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Does the UMC really want us to disengage? #umclead

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In pondering the whole “Call to Action” and my thoughts yesterday on “Poking the Church” it had me wondering. Why don’t more people get involved and take on their communities and their faith.. What is the one thing? Are we all just to lazy? or maybe we claim to be to ‘busy?’

Maybe, as Dave Meslin puts in this short talk, its more a web of things that compound. He’s talking up a civic cultural apathy. But this in many ways translates into our church cultures. Especially found his framework of intentional exclusion very insightful.

Why YouthWorker Circuit?

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In the past year I’ve been getting a number of questions asking, “What are you up to these days?” It has been a rather loaded question as I’ve been leading up to this point. I’ve been doing some side work, which has been fun and viable, but all the while wanting to put something like YouthWorker Circuit together. But why YouthWorker Circuit?

Well…

We believe that youth ministry is a calling.

We also believe that youth workers don’t have time to do it all and are probably distracted from the parts of youth ministry that they love by the parts that they don’t. And that good youthworkers walk away from their calling every day because they feel under-resourced, over-tasked, and alone.

So we thought..

What if there was a place where you could have instant access to quality Wesleyan curriculum and program ideas? What if there was a resource that prompted you with inventive organizational ideas, guiding you toward better, more personal ministry?

What if there was an opportunity to regularly share genuine, live conversation in community with likeminded youthworkers from across the country?

So we have done..

50 First Dates of the Church

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My wife loves the movie “50 First Dates” & I enjoy it quite a bit as well. It is one of the few movies we actually own & will still watch on television when it comes on.

So if you want a cute love story comedy then this is our family suggestion.

The premise of the movie is that Drew Barrymore’s character has a rare amnesia that keeps her from remembering anything past a date when she had a car accident. So every day for her is relived the same over and over again. Adam Sandler’s character falls in love with her and when coming to understand her condition continues to try and woo her. As well, he also tries to help her live with her condition. This sets up some really funny and cute scenarios.

One of the scenes in the movie the couple are having a beach campfire, hanging out with many of friends of Barrymore’s character. One of the ‘friends’ played by Maya Rudolph, asks in puzzled amazement, ‘So you work everyday to get her to fall in love with you, and then do it again the next day?’ This questioning is met with a nodding “Yeah.”

What if the church were to work so hard and so passionately to the goal that it’s community were to fall in love with, not the church, but the God & Christ that church represents.

What would that look like? What would the church be doing if it did that?

Why isn’t Youth Ministry a Mission?

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I was just thinking…

Why isn’t Youth Ministry a Mission of the church?

That might sound trite, or stupid question, but think about it. If you go to any church website I will, 99% of the time, guarantee you that ‘youth ministry’ or ‘student ministry’ will be under a heading of ‘programs’ of the church.

Does putting it under a ‘program’ heading fundamentally change the expectations of the ministry? So some thoughts on Program & Mission…

Program

  • ongoing
  • works for those within organization
  • routine
  • safe

Mission

  • evolving – reshaping to needs
  • outreach – taking message outside organization
  • challenging
  • sacrificing

Now, there is nothing wrong with program, as long as those are the expectations and goals behind a program. However, if we really want our churches to reach out, introduce teenagers to a radical Christ, and take on the passion of our Lord.. then wouldn’t our youth ministries be more of a mission category?

What to do with Giving?

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I was intrigued by this news across the newswire.

A struggling Baltimore parish received a surprising donation two Sundays ago, when a Maryland Lottery Cash Craze Crossword scratch-off arrived in the collection plate. The ticket, which was already scratched revealing the win, was discovered by the church’s pastor when tallying the day’s contributions. “I’m not too familiar with these tickets,” said the pastor. “I asked somebody if it was a winner.” The response was “It looks like it’s a winner to me.” With this affirmation, the 55-year-old church leader brought the ticket to Lottery Headquarters, where the largesse of an anonymous individual was confirmed.

“I have no idea who did this,” the pastor declared. “I really have no clue.” The church, which has been experiencing financial difficulties, will use the money toward operating expenses, but the pastor also wishes to give some back to the people. “We have a lot of people in need,” he said. “Hopefully, we can give some back, especially since this is the way we received it.”

Although this unexpected windfall is much-appreciated, the church still faces financial challenges. With that in mind, the smiling pastor said that he intends to buy $5 worth of Mega Millions tickets for Friday night’s drawing which has a jackpot of $312 million.

I know my United Methodist tradition has issues with lotteries. I remember when I was in Alabama, back in the 90’s, our church went against the lottery legislation then as well. That one never passed surprisingly.

The axe to grind against the lottery is one that says that they prey on those who are in poverty situations. Statistics can be bent around to prove this true or not true. In my anecdotal experiences it seems true to me that it is the case more than not. Maybe some folks playing the lottery may not be in abject poverty, but you generally do not see those who have solid financial positions playing games of chance where the odds of winning are astronomical.

With that in mind, is there an issue with taking lottery money if it is against the mission of the church? Obviously this pastor does not have a problem with it and will have his go at the scratch game sometime in the future at least once. Would it have been more of a story if the church refused $30k because of the method of it being attained from the people?

Is there another story here that has to do with someone capturing the imagination of the news giving away $30k to a church in the form of a lottery ticket?

Or is it that someone has bad luck and didn’t realize that they had a winner? I know I wouldn’t know, those things are just confusing to me.