With school beginning we are near the start of the football season again.  This has caused me to think about some of the things I remember about football from my days in high school.  I never played football on the gridiron; I was in the band.  From the trumpet section I watched all the plays my team made.  I remember we called one type of play the "Hail Mary."   It wasn’t a religious term, it was a label for a strategy to be used when all other plays had been tried without success.  The "Hail Mary" play was the last best plan for turning a losing game around. 

Bill Easum is a United Methodist Pastor who has studied the changes and hard times many churches are facing.  He has written several books and is often asked to help congregations focus on turning the trends of decline to vitality.

What follows is one of his articles.  I don't think Bill has the final word on this subject.  Sometimes I even find his ideas unsettling.   I am sure you will see how his ideas don't fit every congregation's circumstances.  Even so, Bill's writings help me think in new and creative ways.  He helps me entertain questions and possibilities I wouldn't consider on my own.  For this, I thank him, because I need to see things from a different viewpoints-- even those I may not agree with-- in order to ask new questions pertaining to our life together in a congregation.

In this newsletter, I am including an article called, The "Hail Mary" Approach to Restarting a Dying Church.  My purpose in sharing this is to ask you to ponder a simple question:  "What is God calling us to keep and to do?"   As you read this, please consider if there is anything in what follows which sounds like it is for us, in our present circumstances.  

In a football game, "Hail Mary" plays are risky.   I believe we are in a time when we face risk no matter what we do.  There is risk in just doing what has always been done.  There is risk in trying new approaches to ministry, too.  The purpose of the church is not to eliminate risk, being a Christian and being the church has always been risky.  Instead, we do need to be wise and discerning about the direction God wants us to go.  Together we can ask the new questions and ponder all the multiple answers that may arise.  With this in mind, I invite you to share your insights with each other, with me, and other leaders of our congregation.  Together as are called to discern what God wants us to keep and maintain, and what God wants us to do that is new and different for the sake of others.   If not these ideas, then which ones will help us as we go through change?