Healthy Congregations Manage Conflict

NW MN Synod Bishop's Letter
August 2008

“So, how many conflicted congregations have we got in the synod right now?”

If I were asked this question, I’d probably respond: “About 270 of them!”

What? How can that be? Are things that bad?

Not at all! Rather, we have 270 congregations that are dealing all the time with various and sundry disagreements about things that matter. Garden-variety conflicts aren’t signs of ill health. Rather, they indicate that our congregations are alive, seeking to be faithful in God’s mission. Members of the congregation are able to manage the conflicts that are part of the fabric of parish life.

If I’m asked how many conflicted congregations we have in the synod, what the questioner really wants to know is: How many churches aren’t managing their conflict well? For how many congregations has conflict become a problem?

On any given day the Northwestern Minnesota Synod does have some congregations that have, for a time, lost the ability to manage conflict in their midst. Conflict is thwarting God’s mission.
How can you tell if your congregation is no longer managing a conflict well? Here are some symptoms:
* People vehemently deny that any conflict exists
* Members stop listening carefully to one another
* Persons withdraw their presence, withhold their support, issue ultimatums.
* Blame gets focused on a scapegoat, often the pastor
* People think less reflectively, less imaginatively
* Folks start choosing up sides
* Secrets are kept, clandestine meetings are held, anonymous letters are written, communication breaks down
* People stop taking responsibility for themselves
* Quick fixes are sought
* Members gossip about one another or “triangulate”–bringing in a third party rather than going directly to the person who troubles them

Conflict run amok damages relationships within the Body of Christ, and that in itself is tragic enough. What’s even worse is that unmanaged conflict derails the congregation’s ability to move forward in God’s mission. Rather than walking faithfully and purpose-fully behind their Lord toward God’s gracious future, members of the church get sidetracked.

Fortunately the vast majority of our congregations are not paralyzed by unmanaged conflict. Most churches have learned how to deal with conflict in the course of their common life. How do they do it?

Peter Steinke, in his Creating Healthy Congregations study guide, speaks of three characteristics shared by churches that possess a sense of coherence that allows them to manage conflict:
1. Meaningfulness. Church members have a sense of purpose and are committed to it. They take up the challenges that come to them and shape their destiny under God.
2. Comprehensibility. Folks have a framework for making sense of what is happening. Healthy interaction and clear communication are taken for granted. People see change as natural. Decisions are made on the basis of clarity, not necessarily certainty.
3. Manageability. Church folk don’t act like victims or complain about how unfairly they have been treated. They recognize the gifts and tools available to them, and they respond thoughtfully to the challenges that confront them.
Let me add two more characteristics of congregations that manage conflicts::
4. Forgiveness. When we gather weekly to begin our worship, it is not by accident that we start by confessing our sin to one another and to God. We dare to speak these words only because we know God has an answer to offer us: “I declare unto you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, for Jesus’ sake.” People who live within that confession-absolution rhythm always have the best resource for managing conflict.
5. Preparedness. Healthy congregations expect that they will occasionally encounter sharp disagreements. Just as they keep their liability insurance up to date and their fire extinguishers recharged, they have a conflict management plan “in place.” They cultivate leaders who know how to take stands and stay connected with others. They work with clear guidelines and policies. They have functioning Mutual Ministry Committees. They read and practice Matthew 18:15-20 routinely. They ask their leaders to go through Healthy Congregations training.

Larry Wohlrabe
Bishop, Northwestern Minnesota Synod

Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. Why do we avoid thinking that conflict is normal in the life of the church?
2. Recall a time when you or your congregation was involved in “conflict run amok.” How did it start? What happened? What resulted from the conflict situation? How did it end? What did you learn?
3. Recall a time when you or your congregation experienced a well-managed conflict situation. Ask yourself the same set of questions under #2 above.

Gathered, Transformed, Sent

Centennial Service at Calvary, Bemidji
July 27, 2008
Acts 2:37-47

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

What’s the difference between a person celebrating her 100th birthday and a congregation observing its centennial?

Well, the difference is that when a person turns 100 everyone worries—either about starting a fire from all those candles on the birthday cake OR they worry about the honored guest having a heart attack trying to blow out all those candles!

The 100th birthday of a person often marks the “end of the line,” the culmination of a life.

But when a congregation celebrates its 100th birthday, you ship the bishop in to preach so that (as Pastor Trandem was quoted in last Friday’s Bemidji Pioneer) “we can cast a vision for the next 100 years.”

Yikes! Steve—what an assignment! Thanks for not low-balling anybody’s expectations for this morning’s sermon!

Pastor Trandem talked that way, though, because, as the lifespan of Christian congregations go, the first 100 years is really just a good start.

The life of a congregation, you see, transcends the lives of its members. You aren’t the same Calvary Lutheran Church that got started when Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House. God is forever replenishing the church….God is continually gathering, transforming and sending his church.

Gathering, transforming, sending….those are words you’ve been lifting up in this Centennial year. They not only sum up your past—but they are clues as to how God will move you toward your bicentennial as Calvary Lutheran Church.

What will get you to the year 2108? Three things in particular: the gathering, transforming and sending work of God.

First, God will keep gathering you.

Wherever God is at work, God is always gathering his people….calling us out of the world…gathering us around Word, sacraments and mission.

Our God has always been a gathering-God. In our text from Acts, chapter 2, we see God gathering the church from every nation under heaven, drawing people together through Peter’s preaching, leading 3000 persons to Holy Baptism…

….and the first mark of that newborn church in Jerusalem was their determination to continue gathering. Verse 42 of our text says that “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” God doesn’t deal just with solitary, isolated individuals. God gathers people in, gathers persons together, gathers them unto himself.

The very first thing Calvary Lutheran Church did back in 1908 was to gather. God assembled, from among many Bemidji-ites, a congregation called Calvary.

And as long as people keep gathering here, there will be a Calvary Lutheran Church. To help that happen you have recently invested in your gathering place, your building and grounds—not ends in themselves, mind you, but means to the end of gathering around Word, bath, meal and mission.

But gathering is just the first thing—the prerequisite, if you will, for all that follows. For when God gathers you, God also transforms you.

Here in our text we see how those listening to Peter’s Pentecost sermon were “cut to the heart.” The gospel had “gotten” to them, gotten under their skins, disturbed and unsettled them, opened them up to ask: “What should we do?”

A question like that invites God’s transformative work, because transformation starts with discontent with the way we are, discontent with the way things are in this world.

On the day of Pentecost, that transforming power was more than evident. People, cut to the heart by the story of Jesus, asked “What should we do?”

And notice, please, what Peter didn’t say. Peter didn’t say: “Oh don’t worry about it. God accepts you just the way you are.”

No! Although Jesus Christ indeed HAD saved them all with his precious blood, freely shed on the Cross of Calvary….God’s great work still needed to “come home” into the troubled hearts and unsettled lives of these people…

…and so Peter responded with this gracious invitation: “Repent—which means ‘turn away from all that separates you from God’…”

“Repent,” Peter said, “and be baptized every one of you every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”

Dear friends, before we ever get it in our head to go looking for God, God has been long on the lookout for us, finagling all sorts of ways to get to us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us—Christ did the heavy lifting, Christ procured our salvation…

…but all of that reaches its destination when our hearts are cut to the quick, when we become so unsettled with our sin and the world’s waywardness that we become open to God’s transforming work in our lives.

This congregation, Calvary Lutheran Church, has been, is and shall be a dangerous place—dangerous in the sense that we are changed here. The fragmented pieces of our tattered lives are knit back together here because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

What will the next 100 years look like for you at Calvary? These years will be filled with God’s gathering, transforming work in your midst….and all of it, so that you might also be God’s sent people, bearing Christ wherever you go.

Gathered, transformed, sent! Here in our text the people of the first church in Jerusalem obviously didn’t keep the Good News to themselves. God’s love spilled over, through them, into the wider community, with the result that, as it says in v. 47, “day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

I’m convinced that if Martin Luther were alive today, living here in North America, he would rewrite that part of his Small Catechism about the Holy Spirit calling, gathering, enlightening and sanctifying us.

If Luther were a pastor here in North America in 2008, Luther would add “sending” to that great list of Holy Spirit verbs.

You see, when Martin Luther lived in Germany, between 1483 and 1546, he assumed that almost everyone in the world had been baptized, had heard the gospel, could be called (at least in some sense) a Christian.

Luther was only 9 years old when a guy named Christopher Columbus found out that there was a whole, much bigger world “out there” in which everyone was NOT baptized or acquainted with Jesus Christ.

Unlike Martin Luther, you and I no longer live in “Christendom.” We cannot assume that everyone around us knows Jesus, believes in Jesus, has come to Jesus in faith. We live in a vast “mission field.” Just this past week I heard that 50% of the residents of Beltrami County are unchurched—and that 50% of the folks in your county also live in poverty.

So here’s the upshot, the payoff of all the gathering, transforming work God has been and will keep doing in your lives: God does all that in order to send you. The sending is what God is after.

I know that sounds scary, so let me suggest that you start close to home, and then work your way out from there.

My friend Bob (not his real name) is an active disciple at Our Savior’s in Moorhead where I served as senior pastor before I became bishop. My friend Bob once told me that there was a time when he seldom came to worship. On Sunday mornings he was AWOL most of the time….

…Until someone near and dear to him got under his skin and cut him to the heart. This person simply said: "Get up, get out of bed, and help me get these kids of ours ready to go to church. If you want them to turn out to be the kinds of kids God can be proud of you need to start coming with us, you need to keep the promises you made when they were baptized, you need to start showing up."

And Bob has been showing up ever since. No church committee made him the object of a campaign. No ordained pastor "got through to him." His wife just called him to start living by promises he had already made. Bob got back in the picture because God sent his nearest neighbor to him—God sent Bob’s wife to bring him back into the fold.

Here’s why God gathers and transforms you in this community called Calvary Lutheran: God does all that in order to send you to your neighbors with the good news of Jesus Christ.

And that’s what will get you to your bicenntenial: God’s going to keep gathering you, transforming you, and sending you. So---hang on to your hats—and enjoy the ride.

In the name of Jesus.
Amen.

God's "Doing" Word

Bethany and Mt Carmel Lutheran Churches, Williams, MN
Isaiah 55:10-13
July 13, 2008

Three veteran baseball umpires were comparing notes on the fine art of calling balls and strikes.

One of the umpires declared: “It’s simple: I just calls ‘em as I sees ‘em!!”
The second umpire replied: “I do better than that: I calls ‘em as they are!”
The third umpire chimed in: “I’ve got you both beat! They ain’t nothing ‘til I calls ‘em!”

This may be a little story about baseball, but it also tells us something about words, particularly the difference between two kinds of words.

There are, you see, just two kinds of words in our world.
First, there are words that say things.
Most words are like that: “saying” words that convey information, words that fill up dead air space—words we tuck into dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers and all kinds of books.
“Saying” words are words about the weather, the price of gasoline, the local gossip, Twins or Vikings scores, scandals in Hollywood or Washington–you name it.

TV’s Jerry Seinfeld and friends called these “yaddah-yaddah-yaddah” words.
Not that these “saying” words are bad, mind you! It’s just that these words don’t take us anywhere. They say things–and that’s about it.

There’s a second type of words, though–and these are words that go beyond simply saying things. These are the words that actually do things. These words don’t just say what they say–these words do what they say. I call them “doing” words.

Our friend the third umpire in my opening story illustrates the power, the dynamic energy of “doing” words. “Those baseballs hurled from the pitcher’s mound past the batter to the catcher’s mitt: they ain’t nothing ‘til I calls ‘em.”

So, if the umpire says: STRIKE! It’s a strike–whether or not anyone else agrees. And if the umpire shouts: BALL. Well, it’s a ball–and there’s no use arguing!

If there are two kinds of words in the world–“saying” words and “doing” words–how can you tell them apart?

“Saying” words seldom change our lives.
“Doing” words ALWAYS change our lives.
Good “doing” words change our lives in at least three ways:
§ They free us from our past.
§ They transform our present.
§ They deliver to us a new future.

Some “doing” words free us from our past–they liberate us from whatever haunts us, whatever might be holding us back. For example:
“New evidence has emerged. The Army review board hereby upgrades you from ‘dishonorably discharged’ to ‘honorably discharged.’ Congratulations!”

Other doing words transform our present–they change our current circumstances in profound ways. For example:
“Yes, yes, yes–I do want to marry you!”

Still other doing words deliver to us a new future–they crack open fresh possibilities for the rest of our lives. For example:
“You and your spouse passed all the screening tests. The adoption can proceed. You’re going to become parents!”

How can you tell “saying” words from “doing” words? It might be as simple as strapping a blood pressure cuff on your arm.

“Saying” words rarely affect your blood pressure.
But “doing” words can make your blood pressure spike in an instant!--along with your pulse, respiration, and perspiration rates, too!

And what happens when the speaker of a doing word isn’t just another human being?

What happens when God speaks “doing” words to us? That brings us to our Old Testament Lesson for this morning, from Isaiah 55:10-13. [Let’s read it together...]

This gorgeous gem of Scripture paints for us a picture of melting snow and gentle spring rain. The first hearers of this prophecy were well acquainted with drought. They knew about parched soil, dry dirt, and stressed crops needing a drink.

The people to whom this prophecy first came knew that water made the difference between having a harvest or not, between life and death itself.

Isaiah likened the rain that falls from heaven to the Word of God that also falls from heaven. Both the rain and God’s Word make wonderful things happen. “...So shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth,” says the LORD, “It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Do you see the “doing” words just bursting from this text?
God’s Word never returns empty.
God’s Word always accomplishes God’s purposes.
God’s Word forever succeeds in whatever God intends.

And why is that? It’s because God stands behind God’s Word. God pours everything that God has and is into God’s Word. In Jesus, God literally becomes God’s Word.

Even though you and I might speak “doing” words to one another, we can’t always guarantee the outcome of all those “doing” words.

We can say: “I forgive you for what you did...”
But later we may change our minds about such forgiveness…

We can say: “I promise to be faithful to you and stay married to you, until death parts us...”
But as we know, only about 50% of the time does that marriage promise “succeed” for life.

We can say: “I love you forever...”
And yet, even if we stay true to that promise for as long as we live, none of us lives “forever.” Death is a limitation built into every promise that we speak.

When God speaks “doing” words to us, however, God is limited, God is held back, God is conditioned by none of those things.
God forgives us–and God never crosses his fingers at the same time!
God commits himself to us–unreservedly, unconditionally.
God’s promises are never “bounded” by death.
In the risen Lord Jesus, we encounter a promise-speaker who has death behind him.
That gives “doing” words from God a totally different character.
God’s “doing” words truly do free us from our past, transform our present, and deliver to us a new future.

Think of all the times Jesus spoke liberating, transforming, future-delivering “doing words” to those he encountered.

To that Samaritan woman by the well who had had five husbands and was working on her sixth Jesus said:
“Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.”

To stinking, dead Lazarus–already four days in the grave–Jesus shouted: “Lazarus, come out!....”

To that woman caught in adultery Jesus declared: “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

Jesus was forever speaking “doing” words to anyone who would hear him. In fact, it was this way of speaking–speaking for and in the name of almighty God–that got Jesus into trouble and eventually got him killed.

Remember the paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus? When his friends tore a hole in the roof above and lowered the man down to Jesus, he said to the man: “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

This upset the guardians of the Jewish laws so much that they asked each other: “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” They were really asking: Who authorized Jesus to speak these “doing” words in God’s name?

You and I know the answer: God did! God authorized Jesus to speak for God! The God who finally raised Jesus from the dead granted Jesus permission to speak for him. Indeed, we say that God was alive in Jesus, speaking all these powerfully effective “doing” words.
And because Jesus is risen from the dead, because Jesus still lives among us, God continues to authorize this kind of wild, audacious speaking.

In fact, such words are regularly spoken right here in this very place. Such words define this place, this community of faith called Mt Carmel and Bethany Lutheran Parish.

We hear such “doing” words week in and week out.
These divine “doing” words free us from our past, transform our present, and deliver to us a new future.
They sound like this:
John or Mary, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
I therefore declare unto you the entire forgiveness of all your sins.
The body of Christ, given FOR YOU. The blood of Christ, shed FOR YOU.

When these words (or words like them–words with a direct-address “you”!)...when these words are spoken, a fresh start is granted, faith is given, hope is restored.
And nothing about us is ever the same again.

For these “doing” words have God’s authority behind them. These “doing” words accomplish in us whatever God proposes, they succeed in the thing for which God sent them to us.
These “effective” words mean life to us, and a future without end in Jesus Christ, the promise-speaker par excellence.

That is why Jesus invites us to come here continually, again and again, knowing that right here is where we hear, taste, eat, and drink words that make us new.

In the name of Jesus.
Amen.

Why We Can't Have God All to Ourselves

NW MN Synod Women’s Organization Convention
June 7, 2008
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, E. Grand Forks, MN
Micah 6:1-8

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Some years ago I helped plan a gathering of church staff workers—mainly folks serving on support staffs of congregations—you know, the people who do the daily “behind the scenes” stuff that keeps a congregation running.

Having discussed the joys and frustrations of this work, we came up with a gathering theme that “rang true” for all of us: I Love the Church—It’s People Who Drive Me up the Wall.

I love the church. I even love working in and for the church. But sometimes, there are people in the church who make me want to scream.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could serve the church—without getting all bound up with people, especially troublesome people? We can’t, of course. If you love the church, well then—sorry!--you’re stuck with people of all sizes and shapes, people of all sorts and situations. The church, after all, IS people.

But still….still we wonder, and we maybe even fantasize about a way of life in which people and their problems weren’t such a huge factor.

My wife Joy, who’s with me these days, is a medical social worker. She has worked with discharge planning, hospice and home care in hospitals across southern Minnesota and now in the Breckenridge-Wahpeton area.

Here’s a little secret. Sometimes Joy and I have about had it up to here with people and their problems. We’d like to run away….hide out in a cabin in the woods somewhere, all by ourselves—get away from people, especially get away from hurt, bruised, anxious, angry people and their tangled lives.

But, of course, that would be to abandon who we are and what God has called us to do. God has called both Joy and me to work with people, pure and simple. God, in effect, has said to us—and to you as well—you can’t have me all to yourself. You can’t have me (says God) without also “having” all the people who belong to me.

And that is what I understand to be the bedrock point of your SWO Convention theme for this year, from the prophet Micah: “Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.”

As we heard in our First Lesson for this morning, this theme verse is part of a larger dispute that God was having with his chosen people of ancient Israel. In the first verses of Micah chapter 6, God throws down the gauntlet before them. God “takes them to court” so to speak, demanding that they answer for their unfaithfulness.

God goes after his Chosen People, reminding them of all that he has done for them—liberating them from slavery in Egypt, protecting them from enemies like mean old King Balak of Moab, leading them across the Jordan River (from Shittim in the east to Gilgal in the west) and ushering them into the Promised Land. God had not shirked, God had not failed them in any way. And yet God’s people had rebelled, fallen short, “blown it,” time and time again.

What is God to do with such a stubborn, rebellious people? How—just how can they make things right with God, get back in God’s good graces?

One possible solution pops up in Micah, chapter 6. The people of Israel might perform some religious ritual in their temple. They might offer a sacrifice of something dear to them—an animal or even many animals, rivers of consecrated oil, even their firstborn children (a thought that horrified both God and them, by the way!)

The point is that the people of Israel are ready to do almost anything for God in the realms of worship and sacrifice and prayer. They fervently desire to have God all to themselves once again, the way it used to be.

But God will have none of it! Micah sweeps away all thoughts, all possibilities of Israel “buying off” God through some heroic, perfect act of worship.

No. God wants something else. God wants the people themselves, God’s people, all of them—lock, stock and barrel. And God wants them only as they are in relationship with all the other people whom God loves.

“You can’t buy me off with religious devotion,” God says. “And you can’t have me all to yourself, either. You can—indeed, by my sheer grace, you will have me only in relationship to your neighbors. And here’s what I’m looking for from you
· Do justice to your neighbors
· Love kindness among your neighbors
· Walk humbly with your God, in the midst of your neighbors.

When you have me, God declares, you always, always, always get a “package deal.” You can’t know me, can’t love me, can’t do vital business with me without also embracing your neighbors.

I’m stuck with you—says God—and because of that, you’re stuck with each other. That’s how it is. That’s the only way that I the Lord your God know how to operate.

So, if you want to get close to me, God says through Micah, here are the first three steps

First, do justice. Get over your contentment with the world as it is. Look around yourselves and get in touch with all the ways that this world isn’t as God intended it to be. Get up close and personal with hunger and poverty, violence and oppression, sickness and strife. Become unsettled by all those things that are so contrary to God’s will.

And then do something about that! Act on your sense of injustice. Follow your justice-making God and do justice, wherever and whenever and however you get the chance.

If you want to get close to me, God says…
Do justice…and
Love kindness.

In a way “kindness” doesn’t really do justice to the Hebrew word Micah used, the word hesed. Hesed involves abiding loyalty to another person….sticking with someone through thick and thin, stubbornly refusing to give up on them, never abandoning them.

Hesed, mercy, is what God does best. Hesed is God casting his lot with the unlovely and the unlovable—doing so, unalterably, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God sheds his hesed on us, so lavishly, so abundantly that it overflows through us to others.

If you want to get close to me, God says…
Do justice to your neighbors
Love kindness with your neighbors
And walk humbly with your God in the midst of your neighbors.

Some Old Testament scholars observe that it might better read: walk carefully with your God. Which is to say—walk with God in a way that makes sense for someone who is walking with God.

It’s like dancing—if you’re dancing with God, who do you suppose should “lead?” Who properly follows whom? Do we not, every step of the way, take our cues from our walking partner, our God who graciously stoops to walk with us in the midst of our neighbors?

There once was a book, maybe you remember it—the title of which was God is My Co-Pilot. I remember a bumper sticker that came out some time later that read: “If God is your co-pilot, you’re sitting in the wrong seat!”

So also here in Micah 6:8, we’re invited to walk humbly with our God, always remembering who is leading and who is following. This third step is so crucial, it seems to me, because it grounds our doing of justice and our loving of kindness—grounds those first steps in our relationship with God who is always doing justice and loving kindness with us.

If I have any queasiness about this text from Micah 6 is that it too often gets snatched out of its biblical framework, highjacked by politicians and social engineers with all sorts of ideas about what makes for “justice” and “kindness”—torn asunder from the one true source of deep justice and wide mercy, the God of Israel and Israel’s greatest son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

It is not just any sort of Democrat or Republican justice that we do, or any Rotary or Kiwanis variety of kindness that we love. It is the justice and the kindness that flows from the heart of God who made all things, who in Jesus Christ is remaking all things, and who one day soon will finish up his new creation.

If you would be close to God and the ways of God….God invites you and me to take three steps…
· To do justice to our neighbors
· To love kindness among our neighbors
· And to walk humbly, care-fully with our God, in the midst of our neighbors.

And as we do so, as we follow God, we will go in the right direction. We will not shrink back from people with all their problems. We won’t cross over to the other side of the street to avoid some suffering one who needs from us the pure milk of human kindness. We will go to the kinds of places and people Jesus went to….and indeed we will be Jesus in those places and with those neighbors.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

A Seeking, Saving, Sending Place

Dedication of Church Building
Bethany Lutheran Church, Nevis, MN
Third Sunday after Pentecost/June 1, 2008
Matthew 7:21-29

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

When Pastor A.J. and I discussed the scripture texts that would be read today, we both thought it only natural to use the appointed lectionary lessons, including this familiar gospel from Matthew 7.

A “house built on a rock,” after all, SOUNDS like something worth pondering as we dedicate a brand, new church building.

But then, as this day grew closer, and as I dug deeper into this text, I wondered if it might also sound like a building committee’s nightmare…..especially that part about the rains falling, the floods coming, the winds blowing and beating against that house…”and it fell—and great was its fall!”

Yeah. That’s just what your building committee wants to think about today! Our brand new church building fell—and great was its fall! Not exactly a happy thought on this banner dedication day.

If you’re on the building committee or the finance committee, or if you’re one of the many, many volunteers who worked on this building, do you want to imagine it in terms of a house built on sand falling flat as a pancake? It’s a little late in the game to be sitting here, trying to listen to this sermon, all the while wondering: “Let’s see now. Did we miss something? Did the geologist bore down far enough, did we pour those footings deep enough, did we build the foundation sturdy enough? Oh—and are all our insurance coverages updated for—you know—things like the rain falling, the floods coming and the winds blowing?”

Uffda! We don’t need this. Today is dedication day, after all—celebration day. Please—let’s not think about multi-peril building collapses.

And so—we won’t. OK?

These verse from Matthew chapter 7, although they use the language of building and construction, are not about bricks and mortar and natural disasters, after all.

This text isn’t really about your church building. It is, rather about your church, Christ’s church, the people who are the church, you and me.

Matthew 7:21-20 is about us, about being put together by God, into a strong and sturdy faith community that will be genuine, that will have integrity and inner strength, so as to withstand any onslaught that might arise against us. This text is about hearing Jesus’ words and acting on them (v. 24)--having faith and life wed together so intimately that they are as one—our believing and our living, totally congruent with one another, together pointing us toward God’s future in Jesus Christ.

What I think Jesus is after here is being genuine, staying true, being strengthened in the faith and life that is built on Christ who is our Rock, our sturdy foundation. This text points us not to this building per se, but to what will by God’s grace happen here, for the sake of God’s mission in the world.

And because I’m a Lutheran preacher who thinks in threes, let me suggest to you three core activities that God intends to do here in your midst, under the shelter of this new roof, all of it for the sake of God’s mission in the world.

God in Jesus Christ intends for this new church building to be a seeking place, a saving place and a sending place. God in Jesus Christ intends for you, his beloved church, to be a seeking, saving, sending people.

And here’s what that might look like.

1. First, God has built here a seeking place. God has called you to be a seeking people.

Seeking is what God loves to do. Before you and I ever decide to go looking for God—God in Jesus Christ has already hunted us down and found us. If we think for one milli-second that we have found God, come to God, given ourselves to God—God has already beaten us to the punch.

Which is to say that God is always, always, always taking the first step toward us. Our seeking God calls us to be a seeking people.

We Lutherans haven’t always seen ourselves that way. We’ve usually thought of church as a “you come to us” enterprise. We’re here, we’re open for business, our doors are unlocked—and visitors are surely welcome to look for us, seek us out, come to us, join us—and who knows?--when they do, we might even be nice to them!

I doubt that approach has ever worked all that well. And I know it isn’t working in today’s world. Our seeking God is calling his Lutheran disciples to grow as a seeking people.

So dear friends, how are you going to turn this gorgeous new building “inside out.” It’s not just enough to make sure the doors are unlocked so others can get in. No. God calls us to match our faith with our actions by continuing God’s seeking work among us.

Just the other day a pastor from another “lake country” congregation south of here told me how he and some lay leaders put together a 1200-piece bulk mailing to all their neighbors, many of whom live on lakeshore property. Lo and behold, six new families have started coming to that congregation which is clearly growing into its identity as a seeking church.

2. God has built here a seeking place which is also a saving place. God calls you and me to be a saving people
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That’s because saving is what God does best. It’s God’s specialty. We mess up, we get out of line, we sin—and God is always finagling ways to save us, rescue us, piece our sorry lives back together. God does that chiefly through the work of Jesus Christ—coming to us, living among us, dying for us, rising again for us, and coming back some day to finish his new creation.

And God calls you to continue this good work. Bethany Lutheran Church is a saving people. You’re in the salvation business. What does that look like, though?

Let me suggest this image: when God saves us, God de-fragments our lives. Nowadays we are always becoming “fragmented,” aren’t we? Sin makes us go to pieces. Families seem more ragged, more torn up than ever before. Life itself feels like frantic fragmentation, 24 hours a day.

What if, what if Bethany Lutheran Church got the reputation for being a community where fragmented lives get pieced back together, “saved” and made whole again? What if Bethany specialized in giving families excuses to come together, pray together, play together, work together? What if Bethany was where folks instinctively turned when they wanted God to “de-fragment” their tattered lives?

3. God has built here a seeking place, a saving place and also a sending place. This new church building is a launching pad of sorts. Another way that Jesus calls you to hear his words and act on them is to grow into your identity as a sending people.

Once again, we Lutheran followers of Jesus haven’t always seen ourselves as a sent and sending people. But I believe it’s been in our DNA all along. When God seeks us out, washes us, feeds us, saves us through his Word….God always also propels us, back into the world. God is forever transforming disciples (followers) into apostles (sent ones).

God seeks and saves us, not just so that we’ll go “Whew! That was a close one”….but so that we’ll say “Wow! Come and see what God has done.” God saves us in order to send us.

God calls you, here at Bethany Lutheran Church, to be a sending station, a missionary outpost in this corner of Hubbard County. God calls you and me to learn and practice here how to tell about God’s love out there. We drink in Jesus’ gracious words and we spend ourselves learning how to act out and speak Jesus’ gracious words—“out there.”

My friends, did you really know what you were getting into when you embarked on this fabulous building project? Did you realize that what God was doing in your midst was helping you, giving you the muscles and the energy and the wherewithal to erect, and now to dedicate this seeking, saving, sending place?

What a turning point for you here at Bethany! Here, you may have thought the heavy lifting was over….and lo and behold, God is just getting a good start with you.

On behalf of all your brothers and sisters in Christ across our synod, I am delighted to congratulate you—and to bless your moving into this wondrous new space—a seeking place, a saving place, and a sending place—all for the sake of God’s work in our world.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Healthy Congregations Respond to Anxiety

NW MN Synod Bishop's Letter

June 2008

The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of perdition assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help….He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Psalm 18:4-6, 19

Thank God for the gift of anxiety! If we had no anxiety about anything, we’d never climb out of bed in the morning, never get to work on time, never finish an assignment or meet a deadline. A modest degree of anxiety or stress gets us going in life.

Anxiety isn’t something we choose. Anxiety simply is! Feeling anxious is as normal as breathing, eating, or sleeping. This is true for Christians and non-Christians alike. (See II Corinthians 1:8 where the Apostle Paul recalls a time when “we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.” Now, that’s anxiety!) Anxiety is a natural response to a threat or a fear—real or imagined.

But what about unrelenting anxiety? What if we continually operate on the high side of anxiety—above the threshold of normal, run-of-the-mill stress? What if anxiety paralyzes us, stops us in our tracks, overwhelms us? What then?

The word anxiety comes from a Latin word angere, meaning “to cause pain by squeezing.” Related words are anger, angst, angina (heart pain). The image here is telling: anxiety run amok constricts us, squeezes us, reduces our options and possibilities. It feels as if the “cords of death” are wrapped around our necks, choking off our oxygen supply (Psalm 18:4).

This is true for organizations as well as individuals. Congregations are living bodies—vibrant emotional systems of inter-relationships. Congregations can easily become “anxious systems.” And when that happens they become constricted, limited, “squeezed.”

Peter Steinke, a Lutheran pastor and counselor, contends that there are ten common triggers of anxiety in congregations:
*Money (too little or too much, e.g. a large bequest)
*Changing worship patterns
*Issues around sexuality
*Pastor’s leadership style
*“Old versus new” discussions
*Concern over growth or survival
*Conflicts among church staff or resignation of a staff member
*Being overly focused on internal matters or on external matters
*Suffering some major trauma, tension or transition
*Harm done to a child or the death of a child.

Every congregation deals with anxiety. That’s a given. The crucial question before us is: will we mindlessly, automatically react to anxiety? Or will we reflectively, thoughtfully respond to anxiety?

Reacting to anxiety is what comes most naturally. Steinke points out that there are three components to the human brain. There’s the “lower brain” that is concerned with sheer self-preservation. The lower brain specializes in automatic reflexes and reactions. Then there’s the “middle brain,” which is the seat of our emotions. This part of our brain focuses on whether a stimulus is painful or pleasurable.

God has given us a third, “higher brain”—unique to human beings. This brain, also called the neocortex, makes up 85% of our total brain mass. The higher brain is the seat of imagining, problem-solving, and decision-making. Through the “higher brain” God has bestowed upon us the ability to regulate what we do with anxiety. Our higher brain allows us to step into the “broad place” the Psalmist speaks of (Psalm 18:9) where we move beyond constricted gut reactions and “squeezed” unthinking reflexes.

Precisely here we see the difference between reacting (lower brain, short-term, survival-focused) and responding (higher brain, longer-term, mission-focused).

When a congregation simply reacts to anxiety we notice things like…
*Folks are constantly critical of one another;
*Persons or groups make threats, engage in manipulation, throw tantrums;
*Splinter groups form;
*Change is feared and rejected;
*Quick fixes are sought, and the path of least resistance is preferred;
*People keep secrets and avoid open communication;
*Folks get stuck in narrow, “either/or” thinking and thus miss the array of possibilities before them.

When a congregation and its leaders learn to regulate their stress and respond to anxiety they:
*Avoid snap judgments and quick fixes;
*Take time to gather information and analyze options;
*Generate all sorts of possible solutions;
*Endure short-term pain for the sake of long-term health;
*Commit themselves to living in the unity of Jesus Christ;
*Make wise, balanced, thoughtful decisions;
*Trust that God will sustain them, guide them and bless their faithful efforts in the midst of anxious times.

Larry Wohlrabe, Bishop
(This article is based on the Healthy Congregations training materials by Dr. Peter Steinke.)

Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. How do you recognize when you’re dealing with high anxiety? What physical symptoms show up? How do you know when anxiety is operating in your congregation? What are its symptoms?
2. Recall a time when your congregation reacted rather than responded to anxiety. What happened and what was the outcome?
3. Right now what is one way you could help your congregation live into the “broad place” of God’s care and mercy? How could your church improve its capacities to respond rather than react to anxiety?

Move That Church!

Installation of Bishop's Assistants

Ezekiel 37:1-14
Northwestern Minnesota Assembly

Concordia College, Moorhead, MN
May 16, 2008

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Dakota people of the Great Plains have a saying: If you discover that the horse you’ve been riding is dead…
1. Get off
2. Bury the dead horse
3. Start riding a living horse

Pretty obvious, right?

But what if you had a lot invested in that old, now-dead horse? You might be reluctant to let it go.

And so you could concoct strategies to help that dead horse run. You could try things like…
· Buying a bigger whip
· Changing riders
· Appointing a committee to study the dead horse
· Visiting others to see how they ride dead horses
· Lowering the standards so dead horses can be included
· Reclassifying the dead horse as “living-impaired”
· Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed
And you might even try
· Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position!

Despite all our best efforts, though, we won’t be going anywhere. The horse we’re trying to ride is still very, very dead.

Dear sisters and brothers, isn’t that how it often is for us in the church? Don’t we sometimes wonder whether the church we love is dying, that we’re trying to ride a dead horse?

If we ever feel that way, we are normal. God’s people are always living on the brink of death. We’re very realistic about that. We know, in those classic words of playwright Thornton Wilder, that “in the midst of life we are in the midst of death.”

And really, that’s a good thing, because we belong to the God who specializes in raising the dead. We belong to the God who is forever working in us that most extreme of makeovers—the extreme makeover of the resurrection.

We see that in spades here in our Old Testament lesson. The prophet Ezekiel stumbles across the Babylonian desert, where his people have been exiled, and in a trance, Ezekiel beholds a whole valley of bones, dry bones, dead as a doornail bones.

And God asks “Can these bones live [again]?” (v. 3)
To which Ezekiel responds. ‘O Lord God, you know [the answer to this question].’” (v. 3)

Which is, of course, the right answer!

God and God alone knows if these dry bones could live again. God and God alone can do something about this desolate scene of despair.

But God doesn’t do anything here without Ezekiel getting into the act.

“Here’s what I want you to do,” God tells Ezekiel. “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” (v. 4)

Picture it! Ezekiel in this valley filled with dry bones. And God wanting him to preach to the bones. How absurd—preaching to bones!

But Ezekiel does as he’s told. Ezekiel looks out over all those bleached tibias and fibulas and scapulas and vertebrae. He nervously clears this throat and opens his mouth…

Amazing! A valley of dry bones—and a man preaching to those bones.

But the preaching, the speaking of a Word is absolutely essential here. God isn’t interested in a sleight of hand, razzle-dazzle magic show.

Just as in the first chapter of Genesis, where God used his Word to bring forth the universe….

….so now again, in this place of utter desolation, God wants the Word—delivered through Ezekiel’s vocal cords--to be the recreating, renewing event that brings these bones back to life.

Which is exactly what happens.

Before the Word has scarcely left his lips, Ezekiel hears a rattling…as the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone’s connected to the leg bone’s connected to the hip bone’s connected to the backbone’s connected to the neck bones’ connected to the head bone.

While the Word still echoes through that dry, dusty valley all the bones have gotten pieced back together—and the muscles, ligaments, flesh and skin have reappeared on those bones—like a movie played in reverse.

But there’s one thing still missing.

Bones and flesh and blood are not enough.

God has one more task for Ezekiel. “‘Prophesy to the breath,” God commands Ezekiel, “prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’” (v. 9)

Bones and flesh and blood need one indispensable thing—for life to be restored. The breath, the wind, the Spirit of God must be added. Only the Spirit—the “Lord and Giver of Life” as we confess in the Nicene Creed—only the Spirit can bring these dry bones back to life.

This, dear friends, is an “extreme makeover” story. It’s a resurrection story—and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, beloved ones, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is what we have to offer to the whole world. It’s the Word that we have to preach to the “dry bones” all around us.

The great church historian Jaroslav Pelikan died of lung cancer, two years ago this past week. Before he died Pelikan made this powerful two-part confession.
If Christ is risen—nothing else matters.
If Christ is not risen--nothing else matters.
That pretty well sums up the whole thing, the whole enchilada for us as Christian disciples!

We are a people—as good as dead in many respects—who live solely because God has not given up on us. God has not tired of working God’s greatest work within us, the extreme makeover of renewal, transformation, new life….the extreme makeover of the resurrection.

We see dry bones all around us in the church. We see empty coffers, worn-out workers, chilling demographic predictions. We see a church that for the all world feels like it’s dead or dying.

But God sees something else. God sees the “raw materials” of a resurrection-in-waiting.

God sees all that and God says: MOVE THAT CHURCH. Prophesy to the bones. Prophesy to the breath—and then stand back, watch out, see the new thing I am about to do among you.

My dear sisters and brothers of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod: We have gathered here in this place for these two days to do just that. To open our eyes not just to the dry bones in our midst, but to see and hear and experience anew what God is doing among us, in the extreme makeover God never tires of working among us.

And as we begin this assembly, I want to say this as clearly as I possibly can: this is God’s work, from start to finish, from beginning to end. This is God’s work because only God can do it—it’s God’s speciality, raising the dead!

If you or I think for one moment that renewal of the church is about techniques or gimics or programs or any other quick fixes….we will fail and fail miserably.

If you have come here wondering, “Now what are ‘they’ going to try to get us to do?” you need to know that WE aren’t trying to get you to do anything.

For this is not, strictly speaking, “our” human business.

Only God can and does and will renew God’s church.

But this church-renewing God of ours doesn’t want to, doesn’t intend to renew the church without us—even as God didn’t resurrect that valley of the dry bones without Ezekiel’s involvement, without Ezekiel’s prophetic Word, without Ezekiel’s own breath, prophesying to and through the Breath of God, whom we also call the Holy Spirit.

So, dearly beloved in Christ, God is opening you up in these days. God is inviting you today and tomorrow to be open to what God is doing and promises to keep doing, working God’s extreme makeover in us, reviving the church wherever it has been planted, using our vocal cords and our breath to shout: MOVE THAT CHURCH!

Where we see that happening, in our place and time, we invariably notice some things that are going on. Dave Daubert, one of our keynote speakers, has summarized it succinctly in his book which I hope you all will purchase, ponder and take back home.

Where churches are experiencing God’s extreme makeover they are invariably doing three things, all in response to God’s gracious prompting

These churches are becoming clear about, articulating clearly their PURPOSE.

These churches are becoming open to CHANGE for the sake of God’s mission….they’re no longer trying to ride dead horses!
And these churches are calling forth, supporting and expecting their LEADERS to help them make missional, purpose-driven change for the sake of God’s mission.

Our synod, our “walking together” in Christ across the 21 counties of Northwestern Minnesota…our synod is another manifestation of Christ’s church that is open to the renewing, transforming “extreme makeover” of the resurrection. And so, as a synod, we too are finding ourselves
· Seeking to clarify God’s purposes for us
· Opening ourselves up to purpose-ful change…
· And calling forth leaders who will help us move ahead, toward God’s future.

That is why, in this opening service, we are kicking off this assembly, gathered around Word and Sacrament, and also installing three new servant leaders in God’s mission.

This synod has called you—Erin, Laurie and Steve—and God has called you to be agents of God’s extreme makeover, agents of God’s death-defying, resurrecting Word in Jesus Christ.

We thank God for you. We claim God’s power and peace for you…as you partner with us all in
· Raising up disciples in life-giving congregations…
· Identifying, calling forth and supporting other servant leaders for a mission church…
· And being forever on the lookout for new and renewing ministries in God’s church, on the move, toward God’s future, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.