Something New

Tonight I am up late learning a new video editing software suite for my online work.  The whole process reminds me what a wonderful pain in the tuckus change is.

When it's done, this new tool is going to save me tons of time and stress over the old way I was doing things.  But even though the old way was arduous, I had gotten used to suffering in that particular way, you know?  I knew exactly the ways the system would be slow, exactly the hiccups and exactly where they'd occur.  It got to the point where I could time other work in between the annoying stalls I'd encounter.  I knew where the system would break down and I learned to take advantage of it!

This new way won't have the disadvantages of the old, a development for which I'm grateful!  But right now as I'm slogging through instruction manuals and trying to find where to drag this and which button to push for that and why my computer is telling me I can't do this other thing...UGH!  Right now it's taking me at least as long to accomplish my task in this new, "streamlined" way as it would have if I had just used the old system.  That's not because the new way is slow, just that I haven't learned it yet.

At this moment I'm experiencing considerable temptation to go back and do it the old way, the way I'm familiar with.  I say this even knowing that the old way is inferior.  The only thing keeping me from putting down the new booklet and retreating is the knowledge that if I do it, the process will never...get...better.  A couple weeks from now I'll be a wiz-bang student of this new system and then my work will fly by.  But if I give it up, that'll never happen.

Isn't this true of most every change, though?  Plenty of times in church we do things because "we've always done them that way".  We forget to examine who our methods, processes, and systems are serving.  We put up with plenty of detours and inefficiencies because it seems like more of a pain to change them than to just make the mistakes we're all familiar with.

But the same lesson applies here too.  The only way forward is to endure the pain of change, to face that fear and soldier onward.  It'll be hard the first couple times you do anything differently.  But walking through difficulties and resolving them without giving up are the only ways of making life better.  Getting comfortable with shortcomings that should be resolved--whether in business, your personal life, or the life of faith--is a road to nowhere.  It looks straight and it's easy to walk, but you're going to be walking that same path 90 years from now not having learned or changed a thing.  In the short term it looks like comfort.  In the long run it's a slow, boring death.

So here I go, back to my instruction booklet and a heavy dose of sighs and groans.  I can do it, I should do it, so I will do it. Wish me luck as I figure it all out.  I promise I'll empathize with you as you walk through the changes you need to make as you move forward in life!  Then we'll do the same for each other as we experience our church changing and growing together.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon: Vine and Branches

It felt good to be back at the Valley this week!  Summer isn't here yet but having the light shine in the windows out in the country sure brings back memories of warm days and fun services.  It's going to be a great summer!

This Sunday's sermon text was John 15: 1-8, which reads...

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Click through to hear some of the things we talked about regarding this amazing gospel!

A Revolution

In preparation for last night's very first Evangelism Workshop, I ended up researching a ton of material.  The Bible, evangelism programs, old stuff that I'd written on the subject...plenty of thought went into this.  As I was writing up the final draft of the workshop I realized something semi-startling:  there's no way we can do the kind of evangelism we're called to do--the kind scripture talks about and our neighbors need/can accept--while holding on to the way we've done church in the modern era.

The more I pondered and drafted, the more it became clear to me that this call to evangelism would require serious changes in the way we think about church, God, the world, our neighbors, and the interaction between them all.  A set of nifty tips and nice ideas won't do it.  That's like pouring new wine into old wineskins.  The Spirit that we need will burst them.  What we need is, in effect, a revolution.  It's not something new, exactly.  God has always meant it to be this way.  But we've buried what we're supposed to be doing under a host of assumptions about church and life that have chained our faith instead of letting it free to be shared.  We talked about all of that last night.  We'll talk more in the weeks to come.

In the end, this is why it's SO CRITICAL that everyone from church be a part of these meetings.  We cannot change our mindset or vision with 1/3 of the congregation motivated and 2/3 clinging on to the same old assumptions without examining them explicitly.  The Spirit of true evangelism (which is quite different than what we think of as evangelism nowadays, as we are learning) needs to breathe in all of us.

This first session is already underway and will conclude next week.  It's too late to join at this point.  The next session happens after worship on June 3rd and June 24th.  That's your next opportunity to experience the revolution.  It's going to pick up momentum.  It'll provide us a positive, wonderful way forward as a congregation.  Don't get left behind.  Mark those dates on your calendar so you can hear and understand what we're talking about.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Evangelism Workshop Ahead!

It's almost time!  Our first Evangelism Workshop starts tomorrow night (Thursday the 3rd) at 7:00 at St. John's.  There will be two sessions, Thursday the 3rd and Thursday the 10th.  These are going to be wonderful, warm, amazing, and hopefully enlightening evenings.  It'll be a mixture of sharing stories, thinking deeply, laughing a little, and looking for God together.  Everyone from confirmation age on up is invited!  You won't regret it, nor will you ever look at evangelism the same way again.  Our church will be much richer for everyone having gone through this experience too.  We're about to change what most people have considered a burden into a complete joy!

If for some reason you can't make these next two Thursday nights, we will also offer these sessions after worship on Sunday June 3rd and 24th at the Valley.

We'll see you there!

--Dave