Coming Up Sunday, May 31

Sunday is Pentecost, the "fiftieth day" after Easter, which celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit to the church.  On that day, according to the story in Acts 2, the apostles went out to preach the gospel to a crowd of people from many nations.  Those gathered heard the story, "each in their own language," a feat attributed to the Holy Spirit.  And, the story concludes, 3000 people were converted that day, exponentially increasing the number of Christian faithful, following Christ's instructions to make disciples of all nations.

During worship we will celebrate the Holy Spirit in the world and we will consider how we carry out  Christ's great commission to evangelize today.  Churches today are often criticized for caring more about tending to their own needs rather than spreading the gospel.  Declining membership and participation have forced many congregations into a peculiar survival mindset where they focus almost exclusively on keeping the members they have rather than boldly seeking to share the enduring and saving message of Jesus with a desperate world.  Worse, they forget that their service is meant to leave a legacy to those Christians who will follow in later generations.  

At the outset of the Civil War, in his 1861 annual message to Congress, Abraham Lincoln suggested that the war had significance beyond that time: "The struggle of today, is not altogether for today -- it is for a vast future also."  The same could be said of the struggling churches; one eye must always be toward the example of faith we will leave for future generations.

This Sunday we also collect the special Pentecost offering to support new churches throughout the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  The New Church Ministry provides training, resource support, grants and other services to new congregations throughout the denomination.  More information is available here.

Coming Up Sunday, May 17

This Sunday we will begin the conclusion of our focus on "faith stories" by talking about identity.  Almost everyone has stories about their faith -- how and why they became religious, how and why they became less religious.  As we accumulate these stories, we gain a spiritual identity, a conception of how we relate to God and how we live out our faith (or try to live it out or fail to live it out).

The challenge, though, is that we do not entirely control our identity.  Often we are influenced by other people's identities for us.  Other people who know us -- and even some who do not -- have stories about us too, from which they draw conclusions.  In their own minds they put together conceptions of us, which they may share with others, or even with us.  Eventually, we may adjust our self-conceptions based on what other people think of us (actually, we do that pretty often).

Jesus himself faced these issues.  There were lots of stories floating around about him during his lifetime, including some pretty negative ones.  So one day, he asked his disciples what other people were saying about him -- who do they say I am?  Then he asked the disciples what they thought -- who do you say I am?

We face these questions too about our own individual identity and about our identity as a church of Jesus Christ.  We need to take seriously what other people say about us -- how they define us -- both good and bad.  Sometimes they see things about us that we don't recognize about ourselves.  Sometimes they have terrible misconceptions about us, which we may need to work to clear up.

RETREAT!

Finally, a long overdue reflection on Saturday's congregational retreat.  For starters, I was very, VERY pleased with our retreat.  I believe that all who attended found the time together relaxing and refreshing, which was the main goal.   I also believe that we had some fruitful discussions, about ourselves and about Central Christian.

There were minor hiccups along the way (despite planning to caravan, we still should have had printed maps available for all cars, including those that wandered through random parking lots playing follow-the-leader).  And why a CD player that played a CD roughly twelve hours before decided it couldn't read the same CD still eludes me.  But the rough edges are sometimes the charm (or at least the humor) of an experience.

Silly things aside, though, I thought it was a very positive experience, and I have heard lots of favorable comments from those who attended the retreat.  We had time to relax, we had time to eat (and eat and eat and eat... given all the food we took, we could have stayed all weekend and still have been well fed).  We had time to talk to each other, as a large group and in twos and threes throughout the day.

We had a couple of good discussions.  Each of us had the opportunity to share a little bit about ourselves and about our childhood, which included a little about our faith development.  Later in the day, we had a discussion about where we think the church is now and where we might direct our energies in the future.  Nothing concrete was decided (it was not the time or the place for that), but we have begun defining our present context, our challenges, and our opportunities.

To the Ad Hoc Committee, which planned the retreat, let me offer a big "thank you" and congratulations on a job well done.  To those who could not attend, I hope that you will talk to those who went to the retreat, ask about what we did, and make plans to attend the next congregational retreat (to be held sometime next year, I imagine).

DisciplesWorld: May 2009

The latest issue of DisciplesWorld is available in the Narthex, having arrived earlier this week.  And, in my spare time (actually while riding the exercise bike at the gym), I've read through it.

There is an interesting editorial at the front of the issue about the current effort, sponsored by the General Minister and President's office, to bring more accountability and efficiency among the various ministries of the General Church.  I have my reservations about the effort, which I have shared with the appropriate people, though I know that those involved have put a lot of effort into their study and proposals.  But I was fascinated by the editorial's insistence that they put more effort into making these ministries "transparent."  Perhaps it is a trait of the younger generation, but I'm a firm believer of transparency in ministry, as obviously Rebecca Woods and Verity Jones are too (both are on the younger end of the spectrum too, though I don't know either of their exact ages).  Interesting for us to consider in all scales of the church's work, from congregational to international activities.

The cover story is about "the sandwich generation," a generation that is now frequently offering significant care for multiple groups: their own aging parents and their (perhaps underemployed) adult children, who might have children of their own.  This is an issue that will get more and more attention in the upcoming years.  Uncharitably (showing my youth) I would suggest that this is partially because the sandwich generation has always been rather myopic.  But truly, the nature of multi-generational families has changed from previous generations, mostly because our lifestyle expectations have changed.

Today's families tend to be led by adults who are all wage-earners, which is to say that all of the parents below retirement age, whether married or not, tend to work, which creates enormous pressures in how much support you can offer to others in your family.  It creates additional stress and fatigue.  Further, we tend to expect to live a certain lifestyle at all ages, and our families tend to support this tangibly, which adds additional financial and time pressures.  Yes, people are living longer, but they're also living in their own homes longer, which is probably the greater strain.

I wish that the article delved a little deeper into the subject.  As I read it, I just thought of the number of people I've known in my life -- many of whom have passed away -- who did the same things as the so-called sandwich generation because they had no choice.  Grandma moved in because there was nowhere else for her to go, despite the strain it brought on the family.  One imagines that the stress of living through the Great Depression was harder on families than what we face today, but instead of talking about stress or "how we each made time for ourselves" they generally talked about perseverance and sacrifice.  Maybe I've not talked to enough of them.  

On the other hand, knowing how difficult situations are for many people who are included in "the sandwich generation," including many people I know and love now, I'm glad that this issue is beginning to be talked about.  As someone not yet included in any "sandwich generation" I often wonder how best to support those who are facing the emotional challenges of caring for many other's in their family, especially when the heaviest burden seems to fall on them.  From articles such as this, we may better learn how to tangibly offer love and support to the caregivers.

Also of interest in the issue is a photograph toward the back of the magazine from the Wheeling area, where three Disciples churches (Wheeling First, Wheeling Island, and Bethany) raised money to support the St. Baldrick's Foundation, which raises money for child cancer research.  A 12-year-old is shown getting his hair cut off (part of the tradition); I happen to know from his pastor (though the magazine doesn't say) that he was an active fund-raiser in the effort, so I'm glad they printed Jacob's picture.

Lastly, though this may be more interesting to me than many of you, the closing columnist (new to the magazine this month, Lillian Daniel, a UCC pastor now in Chicago who's making quite a name for herself) writes about finding God/Jesus while eating out.  I read an article a few months ago about how most churches do a bad job of reaching out to single adults; here's a single female minister who not only admits that she eats out a lot (part of being single), but finding theological insight in the situation.  A theology of the Lord's Supper that includes McDonald's -- very interesting.