Church fun?

By Pastor John Hulden

A day or two before my first class at pastor-school many, many years ago, a classmate I had just met asked: “What is your mission statement?”

During those first days at seminary, I had never fully shaken off my reluctance about going to seminary. I didn’t major in religion in college. I could imagine what the professors taught in the church history department, but I wondered what “homiletics” and “systematic theology” are. (Is there an un-systematic theology department?)

“Where does fun fit into our church life?”

And now, before I even attended my first class, I’m supposed to have a “mission statement”! I’m thinking, “that’s a thing?”

Doing my best to stomp down what is now called “imposter syndrome,” I quickly replied with fake confidence: “Sure! To tell the story of Jesus, to work for peace and justice, and to have fun doing it.” My soon to be friend Carl liked it. And as I heard the words come out of my mouth, I guess I did too. For better or for worse, I’ve stuck with my made-up-on-the-spot mission statement now going on 40 years.

 

I WAS REMINDED ABOUT the “have fun” part of my mission statement after last Sunday’s StarTribune front page article about efforts to lure people back to the pew.

Is fun the answer for increased church attendance? I’m not fully convinced. Neither was Alice Digre. Alice was a lovely, smart, faithful, super-volunteer at my first call on the Eastside of Saint Paul. With about a year under my belt as their new pastor, I felt really good after a Sunday morning worship service. I remember commenting to Alice, “Wasn’t that fun this morning?” Alice took the question in for a moment – seemingly even longer – and replied introspectively, “I never thought of worship as being fun.”

Where does fun fit into our church life? How about in your spiritual journey?

 

MY COLLEAGUE, NICK Tangen, wrote a blog post last week about the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly at the Columbus Convention Center in Ohio. The 30-or-so of us voting members from your synod spent Monday through Friday in worship, plenary sessions, and conversations about the past, present, and future of our denomination. It was important work. But was it fun? Hmmmm, yes, we did have some fun!

Thursday evening at our hotel, the next convention goers began to arrive – in costume. Everyone was in a costume. Those of us at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly were on our way out to make room for a Cosplay convention. (If you want to have a visual picture, see the attendees on social media here: #matsuricon2022.) According to the list of rules in the convention booklet, costumes with stilts were not to be worn in the elevator; once we saw that, we weren’t sure what to expect. With our Christian commitment to nonviolence, was it our responsibility to jump into mock fights between superheroes?

“Sure! To tell the story of Jesus, to work for peace and justice, and to have fun doing it.”

As we watched the transition between conventions unfold, it struck me that the ELCA voting members cleared our schedules to do the work of the church all week. And the next group not only cleared their schedules but spent hours designing and creating amazing costumes. … Why? Because it is their kind of fun. Heck, play is even in the description of their convention: cosplay.

Is fun the answer for increased church attendance? I’m not sure that’s even the right question. Still, in any given moment, I stand by mission statement: After all these years, I still like to have some fun at church.