Associate Pastor’s Letter
by Pastor Becky Kindig
Greetings!
Happy Easter everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful celebration.
I was thinking about Easter and the resurrection and about the new possibilities that God gives us all. Before the miracle of the resurrection, before Christ rose from the dead, we were pretty limited in the possibilities that we imagine for ourselves. But because of this miracle, we can realize that if it is God’s plan, nothing is impossible!
A few weeks ago there was a presbytery event for small churches and it was wonderful. The speaker, George Budine, is a member of our presbytery and the commissioned ruling elder who is serving Nichols Presbyterian Church, and has also been trained by the PC(USA) in the New Beginnings curriculum that helps churches to see a path forward when they have become stuck. He has experienced the resurrection kind of miracle in his congregation at Nichols, and has seen that kind of transformation at many other congregations he has worked with. When church people stop worrying about how to continue to “do church” the way it has always been and start listening to where God is calling the church to be now and into the future, it is amazing what can be done.
Some examples that George shared from that morning show that they can be done with not a lot of money or resources—just love and the ability to open our eyes to where the needs of the community are.
One example was a church that had a park next to it. A couple of guys from the church bought a bag of basketballs and committed to going to play basketball once a week. They brought the bag and soon some kids asked if they could play too. Some played next to them and some played with them. As they played together over the next several weeks they got to know them, built a relationship with these kids, and got to know what their gifts were and where they needed some help. Many were from the poor neighborhood on the other side of the park. Many didn’t have fathers and their moms were busy working two jobs just to get by. They needed some mentors in their lives.
As the months went by, these kids became curious about the church that the men talked about all the time and soon started coming to volunteer at things and started to attend worship. They brought their families. The church was open to receiving them because the men had been telling them all along about the ministry they were doing playing basketball. And the church, instead of judging these kids or their families, embraced them and found more ways to help their neighborhood once they got to know these families. And the families now had a connection to a place that they could use their gifts and skills to help others as well. All from a bag of basketballs, a commitment to playing together once a week, and a willingness to be open to where God led them.
We heard this message also from Jan Edmiston, the co-moderator of the PC(USA)’s 222nd General Assembly, at the conference Kimberly and I went to last weekend. The key to a thriving congregation is to spend time getting to know your community, look for where God’s heart is hurting in the church’s neighborhood, and find ways to address that problem. It should not be focused on getting the people we serve to join the church—just helping because it is what God calls us to do. And then as a consequence, when churches are busy sharing God’s love in the community, other people witness it and want to be part of a church that does that kind of good work. This is something that we here at UPC already know. We have our Community Meal on Tuesdays because it is the right thing to do, not to pressure the guests to join. But the work we are doing in the community is why many of you are here.
But from what we are hearing about thriving congregations, our next challenge is to get out of our doors. I would pray that this be the year we start to find ways of doing things outside of this building. How many of us even know who all is on our block? What if we took some time maybe this summer to prayer walk our block once a week? What if we scheduled regular times to sit on the front stairs and talk with people as they walked by? What could happen if we make a commitment to going out of the church to build relationships, and then being open to what God brings?
We have started doing the work of finding out what is around us. I would hope that we all continue to be in prayer to be open to what God might be bringing to us next and have the courage to embrace it. This Easter season is a time when we can start to imagine things that we would not have seen for ourselves 5 years ago or even last year. I encourage you to keep going. Keep imagining what could be possible with the resources you have and God will bring the rest. Because if it is God’s plan, nothing is impossible!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Becky