Hello!
I have a friend named Paul. Paul is the outgoing youth
pastor at Douglas Mennonite Church. Paul has decided to go back to school, but
before he leaves his congregation, he left them a gift. Paul wrote a book
called Before I go, in it he records his 9 most important devotionals from the
past 10 years of ministry. He had this book professionally printed and gave a
copy to each of his youth.
This Sermon is my “Before I go,” This is my last Sunday
here, next weekend I’m taking the youth on a retreat, Wednesday the 23rd
we have a final chat and play and then I’m gone.
As I leave, I offer you a vision for what North Kildonan Mennonite
Church could become. While you might not agree with the specific
recommendations that I am going to make I trust that you can at least
appreciate the underlying ideas and take them for yourself.
Two months ago, it was my turn to give the devotional at
worship committee. We each take turns bringing in an article, or a poem, or an
excerpt from a book that we think speaks to us.
I brought in this book: Preparing Sunday Dinner by June
Alliman Yoder, Marlene Kropf and Rebecca Slough.
In it, one of the authors, tells a story. Growing up, she
often heard her parents say “there’s always room for one more” meaning that
they made their resources- beds, chairs, or food at the dinner table,
generously available to guests. Sometimes there wasn’t room on the family’s
main dinner table, so they would bring out card tables. Her mother would insist
that the card table receive the same fine table cloth and bouquet of flowers
that the main table had. In no way were the extra quests to be made to feel
second-class.
Later she references the Mennonite Central Committee
Cookbooks “More with Less” and “Extending the Table” describing how these books
have encouraged generations of cooks to expand their culinary horizons. I
myself make a mean Pakistani Kima.
The author’s point is that it might be easier to make room
on our dinner table, and to try new foods than it is to extend the table of
worship. Planning worship that includes people of all ages, differing cultures
and economic groups, and varying theological perspectives can be difficult, but
it is the mission of the church. Each element of worship has the potential to
either be an act of hospitality or to be a barrier preventing others from
joining us in worship.
I’d like to take it a step further and suggest that every aspect
of how we live in community can do the same because as James H. Charlesworth
from Princeton Theological Seminary said:
“Jesus was trying to break down barriers that separated
people. All these Tremendous Barriers; Jesus was a barrier breaker.”
Someone on reddit once said, “If you are more fortunate
than others, it's better to build a longer table than a taller fence.”
I want to propose Three things that we can do to be more
hospitable.
Three different tables that we need to build longer.
First, we should build a longer dinner table
Last Winter, the young adult group was facing a bit of a
slump, As you know Maginot Lion meets every week on Tuesdays. Usually for a
bible study or a games night. In January and February we were only having 4 or
5 young adults out on a Tuesday. Then Valentines Day happened to fall on a
Tuesday, so Chris let us know that he was bringing soup, and 12 young adults
showed up. Two weeks later was Pancake Tuesday so we had a breakfast food
potluck, and this time 16 young adults came including guests! That’s when we
learned that the way to a young adult’s heart is through their stomach and
we’ve been having monthly meals since.
One of the single greatest things that NKMC does in this
community is to serve as a Winnipeg Harvest distribution site. It is really
impressive to watch the volunteers run the distribution line. It is in spaces
like that where our congregation truly acts as the church.
A couple of years ago, Gary
discovered that there were a fair number of families in our congregation with
classic vehicles, slowly he and a group of congregants put together a plan to
hold our first annual Show and Shine. On Pentecost, they threw a bunch of
hotdogs on the barbecue parked their cars with the hoods up, and invited
everyone to check out their sweet rides.
And people came. There were tons of people from the
community, people that have never had any connection with NKMC besides the fact
that they live close by. In fact so many people came that we ran out of hot
dogs! Someone ran to the store to get more so that the party didn’t stop.
What if we did this regularly? What if we had more meals
that we invited the community to? What if we posted on our sign when we were
having a potluck? Or our Christmas dinner? What if we hosted more events in the
parking lot? Members of our Geographic community might feel more welcome to
come and join us!
One of the primary reasons I’ve been told we don’t do that
is because we are concerned about making sure we have enough food for everyone.
As we have seen with the show and shine, running out of
food isn’t a problem. If push comes to shove we can run to the store to get
more!
As Pastor Franz said last week, “You Can tell a lot about
people by the parties they put on.”
In scripture Jesus tells a story about a feast, but when
the feast was ready nobody who was invited came they all claimed that they were
too busy, so the host had to send his servants into the highways and byways to find
the poor and the lame and invited them to come to the table.
We prepare great feasts on a regular basis, perhaps it’s
time we break down the walls of this church and open it up to those in our
community.
The next type of table that we should build longer is the
Board table.
By this, I mean we need to invite more voices into how we
make decisions.
When you consider how to move forward, my hope is that you
find ways to include the youth and young adults in meaningful dialogue. They need
to feel like their voices are valued.
In the Great Law of
the Iroquois Confederacy there is what’s known as the Seventh Generation
Principle. It says that every decision we make should result in a sustainable
world seven generations into the future.
It’s a principle often used in regards to environmental
stewardship, but the Iroquois saw it more holistically, including sustaining
relationships.
When we make decisions as a church, do we consider how our
decisions will affect future generations?
Will there be a North Kildonan Mennonite Church in Seven
generations?
We have benefitted from those that have gone before us.
Those who have made it possible for us to have faith.
What can we do to encourage our children and our children’s
children to follow Jesus?
Recently at a Youth Minister’s Fellowship, we were
discussing the Fuller Youth Institute’s “Growing Young” research. Churches are
both shrinking and aging as more young people disengage. Based on research with
over 250 American churches, Growing Young is a strategy to involve and
retain young people.
One of the key points in this research is giving youth the keys
to the church.
Now, clearly, this refers to the metaphorical keys, and not
physical keys. Giving the youth the keys to the church means giving them real,
tangible responsibilities.
But more than giving them responsibilities, it means giving
them the ability to have their voices heard.
One of the other youth pastors suggested that when we hand
the keys to the church over to our youth, that they will open different doors
than what we are expecting, and that this is a good thing.
Two years ago, Mennonite Church Canada’s Future Directions
Taskforce released what was supposed to be their final recommendations, which
in light of current economic realities called for severe structural changes to
our denominational offices. This included many layoffs from key positions, as
well as eliminating or transferring ownership of certain programs.
Many people were upset, I know I was upset when I heard
that the faith formation worker was released. So a group of students from
Canadian Mennonite University got together and wrote a series of documents
responding to the recommendations. Calling ourselves the Emerging Voices
Initiative, we sought to bring in voices that weren’t heard in the initial
consultation. This included Missions workers, their mission partners, and young
voices. Our blog became a major partner in the ongoing restructuring process.
When working groups were put together to work on the
recommendations, we noticed that the “token young person” on them were mostly
in their 30s. So we reached out, and several of our members joined the teams.
We weren’t given the keys to the church, we had to actively
reach out and take them. Of course when we did take them, MC Canada was more
than willing to give them to us, but what if this had been different? What if
instead of laying off a formation consultant tasked with helping child grow in
faith, we hired more of them? IF we want the church to survive into the future,
we need to encourage children to own their faith. What if MC Canada had
included all of these voices earlier in their deliberations?
North Kildonan is facing similar demographic
challenges that the National church is facing. Look around this sanctuary. The
congregation is getting older. It is a simple matter of demographics. Families
aren’t having as many kids as previously, and people move away for a variety of
reasons. If this church doesn’t attract young families in the next 10 to 20
years, the congregation will not survive.
If we believe that what
we’ve built is worth preserving, then we need to be willing to allow new ideas.
Human beings don’t like to change the status quo. We’ve realized
that if we find the safe option and stick with it we will be comfortable. We
are like a ship in a harbour during the storm. John Shedd once said “A ship in harbor is safe —
but that is not what ships are built for.” Young people can
have ideas that are radically different than what we have done previously and
can bring in a new life to this congregation.
However if we put them on
the spot and ask them for their ideas, they are going to go blank. But if we
find ways for their voices to be heard and they are encouraged to bring ideas
forward as they develop, then they will feel welcome to continue bringing ideas
forward.
The Third table that needs
to be made longer is our study desk.
Theology is a messy thing.
As Ryan mentioned last month, we are finite created beings trying to describe
an infinite, non-created being. We are going to screw up when we do theology.
Take for example the
Trinity. We affirm monotheism, that there is only one God, and yet we say that
God is three distinct persons. When we try to explain it we can overemphasize
one side or the other.
I don’t believe that there
is actually a good way to describe the trinity, rather, by formulating and
understanding both sides of the discussion, we can rest in the knowledge that
the truth is somewhere in the middle.
One of my favourite bible
studies that I’ve done with the youth is the bubble study.
In it I describe Rene
Descartes’s concept of knowledge structures. Ideas get built on top of other ideas.
But then sometimes we
realize that foundational ideas we hold aren’t the truth, and knowledge
structures come tumbling down.
I proposed to the youth that
instead of knowledge structures, we should make knowledge bubbles. That are
made, and are good for a time and then pop, but it’s not the end of the world,
because half the fun is in blowing new ones!
We need to hold our theology
loosely because we could be wrong, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do
theology.
One example is our stance on
Homosexuality. I used to be a staunch defender of the Orthodox, Biblical
perspective that marriage is meant for one man and one woman for life. Based on
my reading of the scriptures, this was clearly the only way that we could be
faithful to scripture.
I knew we hadn’t treated
LGBTQ people well in the past. And I thought, we needed to do better at hating
the sin but loving the sinner, but scripture was clear!
I had heard that there were
theologians who were LGBT affirming, but clearly they weren’t being faithful.
I also have a really good
friend, he and I studied Theology and Philosophy together at CMU, and we had
many deep, real conversations about our faith. He was a good Christian.
And THEN he came out to me.
He told me that he was gay.
This really threw me for a
loop. How could my best friend, a good Christian be gay?
So I actually started
reading those affirming theologians.
And I found good faithful
Christians, who had good hermeneutics and exegesis.
But instead of a beginning
with a reading of the law, they began with Jesus, and how He welcomed the
outsider in.
These theologians used solid
understandings of the historical background of the biblical text to challenge
common assumptions about passages like Romans 1, or 1 Corinthians 6:9, etc.
And I realized something.
Both sides of the debate are
full of good Christians trying to be faithful to their understandings of
scripture.
This debate is ripping apart
the church as a whole, it is dividing our denomination. Churches are leaving
conference because they can’t be in communion with each other.
When I watch my friend’s
siblings refuse to celebrate his birthday with him and his boyfriend. When
family members send him emails calling him an abomination. I realize that this
can’t be the right way to treat our brothers and sisters in Christ and has pushed
me towards a more affirming position.
Just because people disagree
with us does not mean that we can’t worship together, work together, be church
together.
So again, I say we need to
build longer tables so we can invite the outsider in. Tables of food where we
can invite those outside our doors in. Tables of decision making where we can
invite those who don’t have power to share their voice, tables of study where
we can learn from those that disagree with us.
Finally, I want to share how
you’ve already extended the table… to me.
When I started here, you
took a chance on me. Sure I have a degree in Bible and Theology, but I had no
real experience working with youth.
In Fact, Stephanie is better
qualified for this job than I ever was. Her degree was Youth Ministry, and she has
experience as a sponsor at Sargent.
Thank you for being
hospitable to me, and allowing me to develop my gifts for ministry. I know that
it can be difficult to understand me sometimes, but I feel like I have improved
immensely from where I began.
Thank you to the Children,
the youth, and the young adults. And thank you parents. It has been an immense
pleasure being a part of your lives. I hope that God has used me some small way.
Thank you for extending the
table to my family. Thank you for your support when Simon was in the hospital,
and thank you for all of the lovely gifts you gave us. I think that Simon could
have a new blanket every night for a month.
As we leave, please extend
the table to others as you did to us.
Thank you.