"How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos." - G.K. Chesterton
resources
- Judges 7
- defying odds
share your thoughts
Lion chasers thrive in the toughest circumstances because they know that impossible odds set the stage for amazing miracles. What are the toughest odds we face at Peace?
Does how you think of God determine who you become?
The more we grow, the bigger God should get. And the bigger God gets, the smaller our lions become. How is God shrinking lions at Peace?
8 comments:
The less we know each other and the people who lie near our church, the harder it is to know what God wants us to do. The more we know each other and the people who live near our church, the easier it becomes to know what God wants us to do. Prayer and scripture are central, but it is not the sole source of information for a Christian. They are the bedrock connection, not an encyclopedia of everything. We need to really really know other people through relationship and shared struggle. When we're in our bubbles or cliques, either as individuals within Peace, or as Peace church within our community, the odds are very high against our ever having a clear identity as a vehicle for God's mission in northern Charlottesville. When we're deeply connected to each other, when we know each other's fears, doubts, dreams, talents; and when we begin to know the same about the people who never come in our doors... the odds get better and better.
Excellent point Ken - part of God getting bigger involves us expanding our network, not only of knowledge and experience, but of relationships. My gut reaction to this is - but that's going to take such a long time, it's so hard with my introverted personality to do it and I don't know where to begin. Sounds pretty lame to me too, but I'm guessing I'm not the only one who feels this way. One thing we can do at Peace is offer opportunities for engaging the neighborhood (like ServeFest @ 2|42 Community Church) and another thing we can do is offer environments at Peace geared toward our neighbors (like the "outsider" focus @ NorthPoint).
I agree that it can be daunting, but I think it also is like riding a bicycle, once you get started you wonder why it was hard. Maybe it's my own experience with learning performance and touting for gigs despite a (believe it or not) once painfully shy personality that leads me to trust that this kind of change is possible.
As far as where to start: obviously there may be many good ideas not yet raised, but here are a couple that seem promising to me. 1. Jenny has discussed the need for a "Life Transitions support" ministry, perhaps best held at the new space. It would be support and discussion and sometimes resources for people going through major changes or dislocations. It could be different groups for different kinds of change. 2. Events at Peace of various kinds designed to be open to the community, with no "church" agenda - concerts are one possibility. 3. An afterschool program of some kind, again with no religious strings, maybe using both spaces.
I may have said this to some folks on this blog in person, but it seems to me that a reason urban churches have an easier time getting started with a local missional focus is that they walk out the door after a service and there are kids hustling across the street, a homeless person on the steps, and the sound of gunfire in the distance - the needs are obvious and visible. Here in the suburbs we have to be more watchful for the moments when the personal becomes public. But the needs are there, and the opportunities do arise. So far we have been responding to them as individual, and that is a good and Christ-following thing. But we're not talking about individual faith journeys here, we're talking about changing the known community identity of Peace, and by extension the perception of what it means to be a Christian. We're countering well-deserved stereotyps, and we should take every chance to provide an alternative picture, both for those "inside" and those "outside."
paraphrasing here.. from chapter 2..
'Our biggest problems aren't circumstantial, our biggest problems are perceptual'.
I think that this one quote sums up so much. It's not about this or that (Neti, Neti) as much as it is our thinking and the way we think.
We can at any time do everything, nothing or sum of the amazing ideas that we've shared with each other over the last few years. And in many ways.. we have.
Like Ken's thinking and Mr Robert's saying.. 'who are the people in our neighborhood?'. Why aren't they coming to church? And how can we invite them? I know just from my own 'Hollymead Square' experiences... it's the very last thing people think about doing, but very much what they are thinking about.
I don't think we need to reduce the God part.. but I strongly think/agree that we need to increase the inviting part. Having several ways for people to connect.. once they've been welcomed. (but I really do think the idea of concerts is a super idea).
Defying the odds... I like the part of ridiculous prayers. :) I've started adding to my prayers one for all of those seeking to be found and welcomed into our church. For all lost, hurting, despairing to be able to find peace, at Peace.
I remember a few years ago reading an essay about God and the 3 O's. Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotent. (It was actually a very humorous essay, hence my interest) It's a really huge macro-concept that I use sometimes as a base of my prayer time... I feel every once in awhile in small chunks... like In Togo. Or usually in nature and around very loud and happy children. But for the most part.. too big to really understand. But if we are praying ridiculously huge prayers, if we understand and sense that God is ginormous, and it's at the moment where we perceive the odds to be so enormous and unconquerable... well, I'm thinking that's the glory-for-God-winning-combo.
The toughest odds are changing attitudes that control our behavior. Great discussion last night, by the way. But one thing that I heard troubled me, and it took until now for me to realize why. the comment was to the effect that we do not have to 'change' anything about (worship) at Peace. And while I agree that worship style is unimportant -- we can conform to the traditional worship setting and still do God's intent, in some manner or fashion -- I do think attitude is very important in driving action, and, my apolgies, we can do more than we are, and I believe that attitudes about what is important and what is not -- our collective inability to tolerate differences that we say we embrace, but behave exactly the opposite (and it would be hypocritical for me not to add myself in that picture) -- inhibit unity of purpose, and effectiveness -- it gnaws at the core, hurts many inside the Peace community, shuts us off from the outside. So, I am unwilling(?) to pull 'change' off the table.
It's probably a moot point, anyway, since I think we understand 'transformation' to mean change.
I used to think of God as huge, ginormously so. Infinite in all ways. Understanding a small bit what that means is what is taking me time. A few years ago, I would not believe that God could, or at least would, float an ax head. Now I not only believe it, but I am willing to sell out to the idea that there is nothing that He will not do. Friends, I have had firsthand experince with what some would describe as mystical -- certainly not mainstream modern Lutheran orthodox experinces -- encounters with good and evil that transcend what can be explained away through science, too numerous in timing to pass off as coincidence, that surpass my ability to reason -- so I go with faith, and the belief in miracles. Big, and small. Ridiculous prayers? Yes. Do them.
Is it the fear of 'rejection', is it self-doubt masquerading as doubt in God's power, that holds us back? Know that God has accepted you for the way you are, and miracle of miracles, can take you and do with you wonderful things that would blow your mind. Let go. Put aside ego, judgement, self-will. (memo to self: you are not Lord)
I don't know what determines who you become. I do believe God has a big part, if not the part, in all of it. How I think of God matters in how I respond, therefor live my life. There are consequences, yes.
God is shrinking lions at Peace? Good. Bring down the walls.
re: Eric's discussion of whether "change matters" and how change might be defined.
I think it does matter what we do in worship. I just don't think it should be our main topic of discussion, or where we look for definition of who we are. If we're doing the attitude-change stuff right, the authentic-engagement-with-community stuff right, the service-for-Jesus stuff right, the peacemaking-with-each-other-and-our-community stuff right, then issues like worship style and other church-insider issues will take care of themselves in a positive way.
When I raised the experience of Sunday afternoon (and recognizing that there were many specific contextual factors in that event which can not be easily replicated), it was not to diminish what Saturday services have been able to do with the Spirit's help, it was to lift up hymnody and liturgy as valid expressions of worship, as potentially vibrant vehicles for growth in fellowship.
I would rather play the guitar than listen to the organ, but that's my own selfish need. It may well be that people twenty years younger than me are not interested in either 19th century hymns or Christian band music. I keep hearing about the groundswell of interest in "ancient" worship, but I don't know any of these folks myself. I don't doubt they are there, but I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that most people who are likely to attend church in our neighborhood are still going to prefer either twentieth century "traditional" or late twentieth century "contemporary."
The other folks, the ones who will never enter a church, but are still God's children, and are often just as interested in God as we are... these are the people who the "emergent" idea seeks to serve and learn from and join with. I agree with the comments that we shouldn't exchange one set of buzzwords and jargon for another, but it's just a thought-model that can help us get to the point of action.
What shape "emergent" ministry takes is a purely local and specific question, not a general and theoretical one. It's all about relationship and specific conditions around us. It's what we do, not just what we say. It's who they think we are, not who we think we are.
The only piece of theory I will cling to, aside from our non-negotiable beliefs as Christians (maybe we should be talking about what those are), is that we need to be public, visible, and corporate, as well as quiet, secret, and individual, in our local mission and ministry efforts.
If we are not visible, and in a group, then we do nothing to change the identity that is hanging around our necks in people's eyes, and we deny many the information they need. I don't think we can say as Jesus did in his parable, "they have Moses and the law and the prophets." We're not in 1st century Judea. We're in a new land. Jesus knew he was sending us here, and he knows we will need to challenge ourselves every step of the way.
Funny thing about odds... and me.
HaHa. I don't mean 'I know him, and he IS odd', either.
No, I am totally not a gambler -- at least not since my brief stint as a penny-ante poker player -- and the ocassional roll of nickles I throw away at the casino on those rare ocassions I even go into one. OK, OK, I do the small time fantasy football league, and the NCAA basketball championship brackets, but that's it!
I am (almost) totally not a gambler.
On the other hand, throughout my working career, I consistently sought to do the impossible. If you really wanted to motivate me, you'd hand me the brainteaser of real life engineering, or later, rel life business problems... and I'd sell my soul to take a shot. Like the guy in 'Back to the Future', all it took was one word to set me off -- 'impossible'. "It can't be done.' 'No chance in heck.'
I don't know if that is being a risk taker, exactly -- I always figured it was a lock. And, I had a long roll, if it was luck. Project after project, situation after situation, take a team of professional skeptics, set the constraints, ask what if, and brainstorm. Hard to explain. But I loved the mental challenge. And always believed man -- under the right circumstances, with the right attitude, and total motivation, could do anything within his grasp.
Maybe it was coming of age when men landed on the moon that did that to me.
Anyway, older and wiser, I still believe that anything can be done. It's just that I know see God's hand in it, pulling the strings. maybe even bumping the pinball machine just enough without quite tilting it.
God the Pinball Wizard? Hmmm.
Anyway, I am feeling pretty bold today.
I got a phone call this afternoon. An answer to a ridiculous prayer I've been saying for six weeks now, for a friend diagnosed with end-stage cancer. Four weeks ago, a tumor the size of a baseball, a biopsy, cells in the lymph system, the whole nine yards. The call came after surgery. All gone. No trace of a tumor. None. Zip. Nada.
My friend is -- what? -- can you say 'reborn'? I suppose that would not be Lutheran. I don't mean in the 'baptist' sense. Reborn in the mind-bending, life-altering way.
Somewhere there is a surgeon scratching their head, documenting a medical 'oddity". The incredibly shrinking tumor. No chemo. No treatment. Just last-ditch, 'hail-Mary' prayer.
And the streak continues...
The odds? Ax heads can float. I've read about it. Don't ask me about odds. They just don't apply, if God's the dealer.
I truly have never been one to care about risks. Looking foolish and risk taking aren't even remotely mental lions for me.
I'd rather do something and see if it works than sit around talking about it. I'd rather go in with notes scribbled down and the idea of winging it than complain about not being prepared. God has shown me His amazing ability to do stuff if all I do is step up to the podium.
I think the idea that struck a cord in me at the meeting was the idea of a seeker service. We would need to spend time figuring out what that would look like and how we would get the message to people who might come. Do we send a van to ask some of homeless friends that we know would like to come back to Peace? Do we do a simple flyer drive in the neighborhood and surrounding areas?
Or do a life transition themed one day workshop... say: retirement, caring for parents, parenting issues, divorce/life change..etc
I'm thinking a one time deal to start with to see what God will do. Yes.. with a plan for more ..
I think it's a mental trap that we keep falling into when we try to design, plan, and wait for transformation. Yes, by all means make available the opportunities. I think the Discipleship team is most definitely in the thick of that theory. But it's a process and it's Spirit led.
Emerge: intransitive verb
1: to become manifest : become known
2: to rise from or as if from an enveloping fluid : come out into view
3: to rise from an obscure or inferior position or condition
4: to come into being through evolution
So God and Peace have raised people in Christ, awakened them to God's voice and His call and now.. what?
We have a Saturday night service that can be expanded, experimented with.. we add on to the end of it..
But we also don't just want to change for change sake, or change as a passive-aggressive mechanism for vindictiveness.
For truly if we are being Spirit led.. then we must trust. Trust God and trust each other to be able to handle the shifts.
Post a Comment