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So now the marathon begins.
I work some part of every evening until next Sunday. Of course one of those evenings is a staff party, and it's not at my house, so maybe that's not work. But I'm out of the house for 7 evenings.
Tonight I gave the 'oration' at a lodge. I've never been in a lodge before. This lodge is the type that has antlers. They were very nice to me. It was a little service, about the memories of the members no longer with us so I adapted a funeral sermon. They told me they once had 700 members and now have 100. Only about 10 members were there, from what I could tell. Like many organizations (including the church) they have lost the next two generations, their children and grandchildren.
Preached the final lesson on Stewardship. The fun part was preaching on Luke 2:8-19 - the angel's song to the shepherds - and doing that outside of the usual pressures about it being 'CHRISTMAS EVE.'
And it was a busy day all around. The youth hosted coffee hour (stewardship asked them to do that - but I think it should become a tradition - it was good for the youth and the takers of hospitality as well). There was a silent auction and a cookie walk.
I taught my section of 'what's so amazing about grace' with a pretty good crowd. Christine Amapour's book & special 'Cry Bloody Murder' came up. It sounds like an astonishing, but difficult subject. Rwandan forgiveness, among other things, was, as my friend Sue said - so hard to get our heads around.
It felt like a lively church - we don't always get that when everyone scatters out of different doors. My prayer is that God blesses others with enthusiasm and hope for this community of faith.
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Showing posts with label stewardship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stewardship. Show all posts
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
stewardship and stuff
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Working on a stewardship message for the newsletters that will go out at the end of November. Yes, we work well ahead of it.
This post here at A Church for Starving Artists (on Trinity & Community) caught my attention. I wish we had that kind of expansion of ministry going on. It is what should be going on - a way to catch the Spirit and create places for the Spirit to work in community.
I come from a tradition where Worship - the community at Worship - has been considered THE big event, the core, the significant time. Because of that my tradition has been slow to understand the power of small groups, of interpersonal relationshps and the intensive but somehow light touch of true personal discipling. We may seen these things happening, we may have personally experienced them, but we don't have ways to incorporate those practices into our Church Life very well.
We are still blocked by the centrality of Word and Sacrament - and define that as THE preaching and THE Sunday community meal.
If I were asked why this is so - in truth, I think it is because we are tired. Most pastors I know, seem tired, even if they won't admit it. Many of my laity are tired, too tired to engage in our community. And I think our theology is tired - not wrong, not outdated, and certainly not false or anything like that - just tired and unhappily stuck to that 1950s model of being church.
This impacts with stewardship - here we are, by necessity, asking for money and commitment, but we are tired and don't really know what we are commiting to. And those other arenas for growth - for what JanE called community in Trinity - are not developing as they should.
It would be stewardship to:
Each one of those bullet points has so much behind it. So much history, personalities, hurts, social pressure and community issues.
Back to the 'stewardship' message. It's interesting to veer away and come back, because I never know were I'm going to end up.
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Working on a stewardship message for the newsletters that will go out at the end of November. Yes, we work well ahead of it.
This post here at A Church for Starving Artists (on Trinity & Community) caught my attention. I wish we had that kind of expansion of ministry going on. It is what should be going on - a way to catch the Spirit and create places for the Spirit to work in community.
I come from a tradition where Worship - the community at Worship - has been considered THE big event, the core, the significant time. Because of that my tradition has been slow to understand the power of small groups, of interpersonal relationshps and the intensive but somehow light touch of true personal discipling. We may seen these things happening, we may have personally experienced them, but we don't have ways to incorporate those practices into our Church Life very well.
We are still blocked by the centrality of Word and Sacrament - and define that as THE preaching and THE Sunday community meal.
If I were asked why this is so - in truth, I think it is because we are tired. Most pastors I know, seem tired, even if they won't admit it. Many of my laity are tired, too tired to engage in our community. And I think our theology is tired - not wrong, not outdated, and certainly not false or anything like that - just tired and unhappily stuck to that 1950s model of being church.
This impacts with stewardship - here we are, by necessity, asking for money and commitment, but we are tired and don't really know what we are commiting to. And those other arenas for growth - for what JanE called community in Trinity - are not developing as they should.
It would be stewardship to:
- admit we are still healing
- conceive of healing things to do together as individuals in community
- Open the notion of greater connection as a good thing
- Ask what folks desire (and listen to the little heard voices)
- Discuss the shift from maintenance (do we really need airconditioning) to mission (how is God working in this place)
- Reflect on what leadership is about here
Each one of those bullet points has so much behind it. So much history, personalities, hurts, social pressure and community issues.
Back to the 'stewardship' message. It's interesting to veer away and come back, because I never know were I'm going to end up.
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