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Message from Pastor Bill – September 2009
Flex Church
Dear Saints:
St. Matthew, this month marks the visible fruition of eight months of conversation, collaboration, and an investment strategy for this church and community when a Community Festival known as the Jump Off is held on Saturday, September 26th from 12-4 pm. This is a result of my vision coming from Matthew the fourteenth chapter that illustrates Peter's walk on water, and the need for our church and community to become a catalyst despite our doubts, questions, and even reluctance in reaching out to the community. This Festival is also a result of outreach meetings, prayer and collaboration with the Senior Pastor, a newly formed African American Lutheran Association, and the innovative souls that make-up this great church. I am asking all of you to utilize your God-given gifts for this endeavor to welcome our neighbors by displaying acts of kindness, hospitality, and bringing the culinary dishes unique to this church. As we prepare to 'jump off' with this Community festival and other initiatives setting forth the long term strategic plan for this church and community, I challenge all of you to become a Flex Church.
A Flex Church can be defined as: the free and flexible sharing of our spiritual and material resources. It's the perfect way to keep a community's abundance and needs in balance. An example of this is found in Paul's second letter to the Church of Corinth, chapter 8, verses 7-15. Paul urgently reminds the Church at Corinth that, because of their vast monetary resources, they had a responsibility to open up their pockets for the sake of other less fortunate emerging Christian communities of faith—such as found in the community surrounding our church. This is not to say that the Corinthians were anxious to pony up and put their hard-earned cash in the collection plate. Although it appears that they responded enthusiastically to Paul's appeal at first, they then began to hit the brakes, and so the apostle has to put some pedal to the metal by saying, "now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means" (v. 11).
But talk of money aside, Paul challenges them, as I do the parishioners of St. Matthew, to strive for balance. Paul wants them to be as fair and free and as flexible as possible, making sure that there are always resources and support available for members of the Christian community. It is a question of "a fair balance," says Paul, "a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance" (vv. 13-14).
Fair balance is the engine that drives a Flex Church.
In day-to-day life, this means simply sharing what you have. "For example, you have five apples, so you give away three," suggests Victoria Sirota, vicar of the Church of the Holy Nativity in Baltimore. And why not? "They were going to go bad before you ate them anyway."
Once you begin to behave in this way, you discover that the first step in ministry is simply sharing what you have in abundance.
It may be apples, or computers—or even Apple computers.
It may be carpentry skills or child-care abilities or an interest in teaching English as a Second Language.
This kind of work turns into ministry when you begin to see that it is a way of achieving balance—balance between your own personal abundance and the world's pressing needs.
As we, St. Matthew, welcome the community visibly to our church grounds through a community festival later this month; let us remember to balance our resources for the greater good as we reinvest ourselves as a community of faith. I know that this jump off initiative will not be devoid of challenges. Much like a marriage, we can expect the pursuit of such relationships to be awkward at times. Yet we should remain committed to working through misunderstandings and unintentional hurts and to overcoming petty issues that otherwise might keep us apart. The task, as Paul said, is "to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:2-3).
Peace and Power,
Pastor Bill
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