What have they done for us?...

No one has been brave enough to say this to me (the politeness-to-strangers rule), but to their pastors, the moderators of their session meetings, the challenge is posed... "Give to presbytery?  What have they done for us?!!"

So, since no one has asked me that officially, I will give an unsolicited answer.

You are asking the wrong question.

Presbytery is not "they."  Presbytery is our group of churches, connected in covenant community through our polity(government).  The way we structure our lives together is not an accident.  It reflects who God is and who we are in relationship with God and with each other.  Our structure reflects several important things:

• First, we live in covenant community.
• God established God's covenant with Israel "to be their God and they be God's people" so that together they might "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord."  We are limited in resources and vision when we go it alone.  Together we are stronger, more creative and able to answer God's call in larger, more effective ways. (Think about the work of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance teams for an example.) (G.3.0101b)
• Second, we are called to God's church--specifically, for us, the PC(USA)
• Presbyterians believe that God calls each of us to a church, we don't just join.  We believe God calls people into membership who bring gifts that the church needs.  The Church, then, "is the body of Christ, both in its corporate life and in the lives of its individual members, and is called to give shape and substance to the truth that sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down." Our call and our salvation is not just an individual call, it is a corporate call. (G-3.0200)
• Third, "those people" are us.
• The radical [fundamental] principles of Presbyterian church government and discipline are that we are one Church of Jesus Christ.  In our tradition larger parts (or their representations) govern smaller parts and a representation of the whole governs and determines in regard to every part...and an appeal may be carried from the lower to the higher bodies until "they be finally decided by the collected wisdom and united voice of the whole Church."  At a practical level, churches bring suggested rules, representatives from churches serve as the Presbytery, representative elders from churches serve at Synod and General Assembly.  "Those people" are us--regular people seeking to discern God's will and act accordingly.  "We" make the decisions, and when "we" decide poorly and God shows us a better way, "we" correct ourselves. (G-1.0400)

So the question should be "What have we done for Presbytery?"  Because--we. are. presbytery.

But the even better question is "What are we doing for God?"

That, ultimately, is the foundation of our call and our gifting...to share the new reality revealed in Jesus Christ that we have seen and heard...and to live this new life, even at the risk of losing our own lives.

So in our most recent corporate understanding, we hear our call from God as a call to reach out to others in this part of North Carolina with God's new reality, to equip each other as disciples, and to be sent by God to serve others.  In our most recent corporate understanding, we have staff and organization to try and accomplish our vision.  In our most recent corporate understanding, we are listening for what God has to say about all this.

We may be hearing God move us to a different staff configuration, a different vision, a different call.  But we are not doing any of this for ourselves.  The churches of Salem Presbytery are called to serve God individually and together.  So, we need to ask the better question:

What are we doing for God?

Buying or Giving...

The man entered the church office and pulled out his checkbook.  He wrote a check for $10,000.  He signed his name, handed the check to the pastor, then pulled a piece of yellow legal pad out of his shirt pocket.  Together they reviewed the list.

I want $500 to go to the courtyard fund.  I want $1000 to help pay for the organ repairs.  $50 to the youth.  $25 to Sunday school.  $100 to the mission committee to feed elementary children.  It took a long time for him to nickel and dime his check to the various "good causes" he had listed.  Finally, the last dollar was spent, and he looked at the pastor.  Now you are going to put what I am giving where I want it to go, aren't you?

She smiled and assured him his money would be credited as requested.  Then she continued.  "However, I don't think you've really given this money.  You've bought some things here at the church.  But you haven't given to God.  Perhaps you should consider the difference.  We here at the church will let you buy whatever you want.  But perhaps God would rather you give."

The next time the man brought a check, he gave it to the work of God.

Are we generous givers, trusting that God will work out God's purposes with the resources we share with those to whom we are connected?  For Presbyterians, that means our local congregations, our presbytery, and the General Assembly (which is just us local congregations who send representatives to discern the work of the Spirit at a larger level).

Are we giving?  Are we attempting to buy our way with strings we attach to our money? Or, are we attempting to control the work of the Spirit by holding back our money until we get our own way?

Are we giving or buying...an interesting question.

A Stewardship Prayer...

(from Ann Weems)

O Lord, forgive our fears that so stifle our stewardship. 

Forgive our giving in and our giving up 

instead of giving ourselves to Christ’s mission of love. 

Remind us that our hope is in standing up and risking, 

in taking our stewardship seriously. 

Help us to remember, O Lord, 

that the stewardship question is not really, 

How much will we give? 

The stewardship question is, 

How will we spend what we have been given? 

We pray it will be faithfully and cheerfully. Amen.

Family Promises...

What does it mean to be family?

Is it purely biological?  If you are born to a couple, then you are family?  Perhaps, but many children will tell you they lived with biological parents and never felt loved or connected...they always longed to be part of a "family."

Is it some lovely feeling?  Perhaps.  But have there been moments when you felt less than loving, less than positive about a spouse or a child?  Does that make you no longer family?

What about the military?  They describe themselves as a family.  Sororities and fraternities even use the designation "brother" and "sister."  What about God's family?  Church family?

What does it mean to be a family?

Craig Dykstra, in his book Growing in Faith, suggests that "family is constituted by promises...it is the promises that make the family, before it is the family that makes promises."  When we marry, we create relationship through promises.  We have children, but we see them not as "biological offspring," but as sons and daughters.  Our children begin to see themselves as sons and daughters and see us as parents.  Dykstra says that "at the point where the child's promises become conscious and owned, promises are not newly being made.  Rather the promises are existing, already-lived promises becoming articulated and affirmed (or perhaps rejected)." (p. 100)

That sounds a lot like our understanding of our relationship with God.  God loves us, so we then are able to love God and love each other.  God acts to save us; we become conscious of that activity, own it, and commit our lives to the relationship(or  reject it...).

Dykstra goes a step further and claims "it is not the failure to keep promises, in and of itself, that destroys family.  Such failure happens in every family and can be expected.  Family can remain family in the midst of unfulfilled promises.  What destroys family is the collapse of promise-making."(Italics mine)

Promises start our journey as disciples.  Sometimes, we make the promise.  Often, it is made on our behalf and we choose later whether to accept or reject it.  If we accept,  every minute of every day we are called to live our promise of discipleship in response to God's promise of grace.

What happens to church families members refuse to participate in promise-making?  Does that, in fact,  destroy the family?  Look at the promises we make in membership vows when God calls us to a particular congregation:

A faithful member accepts Christ’s call to be involved responsibly in the ministry of his Church. 

Such involvement includes
a. proclaiming the good news,
b. taking part in the common life and worship of a particular church,
c. praying and studying Scripture and the faith of the Christian Church,
d. supporting the work of the church through the giving of money, time, and talents,
e. participating in the governing responsibilities of the church,
f. demonstrating a new quality of life within and through the church,
g. responding to God’s activity in the world through service to others,
h. living responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life,
i. working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment.

It strikes me that through the deliberate refusal to promise any of these, we begin the destruction of our church family.  If only our pastor and hired staff can proclaim the good news, we destroy our church.  If we do not take regular, frequent, part in the common life and worship of our particular church, we destroy our church.  If we do not pray and study Scripture and our faith...if we do not support the work of the church through our money, time and talents...if we do not participate in governing responsibilities...and so forth...We. Destroy. Our. Church.  It is often a slow death, much like the slow death of a marriage when partners stop making the promise to be in the marriage.  But death eventually results.  

Sometimes a congregation can hold on for a good while because some members of the family attempt to make promises on behalf of those not promise-making.  Some pledge more to cover those not pledging at all. Some serve more to make up for those not serving.  Some...well you get the point.

And the challenge here is that many of us who would absolutely agree with the statement that the collapse of promise-making destroys the family, are unquestioned experts at justifying our cessation of promise-making. We don't agree with a national vote, we don't like the people on the session, the pastor drives us crazy, we want to spend budget money on different priorities, we want contemporary/traditional music instead of traditional/contemporary music, we are angry at others in our families, we...fill in the blank.

Nowhere does it say "pick the membership promises you will make."  "Love God and love your neighbor as yourself," is not optional for just when we feel like it.  We'll never be perfect.  We'll always struggle together to interpret scripture, to serve just causes, to treat each other with respect when we are angry.  But if we have stopped even making the promises, we must know that we are no longer family.

Am I part of God's family, really, if I can't tell others where and how I see God at work in my life and in the world (proclaiming the good news), if I don't worship with the body, if I never pick up the family storybook and learn the story, if I don't share my resources generously and gladly, if I don't serve with the gifts I have, if I don't practice reconciliation with my brothers and sisters, if I don't demonstrate through every aspect of my life that I have made these promises?

Is your church struggling?  Not growing?  In conflict?  

Take a good look.  Are you still committed to the promise-making?   

I Understand...

I went to a meeting on Saturday.  First, it was Saturday.  Meeting...Saturday.  And it was morning.  Not in the heat of the day, but in the beautiful part of the morning.  Saturday meetings.  Bleh.

Everyone else seemed to be in the same mind-set.  The energy level in the room defined negative number.  The news was not good.  Everyone was in the same boat...the sinking one.  Sighs abounded.  People gave it a try, but it just didn't seem to be getting anyone anywhere.

But there was a child.  The attendees were invited to stand and introduce themselves and tell what church they were from.  They did.  80% of the way through, the child stands up.  She raises her hand.  She states her name and church.  We laugh...amazed at her bravery, her energy, her sense of self.  Introductions are finished.  An older man is asked to pray to open the meeting.  He does.

Meeting business is accomplished.  Our human efforts seem to fall flat.  There is always a bigger problem than any proposed solution.  The invoking of the Spirit at the beginning does not seem to have worked.  We are glad the meeting is over.  We will take our weary selves and spirits home and attempt to distract ourselves from the hole we are in.

The moderator asks for someone to close in prayer.  Eyes hit the floor.  He asks again.  And there was a child.  Her feet hit the floor and her hand shot into the air again.  He called her by name, asked if she wanted to pray with the tonality that allowed her to back out if she wanted.

No.

This child stand in front of 30 tired adults, folds her hands in front of her face, and prays us out.  I have no idea what words she used, but she spoke with passion and confidence.  

I understand.  That's why I will do whatever it takes to tithe--because there is a child.  That's why I will teach Sunday school and attend worship and pray for all I am worth--because there is a child.  That is why I will attend meetings on Saturdays and why I will tell the world what gives my life meaning and purpose, what keeps me focused on others and not myself.  There is a child.  

This precious child...she was five...she exhibited the faith we all should have.  She gifted us with a fearless, feckless faith that embedded itself so deeply in my soul that all I can say is...I understand.

I would have given my life on Saturday, I would give it today, for the child who knew what  loving God was all about.  I understand.  This life of faith is about saying our names, praying our prayers, greeting our neighbors, living for our God.  

With God's help, I will give my life for the child...for all the children, those who know God and those who need to know God...and for all those children, young and old, that God puts in my path.

I understood.  I understand.  

Do you?

Is it Giving?

In this culture, you learn early on that money is power.  The bully on the schoolyard demands money.  We assume the wealthy deserve our respect and the lower class our disdain.  We may think we know better, but our behaviors suggest a deep and abiding connection between having money and the assumption of smart, talented, capable, deserving and the absence of money and an assumption of dumb, untalented, incapable, and undeserving.

So American Christians with this ingrained assumption, an assumption that is so deep in us that we sometimes don't even recognize it, we money-is-power-Christians bump right into God's request to be generous givers.  Oh.  Us?!  Oh.  OK... Us?  Really?  Oh.  OK...

We, therefore, give.  Generously.  Or at least as generously as we can.  Because first, this whole giving thing should be shared by everyone.  And not everyone gives...not by a long shot.  So we'll give, but some, not all...because that will "encourage" those who don't give to do so.  If we supported the budget with a tithe, then other people would think they didn't need to give.  We could be 100% generous, but everyone should be involved first.

We give.  Generously.  Or at least as generously as we can.  Because second, we have these responsibilities.  We have to provide for our families.  Phones.  Cable TV.  Nice home...maybe even a little nicer than we can afford because it will give us our kids a leg up in a world that judges worth by what you have.  Hey, it's the way things are.  God wants us to take care of our children, and we need to give them all we can.  We need to put them in a position to succeed.

We give.  Generously.  Or at least as generously as we can.  Because...and probably most important...the church is always giving money to causes we don't agree with or doing something with it that we think is stupid.  And if not our local congregation, certainly those other people.  Who knows who they are or what they believe.  We certainly don't want our hard-earned dollars going to something we either don't know about or don't believe in.  There's got to be some controls in place.

So why doesn't our giving produce the promised blessing from God?  Why doesn't our faith grow?  Why don't our churches thrive?  Why don't people see the grace of God in our lives?

Is it generous giving if it is power?

"Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work...for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God."  2 Corinthians 9:7-8, 12