First, let me say it for the record, I am so blessed to be a part of Peace. The idea that I could "be real" within a church community certainly seems to be a reality here.
So I just wanted to record a few impressions from our first face to face. Feel free to add your thoughts.
- Here's a link to the ELCA Mission Partners Focus newsletter on emerging church that I read some excerpts from.
- There is a desire to merge the different parts of our life, but a feeling of fear of how and if that can really be accomplished (eg. can we possibly imagine all our friends from all of our walks of life in the same room).
- We're looking for mechanisms to help us connect and build relationships in order to have meaningful faith conversations.
- While many individuals are making connections; a corporate response is desired for the support, learning and equipping it can provide.
- Whatever our response, it should be organic, authentic and real, not contrived.
- Public life transitions like death & divorce provide us with an opportunity to be there for the community around Peace. No strings attached.
Attendees: Jane, Laura, David H., Deb M., Eric, Kim, Angela, Ken, Nancy
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Hey guys,
Not sure if this next post belongs here, or there... it is not even complete... it is an e-mail I sent today to select members of the leadership council... warning, do not read this if you are easily upset... by anything.
"Pastor John,
cc: CR, RP, PB
I have been wrestling -- with myself, mostly, and with other leaders in our comminity, on occasion -- about the plan for Peace, our mission, how that fits with other area Lutheran churches, the Hollymead/Forest lakes community, Charlottesville/Albemarle, the VA Synod, ELCA, other area churches in the body of Christ, mission partners in the world.
I pray on this many times daily. Not the identically same prayer, of course. Not on a particular vision. In some ways I am indifferent -- no, that's not the right word -- willing to be led in any direction. As the Spirit leads us. As long as we go somewhere.
The most common message I recieve back -- in this spiritual dialogue with God -- is "give the church away". I admit, this was unnerving to me, at least at first. Then just unsettling -- what does God mean by that? What will _____ say about that?
Not to be confused with 'get rid of the pews', 'sell the organ', 'go to Togo', or anything as simple as that. 'Give the church away." You can say I am crazy, to hear this, but it is there, louder and louder, with every prayer, every day.
I am starting to 'get it'. And 'it' is somewhat scarey, somewhat exciting.
First, the church. There is the building. There is the institution. There is the people, inside, and outside, both.
All are God's. In each case, we act as if they were ours. Our building. Our organ. Our church, little c and BIG C. We respond to the the likes and dislikes and needs of our people and our community. It is all backwards.
The church -- physically, as well as metaphorically -- is an idol.
Second, give... away. Give, because God commands us to. Jesus teaches us to. The Spirit leads us to. Because it is healthy, just, and right. Think about it. Outside your box.
Are we so in love with the church that we must horde it?
I could blame Ken Hymes for this. A few nights ago, he asked this question: What would happen if tomorrow we (Peace) closed our doors, let John, and I, Mike, and Jenny, and Barbie, and Barbara go? What would happen, really?
(I could blame Ken, except that God had beaten him to the punch, at least in my small world.)
The question remains, what would happen? Or, better, what could happen?
I have some thoughts on that, too -- but this much will do as an intro.
Peace,
--eric"
I will follow up with additional leadings, but I am interested in what this much does for you... what questions, what possibilities, what what?
I think if I were just beginning to hear about this "emerging church thing," the articles in the Mission Partners newsletter would be a comforting introduction. Rather than describing it as a bunch of mystical fruitcakes (sorry Ken, but I just love that term!) those studying the emerging church found much to affirm. In the first article Frambach described finding "a sense of humble hospitality and servanthood, of being a good neighbor, and being invested in and committed to one's community." Ruben Duran in the third article even found it to be very Lutheran in spirit. Gotta love that.
I think we echoed much of what was written in discussing our vision of emerging church. One inevitable question that needs to be answered, hopefully in a mutually affirming way, is why the traditional church can't (isn't, hasn't, couldn't--take your pick) meet these needs. And some would say that they already are meeting them, though I think many would beg to differ. And a side comment related to this: Did anyone else notice that the lists of Adult Discipleship team members and the emerging ministry team members are almost identical? Is that a good thing or a bad thing for: a)emerging and b)non-emerging folks at Peace?
Bless you, Eric, for your radical (in the sense of getting to the root, not in the political sense) honesty about your sense of call and your prayer life.
I love Peace Lutheran Church. It feels more like home than home does at times. I love the people I have come to know there. I love my job. I love the way it has challenged me not to hide in my bubble. I love the way it has informed and transformed my whole sense of what Jesus is asking of me.
And that's why I asked that question. I don't at all mean to imply that Peace makes no difference. What I'm asking is: what's the difference? do we know what it is, and is it nearly enough?
I think where we have done well for the most part is in helping each other wrestle with faith and doubt, scripture, and in seeing personal life challenges in this context, rather than through the lens that the larger culture pushes us into using.
I think where we still do poorly is in making any impact on/for/with the community that is our church's physical home; and in doing much of anything to allow people to see the Gospel as we know it in what we do and say. We're mostly talking to each other, and hesitantly, in small ways, as individuals to people we know outside the church circle.
This, sisters and brothers in Christ, is very far from enough. If by chance (and I know I'm preaching to the choir here) you don't think we're called to public, risky, embarassing, social-norm-challenging, boundary-breaking witness and social mission, please go back and read Acts again. Please read the Gospels for what Jesus tells us is his priority in the world. Please read the prophets for what they have to say about which matters more, our worship in a building or our actions outside it.
It's not, as some might like to cast it, a debate between conservative theology and liberal social justice Gospel. It's not a diminishment of individual witness and relationship (an essential aspect of any larger mission). it is a question of identity. Who are we to each other? Who are we to the social world outside? Do we matter, really matter, to anyone but ourselves?
peace, love, and prayer
ken
I suppose by now I should get used to feeling like the 'odd (wo)man out' but it just always seems to catch me off guard.
Giving our church away ..What would happen if tomorrow we (Peace) closed our doors... well there is a workshop (near Baltimore in Oct)from Kim's Leadership Network site that addresses a similar deal.. "If Your Church Vanished, Would Your Community Really Notice?"
I disagree that "The church -- physically, as well as metaphorically -- is an idol."
The church is a family,(imho) metaphorically.. and in truth, a collection of God's people.
We are not, in this cyber-emerging-book group, the steering committee. Or so my assumptions go. And we all know how dicey assumptions are... but I'm more interested in what and how we can do something new in a divided church. For truth is.. as far as I can see.. we have a divided church at the moment. Are we going to utilize emergent understandings to bridge that divide (I think not) or are we going to go with the understanding that emergent ideas build outward, bridging the church to the community? To me that doesn't represent giving anything away but inviting people to God. And not necessarily to the church.
We go out. It matters not to me whether there is a large group, a structured program, or 3 of us. We go out. We've been doing that individually all along anyway as our faith walk and God compels us.
But it is disingenuous to claim that the church is a mere building and an idol when the true nature is that we are a family and that family is in many different places in their relationship with God.
Kim said (or quoted) once before somewhere that growing an emerging church within an already established church is the most difficult way to do it. I agree. Until we can look at what we are doing or hoping to do with a clear understanding that this is what we hear God telling us.. without infesting it with our frustrations, we will continue to get sidetracked and bogged down in what everyone 'should be doing'.
If we can do what we feel called to do AND leave the church to grow at it's own pace (and I emphasize grow as in not leave it to stagnate) then we can focus on going out there.
At the risk of being even more disingenuous:
It is not that much of a stretch for me to give real examples of how I think we -- individually, and collectively -- relate to our church in its various forms -- BIG C, little c, physical, metaphorical -- as an idol.
I'm not even sure that it is worth the argument, other than I must have touched a nerve.
Just as I did not mean to 'give up' on Peace, I did not mean to disown my family because it has crazy uncle Martin hidden away in the closet.
I think we are stuck -- spinning our wheels -- worse, stripping the gears -- as we wobble along this path of discipleship.
No idols at Peace? Ahem. Maybe Jane was right about choice of words. Does Sacred Cows ring a bell?
Used to be pews and vestments. I'll bet God is mighty impressed with us that we have progressed to the point where we now squabble over such items as the inclusion of the creed, whether church leaders should be Lutheran by birth, and whether or if being gay is a sin or a disease.
Anyway, the leading to 'Give the Church Away', as I interpret it, was to let go of whatever is binding us from doing mission.
That has never entered my mind as a vision of Pastor John being sent packing; rather, why not doing his thing -- leading, teaching, preaching, equipping, from a different venue -- perhaps a broader group of sojourners?
For that matter, did you know that some of us are in dialog about combining the efforts of three or more local Lutheran congregations, and spawning maybe more? That should both scare and excite y'all.
Could St. Mark be the locus for traditional worship with a real organ, a real organist, a choir, and all the trappings of High Church? Could the 'Old Peace' be a Peace Community Center, and a few new storefront sites be an 'emerging presence', and long range, the 'New Peace' find its own expression in home church, or a new campus, or a new multi-use facility? Do we rent space? Build?
Hell, we can't even do what we used to do without sparking controversy. Today we had a Bible Study, and a fight broke out -- what's up with that?
I think you have to make the Einstein point; Doing the same thing, over and over, expecting a different result, is insanity.
I am questioning whether trying to be two or more congregations under one roof is insanity? I am questioning whether we are more pre-occupied about how we worship than whether we are reaching anyone, including part of 'the family'? I am questioning if we would go so far as God expected Abraham to go with Isaac -- or, mor specifically -- as far as Kelly Fryer suggested we go with Peace? Or do we put 'the family' before the mission? Close our ears? Shut our eyes?
After all, we have this D-thing down, right? At least, some of us? The quick learners, eh?
Well, I'm all 'Up with Jesus', and 'Down with God', and 'Moving with the Spirit' -- I've earned my Six Marks and three of four ACTS merit badges -- I've led out, read out, and all but bled out for Peace. And to paraphrase PJ, what do I, or any of us at Peace, have to show for it?
A warm fuzzy feeling?
At least, until, you get smacked up beside the head by some 'well-intentioned' family member who just has to share with you the right way to do things -- just after you thought you'd done your discernin' and listenin' and followin', and you were enjoyin' a piece of God's love -- silly you.
Oh well, maybe the idea of stretching out isn't God's gig for us -- I've been tuned into the wrong channel. It has happened before. Maybe his intent is for us to sit tight and fight.
Love God, Love one Another, Grow in Christ. Maybe that is all we can handle. Lord knows, we've made that much a challenge, haven't we?
I think the 'nerve' that got struck is a sense of reactionary movement rather than responsive motion.
I am in no way dismissing or minimizing the insanity that has been hurled around, directly targeting some of you. I don't need to know every detail...I don't need to hear about it. It doesn't mean my eyes are shut or that anybody's head is in the sand.
I think that where I struggle is with the question that I hear many of us ask.. like you said..
"Or do we put 'the family' before the mission?"
It seems to me that is a false choice.. I don't know how.. but it seems against the very heart of Jesus's call to love one another. Yet allowing tantrums and fear based thinking to derail God's mission seems inherently against the Gospels as well. I get this.
But making decisions based on reactions to all of this is not the way to go either. The last thing that needs to be part of a new plan or a new idea is the festering frustrations of the current situation.
Like I said in my previous post, I'm ready to go. Where ever. I think the Pan-Lutheran meetings are a great place to engage in looking at alternative uses of pre-existing churches and resources.
"I think we are stuck -- spinning our wheels -- worse, stripping the gears -- as we wobble along this path of discipleship."
Ya know.. yes. I feel this too. But I think we have to be ok with these growing pains .. find a way to sit in the struggle .. calmly and lead from a sense of strength and faith in God.
I know for me, I'm struggling just to come to church. It's too much tension and that's without much direct experience. Every meeting I've been to in the last 4 weeks has been infused with this litany of frustrations and tension.. and this is adding as much if not more to the nauseated spinning as anything else.
Laura,
I do hear you.
Maybe there is a need for more quiet time, more listening. Much prayer.
The tension for me, personally, is the lack of acceptance and tolerance and trust.
Right now, it raises an image of the undertow one might experience at the beach. The weather looks good, the water inviting. You wade in, enjoying the moment, and woosh -- your feet are swept right out from under you.
I am not going to lie. There is anger, yes. I have a very hard time watching good people doing good things being attacked. On one level, I can dis-associate my anger at the action(s) from the people -- after all, they are family, they mean well, they are struggling with their own issues, they need love. On another level, I feel all kinds of righteous indignation. How does one react to bad behavior?
Apparently NOT by using blunt instruments -- I seem to be doing too much of that, and it is a bloody mess.
***
As it stands now, my family is not a place I want to share with others. I am embarassed by the lashing out that occurs, more and more publicly.
I am frustrated, because we cannot seem to talk about it or confront it openly, without falling into more sin. I long for a family where we can lovingly work out our problems and focus on what really counts.
Keeping silent? Running away? Are those the only options?
Oh how I wish that Jesus were here... I wish that I had that wisdom to know when to say nothing, turn the other cheek.. when to suffer silently... when to stand on principle, and how to do that with passion and compassion.
Peace has been for me a place of amazing grace, of growth, of love let loose from the bondage of sin -- those moments are cherished, and they are not at all rare.
The 'Best of Peace' is quite good, and I am sure that God delights in this part of His creation when we are on our game. This is the heart I know belongs to God and that I want to share with the whole wide world.
Something a friend said at our meeting hit me hard in my gut, something like "I decided that I was not going to let the actions or attitudes of a few take me away from [my family] what points me to God". I hear that. It resonates. There is a role model.
Do you remember the 'good old days' where we laughed, Laura? Sometimes we cried together, too. But that sense of family was pervasive. Where did the Peace Annex go? The eager disciples who could not get enough of each other?
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Can Peace be a Joyful and Generous place?
***
Anyway, the whole idea of giving it away relates to control -- who is in charge? Isn't that some of the struggle here?
Not throwing away. Recycling. Is there a higher and better use for Peace in doing God's work? Were we there already, and just have to back up? Is that where we are headed, but we lack direction or urgency or courage? Is that where we are now, but we don't recognize we're there, and behave as if we are not?
I don't have the answers to those questions.
***
What is emerging church, if not accepting people for where they are at, and showing them the way of Christ? Is it about making people believe a creed, or showing them that God loves them and is calling them? What is the one important thing about knowing Christ?
Of course Peace can be, and often is, a Joyful and Generous place.
What do we as individuals give up to be in that space, "zone", together?
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