New Faces, New Spaces

A country church started a Celebrate Recovery ministry for victims of opioid addiction.

A county-seat church brought its church bus out of the garage for the first time in two years and started transporting children to Wednesday night events at their church.

A suburban church started a young adult ministry called “GAP” that meets over dinner in restaurants.

A dying church opened its doors to its Korean neighbors and started hosting Korean worship services.

These stories and more were shared at the North Texas Annual Conference over the past few days in celebration of the theme, “New Faces, New Spaces.”

Every year, the annual gathering of local United Methodists focuses on a different theme, and this year’s conference zeroed in on the effort to reach new people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was encouraging to hear how our brothers and sisters have attempted to do exactly that over the past year in a variety of creative ways.

This was at the heart of the work of the Vision Task Force over the last few months; the group was deeply concerned about how to be a vibrant church home for people who are not yet here.

And frankly, this is my own personal passion, too. I want the people of north Oak Cliff to discover the joy and fulfillment of following Jesus, and I want them to join us in our journey. I don’t think I will ever be happy or content to “rest easy” with the status quo.

There will always be room for one more worshipper or one more new member. There will always be a need to feed another homeless person, or to read with an elementary school child. There will always be an injustice to fight, or another wrong to right.

I get really excited when I see people doing creative things for the sake of God’s mission. That’s why Annual Conference is so much fun. We get to hear about the real practical work on the ground in North Texas.

But I think it’s time for us to also think about the meaning of “New Faces, New Spaces.” Because new spaces are springing up all around us. We’ve seen an unprecedented rise in the number of apartment units available in the area — up and down Singleton Ave., Ft Worth Ave., and Davis St, not to mention throughout the Bishop Arts District. The new spaces are already here.

Which means the new faces are on their way. Each new face represents another beloved child of God who is in need of community, friends, support, and inspiration.

Kessler Park UMC exists for each new face. That’s why we’re here. As the body of Christ, we literally represent Jesus to and for them. The stories at Annual Conference reminded me that we need to think seriously about these new faces. We need to ask ourselves some hard questions about our own spaces.

Can we make space for the new faces?

Do we need to create new spaces?

What do we have to offer the people of Oak Cliff?

Remember, the day that the church stops thinking about how to reach new people is the day that the church starts dying.

Signs of Hope in the Catskills

There’s an old church tradition that, when you go on vacation and miss Sunday services at your home church, you must bring a bulletin from the church you attended while out of town, back to your pastor. Ken and Colleen Kelley have been especially diligent about doing this while I’ve been at KPUMC, but I’ve received bulletins from others, too.

And so, in case you’re wondering, I have in my possession the July 16th worship bulletin from Roxbury United Methodist Church in Roxbury, New York.

While Leah and I were on vacation last week in the Catskill Mountains, we stayed at the summer home of Otto Wagenbach. He and Pat were gracious hosts, and we had a marvelous time of rest and relaxation.

But we went to church on my Sunday off! For one, Otto and Pat wanted us to meet their summer pastor, Donna LeRoy, who turns out to be a dynamite preacher and warm personality. Donna works hard on Sundays, because she is responsible for three different churches; in Methodist terms, she has what’s called a three-point charge. She preaches at Roxbury only on the first and third Sundays at 9 am; then she’s off to Margaretville UMC to preach at 10:30 am.

I was extremely glad that we went to church on that Sunday; the four of us practically doubled the congregation! There were ten of us in attendance that morning, not counting Donna and the organist.

I suppose one could be disappointed or distraught at the decline of Methodism in upstate New York; after all, this is historically one of the strongest bastions of Methodism in America. One could conclude that Christianity is slowly dying in the northeast, which is a narrative that is certainly being spread by some pundits.

The truth is that these small towns and villages are themselves in decline. Dairy farming was the primary industry in Roxbury and Margaretville at one time. Times have changed; big factories now do dairy work on a large scale. Jobs have shrunk, and most kids who grow up in these small towns move off to raise families elsewhere. Otto told me that, unfortunately, drug use has become a problem as opportunity has passed these places up.

Thus, the shrinking church is merely a symptom of what is happening in the larger community. There are fewer people around, so of course there will be smaller congregations.

But numbers are never the true sign of a vital church. The sign of a healthy church is the kind of mission it embraces, and the fruit it bears.

Fortunately, it appears that Roxbury UMC is a healthy church, and not just because Otto and Pat are there! That little historic church knows that they don’t exist merely for themselves, but for the good of the whole community. Earlier in the month, Roxbury UMC participated in the Celebrate Roxbury Festival; later in the summer they plan to have a joint service with a neighboring Reformed church. During announcement time, Pastor Donna shared that the churches in the parish were planning a joint Vacation Bible School for the children in the area.

In the sermon, which centered on Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, Pastor Donna emphasized the fact that the church was responsible for sowing the seed of the Gospel. She challenged all ten of us to be diligent in sharing God’s good news with other. She even dared to remind the church that its mission was to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

The church of Jesus Christ only prospers when it recognizes that it is part of God’s mighty work in the world, and wants to participate. We are part of a movement, the unveiling of God’s kingdom on earth, and we have a deeply important role to play in that movement.

It was incredibly encouraging to see signs of life at Roxbury UMC, but I confess that I am even more excited about getting back to church at Kessler Park UMC, because the same thing is happening here.

Let’s get back to work!