Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Kingdom in Nursing Homes

Over the next twenty years the population of nursing home residents ages 65 and over will nearly double. Aging Baby Boomers will further increase the strain on already crowded and understaffed care facilities. Sadly, many of the more that 72 million nursing home residents by the year 2030 will be very lonely and isolated--as are nursing home residents today. In fact, many of these residents will be disconnected from family, the church, and the Good News of Jesus Christ. Too many live that way right now.

What if local churches decided to do something about this? What if local churches resolved to make every area nursing home a satellite church?

The idea may not strike people as edgy and daring. It may not make missional headlines at the next church planting conference. You may not be able to publish a book, get your nose pierced, or celebrate your outreach with a new tattoo. But reaching the lost who are closer to heaven--actuarially speaking--than anyone else is not only worthy, it’s essential.

The weaknesses of this idea are: it is too easy, too inexpensive, and immediately implementable.

Yes, I said weaknesses. We Christians usually like things more complicated and expensive. That way, we don’t have to do anything right away. We can think, ponder, meet, talk, plan, and delay getting our hands dirty.

Meanwhile, the harvest is waiting. Here’s all you have to do:

1. Find one or two people (or families) with a heart for the elderly.

2. Ask them to lead the way by approaching an activities director at a nursing home and asking if a church group can come by weekly to visit with, get to know, worship with, and help residents.

3. Build a team--not just with church members, but with non-churched neighbors and friends who are yearning to make a difference in the world but don’t know how.

4. Start small and visit at least every week. Be dependable.

5. Make relationships, show love, discover needs, offer prayers, sing songs, read the Bible, have a snack, do a craft, play a game, hold a hand, keep it simple, and let it grow. You can even count the attendance in your weekly worship tally.

One woman told me about a group that visited her facility each week. “That’s my church,” she said.

What are you waiting for? Start your satellite. Then start the next one. You’ll have places where individuals and families can make Christ’s difference. You’ll be reaching into the community. You’ll be bringing salvation to lost and distant souls. You’ll be serving the least of these. You’ll be in the thick of real Kingdom work. And you won’t even have to build a building or make a budget.

For an older church like the LCMS, this is one way the church can reach out to the millions of people who need Jesus right now!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Why a Convention?

Around the LCMS, district conventions have taken place or will take place. The Texas District begins its convention on Thursday, June 21. Most comments I’ve heard about conventions recently haven’t been positive. I’ve heard it said that they’re “boring,” they’re “expensive” or “they don’t have any Kingdom significance.” Honestly, I’ve even thought similar things.

Years ago, as a new pastor, I visited with retired men who spoke much differently about church conventions. They commented about the wonderful fellowship, the joyful blessing of being together and worshipping together, and the unity of mission as decisions were made. Of course, not every convention was perfect, but these men who looked back to the 1950’s and earlier had a glimmer in their eyes as they remembered good days in the church.

Times have changed. Institutions and organizations are not very popular. Organic, grass-roots ministry is what people crave. But might we be forgetting something?

A number of years ago my family and I visited some missionary friends in a small village in West Africa. We didn’t go there to build a building. We didn’t go there to do a project. Our friends asked us to visit and just be there! We talked to people, met with village elders, prayed together, and hung out together. The result? A remarkable sense of mutual encouragement unfolded. I realized that I was in the middle of a remarkable ministry of “presence.” Being there meant so much to the people we met. Being there with the people we met meant so much to us. Genuine spiritual encouragement was happening. Undistracted by a list of tasks, the value of relationships took hold. A sense of the body of Christ became very real.

An African gentleman told me a while back that we Americans are terrible at relationships. That may mean that we are not reflecting the foundations of the early church when “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Maybe we need to be together a bit more--pulling our eyes away from screens (computer, cell phone, tablet, television), look into each other’s eyes, bear one another’s burdens, and lift up hands in prayer together.

Maybe that’s what the deeper value of a convention is. Please pray for the groups that gather this year, and for us in Texas. The powerful ministry of presence may advance God’s Kingdom more than we realize.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Are You Still Running?

I ran across some friends at the store the other day. I haven’t seen them in a while, so we spent some time getting caught up. They asked me a question almost everyone who hasn’t seen me in a while asks: “Are you still running?” It’s a question that contains these thoughts: “Are you really crazy enough to keep doing that?” “Haven’t you broken down yet after all those miles?” “Is this a short phase or long phase you’re going through in your life?” I’ve been running since 1977. It used to be a warm weather pastime for me, but in 1990, as I settled into lots of desk sitting, long meetings, and stressful situations, I knew I had to have regular cardiovascular activity in my life. In January 1991 I resolved never to miss a week of running. To this day I haven’t. I call it my “week streak.” I take rest days, but I never miss a week. So, when people ask me if I’m still running, it’s like asking if I’m still breathing or eating. I wonder if our perspective about being a disciple of Jesus is similar to the “Are you still running?” question. When I was growing up, discipleship had a cognitive emphasis. It was like math class: learn the facts, perform well on the academic exams, but don’t ask too much about how you’ll use this in real life. Discipleship, however, is not just a cognitive pursuit. Following Jesus is like breathing and eating; it’s every day, every moment, life. It’s a part of you. In relationship with Jesus and others, you are on mission together. Everything becomes saturated with the importance of knowing and showing Christ and the life He gives. It’s not just a “church” thing or a “Sunday School” thing; it is a life thing. This is something the world craves. People yearn to make a meaningful difference, and people need hope. That’s what Jesus gives. People aren’t craving cognitive discipleship; they crave action and meaning. What “life things” have become nonnegotiable components of your day-to-day existence? Is being a disciple one of them? Are you finding more people who will join you in the discipleship boom?

Monday, May 7, 2012

Will You Hear?

I used to think I lived in a quiet neighborhood. When we started taking care of my granddaughter I realized I was completely mistaken. We live in a cacophony of chaotic commotion! Trucks roar, weed-whackers whack, edgers whine, mowers growl, airplanes rumble, and sirens wail. Murphy’s Law made sure that all the sounds came together at just the right time to awaken my granddaughter from her nap. How did I miss the noise? It may be the same way I tune out the noise of life going on around me. Busyness and self-interest, my agenda and my ambition, lead me to miss the important noise of life around me. I can so easily resemble Jesus’ description of hardheaded sinners who tune God out: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (Matthew 13:13). What awakens me to hear, to really hear again? New life. The cry from the cross, the rumble of the opening tomb, the words: “Broken and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” rouse me to life and show me that God treasures His children. With ears unstopped by the touch of Jesus, His mandate: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation” roars into my soul and enlivens me to hear God’s people and share His concern for them. In a span of only nine verses, Jesus uses the word “world” eleven times in John 17. The Greek word is “cosmos.” This term began as a word meaning “that which has been put into order, that which was adorned.” We translate it “world.” God sees it as his precious and beautiful handiwork of humanity. His concern is for the world. He hears His people and He cares. Will I? Will I live insulated in my own pursuits or will I hear people and respond to them? Will the church? Will we hear only our own internal “business” or will we hear the cries of the “cosmos” and respond? The “cosmos” begins in your home. In your life. In your community. Will you hear?

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Bubba Mission

When Bubba Watson won the Masters golf tournament, he made Bubbaugusta history. Commentators gushed about how an ordinary guy, a person who never took a golf lesson, a professional who didn’t have a cadre of coaches around him, proved that an ordinary man can win a major. His improvised hook shot off the pine needles was lauded as Bubba creativity. What carefully trained, meticulously coached, PGA groomed, institutionally produced golfer could even think of such a shot, let alone pull it off?

It’s a new era of ordinary winners. Or, maybe it’s an era of remembering that golf is meant to be played by ordinary people.

Might the same be true of mission?

We’ve come through a generation and a half of carefully trained, meticulously coached, church-system groomed, institutionally produced ecclesiastical professionals. What’s happened to the church? The culture is losing faith in it. The professionals are falling to the wayside in scandals--ala Tiger Woods. The institutional prototype is turning people off. People are leaving the church.

But there are some Bubba’s out there. Ordinary women and men, people both young and old, are getting creative with the Gospel. They’re meeting people where they live. They’re personifying Jesus in their communities. They’re inviting people into making Christ’s difference. They’re looking outward and giving the genuine love and care of Jesus to people around them. They’re meeting in homes, apartments, and coffee shops. They’re sacrificing, starting non-profits, and traveling both near and far because they believe Jesus is the most important person for everyone to know.

And people are coming to faith in Him. Around the world, the actions of ordinary people--of Bubba’s--are making Christianity the fastest growing faith movement on the planet.

Could your life use some Bubba mission? Could your church?

Go for it, Bubba!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

C & E No More

My daughter commented on Easter that it looked like even the Christmas and Easter attenders weren’t showing up for worship. I looked around and agreed.

Times have changed. I asked a young acquaintance of mine what she was doing for Easter. Church was not in the plan. Their families don’t attend church. It isn’t a part of their lives.

The same is true of a good number of people in our culture, both young and old. The church habit is slipping away.

The big question this presents believers with is: How will people hear about the hope we have in the risen Savior, Jesus?

If Christmas and Easter attenders are dwindling, if overall church attendance is declining, if the attractional, institutional church is losing its appeal, how will the Gospel invade the lives of the hopeless?

This is the question each believer and every church must wrestle with. My thoughts? Here they are:

1. The risen Christ isn’t boring or routine. Christians need to be reminded about this in creative and compelling ways.

2. If the risen Christ is the source of true hope, Christians need to be ready to offer this hope in caring and appropriate ways within everyday relationships and encounters. The church must exert new energy for the formation of every believer as a disciple in the trenches.

3. If the institutional church is no longer the center of the culture’s spiritual quest, the church must deploy to venues that allow believers to speak into the god conversation of the culture. This will require great patience, strategic thinking, courageous action, and some radical retooling of budgets.

4. The church must trust that God really desires all to be saved. As the paradigm of outreach shifts, Christians need to remember that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Lord’s Church. Times and methods may change, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Ready, Set, Fail!

I was watching an episode of Survivor recently. It’s the reality show that “strands” people on an island and observes them as they survive both physically and socially. At the end of the episode, a young contestant was in tears because she failed during one of the challenges.

Jeff Probst, the host, asked her, “Haven’t you ever failed before?”

She responded, “I never allowed myself to be in a position to fail.”

That statement hit me like a cultural smack upside the head. This is a day and age in which we value the appearance of success. Everyone gets a trophy in pee-wee football. Hardly anyone gets a “C” in school and many students earn over 100% on tests and quizzes. Loads of students are in talented and gifted programs. Failure is not really an option.

With our hyper-consciousness of feeling successful and good, we can become risk-averse. We’re supposed to be good at everything immediately, earn A’s all the time, and show ourselves to be prodigies from the get-go. If something threatens that--like real-world challenges and questions, we may back off from the challenge rather than risk failure.

This anemic, risk-nothing spirit may even infiltrate our service for Christ and His Church. What’s the last ministry failure you’ve had? When is the last time you tried something for Kingdom expansion, but it just didn’t work?

I’m not talking about thoughtlessly lapsing into moral failure or carelessly setting aside sound planning and wasting God’s resources of people, time, and money. I’m talking about taking chances for the Kingdom personally and as a church. Will you risk having someone you care about say “no” over and over again as you invite them to experience Christ? Will you risk trying something new to engage an unreached group in your community? Will you risk changing something to ratchet up your mission impact? Will you put yourself in the position to fail?

The Bible is filled with failure. Even Jesus’ handpicked disciples failed. But with every risk, God was glorified and He worked good in all things for those who loved Him and were called according to His purpose. Let’s not bury the talent God entrusts to us. Let’s put it all on the line and risk failure for the One Who risked it all for us.