Some things are more important than bulletins

Today a young woman walked into the church and asked to use the telephone. Not a problem, I said.  And while she sat in the office dialing numbers and getting no response, I sat at my desk trying to pick out hymns for Sunday. 

Are you stranded?  I asked.   She had just been released from the county jail, she said, was 80 miles from home, and no one was coming to get her.  She finally got a hold of a friend or a neighbor… someone she thought might help and was chewed out over the phone.  She hung up in frustration. 

Do you need a ride? I asked.  She had no other options.  She was seven months pregnant and needed to get home.  We got in my car and headed out.  And on the way out the door, she asked if she could have one of the bibles on the shelf.
As we drove, we talked about where we grew up.  We talked about semi-trucks.  We stopped for food, because she hadn’t eaten all day. We talked a little bit about church – but only enough to learn that she had never found one that had felt like home. She had dreams that she wanted to fulfill… but also was raising her kids by herself and didn’t know if it would ever happen.

But she got home. And she will continue to be in my prayers.  And I pray that God will open up pathways before her and that a community near her will open their arms wide and help her back on her feet. But for now… she got home.  And that was way more important than the bulletin.

For a few weeks now, I have felt in a bit of a church rut.  Maybe a spiritual rut is more like it.  I’m doing the church thing, I’m going through the motions, but isn’t there more that God calls us to than preaching and teaching and organizing my desk?  Let me take that back… the rut has been deeper and run longer than a few weeks, but only in the last few weeks have I noticed.  My ordination really brought some things into perspective.

Growing up, I loved to play “office.”  I liked staplers and to make documents.  I’m good on the computer.  I would make a fantabulous secretary.  But I’m not called to be an administrative assistant.  And I’m not called to be an administrator.  I’m called to share God’s love with people.  I’m called to be out in the world, as the hands and feet of Christ. And doing church often gets in the way of that. I sometimes let the church get in the way of my doing that. 

When she walked into the church today, my heartstrings tugged a little.  It was like God was saying… I hear you – I know you want to serve me – It doesn’t matter that you have been a little off course lately – Feed my sheep.  Open your eyes and let go of all that stuff you think you are supposed to be doing.  Go…. do… love.

This beautiful young woman had a thousand different needs, and I couldn’t begin to meet all of them.  But I could get her home.  I could let her know that I didn’t care if she had spent a few nights in jail or a thousand years or if she was Mother Theresa – but she was loved by God and by me and she deserved to have someone help her.  I could do that.  God could do that through me.

The bulletins?  They can wait for another day.

BE the church

This morning we find ourselves in the midst of a pretty familiar story.

It is a story of contrasts… the holy man on one hand and the sinful woman on the other.

It is a story of grace… and a man who doesn’t think he needs any and a woman who is begging to be forgiven.

It is a story of paradox… where the tables are turned as the holy man is proven to be not so and the sinful woman is shown to be the one who is in the right.

So let’s break this tale down just a little bit. Jesus has been invited into the home of a Pharisee. And we start to wonder… maybe this is a guy who gets it. Maybe this Simon fellow has his head on straight and not only lets Jesus into his home, but wants to invite him into his heart also. Way to go, Pharisee!

But then, this woman shows up… a woman that Luke makes clear is a sinner. We aren’t quite sure of what has classified her as a sinner. Perhaps it was sleeping with the wrong person. Or perhaps she milked a cow on the Sabbath. We don’t know. But whatever it was – it made her desperate for God’s grace.

And so, she seeks Christ out. It didn’t matter where he was, or how uncomfortable it was going to be for her to enter this holy man’s house. She sought out Jesus and wept and anointed him. She went to where he was and poured out her love upon him.

And by the end of the story, the tables are turned, and we find that this sinful woman is the one who has done right by Jesus. She is the one who receives grace, while the Pharisee receives a tongue lashing for his lack of hospitality.

So what do we take from this story? In our world today, we would be hard pressed to be able to issue a dinner invitation to our Lord and Savior. We might search and seek our whole lives and never encounter Jesus walking and talking among us.
But we do see the poor. We do see the homeless. We do see the hungry. We do see the sick. And in the back of my mind somewhere I remember that Jesus said – whatever you have done for the least of these… my brothers and sisters… you have done for me. (Matthew 25)
So let’s think about this gospel lesson from Luke again. Let’s imagine for just a second that we are talking about the Christ we meet in the eyes of the poor, in the groaning of the hungry, in the tears of the sick.
On the one hand, we have a holy man, a Pharisee who invites the poor, the hungry, the sick. over for dinner one night. The poor come in and sit down to eat. There is no welcome, there is no real hospitality, simply an invitation… the food has been provided, help yourself. It’s charity, plain and simple.
On the other hand, we have a sinner who goes out of her way to seek out the poor, the hungry, the sick. She sheds upon them her tears, she pours upon them lavish blessings, she soothes them with her offering. She gets down on her knees to take care of them. That is love, plain and simple. That is the beginning of a relationship.

Who are we as the church? Are we the holy ones who hole up inside of our buildings and invite the poor, the hungry the sick to come to us?

Or are we the ones who admit our sinful and broken natures – who know that we need Christ as much as the world needs Christ – and go out and share the grace we have been given?
As Mary and I experienced Annual Conference this year – there was one very simple message that we wanted to bring home to all of you:

Don’t just go to church, BE the church.

The message came at us from a thousand different directions. Preachers and presenters, lay delegates and pastors got up and spoke at microphones to the crowd and everywhere we heard the calling to not just go to church, but to BE the church.

It’s a subtle difference really. But it is the difference between the holy one who invites Jesus to come in and the sinful one who seeks Jesus out in the world. It is the transformation from a Sunday ritual to feed our souls into a daily living out of our faith beyond the four walls of the church.

A DAILY living out of our faith beyond the walls of this building.
I don’t know about all of you… but sometimes that daily living part is hard. Even as a pastor, even as someone called to this ministry, there are times when living out my faith is difficult! We slip into being content with our Sunday morning rituals and our Tuesday bible study and we give to the local food bank and think that is enough – that is all that is asked of us.
But we have a higher calling beyond our own personal salvation. Now, don’t get me wrong, our own personal salvation is important…. But once we believe – there is more that God wants us to do with our lives.

Recently, the United Methodist Church has been thinking about being church. For about a year now, the “Rethink Church” campaign has been going on to help us to ask the question… what if church was a verb? What if our faith was something we lived instead of thought? What if the love we experienced from God was shared with others?

At Annual Conference, we had the opportunity to see a music video put together by young people of the United Methodist Church who have found energy and passion around this idea of being church. And I want to share it with you this morning!

In that video, Mike Slaughter, pastor of Ginghamsburg UMC, says that the real focus of Jesus is not getting more people into the church, but getting the people who are already in the church into the world. Love one another as I have loved you… that is the command that Jesus gives us.

It is what we heard in our gospel reading from Luke this morning… Jesus asks who has loved Jesus more – the one who obeyed all the rules, but forgot hospitality or the one who was found to be in the wrong and yet bowed down before him in service.

As Jesus loved us, and died for us, the only appropriate response is to love with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.

And it’s the same word that we hear from the first letter of Peter. Peter writes to a number of communities in order to encourage them in their daily living.

He doesn’t tell them to show up on Sunday mornings for worship, but to let the suffering and sacrifice of Christ be the example for their lives.
Peter doesn’t ask us to simply believe and accept that Christ died for us… he tells us to make the suffering of Christ the model for our lives. Or rather, to not run away from love when it is difficult… to love our neighbors like Christ loved them… even if it gets us into trouble.

Love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless – cheerfully! Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let them be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help.

When Peter writes these things– he is not talking about a special set of rules we live under in the church… he is talking about how we should live our entire lives. In all things, everywhere that we go, at work, at the playground, at the city hall meetings, in the hospital where we volunteer… be a good steward of the manifold grace of God. Be generous with the grace and the love that God has given to you.

So, are you wondering why we are even here this morning? Why do we have worship at all – if God wants us to be out in the world loving others?

Because it is here in this fellowship of believers that we find the strength to go out there and to serve. It is here in this community of faith that we are fed the bread of life and the cup of salvation. It is here in the presence of God that we confess the failings of the past week and are able to let them go so we can love and serve anew.

A pastor of mine once described worship as a cup of cold water during a marathon. We stop and renew ourselves and we give thanks to the one who has provided. But then we go back out there and keep running. We keep serving. We keep loving. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Lost my religion… or my religion lost me

As many of you know – my husband isn’t involved at all in church life.  This whole church and religion thing just isn’t what makes him comfortable and he’s definately not sure that he wants to swallow the “truth” of the church hook, line and sinker.  And that’s probably putting it nicely.

This week, I’ve had a couple of encounters that have reminded me why for some strange reason our relationship works – even though I’m a pastor and he’s… well, if he were to call himself anything it would be Buddhist.
First, on Tuesday morning, a lovely woman who is in our small group came up and said that her husband and she had been talking about me.  He also isn’t a churchy person.  He also doesn’t get the whole religion thing.  And he was intrigued by the idea that if my husband and I can figure it out – then he and his wife can figure it out too. 
Then Tuesday night, I was given an amazing CD by a friend.  It’s Susan Werner’s “The Gospel Truth” and it has such a wide variety of musical genres and prophetic witness and a good mix of faith and doubt all rolled into one.  She describes it as “Agnostic Gospel” and I think in many ways that is true.
In her song, Lost My Religion, she talks about being told that girls were more trouble than they are worth by her preacher… and then comes the line – lost my religion… or my religion lost me.
I think for far too many people, they don’t lose their faith, but their traditions lose them.  Church people can be too brash, they can be too forceful and judgmental, they can be too close-minded and far too empty of grace.
And some people just can’t stand the hypocrisy.  Some people just can’t stand being constantly judged for something they can’t control.  Some people have too many questions and don’t think they can ask them.  So they leave.  Or rather, they are left behind.
As I listened to Werner’s album, and thought about my husband, and that woman’s husband, I started thinking about all of the other people in my town that wrestle with deep questions of faith and life but don’t belong in our churches.  I want so much to have a cup of coffee with them and talk.  I want to sit down over a beer and ask them what their questions are and promise them that I don’t have cut and dry answers – but that we can wrestle with the questions together.  I want to spend time with my youth group parents and assure them that I know their lives are busy, and that Sunday mornings don’t always work for them, but that we as the church can make room in our lives for them if they let us.
My heart is for people who religion has lost.

Moltmann Conversation – Last Session Ecclesiology

• You gave me language to describe myself in Crucified God, as a person born with disability – how to people who have gifts and burdens have access to the full expression of the church In the power of the holy spirit: a disability concerned me my life long, because my older brother was a severly disabled person and he died when euthanasia began in germany. I think the church must be consist of disabled and not disabled persons – a congregation without disabled persons accepted is a disabled church. Let our families bring them into the congregation and as a part of the community – because they all are images of Jesus Christ.

• When we talk about the imago dei, we talk about our ability to reason – yet there are human beings who have not this same ability to reason from abnormality or accident, but you wouldn’t dare say that person wasn’t created in image of God – how does persons with mental disabilities affect our doctrine of imago dei: I think that imago dei concept speaks of a relationship not of a qualification of a human being – but a relationship of God to the human being by which the human being is an image, a resonance of God.l This is the first relationship – the relationship of God to every human being and this cannot be destroyed, not by disability or sin. The other is the relationship of the human to God and this is the similarity – our response to God. This is a life of faith and responsibility and a conformity of our life to the will of God. The first relationship of God to humans is in every human being, be it a Xian or Muslim or atheist – in every person or disabled person or child or older person, this relationship of God is in everyone. So we must respect God in every person we meet. The second is the similitude of our relationship to God – God created all men equal, free & equal, so we must respect the image of God in every person, even in a murderous person or a terrorist! It is difficult, I know, but it’s not a question of our judgment, it’s a question of respecting God’s presence.

• Inalienable human rights… Macintyre = these are unicorns, we made them up, the Aristotelian language determines them and as Xians we use the bible to live by them – theologically, what do you think of this concept on which America was founded? I praise your document of independence for saying this. In 1978 I wrote in a document God’s rights and Human Rights, adopted by World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The only question was then, afterwards in 1990, in Seoul, how to relate these on human rights to the world of nature. Unfortunately dictatorial governments deny their citizens the human rights with the arguments of the persons you just quoted. But every Chinese person, every African person has inalienable human rights and those who commit crimes against humanity will be brought to court in Denmark – we have this in the UN already. War crimes in Balkans, etc… unfortunately the US did not sign the establishment of international courts to persecute crimes against humanity and human rights. You have a court from the crimes in Rwanda and Brundi and Tanzania and other places and this is really good development, because the growing world community will be based on human rights or there will be no world community at all…. come to the insight that it would be better to join this cause in the world. Every government will respect the human rights of their citizen, b/c human rights are deeper and more serious than citizen rights in a given society. Every person in China or Africa says, “Am I not a human being?”

• Rowan Williams proposed that because of the growing propotion of Muslims in Great Britian, that british law should make room for Shariah law – and there was a lot of discrepancy about that: Yes, especially from women, who say are we not human beings too? This is the cry from Muslim women in Germnay. I do not understand Williams at this point, perhaps I don’t understand the british legal system. You can’t let everyone have their own rights, than no one can be brought to court. This is an impossible idea.

• You refer to God as a he and HS as a she in this conversation – it’s coming up with pronouns that are appropriately intimate and personal for God and yet don’t anthropomorphize God with a gender is difficult: yes of course, God is neither he/she/it – God is God. And we should not use God’s divinity to justify the domination of men, of women, and therefore, the image one can be described of the trinity is neither the F/S/HS, but they have unity – this can be reflected in a human community – the church is by the unity of the Trinity the united community. If you look carefully in the gospel of John you can find clearly – let them all be one, like you father in me and I in you… no human being is the image of the father, and no human being is the image of the son – they are in community the image of the communal identity of love.

• The filioque clause which was part of the great schism – you have written it has led to a monarchial monotheism, or hierarchical trinity, you align yourself with Eastern Christians on that cause and there is an Australian theologian who wrote that this has written to the subjugation of women… What led to your rejection of that and what is the politics around that among Western theologians (esp Catholics?): Well, let me begin wit hthe practical side. In 1984-5 we had a big congress in Rome on the HS. And then the good John Pope II when he came to the Nicene creed, he read it in Greek and in Greek it has no filioque. In the book of Concord – the Lutheran tradition, you have it in Latin with it, in Greek without it side by side. There are traditions which do not follow the schism.

• So we should probably describe what that is – that the HS goes forth from the father and the son, or the HS goes out from the father alone. If the HS goes out from the father alone, the HS goes out from the father of the son, JC is already present in the going out, therefore the filioque is not necessary to be added. If we start with not a filioque, we can say the F/S/HS – this is important to understand the relationship of the Trinity in the life of Jesus, in the synoptic gospels: baptism, in the desert, working through Jesus healing and accepting, in the life of Jesus, the real subject of action and passion is the HS, so we have the order F-HS-S, b/c the HS came upon the Son… only after the resurrection this is turned around. HS comes from F on behalf of S – Jesus asks God to send the paraclete… you have a much richer understanding of the tradition in the scriptures…. In filioque, HS is always 3 – but you can’t number them anymore in perichoresis, they are all equal. The congregation has the spirit not only from the pastoral and the word of God, but also directly from God. This is certainly a reason for Pentecostalism. On the other hand, trad. Protestant churches, the HS only comes through the pastor, he is a spiritual man and through the Word. There was a time in Sweden, in the Lutheran world, where pastors were not allowed to pray freely – they must read the prayer. One must say to Pentecostals “lets all be in the community with Jesus from which the Spirit is a part” you can feel the baptism of the HS in the community with Jesus, but not so to speak directly from heaven (like shamanistic tradition) the filioque might be good for Pentecostals, but not trad. Churches.

• This has a huge impact on our action world! Filioque has a bearing on our structues of power. Maybe this is held onto so tightly because it supports their own version of human community and sovereignty/authority – a lot of us in the us emergent community says that the authority lies with the church – the body – and the pastors role is an organizing role. If the spirit comes from the Son, then the pastor as the bearer of the word…: this was my criticism over Barth in his volumes on creation. In the trinity there is a commanding father and an obedient son, therefore in creation, heaven is above and earth is below. Soul is above, body is below, man above, women below – this was against everything he knew about the relationship btwn soul and body from psychology and other things and also from the relationship of man and woman – which he had a lively exchange of letters from a woman who said she does not like the idea of a beheaded woman and a bodyless man.

• Paul seemed to think a lot about sex, Augustine certainly, in the American church – sexuality is a schismatic topic currently and the reason why others of us have withdrawn from those denominational fights: let me first say, this is no problem in Germany. We never have a struggle about this in the churches and in between the churches, because the church is about the gospel and not about sex. ….. Homosexual or heterosexual who believes by faith alone is saved! And is certainly able to be ordained in a Christian community. I would not say that a lesbian or homosexual partnership is equal to a marriage, because a marriage is intended to father children, I’m not intentionally objected to adoptive children, but I’m in no terms objected to blessing such a partnership. It is neither a sin, nor a crime – I don’t see the schism or the heat of the debate on it. But I know how much this is destroying children in this countries. Why is this more important than questions of war and peace.”

• Death in a person’s life – am I not right in trusting in a future of togetherness in which we might all together live/learn/love/grow: I’m not one to get into a dispute with Jesus. But I trust that those who died are not dead, they are with us, they are watching over us and we live in their presence. They also, according to the understanding of … are growing until they reach the destiny for which they were created. So if a life was cut short, God will bring what he had begun for the human being to its intended end and death cannot hinder God to do this, because God is God, and cannot be overcome by death. Love is an expression for an intimate relationship… Barth was asked, do you think we shall see our beloved ones again? Yes, but the others too.

• You said the church is the agent of God’s mission in the world… in that you talked about what is the church, how do you do church in America – so what is the church? there are many perspectives on it. For a long time: Body of Christ, body of risen Christ, after Vatican II, even Catholics talk about the people of God. If we say this, we must also say that God has two parts of the people – Israel and the Church. And the mission is not only through the church of the peoples, but also through Israel and we must take care of both sides, not only looking to the people of the world/poor but also to the Jews who also are the elected people of God. New church order saying that the church is in dialogue w/ Israel b/c we have a book in common and a hope in common. The church has a task of Christianizing society in which the church is – but restricted. Now we have dialogue everywhere, but this is not good, because a dialogue as such has no goal if the dialogue is the goal we want to convert the other partner, the dialogue will end. The way is the goal to dialogue. It is good to know the other religious communities, but a dialogue needs a common ground and this is with Israel the OT and this is the special relationship of the church.

• You say it’s not so much what is the church, but where is the church. Can you expand upon where the church is now that we have not seen in the orthodoxy of the church in the past: on the one hand we have the mission of the risen Christ,whoever visits you is me… on the other hand we have the inviting Christ – whoever visits you visits me (Mt 25) we must not only hear the commandment of Christ, but listen to the invitation of Christ coming from the outside.

• With changing forms of “inside” and “outside” and with new communications/communities/forms of communities that are no longer geographically but relationally based – where parish has changed. What is the future of the congregation? I believe strongly in face-to-face community. Cyber-space may be nice to communicate with everyone in the world, but a cyber space without be without the human. In the new media, you can see and listen, but you cannot feel, taste, smell. So only two of our senses are engaged and the other senses diminish and are no longer developed. You can make the test in school where the children already have their iphones – let them close their eyes and feel – they can no longer differentiate between wood and plastic, because there is no education of their feelings. Taste – doing work on the computers they eat pizza and junk food – this tastese like nothing, not to speak of smelling or anything. The near senses which babies develop first by putting everything into the mouth are underveloped while our far reaching senses are over developed (seeing and hearing). This has effects on our communities and therefore I still believe strongly in local face-to-face communites where we can talk, see, eat and drink together and be a community of full senses.

You mention the eucharist – it seems that we can’t agree on what to call it b/c of different theological perspectives. Radical orthodoxy suggests Eucharistic rationality – with table as center of identity. Zwinglian experience = communion which is more agape meal, less sacramental, gathering and foretaste of great banquet. What is the role of communion/eucharist in the church? this is the most difficult point of the ecumenical gathering of denominations. I believe strongly that we do not celebrate on the Lord’s table our theories about his presence but his presence! We may have different thoeories about how and the way he is present, but lets celebrate his presence first! And then after the eating and drinking around the table, lets sit together and talk about our different theories. If we start with the different theories, we will never come to the table! After eating and drinking, every dialogue is better than dry throats and an empty stomach. I go to every invitation if I hear the inviting words of Christ. I don’t care. And so far no priest has said you are not invited, only those who belong. Jesus invited all those who are weary and burdened to come to him. He is not inviting Catholics only or Methodists only … this would be not the Jesus I know.

I often think if we are going to spend eternity together, its good practice to get to know one another now! My catholic friends and I get to a place where we are both happy: transubstantian is a ____ theory. We have a union between Lutheran and Reformed churches and we believe in full presence of Christ in bread and wine – whether this is transformed this is nonsense, but what is important is that we believe in the presence of Christ in both forms and we rject RC of wine for preist and bread for community. In Vatican II they came close to this form for both for all, now with brother Benedict we have some reactionary forms of eucharist in the tradition, which is unfortunate since he was my brother at Tubingen.

The cyber reality is one form of community/communication, but more and more as we are missional and our focus is in the community – church attendance is less and less because their lives are so busy and the stress of time is almost a commodity so spending time with neighbor is taking neighbor in some of the expressions of church rather than gathering for worship. Some worship is also in connection/serving people who are in their communities around them: this may be true for those who have a job, but not for unemployed people. For those who have a job it is a question of priority – whether they must go to the cabin/seaside or whether they be in the congregation. Its not that they have no time, it’s a question of priorities you set in your life.

Is it the church when it gatheres? Or when it scatters too? Both kinds – we gather people together and we send them into the world, like inhaling and exhaling. – weekly breathing? The summers rest is more heresy than the OT/NT tradition of work days and rest day.

• Writing an ethics! Love of life and political side of new concept of justice/righeousness according to biblical traditions.

Who should we be reading? What are you reading? All of course, the bible. It depends on your eyes. If you have curiosity to find new things in this old book, you will find it! If you have a traditional understanding it will be boring to read the whole text, but it is a revolutionary text and sometimes full of dangerous memories. Read: Miroslav Volf, Philip Clayton, Tony Jones, John Cobb, Nancy Bedford, many young people are coming up with new theological ideas. There are many good people coming up so we can step down and have rest.

dipping the toes in

I can’t believe how fast the last month has gone. Our mission trip was AMAZING (see my sermon blog for video/pictures). I’ve had some really good sabbath time. I have been reconnecting with my hubby over our anniversary celebrations (2 years now!). And in the midst of all of that – life at the church has been hectic, unfocused, and I’m trying to just put one foot in front of the other.

I’m aware more than ever that we really need a clear and focused mission here at the church. And I’m also aware more than ever that it has to be something that comes from the congregation – not a vision that I express from the pulpit. Our conference is offering this missional transformation process that I firmly believe our congregation needs to experience, work through, but I can’t figure out how to get them to buy in. I can’t figure out what conversations need to happen, and with whom, in order for the people of the church to stop just dipping their toes in and to take a leaping jump off of the diving board.

There are four or five people who I know have been feeling this yearning for something more. Maybe that is where we begin. Sitting down over a cup of coffee and talking about what’s really important right now and how we make it happen. Please keep us in your prayers!!!

Last Fridays FF: Friends

Ever since I found out I could be the hostess for the third Friday Five of each month, I have not been able to get the thought of friends out of my mind. Being an only child (all growed up) who moved around a lot in my lifetime,
friends have always been very important to me. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once
wrote: “The way to have a friend is to be a friend.”

So today let’s write about the different kinds of friends we have, like childhood friends, lost friends, tennis friends, work friends, and the list goes on. List 5 different types of friends you have had in your life and what they were/are like.

1) JSTACK – there is no other way to describe this group of friends than to simply call us who we are (JSTACK is based on the first letters of our names). We are six women (well, girls at the time) who fell in together somewhere in 7th grade and haven’t fallen apart since! Think “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” meets “Now and Then” and “Stand by Me” only there are six of us and we get together regularly. We have built some amazing rituals around watching each other get married and I can’t wait until some of us start having little ones! Our kids will have five aunts to love them!!!

2) My college “activist” friends – these are my friends who would drag me to protests and who I lived with in a community house with a focus on social justice and peace and the environment. We had a blast together and I did all sorts of things that I never would have had the courage to do on my own.

3) My college “religious” friends – these are terrible distinctions to make between people, and I had quite a few friends who fit both categories, but for the most part, I had my friends in the “progressive action coalition” house and then my friends in “religious life council.” These are the friends that I talked theology with, and discerned my call with. These are the friends that held me accountable through covenant discipleship groups and I worshipped with. These are the friends who worked through parts of the ministry process with me. Five of us went to seminary out of my graduating class.

4) My seminary friends. In many ways – seminary was the opportunity to meld together the “activist” and “religious” sides of my life. My seminary was also known as the “school of the prophets” so it was no surprise that my colleagues would protest injustices and would stand up for the rights of others AND that we had deep theological discussions about why we would do so. My one regret is that I wasn’t more involved in some of the direct action things that happened while I was in Nashville. Some of my closest women friends and I also had a regular tuesday night out during this time that WAS the deepest form of self-care that I’m still trying to find here in my ministry setting.

5) My husband’s friends. Well, they are my friends too =) Since moving back to Iowa, we started hanging out with my husband’s brother and friends – mostly playing video games and watching movies and playing disc golf. And now they are the guys (and I do mean GUYS) that I see most often. In some ways I miss having really good girlfriends around, but at the same time, it’s nice to just be able to hang out with the guys and not have any of the pressure of church around.

Updated “Back to the Basics” Fall Plan

,I’ve gotten some inspiration on the alphabet thing…

The overall theme is going to be ” Back to the Basics of Being the Church” (we made BE the CHURCH t-shirts earlier in the year). I’m also going to be tying in some of Robert Schnasse’s ideas from “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” – but not in as obvious a way.

I’m not quite sure if I’m going to go strictly with an alphabetical listing anymore… but, if I do, here is another stab at it:

A= Acceptance of God (and who God is… not who we want God to be)
B= Body of Christ – Blessings and Curses – We’re All In this Together (this one is a little rough still)
C= Care for One Another (its a stretch from the readings… I may just have to go off lectionary for this one and tie these scriptures in with the previous week)
D= Dealing with Doubters and Grumblers
E= Emptying Yourself & Putting on the Mind of Christ
F= Fallen Family & World Communion Sunday (talk about our lack of unity – and confession)
G= Grace (tied in with Radical Hospitality – Five Practices)
H= Holy Humility (tied in with Passionate Worship – Five Practices)
I= Incarnating Christ to Others
J= Journey to the Jordan (All Saints)
K= Kingdom of God is Near (tied in with Intentional Faith Development from Five Practices… keeping your candle ready)
L= Living out of your Potential (tied in with Extravagant Generosity from Five Practices – parable of the talents)
M= Mission (what we are called to do. tied in with Risk Taking Mission and Service from Five Practices)

clearing away brush… planting new seeds

there are so many things happening in the church and in our lives! And I really should have been here sharing all of it!

I’m making a list and maybe I’ll get back and update sometime today.

Church
1) Be the Church Sunday
2) Garage Sale Success
3) So many funerals
4) 5 baptisms in one sunday!
5) art project – genesis reading

Home
1) Birthdays and more birthdays
2) finally getting the lawn mowed
3) starting my garden!!! (and clearing out the weeds)
4) got the grill, got the outdoor furniture, ready to bbq!
5) tasks that have been put off for a while finally getting done (insurance, wedding pictures, hanging pictures on the wall)
6) finally reading for pleasure again! (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Water for Elephants)

Things are really falling into place right now and everything feels good. now if I just had more time in the day!

… … … … …

Finally back around to update a few things.

1) Be the Church Sunday: Our church organized an afternoon of community service and outreach to our homebound and nursing home residents. We used the quote “don’t go to church, be the church” to kick off our event and even made t-shirts that have come in handy for other service projects as well. It was a great success – we helped quite a few people, brought the church to many who haven’t been able to come for a while, and I think really came together as a church as well.

2) Garage Sale Success: The city wide garage sale was the last week in April, and we joined in. We made quite a bit of money with the items that were donated, but we also went through the church and did some spring cleaning. The biggest surprise: we found fourteen old greyhound bus travel posters in a storage room, and found out they were worth quite a lot! We ended up selling them to an art dealer in California for $100 a piece! We are using the money to jumpstart our building fund – an emergency repair and upkeep fund so that we aren’t always taking money from our ministries to pay for the building.

3) So many funerals – I had 3 funerals in two weeks! And they were very very different, including my first funeral for a child – an infant really who was born with heart problems. It was extremely moving and quite a powerful experience.

4) 5 baptisms in one sunday! – Memorial Day weekend we baptized 5 great-grandbabies of congregation members! I was kind of torn because all but one of them were not members of the congregation, not even Methodist, and probably would never be. But this church is important for their families… its the space where they have celebrated important moments and together experience God. And as a former pastor said, we Methodists are the ones who “hatch, match, and dispatch” – ie: baptize, marry and bury when no one else will… or for those who don’t have a faith home. I talked a lot throughout the service about the importance of making promises and nurturing these children, and how as a congregation, we are making those promises too. I think the message got across, and I look forward to keeping up with these families.

5) art project – genesis reading – this was something that was done at my last church. as we read the passage from Genesis 1, there was an artist who made a mural painting of what was happening verse by verse. So when the text came up again this year, I went for it. I got a very large piece of black foamboard and as the liturgist read the passage, I painted it. People really enjoyed it and I’m hoping to do more art with them (more interactive stuff for them to participate in) in the future. I think it will be one of those ways I can start to edge into more emerging practices.