sacred cows

The JAM (Jesus and Me) core team met last night. We spent most of the meeting talking about how to handle all of our children's/family programming without Sarah on board (her family ministries internship ended yesterday). There were a lot of agenda items we didn't get to simply because we don't know who will take the lead on several programs, some of which have become Grace Community hallmarks. So we had a lively discussion about the merits of certain programs and events and who might be able to lead them.

Two things stand out to me. First, we need to develop leaders and JAM staff. For example, there aren't many people who can tackle the oversight of the Family Easter Celebration. It requires vision to motivate and skill to coordinate an army of volunteers. So maybe we'll have to kill some sacred cows to get our to-do list down to a manageable size.

The second is that we need to find our ministry sweet spot. Killing sacred cows is messy business and there better be a good reason for it. What is it that the people of Grace Community have expertise in and really enjoy doing? How does that fit with God's love for our neighbors and their need to know Him? If God has put together our church community and placed us in this particular space, there must be a reason for it. It's up to us to listen carefully to God and to our neighbors and to develop our gifts and abilities to do whatever it is that will put us in the center of God's purposes.

Of course, we may not be killing a sacred cow. Not having a Family Easter Celebration this year may just be a relief to some people. So the cow may be slowly dying anyway. But I pray that it's not an indication that our heart for God and for our neighbors is also dying.

blaming the church

“We can blame the church for many things, I suppose. But if we are faithful to give to it as much as we receive from it, we’ll find this communion of saints to be a source of astonishing beauty.”

This is the ending paragraph of an article in the latest Christianity Today by a woman who recounts how her church community helped her through a time when she was both needy and pushing people away. She was withdrawing into isolation when she most needed the comfort and help of the body of Christ: after being raped in her own home by an intruder. But her community continued to reach out to her: "The overpowering emotions I experienced that awful night did not go away the next day - or the one after that. But neither did the people of the church." They stayed with her by offering "small acts of service" (casseroles, lawn mowing, babysitting) that acted to "comfort the soul better than Band-Aids on skinned knees."

The horror of such an event leaves me aching and horrified for her experiencing a pain that I cannot comprehend. But the wonder of her healing experience (which is still taking place after 10 years) also leaves me in awe of the privilege that we all have of participating in God’s purposes for the Church. We are all both hurting people and sources of healing help, called on alternately to give and to receive.

Which begs the question: am I blaming the church for many things, or am I faithful to give to my sisters and brothers?

autograph hound

I’m still grieving the fact that I missed a chance to have a book signed by a famous author.

One of the reasons I went to this year’s Midwinter Conference (for Covenant church leaders: I’ve only missed one in nine years) is that I wanted to hear Miroslav Volf. I’m in the middle of his book “Exclusion and embrace.” I am impressed with his scholarship and touched by his humanity as he reflects on his experiences in the Balkan War (he is Croatian). At first I thought I’d pass up the chance to have him sign my copy of his book, then I thought better of it and decided to get the book signed. But after he spoke, it was announced that he had to leave very shortly so would we all please not try to stop him as the conference director escorted him out of the auditorium.

So I missed my chance. I should’ve asked him to sign the book the first morning or before the second morning session.

Yet why did I want him to sign the book? I’m not sure. Because he’s famous? (OK, semi-famous: he’s not exactly a household word outside of seminary circles)? Does that make me more significant if he gives me his signature? Or because he’s a very significant contemporary theologian? But his signature can’t be an affirmation of my theological abilities (which are pretty meager: hanging out with my friends who are seminary professors makes me realize I’m out of practice at theologizing). He doesn’t know me at all (even though I rode the shuttle with him from the airport to the hotel).

What would getting his signature prove? Not much I guess. So it’s back to wading through his deeply profound thinking (I have to read each paragraph at least twice). If I really want to get something out of his book, I’d be a lot better off practicing what he’s preaching: knowing myself as God’s beloved and participating in the community of those who are making God’s love known in this world.