Put on my blue suede shoes...

Returning from a regional meeting of clergy and laity trying to care for the ministries of our local congregations tonight, I was overwhelmed with a sense of sadness:  at least half of our 20 churches are in distress of one type or another.  Now, maybe this is nothing new - reading St. Paul and Revelations my hunch is that this has always probably been true - still the depth of loss is staggering.

+ There are congregations picking fights with their loving pastors and pastors wounding and dissing their loving congregations in arrogance and ignorance.

+ There are profound money problems in many of our churches who are struggling to stay open after steadfastly avoiding any type of deep stewardship education for the past 100 years.

+ And there are committed lay leaders who possess no vision except fear; consequently, the are making foolish and often cruel choices that have nothing to do with Christ and his Cross let alone the promise and presence of Easter.

I know I am not saying anything new... but it is still sad.  For me, there are three essentials for ministry:  loving Jesus, listening to God's people and leading towards the possible rather than the perfect.  This isn't a guarantee for success in ministry, just an essential foundation.  And time and again, this combination seems to be missing in both clergy and laity. Peterson once wrote:

It seems odd to have to say so, but too much religion is a bad thing. We can't get too much of God, can't get too much of faith and obedience, can't get too much love and worship. but religion - the well-intentioned efforts we make to 'get it all together' for God - can very well get in the way of what God is doing for us. The main and central action is everywhere and always what God has done, is doing and will do for us. Jesus is the revelation of that action. Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God's action as revealed in Jesus.  That is, our part in the action is the act of faith.

But more often than not we become impatiently self-important along the way and decide to improve matters with our own two cents worth. We add on, we supplement, we embellish. But instead of improving on the purity and simplicity of Jesus, we dilute the purity, clutter the simplicity and become fussily religious - on anxiously religions - and get in the way.

You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true.  Let's have more YES and NO.

Let's have more loving Jesus - and listening to the lives of God's people - and then leading our people towards what is possible rather than the perfect.  That's what I was thinking when I left tonight's meeting. A simple call to a little more faith and tenderness and grace.  A little more humility all over the place, too. Then who should pop up on my IPOD in the car but Marc Cohn singing his sweet, melancholy master piece, "Walking in Memphis?"  And again with the tears... (Lord, do I love this song.)

All the church has to offer the world is Christ Jesus - we don't have the best music, coffee or entertainment - so until Christ is the core of what we do it won't matter what insights we have about doing ministry in the 21st century.  We will remain in a sad state of distress.  So, I put on my blue suede shoes, turned up the volume, let the tears flow and sang at the top of my lungs:  YEAH TONIGHT I'M WALKIN' IN MEMPHIS!