From the Desk of Pastor Ted…

Month of July (most recent on bottom)
Sunday Bulletin Articles, Newsletter Information, and Report to the Council

 

July 6, 2008

Two Wednesday Fellowship Gatherings – Potluck Picnic Suppers

I’ve set a couple of dates to gather this summer for fellowship and a meal: two Wednesday evenings, July 16 and August 20, beginning at 5:30 P.M.  Brats, dogs, and burgers, and potato salad will be provided and everything else will be potluck.  Please join us and enjoy a meal together.  We’ll do a short “sing-song” around 6:15 in a manner similar to what followed the April spaghetti dinner.  Again… join us and enjoy the time together.  Those who wish to do so may engage in the “Building Conversations” that will follow these fellowship events.

“Building Conversations” – Sundays and Two Wednesdays

After worship on Sundays in July I’ll provide a short video at 10:15 A.M. and spend time (no later than 11:00) kicking around some of the current building questions and issues.  The video will provide a piece of “systems” teaching, which can help provide a framework for thinking and conversation as the congregation and leaders pay attention to current building issues/questions.

      I tend to think (and state) that the decision-making processes last year “didn’t seem to go well.”  Even though specific proposals were voted down (by a small margin), it sounds to me that a vote in favor of last year’s congregational question would have also been by a small margin.  I perceive that sufficient numbers of people felt uncomfortable with a favorable vote that the question simply was not in a good place.  This summer’s efforts on Sundays and the two mentioned Wednesdays (following the two Wednesday fellowship events) will focus on making more helpful processes.

Tuesday Mornings – “Systems” & “Healthy Congregations” Sessions

(I tend to use the two phrases interchangeably.)  I think those joining us on Tuesdays from 9-11 A.M. are finding the sessions interesting and helpful.  My wife, Joan, has been leading most of the discussions.  People may attend sessions whenever possible.  Join Us!!

 

July 11, 2008

What Have We Been Talking About in “Building Conversations”?

The primary subjects of our time together on Tuesdays (9-11 AM) and Sunday mornings after worship have been concepts and applications of “Systems” theory and Healthy Congregations.  It is hoped that the ideas discussed in the past weeks will provide a better framework for healthier relationships that are crucial as we now enter specifics about actual building issues – both maintenance needs and renovation options.  Only if relationships are managed well can one expect good success in effectively managing the congregation’s current building issues and questions.  Some of the specific concepts we’ve learned about include:

• Everything is connected and co-causal, the congregation is system in which we ALL contribute to the whole and the whole contributes to individuals
• Two major emotional forces are at work: the need to be separate and close
• Anxiety is an ever-present reality – a basic emotion of discomfort and pain
• Anxiety can be acute (short-term, specific) and chronic (ever present)
• Intense anxiety can push the two emotional forces to extreme positions… and both at the same time… the danger is people can become stuck in the extremes
• o The need to be separate can become emotional cut-off
• o The need to be close can become emotional fusion or driving to sameness
• Intense anxiety increases many negative and highly emotional behaviors
• Many things of life trigger and intensify anxious behavior (money is top of the list)
• Our human brains, and our emotional behaviors, function in three ways:
• o Lower brain – “reptilian” – safety and survival, highly reactive
• o Lower brain – “mammalian” – bonding, play, nurture, community, reactive
• o Upper brain – “neo-cortext” – thinking, problem solving, values, response
• Lower brain functions can become dominant and overwhelming (with high anxiety)
• The clear defining of self to others is crucial (“self-definition”, “I statements”)
• Balance increases health – define self, regulate anxiety, stay connected
• Leadership in systems is about self-definition and managing self while remaining connected meaningfully with others – we lead with our selves and our presence

Today’s Video Presentation Following Worship

 We’ve been taking time to view some videos that present various systems concepts.  Today’s video will be an illustration of leadership in a congregational setting in which a large undesignated gift of money is received and the congregation needs to figure out what will happen with the gift.  Leadership in that kind of situation is challenging.  You are welcomed to join the “building conversations” at any time.

Two Kind of Issues: Maintenance Needs and Renovations For The Future

Current maintenance needs at St. John’s include the already approved (but not yet funded) roof replacement, the need to repair or replace the steps on Main Street (some bids are presently being sought) and a few additional smaller items.  Maintenance needs present themselves over time, sometimes unexpectedly.

      Building renovations come into being in a number of ways.  Sometimes significant and specific gifts (or potential gifts) to the congregation initiate wide ranging and creative thinking about what might be done to upgrade, change, or reshape a building in light of the congregation’s present and future realities and needs.  These kinds of gifts can also increase anxious behaviors and even generate the potential for conflict.  I served a congregation that recently received a large estate gift of $150,000.  Renovations thought about for a long time came back into people’s conversations, only now they were actually possible.  As is typical in public buildings (a church is a public building that is subject to various code standards) one renovation project might create lots of additional changes required to meet the current standards.  The congregation I mentioned above chose a basic renovation for more space that brought about a number of additional changes, eventually requiring the congregation to undertake a major capital campaign and take on a new mortgage… something they’ve not had to contend with since retiring their building mortgage in 1962.  I just read today in their newsletter about their having received major parts for their new steeple (not required… but eventually wanted in what became their major building project.)  So… sometimes, gifts initiate major renovations.

      Another thing that will initiate renovation planning is carefully considering the congregation’s mission, changing membership, newly emerging needs, and future planning.  These concerns can be more challenging since they might be less clear and are likely more emotional… especially when major aspects of a congregation are changing.

Strong Emotional Forces Can Connect With All These Things

      At St. John’s, ALL of these things are operating: significant maintenance issues, renovations in response to significant potential gifts, and changing realities.  When I think about what I’ve observed in people’s behaviors and the intensity of what I’ve heard about the turbulent, conflicted processes that have occurred and continue to be at work, I wonder about what primary emotional forces have driven and amplified the tensions that are normal to renovation and maintenance stresses.  Sometimes the anxiety of survival itself can be a primary and chronic emotional force in a congregation.  That was the case in the congregation mentioned above… the fear people felt about simply surviving as a congregation overwhelmed their capacity to think creatively and solve problems. They discovered that their sense of mission as a people of God and clarifying their vision of that mission was crucial to their successfully dealing with their corporate life.  They needed to rally around their vision of mission, not around maintaining and surviving.

 

July 21, 2008

Report to the Council

Primary Summer Focus – Systems and “Building Conversations”

The primary focus I’ve had this summer in terms of pastoral leadership has been encouraging people to learn systems (as taught in the Healthy Congregations program) and to engage in what I have been calling building conversations.  I’ve worked with staff, various leaders, and people who have participated in the Sunday and Tuesday morning sessions.  My wife, Joan, has been participating in the process quite regularly, functioning as a consultant out of the office of bishop.  Having many of the concepts and reflections of systems as a framework, we have addressed a number of primary issues as they’ve been raised.  Some raised issues have been sufficiently clarified.  Some issues need further work before coming to terms with them or having adequate clarification.

We Need to Decide Whether the Renovations Project Moves Forward… or Not

On Wednesday of last week – the night of the picnic and subsequent conversations – Joan and I began to draw people to the question that received a narrow defeat in the congregational vote on January 13.  Joan provided a recap of the renovations project as seen through her research through relevant written materials of the congregation and from conversations with many people.  I note again that the processes carried out over the past 10 or so years and more recently by the council-appointed renovations task force have been done in good order in accordance with standard practices and the congregation’s constitution.  The most recent vote of the congregation effectively ended the process… and yet the renovations questions continue to have life and support by members and leaders of the congregation.  It needs to be addressed directly.

      I think that things are at a point in which it is important for the council to develop and carry out a plan about whether and how to bring the project before the congregation again.  The most previous vote was about approving the Potente (and Schroeder?) estimates so that financial actualities can be determined (bids and such) along with a general funding plan.  (And, of course, actual bids and funding plans need to be brought to the congregation for endorsement before any significant contracts are signed.)

      I think that an approach toward a vote could use the picnic-gathering already scheduled for Wednesday, August 20, as a primary information sharing and conversation occasion along with scheduled “building conversation” times on Sundays after worship.  A vote could be scheduled for Sunday, August 24 immediately after worship.  If such a vote is scheduled I think it would be important for it to be a voiced vote (with a house division if needed) rather than individual private ballots.

New ELW Hymnals – Already in Use (ELW is “Evangelical Lutheran Worship”)

Using the creative “Christmas in July” service on Sunday (July 20), new ELW hymnals were distributed as “gifts” to worshippers and used for the first time at St. John’s.  We sang the very first hymn listed in the hymn section; we used the familiar setting 3 (which is the same as setting 1 in the LBW that we’ve been using since I began at St. John’s); we read through a Psalm (the full text of all 150 Psalms are included in the ELW); we sang familiar hymns and a new hymn.  I’m hopeful that the unique service serves as a good memory hook to when and how St. John’s began using the new hymnal of the church.

 

July 23, 2008

Trust the Process… Assure One Another… We Can Discover Renewal

Last Wednesday (I am writing this on Wednesday, July 23… so I’m indicating LAST week) a good number of people gathered for a picnic supper, some singing, and then conversation in which we entered together into the challenging conflict issues of the previous and past year.  I thank people for being willing to be a part of the process.  In addition, many people have been meeting regularly and occasionally on Tuesday mornings and Sundays after worship.  Lots of things have been discussed and taught… and I think we are at a good place for some gentle reconnecting in ways that get to the relational issues that are underneath the building issues. 

      Because this part of the process touches the most painful aspects – the relationships that have experienced various forms of painful “stuff” – there can be a new kind of hope for congregational life.  The process continues to need calmness, thinking “systems”, some risk taking, and brave hearts empowered by God’s Spirit who places these things within us in powerful measures.  I ask people to continue trusting the process, keep connecting with others to provide mutual assurance, and holding forth hope of discovering the kinds of renewal that God can bring into our midst.

Let’s Also Take a Short “Break” – We Won’t Meet this Coming Tuesday Morning

Joan and I were invited a year ago to join friends in a special community celebration that we were part of more than twenty years ago.  It occurs on Tuesday evening.  Slight changes to that plan just came up this week, meaning we need to try leaving earlier than planned on Tuesday.

      At the same time, it seems to me that we could use a little “break” in the process mentioned above… we are hitting on the conflict things that are most emotional.  I think that my travel plans and a little break dovetail reasonably… SO, we’ll not have the Tuesday morning conversation as we have throughout June and July.  We’ll convene again Tuesday, August 5, 9-11 AM.