I’ve been a fan of the Highlands Abilities Battery ever since I took it back in 2002. It’s still something that helps me in finding the right “place” for myself.
Today, Emily and I shared with everyone that we are closing the Vineyard Church of Waterville.
You read it right.
We’d asked our board about just closing down Sundays. Attendence has been declining over the last 18 to 24 months. Offerings have always been below what is needed. As a pastor, I was concerned for the team. There was no “bench” to draw from. We encourage all levels of leadership or oversight to be looking for the person they’ll pass it on to. But there aren’t those people.
Here’s a graph of our weekly attendence, each year in a different color:
You’ll note two things:
The 2007 trend line is going in the wrong direction. It’s going down. And 2007 was lower than 2005 or 2006.
The purple line is 2008. It’s lower than any other year.
I also showed them this image of last year’s offerings and this year’s.
The red line is the barebones budget, less in 2008 than in 2007. What this doesn’t show is that our average monthly tithes and offerings were twice this, around $4000, in 2005.
But other things are going well: our budget course is attended by people from our church and guests. People have been healed and demons have been cast out. And servant evangelism is going through the roof:
Clearly, our church is having an impact far beyond our numbers. And we continue to find amazing favor in our community. But something’s not connecting to make this attempt viable.
I’m so glad to be part of a movement. People wiser than us and in authority over us have been recommending we get some rest. We’ve been working at this very hard for the last 3 1/2 years. Now is a good time to take a rest.
In telling this to one of our leaders, I commented, “I don’t feel I need a rest.” She asked me, “Isn’t that the time you should rest? Before you’re totally burnt-out?”
So we’re closing VCW 1.0 on Sunday, May 18. The old sign is already down.
Then we’ll all enter into a period of rest. My family will go to our sending church, the Vineyard Church of Lewiston, a couple times each month. We’ve been encouraged to go up for prayer every time we can. (No matter what the call is for! ) We’ll go to the Vineyard East Regional Conference in July. And we’ll rest and play.
Resting is so foreign to American Christians. But it’s pretty biblical. This is like a Sabbath. It’s stepping back to move forward. Steven Covey calls this “sharpening the saw.”
“Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.
‘What are you doing?’ you ask.
‘Can’t you see?’ comes the impatient reply. ‘I’m sawing down this tree.’
‘You look exhausted!’ you exclaim. ‘How long have you been at it?’
‘Over five hours,’ he returns, ‘and I’m beat! This is hard work.’
‘Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?’ you inquire. ‘I’m sure it would go a lot faster.’
‘I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,’ the man says emphatically. ‘I’m too busy sawing!’
So many churches are to busy sawing to stop and re-assess.
Interestingly, as I share this with the people I feel called to, they instinctively “get” it. And it makes sense to them. Hopefully this will help us build even more credibility!
At some point toward the end of the summer, we’ll begin to regroup. We’ll be articulating our vision as pastors. We haven’t really ever done that. We’ve always articulated our vision in the context of the reality of having a building. Phil commented that we’ve been planting this church from other people’s vision. So true. Now we’ve been here for a few years and have a heart for the people and the region.
We’ll also do a hard assessment of the first plant. We certainly want to identify what wasn’t working so we don’t bring that into the next plant!
And we’ll begin meeting with our team–who ever is left in Waterville, the board (all in Lewiston), and other people. We’ll be hammering out our strategy for a launch, which we hope will be Easter 2009.
Then we’ll re-engage. We’re planning on starting a good kinship in September. And are expecting to start monthly gatherings in October (6 months before the launch).
Even with the sadness of putting a church down, I’m pretty excited. I know God’s not through with us here in Waterville. And He’s giving us a chance to plant the kind of church we’d want to go to. We’ve always wanted to plant a church
that is experiential, not just a head-trip
that attracts artists, not just reads about them
that inspires community and inter-personal connections, not just talks about them
that minsters to people knowingly following Jesus and not knowingly.
To hear more, and many of the questions that I think are good to ask, listen to Emily and me talk about it during today’s sermon Closing the Church: Rest, Regroup, Relaunch.
This isn’t a neat and tidy process. We’ll be unpacking it over the remaining three weeks. As in today’s sermon, I’ve asked Adrian Monk to walk us through the stages of grieving. Just click on this image:
Please be praying for us and the people that call VCW their home. And the people that will call our next church plant, Waterville Vineyard 2.0, their home!
I loved Dumbledore’s comment to Harry in the infirmary at the end:
Harry, it’s not your abilities that make you what you are. It’s your choices.
Harry had the ability of a dark wizard to speak parseltongue (speak with snakes). But he chose to be in Griffindor at Hogwarts.
I’m a huge believer in using our natural abilities. But I once was told, “God’s giftings cannot take you any further than your character will keep you.”
It’s far too easy to rest in our abilities. “Hey, I’m just good at that. I always have been. And I always will be.”
But it’s such a great reminder that we need to keep making good choices. Are we doing our stuff to be seen by others? That’s not a good choice. We should be excelling in ways that are seen by others. Jesus clearly states that with the parable of the talents. But he also warns us to not do things in order to be seen by others.
If we’re praying for healing for one of our co-workers, we choose to do so simply because God wants to heal. Not to be seen as “God’s man for the hour.” Jesus makes the miracle, not us. We’re just the servants.
Jesus is the one that made the water into wine. The servants just brought the wine to the master of ceremonies.
I once had it described as getting a birthday gift delivered from UPS. We don’t hug and kiss and praise the UPS driver for bringing the package. He’s just the messenger. We save our thanks and adoration for the person that sent the gift.
So may it be for us.
May we excel at our natural abilities. But may we also be ever pressing in to the One that will give us the wisdom to make good choices on an ever consistent basis.
And may we daily deliver Jesus’ miracles to the people around us!
With insects most of us know that bees are called swarms, and ants are called colonies. Among ocean life, I was aware that whales are pods, and fish are schools. Cattle are herds, birds are flocks, and if you watch Lion King, you know a tribe of lions is a pride. If you grew up in the country, you might know that crows are murders. Maybe the most unnerving one is an ambush of tigers.
I was surprised to learn that a group of buzzards waiting around together to feast on leftover carnage is called a committee. Just this one insight is worth the price of the whole book. This explains so much of what’s going on in churches – a lot of committees waiting around to live off human carnage.
Groups of flamingos are called flamboyant, which for some reason reminds me of TV evangelists. And groups of the less glamorous owls are known as parliaments. They do seem sort of British.
But my favorite of all is the group designation of rhinos. You see, rhinos can run at thirty miles an hour, which is pretty fast when you consider how much weight they’re pulling. They’re actually faster than squirrels, which can run at up to twenty-six miles an hour. And even then, who’s going to live in dread of a charging squirrel? (Sorry – that was a bit off the point.)
Running at thirty miles an hour is faster than a used Pinto will go. Just one problem with this phenomenon. Rhinos can see only thirty feet in front of them. Can you imagine something that large moving in concert as a group, plowing ahead at thirty miles an hour with no idea what’s at thirty-one feet? You would think that they would be far too timid to pick up full steam, that their inability to see far enough ahead would paralyze them to immobility. But with that horn pointing the way, rhinos run forward full steam ahead without apprehension, which leads us to their name.
Rhinos moving together at full speed are known as a crash. Even when they’re just hanging around enjoying the watershed, they’re called a crash because of their potential. You’ve got to love that. I think that’s what we’re supposed to be. That’s what happens when we become barbarians and shake free of domestication and civility. The church becomes a crash. We become an unstoppable force. We don’t have to pretend we know the future. Who cares that we can see only thirty feet ahead? Whatever’s at thirty-one feet needs to care that we’re coming and better get out of the way.
We need to move together as God’s people, a barbarian tribe, and become the human version of the rhino crash. The future is uncertain, but we need to move toward it with confidence.
) We’ll go to the 
, which we hope will be Easter 2009. 
yesterday with the kids. I like the movies. Not as good as the books but still quite good.
over a year ago. It’s still incredibly inspiring!