I’ve got a couple of things to lift up to you this week.  First of all, our Office Manager, Chris Wogaman, will be leaving us at the end of January; downsizing to part time will not get the job done for him, and he will be seeking fuller-time employment.  My thanks goes to Chris for keeping my back and getting a lot of things done that I generally don’t have time for.  Deb Murphy will be taking over office duties on an interim basis for about 3 months, and one of her tasks will be to put together a job description for what a 15 hour-per-week Office Manager position will look like as compared to 30 or 40 hours.  It is all part-and-parcel of our transition towards becoming a “medium-sized” Disciples church as compared to a “big” Disciples church.

A second matter is one that I’ve lifted up before, but with which the discussions need to take place further in this time, and that’s the matter of our distribution of assets following our move to SpringHouse.  Following our sale of the building, we totaled out about $3.7 million (not including our endowments or trustees’ other funds).  About $1.45 million is going towards construction and organ moving.  That leaves about $2.25 million to work with for the future ministry of FCC and new church starts as well.

From almost the beginning of the transition process the church’s conversation process has focused on two pieces: 1) Having a sustenance or “Living Towards the Future” Fund that would give the congregation some extra support beyond that of congregational giving for the next 10 – 15 years, and 2) Starting new congregations in the Twin Cities area.  In last month’s Board meeting, discussion of the former amount was in the area of $1.2 million; used wisely in our down-sized circumstances, that could provide anywhere from 10 – 40 years of support, depending on what the congregation does in future budgets.  Leaving $150,000 for contingencies, that would leave about $900,000 for the other work.

It takes about $400,000 to start a new church if you do it right.  About $100,000 would go to Open Source Christian Church in Rochester (which was severely underfunded to start) to help them in their start-up process; that means there’s $800,000 left, enough to start two new churches.  Conversation in last month’s Board meeting centered on whether we should give all of that money to Church Extension this year, or hold half of it back.  We hope to continue that discussion in this month’s Board meeting and at the Annual Meeting as well.  I’m telling you all of this so that you can be informed for the discussion!

I’d like to see YOU on Moving Sunday, THIS SUNDAY!

Bob

Our conversation to this point has focused on having final Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services, and then moving over sometime in early January, maybe as early as New Year’s Day, with the service beginning at our current building and finishing at the new one. There are too many vari-ables right now still to nail down the timeframe, but it’s something people need to be thinking about. Of the many, many groups meeting among the three churches, one of them about to gear up is the “stuff” committee.

Oh, boy! There’s a lot to be accomplished in the next three months!

Of course, after that point of moving, it then behooves us to consider “what happens then?” It’ll be a new set of circumstances in which our ministry will be taking place, hopefully one with more spiritual focus than building focus. The elders are talking it over, and it’s for all of us to talk it over – what will be the ministry of FCC from here on out? What are new ideas that can come forth out of all the changes? Think about it; better yet, pray about it and see what God seems to be saying to you?

I’d like to see YOU on Sunday!

Bob

The Good News translation of one of Paul’s letters (I can’t recall which one at this point) talks about the importance of spiritual exercise as well.  I know that last year one of the Sunday School classes engaged in a study of Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster.

The disciplines such as prayer, study, fasting, meditation, worship, and so on can be regarded as spiritual exercise much in the same way that my above list of sports are forms of physical exercise.  Just as physical exercise stresses the body in such ways that it strengthens the body, spiritual exercise stresses the soul in such a way that it strengthens the soul.  Just as physical exercise is both hard work and good fun, spiritual exercise is the same.

The work and the fun of spiritual exercise is growing in the awareness of God’s presence in our lives.  Please note that I’m putting the emphasis on our awareness rather than God’s presence.  God is always present in our midst; the “work” part is in the arena of increasing our awareness.  The strongest, most illuminative souls on our planet are those whose relationship with God is constantly worked on, just as the top musicians in our world are constantly practicing.

As the summer months move on, I would commend to you working into your daily routines both physical and spiritual exercise; it’ll do your whole self some good!

I’d like to see YOU on Sunday,

Bob

When I came here and the Finance Committee was reformed, the estimate of giving from our membership was at $240,000.  We’ve reduced that over time to where it is now less than $200,000, reflecting the realities of the 2008-to-whenever financial crisis.  As we’re now in the middle of summer and there’s less pledges coming in, it concerns me somewhat that, even on the basis of reduced figures, income is not keeping up with our budgetary needs.  And, as we try to evaluate the financial future of the church as we “make the move,” part of which requires extending the financial needs of the church into a 10 – 15 projection, it makes things more difficult to making such projections if we can’t keep up to where we need to be now.

Being the sort of person who can’t raise such issues without putting-up myself, I’ve decided to increase my gifts to the church by 25% for the rest of the year, and ask you to consider something of an increase yourselves.

Financial stewardship is often seen as a “business” practice in many churches; after all, it’s tied in to budget projections and financial needs.  But financial stewardship is ultimately an expression of thankfulness to God.  As I look over my life of the last few years, I feel like I have a lot of things to be thankful for, so making the above-described decision isn’t really all that hard.

I hope to see YOU on Sunday!

Bob

He emphasized that he does not attempt to give answers that somehow settle the questions once and for all: “I hope I have responded to these good questions in such a way that in the interactions of you and me and the Holy Spirit, they can become somewhat of an answer –  but that’s between you and God.”

Pastor Brite tackled seven questions.  A brief quote from his responses is in included below.  For the full text of his answers, you can listen to the podcast of his sermon or call the office to have a text copy sent via email or stamped mail.

Scripture – Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

1. Do sinners have a chance to repent upon their deaths even if they did not when they were alive?

Our lives are so incredibly short.  We may live to exceed the traditional “threescore years and ten,” but life is short.  One of the big concerns and one of the big things foisted upon us by the history of the church is the idea of eternal damnation based on these short lives.   It was a very strong political tool in the middle ages and to me it was a misapplication of theology.   God is the God of Eternal Second Chances.  How does that work in eternity?  I don’t know.  I kind of like the idea of the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory – and it’s for our sakes as well as the kingdom’s sake —  that you can die with the clogged carburetor of burdens in your soul or evils that you’ve practiced, but you have a little time in purgatory  to get “flushed out” and tuned up before you go the eternal joys of the kingdom.   I repeat:  God is the God of eternal second chances.  One of my favorite Christian novels is C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce which talks about the journey from hell to heaven and how Christ is able to take people out of hell to see if they can be transformed by the power of heaven.  So many people who are in hell don’t get on the bus to go.  You might want to check it out.

2. (Two questions combined)  Why do we only consider three manifestations of God – why not four or five or more?   …” Trinity”:  Why? What??

We Disciples have an open theology;  if you want to believe in the Trinity, fine;  if you don’t want to believe in the Trinity, that’s fine too.  Do we have to be lockstep with the doctrine of Trinity?  As Disciples, No.  As my church history professor used to say, “You pays your money and you takes your choice.”  It is the individual’s conscience and responsibility to sort through what they look at in terms of Christian faith. “No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible.”  Twenty years ago, in the Disciples Magazine (now defunct) there was a big debate because a new church down in Texas had decided to name itself Trinity Christian Church, and some of the hard-core “no doctrine” Disciples were aghast.  But from my point of view Trinity is a tool for helping us understand the mystery of God.  A few weeks ago I talked about a visit to a Hindu temple where they had, I think, nine manifestations of God.  Even in Roman Catholicism, you have praying to the saints, of which there are literally thousands.  All of these are tools that help us to connect the life of the holy.  So what are the tools?  The Creative power of God, God the Creator, God the  Father; the Saving power of God, God the Son;  and the motivating and sustaining and comforting power of God, God the Spirit.  And there are lots more metaphors that help us understand and unlock the mystery, because God is a mystery, and I embrace that.  We always lift up in our liturgy the three aspects of who God as a way of peculiarly enlightening and shedding light on that understanding.

3. Is there such a thing as the biblical definition of marriage.

Kinda.  Genesis talks about male and female creation and living their lives.  But is that a doctrine? In the midst of the current debate, such as what happened in New York this week, the important thing in the idea of “two becoming one” is what is practiced in the Covenant; it is the deal that which makes two people come together and spend their lives together.  We have a tendency to get so caught up in the details that we forget the covenant.  A leading futurist said a few years ago that the major issue of the 21^st century is the issue of gender – both in terms of rights for GLBT people and women’s rights around the globe.  We are seeing major shifts in the culture.  How one defines marriage, whatever the details are, what matters when two become one is the Covenant.  Remember in Biblical tradition, polygamy was the norm. That’s where the Mormons got their stuff.   Is it just two people coming together to be one?  In this culture, yes.  But that’s a cultural definition, not a religious one.

4. What is your image of heaven?

Party!  Kind of a class reunion.  You can only describe heaven by metaphors so I’m trying to lift up metaphors. Heaven is where the journey continues of growing in the awesome powerful love of God.  It’s not going to be so pain-filled and wart-filled, but I think heaven’s going to be more fun.  If we could bring more heaven into earth, earth would be more fun, too. The whole point of life in God is to live in the power of the joy. The power of joy is the power of heaven on earth.  And joy I define as the art of being fully alive.  So heaven is a very fun-filled, joy-filled, depth-filled, breadth-filled realm.

5. To follow Jesus often means commitment 24 hours a day.  How does family life fit in here?

There are a lot of scripture passages about “leaving your father and mother to follow me,” etc.  What God wants us to do is in our own particular context, be the best person you can be.  So if you are a father, mother, son, daughter – how does family life fit in within the Christian life?  The call of Christ exists within your family; you are called to be in the joy of relationships with one another.  Sometimes it’s rather screwy joy, sometimes it’s a conflict-filled joy as parents try to teach children about values and limits and boundaries – and sometimes children try to teach the same.  Family life and work life all are parts of the Christian life.  We are called to be joy-filled, light-filled creatures of the kingdom.  Now sometimes Church can be pretty demanding. There are some people are in this room I have seen  3 and 4 times this week because of all they are called by God  to do things for the church here and now.  God bless ‘em!  But that doesn’t necessarily equate to full kingdom life.  Full kingdom life is 24-7 living in that spirit of joy and grace and forgiveness.  And sometimes you have to do church work too which I hope is done with a sense of joy.

6.If someone in today’s day and age proclaimed to be the Messiah, the Second coming of JC, what would it take for you truly to believe him or her?

I’m a skeptical mystic, and so it would take an awful lot.  I recall that when Jesus came, there were those such as Nathaniel and Simon that, when they heard there might be a Messiah around, scoffed.  That’s not bad company to be in because the one thing I don’t want to do is to follow a false Messiah.  It’s hard enough to follow a true one.  As I wrestle with this question, it would take an awful lot to convince me; from my point of view it should, because if Jesus truly is in our midst again – maybe now – I’m obviously going to insist in being able to follow without any doubts this time around.

7. How does God touch people’s lives?

I follow a school of theology called “process theology.” It’s based in the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead.  What is basically comes down to is this:  God is a relational God.  God is not removed from us in the distant realm of heaven.  God is in the here and now and what God does with each and every moment is offer us an opportunity to do and be powerfully loving beings.  God touches lives constantly.  God offers in each moment the vision of who I can be at the very best.  And then it becomes my opportunity to respond, because I am in relationship with God.  The challenge in each and every moment of life is   how to respond to that opportunity.  May we all respond to those opportunities with powerful hope and joy.

I hope I have responded to these good questions in such a way that in the interactions of you and me and the Holy Spirit, they can become somewhat of an answer –   but that’s between you and God.

As you read this, I’ll be on vacation. I’m traveling to a niece’s wedding in Indiana, then heading to Missouri and Oklahoma to visit friends and my brother, then Texas to check in with my mom, then back through Kansas City for another wedding, this time the daughter of a good friend. Apparently at the second wedding’s reception I get to be the bartender since I’ve had experience in that area. In between those visits I hope to check out some of the restaurants I’ve seen on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”

Vacations are important; over my career I’ve rarely used up my allotted vacation time, and I now regret that. The concept of a vacation came from God, who set aside the seventh day of each week as a day of rest. In a bustling, work-every-day world, the need for Shabbat – Sabbath – is more important than ever. For a pastor, who is on call 24-7, it’s been much more of a priority lately than it was before, probably because I have to be aware of my own tendencies towards workaholism. So I’m looking forward to this as a good time. (Whether it turns out to be or not, we’ll see.) But the primary purpose of Shabbat is to stop the pace of our lives and give thanks to God. The Sabbath day is holy because of that purpose, and sometimes we forget that, with all the other things we have to get done on the days “off.” So while I’m traveling, I also plan on worshipping and praying (something that my road time is reserved for a lot anyway.) I’ll be praying for y’all here as you worship and serve (especially those on the nine task forces now established for the move!)
SEE YOU SOON!?Bob

QUESTIONS OF FAITH ON SUNDAY, JUNE 26
June 26 will be a “Questions of Faith” Sunday. Index cards will be provided in the worship bulletins; you’re asked to write down any questions about church life, faith life, spiritual-ity, faith history, faith struggle, at THE BEGINNING OF THE SERVICE. Pastor Bob will pick them up during the prelude and use the sermon time to respond to the questions.

My fascination was in seeing our divided people come together – if only for a brief time –to be one. My celebration was something akin to letting out one’s breath after holding it in fear for almost ten years; the evil one who had taken out over 3000 Americans, of many cultural and religious persuasions, at the Pentagon and World Trade Center, was gone.

(“Ding, dong, the witch is dead?”)

My angst was in the form of my Christian conscience wonder-ing why I should feel joy over the death of another human be-ing. (Another, smaller piece of angst was in discovering that bin Laden was actually younger than I am. Geez!) I read an article this morning on Yahoo! News pointing out that a lot of clergy around the country were wrestling with similar angst. And such wrestling is good for the soul, my brothers and sisters.

Much as I dislike mixed feelings, I trust them as a sign of my own self-honesty more than I would if I had no doubts about anything. One of the most dangerous mentalities is that of the extremist – those who is so convinced of their “rightness” that they don’t care whom they trample in pursuit of their “rightness.” Such was bin Laden, I think; such are many who pursue a fundamentalist agenda in religion and society.

God calls upon us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” We like to think that God told us to do this because it would cause our enemies, in the spirit of love, to come around to our way of thinking. The real reason God calls us to love our enemies is that it changes us; it opens our souls to possibly making an enemy into a friend.

I wish I had the answers, solutions, and skills to turn all of our nation’s enemies into our friends, but I don’t. And until somebody develops such skills, our only choice is to pursue a strong defense for the sake of self-protection. Nevertheless, I would gladly trade such defense for a world in which people regarded one another as beings who have more in common to help us build together than differences to drive us apart.

I’d like to see YOU on Sunday,
Bob

Worship as fun; is worship supposed to be fun?  I know that there’s been a lot of debate over the recent technological years as to whether worship is supposed to be entertainment, with most of the responses being a resounding “No!” to that question.  Contrarian that I (usually) am, I respectfully disagree, but in a contrarian way, of course!  Worship is supposed to be entertaining, but the audience is NOT the congregation; it is God.  We are to entertain (substitute “please” if you don’t like the word “entertain”) God with the fervency of prayers, the joyfulness of praise, the depth and thoughtfulness of reflection.  As well, we as Christians are to be constantly entertaining (in the alternative definition of the word) new ideas, striving to discern God’s presence and will, and striving for theological depth and breadth in our worship, lives, and actions.

Metaphorically speaking, think of God as sitting before a bank of several million television screens watching the human condition.  (God is infinite, so the Divine Being can split His/Her attention in infinite ways, taking it all in.)  Hopefully what God sees from us is “entertaining.”  Hopefully our love and devotion adequately reflect the powerful love that God has for each of us.  Hopefully we can be as joyful over God as God is over us.

I hope to see YOU (and several of your friends?) on Sunday!

Bob

City bureaucracies being what they are, it will take some amount of work (and prayer?) for the city planning commission to work their way through to see fit to include us; apparently there are formulas for dwelling spaces and how many people may occupy them that will weigh on the approval process.

The decision might be immediate, take a week or three, or make us go back to the drawing board, so to speak, and refile the plans for the approval process, which would halt construction for a month or so. My guess is that the “week or three” is the most likely possibility, but I’ve learned over the years that when dealing with bureaucracies, anything can happen.

I’ve also learned that with God anything can happen too. My theology professor, Clark Williamson, once told our class that sometimes God, when working towards a stronger order in creation, has to do some tearing down of the existing order to get the stronger order established. In the midst of that process, chaos happens.

Faith life is like a construc-tion project; sometimes we have to tear down cherished or traditional beliefs and opinions in order to accommodate a new and sometime unexpected reality facing us.

The unexpected is frequently what we have to come to learn to expect. That’s certainly the case when facing a real tsunami like the Japanese are doing, or the cultural tsunami that the church has been dealing with (or sometimes not dealing with) for the last 30 years.

Through the changes in our beliefs and perceptions and opinions, it’s sometimes hard to remember that God is faithful to us. But God is faithful to us; that is part of the nature of being God (and yes, we have to take that on faith.) What God is calling us to do and be in such times is MORE faithful; if we trust in God during the tough times, we will emerge stronger and more able to celebrate the good times.

I’d like to see YOU on Sun-day,

Bob

As I write this on a Monday, I’ve also spend a fair amount of time trying to find a solution for our new sister-in-Christ Paola, who has been worshipping with us for three months, and who, over the weekend, suddenly found herself homeless. It’s been quite a rude awakening to these United States from her previous life in the Congo, and as I wander through the maze of bureaucracies that are the homeless ministries in our fair city, I’ve felt a fair amount of frustration and helplessness, as well as finding a few directions to pursue. (Bureaucracies in general have that effect on me generally anyway.) In the midst of all those feelings, however, is also a sense that, if I just keep plugging away at it, God will provide the direc-tion towards hope and fulfillment and solutions, and that doing so is truly a matter of doing God’s work.

As we continue as a congregation through our own maze of decisions and discernments towards the move, there are going to be times of frustration and seeming helplessness. It is my hope that we use such times to humble ourselves before our God, and look in the midst of such times to the Hope that equips us and guides us, to help us see that what we are doing is not for the sake of First Christian Church, but for the Kingdom of God.