The State of the
Church
Rev. Dr. Tom
Sorenson, Pastor
October 11, 2015
Scripture: Isaiah 43: 18-21
Let us pray: May the words of my
mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O
God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen
I don’t know about you, but I
can hardly believe it. Tomorrow, October 12, 2015, is the one year anniversary
of the first time I was here with you preaching and leading worship. One year
ago I’m sure none of us thought that I would end up as your pastor. I guess
maybe the thought had occurred to me that I might apply, but everything I
thought I knew, namely, stories I’d heard from Ed Meyer up at my church in
Monroe, told me that this church and I were no kind of a match. I thought maybe
this church was so split and so conflicted that I’d want nothing to do with it.
Kris had called me the previous August to ask if I might be willing to do
pulpit supply for one Sunday. She knew I was only ¼ time at Monroe
Congregational UCC, so maybe I’d be available. As I recall, my first response
to her was “Kris, I’d have thought that I was the last person in the world Maltby
would want to hear from.” She assured me that that wasn’t the case, I thought
perhaps because she was desperate to get people for Sunday mornings during that
time when this church had no pastor. She wanted me for a Sunday in September,
but I wasn’t available; so October 12 became my first Sunday here with you.
Things kind of snowballed after
that. I preached here twice in November, all through Advent, and all but one of
the Sundays in January of this year. You voted to call me as your pastor on
January 25. Now here we are, one full year since I first appeared up here in
your chancel. Who knew? The Holy Spirit perhaps, but not much of anyone else. We
are actually celebrating another anniversary around this time of the year too.
Elsie tells me that the official founding date of this church is October 4,
1903. We missed that date last Sunday, so we’ll note it today. In light of
those two anniversaries, of my first time here with you and of the founding of
this church, let me share some reflections on where First Congregational Church
of Maltby has been, where we have come to, and perhaps where the Holy Spirit
may be calling us.
From its creation in 1903 this church
has been a church in the Congregationalist tradition. That means several things
of course. It means that the church lives in the Reformed or Calvinist side of
Christian Protestantism. That fact has consequences for how we understand the
Sacraments among other things, but that’s not the most important think about
Congregationalism for us. Here’s one thing that is more important: First
Congregational of Maltby is and always has been completely autonomous. The
people of this church have always made their own decisions about their faith
and about their life together. You still do. As is true of any church in the
Congregationalist tradition some of the decisions you have made are good, some
of them have, frankly, been quite bad.
Many of you know more about this
church’s recent past than I do. I’ve heard a lot about it, but some of you
lived it. So forgive me if I don’t get it completely right. This congregation
of God’s people have come through some rough times in recent years. You had at
least one pastor who, whatever pastoral gifts he may have had, was no kind of
Congregationalist, making decisions on his own that were not his to make
according to Congregationalist polity. You had a pastor, the same one actually,
who wasn’t always exactly honest or ethical with this congregation. You had a
lot of division between people in the congregation with different views of the
Christian faith. Significant numbers of people have left the church in recent
years. You have had an intentional interim pastor, and you have had times with
no pastor. You have had times with lots of children in the congregation, and
you have had times with no children in the congregation. You’ve been through a
lot, and you’re still here. Thanks be to God.
When I first met you one year
ago you were a small congregation made up mostly of older folks. I quickly got
the sense that you didn’t quite know who you are as a Christian congregation.
You didn’t know where the Holy Spirit was calling you, and by saying that I
don’t mean to say that we’ve got it figured out yet. More about that anon. You
wanted this church not just to survive but to grow and thrive, and you weren’t
at all sure about how to make that happen. And I don’t mean to suggest that we
have that one figured out yet either. I had a sense that perhaps this church
was on the brink of something new, but none of us yet knew what that new
something would be. One thing that I was pleased to learn was that you are
financially healthy. That financial health is due in part to what you all give
to the church, but it also results in significant ways from rental income from
the parsonage and the fact that you have only a half time pastor whose
compensation package, frankly, isn’t even quite a decent half time package. I’m
not complaining here, just hoping that you all fully understand the state of
your church’s finances.
We’ve come some distance since I
first appeared before you. Most significantly, I think, we have new folks
worshipping with us and talking about joining. We have children among us. Thanks
be to God! We have new adults with energy and, I at least hope, a growing
commitment to the church and participation in her life. We have a pastor-parish
relations committee that you didn’t have when I started. We have a music group
that wasn’t functioning when I started. We have an adult discussion forum that
meets each Sunday before worship that you didn’t have when I started. These
things are all signs of new life in this congregation. Again, thanks be to God!
We have had some losses, and we
need to acknowledge that reality as we acknowledge the more positive aspects of
our recent life together. Not everyone who was here when you voted on me could
accept me as pastor because their Christianity is so much different from mine.
I regret those losses; yet it is absolutely true that no church is for
everyone, and no pastor is for everyone. I pray that those who have left us
find a spiritual home that feeds them and brings them life. I have heard
comments that suggest that we have on-going problems. I’m not entirely sure
what some of you think those problems are, and I encourage those of you who
find unhealthy things about us to come talk to me about what you’re
experiencing here. That’s the only way we’ll be able to address problems and
deal with them in a healthy way.
You’ve been through a lot. We’ve
been through a bit together. I trust that our time together is still in its
early stages. Now I want to talk a bit about what lies ahead. That’s why I
chose that passage from Isaiah (which was actually my wife Jane’s suggestion)
for this morning’s service. There the prophet that scholars call not Isaiah but
Second Isaiah reports these words of God: “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it
springs up; do you not perceive it?” God is always doing a new thing. God is
never static. God is never motionless, except maybe on the Sabbath. God is
always present in the world working softly and peacefully behind the scenes
urging God’s people forward to newness of life and to fuller faithfulness to
God’s ways. I am convinced that God is doing a new thing with us too. I mean,
just think about it. It had never once occurred to me before about a year ago
that I would or could ever end up as the pastor of this church. I doubt that it
had ever occurred to any of you that that guy you may have heard of or even met
who was pastor of that Open and Affirming UCC church up in Monroe would ever
end up as your pastor. It had never occurred to me that I would ever serve any
church other than a UCC church. Indeed, it had never occurred to me that I
would ever serve any church other than Monroe Congregational UCC. My sensing a
call to be your pastor was God doing a new thing. You deciding to take a chance
on me as your pastor was God doing a new thing. God’s new thing with us is
under way. Thanks be to God!
Thanks be to God, yes—but. With
me there’s always a “but,” isn’t there. God’s new thing is under way with us,
but just what exactly is that new thing? What is its shape? What is its
content? Is it simply enabling this church to continue to live as it has in the
past? Perhaps. I guess a church not dying can be a kind of new thing. Yet some
of you may have heard me say this before. There are what we in the professional
ministry biz call “the seven last words of a dying church.” Those seven words
are “We’ve never done it that way before.” We’ve never done it that way before.
It is the response pastors most commonly get from church people when they
suggest doing something new. For reasons I’ve frankly never quite understood,
churches tend to be quite conservative in at least one way. They resist change.
They like to do things the way they’ve always done them. People, including
church people, like to stick with what they find familiar and comfortable. So
do I, for that matter. Yet the professionals who know what they’re talking
about will all tell you this: No institution can remain static for long.
Institutions, including churches, are always changing; and if they think they
aren’t changing that just means that they don’t know that they are dying. That’s
as true of churches as it is of any other institution. That’s as true of this
church as it is of any other church. Clinging to an experienced current reality
really isn’t an option for them or for us. Going back to an imagined past most
certainly isn’t an option for them or for us. That’s just how it is with
churches. That’s just how it is with us.
In some ways I wish I could tell
you directly what the new thing is that God is doing with us, but I can’t. More
importantly, even if I could, discerning what that new thing is isn’t primarily
my job. It is your job. It is our job together. God is doing a new
thing. Perhaps we don’t yet perceive it. That’s OK. Perceiving what God is
doing is never as easy as we’d like it to be. God doesn’t do any new thing
without people who do good discernment and who make good commitments. That’s
what we need to do together. Are you up for it? I hope so. Amen.
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