It's Tuesday night after Church Council, where we heard from the ConneXion Coffeehouse task group...which received unanimous (that is NOT spelled correctly) support from the council members--yes, we are turning the original sanctuary, later Keystone Sunday School class in to a real coffeehouse/gathering place. It looks to cost about $40,000 for start up improvements, furnishings and supplies. The group received permission to ask the congregation for financial support to make this happen. One of the great gifts of ministry is to see an idea catch fire in a congregation and for people to find their voices in support. The Holy Spirit at work indeed!
More soon...I was on vacation (yes, on Kauai for a week) and read much ... Anthony Bloom's "Beginning to Pray" and Jim Wallis's "God's Politics" as well as Josephine Tey mystery novels and Honolulu newspapers...I'm revved up and ready to roll! A bit jet-lagged and head-achy but I have no right to complain!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Thank you, Brian...
Yesterday I read portions of Brian McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy," turning, surprise, surprise, to the chapters entitled "why I am a Methodist" and "why I am an evangelical." Both are easilly readible and essentially hit the right spot, I think. He differentiates Evangelical (big E) from evangelical (little e) and describes what he finds to be essential to the evangelical---the passion of faith--to live out the life of discipleship passionately. I've been thinking more about Bishop Schnase's remarks last week about the pitfalls for clergy of loneliness and cynicism. I guess I yearn for more of us in ministry to live out our vocation in intellectually lively ways, but also in a way that is Spirit-led, inspired and passionate with desire to serve and to do and to be. Thanks, Brian, for your continuing help with overcoming old boundaries that define theological encampments, and encourage us to come out into a new world where our desire to address this generation with the love of Christ focuses us beyond our tendancies to typecast each other in melodramas full of shallow preconceptions...
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Cana, The Knitter of All Knitters
Miss Cana, our 15 year old daughter, is the queen of all knitters and crocheters, too, by the way---we spent time today at Michael's, she looking for a specific kind of afghan pattern, me looking for crochet hats patterns. I want to take small projects with me on vacation next week, and not lug the afghans I'm making right now. Tomorrow we are looking forward to going to the Studio, a knit shop on the Plaza.
Among many others projects, Cana is working on a knitted human body, organs included (they can be pulled out through the knitted person's mouth) as a project for her independent fiber arts class at her school.
Cana is such a whiz at this...she wants to go to the Art Institute...I hope she will be able to. Both these kiddos, she and her brother, Caleb are creative "out the bazooka"...and we are proud...messy, they both are, but creative...and most of the time, compassionate, at least to everybody but each other...
Our children...yes, I'm proud that they are not boring...not that any parent thinks of his or her children as boring...but NO parent could think of MYchildren as boring...oh, for Pete's sake, I'll shut up now!!!
Among many others projects, Cana is working on a knitted human body, organs included (they can be pulled out through the knitted person's mouth) as a project for her independent fiber arts class at her school.
Cana is such a whiz at this...she wants to go to the Art Institute...I hope she will be able to. Both these kiddos, she and her brother, Caleb are creative "out the bazooka"...and we are proud...messy, they both are, but creative...and most of the time, compassionate, at least to everybody but each other...
Our children...yes, I'm proud that they are not boring...not that any parent thinks of his or her children as boring...but NO parent could think of MYchildren as boring...oh, for Pete's sake, I'll shut up now!!!
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Ministers' School
This will probably be too long and varied. I will learn how to manage this thing better.
The church newsletter left out my blog address. Ah well. There's always next week.
I was at our conference Ministers' School the last three days. It was really a good school, I thought. Marva Dawn and Tom Long were the leaders. I especially enjoyed Dr. Long's comments on the Seven Habits of Disaffective (?) Preachers--and Dr. Dawn is fairly provocative in much she says. I asked her if she and Brian McLaren had ever had a sit-down discussion or had been on the same agenda at a conference, and she said no. She did say that others had told her that he was saying many of the same things she is. I think that is true. It's my understanding that she and Leonard Sweet have sometimes been in disagreement about some things, but I think much that what she reminds us about worship---liturgical integrity, the place of truth and beauty, mystery, and authenticity, resonates with what I read from many folks in the emergent conversation. I wish she would attend to the current conversation more.
Perhaps the best of what I take away from Ministers School this year is the "conversation time" that Bishop Schnase offered this morning. To a question about his reflections on clergy spiritual formation, Bishop said he believed there are two major pitfalls for clergy ---loneliness and cynicism. Wow, do I ever agree. I have never struggled with cynicism, but do daily with loneliness. I know many colleagues who struggle with both. I think cynicism in some ways is more insidious, because it often springs from a sense of hopelessness that some feel--that nothing we do really makes much difference; that those in authority in the church--the bishop, the cabinet---are motivated not by the Holy Spirit but by human desire for power or institutional survival; that our churches won't change, or can't change. I am afraid I become fairly judgmental when I see that kind of cynicism in colleagues. Yet, in my better self, I know it arises from the soul, souls that are often injured by circumstances that make it hard to have hope.
Loneliness is something I know more about firsthand. Having been single now for over five years, and having moved several times over the last thirty years, I think loneliness is sometimes exacerbated by the itinerancy. We are told, and I know why and I guess I agree with it, that we are to cut ties at least for a significant amount of time, with persons in the congregations we are leaving. Building friendships takes time and energy that I don't always feel that I have. Last year, I very intentionally started to work on some friendship with clergy colleagues, and have made one of my resolutions this year to renew others that I have let slip.
This week, I was especially thankful for two particular friends with whom I was able to talk some about this continuing passion around emergent. I'm not sure if I was more grateful to my well-read friend Bart, who six years ago walked with me through the dark times of separation and divorce and my sister's death, and who, yesterday, sat and listened and listened as I talked about goals I have set around emergent for the next month, and yet, I know, wasn't all that familiar with some of what I was talking about---or if I was more grateful for Jim (what box, Jim?) who at lunch today brought me to tears when I told him I had set some goals and he asked me to tell them what they were--a simple thing, really, but what a huge joy to have someone who listens to this rambling voice of mine.
I'll share more about this sometime soon, but I have also set some reading goals on some classic literature on prayer, since I am going to preach a series on prayer during Lent. This week I've been reading O Hallesby's book entitled simply "Prayer" from the 1930s. He defines prayer as acknowledged helplessness, but with faith, opening the door to Jesus.
The church newsletter left out my blog address. Ah well. There's always next week.
I was at our conference Ministers' School the last three days. It was really a good school, I thought. Marva Dawn and Tom Long were the leaders. I especially enjoyed Dr. Long's comments on the Seven Habits of Disaffective (?) Preachers--and Dr. Dawn is fairly provocative in much she says. I asked her if she and Brian McLaren had ever had a sit-down discussion or had been on the same agenda at a conference, and she said no. She did say that others had told her that he was saying many of the same things she is. I think that is true. It's my understanding that she and Leonard Sweet have sometimes been in disagreement about some things, but I think much that what she reminds us about worship---liturgical integrity, the place of truth and beauty, mystery, and authenticity, resonates with what I read from many folks in the emergent conversation. I wish she would attend to the current conversation more.
Perhaps the best of what I take away from Ministers School this year is the "conversation time" that Bishop Schnase offered this morning. To a question about his reflections on clergy spiritual formation, Bishop said he believed there are two major pitfalls for clergy ---loneliness and cynicism. Wow, do I ever agree. I have never struggled with cynicism, but do daily with loneliness. I know many colleagues who struggle with both. I think cynicism in some ways is more insidious, because it often springs from a sense of hopelessness that some feel--that nothing we do really makes much difference; that those in authority in the church--the bishop, the cabinet---are motivated not by the Holy Spirit but by human desire for power or institutional survival; that our churches won't change, or can't change. I am afraid I become fairly judgmental when I see that kind of cynicism in colleagues. Yet, in my better self, I know it arises from the soul, souls that are often injured by circumstances that make it hard to have hope.
Loneliness is something I know more about firsthand. Having been single now for over five years, and having moved several times over the last thirty years, I think loneliness is sometimes exacerbated by the itinerancy. We are told, and I know why and I guess I agree with it, that we are to cut ties at least for a significant amount of time, with persons in the congregations we are leaving. Building friendships takes time and energy that I don't always feel that I have. Last year, I very intentionally started to work on some friendship with clergy colleagues, and have made one of my resolutions this year to renew others that I have let slip.
This week, I was especially thankful for two particular friends with whom I was able to talk some about this continuing passion around emergent. I'm not sure if I was more grateful to my well-read friend Bart, who six years ago walked with me through the dark times of separation and divorce and my sister's death, and who, yesterday, sat and listened and listened as I talked about goals I have set around emergent for the next month, and yet, I know, wasn't all that familiar with some of what I was talking about---or if I was more grateful for Jim (what box, Jim?) who at lunch today brought me to tears when I told him I had set some goals and he asked me to tell them what they were--a simple thing, really, but what a huge joy to have someone who listens to this rambling voice of mine.
I'll share more about this sometime soon, but I have also set some reading goals on some classic literature on prayer, since I am going to preach a series on prayer during Lent. This week I've been reading O Hallesby's book entitled simply "Prayer" from the 1930s. He defines prayer as acknowledged helplessness, but with faith, opening the door to Jesus.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Going public
Today I made the announcement to staff, and wrote an article for our church newsletter, that I, in fact, have a blog, and actually listed the address for it in the newsletter. And so, my public blog life begins...
I am off to the conference Minister's School tomorrow at Tan-tar-a at the Lake of the Ozarks until Thursday afternoon. It's a time to hear some great speakers, to be with colleagues, and to hear rumblings of the "move machine" that will start its engine in a few weeks,. There are several retirements occurring amongst older colleagues, and there will be many moves this year.
Itinerancy is an interesting thing with which to live, and I have lived with it for the past 27 or so years. I think I really do understand the theological intergrity that, at least at one time or in a perfect world, that it had or is supposed to have. And I actually buy into it most of the time. There is something to be said about living in the moment, at least in the reality of a year at a time that itinerancy means for the pastor and for the church. It is sort of a metaphor for life--live for this year, not the next, no one is assured of more than this moment, live it to the fullest, etc. And simply to practice the spiritual discipline of placing your life and livelihood in the hands of the bishop, I think, is a practice of obedience that can foster a deepening of personal faith.
But, alas, our system is not perfect as no human-made system is. Some appointments work out, others don't. Some pastors are more gifted than others, and can fit well most any place. Others are more limited in gifts and others' lives are made difficult by family issues, and a spouse and children whose needs should be and must be priorities. Some churches are kinder and more accepting than others. Some pastors don't know how to lead. Some churches have forgotten how to be led.
But, this is the incarnation of the church that I love and which is a part of me through and through. And so, I would guess, I will live within this sometimes wonderful, sometimes troubling system for the rest of my borned days. Homeward bound, we all are, in one way or antoher, as Simon and Garfunkel reminded us many years ago. And wherever we are or find ourselves, we still are on that journey. What a life...what an adventure...what a joy.
I am off to the conference Minister's School tomorrow at Tan-tar-a at the Lake of the Ozarks until Thursday afternoon. It's a time to hear some great speakers, to be with colleagues, and to hear rumblings of the "move machine" that will start its engine in a few weeks,. There are several retirements occurring amongst older colleagues, and there will be many moves this year.
Itinerancy is an interesting thing with which to live, and I have lived with it for the past 27 or so years. I think I really do understand the theological intergrity that, at least at one time or in a perfect world, that it had or is supposed to have. And I actually buy into it most of the time. There is something to be said about living in the moment, at least in the reality of a year at a time that itinerancy means for the pastor and for the church. It is sort of a metaphor for life--live for this year, not the next, no one is assured of more than this moment, live it to the fullest, etc. And simply to practice the spiritual discipline of placing your life and livelihood in the hands of the bishop, I think, is a practice of obedience that can foster a deepening of personal faith.
But, alas, our system is not perfect as no human-made system is. Some appointments work out, others don't. Some pastors are more gifted than others, and can fit well most any place. Others are more limited in gifts and others' lives are made difficult by family issues, and a spouse and children whose needs should be and must be priorities. Some churches are kinder and more accepting than others. Some pastors don't know how to lead. Some churches have forgotten how to be led.
But, this is the incarnation of the church that I love and which is a part of me through and through. And so, I would guess, I will live within this sometimes wonderful, sometimes troubling system for the rest of my borned days. Homeward bound, we all are, in one way or antoher, as Simon and Garfunkel reminded us many years ago. And wherever we are or find ourselves, we still are on that journey. What a life...what an adventure...what a joy.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Lovett's class
This morning I had the joy of speaking by phone to a Doctor of Ministry class Lovett Weems is teaching this week at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC. Lovett knows of my interest in the emergent conversation and wanted me to share some about how I became so interested--it gave me a chance to reflect on it myself. One of the questions from his class today was whether or not this felt like an "un-natural act"--sort of taking on this new thing or whether it was more of an organic outgrowth of who I was/am already. It (the "it" being the reading and conversations I am having around emergent) has really been just a natural step, I think, and I am so passionate about it, both with my mind and heart, because much of what I am reading is what I already thought--but it is stretching me, too.
I still have not read "A Generous Orthodoxy" but plan to do that this week.
I still have not read "A Generous Orthodoxy" but plan to do that this week.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
DCP_0030
I've just learned how to post a photo here, and am resolutely making a resolution to blog often, if even for just my own enjoyment..but hey, if Bill Tammeus can do it, why not me???
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