Faith Forward into the Future
One of the roles I play as clergy in the Baltimore Washington Annual Conference is as chair of the board of directors for the United Methodist campus ministry at the University of Maryland. This work was both borne of and feeds my passion for the way that youth become young adults, the ways that they wrestle with making the childhood faith of their families and home churches their own, the ways that they begin to strike out making independent decisions, discerning their own abilities and gifts. I recognize that the physiological and emotional and psychological transition from childhood to adulthood is super complex, and it is also where the seeds of our adult faith begin to take root. It’s exciting to watch, it’s exciting to engage, it’s exciting to mentor.
Over the past year, that campus ministry (known over many years simply as “The Wesley”) has been undergoing a shake up. Some of it has been driven by constraints like budget. As churches become smaller, the conference budget, funded by apportionments has also become smaller. Some of it has been driven by a dwindling number of kids who have been involved in youth groups as high school students, ready to be “handed off” to a campus ministry that is a continuation of a traditional process of Methodist spiritual formation. Some of it has been driven by changing demographics on the college campus and changing patterns of student life – fewer students actually live in a dorm on the Maryland campus, especially past their freshman year. And a lot of it has to do with the ways society has drifted away from organized religion, particularly the organized religion of mainline protestant denominations. 18 year olds don’t arrive on campus expecting to find their first friends in the campus ministry of their childhood church. As a result of all of these constraints, for the past several years, the campus ministry has had between 5 and 20 students active…and that is about it.
Part of the “shake up” has involved recruiting a group of student leaders, equipping them with mentors and coaches and encouraging them to take ownership of the ministry, to make it “theirs.” To use the skills and technology and cultural norms they KNOW to connect with other students. To use their faith as a springboard to developing worship, study, programs and discipleship pathways to connect with a larger group of students on campus.
It’s breathtaking and exhilarating work, and as a clergy leader and as a parent of emerging young adults, I talk a good game about letting youth and young adults show us, the entrenched folks who hold most of the resources and the power, how to get things done.
But it’s not always easy to let them lead…
After a two day retreat for these student leaders at West River earlier this month, I received a breathless call from a member of conference staff who is my age and has been pouring into this process of rebuilding the campus ministry. She said, “I have something I need to tell you about what happened today. It was a God thing, the Holy Spirit has been moving mightily. And the students have renamed the campus ministry – it’s how the Terp HUB – and hub stands for “here U belong.” They said that the longstanding name, “The Wesley,” meant nothing among students…and said nothing about who they were and what they were trying to do.”
There was a long and slightly awkward silence on the call as I took this in….the board has been very concerned about maintaining the distinctive “Methodist” flavor of the campus ministry, marked by small groups, by the unique understanding that we as Methodists have about prevenient, justifying and sanctifying grace, by the notion that we are being transformed in grace and going on to Christian perfection, by the ways we use scripture, experience, tradition and reason to understand God’s work in the world.
You know…all the vitally Methodist things.
Or maybe you don’t. Because that’s sort of the punch line. Sometimes, as Methodist clergy, I get really “heads down” about what it means to be Methodist, and the next thing I know, I have all sorts of insider expectations. And in the moment that my colleague was breathlessly telling me how the Holy Spirit was moving, I found myself worrying about dropping the word “Wesley” from the campus ministry name.
On Friday of this week, I spent a couple of hours with other board members in the campus ministry office, shoveling out many old things…and I took on a favorite task, purging paper files from the filing cabinet. As I thought about the hopes and dreams of all these new young ministry leaders who are 18 – 22 years old, I thought about how unfamiliar they are with the concept of paper files…and really, going through the paper, it was clear no one in the past 7 years had cared much about keeping paper either. While there was “interesting” information about bible studies or hot topics or fun activities and mission projects, none of that history was going to inform the way a new generation of leaders will imagine and do truly student – led campus ministry.
Letting the future become the present is hard. I found myself wrestling from time to time with whether or not this (and by this I mean really letting go of the reins and inviting and equipping a group of young adults to lead) was a good idea…
…and in the background of my wrestling about this change in campus ministry, there is the work that we are doing and wrestling with here at Faith… How is it that we will become what God is calling us to be? How will we know what to let go of? How will we know what must be preserved? How will we invite new energy, new voices, new perspectives to the table? And not just invite them to the table – but really receive them, how they see the world, where they are in their own spiritual journey? How will we trust that the God who has walked with us, the Jesus who has shown us the way, and the Holy Spirit who has nudged us and enlivened us will be the same Triune presence to whoever follows each of us?
Today, we are finishing our three week tour through the Letter to the Hebrews and the reflections therein about what faith IS…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith is the act of letting God do what God will do and trusting that we are included in the work. Faith is listening for how we are called and doing the best we can to play our part knowing that we are the present…and there was a past and there will be a future and God is the common element in what was, what is and what will be.
This week’s reading sets up something of an inaccurate comparison. The blazing fire, darkness and gloom are the author’s way of framing the experience of the Israelites on Sinai as they received the law. And the writer is setting up this season of the new emerging young churches as one on Mount Zion, a place where Jesus’ blood has sanctified the place and the experience, and angels seem to hover while the righteous are made perfect.
Now…that is an unfair description of the reality of both the ancient Israelites on Sinai and the emerging population of Jesus followers emanating from Jerusalem. And so we need to read that with careful hearts…BUT the message IS about a new thing that is happening…and not fretting so much about the new thing, but rather trusting that God is doing a new thing, a vital thing, the thing that will make the Kingdom of God draw near. And while we have a role to play, it is God’s work for us to join in. God’s shaking the dust off the former ways even while making new paths as heaven and earth come closer to one another. And when a new thing is happening, it is not necessarily a judgment on what was…but rather a hopeful step into what will be.
Our first reading today is a call story – Jeremiah’s call story. Call stories serve as reminders that God has a purpose for each of us…not just clergy, not just people who assume leadership roles, but each person is created with gifts that the world needs, and our work, should we choose to accept it is to spend our life listening for, accepting and living that call, knowing it changes over time and circumstance. It’s a key reason prayer is such a vital discipline. As is listening to the ways God affirms us and beckons us, often in the voices of those around us.
Over three weeks we have talked about our past, our present, and today we turn our feet toward what will be next…how is it that our future will become our present reality? What is the role we are called to play in what will be? The role we are called to play individually and the role we are called to play as the family of Faith?
When Jeremiah heard the voice of the Lord, he started making excuses – how could he speak for God? He was only a boy…and God’s response is daunting…Too bad, I’ve put my words in your mouth, and today, I’ve set you over nations and kingdoms to pluck up, plant, destroy and build. All of it…because you are called.
I think sometimes we fear the audacious call we hear.
In just the few short weeks I’ve been here I’ve been sort of breathlessly imagining what could be. What would it look like for us to be a place where families found rest and respite, growth and mentoring, acceptance and purpose right here in 20852, nestled between three of the most competitive public school clusters and lots of social pressures? What if our gifts for music embraced all ages and drew them into communities where music was a source of joy and passion and evangelism? What if our relationship with the Miso community was just one source of diversity as we moved toward embracing our global neighborhood that surrounds us?
It’s big and audacious and it makes me wonder who I think I am, who we think we are to have such big dreams. And yet…
And yet…
Who are we to have those dreams and those glimpses and NOT take them seriously?
And I want you to recall what I said about that passage in Hebrews…neither the way things had been nor the way things were was really “perfect…” in truth. Dreaming about a new thing is not a judgement of what has been.
We are in a season of discernment here at Faith. When I say season, I fear you might think something like 3 months, a quarter of the year…like spring, summer, fall, winter. In the life of a church, a season looks a little longer than that. We are listening for the ways God is speaking to us through what has been, what is and what will be, both in the church and in the world around us…in our individual lives and in our shared life in community.
Our work is to boldly imagine and move into God’s future for us…to hear and receive our collective call – whether it is to pluck up or pull down, build or destroy, overthrow or plant.
That might sound intimidating…
NO. It does sound intimidating, but it begins with a simple first step.
Listening.
Listening to God and to one another.
It begins by sharing our hopes and our dreams. And today I am asking you to take a new step.
In your bulletin, you have a newspaper masthead…and newspapers are waiting for good headlines. For those of you read the prompt in our Friday email news flash – what’s working at Faith – you’ve possibly had time to think and pray about your headline. But here’s the assignment.
Between now and the end of our service today, I ask that you share a headline that comes to you – a headline that you would find joy in reading about Faith United Methodist church in 3 – 5 years.
As I said in What’s Working at Faith, The challenge is to be specific. Maybe your first thought is “more people” or “lots of great music” but as we dig deeper over the coming year to unearth a vision of what we are called to, there will have to be more specifics. For example, (Pastor Laura here!) my headline might read: “Faith in Rockville is a holy refuge and respite for families caught in the chaos of modern life…”
Maybe if you are not a word person, it is easier for you to draw the picture you’d like to see..and that is fine too. But put some details in your drawing so we can catch your vision. You can drop your headline in the offering plate or bring it to the communion table as we pass the peace later in the service…
If you need processing time, take it. But please bring your headline back next week, or bring it to the office through the week to come. Or hand it to me during coffee hour. Let’s do this.
These will become part of a new billboard right across from the main office…it will be space for us to reflect and to see the wide range of emerging visions we have…and the places where we share common sight.
If you are a visitor here today, your vision matters too. I encourage you to share your vision – not so much for this church but for the ways communities of faith will shape the world. Maybe you have a home church for which you have vision – maybe you are shopping around. Maybe right now, church doesn’t feel quite right, but today you are here and we value that and the vision you have for how church might be more welcoming. Please add your vision to ours…it is a gift.
The hymn we will next sing is one I cannot sing through without crying…here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine…and other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine….God’s shaking the dust off in places throughout the world. We have a vision and somehow it meets relates to the vision of so many in so many places, all in the scope of God’s watchful eye.
Thanks be to God.
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