Jacob's Well

stairs emerging
Originally uploaded by scoxjohnson.

Last night I took the three boys from church whom I had worked with a year or so ago on their God and Church award for Boy Scouts, to Jacob's Well for worship. I had not been there on Sunday evening for two or three months--hadn't seen Tim for a month of so. What a profoundly wonderful, no-words-for experience it is--what, maybe 450 folks, mostly between 17 and 27, a GREAT band, projected icons and medieval art, white, white for Eastertide, shasta mum/daisies on the altar candles, expository preaching on the beheading of John the Baptist (!!!), and holy communion...who could ask for anything more??? I wanted my Caleb next to me, and I told him today after school that we are going next Sunday night.
I sensed God's spirit leading me last night, as I have all along amidst the emergent conversation. I feel like I have come home and at the same time called to a journey of ministry within my own denomination that is in the context of all of this. I am concerned that amidst all the administrative details of the superintendency this will be lost. I am SO enlivened by this emergent thing, it feels SO right, and I am scared for my beloved United Methodist church that we may somehow be being called to come and die to become something new again. Which sounds pretty threatening, Don't tell the Bishop...but then again, maybe that's why I am called at this moment to all that God is calling me toward....Wow

Bringing out the best in one another...

older adults
Originally uploaded by scoxjohnson.

Over the past several weeks, we have had several deaths in the congregation. The last two funeral/memorial services that I have had were for women in the nineties, one who had never married, the other who had been widowed for decades--both, by the way, were Harvey Girls! For both of these women, there were not any close family members. Today's service was at the church, in the parlor. The person who had been the main care giver for Elma was Jim, a long time, very active member of our church. Jim, along with some others, had helped Elma with her house, with legal matters, with medical matters, and after my sermon today, it was he who rose to thank those present, and others who could not be present, for their support of Elma, much as a younger brother might do. The most memorable part of the service was when a step-nephew of Elma's stood and spoke. As in many families where there has been re-marriage, there had been some tension and ill feelings, as Bob, the step nephew admitted. And, he said, with tears in his eyes, that he was so glad to be present and to hear the sharing that had taken place primarilly by church members, who spoke with love and appreciation for Elma. It gave him a perspective on her life that he had never had, and he was grateful to be able to remember Elma in a more positive way.
One definition of a church community that is healthy is that the members are able to bring out the best in one another. Churches are often at their best when there is a crisis in a member's life, and the petty differences between persons are put aside. I am so glad for the many of our church who find ways each week to quietly go about the ministry of care.

Learning how ...

friendship
Originally uploaded by scoxjohnson.

Making truly good friends for me has been a "sometimes" thing...itinerancy does not always provide the fertile soil of extended time, or the sunny rays of energy that it takes to grow the deep, true friendships that I sometimes have thought would be nice to have. Over the past year and a half or so, somehow, someway, through a gift of the spirit, I have been graced with a handful of very wonderful friendships with persons whom I did not know, or at least did not call true friends, five years ago. My life at times has been a solitary thing, not a sad thing, really, but often lived alone. I probably have had two really close friends over the past twenty years, in addition to Philip, my former husband--my relationship with him defies any word or model I really have witnessed anywhere else (I'll save that for another blog!) I think most probably that at least a significant part of my personal life's work for the rest of my life, will be to learn how to allow myself to be known well by trusted freinds. I am glad God has provided me with those persons. The superintendency, I know, can be a lonely thing. The greatest concern I have, aside from how this parenting thing will work, is how to continue to foster deep friendships, showing care and being cared for, in the midst of it.