February 2010 - Margaret Feinberg

Is Your Denomination Up, Down, or All Around?

Margaret — February 26, 2010 — 2 Comments

The National Council of Churches’ 2010 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches reports membership gains in the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Assemblies of God, among others.

The 78th annual edition of the Yearbook also reports a continuing decline in membership of virtually all mainline denominations. And the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s second largest denomination and long a reliable generator of church growth, reported a decline in membership for the second year in a row, down 0.24 percent to 16,266,920.

Here’s the top ten if you are interested:

1. The Catholic Church, 68,115,001 members, up 1.49 percent.

2. Southern Baptist Convention,16,228,438 members, down 0.24percent.

3. The United Methodist Church, 7,853,987 members, down 0.98 percent.

4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5,974,041 members, up 1.71 percent.

5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no membership updates reported.

6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc, 5,000,000 members, no membership updates reported.

7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,633,887 members, down1.62 percent.

8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., 3,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.

9. Assemblies of God (ranked 10 last year), 2,899,702 members, up 1.27 percent.

10. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 1(ranked 9 last year), 2,844,952 members, down 3.28 percent.

Thanks to www.bagofnothing.com for reporting on this!

In Leadership attendance, Church

I don’t feature guest columnists often, but my friend, Magrey deVega (pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Cherokee, Iowa) wrote a thought-provoking piece on Tiger Wood’s apology that seamlessly fits into the Lenten season. I hope you enjoy as much as I did. Thanks, Magrey.

Dear Lenten Pilgrims,

When celebrities sin, it’s voyeuristic entertainment. We hang on every word of every detail, and dissect their apologies like a science lab experiment. That’s why Tiger Woods’ confession last Friday seemed to garner so much attention, with millions viewing it live on television and on the web.

It is impossible to gauge his true motivations behind his apology. He could have been trying to repair his public image, or express genuine remorse, or both. But what we do know is what he said:

I knew my actions were wrong. But I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to….I was wrong. I was foolish.
I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I have done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before. It is now up to me to make amends. And that starts by never repeating the mistakes I have made. It is up to me to start living a life of integrity.

After hearing (and re-reading) these words, I find it hard to let them go as mere celebrity spectacle. For doing so distances us, not just from Tiger, but from the task of confession itself. As long as we convince ourselves that repentance of such sins is a task only for high-profile, high-risk cultural icons, then we fail to see the possibilities of a teachable moment for ourselves.

What if, instead of hearing these words while watching a television, we were speaking these words while looking at a mirror?

Tiger likely did not time his public confession to coincide with the start of Lent, but for us Golgotha-bound pilgrims, this was a timely moment. There is something about the words of his apology that ought to reverberate within the dark, recessive confines of our souls. Lent is a time of deep introspection, along with acknowledging the resident, residual sins that go unacknowledged for too long. It is a time of exposing these sins to the light of God’s grace, confessing them to loved ones that we have hurt, others that we have wronged, and vowing to make amends with transformed behavior.

No, this is not easy. While we might never have to stand under the scrutinizing gaze of hot lights and television cameras, we have to strip down layers and layers of self-protection and self-deception, allowing a vulnerability that we would readily avoid.

No true confession is ever easy, even though half-hearted confessions always are. It is much too easy to take less than full responsibility for our mistakes. We’d rather practice conditional apologies, like “I apologize to anyone if my actions were harmful.” A wise person once said, “An apology is not an apology if it contains the word if.”

While Tiger’s words are an effective model in assuming total responsibility, it’s not the best one. I think of King David who, upon acknowledging his own case of infidelity, cried out the words of Psalm 51:

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me….
Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me….
You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart….
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me….
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

The day after Tiger’s television appearance, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, well-known pop-psychologist and author of Shalom in the Home, reminded readers of beliefnet.com of the three stages of repentance from the Hebrew Talmud:

The Talmud says there are three essential steps to repentance. The first is to admit you have a problem. The second is to confess it verbally and take full responsibility. And the third is to undertake corrective, righteous action that will undo or make better the error.

During these weeks of Lent, I pray that each of us will make time to take a serious inventory of our deepest, most secret sins, confess them verbally, and take full responsibility. And then, by the grace and forgiveness of God, let us change our behavior, and determine to live a holier life.

Tuesdays with Tozer

Margaret — February 23, 2010 — 2 Comments

There are many peculiar ideas about biblical repentance. I have talked with people who tried to tell me that repentance is necessary because “it makes you fit so that God can save you.” The Bible does not teach that, and it never did. No man or woman has changed the character or goodness of God by an act of repentance. All the repentance in the universe cannot make God any more loving, any more gracious, Repentance is not a meritorious act. God is eternally good, and He welcomes us into His love, grace and mercy when we meet His condition of an about-face so that we are aware of His smile.

Repentance means turning around from our evil ways in order ot look to Jesus. The person who will not repent still has his or her back turned on God. Repentance is a condition we meet in order that God, already wanting to be good to us, can be good to us, forgiving and cleansing us. In that sense then, the man who loves his sin and hangs on to it cannot reasonably expect the goodness and the grace of God.

–A.W. Tozer (Men Who Met God, p. 45)

Yesterday a dear friend and Christian leader and I were engaged in a conversation about repentance. After we repent, change our ways, do a 180, how do we get those we work with to do the same? Or can we? Or is that the work of God’s Spirit?

I don’t think the work of true repentance can be forced or cajoled or manipulated. Though we might desire to see repentance in our own hearts (or those we love), we need the work of God’s Spirit in our lives to expose, reveal, challenge, and transform first. The log must be pulled before we can gain a right perspective of someone else’s splinter. Though we may hunger for repentance or change in the hearts of others, we must hunger for it first in our own. Then, and only then, can we ask for God to move in someone else’ s life in the humility and grace that such a request deserves.

What brings you to a place of repentance?

*Photo courtesy of here

In Dive Deeper A.W. Tozer, Tuesdays with Tozer

Tuesdays with Tozer

Margaret — February 9, 2010 — 1 Comment

Some people have a knack for making me hungry to know God. I know a few people who when I’m done talking with them make me want to know and love Him more. I treasure those people. They don’t try to be religious. They don’t attempt to be spiritual. They simply are themselves and in the process radiate the presence of God. Many of them have trekked through dark valleys yet they still carry a hopeful, persistent, passion and love about them.

To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul:

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,

And long to feast upon Thee still:

We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead

And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking.

–A. W. Tozer (The Pursuit of God, p. 15)

Tozer notes that when you come near the holy men and women you “feel the heat of their desire after God.”

I pray today radiate such passion, fervor and love of God. May that warmth flow through the core of your being. In Jesus Name. Amen.

In Dive Deeper A.W. Tozer, Tuesdays with Tozer

The Best Kind of Mentoring

Margaret — February 6, 2010 — 2 Comments

I’m often asked about the importance of mentoring, and I think it’s something that our generation craves. We long for older, wiser people to come into our lives and walk alongside of us. We want them to love us, pray for us, challenge us, and root for us.

Yet a good mentor is hard to find. Part of the challenge is that our expectations are out of line. We may look to a mentor to be a kind of expert, sage, or counselor beyond their expertise, ability, or comfort level.

A good mentor is simply someone who will walk beside you who has a little bit more dust on them. They may have been down the same road or a different one, but they know you’re better off not taking it alone. They know when to speak, when to listen, and when to silently pray. Being a good mentor (or mentoree) isn’t easy. There’s always some stumbling and fumbling involved, but knowing that someone is for you and with goes a long way to smooth things over.

In our increasingly fragmented society, I don’t think a single mentor will do. We need several. People who can offer their expertise and wisdom and prayers in different areas of our lives-our relationships, our work, our spiritual growth.

One person I consider a mentor I turn to when it comes to publishing. Another when it comes to issues of being a woman in leadership. Another when it comes to studying the Bible in depth. Another when it comes to navigating life in general. These relationships have developed naturally though intentionally and I’m grateful for every one.

The best kind of mentoring and growth comes when we’re intentional about our relationships and recognize the importance of intergenerational friendships-with those who mentor us and those we mentor.

What have you found works for you when it comes to mentoring and being mentored?

Image from here.

In Church Life friends, mentoring