Service

Has this ever happened to you? The “thingamajig” breaks, and we cannot fix our “thingamajig” without a “whoziwhatsit,” but we do not have a “whoziwhatsit.” So, off to the store we go. We walk in and look around. “Where, oh where,” we wonder,” can we find a “whoziwhatsit?”

Now, we could ask one of the customer service people, but we don’t need to do that! We can find it ourselves. We look high. We look low, but nowhere do we find where the “whoziwhatsits” go. Perhaps we could use some customer service. We look high. We look low, but their moving too fast; they run to and fro.

We know how it feels to be the customer in this frustrating scene, but imagine what it’s like to be the store manager: “Corporate keeps asking us to do more with less. It’s so hard to find good help.” Imagine being the customer service person: “They want us to do this. They want us to do that. What will they think of next?” The slogan in the workroom may be, “Customer service is job 1,” but the reality is “we’re not satisfied until you’re not satisfied.” Everyone’s frustrated and says to themselves: “There’s got to be a better way!”

We just experienced a crisis of shape. Form doesn’t follow function. Form impedes function. We’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Quick fixes like hiring a new manager or creating a new training program won’t make much of a difference because we’re still trying to fit square pegs in round holes. Unless the shape changes, there will be more frustrating searches for “whoziwhatsits.”

That frustration and that longing is being felt here at Pennside. The Diagnostic Analysis of how Pennside functions prompted the following observation from our consultant, Ray Schulte: “The concern heard most from church members is "How do we get younger members, more members and greater participation in our church?" It is also put another way, simply, "How can we grow numerically?"”

Take 2 minutes and discuss this week’s conversation starter, and remember, these are not “the final answer,” these are hypotheses based on the data gathered in 23 interviews of folks here at Pennside: The prevailing sense at Pennside Presbyterian Church is that the congregation is facing a "crisis of size or age." This is only a signal that this congregation is facing an even more pressing crisis -- a “Crisis of Shape”, a fundamental crisis in its understanding of what it means to be church -- faithfully and effectively -- in today and tomorrow's world.

What do you think? What does it lead you to pray for?

A crisis is an opportunity to re-connect with our core values and beliefs. It focuses our attention on the things that really matter. The Reformed tradition celebrates the fruit a crisis can produce. We believe in “the church reformed and always reforming according to the word of God.” We believe we can shape up and answer God’s call to ship out.

V SHAPE UP

Psalm 123:1-2 (NRSV) To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us.

Form follows function, so what is the function of a church, of Pennside Presbyterian Church? What are we here for?

Do you remember Stretch Armstrong? Stretch was a toy made of very pliable plastic. The commercials showed children stretching his neck out this way and pulling his arms and legs that way. Come to think of it, it was pretty creepy.

Life today leaves us feeling like Stretch Armstrong. Work pulls us this way. Family pull us that way. Our hopes and dreams pull us yet another way. And then, “Oh, no, it’s the Nominating Committee. Quick! Turn out the lights and turn off the TV. Maybe they’ll go away!”

We’re living distorted lives in a distorted world. What if we’re here to help people and this world get back in shape? What if we we’re here to “exhibit the kingdom of heaven” to the world, to show God’s better way?

Form follows function, so does our form follow this function, or is our function defined by our form? To put this another way, why do we want younger members? Why do we want to increase participation? Why do we want to grow numerically? Do these concerns grow out of God’s better way or out of our own anxieties and fears?

Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV) I beseech you therefore, [brothers and sisters], by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Pennside exists to serve. We exist to serve God who calls us to serve our neighbor. What if we shifted our focus from what Pennside can get out people to what we can give to people? What if we let go of our fears about “who will come” and dared to explore “where shall we go?” What if we “shaped up” and asked what God is calling us to give rather than fearing that we won’t get enough? Ask the right question and we’ll get the right answer.

Gary Demarest, the former associate director for evangelism at the General Assembly, wrote a delightful essay in “A Newcomer’s

Guide to the Presbyterian Church USA” titled “Perhaps you shouldn’t be Presbyterian.” He writes: “What began as a casual conversation between two strangers on an airplane quickly became an intriguing and stimulating encounter. When my identity as a member of the Presbyterian clergy emerged, the dialogue between us took a profoundly serious tone.

"Nothing personal, Reverend, but I was raised in a Presbyterian family. In fact, my grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. But I checked out a long time ago, and frankly, even if I were to get back into a church, it sure wouldn't be Presbyterian!"

"It seemed like all they ever talked about was money." "The only time anyone ever came or showed interest in me was when they wanted money."

We had better recognize that a church that only shows personal interest in people during stewardship and fund-raising drives [or when the Nominating Committee is putting the slate together for the annual meeting] is programming itself for failure. The church exists to serve people, not to bleed them.

Form follows function. Pennside exists to serve God as we serve our neighbor. God has a future with hope for Pennside. We will discover it when we lift up our eyes from our fears and frustrations, offer ourselves anew to God, and through God’s mercy and grace, we shape up.

V SHIP OUT

Thursday’s New York Times featured a story title, “The Bride Wore Very Little” that described the changes in bridal fashion and wedding etiquette: “It used to be that unless you married at home, you were married in a church,” Ms. Bratten said. But today fewer

weddings take place in a house of worship, and fewer still in the bride’s hometown.

According to a 2006 survey by Condé Nast Bridal Media, 16 percent of couples choose a destination wedding — a fourfold increase from a decade ago. The same survey found that only 46 percent of brides are married in a church or synagogue, down from 55 percent the year before.

Getting married used to be a reason people came to church. Baptisms, weddings and funerals, were services the church provided to the community. We hatched, matched, and dispatched. But now people have other priorities. They make other choices. They do not come to church. We have to go to them. We have to recover our identity as the sent people of God and ship out.

The church around the world has much to teach us in this. Africa now has the most Christians of any continent, and the Church there is making inroads into the Muslim population. The Church in China has exploded, and in Latin America and South America, vibrant, vital Christian communities are bearing witness in the midst of oppressive poverty and the corruption spawned by the drug trade. They are showing a better way. They are presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice. They refuse to conform to the world but instead are being transformed by grace and are transforming their communities. They are the church reformed and always reforming.

The question which has to be put to every local congregation is the question whether it is a credible sign of God’s reign of justice and mercy over the whole of life, whether it is an open fellowship whose concerns are as wide as the concerns of humanity, whether it cares for its neighbors in a way which reflects and springs out of God’s care for them, whether its common life is recognizable as a

foretaste of the blessing which God intends for the whole human family. (Lesslie Newbigin, Sign of the Kingdom)

There is a better way. God has a future with hope for Pennside. Reformed and always reforming according to the word of God, we can dare to shape up and ship out. We can shift our focus and ask different questions, from who can we get to what can we give, from who will come to where shall we go? We exist to serve God who sends us to serve our neighbor, so why not begin by lifting up our eyes and asking, “Lord, how can we be of service?” Amen.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

The New King James Version. 1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

http://www.pcusa.org/today/archive/newcomers/newcomer1.htm

“The Bride Wore Very Little” By RUTH LA FERLA Published: February 21, 2008 www.nytimes.com

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.