Today on twitter MethoBlog sent out a tweet I recognized was authored by one of the pastors at my church. I responded, and it twitter format, here is how the conversation went (my comments in bold). By the way, I don't feel bad posting this, since its easily accessible by looking at my twitter history and his.
As the day went on, my comment about my church weighed on me. Why do I go back? Why I am I unhappy when I church hop to find "the right one"? What kind of pressure does comments like this put on our pastors?
@methoblog Those are the ministers from my church! Good to see they get the recognition they deserve! :)
methoblog@justjenks consider yourself blessed to have such gifted people around your church body
@methoblog is it sad to say the experiences w staff is why I go back? It's NOT being surronded by 10,000 people I don't know. ;)
methoblog @justjenks i, personally, would have a tough time with the shear numbers of your church as well.
Pastors in our church are assigned members by alpha-sorting. A-D get Pastor 1, E-K get Pastor 2, etc. Personally, I have no clue who my assigned Pastor is, because I choose to go to the West Campus. If one of the staff over there is unavailable, then I guess I do without because I don't "know" the staff at the main campus.
The stated purpose of our church is : To build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians.
I think that's wonderful, but I think where my disconnect started years ago was I felt lost and in between those two points. I'm no longer nominally religious, but I'm certainly not mature in my faith. My assigned Pastor wouldn't know me if they bumped into me at the market. Said Pastor certainly when assigned hundreds of members, can not have the time to sit down with me and talk to me about my struggles in faith.
So, why do I go back? I think during my short run tonight I need to ponder that.
I think it has to do with a few connections I've made. It has a lot to do with the fact its familiar (10 years and going). I enjoy the heart of the sermons, although I feel too much media is used. And lately, I have started to have hope that I can get involved in a few areas and make a difference.
One item missing from that list of reasons? I don't go back for the sense of community. After all, 10,000 people at church is about 7500 more people than was in my whole town growing up. That's not a community, that's a small city.
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4 comments:
JustJen - Thanks for your post. As part of the West campus Molly is your pastor. The alpha-sorting is for central campus only, that's the idea at least. As a pastor at Resurrection, I struggle with the same issue that you bring up here. I want to be able to have meaningful connections with persons in the congregation, but it isn't realistic to do so with hundreds of families in the N-R group.
I believe that you are right on with your assessment that getting involved and making a difference in a few areas is a good place to start. I know that Molly or Dave could help figure out a next step. Also, if there is anything that I can do, please feel free to let me know.
Andrew, I appreciate you writing about it, but it's more of a general observation of COR from my chair.
As for the alpha-sorting, I understand the necessity, and if it wasn't for West, I could not attend COR anymore simply for that reason of the need for alpha-sorting.
After almost-10 years, I know where to go (and am actually working with Dave on leading another Disciple class), but my concern is must larger than me (always is).
What about people who move beyond Alpha and then see dozens (hundreds?) of choice to move forward and don't know where to begin? Who really notices if they are lost?
When you don't show up for a month, is an email from a stranger really going to bring you back, or would it be nice to be noticed that you're gone?
I understand the push for small groups. Small groups are the only thing IMO that makes COR seem manageable.
Since you "manage" the N-Rs... does it bother you that if you ran into one of "your" members at Hen House you would have no idea who they are?
JustJen - You are right on with the concern. Worship, Alpha, then what... Our hope is that the next step is group life. This could mean a lot of different things. One of the learning communities, serving, Disciple, etc. I know that the discipleship team has been working to make more sense of suggested next steps instead of the hundreds that there are right now.
I believe that the reconnect team makes phone calls to those who have not been in worship, if we have their phone #. I have heard good things about people being amazed that anyone noticed that she or he was gone, albeit someone that likely does not know the individual.
You are right on with the recognition that small groups is the only way to make things work.
I know that there are people that I see that recognize me, but I have no idea who they are. Sometimes people will introduce themselves and sometimes I will take a chance and introduce myself. It would be different if I knew and recognized all the persons who connect with me as pastor. I do struggle with how to connect with people in times that are outside of a crisis in their lives.
More importantly than having a relationship with me, I believe that it is critical that persons of faith are known by others in the faith community. Mutual accountability, serving and just being the church then becomes possible.
I think this is one reason that most churches are small churches. Many people are searching for family and home. While some people do find that intimate community within the large group, and others have different reasons for choosing megachurches--they can offer resource that are difficult for small churches--my sense is that very large churches have a hard time delivering the feeling of family and home. (I say "my sense" because I've never been a part of a megachurch.)
And please understand, I'm not knocking megachurches. I just think that particular type of faith community is a lot harder to create successfully.
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