A Church for Starving Artists

It’s obvious that church buildings – like homes – need to be de-cluttered from time to time.  It’s less obvious that congregations need to de-clutter calendars, as I wrote about last week.

But the hardest things to de-clutter are those theological and ecclesiastical weights that 1) actually hurt our relationships with God and each other and 2) drive us to miss the point of life.  Learning about God is a lifelong endeavor that involves intentional activity.  Yes, sometimes we are not looking for a Big Cosmic Truth and then – boom – God cracks us over the head with an insight that helps those proverbial scales fall from our eyes one more time.  But usually, we need to make an effort.

I remember a parishioner who told me that everything he believed about God he learned by the Third Grade.  Frankly, it showed.

Reaching adulthood with a childhood understanding of God is an insult to God. Examples:

• God is not magic.
• God is not like Santa.
• God does not control every steering wheel, gun trigger, or fist.
• It’s not God’s fault when terrible things happen to us.

Although I love my particular denomination, some of our denominational stuff also gets in the way.  For example, last week Carey Nieuwhof wrote  5 Disruptive Church Trends that Will Rule 2016 and it surely makes my people nervous. Nieuwhof’s ideas are italicized and mine follow.

1. Church online will become an advance, not just a supplement to or replacement for church.  Institutional Church fear:  If people don’t come through our doors, we won’t be able to know them/get a commitment from them.  How will we pay for the building?
2. Preachers will preach less often.  Institutional Church Fear:  If our professional ministers aren’t – first and foremost – preaching, our Reformed Theology (at least for my denomination) is compromised.
3. Experience will trump content.  Institutional Church Fear:  Do we even know how to create intimate community?  We’ve always self-identified as “friendly” but that’s not enough.  This might mean that the pastor’s job is totally different (from spending most of his/her time on creating a sermon to spending most of his/her time on equipping people to care for each other and make an difference in the neighborhood.)
4. Passion will beat polish.  Institutional Church Fear:  But what about our efforts to create amazing worship and music experiences?  Can we actually teach people to be authentic?
5. Only the most engaged and curious will attend.  Institutional Church Fear:  Do we have any idea how to minister to “the curious”? This means we might have to rethink our vocabulary and our expectations.  And are we okay with saying goodbye to nominal members who are on the rolls only for sentimental reasons or because they want a venue for familial events like weddings and funerals?

Please read Nieuwhof’s post.  What needs to be given away/tossed out/repaired and re-purposed in our own congregation’s or denomination’s culture?  When we figure that out, we will have our work cut out for us.  (And it won’t be easy, but it will be amazingly holy.)

Image Source.  This is a quote by David Foster Wallace.

Hyperbole is my middle name.  My family includes The Best Sister Ever and The Best Daughter Ever.  “You are the best” is my highest compliment.

And with that in mind, know that the following things were The Best in 2015 – at least for me.  If I were The Queen of All Things I would require everybody to choose/ponder/relish in:

• The Best Article of 2015 – The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Ta-Nehisi Coates from the October issue of Atlantic Monthly.  Look for the story about Celia.
• The Best TED Talks on Race in 2015 – These were selected by the TED people, but they are excellent for personal edification or group discussions.
• The Best Performance by a National Treasure in 2015 – Just the other night, Aretha owned it at The Kennedy Center Honors.
• The Best (New to Me) Restaurant in 2015 – River Roast.  The vegetables.
• The Best Wedding Venue in 2015 – Our backyard.  God’s gift of perfect weather made all the difference.

May 2016 bring the best in every way to you and your loved ones.  Thanks for reading my blog in 2015.  I really appreciate it.

Image of The Best Wedding Volunteers on one of The Best Days Ever a girl could ever want.

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 

 ‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
   wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
   she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’  Matthew 2:16-18

When I heard this interview on the radio Monday, it sapped me of Christmas spirit.  I wonder if Santa brought bullet-proof backpacks to many children last week.

Several public school systems across the country have introduced  ALICE training — Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate – into their staff development education.  And just weeks ago, students themselves were taught the ALICE program in Beaver, PA and Columbia, MO.

We are teaching our students history, math, and how not to freeze if an active shooter invades the cafeteria.  Could this actually be the new normal – that children will increasingly wear  ballistic resistance-tested backpacks?

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.

The radio interviewer expressed some of my own reactions to the dad who gave a bullet-proof backpack to his child – who attends a Christian school in Massachusetts.  Doesn’t this give a feeling of false security?  (i.e. you might not be shot in the back)  How do you explain to your child why he needs to wear a bullet-proof backpack?  Wouldn’t this add to a child’s nightmares?  Isn’t this a terribly sad way to live your life?

I’ve heard people say that they carry a gun just in case.  Would they actually use it in an emergency?  Would they be able to reach it?  What are the chances of someone threatening you so that you’d need a gun in the first place?

These are the same questions I would ask parents who outfit their kids in a bullet-proof backpack.  We live in a free and open culture but there are too many guns and too few mental health options.

This is a theological conversation that I hope our congregations will have in the new year.  Is there a place between theological naivete (God will protect my children if I pray hard enough) and theological que sera sera  (Whatever happens will happen so there’s nothing I can do about it) where we can be faithful?

Image is The Massacre of the Innocents from a 10th Century manuscript.

“God didn’t do this. The Devil did. And I’m going to find him.”  Jessica Jones

Images of light and darkness are countless in this season.  Jesus versus Herod. The Resistance versus The First Order.

The light is infinitely better, although much of the world is drowning in darkness.  This is why we need Christmas.  This is why we need the Incarnation.  This is why we need Jesus.

In the thick of all this, I’ve been watching Jessica Jones on Netflix at the recommendation of lots of people.  Warning: it’s a little dark.

In fact, it’s so dark, I wonder if my soul can take it.  The dark side includes addiction, mental illness, PTSD, deceit, crime, and pure evil – sometimes all swirling together in a ball of chaos that feels bankrupt of any possibility for redemption. With Philippians 4:8 on the tip of my tongue, I wonder how healthy it is to subject my amygdala to Jessica Jones.  And yet, I love the storytelling.

Some of the darkness is ridiculous (Robyn and Rubin) and some of it is supernaturally powerful and deeply disturbing (Barty Crouch Jr. – yikes.)

Does evil exist in the world?  Absolutely.  It’s manifested in war crimes, mental illness, addiction, sexual violence, human trafficking, poverty, ignorance, and greed.  I don’t understand where it all comes from.  But it’s real.

I believe in the Light.  I have occasionally seen evidence with my own eyes, but we are called to believe by faith not by sight.  Maybe Jessica Jones needs an exorcist.  Maybe she needs a happy ending.  Maybe I should just remember she is  a fictional character.

But pastors know Jessica Jones.  She’s the parishioner who drinks to forget her past.  She’s gruff and for good reason.  She’s the person in the pews who has been abused beyond all measure and now she is trying to make things right, for herself and for others.

So I’m watching the first season and looking for light, just as I’m facing the new year fully expecting something brilliant to happen in the darkness.

Image source.

“Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people . . .”

Just as Jesus was born during anxious times, we will celebrate Christmas 2015 in a time of bitter disagreements and alarming realities.

But there is enormous hope ahead – especially if we become the hands, feet, and voices of this Good News of Great Joy.  Part of being 21st Century agents of Good News involves knowing when to step back and when to step up.

Here are a couple thoughts about that.

• Please step up if God is calling you to some scary new purpose.  Note that this is not about you/gaining power/getting a job/climbing a ladder.
• Please step back if you are no longer called to serve a particular ministry or if the work sucks the life out of you. My friend John Vest wrote about this last week.  He (and Seth Godin) are right.
• Please step up if you see injustice.  I was talking with a colleague yesterday about whether it’s best to pull out a camera phone or pull out of our indifference when we witness wrongdoing.  Of course, it depends. Sometimes we need to do what Feidin Santana did. Sometimes we need to do what Shannon Johnson did.  Both are life-threatening, but there are also non-life-threatening ways to step up: look people in the eye when we greet them, notice the invisible people out there, give when we can.
• Please step back if you find yourself in a hot mess this season.  We are entering Ground Zero for family drama and many of us tie ourselves in knots trying to fix the unfixable.  Sometimes all we can do is take a step back and breathe and recognize that God is God and we are not.
• Please step up if you can do some small thing for a neighbor.  Maybe just be there.

One of my favorite Gabriel sightings was a few years ago when I spent Christmas Eve in an ER with TBC awaiting test results for some mysterious (it-could-be-cancer) maladies.  As midnight drew near, a nurse entered the room with a broad smile saying, “Behold I bring good tidings of great joy!  The tests are negative!”  The nurse’s name tag said “Gabriel.”  Seriously.

We can be Gabriel too, not because we can save people but because God uses us to save people.  Merry Christmas Everybody.

Image Source.

HH and I flipped through the TV last week and caught a glimpse of a couple people Barbara Walters considers “most intriguing.”  Intriguing is an interesting word.

We can be intrigued by what’s beautiful, dangerous, mysterious, brilliant, or even evil.  BW considers celebrities to be intriguing.  I personally find people intriguing when they are stunningly thoughtful and compassionate in a world where it’s much easier not to be.  So, here are some of the folks I would like to know more about in the new year:

1. Mandy Patinkin.  Actually I know a lot about this actor and have appreciated him for years.  But he has also become an outspoken supporter of the Syrian refugees and was spotted by someone (as reported on Facebook last week) helping a Syrian family navigate the NYC subway system.  He describes himself as “Jewish with a dash of Buddhist” belief.
2. Larycia Hawkins. Dr. Hawkins is a Christian and an associate professor of political science at Wheaton College in IL.  I love Wheaton College.  I love that she wore a hijab to show support for Muslim women.  I do not love that she was suspended for saying that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.  Her dissertation was Framing the Faith-Based Initiative: Black Church Elites and the Black Policy Agenda and I’d like to hear more about that.
3. Pete Docter.  The man who taught us it was okay to be sad in Inside Out is a Presbyterian Christian who also wrote Toy Story, WALL-E, and Up.  I love it when brilliant, creative people are unafraid to talk about their faith.
4. László Nemes.  I’m not sure I can bear to watch his movie Son of Saul, but the interviews about the movie – written and directed by Nemes, who is a Hungarian Jew – make me want to try. Unlike other Holocaust movies, Son of Saul was created not to make us cry but to make us feel like we’ve been hit by a truck.  The world can be so unspeakably cruel, sometimes we need to face it and then try to change it.
5. Ani Zonneveld.  I first heard Ani speak at the Wild Goose Festival in 2013 representing Muslims for Progressive Values.  She is an imam in Los Angeles and her ministry challenges what most Americans have heard about Islam.  Check her out.

What people of faith intrigue you?

Image by Marc Chagall of the very most intriguing person of faith.

Jewish, Muslim & Christian Leaders at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, MD following the Paris attacks.

En esa región había unos pastores en el campo, turnándose para cuidar sus rebaños por la noche. Entonces un ángel del Señor se les presentó , y la gloria del Señor los rodeó de resplandor , y tuvieron gran temor . Pero el ángel les dijo: ” No temas ; para ver – os doy nuevas de gran alegría para todo el pueblo : Para os ha nacido hoy, en la ciudad de David, un Salvador , que es el Mesías , el Señor . Este será una señal: . Se encuentra un niño envuelto en pañales y acostado en un pesebre » Y repentinamente apareció con el ángel una multitud de las huestes celestiales , que alababan a Dios y diciendo:
‘ ¡Gloria a Dios en las alturas ,
y en la tierra paz a los que está a favor ! “

In Mrs. Basile’s Spanish 3 Class long ago in a galaxy far away, it was our assignment to memorize the paragraph above just before winter break in the 11th Grade.  You might recognize it as the Gospel of Luke 2:8-14.  It’s the part of the Christmas story that Linus recites in A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I can still recite it today (but this is not a post about the educational benefits of memorization.)

This was a public high school assignment in a class with at least one Jewish student  and others with no affiliation.  No Muslims were in the class as far as I can remember.

Nobody threatened the school officials over that assignment.  Nobody accused Mrs. Basile of trying to convert the non-Christians in the class. Yes, she could have chosen a passage to memorize in Spanish that did not involve the birth of Jesus (“the Messiah, the LORD”) but she chose one of the best known accounts of Jesus’ birth in Scripture.

I remembered this last week when schools were closed in Staunton, Virginia after a world geography teacher had assigned her students to write the Shahada in Arabic calligraphy.  The New York Times covered the situation here.  I also thought of this story when I heard about Dr. Larycia Hawkins, the Wheaton professor who said that Muslims and Christians worship the same God – and was subsequently suspended from her job.

A couple of other thoughts:

• If all it takes to convert someone from Christianity to Islam is to copy calligraphy, then that Christian faith was a bit wobbly in the first place.
• While Muslims, Christians, and Jews understand the means and meaning of salvation differently, we are indeed  – historically – all people of The Book and the children of Abraham.
• Now more than ever, we must teach world religions in our public schools – not for the purposes of conversion but for the purpose of understanding the history and highlights of each faith.  Yes, this will be tricky.

One of the things I loved about raising our children in a religiously diverse school system is that it was safe for them to ask and answer questions among their peers.  Among the conversations in the school cafeteria:

• From a Muslim student to a Christian student:  “Why do some of you wear ashes (on Ash Wednesday) and some of you don’t?”
• From a Christian student to a Muslim student:  “Why do some of the girls wear hijab and some don’t?”
• From a Christian student to a Jewish student:  “Is Hanukkah like Christmas, only for 8 days?”

Our children could ask and answer those questions.  As a person who grew up in a predominantly Protestant Christian hometown, I can tell you right now that I couldn’t have answered those questions about the differences between Christian denominations, much less about other world faiths.

I write this as a Christian – theologically conservative and theologically progressive, depending on the topic but trusting that the way of Jesus  is the best way to live.  I also write this as a person to believes that The Prince of Peace came to people of every faith and of no faith.

Let’s give each other a break and trust God.

Photo from Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church.  This service was highlighted by The Huffington Post as one of The Top 15 Religious Moments in 2015.

“If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” (John Cleese)

Game changer:  About 20 years ago, I asked a pastor just starting a new (and what would be his last) call to serve a church how things were going and he said, “I’m having a blast.”

!

It had never occurred to me that professional ministry was supposed to be fun. Spiritual satisfying?  Intellectually challenging?  Yes and yes.  But fun?  My Calvinist heritage runs deep.  We are not fun people.

But we could be.  And if we want to be creative and effective, we will be. So, I am accepting The Carol McDonald Challenge to work John Cleese’s quote about play and creativity into a post.

While there’s no one recipe for sparking creativity in the Church, I look to smart people to shed some light.  Tom Kelley is one such smart person and he wrote this last week.  He suggests that creative leaders do these three things:

1. They build core enthusiast communities inside and outside of their organizations.
2. They achieve big change through a series of small experiments.
3. They jump-start their innovation journey with storytelling.

We in the church do not create robots, furniture, or nail polish, but we do create spiritual communities that transform the world for good in the name of Jesus Christ.  (At least that’s my personal faith statement for the Church.)  So how would we translate Tom Kelley’s insights for Church World?

1. Have fun.  I know a church that gave out t-shirts to every volunteer who stayed with “Max” at night so that his spouse could rest.  Max had dementia and wandered all night – or wanted to.  Those who helped with this project got a t-shirt that said, “I Spent the Night with Max.”  Mrs. Max loved it (and she gave her permission.) And it gave the diversity of wearers occasion to say to the curious something like this:  “We take turns at my church hanging out with Max from 7 PM to 7 AM so that his wife can sleep.”  Voila.  Funny. Fun.  Servant Leadership.
2. Try things.  We love to institutionalize everything but let’s stop that.  Instead try new ideas: We are skipping Christmas Eve services this year and inviting all members to invite a family with no church over for dinner.  Or we are caroling on the street corner this year and not at the nursing home.  Or we are giving gift cards to every resident at the shelter instead of buying socks and gloves.  Or we are taking hot chocolate and coffee to the firefighters and throwing them a surprise party.  Just because we are trying something doesn’t mean we have to do it next year or even next week.
3. Teach people that they have stories to tell.  I’ve been told that I have a lot of stories and interesting things seem to happen to me. Actually this is true for everybody.  Either we aren’t paying attention or we don’t believe our stories/we are important.  Look around and notice what’s going on around you.  I saw three Santas sitting on a bench smoking last weekend. I wish I’d asked them their story.  More than statistics and mission statements and exegetical analyses, people remember stories.  Tell the ones that explain something mysterious. Tell the ones that uplift and make us feel hope.

One of the reasons that Denise Anderson and I hope to be elected  Co-Moderators of the 222nd General Assembly is because we love the church, we want church to be a creative community, and we believe ministry is fun.  Thanks be to God.

Every morning on the way to work I pass Steve who sits on a black crate selling Streetwise magazine.  I know his name is Steve because he once asked me to vote for him by name in a recent “best Streetwise vendor” contest.

I have never seen Steve sell a single magazine.

But he is friendly – wishing everybody a good morning.  He is consistent- proclaiming the same message every day:  “Streetwise!  Get your Streetwise!  Good morning!  Have a great day!  Get your Streetwise!”  But nobody buys his magazines.

It could be because:

• Fewer people in general buy paper magazines.
• You can also get Streetwise – or at least some of the articles – online.
• They have Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts so there are other ways to connect with the organization beyond buying the magazine from a vendor.

This is an organization that helps unemployed people who are often homeless find purpose.  They are connected with other well-respected organizations that serve at-risk city people.  Who can argue with their mission?

According to Wikipedia, Streetwise “had the largest readership of any street publication in the United States” in 2003.  The operative words here are “street publication.”  Times are now harder.  Donations are down. Leadership changed.  But still there are struggles.  And I wonder if Steve feels like his efforts are in vain.

So, two things occur to me:  1) Maybe Steve is fine not selling magazines and maybe he’s not.  I don’t know if you can get fired for not selling a share of the magazines, but if that’s the case, I worry about his future in this enterprise.  And 2) does this scenario remind us of other struggling organizations?

• We are friendly, but people pass us by without much interest in what we have to offer.
• We are consistent in our message, but that message doesn’t attract much interest.
• Funding has diminished over the years.
• Not so long ago, we were well known and well respected but these days, fewer people look to us for wisdom.

I think about Steve more than he knows, perhaps because his struggles sharing Streetwise remind me of our struggles sharing the message of Christ as the Institutional Church.  Actually, I have great hope in the Future Church because there is so much more than being “friendly” and we are starting to get that.  And in a perfect world, the Church includes Steve and everyone else who passes him by each morning.