Tag Archives: ministry

October 24, 2016 · 9:58 am

Church: Do Not Be Afraid of Change

I am often asked if the transformation that the mainline church is going through (with the fast and marked decline) scares me as a minister. My answer is a bit complicated, but I will try to summarize it here. The very short answer is: yes and no.

Let me explain…

As a minister, the decline of the mainline denominations makes me scared. First, because I grew up in the mainline church. It pains me to see an institution that had such a huge impact in my life declining. The mainline church – in my case, the American Baptist Churches, but also the two other denominations that have welcomed me, the

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The ruins of a church altar in Antigua, Guatemala. (Picture credits: J. Manny Santiago (c) )

United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church – has been my spiritual home for all of my life. It was in the mainline church that I learned the stories of the Bible, the teaching of the “Golden Rule”, the hope for a coming kingdom and the eternal reign of peace that God will bring. It was the mainline church one of the institutions, along with school, that fostered my leadership skills and gave me a chance to begin learning how to be a leader. Sure, experiencing its decline is both scary and sad.

Second, as a minister, I rely on the church for my income. Contrary to what the media may portray and to what popular culture tells you about ministers, the truth is that this is like any other profession. I went to graduate school. I took psychological tests to examine my readiness for serving people under stressful circumstances. I did an intensive internship unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) to help me understand myself and gain knowledge on how to serve others who are undergoing major challenges in their lives. I also learned about history, economy, sociology, religious pluralism, political systems, non-profit administration, rhetoric and debate strategies, philosophy, literary criticism, multiculturalism and a bunch of other areas that are transferable to non-religious positions but that very few places would recognized as such because of preconceived ideas about religious leaders. Moreover, I took student loans because it was the only way to pay for graduate school and because the opportunities for scholarship when studying theology are minimal (although, I did receive some scholarships from religious organizations and the school itself.) Thus, if I lose my source of income, my family would be in a really difficult position. Of course that scares anyone!

With all that said, the transformation of the Church – in this case, the Church with capital “C” – is not what makes me feel the most scared. Why? Well, because the Church, and its expression in the mainline denominations, is not of my own making. The Church is, as the New Testament attest and we proclaim every day, the body of Christ. The Church has been around for a long time, and it will continue to be around even after all the institutions we have built around it have faded into history. Sure, there will be – as there have always been – enormous transformations of the institutions. Some of them will not survive. Others will merge and create new things. And still others will grow and expand steadily.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12.27: “You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.” Paul’s words are an expansion of what Jesus himself said earlier in his life. The gospel of John 14.19a-20 tells us that Jesus said: “Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.” If the people of the Church is the body of Christ, then we must not be afraid of the transformations through which the Church goes. Sure, the institution will look very different than the one we were raised in or are currently a part of; but the main truth remains: the Church will continue to live.

I believe that our fear to lose the institution that we so much love has stood in the way of letting the Church grow and transform. Many of my colleagues who, like me, depend on the church’s salary to feed our families, are too afraid of losing this source of income. As I stated before, this also scares me. But I am also confident that the tools and the experience I have gained while serving the mainline church will serve me well in finding a suitable position should the time come when the institutionalized church cannot offer a position for me any longer. I believe that we must let go of the fear of losing what we know in order to let the Church and its mainline expression to go through whatever transformation it has to go through.

This also means that we should find ways to give each support. All transformations are both traumatic and difficult. We will go through painful moments. During this time, it will be important to have the support of those who are close to us and who can extend us a hand in making whatever transition may come less painful. However, fear is not, in my opinion, the answer. And thus, my invitation is to let go of the fear of change and accept the transformation that is already present within the mainline church as the manifestation of an ever present Spirit of newness and renewal. Remember that we confess an ever creating God. Let God do a new thing and show us what wonders and awe-inspiring new things God is bringing to us!

 

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March 22, 2013 · 8:53 am

Ministry Errors: Not the First of Many that Have Been Made and that Will Come…

(NOTE: This is a really hastily written post… so, please forgive me this one! Thank you!)

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If you are a minister and you are not full of yourself – which unfortunately, happens a lot – you must know that we, pastors, preachers, ministers, priests, church leaders, make lots of mistakes. Here is something that happened to me recently and that I thought appropriate to share. This is not the first mistake I have made, nor will it be the last. I know this because, well, I am human and we all make mistakes. But I have been thinking a lot about this one and decided that it was good to write about it.

On Tuesday, the first email I sat down to write went something like this:

“Dear X, I am so sorry for my attitude on Saturday. I was rude to you in my response to your question, and for that, I am truly sorry. I am not opposed to join you and others [in the project the person had asked me to join.] But my way of answering you was not the appropriate way of letting you know how I felt, and for that I ask your forgiveness.”

The note continued with some other details on the project I had been asked to be part of and on how I wanted to be involved.

I kept thinking about my reaction to this person. What was I thinking when I answered her question so rudely?!

You see, we all make mistakes. We all get caught in the moment and let our feelings take the best of us. In this case, when I was asked about participating of this specific project, the “asking” was more of a “command.” I had not really been invited as been signed up without even knowing it! That, of course, caught me off guard and I didn’t quite like it. But – and here is where my mistake came in – my feelings had nothing to do with this person! She was not even the one in charge of the task. Instead, she was just the “messenger” if you will. She had informed me of my being on that assignment, but she had no idea what was behind it or how I got on the list of “volunteers.” My reaction to her was wrong. Period. I was rude in the way I responded her question when she approached me. I was also caught on some systemic flaws that I have fought for decades and yet I was replicating! This is what brought me to write about this experience.

Here is the problem. I am a Latino/Hispanic, openly gay, Protestant (which within my own cultural milieu is a minority) member of the clergy who grew up as the child of a poor family. I have been a minority my whole life! Yet, I too have power in certain circumstances. In fact, my own culture tells me that, because I am a man I am more entitled to things than the women around me. Moreover, my culture also tells me that, as a member of the clergy, I am above those who are not clergy. The larger American culture tells me that, because I have two graduate degrees, I am entitled to more power than those who do not have graduate degrees…

In my conversation with this woman, some of those positions of privilege came into place. She serves as the assistant to a colleague and she is a woman. My biases – which I try to overcome every day – made me approach her from a place of power on my side. I made assumptions about what her “role” ought to have been and how she should have approached me. It did not occur to me that in my interaction I was actually falling for those powers-that-be which have also oppressed me! I was being sexist, elitist and classist. I was using my privilege in our context to belittle her. That, of course, was wrong.

But here is the great news… Because of my own experience with oppression in many different forms, and because I have worked really hard in recognizing where I have been the oppressor, I was able to see my mistakes during this interaction. Moreover, I also realized that I had to apologize for my rudeness during our interaction.

Talking in theological terms, I can say that the experience reminded me that indeed none of us is free of sin. However, the important thing is not to just recognize it, but also amend our actions, ask for forgiveness and commit ourselves not to sin anymore. A friend and theologian and ethicist, Dr. Valerie Dixon, taught me once that we all are both oppressed and oppressors. Valerie always reminds us that oppression has many overtones and that we have to be always mindful and recognize when we are being oppressed or when we are using our own power – whatever that power might be or wherever that power might come from – to oppress others.

After I sent her my note, I received a reply from her with kind words. She also understood my concerns regarding the task I was assigned/volunteered, and she also let the door open for more conversations and more collaboration, in spite of my having been a jerk to her! (What a relief!)

We all are humans. We all make mistakes. But I am grateful that my experiences of making mistakes have helped me grow as a human being and as a minister. I look forward to continue working on my mistakes, on amending them, on “sinning no more” and on building a better environment for everyone around me.

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