Your Church Can Grow

Lovett Weems, Executive Director of The Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary, repeats a phrase to United Methodists that has become a mantra for our day: United Methodists need to reach more people, younger people and more diverse people. Yesterday, at the Bishop’s Convocation, dialogue with Bishop Devadhar gravitated to the topic of reaching younger people. Why do we make it so difficult for young people to enter the ranks of ordained ministry? Why do we treat them as “cute” (i.e. not really knowing what they are doing)? It was a good conversation starter. The conversations need to continue with younger people.

Many of us older people can begin our conversations with our own children or grandchildren. We can seek to better understand each other’s generation. We can ask what attracts them and what does not attract them to church. For those of us who are older, we had better be ready to change our ways and our attitudes if we are serious about opening our churches to younger people. If we truly engage in conversations, will we be willing to worship differently? Communicate differently?

Let’s keep the conversation going.

This year’s theme for the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference is “In the Spirit . . . of Fellowship.” The fellowship of the saints marks the distinctiveness of Christian faith. We gather together as disciples of the risen Christ. The core belief in the resurrection of Jesus drives all that we do as Christians, including how we understand fellowship. It gives us hope and it marks our understanding of life and death. This is particularly evident when the community of faith celebrates the life of one who has died. Services of death and resurrection uplift the joy of living and dying in Christ. We can say with Paul, “If we die with him, we’ll live with him; If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him” (2Tim 2:11, 12 THE MESSAGE). And so a Christian funeral is often marked not only by tears, but also with joy, laughter as the departed is remembered. There is a sense of peace knowing our brother or sister “has run the race.”

On Sunday, January 6, we celebrate Epiphany. When I lived with my family in Argentina, it was a most celebrated day, El Día de los Reyes, when the Three Kings would arrive at our house. Our children would put a pair of shoes outside the door of our home so that the Kings would know how many children lived in the house and thus, how many gifts to leave behind. This was the day when children would receive fun gifts–toys. Gift giving at Christmas was much more modest. Each child might receive one gift. They knew that the fun day would come soon. I like the idea of keeping gift-giving simple on Christmas day. I thoroughly enjoyed the joy and excitement of the children on The Day of the Kings.

In the season of Epiphany we celebrate that God is with us, living among us. It is a reminder of how the mission of God always has been about incarnation–putting flesh on the Word and living it out in day-to-day life. As we celebrate the incarnation of the Lord, let us be mindful to live out our own faith.