Dialogue Column 2-6-07
Through a Glass Darkly by Rev. Chase Peeples
What a great first Sunday it was for me as your minister. Sure, you all were gracious to me in regards to my sermon. Also, you were polite when I started to recess without waiting for the acolytes. (I realize that I should not cut off people carrying live flames.) I’m thankful for the guidance of elders Dave Tushaus and Jeanne Daffron who kept me going in the right direction. What really made the Sunday great had little to do with me and everything to do with the membership of the church as you demonstrated your efforts to meet the material and spiritual needs of others in our community and world.
It was just wonderful to come downstairs into the fellowship hall and see it decked out in the colors of the Jamaican flag and to smell the wonderful Jamaican food cooking in the kitchen. The food was delicious! Even better than the food and décor was Carol Mullican’s presentation about the work of the Jamaica mission team. The pictures of the folks they helped were breathtaking. The stories of the medical work done by the team are impressive. I am proud to be the minister at a church that does such exciting work.
When I was considering which churches to send my information to during my job hunt, one of the first things I looked for was whether or not a church was involved in social ministry in their community. I was pleased to discover all of the many ways First Christian ministers not just in St. Joseph but to Jamaica and beyond. First Christian’s work with the Open Door Food Kitchen, InterServ and the collections of needed items gathered and distributed by CWF and other groups were just a few of the things that helped me to know that this church really takes seriously Jesus’ teachings to share our blessings with those in need. Events like the Fall Festival demonstrate the church’s openness to people outside the church. In addition, First Christian’s history of working to provide housing for older members of our community, such as Chilton Place, demonstrates the significant ways the church has impacted St. Joseph. All of these events reveal that First Christian Church is a community that is willing to work hard in sharing the love of Christ in tangible ways and they helped me to know that this church could be the place where I should come as minister.
Sunday, in my first sermon as minister of First Christian, I mentioned that the question I received repeatedly when I came to interview in September was “How will you help our church grow?” At the time, I replied, “I don’t know,” because I didn’t have enough information about the church and the community. Besides, I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all church growth strategy. What I did offer, however, is to work as your minister to help you as a church become aware of your own identity as a community of faith and to work to make sure all who need that kind of faith community in our area know where to find it. That will continue to be how I understand my role as minister in terms of numerical growth.
I also mentioned Sunday that perhaps the question of “How can we grow in numbers?” was the wrong question. Better questions I believe are: “Do we really want to grow?” and “Will we be faithful?” Every church says they want to grow, but many do not really want to do so, not really. Growth means change and change can be painful. Change means giving up some control to new people that come in and that means giving up power. Once people have power, even in churches, they are often reluctant to give it up. If every church that said it wanted to grow really did want to do so, then every church would be growing in numbers. The sad fact that most churches, especially mainline ones like ours are shrinking in numbers testifies to the difference between what church people say and what they really want. We will continue to work on whether or not we as a church really do want to grow in numbers.
In regards to the second question: will we be faithful? I would offer that this is really the more important question to ask. I’ve known of many churches that did whatever it took to draw a crowd but in my opinion they were not faithful to the message Jesus preached of self-sacrifice, humility and compassion towards others. I think that the ministries First Christian has to people in need testifies to the faithfulness of its members. The good news is that there are plenty of other people out in our community that want opportunities to be faithful in just this same way. Many probably do not even realize that churches actually care about such things as poverty, hunger and homelessness, because they have only known Christians who were self-righteous and more concerned with their own understanding of dogma than helping people. One way we can grow in numbers is by letting our friends and neighbors know about the good things we as a church are doing and inviting them to come along---not for the sake of larger numbers but for the sake of having more helping hands to care for the immense needs in our community.
My vision for First Christian Church is that we will be known as THE church in town that makes everyone welcome regardless of who they are and offers each person that comes in our door a place to belong and an opportunity to serve. I hope that this is your vision too.
Grace and Peace,
Chase
Through a Glass Darkly by Rev. Chase Peeples
What a great first Sunday it was for me as your minister. Sure, you all were gracious to me in regards to my sermon. Also, you were polite when I started to recess without waiting for the acolytes. (I realize that I should not cut off people carrying live flames.) I’m thankful for the guidance of elders Dave Tushaus and Jeanne Daffron who kept me going in the right direction. What really made the Sunday great had little to do with me and everything to do with the membership of the church as you demonstrated your efforts to meet the material and spiritual needs of others in our community and world.
It was just wonderful to come downstairs into the fellowship hall and see it decked out in the colors of the Jamaican flag and to smell the wonderful Jamaican food cooking in the kitchen. The food was delicious! Even better than the food and décor was Carol Mullican’s presentation about the work of the Jamaica mission team. The pictures of the folks they helped were breathtaking. The stories of the medical work done by the team are impressive. I am proud to be the minister at a church that does such exciting work.
When I was considering which churches to send my information to during my job hunt, one of the first things I looked for was whether or not a church was involved in social ministry in their community. I was pleased to discover all of the many ways First Christian ministers not just in St. Joseph but to Jamaica and beyond. First Christian’s work with the Open Door Food Kitchen, InterServ and the collections of needed items gathered and distributed by CWF and other groups were just a few of the things that helped me to know that this church really takes seriously Jesus’ teachings to share our blessings with those in need. Events like the Fall Festival demonstrate the church’s openness to people outside the church. In addition, First Christian’s history of working to provide housing for older members of our community, such as Chilton Place, demonstrates the significant ways the church has impacted St. Joseph. All of these events reveal that First Christian Church is a community that is willing to work hard in sharing the love of Christ in tangible ways and they helped me to know that this church could be the place where I should come as minister.
Sunday, in my first sermon as minister of First Christian, I mentioned that the question I received repeatedly when I came to interview in September was “How will you help our church grow?” At the time, I replied, “I don’t know,” because I didn’t have enough information about the church and the community. Besides, I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all church growth strategy. What I did offer, however, is to work as your minister to help you as a church become aware of your own identity as a community of faith and to work to make sure all who need that kind of faith community in our area know where to find it. That will continue to be how I understand my role as minister in terms of numerical growth.
I also mentioned Sunday that perhaps the question of “How can we grow in numbers?” was the wrong question. Better questions I believe are: “Do we really want to grow?” and “Will we be faithful?” Every church says they want to grow, but many do not really want to do so, not really. Growth means change and change can be painful. Change means giving up some control to new people that come in and that means giving up power. Once people have power, even in churches, they are often reluctant to give it up. If every church that said it wanted to grow really did want to do so, then every church would be growing in numbers. The sad fact that most churches, especially mainline ones like ours are shrinking in numbers testifies to the difference between what church people say and what they really want. We will continue to work on whether or not we as a church really do want to grow in numbers.
In regards to the second question: will we be faithful? I would offer that this is really the more important question to ask. I’ve known of many churches that did whatever it took to draw a crowd but in my opinion they were not faithful to the message Jesus preached of self-sacrifice, humility and compassion towards others. I think that the ministries First Christian has to people in need testifies to the faithfulness of its members. The good news is that there are plenty of other people out in our community that want opportunities to be faithful in just this same way. Many probably do not even realize that churches actually care about such things as poverty, hunger and homelessness, because they have only known Christians who were self-righteous and more concerned with their own understanding of dogma than helping people. One way we can grow in numbers is by letting our friends and neighbors know about the good things we as a church are doing and inviting them to come along---not for the sake of larger numbers but for the sake of having more helping hands to care for the immense needs in our community.
My vision for First Christian Church is that we will be known as THE church in town that makes everyone welcome regardless of who they are and offers each person that comes in our door a place to belong and an opportunity to serve. I hope that this is your vision too.
Grace and Peace,
Chase
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