Ministries:
Adult | Teens | Children

Pastor's Pen's:
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

Sermon Series:
Following Jesus
Earthly Cross
His Name Is
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2005

Grace Church of Burlington March 20, 2005 “Oh my, one of my friends is laying on the floor. I think she's dead. Oh this is awful. This is a massacre.”    911 call from Brookfield church slaying             This past Saturday my heart was in my throat as I waited for the news reports to start leaking out with information about the church shooting at the Sheraton in Brookfield. First of all, I was horrified to even think of this happening. Then, it was so close Burlington. Things like that are not supposed to happen in quiet Wisconsin. And most of all, I have friends in sister churches that use facilities in those areas for meetings. I feared that this horrible tragedy had happened to those I personally knew, that I ministered with, that I loved.             Now that we know more, it would be easy to blow this off as an anomaly that happened in a small, out of the mainstream, sect. We would be very foolish to draw such a conclusion. While church shootings are still an unusual occurrence, unfortunately, they are not unheard of. That’s because churches are made of people – sinners, just like the rest of the culture. As a result, churches are usually a reflection (though hopefully a more righteous one), of society in general. Workplace shootings, while certainly not normal, are not all that unusual anymore. Because so many were happening at post offices a few years ago, the term “going postal” evolved.             Churches are filled with people and people have problems and issues. As a pastor, it did not surprise me that this deranged gunman not only targeted the pastor but also the pastor’s family. Leadership today often carries a high price tag. Anyone in leadership knows full well the price of being criticized, second-guessed, demeaned, despised and even hated. Sometimes they are the casualties of violence. And frequently, the hatred toward them spills over on to their spouses and children. I have friends in the ministry whose spouses and children have paid huge prices because their father was disliked or disagreed with. And even at Grace, my children have sometimes faced the heat (though to my knowledge infrequently) because someone had issues with me.             As our workplaces and neighborhoods sometimes have individuals who are not mentally sound, the same is true in our churches. Like our workplaces and neighborhoods, the church has people with issues; substance abuse, anger, immorality, marital crises, gossip, griping, criticism, etc. In the church we should never accept these as normative or settle for the status quo.  However we would be foolish to not realize that the same issues and problems that we face in the workplace and in the neighborhood and even in our own homes, we will also face in the church. The difference in the church should be that the church is a place of hope, grace and accountability. While in the workplace serious problems may have to be overlooked or ignored, in the church, because we are seeking to help one another grow in grace, they must be addressed. Or, they will only hurt the Body and hinder us in our mission.             Churches are made up of sinners who have the same basic problems as they do everywhere else. One concern though pops up every now and then at Grace along this line that surprises me just a little. Every workplace has people who quit, or are fired, or get their feelings hurt, or just decide to look for greener pastures. The same thing happens in neighborhoods. There usually is one neighbor who is always unhappy. Often they decide that life has to be better somewhere else, so they move. Can I ask an honest question? Why are we surprised then when this happens at churches? At Grace we are very blessed that our back door is very small. I was part of a church some years ago that had nearly as many going out the back door as they did coming in the front door. At the same time, we know that Grace is not for everyone. There are some individuals whose needs we just aren’t able to meet.  As a result, sometimes people are going to move on. If we in the church, whether in the pulpit or in the pew, have made a mistake and caused this rift, then we need to admit it and seek to solve it. But sometimes, just like in the workplace or in the neighborhood, someone will be determined that they are just better off down the road.             My point is that we need to seek to be faithful and please the Father. Sometimes though we are going to have people who act like people...just like they do in the workplace and in the neighborhood. We do need to be honest before God and try to make certain that we are not the problem. At the same time we must be aware that people will be people. And sometimes you cannot prevent things from happening, whether it is the horrible tragedy of a church shooting or someone feeling that their needs just are not being met, and leaving the church.