Nebraska Synod ELCA

By Deacon Sunni Richardson, Director for Leadership Development

Along with the nine congregations participating in Cohort 2 of the Vitality Initiative for Congregations (VIC), I have been wrestling with what on the surface appears to be a simple question. Is the question we’re asking a God question or a church question? Are we looking at things from the perspective of church attendance, budget, numbers, and position or are we faithfully considering where God may be leading us?

The question is the short version of two big questions authors Dwight Zscheile, Michael Binder and Tess Pinkstaff ask in their book Leading Faithful Innovation: Following God into a Hopeful Future.

• What might God be up to amid the seismic changes the church and our culture are undergoing?
• What opportunities will congregations encounter if they rediscover and follow God’s leading?

Addressing these two questions raises the topic of risk exposure. Every time you meet with an investment representative such as Portico or Thrivent, they ask you about risk exposure. How far am I willing to go? Will I stay conservative and forgo the opportunity to gain more on my investments? Does the risk feel too big? Am I going to sit tight in my comfort zone even though it may mean the loss of dollars I definitely could use in my retirement account? You know where I am going with this… Are you playing it safe and holding your cards tight and in doing so you are missing out on opportunities God has provided?

Risk is required for experimentation, which in the church seems to be really hard. You know this as a leader. What if it does not work? What if we lose money? What if no one comes? What if “donor Joe/Sally/Juan” is not happy? What if…? I know you can name the nay-sayers in the congregation. What about the yay-sayers? What about those who are ready to forge a new path, start a new ministry or step in as a leader? Connecting the dots here? Are you holding the congregation back because of your fears? Are you in the way? Have you helped create a culture that invites conversation and an ear to God’s invitation? Does your risk exposure allow you to follow when God says, “Here is the way walk in it”? (Isaiah 30:19-21)

Risk – listening – open to the Spirit – experimentation – They are all pieces of this story I just have to share from St. Matthew in Omaha. They participated in the first VIC cohort and recently shared an overview of their work and discoveries in the past six months. Council president Scott Albright titled the report St. Matthew Lutheran Church A COMMUNITY HUB IN THE “AKSARBEN” NEIGHBORHOOD (caps are Scott’s). A “community hub”… not the language they were using at the start of their vitality journey. Dwelling in the question of “Who are we?” and interviewing organizations in the area, they came to realize the importance of “neighborhood” in a geographic area that did not have a neighborhood center. The team began to see the church building as a hub and to think support and partnerships instead of the usual question of how we get them to join our church or to help us with our needs. Scott’s report goes on to list ways they have been able to engage with neighbors and serve while building connections. He listed numerous ways they have responded to God nudges with the food pantry, an expanded elementary school partnership, global connections with a parish and school in Tanzania, serving newborns through the local hospitals, refugee assistance and providing meeting space for numerous community groups. Definitely important accompaniment work. But it is what Scott added at the bottom of the page that is the biggie. Scott wrote, It is the estimate of this writer that, possibly, twice the number of persons use Saint Matthew’s building during the week than attend worship service on Sunday morning. Perhaps, at some point we may have felt this to be some sort of “failure” on our part. I believe most of the members of Saint Matthew now recognize how we have been, “blessed to be a blessing,” to our community.

Blessed to be a blessing! May you come to realize you are blessed to be a blessing. Amen.