Thoughts from tom, the Interim

Notes from Tom’s Messy Desk

          What makes a congregation “effective”?  That is what criteria or standards should we use to determine if we are doing that which we are called to do.  Some have defined five practices which mark the “effective” congregation.  They are radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity.   And, I think, we ought do this not to impress or convert others but as a response to our belief that to live this way is to respond to God’s presence, to God’s call.

      Radical hospitality means welcoming the stranger.  It opens us to the recognition of and respect for the unknown other as well as the known other as a human being.  It’s easy to say but difficult to do.  We all have known times when we have viewed the stranger with suspicion or even fear.  The call of God is to welcome the stranger with love and respect.

      Passionate worship means a communal worship experience which has meaning and brings joy to each of us.  It cannot be a rote recitation of ritual.  It means we ought participate in worship with energy, imagination, and intelligence.  Worship should be mind opening and faith challenging as well as a time of comfort and grace.

      Intentional faith development challenges us to continue in our faith journeys through study, learning, and struggle.  It says that our confessions aren’t the end of faith but only the beginning of the journey.  Intentional faith development ought continue as long as we live.

      To be a risk-taking mission and service oriented congregation is to be a community willing to respond to the needs of those who hurt – the mournful, the injured, the outcaste, the despised.  It is to care for those whom others ignore, persecute, or imprison.  It is to witness to God’s presence by ignoring the easy and the popular when what is required is justice and peace.

      And to practice extravagant generosity is to open one’s life and wealth to the needs of others.  It is to practice stewardship in the most fundamental and basic of ways as one gives all that one can without impoverishing oneself that others and the congregation can continue in life and live it abundantly.

      And so how are we doing?  Are we an “effective” congregation?  How do our efforts, our practice match up? 

         See you in church or sometime soon I hope.

          Peace

          tom