Friday, September 30, 2011

Child-like Faith - ask a child

Every Sunday morning in our worship service, we all participate in a "Call to Worship". It involves a leader reading a statement, and everyone else reads a bolded line in response. In this we unite and center our hearts. Last Sunday, I taught Sunday School for the children's class and we wrote our own call to worship. They blew me away! Adorable does not begin to describe these kids, and blessed does not even cover how I felt as I learned from them. When I told them we were going to write our own call to worship, I asked them to tell me something that is true about God, and then we would write a response of how we felt about that. I only asked questions and helped with sentence structure; this is 100% child created. 


First Christian Church, Children's Call to Worship:


Leader: Jesus, You died on the cross.
All: And for that we are thankful.
Leader: You love us no matter what.
All: And for that we are grateful and blessed.

Leader: Creation is awesome!
All: We love You!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

In all things Unity

Notes from the Pastor…

Recent studies estimate that one-third of the world’s population consider themselves “Christian.”  Of that 2.26 billion, my tribe consists of 679,563 people; that is the total number of members in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in North America as of 2008.  For those who enjoy statistics, my tribe makes up 0.03% of Christianity  - a fraction of theological understanding and worship practice.  Accordingly, it would be disproportionately egocentric of me to consider my tribe as “correct” and everyone else as “wrong;” even so, that is often my disposition toward Catholics (52.25% of Christianity) and Southern Baptists (7.16% of Christianity).

However, there is a greater reason than theological relativism to consider Christian people of other denominations as sisters and brothers - that is Scripture.  In Jesus’ priestly prayer of John 17, we hear his heart for unity among his followers: “May they be one as we (the Father and Son) are one.”  In Matthew 25 we hear the wisdom that a house divided against itself cannot stand.  And Paul spoke on unity within diversity in 1 Corinthians 12 when he says, “Just as a body has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body...”  There may be more than  38,000 denominations within Christianity, but there is one Christ, and thus one body.  It is tribalism that wars against unity when it says, “I am right; you are other.”  It is tribalism that forms false divisions based on ethnicity, nationality, and/or ideology.

Breaking through those tribal boundaries is a difficult task.  There are language, cultural, and historical reasons why so many denominations exist.  Moreover, in the recent past, churches taught to fear the other because “their false teachings may pollute our correct understating.”  Even though the difficulty is well grounded, finding unity within diversity is a principle endeavor of the emerging Church.  The Church of the future must hold her personal narratives as uniquely formative; yet universally non-divisive.  Practically, this means holding tight to our progressive and sacramental Christian Church history; while being open to a variety of theological understandings and worship practices.

October 2 is World Communion Sunday.  It is an opportunity for our congregation to affirm our brothers and sisters around the world who worship the same Christ.  This Sunday, while Christians around the globe will gather around countless different Tables, and celebrate the Lord’s Supper in diverse fashions, we specifically recognize there is truly only one Table, because only one Lord.May we work toward unity, celebrate diversity, and hold tight to our one Lord, Jesus the Christ!

Grace,
Pastor Ryan

Thursday, September 8, 2011

"Stewardship"

Notes from the Pastor…

I grew up in a conservative-Evangelical denomination, and consequently, the word “stewardship” became synonymous with the words “guilt” and “money;” an odd couple to be sure.  During relentless times of stewardship I always judged the sermons on the basis of whether they motivated me as much as the commercials for children of malnutrition that could be healthy for just a dollar a day.  If the sermon accomplished that level of guilt, concerning the few dollars I stashed away in the pages of a book of
Baseball statistics, then it was a good presentation on “Christian stewardship.”  Each sermon closed with a crushing one-liner that was played like a wrong note at a piano recital; jolting us awake and cementing the point.  These were statements like: “Many people give a tenth to the Lord--a tenth of what they ought to give;” “A lot of people are willing to give God the credit, but not too many are willing to give God the cash;”
and “The only thing some people are giving these days is advice.”

As a youth, all I learned from stewardship series is that God wanted my money as if God were low on cash and needed a pay-day loan. Of course, my experience is narrow.  I have always wondered how Catholics approach stewardship, or for that matter, Methodists, Lutherans, or even  Mormons.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “stewardship” as: 1) the office, duties, and obligations of a steward.  2) the conducting, supervising, or managing of something.  These two definitions seem to follow the 16th century idea of “household management;” an idea that seems limited to Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred.

Yet I feel that “stewardship” may have a deeper, more spiritual nature to it.  If our bodies are the temple (or house) of the Holy Spirit, then I wonder if stewardship has to do with our bodies.  And if our bodies are our essence, our being, then does stewardship apply to everything about us?  Do we need to revisit “household management”?