Why Church Keeps Changing & That's Good - Lloyd Rang in The Banner

Church needs to change—as it has in this and in every generation—to remain relevant.  Our time gathered together needs to feel like a living part of our week, not something altogether different from our everyday lives.  One day we will "do church" differently than we do now. And that’s how it should be.

From the age of the apostles through today, church gatherings have always been a complex expression of the interplay between the Christian community and the surrounding community—and a reflection of the attendees’ time and culture.

Our ideas about doing church—and even our ideas about what it means to be a community of believers—change over time.

The world doesn’t end at the top of the church steps. It flows through the sanctuary like a swirling, invisible mist surrounding worshipers who come through the doors with doubts, fears, and thoughts informed by their experiences on the other six days.

In the Christian church, we bring our world into our gatherings so that we can make sense of it together through our shared faith. Our time gathered together needs to feel like a living part of our week, not something altogether different from our everyday lives. Otherwise, the whole thing feels alien and false.

Our intentions need to be more than well-intentioned. They need to be purposeful. Church needs to change—as it has in this and in every generation—to remain relevant.

One day we will "do church" differently than we do now. And that’s how it should be. Pursuing our relationship as a community is the point of Christian community.  The world today is social and interactive. We want to participate in a conversation, not sit still for a lecture.

The full article is available here

Reflection and Renewal: God Shows No Favoritism (based on Galatians 3:28)

God, 

You warmly welcome everyone. You show no favoritism as you work in and through us to heal and restore our lives and our communities in your world.

When you joined the human race, you intentionally counter-acted traditions and practices that were dividing people into "insiders" and "outsiders."

We have to admit; we've done an imperfect job of following Jesus' example. It's an amazing guide, but we seem to struggle greatly to have it shape how we relate to others. Instead, we often set boundaries that limit our perception.

Many times, we're quick to see differences but very slow to push them back to find new grace. We place people in categories, forgetting that this works against what Jesus taught us about how we are to treat others.

And still, even when we are trying to be faithful and sincerely follow Jesus' example, we find it difficult to be grounded in this vision that is larger than ourselves.  We often get it wrong, so we're asking for your help and acknowledging that we need your grace. 

In your kingdom work of restoration, help us to love others for their sake. Help us to move beyond where we are to where we should be. Thank you that you constantly surpass the limits we set on you.

Amen

Responsive Call To Worship - God At Work Is Good News To All

Reader: God is at work in the world,
bringing newness if we have eyes to see it.

People: God, give us understanding;
lead us on your paths.

Reader: Turn our hearts to love;
turn our eyes to truth.

People: The message of Jesus
is good news to all of creation.

Reader: That self-sacrificing, giving
love is open to all.

People: For this overwhelming gift,
we give thanks and sing.

When I Feel Beaten Down and Tired - Ken Gehrels in Network

Life can be lots of struggle, having to strain forward and often wait before there is hope. Sometimes the circumstances of the moment simply are overwhelming. They pull us under and bash us around. 

If you read Psalm 13 you might find it striking that 2/3 of the poem is focused on the struggle. Giving voice to the pain. Expressing the frustration and worry.

They are the words of a beaten down, tired soul longing for an end to the storms and darkness that seem to dominate his life.

Perhaps they are words you are crying, too. Perhaps you know someone for whom you cry this.  “How long, O Lord?”

Only 1/3 – at the end – is about hope. Which is the way so much of life can be. Lots of struggle and having to strain forward and often wait before there is hope. Sometimes the circumstances of the moment simply are overwhelming. They pull us under and bash us around.

I get very impatient with religious circles where it seems everything has to be about neatly combed hair, well-polished smiles and everyone sitting in a nice row in Sunday best; where it’s all about triumph and blessing and happy. So NOT REAL. Nor what God wants.

We are the hands and feet of Jesus that reach out and steady those who are stumbling, hug those that are out of gas, and walk alongside those that are discouraged.

No skimming past the struggles. No hurrying to patch together solutions. No trying to stick a Band-Aid on the wound, or silence the cries. Just being there for each other. The way Jesus was there for people when he was here on earth.

The full article is available here

When The Gospel Becomes A Product - Scott Bessenecker in Sojourner's

If the gospel were only about words, then I suppose it could be wrapped in packaging and sold. But its nature is cosmic and its purveyors are organic. It defies the easy reduction to a sales pitch. 

In our consumerist culture, the good news about God's Kingdom - the invitation to love our enemies, the vision of communities beating their weapons into agricultural implements - has been turned into a product.

An expansive gospel has been reduced to a privatized salvific experience, single-serving sized and commodified.

In the scriptural narrative, I continually see a call for human beings to bring into alignment everything that is bent, to protect the vulnerable, and to contribute to flourishing.  It means we should actively support human flourishing in all its forms wherever we see it.

When the gospel is reduced to a highly individualized and highly privatized experience, we lose the larger picture of God’s plan to make all things new. We see our part in God’s mission exclusively through the lens of producing a convert, not restoring the cosmos.

If the gospel were only about words, then I suppose it could be wrapped in packaging and sold. But its nature is cosmic and its purveyors are organic.

It defies the easy reduction to a sales pitch. If the mission of God is the renewal and reconciliation of all things – people, planet, and powers – then the people of God need to be about the activities of God.

The full article is available here 

Justice Is What Love Looks Like - Cornel West

Not Hiding: Parable Of The Master & Talents - Kayla McClurg in inward/outward

What a mess I make when I see my higher authority, the one who provides, as harsh and demanding. Oh, what weeping and gnashing of teeth I endure when I hide out, when I bury precious parts of myself rather than risk having the whole me be brought to the light.

I think Jesus teaches with stories not to give us answers but to urge us to participate. Stories invite us to interact with him, to ask questions, to challenge and even disagree.

We are not being prepared for a pop quiz on Monday; we are being prepared for our lives.

I notice we tend to interpret parables in the same ways we interpret ourselves. If I am feeling judged or judging, cast out, pretty much a failure where Jesus or any other higher authority is concerned, then I see these in the parable. At other times I see myself as having been entrusted with resources and doing as well as I can with what I’ve been given.

One of the things I see today is what a mess I can get into when I am afraid that I won’t have enough, that I won’t be enough. What a mess, when I see my higher authority, the one who provides, as harsh and demanding. Oh, what weeping and gnashing of teeth I endure when I hide out, when I bury precious parts of myself rather than risk having the whole me be brought to the light.

Maybe with in the parable of the Master and Talents, he hopes beyond hope that we will not continue to be stony-faced listeners.

Maybe he wants us to react and stop accommodating the myth of this kind of master, the master of mammon and harsh punishment who would cast people away. We can stand up and come into our own. Jesus is a new kind of master, and we can be a new kind of servant.

The full article is available here

Benediction: God's Spirit Within and Around Us (based on Galatians 5:22)

May we seek God's Spirit within and around us, so that we become agents of restoration and renewal in God's world; seeking justice and mercy and practicing welcoming love that includes all.

Why Every Christian Needs Doubt - Timothy King in Emergent Voices

Without truly doubting and opening yourself to the possibility that even many of your most deeply held tenets of faith could be wrong or inadequate, questioning will remain a mental exercise that does not reach its potential for personal transformation. 

Not only is questioning important to a well-reasoned faith, but it is core to the development of Christian intellect and character.

Doubt is the fertilizer in the garden of faith. Manure and other biodegrading organic matter can at times be unpleasant as they break down. But it is that process of decomposition that makes fertilizer valuable to the garden; part of the healthy balance.

A growing faith quite likely means that what we think it means to "weigh Christianity in the balance" at one point in life, will not mean the same thing later. And that's a good thing.

Without truly doubting and opening yourself to the possibility that even many of your most deeply held tenets of faith could be wrong or inadequate, questioning will remain a mental exercise that does not reach its potential for personal transformation.

Doubt, I would argue, is that state of change that allows for the questions to continue and faith to grow. And as the husks of beliefs that were wrong, too small, or in other ways insignificant fall aside, they join in the process of fertilizing a more perfect faith through their own decomposition.

Faith is not grown by the removal of doubt but by acting in its presence.

The full article is available here

Resisting a Culture of Fear - Rev. Dr. Eric D. Barreto in Sojourners

Fear will not enable us to tackle the ordinary but destructive arrangements we have created between rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. But hope can transform both. 

The world has always been a scary place. If anything, we have become inured to the greatest threats we might face. With roofs over our heads and weather forecasters to warn us of impending storms and economic structures to cushion us from financial catastrophe, we keep many dangers at bay.

Our current compulsion to call today’s tragedy the worst ever is the arrogance of the present day. We feel that we must be the center of history, the moment when everything changes.  Many a sensationalist preacher has declared the crisis de jour to be a sign of the "end times."  That compulsion is driven by fear not sobriety, by anxiety not hope.

And most troubling may be that all that misdirected energy keeps us from loving our neighbor near and far and addressing the real dangers we face as a people. As we worry about some fantastical fear, the reality of a yawning gap between the wealthy and the poor can seem too ordinary and thus not worthy of our attention.

While we tremble at the prospect of an international war that may well be averted or at the threat of a disease that we have a minute chance of catching, we don’t see the victims of that potential war, that ravaging disease. While we worry about the remotest possibilities, the real, daily cries of our neighbor go unrequited.

Too often, we act as if their lives are worthy of our concern only insofar as their affliction might become my problem. That’s called sin.

The kind of fear that is running rampant among us today is debilitating. But love can conquer that fear. Hope can conquer that fear. Faith can conquer that fear. Fear will not enable us to tackle the ordinary but destructive arrangements we have created between rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. But hope can transform both.

And when fear subsides, our hands have no need to be clenched in apprehension. They can only open to love the neighbor in need.

The full article is available here

Having What We Need: The Parable of The Lamps - Kayla McClurg in inward/outward

I act responsibly about half the time, but expect others to reliably meet my needs the other half. I am five parts filled, and five parts depleted. Having a lamp does not mean I will have enough oil to keep it burning. I might look prepared, but am I really?

In recent passages of scripture in the lectionary, I hear Jesus telling the hypocrite parts of me that I don’t always do what I intend; I set a standard for others that I don’t keep myself; I am not as sincere as I want to seem.  So when Jesus tells this parable about some folks waiting for a bridegroom who has been delayed, I am prepared to see that they, too, might be parts of me. In my long wait for wholeness—my journey to ’10’ you might say—I am found to be equal parts foolish and wise.

I act responsibly about half the time, but expect others to reliably meet my needs the other half. I am five parts filled, and five parts depleted. Having a lamp does not mean I will have enough oil to keep it burning. I might look prepared, but am I really?

All of us run low sometimes. All of us fall asleep. We have perfectly good lamps, capable minds and hearts, but our hope and patience and kindness and forgiveness—the oils that allow us to “shine out loud”—drain away and our spirits darken. The essential oils of all things juicy and creative and alive in us dry up. The eternal flame that burns away the superficial and ignites our compassion grows dim. We cannot be replenished by ourselves. This oil is not a commodity to be purchased. Only you, only I, can plug into the pipeline to be refilled.

We cannot continually resupply what we need.  We simply are not able to give and do and be for each other, or for ourselves, all that is needed all the time.

We can wait together. We can listen for the arrival of love. We can notice each other, and point toward the filling stations. But no one person can be my singular source of hope and creative purpose any more than I alone can be that for anyone else, including myself.

We can only remind each other to get refilled, to return to the wellspring often for replenishment and reconnection with Spirit and/through each other. If we hope to outlast the dark, we will need for all of our lamps, small as they are, bright as they can, to shine.

The full article is available here

Don't Look Down On Me - Listening To Marginalized Voices, CRC Office Of Social Justice

“I’ll ask that the next time you see someone who is different from you, think about what their day is like… And think about what part of their day do you want to be.”

This courageous man who has Achondroplastic Dwarfism was tired of sharing stories about the harassment he experiences in his day-to-day life so he decided to show us instead by filming a day in the life of a person with physical difference. He is not voiceless—but are we listening?




Let us move from compassion to full acceptance as we challenge our perceptions of normalcy.  Read more about the Listen To Marginalized Voices Challenge or the CRC Office Of Social Justice

I Was Hungry & You Fed Me, Even When It Was Illegal - Craig Watts in Red Letter Christians

Those who say feeding those on the streets does not solve the problem of homelessness are right. It doesn't. But it does help solve the problem of hunger. 

Beginning this Friday, October 31st, it is illegal to feed a person on the street in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Many of the people who stood to speak in opposition were from the religious community.

Unfortunately, laws against feeding the homeless are now on the books in 21 US cities.

A recent study by the Urban Ministry Center in Charlotte, North Carolina found that it is less expensive to provide permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless than to deal with homelessness through either callous disregard or by means of punitive approaches.

However, because of the common stereotypes many people hold about the homeless (they choose to be homeless, they don’t want to work, they are dangerous drug addicts, etc.), punitive measures are more popular. Help for the homeless, some claim, just rewards bad behavior and flawed character traits. This sort of thinking has allowed cities to move beyond criminalizing homelessness to criminalizing compassion.

Those who say feeding those on the streets does not solve the problem of homelessness are right. It doesn't. But it does help solve the problem of hunger.

Hungry people are desperate people. They are more likely to commit crimes to get the food they need. By making it much more difficult to feed the homeless, the city leaders harm the homeless, harm those who are compassionate and increase the possibility of real crime in the city.

The full article is available here