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.
Posts Tagged ‘congregations’
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?
Leslie's Theology 