My good friend Rev. Fritz Nelson was pastor at our neighboring church in Malverne before departing to new pastures in Ohio. He preached his closing sermon on July 27th, 2014, in which he offered some transitional thoughts. As the church here travels through a similar process I thought it would be of value to share his reflections. Whilst some of it does not apply specifically to Baldwin, he truly offers much food for thought.
Ministry Together Community Presbyterian Church – Rev. Fritz Nelson - July 27, 2014Text:
1 Corinthians 1:1-10God is faithful. It is by God that we are all called together here to be in the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
In reflection on the last ten years of ministry here in Malverne I see God’s faithfulness time and time again, and I give thanks – for those who made the decision to call me here, for the amazing leadership of our elders over the last decade, and for your willingness to teach me, listen to me, encourage me, pray for me and engage in an amazing track record of ministry to our neighbors. God indeed has been faithful.
I am also incredibly grateful for the send off last Friday night, the wonderful gifts received and the continued dedication of our elders as they work hard to chart a path for the future. Pray for me as I go – pray for them as they stay.
About two weeks ago, fourteen kids and four clergy from Nassau Joint Ministry churches returned from a week without hot showers in Honduras. They’d been visiting with our friends Tim and Gloria Wheeler. Before they left this church gave the kids a check for about $1,200. It was our Heifer money. We could have just sent it to Arkansas and brought a few cows or pigs. Instead we said to those kids – none of whom were from this church - you are a part of us. You have been in confirmation class with our kids. Your parents or grandparents have been to classes and trainings with us. Your ministers are colleagues and partners with our minister. As you go, we go with you.
Our kids did not release that check right away. Instead they worked, watched, listened and waiting. It wasn’t until they learned that the houses they were building wouldn’t be completed until after the rainy season because there was no money for roofs that they reached into their pocket for the check. How much do you need for the roofs, they asked. About $1,200, Gloria told them. Here. God is Faithful. Our sister church in Malverne couldn’t be here, but they will finish the job we started. Now everyone can move in before the rains begin to fall.
This is what happens when we being to blur the lines between congregations, when we let the silos fall, when we say your kids are our kids and our kids are your kids. Its what happens when we say that your minister can be our minister and our minister can be your minister. Its what happens when we break bread together, pray together, study together, do mission together.
Since the beginning I’ve wondered whether Nassau Joint Ministry could do more than simply help send some kids on a great trip to Honduras. That question takes on even more urgency as the Presbyterian enterprise faces continued challenges here in Nassau County. Nassau’s Presbyterian Churches are, by definition, community churches founded at a time when – for us at any rate – the community was intentionally monocultural. Alfred Wagg, our founder, only saw the need for one church in Malverne – one church that could serve everyone because everyone was the same.
And now, a century later, God’s faithfulness is bringing the entire world to our door. Monoculture has turned into multiculture as our neighbors increasingly come from every corner of the earth, speak every language under the sun and practice any number of religions and their variants – or increasingly practice none at all. Our pews are emptier in large part because there are fewer people in our community naturally inclined to fill our pews.
While we celebrate our links to place and try to open our doors to all, Malverne’s most successful congregations care little for their local while offering a distinct theology combined with distinct worship styles that they market to a specific demographic who is willing to travel across multiple communities to worship with others who look, think, act, speak and believe just like them.
In the midst of diversity, our neighboring congregations perpetuate monoculture and appear to thrive. We, meanwhile, talk about opening our doors to all but struggle to invite our increasingly diverse neighbors in to mission and ministry with us. Monoculturalism is so much easier. The stability and comfort many of us want out of church and out of our leaders lies in direct tension with the change and dynamism needed to actively welcome our neighbors.
Its no accident that one of our sister churches just called a seventy year old white man as their minister – he’s all monoculture, all comfort and all stability. (And honestly it may be exactly what that particular congregation needs right now.) Its also no surprise that our sister church that called a former missionary to Africa is finding that their core congregation struggles to relate to her (and she to them) while at the same time participation by African members who were on the fringes of the congregation is increasing. But those members neither pay the bills nor sit on Session.
So what is a congregation to do? It may not surprise you to know that I have already been working on this for some time and had I stayed charting a new course for ministry in Nassau County was to become one of my primary occupations. And a sizable part of me wishes I could remain to see it through. Instead I leave it to our amazing and dedicated session and to my colleagues at Nassau Joint Ministries.
One option would be to abandon our community churches and create the Nassau Joint Ministries church. We’d get ourselves a new building (elevator and air conditioning required), combine our staff, have a great mission budget, and market ourselves to the specific Presbyterian demographic willing to travel across multiple communities to worship with others who look, think, act, speak and believe just like them.
Or we could radically recommit ourselves to the communities God places at our doorsteps – the very communities that in some cases are increasingly making us feel uncomfortable. While continuing to serve and care for those already inside our pews who seek peace, calm and stability, we must become missionaries in our own neighborhoods. Our leaders must bring both the comfort of the 70-year-old senior pastor and the color, vitality and ability to reach new audiences of the former missionary. And we must do this all while budgets continue to shrink.
When we first started Nassau Joint Ministries we had a vision. Was it possible, through collaboration and congeniality, to bring the advantages of a large, multi-staff church to community congregations? If we can blur the lines when we send a group of kids to Honduras, can we blur the lines when it comes to ministry in our own communities?
Malverne really needs someone skilled at pastoral care and visitation as our congregation continues to age. Malverne also really needs someone who can lead the congregation – and frankly the whole community – into its new multi-cultural reality. Our sister congregations need the same thing. What if we shared those people? What if we intentionally broadened our leadership by reducing the number of “senior pastor types” and bringing in more students, lay pastors and retirees? What if these people pastored in more than one congregation, in more than one community?
The very first program of Nassau Joint Ministries was a joint confirmation class. Frankly, if any of us had been able to launch a confirmation class on our own, we wouldn’t have done it. Both clergy and sessions were dubious. We were afraid to give up control or to alter time honored structures. We learned that just as none of us had enough kids for a confirmation class, none of us really had all the gifts and talents needed to teach a really good class. By blurring the lines between our congregations we created a really good class – the kids had more fun, they learned more, and to some extent remain more engaged in the church. Now we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Not one of South Nassau’s churches can strengthen the Presbyterian enterprise in our county alone, just as those kids in Honduras – from four churches – couldn’t finish the job without us, a fifth church. Unless we blur the lines, we don’t have the resources – either human or financial – necessary to remain rooted in our communities. Unless we blur the lines, we won’t have the resources to embrace those who have been in our pews for generations along with those God is bringing from east and west, north and south to join in his kingdom.
To blur the lines even further will be scary. To blur the lines will be hard. It will take the very thing our elders have gotten very good at over the last ten years – taking risks, trying out the new, trusting in the faithfulness of God by whom we have been called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
