Some thoughts on the Church Going Forward (Are we the primary home of spiritual nourishment?)

The Church is a bit like the family farm that is now surrounded by subdivisions. We may still serve the "family" well, but we're now disconnected from the community around us. Those outside see value in what we have, but more often they just pass by wondering about the old family that seems out of place, or maybe complaining about the old broken down tractors (programs) that they see in our front yard. We keep going along living life the way we do because it seems to work “for us” but with a call to the world as well as each other, we have to realize that our neighbors, who we used to chase cows with or who provided the fire wood that we now have to cut ourselves in exchange for veggies aren't there anymore. The community of the world we are part of has changed and we have to change as well.

Think if you will of when your neighbors move, the new neighbors still fill the same “position” but they most likely serve in different roles within the community. As such, the community changes, if the person who mowed the lawns moves away and the new neighbor doesn't own a lawnmower, someone steps into that role, or everyone has to figure out a way to accomplish what the need. You don't have to be the person to mow lawns, but at minimum you have to now mow your own or hire someone else.

So how does this apply back to the church? Well let's go back to the farm analogy: If we as the church began as a place that supplied the local community with a needed service, but have as time has changed become disconnected from the changing needs of our community, we need to consider what the community currently sees us as. If we are the now “family farm” taking care of itself mainly and seen a place filled with things from a time gone by, we're no longer doing what we originally aimed to do. We have stopped being part of the community, so how can we take what we have and better be what our communities now need?

I think of farms in the area where I grew up, some fenced themselves off more in order to avoid having people complain about escaping cows and will live as long as the family does and then certainly die out (if not before). They aim to maintain for themselves. This is certainly not our call as the church. Some others have sold off much of their land, using profits to try to become something new, or just living out their lives still separate from the community that has grown around them. Also, does not line up with the churches call. But there is one other way I've seen that seems to maybe have lessons we as the church can learn from.

Some of these farms have found themselves just like the one I started this article with: A family farm with rusted tractors and old barns surrounded by subdivisions and planned communities. They heard the mumbling of the neighbors, they saw that they weren't connected, and they looked for ways to be part of the world surrounding them. This meant getting rid of some tractors, cleaning up some barns, and repurposing themselves to continue to serve the community that they were now part of. Some became homes to farmer markets and auction houses. Some found their space to be in great demand for community carnivals, concerts, and other entertainment and slowly repurposed buildings and land to be more and more formal entertainment space. In both these cases there's still some working family farm land attached, but the family is also connected to the community through the other things it does, and in doing so the community for the family has increased. We as the church have many things a community needs, but we must first take the time to look and hear what our specific context needs and try to fill in that void IF we can. Regardless, the process of being neighbor begins by our willingness to go out, be aware of need, and offer help.

We are not just here to take care of ourselves or those who come to us, and we are not a business selling God. We are a neighbor helping here to help and serve. A neighbor who needs to get back out and see that needs have changed and stand in those places of need just like we each were created to do from the beginning. The world sees us as behind, but we don't have to catch up, we just have to reconnect.

LHW - The Already and Still Yet to Be

The Already and Still Yet To Be – Text by A Williams ©2013

Tune: Kolding

Life's verse dwells in already and still yet to be

When we think we've fond answers we lose clarity

Our choices move us on innumerable paths

Where we hope to one day see all clearly at last

We wonder, we wander, dialogue and discern

Longing for connections and from others to learn

Where God is moving in and as part of our lives

Seeking the divine clearness so God's way will thrive

We're pursued by the Spirit in all that exists

All creation is seeking though doubt it persists

Finding questions and answers through actions of love

For the Kingdom's today as forever above

Lenten Hymn: In a Time Without Alleluias

In a Time Without Alleluias by A Williams © 2013

Tune: Wingate

In a time without Alleluias

When the world seems without delight

Souls are filled with solemn silence

For in darkness joy takes flight

In a time without Alleluias

Seeming so far away from peace

Creation seems still and stifled

Struggles on without release

In a time without Alleluias

Love seems broken and nearly gone

All our powers simply failing

to help us continue on

In a time without Alleluias

Hope for hopelessness is found

Naught on earth can keep love silent

Or God's mercy underground

The time returns for Alleluias

When we face all the dark inside

For we cannot do God's justice

Til to self we've truly died

We'll sing full the Alleluias

When at last we can clearly see

The world just as God intended

Love adorned in majesty.

Faithful Sojourners

Faithful Sojourners – Text by A Williams ©2013

Tune: Beach Spring http://www.hymntime.com/tch/mid/b/e/a/c/beach_spring.mid

Commanded by our creator

to do justice with our lives

Go deliver oppressed peoples

with God's righteousness our guide

refrain:

We Rejoice with those rejoicing

Weep along with those who weep

Live in harmony with each other

Thus all God's commandments keep

Stand with those who have been victims

of much theft and violence too

tossed aside by all around them

they call out to me and you

Care for those the world abandons

Left alone in a strange place

lost and looking unto others

just to find a friendly face

Faithful sojourners together

we seek to do the right thing

show all honor, peace, and mercy

and in part God's justice bring

Shed not blood nor carry anger

all are full of God's great love

Made whole in the divine image

serve on earth for God above

A Hymn for Community

A Hymn for Community – Text by A Williams ©2013

Tune: Consecration http://www.hymntime.com/tch/mid/c/o/n/consecration.mid

Here we stand confessing all

All we are and all we lack

We confess the love of God

but when called we still hold back

Struggling to hear God's word

hard for us to understand

we try but so often fail

to do as our God commands

Sent into the world to serve

Seeing all as a neighbor.

Earthly symbols of great love

Fully found in our savior

We're the body, hands and feet

Called to show another way

for all people in all lands

to live life from day to day

We the Church will stand as one

when we go our saviors way

we cannot but change the world

when we seek God's will today.

Theological Rant - Guns

I'm not one to say much about political stuff, but with all the gun related news, brings me back to an issue that I don't find political as much as it is theological.  What are guns used for has become a forefront discussion piece among many I hear talking about this issue and it seems to fall into 3 main categories.

1. Hunting

2. Sport

3. Self-Defense 

Guns used for hunting, especially hunting for food, are mostly weapons that are large, limited shot, and mostly owed by those who do actually hunt for food in my experience.  These don't tend to be the weapons used in the majority "gun violence" as far as I can tell.  Yes, they can injure and kill, but I am not discussing these within the remainder of this post.  

Guns used for sport I don't fully get, some of these are hunting weapons not used for food acquisition, and that is a minor issue for me, but most of these weapons are handguns or high powered, multi-round weapons which make NO logical sense to me, and will be covered in the Self-Defense category. But I feel like this gun use in general doesn't need to exist, the guns risk is higher to the community than the value of an individual's enjoyment.  

So now the big piece, I hear lots of arguments right now that we need guns for self defense.   The issue I have here is solely theological.  I can't understand how a faith where we're commanded not to kill can so easily defend the existence of something created to harm another and put their life in danger.  Now I know many will say that "we wouldn't shoot to kill, just to protect" but what are we protecting?  Something more valuable than the life and health of one created equal to us in God's image?

Taking this to the next level, many now point towards the argument that we need guns in case we ever "lose our freedom" and end up with a government/world that does atrocities that would harm even more people.  The problem with this argument is that it says that we must keep whatever power and control we can over the unknown.  We fear others and fear and hate are as close to one another as hate and killing are in Jesus's teachings.  So if we're not supposed to hate or kill, why are we okay with having things that are mostly created to inflict harm, and honestly to kill.  Maybe not as many die today because of medical advancements, but it doesn't take a perfect shot to kill someone, and any shot could.  And why would we want to kill anyone?  Why would we want to harm anyone? How is harming another showing any form of love to them?  We go out of our way to put up fences around things like Lust, but when it comes to this thing that we supposedly hold so highly, human life, we're okay with potentially taking it from one another just because ours is worth more than theirs.  THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THAT.  Either we're all equal, all created in God's image, all making mistakes, and all in this together, or there is no God.  Christians, pay attention, Guns do nothing to help us live in the way God commands.  They do nothing to make this life any better, nothing to improve the world and bring the kingdom of God closer.  I wish they were all gone, but since that won't happen, please at least let's dialogue about this from a place that does not make any individual more important than another, and let's see not the possibility of a future as something to fear, but as something that can be more like the Kingdom of God if we first love more like God ourselves.

Minister Survey

If you have read my early blogs or know me from other media or in person you may be aware that I am an odd bird in the ministerial world.  I am a Director of Educational Ministries in the PC(USA), but I also have my Master of Divinity.  This is not a "typical" combination in the PC(USA) and leaves me in an odd place as far as respect, power, and place within the denomination.  I came out of a evangelical tradition mainly because it's where I went to seminary, never having been well taught that my beliefs did not line up with the Baptist beliefs or many other evangelical traditions.  So in my Intro to New Testament class when I mentioned that I thought the idea that believers baptism and profession of faith were far less than essential.

Thus it is through the study of my theology I came to the PC(USA) where I theologically fit nearly perfectly, but am an outsider in most other forms.  As I continue to listen to others discuss and make decisions about the future of the church, it seems that many seem to think both denominations and the position of educator has no place in the future.  With that in mind I wonder if I made the right decision coming where I am, but I wonder more about how others deal with the diverse factors we have to balance in the changing context of Church.

So how would you rank the following in order of their importance to where you feel you are able to serve (and/or are serving currently):

Major Theological Issues (i.e. Sacraments, Meaning of Life, Understanding of Redemption)
Social Issues (i.e. Equality, Issues of Life and Death, Politics)
Denominational Respect (i.e. Ordination Policies, Openness to New Forms of Ministry)
Position Issues (i.e. Location, Specializations)
History (i.e. What You Grew Up As, Where You Know Others)
Other Issues (Specify)

For me obviously the major one was Theological, but Denominational Respect and Social Issues also play into things.  But I would like to know more about how others think, so please comment here, or send me a tweet at @KeepSetting or as KeepSetting on Facebook.  How we see and work through the differences we may have in many of these areas is something we need to consider as we look at the potential of a post-denominational church, and I would like to see what others are thinking today about where they are and could maybe go.

Thank You!