Book Review: Synergy

Information about the book
Synergy: A Leadership Guide for Church Staff and Volunteers  by Ann A. Michel.   Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2017 (Cokesbury Link)

Summary

From the Cokesbury website:  Author Ann Michel presents a more inclusive, collaborative understanding of ministry, affirming the gifts and calling of both clergy and lay servants. Using the concept of “synergy,” Michel provides practical advice on the day-to-day skills of a mutually responsible ministry, showing you how to engage others, build teams, and manage effectively.  "Synergy is both a practical and deeply spiritual resource that helps provide a more collaborative way of thinking about ministry shared between clergy and laity.  Ann has captured the challenges that can present themselves as laity serve in ministry not only from her research but also from her personal experience as a lay person and respected Seminary theologian, and she offers practical ways to equip laity to fully live in this call of lay servants and lay staff members. As a lay person who has served on a church staff for more than 23 years, understanding this synergistic energy articulated so well in Ann’s writing has reignited my passion and affirmed my call." - Debi Williams Nixon, Managing Executive Director, The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection

Impressions

We are using this book in our CLM course as a guide for discussions about Leadership.  Thanks to the MonValley CLM Course for using it - that's where I found it.  Each session, we'll take a chpater of the book and discuss thoughts around a leadership topic.

I was impressed by the practical approach taken to the team approach in church leadership, and think it is very appropriate for the work of a CLM.  I love how it begins with the  idea off call - that everyone is called and that ministry is service.  I'm looking forward to the discussions our group will have over the topics covered.

Posts about book
Posts about this book can be found here

Hospitality

I remember, in 2012, I was involved in the local planning group for the NEJ Conference.  It was held in Charleston, WV.  It was a great experience that took a lot of work, but was fruitful for me, and, I hope, for others.

One of my understandings that changed during the planning and implementation of the Conference was the word Hospitality.  It is so much more than we think it is.  As I was reading Impact! by Kay Kotan and Blake Bradford, I found some pages that talk about hospitality.

1. We mistake hospitality for friendliness.  So often in my church (where I have been a member since 1981) members say that we are very friendly - and they have experienced that.  I believe them when they say it.  However, it took many years for me to feel like I "belonged" to the church where I belonged.  Hospitality involves making room for relationship, not just hellos.  How do we offer people the opportunity to really belong - to develop relationships?
2. We mistake fellowship for friendliness.  Fellowship is an important part of belong to a church family.  When my Sunday school talks about what they value about life in a church, they talk about fellowship, even if they don't call it that.  The problem is that Fellowship is inwardly focused.  It is about the relationships that exist within the congregation.  It is doing life together; it isn't about being welcoming to the stranger.  How do we make room in worship and in the life of the church to demonstrate hospitality to strangers/guests?

What is hospitality?  Bishop Robert Schnase defines it as "the active desire to invite, welcome, receive and care for those who are strangers so that they find a spiritual home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life in Christ.  It describes a genuine love for others who are not yet a part of the faith community."  It is outwardly focused.  (Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations)

How can we intentionally (and it has to be intention) demonstrate hospitality?

Perspectives: Curiosity

 Do we show curiosity? When we don't understand something, or think we disagree with it, do we demonstrate curiosity? Do we attempt to discover what we do not know? Are we even aware that there are those things we do not know?

Reading Critically

On the opening evening of our CLM class, I shared some thoughts with the students regarding how to read the material we will be working through.  I think it applies to all of us.  As we read or listen, we should practice critical thinking.  This doesn’t mean thinking that criticizes, but instead thinking that involves being open-minded - using judgement and discipline to process what we are learning about without letting our own personal bias or opinion detract from the arguments. 

 

In other words, be open minded – one thought is that is we read or hear something we don’t agree with, apply Wesley’s quadrilateral – analyze it in the light of Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.

 

For example, I was reading one of the books we are using in class, and the author suggested that all reading during worship should be done from a well bound, hard back Bible.  I don’t want to just dismiss something I disagree with, so I stopped to think about it.    That’s not a biblical command.  It probably does apply to the author’s tradition, but maybe not to mine.  I often see younger people reading in church from their iPhones.  My reason tells me that is an adaption to the modern culture, and my experience with the Holy Spirit tells me that it is more loving to be inclusive than exclusive – why criticize what people read from in church when the loving action is to be grateful for the sharing of the scripture. 

 

Don’t dismiss something just because you disagree with it, but also don’t accept what you read as rules that must not be broken.  Read critically.

 

Devotional - Covenant

On March 1, I started a journey with other lay people across the Annual Conference.  I'm leading a Conference Certified Lay Ministry Course.  It's a new thing - for me, for the students, and for the Conference.  I am spending  a whole lot of time planning, reading and coordinating.  I'm sure over the next few months  you'll see the course mentioned here, and you'll see posts about it (including book reviews - I already have three of those written).

We began our time together with a Zoom meeting.  I opened the meeting with the following devotional.

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

As I was thinking about the beginning of our journey together, and planning what the devotional would be, I was drawn to this particular lectionary reading from last week because of the word covenant in it.

 

We will talk about covenant in our time together.  We will talk about ministry covenants, but we will also – even if not directly – talk about God’s covenant with each of us.  So I thought literally beginning our journey with thoughts about covenant would be appropriate.

 

One of the things I hope you notice from this passage is that it is God who establishes the covenant.  This is not a contract where each side states what it will do for the other – God is declaring through this covenant that God will be “God to you and to your offspring after you.”  Abram and Sarai will be blessed to become the ancestors of the multitudes – of nations and kings.  This is all God’s action.  It has not been earned by Abram and Sarai – it is a covenant of Grace.

 

We should also notice that this covenant is based on relationship, God is not establishing a covenant with a people – God is establishing a covenant with Abram and Sarai.  The covenant extends to all who will follow – but it is established out of a relationship between God and these two particular people.  It’s amazing to think, isn’t it, that the creator of the universe knows these two people, promises steadfast loyalty to them, and that personal relationship will literally reconcile humanity.

 

Abram and Sarai receive new names in this passage – Abraham and Sarah.  What I did not know before I started planning this devotional is that God, too, is called by a new word.  This  passage is the first time in the Bible that the word El Shaddai is used to describe God.  We translate that as God Almighty, but it can also be translated as God of the Mountains. 

 

As we begin this journey together, I hope you will remember that while the covenant in Genesis 17 was with Abraham and Sarah, it was an everlasting covenant.  We to, the People of these Mountains are in relationship with God – we are recipients of God grace because of the restoration begun by God so many years ago.  We too have new names, beloved of God. 

 

Prayer:

El Shaddai, God Almighty, God the mountains, God of grace and love, walk among us tonight.  Gather with us in homes, at our desk, around our computers, and inhabit our work tonight and throughout this year.  Make your will known to each of us, and grant us the grace to move forward in your call.  I give you thanksgiving for each of those here tonight.  May we all live into the new names you have given to us.  In your son’s name we pray, Amen.

 

Perspectives: Love around us

 We were walking a trail in Barboursville Park and found this painted under a bridge. I post it here to remind us that love is around is - God is around us - if we will look.  (Note:  I don't mean to imply this is a painting of God, but lips remind me of love, so there you go - a peek into my brain).

Book Review: Rediscovering our Spiritual Gifts

Information about the book

Rediscovering our Spiritual Gifts; Building up the Body of Christ through the Gifts of the Spirit by Charles V. Bryant.  Upper Room Books, Nashville.  1991.  (Cokesbury link)

Summary

The book identifies 30 spiritual gifts and shows their value for the church (per Cokesbury).  The author states, "In this book, I propose ____ study of the extraordinary powers God gives people who receive the Holy Spirit."  He explores what spiritual gifts are and what they are not.  He provides an in depth look at 32 spiritual gifts and how they are used to build up the church.  The book ends with an assessment to discover what the reader's gifts.  For those interested in using this book as a resource for group study, John I. Penn offers Rediscovering our Spiritual Gifts Workbook as a companion piece (Cokesbury Link).  I think studying the book in a group would help alleviate some of the concerns I list in the Impressions section of my post.  (Note: I do not have and have not read the Workbook)

Impressions

I appreciated the beginning chapters of the book more than the litany of spiritual gifts.  I found that there were times when I did not agree with the author.  His statements sometimes seemed black and white or difficult to support.  For example the idea that we receive spiritual gifts when we receive the Holy Spirit (and only then) and that the gifts never change seems to limit God's action.  If spiritual gifts are gifts of grace from God, then why would we assume that God can't give a new one later if it serves God's purposes?  The idea glosses over the thought that we may not be in a situation presently  that requires a particular gift - it's not disobedient to not be using a particular gift right now.  Also, some of the characters he lists that people demonstrate who have a particular gift seem too narrow.  Do people with the gift of leadership ALWAYS step up to lead? Do people with the gift of hospitality ALWAYS prefer short term relationships?  Most of the gift descriptions contain these types of statements.  I may be sharing my reaction to the writing rather than the author's intention, however.

I do appreciate the definitions of each gift and the exploration of the word origins for each.  Very helpful.  Also, as I mentioned, the first few chapters were very good, and I appreciated his insights.

If there are any other posts on my blog that refer to this book, they can be found at this link.

A year in a Pandemic time

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the declaration of a global pandemic (a redundant description - pandemics are global by definition).  March 23 will mark the one year anniversary of when our office staff started working from home.  We went back to the office (with precautions we are still observing) a couple of months later, but knowing a year has passed has me remembering what the pandemic was like at the beginning.

It was a time of stress - of unknowing.  Something what would seem impossible one week would be the reality the next week.  It was a time of grief.  I grieved the things we lost - traveling, eating out, being with people, worshiping and studying together, going to conferences, watching Josh graduate.  I grieved the loss of who we were. 

It was a time of anxiety.  What was going to happen? Grocery stores were empty. The stock market plunged. People lost jobs.  Schools closed.  Everything happened so quickly and without any real predictability.  Who knew what would happen next?  No one could predict it.

I found that I couldn’t watch the news.  I physically could not stay in the room if the TV was broadcasting news.  My anxiety would shoot up, and I would have to get up, and leave.  I love to make cards, but I couldn’t sit down and make them.  There wasn’t enough leftover concentration or creativity for them.  I realized one day that I couldn’t pray - and I felt like I should be praying.  Couldn’t. The day I realized that I sat down and made a few simple cards, and it felt like prayer. 

Our office staff worked out a schedule so that one of us would go to the office each day.  On my days to go in, I noticed that there were many fewer cars on the road than usual.  There weren’t traffic jams and there were many fewer accidents.  The road to work felt eerie and strange, and I almost felt like I shouldn’t be out driving (even though we are considered an essential business). 

We hadn’t been in our office space very long when March came along.  We had been using it as a place of hospitality - three or four meetings or gatherings held there already - and when I went to work, by myself, in the days we were working from home, the office felt empty.  Quiet.  And so sad. Lonely.

The day after I started working from home, Steve started doing the same thing.  We set our office up in the family room (the back of the room was already an office space) and worked together. It was good to be together.  On Fridays we would go out, pick up lunch, and eat it in the car. 

There were daily zoom meetings, texts, and phone calls to try to stay connected as an office.  I didn’t feel as if I was getting as much done - I compared it to driving a car with a wagon wheel.  But I was busy all the time. 

We stopped worshiping at church and started attending online services.  The first time I watched one of the services, I cried.  Now it seems normal, and I don’t give it a second thought.

We tried to stay away from family. We went out every Saturday to get groceries for Mom so she wouldn’t have to (we still are).  We dropped off the groceries and tried to keep our distance.  The first meal we had together was on Mother’s Day - we brought in food and ate while socially distanced. 

Once the state parks opened back up, Steve and I started making day trips. We were very careful, eating in the car or outside, taking walks.  It felt wonderful to get away from the house.  In June, we took our first overnight trip to Canaan Valley.  We spent two nights at the resort, and took several long walks.  We did eat breakfast and dinner in the restaurant, and it was a little bit nerve wracking.  In July, we traveled to Alabama to help Josh move to Nevada. We drove across the country - over 20 states - and didn’t eat inside a restaurant one time.  It was a different way to travel.  In September, we spent a week at Caswell Beach - a much more empty place than our usual Myrtle Beach.  We cooked in the condo about half the time and picked up meals to eat in the condo the other half of the week.  An enjoyable but different kind of vacation.

I started a mask factory, using a pattern a crated from a mask Mom bought me whose fit I liked.  I now have a mask drawer, I’ve made so many.

I checked (and still check) daily infection rates in our state, the Rt values across the country (they’ve stopped measuring that now).  Now I watch vaccination rates.

I celebrated when Mom was able to get an appointment for a vaccination, and I drove her through yucky weather to get her second shot.  Steve and I were able to get appointments for vaccinations a week ago - our second shots are on Good Friday.  There is a wonderful relief to the vaccination.  I see hope as I watch people around me receive the vaccination, and watch infection rates drop.  I hope that soon we will be able to go to a movie without worry that we will catch a virus that will kill us.

Someone on TV the other day said that during this “Great Pause” we have stopped living.  For Steve and me, that isn’t true.  We haven’t lived the same as before, but we have found a way to enjoy life while doing different things than we used to.  We enjoyed picnics outside and walks through the woods, take-out and car travel.  As we enter post-emergency Covid times, we’ll keep some of those habits, I imagine.