What I (Re)Learnt this summer

I can't believe it was the last day of summer camp...already. It has felt long, but short, at the same time. It was fun, but tiring; easy, but hard.

We went out in true style with a pancake breakfast with toppings that only a kid could come up with. Everything from apples, strawberries, whipped topping, cookies, jujubes, (yep, you read that right), gummy bears, chocolate chips...and syrup on top of all of that. (Really, I'm just sending them home on a complete sugar high to thank the parents for all the energy I got this summer.)

But I am thankful for a number of things that I (re)-learned this summer: (in no order, and with expansion to come in further posts)

1) Life is fun, especially when you expect it to be fun.
2) Celebrate the small stuff. It's important. And many small things make big things
3) The Gospel should NEVER get lost in our attempts to theologize...the pain of the cross can speak for itself, without us having to create four syllable words to describe it. The excitement of the resurrection shouldn't be forgotten. It was (is) the game changer
4) Never underestimate the importance of having your own time with God before you spend time with others.
5) Singing never goes out of style
6) Neither does a good game of Capture of the Flag
7) It's important that we learn to listen to each other and that everyone gets a chance to be heard.
8) Prayer. I had the goal of teaching the kids to pray out loud by the end of the summer. (Some did not even know what prayer was.) I saw this goal come to pass, thanks be to God.
9) The phrase "I love you" is not said often enough.
10) Don't forget to say "thanks" to those who impact you. It goes a long way to encouraging them to keep doing what they are doing.

an unexpected glimpse

My experience  and expectation of building relationships with people, and working with them (such as I have been doing this summer) is that more often then not, you don't get to see the impact of your time together. More often then not, we pass each other like ships in port, harboring each other for a time, and then move on to different seas. So it has been rare for me to see or hear how what I have done/am doing has affected someone....even more so in a summer/seasonal ministry.

You never know...
            what seeds you plant
            what sprouts you water
            or what fruit is being born

This week I was blessed with a little bit of encouragement from one of the parents of two of the boys at North Club. For the past seven weeks her sons have attended North Club almost daily, and over the course of those weeks, have learned what prayer is (talking and listening to God), how to pray (closed hands, open hands, closed eyes, open eyes, etc.), what to pray for (thanksgiving, other people, yourself, etc.) and to pray aloud and in front of others.

So I was immensely encouraged to have a mother tell me that because her boys have been praying at North Club, they are now eager to pray at home, with her. They now pray together.

You just don't know what the Lord is doing behind the scenes.

Young Adult Church Dropouts...? Or just Adult Church Dropouts?

A few years ago, I read a book called "Quitting Church" - which in essence was a study about why more and more faithful, bible believing Christians were leaving the "conventional" church and moving on to, well, nothing. (Yes, I and I see that some may take issue with the fact that I used the term "faithful" but I'm not going to get side-tracked.) It seems that these people, all have a genuine faith and a sincere desire to serve God, are finding that their experience in the church was not that helpful in facilitating the growth of that relationship - especially in relevance to every day life. And as a result: they stop going.

Now part of working up in a beach filled with party-hearty young people, fewer and fewer which I see in the pews on Sunday, makes me reflect again on the relevance of church into everyday life. I recently read a survey by The Barna Group (full article found here) on the Five Myths about Young Adult Dropouts. In essence the five myths were: (mostly in my own words)

1) It happens because of high school
2) Its just a phase
3) It happens because of college
4) Young Adults are Biblically illiterate
5) They will come back (which they don't)

Remember these are myths.  So The Barna Group researched and found that this fantastical thinking is how people frame the absence of young adults in the church. To quote from a new book by David Kinnaman called "You Lost Me": 

"Churches, organizations and families owe this generation more. They should be treated as the intelligent, capable individuals they are—a generation with a God-given destiny. Renewed commitment is required to rethink and realign disciple-making in this new context. Mosaic believers need better, deeper relationships with other adult Christians. They require a more holistic understanding of their vocation and calling in life—how their faith influences what they do with their lives, from Monday through Saturday. And they also need help discerning Jesus' leading in their life, including greater commitment to knowing and living the truth of Scripture."

I read that and I only hear one word: relevance.  To quote: "how their faith influences what they do with their lives, from Monday through Saturday." But isn't that the question for all of us? How does faith influence our lives...every day...from the time we step out of church until the time we step back in? In "Quitting Church" the issue wasn't age - the issue was relevance. When we focus in on an age (such as young adults) we get specific issues that they face at that time in their life...but let's not do a disservice to everyone who is not a young adult...because the reality is that we all struggle with how to make our faith relevant. We all want to know what difference creational thinking is going to make in our relationships with co-workers. Or how understanding the Trinity will change our view of the environment. Or how knowing that the fruit of the Spirit isn't manifested in road rage.

And maybe, maybe, we are one step ahead of ourselves. Maybe instead of asking "how" will this make a difference, we need to ask "why" will this make a difference. 

A shout out....

This past weekend I got to hang out with a youth group from the Owen Sound First Christian Reformed Church. Now, these are group great teens and I was blessed not only by their hard work, but also by their sense of fun and their willingness to learn. They spent two days scraping, painting, and working outside in the hot sun, then coordinated a concert and a pancake breakfast, and helped lead a Sunday service.  Just wanted to thank you guys (and your leaders) for all your hard work! On behalf of North Sauble Community Church

sign of the week

My sister thinks...

What my sister sent me when I finished my course work for my Masters of Divinity. Thanks Hetty, thanks a lot.

"Sunday comes around...every week."

As my first foray into "official" preaching winds down (six weeks of sermon prep and service prep and leading straight) I reflect on a few things that I have learned in the process:

1) No matter what, every week, every seven days, Sunday comes around. Meaning no matter what, something needs to be ready and prepared within just over 144 hours. But whose counting?

2) A Sabbath is a must. God is a wise God - and His command to take a break is for our benefit. Let me put it another way: there should be a WHOLE 24 hour period where you do NOT think about the sermon - or where you repeat to yourself "I will not think of next Sunday's sermon - over and over.
3) Let go of your perfectionist tendencies. I know I had to. I am so self-critical that if I begin to reflect and knit-pick everything that isn't right or can be done better then I lose the hope that I am meant to embody in my message.
4) Keep your eyes fixed upward. The moment you start worrying about what people are going to say then something else has entered into the process of learning God's truth for that week.
5) It really is true "The heart of a man plans His step, but the Lord directs His paths." Many times I began my message by thinking I was going in a certain direction, and God almost surprised me by where I ended up.The steps I took through the sermon preparation process were the ones needed to keep me moving, but God had my course and destination a head of time. I just had to get there.
6) When you are weak, then God is strong.

7) I know that I want to see more and more people involved in worship - from prayer, to reading of Scripture, to collection, to greeting, to hospitality, to worship leading, to singing, etc. Why the same people doing the same things? Man! I loved it when people get to participate. (Plus it lets me focus more on the one thing I need to focus on in a worship service.)



\manda

I am not ashamed of...or am I?

 But it still isn't easy. Along with Paul, I can say that I am not ashamed of the Gospel. And what I loved about learning to preach was how to bring the Gospel, how to bring hope, into the world. In no way do I want to be an obstacle for the Gospel, and yet...And yet I find that my physical presence, which is obviously female, may, in and of itself, be an obstacle.

I struggled with this, so much so, that after I would preach I'd have to go take a walk on the shore and wrestle this out with God. Until He reminded  me of the words from Psalm 139 - "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Which includes everything about me! Spiritual and physical. And the obstacle that I was so worried about, (which sounds weird to say), the obstacle of my body, really wasn't about me. If others were not open to hearing a female preach, that obstacle had  more to do with them then it did with me. (Now of course I do want to clarify that I still have my responsibility to play in this - so lest you be worried that I'm going to start preaching in short skirts and skimpy tops - I still want to be considerate and modest.;)

This also doesn't mean that I am going to start marching around holding signs, demanding my "rights" to preach. No. In the words of one wise lady "I am not going to go where I am not invited." I don't preach because I have a point to prove, for the moment that starts happening, preaching stops and presumption starts. I preach because, quite selfishly, I get to spend time in the Word, learning up close and personal, how the world looks from God's perspective and what He intends to do about it. And then I get to share that, hopefully getting out of the way enough to point to God alone, but realizing that because I am made the way that I am, I get out of the way, in my own unique way.

\manda

Look in the right direction...

I was conflicted. That's what happened. To use a metaphor: it was like I had tasted something REALLY good, and I was intrigued by it and wanted to examine it closer - but at the same time I had grown up thinking this thing was inedible. So...what to do?

Well, for starters I sought the council of many people. I had done a lot of reading, biblical and otherwise, on the topic for a number of years. Yet there did not seem to be a conclusive and decisive opinion. I had friends and family, literally, in both "camps" - those who felt it was not right (thinking of specific texts in Timothy and Corinthians, the curse following the Fall, etc) and those who were surprised by my struggle because they had grown up in churches with female pastors (think that these texts in Timothy and Corinthians were more contextual then we realized, that all are equal in Christ, etc.) I felt myself pulled in two directions. Pulled in two horizontal directions and if I wasn't careful I would end up breaking trying to appease one or the other.

Until I realized I was looking in the wrong direction.

I needed to look upwards. Toward God. What did HE have to say about this? And more specifically what did HE have to say about me?

In that I realized a few things:

1. Preaching is a gift - it is a proclamation of the Gospel. And that, my friends, can only come from one place: God Himself. Our sinful nature, our self-reliance, our desire for autonomy all naturally screams for the opposite of the Gospel. To proclaim Him victorious & Him risen is something that only comes from God.

2. God would not give a gift that would make one of His children less like what He has planned in His redemption of creation. That simply would not make sense. If it was not His plan to have women preach, then no female would ever have the gift to preach.

3. God does not make mistakes. He created me EXACTLY as I am meant to be, and because I am pursuing Him I am becoming even more like He would have me be. Not less so. Which means that this is part of my sanctification as well. Moreover, He takes delight in me, which includes the gifts He gives me.



So I realized that I had a choice in front of me: I needed to choose between FEAR or FAITH. I could make my choice and shrink in FEAR of what others (family and friends) would say regarding this part of my life OR I could make a choice and step in FAITH, trusting in the character of God and His plan for me.

So I took the step.

to be continued...

\manda

The juxtaposed journey: a female...and in leadership. PART 1

I grew up in a church where the concept of female leadership did not exist outside Sunday school or the nursery. There were no female deacons, elders, and certainly - no female pastors. Women participated in the worship service with the use of their musical gifts, but that was as far as it went. I am not saying this as a judgement. It is just the simple truth. And I know that some of you reading this, still hold strongly to that belief. I would say that even some of my friends hold this belief. Others reading this may have always had female leaders in their churches, and have never thought twice about it. However, I feel compelled to write on this topic because I have been lead to service in, what I believed five years ago, was not a biblical vocation for a woman. The following, my reflection on women in leadership, is not meant to be judgmental, but is a honest discussion of my own journey.

Entering my final year of seminary, I strongly was convicted that if I was graduating with a Masters of Divinity (though my focus is in Pastoral Care and Counseling), at the very least, I needed to learn how to preach. "If you are getting a degree that says you are trained for ministry, then you need to be trained for ministry in every way possible" I thought to myself. And so I signed up for an introduction to preaching class, still unconvinced that it was something I should be doing.Certainly I was expecting my professor, a former pastor with 25 years of experience, to end the semester by saying something to the effect of "Well, Amanda, preaching is not your thing, but maybe try your gifting here."  ("Here" being anywhere but preaching.)

But that didn't happen. Instead I received immensely positive feedback from classmates and teacher alike. And surprisingly, I HAD SO MUCH FUN during the preparation and the giving of the sermon itself. Now I am not here to toot my own horn, because I have ALOT to learn about preaching, but the fact could not be avoided that: I was able to preach. And.... I enjoyed it.

SO NOW WHAT?

stay tuned....




\manda

The real test of preaching...

"The real test of preaching is not the praise of the public, nor even its faithfulness to the original Greek of the biblical text, but rather the ability of the pastor's sermon to evoke a prophetic people." 

(taken from William Willimon's Proclamation & Theology) 

The past few weeks have marked the first time I have "preached" (though I have "shared", lead chapels, bible studies, and other things) in front of a church, and while I have  been encouraged by the feedback I have received, I find myself wrestling with the question deep within myself: Is what I am proclaiming in my Sunday endeavors eliciting any change in the people who are hearing it? Is it making any difference?

I know that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to move, to convict, to motivate, to encourage, to fan to flame God's people. I know that. Deep down inside. (And I find that SO relieving because it is not my job to change people, it is to proclaim the Gospel. The Holy Spirit changes people.) And I realize I most likely will not see the fruit of my labours. However, I cannot help but wrestle and pray that the words that I speak are being used to penetrate deep enough to inspire heart-change. I don't want to be told that I had a good sermon, or am a good speaker. I want to know how it has/or will change perspective, or change life.

Please Lord let me be faithful to declare your Word.

\manda