No more growing Churches.

In a recent conversation about growing churches and ministries I realized something important: I am done trying to grow churches. I was a rather startled at this revelation because I entered into the ministry to just that. I wanted to plant and grow churches. What I realized as being important in the conversation i was having wasn't the latest in techniques to put bottoms in pew and money in the plate. It is not about business plans to co-ordinate activities nor teach what I would consider to be slop and foam, teaching only the nice and easy things from the pulpit while neglecting the harder things that in the end, can be life altering both for the individual and for the community. My job as a parish priest is not to be the friend professional visitor to get people to come and to pay though this is often thought of as my role by some in the Church. The mission of the Church is often thought of as filling the pews and filling the plates so that we can meet our budgets. And when we fail to do so, we think of congregations and the clergy involved as failures for not having done so. Thus, I am done with trying to “grow the Church”.

The Church by its very nature, is built to grow if it. It must continue to be what it always has been: a community who will participate in the apostolic teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of Bread and in the Prayers. The Church is a community who lives to provide mercy for those who need it while in the midst of seeking grace for themselves.  If you want to talk about building a community of mercy and of grace, which is something I want to do. I would join you in such a work.

I want to be a part of a Church that is not going to be fearful of proclaiming the risen Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be in a community who is not worried about being told “You’re nuts. I glad that you are happy and I wished I had what you seem to have because it makes you happy. But I cannot join you because you are nuts and I cannot be that.” I want to hear from the pulpit not the sermon I would like to hear for today but the sermon I will need to be ready for the Day of Christ Jesus. I want to be in a community where there is courage to speak the things of God to the people of God; for the clergy to break open the scriptures and feed the hungry and give drink to the thirst that they might truly live on more than bread and water.

The Church by its very nature is a community of discipleship. Listening, doing (obedient to the missio Dei) learning and teaching each other along the way, practicing the presence of Christ among us, so that we learn to serve to quell the desire to be served. We need to have hearts and minds that are taught by Christ on the road so that our hearts burn within us and we learn to recognize Christ wherever we are and in whatever we do. We all need to learn to be followers first and then servant leaders second. We cannot say that we are leaders until we have been seen and known as followers of him in the wider community. Or as the Rev. Canon Michael Green once observed, “The Church has been quicker to put on the robes of the ruler, than the towel of a servant.”

I want to be a part of a Church that is going to be more ready to love the unlovable, be compassionate to those who need mercy, and give stability to steady those who are in need of support in their daily life I want to be a part of a community working to be the people that God has called them to be recognizing that he who has begun a good work in and through us will bring it to completion on the Day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1.6). I want to be in a Christian community that will seek, see and serve the least, the last and the lost of each community where the Church lives its life. And I want to be a part of a Church that encourages all of its members to give all that they have been given and to use all the gifts and talents that have been bestowed upon them by God. I would love to be a part of a community that knows what it means to be not only a cheerful giver; I would what that church to be hilarious givers.

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “Grow the Church”? Most people when this phrase is used, want a strategy or a program and someone else to fulfill those goals and objectives. Many want want the church to be full on Sundays like they used to be so that we can keep up the appearances of the building, the structures both physical and human, and the finances in order to keep something of what used to be in the ceaseless cycles of change in every other part of human society. If this is want we really want, do we want to grow the Church?

Growing the Church is not about maintaining structures budgets or doctrine. True growth comes in building meaningful relationships that can endure based on a common unity with God and the divine mission. Therefore I invite you to come and follow your clergy, to follow them as they follow Christ. I invite you to come and reshape the life of the local Church that you might participate in the mission that God gives to all of us and find that you know both God and fellow parishioners and find that the Church does grow after all because grow is its very nature.  

Jason+

Our finest hour

This week we have a choice to make and it is a simple one: how will we live our lives? Will we live in concert with the whims and will of the people around us or will we go as God has called and drawn us? We get to decide.

There is a group of well meaning people who, well meaning as they are, don’t want Jesus to suffer the same fate that John the Baptizer did. John’s preaching antagonised the king and that landed him in jail and eventually got him executed. They have decided that they don’t want Jesus to suffer the same fate. So they go and try to warn him off of the path he is taking. “Don’t make him angry! Get out of here and go somewhere he cannot get to you!” they tell him.

In reply, Jesus dared them, “Go tell that sly, destructive worthless man that I am going to accomplish what God has sent me to do. Then it will be time to die.” Jesus is still living the plan. It had been decided before he came and his life has been all about healing and caring, restoring and redeeming that which has been lost.  It is if he had ripped a line from a popular movie, the Blues Brothers and he is boldly declaring to all who would try and stop or subvert him from his goal to “get outta of my way, I’m on a mission from God!” In doing so, Jesus declared that until he had finished everything God the Father had for him to do, nothing was going to stop him from doing it.

Then Luke notes the affection that Jesus has for the city and his sorrow over the fact that the city has not loved him back. He came and declared God’s affection for them and they offer heartbreak, pain, suffering and a grave in return for love. He wanted to gather in the people of the City of Peace and they rejected him.

I remember as a boy, there was one particular chicken, a hen who was considered to be the best hen of the entire coup. If you needed a hen to sit on eggs to get them to hatch then “Fonzie” was your girl. And Fonzie was special not only for the care and hatching of chicks, she was also special because her eggs were green. She was unique amongst all the other hens we had.

If we are to apply this to our understanding of who God is for us and for this moment, it is this: God cares for us all, wanting to draw us in and care for us. He wants to keep us safe while we are out there in the world and hold us close to him no matter when or how we come home.

So let me ask you this: what does the life, death and resurrection of Jesus mean to you? How does it change how you think, feel and live? And what might push you away from living the life that you are called to. Who will you honour and whom will you fear? God or the fox? You decide. And let this be the Church’s finest hour!

Jason+

Voices in thin places

If there is something that is true about the prayer life of the Christian person, it is that we are truly revealed when we take the time to pray. On the mount of the Transfiguration, Jesus has led those who are closest to him up the mountainside to a high place, or as they might call it, a “thin place”. It is a place where we can be close to God. It is a place where God’s presence can and is easily known. Do you have such a place? Do you have a place where you can go and know the presence of God?

He took others with him and they were near him when he started to pray, they listened in. His disciples listened to him pray. It reminds of when I was little and my father would sit on the edge of the bed and help me to pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord, my soul to keep. May his angels watch me through the night until I wake in morning’s light. God bless, Mommy, Daddy...” I share this with you because I remember later as a young adult, on my way to bed one night passing my parents’ bedroom and hearing my father pray the same prayer and asking God to bless the people around him. I found hearing him pray both a great treasure and a powerful encouragement to pray. It taught me something of my father’s faith and of his character. Perhaps this is why Jesus took his friends with him up the mountain. He wanted to reveal to them something of his own nature and character. As he prayed, his true nature and person shone through so that the disciples could perceive it.

And what did Jesus pray and talk about up on the mountain; what did he discuss with Moses and Elijah? They discussed his coming exodus. They talked about going into the city, his passion, his death, his resurrection and his departure through the ascension. And the disciples heard this. They had their faith confirmed. They had their hopes realized. They knew the prayers of their nation where being answered.

And then the greatest and most terrifying thing happened. They knew that they knew they were in the presence of the Lord and the LORD spoke to them from the cloud: “This is my Son, the Beloved, the Chosen, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

With that they found things as they used to be. The moment of prayer and of presence was seemingly gone and it was time to head back down the mountain. So if there is something that we need to keep in mind as we wait and watch the drama of Lent unfold, it is this: Prayer reveals our true selves and enables not only to talk to God and know that we are heard. We also need to stop and listen for God’s voice in those “thin places” that we might be used and obedient to God.

Jason+

Waiting, watching and celebrate with a cold Pepsi

I don’t know about you, but when I like to have something cold to drink, I like a stone cold diet Pepsi. And If it is at all possible, I prefer it to be from Newfoundland. You might think me foolish for saying such a thing but there it is. I like a stone cold Newfoundland diet Pepsi. I say that because of had Pepsi in our places in Canada and in other parts of the world. In fact I can remember being served a Pepsi in Moscow a number of years back and thinking it was the most awful substance on the face of the earth. Not because it was diet nor because it was made in a different country but because it was, of all things,  warm. It was tepid. It was in a word, awful. It was nasty, thick and well, yuck!

We need to keep in mind that when we hear the steward of wedding banquet congratulate the groom on his willingness to keep providing the best, even at the late stages of an evening, the groom was unaware of the plan. He didn't know what Mary and Jesus had talked about. He did know what Jesus had the household servants do. he was in the dark, so to speak.  He was expecting the complaint that the wine was of a pro quality and that it was a good thing that everyone else was well supplied for the moment. They weren't going to care what they were drinking at 2am when all the rest was gone.

But why did Jesus do this first sign? – it is not a miracle but, as John would have it a sign. It was an epiphany for those who were watching and wondering what would happen next. The servants did a Jesus asked and the disciples came and watched. Then servants took the water now wine to the Steward and the Steward went to the Groom with high praise for the amounts of generosity to his guests. Jesus showed us that first that God is willing to provide the needs of his people, his Church. More importantly they saw that not only would God step in, but that God would provide in such a way that others would be blessed in the giving. And God can give gifts like that, then how should we as his people, his Church respond to such generosity and such giving? The Gospel’s response? Come and see.

There is a simple implication that if there is no wine, then there is no blessing. And without blessing there is no life. The wine is far more than just an excellent compliment to a great meal. It is a symbol of the circle of life and what happens when we have drank the dregs of the barrel. The wine is a symbol of the harvest: a symbol of God’s abundance for the life of a family and a nation that he calls his own. Providing the wine and the blessing allows not only for life to continue, but also the ongoing opportunity to discover more and more about the grace, the mercy and the life that God offers in the life of his one and only Son.

Life without Christ is to invite death while choosing to trust Christ and to be willing to die with him through baptism and possible with your own death is to move into eternal life with him and for him.

So the question clearly is: If you cannot put new wine in to old wine skins, how will God put his Holy Spirit into old Anglicans? I don’t know how he will do it and I don’t know what the church will look like, but why don’t you come and join me. It will be fun to sit back with an icy cold Pepsi and watch as God moves fills his people with his Spirit and see what happens next!

Jason+

Its not about how wet you get but how you serve that matters...

Baptism is more than a moment. It is about all the days and moments that follow after the baptism and what they will mean both to you and to those around you. We are not baptized for a moment, but to experience death with Christ so that we might become new creations that will live with him and for him in the days that are ahead. This in the moments that follow our baptism we need to find and to share with others the grace, the mercy, the love that we find and know on an ongoing basis because of a life sustained by the Life offered to us.

Baptism is a life of Christ (for it is not we who live but Christ in us who believe) lived in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is a life that can be offered to others in service to enable them to discover the same things that others have and for those people to take for their very own. We live and lead others around us – where are we taking them and asking them to believe about God if we are not offering what we have? And how often are churches of every stripe in North America these days living just to survive and make their own ministries survive instead of looking to the Lord not only for life and provision, but to know and fulfill its mission thereby learning to thrive.

A colleague called me one day a while a while back and wanted to know how I managed to build up congregations in the multipoint parish to grow. Essentially, I told this colleague I work with whom I am given and those who will come and participate and go from there. And I have done this consistently in my ministry. It takes time, effort, and most of all patience but things can and do change. Loving people back into relationship with the Church is not an easy thing but it has to begin with getting them back to their first love Jesus and going from there.

It is always important to remember that if you have been away from God and from the Church that you are wanted, needed and loved. The Church in which you are baptized is not whole without you. You are the only you that God has and because of that you are needed in the Church to bring your gifts, time, talents and other things to bear on the life of the congregation. Baptism is not just a decision or a moment. It is a lifetime that is offered in love to God and in service to whomever we find as a neighbour.

We are made i the image of Christ to reflect his image, his light and love into the world that the world might discover and come towards the kingdom. He has purposed, pursued, and propelled us into life and ministry with him through the Spirit that we might glorify our Father in heaven. He will not give up on you so you might want to choose to surrender to him.

Remember, it is not about how wet you get, it is about how you live and preach it in the days after you are baptized that God concerns himself with. May you be blessed as you live out  your baptism and your call.

Jason+

Time to get in to line

Have you noticed it yet? The days are already discernibly longer than they have been in the weeks leading up to Christmas; the darkness is slowly being overcome by the light. It is only a few minutes today and a few more minutes tomorrow. It will be a while before people will generally acknowledge that the days are lengthening. But they are already discernibly longer if one pays attention to this.

So it is fitting that we are celebrating the Epiphany of Jesus. Yes he has come among us and yes he is the Light of the world. But if we stop there, we miss something that is huge. He did not come alone. He is bringing the kingdom with him. Some might say that we are going on a six week journey to find God, but if that is the case how are we going find God when we cannot find ourselves? The thing about God is this: God seeks us. God finds us. God desires and calls us – even draws us. His light and his life reveal who he is and who were are because we are his people. We are signals and signs of his presence in the world for the rest of the world to seek, to see and to join in service of God and his coming kingdom.

God causes his Church not to husband a little fire around which a few may gather for warmth but to light torches that we might seek out the least, the lost and the last, that all whom God calls are enabled to come to him. We are called to seek out the sick, the hurt, the broken and those weighed down by their sins and those who are dying to care for them and comfort them in any way possible. We are called to turn the values of this world on their heads and in that journey find that we have light to guide us in our way as we lead others into the kingdom.

Thus, this season calls us not just to live an obedient life. Each and all of us are called to live a life that fulfils what God has planned for it. All of the cosmos witnesses to the coming of the Lord Jesus. All of creation proclaims and celebrates his birth. How will you use your time, talents, treasure, trees and tears to respond to the fact that his light and his kingdom are coming? Will you get in line with the rest of us and join the great exodus that is coming, for the line forms right here on the desktop. Will you not come and get into line with us so that we might seek, see and serve the Lord Jesus?

Maranatha,

Jason+

Don't Just stand there, repent!

The past few weeks have been an adventure in terms of ministry. There have been a lot of moments of sudden ministry where the phone rings and off I go into whatever it is that that need to get into. There has been a lot of grief. A man dies an unexpected death in a far away city and then only days later his mother dies in an accident on a dark street in your own city. Another young man chooses to end his life and there is no one to explain why, leaving a lot of unanswered questions for his family. Even in my own life there has been a moment, where in caring for family members, making a simple left turn suddenly becomes a major incident trying to miss a wayward pedestrian and feeling the impact of a truck on the back end of my van.

It surprises some I guess that life is like that. There are moments that shock and surprise us.  John the Baptist wasn’t fooled. He saw the life of the people around him and the way of the culture and the country and in his preaching he didn’t pull any punches. He went to the heart of the problem and he challenged the people around him to do what they needed to do where God was concerned. They knew what they needed to do because of his preaching but failed to head what scripture teaches and would not listen to anyone but themselves and their own rules; rules they invented for themselves.

John was not confronting the “down and out” poor who were looking for relief and rescue from God but the “up and outs” who were looking to make sure that they had done what was necessary to have a good life, a blessed life and a nice, tidy reward at the end of it all. John wasn’t speaking to the non religious or to the irreligious person of his day but to those who were active in the faith community and to those who were actively seeking God. He was speaking to the people who were looking to be built up spiritually and for people who were looking for the kingdom to come in some great and awesome manner. John told them all, “You are a bunch of snakes, really big and awesome sinners before God.”

The interesting thing is that the people were ready to hear such a message and they accepted the verdict, “You’re right. We are separated from God. We are a bunch of snakes. What can we do about it??” This is the call to repentance and to allow God to work in our lives. People so often fear God, as if he is Simon Cowell or another celebrity on a reality show acting as a judge of what is before him.  God’s judgement is tempered with mercy; that is God is reaching out to you and to me with his love and his grace that we might be diverted from the coming disaster. With God there is forgiveness for missing the mark and for falling short of who and what we are supposed to be. He offers not just change, or even regime change – though these things will happen. God is offering us transformation of our hearts and our minds that we might be totally different people, new creations. And if God is offering us that in Christ shouldn’t that give us hope for the future and confidence in the present to be the people of God?

Are you ready and waiting for God to come to you with a word and with his presence? You be the preacher. The presence and the witness to his coming and allow him to come through you. It will shock and surprise many but will they respond to God?

Marantha!

Jason+