I got a call out of the blue the other week from a young woman who I thought must have left town because none of the church's communications with her received any reply. But, she's had a second baby, and, guess what? wants to have the baby baptized.
It was great to see her again after several years and what impressed me in talking to her was her intuitive grasp of some pretty deep theological concepts like grace and providence. Her approach to parenting and family life would benefit so much from being shaped and deepened through Christian community.
She was very wary of any hints about deeper involvement because of family demands and employment uncertainty. But she had this real openness of spirit, and really wanted to talk about the things that matter to her deeply.
I was fighting with myself to resist the temptation to keep on steering the conversation away from her concerns onto the church's needs. I haven't sorted the how-to stuff out in my mind, but I'm becoming more convinced, though, that we have to resist exactly this temptation -- to bring a preset agenda to our interactions with people. Now, she came to the church asking for the church's ministry. But ministry would seem to be establishing a supportive relationship with her and her family, so that they can begin discovering the presence of God in their lives -- and let that be the motivation for church involvement, not vice versa.
We need to help people discern what God is up to in their lives and build on that, rather than starting with the recruitment pitch.
Showing posts with label Passing on the faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Passing on the faith. Show all posts
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Subversive Spirituality
Evan is a boy in my church who celebrated his 9th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Even though his family is far from wealthy, he decided he didn't really need any birthday presents, so he instead he asked his friends to bring money to buy supplies for a school in Nicaragua. Our congregation has been developing a relationship with the Moravian Church in Bluefields, Nicaragua. We had a pastor from there visit with us for two weeks in October.
He expected to collect $150 or so, but word got out to family and he made a little speech at church and within two weeks he had over $1100.
I spend a lot of time and energy fretting because I don't think anybody around here is listening. Obviously, Evan had been listening. And what he heard sank deeply enough into his mind and heart that he did something quite extraordinary for a 9 year old -- forego birthday presents to help others.
I have just been re-reading "The Contemplative Pastor" by Eugene Peterson, and he talks about the "subversive" role of Christian leadership. Peterson describes effective pastoral ministry with these words: "I am undermining the kingdom of the self and establishing the kingdom of God. I am being subversive." This is all done with methods which, in a consumer culture, are widely regarded as pretty ineffective -- listening, talking, pointing to Jesus, worshiping and above all praying. I have often prayed for spiritual renewal in this church, and been disappointed because it didn't sweep through the congregation like wildfire. I was not prepared for that prayer to be answered in the form of a 9 year old boy.
There was a time when Evan's mother was an "affiliate" -- baptized and confirmed, on the membership role, but angry with God and absent from worship for a time. Married in the church, she found her way back. And the fruit of her rediscovery of faith -- well, it has been born in many ways -- but certainly has been born in the commitments of her little boy who simply declined to use his birthday as an occasion to live out a socially conditioned role as a consumer.
In a number of different ways, God has been showing me of late that the most powerful tool in our hands is faithful prayer and a subversive spirit.
He expected to collect $150 or so, but word got out to family and he made a little speech at church and within two weeks he had over $1100.
I spend a lot of time and energy fretting because I don't think anybody around here is listening. Obviously, Evan had been listening. And what he heard sank deeply enough into his mind and heart that he did something quite extraordinary for a 9 year old -- forego birthday presents to help others.
I have just been re-reading "The Contemplative Pastor" by Eugene Peterson, and he talks about the "subversive" role of Christian leadership. Peterson describes effective pastoral ministry with these words: "I am undermining the kingdom of the self and establishing the kingdom of God. I am being subversive." This is all done with methods which, in a consumer culture, are widely regarded as pretty ineffective -- listening, talking, pointing to Jesus, worshiping and above all praying. I have often prayed for spiritual renewal in this church, and been disappointed because it didn't sweep through the congregation like wildfire. I was not prepared for that prayer to be answered in the form of a 9 year old boy.
There was a time when Evan's mother was an "affiliate" -- baptized and confirmed, on the membership role, but angry with God and absent from worship for a time. Married in the church, she found her way back. And the fruit of her rediscovery of faith -- well, it has been born in many ways -- but certainly has been born in the commitments of her little boy who simply declined to use his birthday as an occasion to live out a socially conditioned role as a consumer.
In a number of different ways, God has been showing me of late that the most powerful tool in our hands is faithful prayer and a subversive spirit.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Will our children have faith?
Back after the crazy season.
If you're my age, you might remember that book from the early 80s by Christian education guru John Westerhoff III, Will Our Children Have Faith? I don't remember the book being all that useful, but the question has stuck with me. I guess what's brought it on is having just returned from a week long visit with my 14 month old grandson. His daddy is in seminary, studying for the ministry -- and I really wonder about the future of the church that they will be a part of.
A few other bits of grist for this mill. A while back, I read a short article by Nancy Ammerman in the Canadian version of Touchstone magazine, in which she wondered if Christians (especially the Protestant variety) have not pretty much given up on passing on their story to their children. The Sunday morning worship service with concurrent Sunday School is the norm and that's pretty much all the contact kids have with the church. Jews, Muslims, and other faith communities expect that children will be instructed in their religion outside the main gathering time of the week.
Robert Louis Wilken wrote in the last issue of First Things a perceptive comparison of Christianity and Islam. Islam has always understood itself to be a public religion in the sense that Islamic practice is lived out visibly. In the ideal of the Islamic state, religious practice becomes the cultural and legal norm. Christianity has evolved in a much different way, but, according to Wilken, it now finds itself at a disadvantage in terms of the future because in Europe and North America (excluding parts of the US) it has pretty much disappeared from the public square. Wilken has a particular Roman Catholic slant on things, but he's a wise guy, very learned, and I think he's got a point.
I alternate between days of optimism and days of discouragement and today I'm sliding towards the discouragement end of the scale. Faith is not just assent to a list of beliefs, but the deep imbibing of a narrative, a story, which becomes one's own story only after long exposure. The vast majority of Canadian children have been completely cut off from the Christian story to the point where even the traditional icons of Christmas have little or no meaning to them. And in our churches, we have capitulated to such an extent to aggressively proselytizing Sunday sports and other voracious activities, and have dumbed down our Christian education to accomodate teachers and parents who will make only the briefest commitment of time and effort, and we have abandoned age-old practices like family devotions -- so I really wonder what's going to become of the story in which faith has always taken root and grown.
Anybody out there want to try to cheer me up -- or just commiserate?
If you're my age, you might remember that book from the early 80s by Christian education guru John Westerhoff III, Will Our Children Have Faith? I don't remember the book being all that useful, but the question has stuck with me. I guess what's brought it on is having just returned from a week long visit with my 14 month old grandson. His daddy is in seminary, studying for the ministry -- and I really wonder about the future of the church that they will be a part of.
A few other bits of grist for this mill. A while back, I read a short article by Nancy Ammerman in the Canadian version of Touchstone magazine, in which she wondered if Christians (especially the Protestant variety) have not pretty much given up on passing on their story to their children. The Sunday morning worship service with concurrent Sunday School is the norm and that's pretty much all the contact kids have with the church. Jews, Muslims, and other faith communities expect that children will be instructed in their religion outside the main gathering time of the week.
Robert Louis Wilken wrote in the last issue of First Things a perceptive comparison of Christianity and Islam. Islam has always understood itself to be a public religion in the sense that Islamic practice is lived out visibly. In the ideal of the Islamic state, religious practice becomes the cultural and legal norm. Christianity has evolved in a much different way, but, according to Wilken, it now finds itself at a disadvantage in terms of the future because in Europe and North America (excluding parts of the US) it has pretty much disappeared from the public square. Wilken has a particular Roman Catholic slant on things, but he's a wise guy, very learned, and I think he's got a point.
I alternate between days of optimism and days of discouragement and today I'm sliding towards the discouragement end of the scale. Faith is not just assent to a list of beliefs, but the deep imbibing of a narrative, a story, which becomes one's own story only after long exposure. The vast majority of Canadian children have been completely cut off from the Christian story to the point where even the traditional icons of Christmas have little or no meaning to them. And in our churches, we have capitulated to such an extent to aggressively proselytizing Sunday sports and other voracious activities, and have dumbed down our Christian education to accomodate teachers and parents who will make only the briefest commitment of time and effort, and we have abandoned age-old practices like family devotions -- so I really wonder what's going to become of the story in which faith has always taken root and grown.
Anybody out there want to try to cheer me up -- or just commiserate?
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