out with a predictable and awkwardly scheduled whimper
i have yet to devote an entire post to the overall importance of the children's place to the future of huffman united methodist church. while that continues to brew, though, i will point out that our would be/could be fatal flaw reared it's head yet again on rick owen's last sunday.
this morning was "vacation bible school sunday" in name, but in action, it was moreso a glorified sendoff to a friendly pastor that ended up doing very little in his four years served to turn the downward momentum of humc. as mentioned, rick was and is incredibly likeable, which will always play in your favor if you are trying to cover up the fact that funerals over the last four years outnumbered new members (a big chunk of those new members coming via our hispanic congregation that we can't really talk to because they don't speak english) by 25 percent. being likable and funny in the pulpit may mask the fact that we are no closer to reaching our "community" than we were this time six years ago when we brought in charles lee. it may hide that our newly hired (part-time, of course) children's director had no idea (!!!) that vbs was a massive undertaking. but rick being likable will get a sunday school class named in his honor. it will get him a check from the church he is leaving to help with his "moving into your new house" expenses. it will also get the well-past-having-a-clue chair of our staff-parish relations committee to encourage folks to shake rick and pat and donna's hand before going to the fellowship hall to celebrate the "future" of our church because some of our congregation "may not care about vacation bible school".
and there you have it, folks. the telling quote of the day. does it make sense to schedule a reception honoring those leaving your fold in conflict with a pot luck lunch that lifts up children and families that still remain? of course it doesn't, but we stopped making sense a long time ago. in the world of huffman umc, it makes more sense to put on a happy face and tell a pastor (who chose to leave), his wife and a longtime member (that herself was pushed out the door) good bye and good luck, because, goshdarnit, some people might not care about vacation bible school.
and those peope will carry huffman's coffin when we end up folding into wilson'schapel/huffman/st.john's umc in ten years if we continue down this path. i am skeptical that things will ever be better than this. that we can turn our fortunes. but this is the bed we have made. can we all of a sudden change who we are? i doubt that we can. too many people have either left, stopped caring, or resigned themselves to the same thoughts that flood my mind every time i step into our church. we are not a place that we invite friends to. we are too depressing. too old. too boring. too content.
next sunday, a new chapter begins. will it be our last? next sunday, rev. chris denson will begin to understand that he has been sold and sent to a church of distinguished reputation that is now a house of cards. next sunday, i will take my bucket to the deck and start scooping. time will tell if we have the strength the patch the gaping holes.
time will tell if we can make everyone care about vacation bible school. and the children's place. and what terrible stewards of this church we have become.
4 comments:
You want another quote to go hand-in-hand with people who don't care about VBS? How about the demographics at Huffman just don't support having a young adult pastor? I love HUMC and most of the people there, but your predictions will be fulfilled if people don't wake up to realize that eliminating the young adult focus and moving to part-time youth and children focus only drive the nails in the coffin. I pray that there can be a turn around.
kev. i think now is a better than ever to start your own church. like you mentioned earlier.
i dont know if im serious or not. but seriously im coming back to birmingham 25th/26th-ish for about a week.
i thinking of a word.
it begins with a 'b' and ends with an 'andeeting.'
i completely agree with you kevin, and donna. for some strange reason, when i came back home this summer had thought things might have changed, and i would enjoy going to church again...but it is far different from that. i am actually thinking about driving to riverchase umc in a couple of weeks to visit.
every sunday when my ADD kicks in, and i am looking around the church i think about how our church is pretty much being held together by people over the age of 60. what happens when all those people die out? i know it's kind of a sad question to ask, but seriously? i mean there are very few kids coming down the isle every sunday to go to childrens church...at least compared to the amount that i used to sit with at childrens moment when i was that age. i hate that so many people have been run off at our church...including myself. i refuse to attend sunday school...i drive in a different car from my parents so that i won't have to. and i get happy when i see jan, jill, or elizabeth there, because i know i can talk with them. i rarely get excited to go to church anymore...at least for the reasons i should...and that is not a good thing.
because of how i church is, and has been, i did not get involved in church at auburn. i visited a couple of times, but i was scared to get involved there, because i was afriad that if i did, the people would be just like some of the people at our church that have hurt me soo much, and have killed my spirit. isn't church supposed to bring you closer to God? for me, at least in the last two year, it has made me more fearful.
this was an extremely long post...but i have been thinking the same things as you. even moreso since i returned from camp on friday...seeing all those people excited to go to church every week, made me remember the time when i did too.
Hey Kevin- my first visit to your blog- and I'm enjoying it!
I wanted to throw in some food for thought. We spend a lot of time talking about our church's future, about how young families and children are the future.
Naturally, I agree- I have 4 girls who are growing up there, so of course I want the congregation to care about children and youth programming.
But today I met a man at the library. His name was Jimmy, and he was elderly and using an oxygen tank. He approached me and we watched the rain pouring down while waiting for a chance to make it to our cars relatively dry.
In our conversation I learned that he used to be a member of our church. I learned that he was alone, that his family had recently moved to another city. We talked about how people need family, how they need support systems.
I invited him to come back to church.
He told me that he thought God had sent me to him- that he needed to talk to me that day.
I sincerely hope I see him at church soon.
This was a great reminder to me- we spend so much time thinking about what we (as a church) need, that we forget that there are people that need us.
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