Archive for March, 2009

Friends in Holy Covenant,

This Sunday morning is Chicago’s annual Shamrock Shuffle, when over 32,000 runners will take to the streets of downtown Chicago (if you miss worship in the morning because of the race, why not join us for the evening service at 7:00pm?).

I’ve recently been trying to be more attentive to the spiritual and physical discipline of running. And I remember how different running can be, depending on the context. I love big races like the Shuffle: people crammed together, sort of inching along, talking and laughing, bumping into each other…you might eventually break into a good pace, but you’re not going to break any personal records. It’s more about the community than your own individual pursuit. But then, though, there’s the intense joy of running by yourself, tearing down the lake path, with nothing between you and the sky but your thoughts. I love both, for different reasons.

I’m probably stretching the metaphor a bit, but I do think that Christian faith is like this: there are moments that are deeply personal, interior, one-on-one experiences with God, and thanks be to God for them when they happen. But a lot of the practice of faith is throwing yourself into the mess of Christian community, into tons of people with different paces and different gaits, and you’re all inching along together, toward a common goal.

Whether you’re Shuffling this weekend or are a runner at all, I hope you’ll join us the following Sunday, April 5th, Palm Sunday, as we begin the common journey of Holy Week. Take the time now to invite a friend to journey with you.

Peace to you,

Pastor Trey Hall

In the summer, Holy Covenant usually reviews and renews its lay leadership teams for the upcoming school year. This is a time for deep reflection on the needs of the congregation and the particular gifts of each Holy Covenant participant. As we prepare to welcome a new pastor, the Lay Leaders—David Braden, Kristin Kumpf, and Scott Reid—have asked all team leaders and committee members to extend their service into the fall, so that the congregational transition can go more smoothly. Then this fall, the congregation and the new pastor will engage the lay leadership process more deeply.

NEW LEADERS
That said, over the past couple months, several new leaders have been raised up to steward and lead emerging ministries or spaces that had vacancy. We give thanks for these folks!

TREASURER, DALE JONES: As you may know, Scott Reid has been doing double duty as lay leader and treasurer for the past several months. Dale Jones, a relatively new member to the church and staff at the United Methodist General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits, has graciously agreed to become the new treasurer. Many thanks to Scott for his hard work to date. As lay leader, he will continue in his oversight role over the more administrative church committees, and so he will still be working closely with the finance committee.

FUNDRAISING EVENT PLANNER, KATIE COOK: Katie, who came to Holy Covenant last Spring, has offered her coordination gifts to help plan a congregational fundraiser this fall. We generally have a special fundraiser (such as a silent auction) each year to raise funds for important ministries of our congregation. Katie, who works in market research, will also be helping to coordinate our Holy Covenant picture board. Contact Katie.

GREEN TEAM, OLIVIA MCCAIN: Olivia, who joined Holy Covenant last year (and who’s recently become engaged with Chris Hein, another Holy Covenanter), has stepped into the leadership of the Green Team, as Cassie Meyer, the previous leader, started a new ministry of coordinating and leading the music for our Sunday evening service. Contact Olivia.

CONGREGATIONAL CARE, MAGGIE ROTH: Maggie sensed the need in our congregation to more fully support folks experiencing life transitions of new babies, loss of job, death of a loved one, etc., and asked if she could do something about it. Since then, she’s coordinated the “CASSEROLE COMMITTEE,” which reaches out with food, rides, support and anything else folks need. Contact Maggie.

A NEED: GALLERY CURATOR
You’ve probably enjoyed the beautiful and changing art that graces the walls of the Holy Covenant gallery. Nancie King Mertz has coordinated and curated the gallery for over a decade, and as she has stepped aside after such faithful service, we are looking for someone to help coordinate this space. The office can handle some of the work, such as orienting the artist, but we need a curator/coordinator to receive applications, make decisions about who will be shown, and coordinate schedules throughout the year. If you’re interested, email pastortrey@holycovenantumc.org. To find out what’s entailed, email Nancie.

Friends in Holy Covenant,

Much has been made of the accelerating decline of religious faith in America. Recently the American Religious Identification Survey published a report detailing this cultural shift over the past two decades. Read the digest here, or the full report here (recommended). The Sunday Times ran an interesting interpretive article on this subject by Andrew Sullivan, a popular political blogger who is a committed Catholic.

A parishioner from Holy Covenant wrote last week to ask my opinion on the report, particularly the drastic drop in Methodist identification (down over 2.5 million in the past decade). I’m not able to competently evaluate the larger cultural shifts and sociological trends, but I quickly jotted down a few things in my response to him:

• Failure to realize that “Christendom” is over, that is, a culture that understands church as a major player
• Failure to speak relevantly to people’s life situations
• Failure to welcome the full diversity of God’s people
• Failure to start new congregations (research clearly shows that conferences that have always planted churches are still growing, conferences that have not are not)
• Failure to speak compellingly about Jesus in vital, particular, and generous way
• Worship and preaching that are lackluster
• A very large (and often well-intentioned) 1950s-style bureaucracy that is so slow to move (not for lack of desire to move, but for difficulty….the “turning a large ship” metaphor comes to mind)

What do you think? I’d love to hear your responses…visit our Facebook page discussion board to offer your thoughts.

Peace,

Pastor Trey Hall

Friends in Holy Covenant,

At worship on Sunday evening, I spoke about Lent as a time in the wilderness where nothing really grows, where everything is barren. I wondered aloud if it was the austerity, the desolation of that place, that transformed Jesus (and could transform us). Since I preached, I’ve been reading (again) the poetry of Wendell Berry. Berry believes that wilderness can transform us, too, but in a very different way. Enjoy this poem in season of wilderness wondering and wandering. May you come out on the other side different from how you are now.

Peace,
Pastor Trey Hall

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Each week, you’re to read daily ten-minute passages that over the course of the year will trail you right through the Old and New Testaments. A group meets every Sunday, between morning services, from about 10:35 to 11:10 in the sanctuary, to talk about what you’ve read. Email pastortrey@holycovenantumc.org for more information. Readings for the week are as follows:

Join us for the opening of a new exhibit of work by Chicago Artist Jenny Learner  in Holy Covenant’s gallery space on March 7, 5pm-8pm.

The Chicago Artists’ Coalition Around Town Program pairs CAC artists who own online galleries with businesses and art centers. This roving exhibition series provides needed exposure for Chicago-area artists by offering presentation opportunities in alternative venues. To date, the CAC has hosted more than 15 exhibitions in various Chicago neighborhoods, and featured more than 100 artists.

About Jenny Learner: “As a multi-style decorative artist I am always trying new techniques and media. I choose to express peace and beauty in most of my work and hope my enthusiasm is transferred to the viewer. I see the world through rose-colored glasses and have a deep love and concern for our planet’s environmental future. The inspiration for my new work happens from my mind magnifying the universe and it’s multiple landscapes and wonders. Slivers of gemstones, earth, outer space, time, medicine, life, dreams and cells.

Dear friends in Holy Covenant,

In a recent sermon, I mentioned that sometimes God calls us to things that we weren’t looking for. Following Jesus means a twisting journey: the road takes a turn and you find yourself heading toward a different place.

It is with humility that I announce to you that, after five years of serving Holy Covenant as pastor, at the end of June I will be leaving this amazing congregation. Beginning July 1, I will be appointed, together with my colleague and friend, the Rev. Christian Coon, to plant a new United Methodist congregation in the West Loop and South Loop neighborhoods of downtown Chicago.

I know that this comes as a surprise. I’ve been praying and thinking about this for a long time, and to be honest, I’m still surprised too. For the past year and a half, I’ve been learning and sharing with other leaders who are passionate about transforming the systemic culture of Church. Our conference’s Harvest 2020 campaign has a goal of launching 100 new faith communities across the Northern Illinois area over the next decade. I have always supported this vision—I believe planting new churches is the best way to reach out to non-religious and nominally religious people, especially those who have felt turned off by Christianity. I just never thought I’d be one doing the planting.

I have come to believe, though, that God is asking me to. God called—at first, through a series of nudges and late-night conversations about something different on the horizon I couldn’t see yet. Then I found out that God was keeping my friend Chris awake at night, too. And we began to wonder if we might be called to do something together, like Paul and Barnabas in the Bible, or the disciples sent by Jesus in pairs for support and encouragement. We prayed, we searched the Scriptures and our souls, we talked, we walked neighborhoods, we researched, we questioned. And then we submitted a proposal to the Bishop and Cabinet to see if they perceived this to be God’s call, too. After more discernment and testing, this January we received the official word that the Cabinet had blessed this project and had made the new appointments.

I often challenge people from the pulpit to have the foolishness to say yes when God calls, even when that call is the last thing you were expecting. Let me tell you: It’s a lot easier to preach that than it is to do it. I know that my decision will be hard for you; it has been hard for me. In fact, I believe the difficulty of it is a clue that God is involved. There’s no other reason in the world that I would leave Holy Covenant. I love this place, I love y’all, I’m happy and comfortable in ministry here. I’m not leaving because I’m upset or dissatisfied. I already had a great job when God offered me this one. But I feel I’ve got to take it.

I’m grateful that we’ll have four months to talk, to process all that this brings up, to celebrate all of the amazing accomplishments we’ve achieved together with God in the past five years. For now, I want to emphasize a few things:

(1) There is always anxiety about who the next pastor will be. Be assured that Bishop Hee-Soo Jung and our District Superintendent James Preston are working to appoint a new pastor to partner with you in the future work and vision God calls you to. Over the next month, the Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC), chaired by Brittany Isaac, will be reflecting on the needs of this congregation and will be meeting with Rev. Preston. Please pray for this process.

(2) You probably have questions about the process at Holy Covenant and about the project I’ll be involved in. On Sunday, March 15, after the second morning service, you’re invited to a Q&A session to find out more about everything that’s going on. There will also be other staff- and lay-led meetings in the months ahead to help prepare for this congregational transition. We’ll announce those in service, in the e-news, and on the website.

(3) I want you to know what a blessing it has been to be your pastor. I remember in Spring of 2004, at 28 years old, getting the call that I would be appointed to Holy Covenant, and being filled with joy. Since then we’ve had so many seasons of life and abundance together—so many stories, people, experiences. You have challenged and grown me, Holy Covenant. And I’ve challenged and grown you, too. We’ve grown each other. And look where we are now. God has been faithful to us, and God will continue to be faithful to us on our different paths. I pray that we will be faithful to God, that we’ll continue to say yes, with all the courage and foolishness it requires.

Bless y’all,

Trey