Pastor Mark Nieting
John 17: 1-11 (Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer)
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On Wednesday evening a small group of us gathered to celebrate the Ascension of Jesus. We read the story from Luke and Acts, snuffed out the Christ candle, and then went outside to watch the children’s group release their helium balloons into the air. Then we all went home to relax, probably watch TV, and sleep.
As I drove home, I thought to myself, “How very UNLIKE the actual Ascension of Jesus!” The eleven disciples, who had barely begun to comprehend Jesus’ resurrection, now watched Him ascend up into heaven in literal amazement. Then they had to go back to the same city that had crucified Him and wait.
We KNOW what they were waiting for; the POWER, the comfort, the blessing of the Holy Spirit, Who ten days later was to cover them with fire, energize them and send them out to change the world by starting the Christian Church on Earth!
One thousand nine hundred and seventy eight years after Jesus prayed fervently for His church to be “one,” how IS the Church doing? How is the Lutheran church doing? As we prepare for our annual voters’ meeting, how is HOPE doing?
We begin our worship services with a time we call “Moments of Hope,” where we have an opportunity to share what we have seen God doing in our lives over the past week. Some weeks we hear “praise reports” or “God things,” and some weeks……..nothing. That’s the way the Holy Spirit works, by moving from place to place and person to person as He, using Luther’s Words, “calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”
The church began in Jerusalem, moved outward into Judea, then north to Galilee, the Mediterranean world and Africa. The Gospel was carried eastward to India, westward to Europe, the Americas and finally to Asia. Each continent, each country has witnessed the movement of the Holy Spirit as Jesus was proclaimed.
Where is the Spirit working today? Simply put, the Christian Church is the HEALTHIEST where life is the HARDEST! In India, where Christians are heavily persecuted by the Buddhist government, the church is 30 million strong and growing by thousands of converts DAILY, converts who risk their jobs, their homes and even their lives when they confess their faith like our confirmands did last Sunday! In communist China, where Christianity has literally been “outlawed” for over 50 years, there are now 105 MILLION people who publicly declare that they are believers in Jesus Christ. Eight percent of the Chinese people worship Jesus weekly! In Tanzania (Africa), our partner Lutheran Church now numbers over 7 MILLION active members; probably tripling the number of LCMS members in church on any given Sunday! In fact, there are now more Lutherans in Africa than there are in the United States, period. Is the Spirit moving? Absolutely!
Sad to say, there are also places where Christians have to exist under terrible persecution. In Iraq, where 97% of the population is Muslim, the 3% Christian minority which used to enjoy some protection under Saddam Hussein is now being heavily persecuted. And it goes without saying that in most Muslim countries even carrying a Bible can be punishable by DEATH. When the media uses the phrase “sectarian violence,” nine times out of ten the back-story is that another group of Christians has been attacked and killed or sold into slavery.
In Europe, where 60 MILLION people claim to be Lutherans, church attendance for most people is 4: not 4 times a month, but 4 times during their lives: baptism, confirmation, marriage and finally, burial. In Australia and New Zealand the picture is just as sad. As I said before, where life is easy, the church is dying. Where life is difficult, the church is THRIVING!
What about here in the United States, our “nation under God?” A recent Gallup poll reveals that 35% of Americans worship weekly, 45% of Americans never worship, and the rest are somewhere in between. The mainline denominations are aging and declining; while at the same time there is still some growth in the more “Pentecost-ally oriented” denominations. In America church participation is highest among the poor, among women, among conservatives, among those who are married, among those in the south and those in the Midwest.
To those paying attention, it’s obvious that faith in America is under attack. The ACLU is notorious for their role in emphasizing the ‘rights of the few’ over the will of the many, especially where Christianity is concerned, and far too often the “will of the many” won’t, to quote the hymn, “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus!” Where Sundays (and even Wednesdays) used to be reserved for church activities, that is no longer the case. Where the church used to be the central focus of community and family activities, parents (and grandparents) are stretched thin with all the options that are out there! Fully 50% of the children baptized in the LCMS will not be in church by the time they should be confirmed! The key factor, and I’ll focus on this in two weeks, is the men of the church, the fathers, and how they…..or should I say “we” live or don’t live out our faith.
What about HOPE? What, at the tender age of 35, is the condition of our dear congregation? We have just about completed a major expansion of our facilities through our ENVISION HOPE campaign, which (amazingly enough) we started just as the American economy went into the tank. Despite that, in year #3 our pledges to Envision Hope are within 5 or 6% of being right on target! We were blessed to raise over $75,000 in cash to furnish our building in a few weeks. The excitement we feel…..and justifiably also the pride we have in our facilities is very real and very good. We were blessed to have the Laborers for Christ with us for a year and also…..blessed with MANY volunteers. In fact, if you WORKED on our building, contribute(d) to Envision Hope, brought in snacks, watched children, or did ANYTHING ELSE towards this effort, please stand! (Thank you!!!!)
I know, dear friends, that all this hard work and progress came at a cost. At the beginning those who aren’t in favor of a building program and those who don’t want to pay for it slip off into the woodwork, either for a while or for good. Some of us have put in huge amounts of our time, our talent and our treasure, and truthfully, as a congregation and as individuals I think we are TIRED. After God finished HIS creative work, you know what He did…..He “rested.” We need that too, and it’s a good thing that we’ve reached our summer, so we can relax, refresh, and reframe our ministries for the coming fall, when we can build on the blessings God has given us. To paraphrase “a field of dreams,” we have built it and once we develop the programs to reach out, they will come!
One of the biggest blessings God has given us here is our preschool, which has just completed its best year EVER. Five years ago we averaged 40 children in our school; this year we finished with almost 60! This year we finally expanded our program to be able to meet the needs of parents who need full day care. This year we are offering a Summer Program! And with all of this, our school finished the year “in the black!” You know that I am a firm believer in the outreach of Lutheran Schools….and friends, I never, ever want to hear again the old canard that “the school is a burden our church!” Our School IS our church……the church at work in our community, and our school finally has a facility commensurate with the quality of the program that we have offered for years!
We’ve had some programmatic struggles in the past year. Our youth ministry program had to cope with the divorce and departure of one of its leaders, something that is always challenging. Our music ministry had a change in leadership as well, and new people have stepped up to bless us. The economy continues to challenge us financially. Our average Sunday attendance is down from where it was five years ago, (from 370 to 344), but our adult Bible class attendance is up. Our congregation makes a noticeable impact on our community through multiple ministries that reach out and touch the lives of people who are in need. On the whole, I could summarize this year by saying this: we have emerged from our building program as a “lean and clean ministry machine!”
I want to give us the state of the church when it comes to our finances; personal stewardship. On that front there is both good news and bad news. The good news is that, despite the worst economy in a long time, congregational giving is up. Five years ago our weekly giving per family (we call them ‘giving units’) was about $35. Now it’s about $44. That may SOUND like a lot, but IF that were a Biblical tithe, those families would be living on about $23,000 a year, a lot lower than the Census Bureau’s median household income for our area of $67,356.
This year our congregational offerings will total about $550,000. IF we were a “tithing” congregation, our giving would be about TRIPLE that amount…..which means that most of our families are giving back to their Lord about 3% of what He so graciously gives them. That is the factor that limits growth of our ministries the most; money we can spend on programs and the size of the staff that can lead ministries. I encourage you to take your own stewardship before God in prayer. Seek His guidance and TAKE THE RISK to tithe, and when you do, you will see in the most concrete way possible that God is as good as His promises! (Also, I encourage every single family to sign up for SIMPLY GIVING!)
When I first arrived here five years ago I made a statement that upset some people: If you only worship on Sundays you are an inactive member. I still stand by that statement. With the number of opportunities for ministry here, there is a NEED for every single one of us to become involved in “making disciples of all nations.” I’m going to list as many of our ministries as I can remember. If you are in any way involved, please stand, and remain standing:
Worship Ministry: Musicians of all sorts: handbells, choir, instrumentalists; altar guild, nursery workers, bulletin folders, greeters, ushers, lectors, communion servers, sound booth, JoyTime leaders, church dusters and pew-straighteners, pencil sharpeners, nametag sorters, Porch callers
Fellowship: Cooking or bringing food, Wednesday dinners, coffee hours, Enchanted Evening, Mother-Daughter banquet, Ultimate Frisbee, Church Picnic
Education: JamTime teachers, Bible class leaders, Confirmation instructors, our Preschool, Youth leaders, Vacation Bible School, Bible club, young adult leaders
Social Ministry: Food Pantry, school lunches, JCOC meals, Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets, Angel Tree, Food for the Poor, Adopt a Child
Property Ministry: Light bulb changers, our Lawn Crew, Columbarium committee, building painters, fixers, and cleaners, Envision Hope volunteers, flower planting, kitchen cleaners, chair stackers, window washers and power sweepers
Stewardship and Finance: Stewardship committee, check writers, offering counting teams, Envision Hope follow up, all around “money managers,” Web Site maintainers, Public Relations and Personnel policy maintainers, Council members and Ministry Team Leaders
Men’s and Women’s Ministries: LWML, Knights of Hope, Military Ministry, Stephen Ministry, Good Grief, Home group leaders, Thursday prayers, Prayer chains, shut-in encouragers, Mothers Morning Out
This (and I mean all you who are standing) is the Church at Work….. this is Hope on the move, all of you who have been called by the Holy Spirit and gifted by Him with the passion for your Lord Jesus Christ that enables you to put your faith into action and I, and we, thank you (applause). If you’re not standing, you are a visitor….and there is room here for you too! This is the Church in Action! These are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ alive and at work in the world today. This is……we are…..the people of God making a difference in the lives of our community and helping people “reach home safely,” one soul at a time. Amen!
