We've talked about our church's new vision--converting the parsonage into a center for youth ministry, Sunday School, and counseling--for the past couple weeks now. We've talked about needs in the community, the need to expand and formalize our ministry in these areas, the positive response this vision would engender, the fantastic transformation that would blow people's minds, and the low cost of the conversion. Only one question remains:
Why aren't we doing this right now?
Truth be told, we could. We have enough money in reserve to cover the parsonage conversion even without fundraising or community help. We could get this done tomorrow if we were so inclined. The costs are that modest, the conversion steps that clear.
But one major obstacle remains between us and achieving this town-transforming, church-transforming vision. While we have money in the bank right now we're not maintaining that balance.
Last year when the final numbers came in we ended up running a deficit of around $775 per month. But we also got some substantial contributions from folks who have passed on. We can't rely on that much income from that kind of source every year. We'll always get some memorial money, but it's not a reliable source of income. Reduce those one-time contributions down to a reasonable level and you end up with a running deficit of around $2800 per month, give or take. Considering that we'd be adding an extra $1100 per month in compensation with the parsonage move, it's not prudent to make this kind of commitment until our financial house is in better order.
A couple things to note:
1. The shortfall isn't anybody's fault. We've never talked about money or stewardship here really. We've intentionally left the subject alone because it's been so poisoned in the modern American religious culture. The first thing somebody thinks when you start talking about church is, "Oh. They want money." When you don't talk about these things it's just like not exercising. Things droop and get flabby. But we've had a great revival over the past couple of years and I think we know and trust each other enough to begin speaking of these things, being more conscious of them. That alone is going to improve the situation.
2. These numbers seem huge because when folks read them, they all imagine if they, themselves, had to make up that deficit out of their own pockets. That'd never happen. No shining cavalry will ride over the hill with saddle bags full of newly-discovered riches. But when you break it down by 70 or so families in our church orbit, last year's actual deficit was a little over $10 per month per family. Even without the memorials that's $40 per month, or $10 per week, per family. Not everybody has that, but it doesn't take that much scrounging to figure out how to make up even a large-seeming shortfall. We just need to take our financial stewardship seriously to do it.
Our church council is taking up this matter and will be coming forth with a framework for our stewardship discussions this year. All we ask is that when the time comes, trust us, have faith in the ministry of this church, and participate in those conversations.
Also realize that it's not a matter of having a vision or doing the same old. The vision gives us a goal for our giving beyond just ourselves...a really, really good reason to address our finances and stewardship. But the choice to abandon that task would not mean preserving the church as it is. Those financial reserves won't last forever. Eventually we'd be forced into a discussion of stewardship when the money ran out. Except then instead of talking about giving to support a wonderful, transforming vision we'd be talking about giving just to keep ourselves afloat for another year. Those are two very different conversations. The first speaks of life and hope, the second of fear and death. People will give to support life and hope, not so much to the other.
If we get to the point where we honestly have to talk about stewardship just to keep our church going, I don't anticipate that conversation going well or people responding to it. At that point you're looking at alternative solutions. Not only do you not have a vision and a youth/education/counseling center, you probably don't have resources for a full-time pastor anymore. Once upon a time splitting churches worked...the Valley and St. John's being an example for decades. It doesn't work anymore. It's nearly impossible to find churches in close enough physical proximity with the same size and the same needs. You end up sharing a pastor with a distant church. You get less ministry attention which means less enthusiasm and giving. This compounds the problem. Once you're on that slide it's hard--not impossible, but hard--to get off. Many churches end up functioning with a 1/2 or 1/3 time pastor but they're just functioning...staying open to stay open. At that point you're a generation (or less) away from closing no matter what you do.
If you look at that last paragraph, that doesn't describe the ministry, people, or spirit of our church at all. That's exactly why we need to pursue these stewardship talks and our vision of life and hope...making our financial life reflect who we really are. We have to understand that we're doing this precisely so we can use our reserves how they're supposed to be used--to further our vision and ministry--instead of using them to keep ourselves afloat until we're forced into a corner and have to do something about it or close. Eventually we're going to spend the money either way. The only question is whether we'll spend it on the vision or whether we'll spend it trying to fill a deficit over the next few years and not have anything to show for it at the end but panic.
We're addressing this early and well so it can be a spirit-filled, life-filled conversation. Please join us in that conversation as it commences over the next year and do what you can in the meantime to support the people and ministries of our church.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Showing posts with label vision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vision. Show all posts
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Vision: Costs
For the last couple weeks we've talked about the new vision of converting the church parsonage into a center for youth, Sunday School, small group, and counseling ministries. We've discussed the needs, the benefits, why and how this makes sense. Now it's time to talk about the financial applications.
One of the reasons this vision makes so much sense is that the actual cost of converting and operating the building is incredibly low, especially when compared to the potential benefits.
The parsonage would need some minor renovations: carpets in the basement, some work in the restrooms. But otherwise it's ready to go. Furniture and technology would be the biggest overall expense. Just making the building effective isn't enough to fulfill the vision or give the people using it a sense of wonder and ownership. We need to put the right tools in the right places.
I'd guesstimate that the total renovations and equipment would come in under $20,000, perhaps under $15,000. That's paying for all labor and equipment. Donated labor or material would cut the cost. Also this is the kind of project we can get people in the community to rally behind. It's unlikely that all of that budget would have to come out of our pockets. I have a hunch that if we let it be known what we're doing and tell people that we're that close to having the project done, we'd get so much help we wouldn't know what to do.
The only hitch in the renovation and equipping plan would be if safety required us to add a second exit from the basement or at least convert the basement windows into escape routes. But even then we're not talking an exorbitant amount. I wouldn't hazard an exact guess as to the cost but it'd be in the four figure range, not five..
Compare this to the cost of building a structure or adopting someone else's and $20,000 is a huge bargain.
The news gets even better when you talk about operating costs. Two main concerns in any project like this are how much it's going to cost to heat and how much to insure.
The church already has insurance covering the property, including the parsonage. Any increase from the conversion would be modest.
The parsonage is heated by a combination of radiant heating and wall units...all electric. Each room is heated separately. Without central heating you have pre-heat if you plan to use a room. This is less than convenient for a family dwelling where you expect to move from room to room with ease. It's exactly what you want for a ministry center though. You only heat the rooms you're using and only for the duration you use them...a few hours a week It'll actually cost less to heat the building under the new mission than it does now when it serves as our full-time family home.
In short, the two biggest potential cost headaches are a breeze for us under this plan...costing no more, and maybe even less, than we're paying now to operate the building.
One expense will go up, however. With the parsonage now a ministry center it's no longer our home and thus no longer a part of the compensation package the church offers us. The church would need to make up that difference. When Susan ran the latest numbers, based on where my salary should be, it amounted to an $1100-$1200 a month increase.
Let's address something that some folks might be tempted to think in the back of their mind: Is this just a way for Pastor Dave to gain a salary increase or advantage of some sort? After all, there is an increase in salary involved.
I can think of two possible advantages to us in this move. First, in a couple years Ali is going to outgrow the relatively small room we have her in right now. It was designed to be more of an office than a bedroom. Second, with our own home we'd be able to start building equity.
However, truth be told I'm not looking forward to the move that much. It's a bunch of stress and bother that it'd be easier not to deal with. Also if you take a hard look at the financial implications it's unlikely we'll be making any more money even with the salary increase. Along with the parsonage the church is currently responsible for all utilities, garbage, repairs (although we've been paying those the last few years), and everything else having to do with the property. There's no property tax on the parsonage either, as it's on church property.
Now...look at $1100 per month. Balance that against a mortgage payment, electricity, water, heating, garbage, repairs and upkeep, and property tax. Anybody think we're going to be walking away with a profit in our pockets after the move? Other than getting the long-term benefit of building equity we're going to be sacrificing financially for this vision even if all we do is move out. Then again, it's worth it.
Coming up with that extra money per month is, hands down, the biggest challenge in all of this. Which is why next time we're going to talk about the steps we need to go through to make this vision a reality.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
One of the reasons this vision makes so much sense is that the actual cost of converting and operating the building is incredibly low, especially when compared to the potential benefits.
The parsonage would need some minor renovations: carpets in the basement, some work in the restrooms. But otherwise it's ready to go. Furniture and technology would be the biggest overall expense. Just making the building effective isn't enough to fulfill the vision or give the people using it a sense of wonder and ownership. We need to put the right tools in the right places.
I'd guesstimate that the total renovations and equipment would come in under $20,000, perhaps under $15,000. That's paying for all labor and equipment. Donated labor or material would cut the cost. Also this is the kind of project we can get people in the community to rally behind. It's unlikely that all of that budget would have to come out of our pockets. I have a hunch that if we let it be known what we're doing and tell people that we're that close to having the project done, we'd get so much help we wouldn't know what to do.
The only hitch in the renovation and equipping plan would be if safety required us to add a second exit from the basement or at least convert the basement windows into escape routes. But even then we're not talking an exorbitant amount. I wouldn't hazard an exact guess as to the cost but it'd be in the four figure range, not five..
Compare this to the cost of building a structure or adopting someone else's and $20,000 is a huge bargain.
The news gets even better when you talk about operating costs. Two main concerns in any project like this are how much it's going to cost to heat and how much to insure.
The church already has insurance covering the property, including the parsonage. Any increase from the conversion would be modest.
The parsonage is heated by a combination of radiant heating and wall units...all electric. Each room is heated separately. Without central heating you have pre-heat if you plan to use a room. This is less than convenient for a family dwelling where you expect to move from room to room with ease. It's exactly what you want for a ministry center though. You only heat the rooms you're using and only for the duration you use them...a few hours a week It'll actually cost less to heat the building under the new mission than it does now when it serves as our full-time family home.
In short, the two biggest potential cost headaches are a breeze for us under this plan...costing no more, and maybe even less, than we're paying now to operate the building.
One expense will go up, however. With the parsonage now a ministry center it's no longer our home and thus no longer a part of the compensation package the church offers us. The church would need to make up that difference. When Susan ran the latest numbers, based on where my salary should be, it amounted to an $1100-$1200 a month increase.
Let's address something that some folks might be tempted to think in the back of their mind: Is this just a way for Pastor Dave to gain a salary increase or advantage of some sort? After all, there is an increase in salary involved.
I can think of two possible advantages to us in this move. First, in a couple years Ali is going to outgrow the relatively small room we have her in right now. It was designed to be more of an office than a bedroom. Second, with our own home we'd be able to start building equity.
However, truth be told I'm not looking forward to the move that much. It's a bunch of stress and bother that it'd be easier not to deal with. Also if you take a hard look at the financial implications it's unlikely we'll be making any more money even with the salary increase. Along with the parsonage the church is currently responsible for all utilities, garbage, repairs (although we've been paying those the last few years), and everything else having to do with the property. There's no property tax on the parsonage either, as it's on church property.
Now...look at $1100 per month. Balance that against a mortgage payment, electricity, water, heating, garbage, repairs and upkeep, and property tax. Anybody think we're going to be walking away with a profit in our pockets after the move? Other than getting the long-term benefit of building equity we're going to be sacrificing financially for this vision even if all we do is move out. Then again, it's worth it.
Coming up with that extra money per month is, hands down, the biggest challenge in all of this. Which is why next time we're going to talk about the steps we need to go through to make this vision a reality.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Vision: Why It Fits
We've talked about the ministry needs addressed by our new church vision. We've also talked about the vision itself, what the parsonage would be converted into. Another question we need to answer: what's so special/helpful about doing it this particular way? Also: why us and not somebody else?
The major growth in our church's ministry over the last few years has been accomplished in small groups. People feel more attached to our church, God, and each other through things they've done in gatherings of 6-20 people. The description has been "feeling like family" or "feeling like church is home for me now". That doesn't happen the same way in gatherings of 60-100. Those small group moments make a huge difference.
The same has been true of youth ministry. We do run events a few times a year where 20-40 kids come. But most of the bonding happens when 6-12 people show up at the church on a given day. The event attended by 30 serves to publicize those smaller gatherings wherein new people get to know us better.
This is not going to change. Nobody nowadays wants to join an institution. People don't want to belong to a committee. Folks aren't looking to acquire another label to stick on themselves. Instead they want friends, comfort, human interaction. These things are missing in their daily lives. Defining God as welcoming, warm, intimate, and interactive is the best way to reach our friends and neighbors.
Now step back and look at the vision for the parsonage. Every room, every piece of furniture, every proposed use is designed to say the same thing: "Welcome home! And isn't it great?" Without a word being spoken every person who walks in will know that somebody cares. The intimate nature and interactive purpose of each room reinforces that message, providing opportunity for participants to jump in and interact not just with the environment, but with each other.
This differentiates our vision from most attempts at youth ministry. Churches have different priorities when pursuing youth ministry. Some go with education first...what happens in a desk or in front of a blackboard matters most. Others go with entertainment or just giving the kids something to do so they'll "stay out of trouble". All of these approaches assume youth are people to be acted on instead of with, thus they are to be educated or entertained or kept busy. It's almost like they're objects we're trying to manipulate.
The physical spaces church design (or designate) for youth reflect this mindset. When a congregation doesn't care much about youth ministry you get a leftover room somewhere in the back of the church, perhaps furnished with an old couch. The kids have "permission" to "decorate" however they wish because nobody else is going to set foot in that room.
Other congregations go the opposite direction, building special places for youth. The first impulses are, "Well, they'll like a pool table and foosball so we better have a room for that. And classrooms with desks. And a gym!" The kids may like all of those things but the rooms generally end up huge and feel clinical. It's almost as if somebody were speaking in a monotone robot voice, "Here is the pool table inside this room. Is that not nifty for you?"
For us, youth ministry isn't about stuff, nor about making kids think/do/feel a certain way. Nor is it about keeping them occupied so they'll "stay out of trouble" (as if they were hooligans just waiting to turn our town into Lord of the Flies). Our youth ministry is about relationships. Through our holy, amazing, and fun relationships with each other we discover how holy, amazing, and fun God is. The things we employ--games, technology, food, physical space--are there to serve the relationships, not the relationships to serve the things. The same is true with space...it's there to facilitate relationships between people, not just to provide a floor and walls in between which people can do tasks.
That's why this parsonage vision fits so well. We need exactly what the parsonage gives us: intimate, home-like space in which to do our thing together. It feels like home because it was designed to be a home. In this vision we're still using it for that purpose. We're just increasing the number of people who call it that.
This also distinguishes our vision from the drive for a community center converted out of the current Catholic church center. That is a good project too. I hope it succeeds. Our town needs something like that! But it's much different than what we're talking about here.
Look at the purpose for which the Catholic center was built. It was a school, right? That involves large, square rooms. No matter how you redecorate them they're never going to feel like a home, any more than the rooms in our own church basement do. Using the Catholic center for our type of youth ministry would be the same feeling we already have, just in a bigger building.
A community center would actually be great for certain events. Those 30-40 person youth events that we're straining to do in St. John's would work fantastically in a community center. They could probably also house a pool table or ping pong or other things that we'd like and wouldn't have room for. But could a half dozen guys text me at 7:00 at night, then come over and we all go over to the Community Center at the spur of the moment to watch a movie in comfort, feeling like it was their place? Even if we could get access on that short of notice, even if the technology to watch the movie was already set up and they had a room dedicated for that purpose, even if they didn't charge us for the heat and lights we'd use, it still wouldn't facilitate the same kind of bonding. The guys might feel attached to the movie (the task) but they wouldn't have the same kind of interaction and personal feeling they'd get in our converted parsonage.
In some ways our mission statements for use of space would be 180 degrees opposite from a community center. (One of the reasons that having both could be a good idea!) The center would be looking to serve as many people as possible at a time and thus fashioning their large public spaces to be multi-use oriented, covering many purposes with the same rooms. That's the only way such a project will make sense.
We, on the other hand, want to target a single use for each room to facilitate a small number of people using it at any given time. The living room is for talking, the theater for movie-watching, the computer room for playing or study. Many different types of people can use those rooms, of course, but the rooms themselves are 100% dedicated, decorated, and set up for that single purpose.
The community center model is stronger if you're trying to get 60 people to use the building at once for a variety of things. (And obviously they'd have the space to do that too, where the parsonage wouldn't.) But our model is far stronger when gathering 6-20 people for a single purpose, particularly if that purpose involves cozy, intimate interaction.
Neither approach is better than the other. It all depends on who you're trying to serve and how. 40 people eating lunch? Community center. Big pool tables and running around? Community center. 6 guys playing a game? The community center is too big and alien-feeling compared to a comfy, familiar couch with a stocked fridge nearby, both of which they can call their own.
The community center is a good idea, but there's zero chance they'd be able to provide to the tailored, small-group needs of our youth, Sunday School, and counseling ministries. They couldn't afford to dedicate their space to that narrow of a focus group, nor to meet the special concerns of each individual within that group. But we can, and in doing so we'd fulfill a need that's not being met anywhere else while still being able to support the activities and programs they could provide.
Everything we've talked about is already going on in our youth ministry. That's why it works! We welcome all comers, make sure the pop fridge is stocked with their favorite flavors, invite them to check out the food in the kitchen as if it were theirs. We also use my house extensively to make them feel intimate and at home. Our vision simply formalizes that process and brings it to completion, putting our money where our mouth is, helping our space serve our vibrant ministry and its eager participants.
First up next week...what will this all cost and what steps would we need to take to get there?
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
The major growth in our church's ministry over the last few years has been accomplished in small groups. People feel more attached to our church, God, and each other through things they've done in gatherings of 6-20 people. The description has been "feeling like family" or "feeling like church is home for me now". That doesn't happen the same way in gatherings of 60-100. Those small group moments make a huge difference.
The same has been true of youth ministry. We do run events a few times a year where 20-40 kids come. But most of the bonding happens when 6-12 people show up at the church on a given day. The event attended by 30 serves to publicize those smaller gatherings wherein new people get to know us better.
This is not going to change. Nobody nowadays wants to join an institution. People don't want to belong to a committee. Folks aren't looking to acquire another label to stick on themselves. Instead they want friends, comfort, human interaction. These things are missing in their daily lives. Defining God as welcoming, warm, intimate, and interactive is the best way to reach our friends and neighbors.
Now step back and look at the vision for the parsonage. Every room, every piece of furniture, every proposed use is designed to say the same thing: "Welcome home! And isn't it great?" Without a word being spoken every person who walks in will know that somebody cares. The intimate nature and interactive purpose of each room reinforces that message, providing opportunity for participants to jump in and interact not just with the environment, but with each other.
This differentiates our vision from most attempts at youth ministry. Churches have different priorities when pursuing youth ministry. Some go with education first...what happens in a desk or in front of a blackboard matters most. Others go with entertainment or just giving the kids something to do so they'll "stay out of trouble". All of these approaches assume youth are people to be acted on instead of with, thus they are to be educated or entertained or kept busy. It's almost like they're objects we're trying to manipulate.
The physical spaces church design (or designate) for youth reflect this mindset. When a congregation doesn't care much about youth ministry you get a leftover room somewhere in the back of the church, perhaps furnished with an old couch. The kids have "permission" to "decorate" however they wish because nobody else is going to set foot in that room.
Other congregations go the opposite direction, building special places for youth. The first impulses are, "Well, they'll like a pool table and foosball so we better have a room for that. And classrooms with desks. And a gym!" The kids may like all of those things but the rooms generally end up huge and feel clinical. It's almost as if somebody were speaking in a monotone robot voice, "Here is the pool table inside this room. Is that not nifty for you?"
For us, youth ministry isn't about stuff, nor about making kids think/do/feel a certain way. Nor is it about keeping them occupied so they'll "stay out of trouble" (as if they were hooligans just waiting to turn our town into Lord of the Flies). Our youth ministry is about relationships. Through our holy, amazing, and fun relationships with each other we discover how holy, amazing, and fun God is. The things we employ--games, technology, food, physical space--are there to serve the relationships, not the relationships to serve the things. The same is true with space...it's there to facilitate relationships between people, not just to provide a floor and walls in between which people can do tasks.
That's why this parsonage vision fits so well. We need exactly what the parsonage gives us: intimate, home-like space in which to do our thing together. It feels like home because it was designed to be a home. In this vision we're still using it for that purpose. We're just increasing the number of people who call it that.
This also distinguishes our vision from the drive for a community center converted out of the current Catholic church center. That is a good project too. I hope it succeeds. Our town needs something like that! But it's much different than what we're talking about here.
Look at the purpose for which the Catholic center was built. It was a school, right? That involves large, square rooms. No matter how you redecorate them they're never going to feel like a home, any more than the rooms in our own church basement do. Using the Catholic center for our type of youth ministry would be the same feeling we already have, just in a bigger building.
A community center would actually be great for certain events. Those 30-40 person youth events that we're straining to do in St. John's would work fantastically in a community center. They could probably also house a pool table or ping pong or other things that we'd like and wouldn't have room for. But could a half dozen guys text me at 7:00 at night, then come over and we all go over to the Community Center at the spur of the moment to watch a movie in comfort, feeling like it was their place? Even if we could get access on that short of notice, even if the technology to watch the movie was already set up and they had a room dedicated for that purpose, even if they didn't charge us for the heat and lights we'd use, it still wouldn't facilitate the same kind of bonding. The guys might feel attached to the movie (the task) but they wouldn't have the same kind of interaction and personal feeling they'd get in our converted parsonage.
In some ways our mission statements for use of space would be 180 degrees opposite from a community center. (One of the reasons that having both could be a good idea!) The center would be looking to serve as many people as possible at a time and thus fashioning their large public spaces to be multi-use oriented, covering many purposes with the same rooms. That's the only way such a project will make sense.
We, on the other hand, want to target a single use for each room to facilitate a small number of people using it at any given time. The living room is for talking, the theater for movie-watching, the computer room for playing or study. Many different types of people can use those rooms, of course, but the rooms themselves are 100% dedicated, decorated, and set up for that single purpose.
The community center model is stronger if you're trying to get 60 people to use the building at once for a variety of things. (And obviously they'd have the space to do that too, where the parsonage wouldn't.) But our model is far stronger when gathering 6-20 people for a single purpose, particularly if that purpose involves cozy, intimate interaction.
Neither approach is better than the other. It all depends on who you're trying to serve and how. 40 people eating lunch? Community center. Big pool tables and running around? Community center. 6 guys playing a game? The community center is too big and alien-feeling compared to a comfy, familiar couch with a stocked fridge nearby, both of which they can call their own.
The community center is a good idea, but there's zero chance they'd be able to provide to the tailored, small-group needs of our youth, Sunday School, and counseling ministries. They couldn't afford to dedicate their space to that narrow of a focus group, nor to meet the special concerns of each individual within that group. But we can, and in doing so we'd fulfill a need that's not being met anywhere else while still being able to support the activities and programs they could provide.
Everything we've talked about is already going on in our youth ministry. That's why it works! We welcome all comers, make sure the pop fridge is stocked with their favorite flavors, invite them to check out the food in the kitchen as if it were theirs. We also use my house extensively to make them feel intimate and at home. Our vision simply formalizes that process and brings it to completion, putting our money where our mouth is, helping our space serve our vibrant ministry and its eager participants.
First up next week...what will this all cost and what steps would we need to take to get there?
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
The Vision: How We'd Use the Space Part 2...Downstairs
Yesterday we talked about how we'd use the upstairs parsonage space for various ministries if we converted it for church use. Today we get to the most exciting part of all...the downstairs. You're not going to believe this!
When talking about the upstairs we talked about Sunday School, counseling, small group meetings. We didn't mention the youth much. The youth would use the upstairs for sure. Their Sunday School classes would be there...confirmation too probably. By that long table in the dining room would be a shelf with board games so they could just grab, sit, and play. They'd use the kitchen for food/drinks and the living room for small group meetings just like everybody else. But the really special youth-group-oriented "wow factor" stuff happens downstairs. Here we can do things that nobody else has even thought of...that few youth groups dream of.
When you descend the stairs into the parsonage basement you're in a rectangular room, much wider left to right than it is front to back. Right now we use this as our exercise room. But we've also hung a TV on the wall and it doubles for another purpose: movie watching. In fact the room and TV are so good for this that we actually found some discount movie theater chairs which Brent Studer was kind enough to mount on small risers for us. When you walk into our basement you see five seats just like you'd have in a real cinema, with folding bottoms and arms and cup holders and everything. In fact our chairs are nicer than some of the ones in actual theaters. And they aren't that expensive if you know where to look. The TV is the perfect size for the room. The end effect is that, once seated, you feel like you're in an actual theater.
Now, because we're using the room for more than one purpose we can only fit five seats in there so it's for small-group movie watching only. But if you cleared our stuff out I'm guessing you could fit between 16 and 21 theater seats in that space while keeping a good sight-line to the screen for everybody. That means you'd have Genesee's only actual movie theater in our basement. The screen is there, the player is there, the sound system is set up...it's already ready to go. Imagine movie night actually being MOVIE NIGHT! And all without ever leaving town.
There's also a side area to the main basement room perfect for putting the small pop fridge that's in our church kitchen now. It would be cool to have a couple of the guys maybe build us a cabinet for snacks as well. Without much work our theater now has its own snack bar attached. What could be cooler?
Note also that any Sunday School classes who wanted to use videos could just walk down the stairs and watch!
There are five rooms off of the main basement/theater room. One is a bathroom. Two are unheated and are suitable mostly for storage, but they'd provide a lot of that. The fourth would become the middle-school Sunday School classroom. Again there's plenty of space and storage within this room, just like the upstairs ones.
The fifth and final room would become another youth haven. It's fairly small and rectangular but it's eminently suitable for conversion into a computer room. It's not hard to get slightly older computers and to hook them together through a Local Area Network. You could probably set up 5-6 in that room. Throw in chairs to sit in and you have a dual-purpose homework area and computer game room. The youth and I have several games we like to play together via computer. The problem is, in order to make it work folks have to tear down their desktop computers, bring them over to the parsonage, find a place to set them up, hook up the network...it's an hour of work minimum before we can even start playing. I can't tell you what a blessing it would be to have a half-dozen computers already hooked up and ready to go. We'd say, "Hey, want to do this?" Then we'd walk down there, turn on the computers, and be ready to go. Anybody who needed to do work on a computer for school could also use the system.
Again, we're not talking state-of-the-art computers here, but we don't need those. We have several entertaining games that can be played on computers that are 3-4 years old or older. And those same computers serve well for word processing or internet research. We could probably set up the whole system for the price of one super-duper fancy brand new computer.
Since we talked about Sunday School and counseling last time, let's take a look at what we've given the youth group here. We're not doing things much differently than they normally do. We're talking board games, movies, snacks, video/computer games, and a space to hang out and shoot the breeze. We're just doing the things they already love to do...stuff that comes naturally. In the normal course of things, though, they'd each be doing these things in isolation, alone in their rooms or living rooms without much interaction except through a screen. Making this space available will pull them out of those isolated rooms, get them together, let them interact, give them some adult interaction as well. This space--even if it's just the amazement at being able to go watch a movie in actual theater chairs--will be a reminder that somebody's interested in them and somebody cares...half the battle in any youth ministry. And I guarantee you that the kids who come to use the space will be bragging to their friends around town that they have this...and their friends, by the way, will also be invited.
Next time we're going to talk about the unique characteristics of this project...why nobody (even people who build grand and glorious youth ministry complexes) has anything like this and why maybe they should. We'll also cover how this project is distinct from the also-excellent effort to get a community center going in town and why such an effort--for all the good it would do--would cover different bases than the ones we need for these purposes. Then early next week we'll take a look at the cost (hint: it ain't that much) and what steps, challenges, and obstacles remain between us and making this vision a reality.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
When talking about the upstairs we talked about Sunday School, counseling, small group meetings. We didn't mention the youth much. The youth would use the upstairs for sure. Their Sunday School classes would be there...confirmation too probably. By that long table in the dining room would be a shelf with board games so they could just grab, sit, and play. They'd use the kitchen for food/drinks and the living room for small group meetings just like everybody else. But the really special youth-group-oriented "wow factor" stuff happens downstairs. Here we can do things that nobody else has even thought of...that few youth groups dream of.
When you descend the stairs into the parsonage basement you're in a rectangular room, much wider left to right than it is front to back. Right now we use this as our exercise room. But we've also hung a TV on the wall and it doubles for another purpose: movie watching. In fact the room and TV are so good for this that we actually found some discount movie theater chairs which Brent Studer was kind enough to mount on small risers for us. When you walk into our basement you see five seats just like you'd have in a real cinema, with folding bottoms and arms and cup holders and everything. In fact our chairs are nicer than some of the ones in actual theaters. And they aren't that expensive if you know where to look. The TV is the perfect size for the room. The end effect is that, once seated, you feel like you're in an actual theater.
Now, because we're using the room for more than one purpose we can only fit five seats in there so it's for small-group movie watching only. But if you cleared our stuff out I'm guessing you could fit between 16 and 21 theater seats in that space while keeping a good sight-line to the screen for everybody. That means you'd have Genesee's only actual movie theater in our basement. The screen is there, the player is there, the sound system is set up...it's already ready to go. Imagine movie night actually being MOVIE NIGHT! And all without ever leaving town.
There's also a side area to the main basement room perfect for putting the small pop fridge that's in our church kitchen now. It would be cool to have a couple of the guys maybe build us a cabinet for snacks as well. Without much work our theater now has its own snack bar attached. What could be cooler?
Note also that any Sunday School classes who wanted to use videos could just walk down the stairs and watch!
There are five rooms off of the main basement/theater room. One is a bathroom. Two are unheated and are suitable mostly for storage, but they'd provide a lot of that. The fourth would become the middle-school Sunday School classroom. Again there's plenty of space and storage within this room, just like the upstairs ones.
The fifth and final room would become another youth haven. It's fairly small and rectangular but it's eminently suitable for conversion into a computer room. It's not hard to get slightly older computers and to hook them together through a Local Area Network. You could probably set up 5-6 in that room. Throw in chairs to sit in and you have a dual-purpose homework area and computer game room. The youth and I have several games we like to play together via computer. The problem is, in order to make it work folks have to tear down their desktop computers, bring them over to the parsonage, find a place to set them up, hook up the network...it's an hour of work minimum before we can even start playing. I can't tell you what a blessing it would be to have a half-dozen computers already hooked up and ready to go. We'd say, "Hey, want to do this?" Then we'd walk down there, turn on the computers, and be ready to go. Anybody who needed to do work on a computer for school could also use the system.
Again, we're not talking state-of-the-art computers here, but we don't need those. We have several entertaining games that can be played on computers that are 3-4 years old or older. And those same computers serve well for word processing or internet research. We could probably set up the whole system for the price of one super-duper fancy brand new computer.
Since we talked about Sunday School and counseling last time, let's take a look at what we've given the youth group here. We're not doing things much differently than they normally do. We're talking board games, movies, snacks, video/computer games, and a space to hang out and shoot the breeze. We're just doing the things they already love to do...stuff that comes naturally. In the normal course of things, though, they'd each be doing these things in isolation, alone in their rooms or living rooms without much interaction except through a screen. Making this space available will pull them out of those isolated rooms, get them together, let them interact, give them some adult interaction as well. This space--even if it's just the amazement at being able to go watch a movie in actual theater chairs--will be a reminder that somebody's interested in them and somebody cares...half the battle in any youth ministry. And I guarantee you that the kids who come to use the space will be bragging to their friends around town that they have this...and their friends, by the way, will also be invited.
Next time we're going to talk about the unique characteristics of this project...why nobody (even people who build grand and glorious youth ministry complexes) has anything like this and why maybe they should. We'll also cover how this project is distinct from the also-excellent effort to get a community center going in town and why such an effort--for all the good it would do--would cover different bases than the ones we need for these purposes. Then early next week we'll take a look at the cost (hint: it ain't that much) and what steps, challenges, and obstacles remain between us and making this vision a reality.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The Vision: How We'd Use the Space Part 1...Upstairs
Last week we talked about the need for a new vision at our church and how that need has intersected with the demands of ministry here to create a long-range plan for converting the church parsonage to ministry use. Today's question: What would that actually look like? How would we use the space and why would it make a difference?
I experimented with different ways of presenting this visually...taking pictures, drawing plans. Nothing is converting quite right to our blog space right now, at least not in the time and energy I have to devote to the project. We'll figure out a way to do that soon. For now, a description will have to suffice.
As you walk in the front door of the parsonage you first notice a door to your left. This leads to a small room now being used as 2-year-old Ali's bedroom. At one point it was the church office. I don't know what it was before that.
In our new vision, this room becomes the space for counseling with the pastor: crisis counseling, marriage counseling, or just chatting.
It's a dirty little secret of our church now...we don't have any space suitable for meeting with the pastor. The sanctuary is far too large and there's no way to sit facing each other. The fellowship hall is also too large, giving no feeling of intimacy. It's also exposed to anyone who walks in the door so there's no privacy. But the smaller, more private back rooms are dark, furnished with metal chairs and industrial tables, sided with dark brown paneling covered with Sunday School material (as they're Sunday School rooms now). When you're feeling emotionally vulnerably they're a little like sitting in a dungeon.
This is not to disparage the building nor the work that went into those rooms. There's nothing wrong with them intrinsically. They're just not suited at all for the purpose we're trying to put them to. When you come in for counseling, feeling that vulnerability, you need a place that's fairly contained size-wise, well-lit, private, and decorated in pleasing, comfortable fashion. Anything else makes you feel ill-at-ease. That dissonance puts you at a disadvantage and makes it harder to connect with the counseling.
Right now I choose the lesser of all of these evils and meet with people in the fellowship hall. There's too much space, the chairs aren't right, the tables interfere, and that parking lot door looms in threatening fashion but at least it's well-lit. The light is the only psychological advantage but without it none of the rest matters much.
The room off the parsonage entryway, however, needs but a throw rug, a comfy love seat, and a couple chairs to make it work. The size is right. It's not hard to light. It'll be a 500% improvement over anything we have, allowing people coming to us in need to feel comfortable, protected, secure.
I experimented with different ways of presenting this visually...taking pictures, drawing plans. Nothing is converting quite right to our blog space right now, at least not in the time and energy I have to devote to the project. We'll figure out a way to do that soon. For now, a description will have to suffice.
The Counseling Space
As you walk in the front door of the parsonage you first notice a door to your left. This leads to a small room now being used as 2-year-old Ali's bedroom. At one point it was the church office. I don't know what it was before that.
In our new vision, this room becomes the space for counseling with the pastor: crisis counseling, marriage counseling, or just chatting.
It's a dirty little secret of our church now...we don't have any space suitable for meeting with the pastor. The sanctuary is far too large and there's no way to sit facing each other. The fellowship hall is also too large, giving no feeling of intimacy. It's also exposed to anyone who walks in the door so there's no privacy. But the smaller, more private back rooms are dark, furnished with metal chairs and industrial tables, sided with dark brown paneling covered with Sunday School material (as they're Sunday School rooms now). When you're feeling emotionally vulnerably they're a little like sitting in a dungeon.
This is not to disparage the building nor the work that went into those rooms. There's nothing wrong with them intrinsically. They're just not suited at all for the purpose we're trying to put them to. When you come in for counseling, feeling that vulnerability, you need a place that's fairly contained size-wise, well-lit, private, and decorated in pleasing, comfortable fashion. Anything else makes you feel ill-at-ease. That dissonance puts you at a disadvantage and makes it harder to connect with the counseling.
Right now I choose the lesser of all of these evils and meet with people in the fellowship hall. There's too much space, the chairs aren't right, the tables interfere, and that parking lot door looms in threatening fashion but at least it's well-lit. The light is the only psychological advantage but without it none of the rest matters much.
The room off the parsonage entryway, however, needs but a throw rug, a comfy love seat, and a couple chairs to make it work. The size is right. It's not hard to light. It'll be a 500% improvement over anything we have, allowing people coming to us in need to feel comfortable, protected, secure.
The Small Group Spaces
The next thing you see as you walk in the parsonage is the living room/dining room area. These are ready to go pretty much as-is.
As we've gotten to know each other better several small groups have sprung up among our ministries. Craft group, Bible Studies, Theology on Tap, Council/Committe meetings, and various youth group events are all examples. These groups suffer from the same issue that people in need of counseling do, no suitable space. The problems are the same: rooms too big or too small, lighting, comfort, ability to see each other and interact.
In our new vision the living room becomes a seating space for conversation. Couches and chairs will ring the perimeter, creating a natural and comfortable circle. Right now we get the "comfortable circle" feeling when we hold Theology on Tap and the dividends show. Those of you who have been to those meetings, can you imagine having them in the Fellowship Hall? You'd never approach that level of intimacy in those quarters. With the parsonage living room all ready to go, every meeting can start with that Theology on Tap feeling. We might also mount a small TV on the wall in case Bible Studies wanted to use video as part of their discussion.
In the dining room space we have a long table. This can be used for any meetings that require a flat surface upon which to work and is also available for more formal meetings such as council. It goes without saying that you could eat at this table as well.
Living room and dining room would probably double as Sunday School space for the High School class, as their curriculum involves discussion more than crafts or moving around.
The Kitchen
Located behind the dining room, the kitchen remains fully operational. That means pop, snacks, coffee, or even the capacity to prepare a meal are only steps away from any room. There's plenty of counter space, stove, microwave, fridge, sink...everything you'd need.
Bathroom
There's a bathroom just down the hall and one in the basement as well. No need to run over to the church!
Sunday School Rooms
At the end of the hall past the basement are two comparatively large rooms which would become Sunday School rooms. They're bigger and brighter than the current ones with plenty of wall space, room for crafts, space to move, and storage right there in the rooms. Plus Sunday School classes would have access to all the other amenities of the building: kitchen, TV's ready to go, and the downstairs equipment too. The combination of space, light, storage, and available technology would be a dramatic change for our Sunday School teachers compared to the conditions in which they work now. Our biggest class doesn't even have its own space! They have to work in the Fellowship Hall with people coming in, out, through, and around all the time. Having their own room would just be...dreamy.
Already we've addressed multiple church ministry needs and we haven't even gotten to the most exciting parts yet. Wait until you see what happens downstairs! To be continued...
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Vision: The "Why's" Part 2
Yesterday we introduced our new Vision for the future direction of our church: converting the church parsonage into a youth/Sunday School/counseling center. We addressed some of the "why's" of that vision by discussing the nature of, and theology behind, our youth program...the things that make it work. Hopefully by reading that you understand the difference between the kids having a home and just having a place among us.
At least half the youth gatherings currently happen in the parsonage anyway. It's more or less a necessity. Part of that is psychological. The same events that seem so natural sitting on a couch in a furnished house and an appropriately-sized room seem weird when held in a more clinical, less-comfortably-furnished, inappropriately-sized place. The Fellowship Hall is too big for the things we do, the back basement rooms too dark and small. Metal chairs are the only seating option in either, quite uncomfortable if you're spending more than a couple hours on an event. Practicality rears its head too. For example, you can't watch a movie in any of the church rooms. There's no sight lines in the hall, no space in the back rooms. Plus there's no equipment to show the Blu-Rays on which we have most of our movies and no speakers for sound. The parsonage has all of these things plus chairs, couches, a comfortable environment. It already feels like home in a way the church rooms never could.
Another quick example: you should have seen the kids beam when some of the ladies of the church got them their own fridge for pop. It was the first space that they could call their own. They couldn't believe how lucky they were and you wouldn't believe how much easier it is for them to grab pops now than it was when the soda sat on somebody else's counter or in somebody else's fridge. Even that much of a home--one appliance--made a huge difference.
For all these reasons and more, if an event is going to last more than a couple hours, if it requires any kind of technology, or if it's any smaller than a dozen people we just hold it in the parsonage.
The next natural question: OK, so that's worked so far. Why change now?
It has worked so far but we need to consider two important things:
1. At whose expense has it worked?
2. Will it continue to work?
The simple answers: at the expense of me and my family and, for various reasons, no it won't.
The first reason it won't work is a happy one. We're experiencing the same "problem" we had a few years ago. We're starting to have too many events and too many kids to contain in my house. People are feeling welcome. They're inviting friends. Those friends are discovering our church and inviting more friends. On New Year's Eve, through simple word of mouth, we had 19 people show up for a couple of movies. 10 sat on our couch, 3-4 more in chairs behind the couch, another bunch sprawled out on the floor.
This is great, but realistically my house can't accommodate that many people while remaining my house. We have too many things in the way, not enough seats, etc. In practical terms that leaves me choosing between kids, deciding who to notify about events and who to not mention them to.
To be clear, we never turn anybody away. That's a firm rule of mine. Anybody who comes can stay. But that also means that I can't broadcast certain events very widely otherwise we'll be overrun. Usually how it works is somebody will text me and ask if I have time to do something on a given day. I'll say, "Yes" and tell them about how many friends they can invite. I know, then, that I can't let anybody else know.
Obviously this is not ideal as far as youth evangelism. The people who text me most often get to come most often. Those slower on the draw get left out. Since I get texted quite often and my calendar fills quickly I seldom get to make it up to those who are left out. Not having a dedicated youth space is causing us to pick and choose who we'll serve instead of being able to take all comers. It's limiting the effectiveness and growth of this ministry.
The second reason the current system won't work anymore is my family. Before Derek came along this was easy. Careen would just join in on the activity or curl up somewhere with a book while the youth and I hung out. When Derek was a baby it wasn't so bad either, as all he needed to be happy was mom close by. Now Derek is 5 and Ali is 2. They need their space. They need their house. Ali sleeps four feet away from where we watch movies at night. Careen is just down the hall and hears youth having fun at midnight when she has to get up early with the kids. If I want to have an event in the daytime I have to ask my family to leave the house in order to make it work, as the kids can't be underfoot nor can we just lock them in their rooms for four hours. I've made this request multiple times. How many times can that happen before it starts being unfair?
I'm starting to have to reject youth events for this reason. For example, last year we had a very successful movie and dinner night for High School youth. It was fantastic and well-attended. We wanted to start it again this year, to build on that success. But I couldn't do it. I sat down and looked at having Careen and the kids leave the house every second Sunday and I finally decided I had to draw the line. So we're not doing it. The sad part is, that event was drawing kids we don't always see at the other events. But what can I do?
This may sound self-serving but I think I've earned the right to say it. For years I've sacrificed and done, by most accounts, an amazing job ministering with these kids. There's been no mystery to it. I've given them the time, energy, and space that they needed to flourish and enjoy themselves among us. But this has been on the backs of me and my family. We have been paying for this vital ministry. We've shown it can be done. We've demonstrated why it's not only good, but indispensable to our church. How long do we have to keep paying the price to show that to everybody else?
At a certain point the church has to decide whether it thinks this ministry is vital enough to support. If the answer is "no", then I've been wasting my time with this (at least from a church perspective) and I need to stop doing it. But if the answer is "yes" it's time to throw our support behind this ministry...for everybody to throw in some support for it. I'm eager and willing to continue growing the ministry and working with the youth of our town but I can't keep doing it without the right tools and space. And I can't keep making my family pay--not just financially but by sacrificing their home--for something the whole church should be supporting.
We haven't even talked about the Sunday School and counseling aspects of this Vision. We will do that next time when we lay out the floor plan and what the final product would probably look like. And you should get excited about that, because it is way...cool.
As always, feel free to ask questions and make comments in the comment section below or via e-mail.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
At least half the youth gatherings currently happen in the parsonage anyway. It's more or less a necessity. Part of that is psychological. The same events that seem so natural sitting on a couch in a furnished house and an appropriately-sized room seem weird when held in a more clinical, less-comfortably-furnished, inappropriately-sized place. The Fellowship Hall is too big for the things we do, the back basement rooms too dark and small. Metal chairs are the only seating option in either, quite uncomfortable if you're spending more than a couple hours on an event. Practicality rears its head too. For example, you can't watch a movie in any of the church rooms. There's no sight lines in the hall, no space in the back rooms. Plus there's no equipment to show the Blu-Rays on which we have most of our movies and no speakers for sound. The parsonage has all of these things plus chairs, couches, a comfortable environment. It already feels like home in a way the church rooms never could.
Another quick example: you should have seen the kids beam when some of the ladies of the church got them their own fridge for pop. It was the first space that they could call their own. They couldn't believe how lucky they were and you wouldn't believe how much easier it is for them to grab pops now than it was when the soda sat on somebody else's counter or in somebody else's fridge. Even that much of a home--one appliance--made a huge difference.
For all these reasons and more, if an event is going to last more than a couple hours, if it requires any kind of technology, or if it's any smaller than a dozen people we just hold it in the parsonage.
The next natural question: OK, so that's worked so far. Why change now?
It has worked so far but we need to consider two important things:
1. At whose expense has it worked?
2. Will it continue to work?
The simple answers: at the expense of me and my family and, for various reasons, no it won't.
The first reason it won't work is a happy one. We're experiencing the same "problem" we had a few years ago. We're starting to have too many events and too many kids to contain in my house. People are feeling welcome. They're inviting friends. Those friends are discovering our church and inviting more friends. On New Year's Eve, through simple word of mouth, we had 19 people show up for a couple of movies. 10 sat on our couch, 3-4 more in chairs behind the couch, another bunch sprawled out on the floor.
This is great, but realistically my house can't accommodate that many people while remaining my house. We have too many things in the way, not enough seats, etc. In practical terms that leaves me choosing between kids, deciding who to notify about events and who to not mention them to.
To be clear, we never turn anybody away. That's a firm rule of mine. Anybody who comes can stay. But that also means that I can't broadcast certain events very widely otherwise we'll be overrun. Usually how it works is somebody will text me and ask if I have time to do something on a given day. I'll say, "Yes" and tell them about how many friends they can invite. I know, then, that I can't let anybody else know.
Obviously this is not ideal as far as youth evangelism. The people who text me most often get to come most often. Those slower on the draw get left out. Since I get texted quite often and my calendar fills quickly I seldom get to make it up to those who are left out. Not having a dedicated youth space is causing us to pick and choose who we'll serve instead of being able to take all comers. It's limiting the effectiveness and growth of this ministry.
The second reason the current system won't work anymore is my family. Before Derek came along this was easy. Careen would just join in on the activity or curl up somewhere with a book while the youth and I hung out. When Derek was a baby it wasn't so bad either, as all he needed to be happy was mom close by. Now Derek is 5 and Ali is 2. They need their space. They need their house. Ali sleeps four feet away from where we watch movies at night. Careen is just down the hall and hears youth having fun at midnight when she has to get up early with the kids. If I want to have an event in the daytime I have to ask my family to leave the house in order to make it work, as the kids can't be underfoot nor can we just lock them in their rooms for four hours. I've made this request multiple times. How many times can that happen before it starts being unfair?
I'm starting to have to reject youth events for this reason. For example, last year we had a very successful movie and dinner night for High School youth. It was fantastic and well-attended. We wanted to start it again this year, to build on that success. But I couldn't do it. I sat down and looked at having Careen and the kids leave the house every second Sunday and I finally decided I had to draw the line. So we're not doing it. The sad part is, that event was drawing kids we don't always see at the other events. But what can I do?
This may sound self-serving but I think I've earned the right to say it. For years I've sacrificed and done, by most accounts, an amazing job ministering with these kids. There's been no mystery to it. I've given them the time, energy, and space that they needed to flourish and enjoy themselves among us. But this has been on the backs of me and my family. We have been paying for this vital ministry. We've shown it can be done. We've demonstrated why it's not only good, but indispensable to our church. How long do we have to keep paying the price to show that to everybody else?
At a certain point the church has to decide whether it thinks this ministry is vital enough to support. If the answer is "no", then I've been wasting my time with this (at least from a church perspective) and I need to stop doing it. But if the answer is "yes" it's time to throw our support behind this ministry...for everybody to throw in some support for it. I'm eager and willing to continue growing the ministry and working with the youth of our town but I can't keep doing it without the right tools and space. And I can't keep making my family pay--not just financially but by sacrificing their home--for something the whole church should be supporting.
We haven't even talked about the Sunday School and counseling aspects of this Vision. We will do that next time when we lay out the floor plan and what the final product would probably look like. And you should get excited about that, because it is way...cool.
As always, feel free to ask questions and make comments in the comment section below or via e-mail.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
The Vision: The "Why's" Part 1
As you've probably heard, the new vision that we talked about in Sunday's annual meeting involves converting the parsonage into a center for youth ministry, Sunday School, and counseling. My family and I would move to a different house, clearing space for those ministries to flourish. We'll talk about what such a center would look like plus the steps we'd need to take to get there in subsequent posts. For now, let's just cover the "whys" of this vision.
Those present at the annual meeting saw a short film showing some of the youth who come to our church in order to participate in its ministries. We only caught the ones who were there when we were filming our Sunday School movies. We still managed to catch 17 youth on camera. Very few of those came specifically to do the movie project. We just recruited kids who had come to hang out and do other things. That's 17 youth picked up more or less randomly in just four months of filming. We actually have contact with more.
Why do these youth come to be with us? Over the years people have attributed it to me. I'll take some of the credit, as I've made this a priority...seeing the great need. But really, it's not my personality that draws them. It's our theology meeting their need.
Our teenagers are growing up in a world we never imagined. They have more information, more choices, available to them than we ever did. Their lives are also more organized, scheduled, and goal-directed than ours ever were. This combination means they also have less real, human interaction than we ever got, especially with adults. Much of their time is spent in isolation, in front of a screen of one sort or another. They have a connection to a game or social network or what have you but it's through electronics, not face to face. They also have adults aplenty in their lives but all of those adults want something from or for them. Parents are parents...they want what's best for their children and feel the responsibility to raise them right. Teachers are under pressure to get these kids to meet standards. Coaches are under pressure to get them to win games. Bosses are under pressure to get them to learn their jobs well. None of this is wrong. But put it all together and every relationship with adults kids experience comes freighted with performance expectations.
Now consider that kids nowadays are involved in one or another of these pursuits non-stop, as society has decided that "idle hands make the devil's work". Imagine this was your life: get up, eat breakfast quickly, shuttle to band practice, school, after-school activity, sports practice or game, home, eat, do homework, try to find an hour or two for leisure (staying up late to get it), collapse into sleep, get up and do it again. Imagine every adult in your life was in the business of making sure you stay (and succeed) on this treadmill.
What would you need or want most? What would benefit you? Where would you find God in a different, meaningful way?
What if your church made God into one more demand on your time? Come on Sunday. Worship. Learn this. Serve there. Sit down and memorize, there will be a test. Would that God be meaningful to you? Likely he'd be the equivalent of your latest math assignment.
Here's what we tell the kids. Come. The door is always open. When you have free time--on your schedule and not just ours--text and you're welcome to come over. Sit down. Relax. Grab a pop...you know there's always some there for you. Now, what do you want to do? Play a board game? D&D? Computer game? Just shoot the breeze? Watch a movie? It's all good. Oh, and bring your friends too.
In the course of this the kids get a chance to relax. As they relax they open up, chat about their days and lives. There's an adult there, relatively expectation-free, just to interact with them and enjoy them. They're accepted. They're loved. They're home.
In this process, they learn more about what it means to be in relationship with each other, with me, and ultimately with God. We don't sit them down in a classroom and teach them things about God (except in Confirmation and Sunday School, where that's exactly what we do). Instead we show them God in the welcome invitation, in the gathering of friends, in the safe environment, in the unconditional love, in sticking with them through troubles and celebrating their successes.
We don't teach them about God in a classroom with a chalkboard because they won't spend most of their lives in a classroom in front of a chalkboard. We teach them where God is in the things they do every day. In this they learn that being holy and living well doesn't mean giving up everything that you love, it means finding ways to do the things that you love in godly fashion. Godliness is woven in the fabric of their actions: learning to play together, talk together, laugh and cry and fight and fear and explore together.
This method of evangelism takes longer than traditional methods. What a classroom-person tries to teach in 45 minutes takes me years of patience, listening, walking with these kids. But coming out the other side I believe we have more to show for it...not a God who lives in a building apart from their lives but a God who's with them every day just like that pastor was.
I get calls several times a year from folks who have now gone on to college and beyond, asking for advice or confessing troubles or needing help. The lesson isn't over when class ends and neither is the connection. It continues for a lifetime.
I'm firmly convinced that this is the best, if not the only, way to reach out to and nurture youth in today's environment. The fact that most of them love every minute of it, seek it out and invite their friends, bears that out. When we really get rolling I simply can't keep up with it all. At certain times during the year I'll have four separate semi-formal get-togethers with kids during a week and then one or two spontaneous ones. It's hectic, it's exhausting, it's a blast, and it's so worth it because it makes a difference.
There's seldom a single moment where you can point and say, "Aha! I see what they're doing there!" Mostly it just looks like doing normal stuff...which is the whole point. But string along that normal stuff long enough and meaningful relationships grow. A leaf just looks like a leaf, but step back and you'll see the whole garden growing around it.
That's how we do youth ministry here. That's why it works. Recently we've been given yet another opportunity, another influx of young friends knocking at our doors asking if we have time for them. We need to say yes...for their sake, for the sake of our church, and most of all for the sake of God who invited them to knock (whether they know it or not). This vision is that "YES!"
Next: The "Whys" Part 2: Why this vision? Why the parsonage plays a crucial role in this ministry, how it's worked so far, and why things are changing.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Those present at the annual meeting saw a short film showing some of the youth who come to our church in order to participate in its ministries. We only caught the ones who were there when we were filming our Sunday School movies. We still managed to catch 17 youth on camera. Very few of those came specifically to do the movie project. We just recruited kids who had come to hang out and do other things. That's 17 youth picked up more or less randomly in just four months of filming. We actually have contact with more.
Why do these youth come to be with us? Over the years people have attributed it to me. I'll take some of the credit, as I've made this a priority...seeing the great need. But really, it's not my personality that draws them. It's our theology meeting their need.
Our teenagers are growing up in a world we never imagined. They have more information, more choices, available to them than we ever did. Their lives are also more organized, scheduled, and goal-directed than ours ever were. This combination means they also have less real, human interaction than we ever got, especially with adults. Much of their time is spent in isolation, in front of a screen of one sort or another. They have a connection to a game or social network or what have you but it's through electronics, not face to face. They also have adults aplenty in their lives but all of those adults want something from or for them. Parents are parents...they want what's best for their children and feel the responsibility to raise them right. Teachers are under pressure to get these kids to meet standards. Coaches are under pressure to get them to win games. Bosses are under pressure to get them to learn their jobs well. None of this is wrong. But put it all together and every relationship with adults kids experience comes freighted with performance expectations.
Now consider that kids nowadays are involved in one or another of these pursuits non-stop, as society has decided that "idle hands make the devil's work". Imagine this was your life: get up, eat breakfast quickly, shuttle to band practice, school, after-school activity, sports practice or game, home, eat, do homework, try to find an hour or two for leisure (staying up late to get it), collapse into sleep, get up and do it again. Imagine every adult in your life was in the business of making sure you stay (and succeed) on this treadmill.
What would you need or want most? What would benefit you? Where would you find God in a different, meaningful way?
What if your church made God into one more demand on your time? Come on Sunday. Worship. Learn this. Serve there. Sit down and memorize, there will be a test. Would that God be meaningful to you? Likely he'd be the equivalent of your latest math assignment.
Here's what we tell the kids. Come. The door is always open. When you have free time--on your schedule and not just ours--text and you're welcome to come over. Sit down. Relax. Grab a pop...you know there's always some there for you. Now, what do you want to do? Play a board game? D&D? Computer game? Just shoot the breeze? Watch a movie? It's all good. Oh, and bring your friends too.
In the course of this the kids get a chance to relax. As they relax they open up, chat about their days and lives. There's an adult there, relatively expectation-free, just to interact with them and enjoy them. They're accepted. They're loved. They're home.
In this process, they learn more about what it means to be in relationship with each other, with me, and ultimately with God. We don't sit them down in a classroom and teach them things about God (except in Confirmation and Sunday School, where that's exactly what we do). Instead we show them God in the welcome invitation, in the gathering of friends, in the safe environment, in the unconditional love, in sticking with them through troubles and celebrating their successes.
We don't teach them about God in a classroom with a chalkboard because they won't spend most of their lives in a classroom in front of a chalkboard. We teach them where God is in the things they do every day. In this they learn that being holy and living well doesn't mean giving up everything that you love, it means finding ways to do the things that you love in godly fashion. Godliness is woven in the fabric of their actions: learning to play together, talk together, laugh and cry and fight and fear and explore together.
This method of evangelism takes longer than traditional methods. What a classroom-person tries to teach in 45 minutes takes me years of patience, listening, walking with these kids. But coming out the other side I believe we have more to show for it...not a God who lives in a building apart from their lives but a God who's with them every day just like that pastor was.
I get calls several times a year from folks who have now gone on to college and beyond, asking for advice or confessing troubles or needing help. The lesson isn't over when class ends and neither is the connection. It continues for a lifetime.
I'm firmly convinced that this is the best, if not the only, way to reach out to and nurture youth in today's environment. The fact that most of them love every minute of it, seek it out and invite their friends, bears that out. When we really get rolling I simply can't keep up with it all. At certain times during the year I'll have four separate semi-formal get-togethers with kids during a week and then one or two spontaneous ones. It's hectic, it's exhausting, it's a blast, and it's so worth it because it makes a difference.
There's seldom a single moment where you can point and say, "Aha! I see what they're doing there!" Mostly it just looks like doing normal stuff...which is the whole point. But string along that normal stuff long enough and meaningful relationships grow. A leaf just looks like a leaf, but step back and you'll see the whole garden growing around it.
That's how we do youth ministry here. That's why it works. Recently we've been given yet another opportunity, another influx of young friends knocking at our doors asking if we have time for them. We need to say yes...for their sake, for the sake of our church, and most of all for the sake of God who invited them to knock (whether they know it or not). This vision is that "YES!"
Next: The "Whys" Part 2: Why this vision? Why the parsonage plays a crucial role in this ministry, how it's worked so far, and why things are changing.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Monday, January 28, 2013
Monday Morning Sermon: Hearing the Call
This week brought us the Third Sunday after Epiphany as well as our Annual Meeting in which we shared the first fruits of our vision process. We're going to talk a bunch more about that vision as the week progresses but we'll begin where we always begin--where we began our vision too--with scripture. The gospel text this Sunday came from Luke 4:
Except we didn't hear the rest of the story. The rest of Luke 4 tells us how Jesus' friends and neighbors in Nazareth refused to listen when he spoke plainly. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. When he scolded them by reminding them that the great prophets Elijah and Elisha--from their own history--weren't sent to the hometown folks but to foreigners in Sidon and Syria, the people of Nazareth got so angry that they drove him out of town and tried to toss him off a cliff. (The ancient equivalent of de-friending someone.)
How could they miss it??? Jesus was right in front of them! They knew him better than anyone, as he had grown up among them!
Those who have participated in our Thursday-night class on Lutheran basics will know the answer. The world tells you that you see and understand, then you have faith. In reality you have faith, then you see and understand.
Those Nazareth folks weren't ready to hear the scripture, let alone see its fulfillment. They were probably just fine with God as long as God stayed in his accustomed place. Come to the Synagogue on the Sabbath, hear a few things, be good people, then go back to real life. That was the pattern. When God leaped off that page and into their lives they weren't ready. They couldn't see him. They wouldn't hear him. They had a carpenter's son in front of them and that's all they wanted to see. They refused anything else.
They're not alone, of course. We instinctively feel the same way about God. Keep him in church and keep the church mostly the same and we're happy. When God steps beyond his accustomed boundaries, calls us to something different than we expect, we get nervous, annoyed. Sometimes we'd sooner toss him off a cliff than follow him.
But God doesn't settle for remaining in a book or a church, any more than Jesus settled for being the carpenter's kid and not the Messiah. He comes into our lives and disrupts them. He insists on uplifting the poor, un-free, oppressed, blind, and disadvantaged because we are those people. In the process he calls us to do the same for each other, which means dealing with people and issues we'd rather leave be. But that's not our calling.
We have begun a calling to a new mission at the Genesee Lutheran Parish. It's a calling of faith and service. It can't be proven, nor our fears over it resolved. Like Jesus standing before us, it can only be believed in and trusted.
Join us this week as we talk about that vision together. Bring your questions and thoughts. Also realize that this vision stems from scripture and the ways in which the Word of God intersects the people in our community. We have a holy calling. That calling will involve thought, work, and plenty of steps to fulfill. Pack up and get ready for the journey, then travel along with us as we begin its first steps.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.What an amazing proclamation from Jesus! "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." How often does God tip his hand like that? How many of us have wished that God would just come to us, speak plainly, tell us what we need to hear? Right here, in this gospel story, he did it! Yaaaaayyyyyy!
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Except we didn't hear the rest of the story. The rest of Luke 4 tells us how Jesus' friends and neighbors in Nazareth refused to listen when he spoke plainly. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. When he scolded them by reminding them that the great prophets Elijah and Elisha--from their own history--weren't sent to the hometown folks but to foreigners in Sidon and Syria, the people of Nazareth got so angry that they drove him out of town and tried to toss him off a cliff. (The ancient equivalent of de-friending someone.)
How could they miss it??? Jesus was right in front of them! They knew him better than anyone, as he had grown up among them!
Those who have participated in our Thursday-night class on Lutheran basics will know the answer. The world tells you that you see and understand, then you have faith. In reality you have faith, then you see and understand.
Those Nazareth folks weren't ready to hear the scripture, let alone see its fulfillment. They were probably just fine with God as long as God stayed in his accustomed place. Come to the Synagogue on the Sabbath, hear a few things, be good people, then go back to real life. That was the pattern. When God leaped off that page and into their lives they weren't ready. They couldn't see him. They wouldn't hear him. They had a carpenter's son in front of them and that's all they wanted to see. They refused anything else.
They're not alone, of course. We instinctively feel the same way about God. Keep him in church and keep the church mostly the same and we're happy. When God steps beyond his accustomed boundaries, calls us to something different than we expect, we get nervous, annoyed. Sometimes we'd sooner toss him off a cliff than follow him.
But God doesn't settle for remaining in a book or a church, any more than Jesus settled for being the carpenter's kid and not the Messiah. He comes into our lives and disrupts them. He insists on uplifting the poor, un-free, oppressed, blind, and disadvantaged because we are those people. In the process he calls us to do the same for each other, which means dealing with people and issues we'd rather leave be. But that's not our calling.
We have begun a calling to a new mission at the Genesee Lutheran Parish. It's a calling of faith and service. It can't be proven, nor our fears over it resolved. Like Jesus standing before us, it can only be believed in and trusted.
Join us this week as we talk about that vision together. Bring your questions and thoughts. Also realize that this vision stems from scripture and the ways in which the Word of God intersects the people in our community. We have a holy calling. That calling will involve thought, work, and plenty of steps to fulfill. Pack up and get ready for the journey, then travel along with us as we begin its first steps.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Monday, January 14, 2013
Annual Meeting January 27th: A New Vision
Our congregation's annual meeting will be held Sunday, January 27th following worship. A couple things to know:
1. It's a potluck this year. Bring food if you can.
2. This will be the most important annual meeting we've had in a while. We're going to discuss some ideas, visions really, for moving forward with our mission.
It may not seem like it on the surface, but we're at a critical juncture at our church. We've spent the last few years figuring out who we are, building up energy, supporting each other. We've done a good job of that, I think. We've got vibrant things going on in youth, music, Sunday School, and small-group ministries. Worship is diverse and interesting. Most of all, we've got a warm, family feeling. People enjoy seeing each other and doing ministry together. Our church family has discovered that we're strong and Spirit-filled.
Add together all of that and you've got a big ball of energy sitting in our midst. But unless that energy is directed towards something, it will eventually dissipate. This is the mistake many churches make. They go through a feel-good cycle and assume that feeling good is its own purpose. They don't make the connection that we're given Spirit and energy so we can go out and do something with them, channeling God's gifts into service. Failing to follow the Spirit into vision, they begin to associate the good feeling with themselves: their people, their programs and projects, their "church". Those people and programs, the church as an institution, become the center of mission. People end up doing church for its own sake, trying to protect what they have instead of letting it evolve. But then people move away, programs get old, the good feeling slips, and all of a sudden everybody's living in the past instead of anticipating the future. The energy departs. Sometimes there's another boom cycle but sometimes the church just dwindles.
The corrective to all of this is a vision for the future...a place to invest the energy, a purpose beyond ourselves. Vision unites us--and many more people beyond the borders of the congregation--through what we do together. That's not only a better use our Spirit and energy, it's a stronger bond. Without vision we're stuck in the present, looking towards the past and keeping it alive. With vision we're always moving towards God's future.
We've done well over the past few years, but it's time. We're gathered, we've been equipped, we feel strength from each other. Our work over these years has not been to make ourselves feel better or to look good. We've been preparing for a journey. The first steps will hopefully come from this annual meeting. Adopting a new vision will be the tipping point that frees us from what was, gets us looking beyond what is, and propels us into the things God would have us be. We have plenty of work ahead of us. It's time to take it up and follow God's Spirit into the future.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
1. It's a potluck this year. Bring food if you can.
2. This will be the most important annual meeting we've had in a while. We're going to discuss some ideas, visions really, for moving forward with our mission.
It may not seem like it on the surface, but we're at a critical juncture at our church. We've spent the last few years figuring out who we are, building up energy, supporting each other. We've done a good job of that, I think. We've got vibrant things going on in youth, music, Sunday School, and small-group ministries. Worship is diverse and interesting. Most of all, we've got a warm, family feeling. People enjoy seeing each other and doing ministry together. Our church family has discovered that we're strong and Spirit-filled.
Add together all of that and you've got a big ball of energy sitting in our midst. But unless that energy is directed towards something, it will eventually dissipate. This is the mistake many churches make. They go through a feel-good cycle and assume that feeling good is its own purpose. They don't make the connection that we're given Spirit and energy so we can go out and do something with them, channeling God's gifts into service. Failing to follow the Spirit into vision, they begin to associate the good feeling with themselves: their people, their programs and projects, their "church". Those people and programs, the church as an institution, become the center of mission. People end up doing church for its own sake, trying to protect what they have instead of letting it evolve. But then people move away, programs get old, the good feeling slips, and all of a sudden everybody's living in the past instead of anticipating the future. The energy departs. Sometimes there's another boom cycle but sometimes the church just dwindles.
The corrective to all of this is a vision for the future...a place to invest the energy, a purpose beyond ourselves. Vision unites us--and many more people beyond the borders of the congregation--through what we do together. That's not only a better use our Spirit and energy, it's a stronger bond. Without vision we're stuck in the present, looking towards the past and keeping it alive. With vision we're always moving towards God's future.
We've done well over the past few years, but it's time. We're gathered, we've been equipped, we feel strength from each other. Our work over these years has not been to make ourselves feel better or to look good. We've been preparing for a journey. The first steps will hopefully come from this annual meeting. Adopting a new vision will be the tipping point that frees us from what was, gets us looking beyond what is, and propels us into the things God would have us be. We have plenty of work ahead of us. It's time to take it up and follow God's Spirit into the future.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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