Whenever I invite people to worship with us, I always make sure they know they have three opportunities each weekend. My invitation goes something like this: “We have three worship services each weekend, and we’d love to have you join us for one or all of them! On Saturday night at 6:24, we have “comfortable church” with music from our 6:24 Band. On Sunday morning at 9:00 and at 11:00 we have…” Right about here in the invitation my mouth and mind go their separate ways. My mouth says something like “a more traditional service with a choir and worship leaders wearing vestments.” My mind, on the other hand, is still hung up on my invitation to “comfortable church” and the vague worry that some people might assume that Sunday morning is “uncomfortable church.”
I mean, if you make a point of using a particular label or description like “comfortable” for certain services, then it’s reasonable for people to assume that other services are not that certain thing, right?
Is anyone still reading?
If you are, and you’re not totally confused, you’ll find this next part simple to follow…
This Sunday our worship services will be slightly different in their order and emphasis. Now, many of you won’t notice any real change at all, but others of you will realize that our emphasis is on “healing” and that we’re offering time and space and intention for the Spirit to move in healing ways. Ordinarily, I’d describe it to you as a “healing service” and move on. But this week, I want to make sure that I don’t leave room for any misunderstanding: Even though the Worship Team has created a “healing service” for this week, it is NOT unlike every other worship service we share together. Whether we acknowledge and lift up God’s healing presence every time we gather or not, we definitely receive it.
Often, we don’t even know the healing that others have experienced while praying, singing, worshiping…. And of course, it doesn’t stop with worship. We’re often unaware of the healing that God has worked in people’s lives, but we can be sure it is happening constantly. God knits broken hearts together, and they’re not “as good as new.” They’re better than ever! They are bigger—at least 2 sizes!—and more ready to give and receive and nurture love. God soothes exhausted spirits and offers everyone the invitation to “Come unto me and rest.” God offers hope in the face of impossibility and peace in the midst of chaos.
Come and worship with us this weekend. I don’t promise you anything new, different, or exciting. Just the same ol’ same ol’: healing, wholeness, peace, hope, joy, acceptance, affirmation….
Ahhhhhh. Thank God.
Love and Blessings,
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
I.O.U.
So many of you have asked about the poem that I shared last Sunday that I have included it for you here. It was written by Dr. Bertha Munro, academic dean at Eastern Nazarene College from 1923 to 1957.
I.O.U.
I owe you respect for your personality. You too are that climax of God's creation, made in His likeness. I owe you a right to your opinion. You may differ with me without fear that I shall raise a barrier between us if we do not see eye to eye. We can disagree and still be friends.
I owe you belief in your integrity. Since I do, I shall put the best possible construction on your actions. I shall trust your words and deeds, even those I am unable to understand.
I owe you honest treatment; I shall not steal people's good opinion of you. I shall voice the sort of comment on you and your actions that I should wish made on me.
I owe you a "taking off place." Though I value your friendship, I shall not enslave your spirit nor bind you so closely to me that you will lose the wealth of other friendships, or even fail to develop your own best potentialities.
I owe you thoughtful consideration. I will not steal your time when you are evidently busy, just because I have free time to "kill."
I owe you honest wages if I chance to be employer, honest work if I chance to be employed, honest measure and just weight in any case.
I owe you special help in time of special need: my hand, my ear, my voice. I owe you patience with what seems to me your stupidity or slowness. I owe you the identification of Golden Rule imagination. I owe you "love unfeigned."
I owe it to you not to push you down in order to lift myself. Rather, I owe it to you to see you forge ahead of me without any reaction of envy or jealousy- even to give you a push. I owe you a good example, a Christian testimony. I owe you the gospel of Christ to the limit I possess it. I owe it to you to prove its power to the full, that God may challenge and encourage you by the sight of what He has done for someone else.
All this I owe you, and much more. I owe it to you not to fall behind with my payments. I shall always owe the abounding love that will meet those unforeseen and unexpected demands of the emergency and will save me from "Thou shalt" and "I must."
Owe no one anything, but to love."
May your life be filled with true friends and with the constant assurance that Jesus has called you friend.
Love and Blessings,
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friendship Sunday
This weekend we're celebrating our friendships at MCC Austin. On Saturday night, you can invite your friends to enjoy live music by our special guest, world class guitarist Vicki Genfan. On Sunday, we'll share music that lifts up friendships, give thanks for our friends, and explore what the Gospels might teach us about friendship. I encourage you to bring one or two or even five or six of your good friends with you!
Many of us find it difficult to invite friends or acquaintances to church. With our friends, we may know that they already attend another church, and so we might hesitate to invite them to our church because it may seem like illegal recruiting. Or perhaps we know that our friends embrace a spirituality that is not necessarily in full lock-step with what they will find at our progressive Christian church. With acquaintances, we sometimes feel that we don't know people well enough to know what they might like. I think there can also be a fear that if we invite someone to church, they might misconstrue our meaning, message, or motivation. We're used to wearing our Ls, Gs, Bs, and Ts with PRIDE--especially after last week--but truly, who wants to be a P for proselytizer?
For this week, I ask you to come at this invitation thing from a different angle. This week I ask you to think about what being a part of MCC Austin means to you. Are you inspired by worship? Do you love the music? Do you feel at home here, welcomed by your faith family? Do you like the values your children are learning here? Do you find that MCC Austin offers you sacred space in which you can encounter the Holy? When you leave here, are you inspired by the Spirit to share peace, hope, love, joy, and compassion with others?
If any of these things are true for you, if MCC Austin is a gift to you, then give it away! We so often will tell a friend about a new product we like, recommend a doctor or therapist, or tell them they must see a certain movie or read our latest favorite book. Well, it can be just that simple and unencumbered to invite people to church.
This week, I hope we fill the sanctuary at all three services with our friends. The friends we bring this week may never return or they may become members themselves, but don't worry about that. Just think about how glorious it will be to worship the God you love, surrounded by a community you love, with your best friends thrown in for good measure.
Blessings,
Many of us find it difficult to invite friends or acquaintances to church. With our friends, we may know that they already attend another church, and so we might hesitate to invite them to our church because it may seem like illegal recruiting. Or perhaps we know that our friends embrace a spirituality that is not necessarily in full lock-step with what they will find at our progressive Christian church. With acquaintances, we sometimes feel that we don't know people well enough to know what they might like. I think there can also be a fear that if we invite someone to church, they might misconstrue our meaning, message, or motivation. We're used to wearing our Ls, Gs, Bs, and Ts with PRIDE--especially after last week--but truly, who wants to be a P for proselytizer?
For this week, I ask you to come at this invitation thing from a different angle. This week I ask you to think about what being a part of MCC Austin means to you. Are you inspired by worship? Do you love the music? Do you feel at home here, welcomed by your faith family? Do you like the values your children are learning here? Do you find that MCC Austin offers you sacred space in which you can encounter the Holy? When you leave here, are you inspired by the Spirit to share peace, hope, love, joy, and compassion with others?
If any of these things are true for you, if MCC Austin is a gift to you, then give it away! We so often will tell a friend about a new product we like, recommend a doctor or therapist, or tell them they must see a certain movie or read our latest favorite book. Well, it can be just that simple and unencumbered to invite people to church.
This week, I hope we fill the sanctuary at all three services with our friends. The friends we bring this week may never return or they may become members themselves, but don't worry about that. Just think about how glorious it will be to worship the God you love, surrounded by a community you love, with your best friends thrown in for good measure.
Blessings,
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Pride 2009
Happy PRIDE! I hope you're planning to join MCC Austin as we participate in the week's activities. Specifically, I hope you'll worship with us at the PRIDE Multifaith service on Thursday, June 4, at 7:00 at University Baptist. Our own Jeff Lutes, Executive Director of Soulforce, will be the featured speaker. A combined MCC Austin choir will sing and several of our members and staff have helped plan and will help lead the service. On Saturday afternoon, from 4:00 to 8:00, we will be hosting a booth at the PRIDE festival. We'd love to see you there. (Please note there will be NO Saturday @ 6:24 service this Saturday.)
Shortly after the festival booths close, we will be walking in the PRIDE parade. You're welcome to cheer from the sidelines of the parade route as the 6:24 Band "floats" by or put on your walking shoes and come walk along with us. Wouldn't it be wonderful if a couple hundred of us invited parade goers to visit our Church Without Walls?
And finally, we will celebrate PRIDE together on Sunday at worship. Now, I don't want to give it all away, but I will tell you that we're going to have a wonderful time sharing our stories with each other. As I told you last Sunday, I finally did myself the huge favor of reading Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. Here's what Kidd tells us about stories through the words of Lily, the book's narrator:
One thing I was starting to understand was that August loved to tell a good story.
"Really, it's good for all of us to hear it again," she said. "Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here."
Come and worship with us this weekend as we remember who we are and why we're here!
Love, Peace, and PRIDE,
Shortly after the festival booths close, we will be walking in the PRIDE parade. You're welcome to cheer from the sidelines of the parade route as the 6:24 Band "floats" by or put on your walking shoes and come walk along with us. Wouldn't it be wonderful if a couple hundred of us invited parade goers to visit our Church Without Walls?
And finally, we will celebrate PRIDE together on Sunday at worship. Now, I don't want to give it all away, but I will tell you that we're going to have a wonderful time sharing our stories with each other. As I told you last Sunday, I finally did myself the huge favor of reading Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. Here's what Kidd tells us about stories through the words of Lily, the book's narrator:
One thing I was starting to understand was that August loved to tell a good story.
"Really, it's good for all of us to hear it again," she said. "Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here."
Come and worship with us this weekend as we remember who we are and why we're here!
Love, Peace, and PRIDE,
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