How's Business?

Jacob Marley spoke the truth of his misspent life to Scrooge in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" when Scrooge remarked that his late partner was an honest man of business,

"BUSINESS? Mankind was my business! Their common welfare was my business! ...It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men! If it goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death! It is doomed to wander through the world! Oh, woe is me! And witness what it cannot share but MIGHT HAVE SHARED on Earth and turned to happiness!"

I've just been preparing to take part in the leadership of a seminar this Sunday on the book "I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church" by Paul Nixon. It's a provocative book. It's a book about us in the so-called "Mainline" church by one of us, a minister in the United Methodist Church.

I've never met Paul Nixon nor heard him speak, but I imagine in reading this book that he is so passionate about the church of Jesus Christ that he shows no partiality in speaking his mind about the ways in which our churches would rather choose the sameness of death rather than the faithfulness of life in the community that Christ has called together to be the Church.

The part of the seminar that I'm leading is the workshop on the chapter in the book that asks the reader to choose the frontier over the fortress. His premise in this chapter is that most of our congregations have a fortress mentality. He stated that there is a definite correlation between the construction of a permanent building and the decline of church membership. He underlines this observation with statistics from United Methodist Church archives.

In one passage from this chapter Nixon wrote of his work as a consultant with local churches. He said that he loves to ask congregations what the business of the church is. Usually folks say that it's to glorify God, or to love our neighbors, or to win souls for Christ.

He noted how different this answer is from that which the earliest Methodists on the American frontier would have answered. He said that at the turn of the 19th century Methodists sought "to reform the nation and spread scriptural holiness over the land." Still, he points out that regardless which of these aspects of the church's business we choose, it's difficult to truly live these out unless we get out of our buildings.

Nixon encourages his readers to make the business of the church about mission to the community. Forgive me if this sounds like a book report. I don't mean it to be. I do know that it reminds me of another book that employed the concept of mission as the churches purpose. C Kirk Hadaway wrote about transformational communities of faith in his book, "Behold I Do a New Thing."

Hadaway referred to the observations of organizational analyst Peter Drucker in stating that when Drucker asks corporations to answer the question, "What is your business?" they don't know exactly. "In fact, one major study demonstrated that the business of corporations that were successful over many years was not in producing a specific product, but to meet a specific need in society. The product they are producing is simple a way to meet that need."

Hadaway went on to answer this question on behalf of the church, quoting Drucker again, "The business of a church is to change people; the business of a corporation is to satisfy them."

We may not like to think of the church as having a business. No matter, we could insert the term 'purpose' if we'd rather. The point is to ask ourselves how we are keeping to our purpose. If we use Hadaway's definition that the church's purpose is to change people, then it is important for us to ask ourselves whether our congregation is changing people? Is our congregation changing the community around us? If the answer is, "no," then the congregation has a different purpose and that purpose says Hadaway is probably satisfying people.

Putting the two books together, our business is about mission, about serving people outside the walls of the church. If we are more concerned with maintaining church buildings, we are not doing mission. If we look at our church buildings as vehicles for doing mission, our prayers and praises as the conduit for mission, our life together as the bond that enables us to go and "walk abroad among our fellow men [and women]," then we are in sync with our purpose as the church.

I rejoice in the weekly emails from Journey UCC, the new church start in Slingerlands in the southwestern suburbs of Albany. Pastor Sandy Damhof and the new flock of UCC congregants are alive in the spirit. They are praying for one of their members on a mission trip in Africa. They worship, hold Bible studies, involve themselve in mission.

All of these things are wonderful. But they do not do them alone. They are in mission together with their sponsoring church, the Clinton Heights Christian Church UCC. They receive support from the New York Conference. In short Journey UCC is a marriage of many saints that are working together to be change agents and witnesses to the Blessed Community that is the Church of Jesus Christ. Check out their website:

Likewise the North Congregational Church, Middletown has partnered with the wonderful outreach ministry of Steve Ruelke on the streets of nearby Newburgh. Ecclesia Ministries of Newburgh holds services every Sunday afternoon on the street. Steve writes:

"Our work is about walking the streets and meeting, greeting and accepting others for who they are, where they are. It is about building relationships with people who have seen their support structures fall apart and who have no good reason to trust anyone. Our message is a simple one - You matter. No matter who you are, you matter. No matter what you’ve done in your life, you matter. Others may have left you, but God has not and God will not leave you. Listen! "

Here is a glimpse of Ecclesia's website.

Project Hodos is a new church start in Saugerties. Admittedly in the formative stages, founding pastor John Speers has a website, produces blogs, and holds weekly God Talk sessions in a local Senior Citizens Center. Here is the link to Project Hodos website: http://projecthodos.org/drupal/ .

The Hartford Yoked Parish (ABC/UCC), with pastor Mike Richards is sponsoring the street ministry of Terry Mosholder in Glens Falls.

Evangelical Protestant Church in the Port of Albany continues its longstanding alternatives to incarceration ministry under the direction of pastor John Miller.

Plymouth Church, Syracuse, advocates for justice for migrant workers and immigrants through the New Sanctuary Movement.

How's business? God's business is hopping in God's churches that have the eyes to see and the will to follow through on the work of reconciliation, of transformation of people and nations.

Blessings,

Rick Cowles