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Radical Hospitality
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Passionate Worship
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Intentional Faith Development
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Risk-Taking Mission & Service
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Extravagant Generosity
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Recent comments on pages throughout the site
71. Paddling in a Whitewater World
Andy B. wrote on 7/8/2008 5:09:02 PM
Great metaphor - thanks.
71. Paddling in a Whitewater World
Michael D Pope wrote on 7/7/2008 11:58:07 AM
I remember my first experience of being out of control in a canoe on the White River near Buffalo, MO. I had gone on a float trip with the local Boy Scouts from Golden City, MO when I served as the UMC pastor there. My girlfriend and I were in a canoe together and had stopped paddling because we were both tired. Before we knew what was happening, we found ourselves swamped on a little island that was right in the middle of the raging stream. Our canoe turned sideways and began to fill with water. Our shoes and everything not tied down was swept away by the rushing water. We were both scared for our lives even though we knew the water wasn't very deep where we were at the time. Thank God there were others with more experience in canoeing who came to our rescue or we might have drowned. I wish I had read this article before I went on that float trip or at least spent a little more time getting instruction in what to do in an emergency. I discovered that canoeing requires more than floating. We literally had to paddle for our lives that day! It was scary and exhilerating too. I thank God for others who have gone before us who have shown us the way to life and those who journey with us who know how to navigate the rapids of life and who serve as our guides. Thanks, Bishop, for sharing these valuable insights!
Bob Farr wrote on 6/30/2008 3:04:31 PM
I love fire trucks. I was a volunteer firefighter for 23 years in three different fire protection districts. What caught my attention about your description of the fire truck was the markings and use of the compartments on the truck. Firetrucks and the fire business can be complex and when in use, under a great deal of urgency and pressure. It is important to have a system in place that takes the complexity and the pressure out and replaces it with easy and obvious steps. When time is of the essence, you don't have time to figure something out, so you need steps that enable you to make good decisions to achieve your mission, which in the fire service is to save lives and property. In our churches we make decisions that effect peoples lives. We need to think steps!
What are the steps someone has to take to get from non faith or non connected faith to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ? What are the steps in our churches that someone has to take to be connected? Andy Stanley invites us to think steps not programs to help someone move from non connected in the faith to connected. Each step needs to be easy, obvious and strategic or we create what he calls "sideways energy". We want people to be able to move from where they are be become all that God has called them to be. We want people to move from where they are into a fully authenic relationship with Jesus Christ and his church. What are the steps in your church? Are they leading people where we hope God would have them be? Obvious and easy steps for a complex incident is critical to the fire service so they can save lives and so it is with the church as well.Bob
Michael D Pope wrote on 6/27/2008 12:04:28 PM
I remember going to my home Presbyterian church a few years ago when my mother was still alive to take her to church on Mother's Day. The greeter at the door was a young man who did not speak to us and did not make eye contact with us as he handed us a worship bulletin. After the worship service, the church had a carry-in dinner and only one person that I had known from childhood came up to me and my wife and spoke to us. Most of the people were more interested in feeding their faces than they were in welcoming us back to my "home" church. I was terribly disappointed by this experience and vowed that I would not return to that church again, which I haven't. My wife and I also were members of two local UMCs for a year each and only one person in one of those UMCs ever invited us to come to their home for a meal or to just visit. I'm wondering how many others have had similar experiences. Bishop Schnase is right. I'm sure that people in those churches would say that they are a friendly church. However, that wasn't our experience. Those three churches might as well have had a sign that said: "Stay Back 200 Feet". Well, they didn't but we have stayed away nonetheless, I'm sorry to say! I hope your church makes visitors feel welcome and wanted.
Michael D Pope wrote on 6/26/2008 2:03:30 PM
Thank you Bishop Schnase for your leadership in developing these congregational resources to help pastors and lay persons move toward more fruitful lives in ministy and service to Jesus Christ! I plan to use these resources in my own local church, especially with the youth and young adults that I am working with presently. I look forward to reviewing and using these new tools for ministry!
66. When You Are Through Changing...
barbara asay wrote on 6/22/2008 6:55:47 PM
Perhaps we could also think of change in the context of water. Water that sits in a puddle or a pond is stagnent and is not always a very pretty site. Water that flows down a stream or over a cliff is fresh, clean, refreshing, always changing, it is living water. Which woud you want to partake of to quench your thirst, whatever thirst that may be? Ten years or so ago, the pastor of my church drug me, kicking and screaming, out of my shell, my safe shell, and encouraged me to lead the Adult Bible Study class Sunday mornings(which I still do to this day).
Now I think nothing of getting up in front of people to speak, to share a devotion or other lesson, or, of all things, be bold enough to show some radical hospitality by introducing myself and welcoming a new comer to our church. Change is tough, but even this solitary, timid child of God is now more willing to take a chance on change.
Try it, you might like it!
Rev. Geniese Stanford wrote on 6/19/2008 8:35:35 PM
Other churches in our area hold Music Camps, so for a change of pace, we're holding a "Mission Day Camp" and inviting children, youth & adults from the community to participate. We have several projects planned - inter-generational teams will move from center to center working on a different mission project in each center. One of the projects is to make 50 fleece blankets to give to our local food pantry to give to families in the fall. The culmination of the day will be a worship service during which the blankets will be individually blessed, hence the name of that project, "Blessing Blankets." Radical hospitality will be practiced, as we will be welcoming all ages from the whole community for a day of fun-filled missional service.
Joe wrote on 6/16/2008 6:00:31 PM
Is the pastor kit for the curriculum available now?
Fred Koenig wrote on 6/4/2008 4:07:16 PM
It's a Conference led by a couple of highly successful, fast growing churches in Missouri. The day features workshops that are geared toward churches who are ready and willing to put forth some effort into improving who they are. You can read a couple stories I wrote about MOVE in 2007 in the Oct. 5, 2007 issue of the Missouri Conference Review. Go to www.moumethodist.org/Review and click on archives.
Donna wrote on 6/4/2008 3:08:00 PM
What is MOVE?
Discussion on the five Congregational Practices and individuals' practices
Micah wrote on 5/27/2008 2:56:49 PM
really appreciated your thoughts.
Michael D Pope wrote on 5/22/2008 8:00:50 PM
I noticed your question is not "Why" but "How". I think we will find the way when we have the will. When we finally get it that we need to change and that we dare not go on doing what we've always done and getting the results we've always gotten, then there is hope for real and positive change. My prayer is that we will see the need and embrace the attitude that proceeds the change we envision. We will create the church that Christ wants for us when we embrace Christ's vision for our future together.
My two cents, Michael
Andy B. wrote on 5/22/2008 4:14:10 PM
I'm still trying to get past the image of you crawling under the pews ... :)
Patrick Moore wrote on 5/22/2008 10:31:04 AM
Seems like I have heard that "systems produce perfectly what they are designed to produce." If we have lots of cynical pastors, maybe we have a system that at worst produces cynicism or at best tolerates the cynicism. Just my cynical two-cents!
RSchnase wrote on 5/17/2008 10:05:56 PM
Thank you everyone for helping ID the tree. Someone actually sent me photos of what are called "Mapel Keys." (I guess because what I'm calling wings also are shaped somewhat like keys.) These are definitely maple seeds. Thanks, rs
Jeff Jaekley wrote on 5/16/2008 11:51:52 PM
Bishop Schnase,
I have been reflecting some more on your post and I appreciate even more the seriousness of the decisions you and the cabinet are making. I do have one suggestion, that while it won't solve the puzzle, could make the process easier--communication. A consistent frustration I hear from my peers, and feel myself, is a lack of communication. It would be nice to be told a couple of times during the 2-3 months of waiting that we are still in the minds of those making decisions.
Thanks,
Jeff
Michael D Pope wrote on 5/16/2008 10:49:38 AM
Bishop Schnase always encourages us as members of the Missouri Conference, whether we are clergy or laity. Thank you Bishop!
I have to admit that it is far easier to give in to negativism and cynicism than it is to remain positive and hopeful, especially when we've had a bad experience or a particularly bad day. Jesus had a really bad day on a Friday, which once was called "Black Friday" but most people now refer to as "Good Friday" because he saved us from our sins and offered us God's forgiveness before he died.
Life is good because God created it to be good. In fact, after God created humankind, God looked at all that God had created and the writer of the book of Genesis says: "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good."
I am glad for all the ministers in my life who have offered me encouragment, direction, love and hope. My prayer for all ministers everywhere is that God would help them remember that they do make a difference in the lives of others. Sometimes you may not know that influence until years later.
A case in point...A few years ago, while I was serving as the Youth Director of Wesley UMC in Jefferson City, MO, our youth group sponsored a "Battle of the Bands". A woman came up to me that I had not seen since she was a youth over 30 years before. She told me her name and then reminded me that I had prayed for her when she was a teenager and had been involved in a serious car accident and near death. She said, "Your prayer changed my life."
I vaguely recalled the incident in my life. I had nearly forgotten her because it had been so long ago. But meeting her again and hearing her personal testimony about how my visit and my prayer had changed her life helped me to be grateful to God for the encounter and the opportunity to minister to this woman in her time of need. It was overwhelmingly affirming to say the least!
Please remember that your life and your minsitry make a positive difference now and for eternity in Jesus' name!
Thanks for listening!
Michael Pope
patty smith wrote on 5/15/2008 12:45:41 PM
Thank you , thank you , thankyou, your message for today was exactly what I needed to hear, as I am discouraged by the ministerial association in my community. Many have been pastors much longer than I and are bitter toward those they serve, not necessarily their churches,( although some are ) but to those impoverished in the community who come to us asking for help. i know many people try to work the system and many of these pastors have been taken for a ride. but they cry "hopeless" and act defeated and it wears me down so that I do not want to attend. They distrust one another even though they talk( only )about doing things together and I want to do more ecumenical things. A reminder to myself not to become cynical as I allow them to color my moods. A reminder that my moods can color those whom I am ministering to if I allow negatives to cloud me. thank you God Bless you Bishop
Debbie Deneke wrote on 5/15/2008 12:34:30 PM
Fighting the desire to give up and just coast is a battle for church staff too.
Pamela Dilmore wrote on 5/13/2008 10:58:06 PM
Yes. Definitely maple. The maples in Missouri fly their "seeds with wings" a bit later than in Tennessee. Pomegranates and maple seeds....nice metaphors, both. -pam Dilmore
Mike Hargraves wrote on 5/12/2008 9:55:49 PM
I believe the tree you observed is a Silver Maple. I used to play with the winged seeds when I was a child; we called them helicopters for obvious reasons. I love your metaphor about them, the seeds that don't just fall under the tree. Too many times our churches are so inward focused that we only plant seeds under the tree (our kids etc). Churches that grow plant seeds and reach out beyond themselves. They start Classes and have ministries for kids other than their own. They look at their community and see who is not in their church and plan ministries for them. As you said, they plant seeds with wings!
Micah wrote on 5/10/2008 11:58:16 AM
Your message on risk taking mission is stretched to apply to building a new building. I believe that we as pastors too many times equate "building a new building" with "mission work". A new building could be something seen by new people in the community, but most likely will just be used by the people in your own church family.
62. A Daughter of United Methodism
Michael D Pope wrote on 5/5/2008 12:03:53 PM
I too was at the General Conference when the President of Liberia spoke to the gathered delegates and visitors. She did a wonderful job of describing the opportunities for ministry that exist in that country and the continuing need for our partnership in ministry there.
Bishop John Innis and I were classmates at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, MO in the 1980s. We have remained friends ever since our seminary days. Bishop Innis was a devoted student, and he is a loyal friend, a loving husband and father and great leader of the UMC in Liberia. He, too, was a product of a rural UMC school in Liberia and later became the principal of Camphor Mission, a junior high boarding school for UMC pastors' children. His wife Irene served as the campus nurse there.
John and his family could have stayed in the US after John's graduation from seminary but instead they risked their lives to go back to Liberia and serve in their country because they love Christ and they love the people of Liberia.
I heard once that John was killed by rebel forces under Charles Taylor but this turned out not to be true. John is very much alive today and working to bring freedom, peace and democratic rule to Liberia as he works in and through the church as well as through his political contacts and organizations.
Liberia needs us to stay informed, to pray for them, and to commit our time, talent and resources to help their nation as well as other nations in Africa overcome the effects of war, disease, illeteracy and poverty. Please help if you can and will!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
Otis Boggs wrote on 5/4/2008 3:46:29 PM
Some business principles that could be adapted to the Church, "five barriers..."
http://www.schaefersblog.com/how-to-kill-an-organization-5-barriers-to-kaizen/
Jeff Jaekley wrote on 5/1/2008 9:52:19 AM
Bishop Schnase,
Thank you for a view of the process from the other side of the window. I share the anxieties, and sometimes frustration, of those affected by this process, but we tend to see it only from the perspective of waiting and wondering, speculation, rumor, and inuendo. It helps to see it from the perspective of those who make these decisions and to hear your heart for all who are affected by the process. We're praying for all of you.
