Too Many Missionaries??!!

“Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29)

Two Sundays ago Katlin Geysen was raising funds for her internship summer at J-Life in South Africa; Shannon Herrmann’s ChristCare group was gathering support for Rachel Snider who is headed to the Dominican Republic as a missionary (she is now fully supported); Tina Smith was here with her sister whom she wanted to introduce to HRC before she and Skip head off to South Africa as missionaries. Just another Sunday at Hopewell Reformed, right?  This Sunday my daughter Hilary will be in worship sharing her vision for the calling God has placed on her life to head to Casa Gabriel in Mexico and work as a missionary with Mexican Medical Ministries.

It seems like we are overloaded with folks that are headed into missions right now at Hopewell.  That is a beautiful thing.  I know the Mission Team met this past Thursday and had to look at how we support “home grown” missionaries as well as other missionaries we have supported for a long time.  In our budget we make sure we are a tithing church, and at least ten percent of all income goes outside of this church.  We are raising up missionaries from within our fellowship and the work we are doing in our community reflects a missional mind set as well.  When we look at Odyssey we see a mission outpost that is local.  Our Community Maintenance Program is a home grown mission focus as well.  I am certain that if you take all the numbers in our giving that are spent in mission it adds up to much more than a tithe, and the generosity of your giving is shared outside of this congregation is ways that God is multiplying.

In the book of Numbers there is a story of God’s spirit being poured out on a select group of seventy.  Two of those called, Eldad and Medad, did not make the ordination service, yet they were prophesying. Joshua told them to stop, but Moses said “no” and proclaimed, “Would that all God’s people would prophesy!”  When I think of too many missionaries I think of Moses’ words.  Would that all God’s people be missionaries: wherever we are, whatever we are doing let us live into the vision of the kingdom of God.  What we are seeing is the fruit of a congregation living lived into mission and I pray that all God’s people would be known as missionaries.  We can never have too much of that.

Yours from the harvest fields,

Taylor

How Ya Doin’?

This Tuesday I will be in the Bronx for lunch. How do they say it in the Bronx:” How ya doin’?” I thought it a good question to ask at HRC today.  We are looking at a new matrix to measure transformation in the church (in fact there is a Willow Creek Webinar about this on Thursday www.willowcreek.com/web_events/wc_05172012.asp) but the traditional way the church looks at how it is doing is through the lens of the two ‘B’s’: butts and budgets.  In other words, how many people are in worship and how is the financial support of the ministry going? I give you a quick update on these two today.  Maybe next week we will have a better tool to measure transformational discipleship, but for today, here goes:

Breaking the Five Hundred Barrier: In January I shared we had set a goal that we wanted to average over five hundred people in weekly worship.  For the three months since January our average is over 500 people in worship.  Our total for the year including January is 498 (so we have been very close for the year).  This has been helped by the weekly worship of Odyssey, which is averaging close to one hundred people, as well as the return of our youth service, which currently is happening once a month.  We currently have six different worship opportunities in a month.  This is good news and encourages us to continue to live into the challenge to make weekly worship a priority during the summer months and beyond.

Budget: Our deacons, especially Mike Reynolds, are doing an excellent job at staying on top of our finances.  We are tracking well in our expenses (we are below budget in spending), but our income is not meeting our goal of a two percent increase.  We are in good shape financially in a difficult economy, but I believe it is time to set our vision higher, as it seems that we are coming through a tough economic time and things are looking better.  Our giving, at this point, is up one percent for the year and our challenge for the next couple of months is to see that raised up to four percent.  This is especially important because we plan next year’s budget based on the income for this year.  Since we are now on a fiscal year budget that means we will be using figures in these months to set the budget for 2012-2013.

Direct Giving: We have a stewardship team that is taking shape and will look at ways to make it easier to connect our discipleship with our dollars.  I hope you have noticed that we are giving a Direct Giving option to give directly from your bank account. Direct Giving is an easy option that keeps your vision for giving consistent throughout the year.  This helps with summer time vacations and other times when you may not bring a checkbook or forget your envelope.  We will look at other ways that we can encourage faithfulness in stewardship, but right now I encourage you to take advantage of Direct Giving through the church or through your financial institution.

As Mike Reynolds says: We are blessed,

Taylor

 Really??? The Intersection of Faith and Doubt

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.”  (Matthew 28:16-17)

I received a letter this week that starts: “Hi Pastor, here I sit, once again contemplating the whole God thing. I was almost a full fledged believer, I really was, but then tragedy, Owen Mulvey, a 5yr old boy, died.”

We know the story of Owen.  Bev Rieland was his teacher at the Ark and the Dove Preschool.  He was a boy that we had prayed for at HRC.  He was born with severe heart problems and after surgery and treatment which he came through well, he was given a good prognosis for the future.  Visiting a farm with his family, he was kicked in the chest by a horse and he died.  A shock, a tragedy, a heart break, and for the woman who wrote me the letter above (who gave me permission to share from her letter) it was a cause to question the existence of a loving God or whether there is a hand guiding this universe.

She is not alone.  Dostoyevsky, a Russian writer and profound believer, wrote that the “death of a single infant calls into question the existence of God.”   Annie Dillard says that one of the only theological questions worth asking is: “What in the Sam Hill is going on here?”  It is a question that we have all asked when confronted with tragedy, or confusion, or simply the profound and mysterious nature of our world.  I can understand that kind of doubt.

The doubt that is hard for me to understand is the doubt of the disciples.  The scene from Matthew 28 is clear.  The resurrected Jesus is standing before them just before he is to ascend into heaven.  They worshipped him but some doubted…REALLY??  These guys were there, face to face with the risen Christ.  What did they doubt?  That he was standing before them?  That he had risen?  That he was with them always?  That all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him?  I am not sure, but this gives me hope, for faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.  The faith of these disciples was put into action that changed the world.  Faith and doubt may not be opposed to each other, but may be the very connection that leads to faith that changes the world.

I am reading the book Faith and Doubt by John Ortberg.  He asks the question about his title: “What if the most important word is the one in the middle?”  For the next four weeks we will look at this question.  We will look at biblical texts that raise the questions for us, and we will hear the testimony of those who come to faith through the asking of some very profound questions.  The woman who wrote me had no idea that we were headed into a series on doubt when she wrote the letter, but she followed it, when I asked for permission to use her letter, by saying that she was really looking forward to the series. I hope you are too. It starts on Sunday with Doubting Thomas.

Yours in Faith,

Taylor

Joining Together on the Journey

…they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; for they began their journey for the sake of Christ (3 John 1:7)

I wish we could have twenty nine people preach this Sunday, but that might take a bit long.  Instead we will have four new members share their testimony of what Christ is doing in their lives and how that has connected them with the journey of this congregation.   This is a large group with many children.  It is an exciting group with many gifts.  It is a group of great stories and I hope that you take the time to hear some of them.

The elders handled reception into the church in a different way this time.  Our new members group gathers to talk about the three arcs of 167 Living: Worship, Discipleship and Mission.  Usually at the end of those weeks we gather as a large group with the elders and break up amongst the five elders and share faith stories.  It is a brief time that ends much too quickly.  This time the elders met with families and individuals in small groups in homes.  It allowed much more time to share stories, ask questions and explore the membership vows and confession that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.  We divided the groups up amongst the five elders, but I got to share in each meeting. What a joy; Amazing stories and amazing journeys. The hour we set aside was still too short, but the model is something that I am sure we will use from now on.

I thought I could give you a little taste of my excitement in this In Touch, but even here I would write too long on all the gifts and joys that this group brings.  Instead I use this page to introduce you to those who will join in the journey here at HRC and I leave it to you to invite them into your life to share stories together:

-Jim and Nora Bergstraser join with their three girls, Phoebe, Ella and Amelia.

-Matt and Krista Blome with their daughter  Maddielyn.

-Shayna Bryant and her daughter Jayna (Shayna will be at the White House on Sunday).

-Jen Castorina will join; she is married to Rob and her sons are Nicholas and Brandon.

-Kissup and Helen Chung will join with their daughter Joanna, Thomas is their son.

-Chris and Priscilla Conrad with their daughters Priscilla and Samantha. They also have a son,Jeffrey, at home.

-Bob and Sheila Eichinger  join with their daughters Leah and Gracie.

- Cindy Gerber joins with her son Brent; her other children are Travis and Robbin; Cindy’s husband is David.

-Greg and Kathy Gordon come with their daughters Emily and Sarah.

- Joan McEvoy comes with her son Sean.

- Bill and Kim Metzger stand before us with their children Harrison and Addison.

- Jeffrey Ricker joins and comes with his children Olivia, Scarlett and Alfred.  Jeff’s wife is named Linda.

-Sue Saez comes with Dillon and Connor.  Her husband is Kelvin.

-Scott and Coleen Snow with their children: Ryan, Sean and Kyra.

-Greg and Lisa Supple, who were recently married.

-Jen Amisson and Jon Van Alstyne, who are soon to be married,

-Dail Moses-Taylor with her sons David and Jonathon. She is married to Anthony.

You can see that it is quite a group.  God is going to do amazing things through them for the kingdom.  I hope you will be here to share in the joy on Sunday.

Yours on the Journey,

Taylor

Partnering With Providence

During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9)

That Macedonian vision changed the shape of Christianity forever as the Gospel entered into Europe and moved toward the heart of the Roman Empire.  Our “Dominican Vision” seems to be changing our church in similar ways.  We will be sending Rachel Snider down to the Dominican Republic as a full time health missionary with Students International. Sembradores Del Reino (Sowers of the Kingdom,) a ministry launched from Hopewell, is reaching out in ways far beyond what anyone imagined with church connections here and significant ministry opportunities in the D.R.

This Sunday the D.R. comes to us. The Reverend Antonio Aquino, pastor of the Iglesia Cristiana Comunitaria of Providence Rhode Island will be preaching at Hopewell.  Pastor Antonio has asked for help from our church in helping their church-start get going.  I have preached in Providence and we have celebrated with that congregation as Antonio became a part of the Reformed Church in America.  It is now their turn to come here.

The Classis of Mid-Hudson has also asked Hopewell to help.  We are part of a group of RCA churches in the Hudson Valley and, as the classis oversees the development of the Rhode Island congregation, they have asked us to be a partner church with this congregation in Providence.  Our consistory leaders will be meeting with ICC leaders after worship on Sunday to talk about the shape and organization of leadership in a RCA church.

On Sunday, our Classis President, our Synod Executive and the Director of the Hispanic Council of the RCA will all be here.  This is a big day and people have a lot invested in seeing this new work of providence in Providence be successful.  For a church that started as a Dutch speaking immigrant church in a new world, we have the opportunity to bless a Spanish speaking, immigrant church in a new world.  It certainly seems like the hand of providence is upon us with our D.R. connections and I am excited about the ways it will change the shape of our church forever.  It is exciting to be a partner with God’s providence.

Yours in Trust,

Taylor

Baptism/Dedication and Everything In Between

On Sunday, at the Gatherings service, we will dedicate Hannah Katlyn Reynolds. The elders have approved this request and it is exciting as a congregation to celebrate the birth of Hannah and all that has been a part of our journey with Stephanie and Mike. It was seven years ago during the Forty Days of Purpose that Mike confessed his faith in Christ. It was that November he was baptized in the Fishkill Creek. The birth of Hannah is a miracle and Stephanie will share some of that story on Sunday.

To do a dedication is new at Hopewell. Dedication is a practice that is usually done in a “believer’s baptism” church. We are a church that baptizes infants based on our covenant theology that sees children of the covenant as members of the church through the promises that God gives to his people. Dedication is a prayer of blessing for a child and a willingness on the part of parents to raise that child in the faith and, in our case, a commitment of the congregation to participate in the spiritual nurture of that child. It is a practice and not a sacrament, but make no mistake about it; Hannah is part of the covenant family at Hopewell. Mike and Stephanie requested dedication because of their desire to see Hannah baptized as she confesses her faith at the point in life when she is ready.

We are doing this dedication because it reflects our vision as a church to be a place of “radical welcome.” We have people who have had many different experiences in their journey of faith and come from many different backgrounds. We celebrate this and acknowledge: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

In fact, I have said to the elders, God must be having some fun with us because we have had more baptismal issues in the last month than I have had before in twenty-five years of ministry.

Here is my list as I am counting:

• two other dedication requests (one for a dedication off-site at a first birthday party)
• six baptismal requests for kids who were dedicated, or not, but now are at various ages from three to fourteen
• questions from parents about whether children who have not been baptized are welcomed at the Lord’s Table.
• one repeat baptism request for someone who has gone through significant conversion and baptized as an infant.
• a call from someone in California to ask if I would baptize a sister’s child when she is in town for the weekend.
• a grandparent that would like the children of a parent who grew up at HRC, but now lives far away, to be baptized on Mother’s Day.
• a couple who no longer attend a church who are seeking baptism of their child.

It is beautiful what God is doing at Hopewell, all whom our God is calling to himself in so many ways. This Sunday we will all reflect on the meaning and nature of the covenant and conversion and, most of all, celebrate those whom God is calling into relationship with him. I hope I have whetted your appetite to be here on the Sunday after Easter (traditionally they call this “Low Sunday”). If this wasn’t enough Thula Sizwe is scheduled to arrive before the end of the Foundations service to do a song or two as a foretaste of their concert at 6:30. What an awesome day!

In Christ,

Taylor

Holy Saturday

“Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

My mom would have been 82 tomorrow, Holy Saturday.  It is the only day in what is known as the Easter Triduum which we do not have a worship service.  Last night, Maundy Thursday, I had the best seat in the house as I saw the faces of 15 children of the covenant who received communion for the first time.  Tonight the choir will lead us in a remembrance of the cross as we Journey with Jesus on the Via Delarosa.  Easter will begin at 6:30 AM when we will end at an open grave (the receiving vault will be open for the first time since I have been here.)  We will follow with breakfast and the celebration of joy at our Easter services at Gatherings, Foundations, Odyssey and Common Ground.

Tomorrow, however, we will be still and I will remember my mom.  I pulled out a sympathy card a few moments ago to send to Lorraine Nelson Wolf on the death of her mother.  It was one of my mom’s cards and I was surprised to see that my mom had started a card to someone with a paraphrase from Paul: “That is why we never give up.  Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are renewed every day.  For our present troubles won’t last very long.  Yet they produce for us…”  She stopped there, but Paul continues, “an immeasurably great glory that will last forever!”

I don’t know why my mom did not finish the card, but I know that Holy Saturday is a reminder that the work of resurrection is not finished.  Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruit of those who died and we wait for the fullness of all that God intends when his kingdom has fully come.  In the meantime we live in the middle, knowing Good Friday and the cross is not the last word, but still looking for all the fullness of the Easter victory.  Therefore, my beloved, says Paul, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.  (1 Corinthians 15:58)

In Easter Joy,

The Discipline of Worship

The discipline of worship??? You have to be kidding me.  I can understand fasting, prayer, study, and meditation as disciplines, but worship is something you feel, a jolt of inspiration for living.  It sounds strange to call it a discipline, but biblically and theologically it is. As we come to the culmination of our Celebration of Discipline through Lent, we close with two corporate disciplines: worship, on Palm Sunday  and celebration on Easter;  two things that should be as natural to us as breathing, but yes,  they are disciplines that need to be learned and lived in our lives.

Foster states: “One reason worship should be considered a spiritual discipline is because it is an ordered way of acting and living that sets us before God so He can transform us.  Although we are only responding to the liberating touch of the Holy Spirit, there are divinely appointed avenues in this realm.” In other words we work at worship, paying attention to our preparation and our participation.  Sometimes I hear the complaint: “I didn’t get anything out of worship today.”  The response to that question from the discipline of worship is: “Did you put everything you have into worship today?”  From preparation to benediction, worship invites us to a divine dance with the Almighty.  Worship is a 168 activity, living every hour of our lives in relationship, reflection, and response to what God is doing.

Having said that, it is important to note that the discipline is corporate – a discipline we do together.  While I can worship God alone on the golf course or in the woods (for me the two go together), I know that to worship as the body of Christ is to pay attention to the blessings of being together in praise.  Foster quotes Luther: “at home, in my own house, there is no warmth or vigor in me, but in the church when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through.”

We have set a goal of breaking the 500 barrier in worship in 2012.  When I wrote about this before,I said it is not about the numbers, it is about the discipline of making worship the priority of our lives.  Members of HRC will be present to praise God together and it will be reflected in our numbers.  So far in 2012 we have gone over 500 on three Sundays of the first quarter.  I know that on Easter we will pass that mark, but I wonder if the Sunday after Easter will see 500 people in corporate worship.  I hope so.  That will reflect learning from Lent on the discipline of worship as it shapes our life as a community.

Yours in Faith,

Taylor

A Nun, A Preacher and A Male Masseuse Walk into a Bar…

Well, we never walked into a bar, but seven years ago I walked into Linwood Spiritual Center as I began my sabbatical.  I met my spiritual director, Sister Maureen, a nun from the order of Saint Ursula. I ended the retreat time with a massage by a guy named Esak (he changed his name after a significant spiritual experience.)  That first retreat opened me up to a different spirituality and an appreciation for spiritual guidance.

It is fitting that the Monday, after I preach on the discipline of guidance, I will have some time with Sister Maureen.  I will also meet with a Preacher’s Group that started about seven years ago; a group that brings great guidance to my life and to my ministry.

“Who speaks truth into your life?”  That will be the question I will ask of you on Sunday.  It is the question of the discipline of guidance.  In a world of every woman for herself, every man for himself, the discipline of guidance invites us to willingly submit to the counsel and correction of those who love us.

Jesus says that we are prone to judge others while not seeing the log that is in our own eye.  The only way toward spiritual growth is to be able to honestly look at ourselves and address the spiritual log jams in our own life before we are able to live the fullness of the kingdom or to aide others on their journey.

I believe that Hopewell is at a crossroads of discipleship.  We are developing a model of mentoring that will serve as guidance for all followers of Christ here.  With this latest new members group, I stated last week that our hope for them at Hopewell is that each will have a spiritual mentor that they can identify and that each of them will be a spiritual mentor to someone else.

Ginny Young, who has been trained as a spiritual director at Linwood, will share with us some of her insights regarding spiritual direction.  This is an invitation to a deeper walk that is modeled at Linwood, but has been a strange model for most Protestants.

We will also commission two Stephen Ministry leaders, Carol Bean and Karen Nussle.  Stephen Ministry is another ministry of guidance of people who are willing to walk beside others in times of trial.

Who speaks truth into your life?  I would invite you to think about it, and more than that, develop people and places in your life where the discipline of guidance is allowed to be practiced.

Yours in Christ, Taylor

The Adventure of Odyssey

When we planned a church plant five years ago we never dreamed of Odyssey, but five years later we celebrate the trip God has taken us on.  This Sunday Mark Mast will preach on the discipline of Service at Hopewell, and I will experience the discipline of service at Odyssey.  For certainly Odyssey has been shaped into one of the most profound and unexpected mission trips that we could ever be on.

Our plan was that in five years we would have a fully functioning, self-supporting congregation in the Unionvale area, but, as Rodney Smith said a couple of weeks ago, “If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans.”  Odyssey, with this latest move, is growing into a fully functioning congregation, but it will never be a self-supporting congregation in the way that we had planned.  Congregants who come together from group homes will not be able to support all aspects of ministry of the Odyssey congregation.  Odyssey will be one of the prime mission works of HRC.

This invites us to view Odyssey in a different way at HRC.  We send volunteers out monthly in service with CMP (Community Maintenance Program).  We have sent volunteers out to aide Prattsville as it rebuilds.  We send volunteers out to various places on this planet in service to the kingdom.  We also need to send volunteers to Odyssey to support the ministry there.  As Odyssey has moved to the Dutchess ARC Vocational Center off of Rte. 55 and is meeting every week, the stress on those who have committed to this ministry is great.  I am praying that we develop a support relationship with this mission that sees a steady flow of volunteers who go from Hopewell to Odyssey on a regular basis.

Mark will preach on service, but he will represent the opportunity to live into service in a new way through Odyssey.  We support this new ministry through our money and I am now inviting you to support it with your time.  Five years ago as Journey began, we invited at least thirty people from HRC to join Steve Dambra and Mark Mast in building a congregation in Unionvale.  I now would ask 130 people from Hopewell to give a week a month to help with Odyssey, which may mean simply heading out to Dutchess ARC Vocational Center once a month for worship.

It is not what we planned five years ago, but God is laughing with joy as a congregation of joy and celebration is taking shape at Dutchess County ARC.  Thanks be to God for this opportunity of service.

In Christ,

Taylor