Laura, you raise some great points! Made me think about some of the things we do in general. Like taking breaks and vacations, etc. Priorities. Retirement. What does it mean in God's grand scheme?
I know some churches which never take a break from Sunday School. They have Sunday School as often as they have church. It is simply another form of worship. They would not omit it anymore than omit a church service.
Many churches take breaks during summer, and Christmas... but it makes me wonder, maybe we look at this in the wrong way. Would we say we don't need a janitor in the summer months? Yet we don't need sunday school or bible study? What is more important to maintain? Which is more significant to spiritual growth and health?
When people are too busy, is it because sunday school is during church service? or because people are unwilling to make it a priority? or because career and entertainment and sports are more important? Okay, it can be tough sometimes when you have small children, or when older children need transportation to events, etc. But maybe it is about priorities. Perhaps Sunday school classes are more significant and important than praise teams in church, more important than choir, more impacting than the superbowl or American Idol, and more of a ministry than attending diaconal meetings or caregroup get-togethers.
Maybe snowbirds can become young again and teach some of these classes in the summertime when they return to their churches.
I agree with you that the kids appreciate a consistent teacher as much as possible. Switching teachers from week to week is frustrating for them, and leaves them with a sense of a lack of committment.
I have nothing against the story cards or the Dwell curriculum. Any helps we can get can help. But to expand on the transferring faith to family, we just watched the film "Courageous" as a family. And it reminds us that it is not good enough to just be good enough as parents. We need to be better than "good enough". Story cards can be good, but faith is primarily shared in committment. That means that personal faith needs to be shared from parents to children. Daily family devotions. Breakfast devotions. Supper devotions. Evening devotions. Daily committment to faith life. Daily committment to listening to your kids, their joys and problems, and explaining how it relates to their faith, how it relates to God's purpose for them.
Mothers often do this because they seem to have more time to be more involved, and are around when the children are experiencing pressure points. But it is really important for fathers to take a lead, to explain their faith, their faith struggles, their faith victories, their faith committment. Fathers need to step up to the plate in prayer, in care, in being there. Fathers bear the responsibility for the growth of their family's faith and spiritual well-being. The pledge identified in the film "Courageous" could be a good one for fathers to commit to.
Without this committment to share faith in families, sons and daughters will follow their parents lack of committment. Sons and daughters will end up experimenting with pre-marital sex, with drugs, with entertainment, with "shacking up", with crime. They will make money, or career, or self, their primary motivation. Statistics indicate that sons and daughters without fathers are more likely to end up in crime. And who can tell about the impact of fathers who are there, but not all there... who do not share their faith? Who are present in body and absent in spirit?
It should never be said that a single Christian family does not share his faith with his children (not to speak of 85%!!!). And sharing faith between husband and wife. If there is no sharing within the family, perhaps it should be questioned as to whether the faith of those parents is dead and not alive. Do not let your faith be dead. Let it live in you and in your children! Pray for God's blessing! When it gets hard, pray for His Spirit leading and filling!
And for preachers.... this should be a message to proclaim. That our greatest evangelical task as parents is to share our faith with our children in the home. All the preaching in church and teaching in Sunday School will not replace or supplant the influence of the home in faith formation, and in living for Christ.
While I appreciate your attention to perseverance, and the need for it for elders and deacons during their terms , I would suggest that the analogy of the seventh inning would be better used to apply to the life of office bearers when they have finished their terms, and they feel they can relax, have a beer, and sit back and let someone else do the work. The real game is not that of bearing "office" for a limited term, but the real game is life itself, given by God, of which a term in office is just one part. The seventh inning probably applies more appropriately to the time when elders become older and think they can retire and relax and let someone else do it. That is the time when the game can be lost, if not for themselves, then for their children and grandchildren and for their neighbors. That is the seventh inning that has probably most impacted the lack of growth in the church, and the lack of spiritual maturity in many of those whom they have potential influcence on and witness to. My thoughts.
Preaching the gospel will have an influence on community. If there is no influence on community, then perhaps the gospel has not been truly and comprehensively preached. While a church as an institution does not vote, a sermon distinguishing on the biblical distincitions and significance attached to human life vs animal life might influence the voting of its members.
Preaching the gospel might influence the relative importance the members of a church place on sending money to foreign missions, vs spending time and money on poor nearby neighborhoods.
Preaching the gosple might influence the energy of church members directed towards establishing christian schools and colleges and summer christian bible camps.
But the church elders may not be the school board members, and the church pastor will not go to the foreign missions, and the church elders may not be the ones who set up a help center for the destitute next door.
Thus the distinction between the institutional authority of the church elders, vs the influence of the church on its members to live Godly lives in their community. In some cases, there may be a seemless blend between the two, and in other cases, clear distinctions need to be made.
Lots of good comments in this article, Neil. But perhaps too many things at once. What would you focus on? What would you see as the priority at this time? What takes us beyond the normal kind of common sense things, such as small vs large groups, technology, training, etc. to the significance of structural impediments or opportunities that we ought to focus on?
Doug, you have made some very good points which made me think. Dollars as votes is an interesting and valid concept, for example. I agree with your summary of things we do badly and things we do well.
I would just like to add one concept, and that is to discover the difference between spending and investing. Buying things for oneself to simply consume and enjoy (although yes we can share these things with our neighbors), compared to investing in innovation and employment opportunities. Both aspects have an influence on what is produced (due to dollar votes), but in one case you can be pro-active, having a greater influence on the outcome. Buying siding for your house is different than investing in a company that produces siding, and buying movies is different than investing in a Christian movie company.
I particularly like your point that spending can be too much when it is irresponsible and beyond your means. If you spend so much on consumer goods that you have nothing left for retirement, that is probably not a good way to balance your financial life.
Doug, your story is encouraging and uplifting. I also attended Dordt for a couple years, Philosophy/English, prior to your stay there. It was a great way to begin the educational journey that ended at secular university. It provided a lot of analytical tools.
Your story shows the possibilities of urban living, of making an impact, instead of just being impacted upon. Of letting God use you, rather than us using God for our own purposes. In my case, I haven't done anything near what you have done. We live in a rural area, and people are quite self-sufficient, where the municipality even plows out rural driveways in winter for free (after the roads are cleared). Other than ocassionally taking my snow blower to the local outdoor ice-rink, and taking my 80 inch mower to the church lot (2.5 acres), we have not done a lot. We did put a new roof on a low-income neighbor's house recently with donated labor, but that's all I can recall. Okay, I just remembered that I use my snow-blower to clean out a neighbor's drive last winter so that the water truck could bring in water. And this fall, I sprayed another neigbor's garden since she had surgery and could not keep the thistle controlled last summer. Can you imagine Canada Thistle about seven feet tall?
Sometimes it seems easier to just do things yourself. But I am thinking more lately about how we might make an impact by actually employing people, especially people who do not always have highly employable resumes, or accomodating schedules and personalities. I'm finding this a much more complicated and tricky endeavor; I really appreciate the business people who seem to do this so easily and automatically. I wish I had learned to do this. Employment is in many ways the best way of helping some people, but is often more difficult than just doing things for them. And then maybe for us to find ways of making employment more holistic, so that people do not just get paid some low wage for providing a certain number of hours of work, but rather that we can become interested in their whole life, giving some guidance and extra assistance where it is needed (and presumably appreciated).
I think the last paragraph says it all. People, including young people, are attracted to churches that mean what they say, that really believe in something and are not just going thru the motions. They are attracted to churches that look for sacrifice, that are more concerned about serving God than about serving themselves. For churches that look outward towards God and others, rather than towards a comfortable pew. For alive people, not for half-dead people. A church filled with the Spirit, will be able to share that same Spirit. And the Spirit is irresistable.
While synod may at times have a broader focus than the local churches, thus leading to a different perspective on some issues, it may also lack a perspective on the local issues, churches, real people on the ground. Because of this, it sometimes focusses on organizational issues rather than witness, on structure rather than on spirit, on paper and words rather than action. The Belhar is a clear example of this. To be clear on this, adopting the Belhar sounds like "action", but it is not action. It is words on paper. Will adoption of the Belhar change anything in the life and worship of the crc believer? Will it impact the north american christian in any way? Have any examples of these proposed changes in our daily life (as a direct result of these words on paper) been given?
Paul, its unfortunate that you used the term "bishop" in your article. I believe the term sometimes translated as bishop is usually translated as "overseer", and attributed to the office of elder. I believe the greek word was translated into "bishop" because it suited the church structure of the time, otherwise it would have simply been translated as overseer. It would have been better that you used the term "leader" to make your point, since it is true that not all overseers or elders are leaders; or at least that there are also leaders of leaders. It would seem that for an improved classis, what is really needed are not administrators, nor even overseers, but rather leaders. These leaders might be overseers, or they might be deacons, or they might simply be those who encourage and stimulate a new approach.
In organizational parlance, it is common to realize that there are managers, and then there are leaders, and then ocassionally there are those who are both. Forcing the concept or (even unofficial) title of bishop on such a leader may be a disincentive to take up a leadership role.
However, your general encouragement to look with fresh eyes is a good thing.
The revised re-wording is better than the old, but I would suggest separating the elders and deacons into separate articles. There may be benefits in treating them somewhat differently in terms of roles, appointments, etc.
Posted in: Kids' Faith and Adults' Schedules
Laura, you raise some great points! Made me think about some of the things we do in general. Like taking breaks and vacations, etc. Priorities. Retirement. What does it mean in God's grand scheme?
I know some churches which never take a break from Sunday School. They have Sunday School as often as they have church. It is simply another form of worship. They would not omit it anymore than omit a church service.
Many churches take breaks during summer, and Christmas... but it makes me wonder, maybe we look at this in the wrong way. Would we say we don't need a janitor in the summer months? Yet we don't need sunday school or bible study? What is more important to maintain? Which is more significant to spiritual growth and health?
When people are too busy, is it because sunday school is during church service? or because people are unwilling to make it a priority? or because career and entertainment and sports are more important? Okay, it can be tough sometimes when you have small children, or when older children need transportation to events, etc. But maybe it is about priorities. Perhaps Sunday school classes are more significant and important than praise teams in church, more important than choir, more impacting than the superbowl or American Idol, and more of a ministry than attending diaconal meetings or caregroup get-togethers.
Maybe snowbirds can become young again and teach some of these classes in the summertime when they return to their churches.
I agree with you that the kids appreciate a consistent teacher as much as possible. Switching teachers from week to week is frustrating for them, and leaves them with a sense of a lack of committment.
JOhn Z
Posted in: Family Faith Talk
I have nothing against the story cards or the Dwell curriculum. Any helps we can get can help. But to expand on the transferring faith to family, we just watched the film "Courageous" as a family. And it reminds us that it is not good enough to just be good enough as parents. We need to be better than "good enough". Story cards can be good, but faith is primarily shared in committment. That means that personal faith needs to be shared from parents to children. Daily family devotions. Breakfast devotions. Supper devotions. Evening devotions. Daily committment to faith life. Daily committment to listening to your kids, their joys and problems, and explaining how it relates to their faith, how it relates to God's purpose for them.
Mothers often do this because they seem to have more time to be more involved, and are around when the children are experiencing pressure points. But it is really important for fathers to take a lead, to explain their faith, their faith struggles, their faith victories, their faith committment. Fathers need to step up to the plate in prayer, in care, in being there. Fathers bear the responsibility for the growth of their family's faith and spiritual well-being. The pledge identified in the film "Courageous" could be a good one for fathers to commit to.
Without this committment to share faith in families, sons and daughters will follow their parents lack of committment. Sons and daughters will end up experimenting with pre-marital sex, with drugs, with entertainment, with "shacking up", with crime. They will make money, or career, or self, their primary motivation. Statistics indicate that sons and daughters without fathers are more likely to end up in crime. And who can tell about the impact of fathers who are there, but not all there... who do not share their faith? Who are present in body and absent in spirit?
It should never be said that a single Christian family does not share his faith with his children (not to speak of 85%!!!). And sharing faith between husband and wife. If there is no sharing within the family, perhaps it should be questioned as to whether the faith of those parents is dead and not alive. Do not let your faith be dead. Let it live in you and in your children! Pray for God's blessing! When it gets hard, pray for His Spirit leading and filling!
And for preachers.... this should be a message to proclaim. That our greatest evangelical task as parents is to share our faith with our children in the home. All the preaching in church and teaching in Sunday School will not replace or supplant the influence of the home in faith formation, and in living for Christ.
Posted in: The Seventh Inning Stretch
While I appreciate your attention to perseverance, and the need for it for elders and deacons during their terms , I would suggest that the analogy of the seventh inning would be better used to apply to the life of office bearers when they have finished their terms, and they feel they can relax, have a beer, and sit back and let someone else do the work. The real game is not that of bearing "office" for a limited term, but the real game is life itself, given by God, of which a term in office is just one part. The seventh inning probably applies more appropriately to the time when elders become older and think they can retire and relax and let someone else do it. That is the time when the game can be lost, if not for themselves, then for their children and grandchildren and for their neighbors. That is the seventh inning that has probably most impacted the lack of growth in the church, and the lack of spiritual maturity in many of those whom they have potential influcence on and witness to. My thoughts.
Posted in: Church as Gift for Neighborhood Transformation
Preaching the gospel will have an influence on community. If there is no influence on community, then perhaps the gospel has not been truly and comprehensively preached. While a church as an institution does not vote, a sermon distinguishing on the biblical distincitions and significance attached to human life vs animal life might influence the voting of its members.
Preaching the gospel might influence the relative importance the members of a church place on sending money to foreign missions, vs spending time and money on poor nearby neighborhoods.
Preaching the gosple might influence the energy of church members directed towards establishing christian schools and colleges and summer christian bible camps.
But the church elders may not be the school board members, and the church pastor will not go to the foreign missions, and the church elders may not be the ones who set up a help center for the destitute next door.
Thus the distinction between the institutional authority of the church elders, vs the influence of the church on its members to live Godly lives in their community. In some cases, there may be a seemless blend between the two, and in other cases, clear distinctions need to be made.
Posted in: Leadership and Organizational Structure
Lots of good comments in this article, Neil. But perhaps too many things at once. What would you focus on? What would you see as the priority at this time? What takes us beyond the normal kind of common sense things, such as small vs large groups, technology, training, etc. to the significance of structural impediments or opportunities that we ought to focus on?
Posted in: An Anthem for Black Friday
Doug, you have made some very good points which made me think. Dollars as votes is an interesting and valid concept, for example. I agree with your summary of things we do badly and things we do well.
I would just like to add one concept, and that is to discover the difference between spending and investing. Buying things for oneself to simply consume and enjoy (although yes we can share these things with our neighbors), compared to investing in innovation and employment opportunities. Both aspects have an influence on what is produced (due to dollar votes), but in one case you can be pro-active, having a greater influence on the outcome. Buying siding for your house is different than investing in a company that produces siding, and buying movies is different than investing in a Christian movie company.
I particularly like your point that spending can be too much when it is irresponsible and beyond your means. If you spend so much on consumer goods that you have nothing left for retirement, that is probably not a good way to balance your financial life.
Posted in: An Anthem for Black Friday
Doug, your story is encouraging and uplifting. I also attended Dordt for a couple years, Philosophy/English, prior to your stay there. It was a great way to begin the educational journey that ended at secular university. It provided a lot of analytical tools.
Your story shows the possibilities of urban living, of making an impact, instead of just being impacted upon. Of letting God use you, rather than us using God for our own purposes. In my case, I haven't done anything near what you have done. We live in a rural area, and people are quite self-sufficient, where the municipality even plows out rural driveways in winter for free (after the roads are cleared). Other than ocassionally taking my snow blower to the local outdoor ice-rink, and taking my 80 inch mower to the church lot (2.5 acres), we have not done a lot. We did put a new roof on a low-income neighbor's house recently with donated labor, but that's all I can recall. Okay, I just remembered that I use my snow-blower to clean out a neighbor's drive last winter so that the water truck could bring in water. And this fall, I sprayed another neigbor's garden since she had surgery and could not keep the thistle controlled last summer. Can you imagine Canada Thistle about seven feet tall?
Sometimes it seems easier to just do things yourself. But I am thinking more lately about how we might make an impact by actually employing people, especially people who do not always have highly employable resumes, or accomodating schedules and personalities. I'm finding this a much more complicated and tricky endeavor; I really appreciate the business people who seem to do this so easily and automatically. I wish I had learned to do this. Employment is in many ways the best way of helping some people, but is often more difficult than just doing things for them. And then maybe for us to find ways of making employment more holistic, so that people do not just get paid some low wage for providing a certain number of hours of work, but rather that we can become interested in their whole life, giving some guidance and extra assistance where it is needed (and presumably appreciated).
Posted in: Psalms, Elders and Pastoral Care
Psalm 103, Psalm 46, Psalm 100, Psalm 95, Psalm 127, Psalm 24, Psalm 1. Especially Psalm 46.
Posted in: Young Adults in the CRC
I think the last paragraph says it all. People, including young people, are attracted to churches that mean what they say, that really believe in something and are not just going thru the motions. They are attracted to churches that look for sacrifice, that are more concerned about serving God than about serving themselves. For churches that look outward towards God and others, rather than towards a comfortable pew. For alive people, not for half-dead people. A church filled with the Spirit, will be able to share that same Spirit. And the Spirit is irresistable.
Posted in: A Classis Embodies What the Belhar Points To
While synod may at times have a broader focus than the local churches, thus leading to a different perspective on some issues, it may also lack a perspective on the local issues, churches, real people on the ground. Because of this, it sometimes focusses on organizational issues rather than witness, on structure rather than on spirit, on paper and words rather than action. The Belhar is a clear example of this. To be clear on this, adopting the Belhar sounds like "action", but it is not action. It is words on paper. Will adoption of the Belhar change anything in the life and worship of the crc believer? Will it impact the north american christian in any way? Have any examples of these proposed changes in our daily life (as a direct result of these words on paper) been given?
Posted in: Bishops in the CRC
Paul, its unfortunate that you used the term "bishop" in your article. I believe the term sometimes translated as bishop is usually translated as "overseer", and attributed to the office of elder. I believe the greek word was translated into "bishop" because it suited the church structure of the time, otherwise it would have simply been translated as overseer. It would have been better that you used the term "leader" to make your point, since it is true that not all overseers or elders are leaders; or at least that there are also leaders of leaders. It would seem that for an improved classis, what is really needed are not administrators, nor even overseers, but rather leaders. These leaders might be overseers, or they might be deacons, or they might simply be those who encourage and stimulate a new approach.
In organizational parlance, it is common to realize that there are managers, and then there are leaders, and then ocassionally there are those who are both. Forcing the concept or (even unofficial) title of bishop on such a leader may be a disincentive to take up a leadership role.
However, your general encouragement to look with fresh eyes is a good thing.
Posted in: Diakonia Remixed: Terms for Deacons
The revised re-wording is better than the old, but I would suggest separating the elders and deacons into separate articles. There may be benefits in treating them somewhat differently in terms of roles, appointments, etc.