Sunday, November 29, 2009

If you've got it... flaunt it!

Sorry for not being around, that's what happens when you have renovations to a business. Change is something that can be seen both ways... good and bad. For example, look at this place. We changed some things and good things have come of it. Now, change from a new Mercedes Benz to a piece of crap car, that's a bad change. And I guess there is the in between, there's the "I won't do anything because I am afraid of change" mode. Because we are human and live on this earth things will always change. Did you know the continents move on average a centimeter a year? Did you know that Hawaii is still growing and its landscape changes on a regular basis? Did you know that many years ago there were no cars or computers? ([sarcasm] No way!)
 
Just so you know this has nothing to with Obama's "change." 

I have a friend; he's a teacher. Teaches at a lutheran school in fact. I know, crazy huh, a lutheran school still exists! 

Why is it that we would say that?

I do not believe it has anything to do with the school necessarily, but the congregation of the church. 

What's that? How does the church have anything to do with the school?

EVERYTHING! The church and the school are one entity. It's like marriage... a true marriage where there is one husband, one wife, and Christ Jesus is in between! Both husband and wife have to work together in order for the marriage to work, right? Right. If one spouse decides to ignore the other, they start working separately and eventually they break up. Usually, neither side ends up in a great position after that. Some have full mental breakdowns.  The school my friend works at is suffering because the congregation has ignored the school. The school has done everything possible to keep things going for itself and the congregation. Yet, the congregation is not doing its part.
Money is a big issue right now with this congregation... they're in debt and thus far having difficulty paying it off. Generally, members of the church are not helping to pay off this debt. As a result, the church wishes to make some budget cuts, starting with the school. I know... (sarcasm)but it gets better! The church has a cemetery fund worth more than double the amount of debt. The thing is, that money cannot be touched according to the constitution of the church. 
What? Oh. Well, the money will be used for up keep of the cemetery and later burials after the church is gone. You would think, rather, to believe that the church would never shut down. What kind of faith is that? Pshhh... assuming your church will die. "Well, just in case the church shuts down, we'll have money to take care of the dead."
 Are you kidding me?! This church is more concerned about taking care of the dead over the living, breathing church and school?! If I recall, Jesus says something like, "let the dead bury itself." The dead are dead and there is nothing to be done, since we're all eventually getting new bodies anyways! What about the fact that the church allows more opportunity to spread the word of God to the living than a dead church? Is this church so focused on itself that it does not care to reach out to the rest of the community?
Let me ask you this. What happens to a plant if you don't water it? Right, it withers and dies. What happens to a church when it quits functioning as a church? It withers and dies. 
This church does not interact with other lutheran churches in the area. It does not encourage parents of other congregations to send their child to the school. It does not interact with the school. (Thank you to those who do.)
I know that money was given by people for specific reasons, one of them was not to get the church out of debt. But when the church is in debt, people are not giving, and there is a great threat to the only outreach the church has... the school, I think desperate times call for desperate measures. If the money is there use it, and pay it back over time in respect to those who gave that money in the first place. Make some changes to survive! If there is no food on the table, we don't just sit there and starve! We get up, look in the fridge and cabinets for food and make a meal. If things get really dicey we start looking in the trash. But to sit there and starve to death... that's just plain stupid.

As someone looking at this church from the outside-in... I know I won't go to this church. Not until some real, good, honest change is made.