Sub 2:04 Marathon

2:03:59.

That's 4:46 per mile.

I once ran 1 mile that fast. Haile Gebrselassie ran 26 in a row at yesterday's Berlin marathon. Man, these guys are impressive.

For the Kingdom of God

Some good words from Daniel at Sibboleth, who is teaching at Fuller Seminary in Northern California:

Excerpt: "...one of the priests at St. Patrick's Seminary, whose space we share, gave a welcome to the students. As part of his welcome he said that what is good for the kingdom is when we get about our shared calling to proclaim the gospel, not competing with each other but working together for the furtherance of the kingdom."

Amen.

Themes Rising - Part 3 (Others)

The third theme that seems to me to have been rising in our study, conversation, and reflection is the need for First Lutheran to be a church for others. Perhaps I should find a way to say this more precisely or articulately, but let me just be plain for now.

Of the three themes that I've blogged about in this strand (including also church of substance and church of generations), this is the one that I think represents both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for us. At one level, of course, you have to ask, "Who doesn't want to be a church for others?" It sounds so obvious. But is it something that we're really ready to do?

First Lutheran has known decades of "success" and growth by being an excellent church to come to. We've had years and years of solid preaching, top-notch music, innovative children's and student ministries, and a whole plethora of other attractive programs and opportunities. Anyone looking for a good Lutheran church in the White Bear Lake area would have to think seriously about attending FLC. And, in some sense, much of this was done "for others." It was done to attract others to "our church," though one could be forgiven for wondering how often the "others" have been very other.

In 2008 much is still the same but much has also changed. Among the biggest changes is that the number of people who could be described as "anyone looking for a good Lutheran church" has gone drastically down. It is no longer enough to be a very "attractive" church when fewer and fewer people are interested in church at all - not if you want to reach non-Christians with the good news about Jesus.

Somehow we will have to grow from being a place people come to into a gathering of Christians that goes to the people. We'll need not only to speak Jesus-words in our pulpit and on our campus, but we'll need to live Jesus-lives in our communities and on our streets. In the 21st century, Christians have an awful lot of credibility to re-earn and we won't be able to do it talking to ourselves. (See also the comments, btw, on my church of substance post from a few days ago. Thanks to my readers for pushing on today's topic, and particularly on the importance of seeing this happen not just in church programming but as also as the spontaneous outworking of the lives of the Christians who call First Lutheran home.)

We have a lot to learn and probably a lot of experimenting to do as we figure out how to do this best, but I suspect that this issue is much more a matter of "how" than "if."

Themes Rising - Part 2 (Generations)

Thanks to those of you who engaged in conversation around the theme of being a "church of substance." We went off in some directions I hadn't expected on that topic in particular, but I'm really grateful for what you had to say.

The second theme that seems to me to have been rising to the surface in many of our congregations has to do with being a "church of generations." Especially in our listening groups, I heard lots of people expressing value and appreciation for the diversity of generations active in the life of First Lutheran. In recent years we've referred to this as our desire to be a "cradle to grave" Christian community.

On one hand, this almost seems like a no brainer. There's so much to be gained from the gifts of each generation, and it's a very natural fit to our past and present. On the other hand, this is also a real challenge. I'm sure at least some of my readers will know that quite a bit of current church leadership "wisdom" suggests that churches should pick a specific demographic target audience and try to reach that audience. I can think of churches I know that aim specifically for 30-somethings or younger families or boomers.

Biblically speaking, I think there's every reason in the world for us to strive to develop as a fully multi-generational community, and there are opportunities galore for growth, service and maturity that come with this kind of approach. But we should also probably acknowledge that following this road would (will?) present strategic challenges in areas such as program planning and resource deployment. Perhaps both the greatest challenge and the greatest virtue of growing as this kind of community is that all of us will have to learn to value the needs of others more highly than our own. And now that I say it that way, it sounds like a place I really want to be a part of.

Themes Rising - Part 1 (Substance)

First Lutheran is continuing to move toward greater clarity (and eventually implementation) of its calling. Our Vision Leadership Team met over the weekend to summarize our progress so far and to chart a course toward completing this discernment process. As we talked, I summarized three themes that seem to me to be rising to the top in our reading, talking, thinking, and praying. We are still intentionally refraining from any final evaluations or articulations yet, but just testing out some ideas on each other. Those of you who are following along here can test out these ideas in your comments if you'd like. In our group I suggested that we are discerning ourselves to be a church of substance, a church of generations, and a church for others.

By "church of substance," I mean many of the things that I said in our September 14 worship services. We have a long history of and a strong present commitment to spiritual depth and substance, including Biblical preaching, small group involvement, and a commitment to prayer. I don't think that many of us would want to see any of this change, except perhaps to see it grow stronger.

But "church of substance" also means something else to me. I'm also thinking about articulating and practicing this dimension of our church life in a way that is engaging to outsiders so that we offer them a substantial opportunity to engage with Jesus and his gospel. I want to see us make space and opportunity for people to ask their questions, no matter how challenging those questions might be, and trust that we can walk faithfully with them into real answers that are never glib and may rarely be quick or easy. It seems to me that First Lutheran may be uniquely equipped to share the hope of the gospel with people who have substantial reservations about the faith, and if that is true, then it is a calling from which we dare not shrink.

It would probably also be well to talk about substantial love and service to our community, but I'll save that for part 3.

Good News

That's been the theme at First Lutheran this last week. Good news. The NT book of Galatians is shaping our community life at FLC right now. It is being taught and studied in our Bible study groups and it is providing the themes for our worship and messages on Sunday morning. I don't think a day goes by right now that I'm not reading or studying this book somehow. That, in itself, is good news of a kind. It's good to be shaped deeply and consistently by the words of Scripture, and this book in particular has a history of potency in fueling the church's commitment to the Gospel and to life that is consistent with the Gospel.

One topic I'd like to think more about, however, is the relationship between "the gospel" as that term is used, for example, in Matthew, Mark, or Luke and "the gospel" as that term is used by Paul in Galatians or other letters. The audiences who heard Jesus proclaim the good news and who read Matthew's account of it had a lot of context in which to understand "the good news of the Kingdom of God." That wouldn't have meant much, at least at first, to a bunch of Greeks at Thessalonica or to the various audiences in Galatia.

We want First Lutheran to be and to speak good news to our community. I think it would be helpful to think about the ways that Paul translated this message to Mediterranean towns to which he traveled. It might help us think about faithful and applicable articulations of the gospel in 21st century, Midwestern, suburban North America.

Consequences of Clarity

"If nobody's left your church recently, then your vision is probably too broad."

I read that quotation a few years ago in a book called Simply Strategic Stuff by Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan. I wasn't really comfortable with it at the time, and I probably do still have some questions about it.

But just this last week I had a conversation with a friend from our church (not officially a member, but active) who shall remain anonymous in this post, who's probably going to go look for a different church. We've been talking a lot about reaching the non-Christians in our community recently (as I preached about last weekend), and this person was worried that we would stop "feeding the believers" if we did too much of that.

I'm sympathetic to this person's concern, and I'm glad they raised it with me. First Lutheran has a history of real Biblical substance, and I certainly want that to be our future too. So, friend, if you're reading this post, thank you for prodding me on this point.

At the same time, however, we are also discerning our calling to engage our unchurched world with the good news of the Kingdom of God dawning in Jesus, and I just can't imagine shrinking back from that call. We're still in this process of discernment, but that feature seems to be rising rapidly to the front. We've got to navigate the challenge of doing this without turning Jesus into a product to be sold or simply reducing our proclamation down to whatever is easy and palatable to the greatest number of people. Certainly there are temptations to do that.

It's sad to lose a friend and ministry partner from this church, but I also know that there are lots of churches doing various pieces of God's work in the world. Not every church can be everything, and, dear friend, you will be a blessing, no doubt, to another church. And if God leads our mutual callings closer to each other again, I shall be glad for the reunion.

The site of something historic

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Amy's first day of running was an out and back on Birch Lake Boulevard. Probably 1.5 miles, alternating jogging and walking. The local running scene had better prepare itself. Here she comes!