Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • Exceptional Church Service at 1st UMC Niagara Falls

    Even when traveling I like to make it to church, and I especially like to visit new churches and see just what they’re doing. One often ends up in an annoying service, but I’ve also had some of my most encouraging moments with regard to the state of the church in attending services I picked out of the yellow pages (as I did today) when traveling.

    Today’s choice was First United Methodist Church of Niagara Falls. I couldn’t even find a web site for them, but I could follow the directions to their address, so off I went. I’ve previously blogged about St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Niagara Falls, which is now closed. That was disappointing though not too surprising due to small congregation and large building that was demanding to maintain. The good news is that the building was donated to a growing congregation and is thus still being used to God’s glory.

    I generally am not going to blog about negative experiences, and certainly not by name. There’s enough negative stuff going around. I’ll do what I can to influence United Methodist worship by underlining the things I like.

    Since Niagara Falls First UMC doesn’t appear to have a web site, I’m not sure what the situation is with the pastor. Rev. Tom Kraft, listed as senior pastor of Pendleton Center UMC was presiding, and appeared to be covering the church as pastor. A retired pastor under appointment is listed on the conference web site. In any case, Pastor Tom conducted an excellent worship service.

    Amongst the things I really appreciated were the relaxed style, even for a service with liturgy in a traditional format, well-done music. The choir isn’t large, but is accompanied and well-directed by Carl Mayer. I could listen to him play twice as much without getting bored, but then the service would probably be too long. He chooses music that is well suited to the choir size and abilities. (Probably the most common failure in church choir directors is selected music that doesn’t suit the choir. Even a non-musician such as myself will notice the results.) He also plays some engaging music on the piano.

    Probably my biggest pet peeve, and the one I encounter the most frequently is a communion service that is sort of an appendix to the service. You’ve probably all experienced such services. The whole service appears to go one direction, and then all of a sudden it feels like someone suddenly remembers communion. This is followed by a rote reading of the liturgy from the UM hymnal with no additions, a very formal blessing of the elements, and offering the elements in an efficient and rapid way.

    In this case, the liturgy of communion fit in, Pastor Tom connected liturgy and proclamation of the word seamlessly, “words appropriate to the season” were sprinkled where they belonged, and thus the Eucharist became part of a unified act of worship. The pastor prayed for people at a kneeling rail which I think is an awesome addition to the service.

    It is unfortunate that the sanctuary was much less than half filled. The folks who weren’t sitting in those pews missed something special.

    I say all this not to flatter or advertise a particular congregation but simply to relate my own experience, and hopefully to encourage some folks. I’m not a consultant on liturgy, and I have no idea what next week will bring at this church. But why not take the trouble to visit churches on vacation? Sometimes you will be disappointed, but many times you will be blessed, and maybe you will have an opportunity to bless others. I have found that I receive a blessing many more times than I’m disappointed. Often I see things that I can take back to my home church and apply. I also find that actually experiencing various United Methodist churches is a strong antidote to the negative attitude of some United Methodists about our denomination.

    There was nothing really complex used in this service. Simple props and a video screen enhanced the presentation of the Word, but the props didn’t take over the message. The sermon was on “Handling Complaints” from Exodus 16. I particularly like the suggestion of the “five finger check”–when someone claims “everyone” is complaining, ask them to name five. I think that would work. Enthusiasm, energy, and a serious effort at congregational involvement all paid off. Of course it didn’t hurt at all that the pastor presented a message he clearly believed, and thought important, or that he clearly was fully involved in the Eucharist.

    I won’t be in Niagara Falls for another Sunday, so this will be the only church service for this trip. I hope all those faithful readers who have tomorrow off will enjoy themselves, and I empathize with those who have to work!

  • In Niagara Falls, NY

    I spent yesterday traveling, and thus no blogging. Well, I could have, but I didn’t! I’m in the Niagara Falls, NY area for my mother’s 90th birthday. She’s still very active and involved in church and service projects as she has been all her life. You can read more about her and her book that I just happen (!) to publish here.

  • Hillary Clinton and the Black Knight

    This video is pretty funny:

    HT: One Thing I Know.

  • Hunting Down the Holy Spirit

    One interesting privilege I had during the Brownsville Revival here in Pensacola was meeting groups going to and from the revival. At the time I was a member of Pine Forest United Methodist Church, and groups would stay in the Family Life Center there in order to be in range to get to the revival which was around 10 miles.

    They would come by bus, or less frequently in a caravan of cars, sleep on the floor, and then get up early in the morning to stand all day in line, hoping to get into the main sanctuary for the service. Sometimes they would try to talk to some of the Pine Forest UMC staff or members who had experience of the revival to try to find out what they were about to experience.

    At the time I lived in a trailer on the campus of the church. I had volunteered to check all the doors late at night. It is very rare at a church when you can’t find some door unlocked when it ought to be locked! In doing my late night check I would occasionally find groups that had returned from the revival and were trying to digest their experiences. Thus I could hear from them both before and after.

    I’m going to use these experiences to make a composite picture of two different pastors with whom I spent some time talking and praying during this time frame. There were many who could be represented by each of them, but I’ve chosen the extreme set of circumstances.

    The first was on a second or third visit. He reported new growth and new activity in his home church after he had visited Brownsville. “It isn’t really anything like Brownsville. It’s unique,” he told me. “But I was really blessed here, and I’m bringing others in my group this time so they can be blessed.”

    The second told me that he was close to retirement and expressed desperation that he wanted his ministry to count. To him, the revival at Brownsville represented the one chance of getting something real done in his ministry. Over time, his church shrunk to nearly nothing, and he had to move on.

    I am left asking just what was the fruit of the Brownsville revival. Is it best represented by the first pastor or the second? Is it represented by those who rededicated their lives to God and to service and carried it out in the way God called them to do, or those who became desperate and tried to duplicate what they saw?

    Those are, unfortunately, the type of binary questions that I tend to dislike. We tend to use the “know them by their fruit” model (Matthew 7:15-20). The problem is that quite frequently both sides have good “fruit” arguments. There are people who are greatly aided or even restarted in their spiritual lives. There are also people who go off the rails in one way or another, damaging themselves or others. The more adventurous tend to blame those who take some negative path on some force other than the revival. They claim the revival is good, but if you bring something bad there, the devil will get to work and ruin the result. The more theologically and spiritually cautious note the failures and are most concerned about those who are harmed.

    In my experience, however, you can say that about almost any movement and certainly most churches. I have seen the same church congregation be a tremendous blessing in one person’s life, while it becomes the very last church that some other person will attend because he has been injured in some way.

    Any time you have a group of people who are active, there is going to be a mixture both of people and of results. Even though Jesus doesn’t address this all that directly, I think a better model than the fruit is the weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30). This doesn’t mean that one should not check the fruit, but rather that one must realize that when people are involved results will generally be mixed. I would want to have a very comprehensive knowledge of a ministry before I said that its fruit was totally bad and it should be rejected as a whole. At the same time, I think it is very important to observe danger signs and give warnings.

    Amongst those things to watch are:

    1. A tendency to focus on visible but extraneous things such as being slain in the spirit
    2. Getting stuck, i.e. simply hanging around all the time “being revived” instead of finding a constructive calling and doing it
    3. A focus on a single person or place. Note that this doesn’t mean nobody should go anywhere to experience God’s presence. Elijah had an important experience after running to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19), surely a more daunting journey in his day than a bit of a flight to a church in Florida is now.
    4. Unbalanced emphasis either on personal experience and spirituality over study and community, or the reverse
    5. Desperation. Desperate people try to force things, and are very susceptible to pretending. If you must have a miracle, you just may invent one or see one where none exists.
    6. Duplication. What happened at _____ (wherever) must happen here. That’s how I’ll know God is working.

    The question has been put to me by friends of whether I’ll find my way to Lakeland or at least follow it on GodTV. The answer is that this is not very likely. Is that because I have made a studied and negative decision? Well, simply the fact that I haven’t even watched it where conveniently available on TV should answer that. No, I haven’t made any studied decision. The things I have said are not, and cannot be directed specifically at Lakeland, because I have too little knowledge.

    The reason, however, that I’m not involved is that I’m already involved with what God is doing in my life and in the life of the church congregation I have just joined. The Holy Spirit is moving at First United Methodist Church in Pensacola. It bears no resemblance to rumors of Lakeland. I can say emphatically that it bears no resemblance to Brownsville, with which I had some acquaintance. There are no large altar calls and nobody has fallen on the floor.

    What is happening is that the church is experiencing steady growth. It is unable to accommodate all the activities of the members and the ministries to the community within existing space, and that space is not small. The ministers are preaching a strong gospel message, and people are responding. The leadership has determined that they are going to serve the community, help those less fortunate, and generally be a witness for Jesus in their downtown community. The senior pastor declared that the one and only reason for the existence of a church was to fulfill the gospel commission, or you could restate that to be a witness for Jesus Christ. I’m excited to be joining in with that in whatever way God calls me to do so.

    Do I want to set one way up against another? No. Never. But it’s the latter to which I am personally called.

    Peter Kirk wrote about a visit to the Dudley outpouring. I was interested in his experience. While he was unhappy with some elements he still received a blessing which he was able to bring back to his church. That is a positive testimony. He also provides a list of links to other comments on either Dudley or Lakeland.

    Again, I’m struck by the “weeds and wheat” metaphor for these events. The ideal is often the enemy of the good, and I think this can be true in the case of outpourings. Unfortunately, many on either side expect one to either be wholly for or wholly against, using another set of sayings of Jesus as their model. Well, I’m wholly for Jesus and wholly against that other guy, but when a number of people are involved, I suspect the division is a little harder to make.

    (PS: Peter Kirk has also written a great deal on the Holy Spirit, and I’ve been bookmarking some, intending to write, but I have simply not had time to do the subject justice.)

  • Received: For the Life of the World

    In some much earlier discussions on health care, which I never really completed in any satisfactory manner, I was discussing Alexander Schmemann’s book For the Life of the World with Mark Olson of Pseudo-Polymath. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a copy of the book so as to discuss it intelligently.

    I sent off for one via interlibrary loan. It took them so long to find it, that I had practically forgotten I had done so. I had to think for a moment, asking myself what ILL book had come in when I got the notice.

    In any case, it’s here, and I will read it and comment further.

  • Yes, Race Influences my Vote

    There! That should be provocative enough as a title. Actually this post will be more of a gathering of election thoughts at this point in the campaign.

    But first, to honor the title, I think that there are very few people in this country who can honestly claim that race has no influence on their vote at all. That 1 in 5 thing from West Virginia just catches honest folks. I’m not saying that the vast majority of people are racists. What I’m saying is that we don’t have race issues so thoroughly removed from our systems that we don’t even think about it.

    At a minimum, I’m guessing most Democrats have at least discussed whether Barack Obama can win because of the prejudice of other people. That’s a dangerous argument to have, because in some ways it’s allowing the bigots a veto without even having to make the effort to vote. Perhaps a better plan would be to make a positive effort to educate wherever possible and then hope that there are enough people of good will to make the difference.

    For me, however, there is an additional point. I think the nation benefits from some diversity in government. Thus both Democratic candidates entered the race with a positive bias from my point of view. If Hillary Clinton were elected, she would be the first woman president, and that would be a positive model for girls and women across the nation. If Barack Obama is elected he will be the first African-American president, and that speaks of a whole other set of barriers being broken. I don’t put diversity very high on my list of priorities, but other things being equal, it could tip the scales to one or another candidate. In this case, the scales are tipped by the Iraq war. I believe Obama is right about it, and continues to be right about it, and that’s why I continue to support him despite a number of economic policies with which I am less pleased.

    I think we ought to be honest and admit that issues of race and gender are still functioning. The statistics don’t prove it as they can’t give us the real reasons for a person’s vote, but they are very suggestive. It’s probably not a policy issue that is causing the vast majority of African-American voters to support Obama, and it’s not policy that is doing the same thing amongst women for Hillary Clinton. As far as I’m concerned, I think that’s nothing either group needs to be ashamed of.

    It’s easy to pontificate about voting pure issues, but the fact is that our perception of a candidate’s personal integrity, and whether we trust that person is part of most people’s thinking. I try to be more objective, and go through lists of issues, comparing my own position with that of the candidate, but there will still be other elements.

    Voting is a good area for a bit of affirmative action, and I would say highly visible political appointments are as well. It is important that the justice system, for example, not only operate impartially insofar as possible, but it needs to be seen to do so. An all white judiciary, however well qualified, would leave an impression of unfairness. Those in cabinet positions are often seen representing our country. I have appreciated the way in which George Bush’s cabinet has shown better than average diversity. I don’t like much else about it, but I give him points for that!

    Those who might claim that race or gender is extraneous on these types of appointments would probably suggest that we take the person who is the best candidate, irrespective of such irrelevant factors. But such a selection occurs only in imaginary worlds. In practice, such appointments have to do with community relations, personal interaction, and subjective impressions. Just as the campaign staffs for Obama and Clinton can each provide a spin for just about anything that means it’s good for their candidate, so one can spin the job application or the list of candidates for an appointment. One might as well admit the subjective factors and use them out in the sunlight.

    Finally, I’m not with the folks, even now, who urge Clinton to quit the race. Yes, I support her opponent. Yes, I want him to beat her. But if I were a Clinton supporter and she were running, I’d want my chance to cast my ballot and at least have my say, even if victory was already impossible or incredibly improbable. Electability is low on my list of reasons to support a candidate anyhow.

  • Pelicans win 2nd Game in Series against Sports 4-0

    . . . and our son’s friend Brandon Sing (also our house guest) hit a two run homer in the first. Story in the Pensacola News Journal.

  • Robert Reich on Gladiator Politics

    I would suggest that everyone read this post. When Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor I didn’t like him that much, but he is truly expressing wisdom in this post.

  • Meditations on a Healing Service

    Or perhaps I should call it thoughts resulting from meditations on a healing service. But that makes a long title.

    I’ve mentioned here before that my wife and I recently transferred our membership to First United Methodist Church in Pensacola. This past Sunday we had the opportunity to attend a healing service at our new church. I enjoyed the service a great deal. It was done with a traditional liturgy and gently contemporary styling in the music, by which I mean that a band with guitars, drums, and keyboard (they used the grand piano so no effects!) played a combination of more modern choruses and familiar hymns. Unlike some contemporary praise groups who seem to think that comprehending the lyrics is not important and that volume is the key element, the words were sung clearly and at a quite reasonable level.

    The service included reading of scripture, prayer, and a medication (see comments!) meditation, then communion was served, or rather the ritual was carried out through the blessing. Once the elements were blessed, and also oil for anointing, people were left free to come forward for communion, for prayer with anointing, or to peruse through pictures that represented situations about which we could pray. I’ll mention more about that in a moment.

    The communion ritual was nicely done, with words added at the appropriate asterisks that tied that day’s worship activities to the service of healing. United Methodist readers will probably understand what I’m saying here. Way too often I hear a communion service conducted with no attention to the points at which “words appropriate to the occasion” can be added. A few tasteful lines there that tie in the day’s message, worship activities, or even people from that community can go a long way toward helping this to be communion and not merely a reading from the United Methodist Hymnal. In this case the words were very carefully chosen, and tied the afternoon service to the message of the morning services as well.

    I noticed that the lines for communion and for anointing with oil and prayer were quite long, but little attention was paid to the table with the pictures that were offered so that we could take them home and pray about the items represented. Toward the end I went and picked up a picture almost randomly, that turns out to be one of a young soldier in Darfur. The picture has been haunting me. I was already aware of Darfur, but this has brought it home.

    I certainly found the service a blessing. But now for what generally makes both my more rationalistic and my more charismatic friends crazy. Both would think that a healing service would be about healing, and that someone would come away cured–or not. The success of a healing service would be measured by healings.

    But for me that is not the point. I know that is difficult to understand, and I don’t usually try very hard to explain it. If you feel blessed by a healing service, go. If not, not. But just as I say prayer can’t be measured by studies of the number of people who are healed, or the number of things that are received, so I do not believe a healing service can be measured in that way. Indeed, I doubt it can be measured except by the numbers who attend, and how much they appreciate it.

    It is very much like any other variety of prayer. If prayer was designed to work like a vending machine, insert prayer, receive goodies, then we would say it failed if no goodies were received. And for those many people who teach just that, there is justification for the skeptical question of why it doesn’t happen. For me, both prayer and the healing service are about God and our communion with him. If we have communed, then we were successful.

    In the meditation, the minister presiding seemed to indicate much the same thing. Unlike a faith healer, he didn’t whip people into a frenzy and suggest that if they had enough faith they would be healed. Rather, he simply suggested coming before God and receiving what God chose to give.

    I’m thankful for the ministry of my new church and particularly for this service, which was a blessing to me.

  • Faithful Promises: Psalm 12

    One of the long term projects I have for this blog is to take a brief look at the major passages of scripture that relate to inspiration or that are used in discussions about it. I’m taking these passages from various sources, including comments made on this blog, but also from personal conversations, books, letters, e-mails, and so forth.

    In theological debates, the actual intent of Biblical passages often gets subordinated to a theological agenda. I recall one debate, or perhaps it would better be called an argument, in which both my opponent and I were citing Hebrews 4:12, yet our positions were polar opposites. That’s why an assertion with a parenthetical scripture reference, such as “the Bible is inerrant (2 Tim. 3:16)” have a tendency to fail in discussion.

    One favorite of the KJV-Only group is Psalm 12, of which they regularly cite verses 6 and 7. There are several things to look at about this Psalm. First we must ask just what type of literature it is. We know it is a Psalm (I wonder what our first clue was!) but just what type of Psalm?

    We can make some generalizations about Psalms. They are poetry and will tend to use figurative and picturesque language as is common in poetry. They are written from various perspectives and intended for various occasions. Thus it is very dangerous to pick a few lines from a Psalm and apply it theologically. There is the great example of quoting “there is no god” from Psalm 14:1. Of course, the Psalmist is quoting some unspecified group of fools, or perhaps some particular fool.

    Psalm 12, in particular is a prayer that is divided into some quite precise divisions. Verses 1 & 2 lament the lack of good people and describe the depravity of those who surround the Psalmist. This is followed in verses 3 & 4 by the actual petition, which is to cut off those who are flattering and arrogant. Verse 5 is YHWH’s response to the situation, in which he declares his intention to respond to the petition presented. Finally, verses 6-8, we have the expression of faith that despite the way in which the petitioner(s) is surrounded by the wicked, God will be faithful to his word–his promise–of protection given in verse 5.

    The two elements that the KJV-Only advocates have grabbed out of this Psalm are the statement that the Lord’s words are pure, and in verse 7 that the promise is forever. They take this to mean that the KJV is God’s pure word and that it will remain forever. Of course, the Psalm says nothing of the sort.

    Note that many modern versions (NRSV and NIV among them) translate “words” in verse 6 as “promises.” That is a correct reading of the Hebrew in which the specific words are the ones just spoken, and are thus promises in context. This meaning is similar to our use of “give your word” in English.

    Thus this passage says nothing directly about the Bible or its inspiration. It does, however, say some things indirectly, by talking about God and the nature of his promises. God’s promises are amongst God’s words, and he will be faithful to what he has declared. We can expect God’s word as reflected elsewhere, such as in scripture, to share characteristics with his word expressed to worshiper(s) here.

    Psalm 12 is a good example of a prayer of petition in the Bible, and it declares God faithful in what he says.