Decision Time

This Sunday is a special day for our six confirmands. After special classes, trips, and a retreat with Matt Bell, the six preteens will be ready for confirmation.

When I take part in a confirmation service, however, I always have a few questions in my mind about the rest of y’all.

I know that many of you never went through confirmation. If you were raised in a church or tradition which does not “do” confirmation, then you didn’t; instead, you were probably baptized as a young person or adult. Often, I get lots of questions about confirmation — what does it mean, what is its purpose?

Let me briefly explain the Methodist understanding of baptism and confirmation. Baptism is a sacrament of joining, and being joined to, the body of Christ. Therefore, we will baptize any adult who makes a conscious decision to be joined to Christ, or any infant or child whose parents wish to make that decision on his/her behalf.

In the case of an infant, obviously the decision is not the child’s own until such time as he or she makes it personally. Confirmation is the formal process by which the church invites the child to do so. We usually make it an educational and social program, with classes and experiences that help someone learn more about what it means to follow Jesus, so that they can make an informed decision.

When they are confirmed, they are taking responsibility for the baptismal vows that their parents said for them. They are owning it for themselves. They willingly take on the rights and responsibilities that go with following Jesus.

My first question to the rest of you, then, is, “Have you ever owned the faith for yourself? Have you made a conscious decision to follow Christ?” This is an important part of the journey of faith. As I said in a recent sermon, we are not born Christian, we are made into Christians. It is an act of the will, an intention, a choice. Too many people have never made a real choice to follow Jesus, but instead rest on the laurels of their baptism, as if it were a magical ritual that saves them from hell. That’s not the point of it at all, though. Baptism is a joining of our lives to Jesus.

Now, while the intention to follow Christ is an important part of the confirmation ceremony, it’s not the only piece. We believe that baptism is a means of grace for the follower of Jesus. In other words, it’s not so much about what we do, but about what God does on our behalf. We are joined to Christ, not by our own efforts or worth, but by the free gift of God. We are given new birth, a new start in life, by the mercy of God. As the baptismal liturgy reads, “All this is God’s gift, offered to us without price.”

So my second question to all of you is, “Have you received the grace of God for yourself? Have you found that the power of the Holy Spirit lives in you, and gives you a strength that is not your own?”

If you have never been baptized, then perhaps it’s time to think about making the plunge (pun intended) for yourself. You are invited to a new relationship with God that begins with the forgiveness of sin and a renewal of your spirit in God’s love. I would be happy to talk about baptizing you.

If you have never been confirmed, then it’s up to you to answer the two questions above. Have you accepted the baptismal vows that were made for you, and have you received God’s grace? Perhaps you simply would like to learn more about what the faith journey is all about. I encourage you to join a Sunday School class or a small group, where you will have the opportunity to learn more about the Bible or the specific shape of the Jesus-centered life.

I certainly hope that all of you will be present on Sunday morning, as we listen to the witness of our newest confirmands, and as we celebrate the next steps they are taking on their own journeys.

Put On Your Marching Shoes!

Church, it’s time to put your marching shoes on!

This Sunday, after we celebrate the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem with waving palm branches, we’re going to celebrate unity, empowerment, and family in the streets of Dallas with waving American flags.

After worship, we’re going to make our way to Guadalupe Cathedral in downtown, where we will join the Dallas Mega-March 2017, which starts promptly at 2 pm. The march will end in a rally at Dallas City Hall, and will feature speakers including Martin Luther King III, Danny Glover, Jamie Foxx, and others

I would love to see a KPUMC presence at the march, because this event celebrates the values and principles which our church community holds dear. In general, the Mega-March is meant as a statement that the people of Dallas are united against hate, discrimination, and inequality.

According to event organizers, it is “time to speak up for the voices that often go unheard; time to beat hate with love; time to fight for the generations to come; time to show that our community is unified.”

Specifically, the march will resist three recent developments in the country: aggressive immigration enforcement efforts; the Muslim travel ban; and rising hate crimes. Each of these developments harms our communities and demands a response from faith communities.

Most of us don’t personally suffer the effects of these developments. None of us face deportation; none of us likely have had think about altering our travel plans because of executive orders; and few of us worry about hate crimes.

But just because we don’t suffer, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t march. As the body of Jesus Christ in the world, we need to be present in the streets on Sunday. We need to march in solidarity with those who face these present realities. We must rally around them as brothers and sisters of God’s world, seeking their shalom, and demanding justice. 

This is who we are, or at least, who we must become.

That has been the point of my Lent devotionals. A church which does not pursue justice on behalf of society’s most vulnerable people does not really worship the true God, no matter what it does or says on Sunday morning. People who fast and pray in the most pious ways but live dishonest and unjust lives do not really know God.

Let’s put the truth of what we celebrate on Sunday morning in worship, song, and prayer into practice on Sunday afternoon! Let’s march!

How Many People Can a Pastor Pastor?

One of the most important things I do as the pastor of Kessler Park UMC is give pastoral care to members of the congregation. This involves a range of activities, including praying for people in the hospital, visiting shut-ins, and talking to people who are in various stages of distress.

But pastoral care requires physical presence. The problem is that as a congregation grows in size, it becomes more and more difficult for one person to be present for every member. I can’t get everywhere I need to be in order to do all the pastoral care that needs to be done.

I discovered recently that this a simple scientific fact. In the 1990s, a British anthropologist named Robin Dunbar discovered that “human societies contain buried within them a natural grouping of around 150 people.” This became known as “Dunbar’s number,” and led to his theory that this is the maximum number of stable social relationships which one person can maintain. Or put another way, “it’s the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them at a bar.”

In other words, the average pastor can only really have a strong pastoral relationship with about 150 people!

This finding sounds remarkably similar to the common church leadership maxim that congregations typically plateau at 200 members if there is only one pastor. “It’s simply impossible for a church to grow beyond 200 under one person’s direct care and leadership,” says one prominent church consultant.

Kessler Park UMC currently finds itself in that situation. We average far less than 200 in worship attendance on Sunday mornings, but the current number of people who attend somewhat regularly is close to 200, if not more. (We currently have 500 people on the membership roll, but are desperately in need of purging these rolls.)

Since I have been here, I have dreamed of having additional staff to assist with pastoral care, and thanks to a successful pledge campaign last fall, my dream is finally coming true!

It gives me great pleasure to announce that our new Pastor of Congregational Care starts this Sunday, Feb. 19. Ken Kelley will be commissioned in the worship service to fill this position, and I can’t wait!

The truth is that Ken is already providing pastoral care for members of the church. I happen to know that he regularly visits a number of our shut-ins, and even provides transportation for some of them. He and Colleen started worship services at a local nursing home, The Meridian, shortly after I arrived. And the two of them are responsible for Good Shepherds, a twice-monthly senior group which meets at the church.

I have observed the way he works with older adults, and I can tell that he is the perfect match for this job. He has a compassionate heart, and a willingness to learn and grow. Besides, he won’t have to learn anybody’s name, because he already knows them all!

Please join me in giving Ken a warm welcome to the church staff, and add him to your own personal prayer list. And go ahead and add him to your own list of 150 friends!