Posts Tagged with church

possibilities…

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Ten days ago, our church had a fall committee retreat to begin dreaming/planning/living into the new vision for our church (to reflect the light of God).  My people worked SO hard and did such an amazing job and we now have five vision areas and four key results that we want to work (with God’s help) to achieve:

We want to reflect the light of God by:
1) Spending time in the light
2) Being on FIRE as a church
3) Being a beacon in our community
4) Passing the light on
5) Letting our little lights shine.
And the areas we want to see results in are:
1) Be intentional about helping each person connected to our church grow spiritually
2) Empower every person to claim their gifts/assets and offer them to others.
3) Become a more visible presence in the community to make a positive difference for good.
4) Care for and about every person who comes through (or has come through) our doors.

As we continue to imagine the possibilites, we are revamping our administrative and committee structures, we are throwing out new ideas, we are leaving behind things that bog us down, and I am so re-invigorated for what ministry can look like here in Marengo.  It is so much fun to be a part of this church and to keep dreaming about where we might end up!

something to identify as

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I heard a song on the radio this evening by Patrick Stump featuring Lupe Fiasco called, “This City.”  It’s a new single, it has an okay beat and the lyrics are kind of lame.  As one listener texted in, it sounds like a song that should be on high school musical.  Teen pop, whatever.

But as I sat there thinking about the lyrics, I thought, here are two guys who are totally proud of their city, in spite of all of the bad things that happen in it.  They mention corruption and gentrification and racism and even the weather, but they love that city (Chicago) anyways.

My emergent cohort read this month Tony Jones’ new book “The Church is Flat.”  He describes a relational ecclesiology that he finds within emergent theology and emergent congregations across the United States.  Being his doctoral dissertation, it is a bit heavy, but was a good mental exercise to explore.

As I drove in the car listening to this new song playing on the radio, running through my head was the conversation I had only an hour before about identity and belonging and authority.

Pulling from new social movement theory and characterizations, Jones claims that the emergent church movement helps people to claim a “new or formerly weak dimensions of identity.” In the process, the “relation between the individual and the collective is blurred.” The actions, behaviors and identity of a person become all wrapped up into the movement and your very participation in that movement gives you an identity.

Think about it like this:  50 years ago when a couple introduced themselves to new neighbors, one of the first sentences they might have shared was, “We go to the Methodist church.”  Their very identity was wrapped up in the church.  They raised their children in the church.  They belonged on the church softball team.  But then came the 60’s and 70’s and that communal identity started to be questioned.  The next generation would go back to the church only to raise their kids, if at all.  And then the GenXers who followed were either not brought up in the church at all, or it was a background institution that had little to no bearing on their personal identity.

As an offhand comment, there was a mention somewhere in the book about how that dillusion of identity also has come from parents marrying outside of their denominational upbringing.  A child of Lutheran-Methodist parents might have far less denominational loyalty as someone whose whole family has come from a particular tradition.
If we look at the religious landscape today, there are few who proudly claim their denominational identity as one of the primary markers of their personal identity.  I have a friend or two with a “John Wesley is my homeboy” t-shirt, but they are few and far between.  I am much more likely to encounter someone who tells me that they are a farmer or a vegetarian or a Marxist than I am to find someone in my daily walk who will tell me, I am a Presbyterian. Our churches do not form the core of our identities.

The claim that Jones makes in his book is that this is not true in emergent congregations.  In these communities, the life of the individual is tied to the life of the movement. They claim it as a part of who they are.  It impacts where they eat and what they buy and who they spend time with.  And that is a conscious action based upon their identity.

I am torn at many times in my life between denominational loyalty and faithfulness to the Wesleyan understanding of community.  While at times I hope and pray that they can be the same thing, there are many days when it is not so.  I want to belong to and lead a church that lives out their faith every single day, that is committed to the virtues that community cultivates, and that deeply seeks to follow Jesus Christ and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes, the institutional church just doesn’t do it for me.  Sometimes, I see glimpses and I’m energized once more.
I guess what I’m saying is, I want to write a song called “This Church.”  And I want to proudly proclaim to all the world that I love this church, in spite of its flaws.  I found my faith in this church, it raised me to know and love God, and if I have my way I’m going to stay here. You can burn it to the ground, or let it flood, but this church is in my blood. And I want to be a part of a community that every day in small and ordinary ways, seeks the will of God in all that they do. I want to be a part of a community that has the gospel in its blood… whose very identity as individuals is predicated on their participation in the body of Christ called the church in this place.

Is that so much to ask?

time heals all…

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My church has not had a choir for about 10-15 years. And this large brown filing cabinet with boxes overflowing next to it in the church office is full of sheet music and photocopies (oops) and sample scores.  For 10 years, we have not used a single piece of music… and in fact, when we brought together a special choir last spring, most of the music was too difficult and too many parts for us to use.

A faithful member walked into my office the other day.  She has been working on passing on some of the music to the local community choir, but they are more interested in music with accompaniment CD’s rather than the sheet music with piano scores we have.  So she volunteered to pay the postage to send the music to someone who really could use it.  With so many tragedies and natural disasters this year in Alabama, Missouri, and even here in Iowa, certainly there were churches who had lost their collections of music.

So I put out a general announcement via facebook searching for a home for this music.

A church less than 30 miles away responded.  Salem United Methodist Church, three years ago this month, was underwater when the Cedar River flooded.  Three years ago, three temporary worship spaces ago, they had a choir room full of music they had collected through the years. And it all washed away down the Cedar. It was all left covered with muck.

Three years have passed and they now find themselves in a new home.  And settled, though busting at the seams in their new gathering space, they were eager and excited about the possibility of having filing cabinets full of music once more.

While my mind immediately went to those places that have recently been hurting, when I first got the word about Salem UMC needing music, my heart sank.  The churches in Tuscaloosa and Joplin and Varina are not ready for choir music.  They are probably still sorting through rubble.  They are probably still trying to figure out what to do next.  They are still grieving, and they have a long journey ahead of them to recovery.

The thing about healing and rebuilding is that it cannot happen over night.

Whether it is rehabilitation after an injury to your body, or repairing a damaged relationship, or restoring a structure that sustained damage… it takes time.

Just ask the residents of New Orleans… Just ask the people who lived in Czech Village or Time Check in Cedar Rapids… Just ask that neighbor who had a heart attack a few years ago, or your family member who broke a rib… just ask the couple across town whose marriage was strained by adultery or the siblings who didn’t talk for seven years after a falling out.

There are a few places in this world where miraculous healing occurs in an instant… but I know of very few of them.  And even when the healing does come – like in the scriptural stories of the leper or the hemmoraging woman or the demoniac – it is going to take a while to figure out what to do next… how to live your life without the disease or the illness or the demons that plagued you. Relationships might never be the same as they were before.  You will have discovered something about your self or others that changes who you are and what you value. You may not want to get back to your old “normal” at all.

My church has been through its own ups and downs throughout the years.  We have had our good times and our bad.  As we are being re-energized by God, we pray that we simply won’t be what we were in the past. And part of that is letting go of past ideas of “success.”

And so, this morning, seven boxes of sheet music found a new home.  And a flooded out church choir finds itself, three years later, further down the road to recovery.

A Love Letter from God

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Dear Church,

I’m not often in the habit of writing letters. My apostle, Paul, loved to write letters and you have quite a few of those contained in the scriptures. I guess I did write seven letters some time ago – to seven different churches… but I digress…. This isn’t something I do a whole lot of.

Let me properly introduce myself. I am God.
The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
One in Three and Three in One.
I know that sometimes that gets confusing. I know its down right difficult to understand. I designed those brains of yours. I know it is not easy.
So, here is a simple word of advice… don’t try to understand my Triune nature… you can’t. It’s not a puzzle to be solved or a question to be answered. It is a mystery. And that is okay.
Here is what you do need to understand however:
The basic truth about me is love.

I love you and I want you to love me and I want you to love one another.

That’s it.

Seems simple enough, doesn’t it?

A long time ago, the ancient world understood that I was triune… that I was three and that I was one… because they understood me as love.

As the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I am perfect and wholly and beautifully complete. Love between and throughout and within. My unity means that I am love.

And all of that love within me poured out into creation.

One of your modern day pastors put it well… although I’m going to put it into my own words:

I love you enough to be the Creator who created the whole universe and every creature, I am the one who created you and gave you the very breath of life.

I love you enough to be the Redeemer who has saved and redeemed the world from sin, sorrow, and separation so that you might be joined to my love forever…

And… I love you enough to be the Spirit/Guiding God who is at work in you inspiring, strengthening, guiding, advocating, and illuminating you in your being. (Rev. Dr. James B. Lemler)

Everything that you know of me… everything that you have experienced of me…. Is love.

Think about it.

The very act of creation was the love within me as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit bubbling over and outward.

Your very life is an expression of my love.

From the very beginning I have been calling your brothers and sisters, and now you, by name… beckoning you into a relationship with me.

From the beginning I created you to be in relationship with other people – loving them, caring for them. And I know this because I created you to be just like me… capable of loving and uniting yourself with others.

And through it all… no matter how many times you turned away and your love faltered and puttered out and got angry… I stayed there.

With the love of a father and a mother, I sometimes used harsh words. I sometimes used thorough punishment.

But just like you know that the mouth in the soap or the spanking from your earthly father or mother was meant out of love… so too, my actions have always been out of love for you.

I want you to hear this very plainly: I love you.

I know that you are messed up and make mistakes and that there are a thousand reasons I shouldn’t.

But guess what.

I. Love. You.

Just as you are. With all of your issues and flaws.

I created you. I breathed into you my life. And no matter how many nicks and scratches you have – You Are Mine. And I love you.

Don’t you remember what John told you?

I’m sure that you can even say it by heart…

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” NKJV

It’s true!

I loved you all so much that my very life was outpoured and given out and broken for you. There is this fancy word for that… kenosis… but it really just means that I emptied myself for you… just like the wine that pours out of the jug – the blood of the new covenant poured out for you.

I didn’t go through all of that just to point a finger and tell you how awful you were… I did it to show my deep, abiding, steadfast, forever love for you.

I did it to put you back on the right paths, to give you a chance to start fresh. I did it because I loved you.

Because even though you are awesome just the way you are… I also love you too much to let you stay that way. (Anne Lamott)

The life I poured into your life… it wasn’t a one time offer. Every day, every hour, every minute you can come to me… pray with me… talk with me… and my Spirit will encourage you and enfold you in my love an grace and help you to find peace in this world.
My love transforms. It changes lives. It is powerful.
And you know what, church?
I put that love inside of you, because I want you to help me to spread it.
This great and awesome mystery of my love is not something for the pastors and the academics to hole up and discuss… it is meant to be shared. This mystery is YOURS.
I want you to baptize others into this love. I want you to welcome others into this love. I want you to let this love be a part of your life… every single day.
Do you remember my faithful friend, Paul, and all of those letters he wrote?
Well, something that was very important to him was to begin and end every letter with encouragement.
Take one of his letters to the people of Corinth for example. He wrote to them:

…brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. 13The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Isn’t that nice?

With simple words, he reminded them to live with one another just as I live. Ordered. Listening. Responsive. Peaceful. Open. Loving.

Those words describe how I am… how I can be three and one all at the same time. It describes what it takes to live in unity.

And then he closes his letter by praying that my love and grace and communion – my fellowship – might be with you.

That is the most powerful thing that anyone can write.

Because in doing so, he is reminding you that only in my love are you fully alive. And his is praying that my love might pour out again on you.

You see, that is my mission. That is all I want to do. To pour out my love upon the whole world and to gather it all up in that love.

And I created you to do that also. I created you to pour out my love and grace and fellowship upon other people. To invite them into that love. And to love them the way that I loved you.

Church – can you do that?

Let me rephrase the question… because I know you CAN do it… I gave you the power to do it.

Church – will you do that?

Love, God.

my afternoon as a “telemarketer”

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As our church is working on discerning their vision and mission, we have felt led to get some input from the community.  We want to know what others think about the needs in our midst, what they feel about the church’s role in our community, and what they might like to offer to help meet those needs.

So our grand idea was to have a phone bank.

We created a script.
We got some volunteers.
We put a notice in the paper that we would be calling folks.
We organized some yummy treats.

And then we got together to actually do it.

Our numbers were small, but mighty.

We practiced our phone calls with one another, edited our script, divided up the phone book for our community and our list of inactive/less active members, and set to work.

*ring, ring* = voicemail

*ring, ring* = no answer

*do, do, do* = this number has been disconnected.

*hello, I’m calling from the Methodist Church… CLICK*
My cell phone only records the last 20 calls I made, so I have no idea exactly how many I did make… but it was well over 20.  I talked in person with only four individuals.
Others in our group had much better luck.  Two other women talked with at least seven people.  The lone man in our small bunch had well over 13 responses. (Which makes me wonder about whether people are more willing to talk to an older man than a young woman who just might be a telemarketer selling something)
We talked with folks who were churched and unchurched, young and old, who lived in town and in the country. Probably 70% of the people we recieved information from people indicated that their top concern was the youth of our town.  It was amazing to have such a common response, although it was spoken of in a few different ways.
We ended the afternoon tired, worn out, but feeling like some good listening occured.  It wasn’t the way I usually think of a church group spending the day, but I think we heard from a few people we probably never would have talked to.
Our next step is a lunch with community leaders to get their perspectives about how the church can better support/encourage what they are doing and what needs they also see.

It’s quite a journey!!!

so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen… #reverb10

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As a pastor, funerals are a part of my life.  I help families and friends say good bye to loved ones all the time.  This year, I also acted in some ways as a family chaplain and buried two people in my husband’s family. We really do have an important gap in the family Christmas now that his great-grandmother is gone.  She was a tiny, tiny woman with an opinion as big as Texas. She let you know what she was thinking, all the time. She was ninety-nine years old and hospice care was such a blessing for her – pampering her and comforting her in those last couple of weeks of her life. We let go of her peacefully and with little pain in our hearts.

December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?

In my pastoral life this year, however, it was not the deaths, but the goodbyes that impacted me the most.  One good-bye in particular…
Photo by: Margan Zajdowicz

 

This summer, a stalwart of our congregation moved south to be with family.  Wilda was always at the church.  Always.  She’d be tidying something up, folding bulletins, moving things around, making sure things were just right.  She has a great little laugh and everyone always says she must be on roller skates – she’s able to get around to so many things in so little time.

While there are a few others who have that same kind of commitment to the congregation, losing any one of them leaves a gap in what we are able to accomplish.  They often say that 10% of the people do 90% of the work… well, I know that is true and when you are a church as small as we are – those 10% are vital!!!  

We get lovely calls from Wilda and her life is warm and good down south with her family.  But we do miss her colloquialisms, like ” in a coon’s age.” And we miss her morning glory muffins and her peanut butter pie.  And the youth group misses her sliced apples (they really are just sliced apples… but I never seem to have the time to get the whole big bowl of them ready). 

This congregation has become a family to me, and anytime we say goodbye to someone, there is a small bit of pain and longing.  But it was our time to let go of her and let her retire and be among her family and watch her grandkids and great-grandkids grow up. 

Don’t Try… DO! #reverb10

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For me, the word try has some negative connotations.  As in – if you are trying to do something, you aren’t really, actually, doing it.
Kaileen Elise challegned us today:

December 18 – Try What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?

My mind is a wash of a lot of things that I want to do, see, learn in the next year. I want to learn how to play the guitar.  I want to lose 15 lbs and tone up some muscles and maintain that physique. I want to take writing more seriously.  Professionally speaking, I want to empower my laity so that I don’t have to write the agendas for all of our meetings. I want a deeper relationship with God through prayer and stillness. I want to spend more time with my family

But as I think about all of those things, nothing strikes me as something to try at… either I’m going to do them, or I’m not.

So trying… what would I want to try?  What would I want to explore?  What do I want to collisally fail at? What do I want to take a chance on and see if maybe, possibly, I like it?  What kind of one-shot experience do I want for 2011?
I have to admit, I wasn’t feeling very creative when I started thinking about this.  In fact, I avoided the prompt all day long hoping for some inspiration.   Finally, I got desperate. I googled… don’t laugh… “things to try.”

And I found a bunch of really interesting stuff!!!

First up, 10 frugal things to try before you die.    I have to admit – I’ve done a number of these things already.  Goodwill and Stuff,Etc. are staples for bargain hunting clothes.  I’ve also been dumpster diving before.  And I regularly try to salvage the fruits and veggies in my fridge that are going a little south…. maybe that’s not the same thing as “slumming” it… but it’s close!  I can sew, knit, and crochet.  So I’m doing pretty good on this list.  Although, the drip tray pint might be an adventure that I can add to my list?

Next, Things to try at Wal-Mart when you are bored. Self-explanatory.  But nothing that I really want to do… maybe if I were ten years younger.

There are a ton of bucket-lists out there, including this one, and this one, and oh yeah, this one.

Some highlights on those – things that actually might be possible for me in the next year:
  • have your portrait painted… I’ve never done this – not even those cartoon drawings at Adventureland.
  • run a marathon… How about run a 5k -that’s definately something to add to my list.
  • make love on the kitchen floor… yep.
  • make a hole in one… I don’t golf (oh, that’s another one to add to the list) – but I do disc golf and making an ace would be amazing… it’s definately something to try and shoot for!
  • play a round of golf… see above.
  • be someone’s mentor… being a young person, that hasn’t really been an opportunity for me yet – except there is this thing called reverse mentoring and a colleage and I are going to do it this next year
  • visit New York City… definately on my list.  In fact, I would like to take a trip to the northeast in general this next year.
  • go skiing… I have never been snow skiing in my life. That’s a great thing I could try next year.
  • fly first class… this would definately be fun. something to experience, something I can probably afford to do only once =)
  • wear more dresses… I love dresses, but finding good ones that are staples for a wardrobe is hard – this might be a fun thing to try!
  • cook with herbs from my own garden… I have yet to grow herbs and this would be an awesome thing to try for next year!
  • try to cook a national food… this one inspired me to think about getting the kolach recipe from my recipe box and actually attempting to bake them myself.
Hmm… that’s a pretty good list of things to try!  Possible things.  Fun things.  Some of them easy to accomplish. Some of them that might take some planning.

Is there anything like that from 2010?

Probably hiking up Koko Head Crater.  It was something I always wanted to do and I finally did it, barely.  That’s something I’ve talked about in a few of these other reverb10 posts.

I sang a solo in church, twice this year, which was quite an accomplishment for me.  It was a little scary, but I actually did it! The first time was for a Good Friday Tenebrae service, and the second time I busted out a song as a part of my sermon – a capella!!!

Another big accomplishment for me this year is that I decided to try and make a full scale blanket by crocheting/knitting.  It was a huge success and I’m now working on number three!!! A big step up from the scarves – which were my only prior attempts.

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