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Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
Last month I had lunch with a ministry leader—I get to see her in-person only a couple of times a year, so it was so good catching up. We lost track of time; for almost four hours we talked about life, ministry, faith, and everything in-between. We were well into the conversation when she said something that struck me deeply, something we don’t talk about often but probably should. We know we’re called into ministry, she said, “but I wasn’t ready for this work (in the church) to hurt so much, to have such a negative effect on my faith some days.” This kicked off a long thread in our conversation. All too often, when someone asks me what it’s like to work in the church, my answer is: “It’s complicated.” I sound like a teenager describing her relationship status on social media. My ministry friend shared her own struggle to be authentic in a church world that often judges leaders for not living up to expectations. For example, if we extend our love and care for someone who doesn’t always “play by the Christian rules,” we are guilty by association. If they don’t believe, then maybe we don’t really believe. And if we have adult children who are not actively practicing their faith, what does that say about us? It’s exhausting to worry about what others think, and yet that’s human nature... How Our Humanness Infects Our Mission At our best, as ministry leaders, we serve others as we serve the mission of Jesus. But because we are human, not divine, it’s complicated. We might have colleague issues. We might turn our workplace, or our community, into an “us” vs. “them” battle. We might fight too much for the opportunity to be “right,” or push our own agenda. We all have our weaknesses. And sometimes we respond with complacency or indifference to new ideas or new energy—we hang onto “But we’ve always done it this way.” Even if we haven’t responded this way, we’ve seen others who have, and it breaks our heart. Unless we’re lucky (or wearing blinders) we’ve seen a leader abusing their power. No matter the ministry, the denomination, or even the geographic situation, this work isn’t always a “taste of heaven.” So, how do we nurture hope and perseverance? Or better yet, as church leaders, how do we continue to grow our faith, and grow a more intimate relationship with Jesus, when we witness what church looks like “behind the scenes”? Read more of this article HERE at Vibrant Faith.
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Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
Recent research reveals that 40 million Americans who used to go to church no longer do… These are the “nones”—people who are disaffiliating, deconstructing, reconstructing, and de-churching. People who once included churchgoing as a normal part of life, but no longer do. For the first time, in the eight decades that Gallup has tracked American religious membership, more adults in the U.S. do not attend church than those who do. People are finding faith, God, and community elsewhere. Jeremy Meyers of RedeemingGod.com says: “They’re leaving… The Church as we know it is dying.” Well, I don’t think it’s dying. I think it’s changing. We need to reimagine church, reimagine faith formation, and reimagine ministry today. In his instruction to the Congregation for the Clergy (July 20, 2020), Pope Francis writes about the church’s evangelizing mission: "The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be ‘the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters.’ This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed group made up of a chosen few." The church is not outdated. It is not a useless structure. We are capable of self-renewal! But there’s criteria there, too... Read more of this article HERE at Vibrant Faith. Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
At a conference this month I heard John Bucher talk about our intrinsic love of stories. He described how our love affair with story goes deeper than we think. We are created from stories; we’re formed by them. We need stories to mirror back our reality—parables, fables, songwriting, novels, movies, and yes, even Netflix binging. We NEED stories. Stories help us make meaning of our lives. And that storytelling could help us heal a hurting world today. John Bucher is a mythologist. It says so on his business card. He earned a PhD in mythology and serves as Executive Director for the Joseph Campbell Foundation. He has worked with HBO, DC Comics, and many others, including the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation and Virtual Reality projects. He knows the power of story: "People have used story to make sense of the world because part of the human experience is recognizing that there is mystery… We’re all doing the best we can to work through these issues that we all seem to share as human beings and trying to come to some sense of what it means…what does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be conscious? What does it mean to be human?... ...We don’t know anything except for our own experience and that leaves us insecure, it leaves us unsure… But our comfort comes from exchanging stories, telling each other the stories that we have about the way the world looks to us… And even when we don’t get it right… we hear each other’s stories and we say, ah I take comfort in that, I feel better because what you said—it resonates with me, And it makes me feel like maybe I am not alone here." In a conversation with Bucher we talked about how our culture loves Marvel movies. Even though critics have panned some of the movies, people love them. Why? He suggested that these stories speak to our “collective journey,” and perhaps in a culture deeply divided (over Covid, politics, religion, and more) we crave stories that honor what happens when we stick together. Toward the end of our conversation he said, “I would suggest to you the grand achievement of any great storyteller is making someone feel a little less alone in the world.” An Epidemic of Isolation The current polarizing climate in the U.S. has left many of us feeling isolated. We’re experiencing a loneliness epidemic. Maybe the healing we need will come through the nurturing of a storytelling culture our faith communities... Read more of this article HERE at Vibrant Faith. Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
I’m telling this story backwards. Stay with me… I’m moving. Again. People who know me are laughing. When we bought our condo three years ago I declared: “This is it, we’re home. I’m never moving again.” Now this will be the sixth time my husband and I have moved since February 2017. It started out as an adventure. (Clip to end of blog...) ...Why do I share all of this? Because, as church leaders, I want you to think about what it means to be a church that people don’t want to leave. What does it mean to be a community that nourishes its souls to the extent that they will grieve if they have to leave? A place that lifts up the gospel every Sunday as a call to action in the world today, as a call to find our meaning and purpose in this world as we bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. To be a faith community in which people are transformed. A place where people come to heal and to help heal one another. So, here my five takeaways for church leaders, as I discern what it is that makes this community so special... Read more of this article HERE at Vibrant Faith. Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
“For more information, please check the bulletin…” How many times have you heard that instruction at church? More important, how many people never hear it, or are tone-deaf to it? Church Communication should move from impersonal to personal Many churches still rely on traditional bulletins and emails to communicate to their congregation. In the past, this was an effective messaging system. But here are a few reasons for rethinking that church communication approach today… First, relying on a bulletin as a church communication tool focuses only on the people in your pews. Many of our parishioners are loosely connected—email blasts and bulletin articles are not going to grab their attention. Your community is broader. When we use bulletins as our primary form of communication many people will not see the information at all, and often the ones who do will assume you’re talking to somebody else... Read more HERE at Vibrant Faith. Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
In our rapidly changing landscape, church leaders face the profound challenge of establishing and nurturing meaningful connections with parents and families. In the Barna study “Who Is Responsible for Children’s Faith Formation,” virtually all Protestant and Catholic church leaders agreed that the responsibility for a child’s formation starts with parents. Though we embrace this practical and biblical reality, the church often acts as though it’s not true—we unwittingly usurp the responsibility we believe parents have. How do we gently affirm parents in their faith-forming role, then attract, support and accompany them on that journey? At Vibrant Faith, we’re currently engaged in a Lilly Grant project focused Christian Parenting and Caregiving—our four-year work is called Fourth-Soil Parenting. We’re asking how we can accompany parents in their growth as discipling influencers in their kids’ lives, and how we might coach them to accompany their children. So, when I read Spiritual Conversations With Children: Listening to God Together by Lacy Finn Borgo, I filled the margins of the book with questions and comments. I don’t know this author, but we’ve had quite the conversation in those margins... Read more HERE at Vibrant Faith. Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
”The family is a proclamation of faith in that it is the natural place in which faith can be lived in a simple and spontaneous manner… It is, indeed, a Christian education more witnessed to than taught, more occasional than systematic, more ongoing and daily than structured into periods.” DFC #227 I loved reading Rosina Hendrickson’s “Moments of Meaning Fuel an Infectious Faith” posted in early September. The four-step practice she shares (from Leif Kehrwald’s Families and Faith: A Vision and Practice for Leaders)—helping families “identify and celebrate moments of meaning in the contact of daily life”—is so powerful. Parents often think they have to “know” so much more. They have to “be” better. The reality of being the spiritual leader of their own household can be overwhelming. We can help alleviate that fear, but too often we exacerbate it by loading expectations on them before we help them see and celebrate what they’re already doing. Rosina’s focus on “all the moments of our day” is one I’d like to explore further… Read more HERE at Vibrant Faith. Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
Nothing has opened me up to God more than becoming a parent. I believe this is also true for the parents sitting in your congregation right now… I remember the first time I held my oldest child in my arms just a moment after she was born. Such pure joy! I looked at this newborn baby girl and fell madly in love. I looked at my husband with tears in his eyes; we both knew our world was forever changed. We felt the immensity of it all, but it was woven with such grace and beauty and joy. It’s no wonder tears were so close in those early days. I felt blessed and newly complete, yet inadequate and so very unsure. Read more HERE at Vibrant Faith... Originally published here - Vibrant Faith Articles.
I get a little restless at the first signs of spring. I want to hike. I want to plan a road trip. I want to take a drive, windows down, music blaring. And I start lengthening my walks. My goal for April is 100 miles. Walking is a simple practice that can also be a spiritual one. Philosophers, authors, and theologians have all had something to say about walking. Hippocrates said walking is man’s best medicine. Nietzsche said, “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” John Muir—author, naturalist, and mountaineer—said, “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” I agree with them. Walking renews me. I think I may be most open to God’s voice calling me when I am on a long walk. Read more HERE at Vibrant Faith. Originally published at Vibrant Faith Articles.
It’s Transfiguration Sunday as I write this, and after reading the gospel, my pastor told a story about Mother Teresa of Calcutta. On a long train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling, she experienced a powerful moment in prayer—she received what she described as “a call within a call.” God’s presence was so powerful. Everything changed. She left teaching and went to serve the poorest of the poor. And yet, she never felt the presence of God so palpably again. In her journals, she wrote of that absence, her own “dark night of the soul” experience, as others have described it. Why was my pastor talking about Mother Teresa today? In today’s gospel, Peter, James, and John witness the transfiguration of Jesus. It was such an incredible experience that Peter suggests he could set up tents, so they can stay in that moment. The final line of this reading begins, “As they were coming down from the mountain…”. They couldn’t stay in that experience. And we know that even though they had a literal “mountaintop experience” they still struggled, they still huddled in the Upper Room after Jesus’ death. As my pastor pointed out, sometimes life gets in the way of staying up on that mountaintop. I’m thinking of all of this and remembering the moments in my life when I’ve felt God’s visceral presence... Read more HERE at Vibrant Faith. |
AuthorI share my own thoughts here. They do not represent the opinions of any organization I work with or for. They are my own, and I reserve the right to change them when I please. I am still growing, learning, and evolving. Archives
November 2022
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