The Gospel in Action

One of the joys of traveling on behalf of Wheat Ridge Ministries is participating in worship services in congregations across the country. While every congregation’s culture and worship style is unique, I always feel at home away from home as I join brothers and sisters experiencing the good news of Christ through Word and Sacrament and responding to it with thanks, praise and mutual care.

Occasionally on these visits, Christ’s message of healing and hope shows through in a unique way. Such was the case when I visited Zion Lutheran Church in San Francisco, California, a few months ago.

In the front pew during one of the worship services was a family of six. Mom and Dad sat at either end of the pew as “bookends” for three very tall and athletic teenaged young men and their little sister. During the offering, the tallest of the three stood up and walked back a few rows to where an elderly woman sat alone. The young man very deliberately took a seat next to her. During the communion liturgy, as we were called row by row to come forward, they both stood up. The young man gently held out his arm for the woman, who had difficulty walking, and supported her as she made her way up the stairs to the communion rail. Afterwards, he accompanied her back to her seat and then rejoined his family.

He and his family were already on their way home before I could catch up with them after the service. I found out from others that this was a weekly routine. At some point in the past, this young man recognized the need and was moved to respond with care and compassion. Perhaps he was prodded before he performed this act of kindness for the first time. Or maybe he just recognized the need and responded to it. I don’t know. In any case, it was evident that his service had become part of his worship routine and he carried it out on that day carefully and humbly.

I’m not sure why this incident has stuck with me. I guess it reminds me to be more aware of the countless small acts of kindness that take place every day as people share the love of Christ with others. While I don’t remember the Gospel lesson read that Sunday, I do remember the Gospel lesson that this young man shared through his actions. Thank God for acts of kindness shared and received in Christ’s name. Indeed. In deed!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I’m hoping that sometime soon I’ll stop writing 2010 on my checks since the new year is now several weeks old!

I always enjoy reading, watching and listening to the various highlights of the past year that appear before the calendar year ends. Top news stories, best movies, famous people who have died, most important entertainment stories, most influential people, top athletic accomplishments … the list of lists seems to get longer each year as the media plays to our keen interest in remembering, listing and cataloging people and events.

These end of the year “recaps” cause me to reflect on several questions, including …

How is it possible that another year has passed by so quickly? God keeps the earth rotating at the same rate year after year, but it seems each year passes more quickly than the year before. As a kid, a year seemed like a lifetime. Now a year seems more like a month. It is a blessing to have a very busy and fulfilling schedule that makes hours and days fly by. But, do you ever wish like I do that there were more “slow” days when the clock operates in slow motion and a day takes a long time to pass?

Did all of these things really happen in the past year? Isn’t it amazing how much goes on in the course of a year? I’m always surprised at the number of major events and stories I hear or read about for the first time when they show up on an end-of-year list. I’m similarly surprised by how quickly even major events seem to fade from my memory. How can it be that the gulf oil spill happened just months ago … seems like old news already.

What didn’t make the list? Highlights of important events and activities, whether national or international in scope, recounted in our annual Christmas letters are interesting. But for all of us, the hours in a year are filled mainly with the daily joys, challenges, accomplishments and struggles each of us experience that would never qualify as highlights. John Lennon’s reminder that life is what happens when we’re busy making other plans rings true. How can I take more care to appreciate the “daily bread” God provides each day in the people, places, decisions and circumstances that make life so rich and worth living?

What will the new year bring? Fast on the heals of last year’s highlights come the predictions for the new year. What stories will unfold? What will be the hot new electronic gadgets? How will the economy perform? Not surprisingly, most of those who love to share their predictions don’t seem as anxious at year’s end to talk about how accurate they were. It is part of our human condition, I suppose, to wonder what plans the Lord has for us. Thankfully, we take comfort in the words of Jeremiah 29:11 and the knowledge that God’s plan, however it unfolds, is intended to bring hope and an eternal future!

God willing, through the new health and human care activities seeded by Wheat Ridge Ministries during the year ahead, this message of hope and a future will be carried to thousands of people whose lives will be impacted as they experience wellness of body, mind and spirit. Please keep these people, as well as the inspired leaders of the new ministries that serve them, in your prayers.

Armed with your strong support, encouragement and prayers, I predict that 2011, whether it seems to fly by or not, will be another great year to celebrate God’s grace by planting seeds of health and hope in the name of our healing Christ!

The Fast and Furious

I’m writing this from my hotel room near La Guardia airport in New York City. I always feel an extra jolt of energy when I’m in the Big Apple. The combination of densely populated neighborhoods, traffic, incredible ethnic diversity, and interesting sites set in the midst of beautiful rivers and harbors make it unlike any other city in the United States, maybe the world. If you’ve been here, you know what I mean.

Out of this energetic city sprouts some really innovative ministries as the church shares health and hope with others in Christ’s name. I am glad for the opportunities Wheat Ridge has to help seed new ministries here. This week I visited congregations who are currently receiving our help developing programs ranging from health care for the uninsured to ESL classes for recent immigrants to providing quality Christian education and social services through urban Lutheran schools.

I’m in New York just before Thanksgiving. It’s been a fast and furious few weeks for all of us on the Wheat Ridge staff and the upcoming break over the Thanksgiving weekend is certainly welcome. I know our staff would agree, however, that the events we’ve hosted and the projects with which we’ve been involved since mid-October reflect the dynamic and exciting opportunities that are always before us as we pursue our seeding mission. These have included:

 Hosting a reception in San Francisco at the home of one of our board members (Thanks, Lois!) featuring the presentation of our “Seeds of Hope” Award to Dr. Mary Gundelach, a great friend, encourager, teacher, and philanthropist who continues to share the love of Christ with so many individuals and organizations.

 Hosting “Living Well Days for Professional Church Workers” for over 200 pastors and other church workers in Minneapolis and Chicago. These events are designed to help these servant leaders refresh and renew as they consider God’s great gift of health and wellness.

 Visiting organizations and projects seeded by Wheat Ridge in Pennsylvania, California, New York, Kansas, Michigan and Florida to encourage them, to help them assess their efforts and capture what they are learning so we can share their experiences with others.

 Sponsoring a lecture and panel discussion featuring Dr. Robert Putnam, author of the best selling book Bowling Alone, and the newly released American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. Attended by over 200 people in downtown Chicago, this lecture and discussion provided new insights regarding the critically important role of the faith community in civic life.

 Facilitating the most recent meeting of our Wheat Ridge board of directors. Our board of 18 talented and wise leaders from around the United States is passionate about the seeding of new ministries of health and hope. They work hard to govern our organization effectively and efficiently and always seem to have fun together in the process!

 Convening a military ministry stakeholder meeting of 15 leaders who have been active in promoting awareness around the needs of service members and their families before, during and after deployment and encouraging congregations to be centers of healing for them.

Praise and thanks to God who inspires leaders to impact the lives of people in new and creative ways. And thanks to God for the entire Wheat Ridge family of friends, donors, volunteers and staff who make it possible for us to serve these leaders through our seeding mission.

I hope you had a wonderful time gathering with family and friends for the Thanksgiving holiday last week and may you be touched by God’s presence on your journey to the manger as the Advent season begins!

Congregations and Community

Recent Wheat Ridge travels allowed me to join congregations in California and in northern Wisconsin on consecutive Sundays for worship and Bible study. As always, it was great to talk with people in these congregations about the seeding of new ministries of health and hope and to share examples of the creative and exciting initiatives that we are privileged to assist.

Visiting congregations is always so interesting. Every church is very unique, yet has so much in common with others. This was clearly evident as I visited Zion Lutheran Church in San Francisco, California, and Bay View Lutheran Church in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. One is located in a highly urban area, a neighborhood of interconnected homes in the center of densely populated San Francisco. The other is located in Door County, Wisconsin, a tourist mecca surrounded by the waters of Lake Michigan. Those who gather for worship at Zion are very diverse in age and ethnicity, with a strong representation of Asian Americans. The worship community at Bay View includes many retirees who, at some point in their life, discovered this beautiful part of God’s creation and are enjoying life there.

While the setting and the demographics are quite different, they are united in their practice of gathering to praise and worship God, confessing their sins and receiving forgiveness, and experiencing God’s grace through Word and sacrament. Young pastors who are excited about ministry and who are loved by those they serve lead both of these congregations. In both churches, a great sense of community exists. And in both I was grateful to be warmly welcomed as a guest.

These congregations share in common a high level of commitment to serving people in need, both within the congregation and in their neighborhood and community. When this is the case, I’m never surprised to learn that an active health ministry, led by a parish nurse, is an important part of the congregation’s leadership team. Indeed, this is the case at both Zion and Bay View. While neither congregation would be considered a large church, both provide volunteers and financial support for a wide variety of outreach activities, including Crop Walks, health fairs, Habitat for Humanity projects, food pantries, “meals on wheels,” and many others. When I asked people in these congregations to name all of their areas of service involvement and impact in which the congregation is engaged, even they were surprised at the length of the list!

It is always exciting to visit congregations that, like Zion and Bay View, clearly envision themselves as centers of health and healing in their community. God’s spirit is undoubtedly at work in these places, moving people to respond to His grace by serving others. I am thankful whenever Wheat Ridge Ministries has the opportunity to encourage and assist congregation leaders whose response to the Gospel leads them to develop impactful new health and human care initiatives offered in the name of our healing Christ!!

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Perhaps you remember this Bobby McFerrin song that was a big hit in the late 1980s. If you do, you’re probably already tapping your toes and swaying to the music in your head! Click here for a link to the song in case you don’t remember it!

I almost always have a tune or two playing in my head, often triggered by a conversation or something I’m reading. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” has been on my mind’s play list a couple of times recently. One of these occasions was a discussion at our Wheat Ridge staff retreat. We were talking about Jesus’ encouragement in Matthew 25 to “not worry about your life.” As always, our Lord was expressing concern for the wellness of our bodies, minds and spirits … our whole being. Worry is a spiritual issue, to be sure, a sign of our reluctance to trust God. Worry also impacts us physically and emotionally. It produces unhealthy stress that, if not managed, negatively impacts our minds and bodies. The stress that worries produce can detract from the quality of our life and even shorten our life.

I confess that I’m much better at considering the problems that worry causes than I am about not worrying. In fact, without trying too hard, I can find myself worrying about the problems I cause when I worry! So, I’m grateful for Jesus’ reminder not to worry and to be happy because God loves and provides for me.

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” came to mind again this week when Holly Fiala, our Vice President of Advancement, forwarded an article highlighting The World Giving Index. This index is a tool resulting from new research by the Charities Aid Foundation in Britain. It’s based on a Gallup Survey which examined the charitable behavior of people in 153 countries representing 95 percent of the world's population. The foundation claims the survey is the largest ever to examine charitable behavior worldwide.

The headline of the brief article in the Philanthropy Journal describes one of the key findings in the research: “Giving Tied More to Happiness than Wealth.” The researchers compared responses from people worldwide to two questions: have you given money to a charity in the last month? And, how happy are you with life? They found that happier people tend to give more than unhappy people. They also found that happiness is a better predictor of generosity than personal wealth.

I’m sure this research will cause fundraisers around the world to search for ways to keep their donors happy, happy, happy! Fortunately, we don’t face this challenge at Wheat Ridge. Our supporters are already happy people (or as my good friend Rich Bimler, past president of Wheat Ridge, would say “Easter people”) who experience joy each day in the knowledge of God’s love made possible in Christ. Their happiness is evident in their generous support for the seeding of new ministries of health and hope through Wheat Ridge, and in their generosity to many other causes.

Long before Gallup polls came along, the apostle Paul understood the connection between happiness and generosity when he wrote that “each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7) We know that God’s love is what makes us cheerful givers!

I don’t know whether Bobby McFerrin wrote his signature song as an expression of his Christian faith. Regardless, I’m grateful that God’s Spirit finds many ways, including Bobby’s delightful and fun song, to remind us of two of God’s great gifts – freedom from worry and the ability to be truly happy…

Here’s a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry, be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy...

Go Team Go!

I’m thinking a lot about teams as I write this at the start of a late August weekend. Being a Chicago Bears fan, I’m anticipating tonight’s pre-season game hoping for signs that the Bears can return to “Monsters of the Midway” status this year. And thanks to a gift of tickets from some good friends, my wife, Deb, and I are taking in a Cubs game tomorrow afternoon. We’re in full “wait ‘til next year” mode with the Cubs right now. In the midst of a very disappointing season, many of their premier players have been traded in hopes that they can rebuild for next year. While I’ll know they’re the Cubs by their uniforms, we’re seeing a lot of names on the back of the uniforms that we don’t know. But, there’s always the hope that we’re watching the next Ernie Banks or Ryne Sandburg!

Watching these teams in action will make for an enjoyable weekend. But the team activity that I’m really looking forward to is next week’s retreat with colleagues from our Wheat Ridge staff. Each year about this time, the members of our team who have executive responsibilities meet in a setting away from the office for three days of conversation, visioning, decision-making and relaxation. It’s been a busy summer for us, filled with travel, budget development and work planning for the year ahead, so it will be great to enjoy each other’s company while we fine tune our plans and think creatively about the possibilities that the Lord is providing for us to impact lives by the seeding of new health and human service ventures.

I’ve been incredibly blessed through the years to serve on some outstanding teams, including the team at Wheat Ridge Ministries. I know many people who enjoy working as independent consultants or deployed staff. While there are occasions when I value time on my own, I can’t imagine a work environment without the energy, stimulation, encouragement and fun that comes with serving with others.

This is not to say that our team’s work is always easy. As is the case with all relationships, we have to work at it. Our executive team, for example, includes individuals who have a wide range of perspectives and differing work and thinking styles. Amidst very full work schedules and the stress that comes with managing an effective organization in today’s uncertain environment, having patience with one another can sometimes be a challenge and misunderstandings do happen. At the end of the day, however, I can honestly say that my colleagues on the Wheat Ridge staff “have my back,” that each of them is trustworthy, competent, accountable, responsible and dedicated to our mission. It’s an honor to work with them and I try my best to be a worthy member of our team.

A few years ago, Wheat Ridge hosted a series of “Healthy Teams Workshops” for leadership teams in congregations and other non-profit organizations. Our goal at Wheat Ridge is to seed sustainable new health and human service ventures, and we believe the best environment for these new ministries to develop is in organizations where leaders and teams work together effectively. During these workshops, we stressed eight elements present in healthy work teams:

• A charter that defines the team’s reason for existence;
• The ability to manage conflict effectively;
• A clearly understood process for making decisions;
• The ability to provide and receive honest feedback;
• Identified norms that guide team behavior;
• Clearly defined roles for team members;
• Intentional nurturing of the spiritual wellness of the team and its members;
• The belief among team members that they can accomplish more together than individually.

One element that I think is missing from this list is the ability for a team to laugh and play together. It’s been my experience and observation that healthy teams laugh a lot, even as they work hard to achieve their mission. The ability for team members to take themselves, and each other, “lightly” in the midst of the very serious and important work they do is a great gift from God and one that is necessary for individual and collective health and effectiveness.

Perhaps you’re part of a team that is meeting at the end of these summer days to prepare for the seasons ahead. If so, give some thought to the health of your team. Do the eight elements mentioned above match up against your team’s experience? What elements would you add? How do you nurture the health of your team? If you’re willing to share your thoughts, please post your comments below!

Thank God for the gift of community and the blessing of serving on a team!

Church Bodies, Changes and Churches

If you’ve never attended a churchwide assembly or convention, imagine your church council meeting on steroids! It was my pleasure to represent Wheat Ridge Ministries at The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod’s National Convention in Houston in mid-July. As is also the case with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s churchwide assembly, it is a remarkable event for a number of reasons, including the size and scope. To see hundreds and hundreds of delegates from across the United States gathered together to make decisions on behalf of all member congregations is really something!

A few reflections on the convention in Houston and other national assemblies and conventions I’ve attended:

• It’s inspiring to see such large gatherings of God’s people in one place and united in their desire to further the mission of the church.

• It’s an awesome experience to worship and to praise God with so many others.

• The meeting-management skills of bishops and synodical presidents are impressive! I don’t know where they learn these skills – the last time I checked, they weren’t being taught at seminaries – but somehow our church bodies always seem to elect people who lead these meetings with great care, sensitivity and effectiveness.

• The men and women who attend as delegates take their responsibilities very seriously. For lay delegates, serving in this way often includes using vacation days from work. Imagine a vacation spent reading through volumes and volumes of background material and resolutions, and then sitting for a week listening carefully to presentations and arguments related to various issues!

• I always leave these gatherings grateful that the governance and decision-making systems at Wheat Ridge are so very simple in comparison!

Of course, these national gatherings provide a great opportunity for connections to so many people who provide great encouragement for the seeding of new health and human care ministries as friends and donors. As you may know, Wheat Ridge is blessed to have the support of, and to serve as a resource to, the congregations and leaders of the various Lutheran Church bodies and to be formally recognized by the LCMS and ELCA.

Church body assemblies and conventions reflect the changing shape of the church. The recent LCMS Convention adopted plans for significant restructuring. The ELCA churchwide office has reorganized its staff several times in the past few years. Differences of opinions about focus, direction and practice seem to be getting more and more pronounced within and among church bodies as leaders attempt to faithfully interpret God’s Word and discern God’s Will for the church’s mission in our rapidly changing world.

In the midst of the uncertainties of changing structures and practices, God’s Word to Jeremiah provides great reassurance to today’s church, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

I was also reassured about God’s plans for the church as I recently read The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why by Phyllis Tickle (Baker Books, 2008). The author reviews church history from the time of Christ and observes major cycles of radical change during the past 2,000 years. She concludes that about every 500 years, one of these cycles occurs (the last being the Reformation). In the midst of these emergent periods there is much chaos, struggle and uncertainty. But ultimately, the result has been a stronger, healthier and more effective Christian church. Dr. Tickle contends that we are currently in the midst of one of these waves of emergent change. Seen in this context, the current uncertainties about our church structures and practices make it very exciting to consider what will emerge!

While church bodies make important decisions about structure and produce important statements regarding the work of the church, a great place to observe God’s plans for the church unfolding is in the actions of local congregations and faith-based organizations. God’s Spirit continues to inspire their leaders to recognize and creatively address the needs of people in their neighborhood and community. Giving evidence to this is the record number of grant requests Wheat Ridge is currently receiving. Thank God for these expressions of care and compassion! Hopefully, our larger church body structures will continue to be shaped by a desire to support and encourage this important work of congregations and agencies!

P.S. Back to our record number of grant requests … your prayers and financial support are especially needed right now as we want to say “yes” to as many of these new ministries as possible. Thanks for being a seeder of new ministries!