November 4, 2007

Stewardship #2

Stories to Tell, Gifts to Share
1,000 PEOPLE AND 1,000,000 MEALS

I'd like you to guess what's in this box - and I'll give you a series of clues, one at a time. Now, if you already know this little exercise - or if you're on the youth ministry Vision Team with Pete Erickson (this is why it's fun to work with him!) - don't say anything so the others have a chance to get it!

It's made of wood.
It has inward mechanical parts.
It has a winding mechanism.
It ticks or clicks when it works.
It keeps time.

What is it? (A metronome.) Now, at what point did you think you knew what it was? What was goin' through your head when I told you it was not a clock - or a music box - or a wooden soldier? And the question that Pete asked the Vision Team: What did you learn just now... that we can use... as we look at the next evolution of youth ministry at Family of Christ?

Pete went on to use a verse from Matthew's gospel: "You don't put new wine into old wineskins." An exercise like this shows that our assumptions sometimes interfere with understanding where to go in our next chapter and how to get there, recognizing resources, seeing possibilities, realizing the "hold" that our possessions have on us (among other things)... and truly seeing the children among us. THAT's where I want us to look again.

Every mom and dad of any preschooler who went trick-or-treating on Wednesday had the experience repeated again this year - how little kids without any hesitation give away their treats - give them away to parents who beg for just one of those bite-size chocolates, give their goodies away to big kids who want to trade - even give them to trick-or-treaters who come to the door after your children get back home. I watched it myself on Halloween. In the spirit of giving and receiving - not merely saying "Thank you" at every door - how eagerly and willingly our little children share.

I think that's something of what Jesus meant when he talked about receiving the kingdom of God in the ways that children do, "from cradle to graduation," as I call it today, and even beyond because you and I are learning from their examples.

Your colorful bulletin insert gives you a preview of what you'll receive later in the week, and it's why I used the metronome today, to expand our assumptions to possibilities that at first we cannot imagine. Five years from now we want our ministry to children, youth, and family to be "world class," and we'll discover what that means as we get there. I say "world class" also at least means ministry faithful and exceptional, not imitative of what someone else is doing. Faithful... to what God is calling us to do in our ministry right here, from our heritage of faith, our worship life, with the resources we have and our Lutheran values... and ministry with quality, substance, and influence exceptional enough to be worth teaching others.

I'm convinced that this congregation has the resources to touch and serve far more people than we think we can. (Are we only a clock, in other words, or could we be a metronome?) We have it within our reach, collectively, to touch a thousand people here, a thousand overseas, and make a million meals. Our youth ministry mission trips have already proved it, and our children's eagerness does too. One of last year's 9th grade confirmands, for his Faith in Action project, decided to try to pack 100,000 meals at the nonprofit charity called Feed My Starving Children. One student! (Along with his family), one hundred thousand meals! Could his church pack the rest to reach a million? Of course! - not counting the mac-and-cheese stacked up against that wall over there in less than a month.

You see, I think we need to line up behind our children who are teaching us generosity and vision, from cradle to graduation - preschoolers who'll give their treats away, senior high mission students eradicating cockroaches in Mr. Roy's house out in Virginia. If we could receive the kingdom of God like they do... well, much smaller goals seem so much more do-able, don't they?

In the next school year, we'd like to eliminate the multiple fees for most of our children's programs and activities. Faithful Christian parents raising faithful Christian children is the church's mission. We all have a stake in the children of this Family and our communities, because we are depending on younger generations to run our country and maintain democracy and provide health care for us and populate our churches and be our pastors. We rely on them to do right by us twenty-five years from now. I think you and I are in it together with all the parents of our church to do right by our kids right now.

Mission trips are another side of that with bigger financial costs. It seems appropriate for parents and students to pay a third of the cost, and fundraising another one-third is good experience and good team-building and the students' own "investment" in their work. But if together we are making disciples making a difference, let's put Family of Christ's money behind their mission, too.

Next weekend in our country we'll observe Veterans Day. Regardless of how anyone feels about the Iraq War, we owe our thanks to military men and women, those serving now, those who have given a considerable portion of their time and service earlier, and those who gave their lives. There's good reason our parents and grandfathers are called The Greatest Generation.

This weekend in the Christian church is All Saints Day. Regardless of denomination or tradition, we honor the memory of faithful Christians who have gone before us, great generations... many of them in our own families and relationships, but in the mystery of the Body of Christ, we realize we are surrounded by a great cloud of faithful witnesses stretching back through time and place - people unrelated to us by family ties but still they gave themselves, their lives, and efforts to bring us to where we are today, to provide for us... often literally: They built the churches where we went to Sunday School. They gave their money to buy the church camps, support the seminaries, pay youth directors' salaries and music ministries of our childhood and teenage years.

Maybe we were influenced by a Christian preschool teacher (if there were such things in our day) or by a campus pastor at the college we attended. It might have been an usher who winked at us youngsters each time he brought the offering basket to our row. The women in the kitchen... the janitor... the lady with the flannel board and the big upright piano in the basement... and, we realize now, the generosity and faith which they passed on to us.

Look at the babies baptized this weekend, the students leading music at 10:45 today, teaching in our church school as we speak, LifeGuides themselves on Wednesday nights, teenagers sponsoring students in El Salvador, raking leaves and making shut-in visits... they are leading the way to touch a thousand people and provide a million meals - and we grownups realize that now it's our turn to be the next greatest generation for them.

Someday they'll have their own turn to provide the money for the mission but for now, "from cradle to graduation - and beyond" they teach us.

Nathan Castens
Chanhassen, Minnesota