Relationships

CPA Highlights

Overheard at the Church Planting Academy at Solomon’s Porch:

Just a taste of the first afternoon session.   Presenters Nadia Bolz-Weber (House for All Sinners and Saints, Denver), Nanette Sawyer (Grace Commons, Chicago), and Maggie Mraz (Bull City Vineyard Church, Durham).

 

   
bryberg Bolz-Weber: being a good theologian matters.#CPA2012 -4:12 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
RevAndrewWong “I feel like my denomination made sure I had a top notch theological education and then trusted me with it.”@sarcasticluther #cpa2012 -4:12 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
carlgregg “We’re anti-excellent, pro-participation. We do a lot of crappy stuff, but we do it together.” ~@SarcasticLutheran#CPA2012 -3:36 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
phannon RT @jonestony: Don’t listen to @pastormark or@johnpiper. Women CAN and SHOULD plant churches. #cpa2012 -3:38 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
bryberg Nadia Bolz-Weber: i started a church b/c i wanted a church that i wanted to go to. #CPA2012 -3:45 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
happyemm I love when presenters are open about what they would have done differently. Thank you, @Sarcasticluther 🙂 #cpa2012 -3:44 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
RevAndrewWong Negotiating the difference between being people’s friend and being people’s pastor was really difficult. #cpa2012 -3:44 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
drostad77 Starting a church is kinda like throwing your own birthday each week and hoping people show up. #cpa2012 -3:44 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
markclosson #cpa2012 @Sarcasticluther is doing amazing work as a church planter! #Exponential get the news! Women can plant churches too! -3:43 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
mtoy_live “i was wrong about who would find life in this place. i thought it would be people like me” -nbw #cpa2012 -3:43 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
RevAndrewWong “I really undersold it…you don’t have to commit or do any work. And then that screwed me because they took me up on it.” #cpa2012 -3:41 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
dukedeacon #cpa2012 @Sarcasticluther is speaking the truth -3:41 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
mtoy_live “you don’t have to do any work, just show up … it screwed me, because people took me up on it” -nbw #cpa2012 -3:41 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
phannon Every church planting conference (& preaching conf) should be required to have female speakers. Too many won’t even allow them. #cpa2012 -3:41 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
shawnabowman @gracecommons imbedded in the neighborhood.#cpa2012 -3:12 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
Skypilot917 Peripatetic ministry led to name change to Grace Commons, not a neighborhood name. More freedom and flexibility#cpa2012 -3:11 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
brc_live “Irrepressible optimism that lives could be changed” –@nanettesawyer #trudat #cpa2012 -3:11 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
dukedeacon RT @Sodacracker77: “I come from a mostly mythological group of people people called progressive baptists” – John #CPA2012 -3:10 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
jonestony #CPA2012 is the only church planting conference I’ve ever been to that kicks off with three women church planters.#happy -3:04 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
hopemissional “You treat a person differently when you know their name.” –@MaggieMraz #missional #cpa2012 (via @the_b_c) -3:05 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
dukedeacon #cpa2012 “the most that we’ve done is show up” -3:05 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
dukedeacon #cpa2012 – get a card printed up with your name phone and email and then go out and be the pastor of a church that doesn’t exist yet -3:04 PM May 3rd, 2012

   
dukedeacon Speaker at #cpa2012 : one of our primary rules: if you’re going to be part of this church start, you have to be forgiving -3:04 PM May 3rd, 2012

Are you at the conference?  Love to hear your thoughts, questions, stuff you like or don’t.

Highlights from Funding the Missional Church

Attending a conference in Minneapolis entitled, “Funding the Missional Church”.  It’s been inspiring, challenging and very fun.  Great to meet so many people who are seeking to create unique, engaging communities of Christ followers.

Here’s a few highlights:

   
shawnabowman authority is not the issue, but how you use it. Keel#funding2012 -10:25 AM May 3rd, 2012

   
shawnabowman what if [meeting consumer needs] is not why we gather? Keel #funding2012 -10:21 AM May 3rd, 2012

   
rawlingswright “It’s not so much what we are doing, it’s how are we resourcing people to think differently about their lives” – Tim Keel#funding2012 -10:20 AM May 3rd, 2012

   
rawlingswright “the people who give the most are the least demanding” (generally). a lot of nodding in the room. interesting#funding2012 -10:13 AM May 3rd, 2012

   
nanettesawyer “the progressive surrender of everything we know of ourselves to everything we know of God.” Tim Keel #funding2012 -10:08 AM May 3rd, 2012

   
brie_marie Sad. “excommunication” because of loving people.#funding2012 -9:31 AM May 3rd, 2012

   
rawlingswright hearing about someone possibly losing her ordination for being loving and welcoming of all God’s children is heartbreaking. #funding2012 -9:27 AM May 3rd, 2012

   
seattlerev What are innovative stories of sustainable missional communities that we can share w/ each other? #funding2012 -7:22 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
ireverant @seattlerev I served a missional church that survived b/c of its thrift shop min. Now I’m working on a coffee house-funded min #funding2012 -1:03 AM May 3rd, 2012

   
trans4m “If u don’t have a history of getting people to do crazy stuff, then u probably shouldn’t b starting a church”@SarcasticLuther #funding2012 -4:57 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
carlgregg #Skunkworks: high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy. #funding2012 -4:53 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
carlgregg #Skunkworks: small, loosely structured group who develop a project for sake of radical innovation. #funding2012 -4:53 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
shawnabowman Heads up #chipres this is what we need for church plants: skunkworks money: http://t.co/RCgUSfVl #funding2012 -4:53 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
nanettesawyer “skunkworks” money. Need to look that up.#funding2012 -4:52 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
bryberg @SarcasticLuther – Nadia Bolz-Weber: “I don’t care shit about what you’re imagining – I care about what you’re actually doing.” #Funding2012 -4:51 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
brie_marie @ChrisAgne some of us just ignore the rules…#funding2012 -4:46 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
ChrisAgne To be missional in a denomination, you have to renegotiate the rules. #funding2012 -4:44 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
FBCPaloAlto RT @nanettesawyer: “willing to go thru death and resurrection a lot” at House for All Sinners and Saints.#funding2012 -4:44 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
knightopia @scottrsimmons The big shift is God’s mission is bigger than the Church. The Church is j/privileged to participate.#missional #funding2012 -4:38 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
brie_marie Electronic bill pay only works if your audience has computers and the internet. Must know your audience.#funding2012 -3:06 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
carlgregg @P3T3RK3Y5 I got idea from St. Gregory of Nyssa in SF: “Dialogue completes the sermon.” #SermonTalkback #funding2012-3:06 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
carlgregg @P3T3RK3Y5 Every Sunday, we have ~15 minute sermon, 2 minutes silence, then 15 minute open dialogue. #funding2012 -3:02 PM May 2nd, 2012

   
jonestony RT @carlgregg: Don’t believe people who tell you they don’t need to be thankful. Seriously: THANK THEM. #funding2012 -2:50 PM May 2nd, 2012

That’s just a taste!  Great stuff.  We are wrapping up today and then on to the Church Planters Academy at Solomon’s Porch.

Master and Apprentice

“Always two there are, master and apprentice.” ~ Yoda

On Sunday at Watershed we looked at John 5:19-20 and saw it as a ‘parable of apprenticeship.’  (Wes Howard-Brook)

Jesus watching the Father to see how he acts, and to act likewise in the world.

watching, learning, doing

We noted that throughout history, fathers have taught their sons a particular trade.

NT Wright notes:

“This is becoming more rare today in the Western world, but there are still plenty of places where it is the normal and expected thing for sons to follow fathers into the family business.  And, particularly where the business involves working at a skilled trade with one’s hands, apprenticeship means literally being side by side, with the son watching every move that the father makes and learning to do it in exactly the same way.  That is how many traditional skills are handed down from generation to generation, sometimes over hundreds of years.”

Listen to John 5:19-20 in light of this:

Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.”

NT Wright notes that Jesus is explaining more fully how it is that Israel’s God is working in a new way, and how he, Jesus is watching carefully to see how it’s being done, so as to do it alongside the father and in keeping with his style and plan.

This is exactly what Jesus has said earlier in v.17:  “My father is always at his work to this very day, and I too, am working.”

In my reading this morning at the home of my new Minnesota couchsurfing friends (though I guess I’m the one who’s couchsurfing!), I came across Mark Scandrette’s Practicing the Way of Jesus.  (Apparently he’ll be at the conference later this week).

An appropriate book in light of what we studied together on Sunday.  Here’s a taste from the first chapter:

“In a holistically-oriented culture, skeptical people are less convinced by purely rational arguments about why Christianity is true, and more curious to see whether Christian belief and practice actually make a positive difference in the character of a person’s life.  Knowing the transformational promise of the gospel, it is fair to ask whether a person who claims to have a relationship with Jesus exhibits more peace and less stress, handles crisis with more grace, experiences less fear and anxiety, manifests more joy, is overcoming anger and their addictions or compulsions, enjoys more fulfilling relationships, exercises more compassion, lives more consciously or loves more boldly.  In any culture, but especially in one that yearns for holistic integration, the most compelling argument for the validity of the Christian faith is a community that practices the way of Jesus by seeking a life together in the kingdom of love (John 13:35).

And yet, a tremendous gap exists in our society between the way of radical love embodied and taught by Jesus and the reputation and experience of the average Christian.  We simply aren’t experiencing the kind of whole-person transformation that we instinctively long for (and that a watching world expects to see).

This suggests the need for a renewed understanding of the gospel and more effective approaches to discipleship.  Though our understanding of the gospel is becoming more holistic, our most prevalent formation practices don’t fully account for this.  We can be frustrated by this gap and become critics, or be inspired by a  larger vision of the kingdom and get creative.

I believe what is needed,   in this transitional era, are communities of experimentation — creative spaces where we have permission to ask questions and take risks together to practice the Way.”

If you haven’t read Scandrette’s book – pick up a copy, or borrow a friend’s.  Hoping to get a copy for the Watershed library!

Love to hear thoughts/reactions on what it means for us to be apprentices, disciples, to be those who live in the way of Jesus, and don’t just talk about it.

A Spoonful of Sugar

“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, helps the medicine go down…”

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Tonight we watched Mary Poppins with the kids.

Hadn’t seen it in ages – it’s still a classic.

The storyline is that Mary shows up, dropping out of the sky, as a nanny for two sad and unruly British children, and she is simply magical.

They have adventures you wouldn’t believe if you hadn’t seem them (I recommend another viewing if you haven’t seen it lately).

Great things happen in their lives, and things change for the better.

But the wind changes, too soon it seems, and Mary must go.

The children, sad as they are, realize her time with them is up.

It’s a delightful story, with a hint of sadness at the end because their magical times together are at an end.

Yet the real magic is that she can leave, and that those she touched are now different, and she, too, is different for having been touched in return.

This morning I announced to our community that the wind has changed.

We are being blown east.  Heading from TC to DC.  (more on this later)

It was not an easy thing to share, as the times we’ve had have been magical, and if I hadn’t been here, I’m not sure I would believe it.

I had never expected to compare myself to Mary Poppins, and so I won’t.  The truth is, we were the unruly children, and those in our community were as Poppins to us.  They touched us, and we have been changed.  We hope that in some small way, the touch was returned.

The winds are blowing…  Soon enough we shall head off in another direction.

But the real magic is that we can leave, and, in leaving, know that we all are different for having had the time together, even as new adventures await.

Anyone have some sugar?

I Need the Resurrection

Four echoes of Resurrection hope

Read during Easter worship at Watershed, 2012

I need the Resurrection
*
because my sister is sick
and can’t afford insurance,
because I’ve told a weeping Haitian mom,
“No, I can’t take your son home with me.”
because I’ve been rushed off a Jerusalem street
so the police could blow up a package that could’ve blown up us.
Because I’ve exploded
in rage
and watched their tiny faces cloud with hurt.
because evil is pervasive
and I participate.
I need the Resurrection
because it promises
that in the end
all wrongs are made right.
Death loses.
Hope triumphs.
And Life and
Love
Prevail.

 

I need the Resurrection

because I’m tired and worn
the hours are long, the pay not enough
the second job barely covers the costs
for the kids to eat
the rent to be paid;
because life throws you some pitches
that you just can’t hit.
Because she left, and
I stayed.
Because some days a good cup of coffee
just isn’t enough.
Because I’m tired. . .
I need the Resurrection
because night gives way to morning,
darkness. . . to light
and because one day: all things will be new.



I need the Resurrection

because this life is so wonderful
despite its fragility;
the softness of dew on the morning grass
The house quiet while all are yet asleep
The promise of a new day.
Because each day comes and goes
And so many have now gone too.
I need the Resurrection
because I want one more day
with those who have already
Gone to sleep.
One more hello
One more long afternoon on the front porch
Telling stories

I’ve heard so many times
But long to hear again.
I need the Resurrection
because the story must not end.

I need the Resurrection

Because life has never
been as it should be
for me
or, I guess, for you.
I’ve never seen a rainbow
Or a lily. . .
a mountain, or a tree.
Yet these ideas are more
than just ideas,
and one day, I shall see.
I need the Resurrection
Because I long to touch, and feel, and smell
and wonder over
forever… this
Clean earth… which has been sullied.
One day, renewed.
And one day, as I use my senses
to drink deeply of all that is,
I shall see that Creation
Crowned, with a King.

*first story courtesy of Kara Root, pastor of Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota 

STATION: Lectio

Sacred Reading

History

Lectio Divina is the Latin for ‘Holy Reading’ and was a form and approach to praying with Scripture that was common among medieval religious orders. The value of Lectio Divina was rediscovered in the twentieth century.

Essentially Lectio Divina involves taking a short passage of Scripture and pondering it. This can be done alone or in a group, and normally involves prolonged periods of silence.

 

Instructions

 

Choose a reader.  The reader will read the text through four times, slowly, with a time of silence between each reading.  Allow the words to wash over you.  Be present.  What is God saying to you right here and now?  Open yourself to His Words.

From the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John:

 

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.  Where can you get this living water?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water. . .”

» Previous Station: STILL

Return to: The Monastery Experience

STATION: Groove

breaking out of ruts

Vinyl records are made by cutting grooves or ruts into the vinyl.  The record (at this point called a lacquer) is placed on the cutting machine where electronic signals from the master recording travel to a cutting head, which holds a stylus or needle.  The needle etches a groove into the record that spirals to the center of the circular disc.  The imprinted lacquer is then sent to a production company, where it is coated in metal, such as silver or nickel, to create a metal master.

Our lives also operate in grooves.  We operate a certain way, day after day after day.  Sometimes our grooves — our habits, our ways of being — create beautiful music.  Sometimes our grooves are more like ruts — they create sounds that are less inviting, even harsh.

Lent is a season in which we are invited to break out of the ruts we may have fallen into, by changing up our habits, and acknowledging that our lives, by God’s grace, do not have to fall into ruts that are etched in metal or stone.
We can be changed.

Invitation:
Grab a record, feel its edges, its grooves, its texture.  Imagine the music it creates.  Consider your own present practices:

— what are the grooves that create music?  How can you nourish them?
— what are the ruts that you would like to get out of?  Consider ways you can change your present practices.  What are new grooves you could create?  What space might open up if you change a current habit?

Records

Prayer:
God thank you for this life you given me.
I cherish the music you have allowed me to hear, as well as to create.
Forgive me for the ruts that increase the chaotic noise of the world.
Free me to live into grooves of grace that create beautiful music.
Music that sings of you.
In Christ, Amen.


» Next Station:  STILL

Previous Station:  TABLE

Return to: The Monastery Experience

STATION: Table

take, eat, remember, believe

Thou Shepherd of Israel, and mine
Charles Wesley, 1757

Thou Shepherd of Israel, and mine,
The joy and desire of my heart,
For closer communion I pine,
I long to reside where thou art:
The pasture I languish to find
Where all, who their Shepherd obey,
Are fed, on thy bosom reclined,
And screened from the heat of the day.

Ah! show me that happiest place,
The place of thy people’s abode,
Where saints in an ecstasy gaze,
And hang on a crucified God;
Thy love for a sinner declare,
Thy passion and death on the tree:
My spirit to Calvary bear,
To suffer and triumph with thee.

‘Tis there, with the lambs of thy flock,
There only, I covet to rest,
To lie at the foot of the rock,
Or rise to be hid in thy breast;
‘Tis there I would always abide,
And never a moment depart,
Concealed in the cleft of thy side,
Eternally held in thy heart.

— — —

This is the body of Christ, broken for you.

This is the blood of Christ, shed for you.

Take and eat.



— 



» Next Station: GROOVE

Previous Station: VOX

Return to: The Monastery Experience

STATION: Vox

voices, together

Choose a reader to read the regular type, communal response in bold.

Brigid of Ireland
Brigid is believed to have been the daughter of a pagan Scottish king and a Christian Pictish slave.  Even as a child, she was known to have a generous spirit and a compassionate, tender heart and was drawn to help the poor, the hungry, and the cold.  Eventually Brigid’s father decided she must be married or taken into someone else’s household, because he could no longer afford to keep her (especially in light of her excessive giving to the poor, which he feared would be the ruin of him).  Brigid refused marriage and became a nun with seven other women.  At Kildare, she founded a double monastery for monks and nuns, assisted by a bishop.  The perpetual fire at the monastery became a symbol of its hospitality and constant, undying devotion to God and the poor.

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you
As the day rises to meet the sun.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.  Amen.

Come, let us bow down and bend the knee: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
We are happy to be your children, O Lord: make us happier still to extend the table.

 

Psalm 1:1-3

Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked:
nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful!
Their delight is in the law of the LORD:
and they meditate on his law day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither:
everything they do shall prosper.

 

Reading

Brigid of Ireland said, “I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us.  I would like an abundance of peace.  I would like full vessels of charity.  I would like rich treasures of mercy.  I would like cheerfulness to preside over all.  I would like Jesus to be present.”

We are happy to be your children, O Lord: make us happier still to extend the table.
Prayer:

Lord, help us to welcome every guest as if we were welcoming you, delighting in their presence and ready to learn what good news they bring to us.  Amen.

Blessing:
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you:
wherever he may send you;
May he guide you through the wilderness:
protect you through the storm;
May he bring you home rejoicing:
at the wonders he has shown you;

May he bring you home rejoicing:
once again into our doors.


reading taken from Common Prayer: a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals


» Next Station: TABLE

Previous Station: TREE

Return to: The Monastery Experience

Close