As you read this, I’m in San Francisco attending the MCC Large Church Pastors Conference. Yes, as you might imagine, there is plenty of “size matters” double entendre being bandied about. The fact that we’re meeting in MCC San Francisco’s sanctuary in the Castro seems to encourage the jokes, probably because “size matters” is one of the prevalent themes of window displays and advertisements.
Now, you might think I digress in beginning with this description of the conference, but actually, I’m right on task. The point is, size really does matter, especially in churches. Some of you will remember that in the two years before leaving to serve as Elder, Rev. Ken Martin began to work with the Board and other church leaders in the area of church size dynamics. One of the themes of my candidacy week with you included numerous conversations about the congregation’s willingness and my ability to lead us into our “big church” years.
“Big church” is variously defined, but for our purposes, the label means an average weekly worship attendance of 350 or more. Reaching that kind of size has many implications for a church. One of the greatest impacts, as we often talk about, is the changing role of Sr. Pastor. Most noticeably, perhaps, has been our shift from a congregation in which the Sr. Pastor provides the majority of pastoral care to a model in which our 25 Deacons are now trained and supported in providing a great deal of pastoral care for the congregation at large and the Sr. Pastor provides pastoral care for the Deacons. The Sr. Pastor or another member of the pastoral staff also provide care in any situations beyond our Deacons’ training or confidence level.
Last year, I attended the LCP conference a mere 3 weeks after being installed as your pastor. The experience was invaluable in two ways: First, we received excellent training from a member of the Alban Institute staff pertaining to large churches and multi-staff management. Second, the introduction to new colleagues and friends from the denomination’s other large churches opened up a collegial support and information sharing network that I relied on over and over throughout the year.
This time, I’m not quite so green, feel much more comfortable participating in the give and take of ideas and resource sharing, and am (if possible) even more excited about getting back to you and beginning to implement some of the ideas that have been shared or inspired through our sessions.
Size dynamics is such an important area that a great deal of our Elders’ new structural model takes into account the size of churches. Rev. Elder Darlene Garner will still serve MCC Austin as our “care” Elder and will still work with us in areas of connection, communication, and care as well as moderate our Region VI conferences. But beginning in August, Rev. Elder Ken Martin and Rev. Elder Lillie Brock will be working more directly with MCC Austin as they take on the responsibility of providing leadership and resources to the MCC churches that already are or are moving toward the “large church” category.
All jokes aside, I know talk of “big church” and “size dynamics” is not a comfortable or exciting topic for many of you. Some of you have loved MCC Austin for years and your greatest desire is for it to keep that smaller, “we’re a family” feeling. Some of you still aren’t sure that it sits well with you for your pastor not to be the one you count on for all your care concerns. Some of you wonder how much time we have left before being part of MCC Austin starts to feel institutional or impersonal.
Friends, we (I say “we” because we share responsibility for how we grow.) are not going to let that happen. If we do what we’ve dreamed about, talked about, and sung about since Advent and draw the circle wide, we’re going to have a BIG circle with ever more souls on the inside. Whether we continue to feel “at home” and “part of the family” at MCC Austin is up to us. The staff and I will work diligently to provide worship and connection points through ministries and other opportunities. The board will continue to work hard to ensure that we have the financial health and resources to keep improving and adding to our programming and other connection points. And you will keep making sure that MCC Austin feels like home to our faith family as you continue embracing our mission to affirm everyone’s gifts and journeys, connect people with God and each other, and create hope and healing.
I’ll be coming home next week after I enjoy some vacation time with my family, and I promise you I won’t leave my heart in San Francisco. How could I? I left it with you in Austin.
BIG Love and BIG Blessings,
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Bible on Broadway: Seasons of Love
We bring down the curtain on our Broadway series “Redefining Family” this weekend with the music from Rent. I know some of you can’t quite bring yourself to “appreciate” this series and won’t be sad when it’s over, but I for one will miss it when it’s gone. For one thing, I think using the music from Broadway allows us truly to celebrate worship. I love to look out and see you smiling, singing along, tapping your feet, even occasionally shouting out as you did last week. And I love seeing the way the music moves you, not just the rousing anthems, but the ballads, too.
I especially appreciate the way that connecting scripture and our faith stories to the music and stories of Broadway keep us connected not only to each other within our individual faith community, but with a much larger community. Theologian Karl Barth once said, “The Pastor and the Faithful should not deceive themselves into thinking that they are a religious society, which has to do with certain themes; they live in the world. We still need - according to my old formulation - the Bible and the Newspaper."
Now, I know Barth specifically named the newspaper as the source that connects our faith with the “here and the now.” But I think the arts do the same. Great books, plays, poems, paintings, and musical compositions can be vehicles that open us up to spirit, truth, and light. And they don’t have to be OLD to do it. We know in our gut when something is destined to be a classic, when it speaks truth to us in new language. If you think the standard for sacred text is that it be at least 1500 years old and written in a language other than English, try rereading “The Gettysburg Address.” Try listening to the theme from Rent, “Seasons of Love.”
525,600 minutes!
525,000 journeys to plan.
525,600 minutes –
How can you measure The life of a woman or man?In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned, or The way that she died.It’s time now to sing out,
Though the story never ends
Remember the love!
…Measure in love.
Call me sacrilegious, but I’m telling you, if Jesus had had an iPod, this song would have been on his Favorites playlist.
And you can bet he’ll be in church this weekend…and he hopes to see you there.
Love,
I especially appreciate the way that connecting scripture and our faith stories to the music and stories of Broadway keep us connected not only to each other within our individual faith community, but with a much larger community. Theologian Karl Barth once said, “The Pastor and the Faithful should not deceive themselves into thinking that they are a religious society, which has to do with certain themes; they live in the world. We still need - according to my old formulation - the Bible and the Newspaper."
Now, I know Barth specifically named the newspaper as the source that connects our faith with the “here and the now.” But I think the arts do the same. Great books, plays, poems, paintings, and musical compositions can be vehicles that open us up to spirit, truth, and light. And they don’t have to be OLD to do it. We know in our gut when something is destined to be a classic, when it speaks truth to us in new language. If you think the standard for sacred text is that it be at least 1500 years old and written in a language other than English, try rereading “The Gettysburg Address.” Try listening to the theme from Rent, “Seasons of Love.”
525,600 minutes!
525,000 journeys to plan.
525,600 minutes –
How can you measure The life of a woman or man?In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned, or The way that she died.It’s time now to sing out,
Though the story never ends
Remember the love!
…Measure in love.
Call me sacrilegious, but I’m telling you, if Jesus had had an iPod, this song would have been on his Favorites playlist.
And you can bet he’ll be in church this weekend…and he hopes to see you there.
Love,
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Healing of Racism
Last Saturday, a group of 45 ministry leaders, staff, and board members gathered for a six-hour workshop with facilitators from the Houston-based Center for the Healing of Racism. The workshop was made possible by One Love Ministries, MCC Austin's diversity ministry.
CFHR is unique among such organizations in that its emphasis is on healing. The CFHR trainers first educate about racism, then facilitate the process by which people can begin to counter the effects of racism on their lives and become empowered to interrupt the cycle of racist attitudes. We are all hurt by "isms," the trainers stress, whether we are the recipients of oppression or whether we perpetrate oppression on others OR ourselves.
It's not possible, nor is it permissible, for me to delve too deeply into the contents of our day together because the CFHR believes in creating a "relational space" in their workshops in which people can allow themselves to become vulnerable to sharing all the hurt oppression has brought them. Only then, after that personal and communal acknowledgment, can healing begin. But I can share a story from outside the workshop that might help bring into focus for you just how prevalent a hurt and a challenge racism in the U.S. still is.
Staceyann Chin grew up, as the title of her new memoir tells us, on The Other Side of Paradise. She grew up on the impoverished side of Jamaica opposite the beaches and resorts and paradise enjoyed by tourists. That in itself was enough to give Chin a difficult childhood, but to compound that, she was never claimed by her father and was neglected by her mother. And she was gay. To be gay in Jamaica is literally to be in fear for your life-to be verbally and physically abused relentlessly, even to face death at the hands of vigilante groups unhindered by police. Chin made the decision that she would live as an out lesbian, and the only way to guarantee that she would stay alive to do it, was to come to the U.S.
You might assume that with all our anti-LGBT laws and discriminatory practices, the U.S. still offered a much better life for Chin. You would be right. But here is the part of her story that issues a stinging wake-up call. In her own words, Chin found it "almost as problematic to be black in America as to be gay in Jamaica." Call her over- reactive. Divide her assessment by two. Remind me that we now have a black president. It's still appalling.
In closing, I want to answer a question I've been asked several times: "Why address racism in a church setting? There are plenty of other topics more suited to pursuing at church." I think it makes perfect sense that efforts at healing any kind of "ism" begin in the faith community. By beginning in the faith community, we begin with an absolutely necessary ingredient: the desire to love each other as Christ first loved us. Efforts at healing "isms" may find a start and even achieve some momentum within the realm of politics or society at large. But by placing this work in the church, we ground our human efforts in prayer, allow ourselves to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and give our goals over to God who "is still doing great things"!
Always in Hope,
CFHR is unique among such organizations in that its emphasis is on healing. The CFHR trainers first educate about racism, then facilitate the process by which people can begin to counter the effects of racism on their lives and become empowered to interrupt the cycle of racist attitudes. We are all hurt by "isms," the trainers stress, whether we are the recipients of oppression or whether we perpetrate oppression on others OR ourselves.
It's not possible, nor is it permissible, for me to delve too deeply into the contents of our day together because the CFHR believes in creating a "relational space" in their workshops in which people can allow themselves to become vulnerable to sharing all the hurt oppression has brought them. Only then, after that personal and communal acknowledgment, can healing begin. But I can share a story from outside the workshop that might help bring into focus for you just how prevalent a hurt and a challenge racism in the U.S. still is.
Staceyann Chin grew up, as the title of her new memoir tells us, on The Other Side of Paradise. She grew up on the impoverished side of Jamaica opposite the beaches and resorts and paradise enjoyed by tourists. That in itself was enough to give Chin a difficult childhood, but to compound that, she was never claimed by her father and was neglected by her mother. And she was gay. To be gay in Jamaica is literally to be in fear for your life-to be verbally and physically abused relentlessly, even to face death at the hands of vigilante groups unhindered by police. Chin made the decision that she would live as an out lesbian, and the only way to guarantee that she would stay alive to do it, was to come to the U.S.
You might assume that with all our anti-LGBT laws and discriminatory practices, the U.S. still offered a much better life for Chin. You would be right. But here is the part of her story that issues a stinging wake-up call. In her own words, Chin found it "almost as problematic to be black in America as to be gay in Jamaica." Call her over- reactive. Divide her assessment by two. Remind me that we now have a black president. It's still appalling.
In closing, I want to answer a question I've been asked several times: "Why address racism in a church setting? There are plenty of other topics more suited to pursuing at church." I think it makes perfect sense that efforts at healing any kind of "ism" begin in the faith community. By beginning in the faith community, we begin with an absolutely necessary ingredient: the desire to love each other as Christ first loved us. Efforts at healing "isms" may find a start and even achieve some momentum within the realm of politics or society at large. But by placing this work in the church, we ground our human efforts in prayer, allow ourselves to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and give our goals over to God who "is still doing great things"!
Always in Hope,
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Bible on Broadway: Tenderness and Tenacity
This week we'll be exploring "Tenderness and Tenacity," and once again there appears to be a contradiction in the two terms. If you're not sure what I mean, try this. First, call forth images of tenderness... Now, images of tenacity. How many of them were the same?
My guess is not many. The two qualities seem to be at odds with each other. But let's look a little more deeply. Consider the tender love of a father for his child. Then consider the tenacity with which that father will protect the child. Imagine a woman's tender, compassionate love for her aging father. Then imagine the tenacity with which she will combat insurance companies and health care facilities for her father's right to life with dignity.
Often we find ourselves in instances where our path is not a clear and direct one. Often a single, specific approach is not enough to lead us to our destination.
I can think of many examples from our MCC Austin faith story in which we approached things from seemingly contradictory directions. Several of our members, committed to compassionate and supportive community for HIV positive friends and family, pushed hard and long for an HIV support group. Finally, out of this two-pronged approach of sensitivity and stick-to-it-iveness, Positive Perspectives was born.
Another example of the results born of the partnership of tender love and tenacious drive is our Saturday @ 6:24 worship service. Over 5 years ago, a small group of MCC Austin members told Rev. Elder Ken Martin of their desires for an additional worship service. They hoped to offer a different expression of worship that included praise music and personal testimony and prayer time. Their dream grew from a tender place in their hearts, but it became reality through the tenacity of their will and lots of hard work.
This weekend, as we mark the 5th anniversary of our Saturday service, we offer special thanks to those who began it. We are grateful for your faithfulness, for your vision, for your tenderness, and for your tenacity. May God bless you and keep you!
Always in Hope,
My guess is not many. The two qualities seem to be at odds with each other. But let's look a little more deeply. Consider the tender love of a father for his child. Then consider the tenacity with which that father will protect the child. Imagine a woman's tender, compassionate love for her aging father. Then imagine the tenacity with which she will combat insurance companies and health care facilities for her father's right to life with dignity.
Often we find ourselves in instances where our path is not a clear and direct one. Often a single, specific approach is not enough to lead us to our destination.
I can think of many examples from our MCC Austin faith story in which we approached things from seemingly contradictory directions. Several of our members, committed to compassionate and supportive community for HIV positive friends and family, pushed hard and long for an HIV support group. Finally, out of this two-pronged approach of sensitivity and stick-to-it-iveness, Positive Perspectives was born.
Another example of the results born of the partnership of tender love and tenacious drive is our Saturday @ 6:24 worship service. Over 5 years ago, a small group of MCC Austin members told Rev. Elder Ken Martin of their desires for an additional worship service. They hoped to offer a different expression of worship that included praise music and personal testimony and prayer time. Their dream grew from a tender place in their hearts, but it became reality through the tenacity of their will and lots of hard work.
This weekend, as we mark the 5th anniversary of our Saturday service, we offer special thanks to those who began it. We are grateful for your faithfulness, for your vision, for your tenderness, and for your tenacity. May God bless you and keep you!
Always in Hope,
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Bible on Broadway: Redefining Family
It feels like I’ve been working harder than usual this week. I’ve been poring over lyrics, listening to choruses, and watching film adaptations of musicals. Now, for those of you who are wondering if I’ve picked up a second job, the answer is “No.” I’ve been right here, in my office, preparing for our upcoming sermon series, The Bible on Broadway: Redefining Family.
Some of you might be thinking that it sounds like I haven’t been working at all! You’re wondering how you can find a gig that’ll pay you for immersing yourself in the best that Broadway has to offer. Others of you (and I do know who you are) are thinking there’s not enough money in the world to make Broadway appealing to you.
Without divulging the truth about where along that spectrum I lie, let me tell you what I think is important about this observation—that those of you from each extreme and every point in between will come to MCC Austin this month expecting to worship God in a way that offers renewal, rest, joy, forgiveness, and meaning to your life. Whether you can sing every word of Dreamgirls’ ballad “And I Am Telling You,” or you think Rent is only something due on the first of each month, you will come expecting that God will meet you here.
Take me at my word: God will.
And even though most of us would say that that’s enough, the truth is, most of us want more. We want God to meet us here in the manner in which we’re most comfortable, or in the manner we find most appealing. Some of us want God to meet us in jeans and t-shirt, smelling like Grandma’s kitchen, gathering us up in loving arms and assuring us everything is gonna be alright. Some of us prefer that our worship service be like an audience with royalty: we like to see our God as Christ the Victor, wearing robes and crown and ushering in God’s dominion. Some prefer to greet Jesus on a colt, entering triumphantly amidst our shouts of praise and waving arms. Some of us wouldn’t recognize God in any of these forms but can always find God in the swirl of baptismal water or the glow of a candle’s flame or the nuanced rhythm of silence…
As we worship together these next few weeks, I invite you to open yourself fully to the possibilities for meeting God in the words and music and messages of the musical stage. Remember, Broadway may not be your cup of tea, but to others, it’s music to their ears.
Always in Hope,
Some of you might be thinking that it sounds like I haven’t been working at all! You’re wondering how you can find a gig that’ll pay you for immersing yourself in the best that Broadway has to offer. Others of you (and I do know who you are) are thinking there’s not enough money in the world to make Broadway appealing to you.
Without divulging the truth about where along that spectrum I lie, let me tell you what I think is important about this observation—that those of you from each extreme and every point in between will come to MCC Austin this month expecting to worship God in a way that offers renewal, rest, joy, forgiveness, and meaning to your life. Whether you can sing every word of Dreamgirls’ ballad “And I Am Telling You,” or you think Rent is only something due on the first of each month, you will come expecting that God will meet you here.
Take me at my word: God will.
And even though most of us would say that that’s enough, the truth is, most of us want more. We want God to meet us here in the manner in which we’re most comfortable, or in the manner we find most appealing. Some of us want God to meet us in jeans and t-shirt, smelling like Grandma’s kitchen, gathering us up in loving arms and assuring us everything is gonna be alright. Some of us prefer that our worship service be like an audience with royalty: we like to see our God as Christ the Victor, wearing robes and crown and ushering in God’s dominion. Some prefer to greet Jesus on a colt, entering triumphantly amidst our shouts of praise and waving arms. Some of us wouldn’t recognize God in any of these forms but can always find God in the swirl of baptismal water or the glow of a candle’s flame or the nuanced rhythm of silence…
As we worship together these next few weeks, I invite you to open yourself fully to the possibilities for meeting God in the words and music and messages of the musical stage. Remember, Broadway may not be your cup of tea, but to others, it’s music to their ears.
Always in Hope,
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