“Get On Board, Little Children”–A Thought for the New Year

Every so often, God gives me a song early in the morning. It typically is running through my mind just as I wake up. Sometimes the origin is pretty obvious. It may be something that I have heard or sung recently. During this season of the year, it is not surprising for me to awake with a Christmas carol (or even an Advent hymn!) echoing in my thoughts!

Some time ago, it was a song that I hadn’t called to mind for quite a while. It was the traditional African-American spiritual, “Get On Board, Little Children.” This song about “The Gospel Train” was first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The first verse and the chorus of this African-American Spiritual goes:

The gospel train is coming,
I hear it just at hand,
I hear the car wheels moving,
And rumbling thro’ the land.

Get on board, children,
Get on board, children,
Get on board, children,
For there’s room for many a more.

One of the things about trains is that, while they may wait at the stations or on the siding for a length of time, there comes a point when they begin to move—not quickly at first but almost imperceptibly. But when the train reaches a certain speed, you better already be on board!

I think that God may be getting ready for us to move as a congregation. Perhaps it has already begun—not quickly but almost imperceptibly. Who’s on board? There’s “room for many a more!”

As we begin 2011 together, may we be “on board” with what God has in mind. May we build on the momentum God has already given us. And may we make sure to invite and involve others in the journey!

Grace and Peace,
Mark Conard

 

Learning Two Things…or Even Three (2010 Church Conference Report)

I learned two things this past year as pastor of First United Methodist Church. There perhaps should have been more, but I am pleased with the two that I learned.

The first is that the tenth year of ministry in one place is actually the starting point for what can be genuinely accomplished. This is something that I learned from a church consultant named Israel Galindo, who wrote an article for the Alban Institute entitled “Staying Put: A Look at the First Ten Years of Ministry.” The article concludes:

If you have lasted up to the tenth year and have invested well in your tenure of ministry, you and your congregation share a mutual relationship of trust, a shared corporate identity, and a common vision of ministry. Your relationship with the congregation can provide the resources to begin working on whom you can become. Because your pastoral leadership function will take on new directions, now is the time to quit recycling sermons. More important, now is the time to begin thinking about the life of this congregation two or three generations into the future.

Now is the time for my ministry in this place really to begin! I had never thought of it this way. I had always measured how long I had been here as the primary means of assessing how I was doing (or how we were doing). And there have always been areas of shortcoming, disappointment, or a lack of significant measurable results.

Generally speaking, I  feel that we have developed “a mutual relationship of trust, a shared corporate identity, and a common vision for ministry.” These are not always articulated as clearly as they might be, but I believe that they are there.

There are those, of course, who contend vigorously that I cannot be trusted, that I do not understand the congregation or its needs, and that I have failed to provide adequate leadership. Certainly people are entitled to their opinions, and several have not been afraid to express themselves—usually in connection with their departure from active participation in the life of this church.

Still, in my tenth year as pastor of First United Methodist Church, there seem to be some genuine stirrings of the spirit, and I look forward to seeing what God has yet in store for us here on the corner of First and Walnut!

The second thing I have learned this year is my realization this fall that every pastor in the United Methodist system is an interim pastor, unless we happen to be the founding pastor or the pastor in place when a congregation comes to the end of its organizational life.

I had implicitly expected myself to be the “turn-around pastor” or the “come back pastor.” I envisioned myself as the one whose pastoral tenure would be the time in which long years (even decades) of decline would be reversed. I had an internal timeline for when that would take place, and I became increasingly frustrated when things didn’t turn out as I had expected.

I no longer have the self-imposed pressure of being the “turn-around pastor” or the “come back pastor” or whatever other terminology might be used. I am just an interim pastor, seeking to build on what has been done by so many before my arrival and striving to leave things hopefully in better condition to my eventual successor.

As an interim pastor, I have intentionally tried more this year to “come alongside people.” My visual image for this is a two-person porch swing. One of the realities of a porch swing is that, generally speaking, both people tend to see the same things at more or less the same time. It is an opportunity to visit without getting in each other’s face. You find a mutual rhythm and pattern in your time together. You don’t want to speed things up too dramatically, nor do you just want to sit as if you were in adjacent chairs!

There is actually a third thing that I have learned this year—the words [and the “moves!”] to the praise and worship song entitled “Days of Elijah.” The first verse is:

These are the days of Elijah
Declaring the Word of the Lord
And these are the days of his servant, Moses
Righteousness being restored

And these are the days of great trial
Of famine and darkness and sword
So we are the voice in the desert crying
Prepare ye the way of the Lord

Robin Marks, the writer, says about this song, that it is intended to “express the sense that these might be days, not of failure and submission, but of the sort of resilient, declaring, even arrogant trust and hope that Elijah had in his God.” Perhaps that is just the sort of confident hope in God that is needed at this time and this place here at First United Methodist Church!

And there are “moves” that go along at least with the chorus of “Days of Elijah!” I have my own distinctive style, which may be unlike exactly what is intended, but I enjoy the opportunity to celebrate in motion the words:

Behold he comes
Riding on a cloud
Shining like the sun
At the trumpet’s call
Lift your voice
It’s the year of jubilee
Out of Zion’s hill salvation comes

All in all, it’s been a good year—to have learned two things . . . and even a third! I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to serve as pastor of First United Methodist Church.

Grace and Peace,
Mark Conard