An unlikely future. . .

Lately I have been thinking some on the ministry I have been privileged to provide to the saints of the Lord gathered first in New York and now in Tennessee.  Without any slight to the places I have served, both of them had suffered much prior to my coming.  Both had gone through conflict and some division.  Both faced an uncertain future and one more likely to see the struggles continue than resolve.  Though they were in different parts of the country and in very different locales, they had learned not to expect much from their future.  Both were suspicious of that future and worried that the best had been and what was to come was more of the struggles they had known in their recent past.

Surprisingly, both parishes were planted in that great missionary period of Lutheranism at the end of the 1950s.  Both had been surveyed by the missions executives of the District in 1958.   Both were begun as missions of the District.  The one in New York got a freshly minted pastor from the seminary to do the work of mission developer.  The one in Tennessee got an experienced church planting pastor from Wheaton, IL, and Muskegon, MI, to do the same here.  Both had great promise.  Both flourished very quickly.  Both built buildings and had ambitious plans for a second stage to add on to that initial structure.  Both congregations were begun by pastors who were not highly liturgical but who wore cassock, surplice, stole, and clerical collar -- not necessarily the norm for the end of the 1950s in the LCMS.

The next stages brought with them a slowdown in the growth they had experienced and with it some sense of stagnation.  Eventually, a couple of pastors later, they experienced enough conflict that attention turned away from the mission, away from Christ and His gifts, and onto their troubles.  Whenever that happens, it seems all the energy and excitement of a congregation can be sapped by such things and expectations of the future seem to wither away.  It is also not uncommon for membership to stagnate and financial troubles to become the focus.  When these happens, people literally stop hoping for more and simply wish that their troubles might lessen.

I was privileged to come at a down time in their lives.  Both parishes were not expecting a dreamer and a schemer who was sure that our future was not going to be defined by our past.  Within a very short time, both parishes undertook a capital project of some kind and the success of that project taught them to hope for and anticipate more.  In both cases, they went from a typical broad church liturgical character of the Divine Service to one which introduced and championed a more liturgical, ceremonial, and rich shape to their worship lives.  Both went to a weekly Eucharist very quickly.  Both saw a pastor in full Eucharistic vestments for the first time (and many of them heard chanting for the first time).  They saw the sign of the cross, genuflection, and bowing -- sometimes considered strange or unusual for certain Lutherans.  Both saw with real ashes on Ash Wednesdays and real palms on Palm Sunday.  Both experienced the rich liturgical character of Holy Week for the first time -- stripping of the altar, adoration of the Cross, and the Easter Vigil.  Both got new baptismal fonts whose size now reflected the importance of Holy Baptism.  Both got a crucifix, processional cross, processional candles, and a chalice.  Both installed new organs, found a new parish musician, and vastly multiplied the musical groups within the parish.  There was much adjustment -- on both sides.  Both also learned to turn away from the hurts of the past to become more intentionally welcoming toward the stranger.  And both grew in numbers and finances as well as in mission. 

Neither of these places were likely candidates for a hopeful future -- at least by every human estimator of things.  At both of my installations I encountered a pastor who told me he showed up in part to see who was fool enough to accept the call to be the pastor of this place!  There were calls that came with more hopeful prospects but I had a certain stubbornness in me that was convinced that this was where God wanted me and He had a future planned for each place.  My point is this.  When you get to a congregation, it is easy to look backward or to fear that the past was too strong to be ignored when looking for a future.  With man it is always impossible -- but not with God.  I remain convinced that God's Word will not return to Him empty but will accomplish His purpose in sending it.  Both congregations went from being small to medium sized and in the upper contingent of the congregations in the districts where they reside.  I take very little of the credit for this success (except to acknowledge that I was and am a dreamer).  It can happen.  It does happen.  Don't write off the present because of the past and don't let the past deprive you of the future.  God always has more in mind that we do.