The End of Another School Year Already?

June always brings the end of the school year accompanied by shouts of joy from children released from classrooms for a summer of fun and adventure. Of course, there are more than a few joyous shouts from teachers, too! But even as children and teachers celebrate the end of the year, there is also a sense of wistfulness as everyone scatters. Classrooms are community with bonds built over the course of the year and June breaks those bonds.

For those who are moving up through graduation, new adventures lie ahead: the move from elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college, college to …where? We have a large group of high school seniors this year and it’s been such a joy for me to learn of their plans for next year. And as reports have trickled back from our new college graduates, I have been so pleased that most have either found jobs or are hopeful. This is wonderful news in an economy that still is sluggish.

Our Early Learning Center ends its year with a lively closing program in our Sanctuary featuring the children performing wonderfully creative songs. I get to participate as the narrator.  Then our building grows quiet; too quiet and too empty without their smiles and laughter.

Even as this school year comes to an end, the ELC Board and staff are already looking ahead to next year. Among the changes the ELC is considering is asking all parents to covenant that they will not use cellphones or other electronic devices when they are driving through the parking lot. We have been astounded and disturbed by how many people drive through our lot talking on phones or using other devices, even as other parents and children are walking through the lot. This has become a serious concern for us; the safety of everyone on this campus must always be our top priority.

Session has also discussed whether we should adopt what I call a “Hang-Up-The-Phone” policy. Studies have shown that a person who is talking on a cellphone or using an electronic device is significantly more distracted from their driving and considerably more likely to  cause an accident. Everyone who comes onto our campus, whether for ELC, church activities or a meeting of an independent group, becomes a part of the larger MPC community and we should expect every member of the community to abide by our concern for the safety of all.

A church is a community, bonded by the love God has graced us with in Jesus Christ. School communities may change, work communities may change, but the church community is always there, with arms wide open in welcome. This is the place where God calls us all to turn off our phones and Blackberries so we can more readily find “the goodwill of all people” and find the peace which surpasses all understanding.

Grace & peace

Pastor Skip

Happy Easter - Every Sunday!

Every minister in the Presbyterian Church is provided with a wonderful opportunity each year: every minister, from the newest to the most experienced, is required to take at least two weeks of study leave each year. This is time separate and apart from vacation; it is a time for study, for reading, for learning, and for reflection.

Over the years I have used my study leave time in a variety of ways: I’ve taken quite a few two- or three-day seminars on a variety of topics. I spent time with other pastors learning about church growth, stewardship, and governance at the Presbyterian Church’s Stony Point Center in upstate New York. I spent a week as a Fellow at the Engle Institute for Preaching at Princeton Seminary. And, from September 2004 through last May I worked on my doctorate at Princeton.

Last month I spent a week taking a fresh look at the theology and practices we have developed over the centuries within the Reformed tradition and the Presbyterian church on how we look at death and all the issues that come with the end of life. The combination of the excellent workshops our Christian Education Team offered on Finding Hope in the Chaos of Aging, along with the promises that are ours in the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ made my study particularly compelling.

In John’s gospel Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” This is the very foundation of our hope in eternal life. Paul reinforces this in his letter to the Romans: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

We capture our belief concisely in the Apostles Creed when we say: “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” What this means for us as followers of Jesus Christ is, as Paul has taught us, nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God given us through Christ.

This is a glorious promise that allows us to live our mortal lives filled with hope. Yes, we will all die, all of us returning to the dust. But we will live this life knowing the love of God in Christ, and we will continue to live in that love in the life to come.

Death is still very much a subject that most of us prefer neither to think about nor discuss. But in Christ’s resurrection, death has been defeated; death has no power over us, because death cannot separate us from God’s love. For us, this makes every Lord’s Day a “Happy Easter”.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

Ministering Together

Congregational care is always on my mind: who is in the hospital? Who is looking after an ill family member? Who’s concerned about employment or finances? Who is struggling with family issues? Who is anxious, hurting, suffering? And who has a joy to celebrate, a blessing to share?

Congregational care is not just my concern, of course – it is something that concerns us all, every one of us, something we all do together. Congregational care has been very much on the minds of our leaders the past few months as we look for new and better ways to look after one another.

You’ve heard about the step our Deacons took in January: with approval from the Session, the Deacons expanded from 15 to 18 to provide for more involved care and concern for the more than 500 men, women, and children who are part of our church family. We did not stop there, though: each of our Elders is now paired with a Deacon to help provide additional support and care.

This past winter’s snowstorms reminded us that we have many folks who live alone, so we have created a “Home Alone” list to help us be more attentive in looking after them and checking on them, not only during bad weather, but year round.

We have also created a better system to remind us of who is sick, facing surgery, or in the hospital, or who might be looking after a loved one who is sick or in the hospital.  Hospital stays are so short these days that it seems that I often don’t hear about a hospitalization until after the person has come home. If you know of someone who has been hospitalized, please make sure you tell me – I would rather hear it four times from four different people than not at all.

Congregational care is not just the pastor’s job, or the Deacons’ job; it is OUR job, all of us working together to look after one another. A simple telephone call to someone you haven’t seen in a while; an offer of a ride to worship, or some other activity, to a member who no longer is able to drive; a note, a visit – there are so many different ways we look after each other.

When Jesus gathered with his disciples for their last meal together, he said to them, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34) These words should guide each of us each day as we go about our service as disciples of Jesus Christ, caring for one another within our own church family, and looking after all those in every corner of the world who need our Risen Lord’s love.

Glory to God, for Christ is Risen!

Pastor Skip

Easter People

Ten years already! It’s been a little more than ten years since my ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I was ordained in a lovely service at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, where I had worshiped while I lived and worked in New York, and where I was “under care” while I was at Princeton Seminary.

I have learned much about ministry over the years, almost all outside of classrooms. I have learned that ministry is consuming; it is exhausting, the hours longer than any required of me in vocations I had before I became a pastor. Still, I can laugh at the old joke that pastors have it easy since they work only one hour a week on Sunday morning – or in my case two. I can laugh because I have also learned that ministry is deeply fulfilling, nourishing, joy-filled, and abounding in grace.

It is tempting to try to capture ministry in numbers: a million words written in more than 500 sermons; presiding at the Lord’s Table close to 200 times; celebrating more than 40 baptisms; witnessing to the promise of life eternal in more than 50 funerals; joyfully hearing the marriage vows of some 40 couples; moderating well over one hundred Session meetings.

But ministry isn’t numbers. Ministry is sitting with children on the steps of the chancel on Sunday morning and asking them a question, only to have as a response, “Do you like my new shoes?” Ministry is hearing what 14-year-olds think as they grapple with faith and life in preparation for their public profession of faith. Ministry is talking with a young couple as they anticipate marriage. It is speaking with parents as they plan the baptism of their first child. It is walking with an individual or a family through illness, job loss, death of a loved one or other losses. It is listening to the stories that are written within each person in this unique Body of Christ.

I have learned how to live more completely in faith, trusting God in good times, and even moreso, in difficult times. I have learned how “to let go and let God”. I have learned why Jesus says so often, “be not afraid.” Through ministry I have learned how to be an Easter person: how to live in the hope that is ours in the Resurrection.

Of course, I am not the only one called to ministry – we all are. In fact, it says so in every Sunday worship bulletin: “Ministers…Every Member”! Every one of us is called to ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. And the more you give yourself to ministry, the more you “let go and let God”, the more you trust and walk by faith, the more you let go of anxiety and fear, the more you’ll understand what it means to be born “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.

Lent is the ideal time to give yourself more completely to ministry. And in the process, don’t be surprised if you learn over time what it means, what it really means, to be an Easter person, trusting God, guided by the Spirit, and filled with the hope, grace and peace that is ours in Jesus Christ.

Hosannah in the highest!
Pastor Skip

Working Hard on Retreat

Lots of blue, a few red, a few green, only one yellow. At our Officers’ Retreat last month we did a little exercise to learn how much we have in common with one another. “What’s your favorite color?” was one question. We were fairly evenly divided among Rock, Classical, Jazz, and Country/Western music lovers. Most officers prefer Autumn among the seasons.

We learned that many of us came from traditions other than Presbyterianism, that many of us were not active in church when we were younger, and that most are not all that comfortable leading a group in prayer.

But everyone was in complete agreement with the hope that their time serving as an officer would be a time of getting to know others in the church better, a time of service in the name of Jesus Christ, a time of spiritual growth, and a time of helping our church to grow.

On Saturday morning we worked in small groups exploring what our Book of Order and Book of Confessions have to teach us. We learned, for example, that every member of our church is called to “proclaim the good news; take part in the common life and worship of our church; pray and study Scripture and the faith of the Christian Church; support the work of the church through the giving of money, time and talent; respond to God’s activity in the world through service to others; live responsibly in personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life; and work in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment.”

Most important, we learned that we as officers are called to serve God and our church with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. We committed ourselves to doing just that through a Litany of Commitment as we worshiped together on Sunday morning.

We had a wonderful time working, praying, worshiping, talking, relaxing, and taking in the beauty of Meadowkirk, guided throughout our time together by words spoken by God through the prophet Micah: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

We came away from our weekend energized and excited about the year ahead, wondering where God will lead us, confident that we will continue to build on our strong foundation, and ready to take up our responsibilities to serve eagerly and joyfully.

Eugene Peterson’s The Message puts the Micah passage in different words, compelling and powerful: “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love. And don’t take yourself too seriously – take God seriously.”

Such appropriate words to guide our Elders, our Deacons, me, you – all of us as we follow the One who is the Head of our church, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace & peace
Pastor Skip

Merry Christmas!

“Yeah, there’s too much commoicialism in Christmas.” This is a common complaint this time of year as stores try their best to entice us with their wares. It isn’t a new complaint, however: this particular lament comes from the classic holiday movie, “Miracle on 34th Street”, the version that dates from 1947. Sixty-two years ago Alfred, the young custodian, voiced in his wonderful Brooklyn accent a feeling we share even now.

Yes, Christmas can be a time of commercial excess. Yes, it seems that there’s too much Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty, and not enough Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But Christmas is what we each make of it. It is up to each of us to keep Christmas in our hearts and minds, even as we shop for gifts, wrap packages, and sing “Silver Bells”.

I find great joy in the season, even as I walk through stores and shopping malls garlanded, tinseled, and sparkling in the season. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest when someone says, “Happy Holidays” to me; barking “Merry Christmas” back at them is hardly in keeping with the grace and joy of the season. Whether Christ is in your Christmas is all that matters.

Putting Christ in Christmas is not difficult, even with rampant “commoicialism”. Putting Christ in Christmas is to focus on the gift given us in the birth of Jesus Christ. Putting Christ in Christmas is to walk joyfully through each day, filled with glad tidings. Putting Christ in Christmas is to give and share, reflecting on your own blessings and responding to your blessings by giving to others. Putting Christ in Christmas is to smile and sing, reflecting the Spirit of Christmas in your every word and your every deed.

Christ will be in your Christmas if you put him there. Christ will be in your Christmas even in the face of “commoicialism”, even as you watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, even as you hear Bing croon “White Christmas”. Christ will be in your Christmas because Christ is Christmas.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip

November Already?

Is it really November already? The month may have arrived before I was ready to say farewell to October, my favorite month, but I look forward to all the exciting activities we have planned throughout the month: our High School Youth will lead worship on the 8th; We will celebrate our Stewardship Campaign on the 15th; We will honor long-time members and the wonderful history of our church on Heritage Sunday on the 22nd; and we will mark the beginning of Advent on the 29th. The month is filled with opportunities for us to express our thanksgiving for the many blessings we have at MPC.

At our November meeting the Session will discuss our budget for 2010. It is always a joy to plan for another year’s ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Session will give thanks that we have the financial resources to do as much as we do: nurture one another in worship, teach one another through Christian Education, reach out to young children through our Early Learning Center, provide a facility that is welcoming and safe for member and visitor alike, and take the love and hope of Christ to the farthest corners of the globe through our mission work. We are still hopeful that we will get that much closer to having the funding in place for us to begin the process of calling a new staff member to work with our youth.

At our October Session meeting we discussed our calling as Elders “individually and jointly to strengthen and nurture the faith and life of the congregation committed to our charge.” We do this in a number of ways, including “encouraging the people in the worship and service of God.” We devoted quite a bit of time to a wonderful discussion of how we worship, with a particular focus on an issue that many churches have wrestled with recently: should worship be “traditional” or “contemporary”?

I have never found those terms helpful – they tend to put worship in a box. Deborah Panell and I try to make every service both traditional and contemporary, a “blended” service. We follow a traditional pattern for the order of the service, but we remain open to the call of the Holy Spirit to try new ways to interpret the Word of the Lord, new ways to sing our praises to God, and new ways to nurture our faith together.

The month of November reminds us that our lives are a blend of the traditional and the contemporary. On Heritage Sunday we will give thanks for the history and the traditions built over the past 142 years by the saints who have gone before us, but we will also give thanks that the Spirit calls us into the freshness of today and the newness of tomorrow.

Every worship service reminds us of our blessings as we gather to “praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Every service should be new and fresh in response to the Spirit and the Head of our Church, Jesus Christ. Every service reminds us that our every day should begin and end with such simple words: “Thanks be to God!”

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Skip