What Tomorrow's Church Requires

This time last week the leadership of St. John's was meeting with David Schoen, Minister and Team Leader for the United Church of Christ. David spent time with us exploring what tomorrow's church will require. To help us get a sense of some of the cultural shifts that have been happening, he shared this video Did You Know? I have been thinking about these rapid cultural shifts as well as his presentation all week. We talked about the need for the church to be missional in purpose, relational in outreach, and conversational in witness.

Later in the week I had a couple of different conversations, each with individuals who question the role of the church in their lives and struggle with the strict dogma of the churches they grew up in. Their memory of the experience in their youth is a constant filter for how they interpret what the church is today. They are torn because while there are some things they feel as though they must reject, they are drawn to the community, to the mystery, and to the concrete acts of service of the church. I found myself saying, "I don't believe in the God you don't believe in either" and longing to be able to bear witness to all that I find is good and right and beautiful with the particular community of faith to which I serve and belong. And I thought again about how accurate David was in the challenges he raised for us.

On one level, meeting the needs of many generations in a rapidly changing society is overwhelming. We certainly cannot continue doing all of the same old things we have always been doing and expect that it will be satisfying, sufficient, or even faithful.

But it is also a hopeful time. Phyllis Tickle suggests that the church goes through a "rummage sale" every 500 years when it is able to keep what is helpful and get rid of what is not. We are certainly living through that time right now. On Thursday I began reading a new book by my colleague and friend, Phil Snyder. The book, Toward a Hopeful Future: Why the Emergent Church is Good News for Mainline Congregations is a breath of fresh air and I can't wait to keep reading.

Perhaps if there are enough us who are willing to stay with this "rummage sale" we will be able to be what the church requires for the future.

Waking Up

I must confess I have conflicted feelings about my blackberry. Well, no, I actually like my blackberry very much, but I have become increasingly sensitive to how my blackberry (or, rather my looking at it and using it) can be a distraction to personal relationships. A friend and I were out with our two sons this past week and we (my friend and I) both reached for our blackberries at some point in the conversation to google the topic of conversation. Our boys immediately picked up on the fact that their mothers were using their phones during dinner! I was embarrassed. My husband is great about leaving his phone at home when we go out for a date, but I can’t do that. I protest that I can’t leave it behind .. someone might need me, but then I have been quick to pick up for something that I know is not an emergency. It is hard for me to just let the phone ring or press “ignore.”

I will continue to struggle with appropriate blackberry etiquette, but I have discovered one wonderful thing about the blackberry: I can wake up and reach over to receive some daily inspiration before I ever get out of bed in the morning. After I have pressed the snooze once or twice, my groggy hands reach out for my phone and I fumble at the keys to read three emails that are sent in the very early morning hours every day. I only have to have my eyes open to enter this spiritual discipline. It is a great way to wake up in the morning … I think of it as simmering time – those moments when I am awake but not at full boil: a perfect time to reflect and ponder.

Here are the sites that shoot me a morning email:

http://www.gratefulness.org/

http://i.ucc.org/FeedYourSpirit/Subscribe/tabid/101/Default.aspx

http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/subscribe.php

The Breakfast Table

Yesterday morning my husband and I lingered on our porch over a wonderful breakfast of french toast made with walnut raisin bread, crisp peppered bacon, perfectly ripe cantaloupe, and strong Italian roast coffee. As we were cleaning up I found myself wondering why we didn't do this more often. A good breakfast with someone you love is a great way to start the day; it is also one of the primary ideas behind a new ministry at St. John's called The Breakfast Table: Awakening Your Mind, Body, and Soul (TBT).

Do any of the following describe you?

You love to spend Sunday mornings with the people you love, often over a good home-cooked breakfast.

You are a visual person and make connections more easily when you are able to "see" an idea come to life.

You are a "hands on" person and want to DO something because of your faith, not just talk about it.

If church is going to be meaningful for you it needs to connect with your everyday life in relevant ways.

If any of these resonate with you, I think might enjoy The Breakfast Table!

The first TBT is this Sunday, September 13 at 9:00 a.m. We have six Sundays slotted throughout the year for TBT and are in the process of forming a "feeding team" and a "creating team" for each day. TBT will include elements of every day life: feeding ... eating .. thinking ... doing. Our hope is that this experience designed for people of all ages will deepen our faith experience, and stretch our minds and hearts. TBT will seek to make our faith more relevant, more engaging, and more integrated with our every day lives.

We have two great teams in place for our first experiment with this new venture. The "creating team" includes Diane Powell, Gary Reiss, Dixie Lauer, John Yakscoe, and Pattie Budd. They are meeting with me to design what exactly we will do after breakfast. Tom Yost and Rick Yost are the "feeding team." I don't know whether they will be making french toast, flipping pancakes or dishing up strata, but I do know it will be delicious and you won't need to cook it yourself that morning. Just come and enjoy! It will be a great way to start the day.

God-Sized Hearts for Parents

Jesus welcomed children and taught adults. We welcome adults and teach children. Someone’s got this backwards, and I don’t think it was Jesus.

This quote, from Marian Plant’s book, Faith Formation in Vital Congregations, caught my eye, and I knew I needed to read the rest of the book. Plant does an excellent job of looking at the whole area of Christian Education, or perhaps more appropriately called “Christian Formation.” It is an area of ministry in the church that I have always cared very much about.

Reading Plant’s book helped me integrate what I know I have known, but haven’t known how to accommodate, respond, or adapt to: “we are not in Kansas any more.” No longer are the church and society woven together in the same ways they were when I was growing up as a child. No longer do the schools and community life support the life of the church. This is most dramatic with the sports schedules, but is apparent in many other ways, too – with an increasing commitment to pluralism of all kinds. This presents an opportunity to create new and distinctive forms of formation.

In addition, Plant highlighted for me how parents and families are both exhausted and spiritually hungry. I have understood the exhaustion. I have sensed the hunger. Plant has challenged me to hold both of these needs together and find new ways to meet them. Rather than try to figure out how to “fit in” programs or lure kids to Sunday School, I think we need to shift the questions we are asking. How can we have God-sized hearts for parents? How can we meet the needs of the PARENTS who are trying to do all they can for their kids, recognize they can’t, and have many of their own spiritual needs that are left unmet?

I am most interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas about this.