Today's Thought - Misdirected Ministry

+ First - glad to be back on the clock after 3 months on sabbatical - I will be there Sunday for a marathon of worship, education, preaching class, and the Covenant Association.

+ Second - The last two days I made really bad typos in my daily thought - jet lag is a pain! More on that Sunday.

As happens with almost every Holy Day that becomes a Holiday; the 2-month slog towards Halloween is in full stride. I remember, as a kid, that we might have a dress-up day in school with treats, and our church might have a calm but spooky event for the families in the area, and then we would go out on THE night and juice up with treats (and the occasional trick), collecting coins for UNICEF. That stood for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. I always liked the idea that, while collecting enough junk food to destroy an entire village's teeth, I was at least helping kids who had even less than I did. And they probably ended up with better teeth than I had.

For years now, Halloween has burgeoned into a major period of events with branding, parades, drunken bashes, pumpkin spice, and, of course, Trunk or Treat. These safe events are held in many places, but it seems that churches have borne the brunt of this initiative, given that we are so afraid to take our kids anywhere we haven't inspected, which I don't disagree with. And it isn't that there is anything wrong with this; it seems like a cost-effective way to help families out in a time of fear and mistrust. And I have nothing against churches doing them - unless it, like so many secularized events we have embraced over the years, takes away from our prime directive - to tell the story of God's love in the gift of Jesus Christ.

Over the years, I have seen more and more congregational energy spent on trying to reach people through borrowed, secular means, rather than through caring and invitation. And again - these can be caring events, but when our churches are working tirelessly to provide dinners, festivals, and other events that have little to no spiritual value, it takes away from our main mission - to tell the story of God's love in the gift of Jesus Christ. The church I grew up in was filled with really wonderful (okay, not all of them) people, and yet, we would have an evening event with Santa Claus on the altar that would bring more people in than Christmas Eve! This should tell us a lot about Christianity in America for the last 60 years. And many cults/mega-churches have gone even farther, turning their entire energy towards replacing secular items with pseudo-Christian products, like t-shirts, coffee mugs, and the like.

All I am trying to point out with this half-cranky rant is that we are producing a lot of tired people with little to show for it. That misdirected ministry power might be better spent on making our worship more moving and loving so that spiritually exhausted people can feel something energizing and full of the Holy Spirit. Fewer cookie sales and more Blue Christmas Services. Less fundraising dinners and more communal meals. Being the church is who we are, but it isn't all we are. And I wonder - would Jesus look at us and make a whip to drive the money-lenders/church chachka salespeople off the Temple steps. Just asking for a friend.

Prayer - Holy God, give us generous hearts to support Your work through our faith communities so that Your message of love and inclusion is spread to those who need it. Amen.

Today's art is of Jesus turning the tables over in the Temple, but I couldn't find who the artist is.

www.leadershipministry.org ?

www.calvaryreformeducc.org ?

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