The Pastor's Blog
Welcome to The Pastor's Blog! We will present Rev. Ferguson's month messages on this page as they appear in The Meadowlark. All visitors are able to read his messages. Registered users may log in and respond or comment on the entries. Click the "Reply" link at the end of each entry to respond or comment on that entry. We suggest that your "Preview" your posting prior to submitting.
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Dear Members and Friends,
The story of the Christian faith as well as the story of our roots in Judaism is one of victory over seemingly impossible odds. From Moses’ duel with the Pharaoh and his magicians to Gideon’s unlikely conquest of the Midianites to David’s vanquishing Goliath; to Jesus’ own victory over death, the biblical narrative is one that inspires hope. Of course, the very definition of faith includes the belief that things are going to be better even when there is no rational reason to think they will; especially when there is no reason to think they will.
As of the 8th of October, I will have been a pastor for thirty-one years and the churches I have served have seen their share, and sometimes more than their share of difficult times. There have been tragic deaths to children and youth. There have been marriages rent asunder that were seemingly happy. There have been sudden and devastating losses of income for families. There have been those who were struggling with addictions to drugs and alcohol. All of these things and more have been a part of the tapestry of the years. My churches were not, of course, unique in this regard. Every congregation goes through hard times sooner or later because misfortune is simply a part of life.
The challenge, as always, is in how we respond to the trials and tribulations of life as individuals and as a community of faith. There a number of options. We could choose surrender; just throw up our hands in defeat and simply fade away. We could make just enough concessions to the circumstances to get by but without any expectation that things will improve. We could make some radical changes in how we are constituted as a church and in how we do ministry that would enable us to continue and thrive but in a way that would break with our history and tradition. Or, we could solve the root causes of our current troubles by taking an honest look at ourselves to discern where we are strong and doing well and also to discern where we are in need of God’s transforming power.
One church I served some time ago took the congregational inventory that is one of the initial steps in the Natural Church Development program that is available through our conference. The inventory measures eight areas that define a healthy church. The basic principle is that if a church is strong in a majority of these areas, it will most likely thrive. Most churches find that they are in need of strengthening in more areas than they expect and that was true of the church I mentioned above. They were surprised and a bit upset to find that they scored low in the area of “passionate worship.” This category is partly about the approach to worship taken by the pastor and others who lead worship, but it is primarily about how a congregation participates in the worship. The factors that go into determining “passionate worship” are too involved to go into here, but suffice it to say that it was a wake-up call to some of the members of the church. I know this seems like a bit of a digression but my point is this: only a few of the members of that church were willing to accept that change was needed and so not much has changed. It’s been six years since then and there is still just a small group of people who are trying to bring about positive change.
For us to face down the odds that are against us here at MUMC with respect to membership and attendance decline, a smaller than needed base of members willing to serve in the structure and ministry of the church, and a serious budget/stewardship situation, we must have more than a few people who are willing to get involved.
There must be more people who actively invite others in the community to come to our church. We must have more people willing to re-arrange their time priorities in order to serve on teams, committees, and work areas. We must have more people who are willing to examine and re-arrange their financial priorities.
My prayer is that this will happen here at MUMC.
The biblical witness testifies to the power of the Spirit of God when the people of God exercise their faith. Let’s do this together. We have a few months left in 2009 to try to make up a deficit of Goliath-like proportions. We have an opportunity to make the next year a great year; a year in which many of our members and friends get involved in the church’s ministry, a year in which we reverse the current trends in attendance and membership, and a year in which we don’t have to worry constantly about the state of the budget.
I believe we can do it because I know that God can.
Grace and Peace, Glenn Ferguson
