Perspectives: Plates

 This is an art piece in the Union Trust Building in Pittsburgh. What impressed me is that it is made of plates.  Individual plates coming together to make an image. Feels church-like to me.

Why Community?

Many years ago, when my boys were still boys, I was speaking to the mother of another one of the youth in our church. I would guess she was part of the church because her son was part of the youth group and that she and her husband attended because a neighbor had invited them. She said to me that she felt closer to God in her backyard, being part of nature, than in worship.

I don't think that is a unique experience - I think many of us have felt the presence of God in God's creation. Let's set aside my opinion that our church's traditional style of worship wasn't her cup of tea, and just think about corporate vs individual means of grace.

Laceye Warner, in the book All the Good: A Wesleyan Way of Christmas, writes this:

The vitality of the early Methodist renewal movement depended on small group gatherings.  John consistently urged that authentic spiritual formation could not take place 'without society, without living and conversing with [others].'"

I think this statement makes sense when one considers the emphasis the Wesleys placed on accountability groups. These small group gatherings were the heart of the spiritual growth Wesley envisioned for those who participated in his movement.

What is the benefit of a communal experience of the means of grace (according to me)?

• Wesley would say to encourage nurture and accountability. While we can practice self-discipline, we are prone to self-justification of our actions, aren't we? At least I am. Having others to encourage and provide truth is helpful.
• When we are part of community, we have opportunities for service. We care for each other, and together, we can reach out beyond ourselves. On our own, who do we love? Who do we care for?
• We are more - synergistically - when we are together than when we are alone. The church - our community - is more than the some of the members.
• When we say, "I'll just sit here in my backyard to worship," we selfishly think that God's desire for our worship is only that we are individually edified. What do we bring to worship than can build up others? What do we bring to church that can help others to grow?
• What about when we are grieving, lost, alone, unwell? Community can support us. And when others need help? Sitting in our backyard doesn't help anyone.
• What about stewardship? What about giving of our gifts and talents? Who do we give them to in the backyard?
• In isolation, our experience of God is one-sided, flat - created only from our own perceptions of God. In community, our understanding of God is broadened, strengthened, because other voices and experiences contribute to it.

Please don't misunderstand me. I think times alone, times in nature, are wonderful gifts of grace. I just think they can't be everything and all. We are called to be in community, called to be of service to each other and to those around us. God is surrounding us, entering the spaces between us. We need each other.

Why Church?

Why Church?  Why, in particular, do you attend the church you have chosen?

Barbara Brown Taylor, in the book Always a Guest, says this about her church:

Like you, I keep coming back here because it is the place I feel most sane, most accompanied, most drawn out of myself to be with people whose lives may be different from mine as they can be, but whose hearts I trust beyond all reason.

I like this reason for choosing a particular church, and it resonates with me. I don't mean that my church is always this place, but when it is at its best, this is what it is. 

I've been thinking about the people we do not reach. We struggle with idea that what we are offering as a church doesn't meet their needs.  I don't think it is all a "they haven't heard about us" struggle.  I think some of it is a "they've tried us, and they don't need what we offer" situation. For me, when my church doesn't meet my spiritual needs, I come anyway. I have a home there.  I belong. For those who are not a part of us, they don't have that draw.

So what do we do? I think God calls us to be the church for all. How do we do that?

Maybe it starts with being the church. Be family for them before they are a part of who we are. When you have a family, you want to serve the other members - you want their needs to be met. So you talk to them. "How can I help you?"  You listen. You serve.

It may be that we have to stop offering what pleases us, and start listening for what would meet the needs of those who do not know us.

 

What Shaped your Church?

I'm taking a class called Women Speak of God with Be A Disciple and Wesley Theological Seminary as part of their Certification in Advanced Christian Studies.  One of the questions we answered this week was:

What are some of the historical factors that have shaped your church family? What kind of influences do people that join this particular community bring with them?

 

My local church celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2020.  Countless historical factors had shaped in through those years.  It has its roots in a church that was first imagined by Frances Asbury as he traveled through our area and was served by circuit riders, the first one of which served churches in a 200 mile area.  As the civil war approached, the Methodist church split into the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and our Guyandotte/Huntington area church split also; the church that would become Johnson Memorial UMC was the MEC, South.  After the Civil War, Collis P. Huntington began to plan and build the western terminal of his railway, and the town of Huntington was founded.

 

Tragedy shaped the church.  Rev. Johnson became pastor in 1889.  During a Masonic initiation, he fell down a shaft and was injured severely enough to die 36 hours later.  The church was named after him.  Over the years, the church has suffered through three fires; the one in the thirties destroyed all but the exterior of the building.  During the time of rebuilding, the church was invited to worship at the local synagogue; a strong relationship of support developed between the two congregations that exists still today.  After the third fire in 2015, the church was able to worship in the Fellowship Hall, but moved to the same synagogue for Easter worship.

 

The aftermath of World War II and the baby boomer generation saw great growth in the church.  In more recent years, as the population of the city has decreased, the church has grown smaller. As tensions in the United Methodist church have grown over homosexuality, our local church explored its beliefs and joined Reconciling Ministries. 

 

I think those who have joined this church over the years have brought influences with them that have changed us from a Methodist Episcopal Church, South, that more than likely would have supported slavery, to a church that voted overwhelmingly to join Reconciling Ministries.  The church has supported women in ministry and people of color as pastors.  We are a college town; members joined with a thirst for education; bible study and Sunday school have been important aspects of our ministry together.

Perspectives: Propped up

 I hope I haven't share this image before, but if so, I apologize.  It just seems fitting right now.  As we move through this pandemic, the needs of our communities will change.  Will we prop up old ways of doing things? Or will we reinvent who we are, so that we stand strong and capable to do the work God has given us?

Breaking News

I was in a meeting yesterday that involved our Bishop.  She said that while she was in the Atlanta Airport, she saw a person wearing a t-shirt that said, "Breaking News: No one cares."  Reading the t-shirt made her sad.  How does it make you feel?

I have two thoughts about the message on the shirt, and they are opposite sides of a coin, so to speak.  I'm not certain what message the wearer of the shirt wanted to convey.  Did she mean that no one cares about anyone, including that no one cares about her?  That is doesn't matter - she and no one else are beloved, and no one cares about her or about you.  Breaking news.  Or does she mean it as a more personal message? Does she mean that she hears you talking, but, really, no one cares what you are saying, especially her. Breaking news: no one cares.  Stop talking.  Stop sharing. Stop.  No one cares.

Either way, it is a failure of the church, don't you think? If she believes no one cares about anyone else, then she hasn't experienced that anyone has cared for her.  If she wants to convey the message that she doesn't care about anyone else, then she hasn't been taught to love. 

For us, the people who believe that everyone is beloved of God, this is an issue, and it calls us to action.  The only way to change the world (and the message on the t-shirt) is to love the people we know, and the people we don't know.  To love, as we have been taught to love.

Growing Their Gifts

Brad Paisley grew up in Glen Dale, West Virginia, which is very near to Wheeling.  I was in Glen Dale a few weekends ago, so I "did my research" after we left town (I googled).  Wikipedia says that he performed in public for the first time in his church.  The article later quotes Paisley to say, "The neat thing about a small town is that when you want to be an artist, by golly, they'll make you one."

That made me think about church.  I hope our children say that about our churches.  My prayer is that whatever gifts, talents, or dreams our children have, that our churches will nurture those gifts and dreams so that all of the children of God have the chance to go into themselves.  Into the selves that God has created them to be.

Sometimes I worry that we put perfection - in our music, in our readings, in our ministry - at a higher value than the nurturing of the "not so perfect." I hope that we will all take the chance and give those growing into their gifts the opportunity to use them.

Why church?

Why church?  Why come together on Sundays (or any other day) to worship God as a community? Why be part of a community at all? We had this discussion in Sunday school, and I had some pushback to the idea that we need to be in church in order to ... well... be church.

A person once said to me, "I can experience God better in my back yard than in 'church.'"  I get that. I understand that in the quiet and peacefulness of nature, our souls are more quiet, and we can see God more.  I've talked about that alot on this blog, and I have certainly experienced it.  God is present right now, as I sit at my computer and type this post.  I can hear - discern - God more easily in the quiet, without the organ or the distractions of watching other people or hearing the comments in the pews behind me.  I can see God in a tree rustling in the wind,  or in the sunrise on a mountain, or in the beauty of a flower.  

But, how does that help us to be the church other than prepare me to be a part of the church? Other than prepare me to fulfill the mission I've been given and that the Church has been given?  How does me finding God in a bird help anyone else?

Yes, there are ways, but aren't there other ways we cannot ignore? Ways that God intended for us through the Church?

If God is present in a rose or a sunrise, then isn't God present in me? In you? And if I stay home from worship, how will others know God? That sounds very self-righteous, but I don't mean it to be.  Let me turn it around. If you stay home and enjoy your garden, how will I come to know what God needs me to know through you?

There are means of grace.  Some are can be very private and  individualized, such as contemplation, study, fasting, And then there are those that are corporate, such as communion, visiting the sick and those in prison, feeding the hungry, holy conversation, and communal worship.

In our gathered worship, we are Christ to each other.  If we stay away, we miss that experience, and we withhold it from those who would gather with us. 

Prayer for Next Week

On a walk through the woods at Snowshoe last year, I saw this tree.  It had been an obstacle - one that without intervention, would have prevented Steve and me from continuing down the path.

If I had been walking on the path before the fallen tree had been cut, I could not have imagined a way to clear the path myself.  I might have climbed over the tree, or turned around, but I couldn't have removed the tree on my own.

Next Monday, our church is meeting together in General Conference.  Please pray.

Creating God, loving God, sustaining God,
with boldness and humility
we come together as your Church,
or at least in the broken image
of your Church,
and we ask for your help.

Open our minds,
Open our hearts,
Open our doors.
Revive our imagination.
Help us to see your presence
in the work that will be done.
That has been done.
That is being done.

I pray, loving God,
that you will help those gathered
and those of us not with them,
to see a way to
be your Church.
United in Christ.
Loving.
With arms open to reach all of us.
Every one of your children.
As you do.

Be in the room with the delegates.
Close their mouths, open their minds.
Shut away their fears, and recreate their hearts.
Increase their kindness, and decrease their stubborness.
Stengthen each of them for the work you have called them to do.
Not the work they have picked up,
but the mission of your Church.
Clear their hands of what they bring,
and make way for what you give.

May they all be changed.
And may your church be changed.
To be your Church.

Be here with us,
those of us not present.
Bring us the same gifts
that you provide the delegates.
Receate in all of us
the hearts we need
to move forward in your Will.

I let it go,
and place it your care,
where it belongs.
Trusting you,
that you are at work,
as I know you are.
And that your way,
is the Way.

I pray in your son's name,
and ask for his presence in their work
next week.
Amen.

Do we believe the same things?

I'm reading Rachel Held Evans book, Inspired.  As I was thinking thoughts related to yesterday's post, I read this:

God is busy making all thins new, and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has opened that work to everyone who wants in on it.  The church is not a group of people who believe all the same things; the church is a group of people caught up int he same story, with Jesus as the center.

While you and I are debating issues, God is going about God's work - changing lives, transforming the world.  Do we want in on it? 

I love and applaud the idea that the church is not a group of people who believe the same things.  Certainly, we have a shared system of beliefs that unite us, but beyond that, we do not  We do we continue to insist that we must? 

The church is a group of people caught up in the same story.  Are we? God is transforming the world all around us; are we caught up in that story? Or are we failing to be an obedient church?

Is Christ at the center of what we do?

Voting

In Sunday school a few weeks ago, a member of the class read a quote from John Wesley taken from his journal, dated October 6, 1774:

"I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them,

1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy:
2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And,
3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.

I've been thinking about those words.  Do you find them difficult to put into practice?  When they were read in Sunday school, another member said, "Well, one out of three isn't bad."

We would all agree, I think, that we shouldn't sell our vote, and that we should make a judgement and vote.  But what about the other two?

I admit, I do speak negatively words about the person against whom I vote, and I do probably have sharp words to say about the people who do not vote the way I do.  And yet, I do think there are times when one must stand up and speak against the people and ideas that we believe are wrong, or even evil.  

In a country that is so divided politically, and in a church that is divided by one particular (that we are currently noticing) issue, how do we implement Wesley's advice while still acting and speaking with integrity?

I don't have the answers, and I confess I've not been able to follow Wesley's advice, but I do think we need to see the other person as a person.  Once we change that person into an issue or into an obstacle, and no longer see him or her as a child of God, we lose the ability to act in Christ's healing peace.

Getting There

Sitting in a movie theater the other day, I saw an interview with Pooh Bear, from the movie Christopher Robin.  Yes, an interview with Pooh Bear.  He said, "I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been."  It reminded me of a Bear Bryant quote - those phrases that are so obvious that they are of course true, and seem silly to say?  Know what I mean? 

As I thought about it more, I thought the idea that in order to get where we are going, we have to walk away from where we have been is profound wisdom that we often forget.  Especially in the Church.  Where do we want to go? We want to reach more and new people.  We want to be relevant. We want to do the will of God.  

Are we doing that now? Maybe some, but not enough.

How do we get to where we are called to go? Walk away from where we are.

What?  

We don't want to do that. We don't want to let go of what we have been doing. We don't want to walk away from where we are.  And sometimes we just won't.  So we don't get anywhere.

And for believers in a God who is a God of change, a God of transformation, we are incredibly stuck where we are, afraid of change.  

So we don't get where we are going.

Sacred Place

I mentioned yesterday that the Bishop came to our church to preach. She did so because we were rededicating our building after a serious renovation. 

I think in such a time it is important to realize that the building is not what is important. Even though it looks so much nicer, and it welcoming and wonderful - it is not the church.

She said something I'll remember for a while. She was preaching about the Jacob's ladder story. The place Jacob stopped had no name, and after he encountered God, Jacob named the place Bethel (House of God.). 

Our building isn't sacred because we say so - not even because the bishop says so. Our building is a sacred place because it is a place where people have and will encounter God. If that isn't happening, then it's just another building, like any other. 

"The no name place becomes crucial.  It's is a place of encounter - and that makes it holy."

May it be so.

Map vs GPS

On Monday, I wrote about my GPS, and how it sent me on a road I would not have chosen. As I was driving, I promised myself that the next time, I would look at the map myself, before starting out, and I would know the way - I wouldn't be as realiant on the GPS.

It's funny, because on the way to church the day before my meeting, Steve and I were talking about the GPS. It only shows you the details.  You see the road you are on, and the next turn, but that's it - you can't see the big picture. When you use a map, you see the directions, and whole trip.

Sometimes we need to use the map. We need to envision the entire trip - the directions, the roads, the destination - the whole vision of where we are going. Sometimes, we need the GPS - the step by step instructions.

The issue, I think, is that FIRST we need the map - where are we going, and how will we get there, and THEN we need the GPS - the step by step instructions.

In the church, when we fail to do the visioning work, the purpose of the details becomes blurred, and we get lost in the woods. The steps we are taking become the more important than the goal. It could be that this is a point of conflict for some churches. The steps become sacred, but the goal is never thought of.

A Different Way

Earlier this week, I had a meeting at a church, and was traveling to the church in the dark through unfamiliar territory. I was following my GPS, and the directions took me on a backroad, through mountains and farmland. It was a dark, lonely, twisting, rough road (can you tell I didn't like it?), and most of the time the only reason I kept driving was that I blindly following the directions on my GPS.  

The whole time I was driving - over half an hour in the middle of no where, I kept thinking that there had to be a better way to get where I was going.  I was certain I wasn't returning to where I had started using the road I was on.  I would find a better way.

When we know where we are going, are we sometimes convinced that we way we are trying to get there isn't the best way to accomplish what we are doing? In the church, do we keep "traveling" a path that isn't the best one to use? And do we ever say, "Is there a better way to get there?"

Sometimes the path we are on is an old one - one that we have used many times - and the only reason we stay on it is fear of change.  Sometimes the path we are on is one that is designed by someone else (like my GPS), and we stay on it because we haven't done the research we need to do to find a different way. Sometimes the path we are on is going to the wrong place (my real fear the other night), and we are too stubborn to admit it.

We need to ask the important questions, and then act on our answers - and find the differnet, better way.

Art and Music

On Sunday, our Sunday school lesson was taught by a young woman who was a youth at our church when she was younger.  She is now working on her PhD in art history. It was a joy to listen to her as she led a discussion in our class about Luca Giordano's Saint Sebastian Cured by Irene.

Notice in the painting that the background is dark and the characters are almost spotlit in the way they are painted. It is dramatic. The painting was created in the Baroque period, which followed the Renaissance. Liz shared with us that the naturalism in the painting and the drama were reactions to people leaving the Catholic church - they were using art to try to attract people back into the church.

It reminded me of the way we have tried in the past to rely on contemporary worship and music to attact people. I'm not saying that either the art or the music are wrong, or even that it's wrong to adapt our practice of religion to speak the language of a younger generation.

What we might want to take care not to do is to rely on only these changes to evangelize. What pulls people into a relationship with Christ? I think it is probably evidence that faith makes a difference - that God makes a difference in our lives.     

Perspectives: Barriers

Last Saturday, Steve and I walked through the park to watch the Veterans Day Parade (Josh was lead trumpet).  On the way, I saw took this picture.  My assumption is that this used to be a bridge across the creek that runs through the park. The bridge is gone, and the large black board is to keep people from walking over the non-existent bridge.  I took a picture of it because it brought to mind a few questions about obstacles. 

1. What obstacles do we place in the way of people across a way that used to be there?  What in our churches blocks people's participation? The obvious answers are accessibility obstacles, but there are others. Do we expect people to dress a certain way? Do we want children to act a certain way? Do we pigeon-hole people into certain roles based on age or gender?  What other ways to we block people from full participation in church?
2. What obstacles do we have in society that need to be removed? Beyond the church, are their obstacles that need to be removed for people to have a secure life? To have a home or food? To reach their potential at work? To achieve success at school? Can we look at life through another person's eyes and see what hinders them?
3. Where is the line between an obstacle that is for safety and one that blocks a person from reaching God. How do we decide?

Good Soil and the Sower

In worship a few weeks ago, the preacher talked about the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. As he talked about how we are sometimes like each of these kinds of soil, I started thinking about churches - and how our churches are sometimes like each of these kinds of soil. I'm exploring each of these in a series of blog posts.

"Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears[a] listen!” (verse 8-9) and "But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” (verse 23)

How can we be the church that has good soil? How can we be the church that hears the word of God and let's it sink deeply into our being, so that it bears good fruit?

Can we intentionally seek to understand God's word? How do we do that?

Can we lose our fear of doubt? Lose our fear of change? Lose our fear of the person who is different? How do we do that?

Can we become passionate about following Christ? So passionate that we put that priority ahead of other distractions? So passionate that we are willing to invest our time and talents? How do we do that?

No one said it would be easy? How do we change our ways?

Having said all of that - over four days - I wonder if the focus on the soil is wrong? This is the question that the preacher in worship asked. The parable is referred to as the Parable of the Sower. How can we be a Sower like Christ? This sower throws the seed everywhere. He doesn't worry about whether it will take root or not. He doesn't pick and choose, or hesitate to be generous in his planting. He just throws the seed. There is a trust in this kind of planting. There is also a relief from worry in this kind of planting.

Trust that the growth and the harvest are in God's hands. Let go of the need to control. Be generous and even wasteful. Can we just do what we are called to do? Can our churches be that kind of sower?

Note: I am attending a Stewardship Conference next week, and won't be posting. I will be back to posting on August 14. See you then!

Seed among Thorns

In worship a few weeks ago, the preacher talked about the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. As he talked about how we are sometimes like each of these kinds of soil, I started thinking about churches - and how our churches are sometimes like each of these kinds of soil. I'm exploring each of these in a series of blog posts.

"Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them." (verse 7) and "As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing." (verse 22)

How are our churches distracted from hearing the word of God? Imagine this. Imagine sitting in a committee meeting and working through the details of a budget. You see the numbers. You see the income and the outflow. You see the shortfall or the excess. Do the members of that committee see the ministry? Do you remember the people who are the "giving units?" Do you think about the children who will be attending the Sunday school classes or the searching young person who needs to hear about the word of God? Are churches distracted from ministry by the "details" of it?

Would churches rather focus on keeping the floors clean than remembering that the homeless person with dirty boots it the one who Jesus loves? Would churches rather be angry about the broken window than remember that the boy scout who through the ball through the window will only encounter Christ in that building - and no where else? Would churches rather have everyone in the same pew week after week than make space for someone new?

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with clean floors and rules about throwing balls or the fellowship of sitting near a friend, but do we allow those things to take priority of reaching the lost, the lonely or the unloved?

How are we distracted from hearing the word of God? What can we do to change our ways?

(To be continued tomorrow)

Seed on Shallow Ground

In worship a few weeks ago, the preacher talked about the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. As he talked about how we are sometimes like each of these kinds of soil, I started thinking about churches - and how our churches are sometimes like each of these kinds of soil. I'm exploring each of these in a series of blog posts.

"Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. (verse 5) and "As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy yet such a person has no root, but endures only for awhile, and when trouble or persecution arise on account of the word, that person immediately falls away." (verses 20-21).

What about churches that seem to be shallow environments for the word of God? Imagine a church that begins a ministry with great excitement, and then, when the going gets rough, they give up? Are there churches that think everything has to be effortless or easy? Are there churches that don't understand the complicated idea of transformation - and that it won't be easy? Do churches sometimes shy away from what is difficult or involved simply because it is hard?

And what about churches that only have a shallow grasp of who God is and what God is calling them to do? What about the church that offers "salvation" through a simple prayer but doesn't have an intention way to develop believers into disciples? What about churches that offer Sunday School for children with no depth - just babysitting without the grace of helping children to grow in Christ? Is our ministry of education for both children and adults challenging? Does it call for us to stretch our minds and our faith? Does it leave room for doubt and the sanctification that can come from it?

How are our churches not allowing the seeds of God's word to sink deeply into our spirit? What can we do to change our ways?

(To be continued tomorrow.)