I will be taking a break for a couple of weeks.  

Come back in early January, and I'll talk to you again!

In a number of meetings I attended over the years, as we worked to plan programs for clergy and lay church members in the area, someone always suggested we invite as a guest speaker some pastor or another who headed a large or even megachurch congregation.  I always spoke against that approach because I didn’t want to convey the notion that a megachurch was the standard to which congregations should aspire.  None of them would ever make it, so why waste time dangling that image in front of them?

Some of my colleagues weren’t so sure, and one, in fact, unabashedly told me one time that, “I want to be the pastor of a really, really big church.”  It was all I could do to not laugh out loud.  He may not have noticed, anyway, given the stars in his eyes as he envisioned the possibility.

Churches have deeper problems than figuring out how to fill gymnasium-sized worship spaces.  It turns out a lot of folks are leaving churches because they want a more authentic relationship with God and with fellow believers than they find in their traditional mainline and even megachurch experiences.

One person spoke of abandoning a megachurch he attended saying, “The person sitting next to you in the pew could be close to dying, but people don’t really know one another.”  He is looking for something different, because the modern church, as he phrased it, has become “like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy.  It starts getting distorted and changed.”  So, he, like a growing number of Christians, became a part of a home church.

A home church is a gathering of believers in someone’s living room or den, perhaps following or preceding a shared meal, in which believers pray together, read and discuss scripture, and share communion.  There is no ordained leader, no established liturgy, no organizational structure, no building to maintain, or various other aspects familiar to churchgoers.   The man who gave up on the megachurch he attended remarked that in the home church the focus was on “deep friendships” and “helping one another grow spiritually.”

Proponents of home churches see it as following the example of the earliest Christians portrayed in the New Testament.  As religion pollster George Barna expressed it, “These are people who are less interested in going to church than in being the church.”

In my view, God is working in a variety of ways to bring about spiritual awakening and renewal.  There is no question for the need, as the human family fractures into fearful, suspicious, even hate-filled factions.  Despite what some claim, and despite how many couch their language in God-talk, fewer and fewer people know God, and if the church is failing in making God known in authentic ways, I have no doubt God can and will turn elsewhere.

But, I don’t think God is done yet with the church, for a church still can stand as a sign of God’s presence in a community and in the world.  There is a lot of good that can come about when Christians and churches join together in reaching out to those in need. 

I think it would help the church, though, to be less focused on “business,”  “success” and “church growth” and more focused on growing in faith and faithfulness.  We can learn from the home churches and their motivations.

We can benefit by the presence among us of some of the folks who are choosing to abandon us.

Christy McKerney shares the story of a woman who was called to a different form of ministry.  Deborah Little-Wyman had a busy career as a communications professional when a street person diverted her attention:  “I was stopped at a stoplight, and I think I was dictating into a tape recorder and making notes on my lap … and I just happened to look over on the steps of an apartment building beside the car. And there was this woman there who I’m sure I described at the time as a bag lady with her bags around her. I had this instant desire -- it just happened so quickly – just a whole-hearted desire to have a life in which I could go and sit down next to that lady and stay with her until she got whatever she felt she needed.” 

Her call unfolded – with resistance from Little-Wyman – over the next six years.  Eventually, she attended seminary and was ordained.  But, rather than seeking a position with a congregation, Little-Wyman gravitated toward a ministry with and among homeless folks.  God nudged her to “take the church to the streets.” 

There was no romantic notion at work, just a call from God.  In fact, Little-Wyman was hesitant and somewhat afraid to follow through.  Sometimes, though, God doesn’t take “no” for an answer.  From a communion service celebrated on Easter Sunday 1996 at Boston Common – which Little-Wyman assumed was a one-time occurrence – sprang Eccleisa Ministries and Common Cathedral.  Worship is held there each Sunday.  

Little-Wyman’s personal ministry expanded to the point that she travels the country to offer guidance and insight to those wishing to establish street ministries.  She senses that her purpose is “to help people in traditional churches make connections with people who are living outside, who are the people in my tradition, and in a lot of others, we’re called to draw close to in order to know God.” 

The example of Rev. Dr. Deborah Little-Wyman caused me to reflect on how we in the church sometimes try to keep Jesus right there with us – in the church.  Others can come and join us, if they want, if they conform, if they see things our way. 

All the while I have this feeling that Jesus is standing at the door, holding it open, pointing the other way as he looks back over his shoulder at us while we practice our learned behaviors or pose in our Sunday best, and saying  “If you’re looking for me, I’ll be out there.”

Many people follow traditions this time of year.  In churches there are Advent Wreaths, with candles that are lit at the beginning of each worship service, signifying various aspects of the season.  People decorate their homes with lights and greenery.  Some place huge inflatable cartoon characters in their yards alongside animated reindeer or polar bears.

Others travel in order to mail their Christmas cards with a Bethlehem postmark.  That’s Bethlehem, Maryland.

There is no mail delivery in this town of 150 residents, but upwards of 50,000 Christmas cards pass through the post office each year as visitors make the pilgrimage to get the coveted Bethlehem postmark.  They even have rubber stamps of the Three Wise Men for customers to print onto their envelopes.  One person, just to be sure her efforts are not overlooked, attaches stickers to the envelopes that point out, “I mailed this from Bethlehem.”

There are five other towns named Bethlehem in the U. S., and other towns with distinctive postmarks include Nazareth, Texas, and Wiseman, Arkansas.  One assumes their mail traffic spikes during the holidays, as well.

The Maryland Bethlehem rose to prominence following the initiative in 1938 of a teenager named Marjorie Ann Chambers.  She wanted her town to be noted during the holidays, as was Santa Claus, Idaho and others.  It so happened Marjorie’s father was the publisher of the local newspaper, and her concern found space among its pages.  The rest, as often is reported, is history.

And the tradition continues each year.

Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell yesterday issued a report of his investigation into the extent of the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball.  Over the course of a few hundred pages, Sen. Mitchell detailed evidence and accusations of which current and recent baseball players were sticking hypodermic needles in their hind ends in order to hit a ball further or throw it harder.  He mentioned the common lament of players who did not cheat that their jobs were taken by those who did.  I suppose some people will be surprised by the degree to which the situation exists, and by which of their heroes are cheaters.

It’s remarkable, though, the measures some people will take, even risking their long-term health and well-being, in order to be successful.  Of course, there is a mountainous pile of money on the baseball table, and on average, playing careers are brief.  (There are no dollars from me, though.  As much as I like baseball, I have a personal rule:  I don’t attend games if I have to pay to get in, and I don’t subscribe to baseball Internet, radio, or television packages.  Besides, I have difficulty just sitting around for three hours.)

Office politics, lying, manipulation and who-knows-what-else are vehicles for getting ahead in other professions, so moral slippages are not unique to baseball players.

In the church it often seems that “performance-enhancers” are avoided.  Worship attendance is spotty.  Participation in classes and study groups is regarded as if it were a form of punishment.  The pages of the best-selling book of all time generally remain safe from light-exposure.  Encouragement to faithful stewardship of one’s material wealth is resented.  Evangelism is someone else’s job, because “I’m not comfortable talking to people about my faith.”  Well, it’s no wonder, when there isn’t much to discuss.

At least, we aren’t cheating.  Or are we?  It seems sadly ironic that there is so much striving and climbing and looking for short cuts in order to grab hold of “bread which does not satisfy,” and at the same time such half-hearted (quarter-hearted?) attempts at living into the “peace that passes all understanding.” 

Martin Marty’s back page column in the current Christian Century describes the “sense of pathos about those who seek their place in the world by buying or renting a purse.”  He mentions name-brand handbags costing thousands of dollars that are purchased as status symbols.  The 25 Chanel bag sold for $25,000 a pop, and Neiman-Marcus had no difficulty unloading their inventory.  “For those who prefer to go slumming,” Marty reports, “or to look as if they are going slumming, there is a handbag called ‘hobo.’”  The prices range from $750 to $1,750. 

And yes, for those not willing to shell out outrageous sums for a handbag that will be passé in a few months, there are rentals available.  One coveted model can be carried about for a mere $6,010 per month for the rental.

I don’t even carry a wallet.

In the same magazine and elsewhere, I read about “Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.”  They are featured in the film What Would Jesus Buy?    The good (and pretend) reverend is a person named Bill Talen, who traveled the country visiting stores like Target, Wal-Mart, the Disney Store (“Mickey Mouse is the Anti-Christ,” he declared), and Starbucks, making a spectacle of himself and the store, lamenting the effect of big chains on “Main Street America,” setting up a booth in which consumers can “confess your shopping sins,” “exorcising shopping demons,” interviewing independent shop owners, sharing disturbing facts of child labor used to produce much of our clothing and other items, and otherwise trying to convince consumers to avoid the “shopocalypse.”

As the Christian Century article reports, “The Church of Stop Shopping has fairly modest goals: it wants people to shop in ways that support the local economy; it wants businesses to be good for workers and not just for corporate shareholders; it wants just treatment of workers around the world.”

Rev. Billy wants people to have a “creative Christmas,” avoiding the “dread” that is part and parcel of the high expectations of gift giving imposed on people by themselves and others.

As I drove to work this morning, I passed a Baptist church with this message on its sign out front:  “What will you give Jesus for Christmas?”

Whatever it is, I doubt I can find it at the mall.

The days of 2007 quickly are running out.  How has it been for you?  Remember way back on New Year’s Day when you had your list of resolutions, and a wide-open calendar ahead of you?  So many possibilities existed, and there was time for them all. 

Maybe as you get ready to hang that 2008 calendar there still is some unfinished business rolling over, and some of your resolutions for the upcoming year are sounding a little familiar.

In our Advent readings, John the Baptist minced no words with the folks within earshot.  He told them, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is coming near.”  And when some of the temple leaders wandered out to hear him, John focused some sharp sentiments on them:  “You brood of vipers!” (Matthew 3)

John the Baptist was looking for transformation in the lives of God’s people.  Interestingly enough, the transformation was to happen prior to the appearance of Jesus, the one toward whom John was pointing.  He didn’t say to the people, “Boy, are things going to change when Jesus shows up.  He’ll straighten you out!”  Rather, he called on the people to get themselves and their act together before then. 

In other words, “Be ready for the one who is coming.”

John was very direct in his proclamation.  He was “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”

Sometimes it seems we look to Jesus to fix things in our lives, to bail us out of the messes we ourselves make with our poor choices, knee-jerk reactions, or accommodations to cultural pressures.  John is telling us to take another approach.

He is saying, “Re-order your priorities.  Overhaul your thinking.  Stop wasting your time on foolish and counterproductive behaviors.”  Remember, he was talking to God’s people. 

John wanted God’s people to be ready to embrace the blessing they were about to receive.  Jesus was going to show up.  The people needed to clear the decks so there would be room for him in their lives.                        

There was a video story on MSN today about an attempted robbery of a 92 year old woman in Tennessee.  When she got into her car following a shopping spree at Wal-Mart, a man jumped into the passenger seat next to her.  He claimed to have a gun and demanded that the woman hand over all of her money or he would shoot her.

 She said, "No."

The woman, it turns out, is a devout person who spends time each day reading the Bible.  Three times she refused to give in to the man's threats, and finally she told him, "Just as fast as you shoot me, I'll go to heaven, and you will go to hell.  Jesus is in this car with me, and he goes with me everywhere I go."

The robber looked around a little bit, thought about what she said, and began to cry.  The woman talked to him for ten minutes about what he was doing with his life, and how God could help him.

Finally, he told her he would go home that night and pray.  She said, "You can pray anywhere at anytime.  You don't have to wait until nighttime."

The woman took $10 from her purse and willingly gave it to the man, who thanked her, then kissed her on the cheek and left her car, walking away.

Try this link to get the video report.

Many churches are making use of current technology in their worship services.  Video screens, projectors, streaming audio and video, and other tools have been embraced as means of communicating the gospel either in person, over closed-circuit television feeds, or even the Internet.

Opinions vary over the appropriateness of the use of these approaches, and the degree to which they should be employed in church services.

A pastor in Mitchellville, Maryland remarked, "I feel like it's too much and it takes over the worship.  People will just be sitting there, their eyes fixated on the screen.  They're waiting to be given something, rather than participating."

Some sixty percent of churches are online with a website, high-volume email capability, and the like.  Some provide downloadable files of services and sermons.  Crews of techo-wizards run the boards at some of the megachurches because, as sociologist Scott Thumma put it, "This is not church like your grandparents did it.  This has something to say about life today."

In one case, the folks in the pews were invited to send text-messages to the pastor as he was preaching on a particular Sunday, and he worked their comments into his sermon.  Talk about multi-tasking!  "Prayer is supposed to be a conversation," said the pastor.  "We did this to help people engage in the conversation live during the service."

The article containing all of this information shared a variety of viewpoints and experiences along the lines of technologically enhanced worship services.  Some, of course, lamented the "entertainment" aspect of it all.  Others saw this approach as the wave of the future, with great promise for attracting people.

No one addressed the issue of community. 

It seems as if people are viewing worship as an individualistic endeavor, to be experienced either in a group where everyone's attention is focused on a flickering image, or in isolation in front of the computer screen at home or elsewhere apart from the actual church building.

I have no doubt that worship services always can be improved and that ways of greater relevance can be found.  Likely, the use of current technology can help on both fronts.  But, I think we must remember always that people are in this together.  The church is not merely a gaggle of consumers of religious products.

The church is a people drawn together under God, sharing worship, spiritual growth, and life in relationship with our Creator and with one another.

The newsletter of Disciples Home Missions, Home Mission Advocate, provides ideas and resources relevant to the ministry and life of congregations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  Each issue contains articles and suggestions on transformation, children and youth ministries, mission projects, and other topics of interest to churches.  If you do not already receive this publication and wish to be added to the mailing list, you may subscribe online.

The current issue includes a notice of the online availability of 50 Ways To Build Strength, a series of papers outlining ideas for growth in areas such as church finances, stewardship, children and youth, membership, adult education, communication, and more.  Each is available free of charge.  Just download the ones you want.

This resource is provided by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, which is connected with Wesley Theological Seminary, a United Methodist-related institution in Washington, DC.