We're not all alike

Hair.  I used to have some...really I did!  When I was a kid I let my dad cut my hair.  He had two styles, ‘summer cut’ and ‘winter cut.’  I don’t think he won any hairdresser awards.

As I got into junior high my standards changed.  I began to notice a lot of guys parting their hair in the middle and feathering it back on the sides.  They looked so cool!  The 1980’s were in full swing and I wanted to be a part of it (who wouldn't want to look like MacGyver!), so I dumped 'dad the barber' and started going to a salon.  I can remember telling my new stylist about the kind of cut I wanted…just like the other guys.  She did her best to accommodate my desires, but I had one major problem.  My hair didn’t work like that!  It refused to part nicely down the middle.  No matter how much hair gel I used it never looked right. 

It took a while, but eventually I gave up trying to mimic others and allowed the stylist to help me pick a hair style that actually fit what my hair wanted to do.  That’s when I started parting it on the side…a style that worked for me for decades.  I had to work with what I had…not try to fit what someone else did.

A decade ago I went to an ELCA training session on how to start new churches.  I knew I would be coming to Eyota and I wanted to learn everything I could about what to do.  At the training I received four big 3-ring binders jam packed with a ‘how-to’ manual for new churches.  They included everything from how to knock on doors to when to have the first worship service to when to organize as an official congregation.  Every step from day one was clearly laid out - this is what you had to do to start a new congregation.  I looked at the successful church planters and wanted to be just like them.  It seemed so simple.  Just follow the cookie-cutter format and all will be ok.

The cookie-cutter never seemed to apply to what I did here at Peace.  I spent a lot of time feeling frustrated that we couldn’t do things like others.

Last weekend I once again attended the Missional Leader’s training, this time as a Mission Director with a new ministry in tow.  It was exciting to hear the great diversity of ways that the Spirit is growing new congregations.  One congregation is emerging within a prison in Montana.  Another owns a coffee shop as the first point of contact in inviting people to talk about their faith.  One ministry does significant campus ministry work among African-American men.  Another ministry gathers Swahili speaking people with many national backgrounds to join together to worship in Nashville.   I had some South Sudanese guys from Owatonna with me, working to figure out how a Nuer speaking community could be one with St. John Lutheran Church.   Just try to find one ‘cookie-cutter model’ of ministry which will fit each of these settings.  It won’t work!

Over the last decade the ELCA has embraced this diversity!  The training evolved from a ‘this is what to do’ method to a ‘here are some general principles…think about how that works in your setting’ approach.  The Spirit uses different gifts in each place to bring people to know the God who came to die for the world.  Leaders need to prayerfully discern God’s call for their ministry and resist the temptation to try to copy someone else that they find ‘successful.’

Any time that a congregation or ministry does exciting work other folks want to jump on board and be ‘just like them’ – kind of like I wanted to have the same cool hair as others had.  It doesn’t work!  We have to be who we were created to be.  While we can definitely learn from each other, we can never simply import one church’s model of ministry into a new setting and expect it to work well.  The Spirit leads us to respect our own settings and use the gifts that God has given to us. 

Instead of being anxious about what we are not, God is calling congregations to embrace their unique places in God's kingdom.  Just because you can't part your hair in the middle doesn't mean that you can't be cool!  Maybe your call is to be bald and beautiful!