46-16 Little Neck Parkway, Little Neck, N.Y. 11362
"The Church That Love Built". 

From the Pastor’s Desk                                                       

June 2010

 "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” (Romans 15: 20-21, MV) 

This is how the Apostle Paul talked about his reasons for wanting to spread the Gospel to the known world, including those who were not part of his own Jewish background. It is every preacher's fervent hope that, when they share the Gospel of Christ, those who have not received it before will be moved, convinced, and persuaded of its power and truth because of the words they speak. Yet most preachers, like myself, end up preaching the Gospel to mostly the same people week after week over the course of many years.

It has been a stated goal, since I first arrived here at the Community Church of Little Neck, for the congregation to grow. Everybody has realized that a congregation of less than 50 active members will continually struggle to bring in enough income to support a full-time minister, pay other employees, and maintain a large and aging property, let alone undertake any kind of improvements to either the building or our programming. That is what has put us in the kind of financial bind we are now experiencing.

Yet the core members of the congregation, who have remained faithful through all of the struggles and hardships, are often reluctant to deviate from the way things have traditionally been done at the Community Church of Little Neck.  Our traditions are familiar and comfortable to most of us, whether they feel that way to others or not. So there is a built-in resistance to change, even though most of us accept that we cannot exist long or prosper without doing something to bring in new faces.

As pastor, I always feel like I am walking a tightrope here, trying on the one hand to adhere to a tradition that is sacred to many in our congregation, while at the same time keeping in mind that the congregation needs to appeal to others who are not part of that tradition in order to grow and prosper. Any misstep seems likely to result in falling through midair, with no solid ground under my feet, and no safety net ready to catch me when I fall, which I am certain to do many times, because I am as prone to make mistakes as the next person.

In attempting to begin at least a halting outreach to some who have not been as connected to our church, I recently opened a Facebook page for the Community Church of Little Neck. Since both Karen and I have our own Facebook pages, as do a number of people we know, we have been aware that many churches, non-profit agencies, and businesses also have a page, and some have had good success reaching new people by means of that media. So it seemed like a harmless way to attempt to reach a few who might find us on this social networking site and be interested in what we are doing here. It is also free and open to anyone with an email address, which figured in my decision to give it a try.

I did not believe, when I was setting up our Facebook page, that I was doing anything controversial. But one of the things you are encouraged to do, in setting up a new page, is invite those in your contacts list in Outlook or another similar program to visit your page. In order to do that, they must sign up for Facebook themselves. So a number of you got invitations to do exactly that as our page got up and running. And several of you did, in fact, accept the invitation, and we now have 10 people who have made our page one of their favorites, which is pretty remarkable for such a small group in less than a month.

Unfortunately, at least a couple of other people I invited to join and checkout our Facebook page were offended by that action. I understand that people have privacy and security concerns regarding use of the Internet, and some guard their information very carefully. It was thoughtless of me to automatically generate an invitation to join Facebook to those who hadn't already done so without considering those concerns. I should have checked with people first to see if they had any objections to my doing so. So I apologize to those who felt I betrayed their privacy.                   .

However, I do want to say that this illustrates exactly what I was talking about earlier in this letter. While my actions may have been thoughtless, my intentions were not malicious in any way. Yet two people so far have responded by requesting that their email addresses be removed from the church email list. If they remain adamant, I will, of course, do so. But that seems to me to be an over-reaction to an innocent mistake. I end up feeling, once again, that anything I do might rock the boat and be perceived as wrong by somebody, even if others see it differently. Since moving in any direction will inevitably lead to some missteps along the way, we need to have more of a level of trust within our congregation if we are ever going to navigate our way through the tricky waters ahead of us.

We here at the Community Church of Little Neck need to cultivate more of a sense of grace, forgiveness, and understanding when others act in ways we perceive as wrong or misguided. Indeed, that is one of the things that is supposed to be the hallmark of a Christian community of faith, that sets us apart from the world around us. I hope that, as we try to move forward in this venture in faith that God has given us, we will be able to do so as a cohesive unit, not pointing the finger at one another for our sins and failings, but standing shoulder to shoulder with one another as we reach out to share the love of Christ both with those who already know him, and those who may not.

SERMON TEXTS AND TITLES FOR JUNE 2010

The following are the Scripture texts and titles for Pastor Drake’s sermons during the month of June, 2010.