How can we love a little louder? This lent, we will gather each week to engage with messages from members about several Saint Luke ministries in which we care for one another and those in our community. As we hear inspiring stories and find out more about how Saint Lukans shout and show God’s love beyond the church walls, we too will be inspired to join the mission to know, love and serve Christ.
We greatly appreciate Rev. Bryan Penman, SEPA Synod Director of Evangelical Mission for joining us as we look towards the future as the Church.
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
-Matthew 22:34-40
Rev. Bryan Penman is no stranger to Saint Luke. While now he is called to Saint Marks, a noisy, vibrant congregation full of young families in Conshohocken, he got started in ministry at Saint Luke as an intern, ordained right here many moons ago. He jokes that when he was started with us he had much less gray hair, and was joyous to return to what feels very much like home.
Upon his homecoming, he brought greetings from our Bishop Pat Davenport and the over 142 congregations agencies of the Southeastern Pennsylvania synod! He is serving as one of our synods directors of Evangelical Mission, which he explains is a fancy title to describe the job of helping churches understand how to do mission when everything's changed. This work is not done alone, but in partnership with a colleague and co-director, Reverend Dr. Moses Suah-Dennis (who unfortunately could not be with us but excitedly was in Chicago with some new mission developers preparing to launch!). Together, they collaborate to support congregations, with Dr. Suah-Dennis working primarily with new starts and Rev. Penman working with congregational vitality and established congregations.
WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE THE CHURCH RIGHT NOW?
“I don't know about you but I'm finding it really hard. This pandemic was hard on us and I don't know that anybody knows what to do right now,” Rev. Penman honestly explained. However, he reminds us with confidence that we are journeying with God. He shared of visiting with other congregations across the region, hearing the same questions and concerns about starting programs or reaching out, just to potentially discover that nobody comes or that people just are not interested.
Things are different now for the church. We are trying to do ministry and understand what Jesus is calling us to do in a new time. While we're all collectively in this discernment process about trying to discover the church that we are becoming, Rev. Penman feels confident that it's going to look wildly different than it ever did before, and different can be exactly what is needed.
THE END OF CHURCH AS YOU KNOW IT
The variables were at play long before the pandemic was even a thought in our brains but the truth about the pandemic is that it exacerbated all of the factors and it has brought about significant change to what it means to be the church. We are fundamentally making the biggest shift that the church has done in its collective memory. No one in our pews has ever experienced this before, but as we study Christian history, we know that this is the landscape the Church has been in before. As we read the book of Acts, we can see that it was a time that the church understood what it meant to take Jesus and the message out into the world, and what it was like to grow new things.
For those watching the church as we knew it shifting around us, we cannot help but collectively say “what’s next?” There are some communities that are looking to the future and getting depressed about it but there are some communities that are looking forward with excitement because the “what's next” is the work of the Holy Spirit!
CONGREGATIONAL VITALITY: INSTITUTIONAL TO MISSIONAL
We're living into the end of the institutional church and the beginning of the missional church, and while this is a large shift, we already have everything that we need to be a missional church. In the gospel we explored tonight, those tricky Pharisees and the lawyers were trying to trick Jesus and he said “no, you already have it: what are the two greatest things: love God and love people.”
So how do we invite people to love more in the missional church? How do we invite people to understand a deep and abiding love for God that's not just going through the motions? It's not just sitting in church on Sunday. True congregational vitality is about love. Simply, it’s about loving God and loving our neighbors. As Rev. Penman faces churches looking to revitalize, he points us to three key relationships:
How are you loving God?
How are you connecting to each other and forming relationships of support and Christian care?
How are you a vital connection to your neighborhood?
When we get excited about Jesus's love for us, we can't contain it. It just bubbles up and out and into the world. That is what Jesus was talking about when he said the greatest of these is loving God and loving your neighbor. This big, deep, expansive love might sound scary to do, but we can move forward into the unknown, knowing that God's love holds all of it and will hold us even in the midst of things we can't understand because that's what love does. As we are thinking about the church that we hope to become, God’s love is able to make all of it even better than we dreamed.
Next Steps
REFLECT ON YOUR THREE
Rev. Penman pointed us to three key questions. Take some time to answer them for yourself and your faith community. Consider where you see God loved deeply and authentically. What has felt meaningful and sacred in your faith? Think about what types of relationships you have formed. What has made you feel most supported and connected? When has someone shown up in a big way? Similarly, what does your community think of when they think of your church? If you were to go stand on the street corner out and ask people about the church, what would they say- I don't know, or those are the people that feed people, or that’s where I go to my AAA meetings, etc? These are signs of where God is up to something. Pay attention.
ASK FOR GRACE TO CHANGE
Change is hard in most circumstances. It is new, awkward, and often frustrating. Yet, it is necessary and inevitable. As the world and culture change, our church changes too. Things that once were are no longer and can be hard to let go of. Celebrate what once was. Honor it. Reflect on what has been important for you. Grieve it coming to an end. Then, pray for the grace to be open to whatever new God is up to.
DREAM BIG
When we step out of what we know and what has always been, there are no boundaries to our dreaming, especially when we are moving forward with God. If there were no stipulations and if you set your vulnerabilities aside, where would you want to see the love of God in action? Another way to rephrase it could be to consider what problem or need in your world would you like to see God’s love solve? Maybe there is a specific issue, population of people, or belief that you long to address. Dream with God and with others. We cannot wait to see what happens.
May we always remember that we love because you first loved us. We celebrate you for all you have done and look forward with wonder for all that is to come. Amen.