04/30/2020

Stories of Faith in the Southern Ohio Synod May 5, 2020

“… you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ.”

- 2 Corinthians 9:13

THANK YOU

Essential Employees.

Stronger and Better Together

HERE’S THE CHURCH …

In this the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am reminded of the nursery rhyme “Here’s the church… Here’s the Steeple … Open the door … And if you folded you hands the wrong way, the rhyme would end up being … And there’s no people. Many of us are attending church through Facebook live or another live streaming social media outlet to allow our pastors to minister to us. They are standing at the alter, talking to a camera in an empty building many of us call “church.”

This simple Sunday School nursery rhyme ties together the church building and the people of God that meet, as being two halves of a whole, like the two hands intertwined together, like peanut butter and jelly, like they somehow belong together. But the early history of the Christian church was a very different story. For a few centuries after Jesus died, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, Christians came together primarily in homes, as we are doing today. The church was the people of God—not a building. But then the church began to build buildings where more of them could gather together, and, over time, the “church” became both people and building. Our simple nursery rhyme carries that a bit further: it seems to imply that if we want to go to—be a part of— the church, then we must go to a church building, and—even more limiting—we are only church while we are in the building.

Is the church the people or the building? If the church is the building (and when I say building I mean: the structure, the facilities, the committees, the organization), then coming to church can quickly become an obligation to meet with dues to pay and mandatory volunteer service time to accomplish. I go to church. This is also what I do for the Lord.

Thankfully, that is not the way God made His Church. Church, our nursery rhyme reminds us, is primarily the people. The building is a house where we choose to meet (and like any house if needs maintained and repaired), our organizational structures and liturgies are part of how we choose to manage our resources and worship together, but the church family—the people—are our home. We are the church. The Christian church has always been the people who by the grace of God have come to saving faith in Jesus, and because of Jesus their world has changed.

The church is the people of God, plural, a community, a family, brought together to show Jesus to their community and to show Jesus to each other. Christianity was never a solo gig, because being part of a family means you have the responsibility to love and care for each other. Being alone misses the point of that—and even though this current health emergency requires us to be separated, we are never truly separate from one another. We are still part of God’s family. We are still the church , and we continue to minister to show Jesus to one another and to our communities from our own homes. As we minister together separately, our financial support is still needed for our local church and our wider mission. Please remember your tithes and offerings. Someday soon, we will once again be able to say:

            Here’s the church,

            Here’s the steeple,

            Open the door,

            Here’s all the people.

But until then, the church—and God’s mission—continues from within our own doors, as God always intended.

--Dale L. Poppe, Lay Minister

RE-EVALUATION OF GIVING PATTERNS

In times like these, it seems that all our usual patterns must be re-evaluated—including our giving patterns.  For some, these challenging times mean we have less to give, and we must reduce our congregational giving.  That is perfectly appropriate!  Others, finding themselves less impacted financially, will want to give more to sustain their congregations and support their siblings in Christ during a difficult time.  

Even the pattern of HOW we give has been disrupted as we are not able to worship together in our churches—and online giving options have been deeply appreciated in congregations that make this available.  Since we don’t think the popularity of these options will fade in the “new normal” to come, leaders might want to investigate making them available.

Having to re-evaluate our patterns is not a bad thing—on the contrary, it can be very helpful to do so, even in good times.  For an example of how you might think intentionally about your financial well-being during these times, see this resource:

http://sharesavespend.com/blog/coronavirus-and-your-financial-wellbeing-0

And for further information on some online giving platforms made available to us through the ELCA’s Preferred Vendor program, see these links:

Tithely https://get.tithe.ly/elca

Vanco https://www.vancopayments.com/egiving/elca

--Pastor Katie Kerrigan, Director of Mission Support

#strongertogether #bettertogether #sosynod #sosmissionterritory

#sosmissionmoment #stewardshipmoment