July 13, 2015

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Romans 1: 8, 11-12

“…to give pertinent guidance to (persons of leisure and persons who work, persons of misfortune and those who have never experienced misfortune) is no easy task. Just as the same food and medicine is not appropriate to every bodily ailment, so neither is the same treatment and discipline proper for the guidance of souls. Some persons are better motivated by words, others by example. Some respond best to confidential correction, while others seem unmovable except by public rebuke. The pastoral principle: variability. All persons are not to be treated in the same way.” Gregory of Nazianzus (330 – 389) Oration II 28-33 “For All The Saints” volume IV, (p. 162-164)

“That we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” I think Paul is drawing an important distinction — one that people often forget about — that each person’s faith experience, faith expression, and faith understanding is not the same. Not everyone grew up in a church, and if you did, each of our experiences of church will be unique: unique experiences in ministries, unique worship expressions, and unique personalities, even if we all attended a “Lutheran” or “Methodist” or “Evangelical” church. Those experiences, or a lack of experience, will form how we look at worship, ministry, and the people of our congregations right now.

Many people see worship as an expression of their life’s experiences, and so don’t like to see things change — as humans we live to promote sameness. Many will think that if their experience of worship or ministry has been done a certain way for X number of years, by suggesting changes, or introducing changes, their first reaction may be “Do you mean to tell me we have been doing it wrong all these years.” New ideas or new ways of thinking about worship, ministry and ecumenism should be looked upon as mutually edifying — not as a critique of how things have been done in the past.

New ideas or new ways of expressing our faith are not automatically critical of past expressions — they are simply new ways that the Holy Spirit may be working in a person’s life, or the life of the congregation. May we see new ideas in our worship, ministry and ecumenism as blessings — not as critiques.

Pastor Dave