moving my blog

You've no doubt figured out by now that I have taken a hiatus from posting. Now that we're getting moved in down at Albion, I hope to get underway again, but the new post reflects my new location: www.albionfumc.blogspot.com. See you there, and thanks for everything.

The word is out.

By now the letter is out, and with it the word that Jane Lippert will be the next pastor at Traverse Bay.  This is great news!  Pastor Jane brings a ton of experience that will be directly relevant to this congregation.  She brings a passion for worship preparation, and a pastoral spirit.  She also brings a discipline around organization that I don't have.

Now what?  There are still three months before you get to welcome Jane as your new pastor. Jeanne and I are still here, and we're focused on being available to you as your pastors, and making the transition as smooth as possible.  In fact, there's a real joy in knowing that we can't really push any agenda at the moment, because we're lame ducks.  I'm going to remember this as I begin my work in Albion.

Pastor Jeanne is still waiting to hear about her appointment for next year, since it's now clear that she won't remain at Traverse Bay.  Please support her and her family in your prayer and love, because it's difficult to be in this state of limbo.

I want to thank the many of you who have allowed yourselves to get closer and share more since you discovered I'm leaving.  Your care and love is ever so important to me.  I hope you'll also share it with Jane when she comes.

God bless you.

April newsletter: get ready for a new pastor

Dear brothers and sisters--

By the time you get this newsletter, you may already know who will be the new pastor at Traverse Bay, beginning July 1. As I write this on March 18th, I don't yet know who it will be, but I know that the Cabinet (the bishop and the district superintendents) has someone in mind, and that that person has decided they want to come. In the months ahead, I hope you will do all in your power to lay a good groundwork for that pastor's ministry here. What can you do to lay that groundwork?

First, practice love as we go through a time of saying goodbye. I still come to tears sometimes ( like right now, writing this!) over letting go of you. You are precious in God's sight, and we have walked together through both joy and sadness. You have helped me to learn so much over this time, and I am a better pastor for it. Over the last year, I have come to understand just how important it is for a church to say goodbye well. A big part of our hurt over this time has been because we didn't get the time to say a proper goodbye to Devon last summer. This time around, we can do much better, because we have more time to process it well. I thank those of you who have already taken time to write to me and thank me for my ministry here. Your time and your words mean a lot.

Second, commit yourself to pray daily for your new pastor and for your church, starting now. Pastor and churches both need prayer if we're going to succeed in this work of making disciples for Jesus Christ, for the tranformation of the world.

Third, renew your passionate love for the church and the people in it. There is such a lot of good here, such generosity of spirit, such openness to God's guidance. If you have been away for the winter, or taking a break from church attendance for a while, now is a great time to renew your personal and emotional connection with your friends at church. If you have been around faithfully, week after week, you know how important it is to be together with your church family. The original word for "Church" means "called out." We are called to spend time apart from the world, together in worship, every week. You know how precious it is to be together in church, here at Traverse Bay. That togetherness is a special gift from God!

In Christ's service,

Pastor Jeremy

Psalm 71: Everyday Praise

I've been away from the blog a bit, what with traveling around the state and so forth. The sermon this week continues our Lenten series that's built on themes selected from the book Contemplative by Design (Grimsley and Young), and connected with the contemplative spaces for individual worship that are being put together weekly by members of the Prayer and Spiritual Formation team. The chapter we're using this week is called Daily Offerings. For good or ill, the book has chosen to move in the direction of talking about financial offerings and the spirituality of stewardship. We've spent a lot of time lately thinking about money, and frankly, that's not the issue I want to focus on during this week of Lent. So I'm going to focus instead on praise as a component of everyday life.
Consider this from Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle, chapter 1:

A short time ago I was told by a very learned man that souls without prayer
are like people whose bodies or limbs are paraluzed: they possess feet and
hands but they cannot control them. In the same way, there are souls so
infirm and so accustomed to busying themselves with outside affairs that nothing
can be done for them, and it seems as though they are incapable of entering
within themselves at all. So accustomed have they grown to living all the
time with the reptiles and other creatures to be found in the outer court of the
castle that they have almost become like the,; and although by nature they are
so richly endowed as to have the power of holding convers[ation] with none other
than God Himself, there is nothing that can be done for them. Unless they
strive to realize their miserable condition and to remedy it, they will be
turned into pillars of salt for not looking within themselves, just as Lord's
wife was because she looked back.
As far as I can understand, the door of entry into this castle [of the
soul] is prayer and meditation...
Let us say no more of these paralyzed souls who, unless the Lord himself
comes and commands them to rise, are like the man who had lain beside the pool
for thirty years: they are unfortunate creatures and live in great peril.
Let us think rather of certain other souls, who do eventually enter the
castle. These are very much absorbed in worldly affairs; but their desires
are good; sometimes, though infrequently, they commend themselves to our Lord;
and they think about the state of their souls, though not very carefully.
Full of a thousand occupationsas they are, they pray only a few times a month,
and as a rule they are thinking all the time of their preoccupations, for they
are very much attached to them, and, where their treasure is, there is their
heart also. From time to time, however, they shake their minds free of
them and it is a great thing that they should know themselves well enough
to realize that they are not going the right way to reach the castle
door. Eventually they enter the first rooms on the lowest floor, but so
many reptiles get in with them that they are unable to appreciate the beauty of
the castle or find any peace in it. Still, they have done a good deal by
entering at all.

There's a lot of good to say about these words of Teresa's. I hope that if you read them, you'll find some meaning for yourself. But I want to move to a different point of hers that comes a little later: it is a good thing for us in prayer to reflect upon ourselves--on our sins, our shortcomings, our preciousness in God's sight, the need for humility, the strengthening of our discipline, and so on--but it's an even better thing to focus upon God. As Teresa says,

...believe me, we shall reach much greater heights of virtue by thinking on
the virtue of God than if we stay in our own little plot of ground and tie
ourselves down to it completely... [W]e shall never succeed in knowing ourselves
unless we seek to know God: let us think of His greatness and then come back to
our own baseness; by looking at his purity we shall see our own foulness; by
meditating on his humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble.

All of these words (and many more) from Teresa tell me to urge people to meditate directly on God's goodness as the central act of daily prayer. This is quite a contrast with prayer that's focused on ourselves. When we focus on ourselves, we are liable to end up with either pride or despair, both of which lead us away from God. Let's not confuse humility with despair. I know I've done this in various ways over the years. I learned so well not to put myself forward, that I came to think only bad things about myself. If I thought about God, I only thought in terms of my own shortcomings and failings, instead of thinking about how deep was God's love for me, and how God has made me "just a little lower than the angels." After many years of this unhealthy thinking, I am finally able to come to God and know that I am loved; finally able to accept that embrace that affirms me without condemnation. And still I have far to go through the rooms of my own interior castle that God has made in my soul.

The text for this Sunday is Psalm 71:1-6. It was tricky to find a text that was speaking to me about the issues of daily prayer in a way that didn't sound more like a rule than a life-giving practice. And I want the congregation to hear that daily prayer is indeed life-giving, not life-stealing. Here's the text of the whole psalm (TNIV):
1 In you, LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me; turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.
5 For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth.
6 From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you.
7 I have become like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long.
9 Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
10 For my enemies speak against me; those who wait to kill me conspire together.
11 They say, "God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for no one will rescue him."
12 Do not be far from me, my God; come quickly, God, to help me.
13 May my accusers perish in shame; may those who want to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long—though I know not how to relate them all.
16 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign LORD; I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.
17 Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
18 Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.
19 Your righteousness, God, reaches to the skies, you who have done great things. Who is like you, God?
20 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.
21 You will increase my honor and comfort me once more.
22 I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you—I, whom you have redeemed.
24 My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long, for those who wanted to harm me have been put to shame and confusion.

The great thing about this psalm is that it's not something waiting to be taught or explained. It is itself, and as such it models a life of adoration. That phrase is the key for me: a life of adoration, not a doctrine, not a challenge, not a criticism--not even a discipline. Everyday praise can't just come from obligation, though I confess I have often presented it in that frame. It has to come from love, from being closer and closer to the presence of God in the heart of our souls, as Teresa proposes. How can I even talk about that closeness when I am so poor at living it myself? How can I talk about it without despairing and telling people that my talking about it has nothing to do with the living of it? We need instead to spend out time this Lent dreaming of God, as young lovers spend time dreaming about their beloved; longingly and affectionately, in a way that keeps interrupting everything else. Lent could be a time of great focus on the object of our joy, more than on the subject of our own inadequacy.

Moving to Albion

The word is out now, and I can write a bit about my appointment to Albion: First UM Church, and about the process that will occupy me for the next several months.

First, a reminder about the process that got us here. The District Superintendents and the Bishop meet together a lot at this time of year, and their job is to discern what pastors are best for what churches. They met, and decided that Dwayne Bagley needed to go to Mason, to fill the need there, that was made by Bob Hundley becoming a District Superintendent. Then they needed to figure out who belonged at Albion. They thought of me. I'm really glad they did.

I received a call on the phone from the superintendent of the Albion district, and a few days later, Tamara and I drove down to Albion to meet with the Staff-Parish Relations (Personnel) Committee at the church. We had a nice talk, though I probably talked too much, from a little bit of nerves and excitement. So they said that it was OK for me to come to Albion, and we went to visit Dwayne and his delightful family at the parsonage, so they could show us around the place where we'll be moving in June.

Now we have about four months notice before we leave Traverse City. Tamara will also be having an appointment down there, and she'll be introduced in about a week. So what's the process right now?

The first thing is that hopefully sometime soon, the Staff Parish Relations Committee at Traverse Bay will get to meet the person who's being brought in as the new pastor here. I don't know who that is, and like a lot of people, I can't wait to find out. We're trying to keep the parsonage a little tidier than usual, so we can show them around whenever they arrive.

The second thing is to find out what will happen to Jeanne, who arrived here only a year ago as our new Associate Pastor. That position is being discontinued for budget reasons, and we don't know what they might decide to do for her.

Third, we have to continue doing ministry here. The struggle for every pastor who gets an appointive call is to stay focused on the place where you are, and to work on ministry there, that still needs to get done. I need to help the congregation to be spiritually and emotionally ready to welcome and embrace the person who'll be here to start work in July. It's great that we have four months to work on that. Clealry we can't start any major initiatives at this point, but we are going to get involved in a shared history project, that will hopefully prepare the way for a visioning process under the new pastor's leadership.

Fourth, I need to get ready. Obviously this includes packing everything in our house, but it also involves taking some time for renewal and reflection. Albion deserves a pastor who's refreshed and ready to engage them in love and ministry. I'm hoping to take about a month off, hopefully starting after Easter, to visit my parents in Iowa, and to spend some time at our cabin up north.

A pastoral move is almost always a surprise, and always an occasion of grief for both the pastor and the people in the church. No matter how happy I am to be appointed to a church like Albion, that seems to fit me like a glove, I know that I'll miss the many grace-filled, passionate, loving people at Traverse Bay. Let's make sure that we spend plenty of time together over the next months, enjoying one another's company, and making good memories for the future.

Proverbs

The book of Proverbs is in the "Wisdom" section of the Bible.  It's a collection of mostly short, pithy sayings, that can be passed on from one generation to the next.  The proverbs are not always profound, but they can be very practical.  In that vein, I'd like to offer you in proverb form a few pieces of wisdom I've gained in my own experience here at Traverse Bay.

1. Most people are wonderful, most of the time.
2. If you share a good idea with other people, it can get even better.
   
3. It's OK to make mistakes, if you learn from them.
4. Put the best, most capable people in leadership, and let them lead.
   
5. Staying together is more important than moving forward, but it's easier to do either one if you're also doing the other.
6. You can't fix your troubles by figuring out who's to blame.
   
7. Whenever possible, do the things you enjoy doing.
8. Timing is everything.
9. Don't assume that everyone else feels the same way you do, at the same time you do.  We're all different.
10. If you work side-by-side with someone, you'll learn to appreciate them more and more.

Thank you for letting me be your pastor.  The Lord brought all of us together so we could learn and grow together.  That's the essence of being a church together.

Peace and joy to you!

things I've learned

The book of Proverbs is in the "Wisdom" section of the Bible. It's a collection of mostly short, pithy sayings, that can be passed on from one generation to the next. The proverbs are not always profound, but they can be very practical. In that vein, I'd like to offer you in proverb form a few pieces of wisdom I've gained in my own experience here at Traverse Bay.

1. Most people are wonderful, most of the time.
2. If you share a good idea with other people, it can get even better.
   
3. It's OK to make mistakes, if you learn from them.
4. Put the best, most capable people in leadership, and let them lead.
   
5. Staying together is more important than moving forward, but it's easier to do either one if you're also doing the other.
6. You can't fix your troubles by figuring out who's to blame.
   
7. Whenever possible, do the things you enjoy doing.
8. Timing is everything.
9. Don't assume that everyone else feels the same way you do, at the same time you do. We're all different.
10. If you work side-by-side with someone, you'll learn to appreciate them more and more.

Thank you for letting me be your pastor. The Lord brought all of us together so we could learn and grow together. That's the essence of being a church together.

Peace and joy to you!

Pastor Jeremy