Meeting Malala

For most Hoosiers and for most nine year olds, the name Malala doesn’t hold much weight. For Lydia, my nine year old, it does. She read Malala’s story of being a young girl trying to get her education in the midst of the Taliban’s ban in Pakistan. Lydia started wearing her scarves as hijabs as she pretended to be a brave girl fighting for her education. So, when Malala, a Pakistani national living in England, came to Indiana, a three hour drive didn’t seem so long.

Around 5pm, the line behind us.  Malala spoke at 7:30.

So Lydia and I set off for an adventure. We arrived three and a half hours before Malala was slated to speak, and found a place in line behind women and girls all holding Malala’s book in anticipation. This college of 2,500 students welcomed 5,000 people into their gymnasium to meet Malala. It is still incredible to me that she would be willing to come to this place, a tiny university, in a tiny town, in a tiny state.

I need to share that I didn’t have Lydia read Malala’s book to hear about the bravery and leadership Malala took. I didn’t have her read it to hear how young women can impact their society. I didn’t even have her read it to remind her how important education is and how it is a privilege to go to school. I had her read Malala’s story because Malala is Muslim. Malala is a girl of faith. Her deep faith in women’s (and girls’) rights is rooted in her study of the Quran. Malala is a practicing Muslim who believes deeply in peace and justice. 

That is the Malala who stood on stage at DePauw on Monday night. When she was asked about her regrets, she said, “I hope everyone knows I am a woman of faith.”

There are so many things we want for our children. But what I want most is to have a girl that lives her life according to her faith.

As a woman, and as a pastor, I know this is a challenge. I am told often to silence my voice. To not speak about issues of justice because they are too political. To ignore those outside of the church for the benefit of those within. But my faith tells me the opposite. It tells me to stand up against evil in all its forms, even the nice ones that show up properly and politely.  It is a long consistent pattern that whispers us into silence. But Malala reminds us that faith can help us to speak out against the voices that would silence us. God’s whispers have more power than the world that tries to silence us.

Thank you, Malala, for sharing your faith with us women in small places. Thank you for sharing your story with girls like Lydia. May your faith move us all to act out our own faith in daring ways

.

Making Disciples through VBS

We had a great week of VBS full of God encounters and making disciples.

When we talk about making disciple of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, there are four things we do that we know produce authentic disciples. Those are Worship, Intentionally Develop Faith in Small Groups, Serve Others, and Make New Disciples. All of those things happened through VBS this year.

Serve Others. Fifteen adults, including Hattie, served the children of our community this year and showed the love that marks our faith with those kids. Patricia was so caring, she even had a little boy ask about her marital status! Service is never just a one-way street, though. Older kids helped younger kids cross the street and partnered up with them for activities.

Small Groups. Small groups are all about intentionally developing our faith. The kids learned how God gives us hope, special abilities, forgiveness, and family this week. We ate together, played together, and learned together, and prayed for each other. In fact, one of our rough-and-tumble kindergarten boys offered a prayer for Von when he had to leave to take care of his sick mother. We all learned that this little boy’s gift is prayer!

Make New Disciples. Monday night we only had 7 kids at VBS, so I challenged the kids to double that number for Tuesday night. With that challenge one girl came up and asked with all seriousness, “Can I invite more than one friend?”  The next night we doubled in attendance, and every night after new kids came because every kid was excited about church and busy inviting friends. What started at 7 swelled to 26 kids.  By the end, 6 kids had brought 12 friends to church.

Worship. The kids had me sweating Friday night. It was 2 minutes before the program, and one family and my kids were all that had arrived for the program. But sure enough, by 6:05, we had 19 kids and 22 adults, a total of 41 people worshipping together! The kids sang praise to God. We offered $144.50 for God to use in his Lenca church. We heard the messages of hope, calling, forgiveness, and community. Lastly we thanked God for those who had served and praised God for a birthday in our midst. Lastly, our kindergarten boy prayed for our meal together, its own form of communion.

            God used VBS in some unexpected ways. I wasn’t expecting the crowd who came. I wasn’t expecting the gifts those kids shared. I wasn’t expecting the number of friends they would bring. God is always doing unexpected things and it is clear that he was busy working through VBS this year. We offered ourselves to his mission, and he used us to produce an unexpected harvest. I don’t think he is done yet either. What will he do through the relationships we built during VBS? I don’t know…and I can’t wait to find out!

My Ordination Sermon

This sermon was preached at LaFontaine UMC on June 11, 2017, the first Sunday following my ordination. I hope by sharing it, it will help you reflect on your own calling, whether it be to professional ministry, or to share your gifts, passions, and graces in another way in God's name.

When I was in eighth

grade, I went to a revival at my church. I listened to the pastor preach about serving others. He pointed out two of the members of his church who served others and he invited us to do the same. I went home that night and I couldn’t shake the feeling that God was speaking to me. And that night, I told God I would give him my career, to do with it as he thought best, knowing that it would be a career marked by service.

There have been lots of bumps in the road since that initial call, but I have done my best to follow it and as God often does, he clarified that for me that meant pastoral ministry. In high school there were those who told me women weren’t called and told me I was being prideful for even considering being a pastor.  And I questioned if God made a mistake.

Then I went college and majored in pastoral ministry and learned the deep roots of women proclaiming gospel, starting with the women at the empty tomb and Mary the mother of God. I learned about the church planters who led churches in Paul’s absence like Dorcas, Julia, Junia, Lydia, Persis, Phoebe, Priscilla, and Dorcas. I learned how that call had been carried down through the ages, and how men just couldn’t shut us called women up.

I started as an associate pastor at Bremen Church of the Brethren at the age of 20, and learned to pace myself. I learned to have grace with myself and that ministry does not always go according to plan.

After I graduated I started searching for a church to serve with my husband. We went down to Mississippi to a church of 12 people, and learned what it was to have to close a church.

When we came back and I searched for 9 months for a church to serve in in the Church of the Brethren and the Wesleyan Church to no avail, I learned what a woman pastor had told me in college meant, “If you can do anything else, do it.” Because I couldn’t. I was relentless. The call was like a fire within me that could not be put out by being ignored or rejected. I knew that while I had been good at every job I had had, I was not satisfied with them, and my call weighed heavy on me. And Nick to this day reminds me of this whenever I am ready to give up.

When a United Methodist Pastor shared our name with their District Superintendent, I learned what Methodists meant when they talked about being connectional.  It’s more than just a friendly handshake when we run into each other, but a commitment to work together and support each other.  And when we started co-pastoring our first 2 point charge, I learned that how a church reacts to the message has just as much to do with them as it does with the words I share. Same sermon, 2 different reactions.

When we moved to Saratoga so that I could go to seminary and serve as a part time pastor, and I worked with the church to begin supporting a global mission. This year at Annual Conference, I heard that what started in that little church is still going strong. The Indiana Conference gave $28,000 to support the three Sierra Leone pastors who had visited our little church years ago so that they could continue their seminary education that they may one day teach in a new seminary in Sierra Leone.

Then God brought me here to LaFontaine, where I learned the joy of seeing God move in a community in both personal transformation and the transformation that happens when we work together. The transformation of this town that is making LaFontaine great again is because of the people moved by God in our pews and our willingness to provide financial support as a church to community initiatives like revitalizing the park and reimagining the town festival.

This year marks 20 years since my initial call, 14 years that I have been serving as a pastor, 9 years within the United Methodist church. Some of those years have been harder than others. There have been times I have been ready to give up, when ministry has felt more like passion week than the resurrection.  When I have been unsure of whether God’s will would be done at the end of the day.  And there have been moments when I have felt like the luckiest person in the world.  I have seen God heal families in the midst of death, save marriages, and taken the lonely and given them a place to belong. I have seen those deserted by their families find their true family in the church. A family that takes them to doctor appointments, brings them meals, and even plans their funeral.

I have seen God replace hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. I have seen God take the dry bones of Ezekiel, and made a new people loyal to him. I have seen God take the river of life to the deadest parts of the world.  I have seen the death of Friday and the new life of Sunday.

On Saturday June 10, 2017, for the first time, I was fully recognize as an equal in our Conference. As an Elder called by God and given the graces and gifts to fulfill that call in the local church. It has taken 20 years, 6 churches, and 2 degrees to get to this day. But what it has taken man so long to acknowledge, has not slowed down God’s use of me. From the moment he called, the moment I said yes, he started using me for his good purposes.

Maybe you sense a call in your life to something more. Maybe God is calling you to a life dedicated to serving others, as he called me so many years ago. If he is, I encourage you today to answer that call.

Working Together with Different Gifts

               Team dynamics are tricky for everyone, because we have different abilities and specialties, and blending those together can be hard. Paul talked about this with the Corinthians who kept fighting, because they weren’t respecting each other’s gifts. I’m sure you have probably been on a team like that before. Too many people give directions…or not enough direction is given. It’s hard to find a good blend sometimes.

 

              

               Creative                                                                                                        Manager

One way to think about gifts on a team, is to think about the kind of gift people have on a spectrum. On one end, you have your very creative, visionary people. They think up new ideas or ways to do things. They can see things that aren’t yet, and can rethink old problems. On the other end of the spectrum are managers. These people can take an idea and break it into manageable steps. They can see the different parts of the whole. They are strategists. A great team has both these people on it, because together they make things happen that surprise everyone. 

               But because these two kinds of people think differently, they have a tendency to drive each other crazy. A good leader can get these people to see the other’s work as valuable and appreciated. They can bring the creative folks to the table, and then equip the managers to flesh out the ideas that are brought forward. They also can help creative folks to not only be the dreamers but the problem solvers when something in the strategy is not quite working. 

               If you were to place yourself on that spectrum, where do you think you would be? Do you lean on the creative side? If so, you may be great at thinking up ideas, but bad at implementing them. Maybe you lean more to the managerial side. You can see the details, and assign people to tasks along the way, but it’s hard for you to think outside the box. 

Whichever end you are on, it is important to make space for others and to have grace with others. When the creative type cannot work out the details or seems to not get things going, it helps to step back and realize they need a manager not to yell at them, but to come alongside them. When a manager starts micromanaging and it feels like they have “taken over” the project, it is important to have grace with them, to come alongside them and help them to think about things a new way. 

God made us all different not so we would drive each other crazy, but so that we would complement each other. One of my favorite cartoons when I was little was Captain Planet. There were a group of kids each with one super power, and when they put their rings together, they created Captain Planet who could do so much more than they could separately. That is the picture I see in Paul’s writings about gifts. God has made us all in his image and likeness with a small part of Him. When we put those gifts together, we make an image that better represents God. We can do immeasurably more when we work together in grace and love, and God can do more through us. 

               So the next time you get frustrated at someone on your team, take a deep breath and think about how what is driving you crazy also makes your team stronger. Think of how you can support each other to get where you need to go, and help each other in those weak spots. We need all kinds if we are to transform the world.