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The (Un)Importance of Literacy in the Gospels

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The (Un)Importance of Literacy in the Gospels

July 10, 2024

by John Partridge

When we read the Bible, or when we teach, preach, or listen to the Sunday sermon in church we use our imagination to picture, in our mind, the one of the biggest mistakes that we make is to imagine that the people of the New Testament were just like us. Oh, we know that they didn’t have modern conveniences like telephones, electricity, and air conditioning, but in our mind’s eye we see the characters of the bible as having the same values, education, and attitudes that we do… and almost every time we do that, we’re wrong.

Often, our being wrong in this way is not a problem. I have often said on Sunday mornings that as much as times have changed, people are still people and so it’s easy for us to imagine the feelings and emotions that the people in our scripture lessons felt. When we read stories of families who suffered from infertility, in a culture where fertility was seen as God’s approval and blessing, we can feel their frustration and pain. When we read about the death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus, it isn’t hard for us to feel the grief and loss of his sisters Mary and Martha. And it doesn’t matter much if we make a few incorrect assumptions about their values and education.

But sometimes it does.

As I studied the history of first century Israel and Judea this week, I was struck by the literacy rates that historians now attribute to the people of that time and place. But before I get to that, consider that, in the United States, the average rate of literacy is 79 percent. The highest rate of literacy is in the state of New Hampshire at 94.2 percent and the lowest rate is in the state of California which has a literacy rate of 76.9 percent. Without getting into a discussion of politics or education, many nations, even many of those that Americans would look upon as less developed, clock in much higher.

But statistics like these assume that literacy requires both reading and writing because, in our modern culture, reading and writing, for both genders, are both assumed to be necessary. But that hasn’t always been the case, and it certainly wasn’t the case at the turn of the first century. When we read the stories of the New Testament, the people that we meet live in a literary world that is nothing at all like the one in our lived experience and that difference can sometimes change the way that we see and understand them.

One of the first places that we see this difference is found in our expectation of what would be seen as Jesus and his disciples visited synagogues in and around Galilee. Because our life experience tells us that (almost) every church has a pastor or priest, every synagogue has a rabbi, and all of them are literate, we have a natural expectation that this is what happened in the world of the gospels also.

But it isn’t.

First, synagogues, as dedicated buildings, were rare. Instead, in the first century, many synagogues were meetings in private homes or in public buildings that served multiple purposes much like “meeting houses” that were seen in small towns in the American West. Second, while there were such things as rabbis, the rabbis of the first century were scholars and theologians who mostly studied in Jerusalem and rarely, if ever, taught anywhere. Likewise, Pharisees didn’t teach, nor did scribes, which I will say more about later. What happened in synagogues was that the Torah was read or recited from memory. And here we encounter our first big break between our expectations and reality as it relates to literacy.

The typical synagogue rule was that any male in the synagogue gathering could stand and read from the Torah and, from our experience, we would expect that this would be most of the men present. But that wasn’t the case at all. And it is here that I need to draw another distinction that we typically do not make in the twenty-first century, and that is the difference between reading literacy and writing literacy. While we see both as vitally important, that was not the case in the first century. The ability to read simple literary texts, reading literacy, was less than 10 to 15 percent and the majority of those who could do that would be found among the aristocracy in cities and larger towns and not in the small rural areas of Galilee. But to refine that idea a little further, since the literacy rate among girls would have been nearly zero, then the apparent literacy among men would have appeared to be higher. In any case, the result was that in a small rural synagogue, the number of men in the gathering who could read well enough to stand and read from the Torah would have been very small.

In most cases, both in Jewish and in Greco-Roman families, education was private and informal, meaning that the father would teach his children (if the father had any education himself), and then usually only his sons as it was seen to be a waste of time to educate girls. Public schools, as we understand them, simply did not exist in the first century and children did not have the leisure time necessary for education. In a subsistence economy, the labor of children, as soon as they were able to do much of anything, was needed to help their families to grow crops, fish, spin cloth, or whatever was needed for their family to survive. Illiteracy was not seen as a bad thing; it was just an ordinary thing. Only those parents who valued education and had the financial wealth to do it, and had the needed leisure time, would have promoted education, and that leaves us with only a handful of moderately wealthy families.

As I noted earlier, even fewer people could write. Perhaps 10 to 15 percent of people could write slowly, but many not at all. And, as we would measure literacy, being truly literate and able to both read and write, reduces the number to only 2 or 3 percent. According to Richard Horsley, “Writing had little importance except for certain functions of the elite.” People simply did not write letters, or keep journals, or take notes in school. If you needed something written, you hired a scribe, or used a slave that knew how to write. Persons who could write were not seen as socially valuable and may even have been looked down upon. Writing was a skill, much like we see modern tradespersons. If you needed it done, you hired someone who could do it. And that helps explain why scribes didn’t teach. While they had the skill to write, most often they were not otherwise particularly learned or educated.

And when we begin to think about the world of Jesus in this way, it changes how we see the people, the events that we see in the synagogues, about how Jesus was able to read from the Torah scroll (or did he?) and how the Gospels themselves came to be written.

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David’s Faith… in David

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David’s Faith in… David

June 25, 2024

by Pastor John Partridge

This past week at our church Annual Conference meeting, our Bishop, Tracy Smith Malone, preached a message in which she shared the story of David and Goliath, and framed David’s self-confidence as being a matter of David’s faith in God.

And that’s true.

But it’s more than that.

We can all agree that the story of David and Goliath is clear that while King Saul, and his entire army, were in fear and panic of the size, strength, skill, and power of the Philistine warrior Goliath, David’s faith enabled him to be the only one who had the self-confidence and faith to meet Goliath in single combat, one on one and man-to-man.

But David’s confidence wasn’t entirely faith-based. There was more to it than that and while we usually do a respectable job of preaching the faith part, the other part is just as important. Let me back up and lay some groundwork before I go any farther.

First, it was well-known that a skilled slinger could outrange an archer, strike a moving target at two hundred yards, and were said to be so accurate that they could aim for a specific part of a target’s face. Typical sling stones were 2 to 3 inches in diameter (5-7 cm) and weighed as much as a half-pound (0.25kg). These projectiles would be flung at 100 to 150 miles per hour (160 to 240 kph). Stones of that size, thrown at that speed, could kill by a blow to the head, or by rupturing an organ. Second, we also know that David, spending years in the fields watching his father’s sheep, had ample time, and plenty of rocks, with which to practice his skills with a sling and to become proficient. Third, the stories that we have of David rescuing his sheep by killing a bear and a lion can be offered as evidence of his skill, his fearlessness, and his faith.

And so, you see, David not only had confidence in God, but he also had confidence in… David. He had done the work of preparation. David had practiced during all those lonely years in the wilderness with his father’s sheep. David knew what he could do. He had developed, and honed, his skill with his sling, and he had been battle tested in his encounters with both a lion and a bear.

Yes, David had faith in God. But David had done the work of preparation, and he knew that those two things combined would bring victory against Goliath.

David wasn’t foolish. He didn’t just leap into a fight that he couldn’t hope to win and put all his eggs in the basket of his faith. David did the work of preparation. He developed his skill, and he tested it against deadly opponents. David knew that he had what it took to win, but he also knew that in a fight against a skilled adversary, anything can happen. David did the work of preparation; he did everything that he could to be ready… and the rest he trusted to God.

That was David’s faith… and it’s a model that we would do well to remember.

Faith isn’t jumping off a cliff and hoping that God will save you. Faith is buying a parachute, learning how to use it, and then jumping off a cliff… and trusting that God will use and guide your skill to bring about the desired result.

Faith is important.

But God still expects us to do the work of preparation.

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Who Was Cherea Cassius?

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At What Cost?

(What is Worth Your Life?)

June 16, 2024

by John Partridge

Who was Cherea Cassius?

Cherea Cassius was willing to sacrifice his life for something worthwhile. The odds are good that you have never heard of him, but his life, though far from perfect, teaches us something and forces us to look inside and examine ourselves.

The Roman historian Josephus called Cherea Cassius a hero. He was a tribune, a leader of the Pretorian Guard. That group was made up of hand-picked, elite troops of the Roman Army, were the personal bodyguards for the emperor of Rome in both war and peace and, during the rule of Caesar Caius, the Pretorian unit was also responsible for the security of the Senate, and for some law enforcement functions in Rome, and were the only persons who could carry weapons in the sacred parts in the center of Rome.

The Pretorians rubbed shoulders with everyone who was important in Rome and Cherea Cassius met with Caesar every day, knew everything about him, and accompanied him everywhere. But Caesar Caius was not a nice person. His first two years were not that bad, and it seemed as if he was going to be a good leader, but then the power of his office went to his head. While previous emperors had been proclaimed as gods, they knew that they were not, and while Augustus allowed people to say so, he tried to discourage it. But Caius was different. He began to believe that he really was a living god. He demanded the worship of the people around him, and he did things like stealing money from the temples of the gods for his own use, arguing that it was proper because he was a god as well.

Worse than that, he was cruel, and he loved to use his power to watch other people suffer and die. Would take things that he liked, whether they belonged to others or not, even accusing wealthy and powerful people of terrible crimes so that he could kill them and take their lands and estates. Caius was also unpredictable. Someone who was a friend today, and who might have been a friend for years, could find themselves accused of terrible crimes tomorrow.

No one was safe.

I might also mention that Caius was also known as Gaius or, as Caligula (which is a name that some might recognize). Because he thought so highly of himself, Caligula could not stand the idea that the Jews in Judea would not worship him. Most other nations worshiped Rome and its Caesar alongside all their other gods and would offer sacrifices to them together. But the Jews would not. For a long time, Rome had accepted a compromise that every day, in the Temple in Jerusalem, a priest would offer a sacrifice of two lambs and a bull to Israel’s God for the health and prosperity of Caesar, but not to Caesar himself. But that was not good enough for Caligula. He ordered that a statue of himself be constructed and installed inside the holy of holies, the most sacred place in the Temple of Jerusalem. That did not happen, but the Jews never forgot, or forgave the offense against them, and against their God.

In any case, after four years of his rule, and at least two years of living in absolute terror, the leaders in Rome knew that something needed to be done. Many people were so afraid of Caligula, and what he would do to them, and to their family, friends, and anyone else that they cared about, that they just tried to get along, stay out of the way. and not be noticed. But Cherea, and others, knew that anyone who was safe today, could be accused and put to death tomorrow. They knew that no one was safe, and worse, that their nation, and the whole of the Roman empire, was being destroyed because of Caligula.

Cherea also knew that if he were to assassinate the emperor, his life would be forfeited. He understood law enforcement and he knew that murder, even murdering a psychopathic murderer, had to be punished. But he also knew that his family, his friends, fellow soldiers, his nation, and the empire would be safer, and better off, if Caligula was dead.

And so, Cherea organized one of several plots to assassinate Caesar Gaius Caligula and his plan was the first to succeed. In fact, Cherea was first to attack Caligula and draw blood, but his sword thrust was deflected by a bone so that others delivered the fatal blow. Afterward, as you might expect, there was a time of considerable chaos. The Senate wanted to take the opportunity to return Rome to its origins as a democratic republic, but the military feared a republic because they saw the senate as being corrupt, and the people simply mourned because, despite his cruelty, Caligula was popular because he offered them free food and “entertainments” that were often bloody battles in the arena with wild animals, gladiators, prisoners of war, criminals, or the people that Caligula had accused of crimes.

In the end, Claudius was eventually recognized as the new emperor and, as Cherea expected, he, and his conspirators were arrested and put to death. At his execution, Cherea held his head high and acted nobly. He shared a word of encouragement with the soldier, whom he likely knew personally, who had been assigned as the executioner and even asked if he might be killed with the sword with which he had struck Caligula.

It is an ugly story, but Josephus explains that Cherea was remembered, even decades later, as a hero.

So, besides telling a long story, what is my point?

Well, as I read this story, while it is clear that Cherea Cassius was not a perfect human being, and is in no way messianic, he knew that what was happening in his nation was not good. Cherea knew that he was one of the very few people who had the opportunity to do something about the problem. But he also knew that taking action would cost him his life… and he was willing to give up his life to make life better for the people around him.

And that makes me ask this question…

…What are you willing to give to make the world a better place for the people around you?

Are you willing to share what God has given to you to feed the hungry and clothe the naked? Are you willing to speak for the voiceless, care for the broken hearted, bind the wounds of the afflicted, bring hope to the hopeless, and seek justice? Are you willing to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people who are lost, hurting, and trying to find their way in a world that is increasingly hostile and difficult?

Maybe you don’t think that Cherea Cassius was particularly heroic, and that’s okay, but he did what he could, even at the expense of his own life, to make the world a better place.

What are you doing?

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Hellen Who?

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Hellen Who?

 (or Why History Matters)

by John Partridge

For the last few weeks, I have been reading several accounts of Israel’s history. None of this is contained in the Bible because the particular histories that I have been reading describe the “Hellenization” of Israel that occurred between Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and Matthew, the first book of the New Testament. But what is Hellenization?  And, why does it matter if it isn’t in the Bible?

First, let me explain a little about Hellenism. Quite simply, “Hellenic” is just a synonym for “Greek.” Greek people can be known as Hellenes, and one of the first democracies was known as the Hellenic Republic. Greek government and culture was widely known in the ancient world and, when Alexander the Great (who was technically Macedonian) conquered much of the ancient world, including Israel, both the culture and the style of government of Greece spread with the empire. This influence is seen in the way that governments were organized, the language that people spoke, the types of art that became popular, the architecture that was used, and a host of other things as well.

But you still might ask why that matters if the empire that we find in the New Testament is Roman and not Greek. It matters because the Greek empire, in one form or another, was around for a long time and when the Romans finally became the dominant force, old political divisions of the Greek empire were still felt in the Roman empire. Even so, the Romans so admired Greek culture that they kept much of it. In the Roman empire, Greek was the language of business (and even in some military units), much of Roman government was modeled after the system used by the Greeks, and so was much of their art, philosophy, educational system, sporting events, and architecture. These two cultures were so tied together, and the Romans so influenced by Greek culture, that we often see them referred to not as Greek culture, or Roman culture separately, but as Greco-Roman culture collectively.

Because of their faith, their relationship with God, and their own unique history, Israel resisted some of these changes, but adopted others. Some crept in little by little, some were fought by religious leaders, but others, at least among the wealthy and political leaders, were adopted wholeheartedly. Learning about this cultural shift helps us to better grasp what happened between Malachi and Matthew and better understand the world that we enter as we read the New Testament. Even if these things aren’t described in the pages of scripture, their influence is felt everywhere on those pages. Learning about this inter-testamental history helps us to better understand the tensions between the rich and the poor, between the political leaders and the religious leaders, and between the various religious sects like the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and the new teachings of Jesus.

But history tells us more than that, and understanding history makes the stories of the New Testament richer, deeper, and more three-dimensional. Learning about the history of the intertestamental period (the time between Malachi and Matthew) helps us to see that King Herod was more three-dimensional than the tyrant that we see in a handful of verses in the gospels. This history tells us where Herod came from, who his family was, how he came to power, why he was so loyal to the Roman government, why his loyalties sometimes shifted, how Herod was politically astute in the extreme, and why he appears to be so incredibly paranoid when we meet him in the New Testament. And understanding Herod just scratches the surface because he and his family only really appear a few decades before Jesus. Before Herod and his father Antipater, there was an entire line of Jews that governed Israel known as the Hasmonean empire. And understanding that history explains more about Herod’s family and both why, and how, the Romans came to occupy, and then rule over Israel as well as how Herod conspired to murder the last of the Hasmoneans. This last thing also explains some of the ill will, and even outright hatred, that some Jews had for Herod.

As we read scripture, we become familiar with the Temple in Jerusalem, and many of us know that this was a magnificent engineering achievement of King Herod and possibly his crowning achievement. But what we don’t find in scripture is that the Temple in Jerusalem isn’t the only temple that Herod built. In fact, it isn’t the only temple that Herod built in Israel. Herod also built temples to Augustus, to Roma, and to Saturn in places like Caesarea, Sebaste in Samaria, Paneaus north of Galilee, and other Greek cities in Israel, as well as temples and municipal building projects in other countries of the Roman Empire. As a result, people across the Roman world knew of, and were grateful to Israel’s King Herod and, by extension, knew of, and were grateful to, the nation of Israel herself.

Understanding the history of the ancient world also helps us to understand the stories of the New Testament beyond the gospel stories. As we read Paul’s letters, and the stories of his travels, imprisonments, beatings, and trials, a knowledge of extra-biblical history helps us to understand why people sometimes listened to his preaching but at other times the crowds tried to kill him or the local authorities arrested and imprisoned him. We know from scripture that Paul was a Roman citizen, but history offers several possibilities surrounding how Paul, and his family, might have acquired Roman citizenship.  Likewise, connecting to my original point, while we know that Paul was well educated, what scholars still debate is just how much Greek (or Hellenizing) influence there was in Paul’s education. There are hints in Paul’s writings that might suggest an understanding, or at least the influence, of Greek philosophy and the structure used in public Greek and Roman debate. So, if even Paul, who described himself as a Jew among Jews, and a Pharisee among Pharisees felt the influence of Hellenism, then yes, it’s worth stretching ourselves to learn more about history outside of what we find in the pages of scripture.

Because… history matters.

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A Tithe of Time

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A Tithe of Time

May 2024

By Pastor John Partridge


What exactly is a “tithe?” It’s a church word that we sometimes use withing the community of faith, but which rarely gets used anywhere else. Strictly speaking, a tithe means “a tenth.” In the Bible, Israel was called to give God one tenth of what they had earned and that tenth supported the temple, the full-time priesthood, and some additional funds for widows, orphans, and other charitable needs of the community. Tithes were commanded and expected, though this is one of the very few, and perhaps the only, command God gave to Israel that has no punishment for failing to comply. But it is also the only place that God challenges us to test him, saying, “Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10). Incidentally, gifts that went beyond ten percent, are what were called “offerings” to God.

But what money isn’t the only thing that we can tithe because money isn’t the only thing that God gives to us. Of course, money is one of the easiest things to quantify, that is to count, but our net worth, or our gross (not net) annual income is not the only gift that we get from God. Of course, we no longer sacrifice children, and we aren’t expected to give God our firstborn to serve the church, but what about time? God give us time and the time that we have is certainly a gift, so why don’t we think about giving our time back to God? If we dare to think about it that way, a tithe of our time is a lot. A tithe of our time would be giving one day in ten to God. Or even if we thought of it in terms of workdays, that’s one eight-hour day every two weeks. Then again, giving a tenth of our time to God wouldn’t necessarily mean working at the church for eight hours twice a month. It could look like something else.

It might look like sabbath rest. God invites us to rest from our labor once every seven days, to relax and restore us physically, mentally, and spiritually. In that way, we could give a part of our tithe to God just by showing up to church once per week, but also by not filling up the rest of our day with stuff that isn’t restful or that doesn’t honor God. It might be joining a Bible study, a Sunday school class, choir, volunteering for a committee or a work project, or something else in the life of the church.

It might look like an occasional mission trip, or volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, or in Scouting, the homeless shelter, community food pantry, the Alliance of Churches bread ministry, or other places where we can serve God by serving others whether that involves physical labor, or visiting folks in the hospital, writing cards to shut-ins, or answering phones at a suicide hotline.

You are allowed to use your imagination. But if God has given us gifts of time, talents, skills, and abilities, as well as intelligence, education, and money, how will we give back a tenth of what he has given to us?

Blessings,

Pastor John


Considering “What’s Next?”

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Considering “What’s Next?”

Easter 2024
by John Partridge

As we approach Easter, we must all consider the question of “What’s next?” If we’re serious about our faith, Easter is all about the “what’s next” and not yesterday, today, or tradition.

What do I mean by that?

What I mean is, Easter, from the very beginning, was a transformative, and transformational event. No one who saw what happened, or who believed that it happened, was the same afterward as they were before. After the crucifixion, Peter gave up. He left Jerusalem, walked home to Galilee, and went back to work as a fisherman. And it wasn’t just Peter because the story in John 21 tells us that Thomas, Nathaniel, James, John, and two others were with him. This had to be some time after they had seen Jesus in Jerusalem because Galilee is 60 or 70 miles away and probably a three-day walk. But after they meet Jesus, again, but it is here that Jesus commands Peter to “Feed my sheep,” “Feed my lambs,” and “Follow me.”

After this moment, Peter, and all the other disciples, never make any further attempts to go back to a normal life. From this moment onward, they dedicate their lives to telling the world about what they had seen and heard, and what Jesus had done for every human being that ever lived. For the disciples, for Lazarus and his sisters, for the unnamed followers of Jesus, men and women alike, who were gathered in the upper room at Pentecost, and even for many of the Pharisees and priests that came to believe the truth about Jesus, “What’s next” was a life changing question.

Their lives would never be the same. They could never go back to whatever “normal’ they had before they had met Jesus. Knowing the truth changed the way that they looked at the world, changed the way that they saw the people around them, and changed the way that they made the choices that guided their careers, their lives, and everything that they did forever.

As we celebrate Easter, we need to put ourselves in their place. If we genuinely believe that the events of Easter really happened, and that Jesus really is who the gospel writers say that he is, then we need to ask ourselves the same question. “What’s next?”

Knowing the truth changes us.

Like the disciples, we must listen to where God is leading us, what he is calling us to do, where he is calling us to go, and how God intends to transform us. And like the disciples, those changes might be terrific, but they might be terrifying, they might be successful, but they might be sacrificial. Whatever it is that God is calling us to do, and wherever it is that God is calling us to go…

…simply returning to the old “normal” is not an option.

Blessings,

Pastor John

Spring Cleaning

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Spring Cleaning

April 2024

by Pastor John Partridge

By the time you read this, the calendar will say that Spring has finally arrived. Some spring flowers have already blossomed, and baseball season started on March 28th. This is the time when many people begin to think about spring cleaning, a time to wash windows, vacuum behind and under things that don’t normally get moved, and clear out a year’s worth (or more) of clothes that don’t fit and other accumulated clutter.

But what would it look like if we had a spiritual spring cleaning? Some activities might look a lot like the season of Lent when we reflect on our year, on our actions, on our inaction, and repent of our sins against God and against one another. But what else might this version of spring-cleaning look like?

Physical window washing removes accumulated dirt, grime, and the films that accumulate on the windows of our homes and automobiles so that we can see the world outside more clearly. But, just as dirt and grime accumulate on our physical windows, our personal biases and the misinformation that circulates so freely in the world around us colors our perception of the real world, and the people in it. Doing some spiritual window washing might require us to go out into the world, meet new people, make new acquaintances, and see new things. As I said in church recently, knowing just one homeless person by name, as a person, changes the way that we think about homelessness. Meeting the people who come to, and are supported by, the Red Bird Mission and its outreach centers, in person, changes how we think about the people of rural Kentucky. Making friends with the people in Harrisburg, Liberia, or meeting the school children that we support in Sierra Leone, helping with health clinics or building homes with my sister in Jamaica, or a thousand other experiences like that, will clear away our biases and make us see the world in a different way.

Spiritual vacuuming might mean that we take a close look at where we’ve been in the last year, looking under the “furniture” that we don’t usually move, considering the actions and the conversations that we’ve had, and… just maybe, cleaning up some of the messes that we left behind. Our friends and neighbors who work through any of the twelve step programs refer to this kind of cleaning as “making amends.” How do we clean up our messes? How do we apologize? How do we show the people that we’ve hurt that we are genuinely sorry?

And what about those clothes that have gone out of style and don’t fit us any longer? Don’t we have the same thing going on with some of our attitudes that we wear? Or the people who are a bad influence on us? Or the places that we hung out before we committed to following Jesus? Sometimes ridding ourselves of clothes that no longer fit is something that we need to do so that we aren’t distracted from the new path that we’ve chosen to follow.

As we begin spring, celebrate Easter, and do a little spring cleaning in our homes, we should probably take some time to consider the inside of ourselves as well.

What accumulated clutter do we need to leave behind?

Blessings,
Pastor John

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The Intersection of Why and What

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The Intersection of Why and What

February 22, 2024

by John Partridge


Here are two important questions:

  1. Why are we here?
  2. What are we doing about it?

Last fall, we had several strategic planning meetings. One of the things that grew out of those meetings was our new vision statement that you see at the top of our bulletin every week. But another was a conversation about why God has put us here, as Queen Esther would have said, “for such a time as this.” During the strategic planning meeting we asked two important questions. First, “What are the pressing needs of our community?” And second, “What are the strengths of our congregation?” Only when we answer the latter two questions, we will be able to answer the two questions that I asked at the beginning of this letter.

The needs that we listed in our meetings, with the input of many community leaders, were poverty, hunger, housing (including homelessness, blight, and high rents), lack of workforce and lack of jobs, safe places for youth, support for parents, mental health, drugs, and transportation. At the same time, we listed the strengths of our congregation as outreach, music, caring and compassionate congregation, generosity, education, leaders, organizers, our endowment, our connections and contacts, our physical plant/building and our adjoining lots used for both green space and the community garden.

That’s a lot.

But I want to keep these ideas in front of us rather than just allowing them to be an exercise that we once did and promptly forgot. Our community needs us, and our future depends upon us doing something about it.

And so, I’m inviting you all to think and dream about where these two lists intersect. What is the intersection of What we are, and what is needed? What is the intersection of “Why are we here?” and “What do the people around us need us to be and do?”

We really need you to do this.

Often, I ask these sorts of questions in our newsletter, and everyone seems to think that they are rhetorical questions (they are not). And I never get more than one or two answers, if any. But these questions need to be answered and I will be bringing them to our church boards for more discussion as we seek to find a new direction, purpose, and yes, a new strategic plan for our future.

But what might that look like?

From the list above, it could be many things, but here is an example based on something that we already do, and with which we already have some familiarity. Think about housing. Last week the Alliance chapter of Habitat for Humanity accepted applications for this year’s round of construction. Habitat will build or renovate three houses, but they had something like 150 applications. Yikes.  That number is mind blowing, but it gives us a glimpse of insight into the housing needs of our community.

So, what if, instead of raising money for three months, once every other year, for our share of the Apostle build, what if we raised money for twenty-four months? What if, instead of setting our goal at $5,000. We set a goal of $20,000 or even $150,000 (which is the cost of an entire Habitat house)?

What if, as some churches are doing in other states, we used some of our vacant land to build “tiny houses” to help get homeless people in our community under a roof, out of the weather, and help them move toward a better life?

What if our church bought and renovated one of the empty buildings in our city and created a multi-unit, low cost, rent-controlled, safe place, apartment complex?

These are all examples to help you dream. Some of them are big dreams. But honestly, given the resources, generosity, and leadership available in our congregation, I believe that, given enough time, any of them, or all of them, are possible for us to achieve if we decided to do so. But housing is just one of the needs that we listed.

What else might God be calling us to be or to do?

Why are we here?

What are we doing about it?

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A Year in Review: 2023

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2023 Year in Review

by John Partridge

Well, our annual “End of Year” reports have been completed and turned in to the East Ohio Annual Conference. So… how did we do? Overall, I am pleased and think that we did well. Of course, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they do tell us things. So, let’s review a few numbers and consider what they tell us.

We started 2023 with 289 members and we received 5 new members. Unfortunately, we removed 13 members that were lost to death. That is both sad and unfortunate and we grieve the loss of our friends. The good news is that we did gain five new members and, if we’re honest, that’s five more than many churches. The reality remains that our survival depends upon us inviting new people to worship, connecting them to small groups and other ministries of the church and, eventually, bringing them into membership.

Despite the loss of so many members, quite a few of whom were regular in worship, our average attendance increased from 65 to 70, which is an increase of 8 percent and our United Women in Faith saw a 25 percent increase in membership. At the same time, the average number of people who worship online increased by 50 percent from 24 to 36. We also saw an 83 percent increase in the number of children, growing from 6 to 11 in Sunday school and the addition of one more children’s class to accommodate them. Not surprisingly, we did see a small decrease in adult Sunday school attendance, largely due to the loss of the older members previously mentioned. Overall, however, our average attendance in Sunday school increased by 5 percent. And, although I have said it before, as has Pastor Chris, the percentage of our congregation that attends Sunday school, compared to most any other church in our connection, is strikingly high. In the average Protestant church, 44 percent of those in worship attend Sunday school. At Christ Church, that number is 63 percent.

We did see a 7 percent decrease in total giving and, with the departure of Men’s Challenge, a small drop in building use fees, but we did see a 9 percent increase in pledged giving and an increase in “unidentified gifts” which is made up of things like our loose offering, Chuck Wagon offering, Pennies for Heaven, Sunday school offerings, and this year will include the Noisy Can offering.

Additionally, we continue to have a strong (for our size) online presence. The website where our sermons are posted currently has 221 subscribers which translates to about 70 views per week. Those same sermons are sent out to 296 subscribers by email, which is an increase of 89 from last year. Of those, about 60 subscribers open the email and read it. And our YouTube livestream increased by 17 subscribers during 2023 and now has 123 total subscribers with between 30 and 40 viewers of each week’s message.

So, what does all that mean?

As I look at it, it means that there is still a need for, and an interest in what we are doing. It means that people are watching and reading online, but that some of them are also coming here in person. It means that the members and friends of Christ Church are inviting our friends and neighbors to worship with us and some of them have decided to stay and join our church family. It means that where only a few years ago it was common to have a Sunday without children, now it is rare that we do not have at least a few.

Yes, we have some challenges in front of us, but just as God has led us to navigate through those challenges in the past, we trust that he will continue to lead us into the future. Moreover, despite the losses that we have felt over the last year, the growth that we have seen gives us every reason to expect that growth to continue if we remain faithful in doing the work that God has given to us, continue being the hands and feet of Jesus, and never stop sharing what a great family that we have here at Christ Church.

In other words, there is every reason to have hope for, and even to expect a bright future.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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Pastor’s Christmas Letter

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Pastor’s Christmas Letter

by John Partridge

Dear Friends,

This year the Advent season seemed to sneak up on us faster than I remember others in the past and we are already racing towards Christmas. This seems to race even faster when our fourth Sunday of Advent falls on Christmas Eve morning. This feeling of hectic scheduling makes it even more important that we be deliberate in preparing ourselves for the celebration of our Lord’s birth. I don’t just mean buying presents and decorating our homes, but preparing our hearts and our souls so that we can enjoy and appreciate the arrival of the newborn king.

I admit that since I was in my twenties, and in most ordinary years, I struggled (past tense) and still struggle (present tense) with being a humbug. I just don’t “feel” Christmas-y.  Before Patti and I were married, I discovered that one way to fight back, and to start feeling the warmth of the holiday was to start listening to Christmas music after Thanksgiving, even if I didn’t feel like it.  More recently, with the loss of my hearing and music often sounding off-key, music hasn’t been as effective and so instead I make sure to decorate our Christmas tree, turn on the lights, and look at it for a while every evening.

But that isn’t enough. Because the Spirit of God dwells within each one of us as the followers of Jesus, when we are together, we feel the presence, not only of other people, but also the presence of God himself. And so, every Sunday, but especially during Advent, it is important for all of us to worship together, to simply be together, so that we can feel that sensation of closeness to God and prepare our hearts for Christmas. That closeness to God is real and, as important as it is to us personally, it’s important that we don’t keep it to ourselves.

Statistically, about one-third of, or one in three, people say that they would be willing to attend or visit a church if they were invited. That willingness is often highest at Christmastime. Christmas Eve is easily one of the most attended worship services of the year in almost every church in North America. And so, as I have in the past, I hope that each one of you will invite at least five others to join us. Toward that end, we have printed business cards that you can give to your friends, classmates, business associates, barber, hairdresser, grocery store clerk, or anybody else, and invite them to join us as we worship and celebrate Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve and Christmas are a time when we draw close to one another, and draw close to God, in a way that is both special and memorable not just because of the people, but because it is a time when we encounter the Spirit of God in a special way. Of course, we will share the extraordinary experience of hearing our choirs, bell choirs, pipe organ, and singing traditional and meaningful carols of Christmas together. But most importantly, we will remember the story of God’s invasion of the earth and the arrival of the Christ child, who would become the rescuer and redeemer of all humanity.

I hope that you will join us as we draw closer one another, and closer to God, together.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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