or NEW BOOK OF ORDER ADOPTED, or WE REDUCED OUR BUDGET, or OUR PASTOR LEFT, would have little effect on the community's response. Maybe a smart church or group of churches would get together and learn practical tips on growing not merely surviving during our immediate financial crisis. Learn easy to apply lessons and techniques or develop new products or program content that would help others. Maybe the front sign of the church building might read:

30 ECONOMIC TIPS IN 30 MINUTES. Guaranteed!

2 FREE SESSIONS with FREE REFRESHMENTS

Wednesday: 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM

30 Minutes could save you $30

Of course, you need the content, the solid practical advise that can be put into practice. No fluff. No end times of doom and gloom. Content that will work for others. Spiritual things and even more, a way to stop compartmentalizing spiritual living and instead, offer a way to integrate one's whole life around something and someone who really matters.

Hey corner church! Instead of cutting back on the pastor's pay, giving out tracts, and putting new rubber tips on the legs of your folding chairs, why not give something of real value to the community instead? What difference does it make that the church is there? Each church decides, smart churches decide strategically with other faith-based groups in town together, collaboratively, what resources a smart church has and what a community needs.

Here in the Newark-New York area, we have not only lower income, working poor, folks, with food distribution, jobs, housing, and clothing needs to meet, but some of the highest paid executives in the world live here. And many are loosing their jobs, too, and their $2M home is now worth $500K but the mortgage is twice that. For the executives now looking for work, I am thinking of offering free workshops of how to market yourself in tough economic times, or a session on how to help your resume zoom you into an interview for a new job, or how to give yourself fully to a lower paying job, or a 10-minute seminar on the web with a simple message: It's YOU not what you DO that will get you through, or how to give your Lexus as a charitable donation to a church and a whole consortium of other churches helps the giver negotiate a great deal with a bank down the street for a cheaper downsized car at a great rate. Instead of a repossession, you get realigned with what is authentic and true.

The church needs to be offering something worth living for since Jesus gave his life on the ground (incarnation) in trade for us, (substitutionary atonement) so that everyone (God loves the whole world), can know they all worth dying for (sacredness of life) and to choose to be in a position to give what you have but can't keep (grace) to others (mission) in response to God's love (praise). Nothing's for sale or on sale in the church. We have "product" content that is of eternal worth that has already been paid for. How can we "charge" for such a gift? We all have something to give away to help another human being cope with enormous life stressors; job training, how to keep your mortgage, partner with CVS to freely deliver medications to elderly shut-ins, start new, ambitious programs for youth that further the mission of the church, acquire property assets that can later house future and expandable ministries in neighborhoods of need.

A smart church, like a smart business, will choose to offer quality content during this financial crisis and opportunity that government, communities, or other organizations can't give. Content that fits into people's lives of every language, race, location and age, that just might serve someone what they need and make the message of the Gospel simple, workable, powerful, practical, visible, attractable, meaningful, and transferable. Transformation must be transfer-mational if its to be authentic and real. Its got to be something that one can give away in relation to another person. After all, that's how the church grew smart in the beginning by giving themselves away one to one, one to others, others to many, to many, many more yet to come.

How smart is your church?

Kevin Yoho

General Presbyter

Newark Presbytery

kevin@newarkpresbytery.org

Great Commission: Communion in Context

2008-10-03T12:54:00.003-04:00

Great Commission: Communion in Context

Jesus put the mandate right out in front when he said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. As you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

When the Gospel moved out of Jerusalem on Pentecost, amazing results occurred. Instead of hoarding the Good News in the Upper Room, the Holy Spirit moved the people of God to get up and MOVE. TRUE Communion with God always results in a blessing in the Context, on the street.
In Acts 16, we come across an incredible story.
Acts 16:6-15
(New International Version)

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

In Acts 12-13, Paul completes his first missionary journey, traveling from Jerusalem to, Phrygia. The Spirit prevented Paul and his group from ministry in Asia at that time, but in a vision, recorded in Acts 16, Paul heard the cry for help from Macedonia, in Europe. So they took a boat from Troas, leaving Asia behind, and went across to Europe where God blessed their ministry. Was that visit about Europe alone? I don’t think so!
They ended up in Philippi, a place that became a dear and special place in Paul’s heart, people to whom the Letter to the Philippians was written.

It was there they were led to do a Bible study by the river, (but who could have known), that a woman named Lydia was there. She was a merchant, a business woman who sold purple cloth. Incredibly, the text says, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” But the blessings was not to her alone. Here entire household believed. And there’s more!

A friend ofmine, a gifted preacher and colleague in the Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Steven Yamaguchi from Los Ranchos, California, recently shared this story: I heard a very talented and gifted preacher once say in discussing this text, “So Lydia was the first European convert to the Gospel.” Well, that sounds good, right? But look closely at the text, or take a look at a map of the region. Lydia was not a European! The text says she was from Thyatira, a city in ASIA! She was Asian. She was a very successful, educated, resourceful, ASIAN who as an ex-patriot, an ASIAN immigrant living in EUROPE, believed in Jesus Christ. My preacher friend was right that Lydia was in Europe when she believed, but he was dead wrong that this story described the first European convert. God chose an ASIAN woman (in europe) who met Jesus and through her, to bring the Gospel to EUPOPE and through Lydia, an entire continent was blessed. We are here today because an Asian woman heard the Gospel! The Gospel got to Asia through a ministry in Europe.

The Macedonian call was to Paul a cry for help. In Communion with Christ, he now needed to pay attention to his Context. He had to cross borders. He heeded the invitation of the Spirit to take the Gospel into a new area. Asians, Africans, Europeans, everyone. Each person we serve in kindness and love, in the name of Jesus, can become another launching pad for the Gospel moving into new areas. We do not need to go to Europe to share the Good News with Europeans.

Many of you today are, through your ministry and love, sharing God’s blessings with people from all over the world. Not just in Taiwan, but everywhere. The world is at our doorsteps and the principle of Contextual Intelligence reminds us that God is planting us as grapes in his vineyard in communion, to bear fruit that the world would be blessed in context.

John 1:14 (in the Message), says, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” We need to pay attention to our context. In communion with the Holy Spirit, we must listen to God calling us into NEW neighborhoods. What can those of us living in Livingston have to offer to those living in Newark? Already many of you have been assisting with the ministry at Memorial West. What a wonderful expression of love! I commend you for this ministry.

What other voices are calling? Where is God calling you now? Is there a clearer voice from God’s Spirit, like the Macedonian vision, to come and help? How can your work with others in Newark Presbytery by serving on presbytery committees, or volunteering at Presbytery Center, or supporting community service and educational programs in Newark? How can your effort at Memorial West be a launching pad to even greater capacity to do even more?

Lydia knew that the inside had to get outside. She could not keep the Good News to herself. Lydia modeled her communion with Jesus Christ in her context in four ways:

1. Be real. Lydia was an authentic human being. One of the most frequent observations non-church folks make about church folks is that they don’t seem real. Since God loves you so very much, you need not act greedy nor be fearful. We can become more real, generous, and loving toward others!

2. Be a friend. Lydia was a good friend. Many don’t invite friends to their church experiences is because they don’t have any. Be a friend. Act as a friend. That’s the way we demonstrate God’s love for us. We can become more generous as a friend and loving toward others!

3. Be involved. Lydia was involved in her community. She was with others (ethnically diverse) by the river. Maybe you could volunteer in the neighborhood. Since God loves the world, how will your neighborhood know if you are not involved? We can become more generous with our time and loving toward others!

4. Be a leader. Lydia was a leader. Pastors, Elders, Deacons, key congregational people need to be leaders, not only managers. She responded to opportunities all around her. We are not put on this planet for such a short time to serve ourselves. Instead, we need to listen to God’s Communion call to bless our Context. We can lead by modeling humility and being more loving toward others!

Let’s understand that we must not continue to do the same things in the same way if we want different outcomes. If we are committed to reaching new people, the same old ways are no longer working, and to do ministry the same old way will not result in different outcomes.

Contextual Intelligence: The ability to read the forces that shape the times in which we live and seize on the resulting opportunities.

Our context is changing more rapidly than ever. We must change in meaningful ways to keep up. The world is on our doorstep. Our communities are looking for real friends and involved leaders who hear God’s call to demonstrate God’s love to all people. God so loved the world.... that's our true mission in context.

Greed Never Produces Good Fruit

2008-10-03T12:48:00.002-04:00

Greed Never Produces Good Fruit

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

What a great story. A man had resources, land, lots of fertile land and he put a vineyard on it. Following General Assembly a few months ago in San Jose, California, my wife, Melissa, and I visited vineyards in Napa valley. Beautiful vineyards, great wine. Wonderful. Well, this man in Jesus’ parable has a similar goal as Napa valley’s landowners. He wanted to grow grapes. So he hired workers to complete the task. You reap what you sow, right? So the landowner expected a great harvest at harvest time. Not before harvest time! No. The grapes would be ready when they were ready and the workers, the servants in the parable, cultivated and tended the vineyard so that when the time was right, the fruit of their labors, the return on the landowner’s investment in that land would come forth! Well, the vines were bursting with life and the presses were working overtime, but the workers said to themselves:

“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Wow! Instead of the grapes being pressed into useful and life-giving wine produced by the workers in COMMUNION with the landowner, the workers cared only about themselves and in GREED, too not only the wine, but killed the very son of the landowner!

When we are not in communion, when we are not in a right relationship with one another, we care only about ourselves, our needs, our wants, our desires, and in this state of greed, want what is not ours to have. The vineyard belonged to the owner, and to the owner’s son. Like some executives on Wall Street, they took what was not theirs and they cared only for themselves. The results were devastating.

The Harvard Business School established a database about the top 900 executives and published a book entitled In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century by professors Mayo and Nohria.

They wrote about three leadership types in business, government, and the church, as well. Mold-makers, Mold-breakers, and Mold-takers. Mayo and Nohria offered an incredible insight when they considered the question: Was there one ingredient these great leaders had in common? Yes, they concluded, and here it is:

The ability to read the forces that shape the times in which they live and seize on the resulting opportunities. They called this ability Contextual Intelligence. Not being selfish about their own needs and viewpoints, but taking the time to see the community, the world, through the eyes of others is the key to healthier living. Contextual Intelligence refers to thoughtfully understanding the real world right now, and instead of taking from it, giving to it in Jesus’ name.

The church can choose to be less concerned about the church itself, and instead, invest its more energy in the real-life experiences of people outside our churches. Congregational transformation occurs when a congregation takes Communion with God so seriously that it considers its Context just as seriously, too.

What the vineyard workers did not understand was that if they were in Communion with the vineyard owner, they would have received great blessings. But greed led them to take what was not theirs and in the end, they received nothing, loosing their very lives.

The missional theme of our presbytery is Together Transforming Lives, Congregations, Communities, and World.

How we understand our context is critically important, not only for business leaders, city officials, individual congregations, but for the whole church and all its leaders. Greed never produces good fruit.

Creating Congregational Identity

2006-05-08T16:56:00.000-04:00

Creating Congregational Identity
One of the SIX Dynamics of Congregational Transformation

The Who wrote the music, but CSI has forever tagged the tune to our information-mining culture. Using the latest forensic and computer-assisted technologies, Grisom and his CSI’s let the evidence speak for itself. When applied to congregational identity, the “let the evidence speak for itself” often belies a serious identity crisis in the American church today. Who we are generationally is a helpful beginning (see chart below). Identity is the elusive pursuit of generations like Generation X, earning the Who Are We? 
Generationally…
Adapted from Wikipedia article, “Generation-X”

Silent Generation 1925-1945
Baby Boomers 1946-1964
Baby Busters 1958-1968
Generation X 1961-1981
MTV Generation 1975-1985
Generation Y 1982-2003
iGeneration 1986-2000
New Silent Generation 2001-

Wikipedia comment: “In math, ‘X’ stands for 'substitute anything', and Gen X takes some collective pride in their own tolerance, diversity and inability to be labeled.

Who we are positionally is another way to assess identity. Famously, Jesus posed a question concerning his own label to his disciples (Mark 8:29). “Who are you?” is a persistent question in the Bible with as many as 50 occurrences (depending on the question’s actual phrasing). From Jacob’s deception of Israel, to Joshua, Abner, Isaiah, and dozens of inquiring minds in the New Testament, identity begs clarification of our positions.

In the first few hours of life, children are already identifying smells, sounds, and sights. This developmental process continues exponentially. Identity and self-awareness are part of what it means to be human. If you took this one essential trait of humanness, identity development, and applied it to the local congregation, you might conclude that there is a distinct lack of humanness in our churches! Developmentally, redevelopment experts and transformation teams try to help congregations honestly and accurately answer the question for themselves.

Congregational Identity is as an important dynamic of congregational transformation and spans two domains:
1. What is the congregation’s self-identity?
2. What is the congregation’s neighborhood identity?

Self-Identity: What sets your congregation apart from the Scouts or the Rotary? What sets you apart from other churches in your town? Who is the congregation to the membership?, or the leadership?, or to the older or younger people in your church?

Neighborhood Identity: When you ask someone about your church what do they say? Who is your congregation?, What does it look like? to the community at large?

Lots of times respondents will give you a funny look and say, “I haven’t a clue.”

Our church morphed from a closed and isolated fortress into a street-present, hope-bearing, community of faith. Through a vigorous and often painful process of transformation, we reneighbored. (You can learn more about the reneighboring idea and view photos of the transformation by clicking here for Kensington). We re-connected with the neighborhood. We self-identified not as a congregation to the neighborhood, or in the neighborhood, but of the neighborhood. We became a transforming agent, giving a new face and a new voice to people who called our neighborhood home.

Over many decades, Wilkey Memorial Presbyterian Church in north Philadelphia went from a thriving, effective neighborhood-centered ministry to a stranger to the people it once served; a stranger to itself and its identity. Likewise, the neighborhood felt like a stranger, too. The task of transformation required us to reneighbor the ministry to the people.

What did we do? We didn’t have much by way of resources, but what we had we decided to give, namely ourselves. Instead of acquiescing to drive-in, disconnected worshippers, we recruited families to move back into the neighborhood.
To become present for others is really pretty simple. Be there. Be there in the morning. Be there at noon. Be there at night. Be there on weekends. Be there during the week. We needed to be present. We told a neighborhood that God loved it, 24/7. We opened those red church doors to let us out, and the neighborhood in!

Each congregation’s identity has to connect with its assets in order to do mission. For Wilkey, we were a safe place for kids to have fun and hear about Jesus. We met our neighbors. And what’s more, our neighbors became us as much as we became them.

When people outside your fellowship says to the query, “Who are you?” “Oh, that’s the church that... helped when our house burned; is a safe place for kids; or has the great senior lunches; offers a super music program, or pre-school, provides for creative and meaningful worship, etc., you know you are on the right journey.

The real proof of a transformed identity is how your ministry impacts the people around you.

I wonder what Grisom would conclude, based on the evidence?

Kevin
Dr. Kevin Yoho, (email: dr.kevinyoho@comcast.net
Consultant for Congregational Transformation, Presbytery of West Jersey

Enhancing Spiritual Energy

2006-05-08T16:52:00.000-04:00

Enhancing Spiritual Energy
One of the SIX Dynamics of Congregational Transformation

Have you ever read a book that once read, keeps reading you? It’s message percolates in your mind. You put it down, but it continues to pop back up. Chuck Meyer’s Dying Church Living God: A Call To Begin Again is one of those books for me. He offers a bold, radical plea for enhancing spiritual energy in the Church using the metaphor of Lazarus' death and resurrection.

The persistent spiritual-energy truism is that all things spiritual are sourced, discovered, experienced, and controlled INSIDE the church. This may sound like classical Roman Catholicism, but recent trends such as membership downturns, Louisville pink slips, synodical vaporware, and clergy dissonance, suggest that many euphemistically called main-line denominations have containerized the Good News, hiding the light under the proverbial bushel basket.

Chuck Meyer refers to Numbers 11:24-29 when the Spiritual-Police complained to Moses that non-priests, those OUTSIDE the Tent of Meeting, were prophesying! I love the response: But Moses said, “Are you jealous for me? Would that all GOD’S people were prophets. Would that GOD would put his Spirit on all of them.” Spiritual energy is not a controlled substance. Jesus said the Living Waters would flow! Its disturbing that the church thinks of itself more like a dam then a spigot.
Did you know that microwave ovens were tested for leakage using a florescent bulb? They proved they were working when the bulb glowed…outside! Where do you see the glow in your community? Outside the church buildings? See any real halos on the heads of believers? Anything emanating from the pews during worship, or in the parking lot afterward?

There is a demonstrable lack of spiritual yearning in many of our churches. But there is an inversely demonstrable spiritual yearning outside our churches! It’s ironic that denominationally we are loosing 1,000 “insiders” a week. One reason may be our snubbing of spiritual energy. (See 10 Sure Ways to Snub Spiritual Energy in Your Congregation list in the sidebar. http://www.kevinyoho.com/fuel.html)

We can’t even connect with the spirituality of those inside the “tent” of what Chuck Meyer calls the Dying Church, let alone those outside.

Our transformation journey suggests that many of our structures and theology make no sense today and haven't for decades. The point is not whether our structures or theology are correct. They could be! The missional point is that whatever our structures and theology, we are not connecting with people’s spiritual yearnings today.

With Moses, we must first courageously admit that it is God who seeks us where we are and as we are. Second, we must not allow nostalgic irrelevance to monolithically stand in the way of the Spirit.

People are desperately seeking hope, nurture, purpose, and God. They are looking for the glow of spirituality but often are not finding one lumen of light among churched people.

Remember to take some spiritual energy TO-GO inside your congregation and in your community. By enhancing spiritual energy IN our congregations, we can rediscover our missional capacity to pray with Moses that God would put the Spirit on everyone.

Kevin
Dr. Kevin Yoho, (email: dr.kevinyoho@comcast.net)
Consultant for Congregational Transformation, Presbytery of West Jersey

Capacity Building Book List

2006-05-08T16:50:00.000-04:00

Capacity Builders

Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges

Leading Change by John P. Kotter

Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Becoming Nehemiah: Leading With Significance by David L. McKenna

Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West by Lamin Sanneh

Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power by David Aikman

The Next Christendom : The Coming of Global Christianity by Philip Jenkins

These are active Amazon.com links in the online version of this issue. (http://www.kevinyoho.com/fuel.html).
Look for a future annotated bibliography and book reviews with these titles.

Kevin
Dr. Kevin Yoho, (email: dr.kevinyoho@comcast.net)
Consultant for Congregational Transformation, Presbytery of West Jersey

Sign, Sign Everywhere a Sign

2006-05-08T16:45:00.000-04:00

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Transformation and Change

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is not an immovable juggernaut. Anything will change when afraid, or in Kotter’s words, when there exists a sense of urgency. In fact, the institution has shown three signs of its re-imagined self.

The first sign of change occurred in the 80’s when declining membership fear fueled a desire to structurally reorganize and geographically run away,. It reunited the sinking Northern with the regionalized Southern churches to the Midwest heartland. Sweet? Not really. It may have reduced overhead costs, but it also effectively marginalized itself from the world marketplace of ideas and commerce in New York. From hardly a voice at all, the reunited church became dumb. (Yes, a double sens, or entendre.)

The second sign of change within the Presbyterian Church was again motivated by fear. The “problem must have a solution” people decided to make evangelism the church’s number one priority. So in 1987, programatic efforts were underway to stop the membership tailspin. Little did they know, but every association and group, including religious ones, were experiencing the same decline (See Bowling Alone). Acting in isolation however, a desperate evangelistic crusade was fought. “Bring the people in and everything will be fine,” mantra fell on deaf ears. Sadly, the denominational decline through the mid 90’s was growing worse. Evangelism fails when motivated by fear.

We are in the midst of the third sign of change within our denomination. With little left to organize, the GA, Synod, and Presbytery Trinity of our church structure is morphing into what is essentially a two-legged stool. The middle judicatories are being gutted leaving presbyteries even more removed from the mother ship. What’s worse, fear of survival has decimated the mission units of the church.

Change is not transformation.

Intentional congregational transformation is a proactive response to change. Signs of change have sociological and demographic indicators. Signs of transformation have missional and contextual indicators.

The Transformation To-Go redevelopment groups (http://www.kevinyoho.com/fuel.html) will explore best practices in order to redirect the congregation’s energy toward the communities it seeks to serve.

Hang on, new signs will direct us on a great ride!

Kevin
Dr. Kevin Yoho, (email: dr.kevinyoho@comcast.net)
Consultant for Congregational Transformation, Presbytery of West Jersey

Yellow Lines and the Super Bowl

2006-02-13T18:44:00.000-05:00

Learning from the Super Bowl

O.K. I am not a sports fanatic. I’m not a big turkey-eater either, but I still celebrate Thanksgiving. So when the annual and arguably the biggest eating day in America arrived, I was enjoying the event with my family, watching on a big HDTV, pizza in hand, hoping the 2006 Super Bowl commercials to be as interesting as the football game. One Ad, in fact, had a compelling message. Remember viewing the commercial from Budweiser about the young Clydsdale hourse during the telecast?

(visit www.budweiser.com to view the Ad)

The commercial was all about energy, community, and confidence in moving forward and fulfilling one’s dreams. You don’t have to enjoy the beverage to experience the Ad. It may be a most surprising source for such a message. Maybe a better observation to make is think when a message this compelling was recently made at your church. Transformation, anyone?
Just when I thought the commercials would win the day, the game got interesting, as well. But it occurred to me the very most interesting aspect of the Super Bowl for me this year was when I began to notice that yellow yard marker line. The video overlaid graphic on the field is so awesome. The TV audience can see how far the ball has travelled toward the end-zone and specifically, to the next first down. (Yeah, a couple of years ago, it took me a while to figure out it was actually a video graphic, and that not only couldn’t the players on the field see it, but they couldn’t get that yellow paint on the soles of their shoes, either. Nice.)

Of course, movement, measurement, and markers define games. And life.

But those ever moving Yellow Lines were something to watch!

According to The New York TImes, the computer generated yellow line markers, “introduced on Sept. 27, 1998…, has been well received by viewers: a 1999 Harris poll found that 92 percent of football fans wanted to see the virtual first-down strip in future broadcasts” (NYT on the Web, January 27, 2000). A company in Princeton, NJ, PVI, (and Sportvision) developed the super-advanced video system to calculate the yellow line marker from several possible camera angles, making sure the line looks painted-on the Astroturf, or like chalk on a grass field. The real trick is to offer the production engineers split second control of the line as it moves, sometimes rapidly, to keep up with the pace of the game.

Presbytery Mission
When I compare personal transformation to a game played on the field, I believe a lot of the energy we exhibit correlates and fluctuates with the perception of our achievement. How far down the field, and how close are we to our "yellow line," regarding our life goals? Who would know?

We need indicators so our energy can at least be congruent with real data. We have fuzzy goals and unclear markers. We do not have a yellow line. We don't need more negative, draining connotations as to our lack of progress or get more blame thrown on ourselves by ourselves or others. But we all could benefit from our own Yellow Line. We could use indicators, milestones, objectives, goals, achievements, needs, projections, or resources for each priority of our life. SImple is best. Clear is better. Congruence builds energy. The Yellow Line.

We could make the the idea of “movement” desirable and welcomed. A Yellow Line could be a tool to offer clarity and build ownership of our priorities from the ground up. More importantly, energy could correspond with actual, measurable, data which all of us have a stake in. I am ready to offer whatever I can to help carry a bucket of yellow paint!

Like the Young Clydesdale, our life's mission can show progress in achieving our dreams.

The Super Bowl was not just about football!

Thanks for thinking.

Advocacy for Passionate Hope

2004-11-24T08:56:00.001-05:00

"All ideas must have passionate advocates behind them."
—Thomas Davenport, Professor, Babson College

Passion is not optional, at least not when you want to do something outrageous like love the world. Do you think the world matters? Well, I do. God loves you and your neighborhood. That's awesome news and exactly why helping transform congregations into missional agents in their own community is mission critical.

How often do churches have to be castigated for being irrelevant before they choose to change?

How often does faith have to be dismissed from the marketplace of ideas or from the conversations at the water cooler before those of faith learn to infuse, not impose, their faith in ethical, real world living?

The true test of relevancy for the church is as its always been; mercy, justice, and love. How will our culture and community realize that God loves it, if we refuse to be passionate about making the Good News visible and relevant? If you believe that Jesus is the Living Water, what kind of containers will you craft to hold it?

The practice of missional transformation can become every congregation's passion. You can learn to use practical tools for contextual, collaborative, faith-based ministry. www.kevinyoho.com is a neat place to get some tools. Every congregation can increase it's capacity for mission with a passion.

Now that I think about it, that "It's all about me!" t-shirt is actually a pretty accurate faith statement. Here's why: the relevancy of your faith experience and it's expression depends on YOU! Sounds an awful lot like something I read somewhere... umm. Nah.*

Build your passion, build your mission. Be an advocate for passionate hope. It’s that important.

Kevin

*Oh, yeah. Now I remember. Take a look at the book of James; around James 1:27.

Missional Life

2004-10-10T18:03:00.000-04:00

What does a missional life look like? Well this is just a work in progress.

I am a man in relationship and in love with God by grace through faith. This relationship and the relationship with my children and my significant others are my first priorities. I accept my call by Jesus Christ, Lord of the universe, to be both a sign and agent of God's kingdom in the world and will try to balance the mind, body and spirit dimensions of my life in the world around me.

I believe all of us in community as Christ’s Church are the true ministers of the church—ordained by God and gifted by the Holy Spirit for all the ministries required in the retrieval of our neighborhoods and culture. I will seek to affirm physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wholeness. I believe the Church must be liquid, dynamic, flexible, fluid, adaptive, and relevant.

All things belong to God, not to us, and I commitment myself in loving, enthusiastic service to Jesus and his kingdom, together with all my sisters and brothers in Christ. I believe the people of God in church, institution, media, health care, and government, must once again be change agents in the neighborhoods they serve. That applies to me, too. I must show and tell the true Good News of sin, repentance and forgiveness to the hurting, the poor, and the lost, even while I try to understand the real, physical, social, political, and relational context we are in and attempt to make a positive difference in measurable ways.

I will reach out in whatever language or form necessary to build bridges of friendship and care, and in the church, offer a relevant experience of worship and in the community, a relevant expression of mission. I will not impose my own models or expectations across race, class, age, linguistic, physiological, gender, or physical lines, but rather seek to be a servant of all.

Well, that's a start. What do you think?

From Babel to Pentecost and Beyond

2004-10-08T16:39:00.000-04:00

As I have reflected on my own leadership style, Biblical images inform my perception of reality. I recall the great tower of Babel which was built by a homogeneuos group of self-centered persons who had lofty aspirations of god-hood, not the God-head. (People just don’t seemto get it that there can be only one God. Even the Lord God cannot make another God, for anything the one and only God makes is by definition a creation, and anything that is created cannot by definition be God.) In the stiffling, sameness of pseudo-community, people seek god-likeness. They become crazed with ability and define everything from their own point of view, shared with others. Perception is reality. The Babel multitudes envisioned a great stairway to heaven and needed a paradigm shift, a fundamental change of reference which of course could not come from within. Paradigm shifts do not usually come from within, but rather are observed by looking at a set of conditions from a different vantage point, a different perspective, a different field of view, so that what is obvious or hidden, good or bad, in one paradigm may in fact be totally opposite in another paradigm. God introduced the paradigm shift, God reoriented the masses and with one fiat act (of grace, I should add!) changed everybody in a moment. Like the youth mixer where each person is given one of many different barnyard sounds to imitate and thus have to hook up like-sounding others. The activity divides the crowd into smaller groups. At Babel, God assigned a langauge distinction which made communicating others of a different langauge impossible. The great multiplication bacame a great migration.

This is chaos, plain and simple. But on Pentecost, something amazing happened. God’s Spirit took a chaotic, dysfunctional community of people, namely those gathered in Jerusalem for the high holy day, and again introduced another paradigm shift. A fundamentally different way of looking at life. The Spirit of God descended on the believers and each bagan to speak in a langauge of someone they did not know. A reverse-Babel, a new community, the Church was born. Finally, the commonality of the Spirit brought the potential for true community but I notice one important feature of Pentecost: God, instead of giving the gift of tounges to his people, couldhave just as easily (Is one miracle any more or less difficult for God than any other?) changed people’s hearing to hear, say Hebrew, or Aramaic, or Greek, or any other langauge, but he didn’t. God condemned the self-centered sameness of Babel but affirmed the beauty of diversity at Jerusalem on Pentecost. Our differences are not the problem. Diversity is not the problem. My goal in this class was not to conform to someone else’s style, attitude, learning model, type or proclivity. Rather, my goal was to discover all the diverse richness of Kevin Richard Yoho, his uniqueness, his giftedness, his strengths and weaknesses, my preferences and likes, AND affirm, appreciate, encourage, others in their distinctiveness and complexity, and learn from them. From pseudo-community to chaos, to emptying to real community. A journey begun with intentionality which will find its finality in Christ and his body, the Church.

Many years ago I recorded an unatributed poem in the back of my Bible which has often reminded me of the reality of growth:

“There was a very cautious man,
who never risked or tried.
He never hoped.
He never failed.
He never laughed or cried.
And when one day he passed away, his insurance was denied.
For since he really never lived,
they claimed he never died.”

Beyond Pentecost. That's what I'm talking about.

Transformation Begins at Home

2004-10-08T16:34:00.000-04:00

Did you hear the story about the French ornithologist who went out into the deep woods to try out his bird calling. He was shot by a hunter.

I have learned that it is pretty foolish and even self-destructive to pretend to be someone you’re not. There seems to be a tendency displayed in the pseudo phase of community building where we surround ourselves with people like us. We pretend to be like the people we admire, so we can act like them and justify our desire to be with them. We invest a lot of energy in being phony and artificial. Self-centered instead of self-less, many never discover who they actually are. We deny our uniqueness and force ourselves into molds and methods that just aren’t us. Personal transformation for renewal begins with community building at its core and I have learned the value of self-knowledge in the context of community for like often quoted lyric, “no one is an island.” Diversity is reality and I have come to appreciate my own uniqueness and that of others which has enriched my life.

Homogeneity is the god of the church growth movement, not diversity. The church growth gurus since the eighties have promoted this as a preferred method of accelerated membership and even as a desirable outcome of ministry. But it is instead a feature of pseudo community where differences are negated, similarities are superficial, and communication is inauthentic. The beauty of creation is complexity, the radiance of the Church is diversity, the strength of the person of God is acknowledging his or her own gifts and uniqueness. The Triune God is the God of the Church and where the Church embraces diversity and gifts expression, the Church becomes real and authentic. This is the beginning of transformation.

Wet Water's Wonder

2004-10-03T22:40:00.000-04:00

“If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.”

An average adult human body is 50 to 65 percent water. That’s roughly 45 quarts. O.K. That's a lot of water. Water plays several crucial roles in the body. It helps regulate temperature, carries nutrients and oxygen, and removes waste. It also cushions joints and organs. I even like the taste. The taste of my well water, that is. Cool.

And even more essential are the “rivers of living water” that Jesus refers to. Yes, water is essential to existence, and the Holy Spirit is essential to living. Living water refers to water that flows, not stagnant. Living water refers to water that not only "lives" but is life-giving. The Bible tells us that the power of the life-giving Spirit frees us from the power of sin that leads to death.

Water is mentioned in the Bible more often than any other natural resource. The waters are divided on the Second Day of Creation. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus with water. In John 19, Jesus on the cross cries out that he is thirsty. And today we are baptized to show our commitment to new life in Christ.

Next time you reach for a bottle of water, think about the potential of the water to refresh and renew and to rebirth. Thank God for the Spriit of God that hovers over the face of the deep and calls forth life from arid death.

Ahh.

Reneighbor: Yes or No?

2004-09-27T14:35:00.000-04:00

Churches: When should they close? When should they open?
Why do churches disconnect from their neighborhoods in the first place? This displacement is complex and can even be demonic. It can also be historical and political, racial and financial, personal, generational, and spatial. In our post-Christian culture we rarely invest our best assets in places with the least resources.

If we did, we would understand a theology of location as much as our other theological amusements. If we really got it, w would be putting skilled and fully funded teams of transformational leaders in strategically critical urban areas to build collaborative ministries.

It takes time and faith to earn the love and respect of a stranger. What’s more, it takes courage.
We have incredible social capital to reinvest in our urban places. Sure, there are identical problems facing people in our suburban and rural places, too. But the tragic fact is that despite or because of the challenges of scale, it is in the places of greatest concentration of need that the fewest spiritual and other resources are invested.

We should think twice before closing a vital neighborhood resource like a connected congregation. And we should not hesitant to close ineffective, unable-to-be-reneighbored congregations, nor hesitate to start a new neighborhood-based ministry.

Blessings,

Kevin

Slipcovers

2004-09-27T07:01:00.001-04:00

My Aunt Alyce was the most loving person I could imagine. She loved everybody. She loved her family. She loved dogs. She loved the neighborhood kids. She loved her life. She loved her church. She loved God. And, what was very evident to me: she loved me, too. I know that because she always called me her favorite nephew. (Yes, there were other nephews. :))

But her love had an anomaly. It was a confusion between now and then. A present offering of love versus a future one, and it had to do with slipcovers.

Aunt Alyce apparently loved the people who would eventualy get her living room furniture when she decided it was time to get rid of it. You see, she put clear, plastic slipcovers on the couch, chair, and ottoman. You ever sit on a plastic slipcover on a warm day with shorts on? Whoa. It always amused me that she should be so careful. I had always wanted to ask, "Aunt Alyce, why do you use slipcovers? You should enjoy your furniture. (Thought bubble: I want to enjoy your furniture!) The only thing you are doing is making the furniture nice for the next owners, while you can't even sit without sticking to it." I suppose my Aunt Alyce would just have smiled. She didn't get it.

Churches have slipcovers, too. Things that keep the hardware preserved for some future What?, yet esentially un-useful to people now is a sign that the church has become absent for people it is called to serve. To become present for others is really pretty simple. Be there. Be there in the morning. Be there at noon. Be there at night. Be there on weekends. Be there during the week. Allow the resources to be used to meet needs, of course according to the mission plan, but serve now.

In my congregation, we decided that we needed to be present. To tell and show a neighborhood that God loved it, 24/7, not just for an hour or two Sunday mornings, but every day became my passion, not just my mission.

We opened those red church doors and took our imagined, but just as real, "slipcovers" off the gym floor (not used for twenty-years or more !), and let kids from the community reclaim our assets as their own. Whoa, did we have kids in the neighborhood!? Not a few of our Elders shuddered at what we were nervously trying to do: give ourselves away. This was our social capital, our God-given assets for the common good.

Note to church: barriers, even plastic ones, diminish mission. Future potential is not the same as realized present. Aunt Alyce was right about everything, except the slipcovers. She was also right about who her favorite nephew was, because she was my favorite Aunt, my Aunt with slipcovers.

Blessings,
Kevin

Nouns and Verbs

2004-09-23T16:40:00.000-04:00

Every church building I pass seems to turn into a time portal, of sorts. I am transported back to Miss Espenshade's fifth grade English class. Whoa. Not an entirely pleasant trip. A crystal clear image rises in my memory of drill exercises on the difference between nouns and verbs. Nouns are objects. Verbs are action words. Nouns are objects. Verbs are action words. Ahhh. O.K. Miss Espenshade, I get it!

As the church blurs by me on the right, I think: the Church. It's a noun. An object. Not an action word. Church, an action word? Umm. Miss Espenshade, I have a question.