Well – Kelly Allen and I had a great time standing together for Moderator and Vice Moderator of 221st GA. Ultimately, we were not elected. Now, the loss might have been just awful, but we as an assembly abounding in hope! Moderator Rada (or Moderada as some are affectionately referring to him) and his Vice Moderator, Larissa Kwong Abazia are carrying that hope wonderfully for us. We are now looking to them hopefully for their opinions and observations. Specifically, I appreciated picking up the General Assembly News yesterday and finding Abazia on the front page. In Bolin’s photograph, Abazia’s face is lifted slightly upward, perfectly poised to communicate hope. It makes me want to read Ferguson’s article. I already know that she serves the most diverse neighborhood of our nation, so eagerly, I lean through the poise of the picture and into the article to lap up bit more hope. I hope she will tell me what she knows. I lean in hoping that she will tell me the best practices for the future of the church. As I lean in, I read: “If there’s anything I’ve learned about doing ministry, its that there’s no book that tells us all how to be healthy church and how to grow. There is no one right way to do that.” And in the statement there is a tone of trust that each of us will be able to figure it out. I lean out and back and begin to imagine what I know.
Archive for June, 2014
Abazia’s observation
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged #GA221, 2014, congregations, detroit, diversity, General Assembly News, Heath Rada, June 16th, Kelly Allen for GA Moderator, Larissa Kwong Abazia, Michael Bolin, Mike Ferguson, Presbyterian Church USA, Queens New York, redevelopment, Vice Moderator PCUSA on June 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The very hungry hermeneutic
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 221st General Assembly, butterflies, caterpillars, congregations, consumption, detroit, exegesis, hermeneutics, hunger, hunger games, Kelly Allen for GA Moderator, living missionally, mission, preaching, Presbyterian Church USA, pulpits, sanctuary, translation, Very Hungry Caterpillar, Waco Texas on June 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »
a hunger for the text:
exegesis, translation, grammar, syntax, context, historical critical, literary analysis….what’s overstated?, what’s understated? Flipping paper-thin pages in search of the first, horrible and lonely draft.
a hunger to communicate
anticipation, what do they need?, what did you mean?, they already know that!, heard it a thousand times!, assumptions, presumptions, projections, truth in the negative, christian jargon. The first draft falls apart like compost from culinary preparations.
a hunger for sacred proximity
nibbling…nibbling away at the distance between pew and pulpit, distilled words, appropriate humor, a fork and spoon through the mind, heart, into the stomach pit. Respectful invasion, aided by the Spirit…stilling the room until internal vitality begins a unified rumbling…..THE hunger games of faith.
A congregation moves out to be the least among them….to serve, to feed to find the abundant feast that will consume them but not their hunger.
4 days until the cocoon of General Assembly in Detroit…what will emerge?
Small Gardens….Missional Impossible?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged congregation, congregational vitality, ecclesiology, gardening, Jane Austen, Kelly Allen for GA Moderator, Lady Catherine, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, mission impossible, Missional Living, Mrs. Bennet, Pentecost, Presbyterian Church USA, Presbyterian Mission Agency, Pride and Prejudice on June 6, 2014| 2 Comments »
Within the movie version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, dialogue is quick-witted even as postures and decorum are maintained. One particular scene deals a devastating blow of dialogue between all-powerful, Lady Catherine and the obsessed Mrs. Bennet. The scene is late at night, Lady Catherine has arrived by carriage on “urgent business” with Jane, the Bennet’s eldest daughter. Before Lady Catherine can attend to the business with Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet is providing an update on the marriage of her daughters and how well things are going for their family. Mrs. Bennet’s naive joy is cut short by Lady Catherine who declares, “Madam, your garden is quite small.”
In the movie, the insult is almost lost on Mrs. Bennet for the scene cuts quickly to Lady Catherine’s private conversation with Elizabeth. But for those of us who are “into” pride and prejudice, Lady Catherine’s comment cuts to the heart of our humanity. I have watched this movie multiple times. Each time, I most anticipate Lady Catherine’s statement to Mrs. Bennet. I have wondered, what would I say to Lady Catherine if I were with her. I imagine all sorts of bold and witty “come-backs”. It was during such a viewing, not so long ago that I realized I, serving the church, was in the presence of Lady Catherine. Perhaps most particularly, in a culture that continues to be persuaded by bigger is better.
We in the Presbyterian Church USA have many small gardens. Rural, urban and suburban congregations are all included as place holders for small gardens. It has often been said that size is relative. So, in fact, perhaps everyone has been made to feel that their gardens are small at one time or another, in one way or another. I would wager that even large churches have been “cut down to size” as Lady Catherine’s voice is made audible by declaring only a small portion of their congregation is involved compared to the percentage of folks involved in small churches. Interesting that congregations a fraction of others can sound Lady Catherine with a booming resonance. It might not matter who we are. It might not matter our size. When Lady Catherine’s statement “Madam, your garden is quite small” is made audible, church, congregant and clergy are cut to the quick. Those referenced might decide to stop gardening or try to get bigger gardens to “show her”. But one must draw attention back to Mrs. Bennet to fully appreciate the frivolity of Lady Catherine’s insult.
As simple as she is portrayed, Mrs. Bennet is, ultimately, unaffected by the insult of “a small garden”. In fact, one notices that her only concern is for her small garden of a family. She exists that it may grow and thrive. And yes, yes, she is horribly traditional in her understanding of how that happens. However, the point is, that she is always revising and reframing to bring her garden into the best possible light. Every garden needs light to thrive. In the movie, it is almost as if she does not hear Lady Catherine. It is almost as if we should not hear Lady Catherine. After all, whose garden is not smaller than hers and does that not make her critique irrelevant.
Presbyterian gardens of all sizes (for one size does not fit all) might do good to channel a bit of Mrs. Bennet’s spirit as we celebrate the Spirit at Pentecost this Sunday. As we remember the emergence of the church, may we ever lovingly attend to the portion of its vitality entrusted to our care. And while we are at it…..
During General Assembly, the Congregational Vitality committee of our General Assembly will consider a recommendation that the entire church be called to live more missionally. May the gardens blossom and feed! 7 Days!
A Salty Summer School
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 221st General Assembly, ionic bond, Israel, Kelly Allen for GA Moderator, Marriage, math, Matthew 5:13, Palestine, Presbyterian Church USA, reading, science, Summer School, voting, Waco Texas, writing on June 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Well, my husband has decided to teach summer school. He is teaching because he is a hard worker. He is teaching because his district needs him. He is teaching summer school this year because teaching 5th graders is something that he has not done before. He is interested by a challenge. Teaching summer school and attending summer school is not an easy thing. It means finding energy to go against the school’s out for the summer energy that fills school districts, local school building and neighborhoods. Those students who attend summer school do so because they or their families have an urgency. The urgency is to improve skills and comprehension in state tested subjected like math, reading, history and science. Attendance at summer school promises that one will be up-to-speed with one’s peers when the Fall arrives.
As it turns out, Presbyterians have their own summer school. We do it every other year and it comes together as our General Assembly. Like the summer school of the school districts throughout our nation, General Assembly requires some unusual energy. But teaching elders and ruling elders, observers and mid council folks, find the energy because there is also a promise. Attendance at the Presbyterian summer school of General Assembly promises to bring us up to speed in our world and faith. Summer school always happens when its hot. General Assemblies are no different.
Presbyterian summer school is diligent in its efforts to develop reading skills. Throughout the assembly we will read hundreds of documents …. words on a page. As we do that, we will be reading circumstances that are of concern and joy in our world. Presbyterians are known for their political opinion. We Presbyterians believe in asking the General Assembly commissioners to study. We believe that a faithful reading of real life circumstances from margin to mainstream is faithful to Christ. Christ, who moved at the margins and within the mainstream in order to unite what would otherwise be divided. As we practice our reading, we Presbyterians gather as a crowd into our Teacher’s classroom.
Presbyterian summer school is also rigorous in addition and subtraction. We will managing budgets and questions that surround them. But the most important accounting will be the counter-intuitive accounting. We will add up the cost of following Christ. Adding the cost will exercise us all day, for the entire seven days of our assembly.
In some ways, it is the reading and the math that bring us to the science of being Presbyterian. At our best we are a laboratory, experimenting with the ionic bonding of faith. You remember ionic bonds. Those bonds that are established between two atoms caused by the electrostatic force between oppositely-charged ions. We teaching elders and ruling elders will come charged for our heated work. Some say that the 221st Assembly promises to further split and divide our denomination. But we are more discerning than that. Even in our oppositely charged passions, we know better. We remember the charge modeled by Christ to go out into the world and abide together in our differences.
I trust that we will try to find that Christ-like ionic bond that has long been the mystery of the church. Yes, you are ahead of me…it is, indeed, the ionic bond that produces salt. Matthew 5:13
9 days!