A Church for Starving Artists

“Stop laughing Janice or you’re going to give yourself a hematoma!”

I’m not sure which was funnier: the Netflex series I was watching or Nurse Marsha of the American Red Cross fussing at me while I was donating platelets over the weekend. What I didn’t know before Saturday is that – while giving whole blood takes about 15 minutes – giving platelets takes about 3 hours during which both arms are pinned down. All the whole blood donation spots were full so I thought I’d give platelets.

I am an antsy person with itchy eyes. Between needing to scratch my eyes and laughing at episodes of Murderville, I was moving more than I was supposed to be moving.

“Stop laughing Janice or you’re going to give yourself a hematoma!”

First of all, no one calls me Janice. And secondly, I’d never been threatened with a hematoma before. This struck me as hilarious.

A lot of things are hilarious in everyday life. And in these days and every day we need to notice those things for our sanity.

I’ve been a pastor for almost 38 years and it’s been inspiring, joyful, exhausting, and funny. Sometimes the humor is dark. In fact, most of the time it’s dark.

I’ve experienced a ventriloquist funeral director, circus tent worship with wild animals trained to dance to organ music, a funeral soloist using karaoke to sing Celine Dion, a 21 gun salute with live bullets, a daughter of the deceased falling into the grave on top of the casket, and weddings with the following songs as processionals: I Love a Rainy Night, Feelings, and Stand Inside Your Love. I’ve been subpoenaed for accusing a man of pooping in the church parking lot (he wanted to sue me for defamation of character but it was tossed out in court) and someone from a 12-step group set up a mini-grotto on church property honoring me with photos he’d taken of me plus lots of candles.

As a mid-council leader I’ve had parishioners accuse their pastors of killing people, changing upholstery material without due process, and installing a swing set too close to the wrought iron cemetery fence.

Maybe this hit me all at once when I was lying in a recliner surrounded by other Good Deed Doers giving platelets on Saturday and Nurse Marsha singled me out. “Stop laughing Janice or you’re going to give yourself a hematoma!” But I laughed until I couldn’t breathe.

Exhausted People: it’s good for the soul to have a bout of doubled-over, tears-running-down-your-cheeks laughter, especially when you are trapped with no means of escape/connected to IVs. I strongly suggest it and yes, I got a hematoma in my left arm. It was totally worth it.

Image from the series Murderville which is one of the dumbest shows I’ve every watched, but if you are punchy or light-headed, it might be hysterically funny.

HH and I were married on a cloudy day in August. We had not checked the long term weather forecasts when we’d chosen that day ten months before. We only saw that calendars were open and it seemed like a good way to start the month.

I’m learning that in many cultures, occasions are planned according to “the auspices” – certain days determined by the stars and other factors deemed good or not-so-good for a celebration. Actually, we do this in North American culture too – in a way.

There will come a time when couples marry on 9-11 again in this country, but it’s probably a date couples now avoid much like the anniversary of a difficult family event. But just as December 7 was once avoided, future generations might not consider that date’s infamy.

My own faith tradition doesn’t factor in full moons and star alignments (although there was that star that led the Magi to Jesus) and so I’m learning things about what days would be good for our SBC and AJC to marry in India. We are hoping for late March 2022, but COVID has forced two postponements so far. We’ll see.

It occurs to me that – at least in my own understanding of God – any day can be auspicious in the best way. Even a terrible day can be redeemed. Or a random day can become something extraordinary.

• You’re taking a walk by the river to take a dip and find a baby in the bullrushes.
• You are in a really bad mood as you set out on a trip and on the way, you hear a Voice that changes your life forever.
• You’re at a meeting of community organizers and they elect you to be the president of their new group The Montgomery Improvement Association because nobody else will volunteer.

It’s happened to me. It’s happened to you. Sometimes we fail to notice when it’s happening. Instead of noticing that baby or paying attention to that Voice or stepping up when God calls, we go about our own business.

Imagine living each day with the expectation that God might bring someone into our life or speak from the heavens or offer an opportunity. It could happen today.

Have an auspicious week out there.

Image of flower garlands for an Indian wedding.

“Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14b

I don’t want to perpetuate the issue by including quotes by people condemning other people for being “woke” or acting self-satisfied for being – themselves- “woke” or accusing educators for trying to make students “woke.”

Being awake is a good thing in spiritual terms. I remember – after being raised in the Church from birth – that moment when something awakened in me and I understood who Jesus was in a new way. I remember – after reading Debby Irving’s Waking Up White realizing how little I knew about the laws of my own country and how they were different for people who didn’t look like me.

And now the term “woke” has become yet another weapon in the political lexicon much like “the war on Christmas” and “Black Lives Matter” and “Me-Too” and “White Privilege.”

“Waking up” to new ways of understanding the world is a good thing.

• Once I didn’t know that Columbus didn’t discover America.
• Once I’d never heard of The Tulsa Massacre of 1921.
• Once I didn’t know that the Beatles were British. (Yes, I’m embarrassed about this. I thought everything awesome came from the USA. I’m sorry.)
• Once I didn’t know that Black veterans did not benefit from the GI Bill after WW2 to pay for their education like White veterans.
• Once I didn’t know that you can break your tailbone giving birth.
• Once I didn’t know that I was allergic to oak leaves.

With each of these insights, I understood the world a little bit better. It doesn’t mean I’m smarter than you. It doesn’t mean I know everything. It’s part of life for new truths to be revealed by science or the Holy Spirit or a million other things.

Maybe I don’t understand you because I’m just not there yet. Maybe you don’t understand me for the same reason. I’ve been exposed to different things than you. You’ve experienced different things from me.

I happen to believe that God is the Constant and it’s God who reveals Truth to us. But we don’t all get the same messages at the same time.

So please don’t accuse me of being “woke” as if that’s a bad thing. And please don’t assume that because “you get it” that I never will. And let’s be gracious with each other. Political weaponization of words is evil.

Let’s wake up to the fact that God is love and we all have some work to do.

“Just like exercise and sleep, engaging with the arts is a necessity for a full and happy life.” Arthur C. Brooks

Breathe.

Last weekend I attended two installation services for new pastors in our Presbytery. Two parts of any installation service includes a Charge to the New Pastor and a Charge to the Congregation, and invariably, there are words about the importance of self-care:

To the new pastor: Take all your vacation and study leave. Remember your family. Remember that you are human.

To the congregation: Ensure your pastor takes all their vacation and study leave. Remember they have families. Remember that they are human.

Arthur C. Brooks wrote a wonderful article for The Atlantic which suggests that experiencing live art is at least as important for self-care as eating well and getting enough exercise. Please read it.

Imagine making the commitment to experience live music or a live play or a live poetry reading or a live painting at least once a month. Once a week would be even better. If you’ve ever listened to a live performance and felt your heart swell, you know what the arts do to our bodies. In the words of Arthur C. Brooks:

Engaging with art after worrying over the minutiae of your routine is like looking at the horizon after you’ve spent too long staring intently at a particular object: Your perception of the outside world expands.

HH and I have been blessed to experience some life-changing art: Aretha Franklin in the DAR Constitution Hall, the Jacob Lawrence Migration Series at MOMA, Maya Angelou reciting “On the Pulse of Morning” at the Clinton Inauguration in 1993. My heart was full in each live experience.

I love the Ramsay painting of Queen Charlotte in the Mint Museum here in Charlotte, NC. It’s huge and you can sit on the bench just in front of it and take in the folds of her coronation gown and the waves of her hair. How can a human being paint like that?

I love studying Queen Charlotte’s face – a face that shows her North African, Portuguese, and German features although there was royal pressure on the artist to make her look “whiter.” Turns out Megan Markle was not the first mixed race princess in the British royal family. The first was in fact Charlotte and she was Queen of Britain and Scotland from 1761 until 1801, after which she was Queen of the United Kingdom until her death in 1818. She looked more like Golda Rosheuvel than Elizabeth II.

Sitting with that painting is an extraordinary experience. It takes me away. My perception of the outside world expands.

Although Lent is several weeks away, I wonder about taking on a regular diet of in-person art during those seven weeks before Easter. I imagine we will breathe better and life will feel different.

What a lift it would be to commit to at one one live art experience each week during Lent. My plan is to start this discipline now. Pre-Lent.

Image of Queen Charlotte by Scottish painter Allan Ramsay (circa 1762) There are several versions of this coronation portrait and another one is in the National Portrait Gallery of Art in London.

Today marks the beginning of Black History month and I have a couple thoughts as a White person. I was moved by Denise Anderson’s post yesterday about “Kente Capitalism” in February:

Some stores do this with a fair amount of integrity, like Michael’s where they highlight the work of Black creators with whom they’ve collaborated that year. Others like Target will highlight the Black-owned or Black-created brands they’ve had relationships with for forever. And other stores will simply “add some Kente” onto the same stuff they’ve been selling all year long. I’m not saying don’t support any of these efforts, but I am saying be discerning. And ultimately, it’s best to just put money directly in the hands of Black entrepreneurs.

Does Black History Month make us uncomfortable? That’s okay.

I was given a African print dress with the PCUSA seal on it via Denise (who got a matching one) in 2017 when the two of us were Co-Moderators of our denomination and I wore it exactly once – at a denominational event with Denise who was also wearing hers. It felt uncomfortable as a White person wearing an African dress out and about except at that one event. Cultural appropriation.

I also feel uncomfortable singing “We Shall Overcome” or “Lift Ev-ry Voice and Sing” – both beautiful anthems. Although “We Shall Overcome” was written by a White man, the laws written by White people have long been among the things that Black people have had to overcome. I don’t feel worthy to sing it . (Also, every American should be familiar with the Jim Crow laws as well as Red Lining, etc. I’m not sorry if White people feel terrible about that history.)

Most White people don’t know that James Weldon Johnson not only wrote “Lift Ev-ry Voice” but he was also the first Black professor at NYU, among a long list of other admirable things.

But back to Kente Capitalism.

I challenge my White friends and family to broaden our horizons in terms of our purchasing power this month and make the effort to buy from Black entrepreneurs and Black-owned businesses. Find a Black-owned restaurant and treat yourself to dinner this month, especially at a locally owned establishment.

What I’m not saying: stop eating at locally owned White or Asian restaurants.

What I am saying: branch out and get to know a Black-owned restaurant. It will support that business and it will stretch our own experiences and relationships.

Make a conscious choice to read a book written by a Black author this month. Listen to podcasts by Black thinkers. And don’t tell anybody about it. (“Yes, I’m only reading Black authors now that I’m woke.” Stop that.)

It’s a spiritual practice to reach out beyond our usual way of being. Even if it happens only once in the next 28 days, let’s make an attempt to honor our Black siblings in ways that make a positive impact and help us understand something holy we’ve never noticed before.

Image of James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock. Psalm 137:9

‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:34-38

If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, or else, having too much, you will vomit it. Proverbs 25:16

These are among the Bible verses that make me uncomfortable. Nevertheless I read them, try to understand them, and allow them to convict me and stretch my understanding about who I am and who God is.

Other things that make me uncomfortable: Eating raw fish. Wearing heels. Listening to preachers who say women are not called to ministry.

Lots of things made me uncomfortable in high school: Chemistry. Singing in public. FOMO.

Some of our state legislatures are moving bills through their process which will prohibit making white students uncomfortable, especially in history classes.

Florida SB148 includes this statement: Examples of theories that distort historical events and are inconsistent with SBE-approved standards include the denial or minimization of the Holocaust, and the teaching of Critical Race Theory, meaning the theory that racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons. Instruction may not utilize material from the 1619 Project and may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.

I’ve read The 1619 Project and find it hard to believe that the majority of Florida legislators have read it. (I wonder how we can require legislators to read whatever it is they want to govern before they prohibit or laud it.) Did The 1619 Project make me uncomfortable? Sometimes. Did it make me hate America? Not at all. Did it make me hate myself (the descendant of slave holders)? Not at all.

Liberal education (and I use the classic definition of that term) involves critical thinking and grappling with hard truths. Thought Police are for fascist countries.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, where our FBC in a public high school teacher, the new governor set up a hotline for parents to report teachers whose teaching practices are “divisive.” (You can offer your input here, Virginia parents: helpeducation@governor.virginia.gov) And a follow-up bill has been introduced to the Virginia State Senate to legislate a ban on any curriculum that teaches that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race, sex, or faith, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, sex, or faith.”

Talk about snowflakes.

One of the great things about living in a free country is the ability to wrestle and disagree and push back. Okay, Jesus didn’t live in a free country and he, for one, was executed for pushing back. But do we want to live in a nation that doesn’t allow us to be uncomfortable in our conversations and lessons?

It was the newspaper industry that first coined their role in society as “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable” and preachers have adopted that phrase as well. By grace, the Holy Spirit makes it possible for a single sermon to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. If your preacher doesn’t make you uncomfortable every once in a while, maybe you need a different one. Are we interested in growing spiritually or do we want a community that merely affirms what we already believe?

Jesus was killed for making people uncomfortable.

Things that make humans uncomfortable: Being told we are not pleasing God. Loving our enemies. Praying for those who condemn us. Forgiving those who have sinned against us. Crossing boundaries to care for the Samaritan, the Canaanite, the Leper (or in the 21st Century – the Muslim, the White Supremacist, the Black Lives Matter Activist, the Transgender, the Republican, the Democrat, the Undocumented, the Mentally Ill, the Imprisoned.)

We have got to talk with each other, people. We have got to have difficult conversations in hopes of building bridges. I am not afraid to grapple with you, especially if we disagree. God is with us.

Note: The National White Privilege Conference will be in Charlotte, NC March 9-12, 2022. This is an excellent opportunity to embrace discomfort. It’s where the Holy happens. Scholarships available. And in spite of the ban against “divisiveness” there are workshops for middle and high school students, as well as adults. Join us.

One of the less talked-about changes in our pandemic landscape is the appearance of face mask litter. They fall out of pockets and drop from our hands. They get stepped on and rained on. I saw a cute cloth mask several months ago with a purple flower print and after passing it on the sidewalk for about a week, I picked it up and washed it, but the nose wire was twisted so I threw it in a trash can. Somebody else probably experienced the misshapened nose wire and dropped it on the way to a coffee shop.

The pandemic has forced us to do some of the things we avoided pre-pandemic. This is especially true for Church World. If we had an ineffective music leader before Covid who could not pivot during Covid, it’s likely that the music leader has moved on. It sounds cruel to say that we’ve “thrown away” what wasn’t working – especially when we are talking about people. But the Age of Covid has given us opportunities to reorganize, rethink, reframe the way we life as the Church together.

Detritus can be defined as broken down organic materials or “a product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away.” Much of the way we were once the Church has disintegrated or been destroyed or worn away by cultural shifts. Unfortunately, the Church has not always kept up.

And some of our churches exist amidst the detritus without ever noticing it’s time to clean things up.

Example: does your church kitchen look like a 1950s kitchen? Most of us do not have 1950s kitchens in our homes. We’ve updated our tools and surfaces to better serve our needs for these days.

Our congregations have the marvelous opportunity – still – to update our tools and surfaces to better serve the needs of the community and the neighborhood in the name of Jesus. This is what I think about when I see old face masks lying on sidewalks. People easily toss them or lose them.

We’re trading them in for N95 or KN95 models.

What detritus is still lying around that we need to clear out in order to be a more faithful, more impactful Church? It’s a good conversation to have with our people.

Image is a collection of photos I’ve taken in my neighborhood over the past month.

Church People: Your answers to these questions determine whether or not your congregation will thrive in these interesting days.

• Would you rather have no pastor or a pastor you shared with another congregation?
• Would you rather have a pastor who does everything or a pastor who equips leaders to share in the ministry?
• Would you rather have a pastor who can “bring in young families” or a pastor who can make disciples (and teach you how to do that too.)
• Would you rather have a pastor who was super cool or a pastor who was faithful?
• Would you rather have a pastor who drives a nice car or a pastor who drives their used car to get out into the community?
• Would you rather have a pastor who makes you comfortable or a pastor who stretches your understanding of God and God’s reign?

As I meet with congregations seeking new leadership, new energy, or new ways of being the Church, it’s encouraging to watch them abandon tired ways with often risky new ventures based on faithful discernment. Moving forward, small congregations who cannot afford a pastor have the opportunity to try out new leadership paradigms. Healthy dinosaur churches have the opportunity to try several creative options before they find themselves struggling.

These are great times to be the Church IF we choose wisely and faithfully for a new day.

We live in a culture that values money more than most other things. Many young people aspire “to be rich” over other life goals. Many of our executive business leaders are earning 351 times more than the average workers in their firms. And if our culture values wealth above all else, we not only have a spiritual problem, we have quite a few existential problems.

What would you do for money?

• Sell your keepsakes?
• Sell your eggs or sperm?
• Sell other parts of your body?
• Sell illegal drugs?
• Cheat clients?
• Cheat friends?
• Steal from strangers?
• Steal from family?
• Underpay your taxes?
• Underpay your employees?
• Ignore work-related damage to the earth?
• Sacrifice your family’s well-being?
• Sacrifice your own health?

Money is a lovely tool for improving our lives. It can be a source of security. It can be used as a weapon. It can change for the world for good and it can be used to hurt people.

Within the whole swirl of world issues in January 2022, it feels like a culture of valuing money more than anything else is at the foundation of our brokenness. It takes very little effort to find evidence each day that people will cheat, write legislation, invade other countries, destroy the earth, and crush vulnerable populations if it means we will become (or stay) wealthy. In the early history of our nation, people who looked like me were willing to enslave and dehumanize people who didn’t look like me for profit.

This is a sickness.

What I’m not saying: all capitalism is wrong. What I am saying: Jesus must be very disappointed.

The holy scriptures of all the major faiths lift up a way of living that values so much more than money. But we – especially in the United States – clearly value money more than we value human beings.

Yesterday a friend working with a refugee family in Virginia sent me an email (also sent to hundreds of others in and outside of the Church) about helping this family with some basic needs. The mother in the family simply wanted a pan for cooking. I received the email in the early afternoon. By the late afternoon, the wish list had been fulfilled.

People want to be generous. We want to make a positive difference to serve others. But we are also torn. We also want things for ourselves. We want to impress the neighbors. We want to feel secure. We want to appear to be successful and that means displaying lives of wealth – or at least comfort.

There is more to life than accumulating wealth.

I met with a new Church member decades ago to talk about what it meant to “join the church” and when I got to the money part (i.e. sharing our wealth as a spiritual practice) this very successful and lovely person said, “Why in the world would I do that? It would be irresponsible for me to give away 5% of my income much less 10%.“

I was speechless – at least for a moment. She missed the connection between “joining the Church” and “being the Church.” Now I’d say that the best reasons to share money with others are:

• Jesus. (He talked about money and his point was not about percentages but about what the Reign of God looks like.)
• Grace. Because we are the beneficiaries of grace, we are called to offer grace to others. Sometimes that’s about financial support.
• Partnerships. The only reason to be part of a connected denomination is to pool our resources to have greater impact for good. Most congregations cannot build a medical office in Haiti. Ten churches can build a medical office in Haiti. Among the impact my own Presbytery (93 congregations in NC) has offered historically: three colleges, countless scholarships, a hospital, affordable housing, refugee programs, summer freedom schools camping and retreats for children and youth. At this writing our Presbytery is building a disaster relief warehouse which will store provisions to be donated to victims of future tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and fires. We also build shower trailers for disaster relief groups to use while cleaning up after disasters, and those shower trailers will be built at the warehouse and transported where needed.
• Gratitude. We share because we have been blessed.

I once dated someone who taught me not to marry him when we got into a discussion about money. He commented that “of course” he would accept a job if it offered a hefty raise in salary even if it also meant that our (non-existent) family would be uprooted.

Me: But you would talk about with me first before accepting that new job, right?

Person I Didn’t Marry: Not necessarily.

Me: But you’d consider our kids and if the move would be good for them, right?

PIDM: Probably not.

Me: But you’d look at all the X-factors like quality of life and schools and if we have family/friends there and whether or not it’s a scary place in the middle of a nuclear waste site, right?

PIDM: But what if the money was really good?

What would we do for money? The answer is personal but (I hope) not individual. I hope we would consider the consequences for others – friends, family, strangers, vulnerable people, the world God made. And my deepest hope is – as many other people smarter than I am are also hoping – that one day we would value human beings more than money.

The best advice I’ve ever received from a professional coach is about roles. If roles are clear and balanced and understood, organizations thrive.

In Church World, conflicts distract us from doing real ministry, and those conflicts are often about roles. For example:

• The Clerk of Session (or President of the Governing Board or the Moderator of the Deacons) is not the Assistant Pastor. When there is confusion about authority, conflict ensues.
• The Pastor is not the janitor. Yes, the Pastor might wipe up spilled coffee, but God has not called the Pastor to spend the day washing windows or sweeping the sanctuary.
• The Organist is not in charge of worship. Depending on your denomination’s polity, the organist/musician/worship leader might be part of the team, but the lead pastor’s role is to craft the message of the day.
• The Preschool Director is not the Treasurer. It’s inappropriate for the Preschool Director to sign checks for supplies and payroll.
• The Pastor is not God. This means: 1) The Pastor is not called to lord over God’s people and 2) The Pastor is imperfect.

As we all know, when there’s a vacuum, someone often steps in to fulfill a role and unhealthy habits result. We’ve all experienced this: the church administrator who kind of wants to be the pastor and relishes in “knowing everything” or the long time elder who refuses to relinquish power even to the new pastor.

I feel a little ridiculous even writing about this because Jesus didn’t die for any of these conflicts. Too many of our congregations are wrapped up in power plays or personality disputes and the world find new reasons to ignore the Gospel.

There is too much work to do for us to waste our time doing someone else’s ministry.