Happy National Nothing Day

This is a test

There is an telling article at the General Board of Church and Society site by Joe Kim, a young man who interned at their DC headquarters for two summers. He tells the story of his first arriving there and being told by Jim Winkler, the General Secretary of the Board, “Joe, we need someone with passion. We can teach you the knowledge and the skills; all we ask is for you to work with passion.” He never forgot that and relates it to raising young people in the local church for leadership. Indeed, we must raise young leaders in our churches for the church to continue in its mission of disciple-making. ‘Tis a no-brainer. The problem I see, however, is the lack of passion for Christ and his church in not only young people but people of all ages - even (gasp) pastors. I won’t say that there is no passion in church folk - I witness it every day - but they are in the vast minority, at least from where I sit.

How do we church leaders deal with this? What are some ways to reverse the trend? Beyond prayer, preaching, teaching, getting out into the community, and dare I say, gimmicks, what tools do we have to help folks - even the faithful - to get a little passion?

The other day I attended a gathering of lay and clergy who were working to develop a way of measuring the effectiveness of ministries the conference was supporting financially. Part of the exercise was to develop questions to ask in the evaluation process, and each table was to come up with three questions and post them on the wall with some really cool static cling sheets (without getting high on the markers).Some of the questions had to do with mission, some asked about how the ministry intended to support themselves beyond the money from the conference, and others had to do with how lives were transformed. Some dealt with numbers - the numbers of members added to the rolls of the local church because if the work of said ministry. Those who asked these questions believed that a ministry was successful only if it increased our sagging membership figures and hopefully funding shortfalls at the same time. This, I am certain would not apply in ministries dealing with children’s homes or healthcare.

Are we still measuring our “successes” in ministry by counting heads and increasing our numbers? Is this reasonable? What should be the measure of an effective ministry? Can it be measured in worldly terms alone or should these terms be used at all?

I just spent about a half an hour on my weekly duty of updating our web page (shameless promotion: www.umcinhennepin.org). Thankfully it is something I enjoy, and members of the church who are connected do occasionally visit, so it’s not a complete waste of time. I have even been surprised that some actually go to the link where one can download a .pdf of the bulletin and newsletter - and print them!

I wonder, though… While it helps the members and local community stay up-to-date, is it helpful in getting those without a faith community find us? Is all the work I and others put into it worthwhile?

What are your experiences?

How could our context for ministry change so rapidly? It seems like just yesterday (actually it was the mid 80’s) that I was in seminary, writing my papers by hand and borrowing an electric typewriter. I remember visiting a cutting edge church where the pastor actually wrote his notes on an overhead projector to make it easier for the congregation to follow along and take notes. I’d never seen that before. What innovation!

I know, if you are under 45, you are yawning or laughing by now. Things have changed rapidly. Now video projectors are passé. Not only can sermons be put online for someone to hear or watch on an iPod, now churches do live video streaming of the sermons so they can have multiple locations live.

What technology will radically change the way ministry is done in the next 5-10 years? What might bring a Ministry Revolution?

Mike Crawford