The Great Emergence- A great opportunity to rediscover and share Trinitarian/Incarnational Theology

I just finished reading "The Great Emergence" by Phyllis Tickle and I would commend it to anyone who is trying to get a handle on the most recent changes in the various expressions of the Christian faith in such congregations as Jacobs Well (Kansas City), A Simple Way (Philadelphia) and other Emerging congregations around the country AND the world. She lifts it up as the next reformation of the Christian church and she suggests that this happens every 500 years or so. A short video summary can be seen at thegreatemergence.com presented by the author. She says "The Great Emergence, like the Great Reformation or the Great Schism (between Eastern and Western Christianity) or the time of the Great Gregory or the Great Transformation, is generalized social/political/economic/intellectual/cultural shift." (p. 120) She talks about the variety and diversity of the Emerging Church movement and yet she also states that "All however, share one shining characteristic, they are incarnational. Not only does Jesus of Nazareth incarnate God, but Christian worship must be incarnate as well. It must involve the body in all its senses and take place among people, all of whom are embraced equally and as children of God." (p. 135) Tickle says that the emerging churches are radically Jesus centered, communal, connected electronically to each other on a real time basis, non exclusive and searching ancient Christianity for ancient symbols to reflect this emerging reality.

And even though Tickle talks about this movement as "post-denominational" she is not negative about the life and vitality of denominations as a result of this "great" movement. In fact she spends a good part of her last chapter exploring how this phenomenon fits into the current denominations world that she characterizes as having roughly four quadrants:

Liturgicals (Catholics,Epis)-Social Justice Christians (Presby, Meth)

Renewalists (Pentecostals)-Conservative (Baptists, Evangelicals)

Of course Tickle acknowledges that within denominations there is variety and that no one denomination fits neatly into a box and so there is overlap between these somewhat artificial groupings. She then positions the Emerging Church movement at the center of this denominational landscape suggesting that they are picking and choosing from the various traditions. She also suggests that each of the denominations will in turn learn from the Emerging movement (just as the Catholic Church learned and grew out of the Reformation) and that in response to the the Emerging movement, that the Christian church will in fact grow in size and vitality.

So what does this all have to do with Trinitarian leadership (since that is the current focus of this blog)? I believe that Trinitarian leadership is something that us "Old Reformers" can offer to these new reformers. As I read and reflect and teach on the Emerging Church movement, I also see the incarnational theology shine through but I also see a strong Trinitarian theology as embedded in the leadership of the movement. When Tickle describes the emerging church as "relational, nonhierarchical, a-democratized form of Christianity...moving toward a system of ecclesial authority that waits upon the Spirit and rests upon the interlacing lives of Bible- listening, Bible-honoring believers" I believe that she is talking about ecclesial leadership after the model of the triune God. Characteristics of Trinitarian leadership that I am developing based on Jurgen Moltmann's discussion of the Trinity in his book "The Trinity and the Kingdom" and Miroslav Volf's "After Our Likeness" are:

-1-Unity built on open and inviting communication that integrates the many distinct parts;
-2-Diversity which allows uniqueness and self-differentiation while still works toward a common purpose;
-3-Integrity among the leaders in the leadership community and integrity in what the community says and how it operates;
-4-Mutual Concern and Care which implies an intimate relationship through the Holy Spirit. This allows us to know each other and hold each other even and especially in pain;
-5-Equality of Shared Power and integrated power in place of a hierarchy of held power; and
-6-Mutual Encouragement in which each part of the leadership community builds up and encourages the others.

I do agree with Phyllis Tickle that we can be in conversation with these new and evolving expressions of the Christian witness not as one team competing with another for a market share but rather as a community also formed around Jesus of Nazareth with a rich heritage to share and a thing or two that we might learn together.

Trinitarian Leadership: A Community of Leaders in Christ

What can I do to create a leadership team if I'm not in a big church with a large staff? I still don't really know enough about the Trinity to understand what it has to do with leadership? How can I bring my elders and deacons on board with this idea? What if I'm not too crazy about the whole idea of team to describe ministry groups since teams imply competition?

These are some of the questions that I have heard as I have been exploring, researching and starting to write about Trinitarian leadership during my sabbatical. I have discovered a wonderful collection of academic and theological books on the Trinity and I could read Jurgen Moltmann and Miroslav Volf, Dan Migliore and Shirley Guthrie forever. (And besides that I just love to say their names.) I have also uncovered a number of books that I didn't know about like George Cladis' book "Leading a Team-Based Ministry: How Pastors and Church Staffs Can Grow Together into a Powerful Fellowship of Leaders" and Wayne Cordeiro's "Doing Church as Team". Cladis actually does a very good job of lifting up the Trinity as a model for team building in large church staffs and he describes the whole idea of "perichoretic community" so that readers can understand this technical term that describes how the Father and Son and Holy Spirit interact with each other "in constant movement in a circle that implies intimacy, equality, unity yet distinction and love." (Cladis, p. 4) Cordeiro's book is also a very accessible book to help create a team culture in a church. However both these books and most of the literature seems geared to large churches and their church staffs.

My project will focus instead on creating and nurturing leadership communities in the small to medium sized churches after the model of the Triune God. Notice that I am trying to steer away from the term "team" because in our culture it does imply a competitive group and the whole thrust of this project it to move away from a competitive, authoritarian and individualistic image of leadership to a cooperative, eqalitarian and communal way of leading the church. And I will be focussing on how we can build leadership communities within the church- pastors, elders, deacons and trustees and beyond the church as churches and presbyteries and colleges get together to lead. Our shared worship service with Brotherhood and Wichita State University is an example of Trinitarian leadership model that extends beyond the church walls to encompass several unique communities who share leadership in Christ.

So far I have discovered six Trinitarian characteristics that would allow us to build a leadership community in Christ. They are: Unity built on open and inviting communication that integrates the many distinct parts; Diversity which allows uniqueness and self-differentiation while still works toward a common purpose; Integrity among the leaders in the leadership comminity and integrity in what the community says and how it operates; Mutual concern and care which implies an intimate relationship through the Holy Spirit which allows us to know each other and hold each other even and especially in pain; Equality of shared power in place of a hierarchy of held power; and Mutual Encourage in which each part of the leadership community builds up and encourages the others. These all aspects of the Trinity that Jurgen Moltmann describes in more theological language in his book "The Trinity and the Kingdom".

Let me know what you think. I am hopeful that this book, "Trinitarian Leadership: A Community of Leaders in Christ", might reflect that same kind of collegiality in its writing that it will hopefully reflect in its content. In the next several days I will explore each of these ideas on the blog and will look forward to your feedback. Thanks for your help and your participation in the faith community that lives and worships in the name of the Triune God revealed in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Leading a Team- Based Church

As I have been researching Trinitarian Leadership, Joan introduced me to a book that explores and describes Trinitarian leadership in much the same way that I have been evolving over the past several years. The book "Leading a Team- Based Church: How Pastors and Church Staff Can Grow Together into a Powerful Fellowship of Leaders" was written by a Presbyterian pastor, George Cladis. Cladis after aknowledging the theological contributions to Trinitarian understanding from such theological greats as Shirley Guthrie, Miroslav Volf and Jurgen Moltmann writes "My contribution as a pastor has been to look at ways to live out this theology practically in churches seeking to relate to the postmodern world." His purpose sentence could easily describe my sabbatical study and his book is an outstanding introduction to Trinitarian leadership.

Cladis focusses on the "perichoretic model of God that calls into question the traditional hierarchies of power, control and domination that have formed the basis for church leadership in the past." (p.5) By "perichoretic" Cladis is talking about the Triune God who is in constant communion and conversation with Godself in a movement of intimacy and love and equality and unity and community with real distinctiveness. His book then takes this understanding of God and relates it to leadership in the postmodern world. He identifies seven attributes that contribute to a healthy ministry team: a shared covenant, articulated vision, a life giving culture, collaboration, trust, an empowering spirit and a learning attitute. It is an outstanding book and a must read for pastors who seek a more egalitarian leadership style after the model of the Triune God. Cladis provides a nice blend of practical ministry insights grounded in solid reformed understanding of the Triune God at work in the world.

Conversation Partners in Trinitarian Leadership

As I headed back from the Pastor's School at Hastings, I stopped to visit Jacob's Well in Kansas City. Jacob's Well is an emerging congregation started by Pastor Timothy Keel, who wrote the book "Intuitive Leadership". Our session had studied his book last summer and I was anxious to meet Timothy and to share a conversation around Trinitarian Leadership with him. Well it turned out the he was busy and I was referred instead to Executive Pastor, Deth (pronounced Date) Im. I was initially a little disappointed not to be meeting with the "head pastor" (sorry Deth) until I met Deth and we started to talk. Deth shared a passion and commitment to Trinitarian leadership (even though we're just in the midst of defining what it means)and a wonderful and perceptive insight into what it might mean as it gets lived out in the church. And after all, Trinitarian leadership is not about one person but rather the shared leadership of several persons who articulate, live and grow together in the mystery and ministry of the Triune God.
As I pulled up to Jacob's Well, I was surprised to see a very traditional looking church building, nestled in a quaint Kansas City neighborhood. Deth shared that Jacob's Well had started as shared office space for Timothy in Roanoke Presbyterian Church. It grew to include fellowship space upstairs as Jacob's Well started to worship. Gradually Roanoke Presbyterian let Jacob's Well use the Sanctuary on Sunday afternoons and finally, when Roanoke Church closed in the mid-nineties, they encouraged the Presbytery to sell the building to Jacob's Well. As Deth and I sat in the sanctuary, I felt very much at home in this space which had once housed a Presbyterian Congregation and as Deth and I talked I became more aware that our visions for ministry and Trinitarian leadership were more alike than different. I was excited to see Calvin's "Institutes" in his library along with Miroslav Volf's "Exclusion and Embrace" right next to his Wesleyan theolgians. I noticed Leonard Sweet's "Postmodern Pilgrims" and McClaren's "A New Kind of Christian" and Tony Jones' "The New Christian". In a sense, what my Trinitarian Leadership project is trying to do is to connect these two shelves on Deth's bookcase. Letty Russell's "Church in the Round" was another point of connection for us.
I was fascinated to hear that the planning group I would call the "worship committee" was called the "Kairos Team" at Jacob's Well because it is the group that sets apart a "time of being in worship". I was even more intrigued that the "mission committee" is called the "Koinonia team" to reflect how our participation in the mission of the Triune God shapes and molds us into communities in Christ. Wow! As we talked about how leadership teams can become intimate communities formed around Christ, Deth shared a recent opportunity at Jacob's Well for staff memebers to meet three times a week for prayer and Bible study (lectio divina, centering prayer, praying the offices). We talked about how that activity, could potentially be expanded to include the elder leadership in the faith community. It was a great meeting and a great opportunity to share how we can learn from each other in the broader Christian community and learn and grow together in Christ through this process.

Dr. Seuss and Theology?!?

I have always liked Dr. Seuss, perhaps because Theodor Seuss Geisel ('25) was a fellow Dartmouth graduate. Perhaps, I liked him because I like rhyme, doodling and creative story telling. What I didn't imagine was that Dr. Seuss was actually a theologian telling parables of the Christian faith. What!?! My wife Joan introduced me to a book from an Arkansas pastor who makes just that case.

In his book "The Parables of Dr. Seuss", Robert Short argues convincingly that the children's books we have grown to love actually have embedded Christian messages. For example,Short argues that the Cat in the Hat is actually Jesus; Thing One and Thing Two are the two sides of the law- love God and love your neighbor; and the fish that always seems to complain is organized religion. And of course if The Cat is Jesus then could "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" be about the second coming or the resurrection? Short is bold enough to suggest that "Green Eggs and Ham" is actually a parable about the Lord's Supper and "Sam-I-Am" is short hand for God. Samuel means "the name of God" and "I-am" is of course the name that God gives to Moses, "I am who I am". Is it starting to make sense? How about "The Lorax", a delightful message about environmental awareness. But if your look at the story through Christological eyes, you might notice that the name "Lorax" just might be a contraction of "Lord and Christ", Lor-a-X. It is more compelling when you realize that the according to Seuss, Lorax came "out of a stump of the tree I'd chopped down. It was sort of a man..." It sure sounds like Isaiah language, "A shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse..." And when Lorax departs, Seuss describes it with these words "he heisted himself and took leave of this place, through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace." The ascension???

So next time I sit down with my grandkids to read "The Butter Battle Book" or "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" I won't just be reading a cute chidren's book. It will be a chance to see if indeed, there is an embedded Christian message. After all, Theodor Giesel once said "I get away with preaching by disguising the message." And did you know that Theodor Geisel once approached the Oxford University Press into re-releasing "Paradise Lost" with him as the illustrator.? We can only imagine!

Remembering My Mom on her Birthday

The words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy in Second Timothy include: "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I'm sure lives in you."(II Timothy 1:5) These words could have been said to me as well at my ordination 25 years ago since the faith I live and preach was first taught to me by my mother, Carolyn Joyce (Olson) Erickson. Today is my mom's birthday. She died six years ago after a lengthy battle with a series of mini-strokes but as I remember back on my life growing up together, her impact on my life and faith is unmistakeable.

She was born on July 17, 1930 in South Dakota. As a child she moved with her family to Hartington, Nebraska and grew up in that small Nebraska Community. Her family was active in the Lutheran Church in town. My mom was athletic and articulate. There weren't a lot of sport options available to girls back then but she was a pretty good tennis player and golfer and would often play with my dad and his friends. She has passed a love of those sports on to me and my brothers, Mark and John.

Her competitive juices were expressed in her debating. She was on the debate teams in Hartington High School and Wayne State Teachers College. She never lost the love of debating and we all knew first hand what a fierce debater she was. That endeared her to some and alienated her from others. She was also curious and an avid reader. She passed that curiosity on to her children and I hope we have passed it on to her grandchildren. She didn't take things for granted- religion, politics or education- so she was constantly asking questions. It was her way of learning.

She advocated for those in need and was fairly liberal in her political and religious outlook, which was a nice balance to my dad who was fairly conservative in religion and politics. Our dinner table was a place to learn and ask questions and sometimes duck, when the rhetoric became more heated. But it was a good place to grow in understanding and appreciating the world. And it was a good place to learn that people who love each other, believe strongly in God and who respect each other's faith and intellect can disagree.

I must admit that I had my share of battles with my mom, but in the end I knew she was a fiece advocate for me and my brothers. On this day of her birth, I remember one from whom I learned faith, compassion, the art of debate, the wideness of God's mercy and the depth of God's love.

On the Road Again/ Or Lefsa in Hastings

It was the last day of the Pastors School at Hastings College. I was sitting at breakfast and I commented that right when we didn't think they had any more culinary tricks up their sleeve they offer Belgium waffles. What's next Swedish pancakes? And I was surprised to find out that two of my table mates were from Minnesota and not only knew what Swedish pancakes were but also were very familiar with Lefsa (a potatoe based flat bread cooked in Norwegian households). We ate Lefsa each Christmas at my grandmother's. It's neat to have a little bit of personal history come alive even as we are learning about our Presbyterian history at the Pastor's School.
In our Presbyterians and American Culture class we were talking about how we, 21st Century Presbyterians, can hold our denomination together when we disagree on some of the polity issues of our day. We learned in our Presbyterian History how the denomination split over the issues of slavery, missions and clergy credentials. One of the suggestions was to make more strict boundaries, perhaps subscription to a single common confession rather than a whole book of confessions. I would argue that the key to holding our church together is not to build more stringent boundaries but to better understand and communicate the center of our faith. The ananolgy would be the difference between a bird cage (boundaries) that holds the birds of one type in or a bird feeder (center) that attracts a variety of birds.
The Reformed and Presbyterian tradition has a rich and wonderful heritage and a vibrant life giving center. I have just started reading John Calvin, Reformer for the 21st Century by William Stacy Johnson. In today's reading I was reading about the catchwords of the reformation "Grace Alone, Christ Alone, Faith Alone". Grace alone reminds us that we are not justified by our own works but by the Triune God who is for us, with us in Christ and among us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ alone reminds us that this grace of God is "made real in Jesus Christ and brought to bear concretely in human experience by the power of the Holy Spirit."(Johnson, p. 26) We receive this grace by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the center of our faith and it is a faith that is made stronger not big bigger and better fences to divide us from the outside world but by more clarity about the wonderful bread of life we receive from Christ at the center of the faith community.
I will be sad to leave my many new friends (this is a picture from 2006 but several of the participants including me, top left, are the same). But I am looking forward to seeing my brother John and his family, stopping by Jacobs Well Christian Community (where Timothy Keel, author of Intuitive Leadership is pastor) and seeing my new grand baby Evan and his brothers, Ashton and Ethan and of course my wife Joan. Let our center define us and our faith in Christ unite us.

It's not always easy being in the middle

I have reached the midpoint of the Pastor's Conference and just about the midpoint of my sabbatical. It has been nice to have a group of colleagues and several professors at the Omaha School for Pastors to bounce ideas off about Trinitarian Leadership after spending the first month reading and reflecting alone. The picture above is of Hazelrigg Student Center where we have most of our meals, classes and fellowship time (and do a lot of idea bouncing).

In the last couple days we have learned in our "Presbyterians and Culture Seminar" that Presbyterians often find ourselves in the middle. Dr. Brad Longfield from Dubuque (where Dawn Flippin went to seminary) taught us that Presbyterians were not only in the middle of the Revolutionary War but also in the middle of the Civil War. In fact the Presbyterian Church split into North and Southern Presbyterians during the war and it took another hundred years after the war ended to heal the split. Sometimes being in the middle is painful. One of the questions that was asked in the lecture was: "If the Presbyterian Church had been able to hold together, is it possible that the nation would have held together?" The response by Dr. Longfield (that drew a laugh) was that "All things are possible in God." And yet it got me thinking about some reading from my morning devotional "Leading a Life with God: The Practice of Spiritual Leadership" by Daniel Wolpert. In the 11th devotion Dan Wolpert wrote: "When leaders and a faith community begin to live in the world of the impossible, a world inhabited by a God for whom nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37), they truly begin to see the miraculous happen. They allow themselves to step into the life of grace offered within a kingdom defined by boundless generosity and infinite blessing." (p. 147) Wolpert challenges us as spiritual leaders to be willing to listen to God and try the impossible- even is it's just beyond what we might think we are able to do. It's like the colleague at the Pastor's Talent Show on Friday who did a Taikwondo demonstration breaking boards. He said the trick is a lot of practice but also to hit through the board. Don't just aim for the board but for a point just beyond the board. And my colleage and friend is battling Parkinsons even as he was breaking the boards in the talent show. Maybe if we aim for the impossible (just beyond our ability and regardless of the barriers) we will accomplish what God wants us to do and be who God wants us to be.

Celebrating John Calvin's 500th Birthday

We celebrated John Calvin's 500th Birthday with a Pastor's Talent show at the Pastor's Conference at Hastings College in Nebraska. Jim Anderson from Newton First Presbyterian even wrote a song in tribute to Calvin that was performed by about 20 of the pastors. It was a lot of fun. Of course Calvin himself would have been more excited to know that we celebrated his birthday by studying church history, pastoral care, and scripture. We learned about the unique contribution of John Witherspoon as a Presbyterian who was the President of Princeton University and a leader in the American Revolution. As a leader of the Revolution Witherspoon called Presbyterians to start by fasting and confessing their own sins and to remain loyal to the King while they continued to move forward with their conviction of justice, liberty and human rights. It is interesting that even on the edge of Revolution, Witherspoon who was strongly influenced by John Calvin, called for self examination as they taking such a momentous step of war.
As I am writing this blog in my dorm room in Weyer Hall, I am listening to John Calvin's Institutes. In his chapter on Repentance, Calvin himself says "Repentance is the resurrection from death to life." Later Calvin writes "Repentance and forgiveness are interelated... Repent that your sins my be forgiven... Repentance indicates what direction man must face to receive grace." Sometimes people who trace their roots back to Calvin are called long faced Christians. And yet Calvin's purpose in focusing on sin and repentance is not condemnation but to open us up to God's grace and new life in Christ. In his sermon, yesterday Dr. Bill Carl challenged us to rejoice in our faith and even in those times when we struggling, to thank God that we are alive and in relationship with Christ. Calvin's influence is everywhere in the conference.
While we have learned alot we have also had opportunites to exercise as well. This afternoon, I played tennis with Bill Carl and discovered that he is as competitive on the tennis court as he is dynamic and thorough in the classroom and pulpit. Luckily, I was on his team. I also played a little two-on-two volleyball to keep my skills sharp for when I come back to Friday night vollyball at Covenant. Blessings and peace to all who read this and Happy Birthday to John Calvin.

Experiencing New Life and the Pastor's Conference through a Trinitarian Lens

I feel thrice blessed today. I am blessed to be on sabbatical and to be able to spend most of the summer with Joan studying "Trinitarian Leadership".
I feel blessed to have been able to be in Little Rock to share the birth of my third grandson, Evan Daniel Rubio, and to be able to share the first two months of his life. And to share the summer with not one or two but three grandsons.
And I feel blessed to be in Hastings College this week to hear the preaching of Dr. Bill Carl and share the teaching of three Seminary Professors: Dr. Anna Case-Winters on "Science and Religion"; Dr. Brad Longfield on "Presbyterians and American Culture"; and Dr. Nancy Ramsay on "What Difference Does Difference Make in Pastoral Care". We heard each of the speakers today and they were each inspirational and thought provoking in their own way. I must admit that this year I am listening through Trinitarian ears, but that's good and I even received some encouragement in my study and writing on trinitarian leadership. It promises to be a good time to test some of my ideas and reflections and to learn in three very important areas of ministry.

I started the day today reading about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in Daniel Wolpert's "Leading a Life with God". Wolpert makes the point through the Lazarus story that our spiritual discipline includes not only our mind and soul but also our body. Then at worship Bill Carl preached on the topic "Becoming New Persons Altogether" using the II Corinthians 5:16-20 text: "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation." Certainly, both of these devotional themes spoke to me as I continue to feel renewed, refreshed and restored in my sabbatical time. Thank you to all who continue to make this a time of new life and rebirth. I feel blessed to have a partner in life and ministry in Joan. I feel blessed to have three wonderful sons, a wonderful daughter-in-law and now three wonderful grandsons. And I feel blessed to have a congregation to share and grow with in these adventures in faith. I am bragging about all of you to my colleagues in ministry here.

It's a Boy! And his name is Evan.

Today I am celebrating the birth of my third grandson, Evan Daniel. We had the privilege to be at the hospital moments after he was born and to see him welcomed by his brothers and family. Mom and baby are doing great. He is 8 lbs 5 oz and 20 inches long.

It is a little ironic that as I am on sabbatical to read and learn about Trinitarian Leadership that my third grandson would be born. Not only is he the third son in his family but his father is the oldest of three sons as I, his grandfather, am the oldest of three sons. We seem to like to be in groups of three in our family. Megan, his mother is also, the oldest of three siblings!

Stuart has already given him his first bath and he is a beautiful, robust baby. It was a real joy to see mom and dad sitting, reading and playing with their three sons all together just hours after Evan was born.

Interdependent Celebration of Independence Day

I just got back from a wonderful Fourth of July Celebration at the Riverside Pavilion at Little Rock. There was a great orchestra, terrific fireworks and a lot of people from every ethnic group in town. Everybody was clapping, singing and oohing to the fireworks together to celebrate Independence Day, the Fourth of July. During the concert as the orchestra played the theme songs from each of the five branches of the Military service, they asked people who had served in that branch to stand up and we clapped for each of them. It was a great time to affirm how much we depend on each other. I realized that the way we celebrate our Independence Day is to celebrate our Interdependence. And that's good. Because in truth no person is completely independent any more than any nation is completely independent. We depend upon each other.

I was reading a book yesterday by an Hawaiian pastor, Wayne Cordiero "Doing Church as a Team". He writes "The bottom line of this book is that you can't do it alone. If you want to be a successful leader- if you plan to have a successful ministry- then you must develop not only your own gifts abut also the gifts of those around you." (p. 11) He is articulating a principal I am exploring in Trinitarian Leadership. Even Jesus didn't do his work of ministry alone. He was in constant conversation with the Father. He was always listening to and aware of the Holy Spirit (even as the Spirit drove him into the wilderness). And the first thing Jesus did in his earthly ministry was to call disciples to share with him in ministry and mission. Jesus/God the Father/God the Spirit are mutually dependent even as they are independent and fully self differentiated. We are too. We need each other in the church. We need the Triune God. And as we live in that interdependent community we are free to serve God in ways we could never have imagined serving alone.

Earlier in the day, Joan and I also went to the Heiffer Corporate headquarters and it further reinforced our interdependence with other people, animals and nations. Heiffer is an organization that provides cows,or goats or other livestock or crops to third world countries as part of an effort to enable them to become economically self sufficient. In addition we learned how choices we make as we eat breakfast or go grocery shopping will effect the rest of the world. We are not alone. Decisions we make about the coffee we drink affect the coffee bean grower as far away as Columbia. So happy Independence Day! I hope you found some wonderfully Interpendent ways to celebrate the day.

Finding Models for Ministry in the Strangest Places

Joan and I finally got to see "My Life in Ruins" and it was a delightful story with beautiful scenery and a message that translates pretty well into ministry: if you are passionate about something, you have to communicate not just knowledge about it but passion for it and for the people you are sharing it with. Of course in the movie, the setting is a tour in Greece (the picture above is actually not Greece but from my trip to Jordan last year). The protagonist is a tour guide played by Nia Vardos (from My Big Fat Greek Wedding) leading a group a hapless tourist through the beautiful sites of Greece. Although she is a professor of ancient cultures with limitless knowledge about Greece, she doesn't connect with the group and consequently the group doesn't care about the historical details that she gives them. ("People don't care what you know until they know that you care.")It isn't until she enters into their hurts and pain and they enter into hers that they start to connect. When she worries less about getting to all the sites and focuses instead on the people entrusted in her care and sharing her genuine passion for Greece, she discovers that she has fun and learns from her new friends in the journey. The movie didn't get very good reviews and it has a few rough spots but it did set out a pretty good model for ministry and Richard Dreyfuss is terrific as a windbag who shares a strange brand of wisdom as he struggles with grief.

Thomas W. Currie in "The Joy of Ministry" wrote a whole book exploring how we can rediscover the joy of ministry even in the midst of pain and struggle. "Here is the joy that the cross has so strangely inserted into our world: the joy of God; the joy of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, whose triune life traces the terms of God's making time and space for us to rejoice in him." Currie is saying that God's own person makes time and space for us so that whatever we encounter in life and death that the triune God is there with us and we are there with each other. Currie says that joy is to be found in the ordinary life of the congregation...and worship is the day of entering into God's joy.

While I am gone, I hope that my friends in faith at Covenant are enjoying each other and the opportunity each week to worship God and to share stories of faith, hope and joy.