Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Wisdom Wednesday: Forging A New Path - Volume 2

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 10, 2023 Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on Friday, March 13, 2020? Do you remember that day, Friday, March 13, 2020. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. That morning, I was waiting to get a haircut from my barber in Lexington, Virginia, and I received a text from Dave Rochford, who was my district superintendent. Dave texted me, “Joe, in the next 20 minutes, the bishop is recommending that our conference churches suspend worship this Sunday and next Sunday to slow the advance of the virus.” That was the text and that was the day that changed our churches. We stopped in person worship not just for the last two weeks in March 2020 but for several weeks and for some of our churches it was months before we were worshipping in person again. I learned how to create an online worship experience for Trinity where I was the pastor, and I know the staff and worship leaders at Peakland did the same as well. Most of our essential church meetings were held through zoom and as the whole world closed, we in the church had to improvise and recreate our ministries and our lives together. Today, just over three years later, we at Peakland are prayerfully considering how we forge a new path in a post covid world. Forging a new path just happens to be the name of this book that I am reading and discussing on Monday nights here at Peakland. I’m eager to share my insights in this book not just with those in person in the class but with you online as well. This book was written by Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist pastor who has created a church leadership program called Creating a Culture of Renewal, which I have been participating in for two years now. In the opening chapters of the book, Rebekah lists three persistent questions that she has heard again and again from congregations in our post-covid world: When do things go back to normal? How do we get people back to church? And (3) How do we do more with less? Rebekah draws from her own experiences and what she has seen and heard to provide some answers to those questions. When do things go back to normal? The answer is things don’t go back to normal. We can’t turn back the calendar to 2019 before Covid or even turn back the calendar 20 years ago, 30 or 40 years ago during the golden age of church life. Rebekah challenges us not to look at the past with rose-colored glasses. Church attendance had been on a downward swing for decades prior to Covid. More and more folks in our culture have little or no desire to be a part of the church community. What worked normally in the churches 20 or 30 or 50 years ago, wasn’t really working all that well just prior to covid. There is no going back to normal, there is only going forward. Question #2 How do we get people back to church or even get them here for the first time? Used to be that a church just had to open the doors on Sunday morning and folk would come on their own. If they were new to community, then they’d search out the church which was either closest to them or was the denomination that they new or they came to the church that had a passionate and wise new pastor. That’s not the reality for most churches anymore. People don’t just show up to worship. Now Peakland has had four or five new families come on their own these past few weeks, and I trust they’ve found a welcoming church community. Rebekah does not provide a sure-fire, easy-to-do answer on how to get people back to church or get them here for the first time but she reminds us that folks around us are looking for places which offer deep meaning for their lives, and experiences with God that feed our souls. Our challenge as a church is that we can’t passively wait for folks to come to us. We need to create a culture of invitation and reach out and serve folks where they are. Question #3 How do we do more with less? How do we do more ministries with fewer people? How do we help others with fewer financial resources. Now here, Peakland has some advantages. We have a strong tradition of church members and talented staff members serving and ensuring that the church ministries are strong and vital. Throughout the season of Lent and now into Easter, we have raised nearly $13,500 for seven helping agencies in town. But the question remains even for Peakland – how do we do more? Next Wednesday, we will look back through history to the other times plagues and upheaval disrupted church life and how the church best responded. Thanks be to God!