New Monmouth Musings: Handbells or Guitars: What I Learned About Change In A Church I Once Served

Dear Friends,

Someone said the only one that likes changing is a wet baby. The person was probably right. Change is not always a popular experience, and it can produce a lot of damage if it is not done wisely, carefully, and lovingly.

Today we face a culture that is fast changing, and that change has not been lost on those of us in the church. New Monmouth has been through a number of changes in recent years, and for some not all of those changes have been popular or easy to accept. However, I commend you on the way you have handled them.

Change is never trivial no matter how small that change may be. I remember the first time I ditched my robe while pastoring one Sunday morning a number of years ago in a church I served, and you can’t imagine the uproar from some of those in the pews.  “What is Tom doing walking around the pulpit teaching without wearing a robe?” It was as if I had ascended the pulpit in my birthday suit.  I can write and laugh about it today, but I can tell you I wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction I received. That experience was a stark reminder to me of the ‘tumult’ that even change can produce, no matter how small that change may seem.

When people allow their own personal preferences to usurp the church’s efforts to reach people for Christ, the church is in danger of becoming irrelevant. When change happens in the church that I don’t like, I have to remind myself that the church is not here to serve me and my preferences or traditions. It is here to reach the world, and if that change can help in accomplishing that goal, I better be championing it no matter how I personally feel about it.

This week I have been reading an eye-opening book by J.D. Greear, titled “Gaining by Losing”. In it he shares a story that really touched me. It reminded me of the way our New Monmouth Baptist Church family regularly responded to change.

Greear, a pastor in Durham, N.C., where several of our members have visited, writes about a lady in his church who has a great appreciation for hand bell music.

She discovered the church was about to sell their hand bell set so they could purchase some newer music equipment, specifically some new guitars. “This lady, who loved worship, was more of the organ, bells, and horns persuasion than the drums, guitars, and rhythm one.”

Confronting the pastor, she shared something that he didn’t know. Those hand bells, which had been stored away in the closet for a number of years, were the result of a gift her mother had given to the church shortly before she died.

In speaking with the woman, Greear writes “After a couple of long, awkward seconds, I said to her, “Well, don’t you think your mom in heaven would be glad to see us using instruments that would help us reach this next generation-including her grandkids and their friends?”

“She thought about that for a second, and then said, ‘Well, yes . . . I suppose my mom would be happy with that.’”

 “She requested that we not sell the hand bells but donate them to another church, which we gladly did. Yet she did not resist seeing them go, and she did not leave our church when we shifted our worship to a more contemporary one. Today over 2,000 college students attend our church each weekend.”

Greear concludes the story with these words: “Because of the selflessness of this woman and many others, our church is reaching a whole new generation. Taken from “Gaining by Losing”, J. D. Greear, p. 90

It is true that as Robert Schuller once wrote, “every end is a new beginning.” And those of us who protest change may miss the joy of seeing what God is ready to do with “new beginnings.”

See you Sunday!

Yours in faith and friendship,

Pastor Tom

String That Instrument and Sing That Song

Dear Family,

It is so good to be back after spending a wonderful time of vacation with Jean and our family at our cottage on Lake Ontario in upstate New York. In 77 years it hasn't changed much and maybe that is why we all enjoy it so much. It's a quiet, restful haven where I have spent parts of every summer of my life. However, it is good to be home again, for home is where the heart is, and my heart rests and resides within the New Monmouth family of faith. Having said this I am happy to be home and, I am eagerly looking forward to all the exciting events and activities that are being planned for the fall.

A number of years ago I preached a sermon on stewardship in which I told the following story related by Dr. Louie Evans, a well-known pastor in the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Evans was visiting a mission station in Korea where a medical missionary friend of his had invited him to witness an operation involving major surgery in a make shift tent in an out of the way area. The heat, as Dr. Evans describes it, was stifling. The smells emanating from that tent were oppressive. Hour after grueling hour, the steady, calm determined surgeon worked on an old peasant woman. After seven hours the doctor stood up and drew back his mask and sighed, " Well the job is done now", and together they returned to his modest missionary office where Dr. Evans asked, "I am curious Dr., how much do you get paid out here in Korea for an operation like that"? The surgeon answered, "Well, to begin with I get this." He picked up a dented copper coin.  "This poor old woman came in here some time ago with this old coin and said,"Dr., do you suppose this would pay for the operation"? I answered, " It so happened it is just enough. So to begin with I get this piece of change". Sitting down and watching tears well up in the eyes of the doctor, Rev. Evans asked, "Is that all you receive"? "No," the doctor said, "I get far more than this. I have the wonderful feeling of knowing that for seven hours Christ is living in these ten fingers. I have the priceless awareness that these hands become the hands of Jesus Christ healing one of his children."

This story reminds me of an old poem I once read.

"Spring is past and summer is gone.

Winter is here.

And my song that I was meant to sing is still unsung.

I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument."

How sad it is to live life with such purposelessness, and yet there are many for whom life is like that. Their life is nothing more than a constant treadmill of action with little or no meaning or purpose. Their days are spent "stringing and unstringing their instruments." Why, because they have never "sang the song" that God intended them to sing. They have never learned the joy that comes from serving others. That is where our joy and satisfaction comes, and it comes when we are doing what this medical missionary was dong, serving others, giving ourselves away in the service of Christ, yielding our hands and heart to Him allowing them to become His hands and His heart. That is when we truly find the abundant life of which our Savior speaks.

The next time we begin to feel sad or sorry for ourselves, may we be reminded of this dedicated minister of healing and the wonderful satisfaction he derived from simply being used to bring healing to one of God's children. That is the privilege that every believer possesses, so let us get on with our work, and in so doing discover the wonderful satisfaction that comes from serving God's children.

And those who do "sing their song" will quickly discover that "It is truly more blessed to give than to receive."

See you this Sunday.

Pastor Tom