Pastoral Prayer inspired by 2 Cor. 6:1-13 (Father's Day; Sunday following the church massacre in Charleston, SC)

Holy God:

We thank you on this day that you have given us the great grace and high privilege of naming you as our Father.  At great price to yourself, you loved us when unlovable, you made peace with us through the blood of your Son, you humbled yourself to stoop low enough to meet us where we are.  You gave us your name, an eternal inheritance, new life, and gave us the gift of this, your family.  Our Father, we are grateful.

We are grateful to you, also, for our earthly fathers.  We thank you for those who gave us life, for those who have mentored and guided us, for those who have been spiritual fathers and taught us the faith.  We thank you for those who have been fathers to the fatherless.  For all who have a father’s love and have shown us a father’s love, we are eternally grateful. 

Help our Fathers to love their children well. Help our father to know our gratitude.  Strengthen families.  So often, fathers feel overlooked and underappreciated.  Help them to keep an open heart, to always love, support, care for, and teach their children well, to demonstrate the faithfulness that can be learned best from you alone.

As our nation reels from a horrific crime committed against our sister church and its people, we pray that you would comfort the families of the slain.  We pray that the people of Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston would feel your embrace and the prayers of the nation and world as they gather for worship even now.  Use this horrendous crime to allow the witness of the martyrs to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Use even this horrific crime as an opportunity to heal the woundedness and division in our nation, for our only hope is in you, great God of love.

Amen.

Who Remembers Peninnah?

If you were on Jeopardy and the category was Bible, and the answer was "Peninnah," would you buzz in?  Probably not.  If the answer was "Hannah," you probably would.

The Book of 1 Samuel tells the tale of Elkanah, a good man married to two wives.  The first wife, Peninnah, has able to have children.  The second wife, Hannah, like many Biblical heroines, was not.  Peninnah was unkind to Hannah about their differing fortunes and made her feel terrible.  Elkanah was kind to Hannah and, in fact, preferred her, but it was no consolation.  Hannah was so distraught with her desire for a child that she cried out to God so desperately in prayer that the priest nearly threw her out of the Temple thinking she was drunk in the house of God.  How often have you prayed so hard that the the preacher thought you had showed up to church drunk and tried to throw you out?  Hannah knew something about praying from the heart that few of us know.

Still, I think more of us relate to Hannah than to Peninnah.  More of us know how it feels to be passed over than those of us who know what it's like to be chosen.  More of us know what it's like to be jealous of another person who has what we most deeply and rightly desire than those of us who know what it's like to look down in condescension upon those who want what we have.  Most of us know what it's like to cry out in desperation for our heart's desire.  Fewer of us know what it's like to have the self-satisfaction of having been granted our desires.

Perhaps the good news is that Hannah is remembered and Penninah is not.  As I write this, my computer recognizes "Hannah" and puts red squiggles under "Penninah."  I know many people named Hannah.  I've never met a Penninah.

The story of the heaven-kissed chosen one who gets things easily and looks down on the others is a boring, quickly forgotten story.  The golden children of the world are rarely remembered.

It's the rest of us who lead lives that are more heartfelt, more interesting, perhaps more painful.  We are the ones whose stories are compelling--those of us who must labor for the fulfillment of God's promises, those of us who have wept in prayer for longing, those of us who have daily knelt before God and opened the dark corners of our hearts in order to keep from being eaten up with jealousy, those of us who don't understand why it must be so more difficult for us and seemingly so easy for others.  Why does God always seem to point us toward the headwind when it looks like the calling of so many others lets them sail on with the wind at their back?

The soul comes alive when the wind is in the face.  Intimacy with God is found in desperation.  Hannah found more joy in Samuel than Penninah ever found in her children (whose names are not remembered at all).

A Word to Moving Pastors: Love Your Predecessors

In United Methodists congregations, it's move time.  We are appointed year to year and, with rare exceptions, we all move at the same time.  Right now, around the country, pastors are saying goodbye to one congregation and saying hello to another.

The first few weeks and months in a new congregation are precious time to make a good match.  If a pastor and congregation mishandle first impressions with each other, it can be difficult to recover.  There are many books, videos, and other resources available to help pastors and congregations navigate transition time.  Lovett Weems has fantastic material on this subject.

Out of the many things that might be said, one word of advice I would add is this one: Love your predecessor(s).  Every pastor who has come before you has offered something to the people and their collective life and discipleship.  Every one has connected with them in some way and helped people to experience grace and know Jesus better.

Pastors can be as egotistical as anyone.  Inexplicably, many pastors feel that the congregation's love, fondness, and respect for former pastors is a hindrance to their own ability to be seen as the pastor now.  They somehow feel that if the congregation talks all the time about what happened when a former pastor served there, that the congregation will be unable to move forward and embrace new leadership.  Pastors should understand that when a congregation talks about a former pastor and what happened during a predecessors stay, they are offering the precious gift of the story of the congregation's faith journey.  There is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained by embracing these conversations and encouraging and celebrating them, listening closely and affirming the good work of those who have come before us.

If a congregation loves a former pastor, isn't that a good indication that the congregation might love the current pastor?  If a congregation embraced a former pastor's leadership, wouldn't the congregation be more likely to embrace the leadership of the current pastor?

The biggest threat to the love of respect of former pastors being shared with current pastors is the current pastor's jealousy of predecessors.  When a congregation can sense that a current pastor wants the congregation to forget the former pastor, or that the current pastor resents the mention of a former pastor, they understandably question the maturity and spiritual health of the pastor.  It creates a bad dynamic within the congregation too--one of comparison, self-interest, rather than servanthood and desire to honor one another above ourselves.

I believe one of the most practically helpful things a pastor can do is to invite back former pastors as often as possible.  When I arrived at my current appointment, I made a list of all living, active and retired former senior and associate pastors and invited every one of them to return in the first year.  I got them all back for one reason or another within two years.

Of course, people have different opinions about different former pastors.  Some are beloved by certain congregants and less revered by others.  Bringing them all back helps to bring some reconciliation and resolution over past hurts.  Inviting them all back models grace and trains the congregation to be gracious with itself and each other and its history so that it will act more graciously in its present and future.

Many pastors feel that they must compete with the legend of the superstar former pastor or join in criticism of a former pastor whose legacy is mixed.  I believe this is a huge mistake.  When a pastor resists the praise of a former pastor, it sets the current pastor at odds with the congregation.  If a pastor appreciates criticism because she or he interprets it as praise in comparison, the current pastor sets him or herself up to be the victim of similar criticism down the road.  If the current pastor can join the fan club and celebrate the former pastor from the heart, then the current pastor becomes one with the congregation.  I believe that when we ground our ministry in humility, grace, and preference for others, God blesses our work and the people recognize and appreciate our spirit.

Prayer for Clergy Election of Representatives to General/Jurisdictional Conference

I was honored to be asked to pray over one of the ballots during recent voting for clergy representatives to General and Jurisdictional Conference.  Here is that prayer.


Holy God, Father of us all:

Who has called all creation into relationship with yourself,
     All of your followers into ministry through baptism,
     And each of us into particular areas of service according to the will of your Spirit,
          for the purpose of building up the whole body in love in Jesus Christ,

Guide us to discern best those called to serve in leading and representing us,

That the bond of peace between us be strengthened,
     the Gospel be propagated,
     disciples be made,
     To the glory of God and the building up of the Church,

Through Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church,
Through the Spirit who makes us the Church,
Who live and reign with you, Eternal Father,
One God, forever and ever, Amen.