Proverbs 1:1-7
2 For learning about wisdom and instruction,
for understanding words of insight,
3 for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to teach shrewdness to the simple,
knowledge and prudence to the young—
5 let the wise, too, hear and gain in learning
and the discerning acquire skill,
6 to understand a proverb and a figure,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Luke 8:22-25 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they put out, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A windstorm swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24 They went to him and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And waking up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 Then he said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were terrified and amazed and said to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?” and amazed and said to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
We’re in a funny spot these days…. About half way through the interim period, creeping up on that great day when our profile will go public and we will begin to receive candidate profiles (resumes)
But it all feels so slow, and it’s not easy to see. Much of what we’re doing these days isn’t easy to see, you know. Your leadership is moving into a new way of discerning where God would have us go, and different ways of making things happen. I suspect that, for many of us, the results are either invisible or innocuous… that is, either so obvious as to not seem like much of anything, or seeming so unimportant as to not really be anything at all.
And if it’s hard to see what has happened, or challenging to realize what radical changes we have made, it must be about time for us to be thinking “we’re not doing enough”…
We’re at that place like the kid who is down by the creek, in the water, and gets knocked over by the current and thinks he’s drowning, because he can’t swim – but he’s only in 2 feet of water and is tall enough to wade, if he can only stop thrashing around and stand up. Maybe he’ll have to pull himself out of the current, but he can make it.
We’re that kid.
It’d be easy to say, oh we don’t have enough people.. because you don’t have enough people to sustain programs the way you did years ago.
It’d be easy to say, we’re not solving this problem right now… because it’s the one on my list, when we’re learning to prioritize and plan.
It’d be easy to say our problem is that we don’t have enough money, and we don’t have enough money because we have a woman pastor, or because we welcome gay people, or because we belong to the United Church of Christ. But those are the kinds of fears we hear when we’re still looking back to the successes of decades ago, instead of looking forward to the opportunities of today and tomorrow.
Here’s what we’re doing to make a difference, to prepare ourselves for the next pastorate, for the next ten years or so…
Because without plans, yes our fears will take over. But with plans we have a future.
And we have plans:
The first plan takes advantage of our physical space, and our financial planning, to provide good ministry to our children. Off and on, almost every month I’ve been here, someone has talked with me about children. Your leaders, the Moderators and the Council, have put together a workable plan that uses our resources, doesn’t ask of us things we don’t have, and is an effective way to reach out to the youngest among us and their parents.
In some churches the children’s program is run by volunteers, and even the pastor, but that’s not in our wheelhouse. But what we do have is a good, dedicated child space, that – because it’s right here in the worship space is a safe space for children – and because it’s right here in the worship space, allows the smallest among us to be present in worship – and which is convenient and attractive. So the plan is to put together a job description, and hire someone to watch over the children in the Prayground, freeing their parents to focus on the worship service.
I bet someone here is saying, so what are you going to do about the youth. One of the lessons we’ve been working on is that we need to start out at a level we can keep up with. If you’re just learning how to cook, you start with something easy, not Thanksgiving dinner for 20. We’re starting with our youngest children. When that’s running well, we will add a program for the grade 1 through about 6 kids – a Messy Church experience. Again, we’ll look around for someone, this time, hopefully an experienced Christian educator, who will come once a month to do this program with our children.
As Messy Church begins to stabilize, we’ll then look for a more formal program for our youth. In the meantime, we’ll be inviting them to help at Messy Church or on Sunday mornings. We’ll encourage them to think about being a Scout, because that’s a great program. This will give your new pastor time to get to see the resources in the area and to figure out what combination of activities will be the most worthwhile for our children and give us the most bang for the buck.
Do you see what our leaders have figured out? They’ve learned that you don’t need tons of people to make a mark, to have an effective experience. They’ve figured out that good planning doesn’t just count money, it’s also counts people. And they’ve figured out that the best plans pay attention to what people need and aim to provide it.
You’ve heard me talk about the trip our leaders made to the Elementary School a few weeks ago. It’s a perfect example of the kind of right-sized, right-focused outreach that is so good for us. Here’s why it did a superior job of sharing the love of God with our teachers.
It was right-focused – our goal was to do something explicit to tell our teachers they mattered. So our leaders used their contacts to find out what would make a difference to them. And when the word was that they’d most appreciate Clorox Wipes and Expo dry-erase markers, we listened to what had been said. We gave them what they wanted, even when it felt like an odd thing to bring them.
It was right-sized – we only tried to bring two things. There are other things we might have brought. We hear they like Puffs tissues – good, soft and strong for little kids. But we measured our capacity and felt as though two things could be done well, but three would be too much.
The gifts worked well, but did you hear what happened next? While we were at the school, distributing the supplies (and the donuts and pastries we brought), we had at least half a dozen conversations. We got the word out that this church exists and cares about them. We helped the music teacher make a connection with the Senior Center for a Christmas Concert. We listened closely to the school secretary talk about other needs, to see if there was anything else that fit with our skills and abilities… and it turned out there was. Now our Knitting group is aiming to make hats and mittens so the school office has a supply of warm, dry stuff to give little kids with cold, wet hands… It didn’t occur to the school to call us up and ask for mittens – why would it? But when we said we might be able to help with that, our offer was gratefully received.
That whole project, which told about 30 people at the school that we cared about them, took about 2 weeks of time – time to advertise it, time to collect money, time to order stuff from Amazon, and then time to load it all into Deb Christensen’s car, and for Deb, Debbie Gran, Kitty Lowenthal and me to ride over to the school. In other words, it was right-sized for our financial and human resources.
I’ve heard concerns that we’re going to have problems getting parkers for the 2026 season… here’s how our updated planning is going to deal with that issue. Your leaders know it’s time for us to expand the group of people who park. And they also know that we don’t have to make any decisions about how we’re going to do that until early next year. So we’re setting aside any major energy about the challenge. The time between now and then will be spent listening to our parking crew and letting ideas and opportunities mature in our minds. We’re learning that it’s better use of our time and energy to make plans and decisions at the right time… which often is not “right this minute”.
Right now we’re gathering information; when it’s time, we will move forward, well-informed and ready to choose from among our opportunities.
If we take counsel of our fears, if we let the challenges overwhelm us, we will struggle. But as our leaders take advantage of our many assets, you will see more and more evidence of the way we are moving calmly, confidently and faithfully into the future.
For never fear, God has a future for this congregation.
Amen.
C 2025, Virginia H. Child
To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do 