Ministry Options in the 21st Century

with George Bullard

Saturday, April 20th

9:00AM to 4:00PM

Registration begins at 8:30AM

Unity Presbyterian Church

130 N. Seventh Street

Cambridge, OH 43725

Our focus will be on 21^st century models for congregations.   For some of you, the desire to explore new models is born out of necessity: an aging congregation, dwindling resources, shrinking ministry capacity.  For others, the questions are more tied to missional relevance in the 21^st century. The cost to you would be $10 per person for lunch and materials. 

You must attend as a pastor and leadership team! 

Change does not come by fighting an existing reality.  Rather, God calls us to build the new while allowing the old to fall away. As our Lord reminds us: "Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it cannot bear fruit" (John 12:24).  How is God calling you to bear fruit in this season?  To what is God calling you to die, that you might rise to new life?

To RSVP for Ministry Options in the 21st Century, contact Shauna at 330-339-5515 or Shauna@MVPJourney.org.

*Last day to RSVP -- Monday, April 15th* 

Disruptive Innovation!

• Healthcare: Working Today provides low cost health insurance to independently employed individuals in the New York City area. By handling individual policyholders as if they belonged to a group working for a large employer, Working Today can offer comprehensive health insurance for 30-40% less than incumbent insurers. Its growth has enabled it to gain bargaining power with its insurance carriers, allowing it to lower premiums even further.
• Education: Apex Learning provides special online classes to tens of thousands of US High School students. This catalytic innovation enables high school systems to offer good-enough courses at a fraction of what live courses would cost and expands student options. For example, my nephew, Crawford has taken both Chinese and Russian through Apex Learning.
• Economic Development: Bangladesh's Grameen Bank
  makes small loans to latent entrepreneurs who would otherwise have little or no access to capital. By the end of 2005, it had 4.6 million borrowers. Since its inception in 1976, it has lent over $5.2 billion, with a recovery rate of more than 98%. And it has generated a profit for its owners in every year by three. Source: HBR Spotlight, "Disruptive Innovation for Social Change" (December 2006).

Holy Habit: Pondering Disruption

Prius vita quam doctrina.

Life is prior to doctrines.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, "De Anima," II, 37

I am amazed by the number of times that I hear the Book of Order referenced as a reason for not heeding God's call. Yet, "the new form of government" (now found in our Foundations) calls us explicitly to remember who and whose we are in Christ. Given that, I invite you to practice "thinking catalytically" over this next week, by asking: How is God calling you in your ministry and mission to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" (even if that means yourself)?

Below are five qualities shared by disruptive innovations in the social sector:

1. They create social change through scaling and replication.
2. They meet a need that is either over-served (because the existing solution is more complex than many people require) or not served at all.
3. They offer products and services that are simpler and less costly than existing alternatives and may be perceived as having a lower level of performance, but users consider them good enough.
4. They generate resources, such as donations, grants, volunteer power, or intellectual capital, in ways that are initially unattractive to incumbents.
5. They are often ignored, disparaged, or even encouraged by existing players for whom the model is unprofitable or otherwise unattractive.

Don't let the language put you off. Rather, "translate it" and make it your own. Without reducing these qualities-for that would result in a ministry that is not truly innovative-how would you design a ministry that impacts your community in a profound and life-giving way?

Remember call is born of your deepest passions as they insect with the world's greatest need. Strengths + Passion + Need = God's call!

Blessings you disrupt and innovate in the name of Jesus!

FROM THE CLERK'S DESK 

This week's focus is the question: shall the PCUSA Book of Confessions be amended to include the proposed new translation of The Heidelberg Catechism with accompanying Scriptural references?  

During the 220^th General Assembly (2012) in Pittsburgh, the vote of the GA Confessions of the Church Committee was 28/1/0 to recommend approval of the new translation. The committee's recommendation was approved by voice vote on the floor of the General Assembly and is now before the presbyteries for their action. The new translation comes from the collaborative work of folks from PCUSA, the Christian Reformed Church in North America and the Reformed Church of America.

If approved by a two-thirds majority of presbyteries and by the 221^st General Assembly (2014), the PCUSA Constitution will be amended to replace the current translation of The Heidelberg Catechism in the Book of Confessions with the new translation.  As of the last published tally on March 28, 2013, 70 presbyteries have voted on the Heidelberg amendment: 65 voted in the affirmative and 5 in the negative. Out of the 103 presbyteries yet to vote and report, including Muskingum Valley, 51 affirmative votes are needed to approve the new translation.   Presbytery votes on the new Heidelberg translation will count only if reported to the PCUSA Office of the General Assembly by June 30, 2013.

I hope that before we gather for our Eastertide Gathering in Zanesville on May 18^th, each of us will invest some time exploring The Heidelberg Catechism. An excellent guide to the current and proposed catechism can be found at http://oga.pcusa.org/documents-resources. Don't let the word

"catechism" scare you off from exploring this confessional statement written in 1563, at a very tumultuous time in the development of Reformed theology.

Printed copies of the Heidelberg Catechism amendment and the Book of Order proposed amendments are available at the MVP Mission Center and will be available at the gathering with George Bullard at Unity Presbyterian Cambridge on Saturday, April 20th, and the May 18th MVP gathering at Trinity Presbyterian in Zanesville. 

Week 4: Hidden

So far, we have embraced three realities of exile: 1) exile is ultimately a sign of God's faithfulness, 2) exile is an invitation to a renewed way of life (kenosis), and 3) the history of the Protestant Reformation has oriented and even pushed us towards the growing exile in which we find ourselves.

This week we will begin to examine the commonalities within all exile movements. In later weeks we will explore some variations found within exile movements so as to better understand our current challenges and callings.

The Hidden Covenants

Noting that each exile experience is unique, there are common hallmarks found in each reality of exile.  The first of these hallmarks is that the true and visible signs of God's covenants are hidden from God's people.

For the ancient Jews the visible signs which became hidden included the Promised Land, the Torah, and the line of David.  Even the temple which had at times become a prideful domestication of God was lost in the rubble left by the Babylonians.

It cannot be understated: for Judah and Israel all of the big tangible, touchable, and experiential signs of God's faithfulness seemed to be lost in exile and erased from their story.  However, the visible signs of God's faithfulness were not lost in entirety.  Rather, they were merely hidden and obscured for a time.

A few years ago my kids enjoyed playing peek-a-boo.  Today hide-and-seek is all of the rage in our house.  In fact, there is hardly a day that passes when laughter doesn't stem from the anticipation of being found.  To my children, as with many, the act of being hidden from a loved one is a game and a playful journey.

However, to the Jews, the signs of God's covenants being hidden would have been jolting.  To them, without the signs of God's covenant, how would God be known, experienced, and worshiped?  The heart and core of the Jewish traditions and memory were inaccessible and unattainable. 

As Christians it is somewhat difficult to imagine how painful these apparent losses would have been to the Jews.  Even if we think we can comprehend the depth of their pain, I argue that we can have no comparable experience.  In this way, the ancient Jews may have our sympathy but not our empathy.

For us, Jesus is the big tangible, touchable, and experiential sign of God's faithfulness.  We cannot loose Jesus in the same way that the ancient Jews lost the land, Torah, kingship, and temple.  Because we cannot fully connect with the inner anguish of the Jews, we should be all the more attentive in our efforts to learn from and experience their pain.

To the seed of Abraham, God's obscured faithfulness would have brought forth grief beyond grief.  To the cultural Jew, this grief may have been political, patriotic, and familial grief.  To the devote Jew, this grief also had a theological significance.  How could God abandon his chosen people?  How would God bless the earth through this disastrous time?  How is it possible for God to divorce us; is God really any different than Baal?  How can we sing our songs by the rivers of Babylon?  

For the ancient Jews of the exile, their theo-psychological turmoil has no end of questions.  In fact, these questions continue today at the base of the Wailing Wall.  Here is the ancient and modern struggle of the Jewish people.  

Our emerging grief is not identical to a Jewish grief.  Yet we can still learn and grow from their grief as we begin to prepare for a deeper and apparent hidden salvation of God.

As we continue to enter into a historic period of exile, it is healthy for us to practice and to prepare for grief beyond grief--even if we do so from our limited capacity.  

So, in my limited understanding, the thought of deep grief turns my stomach and softens my knees.  Perhaps this is true for you as well.  All to well I know that grief based in a blind groping for God is no fun.

I imagine that many Christians in the West will prefer to walk away and hide from such an intensely personal and painful grief.  To those who chose to hide from grief, let me offer these words: Hiding from our growing grief will be no more affective than Jehoiakim's attempt to do the same.  In the end, Nebuchadnezzar still approaches in power.

On the other hand, if grief is practiced and rehearsed, we will be better prepared as we begin to hear the war horses of Babylon in our time and when we first feel the winds of Babylon brush our faces in a foreign land.

Exile is exile.  We can not change it's nature nor it's outcomes.  And so, grief and lose are simply part of the process as we begin to loose sight of God's New Covenant--this is our exile.

As God encounters us within the grief, may we come to know that neither God nor God's touchable and tangible covenant are hidden.  Today we see in a mirror deeply.  On the other side of exile, we will see with more clarity.  With joy let us look forward to being found.  May we even anticipate it with delight.

Wrestling with God

-You should set aside 30-60 minutes for this exercise.

-Listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nejycRrDHGI or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbEgxOnpWdg as you read John 2:13-25 and Lamentations 1. Do so until you have connected to an inner and Godly grief.  Do not give up too soon or too easily.  Work through the grief.  Know it.  Own it.  Experience it.

-How were you encountered by God in this time?  What insights did you gain?  How was your heart changed or challenged?  How did this exercise prepare you to experience Godly grief in the future?

Peace,   

Matt Skolnik