Faith Community In Transition

A Focused Corporate Spirituality

2010-05-22T13:21:00.004-04:00

Focused corporate spirituality means the particular spirituality that we, as a faith community, intentionally, purposefully, and strategically pay attention to for developing spiritual growth and leadership in our congregation. Having a focused one does not mean that we do not admit any others. Nor is it intended to detract from the personal spiritual styles that each of us may lean on. Rather, it gives us focus, intention, and purpose, and is intended to influence our

worship time
committee meetings,
short leadership development course we will create,
and our public ministry.

It is called "corporate" because it recognizes that we each one have methods and means of spirituality that we regularly turn to for our own spiritual growth. Rather, this one is what we focus on as a body ("corporally"), a community of faith, a congregation, and has nothing to do with businesses or corporations.

A focused corporate spirituality will tend to have its effect on us - to help us as members to grow spiritually and to grow as leaders - by having an impact on us "on the inside" (when we gather as a faith community to worship, conduct meetings, and learn) "on the outside" (when we conduct public ministry), or in some other manner.

We have three focused corporate spiritualities we are exploring. They are Biblical Spirituality, Missional Spirituality, and Relational Spirituality. We will narrow our choice to one. This does not mean the other two are not in some qway a part of the life of our congregation, or are excluded. It just means we will focus - put our energy and attention toward a particular one.

It should be noted that all three are excellent spiritualities. Any one of them will suit our needs. It is really a question of which one do we prefer or want to explore for the next few years.

Spirituality, Transformation, and Leadership Development

2010-05-21T11:50:00.002-04:00

In our transitional preocesses, we are currently engaged in Spiritual Growth, Transformation, and Leadership Development. The relationship of these is as follows:

A focused corporate spirituality helps bring about transformation that leads to the kind of leadership development that fulfills our vision.

So far, we are looking at three corporate spiritualities so that we can choose one to focus on. The three are Biblical Spirituality, Missional Spirituality, and Relational Spirituality.

On June 7th, at our Monday Evening Transitional Conversations, we are going to begin the process of choosing one to focus on for the next few years. All three are very good, but by focusing on one we can develop a programme of leadership development. Our leadership development will certainly take place through the various facets of congregational life, but we also hope to develop something like a six-week leadership course especially designed by and for the people of Knox-St. Paul's United Church, Cornwall.

Cornwall Interfaith Partnership

2010-05-18T10:11:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago eleven people sat down around a table at Cafe Connectionz in Cornwall, Ontario, to have a conversation about an interfaith dialogue initiative in Cornwall. We had people from the Baha'i community, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Hindu.

The Canadian Council of Churches along with other groups, like the United Church of Canada, have asked that where possible people try to join in dialogue with federal government representatives in preparation for the G8/G20 Summit in Winnipeg in June. This was the impetus for the meeting.

We have had an other meeting since then, as well as a small streering committee, and plans are underway for a small group to meet with our MP, Guy Lauzon and his wife Francis and express our interfaith concerns for poverty, environment, and peace, especially emphasizing peace as a starting place for us. We are also contacting representatives from the Sihk community as well as a spiritual leader of the First Nations' aboriginal religion.

We have a name - The Cornwall Interfaith Partnership. And, we have a website. http://www.cornwallinterfaith.blogspot.com/ This is more a working website for now, but a special thanks to Gary Friedman for his work on it.

I am glad we can see ourselves as being part of this initiative, and look forward to the event after the immediate one that gave rise to our being, when we can gather a wider audience of interested people. Everyone who has come to this table has been a committed adherent of their world religion. This is not just a group of people seeking new religious experience, or trying to convert anyone.

Stay tuned.

Prayer For Our Tasks

2010-05-16T09:36:00.002-04:00

Last Monday, we worded this prayer for the tasks ahead of us as a faith community.

Loving God, present with us, journey with us, we ask for
help and guidance in daily living
and in our tasks;
for awareness of what goes on in our world around us;
for tolerance, and understanding
of the thoughts and beliefs of others,
and knowledge of how to respond appropriately;
for humility and for empathy.
Keep us listening to you
and prepared for transformation.
Help us feel your love. Amen.

Liberation

2010-05-15T09:54:00.003-04:00

But now, God's Message, the God who made you in the first place, Jacob, the One who got you started, Israel: "Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you. I've called your name. You're mine." Isaiah 43:1 The Message Bible

Redeemed you.
Called you by name.
Claimed you.

This few words help us understand transformation better, and how spiritual growth fits in. To be transformed is to be "redeemed." While we don't use the word "redeem" often in everyday speech, we do so on a couple of occasions. One way we sometimes use it is to say that we are going to redeem our bottles. We mean we are taking the bottles back to the retailer and getting our deposit back. The other way we have used it is with coupons - we go to the store and redeem a coupon for something, meaning that we get a discount.

Our use of the word "redeem" seems to be about getting or saving money. God considers us very valuable - even more valuable than money. One of the dictionary definitions of "redeem" is "to liberate by payment." Our transformation is a liberation that God provides for us - God "pays the price," it's free to us. What is liberated is our true self. The prophet hears God say, "I've called yoy by name." Transformation makes us more and more what God created us to be.

Another dictionary definition of "redeem" is "to recover ownership of something by paying a sum." We are claimed by God; in the words of the prophet, God says, "You're mine." The God who called us into being wants to call us into a relationship with God. Not a judgment. Not a religious oppression. Relationship.

So transformation happens as we are spiritually awakened. And that awakening is a process of liberating us from the shackles of societal and cultural and psychological expectations to allow us to metamorph into the individuals we were created to be, living in a relationship with our creator.

Freedom in our Faith

2010-05-13T13:28:00.003-04:00

For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them! Gal 6:14-16 The Message Bible

What is "crucifixion" to us besides an historical event in the life of Jesus? The writer to the Galatians suggest that "crucifixion" is like "transformation" in the sense that it cuts us free from the expectations of culture. We are

set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate.

And just as the "resurrection" that followed the "crucifixion" of Jesus was an act of God, so our own transformation is an act of God:

God is creating something totally new, a free life!

Transformation is freedom! How free does our faith make us?

Becoming Transfigured

2010-05-10T18:41:00.005-04:00

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. 2 Cor 3:16-18 The Message Bible

How do we innovate our vision? With leadership.

How do we develop leadership? Using the above Scripture passage, by finding methods for turning the faces of our participants toward God.

And how do we turn the faces of our participants toward God? With a focused corporate spirituality.

A focused corporate spirituality allows the participants of our community of faith to turn to face God and so become "transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives."

Prayer for Spiritual Growth, Transformation, and Leadership Development

2010-05-09T09:13:00.002-04:00

At our last Monday Evening Transitional Conversations, we developed the following prayer around our agenda:

Loving God, present with us,
we ask to feel the presence of your Holy Spirit,
and to recognize spiritual growth when it happens.
We ask for both personal and corporate spiritual growth,
and for reassurance that you are transforming us
into the indivisduals you created us each to be.
We ask for thick skin, patience, and imagination
as you do your work of transformation in us.
We ask for energy for leadership,
self-confidence,
and for good leadership that "stays the course."
And we ask for empathy as we work at our vision
to help build a city
where no one journeys alone. Amen.

Interfaith Dialogue

2010-05-08T09:48:00.003-04:00

We were approached by some people and asked if we would provide some leadership in forming an interfaith dialogue group, especially in preparation for the upcoming G8/G20 Summit in Winnepeg in June.

We had our first meeting on Thursday down at Cafe Connectionz. There were two Hindus, two Muslims, four Ba'hai's, one Jewish person, and two Christians. We are planning another meeting this coming week.

We spent our time sharing perspectives and expectations, using a worksheet put out for groups to use in preparation for the Summit.

In terms of our own vision of "Helping build a city where no one journeys alone," we recognized that sometimes people of other world religions may feel isolated and alone as groups. While it was not on our radar to immediately address these groups, God, I believe, sent them to us. Perhaps it is to test our resolve, but I believe it is to give us a chance to learn what it means to engage in Public Ministry. Because this kind of engagement takes the approach that we are open to transformation, to receiving from the other. And certainly, interfaith dialogue is transformational!

We are hoping to plan a dinner and invite our MP to attend and both address us and hear our concerns. I will keep the congregation posted. And I am grateful to God for sending this invitation our way, to those who identified us for participation, and to our congregation for its vision.

Bereaved Families of Ontario

2010-05-06T12:11:00.003-04:00

Our community of Faith has recently identified its vision - Helping Build a City Where No One Journeys Alone. This opens a very wide door to explore, so our Monday Evening Transitional Conversations identified three areas for me to research. One of these was with people who journey alone because of the death of a loved one. And that, in turn, led me to the office of Bereaved Families of Ontario.

I had a most informative meeting with Judy. I have copies of their newsletter, and some brochures to distribute. And we will be looking at some opportunities, especially in the Fall.

For now, they are having a Yard Sale to benefit the organization (which receives most of its funding through United Way).

State Farm Insurance (parking lot - look for the big tent)
407 2nd Street East
9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 8

Prayer for Spiritual Growth, Transformation, & Leadership Development

2010-05-04T08:02:00.002-04:00

Last Monday (a week ago), our Monday Night Transitional Conversations group developed a prayer around our latest topic.

O God, present with us, journeying with us,
open us to “Spiritual Growth.”
We ask for empowerment, to collect our thoughts,
awareness of where you are leading or pushing us,
trust and confidence in you,
and strength to do it.
As we find ways to make our congregation available to your transformation,
we ask for guidance and discernment,
awareness of your will,
not our own.
As we find ways to reach our leadership goal,
we ask for encouragement and courage,
for wisdom, for resources,
and for opportunity.
As we help build a city where no one journeys alone, we ask for direction.
Identify for us those who journey alone. Amen.

If you cannot join us on Monday nights, perhaps you could join us in this prayer. Thank you.

Psalm 148

2010-05-03T16:48:00.002-04:00

We looked at Psalm 148 in worship yesterday -

Hallelujah! Praise God from heaven,
praise him from the mountaintops;
Praise him, all you his angels,
praise him, all you his warriors,
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, you morning stars;
Praise him, high heaven,
praise him, heavenly rain clouds;
Praise, oh let them praise the name of God—
he spoke the word, and there they were!

He set them in place
from all time to eternity;
He gave his orders,
and that's it!

Praise God from earth,
you sea dragons, you fathomless ocean deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and ice,
hurricanes obeying his orders;
Mountains and all hills,
apple orchards and cedar forests;
Wild beasts and herds of cattle,
snakes, and birds in flight;
Earth's kings and all races,
leaders and important people,
Robust men and women in their prime,
and yes, graybeards and little children.

Let them praise the name of God—
it's the only Name worth praising.
His radiance exceeds anything in earth and sky;
he's built a monument—his very own people!
Praise from all who love God!
Israel's children, intimate friends of God.
Hallelujah!

What first got my attention about the Psalm is that no where is God's preferential option for the marginalized mentioned. No where does the poet say that God is looking out for those who have been lost or experienced loss.

It helps to approach the lesson with suspicion, suspicion that the way we have always read it has been in the interests of the status quo. I can almost hear a sermon about the importance of coming to church to praise and worship God. And it is that suspicion that allows me to hear in the words of the Psalm that the Psalm writer is one of the forgotten people, left out of the status quo, marginalized. And the writer is standing off, away, giving us an important message if we might listen.

Because this psalm is "good news" to our culture's forgotten ones. For those who cannot find happiness in things, in shopping, in owning, in having everything that supposedly marks us as successful, yet they know precisely the message of joy in the passage. And the writer shares it with us.

Let them praise the name of God—
it's the only Name worth praising.

Will we try to build a monument of success? God's already built one

he's built a monument—his very own people!

Because what the marginalized would tell us is the very simple message that no other monument will last. And that joy trumps happiness (from the root word "happenstance"). And relationships are what bring joy.

So there they are, out there, left out, as it were, singing these words to us. And we are invited, not to invite them into our cultural complicity, but to join them outside. Outside of what we have conventionalized in our faith. Outside of our comfort, yes, but "inside" where God is at work, calling us to join God in building a city where no one journeys alone. Not even us.

Getting a New Life

2010-05-02T08:57:00.002-04:00

But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything — and I do mean everything — connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life — a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. Ephesians 4:20-24 The Message Bible

How does everything connected with the “old life” go, and we take on a new life — How does this happen?

As we tackle the question of transformation, and with it spirituality and leadership development for our vision, what approach do we take that positions the members of our faith community for this kind of experience?

How Do We Make Ourselves Available to God's Transforming Power?

2010-04-29T15:06:00.002-04:00

Then Samuel took a flask of oil, poured it on Saul's head, and kissed him. He said, "Do you see what this means? God has anointed you prince over his people. This sign will confirm God's anointing of you as prince over his inheritance: After you leave me today, ... you'll come to Gibeah of God, where there's a Philistine garrison. As you approach the town, you'll run into a bunch of prophets coming down from the shrine, playing harps and tambourines, flutes and drums. And they'll be prophesying. Before you know it, the Spirit of God will come on you and you'll be prophesying right along with them. And you'll be transformed. You'll be a new person! When these confirming signs are accomplished, you'll know that you're ready: Whatever job you're given to do, do it. God is with you! Now, go down to Gilgal and I will follow. I'll come down and join you in worship by sacrificing burnt offerings and peace offerings. Wait seven days. Then I'll come and tell you what to do next." Saul turned and left Samuel. At that very moment God transformed him—made him a new person! And all the confirming signs took place the same day. 1 Samuel 10:1, 5-9 The Message Bible

What might be confirming signs that we have been transformed?
How do we know what job we’ve been given to do?
What must we be “turning from and leaving?”

How Can We Place Ourselves So That God Brings Out The Best

2010-04-27T13:18:00.002-04:00

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2 The Message Bible

How do we, as a faith community, place our ordinary, everyday life before God as an offering?
How do we, as a faith community, embrace what God does for us?
How do we, as a faith community, fix our attention on God?
How do we, as a faith community, readily recognize what God wants from us, and quickly respond to it?

Fresh Start

2010-03-16T13:16:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday, our focus lesson was from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (The Message Bible)

Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.

How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

Our theme was “Fresh Start.” I’m told that when we use the expression, “reboot the computer,” that it comes from the old line, “pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” Meaning, you have to make a change in yourself. When we “reboot” our computer, it’s often when we have managed to overload it or give it confusing or conflicting commands. So we tell it, “I can’t figure out what’s wrong, here, so you have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.” And the computer starts over, and presents itself (hopefully) as if nothing were wrong.

God has given us something similar. God gives us a fresh start. The difference is in two ways. First, we don’t have to “pull ourselves up by the bootstraps,” God pulls us up. And second, our past is not erased. It is incorporated into our present and future. It’s transformed. This is real economy and ecology. The past is wasted – trashed. It’s reused, recycled. But in the process, it’s transformed.

This is because God doesn’t want to control us. God doesn’t have a “wonderful plan for your life” other than that you live to your fullest potential with the life you find yourself with. God doesn’t want windup Christians. God doesn’t want robots, automatons, or angels. Let’s not try to be angels. God already has those. God wants to experience our world through us. Just as parents want to experience the world of their children through their children, so does God.

And every day, we can simply ask God for a “fresh start.” It doesn’t take a special prayer, or special ritual, or special time, or special place. Just ask.

When we come to the end of our time, and stand before God, God will not ask us, “Why weren’t you more like Jesus?” “Why weren’t you more like St. Paul?” God will ask, “Why weren’t you more like you? Like the you I created you to be, longed to help you be, wept for, and rejoiced over?

Fresh start now.

Stay Tuned!

2010-03-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

We are about to bring our Visioning Discernment to an end. And it happens in the Easter season (the third Sunday of Easter), the season of resurrection!

Monday Evening Transitional Conversations
There will be no more Monday Evening Transitional Conversations until Monday, April 12. That meeting will be to put the finishing touches on the special Vision Sunday service on April 18.

Vision Sunday
On Sunday, April 18th, we will have a special Vision Sunday service. The format of the service will be what is called “worshipful work,” and will not be unlike what we do on Monday evenings. The service will begin at the usual time, 10:00 a.m. It will conclude with a pot-luck luncheon that will be served at noon. The service will include

table groups
discussions of images
slide show
popular music and Christian hymns and songs
skit on the wall of Jerico
story
pot luck with idea brainstorming

as well as regular worship features.

The purpose of the service is to give the congregation a chance to hear the final report of the Monday Evening Transitional Conversations group on the discernment of a vision. This is to give us a chance to understand how the group arrived at it, and to initiate an indefinite period of “trying it on,” testing, and innovating it.

Next Steps After This
Commencing April 19th, the Monday Evening Transitional Conversations will work on Transformation discernment, answering the broader question of the primary focus of how people will be transformed in our congregation, and the more specific goal of spiritual development.

Blog
Be sure to “tune in” to the blog beginning Sunday the 11th of April. We will begin a series of reviews on the material that will help us be ready for Vision Sunday. Also, if anyone out there can help others figure out how to find the blog and bookmark it on their computer, that would be an immense help. I will be announcing in church that anyone needing help finding it can get assistance.

Thanks for all the hard work.

Moving On, Not Settling

2010-03-08T14:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday in our regular Sunday gathering of as a faith community, we looked at 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (The Message Bible)

Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God's fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God's wonder and grace didn't seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.

The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—"First the people partied, then they threw a dance." We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.

These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don't repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

We focused on

Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence. No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

We noted that temptation never comes to do something hard. Temptation is always about taking the easier way, or keeping the status quo. It’s about settling for whatever. In such a setting, we understand that the “discontent” talked about in the passage is discontent about climbing, changing, moving, taking the challenge, the way less travelled.

We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.

We need discontent of another sort, the kind sang about in the song,

Spirit, Spirit of gentleness, blow thro’ the wilderness calling and free,
Spirit, Spirit of restlessness, stir me from placidness, Wind, Wind on the sea.

We need the discontent of restlessness over just settling, or wanting to go back to “the way we were.” We need the discontent that comes from God calling us to freedom from the status quo.

And God gives us the courage, the vision, and the strength to overcome that kind of temptation that holds us back as individuals and as a community of faith. The temptation to stay as we are, where we are, how we are. That temptation is “gravity,” pulling us down. But God will help us come through it. I like the active verb used here: “help us come through it.” Because the temptation is to sit. But God will help us "come through it" and arrive at a new destination.

The temptation is to settle. The challenge and the call are to move.

Stay the Course

2010-03-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday we looked at Philippians 3:17 to 4:1

Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I've warned you of them many times; sadly, I'm having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ's Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites.

But there's far more to life for us. We're citizens of high heaven! We're waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He'll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.

My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don't waver. Stay on track, steady in God.

“Don’t waver. Stay on track, steady in God.” Stay the course! It’s easy to head for “easy street.” “Easy street is a dead-end street.”

What is easy street in congregational life? I have referred to it as “gravity.” It always wants to take us to “easy street.” Easy Street is the self-satisfied church. That is the church that is primarily inward-focused and conventional. It’s “church as usual.” And it is an uphill climb to become outward-directed. It’s easy to settle down. But for a sustainable future, settling is easy street – a dead-end street.

Jesus said,

Anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal. (John 12:25)

On the surface it looks difficult – Any congregation that holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if that congregation lets it go, reckless in their love for those who have experienced loss of relationships, they’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

So we stay the course. Outward-focused on a vision for our city.

Disease Effect of Feelings of Journeying Alone

2010-03-04T15:10:00.001-05:00

Knox St. Pauls United Church works for

A place where no one journeys alone.

Often people hide their feelings of “journeying alone.” The advertising media’s effect on people has probably led people to hide such feelings. Scepticism of modern urban living has probably also contributed. But whatever the cause, scientist are discovering emperical evidence for what psychologists have long suspected: Repressed feelings of loneliness (including the feeling of “journeying alone”) leads to cancer and other disease. This is from an article in Psychology Today.Psychology Today.

I REMEMBER SMILING my way through a divorce," says Marie Mosbach, a Connecticut schoolteacher. "I couldn't express my real feelings to anyone." In 1981, Mosbach was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Two years later, the cancer spread to the bone and her physician told her family that she was going to die.

Today, a more assertive, expressive and very much alive Mosbach looks back and says, "I feel the cancer is related to the repression of my feelings and to chronic stress. Staying in a situation where there is chronic stress--like my unhappy marriage--is very weakening to the immune system."

Mosbach is not alone in her belief. For the past 25 years, psychologists and other scientists have been trying to connect emotions, stress or personality traits to a person's chances of developing or surviving cancer. But the role of these factors, if it exists, is extremely hard to define: Research methods vary greatly and many of the findings are contradictory.

A recent study by psychologists Pirkko L. Graves and John W. Shaffer and their colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine adds compelling evidence of the cancerous danger of repressed emotions--but evidence that is not without puzzles and ambiguities. Using psychological data collected between 1948 and 1964 on nearly 1,000 Hopkins male medical students, Grave's team divided the men into five groups, based on personality traits. They then examined the men's health records, which have been collected each year through 1987. "We wanted to see if the people who subsequently developed cancer might fall into one or more of the five categories," Graves says.

"The group with the highest incidence of cancer," Graves says, "was the Loner cluster," a group of people who felt lonely and who faced the world with bland, unemotional exteriors. Loners were 16 times more likely to develop cancer than were members of the most cancer-free group.

More can be read on this topic at John T. Cacioppo's book, Loneliness.

Alone in Cornwall

2010-03-03T14:30:00.002-05:00

Knox St. Pauls United Church works for
A place where no one journeys alone.

This image is from the Flickr website.

It has been found that loneliness, and therefore the feeling of “journeying alone,” has a high incidence in cities. So Cornwall probably has a relatively high incidence of people who feel they are “journeying alone.” The reason for the high frequency in cities may be the result of the loss of identifiable neighbourhood communities in a typical city. The sense of “neighbourhood” is lost in terms of the idea of “neighbourliness.” And, the comparatively large number of people who inhabit cities, pressed close together, forcing people to interact more frequently may push people apart.

Further, in a crowd, we can feel anonymous, and can lose our identity, leading us to wonder if anyone really cares. In a city, bad news can travel more rapidly, and scepticism can set in, leading one to wonder if anyone cares about anyone.

In cities, because of the nearness of hospitals and other social services and necessary businesses, people can live on their own, on both ends of the age spectrum, you adults and senior citizens. This way of living, without immediate contact with family, can lead to feelings of “walking alone.”

Green Day sings "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" which speaks to this urban journey alone.

I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes But it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk alone

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

I'm walking down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line Of the edge and where I walk alone
Read between the lines What's f...ed up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

Situational and Internalized Loneliness

2010-03-02T14:45:00.002-05:00

Knox St. Pauls United Church works for

A place where no one journeys alone.

We recognize that loneliness has many causes, and so we are differentiating what we are targeting when we use the word. We are talking about that aspect of loneliness that is the experience of “journeying alone.” And when we speak of the causes of loneliness we are talking about lost or broken relationships, that is, such a loss of or break in relationship that one forgets other relationships, or feels that there are no other relationships, or feels that one can never have other relationships.

There are two other types of loneliness - developmental and internal. We are not directly addressing developmental loneliness - the kind that comes from early stages of a person's development. We recognize that the feeling of “journeying alone” is largely, for our purposes, situational – meaning that there was something in the person's situation in life that led to the feeling of "journeying alone." But we also recognize that this feeling can become internalized, so that someone’s sense of loss may be so strong that they may feel unable to develop or maintain healthy relationships, leading to a reinforcement of the sense of “journeying alone.”

One may feel that “everyone else has friends” – and indeed, the media (advertising) can give that impression – leading to the feeling that one is socially awkward and shy, that “there is something wrong with me,” and, “no one understand me.” These are very real feelings, and can cause such anxiety that one may fear to attempt any new relationships, fearing rejection. Or, worse yet, one makes unhealthy relationships, being “taken in” by those who are preying on the weak and frightened. This internalized type of "journeying alone" can lead to addictions, bullying, and other social ills. Strongly internalized loneliness can lead to commonly called depression, clinical depression, and even suicide attempts.

By addressing those who have profoundly experienced a loss of or break in a relationship leading to the feeling of "journeying alone," we touch on many other social concerns as well. This target is a large one. Our vision, to work for a city where no one journeys alone, will keep us quite busy at our share of building God's dominion of justice and peace.

Journeying Alone and Social Predators

2010-03-01T19:00:00.001-05:00

Knox St. Paul’s United Church works for
A place where no one journeys alone

A person will experience “journeying alone” often when the person is not actually alone. It can be experienced while living in crowded places. This is because of the experience of isolation. When the United Church did a thorough study on isolation in ministry of its ministry personnel, it discovered this sense of isolation even in urban centres. And, ministers work with people all the time! How would it be, by way of example, that a minister, serving in a city, working with congregants, could feel isolation? To feel that you “journey alone” has to do with how one feels inside more than one’s objective reality.

Sometimes feeling that one journeys alone causes one to feel that one is being rejected, and that one is unworthy of affection or even intimacy. This feeling, in turn, leads to further withdrawal. So this sense of “journeying alone” can further spiral into isolation and depression.

From the moment we leave our mother’s womb, we begin a psychic process of separation. This is healthy, and takes us toward adulthood. Realizing our “aloneness” in the sense of being an individual with our own identity and dignity is good. And solitude is a healthy habit to foster. But to experience “journeying alone,” not just as a separate individual, but as a “nobody,” not just in solitude, but without the support of others, this is loneliness and can be overwhelming and even unbearable. The experience of “journeying alone” can lead to other negative feelings, including feelings of abandonment, rejection, insecurity, anxiety, hopelessness, unworthiness, meaninglessness, and even anger. If these feelings are allowed to continue, they can further reinforce the experience of “journeying alone” because they will make it difficult for the person to maintain or find healthy relationships. When feelings of worthlessness creep in, one can become the object of “use” and manipulation by the unscrupulous. Those who feel they “journey alone” may be the targets of social predators – abusive employers, spouses, pimps, drug-pushers, etc.

The Double Bind of Journeying Alone

2010-02-28T15:00:00.001-05:00

Knox St. Pauls United Church works for
A place where no one journeys alone.

Journeying alone is a feeling. It is a feeling of being alone in the journey of life even though one might be surrounded by neighbours, friends, and even family. There is a sense of emptiness that comes when a significant relationship is lost, an emptiness that by its very nature draws our attention to such a degree that our other relationships lose our attention, leading to our losing awareness of the other relationships we have. The separation causes a sense of alienation from everyone. And this reinforces the feeling of “journeying alone,” so that they become mutually reinforcing, the feeling of “journeying alone” leading to detachment from other relationships, which lead to further loneliness.

When what is most needed are strong, interpersonal relationships, often the feeling of “journeying alone” can make it hard to form those very necessary interpersonal relationships, or rely on and maintain the ones that one probably already had. To feel that one is “journeying alone” may be a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that one’s feelings of loneliness, emptiness, and detachment cause one to ignore or even shun existing relationships. Is it not so often the case that when we need people the most we shut ourselves away the most.

Part of what may happen is reflected in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus where the Roman leader says,

“Though I go alone, like a lonely dragon...”

A person who has experienced such a loss that they feel they journey alone may develop a “dragon-like” attitude, as if to say, “I’m tough, I don’t need anyone.”

It is this “double bind” that makes a public ministry with those who are experiencing “journeying alone” such an interesting challenge. How do we assist and encourage people to redirect themselves to other interpersonal relationships they have, or to build strong new ones?

Lost Relationships That Lead To Journeying Alone

2010-02-25T15:00:00.004-05:00

Knox St. Pauls United Church works for
A place where no one journeys alone.

Lost Relationships
A list of some lost relationships that may lead to feelings of journeying alone. Note that these would have been relationships in which there was a feeling of “journeying together.” Also note that we are talking about "chronic loneliness," not the kind of loneliness we all experience once in a while.

cherished pet
child
close colleague
close neighbour
close relative
close friend
friendship group (atheltic team, coffee clutch, congregation, club)
grandchild
parent or significant guardian
sibling
spouse, love, partner, significant other

Are there other’s we have missed?

Causes
The cause of the loss of relationship, leading to a feeling of journeying alone:

because you moved to Cornwall or the other moved away from Cornwall (e.g. for work, because of divorce)
because of the other’s death
because of your or the other’s permanent or long-term disability
because of change in your or the other’s personality due to illness, drug/alcohol abuse, etc.
because relationship (marriage, friendship, etc) is breaking down or has broken down
because of you or the other has been institutionalized (nursing home, prison), and therefore less available
because the marriage or new love interest of yourself or the otherhas come between you
because of deterioration in your or the other’s financial situation, making it difficult to spend the quality of time as before
because of some other change that makes you or other less available, like retirement (colleague), divorce

Are there other causes we have missed?

Vision Forward

2010-02-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

In the last blog, yesterday, I shared where our vision work has come so far. When we think about lost relationships, we can see so many places where someone might walk alone.

First, in order to get the full perspective, it is important to understand what we mean by alone and loneliness. Wikipedia defines loneliness as

Loneliness is a feeling in which people experience a strong sense of emptiness and solitude. Loneliness is often compared to feeling empty, unwanted, and unimportant. Someone who is lonely may find it hard to form strong interpersonal relationships.

One of the first recorded uses of the word "lonely" was in William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, "Though I go alone, like a lonely dragon..." Act IV Scene 1.

They go on to say that a scientific inquiry in the Netherlands showed that

Loneliness has been linked to heart disease as well as emotional problems, such as anxiety, problems with self-esteem and sociability.

A University of Chicago study said that

is a social phenomenon within society and can spread through it like a disease.

Loneliness is what this vision really addresses - not being alone. People find themselves alone all the time - this is called solitude, and at least some solitude is actually healthy. Rather, loneliness, the kind of thing that happens as one's feeling about their overall circumstance, can take place even surrounded by people, and even while in relationships.

Loneliness is unwanted solitude. Loneliness does not require aloneness and is often experienced even in crowded places. It can be described as the absence of identification, understanding or compassion... It may also be described as a yearning for love or companionship, which is unfulfilled, but cannot seemingly be achieved, or may stem from the lack of love in one's life, and hence may lead to emotions such as rejection, despair and low self-esteem. Feelings of loneliness may be similar to feelings of the death or loss of a loved one.

This description echo the direction our visioning conversations have taken. We have been thinking about lost relationships, and therefore of the resulting feelings people experience from such a deeply-felt loss. Of course, those who have experienced the loss of a love, through death or divorce, or even separation by war or because of job. But when people experience the loss of a relationship, the resulting loneliness, the feeling of "journeying alone," often is so strong that they lose touch with the other relationships they may have. These may be children, parents, sibling, extended family, friends, neigbours, and colleagues.

To experience loneliness, however, can be to feel overwhelmed by an unbearable feeling of separateness at a profound level. This can manifest in feelings of abandonment, rejection, depression, insecurity, anxiety, hopelessness, unworthiness, meaninglessness, and resentment. If these feelings are prolonged they may become debilitating and prevent the affected individual from developing healthy relationships and lifestyles. If the individual is convinced he or she is unlovable, this will increase the experience of suffering and the likelihood of avoiding social contact. Low self-esteem will often trigger the social disconnection which can lead to loneliness.
Loss of a significant person in one's life will typically initiate a grief response; here, one might feel lonely, even in the company of others. Loneliness may also occur after the birth of a child, after marriage or any socially disruptive event, such as moving from one's home town to a university campus. Loneliness can occur within marriages or similar close relationships where there is anger, resentment, or where the feeling of love cannot be given or received. It may represent a dysfunction of communication. Learning to cope with changes in life patterns is essential in overcoming loneliness.

Our next blog will look at some of this in more detail.

Almost a vision

2010-02-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

We are getting very close to our vision. The image we are looking at is approximately like this:

The idea is there be a river with stepping stones. People are on the stepping stones helping one another across from one shore to the other. Ideally, these would be different kinds of people - gender, race, abled, etc. The stepping stone represent where each individual may be in their life, and may even represent a measure of loneliness or feelings of isolation because of a lost relationship. A pathway of stepping stones represent a journey. One shore represents a coming from, the other a going toward. The individuals are helping each one on their own individual journey, so that no one really walks alone.

The Vision Statement is:

Knox St. Pauls United Church works for
A place where no one journeys alone.

Below this we would place descriptive and/or imaginary phrases.

Knox-St. Pauls has had a deep experienced loss.
We have discerned that God is calling us to a public ministry.
Our public ministry is with people who have experienced the loss of a relationship.
No one should journey alone.

Also, the above explanation of the image, in these or other words, would be added. It is very exciting!

2010-02-22T19:00:00.001-05:00

Tonight, at our Monday Evening Transitional Conversations, we used a prayer based on this Scripture lesson:

Just then some Pharisees came up and said, "Run for your life! Herod's on the hunt. He's out to kill you!"

Jesus said, "Tell that fox that I've no time for him right now. Today and tomorrow I'm busy clearing out the demons and healing the sick; the third day I'm wrapping things up.

Besides, it's not proper for a prophet to come to a bad end outside Jerusalem.

”Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets,
abuser of the messengers of God!
How often I've longed to gather your children,
gather your children like a hen,
her brood safe under her wings—
but you refused and turned away!
And now it's too late: You won't see me again
until the day you say,
'Blessed is he who comes in the name of God.'" (Luke 13:31-35 The Message Bible)

The prayer was

Broody Hen,
who longs to gather
your children under the shadow of your wings,
we draw near to your warm presence this evening.
Hold us,
feed us,
teach us,
keep us in your most loyal care.

And it is a warm-fuzzy prayer. It is always a challenge for us, as a community of faith, to remember that we do the work of God in our immediate world, the world of our reach. And this passage gives us a clue of what God does – God longs to gather people under her wings.

To work at making our city a place of safety, a place of warmth and love, a place of care, requires healthy relationships. In a place where suspicion and distrust lead, where conflict and strife are found, where there is conflictedness, it is hard for such a place to be a “broody place,” a place of warm safety.

There are so many dimensions to where our vision is taking us. There is so much of God’s work to do just in that one little aspect – working with people who have lost relationships. We have a wonderful challenge, and we have a smorgasbord of options and opportunities.

Not Doing, But Being There

2010-02-21T15:00:00.001-05:00

The word that saves is right here,
as near as the tongue in your mouth,
as close as the heart in your chest.

It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. From Romans 10 The Message Bible

This was our focus lesson this morning. This is one of those passages that teach us that our personal and corporate transformation is not from our doing. We simply place ourselves in the way of God’s transforming power, and God does the work. We merely have to get in the loop, get in the circuit. And what is that circuit?

God’s life-giving power comes to us on its way to someone else!!!

Let’s get ready, as we are about to complete our vision, to get in that circuit.

Lent Has Begun

2010-02-18T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. We used this lesson, from Romans 14:1-9 (Message Bible), as one of our lessons.

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn't eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.

Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.

What's important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God's sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you're a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It's God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

In terms of our vision discernment, I though about those words,

Say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.

Public ministry is to address those who don’t really see the “holy day” as anything more than any other day, or at best, a day off, a day to sleep in. And there are more and more of them.

This passage, then, for me, sums up the attitude we need for public ministry. Our public ministry will not be judgmental. It will not be critical of people’s lifestyles. It will not question people’s beliefs.

Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

We’re not engaging any longer in the tyrannies of past church-life. We are leaving here to go out there with the message of “Life!” “Freedom!”

It's God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

And people, even in our cities, are “dying to live.” We will not hit them over the head with the resurrection. We will, rather, live it out and pass on its power to our world around us.

Vision Update

2010-02-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

Visioning is not a task that a few people do by putting their heads together for an evening or two and deciding on a new, fresh idea. As welcoming as new ideas are, as effective as it is letting a few people carry out a task, the kind of visioning we are doing is discernment. And discernment, even on an individual basis, takes time. To discern something on an individual basis means being able to take the time to cut through our own desires, and failures, and successes, and prejudices, in order to hear what the Spirit says to us. We have to hear, as it were, over the din of the noise of our lives, the alarms of our mind’s defences, and the clamour of the world’s expectations. For a faith community, the metaphorical noise is nearly deafening.

We already know what “church” is supposed to be about. We already have an experience of what congregational life can be. To stop and listen, truly listen to what the Spirit is saying to us, collectively, is a challenging endeavour. But we are doing it.

We are entering the 15th conversation about vision. We started with our edge – loss. From there we spent several weeks exploring the different kinds of loss people might be experiencing. We went to the heart. Just as leading from our edge, our sense of loss, is leading from the heartache of the faith community, we looked at the heartache people gathered had experienced first hand, either in their own lives or those of a friend, relative, or neighbour.

We narrowed that down, after much discussion, to our vision being about “lost relationships.” This wasn’t a “rational” decision, but one from collected emotional intelligence – the best kind of intelligence when we are looking at the things of the Spirit. And we stayed open to the Spirit’s leading, using our format of “worshipful work.”

We then took some time to understand the relationship of “vision” to “public ministry,” and saw that a public ministry congregation has a vision that is beyond themselves. We looked at two examples of this kind of vision – outward-focused ones.

“A computer on every desktop.” This was Microsoft’s vision. They don’t make computers. But their vision was a computer on every desktop – admitted, their good business sense saw that if there were more computers, there would be more use of their software. But their vision was not inward-focused, like, “We make the best software.”

“No child in our city will go to bed hungry.” This was the vision of a soup kitchen. It was not an inward-directed one, like, “We will give a warm welcome to all hungry people.” It was about the people in their city.

So now we are merely looking for the right phrase (or slogan or motto), an image, and some descriptive words. We are close to expressing our vision. It may never be “perfected” worded, but it will have enough to it to capture our imaginations, inspire us, and enable us to work for a common goal as we join God in God’s work in our city.

More Transfiguration

2010-02-15T19:00:00.003-05:00

Transfiguration Sunday (yesterday) is when we remember the event recorded in Luke 9:28-36. In the first Transfiguration blog. we looked at this story. We concluded that blog with the idea that the words, "After eight days" was code for re-creation, redemption, transformation. We saw from our last blog that the eight days are after Jesus saying that God’s reign of justice would be seen right here on earth, now, where we are.

And so eight days after saying this, Jesus is transfigured before them. And their response?

Peter said to Jesus, "Master, this is a great moment! Let's build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He blurted this out without thinking.

Just eight days before, Jesus had said that what was needed to complete THE "Eight Days" was to let Jesus lead, embrace their edge, and let go. Peter blurts out what the church has been doing the last several decade, "Let's stay put, let's memorialize this momentous occasion, and let's build shrines."

The story continues then that they heard a voice from a light-radiant cloud. It said, "This is my Son, the Chosen One! Listen to him." And then they saw "only Jesus." Not all the trappings of Christian reliigion. And then, strangely, they were speechless.

Transfiguration, Continued

2010-02-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, when we remember the event recorded in Luke 9:28-36. In the last blog. we looked at this story. We concluded our blog with the idea that the words, "After eight days" was code for re-creation, redemption, transformation. The seven days are after Jesus saying,

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat—I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I'm leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn't, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:23-27 The Message)

So, we see some direction and leadership here.

Let Jesus lead.
Embrace suffering
Self-sacrifice

And then Jesus says the most remarkable thing - ignored throughout so much history.

This isn't, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God."

And so to this day. We can see the kingdom of God - not heaven when we die, but God's reign of justice and peace. That is what the Eighth Day is all about. God's reign. This is what we are looking for and what we join God in doing in public ministry. And what is needed?

Let Jesus lead - we are using discernment to discover what vision for our city God wants us to work toward.
Embrace suffering - embrace our edge. We have known deep loss and all the pain and emotion that goes with it.
Self-sacrifice. Jesus said, if you try to save yourself, you lose it, but if you let go, you save yourself. These may be the most important words a congregation could pay attention to. Let go. Don't try to focus on self - inwardly. Don't make growing numbers and money your mission, your focu, your purpose, your goal. We make it the reign of God! And Jesus said, "Seek first God's reign, and all these other things will be added."

Transfiguration

2010-02-12T08:36:00.002-05:00

This coming Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday. We remember this event (from Luke 9:28-36 The Message Bible):

About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, this is a great moment! Let's build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He blurted this out without thinking.

While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: "This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him."

When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.

I find myself writing this Friday morning, my usual day off, because this week has been so busy I have not yet had time to write in several days. And, because this passage is so important. Let's start with a small, seemingly "useless" piece of information:

About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along.

Why not just start with,

Jesus climbed the mountain to pray, and took Peter, John, and James along.

What did he say 8 days ago? And why eight.

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat—I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I'm leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn't, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:23-27 The Message)

"Eight days," it is believed, means trasnformation or redemption or salvation or re-creation. The world was created in seven days (we mean this as a religious or poetic or metaphorical statement, not as science).

By the seventh day God had finished his work. On the seventh day he rested from all his work. (Genesis 2:2, The Message)

So what happens on the eighth day? God redeems the world, reshapes it, transforms it. And Jesus is transfigured.

So we as faith community work for and look for and dream of (VISION) the Eighth Day, when God will redeem our world. And we join God in God's work.

Sending and Going

2010-02-08T08:12:00.000-05:00

Isaiah 6:1-8 The Message Bible, reads:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted! — and the train of his robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. And they called back and forth one to the other, Holy, Holy, Holy is God-of-the-Angel-Armies. His bright glory fills the whole earth.

The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices,
and then the whole house filled with smoke. I said,

"Doom! It's Doomsday! I'm as good as dead! Every word I've ever spoken is tainted — blasphemous even! And the people I live with talk the same way, using words that corrupt and desecrate. And here I've looked God in the face! The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies!"

Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal and said,

"Look. This coal has touched your lips. Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out."

And then I heard the voice of the Master: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"

I spoke up,
"I'll go. Send me!"

Here is another snapshot of what it is like for a faith community to gather.

1) Letting go. “In the year that King Uzziah died....” I love these little snippets of seemingly unimportant information. The storyteller could have began, “I saw...” But instead, we are told that it was in the year that King Uzziah died. These kinds of snippets, far from intending to give us factual pieces of information, are signals to something metaphorical and figurative. In this case, something is let go. When we gather, we let go. We let go of agendas, our control for how things should be. Every gather is metaphorically “in the year Uzziah died.”

2) An experience of God’s greatness. This was mentioned in a previous blog. When we experience God’s greatness, it gives us a frame of reference. We experience something greater than the everyday, the “normal,” the natural. It is this kind of experience, this kind of faith and believing that have led human beings to go beyond themselves through the ages, to stretch and reach. Science, one of our greatest achievements, was made possible because human faith believed that the world was created by an Intelligence, and because of that intelligence behind the world, the world could be studied and understood. Magic, which is by its very nature incomprehensible, began to be discarded. The irony is that today there are many who dismiss God in the name of science. Nevertheless, dismiss “God,” or a particular God, humans still achieve when they experience something greater than their own achievements.

3) Confession. As mentioned in another blog, this is not a requirement that we humiliate ourselves. It is again a frame of reference. The prophet in this passage is able to name his weakness. If we never are able to name our weakness, name it and claim it, how will we ever tame it? How will we be able to ask for help from the One we just experienced as being greater than even our greatest, and greater than our need?

4) Transformation. This logically follows the previous two items – we have One who is Able. We know our need. In the first step we placed ourselves in the way of that help that can come form that One. And that help transforms us.

5) Call & Answer. And being transformed comes with, not a price to be paid, but an energy, a courage, a confidence to change our world. "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" “We’ll go! Send us!” And notice it was not, “Who will come? Who will gather?” It was, “Who will go? Whom can I send?”

Beyond Called and Gathered

2010-02-07T11:36:00.000-05:00

Jeremiah 1:4-9 The Message Bible:

This is what God said:

"Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you.Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you:A prophet to the nations — that's what I had in mind for you."

But I said, "Hold it, Master God! Look at me. I don't know anything. I'm only a boy!"

God told me, "Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.' I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there.I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it. Don't be afraid of a soul.I'll be right there, looking after you." God's Decree.

God reached out, touched my mouth, and said, "Look! I've just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered! See what I've done?

I've given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day!

This wonderful passage outlines the call of God to the prophet Jeremiah. It serves as another snapshot of what it is to be a public ministry congregation.

1) God has a purpose for us for this time and in this place. This is true individually and collectively as a faith community. When our congregations were founded, God had a purpose for them. And now, in our time, God has a purpose for us. And we can discern that purpose in terms of a vision.

2) God will assist us in the purpose. “I'll be right there, looking after you." Not only does God call us and send us, God also provides the resources. The trick is for us to be willing to take the risk. That includes financial risk, as well as the risk of being non-conventional.

3) Look where we are sent – “a job to do among the nations and governments.” Sounds like public ministry. There’s a place for us to be “called and gathered.” Gathered, we renew the call and the covenant. But we are more than “called and gathered.” We are “called and sent.”

Leadership Development

2010-02-04T17:05:00.000-05:00

Today I am reading from Shaping Spiritual Leaders (I listed some details about the book in the Sunday blog).

Still filled with thoughts about yesterday’s book, I end my five days of study leave with this practical book.

She tells the joke of someone being asked, “Have you lived here all your life,” and the answer being, “Not yet.” That, she says, is like lifelong learning. And to be leaders, lay or clergy, we need to be open to life-long learning. For sure, as we look at the eight leadership styles in our lay leadership model, we will need to develop leadership. She talks about this kind of leadership being transformative, and that it is a relief because we will be looking at transformation in relationship to one of our transition goals.

We will need to develop a transformational tool that helps people understand what the eight styles are, which one(s) they have. And, tools for developing the styles we are lacking in those will to learn a new style. This will need to be done as a team, a team that will experience the transformative process even as they develop it.

She gives a list of some of the best methods we can use for transformative work of spiritual leadership in adults:
Role Playing
Simulating
Life History Narrative
Journal Writing
Experiential Learning
Critical Incidents
Theological Reflection.

She recommends a learning covenant, and I believe this is applicable to the members of a learning team, covenanting among themselves. I had thought we would begin the leadership piece immediately after finishing vision, but I suspect we will do some quick work with transformation, and then put together a team that can develop our leadership development programme. I can see beginning with presenting some resources to explore – the team can decide which to give attention to, and then a transformative process to follow, based on what people decided earlier. The team could make initial adjustments, begin the process, and make midcourse adjustments along the way. By the end, we could invite others to the programme.

She emphasizes the place of feedback, reflection, evaluation, and closure. These are pieces we can build into the leadership development programme. Overall, I am feeling very positive and excited about what we will be able to develop, and through that develop, what we will be able to do. There is a part of me, and it is a part that watches with wonderment, that feels like we are reinventing church!

Quantum Leadership

2010-02-03T16:50:00.000-05:00

Today I am reading from “Leadership and the New Science” (I listed some details about the book in the Sunday blog). This book was lent to me some time ago by a friend. The link above for the book lets you read it online, or at least large sections of it.

I was also reading and reflecting on the comment to yesterday’s blog and thinking about our congregation, when I read (page 24):

… All of us, even in rigid organizations, have experienced self-organization, times when we recreate ourselves, not according to some idealized plan, but because the environment demands it. We let go of our old form and figure out how best to organize ourselves in new ways.

When I think about the work experiences I cherish most, I see such self-organization. In the interest of getting things done, our roles and tasks moved with such speed that they blurred to nothing. We were too engaged with the work to worry about defining accountabilities or roles. We all felt accountable for figuring out what worked and implementing it quickly.

It takes me back to the work of the trustees and finding a new home. It takes me back to the work of the new home committee. Those words practically defined these two groups and their work. And, I think the comment on yesterday's blog reflects the sentiments well.

And then, later, reading on pages 171ff, concerning the Katrina catastrophe, how supplies and human resources were not mobilized, in fact in many instances were locked down, because of the requirement by FEMA that bureaucracy and protocol be followed. And are churches not in danger of the same. There is widespread need around us, but we have to hold yet another business meeting, and follow the protocol, the multiple, overlapping accountability systems that assure that nothing really gets done.

This book is like reading a dream. Many of the concepts I know from systems theory and from experience with Appreciative Inquiry. Some of them I have preached, some have been discussed on Monday nights, and some written about. Some, I think, we are even approaching. But I pray that gravity not get us and take us back to self-satisfied, church-as-usual.

Emerging Leadership

2010-02-02T16:45:00.001-05:00

Today I am reading from “Emerging Churches” (details), a book given to me as a gift from a congregation where I did intentional interim (transition) ministry.

To review what we discerned about lay leadership go here.

This book is about the formation of churches like the one I attended Sunday – inward-focused, but non-conventional, churches that are in this book called “emerging churches.” This is not the direction we discerned, but there are a lot of important learnings that come out of the emerging church movement that are transferable to public ministry congregations, and especially learnings on lay leadership.

Certain times along our discernment journey stand out in my memory, like when the congregation chose the definition of a congregation as “doing the work of God,” a definition I never expected any congregation would chose. I remember the night the Monday Night Transitional Conversations (actually, it was the “Church on the Edge” book study then) decided to recommend Public Ministry as our congregational stance.

I also remember when we spent several weeks struggling over a lay leadership model. I had almost decided not to present the three-dimensional model, among the 12 or so models of lay leadership, thinking that it was too complex to explain and would probably be too complex to choose. But I did anyway, and to my surprise, the group chose it!

What makes the three-dimensional model unique is that it takes a fluid approach to leadership. The three dimensions give eight major leadership styles (with innumerable shades of these). What makes it fluid is that you identify people with or train people for each of the eight styles. Each task, activity, short-term programme, and event has the style of leadership needed identified, and then the persons with the corresponding style are given permission to lead. Further, identifying people’s leadership style also gives them permission to go ahead and lead with their style, thereby creating new, expanding avenues of public ministry. Reading this book, I see the words,

Leadership based on gifting requires people to give place to others. This means they acknowledge their own limitations as well as the gifting and the leadership authority and potential of others. One person leads one thing, another leads another thing. … “Someone is always in charge, but it is not always the same people. Just because you lead something doesn’t mean you lead everything. … Leadership depends on what is going on and what we are trying to accomplish at a particular time.

The emergent church movement refers to “leaderless groups.” I personally think it is a misnomer, because:

Leaderless groups do not advocate no leaders but simply that leadership be fluid …that leadership is dynamic rather than static, and it is continually transferred to the right person at the right place at the right time.

The leadership styles advocated by the emerging church movement are a transition of leadership style:

From committee members to ministers
From chairpersons to facilitators of ministry.
From control to permission-giving
From creating tasks to creating space
From equipping members to equipping missionaries
From “in charge” to accompaniers and mentors
From direction-giving to example-setting
From hierarchical (structured), competitive, and polarized leadership to servanthood, facilitating, and consensus building

These ideas derive from the new direction of our culture. People want “less meetings, more ministry.” People are participating in those organizations where “those who do the work make the decisions.” Even though we are becoming an outward-directed congregation, if we want opportunities for mission, if we want people to join us out there in our mission, if we want people to come together with us for motivation, practice, empowerment, and resourcing,” then we need to find ways to embrace these changes in leadership.

Selecting Church Leaders

2010-02-01T16:45:00.002-05:00

Today I am looking at “Selecting Church Leaders – A Practice in Spiritual Discernment.” But first, let’s review what was decided about congregational leadership. First, concerning clergy leadership for our congregation, in this blog we reviewed what we had decided about clergy leadership. lockquote>A minister is a resourceful team-builder who empowers others to live out their ministry.

And so we had these four behaviours/skills we wanted in our minister.

Team Motivation Building
Team Practice Building
Resourcing
Empowering

If I have ever been convinced of divine leading when we intentional use discernment, it is now. One of the first things I read in this book are the words:

Practices are those cooperative human activities through which we, as individuals and as communities, grow and develop in moral character and substance. They have built up over time and, through experience and testing, have developed patterns of reciprocal expectations among participants. They are ways of doing things together in which and through which human life is given direction, meaning, and significance, and through which our very capacities to do good things well are increased. And because they are shared, patterned, and ongoing, they can be taught. We can teach one another how to participate in them. We can pass them on from one generation to the next. The authors are quoting Craig Dykstra.

The authors emphasize the major importance of practices in faith communities, and so we were right on with one of these four – Team Practice Building.

What about the other three. A few pages later in the book, I read:

A model based on the Trinity provides a window into an organization with an internal operation that incorporates spirituality [and practices].

The authors go on to show the importance of leaders having behaviours/skills like those of the Trinity, and quote other experts who use similar ideas (even a Jewish writer who uses the trinity of Torah, land, and community for synagogue leadership).

The writers explain that the “Father,” the First Person of the Trinity, blesses, chooses, calls, designs, etc:

So one function of leadership is to call forth and employ the gifts of those who can bless and affirm the community’s story, make strategic choices, plan, care, and tend …

The clergy leadership style that can call forth and employ these gifts is what we identified as “Empowering.” The writer continues with the “Son,” the Second Person of the Trinity, the Christ, who

Serves, forgives, grants inheritances, reflects God’s image, engages the creation, holds all things together, reconciles earth and heaven (worship and work), and is a locus of God’s dwelling. A second function of team leadership is to provide service and resources ….

You can see why I am getting excited. The Monday night crowd had not read this book, but through their discernment (that seemed to take for ever), they were getting it right. So another of our clergy leadership behaviours/skills is checked off – “Resourcing.”

Do I even need to quote the book for our remaining item – “Motivation?” The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity:

Reveals love, fills with wisdom, stimulates growth and fruit bearing, provides energy and inspiration, and seals the community in word and truth.

Leadership Study

2010-01-31T16:45:00.002-05:00

I am on study leave this week, and I thought you might want to study with me. This being a Sunday of study leave, I like to "study" another church. We went to a church whose stance is inward-directed non-conventional. So to review, most congregations, especially mainline churches like the United Church of Canada are inward-directed and conventional (we call this the self-satisfied church). And this is where "gravity" takes a congregation if it does not intentionally stick with a different stance. Inward-directed and conventional. We can call it "south." The direct opposite is outward-focused non-conventional, public ministry, which we can call "north." To the "west," then, is inward-directed but non-conventional. Like the mainstream in being inward-focused, like us going to public ministry in being non-conventional. So, they are non-conventional on the "inside." And this congregation sure is! Rock worship music. An intermission. Dr. Phil style interviews. Communion without ceremony. No offering - offering boxes are at the four corners. But it really shows the big difference. Their "mission field" is inside. Bring them in and do the congregations ministry on them inside.

We are very near to discerning our vision, I think (hope?). We will be moving on, then, in our transition processes to Transformation. But we will also begin exploring our vision. First off, for that, will be looking again at the work we did on leadership, and I want to be ready with some material on leadership formation.

I am planning to use for my study the following resources:

Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger, Baker Academic, 2005
Leadership and the New Science by Margaret J. Wheatley, Berrett-Koehler, 2006
Selecting Church Leaders by Charles M. Olsen and Ellen Morseth, Alban, 2002
Shaping Spiritual Leaders by Abigail Johnson (who is United Church of Canada), Alban, 2007
Transforming Church Boards by Charles M. Olsen, Alban, 1995.

I will use the rest of my day today to look at the book, Transforming Church Boards into communities of spiritual leaders, by Charles M. Olsen. This book has already been an inspiration to myself and many other intentional interim ministers, for reasons clear from the extended title. But every time I have reviewed it, I have gleaned new knowledge, as well as been reminded of things forgotten.

The author tells a wonderful story of a person who begins each day with the prayer, "God, I love you. What are you up to today? Let me be a part of it!"

That is a great prayer for a public ministry congregation. Its at least the attitude we should have for both worship and business meetings. I am tempted to begin our Sunday services with words like,

Welcome. We are gathered for the great purpose of leaving. We have been called to go. God is out there, in our city, working with those who have experienced, for example, loss. God invites us to join God there. Because the most important hours of the week are the hours we live our faith, out there, God, says, “Go apart for a while.” We gather here for spiritual support, strength, nourishment, and inspiration so that we can go leave and live out our faith in our world.

Every gathering of the faith community should be what the author calls “Spiritual worship.” We sing a hymn, “Worship and work must be one.” Most people think, “Oh, yes, we must not merely worship – we must also do something.” True, but no, the intention is that when we gather for “work” – business, it’s worshipful work. And when we gather for worship, it’s worship with purpose.

Not only that, this writer says. When we gather for work – business, if it is going to be the kind of gathering that produces spiritual leaders, that is, “worshipful work,” then the meeting is not about what we should do. It is about what God will do!

Often in my experience in so many churches, instead of “spiritual business meetings,” or “worshipful work,” we have committees and councils that function like those in our world. The three primary ways we tend to organize our church meetings (and the underlying question to each act of business) are bureaucratic (who stands to lose if we do this?), managerial (who’s responsible for what?), and parliamentarian (what is in order?).

But we are to transform our world, not be transformed by it! The greatest struggle for any congregation interested in leadership development for any congregation stance (other than self-satisfied) is changing the way we do business.

Closure

2010-01-28T12:07:00.000-05:00

Last Monday at our Transitional Conversations, we looked at the following prayer.

O God, make us aware of your presence.
You have blessed us in moments of joining, relating, intending, and beginning.
Be with us in our times of separating and of ending,
releasing us from those vows we can no longer keep;
we ask in Christ's name. Amen.

The words that stood out were

You have blessed us in moments of joining, relating, intending, and beginning.

As someone put it, “You have been with us in the good times, now be with us in the bad.” So often it is with relationships. The example was given of how when someone has money, there are friends, but as soon as the money is gone, so is the friends.

And so it is in loss. It is often easier to have relationships when things are good, but when we feel down, such as times when we have lost an important relationship, the very times we need others, are the times when we might feel forgotten or forsaken.

Someone pointed out how sad were the prayers and images we have looked at. We are trying to get in touch with the feelings that people have who have lost relationships. And then we want to use these same feelings to imagine the opposite.

This prayer uses the words. “releasing us.” We noted that lost relationships need closure, letting go. If we used our earlier example of a sample vision, “No child in our city will go to bed hungry this evening,” we could imagine something like, “No one in our city will feel abandoned this evening.” Or, “A time for closure and new beginnings for everyone.”

Colour Outside the Lines

2010-01-27T13:30:00.000-05:00

Nehemiah 8, selected verses, from The Message Bible, reads:

By the time the seventh month arrived, the People of Israel were settled in their towns. Then all the people gathered as one person in the town square in front of the Water Gate and asked the scholar Ezra to bring the Book of The Revelation of Moses that God had commanded for Israel.

So Ezra the priest brought The Revelation to the congregation, which was made up of both men and women—everyone capable of understanding. It was the first day of the seventh month. He read it facing the town square at the Water Gate from early dawn until noon in the hearing of the men and women, all who could understand it. And all the people listened—they were all ears—to the Book of The Revelation.

Ezra opened the book. Every eye was on him (he was standing on the raised platform) and as he opened the book everyone stood. Then Ezra praised God, the great God, and all the people responded, "Oh Yes! Yes!" with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.

All Levites, explained The Revelation while people stood, listening respectfully. They translated the Book of The Revelation of God so the people could understand it and then explained the reading.

Nehemiah the governor, along with Ezra the priest and scholar and the Levites who were teaching the people, said to all the people, "This day is holy to God, your God. Don't weep and carry on." They said this because all the people were weeping as they heard the words of The Revelation.

He continued, "Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don't have anything: This day is holy to God. Don't feel bad. The joy of God is your strength!"

This passage is like a snapshot of what congregational life can be like when we engage in public ministry.

1) Worship. We praise God, not because God demands it or expects it. We worship God as a point of reference – it’s a reminder that there is Something greater than us, than our wants, I’ll aspirations, our plans. I grew up listening to a recording of Mahalia Jackson singing,

I believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows
I believe that somewhere in the darkest night a candle glows
I believe for everyone who goes astray, someone will come to show the way
I believe, I believe

I believe above a storm the smallest prayer can still be heard
I believe that Someone in the great somewhere hears every word

Everytime I hear a new born baby cry, or touch a leaf or see the sky
Then I know why, I believe

2) Engaging the Scriptures in a way that deeply affects us. We so often hear Scripture saying to us the same thing it has always said. In fact, this Scripture passage ends with the words for which it is always remembered – “The joy of God is your strength!” It’s as if we patiently listen to the whole thing, and then go, “Ah, yes! The warm-fuzzy joy of the Lord is our strength. That’s nice.”

3) Confession. Like worship, confession is not a requirement in the sense that God needs to hear us confess, repent, and grovel. How we have made a mockery of the Love that is God! Confession is another point of reference. It helps us see where we are on the map. If I don’t know where I am, I don’t know how to get where I’m needing to go.

4) Celebrate out there. “Go home!” The point of faith is to be transformed for our daily living – to become more and more the human beings God created us to be. That’s celebration. Celebrating our humanity, a humanity God created us into, a humanity that is in the image of God, a humanity that God shred in coming as Jesus.

5) Share with those who do not have enough. Mission and Ministry. God’s creation has enough for everyone! We people of faith do not believe in the politics and economics of scarcity. We believe in God’s abundance.

We sing a song in church by Gordon Light,

My love colours outside the lines,
exploring paths that few could ever find;
and takes me into places where I’ve never been before,
and opens doors to worlds outside the lines.

My lord colours outside the lines,
turns wounds to blessings, water into wine;
and takes me into places where I’ve never been before
and opens doors to worlds outside the lines.

Outside the lines, outside the church. When the Scriptures are proclaimed and heard in their transforming power, we will colour outside the lines.

Fear, Loneliness, and Hope

2010-01-26T11:45:00.000-05:00

Our United Church of Canada liturgical resources, “Celebrate God’s Presence,” has the following prayer.

God our Comforter,
you are a refuge and a strength for us, a helper close at hand in times of distress.
Help us so to hear the words of faith:
that fear is dispelled, loneliness eased, and hope reawakened.
By the power of your Holy Spirit, may we, even in the midst of sorrow,
know the presence and peace of your constant love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We talked about this prayer at our last Monday Evening Transitional Conversations.
For some, the words that stood out were,

That fear is dispelled, loneliness eased, and hope reawakened.

These three words seem to encapsulate the experience of lost relationships. When people lose a relationship, it was noted, they fear the future, they feel alone, and they long for hope for healing.

As we continue to discern our vision, we can ask, What is the vision God may be giving us for our city. To put these terms in the negative, we realize that our city will be a place where fear is dispelled, loneliness eased, and hope reawakened. Put other ways, “No one walks alone,” Everyone can have confidence/courage/boldness,” and “Hope awakened for everyone.”

One vision we looked at as an example was: “No child in our city will go to bed hungry.” This was the vision for a soup kitchen. Imagine, then, “No one in our city will be alone.” Well, that may be impossible to carry off, at least always. But we can start to see the idea we are moving toward.

When Relationships Are Most Needed

2010-01-25T14:52:00.001-05:00

This poignant image comes from a web page dealing with adjustment disorder due to hearing loss.

Last Monday we talked about this image, and about how in some situations we withdraw from relationships when we need them most. Whenever we experience loss, deeply felt loss, we experience depression and feeling inadequate. These feelings lower our self esteem. And low self-esteem can bring out behaviours such as shunning relationships or driving people away.

This image shows a the face of someone who looks not adjusted, but resigned, even hopeless. There is perhaps strength in the face as well, but the strength was maybe used to protect pride. So often we do that. We don’t need anyone, we might think when we are most in need of others.

Thinking about people’s response to loss is important if our ministry is to be empathetic, not merely charitable. We can be proactive. People need people, and especially when they are at a low time. But that is the very time when people might try to “go it alone.” We can be sensitive to their feelings as we explore ways to help them build on the relationships they have.

It also helps us in our discernment of the vision God wants for us. What would our city look like if everyone understood about how people repsond to deeply felt losses? How would if be if there was a widespread sense of empathy? What is the opposite of a city where some sit lonely, staring out a window?

Jeremiah the Public Ministry Model

2010-01-24T13:21:00.000-05:00

God reached out, touched my mouth, and said,
"Look! I've just put my words in your mouth — hand-delivered!
See what I've done?
I've given you a job to do among nations and governments
— a red-letter day!
Your job is to pull up and tear down,
take apart and demolish,
And then start over, building and planting."
Jeremiah’s Call, Jeremiah 1:9-10 The Message Bible

God reaches out and touches Knox-St. Paul’s and says,
See what I've done?
I've given you a job to do in your city — a red-letter day!

Throughout the Scriptures, we see that God calls people to public ministry. And we can’t do that while we're hunkering down, weathering the storm (I like to call it "whethering" the storm). We can’t do that while were retrenching, trying to recover the way things were. We can’t do that if we are worried about all the reasons why we think we can’t do that.

When Jeremiah first heard his call from God, he responded,

"Hold it, Master God! Look at me. I don't know anything. I'm only a boy!" Jeremiah 1:6 The Message Bible

We can postpone the call with,

"Hold it, Master God! Look at us.
We have financial needs. Too many of us are too old.
We don’t have enough people to do church jobs,
let alone participate in ministry."

God answers us as God answered Jeremiah:

"Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.' I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there.
I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it.
Don't be afraid of a soul.
I'll be right there, looking after you."

God says to us, “Don’t say you can’t.
I’ll give you what you need.
Don’t be afraid, don’t be anxious.
I’ll be right there, looking after you.”

If we don’t believe this, then why do we exist, why do we carry on?
If we do, then let’s do!

But I think we get stuck in a limbo between the two –
we believe it as a matter of faith,
but we don’t believe it in practical terms.

But the only advice I can give is the advice John Wesley was given when he admitted that he did not know for sure if he believed God loved him. He was told, “Preach God’s assurance of love until you come to believe it."

Let’s prepare ourselves to continue to fulfil God’s call to us, even if we are not sure we believe on a practical level that God will give us what we need and will be there to take care of us. Let’s continue it until we come to know it is true.

Delightful Cornwall!

2010-01-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

Isaiah 62:1-5 The Message Bible

Regarding Zion, I can't keep my mouth shut,
regarding Jerusalem, I can't hold my tongue,
Until her righteousness blazes down like the sun
and her salvation flames up like a torch.
Foreign countries will see your righteousness,
and world leaders your glory.
You'll get a brand-new name
straight from the mouth of God.
You'll be a stunning crown in the palm of God's hand,
a jeweled gold cup held high in the hand of your God.
No more will anyone call you Rejected,
and your country will no more be called Ruined.
You'll be called Hephzibah (My Delight),
and your land Beulah (Married),
Because God delights in you
and your land will be like a wedding celebration.
For as a young man marries his virgin bride,
so your builder marries you,
And as a bridegroom is happy in his bride,
so your God is happy with you.

When during the English reformation they decided to translate the Bible into Englsih for people to read, that was a good thing. It was called the "Authorized Version" because it was authorized by King James - hence the name.

Of course, King James and his bishops wanted the Bible to be translated in such a way that it supported the status quo. And from this translation to this day there have been certain attitudes about this passage and so many others.

Problem #1 It's a metaphor.
The metaphor is Zion/Jerusalem. Just as Jesus and St. Paul interpreted the Scriptures, so these Scriptures need interpretation. They're metaphors. About the Scriptures and the prophets, Jesus said,

Don't suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures— either God's Law or the Prophets. I'm not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God's Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God's Law will be alive and working.

"Trivialize even the smallest item in God's Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom.

The question is, How does Jesus complete the Hebrew Scriptures for us Christians?

Problem #2 It's Not The Church
In mainline churches, we have usually heard thes kind of passages interpreted so that Israel is a metaphor for the Church. Jesus did not really come to to establish an organized religion. When Jesus said to Peter, Upon this rock I will build my church," the word church meant nothing as it means today. It was an assembly or gathering in some public place - in other words, Jesus was saying, "I will build my public ministry!" Israel is not a metaphor for the church.

Problem #3 It's not individual believers.
Evangelicalism has often interpreted these kinds of passages as referring to the individual believers. This is quite a stretch for the metaphor Israel. Of course, the individual is included in it's promises. But it goes beyond the mere individual.

It's for society, world, everyone! For our city!
Imagine our city being such that,

Justice blazes down like the sun
Foreign countries will see your justice, and world leaders the presence of peace.
No more will anyone call you Rejected,
no more be called Ruined.
You'll be called "Delightful," "Together."

This is a passage about hope, a hope we can dream of, pray for, live as if it has already come true, and work for. It's a call to public ministry!

Another Experience of Loss

2010-01-20T12:32:00.000-05:00

This image is from the website of an art collector, Amanda Erlanson. It is an image of a sculpture by artist Thomas Doyle.

We talked about how job losses in Cornwall have had an effect on people’s home-life much as this image represents. When home-life becomes stressed, relationships become stressed to breaking point. Often this stress is hidden – look at the idyllic picture of the person on the sidewalk, the tree, the beautiful lawn. We hide our stresses, and so when broken relationships occur, it is often a shock, much like what one would expect when this image of the house would fall down. And then there is not only the relationship losses within the home, there are the relationship losses with the outside world.

We are not focusing on these kinds of images to be gloomy. Our purpose is two-fold. First, we want to increase our empathy with those who have experienced the loss of relationships. And second, it helps us with our vision - we want to know about these emotional experiences so that we can better describe their opposites.

Of course, this image is about a stress that leads to relationship losses. We may not be able to remove the stresses. But how would the appearance of the outside be different if our city was a place where relationships received strength and support?

A Sense of Loss

2010-01-19T16:39:00.001-05:00

I found this image on the web. The link is I Scream "No" to Lost Love

The accompanying article is about "lost love." It is a poignant image. It calls forth memories of weddings, of celebrations of hope and promise. But then it gives a sense of love poured out and lost. The loss of marriage, of spousal relationship, is something very real to so many people. And not just a lost marriage - people who have tried to make a life together common-law have experienced grief and loss just as much.

The Carpenters and Neil Sedaka sang,

Don't take your love away from me
Don't you leave my heart in misery
If you go then I'll be blue
'Cause breaking up his hard to do
Remember when you held me tight
And you kissed me all through the night
Think of all that we've been through
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
They say that breaking up is hard to do
Now I know, I know that it's true
Don't say that this is the end
Instead of breaking up I wish that we were making up again
I beg of you, don't say goodbye
Can't we give our love another try
Come on baby, let's start a new
'Cause breaking up is hard to do
Howard Greenfield & Neil Sedaka

Yesterday, at our Monday Evening Transitional Conversations, we talked about this image, and how not only do the couple experience "breaking up is hard to do," but so does the larger extended family. Each of the couple's families have made a place in their hearts for the other spouse. Even children - nieces and nephews, come to consider the spouse a part of theose special family gatherings like at Christmas. When the couple break up, two whole families loss relationships.

There is no point bemoaning divorce, affairs, or insisting that someone "stand by her man." Sometimes a break-up is healthy, is needed. But what we can hope for is closure, healing, and new relationships even if not of the romantic nature. We need each other, we need intimacy, and we can work for overcoming, healing, and replacing lost relationships without denying the reality of our times.

Another Expression of Overcoming Loss

2010-01-18T15:52:00.000-05:00

On Monday evening, here is another image we talked about.

Finding One Another.

Even when we lose a relationship, we can grow together with others.

We can build strong relationships one at a time.

A vision is usually presented with an image, often a simple one, with a descriptive title - like maybe a motto. And then there are further descriptive words and phrases to follow. The words will themselves typically be like imagery. The words and phrases may come from poetry, hymns, Scripture, or prayers. And images may derive from these as well.

How Is Vision Different From ...

2010-01-17T14:54:00.001-05:00

How Is Vision Different From ...All of these tools have one thing in common – they are re-purposing tools.

Mission Statement – answers “How?” and is traditionally about “quality,” and the present
Identity Statement – answers “Who?” and is traditionally about marketing, and the past & present

Strategic Plan – answers “What?” and is traditionally about the future

Vision – answers “Why?” and is traditionally about organizational freedom, and the present and future. A church with an intentional vision is a permission-giving congregation.

An organization can have all four. But any one or more should lead toward a Purpose. A vision is particularly powerful because it sets up the deepest foundation – why? Why should we do anything, be anything, or go anywhere? “Why” is about our reason for being. When we know “why,” then we can do anything that fulfils the “why.”

A vision is a “song in the heart,” a metaphor or symbol, a rhythm or tune, a picture or experience, the mere presentation of which elicits spontaneous joy and excitement. It speaks to the heart, not the mind, never fully contained in words. There is anticipation and expectancy.

Vision Rooted in Definition, Stance, and Edge

We have followed an interesting kind of domino effect.
1. Definition of a congregation – we do the work of God.
2. Stance of the congregation (what is that work?) – public ministry.
3. What is the Edge from which we do it? – loss
4. What is our vision that overcomes that edge? – to be discovered!

An Expression of Overcoming Loss

2010-01-14T15:21:00.000-05:00

This is one of the images we used at our Transitional Conversations yesterday evening.

There's a Lot Below the Surface.

The tree's roots go deep.

We look for what is important.

The tree moves through the seasons. It loses it leaves. And they grow back again.

When someone is lost, we have many relationships we can strengthen.

For every lost relationship there is still hope.

We can have new relationships solidly rooted.

Public Ministry & Public Policy

2010-01-13T16:35:00.000-05:00

The question of religion in secular society becomes more and more important as we move closer to our congregational stance of public ministry. This past Monday, Michael Smith wrote an article in the Toronto Star about this topic. Take a look at it here.

In the article, he makes a case for pluralistic secularity. Government (any level), and public policy, should recognize the presence of a multiplicity of views within its populace, some religious, some not. As such, the government should provide what the writer calls “space in the public square” for these diverse views.

The writer believes that such an approach allows religious people and groups to show their colours in public, and to even make policy proposals. This was, the writer says, the form of secularity that has traditionally characterized Canada, at least until recent times. I would say since the “reign” of Prime Minister Chretien.

How would religious groups influence public policy in a pluralistically secular society, you may ask (as did the writer)? The writer makes a claim for the common ground we all have: Reason.

As a religious person, I am free, and should remain free, to propose public policy alternatives based on the ethics of my religion, provided that my position is also rationally defensible.

He goes on with the example of the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” and says it would be absurd to suggest that this ethic be disregarded because it came from a religious source. A proposal for public policy could be derived from a religious source if it could be argued to be reasonable for the public good.

I think the best lines in the article are at the end:

The trend in our country and elsewhere to consign religious communities to the private realm is, in fact, a drift toward intolerance, despite claims to the contrary. Religious communities must continue to speak and act in the public realm and to propose policies for the common good. Non-religious persons and groups have that same freedom. The outcomes of public debate ought to depend on the rationality with which the various sides argue their case.

Perhaps the greatest good a public ministry congregation can do is ensure that our religious freedom, and responsibility, to propose reasonable public policy be protected and heard.

An expression of loss

2010-01-12T11:26:00.000-05:00

I found this enigmatic poem by James Whitcomb Riley. It was written to express his sense of loss on the death of a woman who was so important to him (not a spouse or lover).

As you read through it, keep in mind some notes:

Dwainie is the pet name he gives to the woman, but it derives from an Old English word that means something lost.

Lurloo is probably a made-up word from "lure" which in his time meant something desired (as in "alluring") and from "loo" which was a mask - so something desired but hidden. He uses the word to name a bird, also representing something elusive.

Winno-welvers is a made-up name of a bird whose call is "dwainie."

Spirkland is the Old Englsih word for Spirit Land - heaven.

Teeper and tcheucker, he continues the bird imagery, making up bird names to further the enigmatic nature of the poem, but this time the bird will not be elusive - like his memory of Dwainie, which remains in his thoughts. And the tcheucker struts back and forth like someone pacing from being agitated in mind and emotion.

Oovers are apparently owls, hidden in the night, but their drawl is still heard - "dwainie."

The enigmatic nature of the poem tries to be itself an expression of the senslessness the poet feels at his loss.

O Dwainie! My Dwainie!
The Lurloo ever sings,
A tremour in his flossy crest
and in his glossy wings.
And Dwainie! My Dwainie!
The Winno-welvers call;
But Dwainie hides in Spirkland
And answers not at all.

The teeper twitters Dwainie! –
The tcheucker on his spray
Teeters up and down the wind
And will not fly away:
And Dwainie! - My Dwainie!
The drowsy oovers drawl; –
But Dwainie hides in Spirkland
And answers not at all.

O Dwainie! - My Dwainie!
The breezes hold their breath –
The stars are pale as blossoms,
And the night as still as death:
And Dwainie! - My Dwainie!
The fainting echoes fall; –
But Dwainie hides in Spirkland
And answers not at all.

This poem may be one way to remember, to recollect, how it felt to experience loss as a congregation, and through the feeling to strengthen empathy for people in our city who have also experienced some kind of loss

Why Is a Vision Important?

2010-01-11T11:45:00.000-05:00

Long established congregations are not easily sustainable. Research has chosen that congregations formed in the last decade or two are more sustainable than congregations that have been around for several decade, no matter how old the majority of the members are. In order for an older congregation to be sustainable, it must re-invent themselves.

Research has also shown that denominational identity does not give sustainability, nor does the “family church” idea, and both of these are “habits” of long-established congregations. Thinking that because we are a United Church of Canada congregation, people will come to us has little effect on a congregation’s sustainability. The United Church is not the fastest dying denomination in Canada, but it is at least 4th place. Likewise, saying that “We are a family church” appeals to the people who already belong, it does not encourage newcomers. In fact, the more family-like the church actually behaves, the more newcomers will find it hard to be much more than guests – even for months and years if they stick around that long. Congregations that have dropped the “family church” idea and gone for the “community church” or even “neighbourhood church” have become more sustainable.

A vision is helpful because it redirects the congregation self-understanding. Without a clear vision, a congregation will revert back to what comes natural – a denominational identity and a belief that they are a family.
Younger members need to be attracted to a congregation in order for it to be sustainable. Two things that will improve sustainability are: having a purpose that is more than words on paper. And, having an openness to change. Few younger families are attracted to “church as usual.” And for the few that are looking for “church as usual,” there are so many to choose from. If your congregation can show how your church is really being different and doing something different, you will attract people. It shows you are different and able to change. Being see as a congregation that is able to accept change is attractive because it means the ideas and contributions of newcomers would be welcome. “Church as usual” expects everyone to fit the mold.

Vision - Is and Isn't

2010-01-10T11:19:00.000-05:00

What Is a Vision?

A vision is an idea to be explored and appreciated
It is a shared view – mutually agreed upon
It is a guiding image
It is holistic (intended to affect every aspect of congregational life), spiritual, and emotional
It invents the future, and is open-ended
For an outward-directed organization, it is a hope for the larger, wider community

What a Vision Is Not

A vision that does not innovate, that remains an exercise on paper or a plaque on the wall, is not really a vision no matter who calls it that
A vision is not a mission to be accepted
It is not the private inspiration of the minister or a key member
It is not specific objectives, deadlines, activities, or programmes
It is not purely factual
It is not compartmentalized and detailed
It is not a prediction or forecast
It is not a strategy, plan, or budget
For an outward-directed organization, it is not a dream just for the organization itself.

And We're Back

2010-01-05T08:57:00.001-05:00

It has hopefully been a meaningful holiday for everyone. And I wish everyone a happy New Year. Twenty Ten.

We are picking up where we left off - with our visioning process.

After that we have about six things left to do (not necessarily in this order):
1) Transformation (spirituality)
2) Sustainability (stewardship)
3) Care (healing)
4) several other small, non-goal related items
5) Public ministry activities
6) Governance

And that will end the transitional matters. And then its living it all out and enjoying the congregations hard work!

Advent

2009-11-29T09:04:00.000-05:00

Advent is an important season for any congregation. The Advent/Christmas cycle is summed up in the verse from Isaiah 9:2

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.

To have Christmas without truly exploring and experiencing Advent is like

Have seen a great light!

Who has seen a great light? Some people in the Bible? But not us, of course. Not our culture and society.

Advent is an important season for people going through transitional ministry. It's a time of waiting, longing, yearning, longing, preparing, visioning. It is a season to pay attention to

The people who walked in darkness.

Then we know the true meaning of

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.

Advent is also a good season for congregations that plan to engage in public ministry. This is the season when we can see with the eyes of those whose lives are darkened by being overlooked and ignored by society, those who have experienced loss. It is our time to remember that we, too, experienced loss, that we remember what it was like to be ignored and overlooked. And it is that empathy that brings about our desire to spread the light to all who have experienced darkness so that, indeed -

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.

Anti-Defamation

2009-11-03T17:19:00.000-05:00

In the news lately has been a U.N resolution, in the works, that prohibits defamation of religion.

Click here to read the atheists take on it, and one that I personally agree with. However, this is article reports on the position taken by a U.S. organization. Its basic premise is not one that would be the same in our Canadian context, even though I suspect many, hopefully most, Canadians would agree it - atheist or not.

I had commented early in this calendar year that I found this a disturbing and important piece of news. It is my alternative to the #1 news item for 2008. Why I find it so important is that it is a resolution that protects religion. Anti defamation laws have and are supposed to protect people. Not a religion. People have rights. Not specific ideas.

Consider a recent article about a British judge who rules that an activist's beliefs on climate have the protection of religion. This article goes on to say that vegetarianism, feminism, and similar philosophies of life could end up having the same protections as religion.

So now attach the proposed U.N. resolution to this. One could no longer argue against vegetarianism. "I'm a meat-atarian" would become defamation. If you find this ludicrous, surely so do the diplomats to the U.N. Or at least we can hope so.

Congregations & Culture

2009-11-02T18:31:00.001-05:00

Another way to look at vision is to look at a reactive-proactive map.

There are essentially four responses to culture that a congregation can take.
Do nothing
Deal with it as it comes – let culture set the agenda.
Anticipate what its effects might be.
Try to change culture.

These have labels:
Inactive
Reactive
Proactive
Future-active

An inactive approach may result from things like denial, paralysis (from fear), and indifference. The inactive response to culture in church-as-usual (inward-focused conventional) congregations stems from a congregational sense of self-satisfaction and indifference to any cultural changes outside.

In some situations, though, an inactive response is good. Sometimes being “Zen” and not stirring is the best response to something that should not get us in an unnecessary fluster. Not everything we face needs a reaction. And sometimes, we simply need a break.

But as a consistent strategy, it does not, and has not served us well. There is a big distance between church and culture, so much so, that it’s like we speak different languages. And when that happens, no matter how wonderful our message might be, no one will understand it or come to be part of it.

A reactive approach is also sometimes a good one. When an emergency arises, something we could not possibly anticipate, then reacting may be our best and only choice.

As a consistent strategy for dealing with culture, the “jury may still be out.” Certainly there are lots of church development books out there that advocate a reactive approach. “If culture is going this way or that, let’s do the same, or do the opposite.” And so there are congregations that are shooting for the “rock & roll” worship. Others are saying “No!” to culture with a very restrictive, anti-cultural theology – “This is a sinful age!”

A proactive approach is often touted as being a good response. It tries to dove-tail with culture. If our society leaves some people out, then we should pick up the slack. These congregations engage in great acts of service, sharing from their abundance with those who have been left out. Some proactive approaches are sometime criticized in the following:

Give people fish, and they will have food today. Teach people to fish, and they will have food for life.

The final approach is the future-active one. This is not a well-known or talked about approach. This one says that rather than dropping out, or letting culture set the agenda, or getting a peek at the agenda ahead of time, let’s set the agenda. Let’s change culture. This is a courageous approach and it may seem like a tall order. But Jesus said that we were to be like yeast in bread-making in our world.

Visions for Public Ministry

2009-10-29T10:36:00.000-04:00

In an inward-directed congregation, a vision will describe a desired state for that congregation itself. Inward-directed congregations include “church-as-usual” congregations. These congregations want to be welcoming, or friendly, or spiritual, inclusive, Bible-believing, accepting, open-minded, open-hearted, or even open-handed. These are all good things.

Inward-focused congregations have it tough, though. Although so many congregations have been doing the inward-directed thing for nearly 60 years, in the last 40 years there has been a slow decline in interest in such congregations in our society. Unfortunately, even for congregations with wonderful visions, society is losing interest, and at an accelerated rate.

Outward-focused congregations seem to be doing better at thriving, at flourishing, at being energized. Society seems to be more inclined to them. Even when there are more and more demands on people’s time and allegiance, these congregations have a future.

Outward-directed congregations have outward-directed visions. Their vision does not describe a desired state for the congregation. It describes a desired state for the world around the congregation. They’re outward-focused, and so their vision is outward-focused. They want their world to be relationally grounded, or to be a supportive community for everyone, or to be compassionate leading to validation of personhood, or to build trust in self. They want their world to look like their vision. Their vision is their desired state for the world around them.

And their vision gives them something to work toward in public ministry.

Visions

2009-10-26T16:50:00.000-04:00

We are discerning the vision we believe God wants for us.

Contrasts: A vision for an outward-directed faith community: It is not a mission statement. It is a “pull” (goal) rather than a “push” (purpose). It is not an identity statement. It is a dream for the world within it’s reach rather than a statement of how it will be different.

Here are some examples of outward-directed visions from non-church organizations.

"No child in our city will go hungry to bed in the evening." This is from a soup kitchen. As an outward-directed vision, it does not say, for example, “We will serve nourishing soup to the hungry.”

"In two decades our services will no longer be needed." This is from a literacy program. An inward-focused vision might say, We teach our students to read like scholars.

"A community that is aware and actively participating to restore and protect natural areas and habitats." This is from an environmental group. As an outward-directed vision it does not say, for example, that we will build a strong membership of environment supporters.

"Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." This is Google’s vision. As an outward-directed vision, it does not say, for example, that we will be the fastest search engine.

"A computer on every desktop." This was Microsoft’s vision. As an outward-focused vision, it doesn’t say, for example, that we will make the best software.

"Enabling all students to have technology-based learning aids." This is from another software company. Again, as an outward-focused vision, it doesn’t say, for example, that we will make the easiest to use learning software.

"Partnering with others for a vibrant economy." This is from a business alliance. It is not about helping business members of the alliance to do better business.

Rather than “Building a more welcoming church,” imagine a congregation’s vision being, “Building a welcoming city.” Would such a congregation end up itself being welcoming?

How Does The minister Do Half? Part 2

2009-10-20T19:05:00.000-04:00

Let’s look at “Missional United Church,” located in an urban centre somewhere near you. As we peek into their worship service, we see many of the things we are quite familiar with. They sing hymns. They take up an offering. They have some announcements. They celebrate the Sacraments and Ordinances.

We also see some things we are becoming familiar with. Faith Sharing. People are sharing their faith, sharing what it means for them to be engaged in public ministry. And the minister is preaching a sermon, of sorts. But if you listen carefully, you will hear the minister resourcing the people for their ministries, using the Scripture in imaginative ways. Telling the stories of the Bible to empowering them. Using the holy words to motivate them. The preacher uses real-life examples because a majority of the ministry the people give to support is carried out in the public ministries of the congregation.

And, we see something we are unfamiliar with. People are praying. Their prayers are based on the very real needs they see and hear in their public ministries.

This service is probably less structured than we are accustomed to, but more energized than anything we have ever known. And no one attends to see the “Reverend” perform. They come because they want to be with like-minded people who believe that doing the work of God, out there, is the most important work they can do. The “Reverend” is a “resourceful team-builder who empowers others to live out their ministry.” You would hardly know she’s there except that she is giving resources, motivation, and empowerment to God’s people for their work.

Just as the people find spiritual strength and faith-filled meaning, and comfort for their own pain and joy to share, by engaging in the public ministry of the congregation, so the minister discovers motivating and empowering energy to share by engaging in those same ministries.

And that is how the minister does half

How Does the Minister Do Half?

2009-10-13T17:27:00.000-04:00

So, before our Thanksgiving Break (Canada), we were looking at how the Lay Leadership figured in the various aspects of congregational life, beginning with Sunday worship. We recognized that when a congregation moves toward a Public Ministry stance, then the primary “mission field” of the faith community is "outside" rather than "inside," and, that “outside” is also approached unconventionally. This does not mean that “inside” no longer happens, or that “inside” is completely conventional. We recognize that things must change if faith communities are to flourish and thrive in the 21st century. But if “unconventionality” is primarily on the outside, then the "unconventional" will be applied less to the inside. So we noted only three primary areas that would need innovation on the inside. These were:

Faith Sharing
Scripture
Prayer

We noted that on the inside, the four types of lay leadership needed are:

High Control, Innovation, Risk
High Control, Tradition, Risk,
High Control, Innovation, Readiness
High Control, Tradition, Readiness

And then there is the minister, who has traditionally been very involved in Sunday Morning. But let’s look at a minister’s time (and the same would be true if there is more than one). Although in weeks when some kind emergent matter arises and the minister must “wing it” more than usual, a normal Sunday Service should occupy about 16 hours of work (including liturgy preparation and delivery). A conventional Sunday worship would suffer if the minister consistently spent less than that preparing and delivering the service. On top of this, the minister will spend about 8 hours a week on administrative work (including committee and council meetings), and about 8 hours in pastoral care. All of this is “inside” work – about 32 hours.

But a Public Ministry congregation will want to spend over 50% of its resources “outside” – so let’s say at least 24 hours per week of the minister’s time (but probably more like 32). That means the remaining 16 hours are spent “inside,” and half that is on Sunday worship, or 8 hours. How can a minister go from 16 hours to 8 hours.

Let’s remember how we defined a minister’s leadership:

A minister is a resourceful team-builder who empowers others to live out their ministry.

The four skills/behaviours of a minister were:

Resourcing
Empowering
Team Motivation Building
Team Practice Building.

You can see where this is going, but we’ll explore it further.

Three Dimensions of Lay Leadership

2009-10-06T18:11:00.001-04:00

We looked at two of the three dimensions of our three dimensional model for lay leadership – control (high and low situations) and flexibility (situations of innovation versus tradition). The third dimension is Readiness.

Some situations require group readiness before a decision is made. Other situations do not allow that luxury. This recognizes that leadership is situational and that leadership styles are diverse.

The polarity of this dimension is between risk and readiness. Some leaders are willing to lead toward risk. If we were to plot with the other two dimensions, we would get the following design.

You can see the eight individual cubes that make up the complete three dimensional image of lay leadership. The four facing us directly, starting at the top left, are:

1 High Control, Innovation, and Risk
2 Low Control, Innovation, and Risk
3 High Control, Tradition, and Risk
4 Low Control, Tradition, and Risk

The four behind, and again starting at the top left, are:

5 High Control, Innovation, and Readiness
6 Low Control, Innovation, and Readiness
7 High Control, Tradition, and Readiness
8 Low Control, Tradition, and Readiness

Lets consider the situations from possible stances. The first stance we consider is Sunday Worship.

When Public Ministry becomes the primary focus, the community Worship on Sunday will become the primary situation when church might is inward focused. Worship will be both Conventional and Unconventional. And this will require four styles of leadership.

1 High Control, Innovation, and Risk
3 High Control, Tradition, and Risk
5 High Control, Innovation, and Readiness
7 High Control, Tradition, and Readiness

We can probably understand where Tradition will play into this gathering. But what about Innovation? There are four areas of change or innovation that will be needed in Worship.

Scripture
Faith Sharing
Prayer

We’ll pick up on this, because we are already looking at some of these. And the situation gets a little muddier because of the minister’s role.

On a completely different and unrelated note, I would encourage you to consider the following two news items.

First, Translate this article to Hockey and Canada.

Second, "Major organized religion has failed people by not evolving with the society".

The First Two Dimensions of Lay Leadership

2009-10-05T15:42:00.000-04:00

When we put together the two kinds of lay leadership dimensions we have so far, we have four kinds of leaders.

These quadrants are very much like the quadrants we used for finding our stance

It makes sense that our leadership quadrants overlap with our ministry stance quadrants. Think about the traditional “church-as-usual” congregation. This church would be in the lower left quadrant – Conventional and Inward-Directed. The leadership style most familiar to such a congregation would be High Control and Maintaining Tradition. In the typical tradition congregation, no one does anything without the permission of the “multiple, overlapping accountability system.” And, it is important in such a congregation to make sure that everything stays the same as possible.

In the opposite quadrant, the top, right-hand one, is the Public Ministry quadrant – the unconventional and outward-focused congregation. In order for the congregation to allow such a venture to be successful, it gives us control and encourages innovation.

Does this mean that we should have only Low Control Innovation leaders? Not at all. Remember, the primary or majority focus of the congregation is outward, and it is in that outward focus that it is unconventional. But it still has an inner life. The difference is that the inner life is not its primary focus. That’s because it has moved its mission field, the primary place where it conducts it mission, from inside to outside. On the inside is where it receives motivation and inspiration for ministry out there. So lay leaders for this work are still needed.

What about the other two quadrants? Well, on the inside, things will always move at least a little toward change, slowly toward nonconventionality. There will be new songs to learn, new ways of praying, new ways of looking at Scripture, new ways of ordering business, etc. So for sure, an inward-directed leadership is needed, but one that is less conventional. That is the top left quadrant, and it calls for High Control Innovation leadership.

So it also is in the bottom right quadrant, the Serving Church quadrant. There will still be forms of conventional ministry conducted by the congregation – giving space to addictions groups, providing food to food banks, serving in soup kitchens, and sending money to M&S. While serving ministry is not the primary focus, it never should go away completely. Indeed, to reach beyond our immediate reach requires giving from our abundance. These kinds of ministry, even though they are not in the majority like Public Ministry (for a Public Ministry congregation) requires a Low Control Tradition leadership.

We will complicate our nice system, however, by adding one more dimension. We will add the dimension of Group Readiness.

Flexibility

2009-10-02T12:38:00.000-04:00

We looked at lay leadership for our faith community and decided on a three-dimensional model. One of those dimensions, or polarities, was Control. Another is Flexibility.

Like Control, Flexibility describes the context or situation in which decision-making takes place. As we noted in the last blog, a three-dimensional model of leadership recognizes that 1) leadership is situational – different situations require different kinds of leadership, and 2) leadership is diverse – styles vary from leader to leader.

Flexibility gives the polarity between high flexibility and low flexibility. These have more significant meanings, however. High Flexibility means Innovation. Low Flexibility means Tradition. So the two polarities of Flexibility are said to be Innovation and Tradition. We recognize that some people are more flexible than others. Flexibility in a person is always a desired trait. But this is not about the leader being flexible. It is about the situation in which leadership takes place.

Organizations almost always experience a kind of social inertia when it comes to change or progress. Organizations as a whole, often like the individuals who make them up, are not very self-aware or self-differentiated. This means they operate as if on autopilot. And on autopilot, an organization keeps doing what it has always done. Change doesn’t come easily.

However, change is life. Living things are changing. We live in a world where we face change all the time. And when it comes to organizations, in order for them to thrive and flourish, and stay strong and vibrant, some things have to change. Situations that require change are high flexibility situations. They are Innovations. And the kind of leadership they need is leadership that can lead innovation, leadership that is unafraid of change, leadership that is highly flexible.

No leadership is needed to keep things the same. For almost every organization, including faith communities, staying the same comes naturally. Rather, some decisions require that a specific meaning be maintained and conveyed through a change. In other words, some decisions require a change in "how" or "what," "who," "where," or "when." But not "why." Think of innovation as change on the inside and on the outside. As an example, let’s say we had always had a potluck dinner at some point in the year. And then someone realized that it was time for something else, not something else that marked the same point in the year, but something new and fresh. That would be innovation. The decision would entail a change in both the activity and in its meaning or purpose. But suppose we had a potluck to mark the beginning od Sunday School. And then later it was realized that the potluck had served it’s time and now it was time for a cornroast to mark the beginning of Sunday School. This would be a change, but the meaning (or purpose) remains the same. The "what" changed, from potluck to cornroast. The "why" remained the same - to mark the beginning of Sunday School.

Good Innovation leaders can help lead revolutionary change. Good Tradition leaders can help hold to meanings but keep the venuing fresh.

High Control / Low Control

2009-10-01T14:23:00.000-04:00

In looking at the kind of lay leadership we hope to develop in our congregation, we decided on a three-dimensional model that had three polarities. One of these polarities is Control – High Control and Low Control.

Control is meant to describe the context in which decision-making takes place for the leader. A three-dimensional model of leadership recognizes that leadership is 1) situational. Some situations require a different kind of leadership from others. A three-dimensional model of leadership recognizes that 2) leadership styles vary from leader to leader.

A situation that requires High Control needs leadership that can effectively lead within that context. Control here does not so much mean that the leader exerts high control but that the leader can lead a team within the context of high control. This is a context in which the leader and team must report back, usually to Council, or maybe to the congregation. Such a leader and team cannot make final decisions. Such a team will be asked to either
a) report back with all options,
b) report back with recommended options, or
c) report back with a recommended option.

Additionally, the team will need to report back
a) regularly,
b) at significant intervals (e.g. half-way through and end), or
c) at the end only

If a leader feels confined by regularly reporting, or feels strongly about outcomes, such a leader is not good in High Control situations. A leader who uses the adage, “It’s easier to get forgiveness than to get permission” is not a good High Control leader. It should be noted that this kind of leadership is not very effective in situations that require a quick decision, because it takes time to fairly alert the decision-makers (who have the control) to a meeting, and even more time if ongoing reporting is expected and if a number of options are to be vetted.

A situation that requires Low Control needs leadership that can effectively lead within that context. Low control does not mean that there are no expectations on the leader and team, but that the leader and team can be expected to act within a broad or abstract mandate. Leaders who are uncomfortable with making decisions without having “higher approval” do not make good Low Control leaders. Low control leaders are needed in situations that call for quick action, or in situations which are covered by an “umbrella.”

An “umbrella” in decision-making is a mandate or purpose or mission. In our case, it will be a vision statement. Such a statement gives both overall, general direction, but also allows great latitude for creativity and imagination. A Low Decision leader can lead a team within such a context. They can be trusted to stay under the “umbrella.”

There are some items in the United Church that must be decided by Council and/or Congregation. Such activities, such as finding a minister, or buying property, are required to be High Control.

Almost everything else is optional to what extent it is High or Low control. However, a vision gives the Council the opportunity to invite people to be creative and imaginative when they have ideas and plans that relate directly to the vision. In other words, when a team and leader are planning something that falls under the vision “umbrella,” they can treat that as a Low Control context. Good leaders, both High Control and Low Control understand the situation and can lead either lead appropriately or know to pass the work onto the appropriate leader.

The opposite of control is chaos. Most congregations are afraid that if they do not exert high control, chaos will develop. This is usually an unnecessary fear. Chaos can also be another word for creativity, inclusiveness, diversity, for difference, and for change. Low control is important if a faith community wants to be welcoming and accepting, because true welcome and acceptance means inclusiveness. Inclusiveness only exists where full participation is welcomed. Full Inclusiveness leads to diversity, and diversity includes difference. And difference often leads to improvement, innovation, and change. So the more Low Control the congregation can encourage, the more innovation it can expect. And crerativity. And participation. You can see where this is going.

Conventionality is not Morality

2009-09-29T18:21:00.000-04:00

Charlotte Bronte is accredited with saying: “Conventionality is not morality.” This is the Charlotte who wrote “Jane Eyre.” “Jane Eyre is a novel in which the heroine loves the loveless and asserts independence (with forgiveness) from those who would use conventionality to tyrannize.

We have begun our visioning process, and on this past Monday a number of important themes began to emerge. I began with those words, “conventionality is not morality,” because one can see that a Public Ministry Vision is clearly not about conventionality and in fact may even fly in the face of what is considered the “accepted morality.”

Three themes in particular began emerging. One was around sexual orientation issues. One was around youth “adrift.” This was not about giving youth instructions on how to behave. It was about identity and listening. The third emerging theme was around developmentally challenged children, and the recognition of the actual reality that goes with making a home with them.

Many ideas and concerns are named, but we are looking for where passion and deep, heart-felt experience are involved, whether in our own lives or the lives of neighbours, friends, or relatives. We could do an interest inventory. Or we could conduct a survey in the community for needs. But we are starting with our own edges, the places where we have deeply felt hurt, loss, and being on the edge. And these are three emerging areas. We still have a ways to go, but it is an amazing introduction.

Review 4

2009-09-28T16:57:00.000-04:00

We began our review (after a quiet summer and a move) by looking at our first inquiry:"What is a congregation?"

And then we looked at our discernment of"What is a minister?"

The next step was to answer, "What is Lay Leadership?"

Next, we asked, “What is our edge?”

Why?

A congregation entering into Public Ministry as defined by us and our study will do so from an “Edge.” A congregation’s “Edge” is the self-understanding of the congregation of being different from its wider society and from other congregations. It uses this self-understanding of being different as a spiritual and strategic impetus for ministry.

In other words, instead of the conventional approach – leading with strengths, it takes the unconventional or marginal approach and leads with its edge.

The congregation draws upon a hard-won, deep theological understanding of what impels it to do ministry. What impels it is that it has a truly Empathetic understanding of people who have had similar experiences of being on the edge – marginalized – as has the congregation.

Like Jacob wrestling with God, the congregation accepts its own night of wrestling with God and thereby stands a chance of finding where its own injury, its own weakness, its marginality rests. It is only as a community of faith accepts its own particular form of being limp in God’s name that it can become a witness out of both marginality and empathy.

Our Edge is:

We have experienced what it truly means to be on the margin, and to be homeless, ignored, and overlooked by our society.

It is not from our abundance that we do ministry, but from our experience of loss and marginalization (ignored and overlooked)! This is Public Ministry!

Review 3

2009-09-24T16:14:00.000-04:00

We began our review (after a quiet summer and a move) by looking at our first inquiry:
"What is a congregation?"

And then we looked at our discernment of
"What is a minister?"

Now we look at the next question we asked in discernment: What is lay leadership?

A Contingency Model of Lay Leadership

Lay Leadership is about the context or situation, it is about leadership according to contingencies. It is a three-dimensional model based on three polarities to produce 8 main types of leadership. This means that:

The faith community can address many more challenges than it could with a simple, straightforward view of leadership.
There is room at the table for more people in leadership because there is an openness to a variety of leadership styles.

Understanding the Contingency or Situational or Contextual Model of Leadership

An organization uses a contingency/situation/context model of leadership because

There are many different situations – tasks/activities each require different kinds of leadership, and so each can have the type of leader best suited to it.
Specific situations – tasks/activities – change over time, requiring a change in the type of leadership.
Different situations arise over time, requiring different types of leadership.

How We Can Use This Model

We can develop or find leadership development tools for each of the eight types of lay leadership (indeed, one of the minister’s leadership tasks is this kind of resourcing). Members can discern their own leadership type (the minister can help in this as well). Tasks and activities can be tailored to one or more of the types, and can help the congregation find people for each task or activity it undertakes.

Using a three-dimensional model means the congregation builds it’s own model using three polarities to create the 8 leadership types. Each polarity has two opposites.

Our Three Polarities

Our three polarities are 1) high and low control, 2) flexibility between tradition and innovation, and 3) readiness and risk.

Control gives the polarities “High Control” and “Low Control.” Some tasks/activities require leaders that can act on their own initiative and also be permission-giving, while others will require leaders that will be responsible to the Council and to maintaining control.

High Control leaders are used in situations where there should be final accountability. The High Control leader will know to effectively work within a mandate’s limits, and will be able to avoid using the “it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission” approach. This polarity cannot be used where a decision must be made quickly, because it takes time to both develop limits and to ensure accountability reporting.

Low Control leaders are needed when a situation calls for action, but the leader should be trusted to carry out general and even abstract aims and ideals as opposed to specific mandates. Low Control leaders act responsibly, not pushing their own agenda. It may seem strange, but those who serve on Council should develop the “Low Control” style of lay leadership – they have no one to answer to directly, they must act according to the general direction set by the congregation (i.e. its shared vision) and act responsibly. They should also be as permission-giving as possible.

We saw the importance of both of these leadership styles in our recent move from 2nd street to 12 street. Some decisions needed to happen quickly, other decisions needed accountability. The real difference in this polarity is probably between accountability and rapid decision-making.

Flexibility gives the polarity between maintaining important traditions and introducing needed innovation.

We humans have a natural inertia when it comes to change. When Bishop Paul-André Durocher spoke at our commissioning and thanksgiving service for our new location, he said that the only people who like change are babies with wet diapers.

That being true, the difficulty is that some things should change, some things should not, and for some things, it may not matter which. Tradition leadership is not leadership that holds change at bay. Tradition leadership is leadership that is looking for the ways that meaningfulness is conveyed and transmitted. To change from one kind of light bulb, for example, to another is change, but it probably doesn’t entail a deep change of meaning. To change the direction from which we enter the church building may very well have very significant change in meaningfulness.

Some tasks/activities require leaders that can maintain the meaningfulness of tradition in the midst of change, while others will require leaders that can give “push” where momentum is slowed by a reluctance to change. Maintaining the meaningfulness of tradition does not exclude imagination, creativity, and innovation. Innovation does not mean throwing out everything from the past.

Group Readiness gives the polarity between Readiness and Risk. Some tasks/activities require leaders who are willing to spend time and effort getting ready, while others will require leaders who are risk-takers and courageous.

This polarity is actually between what is known and what is unknown, and, the wisdom to know the difference! A faith community, especially one embarking on public ministry, will find itself sailing uncharted waters. That takes risk-leaders. Sometimes, when a decision is like sailing closer to shore, it is important to learn more, because we know there are dangers to our ship if we get close to shore. That takes research leaders. Not every leader likes researching information. Not every decision either needs research or can be researched. Sometime we do things without knowing everything.

Our Eight Leadership Types

Innovation, High Control, Readiness Leadership
Innovation, High Control, Risk Leadership
Innovation, Low Control, Readiness Leadership
Innovation, Low Control, Risk Leadership
Tradition, High Control, Readiness Leadership
Tradition, High Control, Risk Leadership
Tradition, Low Control, Readiness Leadership
Tradition, Low Control, Risk Leadership

Next Steps

We will define and describe these in more detail later, and then will begin using them, starting with training.

A Brief Reflection on the "Publicness" of Public Ministry

2009-09-22T10:20:00.000-04:00

Before we continue our review (last two blogs), lets reflect a little on the "public" part of Public Ministry.

Public Ministry is carrying the message and work of the church to the public arena. To take a “public ministry” stance as a congregation is to decide that major expenditures of congregational energies should go into ventures directly related to the wider public good, whether or not the congregation itself prospers from these. Obviously for congregational life, this is the road less travelled. In reality, it is simply an answer to the question, “Where is our mission field?” In other words, what is the context (the “field”) for carrying out our mission? The answer is an emphasis on either, “within,” or “outside” (not all one or the other).

But Public Ministry is less conventional than a Serving Ministry stance. Serving ministry usually arises out of the congregation's means and abundance. Food is collected for a food bank, clothing for a clothing depot, money is provided for a soup kitchen, and space is offered to addiction groups. All this comes from the congregation's relative wealth, from sympathy and pity, benevolence and charity. Public Ministry arises from the congregation's empathy, from the ways in which the faith community has been "on the edge," how it has experienced marginalization.

But the "public" in Public Ministry can raise a concern. In our Canadian social context, there is often a distance, a mistrust of, or a hostility to public expressions of religion. Our society has “privatized” religious faith. Faith, religion, and spirituality are a person’s private interests and should not be expressed publicly.

The reasons for this are first, some people are simply anti-religion. They know the history of religions to produce war, prejudice, injustice, or hypocrisy, and assume that religion, given free rein, will always adopt unwelcome forms. This is the current attack on religion.

Others find religious faith marginal and irrelevant. They think that its purpose is vague, and the case for it is philosophically ungrounded. They see religious faith as a quaint subject, much as religious people see astrology.

The goal of Public Ministry is not to seek favor for religion over nonreligion or for our expression of religious faith over someone else’s. It is not to win a good name for our selves, or for our expression of religious faith, or for religion generally. It is not to attract adherents to our congregation, to the United Church of Canada, to Christianity, or even to religion. Public Ministry deals with reality and the ways people make sense of their lives and bring that sense to bear on their actions. Some of their actions – indeed for a Public Ministry stance, most of their actions deal with justice and mercy.

Public exposure through Public Ministry impels us to see ourselves as others see us and forces us to meet expectations that we might otherwise neglect. The publicness of Public Ministry will cause once sequestered and sheltered people (an inward-directed church) to present themselves in the light of others' interests, and that often means revisiting their own resources for healing (the “inside” work).

Our responsibility in Public Ministry is not to our congregation, minister(s), and lay leaders as such, but to the larger common good of our city, made up of the religious, the nonreligious, and the other-religious. And they may not always welcome it, appreciate it, or even recognize it. But we are committed to the "work of God." And we can see that God is very much alive and well and working in this world.

Review Part 2

2009-09-20T11:54:00.000-04:00

Next in our Transitional work we looked at the question, “What is a minister?” This seems like an obvious question. But it is seldom intentionally answered, and an answer is assumed by everyone. Everyone “knows” what a minister is and does. But everyone’s expectations are different, so there are as many answers as people.

We deliberately and intentionally addressed the question, and did so within the context of our congregation moving in the direction of Public Ministry. The answer discerned was:

A minister is a resourceful team-builder who empowers others to live out their ministry.

The leadership style called “team builder” is a leadership style that builds team motivation and practice. Additionally, this discerned understanding of the role of a minister includes resourcing and empowering.

So we have four primary behaviours/skills that define this kind of ministerial leadership.

Team Motivation Building
Team Practice Building
Resourcing
Empowering

These four behaviours/skills should also be considered within the Public Ministry contexts of “inside” and “outside.” By “Outside” we mean in the actual context of conducting Public Ministry outside the conventional gatherings and activities of the faith community. By “Inside” we mean in the conventional gatherings and activities of the faith community, what the faith community does for itself to make Public Ministry possible. The “Inside” use of these skills/behaviour will be easiest to understand. The “Outside” use is more abstract, for now, until such time as specific public ministries have been identified and engaged.

Outside Practice Building

“Outside,” the minister, as a team-building leader, builds team practice. These are the habits and practices that make us good at what we’re doing as a team. That means what a coach does for a sports team. The players together want to be their best. And we know that any kind of Public Ministry succeeds when the faith community engages itself in practices appropriate to the ministry.

Outside Empowerment

“Outside,” the minister, using a team-building leadership model, also empowers. The minister is not the minister! The people of the faith community are. The minister empowers people to conduct their own ministry.

Outside Motivation Building

“Outside,” the minister, as a team-building leader, also builds team motivation. This is something like being a cheer-leader, but notice it is team motivation. The team, the faith community, takes on a life of its own, there is a “feeling” among the people who are engaged in public ministry.

Outside Resourcing

“Outside,” the minister, using a team-building leadership model, also resources. This is turning the word resource into a verb, an action. To resource is to provide resources. And resources are needed that provide support and engagement in the public ministry.

Inside Practice Building

“Inside,” the minister, using a team-building leadership model, builds team practice. And we know that any kind of Public Ministry succeeds when the faith community engages itself in practices of building a Public Ministry kind of faith community. These are things like meaningful and intentional prayer, faith-sharing, fresh approaches to Scripture, discernment, conversational decision-making, training, and personal outlets of ministry.

Inside Empowerment

“Inside,” the minister, as a team-building leader, also empowers. Here, the minister makes room for people to pray, share faith, engage scripture, discern, and hold conversation. This means building-up the participants into their own sense of and part in ministry.

Inside Motivation Building

“Inside,” the minister, using a team-building leadership model, also builds team motivation. The minister inspires the people to Public Ministry, reminding them of their shared vision, reminding them of God’s preferential option for the least of God’s children. Both “inside,” and “out,” the team, the faith community, takes on an energy of its own.

Inside Resourcing

“Inside,” the minister, as a team-building leader, also resources. Here, the minister finds the training resources necessary for both the personal ministries undertaken, and the public ministries undertaken.

Let’s Review Where We Are

2009-09-17T15:18:00.000-04:00

Our transition work began with a question: “What for us is a congregation?”

We chose from 10 main answers applicable to United Church congregations. Some answers we could have chosen from are sentimental, like:

#3. Relationship builder. It serves as a place of belonging where people find ways to make connections, form relationships, and share their personal stories – It enters into a covenant relation with God and one another.

Others are somewhat churchy, like:

#4. Faith/Belief teacher. It openly expresses beliefs and values to clarify purpose in people’s lives – It seeks collectively to understand among its people the life and ministry of Jesus.

We chose one of the “roads less travelled:”

#1. Participant in God’s work in our communities, nation, and world. It is deeply engaged in ministering to the community while calling on others to commit to doing the same – It conducts the ministry of God.

This led us to a book study to define this answer more clearly – Church on the Edge.

We learned a number of things thru the study, not all necessarily from the book itself.

Clearly, if we want there to be a distinctively United Church presence in Cornwall in the years ahead (10, 20 years), we will need to change from inward focus to outward focus. And that is a change few churches seem to be able to make.
We would be better off choosing non-conventional church, which for outward focus means “Public Ministry,” rather than the more conventional form of outward focus, which is called “Service.”
Calling what we are a “church” is the least helpful word to use. The word “congregation” is a better choice. But to consistently call ourselves a “community of faith” or “faith community” is probably the most helpful vocabulary.

What Is Public Ministry

The term “Public Ministry” gets used many different ways, but we are giving it a specific or specialized meaning. It would take many pages to explain it fully, but here are some simple ways of understanding it.

A congregation engaged in public ministry has shifted its predominant focus from being inner-directed (programmes and activities that primarily serve the participants in the congregation) to being outward directed (programmes and activities that serve those outside the congregation).

But the change is even greater than this. At the same time as the congregation is changing its focus, it is also changing by becoming less conventional (what churches are commonly known to do) and becoming more unconventional. Taken together, these two changes are called a change in stance. In this case, the stance moves from inward-directedness toward outward directedness, and from conventionality to non-conventionality. The former stance is “church as usual,” where most congregations, if they were honest, would identify themselves. The new stance is public ministry.

Our book study defined public ministry as a faith community’s “commitment to pursue some significant edge within the context of their world (marginality, or non-conventionality), and to take the energy generated from being there and move it out into the very world from which it distinguishes itself (empathy, or outward directed)” (George B. Thompson, Jr., Church on the Edge of Somewhere, Alban, 2007, italics added).

Thompson, the author, frequently refers to the public ministry stance as “empathetic marginality.” He is using both terms in specialized ways. Empathy is often understood to mean to “put ourselves in another’s shoes.” In this context it means to think and act outside of ourselves. Marginality is used to mean being different from the prevailing culture or society. So public ministry can be understood as a faith community using the ways that they understand themselves to be different from the prevailing culture and society as motivation, resource, and strength for thinking and acting outside of themselves.

Public ministry can be further understood. Instead of a faith community being in “survival mode,” it seeks to serve people whose very lives are in “survival mode.” And it goes further than serving them out of abundance – the faith community serves them out of itself, out of what makes it different as a community of faith.

So the move toward public ministry means that a faith community seeks to serve others than itself – this is the outward-directed change in focus. And, it seeks to serve others more out of who it is as different from society than out of its abundance.

A public ministry will very consciously affirm God’s reign over both the secular and the sacred realms. God’s reign is what the church works toward – God’s reign of peace and justice. This is not a coercive reign, but an invitation, a call, to a world of justice and peace. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and God’s righteousness.” “Kingdom of God” is code for God’s reign, and “God’s righteousness” is God’s justice.

God is concerned about the whole world, and God calls the faith community to an advocacy and an activism for justice. Public activism is rooted in faith, and the faith community – not just religious individuals – enter into the process of transforming the world.

As an example, Martin Luther King Jr. called not just indiviuals of faith but communities of faith to enter into the work of overturning racism in America and enacting civil rights legislation.

In public ministry, the community of faith – the congregation – becomes prophetic and activistic. Public ministry is aware of the systemic nature of sin – it’s more than personal. Thus the community of faith works toward social redemption – more than personal redemption. It works toward the redemption of society, culture, city, province, nation and the world.

Political activity is an essential component of public ministry’s mission. But seeks justice without coercion, without absolutism, without dogma, and without suppressing plurality, inclusiveness, and diversity. ibid

And We're Back

2009-09-15T15:31:00.000-04:00

Wow, the summer has sped by. And now it is time to get back with our transitional interests.

I hope by this Thursday to have something up, probably in the nature of a review.

We are in our new (to us) church building. And we are worshipping there.

Deeper into John 6:35-51

2009-08-13T11:48:00.000-04:00

See the previous posting for the Scripture lesson,

As we have moved through chapter six of John’s gospel, we want to realize that Jesus, and John, are not talking/writing in circles. John seems to be deliberately unfolding the conversation as getting more and more difficult. The crowds had made great effort to locate Jesus, “God’s prophet for sure!” Now they were saying he couldn’t be divine because they knew who his parents were. As Jesus claims to be closer to God, the further from God the people see Jesus. Jesus now claims that God is drawing people to Jesus. But these people aren’t being drawn. And we can look around and see that people are being particularly drawn to Jesus. And we appear to live in an age when society is not particularly drawn to Jesus. And we can see in our own private and personal lives that there are times when we are not drawing close to Jesus. These perceptions and the claims of Jesus are opposite.

There is no easy explanation. And Jesus/John does not appear to want to make it any easier. He began this discourse by claiming that he was the “Bread of God come down from heaven.” That was misunderstood – “Give us this bread!” So Jesus made the claim clearer and still more objectionable, “I am the Bread of Life.” This started them arguing. Jesus doesn’t tone it down or make it all more palatable (pun intended), but associates this bread with his flesh. We have to wait for the next passage to hear what happens. But we already know that by the end of the passage many of the followers of Jesus leave him.

William Countryman, in The Mystical Way in the Fourth Gospel, calls this pattern “obnoxious discourse.” What it means is that we cannot have Jesus on our own terms. Disciples of Jesus are disciples of Jesus. And the closing words in this passage by Jesus, referring to his flesh and blood are referring to his death on the cross. To be a follower of Jesus is to participate in, throw our lot in with, align with the crucifixion of Jesus.

This was completely counter-cultural. Jesus didn’t want to become a cultural phenomenon (although, with time, he came to be considered a feature of western culture). More than that, in his manifestos Jesus makes it clear that he came for and to be with the poor, the oppressed, and the ignored and overlooked. In other words, Jesus is for those left out of society.

The disciples of Jesus, the followers of Jesus, then are:
1 those who are drawn or given to Jesus by God
2 those who align with and participate with Jesus, on Jesus’ own terms, even to the cross.
3 Those who work with Jesus for the overlooked and ignored.

In our post-Christian era, when Jesus is no longer fashionable, and neither is Jesus’ Church, the Church seeks ways to attract people back. The only hope that churches really have of being vibrant, thriving, flourishing communities of faith is to go back to those three points about being a disciple of Jesus.
1. God will draw and give people to Jesus
2. They will be people who see Jesus as a living practical faith
3. This means people who will be with and find their place, solidarity, with the poor – those who have experienced loss, and those who are overlooked and ignored by society.

Being conventional - church-as-usual, with a "Jesus as usual," will not make for a community of faith, not in our time. In our time, the counter-cultural Jesus is the one who will truly draw people together to work for the reign of God.

Getting the SPECS on John 6:35-51

2009-08-10T11:13:00.000-04:00

S is for Suspicion, P is for the Poor, E is for Empire (the status quo), C is for our Complicity with the status quo, and S is for our Solidarity with the poor.

Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don't really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don't let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.

"This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time."

At this, because he said, "I am the Bread that came down from heaven," the Jews started arguing over him: "Isn't this the son of Joseph? Don't we know his father? Don't we know his mother? How can he now say, 'I came down out of heaven' and expect anyone to believe him?"

Jesus said, "Don't bicker among yourselves over me. You're not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that's the only way you'll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, 'And then they will all be personally taught by God.' Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me.

"I'm telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self." John 6:35-51 The Message Bible.

Suspicion

We church people have been taught to be smug. We, after all, believe Jesus. We know who his Father really was. And we know he came down from heaven. We believe.

But Jesus addresses culture. If that culture was a “see it to believe it,” how much more is ours. Jesus is not here in the flesh. Jesus is “spiritually” present. And that puts Jesus in the “private” sphere of life, not in the “public.” In the private sphere, Jesus is tamer, less likely to cause trouble.

Poor

The poor are not the crowd. The crowd is culture. The poor are with Jesus. They are not addressed in this passage directly. They largely get left out of the story, because culture demands the attention, even from Jesus. But there is an inkling of reference to the poor in the passage, when they talk about Jesus and who his mother and father were.

The poor have no status in society. They are unrecognized, and usually ignored and overlooked. When they are remembered, it is to suggest that they have no place of authority or status. Hense it was with Jesus – "Isn't this the son of Joseph? Don't we know his father? Don't we know his mother? How can he now say, 'I came down out of heaven' and expect anyone to believe him?"

We know the poverty, the unimportance, of his family background. He has not the status to claim a word from heaven. The poor recognize this when they read it.

Empire

Empire today, the status quo, wants religion relegated to private life. We don’t want or supposedly have public religion. We have freedom of religion, which in a pluralistic society gets translated “freedom from religion.” Empire assumes a deposed place for religious faith. There is no place for it in a global economy, in world politics, and in an age of technology and information.

But anthropologists and historians, sociologists and psychologists know that religion is an aspect of human life. We can no more be religion-less than we can be politics-less. Politics and religion are built into the human psyche. It’s what we do with them that counts.

Our culture publicly worships materialism, consumerism, empiricism, and science. It has these gods. And it accords these gods the same power and authority we and other religions recognize as God’s alone.

Complicity

We are complicit with the status quo when we accept that religious faith is not of public importance. This does not mean a return to “Christendom,” a return to the domination of religious life by a religious majority. We affirm the place of faith in religious life by affirming the justice-seeking faith of other religions and of secular organizations of good-will. Will we continue to give token allegiance to the “gods” of our time, or token allegiance to our God, or will we take our place with the poor, with those ignored and left out, with those who have experienced loss?

Solidarity

This is what it is to “eat the Bread” that is Jesus. It is to participate in the life of Jesus where Jesus lives. And the life of Jesus is public ministry, and where Jesus does it is with the poor. When we affirm our own edge, we join in solidarity with the poor. When we witness our edge to our society and culture, when we say, “Yes, we too are the ignored and overlooked, those who know what loss is, but we take our stand with those who are similarly ignored and overlooked, who know what loss is really all about,” then we are with Jesus.

Halfway Through Our John 6 Series

2009-08-06T11:35:00.000-04:00

The chapter begins with Jesus feeding the 5,000. The chapter ends with many of the followers of Jesus walking away from him. What happened in between? We began at the end of the chapter, with many followers leaving Jesus. We then looked at the beginning, where people were calling him the “Prophet of God.”

Some will say that Jesus made a theological claim that many couldn’t accept. But from this point on, Jesus becomes less popular and people even begin planning to have him killed. I know that theology, systems of belief, can lead to some horrible behaviours. But I think there was something more to than beliefs. I think Jesus threatened the status quo. I don’t mean here the “empire.” We use that world for the global systems of economy and politics. In Jesus time there was a literal empire – the Roman one. These followers of Jesus were on the opposite side of Empire. If Jesus were a threat to Empire, they would have banded around him.

No, Jesus jeopardized the status quo, the cultural status quo. And these appeared to be religious people Jesus was addressing. Jesus was going against the religious status quo. When a religious system becomes established, it can easily become a supporter of its social culture. But Jesus, in another place, was asking for the people of God to become “leaven.” Leavening is like a germ or virus, and when applied to religion meant people of faith should become a catalyst for change – for social justice – in the wider context. Jesus wasn’t interested in becoming a king, another king among many. Jesus wanted a community that would change the world from the inside out.

The status quo wanted the benefits they already had, and then more. Jesus was saying, “Be like me – be bread for the world.” And they were saying, “We want ‘bread’ for ourselves.”

Jesus came for the poor, the oppressed, for those ignored and overlooked by society, for those who were suffering from loss of work, health, and the basic benefits of a decent just society. The crowd around were not the poor. They had certain benefits. They wanted to keep those and get yet more. Jesus was not there for them, and they began to realize it. In fact, in his corner of the world, they thought he could hurt their benefits. So they left him at the very least. And a crowd would later call for his crucifixion.

Today, so many congregations want what they have, and what they had. They don’t want to claim their edge, the edge that is marginalization from our society. Our society cares less and less for church, for Christianity (as Christendom). Churches say, "If only we had more money, more people with energy to do the work, better ministers, they could become better churches and win people back and become popular again."

May we never deviate from our response to the call to public ministry. God’s “bread” comes to us on its way to someone else.

How is John 6:24-35 metaphorical?

2009-08-04T09:10:00.000-04:00

See the previous posting to read the scripture passage.

As before, the components in this section are:

The crowd, looking for Jesus
The Tiberius boats,
Across the sea and Capernaum,
Jesus, whom the crowd calls “Rabbi”,
Bread (which Jesus is using as a metaphor),
God, the One who sent Jesus

As before, the disciples, the poor, and therefore we, are not present, but somewhere behind the scenes. As mentioned before, the crowd is society, not the people in society, but society itself as we experience it. In our time, this society is post-Christian (and post-modern), and Canadian, therefore secular and pluralistic.

No definition of Tiberius is given here or in the wider context of the passage, except to tell us that the sea of Galilee is sometimes called the Sea of Tiberius. The Tiberius boats are understood to be regular boats of this sea. “Across the sea” is filled with meaning, and Capernaum is the destination, where Jesus is found.

The bread is interesting because Jesus is using it as a metaphor for himself. For us, we understand it as a metaphor for Jesus’ life, and therefore to the life to which Jesus is inviting us, a life of public ministry – that was what Jesus was about.

Our post-modern, pluralistic society asks, “Give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what’s going on.” We live in the information, tell us more. We live in an age of many competing ideas, ideologies, and religious beliefs. What makes yours special?

Jesus answers that to have real life (Jesus is using the metaphor of “real bread” for real life), they must participate in (“align with”) the life of Jesus. After this, we will remember, Jesus becomes less popular, and many people leave Jesus as disciples. Why?

The life of Jesus is a life of public ministry, ministry to people on the edge by people who minister from their own edge. Words like “successful,” “popular,” and “big” are not in the vocabulary of such a ministry. Words like “self-giving,” and concepts like ministry out of our experience of loss, and out of our experience of being overlooked and ignored, out of our empathy, define the public ministry of Jesus. And these concepts, and the absence of the “in” concepts, meant that few wanted to be disciples of Jesus.

And so for our own time. Few churches seem to really want to live the life of Jesus as a faith community. They want to be popular around town, admired, looked up to, attended by the “better” people. Yet Jesus still walks in our city, and works with those who have deep experiences of loss, of being ignored and overlooked by the mainstream of society, the poor. And Jesus invited us to join him in that ministry.

Getting the SPECS on John 6:24-35

2009-08-02T09:08:00.000-04:00

This passage is part four of our six-part series on the sixth chapter of John's gospel.

So when the crowd realized he was gone and wasn't coming back, they piled into the Tiberias boats and headed for Capernaum, looking for Jesus.

When they found him back across the sea, they said, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

Jesus answered, "You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free.

"Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last."

To that they said, "Well, what do we do then to get in on God's works?"

Jesus said, "Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God's works."

They waffled: "Why don't you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what's going on? When we see what's up, we'll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do. Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

Jesus responded, "The real significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave you bread from heaven but that my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread. The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world."

They jumped at that: "Master, give us this bread, now and forever!"

Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don't really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don't let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.

S – What Suspicion should we have about how this passage has been interpreted for us?

Another way to come to the posture of suspicion is to ask ourselves where most congregations would like to see themselves in this passage, and the answer is not likely the crowd that had come looking for Jesus. Most conventional churches would see themselves as either the disciples or as somehow outside of the whole dialogue.

But when we read this passage as a people who have experienced and lived through loss and marginalization, we see ourselves as the crowd. They had lost Jesus, and had come looking for Jesus. We have some sense of what they were experiencing. We can empathize with them.

But this doesn’t mean we’re them. Jesus calls us to minister to and with the poor. And the crowd are not the poor. "Why don't you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what's going on? When we see what's up, we'll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do. Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Those are not the words of people who hurt from hunger. They are the words of the people of our age, the words of a post-Christian society, and of a church that has not realized that it is in the midst of a post-Christian age.

P – How is this passage good news for the Poor?

We try to connect with this by asking it from our own edge. As a people who have experienced loss and marginalization (being ignored and overlooked by society), how is this good news to such? And to our surprise, we realize that Jesus is the one who is beginning to experience these same things. Sure, they “piled into boats” to find him, but not for him. For his instrumentality. For what he could contribute to society. But this chapter is a turning point in the book of John. From now on, Jesus’ popularity wanes. No longer willing to provide bread and circuses, his enemies even begin to plot against him.

The poor are left out of society, ignored and overlooked, because they have nothing to provide society. They have lost the means to be “contributing members of society.” All our lives we were taught to become “contributing members of society.” It reminds me of the lyrics of a song Billy Joel sang:

Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers in the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we're living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down
And it's getting very hard to stay
Well we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved
So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke
And chromium steel
And we're waiting here in Allentown
But they've taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away
Every child has a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got
But something happened on the way to that place ...

E – How is this passage a challenge to Empire?

Everything Jesus says is a challenge to our global consumer society. We no longer have enough. When we get something, we move on to wanting the next thing. And the magazine racks are full of articles about the rich and famous – we’re feeding on them when we can get it for ourselves.

Billy Joel’s lyrics have the satirical lines,

No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke
And chromium steel

That’s what empire says is real. The factor worker who makes the products from them, and the consumer who buys the products. And when it is no longer of economic value to produce or sell, the factories, the capital investors, and the unions shut down.

C – How have we been Complicit with empire?

We find ourselves marked and marred by our society’s consumerism. William Cavanaugh wrote in Seasons of the Spirit, Pentecost 1, 2009,

Consumerism comes from a restless spirit, constantly in search of something new. Consumerism is typified by detachment from things, not attachment, for desire must be kept on the move.

Consumerism, shopping until you drop, is more about the shopping, not the things bought, the getting, not the gotten. Detachment from things is part of the throw-away culture. Cavanaugh goes on,

Consumerism is also typified by scarcity, not abundance, for as long as desire is endless, there will never be enough stuff to go around.

S – How does this passage invite us to Solidarity with the poor?

Jesus is the “poor one” in this passage, and Jesus invites us,

Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God's works....my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread. The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world....I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.”

Every commentary on this passage mentions how it relates to the sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus takes bread, breaks it, blesses it, and gives it. Jesus is that bread, who, in his life’s example, is taken, broken, blessed, and given. This is the life to which Jesus invites us, to join Jesus in being bread, being broken, being blessed, and being given. That is the definition of public ministry.

How Is John 6:14-23 a Metaphor?

2009-07-30T14:58:00.000-04:00

See the last post for a reading of John 6:14-23.

The components of the passage are:

The crowd, who realized God was at work among them, who said, “This is the Prophet...,” who wanted to make Jesus a king, who had been left behind and saw only one boat leave without Jesus aboard, and who came across to find Jesus.
Jesus, who avoided being made a king, who went off alone, and who walked on water and brought the boat to safety.
The Mountain, where Jesus went to be alone.
The disciples, who were in a boat in a churning sea, saw Jesus walking on water, and were terrified.
The churning sea
The boat, and the boats (from Tiberias)
The exact spot on land to which the disciples were headed in their boat – at Capernaum

The crowd is a metaphor for conventional Christianity, which has seen Jesus (and church) as an integral part of society, part of the status quo. The disciples are the ones Jesus has a ministry to and with, and Jesus made clear that his mandate was with the poor. The churning sea represents chaos, and while Jesus is alone to be near to God (the mountain), the disciples are without Jesus. And this is emphasized by the churning sea – Jesus is absent, and they are experiencing disorientation. It was also quite dark – without their Light.

Karen Marie Yust suggests that congregations, not just individuals, would do well to draw apart, as Jesus did, for rest and reflection:

Congregations that do not take time to look and listen for where God has come to meet them run the risk of laboring alone in the midst of social turmoil. They may assume that God has withdrawn to a distant place and left them to accomplish by themselves whatever ministries they deem appropriate. They may perceive divine attempts to join them in their work--such as some members' questions about mission and purpose or others' suggestions for a new strategy or direction--as potential assaults on a ministry plan already contending with the buffeting winds of social change and acceptance. Only by opening their hearts and minds through spiritual practices designed to seek God's face and hear God's voice will they be able to recognize salvation and spiritual guidance when it enters their lives in moments of communal discernment.

This same website goes on with a theme we have seen before, the one about scarcity-think:

...Fear is certainly the driving force underneath scarcity thinking. Fear measures the scarcity carefully (it doesn’t take long, after all) and says that there is never enough, and certainly not enough for everyone. Fear makes us feel like we're sinking, sinking in debt, sinking in despair, sinking in depression and addiction and loss. Fear makes us grab onto the wrong things to protect and even save us, to pull us out of the stormy seas. Fear makes us arm ourselves to the teeth and then miss the hand that is held out to us, telling us not to fear, not to struggle, but to recognize that God is God, and we are not, and that we can float, in trust, on top of the water, relaxing, as Kierkegaard said, on the buoyancy of God.

As an aside, I find it exciting that others out there see the public ministry dimensions in this passage.

Getting the SPECS on John 6:14-23

2009-07-28T10:20:00.000-04:00

John 6:14-23 is the third section of our six-weeks series.

The people realized that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done. They said, "This is the Prophet for sure, God's Prophet right here in Galilee!" Jesus saw that in their enthusiasm, they were about to grab him and make him king, so he slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself.

In the evening his disciples went down to the sea, got in the boat, and headed back across the water to Capernaum. It had grown quite dark and Jesus had not yet returned. A huge wind blew up, churning the sea. They were maybe three or four miles out when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, quite near the boat. They were scared senseless, but he reassured them, "It's me. It's all right. Don't be afraid." So they took him on board. In no time they reached land—the exact spot they were headed to.

The next day the crowd that was left behind realized that there had been only one boat, and that Jesus had not gotten into it with his disciples. They had seen them go off without him. By now boats from Tiberias had pulled up near where they had eaten the bread blessed by the Master. So when the crowd realized he was gone and wasn't coming back, they piled into the Tiberias boats and headed for Capernaum, looking for Jesus. John 6:14-23 The Message Bible.

S – What Suspicion should we have of how this passage has been understood and interpreted?

One way to approach a passage with suspicion is to ask the police detective’s question, “Who benefits?” Who benefits from how we have understood and interpreted this passage in the past? Almost always the answer is, “the status quo.” Which leads to the important questions, “How and why?”

Cui bono ("To whose benefit?") is a Latin adage that is used either to suggest a hidden motive or to indicate that the party responsible for something may not be who it appears at first to be. With respect to motive, a public works project which is purported to benefit the city may have been initiated rather to benefit a favored campaign contributor with a lucrative contract. Wikipedia.

For sure, this passage can give us church types a certain smugness. We can hear ourselves knowing and saying, “This is the Prophet for sure, God's Prophet right here ....” But we, of course, don’t go so far as to want to “make him king,” in any temporal sense. And of course, we would recognize Jesus and not be afraid. At least we like to we would.

P – How is this passage good news for the Poor?

I do not think that the poor would see themselves as the people who would make Jesus a king. Jesus remains power outside the status quo. I think the poor would find good news in that Jesus cannot be tamed by society, by government, by the prevailing culture. As those overlooked and ignored by society, there must be power in the One who “overlooks and ignores” established power, position, status, and prestige.

E – How is this passage a challenge to Empire?

Wouldn’t Jesus, as a king, be a challenge to empire? Not if he’s tamed, one king among many, knowing his place in the scheme of things, in to global economy and world politics. The challenge to empire is that Jesus will not be tamed, will not be “vested” by earthly, temporal authority as a temporal power. Jesus treats empire with the same regard that empire gives the poor – overlooked and ignored.

C – How have we been Complicit with empire?

We have been complicit in our conventionality as church. God and country, church and society. All worked harmoniously together to give us the life we have. Those largely left out of the benefits of our society are ignored or discounted. We have made Jesus one king among many – money, western civilization, science, and education, government. We have grabed Jesus and made him another institution of our society.

S – How does the passage invite us to Solidarity with the poor?

Let’s realize that Jesus remains largely hidden from us, especially when we see ourselves as “church as usual,” conventional church, part of the status quo. As people who have experienced loss and marginalization, let’s extend these as a spiritual value. Let’s lose the experience of Jesus in an institutionalized manner. Let’s let Jesus be untamed.

How is John 6:1-13 Metaphorical?

2009-07-27T14:02:00.000-04:00

The opposite of “metaphorical,” at least in terms of biblical interpretation, is “literal.” To ask the question of the metaphorical meaning of a Scripture passage is to imply that the story is nonfactual.

Metaphor opens us up to a wideness, a diversity of ideas about a Bible passage. It makes its meaning ambiguous. And ambiguity is one of the markers of our time. The ability to perceive information and behaviour in a neutral and open way is an important leadership skill, and is important for a faith community to thrive and prosper.

So did this story in fact happen (see the previous posting for the Scripture passage)? To accept ambiguity is to accept that it happens when we read it. So let’s explore that. The parts of the story are:

Jesus, who sees the crowd, asks the questions, and multiplies the bread.
Philip, whose faith Jesus tested with the question, “Where can we buy bread to feed these people.”
Andrew, who told about the boy with the loaves and fishes.
The boy, who had the loaves and fishes.
The crowd, who were “attracted by the miracles they had seen him do among the sick.”
The bread and fish.
The left-overs, in the amount of 12 baskets.
The time – “nearly time for the Feast of the Passover.”
The place – “Across the Sea of Galilee,” Jesus “climbed a hill and sat down, surrounded by his disciples.”

Where do we find ourselves in this story? Amongst the crowd? Phillip? Andrew? The boy? The other disciples? A distance away watching it unfold?

The crowd, who have assembled to be healed of sickness or to see the miracles happen to others, these are the people of Jesus’ attention. We in public ministry want to be with Jesus working with Jesus where Jesus is. We are the disciples. The place, across the sea, is the place where our ministry happens. And where our faith formation happens. Not “in church.” We gather “in church” as a faith community to celebrate together what God is doing and doing through us in our public ministry and witness. But our sure faith formation – which is not information, knowledge, and theology – takes place “over there.”

The crowd are the recipients of public ministry, the “poor.” They are the ones “left out” of the grand public celebrations of the Passover in this story. The bread and fishes are our very selves – what we give in public ministry, not out of our abundance, but out of our edge. The little boy represents that marginality, that littleness we experience in this world as a faith community. We minister to our public from our sense of empathy with the marginalized – those overlooked and ignored by society – and specifically those who have experienced loss.

When we give out of our marginality, our littleness, our empathy, our experience of marginality and loss, we discover that this is the kind of ministry Jesus did and does with and through us. And this is life-giving ministry, what makes a community of faith, a congregation, full of life and vitality. From our edge, we discover that there is more than enough – twelve baskets left over.

Getting the SPECS on John 6:1-13

2009-07-26T09:18:00.000-04:00

After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (some call it Tiberias). A huge crowd followed him, attracted by the miracles they had seen him do among the sick. When he got to the other side, he climbed a hill and sat down, surrounded by his disciples. It was nearly time for the Feast of Passover, kept annually by the Jews.

When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread to feed these people?" He said this to stretch Philip's faith. He already knew what he was going to do.

Philip answered, "Two hundred silver pieces wouldn't be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece."

One of the disciples—it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter—said, "There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this."

Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. Then Jesus took the bread and, having given thanks, gave it to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish. All ate as much as they wanted.

When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted." They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.

S – What Suspicion should we have about how this passage has been interpreted?

I think we have been taught that this passage is about “sharing,” about sharing with others, like the little boy with the five loaves and two fish. And when we share, we find we have enough. And it gets explained away like the story of “Stone Soup.”

According to the story, some travelers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travelers. The travelers fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire in the village square. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travelers answer that they are making "stone soup", which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavor, which they are missing. The villager doesn't mind parting with just a little bit to help them out, so it gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travelers again mention their stone soup which hasn't reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all. story source

In other words, the little boy only started something. The poor are used to “getting by,” and even finding a way when there is no way. They are used to sharing, and they are used to “stone soup.” This passage isn’t merely about sharing.

P – How is this passage good news for the Poor?

This is the life of the poor, lived out in God’s presence. Jesus invites the disciples to live the life of the poor, to answer the questions the poor face daily. And to find the inner strength to face those questions.

E – How is this passage a challenge to Empire?

There is enough for all. Empire operates on the premise that there is not enough for everyone. It operates on the principle of scarcity.

C – How have we been Complicit with Empire?

Often, we have bought the lie, that there is not enough. Lifeboat ethics. There is only so much room, and so many resources in the lifeboat.

S – How does the passage call us to Solidarity with the poor?

Do we believe that God can supply? As a faith community called to public ministry, we are called to give, not out of abundance, but out of our sense of loss and marginality. This takes a real and practical kind of faith – practical in the sense of putting into practice. This is not how we have operated in the past. We looked at our bottom line and decided that we could only do “this much ministry.” Public ministry, giving from ourselves and not from what we have, calls for us depend on God for our supply. And that is where the poor are.

How Is John 6:57-69 a Metaphor?

2009-07-23T16:52:00.000-04:00

There can be no doubt that Jesus uses the story of bread (manna) in the wilderness (see Exodus 16 for the story) as a metaphor. Eating this “bread” is compared to making a meal of Jesus. But “making a meal of Jesus” is metaphor also. The Church has traditionally interpreted this meal as referring to the “Last Supper,” that is, the sacrament of Holy Communion. Indeed, it was taking such a passage literally that led to belief in “transubstantiation,” that through the Communion prayers, the bread and wine (host) become the Body and Blood of Jesus. This had been the belief of the Church for about the first 1500 years of its history, and is still the belief of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Eastern orthodox denominations (this is only a summary – the actual belief is considerably more complex). The churches of the Reformation, including our own, held to ideas ranging from a) this was only a memorial meal and Jesus is in no special way present in it, b) it is in the breaking of the bread together and sharing the cup that Jesus is present in the sacrament, not in the bread and wine themselves, c) we spiritually eat and drink of the “body” and “blood” of Jesus, to d) the body and blood of Jesus are intermingled with the bread and wine, not so that you see them, but they are “hidden” there.

So even if Jesus were speaking of the sacrament, we still have to decide if the Sacrament itself is metaphor or literal. I doubt that Jesus was speaking of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus gave a comparison:

In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me.

We can set out this comparison as follows:

I live because of the fully alive Father who sent me.
You live because of me (Jesus) by making a meal of me.

If the comparison is to make sense, “making a meal of me” means “who sent you.”

I live because of the fully alive Father who sent me.
You live because of Jesus who sent you.

Simply translated, the fully alive Father sent Jesus, and Jesus sends us. We “make a meal of Jesus” when we participate in or respond to the commission of Jesus. Jesus sends us to do what Jesus did – Public Ministry.

This moves the sacrament of Holy Communion from being some kind of personal religious experience carried out in community to being a renewal of our commission from Jesus to carry out public ministry – ministry to the poor.

And this is what some of the disciples found hard to swallow – not his “theology” about himself, but his ethical imperative to live out his life. Jesus is saying that we find real life when we work with Jesus where Jesus is found working – in public ministry, empathetic marginality, with the poor, with those who have experienced loss and marginalization.

“You get to me only as a gift from the Father."

We receive this commission as a gift from the Father.

“Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen... no one is capable of coming to me on his own.”

A gift from the father, not something we are already able to do. Not Service, where we give from our own abundance, from our abilities and wealth, but as gift, from within ourselves, giving our very selves in public ministry to those who have experience loss and marginalization.

When we are ourselves poor, then we have the wealth and resources and strength that is a gift from God. This gift is for our calling, our commission.
When we look at the sacrament of Holy Communion from this perspective, we come to realize that Jesus is present to the poor. Jesus becomes present to us when we join Jesus in ministry to the poor. The sacrament of Holy Communion is a renewal of our commission to be present to Jesus. Not Jesus present to us, but us to Jesus, where Jesus is to be found.

Getting the SPECS on John 6:57-69

2009-07-20T12:45:00.000-04:00

This was our focus Scripture for July 12, and the first in a series of six on the 6th chapter of John. It seems odd, perhaps, to start at the end of the chapter, but it is the end toward which the beginning of the chapter moves, and so the ending gives meaning to the whole thing.

[Jesus says] “In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always."

He said these things while teaching in the meeting place in Capernaum. Many among his disciples heard this and said, "This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow."

Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, "Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen. Every word I've spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this." (Jesus knew from the start that some weren't going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, "This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father."

After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: "Do you also want to leave?"

Peter replied, "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We've already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:57-69 The Message Bible

S – What Suspicion should we have about how this passage has been interpreted and used?

This first step is more an attitude than an actual enquiry. We are taking the posture that this passage may have been misrepresented to us, misunderstood by us, and interpreted in complicity with the status quo rather than in solidarity with the poor.

Complicity means involvement as an accomplice, especially in wrongdoing. It may have a connotation of not being deliberate, but still without excuse.

The Poor means those people as a group who have little or no possessions or money. Most justice seeking organization include in the term those who are marginalized (overlooked and ignored by their society) and the powerless.

Mark Twain once wrote:

"Most people are bothered by those passages in Scriptures which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always notice that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand.”

P – How is this passage good news to the Poor?

For many of us in the comfortable pew, this requires empathy with the poor. And our community of faith certainly has a kind of empathy. We know what it means to be homeless. We know what it means to have experienced loss. And we know what it means to be devalued and marginalized.

As people who have experienced homelessness, loss, and marginalization, we might see in this passage the idea of having a “place” that is not so much geographical as it is a place to belong. “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We've already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God."

E – How is this passage a challenge to Empire?

“Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen. Every word I've spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this." (Jesus knew from the start that some weren't going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, "This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father."

One way to define “empire” is as the “status quo” when the status quo benefits those with wealth and power, usually to the neglect or the ignoring of the poor. It is the nature of Empire to have the power to make things happen – “Sheer muscle and willpower.” And to “betray” the spiritual side of life to the material and physical. But Jesus says that we find life, not through the material things, through our own power but through the spiritual side of our being, the God-part of us. “No one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father."

C – How have we been Complicit with empire?

In some respects, the status quo would be happy to spiritualize this passage. When “empire” spiritualizes something, it is so as to dismiss it (our culture has privatized religion). When we forget the poor, or fail to be empathetic with the poor by forgetting when we were homeless, experienced loss and marginalization, then it is easy for us to relegate this to some kind of private religious experience that has no real power in our socio-cultural context.

S – How does this passage lead us to solidarity with the poor?

If we are called to work with Jesus in our world, and if Jesus has shown clearly by example and teaching that his life and work is with the poor, then we can see where we belong. Going back to our understanding that this passage could be a place of identity (rather than a geographical place), then we can serve as representations of Jesus that publicly witness to our world that we stand with the poor.

How do we hold on to the power of the spirituality of this passage without “spiritualizing” it away? “In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always."

It seems to be a part of human experience to want to hide from or escape God. Like children trying to exert their independence from their parents, we want to exercise our free will. Our culture reinforces this with its heavy privatization of religion, all in the name, of course, of religious freedom, but also in the name of pluralization. Religious faith and spiritual life, even healthy expressions of them, are made impotent by being relegated to the private life of individuals. But the poor, without access to the larger benefits of society, often only have religious faith and hope, and spiritual power. This passage challenges us a faith community to truly live what we say we believe.

This passage calls us as a faith community to take sides! Who will be our people? The status quo, that could dismiss us when we didn’t appear to have a “normal” church building, but will just as likely dismiss because we have one and are conventional? “Empire” that includes global insurance companies that turn us out of our home? The dominant socio-cultural context in which find ourselves that emphasizes “having,” not loss? Or will it be the homeless, the ignored and overlooked, those exploited by empire? These are the ones who call out to God for justice. These are the ones with whom God chooses to live. Jesus is our home, and our home is with the poor.

U is for Understanding Scripture Part 2

2009-07-09T09:10:00.000-04:00

In the previous post we noted several ways of understanding Scripture (the "U" in Public Ministry is for understanding Scripture). Scripture is important to becoming a Public Ministry community of faith because Scripture is a record of God’s relationship with the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the powerless. There is hardly a piece of Scripture that does not show God’s small ones calling for help or the world’s powerful ones being humbled.

Take a look at a couple of those canticles in the Gospel of Luke. Mary’s Song goes

I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It's exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

And then look at the song that Zachariah sang at the birth of the Baptizer:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he came and set his people free.
He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives,
and in the very house of David his servant,
Just as he promised long ago
through the preaching of his holy prophets:
Deliverance from our enemies
and every hateful hand;
Mercy to our fathers,
as he remembers to do what he said he'd do,
What he swore to our father Abraham—
a clean rescue from the enemy camp,
So we can worship him without a care in the world,
made holy before him as long as we live.

And you, my child, "Prophet of the Highest,"
will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways,
Present the offer of salvation to his people,
the forgiveness of their sins.
Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God's Sunrise will break in upon us,
Shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
Then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
down the path of peace.

These two songs serve as a bridge between the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the New Testament. And both speak to the work of God among the poor and powerless. And to God’s undoing the ways of violence and greed. And Public Ministry is working with God, where God works, with the people God is working with.

God scattered the bluffing braggarts,
knocked tyrants off their high horses,
the callous rich were left out in the cold.

God pulled victims out of the mud,
the starving poor sat down to a banquet,
God came and set his people free,
deliverance from our enemies and every hateful hand,
a clean rescue from the enemy camp.

God's Sunrise will break in upon us,
shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
then showing us the path of peace.

But we must read the Scriptures with some suspicion about how we have traditionally understood it. It has become a vehicle for the status quo. It has been understood to be about right belief and being good. Take, for example, the word righteousness. Most of the time this word is given a “moral” understanding. But it is better understood as “justice.”

Approaching the Scriptures with the Suspicion in SPECS is one way. Reading the Scriptures with a “second naiveté” is another way we can avoid falling into the “same old, same old” trap.

U is For Understanding Scripture

2009-07-06T17:04:00.000-04:00

The "U" in Public Ministry is for Understanding Scripture.

We have looked at getting the SPECS on Scripture. We have looked at praying with scripture (found in the P Is For Prayer Part 2 blog). In this post we look at reading Scripture as metaphor.

Psalm 48 (last post) was a good example of engaging Scripture as metaphor. Look at it again and see all the metaphors (in bold).

God majestic, praise abounds in our God-city! God’s sacred mountain, breathtaking in its heights—earth's joy. Zion Mountain looms in the North, city of the world-King. God in his citadel peaks impregnable. The kings got together, they united and came. They took one look and shook their heads, they scattered and ran away. They doubled up in pain like a woman having a baby. You smashed the ships of Tarshish with a storm out of the East. We heard about it, then we saw it with our eyes— In God's city of Angel Armies, in the city our God set on firm foundations, firm forever. We pondered your love-in-action, God, waiting in your temple: your name, God, evokes a train of Hallelujahs wherever it is spoken, near and far; your arms are heaped with goodness-in-action. Be glad, Zion Mountain; dance, Judah's daughters! God does what he said he'd do! Circle Zion, take her measure, count her fortress peaks, Gaze long at her sloping bulwark, climb her citadel heights— then you can tell the next generation detail by detail the story of God, our God forever, who guides us till the end of time.

Here are some of the metaphors in this wonderful Scriptural poem.

The City:
God-city, City of the World-King, City of Angel Armies, City God set firm
The Mountain:
God’s Sacred Mountain, Zion Mountain, Citadel Peaks, Fortress Peaks, Citadel Heights
Directions:
North, East
Earthly Powers:
Kings, Ships of Tarshish
Earthly Powers’ Actions:
United and Came (got together), Took One Look, Shook Their Heads, Scattered and Ran, Doubled Up
Other Metaphors
Storm, Foundations, Temple, Train of Hallelujahs, Judah’s Daughter, Bulwark
God’s Actions
Smashed
Our Actions
Circle, Measure, Count, Gaze, Climb

But it is not easy for everyone to take a metaphorical approach to Scripture. Sometimes people want something sure (which religious officials will call "truth"). But "truths" are treasures that must be sought for and found. As a religious system ages, it probably moves toward more and more metaphorical approach to its religious stories and writings. But movements spring forth as sects, cults, and even branch-off religions, all wanting a more literal approach.

But God, being God, is beyond the limits a literalist approach would put on God, and on our experience of God. And on the Scriptures God has chosen to use as a vehicle of God's revelation to us. Taking a metaphorical approach to Scripture will open our senses, our hearts, our minds, and our spirits to understandings that are deeper than any that a literalist approach could give.

Getting the SPECS on Psalm 48

2009-07-05T09:26:00.000-04:00

God majestic, praise abounds in our God-city! His sacred mountain, breathtaking in its heights—earth's joy. Zion Mountain looms in the North, city of the world-King. God in his citadel peaks impregnable. The kings got together, they united and came. They took one look and shook their heads, they scattered and ran away. They doubled up in pain like a woman having a baby. You smashed the ships of Tarshish with a storm out of the East. We heard about it, then we saw it with our eyes— In God's city of Angel Armies, in the city our God Set on firm foundations, firm forever. We pondered your love-in-action, God, waiting in your temple: your name, God, evokes a train of Hallelujahs wherever it is spoken, near and far; your arms are heaped with goodness-in-action. Be glad, Zion Mountain; dance, Judah's daughters! God does what he said he'd do! Circle Zion, take her measure, count her fortress peaks, Gaze long at her sloping bulwark, climb her citadel heights— then you can tell the next generation detail by detail the story of God, our God forever, who guides us till the end of time. Psalm 48 (Message Bible)

S – Suspicion – How has this passage been interpreted in the past?

As with a lot of Scripture, this psalm has been spiritualized or it has been applied to “church.” This is especially true of the last few lines – they way we have heard it, it is as if you could substitute “heaven” or “church” for the word Zion, so that Zion becomes a metaphor of either of the former (or both). We have heard it say:

Circle the church, take her measure,
count her fortress peaks,
Gaze long at her sloping bulwark,
climb her citadel heights—
then you can tell the next generation
detail by detail the story of God,
our God forever,
who guides us till the end of time.

This look at the passage is set up for us earlier in the words:

We pondered your love-in-action, God,
waiting in your temple:
your name, God, evokes a train
of Hallelujahs wherever
it is spoken, near and far;

Here “temple” has been looked at as “church.”

We pondered your love-in-action, God,
waiting in your church:
your name, God, evokes a train
of Hallelujahs wherever (can’t you picture us singing?)
it is spoken, near and far.

P – Poor – How is this passage good news for the poor?

You smashed the ships of Tarshish with a storm out of the East. We heard about it, then we saw it with our eyes— In God's city of Angel Armies, in the city our God Set on firm foundations, firm forever.

We pondered your love-in-action, God, ...Your arms are heaped with goodness-in-action.

This love-in-action is God actively liberating the poor from oppression (“smashing the ships”). This goodness-in-action is God providing the needs of the poor.

E – Empire – How is this passage a judgment on Empire.

The status quo doesn’t want to see itself in the words,

The kings got together, they united and came. They took one look and shook their heads, they scattered and ran away. They doubled up in pain like a woman having a baby.

”The kings” are “the empire.” Empire represents the status quo, the world as it is structured for the benefit of the powerful, the wealthy, and the famous.

"Globalization can be understood as the worldwide integration of economic, political, cultural, and social systems. In this sense, there are a wide variety of processes of globalization at work, both positive and negative. The United Church 's concern with globalization has focused particularly on ways in which the world's interconnected political and economic systems work to benefit the few at the expense of the many, effectively impoverishing the vast majority of humanity and the Earth itself. Often, these systems are kept in place by violence or by the threat of violence, including military force. These interconnected systems, which are global in scope, can be understood as a modern form of empire —a word with rich biblical and theological connotations (from the United Church of Canada website).

The “ships of Tarshish” is a metaphor for powers. Our world has many powers. It is said that in the age in which we presently live, knowledge is power. In the industrial age, as in the mercantile age before it, capital was power – if you could invest in industry or trade you could see huge returns on your investments. Before that, land was power – both for the production of wealth as well as for political power. Status, political position, even some vocations are means of power. The poor do not have power. They are the overlooked and ignored, the dispossessed and powerless.

The powers of this world cannot stand up to God. Why? For us as Christians, Jesus made it possible for us to resistance the powers of this world. Jesus undermined them. He conquered death. When we no longer fear death, what power does any power have over us?

C – Complicity – How have we been complicit with Empire?

The King James Version read,

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

As one philosopher said,

“God is on his throne, and all is right with the world.”

Clearly not.

We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.

The problem with “in the midst of thy temple” and “full of righteousness,” is that we expect, at least in this context, for “righteousness” to be “good church people.” And as everyone knows, “good church people” support the status quo.

S – Solidarity – How can we show solidarity with the Poor.

From our Edge, from the position of being made homeless twice and being on the fringe of our society’s life, overlooked and ignored because we have no visible church, we can read these words in a transitional way, from complicity with Empire to solidly a member of the edge.

The kings got together, they united and came. They took one look and shook their heads, they scattered and ran away. They doubled up in pain like a woman having a baby. We built a kind of “heaven on earth,”
two churches united and ready to keep our beautiful building for generations to come.
But the cost of keeping church-as-usual overwhelmed us.

You smashed the ships of Tarshish with a storm out of the East. We heard about it, then we saw it with our eyes— In God's city of Angel Armies, in the city our God Set on firm foundations, firm forever.

Down they came, first one years ago, and now the second.
We realized in time that our faith’s foundations are not a building,
but faith in God, and God’s work through us together as people.

We pondered your love-in-action, God, waiting in your temple:
your name, God, evokes a train of Hallelujahs wherever it is spoken,
near and far;
your arms are heaped with goodness-in-action.

You have changed us forever.
We need your goodness and love,
which come to us on their way to the poor.
Like a living “hallelujah,” we will do your work in public,
we will be your love-in-action, your goodness-in-action.

P is for Prayer Part 2

2009-06-30T10:15:00.000-04:00

The P in Public Ministry is for Prayer. We have written about the importance of prayer for public ministry. One way to structure our meetings so that they become more “prayerful,” so that “worship and work are one,” is to follow a similar pattern from worship. The three main sections of worship are: 1) Gathering, 2) Listening for God’s Word, 3) Responding. Sometimes the third item is subdivided into Responding and Departing.

Gathering is probably easiest to understand. Most meetings have items at the beginning like an opening prayer, adopting the agenda, minutes, and similar. These can be easily seen as part of Gathering. Sometimes meetings will include an opening “check in.” A "check-in" is important, and especially when the “check in” is given some direction. Most meetings should have no more than one major topic of discussion (it is a proven concept that the effectiveness of a group drastically drops when there is more than one big-ticket item on the agenda). So the “check-in” should be related to that big-ticket item. For example, if the item is about incorporating a specific outside ministry, the check-in could be a question like, “When have you experienced someone letting go of something so that it could take off on its own, whether yourself letting go or being let go, or witnessing it? One example could be when you left home.”

The "Listening to God" section will be unusual in a meeting. We have been quite rationalistic in our approach to God. “God gave us minds, now let’s use them.” This reminds me of the Deists, who over a century ago believed that the universe could be compared to a giant clockwork. God created it and wound it up, and then left it to go on ticking on its own. These rationalistic approaches come from a misunderstanding of God and from an insecurity on our part. For our part, we don’t want to be told what to do. And for God’s part, God wants to be with us, present with us. Not off somewhere else while we “use our minds” or while the universe ticks. And God doesn’t want to tell us what to do (or else why would God give us free will – but some denominations believe that God gave us freewill so that we could prove our obedience).

So the second part of our meeting is, "Listening to God," is really “Discernment.” Discerning God’s guiding, God’s wisdom, God’s sense of direction. Prayer is important for discernment. So is Scripture. Every agenda should have some prayerful discernment worked in. There are a number of techniques for this, but my favourite is “praying the Scripture.” Let the Scripture be a vehicle for God to speak to us. Here’s how, and it’s easy.

Let’s put ourselves in a frame of mind that says, “Let’s read this as if for the first time. And, let’s read it as if it is contain a specific message from God about what we are discerning at this meeting.”
Read the passage; if possible having one person reading aloud while everyone has a copy to follow along with.
Ask, “What might God be saying to us in this passage of Scripture about our main point of discussion?” This is conversation, with as many as are willing making suggestions.
Are there any places where "our story" (shared during the deliberate "check-in time") and God's story (from Scripture) intersect for us?
It is might be helpful to wrap up the conversation with a summary prayer. There is no need to come to a specific decision during this time - that can be saved for the next part of the meeting.

Anyone can lead these steps, either the chairperson or a member of the meeting designated ahead of time by the chairperson. Ministry personnel could help with item 4.

The “Responding to God” section of the meeting can be decision-making conversations following the discernment time. And the closing matters of a meeting are of course included here.

How do we find time for this without extending the length of meetings? Two things:

1) cut reporting time. We are lucky to live in an era of web pages, email, and photocopies. No one should have to read a report. But everyone needs to come to meetings prepared, having read the reports. There will be some that want to continue with written reports (old ways are difficult to put to rest, and new ways are difficult to embrace). Members of a committee or council are responsible for what is reported, so this is not an invitation to ignore reports. And if something in a report needs discussion, any member can ask that it be included on the agenda.

2) There are all kinds of psychological and spiritual reasons for this, but when discernment (which includes a lot of conversation) precedes decision-making conversation, the decision-making time is greatly decreased. So while it seems to add time, in fact it has not been found to increase it very much, and the decisions that are finally made are clearly and rest better with the members.

Most importantly, we are able to sense God’s accompaniment, God’s presence with us, in our meeting, and to sense God’s guidance and leading and direction. Not God’s dictates, but God’s loving presence.

Another way to include prayer in a meeting, especially one in which the members hear a report and are to make a decision based on the report, is to use “gleaning prayers.” Before the report is read, members are asked to keep notes of what we should pray for or about. After the report, the prayer requests are named. They can be understood as prayers even as they are named, or, after everyone has spoken, a summary prayer can be offered. It is also helpful to designate some a couple of people ahead of time to “listen for prayer needs,” especially when this approach is new. The summary prayer could be the words of the Prayer of Jesus: “We gather these prayers together and offer them to God as to our mother who loves us saying, ‘Our Father....’” To be welcoming to new church members of meetings, be sure to print the words of the Prayer of Jesus (Lord’s Prayer). The 23rd Psalm could be used as it is well known to many older members, but should still be printed.

Time Off

2009-06-18T11:59:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who reads these blogs, and especially all who comment and respond.

I will be away from the blog until July 5. Check back then. Thanks.

Our Decommissioning & Leave-taking Service

2009-06-15T17:04:00.000-04:00

So, yesterday (Sunday, June 14th) we had our service of decommissioning and leave-taking of our current church building. It is to be torn down. We began by gathering outside the building.

We recalled a brief history, a couple of people reminisced, and we listened to the tolling of the toll-bells for one full minute - very emotional. The children helped us launch balloons, reminding us that the balloons represented our letting go of our building.

We heard read a very moving letter from our current chair of our Seaway Valley Presbytery, the Rev’d Elizabeth Bachem. I hope you will follow this link and read it.

Before the choir led everyone in a procession across the street to Central Public School for the remainder of the service, the Rev’d Jim Leland led the people in the following verses from Mark 4:35-39 (The Message Bible).

Jesus said to them, "Let's go across to the other side."
They took Jesus in the boat as he was....
A huge storm came up.
Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it.
And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping!
They roused him, saying, "Teacher, is it nothing to you that we're going down?"
Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!"
The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass.

Let us “cross over” to the future into which God is calling us.
The One who controls the storms of life goes with us.

The Rev’d Gail Christy, past chair of Seaway Valley Presbytery, who presided over the earlier part of the service, the decommissioning, preached the sermon. She used John 21:1-19 as her text, focusing on the words

Jesus said, "Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens."
They did what Jesus said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren't strong enough to pull it in. John 21:6 The Message Bible

She encouraged the congregation to consider “fishing on the other side of the boat,” in other words, to embrace change.

The Rev’d Jim Leland read the Affirmation of Our Edge.

Many, many people made this service possible. This became a very new beginning for our faith community.

Getting the SPECS on Scripture

2009-06-14T12:49:00.000-04:00

Not only for Public Ministry congregations, but for all Christian congregations wanting to carry mission and ministry into the 21st century, engaging scripture is very important. Using Scripture in worship, decision-making, business meetings, studies, proclaiming Jesus, loving and serving others, seeking justice and resisting evil, living with respect in creation, celebrating God’s presence, and throughout the life of the faith community is an important tool for discerning God’s call, God’s leading, and God’s guidance.

Specifications are a set of requirements defining an exact description of an object or process. If you look at the instruction booklet of an appliance, you will likely see a page that says, “Specifications.” Specifications are typically written by and for engineers. They use a short form for specifications, “specs.”

As we engage in scripture, we want to get the specs on the passage we are examining. We can use “SPECS.” I will also include examples from Psalm 20 (The Message Bible).

God answer you on the day you crash,
The name God-of-Jacob put you out of harm's reach,
Send reinforcements from Holy Hill,
Dispatch from Zion fresh supplies,
Exclaim over your offerings,
Celebrate your sacrifices,
Give you what your heart desires,
Accomplish your plans.
When you win, we plan to raise the roof
and lead the parade with our banners.
May all your wishes come true!

That clinches it—help's coming,
an answer's on the way,
everything's going to work out.

See those people polishing their chariots,
and those others grooming their horses?
But we're making garlands for God our God.
The chariots will rust,
those horses pull up lame—
and we'll be on our feet, standing tall.
Make the king a winner, God;
the day we call, give us your answer.

S – Suspicion – “S” is for suspicion. We need to be suspicious of the way Scripture has been interpreted to and for us. Police detectives ask in solving a crime, “Who benefits?” Who benefits from the way we have traditionally understood the passage of Scripture? Often, it is the advantaged, the powerful, the status quo.

Using Psalm 20 as an example, these words have been either spiritualized, or have had its benefits postponed until “heaven.” It gets spiritualized when the words,

That clinches it—help's coming,
an answer's on the way,
everything's going to work out,

are interpreted to mean that God will give us comfort or understanding or courage. Not real, material, physical help, but spiritual help. It gets postponed when we understand them to mean that everything will work out – in heaven!

P – Poor – “P” is for the poor. How is the passage Gospel, Good News, for the poor, the marginalized, those who have experienced loss, those ignored and overlooked by society? Psalm 20 says,

Send reinforcements from Holy Hill,
Dispatch from Zion fresh supplies ...
That clinches it—help's coming,
an answer's on the way,
everything's going to work out...
and we'll be on our feet, standing tall.

Imagine those who have crashed, those who are experiencing the reverberations of the recent economic crisis, reading these words. God wants to help them with what they need, not merely “pie in the sky.”

E – Empire – “E” is for empire. "Globalization can be understood as the worldwide integration of economic, political, cultural, and social systems. In this sense, there are a wide variety of processes of globalization at work, both positive and negative. The United Church 's concern with globalization has focused particularly on ways in which the world's interconnected political and economic systems work to benefit the few at the expense of the many, effectively impoverishing the vast majority of humanity and the Earth itself. Often, these systems are kept in place by violence or by the threat of violence, including military force. These interconnected systems, which are global in scope, can be understood as a modern form of empire —a word with rich biblical and theological connotations (from the United Church of Canada website).

How is the passage judgment for empire?

See those people polishing their chariots,
and those others grooming their horses?
But we're making garlands for God our God.
The chariots will rust,
those horses pull up lame,

This is NOT good news for empire. Chariots and horses are metaphors for the modern global “machine” that “work to benefit the few at the expense of the many, effectively impoverishing the vast majority of humanity and the Earth itself. Often, these systems are kept in place by violence or by the threat of violence, including military force.” The psalmist says, “These things will rust and go lame.”

C – Complicity – “C” is for complicity. We participate, knowingly and unknowingly, in “empire” primarily through our roles as consumers in the global capitalist market system. Complicity is defined as involvement as a partner in wrongdoing, but not always knowingly. How does this passage shed light on our complicity with empire?

As mentioned in the first step, this passage has been either spiritualized, or it has its benefits postponed until “heaven.” When we do not take the passage at face value, but rather see it as a comfort to ourselves, when we spiritualize it or postpone it to “heaven,” we are complicit with empire. The status quo certainly does not want this passage taken seriously!
.
S – Solidarity – “S” is for solidarity with the poor. How does the passage suggest we can show solidarity with the poor, marginalized, and those ignored and overlooked by society?

We are to be the reinforcements from Holy Hill.
We are to be the fresh supplies dispatched from Zion.
We are the help that’s coming.
We are the answer that's on the way.

Prayer in the Psalms

2009-06-13T14:52:00.000-04:00

The Book of Psalms could be considered the Bible’s Prayer Book. Some are out and out prayers, speaking directly to God. Others are like affirmations that can be heard as prayers. Psalm 29:11 reads.

GOD makes his people strong.
GOD gives his people peace.

This could be understood or even rendered as

God, make us strong.
God, give us peace.

(Or more personalized: God, make me strong, give me peace.)

When we ask this prayer for ourselves, let’s remember the Great Stewardship Principle, God’s gifts of strength and peace come to us on their way to someone else. In other words, 1) we ask, 2) we give what we ask, and 3) then we find that we receive and thereby 4) affirm the words of the Psalmist.

Or, we can ask on behalf of those ignored and overlooked by society,

God, make them strong.
God, give them peace.

When we say this prayer for others, it similarly reminds us to minister to others so they have this strength and peace. In other words, we simply long to be the channels of God’s strength and peace.

Psalm 130:1-6

Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life!
Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to my cries for mercy.

If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings,
who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
and that's why you're worshiped.

I pray to GOD—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he'll say and do.
My life's on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.

And so our community of faith, on its edge, at the margin, could pray

Help, God!
The bottom has fallen out of the life of our community of faith.
We have lost our church home.
It seems we have nowhere to go.
Jesus, hear our cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to our cries for mercy.

But we might as well pray for and minister for others who have experienced loss. That’s our calling, that’s our public ministry, and that’s the way of God’s economy.

Help them, God!
The bottom has fallen out of their lives.
(The bottom has fallen out of the economy).
They have lost help that had been given
because money is thought to be more scarce.
Jesus, listen to their cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to their cries for mercy.

And public Ministry is ministry with God as God hears and answers their cries. And in so doing, in so giving, in so ministering, we also receive what we need.

Why? The Psalmist answers the question:

We pray to GOD.
OUR life as a faith community is a prayer.
And we wait for what God will say and do.
Our life together is on the line before God, our Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.

“Morning" is a metaphor to us for resurrection, liberation, and empowerment. The 21st century congregation learns what the Psalmist already knew – together, as a faith community, we are a prayer, a living prayer. And, we are an answer to prayer, at least for those we can reach.

The Prayer of Jesus

2009-06-09T15:49:00.000-04:00

The Prayer of Jesus is one of the most familiar to us. The traditional words go like this:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory
for ever and ever. Amen.

This prayer comes to us from the Gospels. The Gospel of Luke (11:1-13) remembers it this way:

One day [Jesus] was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, "Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

So he said, "When you pray, say, Father, Reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil."

Then he said, "Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don't have a thing on hand.'

"The friend answers from his bed, 'Don't bother me. The door's locked; my children are all down for the night; I can't get up to give you anything.'

"But let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you need.

"Here's what I'm saying: Ask and you'll get; Seek and you'll find; Knock and the door will open.

"Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing—you're at least decent to your own children. And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?"

Knowing that prayer is important to public ministry, we might say, "Master, teach us to pray." Jesus teaches us with these simple lines:

God – be present! And by the power of who you are present in this world, transform it. Keep us alive, forgiven, forgiving, and safe.

The language is very modern and updated, but what a message!

And, we could add, “Empower us to pass on to others your life, your forgiveness, your spirit of reconciliation, and your safety.” Because we know the Great Stewardship Principle – God’s gifts (of life, forgiveness, reconciliation, and safety) come to us on their way to someone else. And that’s also the Great Public Ministry Principle.

So when we pray the Prayer of Jesus, we offer a manifesto of public ministry.

And Jesus goes on teaching us – Don’t bargain with God – prayer is not a transaction. It’s not making a deal about being good. It’s not a transaction of time for benefits, or a trade of faith for services. “Be direct. Ask for what you need.” It’s not about reciprocity. God gives without expecting return, unconditionally, no strings, no fine print, no contract. That’s how God forgives. That’s how God loves. And that’s how God answers prayer.

Matthew’s Gospel (6:5-18) remembers the prayer of Jesus this way (Mark and John do not record the prayer)

"And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.

Interesting – “Do you think God sits in a box seat?” Prayer is not intended to be a production for God’s benefit. Nor is it a role-play. “Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” Be yourself, naked, before God. Focused on God, even, not what you want or need.

Jesus says, "The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God.” Not me. I only want to say here these two things: 1) The Prayer of Jesus is part of our manifesto for public ministry, and 2) The Great Principle applies to it, that God’s gifts come to us on their way to someone else.

It sums up this way:
God – be present!
And by the power of who you are present in this world, transform it.
Keep us alive, forgiven, forgiving, and safe.
And these things we ask, we know they will come to us on their way to someone else.
And so we engage, ourselves, in passing on
your life, forgiveness, reconciliation, and safety.
Amen. So may it be. Yes!

Public Ministry: "P" is for Prayer

2009-06-07T15:04:00.000-04:00

I remember in divinity school (seminary), learning the importance of prayer. We as students were busy being involved in various justice ministries – soup kitchens, picket lines, prison work, planned parenthood support, and the like. One day I went to the auditorium to listen to a lecture by a visiting scholar. There was a convent down the street from the seminary, and sometimes some of the sisters would come to listen to the visiting “great ones.” On this occasion, I found myself seated next to one of the sisters, and so with a few minutes to go, we introduced ourselves. I had heard that the sisters of this convent were dedicated to a life of prayer. In all innocence – I found it truly hard to believe – I asked, “Is it true that all you do is pray?” She answered me, “Young man, we do nothing less than pray.” Never forgetting that, it put my “justice work” in perspective.

I was part of a connection of justice-seekers whose motto was “picket and pray.” They understood that spiritual depth went with wide arms and open hands. My spiritual formation was largely shaped by Benedictine spirituality. Their motto is “Work and Prayer.” Again, they understand the importance of prayer in public ministry. Prayer, as one great theologian said, is not to change God. It is so that through praying that God can transform and shape us.

We need to frame our prayers to our public ministry. The “Serenity Prayer” goes something like, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. The first line is about learning to let go. The pain of this public ministry with the ignored and overlooked can overwhelm us (indeed, I think it has the effect sometimes of causing us to go to sleep on justice issues). At the “end of the day,” we must let it go. And with letting go we need prayers of thanksgiving – which lead us to live life with gratitude, graciously, gracefully, grace-filled-ly.

But that does not mean we don’t act courageously in ways we can make a difference. As we worship, hold business meetings, and study, we should be “gleaning” for prayers.

And wisdom is always needed. We can always offer prayers of confession – when we don’t seem to know the difference, when we don’t let go or we don’t act courageously.

It will become increasingly important for our faith community to re-learn how to pray. We need to reinvent prayer in worship and in our council and committee meetings. We sing a hymn that says, “Worship and work must be one.” When we work, whether for the immediate needs of the congregation or for public ministry, we will learn how to make our work, our ministry like worship – prayerful, prayer-filled.

The Emerging Journey Spirituality

2009-06-04T08:52:00.000-04:00

We can start looking at this new emerging spirituality by asking, “Who knows the spiritual or religious, or theological truths?” Habitation spirituality answers, “The religious professionals, along with those with a long history in church, etc.” Seeker spirituality answers, “I, the individual, know.” The emerging journey spirituality says, “We, the faith community, together know.”

Who is responsible for spiritual growth? Habitation: “The experts.” Seekers: “I am.” Emerging Journey: “We, the faith community, together are.”

How does spiritual growth occur? Habitation: “Through right theology or right liturgy.” Seeker: “By experimentation.” Journey: “Being in community together, in conversation, faith sharing, prayer together, discernment, and engaging Scripture together - these are ways of listening to the Spirit and being transformed by the Spirit.”

How are decisions made? Habitation: “Debate and vote.” Seeker: “Do your own thing.” Journey: “Conversation, collectivity, and discernment (of what God might be leading us to).”

What is faith sharing? Habitation: “A sermon by the professional.” Seeker: “Talking at a coffee shop.” Journey: “In the gathering of the faith community, anyone sharing the 'lived-out' dimension of faith.”

What is prayer? Habitation: “Prepared by, led by, or said by professionals.” Seeker: “Everything is prayer.” Journey: “Everyone learns together to pray.”

What is engaging the Scripture? Habitation: “A study led by a professional.” Seeker: “There are many scriptures, and many more sacred books and writings.” Journey: "Questioning the meaning of the Scriptures together, sharing insight and perspective with one another."

What is leadership? Habitation: “Professionals academically prepared.” Seeker: “Experts who have experimented with and mastered a field of spirituality.” Journey: “Leadership is shared, and learning is on-going.”

Fortress Spirituality

2009-06-02T16:02:00.000-04:00

A couple of blogs ago I mentioned that

The consequential dimension of habitation spirituality has in recent times, the last 5 or so decades, been turned in on itself and made into fortress mentality.

This happens, I went on, because

Habitation spirituality can become misguided by becoming mere habit. We may habitually gather at the sacred place with the sacred people and do the sacred rituals, but no longer experience the presence of the divine. We become fixed on the accoutrements of spirituality, on how we do it, rather than on the experience of the holy. The experience of the sacred can transform us. But when we lose the experience of the Wholly Other, the transformation is much less likely to take place.

Fortress Spirituality takes over habitation spiritual (described at the same link) when we follow the world's economics, and the "law of diminishing marginal utility."

A pioneer farmer had five sacks of grain, with no way of selling them or buying more. He had five possible uses: as basic feed for himself, food to build strength, food for his chickens for dietary variation, an ingredient for making whisky and feed for his parrots to amuse him. Then the farmer lost one sack of grain. Instead of reducing every activity by a fifth, the farmer simply starved the parrots as they were of less utility than the other four uses; in other words they were on the margin. And it is on the margin, and not with a view to the big picture, that we make economic decisions. (from Wikipedia)

Three blogs ago I mentioned that

Many of us have had a "habitation spirituality." When the Psalmist says, "Lord, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells," the Psalmist is talking about habitation spirituality (Psalms 26:8 NRSV). In habitation spirituality, our spiritual dimension is nourtured when we gather at the sacred place, with the sacred people, to conduct the sacred rituals. It is there and then that we most strongly experience the presence of God.

But over the years we have misunderstood habitation spirituality as fortress spirituality. The church building looks like a fortress because that is how we picture it. And we sing, "a mighty fortress is our God," but we are thinking "church." It's the church where we protect and keep and maintain the millions of answers to questions. We even read the Scriptures this way. Jesus said, "upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18 KJB). Hell doesn't come attacking fortress church with gates. We are called to go to hell! To break down the gates. To not only seek justice but to actively resist evil.

In recent years there is emerging a new spirituality, called "journey spirituality." This is not really new. There is a thread of tension in the early books of our Hebrew Scripture between "nomadic tradition" and "settled tradition." In the threads that came from the nomadic tradition there is an emphasis on remaining unsettled, unattached. "My father was a wandering Aramean" (Deuteronomy 26:5). Remember the story of Cain and Abel? Whose offering pleased God? Was it the grain offering of the settled agriculturalist? Or the animal offering of the nomadic herdspeople (Genesis 4:2-5)? Eventually, with an emphasis on Jerusalem and the reign of David as the "golden era," the "settled tradition" won out, but the nomadic threads were never really erased from the Scriptures. The "nomadic tradition" is not unlike our modern emerging "journey spirituality."

Interestingly, on Monday evening as we were holding conversation together about a vision, the idea of "tent" came up.

Then one day King David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look at this: Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent."

Nathan told the king, "Whatever is on your heart, go and do it. God is with you."

But that night, the word of God came to Nathan saying, "Go and tell my servant David: This is God's word on the matter: You're going to build a 'house' for me to live in? Why, I haven't lived in a 'house' from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt till now. All that time I've moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, 'Why haven't you built me a house of cedar?' So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went. 2 Samuel 7:2-9 The Message Bible

The emerging journey spirituality might be symbolized in the "tent of meeting" of the early days of God's people, before the temple. This is very different from the fortress mentality that has come to characterize Christendom, and especially in our times.

How Do We Thrive?

2009-05-31T09:06:00.000-04:00

God is the life-giver, the source of life. Psalm 104:30 reads, "Send out your Spirit and they spring to life – the whole countryside in bloom and blossom" (The Message Bible) The way of our world is to count, count people, count money, cut losses, losses expenses, preserve resources.

If we as a faith community do these things, they are a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more we cut, the more we will need to cut. Cutting produces a downward spiral. We cut something, and as a result morale drops, enthusiasm drops, and thereby participation drops. And participation includes attendance and giving. And when giving drops, we reach a point where we think we should cut again. The cycle repeats, like a downward spiral.

Good stewardship is not preservation, thrift, or cutting back. The second great principle of stewardship is avoiding waste. The first, primary, and most fundamental point of Christian stewardship is: God’s abundance comes to us on its way to someone else. If we want to experience God’s abundance, let’s give it away.

The religious news reported that a congregation in Alabama gave $50,000 to help the needy.
Bay Community Church in Malbis, Alabama, gave its 2,000-member congregation $50,000 on Sunday, but not to keep. Some members got $20, others $100. But all of them were told that they cannot give it back to the church or spend it on their family. It must go to help others who are in need. Trey Taylor, who's in charge of creative worship at the church, calls it a faith stimulus package.

How do we thrive? If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll keep going where we’re going. If we keep cutting, then that’s where we’ll keep going. It’s like the “law of diminishing marginal utility.”

A pioneer farmer had five sacks of grain, with no way of selling them or buying more. He had five possible uses: as basic feed for himself, food to build strength, food for his chickens for dietary variation, an ingredient for making whisky and feed for his parrots to amuse him. Then the farmer lost one sack of grain. Instead of reducing every activity by a fifth, the farmer simply starved the parrots as they were of less utility than the other four uses; in other words they were on the margin. And it is on the margin, and not with a view to the big picture, that we make economic decisions. (from Wikipedia)

In other words, we cut those things that we perceive to be less meaningful or important or necessary or needed. It's not by looking at the big picture. The big picture is God's picture. In our real world it isn't parrots that are starved. It's people who are on the margins. These are the ones who matter to the faith community doing public ministry. These are the ones who matter to the faith community that is keeping with God's economy. These are the ones who matter to the faith community that will thrive and flourish, springing to life, in bloom and blossoming.

God’s abundance comes to us on its way to someone else. What we cannot afford to cut, in God’s economy, is what we give away. Yes, it is certainly counter intuitive. It goes against the world’s economy. Jesus prayed in John 17,

They didn't join the world's ways, just as I didn't join the world's ways ... They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. (The Message Bible)

A faith community does the opposite of the world. We look at those on the margins of society, those overlooked and ignored by society, those who have experienced deep losses, and we spend the congregations resources on them. Maybe giving the members some money to help those in need is not the answer. But an increase in public ministry is.

Jesus said that if we try to save our lives, we will lose them. But if we give ourselves away for the sake of the gospel – the good news that is for those ignored and overlooked by society – we will find our lives. God’s abundance comes to us on its way to someone else.

Styles and Dimensions of Spirituality

2009-05-28T09:58:00.000-04:00

Sociologists have talked about two major styles of spirituality – habitation spirituality, and seeker spirituality. These two are almost polar opposites.

Habitation Spirituality
Habitation spirituality is the more traditional spirituality, the one that those who attend church are familiar with. It is all about coming together at the sacred place, the holy people gathering, at the sacred times to conduct the sacred rituals. The rituals include learning the sacred truths and celebrating the sacred stories.

This is the spirituality associated with formal religious institutions. It is what we expect goes on in churches, synagogues, and mosques. There is nothing wrong with habitation spirituality's desire for a sacred place - a home. It is a significant part of the habitat in habitation spirituality that provides comfort, security, stability, and certainty.

Seeker Spirituality
According to sociologists, this is a more recent phenomenon, since the 60’s. It emphasizes religious or spiritual experiementation over institutions. Inquiry is more important than structured, traditional answers. Individual expressions of faith are preferred to habits, customs, and communal rituals. For people who hold to a seeker spirituality, God is more likely found in the interior life than in places or times or gatherings.

This kind of spirituality will more likely be experienced at the “New Age” or “Inspirational” section of the bookstore, or on the internet. It will be talked about in the coffee shop and the pub.

The Dimensions of Spirituality
There are said to be six dimensions of spirituality. We can see how these six dimensions differ in the two styles of spirituality.

Belief Dimension
The first is called the ideological or belief dimension. This is the part of a person or institution’s spirituality that holds beliefs and values. For example, there is a God, Jesus is God’s Son, we accept God’s love through faith, we believe in inclusiveness and in being open to diversity, and we believe that racism is an evil.

In habitation spirituality, the beliefs and values pretty much come in a package from the religious institution. There is a “correct” set of beliefs and values. The word “orthodoxy” means “straight or right belief.” Habitation spirituality leans in the direction of orthodoxy.

Seeker spirituality does not. There are no “correct” or “official” beliefs and values that have to be assented to. Instead, one seeks for answers. One must put together a belief and value system for oneself. It's like building your own religion.

Knowledge Dimension
The intellectual or knowledge dimension is about information and data. We might know the books of the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and the names of the twelve disciples. Data and information give us knowledge. When knowledge becomes internalized, when it moves from head to heart, it turns into beliefs and values.

It is not too difficult to picture this in habitation spirituality. Many sermons are “knowledge dumps.” And the church has been compared to a fortress of answers to thousands of questions – questions that seekers are not asking.

In seeker spirituality, the whole world of religions is a source of spiritual information. It is a great smorgasbord to be explored and tasted. One can take information from different religious traditions and put them together to form a new way of knowing and experiencing the spiritual world. These become internalized and form beliefs and values, but these beliefs and values are always subject to change as new information is discovered.

Ritual Dimension
Every spirituality has a ritual dimension. Rituals are the way we practice our beliefs. This might be the way in which we worship together, or a moment we spend when we first arise in the morning to pause and enjoy a coffee and silence. Or it might be reading a devotional booklet each day, or attending a series of Lenten services, or a form of meditation or contemplation.

This sounds like the very definition of habitation spirituality. Worship, sacraments, and study are all the venues of ritual. Rituals are conducted by the “experts,” who often dress in special garments to show their status.

In seeker spirituality, rituals are often invented. They may be conducted by the individual for the individual, or else an expert in a particular field of spirituality might lead the ritual. It might well include meditation, or yoga, or candle-lighting ceremonies, or focusing on a item that is used to channel spiritual energies.

Experiential Dimension
The experiential dimension of a person’s spirituality is the feeling part, especially the way in which the person feels the presence of the sacred or holy. It is the feeling of being connected with that which we would name God, or that which is greater than ourselves.

Often for habitation spirituality, the experiential or feeling dimension is the feeling one has from going to the sacred place. The stained glass windows, the architecture, the rituals, the garb worn by professionals and choir, the organ music and hymns, all work to create an experience of the holy, an experience of God’s presence. Some forms of habitation spirituality experience charismatic worship. Others attend inspirational services.

For seeker spirituality, the experiential dimension is more like an experimental dimension. The feeling dimension arises through trial and error (hence seeker) – one is seeking for an experience of the divine. Or, if the personality is strongly inclined toward rationalism or intellectualism, it may be enough to have a logically thought out spiritual system or a spirituality with lots of knowledge of a wide variety of things. Feelings, emotional intelligence, and an experience of the holy can be completely overlooked and ignored. Experimentation, trial and error, seeking and searching, can all replace actual experience of the sacred.

Consequential Dimension
The consequential dimension is the part of spirituality that gets lived out. It is the influence of the spirituality on everyday life. It puts the belief dimension into action. It is that part of a person or institution where behaviour takes place. If beliefs and values are information and knowledge that has been internalized, and rituals are the practice sessions for these beliefs and values, the consequential dimension is the part that is lived out when the practice session is over, what the practice session was for. In a society such as ours, with an emphasis on secularism and pluralism, religion and religious experience are privatized. Spirituality is kept private and invisible. But our internal spiritual life will still impact in some way our external behaviour. When Jesus says to pray in secret, Jesus seems to know that this life of prayer will nevertheless have a open revealing in the way in which we live. Our society benefits us in the expectation that religion will be kept private. We are not therefore tricked into believing because we act religious, and seen to be doing forms of spirituality, that we are better people. Rather, good religion and spirituality will make us better people.

The consequential dimension of habitation spirituality has in recent times, the last 5 or so decades, been turned in on itself and made into fortress mentality. We will discuss this separately later. Habitation spirituality can become misguided by becoming mere habit. We may habitually gather at the sacred place with the sacred people and do the sacred rituals, but no longer experience the presence of the divine. We become fixed on the accoutrements of spirituality, on how we do it, rather than on the experience of the holy. The experience of the sacred can transform us. But when we lose the experience of the Wholly Other, the transformation is much less likely to take place.

In our society’s way of privatizing religion, seeker spirituality flourishes, because there is an individualistic aspect to seeker spirituality. But it may also be harder to come by simply because the spiritual knowledge has to be found and sifted through before it can become internalized, moving from head to heart. And then to be ritualized the seeker must also experiment. Habitation spirituality has the advantage that these dimensions are more readily accessible. Often in seeker spirituality the consequntial dimension is sought for health and well-being rather than for aiding others.

Supportive Dimension
Finally, the supportive dimension is the social dimension, the way in which the spirituality participates in community life. Spirituality is strongest when it is shared with and supported by others.

This is especially true for habitation spirituality, although not all habitation spirituality calls for gathering with others. A sacred time and place may be experienced alone. And the practitioners of habitation spirituality, in addition to attending a sacred place with others, often also keep some kind of quiet time alone.

For seeker spirituality, this has been more difficult. Getting together informally to study a book of a type of spirituality, or to take turns sharing ideas, are the earlier ways of doing this. Today, the internet has made more sharing possible. And the internet has allowed seeker spirituality to flourish, while it has done little more for habitation spirituality than provide advertisement for where and when services are held. The challenge, I suppose for habitiation spirituality on the internet is to find sacred virtual space.