Well, it's June. June in Illinois is a lot different from June in New Jersey. In Illinois, school is out. Kids are looking forward to May because graduation is in May. The school work ends in May. June is all summer. In New Jersey, graduations are in June. Finals are in June. School ends in June. The last week of June is summer is the first full month of summer is actually July. Of course school has ended for me in May since starting college, but I still have that mentality that summer doesn't really start until the public schools let out in June.
I don't actually like summer. I know, weird, right? I appreciated time off from school, but I'm not a fan of heat. I am a fan of swimming and I plan on doing a lot of swimming this summer.
And applying lots of sun screen. Lots and lots and lots of sunscreen.
But I have other goals this summer. I'm about a week away from my ten-month anniversary of being in this church and as I start looking two months ahead to my yearly review, I'm setting some summer goals to get me there.
1) Read more. I didn't do a whole lot of reading this past year even though I bought a ton of books. I think part of it had to do with the culture shock of not having to read. In seminary, you're given a reading list that increases the amount of paper you own exponentially. And I can't remember any week of seminary where I got every single word read that I was supposed to read. So getting out of seminary it was like, "Wait...I don't have to have anything read by this weekend!" Over the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to read more. I even bought a kindle this past week. The kindle serves two purposes: first, I can upload sermons and worship plans to it so I'm hoping to save the church a lot of paper. Second, I can put multiple books on one source and not bring a library home with me when I go on vacation. And oh won't it be awesome on the plane!
But I do want to read more. And I want to read things about topics I don't usually read about. Currently I'm working through two books. I'm reading "They Like Jesus But Not the Church" by Dan Kimball, which is a look at why emerging generations (twenty-somethings) love Jesus but cringe when you ask them what they think about the church. As a pastor who falls into that age group, it's an interesting read. The other book I'm reading is very much outside of what I consider my "reading culture norm." It's called "Acts of Faith: The story of an American Muslim, the struggle for the soul of a generation" by Eboo Patel and it's about his work striving for a culture that embraces interfaith relations. I don't have a whole lot of interaction with people outside the Christian faith. I'm in what Dan Kimball calls in his book the "Christian bubble." Which leads me to my second goal.
2) To make more friends outside of the church. It took me 10 months, but I'm starting to get to the point where I'm hungry for something outside of my apartment and outside of my church. I'm not even necessarily looking for Christian friends or "churchy" friends. I want to go to concerts and hang out with people who aren't going to ask me about things coming up at the church. I have a couple of friends from the church who treat me more like a friend and less like a pastor and I love that, but I'm hungry for more community within the community, or even in the city across the river.
3) Use my gym membership. The thing about a year-long contract at a gym is that you're stuck paying for it whether you utlitize it or not. As gas tips over the $4 range (again! ugh.) it seems like it makes sense to use what I pay for. And since the temperatures outside are not going to be very forgiving this year -- though I will be in the pool a lot! -- I plan on going to the gym a couple times a week to make up for it. Besides: I can make friends at the gym who aren't connected to my church.
4) Pray more. I've been doing a little soul searching and the fact of the matter is, I don't have much of a prayer life. I admit that freely to you as a pastor. I pray in church when we pray corporately and occassionally I'll mention a few things to God in passing, but I don't really have a disciplined spiritual life. So this summer I'm going to spend a lot of time working on my own spiritual health so I'm better equipped to guide the spiritual health of my church. It was nice to be at the retreat center and do the labyrinth, but what does spiritual health for me look like now that I'm back in my routine (albeit a summer routine)? That's the kind of self-exploration I'm doing this summer.
In January, I told you my New Year's Resolution was to live more simply. I think I've been doing that in some ways. No, I'm not taking shorter showers, but I'm being a lot more cautious about spending. I'm shopping less. I'm simplifying my schedule and taking more time out for myself. But I haven't, by any means, broken any glass ceilings. There's always room for more simplification (is that even a word?). Hopefully by working towards my four summer goals, the result is that I put more effort into working towards my ultimate New Year's goal.
What are you hoping for this summer? Do you have a reading list or a vacation list? Does it feel like you're already tired of summer because you know all you'll be doing is running around from one activity to another? Do you need to do a "faith check in" to see how, six months into the year, you're faring in your relationship with God this year?
I wish you all the best and most of all, I wish you peace.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
Friday, June 3, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
IDK
IDK is blogspeak for "I don't know."
I don't know.
You don't know.
Neither pastors nor laypersons know.
No one knows. And here's why:
"Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (Matthew 25:13)
As a pastor (and a Christian) I've been getting a lot of questions lately regarding "Doomsday." It's interesting. When I was driving back from New Jersey to Illinois, I saw a bunch of billboards proclaiming May 21st to be the end of the world. Or at least the rapture. The real "end of the world" is in October after we've had five months of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Some people really bought into this to the point where they were emptying out bank accounts and either a) giving all their money away or b) spending all their money on lavish vacations because why not? The world is going to end soon. And May 22 rolled around. Low and behold, those people are still here. The tremendous earth quakes did not swallow us whole (although a volcano did erupt in Iceland).
But here we are on May 22 and we're still here. Sure, people left piles of clothes on their lawns as a way to make fun of those who really believed the world was going to come to an end yesterday. There's a part of me that wonders if all the people who really bought into it yesterday realized they were still here and decided that meant they were not chosen. Now we all have to suffer together. Is this damaging to faith? What if you really bought into doomsday on 5/21/11? Do you stop believing in God because no one came to gather up the believers?
I certainly hope not, and my heart goes out to the group that bought into this because I can't even imagine what's going through their heads right now.
And we will be having this same conversation a year from now when we start getting closer to December 2012.
So people have been turning to me and asking me what I think about the whole thing. Do I believe in the rapture? Absolutely. Scripture tells us that Jesus will come and gather up His believers. Our bridegroom will arrive, but here's the kicker: We don't know the day or the time.
Jesus says keep awake! because you don't know when He's coming. The rapture could happen tomorrow. It could happen three minutes from now. It could happen three centuries or three milenia from now. We just don't know. We can't calculate. People try to calculate it, and they take great leaps and bounds to make their equations give them an exact date and time. But Jesus tells us not to worry about what comes next because whatever happens, God is going to take care of us. God knows the day and the time and that's all we need to know. Anything else we claim to know is just our way of playing God which is what got us kicked out of Eden in the first place.
Keep awake. I'm all for evangelism telling people to believe that Christ saved them and recognize how Christ is active in their lives and hearts. But to tell people that there is a deadline is just foolishness. Of course there's a deadline, but we will never never never be able to predict for sure when that is.
So what do I think about this whole thing? I think we put much stock in equations. We want to know what happens, want to know when, want to know when our bodily expiration dates happen to be. You know something, though? I don't want to know. I just hope that if I'm still alive when the end of the world gets here, I'm not alone. I want to be with someone I love. And hopefully when that end comes, I'm not left behind.
Hopefully you aren't either. But don't get caught up in a whirlwind of propoganda from people claiming to have all the answers because they are just as subject to God's ambiguity as the rest of us. I worry about enough things on a daily basis; I'll leave the worrying about the end of the world to God. That's his department and one less thing I have to be responsible for.
I don't know.
You don't know.
Neither pastors nor laypersons know.
No one knows. And here's why:
"Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (Matthew 25:13)
As a pastor (and a Christian) I've been getting a lot of questions lately regarding "Doomsday." It's interesting. When I was driving back from New Jersey to Illinois, I saw a bunch of billboards proclaiming May 21st to be the end of the world. Or at least the rapture. The real "end of the world" is in October after we've had five months of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Some people really bought into this to the point where they were emptying out bank accounts and either a) giving all their money away or b) spending all their money on lavish vacations because why not? The world is going to end soon. And May 22 rolled around. Low and behold, those people are still here. The tremendous earth quakes did not swallow us whole (although a volcano did erupt in Iceland).
But here we are on May 22 and we're still here. Sure, people left piles of clothes on their lawns as a way to make fun of those who really believed the world was going to come to an end yesterday. There's a part of me that wonders if all the people who really bought into it yesterday realized they were still here and decided that meant they were not chosen. Now we all have to suffer together. Is this damaging to faith? What if you really bought into doomsday on 5/21/11? Do you stop believing in God because no one came to gather up the believers?
I certainly hope not, and my heart goes out to the group that bought into this because I can't even imagine what's going through their heads right now.
And we will be having this same conversation a year from now when we start getting closer to December 2012.
So people have been turning to me and asking me what I think about the whole thing. Do I believe in the rapture? Absolutely. Scripture tells us that Jesus will come and gather up His believers. Our bridegroom will arrive, but here's the kicker: We don't know the day or the time.
Jesus says keep awake! because you don't know when He's coming. The rapture could happen tomorrow. It could happen three minutes from now. It could happen three centuries or three milenia from now. We just don't know. We can't calculate. People try to calculate it, and they take great leaps and bounds to make their equations give them an exact date and time. But Jesus tells us not to worry about what comes next because whatever happens, God is going to take care of us. God knows the day and the time and that's all we need to know. Anything else we claim to know is just our way of playing God which is what got us kicked out of Eden in the first place.
Keep awake. I'm all for evangelism telling people to believe that Christ saved them and recognize how Christ is active in their lives and hearts. But to tell people that there is a deadline is just foolishness. Of course there's a deadline, but we will never never never be able to predict for sure when that is.
So what do I think about this whole thing? I think we put much stock in equations. We want to know what happens, want to know when, want to know when our bodily expiration dates happen to be. You know something, though? I don't want to know. I just hope that if I'm still alive when the end of the world gets here, I'm not alone. I want to be with someone I love. And hopefully when that end comes, I'm not left behind.
Hopefully you aren't either. But don't get caught up in a whirlwind of propoganda from people claiming to have all the answers because they are just as subject to God's ambiguity as the rest of us. I worry about enough things on a daily basis; I'll leave the worrying about the end of the world to God. That's his department and one less thing I have to be responsible for.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
As the Deer
I had a really cool experience this morning that I wanted to share with you.
I'm currently in Rochester Indiana at the Geneva Center participating in a new pastor seminar sponsored by my synod. It's been a good time for reflection, I've reconnected with some friends from seminary, and made some new friends.
This morning I got up and showered at 6:30 (which is really 5:30 for me because I'm visiting the Eastern Time Zone where it's an hour ahead from what I'm now used to) and I went outside to walk the camp's outdoor labyrinth. Stretched out in one row, the camp director said the labyrinth is about a mile long, so as you can imagine, it was a good, long walk. I've walked a lot of labyrinths over the years, but nothing compared to this experience.
The ground in which the labyrinth was laid is sand. At first I thought wearing flip flops to do this was a poor idea because it's not soft sand: it's gravely sand. I was going to go back in and change my shoes, but decided sneakers would be worse because all the gravely sand would get stuck in my sneakers. So I stayed in flipflops and it was easy to kick the sand out from the shoe. As I was making loops and processing in my mind all the things that have been weighing down my heart lately, I noticed something I've never seen while I'm doing a labyrinth before: I noticed my footprints in the sand. Seeing my footprints and paying attention to the ground made for an interesting thought process as I considered the journey and emotional rollar coaster that is ministry. I saw my footprints from where I've been in my journey on the labyrinth and thought about where I've come over the last 9 months since starting at this church in Illinois. Interestingly, watching my own footprints led me to see footprints of others who had walked the labyrinth, including quite a few deer tracks.
Part of the labyrinth wound around a group of evergreen trees and the sand was blanketed by a bed of pine needles. Walking on the needles was much softer than the gravely sand and actually made for an easier walk. But I couldn't see my footprints (do we spend a lot of time reflecting on the parts of the journey that are easy or do we focus on the parts that were difficult so we can either a) dwell on them or b) learn from them?). Also, since the path wound around trees, there were times when the trees were actually directly in my path and I had to change my course and walk around them (what roadblocks do we run into on our journeys that make us change our couses? are they comfortable roadblocks or do we tense up with anxiety over them?).
Whenever I noticed myself wondering how much more of the labyrinth I had to walk, I intentionally stopped walking and closed my eyes to listen to the early morning birds. I spend too much time worrying about getting to the next thing; it does me a world of good to make deliberate pauses to remind me that ministry means my time is God's time, not my own.
After about 45 minutes, I came to the center of the labyrinth where there were six large boulders that you can sit on. So I sat down with some kind of preconceived notion over what I was going to think or pray about. I had only been sitting still for about thirty seconds before I heard a rustle behind me. I slowly turned my head around to face the woods and these three deer came walking out of the bushes. They walked very slowly and deliberately, keeping their ears perked up and their eyes directly focused on me. After about a minute of just staring at each other, they started to lower their heads and graze.
Then it got interesting.
The biggest deer (not a buck...at least not one with antlers) started to come closer to me. He or she would snort and then stomp a hoof. Then she/he'd bow his/her head and snort and stomp again with the other foot. I've never heard a deer snort before. Then the deer walked over the first row of the labyrinth. Now this deer is about forty feet from me. He stepped closer and got as close as thirty feet. I sat perfectly still, not moving to get the hair out of my face that the wind blew, not even moving to get rid of the mosquito that was setting to work on my ankle (ughhh...so itchy now!). We stared at each other for a while until the deer scampered back to the others. He did it again a few minutes later and this continued for about fifteen minutes: I sat on the rock and then grazed while watching me closely and coming in and out of the first ring of the labyrinth. Finally, they disappeared back into the woods.
I've never been that close to wild deer before. It was an amazing experience not just to be in the presence of these animals, but to be....that....still. For me to be that still is an achievement all by itself. My usual prayer in the labyrinth is "Dear God, stop me so you can move me." And in that experience this morning, God really stopped me and for about fifteen minutes the world was silent and empty except for those deer and me. I truly felt the Spirit in those fifteen minutes.
I'm not going to walk the labyrinth again while I'm here because I know I will go to the labyrinth with the expectation of the experience being repeated. It's not a good idea to go before God with preconceptions, so I want to treasure the experience I had this morning. It was really beautiful and I saw the experience of the labyrinth in a way I've never seen it before.
I encourage you to think about your own journeys. How is God calling you to be still before Him? Where is God calling you to be? Where have you come from that has gotten you to where you are? If you have an opportunity to walk a labyrinth, take it. If not, find a quite walking route that doesn't have a lot of noise pollution and just walk with God. Pay attention to your journey and think about all your footprints whether you can see them or not.
The interesting thing about seeing my footsteps in the sand was that I can see where I've been, but I can't retrace them. That's not how the labyrinth is set up. That is your theological fodder for the day.
Wishing you the peace of Christ,
Pastor Becki
I'm currently in Rochester Indiana at the Geneva Center participating in a new pastor seminar sponsored by my synod. It's been a good time for reflection, I've reconnected with some friends from seminary, and made some new friends.
This morning I got up and showered at 6:30 (which is really 5:30 for me because I'm visiting the Eastern Time Zone where it's an hour ahead from what I'm now used to) and I went outside to walk the camp's outdoor labyrinth. Stretched out in one row, the camp director said the labyrinth is about a mile long, so as you can imagine, it was a good, long walk. I've walked a lot of labyrinths over the years, but nothing compared to this experience.
The ground in which the labyrinth was laid is sand. At first I thought wearing flip flops to do this was a poor idea because it's not soft sand: it's gravely sand. I was going to go back in and change my shoes, but decided sneakers would be worse because all the gravely sand would get stuck in my sneakers. So I stayed in flipflops and it was easy to kick the sand out from the shoe. As I was making loops and processing in my mind all the things that have been weighing down my heart lately, I noticed something I've never seen while I'm doing a labyrinth before: I noticed my footprints in the sand. Seeing my footprints and paying attention to the ground made for an interesting thought process as I considered the journey and emotional rollar coaster that is ministry. I saw my footprints from where I've been in my journey on the labyrinth and thought about where I've come over the last 9 months since starting at this church in Illinois. Interestingly, watching my own footprints led me to see footprints of others who had walked the labyrinth, including quite a few deer tracks.
Part of the labyrinth wound around a group of evergreen trees and the sand was blanketed by a bed of pine needles. Walking on the needles was much softer than the gravely sand and actually made for an easier walk. But I couldn't see my footprints (do we spend a lot of time reflecting on the parts of the journey that are easy or do we focus on the parts that were difficult so we can either a) dwell on them or b) learn from them?). Also, since the path wound around trees, there were times when the trees were actually directly in my path and I had to change my course and walk around them (what roadblocks do we run into on our journeys that make us change our couses? are they comfortable roadblocks or do we tense up with anxiety over them?).
Whenever I noticed myself wondering how much more of the labyrinth I had to walk, I intentionally stopped walking and closed my eyes to listen to the early morning birds. I spend too much time worrying about getting to the next thing; it does me a world of good to make deliberate pauses to remind me that ministry means my time is God's time, not my own.
After about 45 minutes, I came to the center of the labyrinth where there were six large boulders that you can sit on. So I sat down with some kind of preconceived notion over what I was going to think or pray about. I had only been sitting still for about thirty seconds before I heard a rustle behind me. I slowly turned my head around to face the woods and these three deer came walking out of the bushes. They walked very slowly and deliberately, keeping their ears perked up and their eyes directly focused on me. After about a minute of just staring at each other, they started to lower their heads and graze.
Then it got interesting.
The biggest deer (not a buck...at least not one with antlers) started to come closer to me. He or she would snort and then stomp a hoof. Then she/he'd bow his/her head and snort and stomp again with the other foot. I've never heard a deer snort before. Then the deer walked over the first row of the labyrinth. Now this deer is about forty feet from me. He stepped closer and got as close as thirty feet. I sat perfectly still, not moving to get the hair out of my face that the wind blew, not even moving to get rid of the mosquito that was setting to work on my ankle (ughhh...so itchy now!). We stared at each other for a while until the deer scampered back to the others. He did it again a few minutes later and this continued for about fifteen minutes: I sat on the rock and then grazed while watching me closely and coming in and out of the first ring of the labyrinth. Finally, they disappeared back into the woods.
I've never been that close to wild deer before. It was an amazing experience not just to be in the presence of these animals, but to be....that....still. For me to be that still is an achievement all by itself. My usual prayer in the labyrinth is "Dear God, stop me so you can move me." And in that experience this morning, God really stopped me and for about fifteen minutes the world was silent and empty except for those deer and me. I truly felt the Spirit in those fifteen minutes.
I'm not going to walk the labyrinth again while I'm here because I know I will go to the labyrinth with the expectation of the experience being repeated. It's not a good idea to go before God with preconceptions, so I want to treasure the experience I had this morning. It was really beautiful and I saw the experience of the labyrinth in a way I've never seen it before.
I encourage you to think about your own journeys. How is God calling you to be still before Him? Where is God calling you to be? Where have you come from that has gotten you to where you are? If you have an opportunity to walk a labyrinth, take it. If not, find a quite walking route that doesn't have a lot of noise pollution and just walk with God. Pay attention to your journey and think about all your footprints whether you can see them or not.
The interesting thing about seeing my footsteps in the sand was that I can see where I've been, but I can't retrace them. That's not how the labyrinth is set up. That is your theological fodder for the day.
Wishing you the peace of Christ,
Pastor Becki
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Study Leave: Day Four
Yesterday was the last day of workshops. Tomorrow I drive back to Illinois. I'm feeling somewhat energized about bringing back to my church all the things I took out of the seminars. The nice thing about doing this kind of forum in the spring time when tomorrow is the last day of Sunday school is that I now have the rest of the summer to pull together some kind of youth task force to talk about plans for the middle and high schoolers come fall. I also am excited about the new additions for my library!
Yesterday I only had one workshop and it was called, "Pracademia," led by Jason Santos. Jason was actually one of my preceptors when I was in seminary and the workshop was geared towards encouraging us as participants to do some soul searching within a faith group to find a sense of truth in that space between the academic and the practitioner. In other words, how do we maintain a student-and-pastor mentality instead of student or pastor. And he emphasized the hyphens, which really illustrated his point. This is something that actually really spoke to me yesterday since I've been living in this transition between being a seminary graduate and a new pastor. The faith group that Jason mentioned consists of a couple of people who are outside of the school and church but are part of a circle of trust, creating a safe space for exploration of how the Holy Spirit works in our individual lives.
It's about integration.
Jason encouraged us to face our monsters. He said, "Our monsters are not our enemies. Our monsters are our guides to the depths of our souls. They will lead us to our deepest fears, which is where we will also find wholeness." As pastors, we bring a certain degree of baggage into the pulpit. Some pastors bring more than others. For me -- and my congregation knows this -- my baggage coming into the new church was the fact that everything for me was so unbelievably new and everything last summer happened so quickly. There wasn't really time for me to really think about what being a seminary graduate meant, although in retrospect that might be a good thing. I entered ministry with a lot of homesickness, and maybe even a bit of resentment towards God for making following his directions mean that I had to move 900 miles away from everyone I knew. I've started a new life, though certain aspects of my old life are still an active part of my new existence. My task has been to find that new norm, that new space to integrate the new ordained Rebecca Weltmann with the previous versions of my self. As Jason pointed out, it's not about ceasing to be whoever I was before graduation and figuring out who the new me is, but about figuring out how the Spirit has led me and helped me to grow in addition to my identity before graduation. Who I am now is made possible only by who I was in seminary.
And to be honest, not much has changed. I've been slowly figuring out new norms. My long distance relationship has been challenging, but also rewarding. Skype makes the world a little bit smaller, which helps tremendously. My family has been so supportive and we stay in touch as reguarly as we can. I'm assimilating into my new environment by making friends and getting involved in social activities like going to work out at the gym and going out places with friends. So how have things been going? In reflection about where I started and where I am now with my congregation, things are going really well.
I'm feeling inspired to take back what I've learned in the seminars and bring them into my own ministry. This is still a part of that transitional space Jason talked about. What does it mean to integrate the material into my own church context? That will be my reflection time for the next couple of months as we look to revamp our Christian ed program.
One of Jason's closing thoughts was, "It's not about what we know as individuals; it's about what we know as a community." As we look towards the future and the ways we can grow as a community, I find myself excited and inspired to seek out the ways to put legs on these theories. The great thing about these seminars was that even though the focus was on how it relates to youth ministry, the materials are things that I can use in a myriad of ways all over my ministry. I can't wait to get back to Illinois and carry this momentum along with me.
Yours in the Peace of Christ,
Pastor Becki
Yesterday I only had one workshop and it was called, "Pracademia," led by Jason Santos. Jason was actually one of my preceptors when I was in seminary and the workshop was geared towards encouraging us as participants to do some soul searching within a faith group to find a sense of truth in that space between the academic and the practitioner. In other words, how do we maintain a student-and-pastor mentality instead of student or pastor. And he emphasized the hyphens, which really illustrated his point. This is something that actually really spoke to me yesterday since I've been living in this transition between being a seminary graduate and a new pastor. The faith group that Jason mentioned consists of a couple of people who are outside of the school and church but are part of a circle of trust, creating a safe space for exploration of how the Holy Spirit works in our individual lives.
It's about integration.
Jason encouraged us to face our monsters. He said, "Our monsters are not our enemies. Our monsters are our guides to the depths of our souls. They will lead us to our deepest fears, which is where we will also find wholeness." As pastors, we bring a certain degree of baggage into the pulpit. Some pastors bring more than others. For me -- and my congregation knows this -- my baggage coming into the new church was the fact that everything for me was so unbelievably new and everything last summer happened so quickly. There wasn't really time for me to really think about what being a seminary graduate meant, although in retrospect that might be a good thing. I entered ministry with a lot of homesickness, and maybe even a bit of resentment towards God for making following his directions mean that I had to move 900 miles away from everyone I knew. I've started a new life, though certain aspects of my old life are still an active part of my new existence. My task has been to find that new norm, that new space to integrate the new ordained Rebecca Weltmann with the previous versions of my self. As Jason pointed out, it's not about ceasing to be whoever I was before graduation and figuring out who the new me is, but about figuring out how the Spirit has led me and helped me to grow in addition to my identity before graduation. Who I am now is made possible only by who I was in seminary.
And to be honest, not much has changed. I've been slowly figuring out new norms. My long distance relationship has been challenging, but also rewarding. Skype makes the world a little bit smaller, which helps tremendously. My family has been so supportive and we stay in touch as reguarly as we can. I'm assimilating into my new environment by making friends and getting involved in social activities like going to work out at the gym and going out places with friends. So how have things been going? In reflection about where I started and where I am now with my congregation, things are going really well.
I'm feeling inspired to take back what I've learned in the seminars and bring them into my own ministry. This is still a part of that transitional space Jason talked about. What does it mean to integrate the material into my own church context? That will be my reflection time for the next couple of months as we look to revamp our Christian ed program.
One of Jason's closing thoughts was, "It's not about what we know as individuals; it's about what we know as a community." As we look towards the future and the ways we can grow as a community, I find myself excited and inspired to seek out the ways to put legs on these theories. The great thing about these seminars was that even though the focus was on how it relates to youth ministry, the materials are things that I can use in a myriad of ways all over my ministry. I can't wait to get back to Illinois and carry this momentum along with me.
Yours in the Peace of Christ,
Pastor Becki
Friday, April 29, 2011
Study Leave: Day Three
Yesterday was a busy day, filled with three workshops and one lecture by Eboo Patel who is the founder of Interfaith Youth Core. IFYC is an organization dedicated to focusing on how interfaith groups can work together for the common good of communities around the world. It was actually quite appropriate considering one of the workshops I attended yesterday had to deal with doing youth ministry in a religiously diverse world, led by IFYC worker Cassie Meyer.
This was probably my most thought-provoking workshop yesterday simply because I'm not sure how religiously diverse my church's town actually is. I couldn't tell you how much interaction with interfaith groups my youth actually encounter. My town in central Illinois is very small. As I've mentioned in other posts, we not only have a national day of prayer held downtown on the square, but the mayor encourages and supports (and places!) a large nativity scene on the downtown square for Christmas. I know there is an Islamic Center in the city over the river, but on our side of the river I'm not sure we're all that diverse. I tried to check the US Census for my town, not recalling at the time that the census is prohibited from asking questions about religion. I found the prohibition to be interesting. What would be the purpose for refraining from asking about such affiliation? The census wants to know every other little intimate detail about us, right down to our racial and economic status. We ought to be proud of our religious affiliations (or non-religious affiliations) and ready to record that as necessary. Instead, we have to share our economic status, no matter how shameful that feels sometimes.
So I've been thinking about how to get my youth involved in an interfaith dialogue. The Sunday school program at my church ends on May 1, but I'm thinking maybe with the 10th anniversary of 9-11 quickly approaching on the horizon, it might not be a bad idea to invite interfaith dialogue in our church communities. As I mentioned, the Islamic Center is right across the river, so I wonder how it would be received if I invited someone from that organization to come and do a service project with us in the interest of promoting interfaith relations.
I say do a service project because this was the suggestion in the seminar. The focus of the IFYC is to hone in on the common good for our communities. This can lead to conversation, but the foundation that the IFYC is interested in creating is an atmosphere for relationship. They work off three basic principles:
1) respect: respect for religious and non-religious identities
2) relationships: mutually inspiring relationships (you love me, I love you)
3) common action: common action for the common good.
What would this look like in our community? How do we bridge the social capital in a way that we can have interfaith relationships without being concerned about converting each other?
Someone in the seminar said this might be a great place to let the youth lead, and I think this is true. This generation is much more familiar with interfaith relations because the schools are so much more diverse than they were in the last generation or the generation before that. Immigration has opened up amazing pathways into interfaith dialogue, though sometimes we don't see it that way for a whole host of reasons. After attending the seminar, I feel encouraged to sit down with my youth and talk about their interaction with interfaith groups and see how relevant this kind of conversation would really be. I have a feeling my town might be more diverse than I think it is (especially given that I've only been their nine months).
The other two seminars I attended yesterday were "Beyond Bathrobes" -- looking at how to incorporate drama into creatively interpreting scripture or prayer in worship or youth group events -- and "Church Systems" -- looking at the various systems that go on in our churches. While I thought Church Systems was the most interesting, the seminar on youth ministry amongst religious diversity was the most thought-provoking.
I am truly enjoying my time at the seminar and I'm looking forward to my final day of workshops today.
This was probably my most thought-provoking workshop yesterday simply because I'm not sure how religiously diverse my church's town actually is. I couldn't tell you how much interaction with interfaith groups my youth actually encounter. My town in central Illinois is very small. As I've mentioned in other posts, we not only have a national day of prayer held downtown on the square, but the mayor encourages and supports (and places!) a large nativity scene on the downtown square for Christmas. I know there is an Islamic Center in the city over the river, but on our side of the river I'm not sure we're all that diverse. I tried to check the US Census for my town, not recalling at the time that the census is prohibited from asking questions about religion. I found the prohibition to be interesting. What would be the purpose for refraining from asking about such affiliation? The census wants to know every other little intimate detail about us, right down to our racial and economic status. We ought to be proud of our religious affiliations (or non-religious affiliations) and ready to record that as necessary. Instead, we have to share our economic status, no matter how shameful that feels sometimes.
So I've been thinking about how to get my youth involved in an interfaith dialogue. The Sunday school program at my church ends on May 1, but I'm thinking maybe with the 10th anniversary of 9-11 quickly approaching on the horizon, it might not be a bad idea to invite interfaith dialogue in our church communities. As I mentioned, the Islamic Center is right across the river, so I wonder how it would be received if I invited someone from that organization to come and do a service project with us in the interest of promoting interfaith relations.
I say do a service project because this was the suggestion in the seminar. The focus of the IFYC is to hone in on the common good for our communities. This can lead to conversation, but the foundation that the IFYC is interested in creating is an atmosphere for relationship. They work off three basic principles:
1) respect: respect for religious and non-religious identities
2) relationships: mutually inspiring relationships (you love me, I love you)
3) common action: common action for the common good.
What would this look like in our community? How do we bridge the social capital in a way that we can have interfaith relationships without being concerned about converting each other?
Someone in the seminar said this might be a great place to let the youth lead, and I think this is true. This generation is much more familiar with interfaith relations because the schools are so much more diverse than they were in the last generation or the generation before that. Immigration has opened up amazing pathways into interfaith dialogue, though sometimes we don't see it that way for a whole host of reasons. After attending the seminar, I feel encouraged to sit down with my youth and talk about their interaction with interfaith groups and see how relevant this kind of conversation would really be. I have a feeling my town might be more diverse than I think it is (especially given that I've only been their nine months).
The other two seminars I attended yesterday were "Beyond Bathrobes" -- looking at how to incorporate drama into creatively interpreting scripture or prayer in worship or youth group events -- and "Church Systems" -- looking at the various systems that go on in our churches. While I thought Church Systems was the most interesting, the seminar on youth ministry amongst religious diversity was the most thought-provoking.
I am truly enjoying my time at the seminar and I'm looking forward to my final day of workshops today.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Study Leave: Day Two
Yesterday I went to a workshop called, "Creativity and the Body of Christ." Essentially, the seminar looked at the importance of creating the worship space as a place that generates creation. The speaker, Matthew Schultz, asked the question, "Are our kids absorbing or engaging?"
He pointed out that from an early age, we (kids and adults included) are trained to absorb information. We teach them how to fill in bubbles on a scantron, but there's little proof that scantrons help prepare people for problem solving. Even in church, there comes a point where if the worship space is not fostering creativity, the worship platform is just another platform to have people absorb information. I remember reading at one point (and I can't remember where for the life of me) that worship ought not to be about how we change worship but how worship changes us. What are the ways in your own worship life that you feel inspired to be creative?
As a pastor, I hear people say, "Oh I'm not that creative" or "I'm not creative at all." The speaker yesterday pointed out that as Christians, we have a long history of creative people in scripture going before us from God creating the world to charging the human race with being creative and naming the animals to Job and David who were poets and song-writers, to Jesus who spoke in parables and encouraged his disciples to go out into the world as story tellers, and so there is a long history of creativity being an intergal part of the human experience. I think everyone has the capacity to be creative in some way if they give themselves permission to be.
Mr. Schultz used a great line yesterday. He said, speaking about creativity in the church, "It's not a wall to smash but a garden to water." We shouldn't be looking at how we can create our worship spaces to foster creativity as a wall we have to knock down between the ones who say "need" traditional liturgy every Sunday and those who want a more "contemporary" worship style. Is there a way within our congregations to marry the two without going to a second service?
In the church where I'm working, we're looking at the possibility of moving to a second service that will most likely take place Saturday nights. The hope is that an evening service will draw open the pathways for more young families with kids to feel welcomed into the church. I've been around long enough to know that for most people, because of sports and other commitments, church has lost its place as high priority in many people's lives. In the race between kid's sports, golf, and family events, church will almost always come second. I don't say that to sound negative, I say that because I know it from experience to be true. It is especially true in the spring and summer months when the weather is finally juuuust right. The comment I get about moving to having a second service is that people want us all to be worshipping in one space at one time because that's how we get to know each other. People want one service because it means the church will not grow beyond what they consider to be a "comfortable capacity."
We're not looking to become a megachurch. We're not looking to have so many members that we're unable to minister to them all and we're not looking to break any records. My session has ideally, they would just like numbers to be up where they were several years ago. I think we can do it, but we need to think outside the box about getting the younger families -- especially families with kids and youth -- involved. How can we create that spirit of creativity to encourage others to cultivate their own spirit of creativity?
It's about conversation. What are people hungry for at church and how can we invite them to make the presence known? Not "how can we count them when they sign the friendship pads" and not "how can we get them all to pay their per capita" but how can we invite them to make their presence known so they know they have a voice in the life of the church? We do this through conversation. I'm really big on communication and I believe that the majority of negative drama happens in the church as a direct result of a lack of communication. I want to know in what ways the people of my congregation are being fed and in what ways they are left with a bit of hunger.
What are the ways that our worship spaces already invites the spirit of creativity? What things can we try to increase the ways we invite a spirit of creativity? We are called to proclaim the Word in an ever-changing world. We should create an atmosphere of creativity because we are called to be creators in ways we might not even expect. As beings created in the image of God, we are created in the image with the capacity for creativty. How can we break the spell over those who do not believe they are creative? I think this would be a great conversation in whatever church we attend.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
He pointed out that from an early age, we (kids and adults included) are trained to absorb information. We teach them how to fill in bubbles on a scantron, but there's little proof that scantrons help prepare people for problem solving. Even in church, there comes a point where if the worship space is not fostering creativity, the worship platform is just another platform to have people absorb information. I remember reading at one point (and I can't remember where for the life of me) that worship ought not to be about how we change worship but how worship changes us. What are the ways in your own worship life that you feel inspired to be creative?
As a pastor, I hear people say, "Oh I'm not that creative" or "I'm not creative at all." The speaker yesterday pointed out that as Christians, we have a long history of creative people in scripture going before us from God creating the world to charging the human race with being creative and naming the animals to Job and David who were poets and song-writers, to Jesus who spoke in parables and encouraged his disciples to go out into the world as story tellers, and so there is a long history of creativity being an intergal part of the human experience. I think everyone has the capacity to be creative in some way if they give themselves permission to be.
Mr. Schultz used a great line yesterday. He said, speaking about creativity in the church, "It's not a wall to smash but a garden to water." We shouldn't be looking at how we can create our worship spaces to foster creativity as a wall we have to knock down between the ones who say "need" traditional liturgy every Sunday and those who want a more "contemporary" worship style. Is there a way within our congregations to marry the two without going to a second service?
In the church where I'm working, we're looking at the possibility of moving to a second service that will most likely take place Saturday nights. The hope is that an evening service will draw open the pathways for more young families with kids to feel welcomed into the church. I've been around long enough to know that for most people, because of sports and other commitments, church has lost its place as high priority in many people's lives. In the race between kid's sports, golf, and family events, church will almost always come second. I don't say that to sound negative, I say that because I know it from experience to be true. It is especially true in the spring and summer months when the weather is finally juuuust right. The comment I get about moving to having a second service is that people want us all to be worshipping in one space at one time because that's how we get to know each other. People want one service because it means the church will not grow beyond what they consider to be a "comfortable capacity."
We're not looking to become a megachurch. We're not looking to have so many members that we're unable to minister to them all and we're not looking to break any records. My session has ideally, they would just like numbers to be up where they were several years ago. I think we can do it, but we need to think outside the box about getting the younger families -- especially families with kids and youth -- involved. How can we create that spirit of creativity to encourage others to cultivate their own spirit of creativity?
It's about conversation. What are people hungry for at church and how can we invite them to make the presence known? Not "how can we count them when they sign the friendship pads" and not "how can we get them all to pay their per capita" but how can we invite them to make their presence known so they know they have a voice in the life of the church? We do this through conversation. I'm really big on communication and I believe that the majority of negative drama happens in the church as a direct result of a lack of communication. I want to know in what ways the people of my congregation are being fed and in what ways they are left with a bit of hunger.
What are the ways that our worship spaces already invites the spirit of creativity? What things can we try to increase the ways we invite a spirit of creativity? We are called to proclaim the Word in an ever-changing world. We should create an atmosphere of creativity because we are called to be creators in ways we might not even expect. As beings created in the image of God, we are created in the image with the capacity for creativty. How can we break the spell over those who do not believe they are creative? I think this would be a great conversation in whatever church we attend.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Study Leave: Day One
I arrived home in New Jersey late Monday night for a conference starting yesterday at Princeton Theological Seminary (my seminary) entited: "Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry." I am spending the week attending workshops geared towards exploring various ways to think outside the box with youth and young adults. As a way for me to process the information from each day, I'd like to do a little more blogging than I usually do.
Yesterday was Day One. It consisted of me arriving at the seminary at about 11 and having a little bit of time to visit with people that are still there from when I was there. They are graduating this year, but after I stopped by the conference registration table, I was able to enjoy some time in the school cafeteria with some old friends. It is so wonderful to be back in New Jersey for the week!
At opening worship, an amazing speaker named Shauna Hannan spoke from Luke 17:11-19, the story of ten made clean by Jesus with only one returning to thank Him for it. Jesus points out when the one returns, "Were not ten made clean?" Shauna then commented, "We might rephrase it, 'Were not 20 confirmed? Were not 12 baptized?'" We laughed but only because we know it's the truth. Too many youth are confirmed and then we never see them again in the church. It is not just small churches that wrestle with how to retain youth in the church. Large churches face that question as well. Part of what I'm hoping to get out of this week is insight on how to provide youth-friendly options both in worship and in youth group time that get youth excited to come to church and spend time with their church family. As someone who always came to church without question and who almost always had perfect attendance in youth group and Sunday school, it's a little harder for me to get my head around why people don't. Part of it I think has to do with upbringing. I don't think it's a "sign of the times" because this is no different for this generation than it was for the last or the one before that.
The lecture I heard last night gave some insight into what has happened between the time when church was just a given and church now being an "optional" activity, second always to sporting events, family gatherings, and sunny days on the golf course. Dr. Richard Osmer, a professor at the seminary in the Christian education and practical theology departments, spoke for about an hour on "Evangelism and the Mission of the Church in an Age of Diversity." He talked about how we can reclaim the spirit of evagelism as a way to help "wake up" the church. Evangelism, he said, is not just for non-Christians, although that's how we often think about it. I've heard it said before and Dr. Osmer kind of reiterated this: evangelism should be about conversation; not strictly about conversion.
The workshop I attended yesterday afternoon was pretty awesome. It was led by a writer named Enuma Okoro and the title of the workshop was, "Writing as Faithful Witness and Building Blocks." We did a writing exercise, shared our work, and talked about how reading and writing has an impact on our spiritual lives. I've never really thought of reading something other than scripture as a spiritual exercise, so that was an interesting highlight of the seminar. I also very much enjoyed the writing exercise and at some point I might type out what I wrote and post it on the blog.
It felt so good to see so many familar faces and catch up with people. I do miss seminary. I miss sitting in the classroom with people. I do not, however, miss exams and writing papers. I do enjoy the time I have now to read things at a more leisurely pace rather than trying to read everything to cram it all in on a deadline.
So that was Day One. Looking forward to reporting back on Day Two : )
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
Yesterday was Day One. It consisted of me arriving at the seminary at about 11 and having a little bit of time to visit with people that are still there from when I was there. They are graduating this year, but after I stopped by the conference registration table, I was able to enjoy some time in the school cafeteria with some old friends. It is so wonderful to be back in New Jersey for the week!
At opening worship, an amazing speaker named Shauna Hannan spoke from Luke 17:11-19, the story of ten made clean by Jesus with only one returning to thank Him for it. Jesus points out when the one returns, "Were not ten made clean?" Shauna then commented, "We might rephrase it, 'Were not 20 confirmed? Were not 12 baptized?'" We laughed but only because we know it's the truth. Too many youth are confirmed and then we never see them again in the church. It is not just small churches that wrestle with how to retain youth in the church. Large churches face that question as well. Part of what I'm hoping to get out of this week is insight on how to provide youth-friendly options both in worship and in youth group time that get youth excited to come to church and spend time with their church family. As someone who always came to church without question and who almost always had perfect attendance in youth group and Sunday school, it's a little harder for me to get my head around why people don't. Part of it I think has to do with upbringing. I don't think it's a "sign of the times" because this is no different for this generation than it was for the last or the one before that.
The lecture I heard last night gave some insight into what has happened between the time when church was just a given and church now being an "optional" activity, second always to sporting events, family gatherings, and sunny days on the golf course. Dr. Richard Osmer, a professor at the seminary in the Christian education and practical theology departments, spoke for about an hour on "Evangelism and the Mission of the Church in an Age of Diversity." He talked about how we can reclaim the spirit of evagelism as a way to help "wake up" the church. Evangelism, he said, is not just for non-Christians, although that's how we often think about it. I've heard it said before and Dr. Osmer kind of reiterated this: evangelism should be about conversation; not strictly about conversion.
The workshop I attended yesterday afternoon was pretty awesome. It was led by a writer named Enuma Okoro and the title of the workshop was, "Writing as Faithful Witness and Building Blocks." We did a writing exercise, shared our work, and talked about how reading and writing has an impact on our spiritual lives. I've never really thought of reading something other than scripture as a spiritual exercise, so that was an interesting highlight of the seminar. I also very much enjoyed the writing exercise and at some point I might type out what I wrote and post it on the blog.
It felt so good to see so many familar faces and catch up with people. I do miss seminary. I miss sitting in the classroom with people. I do not, however, miss exams and writing papers. I do enjoy the time I have now to read things at a more leisurely pace rather than trying to read everything to cram it all in on a deadline.
So that was Day One. Looking forward to reporting back on Day Two : )
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
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