Month: May 2018

Embracing Sabbath

by Abigail Conley

I’m mulling over Sabbath. Maybe it’s the holiday weekend, when much of the country settles in for an extra day off. They pack bags, go camping, grill in backyards and things like that. Some pastors take off this Sunday, too, but for many, a Monday holiday doesn’t mean a long weekend. I’m in the many.

And still, I’m thinking of Sabbath. Here’s my confession: a while back, I stopped intentionally reading the news. My morning routine had long been to slowly wake up, picking up my phone and browsing through headlines in my favorite news apps. I read Al Jazeera English for a broader range of international news. I appreciated the backstories reported in Vox. I gave up HuffPost as it got fluffier and fluffier. I loved the long form stories of The Atlantic. With equal interest, I’d browse The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Economist. The list was long and varied—a nerd wake-up, I suppose.

About this time last year, I stopped doing that. It was Trump, in case you’re wondering. Reading the news under a Trump presidency became toxic, so I stopped for my own sanity and well-being. I’m aware that’s a place of privilege and feel plenty of guilt about that. Of course, I still get a reasonable amount of news. Some of it is sent to my inbox and other pops up in social media. I just stopped pursuing it and gave myself permission to check out of it all together.

I wish I could say it was a carefully thought out and pursued Sabbath. It wasn’t. It was a move of self-preservation. By the time I was making the decision, it was out of a place of pain, anger, and frustration of the damning variety. My soul could not bear it and remain intact.

I suppose I did declare a Sabbath of some sort, knowing that I would return to my previous habits of devouring information. Some day. Eventually. But not now. Not for a while longer.

Part of my job is offering premarital counseling to couples. Most take it seriously and appreciate the work we do together. In the end, much of what we talk about and work toward is intentionality in their relationship. Plan dates. Talk about problems. Set goals. Talk about problems. Say no to things you don’t want to do. Talk about problems. Time and time again, people seem unaware that we actually get to make choices about what we do and how our lives work out in the day to day.

As I consider my own News Sabbath, I am also aware of how easy it is to forget that we have choices. I see people juggling the schedules and the commitments, seeming to forget that they can say no to softball or soccer even if it is good for their kid in some ways. It doesn’t have to be added on top of scouting and school and swim lessons. I see people desperate for some rest. I see people who think they are unable to linger over dinner and conversation. I see all the people who forget that we can choose things that are life-giving and life-sustaining. “Do not worry,” says Jesus. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink.” It has nothing to do with Sabbath, and yet has everything to do with Sabbath. That passage ends with, “Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Maybe it is worry more than anything else that drives us, since that is its own manifestation of control. Sabbath, after all, creates space and reminds us that we are not in control. Rest, weary one, for the world will go on just the same. It’s beautiful and haunting, depending on the person or the day. That’s generally the way the Gospel works.

So keep Sabbath this weekend, dear friends, for that is holy work, too.

This is a test. This is only a test.

by Karen Richter

Is life just one test after another?

Names below have been changed.

Now that my youngest child has hit adolescence, I seem to be harvesting the fruits of telling her since she started school that grades are not important to me. She’s testing my resolve… occasionally deciding that an assignment is not a priority. I’ve mostly stuck to my resolve, reminding both of us that there are more important things in life than 6th grade language arts.

Recently, I confided my struggles to a casual friend, Jenna, and a most interesting conversation ensued. Our tone was lighthearted, but the conversation revealed different ways of relating to life.

KR:  So, I’ve always told my children that learning is very important to me, but grades not so much. Unfortunately, it seems that Molly was listening all this time.

 Jenna:  I have not given Rianne that message… not at all. I tell her that she’s being graded and tested and judged all the time. At school, at home, out in public. You don’t do what you’re told – you’re being graded on that. You have a school assignment – you’re being graded on that. You have an interaction with someone you don’t know at a restaurant – you’re being graded on that. We’re always in every situation being tested.

 Is Jenna right?

Of course she is. Human brains are sorting, difference-measuring, weighing-up machines. Making decisions about people and situations is what we do. It has kept our species alive for many millennia. And we also recognize that we’ve all had experiences when we are told in ways both direct and subtle that we don’t measure up. We’re just not     ___ enough. Not good enough, not smart enough, not handsome enough, not thin enough, not athletic enough, not conforming enough. Our post-modern, hyper individualistic, youth- and wealth-worshiping society doesn’t exactly encourage us to accept ourselves and others just as we are. We do feel as if we are always being tested and being found deficient.

If I had more time in my conversation with Jenna (and if I had been thinking quickly on my feet), I might have said, “Yes, we feel the weight of others’ judgments. But we don’t have to take every opinion with equal weight. We can walk away from expectations and judgments. And more importantly, we need to share with our children the heart-deep conviction that their worth does not depend on the ‘grades’ given by others – EVEN IF those expectations and judgments come from someone they love and respect.”

Also recently, I’m diving deeper into Nonviolent Communication. At the heart of NVC is the idea that every human person has dignity and innate worth and personal agency. Our needs are both important and shared. When we interact in a way that honors human freedom, connections can be made that serve life.

This is an easy connection to my faith. We are called in ways large and small to freedom.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

What does this mean for Molly’s ‘History of Me’ social studies project due this next to last week of school? I don’t know, but I know that she will carry with her this idea that she is of tremendous value NO MATTER WHAT far longer than she will care about her 4th quarter grading report. And for this assurance, no matter how frustrating I occasionally find it, I am grateful.

Finally, what’s an alternative to Jenna’s worldview? How can we relate to the way life is, if not as a gigantic classroom with high-stakes testing? Maybe life is a garden where those planted can simply grow. Maybe Mary was more right than we thought… when she thought Jesus was the gardener (John 20).

Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love: we confess that often we don’t know how to relate to our own freedom or the freedom of others. We confess that sometimes our interactions with our fellow creatures don’t serve this freedom. Help us – open our eyes. We so want to live in grace and abundance. Guard in our hearts this vision of open futures and faith-filled garden paths. We pray in faith and gratitude. Amen.

A Rushing Wind From Heaven: Pentecost Activity Ideas for Children and Intergenerational Groups

by Karen Richter

I love Pentecost! The story of Pentecost Acts chapter 2 is full of exciting, energizing images and symbols that can make a meaningful formation experience for children of all ages and for multi-age, intergenerational groups. Here are some ideas for your faith community!

  1. Wear red! Eat a red snack! Talk about the liturgical colors for different seasons.
    Colors of the Church Year:
  2. Collect red scarves or make finger-knitted red scarves. How to finger knit
  3. Build a “campfire.” People in Jesus’ time knew the power of fire – to warm homes, to cook food, to destroy. Build a safe inside campfire with a camping lantern, crepe paper and construction paper and a fire ring made of classroom blocks. Tell stories around the fire! Here’s a fire we made earlier this year. A Rushing Wind From Heaven by Karen Richter, Southwest Conference Blog, United Church of Christ
  4. Language exploration: Invite people in your congregation to share snippets of other languages. Explore and discuss: what languages do you hear around you? Take note of the languages people speak in your school or community. When people don’t speak the same language, what are some ways we can communicate? Can we learn different ways to say “welcome?”
  5. Make kites or windsocks.
  6. Experience the power of wind… when air is warmed it MOVES! Stretch a small balloon over a water bottle. Watch the balloon inflate when you place the bottle in a bowl of hot water. How do we move when we are warmed by love?
  7. Paper airplanes!
  8. Song Writing: It’s birthday of the Church… a large multi-age group might have a lyrics context for a new birthday song. You may want to have an idea list of some familiar tunes to pair with new Pentecost words.
  9. Sharing a snack or bread. In Acts 2: 42-47, we learn more about the early church, how they broke bread together every day.
  10. Speaking up! Think about the strength in Peter’s words in verses 17-20 of Acts 2. Kids can take turns using their “outside voice” and talking about when to use a strong voice to speak out.
  11. Visions and dreams: provide a large piece of butcher paper or bulletin board background paper. Groups can share their visions and dreams from verse 17. For a multi-week activity, turn this art and the group’s ideas into a banner or other art project.
  12. What does church look like? For an older elementary or youth group, use a laptop and Google image search to compile a collage of churches in different contexts. Maybe begin in Jerusalem and move out in all directions.
  13. Art Form Conversation: Print some decent color copies of Pentecost art (thank you again, Google image search!). Strive for a fully participative discussion of art using the Focused Conversation methodology (also called Art Form Conversation). Begin always with Observation before moving on to emotions and meanings. Focused Conversation Basics
  14. DIY Godly Play: use wooden peg figures or Lego minifigs and classroom materials to re-create the Pentecost scene. You might have these materials on hand to spark creativity: felt sheets and yarn (clothes and such), crepe paper or tissue paper, wooden or cardboard blocks, small bowl and water (for tiny baptisms!), chenille stems. Peg people
    Perfection is not the goal… Here are my Palm Sunday peg people. Their palms are weeds from my yard: A Rushing Wind From Pentecost by Karen Richter, Southwest Conference Blog, United Church of Christ

Let Pentecost be a Sunday for your community during which the Spirit breaks loose and sets fire to your imagination! Have fun with this wonderful liturgical holiday. If you use any of these ideas, share your experience. I can’t wait to hear those Pentecost / Happy Birthday words to Yellow Submarine or see your paper airplanes and windsocks.

Blessings on your Easter season and Pentecost.

 

 

 

Launching A New Church

by Ryan Gear

My wife and I are in the very early stages of planting a new church in the East Valley of Phoenix. We’re probably 9-12 months away from launching weekly worship services, so we’re prayerfully dreaming up what kind of church this will be. We planted a church six years ago and turned the leadership of it over to my successor who is doing a fantastic job of pastoring the church to continued growth of 175 in weekly worship. Now, we’re reimagining how we can start a new church that can reach some of the 1.5 million people who call the East Valley home.

Because church planting is a vital endeavor for any denomination or any congregation that wants to multiply, I thought I would share a quick overview of the process we used before and will use again to plant a new congregation. I did not invent this process, by any means. In fact, it is a collection of ideas from Adam Hamilton, Rick Warren, Nelson Searcy, Jim Griffith, and many other church planters and has been used countless times by church planters of every denomination or lack thereof.

Visioning Phase

Before you start telling people you’re starting a new church, you have to know what to tell them. In my experience, the most important task of any church planter is to answer these three questions that I first read in Adam Hamilton’s Leading Beyond the Walls:

  1. Why do people need Jesus?
  2. Why do people need the Church?
  3. Why do people in your community need this new church?

Your answers to these three questions will determine what kind of a church you’re planting and why you’re planting it. These questions will also reveal to everyone you meet whether this new church is needed in your community or not. The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) are perfect places to start, but your three answers will be specific to your theology, calling, personality, experiences, ability, hopes and dreams, etc.

In my humble opinion, the most powerful thing you can offer your mission field is to plant a church that is somehow different from the other churches in your area. If the new church is the same as the other churches in your area then, frankly, a new church may not be needed. It is differentiation that will fuel your congregation to growth and sustainability. How will this new church be different from the other churches in your area?

Gathering Phase

The usual goal of church planting is to attempt to get to 200 people in weekly attendance as quickly as possible, either by the Launch or soon after. Even when you know what kind of church you’re planting and why, when a planter is first starting, gathering 200 people to be part of a new church can seem like an insurmountable task. As the saying goes, however, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

The first step to gathering people is to go public and say out loud to the world, “I am starting a new church.” Create a website, a Facebook page, and Instagram account for the new church, and start telling everyone you know that you’re starting it. Purchase Google Adwords to get your website noticed by people searching for a church in your area. Tell everyone you know your 30-second elevator pitch based on your answers to the three questions. Yes, some people will be indifferent, and some will not want to be part of it… but some will. That’s the first step.

There are many creative ways to gather people. You can meet with interested people one-on-one, host info parties, host felt-need classes in your home, join the Chamber of Commerce, volunteer and meet new people, go door-to-door, phone bank, create social media videos, etc.

As you gather people, you will be inviting them to serve on the Launch Team made up of the people who will accomplish tasks needed to start a new church— a worship leader and worship band, a kids ministry leader and teachers, a hospitality ministry team, an audio/video team, a portable church set-up and take-down team, etc. It can take 30-50 volunteers just to staff a fully functioning worship service. The Launch Team is a not a core group or a small church. It is a ministry team created with the sole task of getting to weekly worship services. Once weekly worship services begin, the Launch Team will disband.

Preview Service Phase

Once you have 20 or more people on your Launch Team and enough equipment and signage to give attendees a good idea of what your weekly worship services will be like, you can begin monthly preview services. Nelson Searcy recommends having six monthly preview services in the same facility you will use for weekly worship, likely a school, theater, or an existing church’s building. You challenge your current Launch Team to invite their friends and family, and then begin promoting that first monthly preview service at least a month in advance.

Your goal is to have more people at every monthly preview service and then to invite those new folks to join your Launch Team in the needed volunteer positions. With every preview service, your attendance grows, your Launch Team grows, and you and the Launch Team invite more people. Repeat.

Launch Phase

 After six monthly preview services, it’s time to go weekly. This is the Launch of the church. Treat it the way a new store treats a grand opening. Put signs all over your city. Make it an event. This is your one chance at a first impression.

However, there is one extremely critical caveat. The new church must have critical mass in order to launch weekly worship. Critical mass is the number of people in your worship service required for the perception that the church is healthy and exciting. In the U.S, critical mass seems to be somewhere between 75-100 adults. Less than 75 adults will cause people to silently wonder why there aren’t more people there, it’s tough to recruit volunteers, and ultimately it is a momentum killer. Your goal is to build attendance through your gathering phase and monthly preview services so that you will have attained critical mass by your first weekly service or before. If you can launch with 200 people or more, even better.

Post-Launch Phase

After launching weekly worship, Sunday has a way of coming around every seven days. Before you launch, you will want to have prepared some sermon series, or a bank of sermons if you use the lectionary. You don’t want to be staring at a blank screen on Thursday nights wondering what you will preach about on Sunday. There are lots of resources available for great preaching.

In addition, you will want to continue being an outreach-focused church and use the same formula that you used to build the Launch Team. When you have new people, recruit them to serve in the church. They will, in turn, invite new people, then recruit them. Repeat.

To close the back door of the church and disciple the people who connect, start a small group ministry, have monthly or quarterly fellowship events, and help people develop lifelong friendships within the new church. While people usually come to a new church for the sermons and music, they stay because of friendships.

You did it! You launched a church. Now, you have the call and privilege of doing your absolute best to lead the kind of church that will live out your answers to the three questions.

Additional Resources

If you are interested in church planting, three resources I would highly recommend are Adam Hamilton’s Leading Beyond the Walls, Nelson Searcy’s Launch: Starting A New Church from Scratch, and Jim Griffith’s Ten Common Mistakes Made by Church Starts.