Ministry Profile: Resurrection Community Church, Houston, TX

Resurrection Community Church is located one block off the intersection of South Post Oak and Ridgecreek, about a mile or so west of Beltway 8. The community is largely a mix of Latino’s (41%) and African Americans (53%). The median income in their zip code is $40,000.  It has been a small, struggling, congregation for a long time.

A little over a year ago, as the ELCA implemented a new policy of shifting away from paying the compensation package of redevelopment pastors, they lost the pastor who had been serving them for about 13 years. When Pastor Carlson and I worshipped with them (my first Sunday on this job in April, 2009), they had about 18 people in worship. Two men, besides us. A few children. They sang to music on tape. They were struggling.

A week later, we met with their leadership team and began learning more about the ministry. They didn’t use a constitution, had no elected leaders, had no formal leadership structure. They didn’t have any financial records apart from bank statements. Every check had been signed only by the pastor. They were 15 months behind in their lease payments to the Mission Investment Fund (MIF) for their building – and none of the lay leaders knew that.

My message to them was simple: “This is God’s church but your responsibility. Your future is largely up to you. You need to make some decisions about your future. The MIF is ready to foreclose on your building. If we can make a strong argument that you are going to turn a new corner, we can work with the MIF. What do you want to do?”

Their first decision was to affirm the leadership skills of Ms. Catherine Washington who was appointed their Synodically Authorized Lay Minister (SALM) by Bishop Rinehart. They decided to raise the rent a little on the Latino congregation that shared their space. And they decided to make double lease payments for the next 15 months to get back in the good graces of the MIF. We agreed that, if they could keep the ministry going, we would arrange for them to receive some coaching from a retired pastor who didn’t live that far from the church.

We reached out to Clyde Muske, a retired accountant from Zion Lutheran in Houston to come and work with them in setting up a new financial record-keeping system. He brought Alice Bongers with him. They helped Resurrection purchase Quickbooks and straighten up their financial practices.

When the summer arrived, the congregation decided to hold their annual summer camp for children which had always been the one thing they did best. They received some extra VBS supplies from Covenant in Houston. Lord of Life in The Woodlands helped with a financial gift, as they had done in previous years. The camp was a success.

By August they were ready to start working with Rev. Ray LeBlanc, a newly retired pastor from California who had moved back home to Houston. His role was strictly limited to leading worship twice a month and providing two evening coaching sessions each month. He was also a ready resource for Ms. Washington.

Over the course of the winter, good things started happening. Worship attendance grew to an average of 35-40. The leadership team revisited their constitution. They held elections for new leaders. They received new members. They started giving mission support to the synod again. They continued to pay double lease payments each month. A new couple joined the church who had belonged to Resurrection years ago. They helped start a new men’s group called “100 Men in Black” and a new women’s group called “Sisters Inspiring Sisters.” They created new kinds of accountabilities for their leaders with monthly meetings, monthly reports, and monthly community ministry activities.

By the beginning of the summer, the leaders felt confident that they could continue the ministry without the work of Rev. LeBlanc and Ms. Washington. They continued to develop their leadership planning and shared decision-making.

This summer they hosted a weekend camping trip for teenagers in the back yard of their church. They signed up with the school district as a site to provide daily meals for children in the community. They conducted another summer day camp.

In July they planned a Jobs Fair for local teenagers. One Saturday all prospective teens had to attend a Registration Day. Each young person was guided in preparing a resume. They each started a new Hotmail email address. They were trained in how to dress for a job interview and how to do their best in an interview. The following week, several local businesses, including WalMart and the Dollar Store, conducted onsite interviews during their job fair.

Today, without any outside financial support, the congregation’s finances are in the black. They continue to provide a measure of financial mission support to the synod. They are almost completely caught up in their lease payments. They have identified a new lay leader, Mrs. Janet Hill, to become their new SALM. Worship attendance is consistently between 40-50. About 35 men now attend their twice monthly Friday night meetings. I was with them for one of their Thursday night Bible studies this month – they had 23 people attending including 9 men and 6 teenagers. It was spirited, encouraging and cross-generational. It was a breath of fresh air.

And now they are asking about the key numbers that will allow them to add a couple of more classrooms to their building and get back into the call process to call the right new pastor.

Ministry isn’t easy anywhere. Congregations all over suffer from troubles in the neighborhood, a faltering economy, difficulty in attracting and retaining younger members and the age-old struggle against “we’ve never done it that way before.” BUT, when the key leaders of a congregation are willing to take personal responsibility for the health and well-being of their church, when they root their work in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study and community building, when they reach out into the world around themselves in helpful ways, resurrection can happen in every congregation.

Right now, it looks to me like resurrection is happening at Resurrection!

Evangelism and the Under 30 Crowd

by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook

A November 2009 issue of The Week featured a story, “Losing our Religion,” that focused on the rapidly growing numbers of the religiously unaffiliated in the United States, the so called “Nones”, and asked if organized religion is fading. Younger than the general population, many Nones believe in God yet are skeptical about organized religion. The article quotes recent statistics suggesting that if this trend continues, cohorts of nonreligious young people will replace older religious people and account for one-quarter of the American population. Another recent article in USA Today concluded that young adults born in the 1980s and 1990s, approximately 72 million people, want to make an impact and are socially-conscious yet do not relate to traditional institutional structures. A decreasing number of these young adults view churches as places to make a difference or to develop their leadership skills.

The fact that nearly every major denomination is aging and losing members has been a concern for the last thirty years, yet institutional efforts to reverse these trends and to capture the religious imagination of young adults have been limited. Mainline denominations, historically and culturally self-conscious about evangelism, are further challenged to proclaim the good news in today’s religiously pluralistic nation and world.

What then is the role of evangelism with young adults today? What are some of the ways that the Christian church can better respond to the spiritual questions of young adults in a religiously pluralistic age? How might congregations better respond to the gifts and skills young adults have to offer?

“One of the reasons many churches don’t do evangelism well is that their motivation is self-serving,” says Tom Brackett, church planting specialist for the Episcopal Church. Brackett believes that a focus on evangelism primarily as a church growth strategy is counterproductive, especially with young adults, and at a time when the world is longing for evidence that God is with us. A more positive approach to evangelism for many, he suggests, lies “in pointing out the ways that God is already active, transforming lives, and connecting us to each other.”

One judicatory that is intentionally reaching out to young adults is the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. In 2008, the diocese initiated the Relational Evangelism Pilot Project, a ministry designed to find out what young adults ages 18 to 30 value deeply, how they experience their faith journeys, and their perspectives on faith, spirituality, and the church. The project defines relational evangelism as “a life-long spiritual practice that is the ministry of all to recognize the power of God in Christ to transform our lives and communities, and then being willing to share those stories of God’s grace in others.” The project came about as a result of multiple gatherings around the Boston area of young adult clergy and others who were already engaged in young adult ministry.

Arrington Chambliss, the director of the project, comes to it with a long history of engagement with young people through faith-based and community organizations. Interested in young adult ministry that “truly listens first,” Chambliss says that the Relational Evangelism Pilot Project is about engagement, not conversion. “It is God who does the converting,” she says, “relational evangelism is about us having a deep enough relationship that others want to join with us.”

The Relational Evangelism Pilot Project is based in the virtues of Christian spirituality, simple living, and forming community. The project is also based in the belief that young adults generally relate more freely to individuals than to institutions and focuses on three interrelated groups: young adults who have no relationship to the institutional church, those who have a peripheral relationship with the church, and those already involved but who are seeking more support regarding their leadership role in the church.

The project places young adult “evangelists” at sites around the diocese, including congregations and university chaplaincies. Their task is to build relationships with other young adults and to find out more about their academic, career, social, and spiritual needs. From there, the evangelists will build a leadership team of five young adults who will facilitate small group-based ministry and faith-based action projects. Sustainability of the project is based on the premise that a core group of young adult leaders will remain at each site after the original evangelist’s term of service is complete.

Chambliss hopes that the Relational Evangelism Pilot Project will provide young adults with the spiritual direction they need at crucial points in their lives. She also hopes that the project will not only enhance young adult ministry in congregations and chaplaincies but will serve as a model for other judicatories and congregations interested in engaging a new generation.

“Not only does evangelism mean sharing the good news of the gospel, but it also means sharing the good news of people’s lives and what we can do together in the world to demonstrate the power of our faith,” says Chambliss. “We are viewing evangelism as a spiritual practice emanating from our deep gratitude for God’s presence in our lives. It is my hope that the young adults involved in this ministry will see the good news in each other, find the community they are searching for, and embark on a spiritual path that will engage them more deeply with God, each other, and the world.”

Nancy Davidge, a marketing communications consultant based in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with a specialty in helping religious organizations and other nonprofits use social media, suggests that the good news has always been spread by the social media of the time. Today, many congregations have at their disposal a variety of accessible and inexpensive communications tools to help them build community through relational evangelism. Yet Davidge notes that while many congregations use tools such as email, websites, Facebook, blogs, and Twitter, they may still be missing an opportunity to build a long-term relationship with people.

“It is important that churches think strategically about how to engage new members who join the community, to identify their interests, and to build relationship by sharing the congregation’s mission and offering ways for a newcomer to become involved,” says Davidge. “While the media may have changed, the importance of telling your story in ways that engage and invite remains the same.”

Relational evangelism is crucial in an age of religious pluralism. Rather than deny religious difference, relational evangelism equips young adults to be secure enough in talking about their own faith to engage actively and authentically in interreligious dialogue and community action for the common good. In fact, the spirit of mutuality and intentional listening characteristic of relational evangelism opens up the follower of Jesus to God’s love in a way that seeks deeper relationship with all of creation and responds to the suffering of the world. In a religiously pluralistic world, relational evangelism contributes to the creation of healthy environments in which young adults listen to God at work in their lives and discern ways their gifts can contribute to the reign of God for all humankind.

Adapted from “Resurrected Lives” by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook in Congregations Spring 2010 (Vol 36 No. 2), copyright © 2010 by the Alban Institute. All rights reserved.

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Thinking More Deeply About Worship

by N. Graham Standish, author of “Why Do We Worship the Way We Have Always Worshiped When People Keep Changing?”

For most of my life I have really disliked worship. My wife tells me that if I weren’t a pastor, I would never go to worship. Fifteen years ago she was right about that, although I have managed to change over time. I am a constant tinkerer when it comes to designing worship, always working with our staff and members to figure out how to tweak our worship in a way that will touch people and open them to what I think is paramount in a worship service: encountering and experiencing God in a way that transforms us, even if just a little bit.

The unfortunate reality is that in North American society, neither the surrounding culture nor the church culture embraces the transforming encounter with God. Many mainline churches quit asking long ago whether our worship leads people to an encounter with Christ and the Holy Spirit. Think about why we do what we do in worship. Do we worship the way we do because it is how we have always done it? Do we worship the way we do because it is what we are best at? Do we worship the way we do because it makes certain members of the church happy? These reasons reside at the center of what has caused so many people to walk away from the church. Many people have wanted a tangible, transforming encounter with God but have never found it in worship, because worship has been focused on everything but that transforming encounter.

To foster an encounter with God means designing worship that is deliberately focused on making a spiritual and psychological impact on people. If people are to experience God in worship, it needs to resonate with where they are psychologically and spiritually. If we don’t offer people a venue through which they can access the spiritual, they will gladly find some other venue or ignore their spiritual yearnings and substitute the pursuits and pleasures of the world.

The church has to adapt its worship because our culture doesn’t recognize the value of worship when done as it was in generations past. Each generation is different in what it resonates with because over time the culture changes. The result is that worship rooted in previous generations loses its power to connect with each succeeding generation and leads us to address spiritual questions that are no longer being asked, or at least not being asked in a way that can be addressed in forms familiar to today’s older generations.

Part of the fallout of generational and cultural shifts is that worship slowly loses relevance for the generations ignored in our worship design. Most generations approach worship differently from previous ones. They are not always looking to reinvent worship, but they are seeking a renewed sense of relevance to their context. Each generation has different yearnings, and so the church is under constant pressure to adapt what it is doing to meet people where they are, while maintaining fidelity to the generations it has already been serving. This is a monumental task, made even more so because each new generation never really tells the previous generation what it is seeking, mainly because they aren’t entirely sure themselves. So, we in the church have to guess, experiment, and try our best to figure out what each of these generations is seeking.

Ultimately, the problem isn’t that each generation keeps changing. The problem is that as time passes congregations and their leaders forget to keep the focus of worship on the encounter with the Holy. They forget that unless people sense that they have had an encounter with Christ, an experience of the Spirit and that through worship they are increasingly established in the Creator, then worship is no longer God-focused.

The power of worship is its ability to foster the relationship people have with God. Worship that is either completely God-focused or us-focused misses the mark. The most powerful worship actually is relationship-focused. It enhances the relationship between God and us. The hymns are selected not only to praise God but also to connect us with God. The prayers are said with appropriate inflection and passion that leads people to sense a bond between God and us. Preaching isn’t so much an exploration of theological themes as an attempt to lift the veil of mystery separating us from God, as well as an invitation for people to discover how to live in divine union and love with God. Everything in worship should be designed to facilitate relationship with God.

I believe that the main reason congregations neglect the Holy is that over time congregations slowly slip from a spiritual approach to worship to a functional approach. I wrote about this at length in one of my previous books, Becoming a Blessed Church. What is the difference between the two? A functional approach to worship isn’t concerned with leading people to experience the Holy. It aims to maintain what has always been done, to make members happy by keeping worship the same, and to design worship around the desires of longtime, traditional worshipers. The focus is on maintaining membership and the status quo. The proper function of worship matters much more than the experience of worship. A spiritual approach, in contrast, wants to help people gain a sense of the Creator’s purpose in their lives, Christ’s presence in worship, and the Spirit’s power working through them.

No matter how spiritually vibrant a church may have been at one point in history, the attempt to maintain vibrancy by keeping alive traditions of one generation eventually moves it from spiritual vibrancy to functionality. The irony is that the very attempt to stay vibrant by holding onto previous, life-giving modes of worship actually creates a functional worship that eventually drains it of its spiritual relevance. Maintaining passion in worship over the years is hard. It takes compelling leadership, a tremendous level of commitment by members, a clear sense of vision, and a willingness to adapt to new situations. When those four elements wane, the ensuing generations end up merely imitating the functions of worship and spiritual practices of previous generations. In their attempt to hold onto what was, they neglect the experience of the Holy that anchored the previous generations’ worship. So they imitate the forms of worship that led people of the past to the Holy, while neglecting the holy passion that led to the creation of those forms. In effect, they just stop asking whether what they are doing is helping people to sense God’s presence in worship.

Is there an alternative to the functional approach? The alternative is to try to restore the spiritual to people’s lives through worship by becoming intentional about adapting worship to where people are spiritually. Adapting to where people are doesn’t mean that we have to placate them. It is a question of simply taking down barriers that interfere with what we are trying to do. To emphasize the spiritual in worship means to nurture an awareness that there is more to worship and worship practices than their function. To take a spiritual approach to worship means to explore, extract, and express a sense of meaning found in every element of worship, especially in the mundane aspects of worship. Bringing a spiritual perspective into it helps people transcend and reach beyond where they are.

Being intentional means reassessing our practice of worship and asking whether what we are offering actually connects members of each generation with the Holy. It means asking a simple question: Do people encounter the Holy in our worship services? The challenge in restoring the Holy to worship is to recognize that different people experience the Holy in different ways. Churches cannot account for every difference, but they can become sensitive to these differences and adapt to them.

Adapted from In God’s Presence: Encountering, Experiencing, and Embracing the Holy in Worship by N. Graham Standish, copyright © 2010 by the Alban Institute. All rights reserved.

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