In Comes the New...

This Sunday at 5:30, we will hold our annual Church Conference, at which officers for the coming 1-3 years will be elected and certain budgetary items will be voted upon. District Superintendent, Randy Robinson will preside.

This will be Randy's sixth Church Conference with us, and perhaps his last. The normal term of a DS is six years, though the Bishop has the option of extending it. In any case, I want to thank Randy for doing an excellent job as Superintendent of the La Moine River District, and for being a friend.

As we have sought people to help lead our church into the future, we have made a point of inviting relatively new folks to play a role. Many have accepted the invitation.

I have pastored churches where older members would talk about the need for "new blood" in leadership positions, but when the people in whose veins that new blood ran, actually started to tried to enact change, they were vehemently resisted. It seemed they wanted new blood, just not new ideas.

Many a church was foundered on that struggle. A paralyzing stand-off has frequently developed between older members who usually held considerable power and the bulk of the financial rsources of the church, and younger members who desire a church that is more in tune with their tastes and needs, but who do not hold the power or the cash.

Jesus likened this dynamic to pouring new wine into old wineskins. The old skins grew brittle with age and the chemical interaction between the new wine and the old skins would cause them to burst. He noted that our attitudes, behaviors, and structures have to change to accommoate new ideas and needs. But, that can cause friction between the keeprs of the old wineskins and the makers of the new wine.

While I won't say that such tensions are totally unknown at Union, they have been refreshingly rare. This is a church which understands that traditions have value, but they are not to be worshipped. We are open to new ideas and new ways to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a rapidly changing world.

This past Sunday, the new youth band made its debut in worship. They call themselves SKJ (Skeege) in honor of Union's longest serving pastor, the late Stanley Jensen who sought to guide and minister to young people throughout his 25 year tenure. Stanley's commitment to the youth is evidenced in the large endowment he left behind for the youth and music programs. I'm sure he would have enthusiastically applauded the young people when they played and sang this past Sunday.

I also suspect that some of the music they will sing in the future would not have appealed to him that much. Styles and tastes change over the years. But, he placed on conditions on his gift. They don't have to perform the music of his time. They can, in the words of the Psalmist, "Sing to the Lord, a new song."

For many people, the task of the church is to pass down and preserve tradition. If there is deviation or change, it is seen as a failure of faith. The confuse the structure of the message with its substance. It's not something they would do with medical care, for instance. They wouldn't insist that we continue using leeches, or that hospitals not use the latest technology, for the sake of preserving tradition! The church also has to apply new communications techniques and new ways of performing ministry, in order to do our job.

The church of today has the task of "midwifing" the church of tomorrow. That church will be different. But, so long as it's focus is on making disciples for Jesus Christ, for the transformation of the world, it will be the church...no matter how differently it looks or works from what we have known.

The leadership we have chosen for our future, reflects an influx of new people, who will bring new ideas and needs. They are not simply new bloof we're trying to force through old veins. They are representatives of new life that the church is called to live.

In Ministry With You,

Bob Morwell