NEW Mission & Service Music Video

We are excited to release this NEW Mission & Service Music Video.

Peppy music accompanies pictures and video from many of the ministries and programs that your Mission & Service gifts help to make possible.

What a difference United Church people are making in local neighbourhoods, across the country and around the world!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cS6fBWRSLc&feature=youtu.be

To get involved and help support the Mission & Service of The United Church of Canada, go to united-church.ca/donate.

An Annual Meeting Sermon: Fruit-fullness - Galatians 5:22-25

So it’s Annual Meeting time again.  The time of the year when congregations pause to take stock.  It’s time to look back over the last year and predict ahead into the next year.  What did we do?  What do we hope to do?  It’s a time for evaluation.

How do we evaluate the health of a church?

Too often we only look at the ABC’s:

Attendance, Building, Cash.

How many of us are here on a Sunday morning?
What is the state of our physical building?
Did we end the year in the black? Or looking ahead, “How long will the money hold out?”

However…

Only using the ABC’s to evaluate our congregation is a problem. You see, the ABC’s are the mode of being and thinking of the culture around us. The culture of greed and isolation and power.
Only using the ABC’s to evaluate our congregation implies that the results and outcomes are entirely on our shoulders.
Only using the ABC’s to evaluate our congregation comes out of the belief that we are working FOR Jesus. It’s the industrial, business model. Jesus is the CEO. We are the managers or workers. Jesus tells us what to do. We do it. Or we don’t. We are accountable to Jesus, just like we are accountable to our boss. It’s our job to please Jesus. Like the bumper sticker said, “Jesus is coming! Look busy.”
Only using the ABC’s to evaluate our congregation leads to despair, and hopelessness, because when we are honest we know we are broken and are not up to the task.
Only using the ABC’s to evaluate our congregation is also a fickle endeavour. When the #’s are good, we celebrate and take the glory. When the #’s are down, we despair and give up, or jump ship for something better.

So let me suggest a different approach.

Instead of focusing on numbers and buildings and finances, let’s look for fruit.

Galatians 5:22-25 (The Message)

But what happens when we live God's way? God brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard––things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good––crucified.
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.

Instead of focusing on numbers and buildings and finances, let’s ask the vital question, “Are we bearing Fruit?” Are we bearing fruit (of the Spirit) for God’s Kingdom?

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control. (Galatians 5:22-23a - NRSV)

Yes, fruit can be hard to measure. Measuring fruit requires more than just statistics and spreadsheets.

Measuring fruit requires stories, sharing, and community.
Measuring fruit requires a willingness to look with our hearts, not just our eyes or our minds.
Measuring fruit means asking questions like:

• What kind of a difference are we making in people’s lives?
• How are we drawing people closer to God and to each other?
• How has our church helped me to grow in my faith and live my faith?

Measuring fruit means believing and trusting that the results are in God’s hands, not ours.
Measuring fruit leads to a stronger reliance on God’s Spirit. Which is a good thing!
Measuring fruit means understanding that we work WITH Jesus, not FOR Jesus. Jesus, our friend, toils alongside us. It leads to an emphasis on prayer, discernment, and trust!

When we start watching for and expecting Jesus to be at work in our midst, and in each one of us, we find an assurance that we are not in it alone. It is not reliant only on our strength, or endurance, or abilities.

Measuring fruit, watching for and sharing these kind of stories results in hope, energy, and transformation.

So, as we evaluate, as we consider the health of our congregation at this Annual Congregational Meeting, let’s take a few minutes to explore how “fruit-full” we are.

Sharing:

Share with 1 or 2 people near you how this church has helped you to live “fruit-fully”; more love, more joy, more peace, more patience, more kindness, more generosity, more faithfulness, more gentleness, and more self- control? As much as you can, please be specific and personal.

[give people ~5 minutes to share]

[after the sharing time, thank people for sharing. You may want to give them a moment to share a story of bearing fruit with the larger group.]

So as we also consider the ABC’s of life in this church, let’s not forget the stories of fruit-fullness we have also heard today.

AMEN.

Whose Money Is It? -Peace

There is an old joke that people share with ministers from time to time.  The church building has a leaky roof that needs repair.  The minister stands up to address the problem.  “People, we need to raise $10,000 dollars to fix the roof.  I have good news and bad news.  The good news is, I know exactly where the money is to repair the roof.  The bad news is, it’s still in your pockets!”

The church only wants me for my money.  That is a common accusation aimed at the church in general.  In all likelihood, every minister has been accused of this in some place and time when they preach about giving and money.
Let me address that and correct it.

1) There is no MY money.

There is only God’s money, which each of us has been given some of to use to help in God’s work of transforming and saving the world from itself.

So the church doesn’t want your money. It wants some of God’s money, of which you are in possession. (and yes, the distinction matters!)

And the church doesn’t want some of God’s money, of which you are in possession, because it doesn’t want you to have that money; or because it doesn’t trust you with it.  The church wants you to give, to be generous with what is God’s, that has been given to you, in order for the church to be part of and to help you be a part of what God is doing in the world.  God’s work of transforming and saving the world from itself.  When any of us chooses to be generous, we are participating in God’s great work; God’s mission.  We are helping to create hope and we are helping to create peace.

Here’s how it works:

Peace is not just the absence of conflict.  Peace requires justice.  You have likely seen or heard the phrase:  No Justice, No Peace.  Know Justice, Know Peace.

You see, greed kills justice.
Generosity counteracts greed and therefore creates a space for justice and peace.
Justice requires generosity.

We see many many examples of this when we examine the contrasts and issues that exist between the First world, in which we live, and the Third world.  As well as within each of those realities.
The legacy of colonialism, especially in Canada with First Nations people and residential schools.

Greed kills justice.
Generosity counteracts greed and therefore creates a space for justice and peace.
Justice requires generosity.

After all, generosity is really about how we distribute resources, isn’t it?  Generosity is about how we use the world God has created and given to us.  It takes us back to and comes straight out of the creation story in Genesis.  God created and gave to all of us.

Which means it’s not so much about us and them as it is about us and us.  (and again, the distinction matters!)

There’s a critical comparison to be made here between:

Rabid capitalism and individualism, in which a small number of people believe it is their right to accumulate the majority of the resources for their own use and their own good and lay waste to the planet in the process, increasing the divide between them and everyone else;

AND the Kingdom that Jesus came to proclaim; where no one goes without; where everyone has a place and has value; where the need to consume in order to feel complete and good has been ended because we find our completeness and wholeness in God’s love for us and in our serving and caring for each other.

And more than a theoretical comparison, there is a choice confronting each of us.  The spiritual practice of generosity is about making that choice.

So when we live generous lives, generosity for the sake of generosity, not out of some sense of duty forced upon us, or out of guilt, or to get something in return, when we live generous lives we are making the choice to follow Jesus and do the things that Jesus did, building a community centred on Jesus.  We are accepting the place that God offers us within God’s realm.  We are making true what Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is among you.”  When we live generous lives we are doing justice which leads to peace.

Think about it!

1. If you are currently involved in a situation that is not “peace-full” how could an act of generosity bring peace? 
2. How generous can you be?  
3. In your praying and quiet time this week, ask God to help you be aware of opportunities to be generous.