A number of years ago, while working as a youth pastor at Yorktown United Methodist Church, Rev. Marilyn Gebert gave me a book called “Kneeling in Bethlehem”by Ann Weems. It’s a book of poetry centered around the Advent and Christmas seasons. It has some beautiful word pictures of this journey.

This mornig, I thought about the title, Kneeling in Bethlehem…As I meditated on that title, I realized that we can join in this act of kneeling in Bethlehem. We can kneel in Muncie, in Indianapolis, in Santa Cruz, in New York, in Dublin, in Toronto, wherever we find ourselves we can kneel in humble adoration of this amazing event. When we fully grasp (though I think it may be impossible) the magnificence of this moment…the coming of a King…I believe the only proper response is to kneel in worship. Our time of “kneeling in Bethlehem” (or Muncie), should then motivate us to live a lifestyle of worship…sharing this “good news” which is “for all people” with every single person we come in contact with. It should motivate us to be generous with our time, talents, and resources. It should inspire us to help meet the needs of those around us. It should challenge us to become faithfully obedient.

This Advent season…This Christmas, will you take time to kneel in Bethlehem…to mediate on the beauty of this moment?

The whole world waits in December darkness

for a glimpse of the Light of God.

Even those who snarl “Humbug!”

and chase away the carolers

have been seen looking toward the skies.

The one who declared he never would forgive

has forgiven,

and those who left home

have returned,

and even wars are halted,

if briefly,

as the whole world looks starward.

In the December darkness

we peer from our windows

watching for an angel with rainbow wings

to announce the Hope of the World.

~In December Darkness from Kneeling in Bethlehem by Ann Weems

 

This morning, while reading the Star Press on-line, an article caught my attention. It gave a brief look at some of the findings from the National Congregations Study.  The SP article noted that congregations are getting older, pastors are getting older, and churches are becoming more media savvy.

If you have spent any time in the modern church, this is no surprise to you. While there are a fair share of churches with younger populations (I can think of about four in Muncie), these tend to be the exception, rather than the norm. The average age of pastors is increasing. I don’t have any concrete data, but when I look at those being ordained in our Annual Conference, the average age seems to be in the 40’s. And, I think most churches and pastors are finding the benefits of technology. Websites, e-mail, media in the services all help us communicate more effectively, efficiently, and creatively.

So, if the church is getting older, what are we going to do about it? Are we shaping our ministries to attract younger generations? Or do we design our services with only ourselves in mind?

If pastors are getting older, what are we doing to recruit younger pastors. Many seminary graduates are opting to serve denominations other than the United Methodist Church. Why? Because we have a long and thorough ordination process (there are pros and cons to this). Many seminary graduates simply don’t want to jump through more hoops after graduation. This is understandable. For others called to pastoral ministry, seminary seems more like a hinderance rather than a helpful tool. They look at the course offerings and question whether or not it will actually benefit pastoral ministry. So, they end up looking for positions in denominations (or non-denominational churches) that don’t require and MDiv. Or they look for other venues of licensing. Or they simply serve in “non-pastoral” roles.

While many churches are becoming more media savvy, we still have churches and pastors who are lagging far behind. I have always believed that the Bishop should require every church in the conference to have a website and every pastor to have an e-mail account. Churches can set up free websites or blogs to serve as their home on the internet. It doesn’t have to be nice and flashy. It can simply be an information page (service times, contact information, a few upcoming events). Of course, I believe that it’s better to not have a website than one that hasn’t been updated since 2001 (I actually saw a website of a UM church in northern Indiana that listed their pastor as a guy that hasn’t been their for 5 years and their most recent events were in November of 2001). And, pastors should simply utilize e-mail (and potentially other social networking opportunities). There is so much ease of contacting people via e-mail. People can communicate their needs, questions, and such with the pastor without having an appointment or keeping the pastor on the phone for three hours. But, I know several pastors that don’t utilize e-mail (and it’s not just my senior pastor…I’ve been to several  conference meetings where pastors have said, “Um, I don’t have e-mail. So, could someone send me a hard copy of that?” My answer is always, “No, we can’t. Go get a free e-mail account.”)

The National Congregations Study shares much more information than the Star Press article. If you’re interested in church data (and they have some weird stuff too), go check it out! It just might motivate you to do some things within your congregations.

Star Press Article

National Congregations Study Website