Two weeks ago when Nan Costello asked me if I would preach in Pastor Susan’s absence, I thought of two things: first a little book I’ve been toying with writing and secondly an email conversation I recently had with an educator friend who was telling me about her church who had called a new pastor about a year and a half ago.  I told Nan that I’d let her know.  I was already conjuring up the excuses for not doing it.  You know them…because we all use them: uncertainty about some personal health concerns, not enough time, developing a sermon takes too much time, I was preparing to take care of grandchildren, and we were probably entertaining for Father’s Day.  Best of all….I knew that Nan could get someone else to do it!

That afternoon, I looked at the lectionary readings for this Sunday.  When I saw the Hebrew Scripture was 1 Samuel, I knew I was in trouble.  I Love Samuel: both books and the story of the guy himself!  Then I saw that the Gospel reading was one of the Kingdoms of God parables.  Golly, I had recently taken a course at Hebrew Union on those very Parables.  Things were coming together within me: my semi-started book, the conversation with my educator friend, and the Lectionary readings.  I disregarded my excuses and phoned Nan to tell her I’d be delighted to “fill the pulpit’.

So now will you pray with me?

I believe that when MA first called Ed Dystra as an interim pastor, I either preached or wrote something about “The interim Time”.  It was also about this time that I wrote an outline for a small book that I had in mind to title How to be the Best Dysfunctional Church Ever.  I’ve done a bit of speaking and visiting in churches since then and laughingly shared that I was thinking about writing a book with such a title.  Everyone always responds with “you must be writing about our church”…so somehow people identify with the title.  I must confess the outline and what currently is gathered as text is not of any one congregation, but relies on bits and pieces of probably a hundred churches.

My pretend book begins with “What’s Happened to Us”, the chapter about loosing a pastor for whatever reason …from a beloved pastor literally dropping dead in the pulpit, to retirement, to a pastor following another call.  Whatever…the pastor is gone, some folks are mad, some are glad, and some are sad.  We’ve been there, right?

 It’s difficult to be in that place called interim time…where the congregation either pulls together or in some cases apart.  The interim pastor and the session attempt to get all the correct facts out to the congregation, try to take the pulse of the membership, and attempt to get the right leadership in the needed places.  We’ve been there as well.

Meanwhile the congregation tries to evaluate who there really are, and the Pastor search committee (PNC) begins its long, demanding, and sometimes painful work of discernment.  Like Samuel, many pass before the PNC and it’s difficult to not get caught up in first appearances.  It’s a leap of faith to reach that special place within the soul to realize that God does not see as mortals see.  God does not look at the outward appearance but rather God looks on the heart. My friends, I have observed many Search Committees on all four levels of our denomination, and I have been on such committees…but I have never felt so certain that MA’s most recent PNC reached that special place of discernment…the place where it’s not “my way” but “God’s Way”, the place where stillness trumps persuasion, the place where you know the one whom God names.

And so, one of the chapters in my pretend book talks about all the struggles a PNC must overcome in the temptations to short circuit the search process: the pressures from those in the congregation who want results quickly, the guilt of time spent from family, the fear that other parts of members' lives including professions are being short changed.  You’ve been there, haven’t you PNC members?

Another chapter talks about what’s happening within the leadership and congregation during the time of search.  Some folks leave…because the interim pastor just isn’t enough.  Some folks prioritize needs by developing a list either in reality or unconsciously by saying “this is important” and should be done right now while sadly more and more things are left for “when the new pastor comes”.  We’ve all heard churches put forth the thought that is kind of “Well the roof is truly falling in, but we thought we’d wait to do something about it because probably the person whom we call as pastor would want to have input in the color of the shingles.”  It truly is the best of times or the worst of times.

Then the pastor is called by both the church and by God.  Everyone is excited.  Now things will move, attendance will improve, our finances will be on the upswing, staff will have a leader, and best of all: my pet project or program will surely be the new pastor’s as well.  And won’t it be wonderful to relax and not have to work so hard… time to get off the such and such committee, time to relinquish leadership to others, after all it was mostly me and my group that has held this church together during the interim time so now it’s time to just relax and enjoy some good worship experiences.  Oh, by the way, surely the new pastor would like to be my best friend and therefore go to lunch, breakfast, brunch, dinner, movies, concerts, and other events with just me or with me and my close friends.  Life will be good.

Well maybe and maybe not.  Listen to some of the things I have heard over the years from newly called pastors:

“Sometimes I feel that I have walked into a field of land mines.”

“I did not know the history behind that piano…that it was a memorial and had never been moved from that place since Jim died.”

“I feel that I have the ghosts of pastors-past lurking around.” 

“I don’t know how to interpret it when a member says “you know I reeeally liked how Rev. Smith use to do Communion.”

“I wonder how long I have before folks feel the honeymoon is over with my being their pastor.” 

“I can’t understand why so and so has removed herself from Session or the such and such committee?”

“I don’t understand why the nominations committee is having such a difficult time in enlisting leadership?”

“Perhaps, I misread my perception of the mission and vitality of this congregation.”

But the thing that I hate to hear most of all was what came from a pastor who had been just less than two years at a church near Kansas City: “How could I have so misunderstood God’s call”?

That brings me to yet another chapter in my pretend book that is titled “Who Are You?  And Who Do You Think You Are?”   If we could design some brief instrument that could allow churches to answer those questions clearly and concisely, we would be rich and in demand to lead workshops all over the country, because congregations of today change monthly, and instruments that were once thought to be just the ticket for gathering who a congregation is are woefully outdated.  That is where we are in today’s life.  But I’ve developed for my wanna-be book ten questions that a church who has called a new pastor can ask:

1. How does being a member at this church differ from membership in the local. Men’s or Women’s Chorus, a club that makes quilts for the homeless, the Assoc. of Christian Athletes, or Green Peace?

2. Do we feel uncomfortable talking about Jesus?

3. Do we feel that we can take “time out” when we’ve just called a new pastor who needs us all for “time in”?

4. What are our ideas about membership? What does membership in a church mean?

5. What do we want to claim as vital to pass on to the next generation that only we as a Christian Church can do as opposed to one of the many fine justice, missions, or service- oriented groups in our communities?

6. How do we do adult “continuum education” within our congregation, within our being as a person of faith? Do we consider a 15-20 minute sermon as sufficient for continuum ed?  If we were here all 52 Sundays and each sermon would be 20 minutes, we would have 17 and a half hrs. of yearly continuum ed.

Would your profession accept those hours as sufficient to keep you sharp, motivated and connected? Is that enough continuum ed to fuel your faith 

7. How do we prepare for leadership now and for future leadership? 

8. Who are our neighbors? 

9. How do we share our faith with one another? Explore new programs? Evaluate old programs? Reach out with new eyes? Provide for use of gifts? Focus on what God is calling us to be? 

10. Do we realize that all we really have is simply interim time…the time between? 

The epistle reading for today instructs us to walk by faith, not by sight and together have confidence in facing tomorrow. “Facing tomorrow”… but there is no permanence in tomorrows…we have just now…the interim time between what has been in our lives and what will be…this time now…the time we have together. 

The Gospel reading is very familiar…I suspect that each of us if we rooted around our house could fine a plastic globe or a piece of jewelry with a tiny mustard seed it. This mustard seed parable is a metaphor for the church today but not in the way those of us who are over 50 have been taught…merely that of something tiny growing into something big (like faith growing or a small membership church growing) but here’s how I think it’s like the church today:  first, we as people of faith have spent approximately 4 decades arguing over whether the mustard seed grows into a 15 ft. tree or a 3-5 ft. bush! It’s easier to discuss height than letting go of control or talking about faith.  

The Coptic Gospel of Thomas agrees with Mark as oppose to Matthew and Luke in describing the mustard seed as growing into a shrub and producing a large branch that becomes a shelter. We also now know that it’s a fiery plant with a fiery taste, it’s good for our health and it grows wild. It was especially wild in Jesus’ time and in some cases was traded to other parts of the Empire as a commodity. It improves if provided with good, tilled earth. It germinates immediately and it spreads. However the parable as told in both Mark and Thomas is initiated by Jesus not as his response to a question, and it seems to me that he is saying to us that if we do the planting, the providing, have the vision, the hope, then we must be prepared to let God take over because like mustard, God is invasive! 

Some of us who like organization and “yes” have a little trouble with control issues, perhaps would consider this wild, invasive mustard as somewhat dysfunctional. We have to come to terms that we can’t always have complete control in being God’s people, in discipleship, in servant hood.  Jesus was saying that God is like that mustard seed and calls us to be present and willing to let our discipleship flourish. 

My wanna-be book doesn’t have an ending as yet but in spite of what one thinks of the word “Dysfunctional” in the title, it does offer a vision, it nurtures the idea that all church members must be a part of hope, that congregants must be assured that indeed as with Samuel, God was with us as we set out to find someone with whom to serve God faithfully. God assures us now in helping us see as God sees: in the heart. Now we must be present, active in our tilling, as we marvel that when we have vision, hope and are anticipating that what we do today will afford something wonderful…..outrageous, growing abundantly, out of our control and beyond our wildest imaginations! We can face tomorrow with confidence because we are living and serving fully with what we really have and that is now, today; this is the time, the interim time between what has been and what will be. Praise be to God