Existence as a Wanna-Be Pastor

Today, I had the privilege to preach at Elsberry UMC. Overall, I think it went really well. We used PowerPoint...GASP! But, I think everyone really enjoyed it by the end! Plus, my best friend, Julie, was able to come and pray with me beforehand which made it all the more fun! But, for those of you who weren't able to come...I wanted to post it online! So...Here's the sermon entitled: Thriving Tradition...First Scripture read was 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17...Second Scripture is Revelation 3:1-3 (MSG translation)...

Again, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Samantha Fomera. I grew up in this church, and I still love coming back to see all of you! As I have been preparing this morning’s message, I kept coming back to this idea of what’s traditional. I guess you could say that I go to one of those “hip” churches now. It’s the United Methodist church that has really loud music, lots of people, including kids, and five services! Most people don’t consider it a very “traditional” church. This made me wonder what exactly the word traditional means. Because I have a quality education, I know that traditional stems from the word tradition. And because I love my giant dictionary of over 1500 pages, I looked it up! So, here’s what I came up with...Tradition is a long-established custom or practice that has the effect of an unwritten law. So I had a general idea that I was going to talk about tradition when I came to speak to you…wasn’t really sure about much else. Because I like being fancy, when Pastor Paul asked me what I wanted to name the sermon, I said the first adjective that popped into my mind that began with the letter “t.” That happened to be the word “Thriving.” This idea of “thriving tradition” stuck with me the past couple of weeks as I’ve been thinking and praying…Now, I never know what God might send my way when I say yes to teaching a group of people…But, I didn’t think He was going to send me a bunch of numbers…turns out, that’s exactly what He sent!

Within my campus ministry, I have a group of college students that meet every week to grow together and in our relationship with God…And recently, we have been talking about what seems to be this post-Christian culture. A culture that doesn’t put God into everything they do…but a culture that separates not just Christianity, but religion as a whole, and puts it into their box…it’s a thing to do on Sunday mornings. So, in this post-Christian culture, a group called the Barna Group did a research study that I found to be really interesting. They asked a large group of outsiders, people who don’t call themselves Christians, ages 16-29, to rate a set of phrases as they pertained to present day Christianity. Some of these statistics may come as a surprise, others may not. Here’s what they found…

87% of these outsiders said that Christians are judgmental.

85% said that Christians are hypocritical – saying one thing, and doing another.

And here are the ones that I really cringed at as I was thinking of thriving tradition…

72% said that we are out of touch with reality,

68% said that we are boring, and

78% said that we are OLD-FASHIONED!

Obviously, outsiders do not see present-day Christianity as thriving. And, I gotta say, that even as a young person in the church…that scares me. Not many pastors preach on Revelation, but I’m going to bring it in this morning…Here are the words from Revelation 3, verses one through three, and verse six out of the Message translation…

“Write this to Sardis, to the Angel of the church. The One holding the Seven Spirits of God in one hand, a firm grip on the Seven Starts with the other, speaks:

‘I see right through your work. You have a reputation for vigor and zest, but you’re dead, stone dead. Up on your feet! Take a deep breath! Maybe there’s life in you yet. But I wouldn’t know it by looking at your busywork; nothing of God’s work has been completed. Your condition is desperate. Think of the gift you once had in your hands, the Message you heard with your ears – grasp it again and turn back to God. If you pull the covers back over your head and sleep on, oblivious to God, I’ll return when you least expect it, break into your life like a thief in the night.”

From what I gathered from the commentaries and books I have read, Sardis was a church that is like sooo many churches today. They get busy doing lots of things, or even just a few, and they forget why they are doing it. This church in Sardis had forgotten to keep the main thing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as being number one in their priorities. They forgot about the ultimate tradition that Jesus put in place, to go out and make disciples of all nations.

Ya know, I really don’t like automatic toilets…I’ve always been scared of them. Unfortunately, they are all over campus…especially the over-reactive ones. They are the toilets who go off before you do anything, while you are takin’ care of business, and after you are done! It’s not like they do anything other than flush! They just sit there! People are like automatic toilets too! They do the same thing over and over. Sometimes, they do the same thing over when it isn’t even needed! Now, that’s great if it’s an awesome tradition, right?! Then why do outsiders consider us boring, out of touch with reality, and old-fashioned!? My guess is that we aren’t thriving at our traditions, the traditions of the church. We may even be stuck in the same rut that we have been in for quite some time, like an automatic toilet.

Along with the definition of a tradition, I also found the definition for traditionalism. Traditionalism is the EXCESSIVE ATTACHMENT to a tradition. So, it’s an easy cure…we just have to make sure our traditions are good and thriving! Since we are into the dictionary, to thrive is to be prospering, growing, successful, and effective.

So, what are some traditions worth being excessively attached to? At my church, we have what are called LifeGroups. LifeGroups are small groups specifically designed to work like the early church did, kind of like house churches. They are based off of Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” They gathered together to eat, talk about life including Jesus, and pray. It was effective in the early church, and it has been effective in my church too. LifeGroup has become a thriving tradition that I hold onto as I meet with my group every other Monday night. Traditions of fellowship, prayer, study, and missions are all very important to becoming closer to God. Traditions are meant to bring us closer to God, rather than to keep things the way they have always been!

What are some traditions you can practice to bring you closer to God? How about the mission…the mission to make disciples...To teach others about the Word of God? Or maybe it’s to help with our tradition of vacation bible school? Perhaps you can become addicted to reading the bible…Or to prayer. Maybe, you can start a tradition for yourself of doing more mission work…or planning a retreat for women, men, or youth or starting a LifeGroup, or similar small group to go through life together and study Scripture and pray. Once you find your niche – what tradition you really love, go at it, and allow it to be molded for God’s purposes…for His work.

I know I didn’t talk much about our 2 Thessalonians Scripture, but here’s where it ties in…God will strengthen us through the process. Verse 16 out of the message: “May Jesus Himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifs of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.” A fresh heart definitely doesn’t sound dead to me!

This week, I have been house- and dog-sitting for a couple at my church. They told me that I only had to take care of the dogs…that the fish, rabbits, bearded dragon lizard, and the house plants would be fine until they returned. But sure enough…a day or two into it, one of the plants started lookin’ pretty droopy! Now, I do not have a green thumb what-so-ever. I tried to grow strawberries once, and I failed miserably. So, I had a choice…I could remind myself that it isn’t my responsibility to take care of that plant to make it grow, or I can see if the one thing I know how to do will help…that is, give it a drink of water. That simple act of giving the plant a drink of water helped that plant to perk up in no time. I did what I could to help it…and God make it grow!

God can do the same thing with our churches and the same thing with our spiritual lives if we let Him. We are partners with God to help others know the changing power of God’s love. We are partners with God to help those in need, including houseplants. We are partners with God for becoming coffee that slowly changes into yummy goodness, rather than over-reactive toilets that sit and do the same thing over and over again. We are partners with God who are to carry out traditions that thrive…always keeping the main mission in mind. To make disciples of Jesus Christ. And to do it until the end.

I encourage you to find a thriving tradition, one that you can become excessively attached to for the kingdom of God, and stand firm. Allow God to change your life, so that you can be a blessing to others.

Let’s pray…

“God, I ask that you would come into our lives today…and show us exactly what tradition we need to hold on tight to. God, allow us to give up any traditions that may be like an over-reactive toilet to us. And show us what new tradition you might have us create. Be in our traditions and help them thrive. For it is in Your name we pray…Amen.”