The Book Report

sabbatical book report

One of the central parts of my Sabbatical renewal was to get back into reading: reading for growth and reading for pleasure. So, like so many of us did in our school days, I present you with “The Book Report,” a click through of the thirteen books with which I spent my time.

If you can visualize my desk in my church office, you’ll see a pile of “TBR” books… okay maybe three piles. One would be for the practical side of church life (engaging membership, visioning ministry, etc); one for worship and spirituality (how to design worship, how to engage multiple generations, sacred music & story, etc); and one for business (Values/Vision/Mission, staff & volunteer management, and practical stuff). In the busy-ness of the week, I find at least an hour a day to step out of work and step into develop some part of the “professional” me.

Reading for pleasure during the “church year” is always more difficult. It’s often the last thing I do in the evening, and often relegated to bed time. And that last thirty minutes of being awake may provide sleep, but hardly the pleasure. More often than not, if I was into the story I’d stay up too late. While the reading was fun, the next day not so much.

For the sabbatical, I set up these “rules to read by:”

  • Read the books. Really read them. Skim if needed, but then dive deep.
  • For every hour of professional development, read an hour of pleasure reading.
  • Rotate between reading for development and reading for pleasure. Balance the “right side” and the “left side” renewal.
  • If taking notes on one book, take time to journal on another
  • If you fall asleep, stop reading. There will time later to read more.

Maybe they can be a help for you, too!

If you want to get a copy for yourself, there is a link at the bottom of each book’s review. They’ll direct you to one of our “local-ish” independent books shops, Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, IL. (Love you all!)

So, with a grand drumroll…. Let’s start reading!


The Church Life Books

These books come to the list in the spirit of the sabbatical theme, “Enter to Worship / Depart to Serve.” Jim Wallis is a sage of the intersection of faith and public life. Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski are stewards of our mental and emotional center. Michael Piazza is a caretaker of congregational story, life, and ministry. John Wimberly gets us into the practical parts of life in community.I

I hope you are as inspired by these books as I. They were great companions in my renewal, retooling, and refocusing on my call to follow in Christ’s Way.

The False White Gospel – Jim Wallis

“I believe that white Christian nationalism is the single greatest threat to democracy in America and to the integrity of the Christian witness…”
-Jim Wallis, The False White Gospel

» Click here for the whole story

I have respected Jim Wallis’ scholarship and wisdom for years. His “long-view” on faith and politics is unmatched. His dissection of the political co-option of the label of “Christian” is unmatched. From the jacket text: “It is time says Jim Wallis, to call out genuine faith―specifically the ‘Christian’ in White Christian Nationalism―inviting all who can be persuaded to reject and help dismantle a false gospel that propagates white supremacy and autocracy. “

I held this book for my last Sabbatical read. On purpose. It’s timely text, opens up the current state of religion and politics; the 2024 elections; and the reality of Project 2025 (which is already affecting the American and global society) for all to see. “If they have eyes…” to quote a wise Rabbi.

“I believe in the separation of church and state, absolutely. But I don’t believe in the separation of public life from our values, our basic values, and for many of us, our religious values”
-Jim Wallis, Frontline/PBS Interview

FWIW: If you’ve red Jim’s previous books (God’s Politics,etc), you might find a story that you’ve heard before. Bear with it. There is Spirit-led insight that is necessary for November 2024 and beyond.

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

BURNOUT / The BURNOUT Book (workbook) – Emily Nagoski &  Amelia Nagoski

“Burnout is for women (or anyone) who has felt overwhelmed and exhausted by everything they have to do, yet still worried they weren’t doing ‘enough.’”
-from BURNOUT’s website

» Click here for the whole story

Yes, you need to read this book. It’s for “anyone” and everyone, to be sure. I read the Nagoski’s book during my first week of Sabbatical (while sitting at a laundromat, scheduling a family vacation, dealing with a car repair, while the internet and power were knocked out during a spring storm. And I laughed, and laughed, and laughed! Time to break the BURNOUT cycle, eh?

Writing together, sisters Emily and Amelia Nagoski open up the real-life “biological stress cycle,” and how our brains regulate the emotion of frustration (and all of its niggling attachments). They share sympathetic stories, combined with physiology, bolstered by practical techniques. In the end, their goal is supported and well-told, that “wellness, true wellness, is within our reach.”

And the workbook! What a blessing! Reflection space and journaling, all taking your reading to the next level. Again, it’s geared for their target audience. So if you’re still struggling with the intersectionality of patriarchy, get ready to break that cycle, too. If you’re willing, it’s easy to see the “everyone” in their welcoming eyes.

“To be ‘well’ is not to live in a state of perpetual safety and calm, but to move fluidly from a state of adversity, risk, adventure, or excitement, back to safety and calm, and out again. Stress is not bad for you; being stuck is bad for you.”

FWIW: Yes, there is a fair bit of the “usual self-help” materials. The Nagoskis take the time to contextualize it for today, and make you feel like you’re in a safe place to hear/feel/scream about life, the universe and everything. So feel your feels, and read the book.

» Click here to get a copy of the book; and Click here for the workbook

Vital Vintage Church – Michael Piazza

“No, the mainline church will not return to its glory days of the 1950s and ’60s, nor should it. What we must do is unleash the amazing life-giving power of grace, forgiveness, restoration, community, devotion, hope, purpose, and meaning that has always been the mission of the church.”
-Mike Piazza, Vital Vintage Church

» Click here for the whole story

Mike’s dive into thriving congregations is a great journey. With the ever-present “demise of the mainline” echoing in the “trade media” for churches, I appreciate his one-two punch of purpose and direction (and his use of metanoia for a apt description for “change”). He sets out a practical, yet personal, tale of the stories of churches that honor their traditions, hold on to their values, and understand the vision that God is casting before them.

“The real test of your resovle to offer a radical welcome is to answer, ruthlessly and honestly, this question: ‘For whom is your worship designed?’ Does it serve the needs of those who attend already, or is it carefully crafted so that guests have an optimal experience?
“To ask that another way, is the congergation oriented to be the Body of Christ… or do they see themselves as the consumers of church?”
-Mike Piazza, Vital Vintage Church

FWIW: This is a pre-pandemic book, and its impact does cast a shadow. Piazza hasn’t written on it specifically, but the wisdom to “change the narrative of doom and gloom” and “ take a breath, take the plunge” in discovering that our origins and traditions can open our eyes to the fullness of today’s ministry.

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

Mobilizing Congregations – John W. Wimberly

“When twenty-first-century people are given autonomy, empowered to master their work, and linked to visionary purposes, they are highly motivated and more likely to accomplish their goals. While the effort of volunteers in a congregation aren’t work perse, theur efforts are the work of the church.”
-John Wimberly, Mobilizing Congregations

» Click here for the whole story

John’s thesis is easy to hear: Teams > Committees. Focusing on individuals passions and gifts, and embracing the implementation of vision/mission/values as a journey without limits, he sets out a roadmap for the Post-Boom church. This echoes Disney Institutes’ wisdom on clear outcomes with individual autonomy: If you give folks clear roles and enough room, they will bring success beyond the expectation of the planners. And they’ll own it as their own!

“Of all the changes that took place as our congregation went through this transformation, one of the most important was them movement from committees to teams. “
-John Wimberly, Mobilizing Congregations

FWIW: Wimberly’s book is great for a church already in transformation. It may come across as a bit generationally-biased for those who embrace “Committee Culture.” I see it as a great eye-opener for congregations working on vitality within older organizational frameworks (or more traditional thinkers).

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

The Book Report: The Worship & Spirituality Books

I want to recommend to you two amazing Wise Ones: Margaret Wheatley and Melanie Joy.
I first met Wheatley’s wisdom in seminary, addressing the importance of engaged leadership and the need for community and communication. She continues her thoughtful sociology, helping us find ways to authentically connect and reflect on living together.

I encountered Joy’s writings at the UCC’s General Synod 34 in Indianapolis. I had the privilege of chairing a resolution committee on “Towards a Plant-Based Life.” IYKYK, the resolution wasn’t successful. But it did inspire me to a year-long journey of plant-based eating, and compassionately witnessing what living plant based looks like in meat-eating/meat-loving world. (FYI- Check out my Projects page for some awesome recipes!)

Restoring Sanity – Margaret Wheatley

“Sane leadership is the unshakeable faith in people’s capacity to be generous, creative and kind. It is the commitment to create the conditions for these capacities to blossom, protected from the external environment.  It is the deep knowing that, even in the most dire circumstances, more becomes possible as people engage together with compassion and discernment, self-determining their way forward.
– Margaret Wheatley, Restoring Sanity

» Click here for the whole story

Meg gives us a gift (she usually does!), but this time she lets us know that at the beginning. “Gifts are mean to delight and surprise,” she tells us. And this book of practices and reflections was a great gift for my sabbatical. I found it when looking for something else, and rejoiced in its contents from the first break of its spine. It became my morning devotional companion (and was specially grounding when I was watching hours of ‘un-human’ asynchronous video learning modules).

Identity, certainty, generosity, creativity, kindness – she reminds us that this is what it means to be human. And Wheatley challenges us to go beyond the knowable, and embrace the mysterious:

“Can we trust the stories we’ve heard and the experiences we’ve had that will never be explained by petty scientific explanation?
“What’s your experience of sensing, knowing things ahead of time, intuition, knowing when to contact someone? What experiences have you had where the most elegant solution – the simplest – is to give credit to forces, energies, beings beyond the physical realm?
“What does it mean to be human? Are we more than our physical selves? What gives life meaning? The simplest way to answer these questions is to understand ourselves.
-Margaret Wheatley, Restoring Sanity

FWIW: Just read it. A couple of times. And then put it down for a week, and flip through it again. On one level, you’ll find yourself. And on a second, Wheatley’s wisdom in organizational connections will burst through. And when it’s time, open the practices with your workplace, church, book club… whatever group you’re part of that needs to be awakened anew!

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

How Does the Raven Know? – Margaret Wheatley

“The power of ravens to console, with their presence, has astonished me into a world, that is not new, only forgotten, lost in separation and domination, as now we sit in ravaged relationship, with the living world.
“It was never this way, in any other time, with any other people, a world focused only on us, full of manipulation, creating extremes of, isolation, loneliness, grief, terror.
“We are driving ourselves crazy.
– Margaret Wheatley, How Does the Raven Know? (punctuation added to indicate poetic verse)

» Click here for the whole story

I got my copy of Raven second-hand from a Goodwill store off eBay. TBH, it was grungy. It was covered in a fine black silt, that I quickly realized was mildew. And I laughed. Because, if you know the stories of the natives of the Pacific Northwest Coast of the United States and Canada about Raven, they were always a mischief maker. Raven is a trickster.

Wheatley gives us gifts of quotes and poems to bring us in to that “trickiness.” She subtitled her book “Entering Sacred World | a meditative memoir.” Bringing the wisdom of different traditions, she tricks us into thinking about what we need to think about (even when we’re not ready to think about it!).

“We are told how wrong it is to impute, our intelligence to animals, building them up raising their ranking, attributing behaviors meant only for us.
“But what if we were as intelligent as animals?
“…We are a young species, we would be wiser if we recognized our immaturity, and used our intelligence, to take our right place on the planet.
– Margaret Wheatley, How Does the Raven Know? (punctuation added to indicate poetic verse)

FWIW: My love for the Raven stories brought me to read this book. But it’s not a retelling of Raven’s saga. Instead, Wheatley’s real trick is telling us that it’s okay to grieve what we have lost, and to reach out for support, encouragement, and consolation from the creation that has knit us into being. It’s going to take you some time to read through this. So don’t rush yourself. Embrace the world into which we are borne, and listen. In time, Raven will speak their truths for you, too.

» Click here to get a copy for yourself from ThriftBooks

Beyond Beliefs – Melanie Joy

Dear Non-Vegan,
Chances are you’re reading this letter because there’s a vegan (or vegaterian) in your live who wants to feel more connected with you. Maybe you’ve been having trouble communicating with each other…
In all kinds of relationships – not only between a vegan and someone who’s not vegan – the key to feeling more connected (and being happier overall) is being able to “compassionately witness” each other.
Connection is only possible when we know and appreciate what the world looks like through each other’s eyes, and when we can trust that the other will do their best to take our feelings into account when they say or do things that may impact us.”
– Melanie Joy, Beyond Beliefs, excerpt from ‘Appendix 9: Letter to a Non-Vegan’

» Click here for the whole story

Her subtitle says it all: ” A guide to improving relationships and communications for vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters.” With a picture of a literal fork in the road, Joy’s challenge is pretty straightforward. Stop judging. Start listening. And ultimately, realize that we all live in the same world.

Beyond Beliefs is as much a “relationship book” as it is a challenge to embrace plant-based or plan-exclusive diets. Joy outlines well the struggle that comes when people belittle one another’s diet choices as “fads” or the like. I think this text could be equally as inspirational in couples counseling as the Gottman Institute’s work in relationship dynamics. And (tongue in cheek), this method comes with amazing cuisine!

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows – Melanie Joy

“Bearing witness takes the courage to realize the potential of the human spirit. Witnessing requires us to call forth the highest qualities of our species, qualities such as conviction, integrity, empathy, and compassion. It is easier by far to retain the attributes of carnistic culture: apathy, complacency, self-interest, and “blissful” ignorance. I wrote this book––itself an act of witnessing––because I believe that, as humans, we have a fundamental desire to strive to become our best selves.”
– Melanie Joy, from Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows

» Click here for the whole story

“Carnism” is a harsh word. Etymologically, Meat-thinking doesn’t sound appetizing. And that’s just what Melanie Joy is trying to tell you. She challenges us to stop thinking “about the way things are,” and ask ourselves why one species becomes beloved and the other becomes, well, dinner.

Too harsh a distinction? Well, try this:

In much of the industrialized world, we eat animals not because we have to; we eat animals because we choose to. We don’t need to eat animals to survive or even to be healthy; millions of healthy and long-lived vegans have proven this point. We eat animals simply because it’s what we’ve always done, and because we like the way they taste. Most of us eat animals because it’s just the way things are.
– Melanie Joy, from Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows

So here’s the challenge: Read the book, and open yourself to a different ideology about the food we eat, and where it comes from. Maybe you’ll find some of the facts “distasteful”or dismissive of your ideology. Other parts you may find “palatable” for change.

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

FWIW: Both Beyond Beliefs and Dogs/Pigs/Cows give you an entry point to the psychology, ethics and impact of living a meat-centered/Carnistic life does in our worldviews. I’m not saying that you need to change your diet (well, yes, we probably all do…). But I would encourage you to be open to seeing how your dietary choices affects your relationships with others, and with yourself.

The Book Report: The Business Books

The Art of Gathering – Priya Parker

“Barack Obama’s aunt once told him, ‘If everyone is family, no one is family.’ It is blood that makes a tribe, a border that makes a nation. The same is true of gatherings. So here is a corollary to his aunt’s saying: If everyone is invited, no one is invited—in the sense of being truly held by the group. By closing the door, you create the room.”
– Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters

» Click here for the whole story

This I believe: We’ve forgotten how to gather as community. COVID is partly to blame. But this part of us was broken long beforehand. Parker’s challenge, “The way we gather matters.” should sink into us deeply.

The Obama family quote is equally as striking. If everyone is in, then no one is in. We lose ourselves in some bland falsehood that “They know us. And we know them.” Yet, as survey after survey tells us: we are all feeling alone. Heck, Gallup tells us that a quarter of us feel “Very Alone,” and another quarter, “A Little Lonely.” That’s half of us, y’all… and we’re not talking about it.

Parker uses her eight chapters to teach us about different kinds of gatherings, with different purposes and outcomes. The one that lives in my heart – that I think we need the most is Chapter Seven’s: Cause Good Controversy.

My belief is that controversy – of the right kind, and in the hands of a good host – can add both energy and life to your gatherings as well as be clarifying. It can help you use gathering to answer big questions: what you want to do, what you stand for, who you are. Good controversy can make a gathering matter…
– Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters

FWIW: It’s okay to be alone, and to feel lonely. I’m not going to demand you change that part of you. But I’m going to take Parker’s transformative witness to heart – at work, and at church, and at home, and at all of the other places where we find ourselves in community.

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

The 6 Types of Working Genius – Patrick Lencioni

“When I was a young child, I remember my dad frequently coming home at night frustrated by something he called work. And though I didn’t really understand what work was, this really bothered me and I felt bad for him.
“It wasn’t until I started working myself that I learned that jobs were often a source of frustration for people, and that the causes of this included bad managers, poor company leadership, broken relationships with colleagues, and people having to do jobs that didn’t match their natural talents and gifts…”
– Patrick Lencioni, The 6 Types of Working Genius

» Click here for the whole story

I said this back in the “Mouse/Church” series: I do love the organizational management of Patrick Lencioni, and have used his work in managing the business aspects of congregational life fro many years (Death by Meeting being a favorite!).

We’re working with this assessment as a staff team now. Specifically, we’re honing our “genius” in debriefing and actualizing the Sabbatical’s outcomes (and there’s a lot to talk through!). After opening the book and working through the inventory, it’s out task to center around the gifts God has woven into our team. Here’s the questions we’re working through:

  • 1. Where in your current role are you experiencing fulfillment? Frustration?
  • 2. Are there ways we can better use our team member’s geniuses?

Ultimately, we’ll be rolling a version of this out to the congregation’s Leadership Teams, too. Because, as Pat says:

“If you want to be successful and fulfilled in your work, you must tap into your gifts. That can’t happen if you don’t know what those gifts are.”
– Patrick Lencioni, 6 Types of Working Genius

FWIW: This isn’t the place most folks should start with the Table Group and Pat’s wisdom. I find that most organizations focus on their VMV statements (or SMART Goals outcomes) that their organizational parts are unbound to their values. I’d point to The Five Dysfunctions of a Team or The Truth About Employee Engagement (originally published as The Three Signs of a Miserable Job) as better starting points. I will say this: you’ll still end up at Working Genius, but you’ll be better prepared for it!

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

The Book Report: The Pleasure Reading Books

These books are re-reads, each coming from a different part of my life, my growth and my understanding of my calling (even if I didn’t know it yet!). I first read journalist Alex Kotlowitz’ There are No Children Here in my first year at seminary. Graham Greene‘s travelogue-style was a gift from my high school AP Literature course. And the ever-preachy Rev. Cotton Mather entered as a gift from my grandfather’s library.

They each hold a special place in my heart and spirit, and on my bookshelf.

The Other Side of the River – Alex Kotlowitz

The events surrounding Eric’s death should ring familiar to all of us, both black and white: the confusion and the understanding, the despair and the hope, the disconnections and, indeed, the connections. With all that in mind, I set out to find out how Eric ended up in what is the towns’ strongest connection of all, the river.
– Alex Kotlowitz, The Other Side of the River

» Click here for the whole story

Kotlowitz’ tale of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, MI is a tale of familiarities. While his story wraps itself around the two towns, we jut need to look out of our windows to find comparable tales of White Supremacy, of Race and Racism, of generational injustice in the name of “progress.” And Kotlowitz’ subject matter – the unexplained death of an African-American youth in a super-majority White town – is equally comparable to so many (so… many…) stories we find in our news today.

This was the last text that I picked up during my Sabbatical. And I almost didn’t. Its story is raw for me, though I came to it second-hand. And, it’s also the last review I’m writing. Because, as I share later, it hits me close to home.

What makes it personal was two-fold.

First, I lived there. I lived on Marina Drive in St. Joseph, on the Benton Harbor-side, just down the river from where Eric McGinnis’ body was found. From 2002-2006, I shared in the ministry at First Congregational Church UCC – St. Joseph, MI. I knew the people in the book, some through social or ministry connections; some because they worshipped with me on Sundays. I knew this town from the White side, while building relationships across the river. And I can witness that the ten years since Eric’s death had not tempered the divide between the sibling cities… not at all.

My copy of the book was given to me by a former mayor of St. Joseph when I arrived as an introduction to the city (and it’s twin across the river). I read it cover to cover over the next couple of days, and then found myself (map in hand) seeing the two cities through the book’s lens.

Second, Eric and I would be the same age today, had his life not ended on May 17, 1991. He was born just about two months before me. While I was living in Cincinnati, and he in Benton Harbor, we grew up in the same social realities. We both saw a world uncomfortable with race, and tied to generations-old hate. I like to think from what I’ve read about him in this book and other places, that had we met we could have spoken about the reality of life growing up in the early 1990s. And maybe we would have shared what we’ve witnessed in our years since 1991 of Race and Hate in America, of White Privilege, and too many stories of too many deaths motivated by these to catalogue.

I started reading this book while on a family vacation on Lake Michigan in August, 2024. In the sand near Warren Dunes State Park, on a blustery wave-filled Wednesday, I opened it again. Fifteen miles of beach and cliff separated me from the St. Joseph River, and thirty-three years.

As I said, this was the last book of the Sabbatical. And I can truly say, I’m sad I did. I’m glad I did.

FWIW: Read it, please. See what Eric’s story tells us about our world today.

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

The Power and the Glory – Graham Greene

‘Oh,’ the priest said, ‘that’s another thing altogether – God is love. I don’t say the heart doesn’t feel a taste of it, but what a taste. The smallest glass of love mixed with a pint pot of ditch-water. We wouldn’t recognize that love. It might even look like hate. It would be enough to scare us – God’s love. It set fire to a bush in the desert, didn’t it, and smashed open graves and set the dead walking in the dark. Oh, a man like me would run a mile to get away if he felt that love around.’
– Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory

» Click here for the whole story

I have Mrs. Ria Hursting to thank for this one. She was my AP- English Literature teacher. Along with Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, I had the “joy” of reading Greene’s masterpiece over the summer between my Junior and Senior year. And I hated it.

Then, as others asking telling me, “What about ministry?”, I found an abused Penguin Classic edition of The Power and the Glory, and it sunk into me anew. I met the main character, the ‘Whiskey Priest,’ as an adult. This one, like me, who always sought to do the right thing, lived a story out loud for us all. And his commitment to seeing it out, “too human for heroism, too humble for martyrdom,” is an understated encounter of being human while following in Christ’s Way.

“He knew now that at the end there was only one thing that counted – to be a saint.”
– Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory

FWIW: It’s a quick read. And maybe you will find yourself in the pages, as I did. Maybe not. Maybe you’ll just look for the ticket out, like Mr. Tench. But you’ll have to read it all to find out!

» Click here to get a copy for yourself

Manductio ad Ministerium (1762, original text)- Cotton Mather

“CHRISTIAN, Fill thy Life with ‘most explicit Acknowledgements of the Glorious God, and Acts of Obedience to Him. Let even ‘the whople business of they Temporal Calling be explicitly designed for an Obedience to GOD. At the same time, Fill thy LIfe with Good Offices to Mankind, and with Actions that shall be Blessings (and make the Doer a Rich One) unto thry Neighbors.
This will be Living – CAETERA MORTIS ERUNT.
– Cotton Mather, Manductio ad Ministerium (text appears here as printed)

» Click here for the whole story

I received my copy of this book from my grandmother, Edith, when I started seminary. She had kept it on her bookshelf, an editor’s preview given to my grandfather Butler (whose name I and my father were ‘regressively’ given). The flyleaf notes the hope that the reprint may give inspiration to a new generation, first encountering the wisdom of Mather through its reprinting.

When I was questioning my calling, and struggling to articulate my vocation, Mather became my interlocutor, my challenger:

“Intending to give you some DIRECTIONs for your Proceeding in the STUDIES, uponwhich you are Entring, that you may be prepared and furnished for the work of Evangelical MINISTRY, to which you are designed… But the Contemplation of DEATH shall be the first point of Wisdom that my Advice must lead you…
“Do this, that you may do nothing like Living in Vain… I propose a ‘VIVE MEMOR MORTIS” as what wil be the Way to Truest wisdom.
– Cotton Mather, Manductio ad Ministerium (text appears here as printed)

“Living in the Question of Death” Mather challenges, ‘shouldmake you assoon as may be “Begin to Live.”

FWIW: It’s a bit preachy (He’s a Mather…). And he speaks in his own vernacular (pardon the VERY exclusive language!) But if you can get past this aspect of an 18th-century New England Puritan, I believe you’ll find yourself asking yourself deep questions about your life, your faith, and where God is calling you to be and do.

One joy is that this book is available in PDF for computers and for e-readers. So while it’s hard to find a print edition, it’s available for easy access if you use your screens to read. You can also order a bound version:

» Click here to get a copy for yourself


Thanks to you all for being part of the Sabbatical time, and for checking out this book list. I do hope that one (or more!) of these stories ends up on your reading list. Books are, at their heart, places for us to journey; places for us to find renewal and rest. Books are the stuff Sabbaticals are made to prayerfully ponder.

Also, check out the posts on my experience with Disney Institutes: Of Mouse and Church.

May you find your Sabbatical story, be it here or in your TBR pile!

And now that my renewal time is done, I can say this again:
I’ll see you in church real soon!
-HEF

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship, Part 4

Thanks for following the “Of Mouse and Church” series, reflecting on the Disney Institute‘s professional development courses. I hope you are inspired with their content as much as I am! I encourage you to find out more about the courses at their website: www.disneyinstitute.com.

The focusing question of this series is this:

What would it be like for people to have a faith formation experience so extravagantly welcoming; with such radically inclusive hospitality; and so deeply Spirit-centered in God’s love that they were already excited and planning to return for another experience before they left the building?

I think there’s a lot of wisdom contained in Disney’s guest-centered experience that can help us live out our calling to follow in Christ’s Way of welcome. This is Part Four (the last part) of a multi-part post on the first of the Disney Institute’s Three Pillars Approach : Leadership Excellence.

Sustaining Sustenance

The Disney Institute’s thesis on leadership is this:

Leaders establish, operationalize, and sustain the values and vision by which organizations thrive.

The previous posts in this series spoke on:

I want to look at a key term that our American/Western business-tied society often takes for granted: “Leaders set the vision.”

I’ll start with this: I’m conflicted with this premise. Specifically in the context of faith communities, I am not totally in agreement that leaders establish the values and vision.

Here’s what challenges me: Values produce vision; and values come from history. Churches have a long history. They have buy-in to community-owned values that span generations. And likewise (or like it or not…) churches’ long history provide vision periods to be elongated. Whether this elongation is healthy or harmful depends on the leader’s and organizations alignment.

Similarly, when a faith leader casts a new vision and fails to communicate how is aligned with the community’s values, the risk to the new vision’s success is incredibly high. No connection, no buy-in.

I think something like these better fit the relationship between a faith leader and their faith community’s vision:

  • Faith Leaders steward a vision owned within the community.
  • Faith Leaders develop others to understand their alignment with the vision.
  • Faith Leaders sustain the traditions and “grow” them into alignment with the current vision.

Maybe this is just a challenge of semantics. But as the Disney Institute presenter said, “Values don’t change easily, so vision must be aligned with them, natural and easy to enact.” So the role of Faith Leaders is to steward, develop, and sustain the vision. And their job is to do this in a way that is aligned with the community’s history, while still being vision-focused for today.

Processes in Practice

Every faith community has its observations and practices that are driven by their vision. And so, too, do guest service/experience companies like Disney. Some of them are easy to see in action. Others are behind-the-scene (or backstage, in Disney parlance) but are just as essential to the vision.

But love is really more of an interactive process.
It’s about what we do not just what we feel.
It’s a verb, not a noun.
bell hooks

For a visual, here are Disney’s values and my congregation’s values in parallel:

DisneySt. John UCC
CreativityChrist’s Way is our inspiration
InnovationAn Extravagant Welcome in our Community
BelongingLove for all
StorytellingWorship is our Center
EthicsMission and Service
Optimism
Decency

For Disney, connecting their values with the organizational processes helps them to be “the world’s premiere entertainment company.” The processes are the lived-out vision in day-to-day decisions and actions. It does help to understand where a given process came from, and what part of the values did it grow from. The values are also understood against the Five Keys: Safety, Courtesy, Show, Efficiency, and Inclusion (Yes, it used to be four for those who are in the know). FYI, we’ll talk more about the Five Keys when they come up in “Quality Service.”

Here’s a little process, that any guest to Walt Disney World or Disneyland has witnessed: The Disney Point.

A widely circulated myth holds that this practice is retained in homage to Walt Disney himself…
But that’s not true. The real reason the cast members always use two fingers is that in some cultures — particularly in Asian cultures, where pointing tends to be associated with blame — it is considered extremely rude to point with your index finger. And nobody needs that at Disney.
(with thanks to Weird Disney)

The eponymous two-finger point is part of the value of “Belonging.” By extension, its use demonstrates the key of Courtesy. Disney Institutes has this to say:

Organizational processes reflect the values of the leaders who created them.

So how’s this as a parallel in church life: The Open Table.

We believe that all people of faith are invited to join Christ at Christ’s table for the sacrament of Communion. Just as many grains of wheat are gathered to make one loaf of bread and many grapes are gathered to make one cup of wine, we, the many people of God, are made one in the body of Christ, the church.
from “What We Believe” at ucc.org

The invitation is “Extravagant Welcome” lived out loud. It’s also an example of Christ’s Way inspiring the vision of the church.

One might not even be aware of these processes (unless you’ve experienced the opposite lived-out). They speak quietly to a vision that can be seen transparently in simple actions.

Seeing with Vision

The more a vision can be expressed in a vivid, imaginative way, the more it will motivate people to action in the present.
Disney Institutes on “A Leader’s vision”

There’s a story that the Disney Institute shared about Walt Disney that demonstrates his seeing with vision. In the early years of animation, Walt got an idea to move from the short cartoon-style animation to a full length feature film. His idea was tell the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Here’s the brief version of how he expressed it “in a vivid, imaginative way:”

Of all the countless stories and anecdotes about Walt Disney, one of the most iconic and oft-recounted by those who knew him was of the fateful evening in the mid-1930s when Walt assembled his core group of artists in the sound stage at the Disney studio on Hyperion Avenue. There, without aid or introduction, Walt single-handedly performed the story of what would become Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Adopting the voices and gestures of each character, he moved across the stage and held their rapt attention. “We were spellbound,” Art Director Ken Anderson would remember, “He was all by himself and he acted out this fantastic story.”
with thanks from thee Walt Disney Family Museum

“It’s okay, and often necessary to be unconventional when presenting your vision” Disney Institute says. “You’re often looking ot change ingrained behaviors, and that might require a jolt to the system.”

Vivid, Imaginative, Motivational, and Actionable; in inspirational language with aspirational goals. What a great way to describe the Christ’s Way in the Gospels. I can imagine, though, that early in his work, Jesus too had to find the right way to talk about God’s Realm–to find the right words to inspire, and the right means to share their motivational message. As we are blessed with the stories and parables that allow us our motivation and “actionable” life in faith.

In their telling, what did Jesus do? He “performed the stories,” acting out each voice. He inspired the “wrapped attention” of the Disciples and the crowds. And he motivated them all to catch the vision of a world that could be more inclusive, more loving, and more centered on God’s call.

The role of the leader is to understand all of this. The challenge for is is to put the message into words or images–vivid and imaginative ones. And then we are called to bring that “ambitious view of the future” into every part of the faith community. Centered in Christ’s example, we are called to show a future that is better than what now exists, that everyone can believe in and have ownership to bring to flower.

A Vision for Today

This is the heart of the matter (or as Disney Institute reminds us):

Leaders establish, operationalize, and sustain the values and vision by which organizations thrive.

So here’s the list of key ideas from my journey with the Disney Institute:

  • It’s all about Relationships, the “business” of being church is discovering who is our neighbor. It takes us, the people, to make the dream a reality;
  • Leadership is Discipleship; and Discipleship, Leadership. And every person, member and guest, leads in their individual giftedness within the church;
  • Telling our Story helps everyone understand who God has called us to be and do. We can help others understand what we believe (our values) and where we feel God is calling us (our vision);
  • Once you know your values, you can look to your vision. The more vividly the vision is expressed, the more clearly others will be motivated to be part of it; and
  • It’s up to the Leaders to communicate and steward the vision for the faith community, their “ambitious view of the future,” with a passion and conviction that everyone in the community can believe in.

We’ll be “testing” this five-point summary will be tested and rarified in the lived practices of congregational life at St. John UCC over the coming year. Specifically, we will be looking at how our ministry can better live out our values and vision as we plan for the next “season” of church life in staffing, ministry programs, and mission outreach.

This is the conclusion of this section of my experience with the Disney Institute: On Leadership Excellence. I’ll be reflecting on two additional parts of their wisdom, “Employee Engagement” and “Quality Service.” We’ll see how these translate to “Living our Faith Out Loud,” and “Practicing what we Preach.”

For now, I say, “Thank you!” for the time you spent reflecting with me on the Disney Institute’s lessons on leadership excellence.

What’s Next?

I invite you to join me in prayerful discernment on how God is calling us to understand our Leadership, Engagement, and Service. And I invite you to help form the language that best speaks about these areas from our heritage and values.

This series will be posting out over the next week, and I’d love to hear what you think about seeing the church through Mouse-shaped glasses. Do leave a comment and add to the conversation.

Until next time, friends. Hope to see you real soon!
-HEF


Note: You can read about the inspiration and the foundations of my 2024 Sabbatical by following this link.

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship, Part 3

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship Part 3

Thanks for following the “Of Mouse and Church” series, reflecting on the Disney Institute‘s professional development courses. I hope you are inspired with their content as much as I am! I encourage you to find out more about the courses at their website: www.disneyinstitute.com.

The focusing question of this series is this:

What would it be like for people to have a faith formation experience so extravagantly welcoming; with such radically inclusive hospitality; and so deeply Spirit-centered in God’s love that they were already excited and planning to return for another experience before they left the building?

I think there’s a lot of wisdom contained in Disney’s guest-centered experience that can help us live out our calling to follow in Christ’s Way of welcome. This is Part Three of a multi-part post on the first of the Disney Institute’s Three Pillars Approach : Leadership Excellence.

I invite you to consider the three stories below, and what happened because of the values on display. And yes, these are real events in real churches (though the names and places have been changed). A warning: The story sections make the post longer than typical. I’ve formatted them with “Click Downs” so you can read the summary (TL:DR) section, and then open the full story and theological reflection for each. Also, You can skip reading the stories, and jump to the summary by clicking this link.

Values into Vision

The Disney Institute’s thesis on leadership is this:

Leaders establish, operationalize, and sustain the values and vision by which organizations thrive.

In the first post in this series, we looked at the origins of our values and where they drive our vision. In the second post, we looked at our alignment between the our values, our unit organization’s values (the local church), and the our larger organization’s (denominational/tradition) values.

Now, we’re going to look at the Operationalizing part: how things can become transformational when values are aligned. This creates a system of shared values. Or as Disney Institutes puts it:

Creating a system of shared values indicates what an organization stands for.

This idea of systemic values is one of the challenges in leading faith communities. Like I said in the last post, we’ll tell stories to integrate theory and real-life. I give homage to the master of this style of story/theory writing, Patrick Lencioni. Take some time and see if Pat’s wisdom gets you thinking!


The Story of “The Over-doer”

TL:DR

A new member of a faith community sees unmet opportunities for the group; but fails to understand how the community is living its values. Disney Institute gives this wisdom:

Leaders must intentionally align and integrate their values with the organization’s values.

The Story

Click to read the whole story.

I met this church leader while doing a consultation on youth ministry with their church. Their history of religious affiliation was “hopscotch.” They worshipped and worked with a congregation for a few years at most. Citing the Spirit’s guidance, they moved on quickly to their next destination. Now, they felt called to stay with this new ministry for some time, to raise their children in the congregation, and connect with the wider church. The conversations with them sounded like this:

  • “The pastor is a great leader, and helps folks put their passions into good works. But when I bring an idea to make things better, I don’t feel that the idea gets shared.
  • “I love their passion for Christ’s Way. But I think they need to read their scriptures more.”
  • “Kids from this church sure know that they are cared for. But there are a lot of kids in this community that don’t come every week.”

As part of the consultation, we did a map-out of “The Things We Do Well,” partnered with a “You say, but I say” analysis. Typically, this exercise raises up a bunch of low-hanging “good-feeling” outcomes that can be implemented in the short term. And while they are adding joy to the community, harder-to-implement ideas can be mapped out and tested. For example, this exercise might produce the statement: 1) We are very welcoming, but 2) people don’t know how to get from the door to the sanctuary/meeting spaces. So the easy outcome would be for the Deacons to add Greeters as an additional layer of welcome for guests. Meanwhile, the Property Team starts investigating better signage.

Our friend the church leader sat and listened as the first list was created, nodding along but not verbally participating. When we began the second list, they broke their silence. And they never stopped. Ten fixes to every idea, and no space given for others to share (including the pastor and staff). What made it more awkwardly challenging: the fixes came from this person’s experience at other churches – the communities they had left. And because of denominational or situational differences in values of the communities, many of the ideas simply didn’t fit.

Because they were newer to the faith community, they had not yet embodied its values. They sought a deeper relationship without knowing the values and vision of the congregation. After some tense months, yes, they moved on to another church.

The Inspiration

Click to read parallels in Jesus’ ministry.

The parable of the Rich One and Jesus must have been important to the First-century church. It’s retold in the synoptic Gospels, each with their own twist (Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-30). “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds, “Keep the commandments.” Follow your values. That’s enough. But that’s not enough for the Rich One. There’s got to be more! So Jesus said:

“There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
Luke 18:22

By his report, the Rich One had kept the commandments. Yet they did not feel satisfied or fulfilled. They needed to do more than was commanded, or was absolutely necessary. In other words, they needed to reach a higher state of perfection. They weren’t aligned with the tradition, or the vision Jesus was casting.

The act of seeking that perfection – to be more fully in control of the relationship – separated the Rich One from their path, and our Leader from their church. Disney Institute says this on alignment:

Leaders must intentionally align and integrate their personal values with the organization’s values.

One of the tenets of the Interim Ministry Network’s Fundamentals of Transitional Ministry training echoes this:

Join the System

While being “outsider” specialists, interim ministers also need to be “insider” supporters. Attempting values-change in a functioning system can be done (and sometimes needs to be done). But only with a lot of planning and a great risk once you know the system you’re in, and are authentically aligned with its values. A leader intentionally aligning their values with the organization helps name conflicting priorities and helps resolve them before the risky times start.


The story of “My Way or…”

TL:DR

A church staff and mission team come into a values conflict with the Lead Pastor, largely because the pastor did not share their beliefs openly with the congregation. Disney Institutes notes:

Creating a system of shared values indicates what an organization stands for.

When leaders’ and organizations’ values create conflicting priorities, the mis-alignment isn’t good for either party.

The Story

Click to read the whole story

A close friend of mine contacted me to be a reference in a pastoral search. The thing was: I just was a reference in their pastoral search. They were serving a pretty-good-sized congregation as an Associate Pastor (with a pretty denominationally well-connected Senior Pastor). They had been in the position for about eighteen months (just long enough for the guild to fall off the lily). So, I asked what was up. They said:

I was working with our Social Activism group on a project to support marriage equality (NB: this was before 2015). We got all of the way through the committee work, set up a four-part speaker series, and invited a pretty well-known attorney/activist to teach us how to use our social and peer networks to advance the cause.

We brought the whole plan to the Mission & Outreach Ministry (who oversees the group), and presented what had been planned. At the end of the presentation, the pastor - who knew all about the efforts - pulled back from the table and said, "No, I don't support this. My faith tells me that it's not Christian."

The group was dumbstruck, but continued on. They shared about the polling they had done with the congregation, and the high percentage of support within the church and the wider community. The committee nodded along. It seemed like we had their buy-in. 

The bottom line came at the end of the session, "This isn't an egalitarian ministry. I said 'No,' and I mean 'No.'" And that's where it stopped. 
The next week, the pastor and I sat down, and was reprimanded for not doing what they instructed me to do (even though they never voiced their opinion prior. So, benign neglect became active derision. I'm out.

The team was in agreement that this was within the congregation’s values. The overseeing committee was in agreement. The congregation was in agreement to implement this vision. But there was a stumbling point: The pastor did not agree that this was a value, or part of the vision.

The Inspiration

Click to read parallels in Jesus’ ministry.

Going to stretch a bit into the conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus, specifically Mark 8:14-21 and the “Yeast of the Pharisees:”

And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”
Mark 8:15

The pastor was the “yeast keeper” of the congregation’s vision. And they empowered the church to thrive in its planning. But when it came down to engaging the vision, the pastor didn’t let it rise (bad bread reference), and engage in the Spirit-discerned vision. And it created a lot of tensions.

After my friend left (to the shock of many), the pastor tried to pull back from the more progressive aspects of the congregation’s values and identity. Their tenure lasted about a year more, and they announced that they would be leaving “because of unreconcilable theological differences.”


The Story of “Well, that happened…”

TL:DR

A retiring pastor and a declining congregation come together with the help of their judicatory leaders to vision themselves into a revitalized future. Disney Institutes notes:

Vision provides an ambitious view of the future that everyone in the organization can believe in and promises a future that is better than what now exists.

The Story

Click to read the whole story

This story was told to me something like this:

All things have beginnings, middles, and endings. There was a church that was witnessing a changing of its population. There was a pastor who was witnessing a changing sense of call. Both were considering endings, with little vision for their future.

Their Conference Minister was concerned for both. Each had a good history. The church had served its community for 135 years. The pastor had guided four congregations in over 40 years of service. Too often, this Shepherd of Shepherds had seen doors close for good and stoles boxed for the attic. Each had their own story to tell, too. The church was “old mainline,” in a community that had seen changes in the its ethnic origins and cultural connections. The pastor had grown up in the South, served on the East and West Coasts, and was now in the Midwest’s Rust Belt.

When the congregation’s long-time pastor left for health reasons, the Church Council called a special meeting to discern their future. This wasn’t a “middle” meeting; it was to be a closure vote. Almost at the same time, the pastor contacted the Conference Minister that they were going to leave their current call and wanted to have a conversation about the future. This wasn’t a “middle meeting; it was a retirement.

Fearing for both the church and the pastor, the Conference Minister had an idea. If the congregation didn’t continue to meet before the vote, the outcome was sure. And if the pastor stepped out without direction, their health – body, mind, and spirit – was at risk. So the Conference Minister organized a “pulpit supply” relationship between the two.

But this temporary shepherd arrangement had a twist. It began when the Conference Minister gave each of them a short history of the other. They challenged the pastor and the church to get to know each other, and understand the gifts for ministry that were at their disposal.

Here’s what the church found they had:

  • A building that was too big and too costly for them to maintain;
  • A history of community service that could not meet their current expectations;
  • A passion for racial and social justice (though they were of a population with historic privilege); and
  • A sizable endowment that would “keep the place open” for another ten years.

And here’s what the pastor brought:

  • A love for worship and contemplative spirituality;
  • A history with leading racial and social justice organizations;
  • A “blank slate” about the community, since they were new to the city; and
  • A short timeline.

They sat down together, the pastor and the church, and started discerning what God was calling them to be and to do. And yes, they asked the third question: Who was their neighbor. To that third question, they realized that they no longer lived in the community – none of them. They commuted in on Sundays and complained about the lack of parking. This realization brought up another issue: their community partnerships didn’t serve the current community resident’s needs. So if they were to close and divest their assets to support the old neighborhood, they were going to need to discover who was best positioned to help. They postponed the vote, and set out a nine-month timeline to contemplate their calling.

This decision landed right in the pastor’s strengths and history. The pastor gathered a select team to organize the data. They took on the task of gathering the names of the community organizations around the church’s building. They found a rubric to judge mission impact and financial stability. And they met with every executive director that they could to know who they were personally and what the organization needed professionally. Here’s what they found:

  • There were a LOT of smaller high-impact organizations serving the community. And a lot of them duplicated services of others;
  • The community was changing, and rent costs were going up beyond typical annual inflation;
  • The number of at-risk youth was staggering, largely due to the reduction of services through the local school district (who was also suffering); and
  • Government funding was going to the larger, better organized agencies who did not serve the community directly.

The pastor and the team called a meeting of the congregation and a dozen of the executive directors. The Council President started the meeting with this sentence: “You are all doing good work in and for our community. We are not. There is no place with reasonable rent for you to house your work. We have a place. The grants and funding for programs isn’t forthcoming. We have an idea on where to get that.”

Over the rest of the nine months, this group gathered every other week think things out. The church would still be a church, but the building would house the organizations at a fair cost. The organizations would work to streamline and combine services to better serve the community. The church established a building trust that would take over managing the building; and a charitable trust that would manage inside donations and outside grants for the partner groups. A new organization would be created to accomplish the new vision with a board of directors would be established between church members and community elders. And this group would include the Conference Minister for their guidance to ensure a future that honored the intent and values that brought the venture into being.

So, the ending became a beginning. The church still meets monthly for worship on the first Sunday. And they meet on the third Sunday to organize the mission plan for the next month. They have leveraged their building into an “incubator” for social justice and community-based organizations. They recently added a music conservatory program (with the help of a local college) to serve the unmet needs of the area youth. Every once and awhile a new member joins the church, and they welcome them with joy. But that wasn’t the heart of their mission. Being a church for their community was.

The Inspiration

Click to read parallels in Jesus’ ministry.

In two of the Gospels, Jesus gives fishing advice to his fishers-of-people Disciples “Cast your nets on the other side/the right side…” (Luke 5:1–6; John 21:1–8).

It’s not like Simon, Thomas, Nathaniel, and James and John (who worked in their father’s fishing business) didn’t know how to fish. Something about how they were going about it just wasn’t working that day:

Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” (Luke 5:5, MSG)

It wasn’t what they were doing, but how they put the vision into effort. With a renewed vision and excitement to see it thrive into the future, an ending becomes a beginning, and like the Disciples “They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch (Luke 5:7, MSG).


A Vision for Today

This is the heart of the matter (or as Disney Institute reminds us):

Leaders establish, operationalize, and sustain the values and vision by which organizations thrive.

So we’re building this list of key ideas. Let’s keep them in mind:

  • It’s all about Relationships, the “business” of being church is discovering who is our neighbor. It takes us, the people, to make the dream a reality;
  • Leadership is Discipleship; and Discipleship, Leadership. And every person, member and guest, leads in their individual giftedness within the church; and
  • Telling our Story helps everyone understand who God has called us to be and do. We can help others understand what we believe (our values) and where we feel God is calling us (our vision).
  • Once you know your values, you can look to your vision. The more vividly the vision is expressed, the more clearly others will be motivated to be part of it

The next post will wrap up the section on Leadership Excellence. I think it may be better to call this “Inspired Leadership” in our “Of Mouse and Church” thinking. It’s the Spirit that is still-speaking into our creative and engaged ministries. Specifically, we’re going to look at how a leader can cast a vision, communicate the vision with passion and conviction, and help the community sustain the vision through easy times and difficult ones (and we have our COVID stories to share about “those times!”).

What’s Next?

I invite you to join me in prayerful discernment on how God is calling us to understand our Leadership, Engagement, and Service. And I invite you to help form the language that best speaks about these areas from our heritage and values.

This series will be posting out over the next week, and I’d love to hear what you think about seeing the church through Mouse-shaped glasses. Do leave a comment and add to the conversation.

Until next time, friends. Hope to see you real soon!
-HEF


Note: You can read about the inspiration and the foundations of my 2024 Sabbatical by following this link.

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship, Part 2

Bean seeds, planting, growing

Thanks for following the “Of Mouse and Church” series, reflecting on the Disney Institute‘s professional development courses. I hope you are inspired with their content as much as I am! I encourage you to find out more about the courses at their website: www.disneyinstitute.com.

The focusing question of this series is this:

What would it be like for people to have a faith formation experience so extravagantly welcoming; with such radically inclusive hospitality; and so deeply Spirit-centered in God’s love that they were already excited and planning to return for another experience before they left the building?

I think there’s a lot of wisdom contained in Disney’s guest-centered experience that can help us live out our calling to follow in Christ’s Way of welcome. This is Part Two of a a multi-part post on the first of the Disney Institute’s Three Pillars Approach : Leadership Excellence.

Values into Vision

The Disney Institute’s thesis on leadership is this:

Leaders establish, operationalize, and sustain the values and vision by which organizations thrive.

In the first post in this series, we looked at the origins of our values and where they drive our vision. It’s good to keep in mind how the values remain foundational: remembering the original sources. They are as important as the regualr review of the “now.” They help us whom who we are and what we stand for. And maybe, they will help to tell us why we’re going where we’re going. Our values help us “explain the why” of what we believe and do.

For example, one of Jesus’ first “values” statement comes from his first words out of the desert:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4:18-19 (NRSV-UE)

Right off the mark, the value of sharing the Gospel’s good news to the poor (in Gustavo Gutierrez’ words, a “preferential option for the poor”). That comes from freedom for the imprisoned, renewed sight for the blind, and the release those who have been crushed. And why is this the case? Because it is time to proclaim the year of God’s favor. So, Leaders/Disciples, how do we engage our Progressive Christian values with this vision to celebrate this?

Operationalizing our Values

Knowing the “Why?”, we turn our attention to the “How”: the vision.

Disney Institute has a great concept on moving from “Why” to “How,” from values to vision, called the Leadership Lens. They say beginning with consistent values, and expanding the vision to the present, and planning for the future, an organization can “build a culture by design.”

They emphasize that this “culture by design” happens when leadership and the organization have values that are aligned with each other. It starts with the proactive presence of the values. It changes in application to a given situation (as we can see in the Epistles of Paul and others). Even with this situational awareness of circumstance, the leaders are there to staunchly defend against potential threats to the values.

Finally, Disney Institute shares this belief:

“Everyone should be considered a leader.”

This is one of the parts of their leadership model that I find compelling for faith communities. The idea that everyone is equally invested is exciting! The belief that every member of its community are leaders shapes the lived ownership of the future. It creates a culture, by design, that acknowledges the unique giftedness that God has knitted into their being. What a great acknowledgement of their personhood!

An important lesson from Venn Diagrams

One of the repeated themes in the Disney Institute’s sessions on Leadership is this: “Tell your story.” By sharing who we are as people, and what our values are and where our values come from, we can help others understand where shapes our vision.

Venn Diagram on Alignment for "Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship Part 2"

The idea is that when a person’s values are integrated within their “local” working area, and the values of that area are integrated with that of their larger organization, the aligned values will shine out. People will know what you believe, and what you stand for.
Note: This diagram is modified from the original (leader, unit, and organization) to reflect our focus on leadership in the church.

When a leader’s values are aligned with that of their organization, that is when the magic happens. This is key, as we’ll discuss in a moment. While local values may differ, they should still be aligned with the larger organization. In the case of churches, it helps others see what we believe and how we live in Christ’s Way every day. And, it helps us to demonstrate that our words and our actions match our values.

Telling our Story

One of the great things about our faith tradition is the dependence on Telling our Story. Jesus’ love for parable and storytelling is one of the tools that allowed the Gospel’s good news to spread fast. We have a great example of a value-sharing story in Matthew 13. I find it fun that the Disciples ask Jesus, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He answers them with a story: The Parable of the Sower.

“Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. If you have ears, hear!”

Matthew 13:3-9 (NRSVUE)

What can we learn from the Parable of the Sewer and our Venn Diagram on “aligned values?” Play with this story, and the tree parts of our Venn Diagram:

  • It happens when a leader’s vision for ministry is strong, and aligned with the denomination’s values, but not in sync with the local congregation’s heritage. That creates a tension within the vision that breaks the relationship between shepherd and flock–an “Us and Them” relationship. The seeds on this path dry up, since the only place they are fed is where the pastor can tend them.
  • And it also happens that the leader’s vision is not aligned with the denomination’s values, but the congregation holds tightly to their identity within the denomination. That creates a different tension within–a separation due to a “We and You” relationship. Here the thorns grow among the wheat, with competing visions vying for the available resources.
  • Third (since there are three parts of this Venn system), it happens that the leader and the congregation have a mutual vision, but that vision does not align with the denomination’s identity. Part of me wants to say that this is the most distancing relationship. It cuts off the wider heritage and relationships that helped form a faith community’s original values. This tension–an “Us and only Us” relationship–is the seeds on rocky ground. No roots matter, only the moment’s most passionate vision.

But, listen with your ears (hidden Mickey moment!): When each of us as Leaders in our Churches, and Disciples of Christ’s Way, ensure that our values are aligned If all three parts are aligned, that “good earth” moment happens! It creates an ambitious view of the future that everyone can believe in, and promises a future that is better than what now exits.

A Vision for Today

Let’s keep these things in mind:

  • It’s all about Relationships, the “business” of being church is discovering who is our neighbor. It takes us, the people, to make the dream a reality;
  • Leadership is Discipleship; and Discipleship, Leadership. And every person, member and guest, leads in their individual giftedness within the church; and
  • Telling our Story helps everyone understand who God has called us to be and do. We can help others understand what we believe (our values) and where we feel God is calling us (our vision).

In the next post, we’re going to get super-practical on this (because while some folks like theory, others prefer the practical. It’s two different ways to tell the story! We’ll see how these seeds grow from the fertile earth of our Spirit-inspired minds!

What’s Next?

I invite you to join me in prayerful discernment on how God is calling us to understand our Leadership, Engagement, and Service. And I invite you to help form the language that best speaks about these areas from our heritage and values.

This series will be posting out over the next week, and I’d love to hear what you think about seeing the church through Mouse-shaped glasses. Do leave a comment and add to the conversation.

Until next time, friends. Hope to see you real soon!
-HEF


Note: You can read about the inspiration and the foundations of my 2024 Sabbatical by following this link.

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship, Part 1

"The Call," Jorge Cocco Santángelo https://jorgecocco.com/2021/07/25/the-call/

Thanks for following the “Of Mouse and Church” series, reflecting on the Disney Institute‘s professional development courses. I hope you are inspired with their content as much as I am! I encourage you to find out more about the courses at their website: www.disneyinstitute.com.

The focusing question of this series is this:

What would it be like for people to have a faith formation experience so extravagantly welcoming; with such radically inclusive hospitality; and so deeply Spirit-centered in God’s love that they were already excited and planning to return for another experience before they left the building?

I think there’s a lot of wisdom contained in Disney’s guest-centered experience that can help us live out our calling to follow in Christ’s Way of welcome. This is Part One of a a multi-part post on the first of the Disney Institute’s Three Pillars Approach : Leadership Excellence.

Leadership and Discipleship

A quick review of the Three Pillars:

  1. Leadership Excellence
  2. Employee Engagement
  3. Quality Service

Honestly, I thought about working from #3 to #1, because it’s easy to talk about church work from a service-delivery perspective. It’s how we coach so many of our decisions. “We have extra funds. What mission can we help out?” “The food pantry needs more cereal. How can we fill that need?” Churches like to be pragmatic more than they like to be planful and purposeful. This hurts our efforts to build authentic relationships, though. Our guests get a confusing picture of who we are, and what God is calling us to do or be (Thanks, Gil Rendle and Alice Mann!).

The Disney Institute’s thesis on leadership is:

Leaders establish, operationalize, and sustain the values and vision by which organizations thrive.

They also note that: “An organization’s values often form intentionally by proactive leaders or organically in the presence of all types of leaders.” Given the nature of the relationships within faith communities–volunteer-based and membership driven–organic values tend to be the norm. They grow out out of interpersonal interactions and shared passions. But what if leaders looked to be intentionally organic, creating space for the values to come to fruit like the “seeds that fell on good ground?” This is where faith communities thrive, holding to their historic commitments while granting space for the Spirit to move and nurture.

No matter how a faith community’s decision-making is organized, our actions in how we serve our ministries are driven by the values and vision behind how we are organized. In our Christian context: Leadership is Discipleship; and Discipleship, Leadership.

Our discernment for today is in defining the foundational values, where they came from, and how they are alive in the faith community’s vision today.

Establishing the Values and Founding a Vision

In faith communities, especially long-living ones, “establishing” the values and visions of the organization is a tricky topic. We’ve got scriptural sources, and historical testimonies, and denominational differences, and internal community legacies–each establishing part of the values. So in my context, where do we claim our Progressive Christian values originate? I think it looks something like this:

  • Jesus’ life and ministry described in the Gospels starts us off (Christ is our center).
  • Paul and others in the “origin era” systematize the norms of what the church will become.
  • Empire and Christendom take over, and codify what’s good (orthodox) and what’s not (heresy).
  • The Reformation reformed (as it does), resetting the values and recasting the vision-even in the parts of the church that rejected the Reformation.
  • And the modern, postmodern/metamodern church of today keeps that rolling reform going.

I want to acknowledge these Spirit-driven revisions that keep the church alive–and celebrate them. There’s a tendency to seek a history of “the church” that is monolithic and single-origin, or to call back to a specific point in the history of Christianity. Some would use the words like Biblical, or Traditional, or even Orthodox, and fixate on a moment as a defining “golden era.” Yes, there are threads that continue across the eras, and there are other ones that were knit in at different points that are now purely historical. That’s how a living history works.

Legacy, Heritage and Values

The past is malleable and flexible, changing as our recollection interprets and re-explains what has happened.

Peter L. Berger

As the engaged Body of Christ, the church is a growing, responsive body thriving in its unique time and place. Cultural historians will tell us, and our own experience confirms regularly: our history is as old as the one who told us the story. But it also has a lot to do with a faith community’s lived history. Take for example my current church:

  • The founders were German immigrants, who left to escape the oppression and economic exploitation of the Thirty Years’ War.
  • They arrived in their new community, and were challenged as outsiders (though the community was under 2,000 people, and occupying the land of a displaced Ho Chunk village for about twenty years old when they arrived).
  • They cared deeply for family life, for raising children, and educating them in both their German heritage and the culture of new home
  • And they were Reformed Evangelical Christians, coming from both Lutheran and Calvinist traditions.

The last of these, their faith life, was bound to their understanding of self. It informed their response to the trauma of their homeland, the challenge of their new home, and their care for family. These experiences formed their values: Social and Economic Justice; Welcome and Inclusion; Education; and community. Advance these values across their 175 years of Discipleship, and you will find story after story of how the congregation was led by these ideals!

Hmm… Maybe sharing those stories will make it into another post!

Establishing a Vision

Again, Leadership is Discipleship; and Discipleship, Leadership. Once we know the foundational values, we can focus on where they are driving our actions and decisions. So, let’s ponder this together: What is the basis for the values for a faith community?

  • Is it the sacred texts? And if so, which parts provide the values: the verses, the midrash/interpretation, or the apologist?
  • Is it heritage and/or legacy? How does that understanding get codified as core? And what happens when heritage is proven to be “complex” or mis-remembered?

In the next post, we’ll look at how the values become infused into the culture and vision. Holding consistently to our values helps us to build a culture “by design.” We’ll see how making our values foundational in our decision-making helps to set expectations for who our community is known to be, and what they are known for doing.

What’s Next?

I invite you to join me in prayerful discernment on how God is calling us to understand our Leadership, Engagement, and Service. And I invite you to help form the language that best speaks about these areas from our heritage and values.

This series will be posting out over the next week, and I’d love to hear what you think about seeing the church through Mouse-shaped glasses. Do leave a comment and add to the conversation.

Until next time, friends. Hope to see you real soon!
-HEF


Note: You can read about the inspiration and the foundations of my 2024 Sabbatical by following this link.

Of Mouse and Church: The Business of Church

This is the second post in the “Of Mouse and Church” series. It’s my reflections on sharing in the Disney Institute‘s three-part professional development courses. I hope you are inspired with their content as much as I am! I encourage you to find out more about the courses at their website: www.disneyinstitute.com.

The focusing question of this series is this:

What would it be like for people to have a faith formation experience so extravagantly welcoming; with such radically inclusive hospitality; and so deeply Spirit-centered in God’s love that they were already excited and planning to return for another experience before they left the building?

Or to reframe the question in a quick sound-bite:

What if churches did ministry like Disney does entertainment?

I remain convinced: there’s a lot of wisdom contained in Disney’s guest-centered focus that can help churches live out Christ’s Way of welcome.

Before we get into the core content of the Institute’s three focus areas:

  1. Leadership Excellence;
  2. Employee Engagement; and
  3. Quality Service,

I wanted to address the topic of using corporate business models within faith communities. This has been a pretty hot debate over the last two decades. And if we want to read the church’s whole history, truthfully a lot longer!

The Business of Church: the Books

I will start with this disclaimer. The Christian Church a lot of different leadership models in our faith communities over the years. From the three traditional church structures: Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational; to the Military Hierarchy model of the post-World War era; to the Top-Down Business Hierarchies of the 1970s and 1980s; we’ve organized ourselves in many diverse ways. And in each model, there were successes and there were failures. And this I believe is because of this truth: Business Leadership and Faith Community Leadership are NOT the same thing.

There’s a ton of books out there that posit this idea, though: that churched can be run “like a business.” I read ones with this philosphy when they came out 20+ years ago. Books like Jesus, CEO; The Leadership Lessons of Jesus; and Jesus on Leadership were the vogue. I do not diminish these authors’ convictions in their books–they speak their thesis well.

The answer I read from these books was the intrinsic success of the “business” of church. Attendance, and mission collections, and online click-throughs and website views are important data to consider. They can tell you whether the weather was bad on a Sunday, and if people stayed home because of the Super Bowl. They can show if your social media and website are working to welcome potential guests (and if its worth the investment to redux the page). And they can give data on if you’ve made your case for that new mission project. What they cannot help you discern is what people feel when they are to be part of the faith community.

I offer this challenge. What is it that brought you to match a success-focused business with being a strong community of faithful people?

The Challenge of “Consumer Churches”

The business of being church is something different.

Eugene Peterson shared an excellent witness on this in The Jesus Way. He spoke of “the American way,” looking at the peculiar tendencies of American Christian churches to become “consumer churches.” Here’s a link to an excerpt at Eerdman’s.

Now, I would not be honest if I didn’t say I find inspiration from these books. I do love the organizational management wisdom of Patrick Lencioni. I have used his work in managing the business side of congregational life for many years. (Death by Meeting being a favorite!). I embrace the soft-but-firm guidance of Margaret Wheatley, and her call to embrace each other in collaboration. Spend some time with Turning to One Another, or her latest Restoring Sanity.

Yes, their work is also used in business leadership. But there is a difference. Lencioni and Wheatley, and their peers in thought, focus on the interpersonal to meet their desired outcomes. And I find this more authentic to Jesus’ call to the Disciples. Yes, it’s intangible. Yes, it’s emotional. And here’s a hint: It’s all about relationship!

The Business of Church: Relationships

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

Walt Disney

I believe that faith communities that are centered on a vision that builds Relationships is the answer to our question. Let’s start with this as a first premise. This is where the fire of Spirit-excitement to return is fueled.

And for a second premise, I believe this is from where our successes should be scaled. This isn’t a numbers game of tithes and offerings, or a weekly filled seats-in-the-sanctuary counting. Those measurements are helpful marks, yes. They are secondary indicators, though. They measure the health of the community’s center: its relationships.

Benjamin Cremer said this of the value of those relationships in Matthew’s Gospel:

Of Mouse and Church: The Business of Church, Sheep and Goat

Matthew 25 tells us that when [the son of man] returns and judges between the righteous and unrighteousness, he doesn’t judge them based on their orthodoxy, their patriotism, or their individual definitions of morality.

[They] judge them based on their compassion towards vulnerable people.

Benjamin Cremer

Compassion, being vulnerable with the vulnerable in our society. Cremer’s got it. “When did we do this?” “Whenever you did it to the one in need,” is the answer we receive. When you engaged in relationship.

I also believe that we need to learn from the values knitted into our history and traditions. They’ve brought us to this time and place. It’s the “This is the song we sing every year on All Saints’ Day.” And it’s the hot wax of Christmas Eve candles on our fingers. It’s knowing that our old Sunday school teachers will be there when we come back from college. It’s the sum of where our faith community has been that brings us to today’s moment in ministry. Lots of decisions, lots of engagements, lots of relationships–all leading to now.

The church today does embody the founding principles of the Gospel. And it also holds the apologetics of the Epistles, and the generations of Christian theology in everything we do. I take that as granted. And we, the body of Christ right now, also embody a living, growing Spirit, inspired to live out those values in light of today’s realized experiences.

It takes us, the people, to make the dream a reality. It takes relationships.

What’s Next?

I invite you to join me in prayerful discernment on how God is calling us to understand our Leadership, Engagement, and Service. And I invite you to help form the language that best speaks about these areas from our heritage and values.

This series will be posting out over the next week. I’d love to hear what you think about seeing the church through Mouse-shaped glasses. Do leave a comment and add to the conversation.

Until next time, friends. Hope to see you real soon!
-HEF


Note: You can read about the inspiration and the foundations of my 2024 Sabbatical by following this link.

Of Mouse and Church: Asking The Question

This question has been bouncing around in my morning devotionals for some time:

What would it be like for people to have a faith formation experience so extravagantly welcoming; with such radically inclusive hospitality; and so deeply Spirit-centered in God’s love that they were already excited and planning to return for another experience before they left the building?

The words of the question have varied, but the essence is still there: how do we create a “Kairos Moment” in every moment as a faith community?

Today, we continue to live out of the liminal period created by the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. We are still realizing its lasting impact on our community life and decisions about where we spend our time together. And these decisions impact our faith communities directly–we’re built to be together!

I believe that we need to pray, ponder, and discern what it means for us to Be the Church now as we grow into tomorrow. And I believe that this discernment is rooted in the joy that comes from God’s presence in our lives every day. I trust that God is still speaking, and still calling us together into the world in ministry.

» IF YOU CLICK HERE, you’ll find links to each of the “Of Mouse and Church” posts. Read this one first, and then enjoy the rest in the series!

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship, Part 1It’s all about Relationships

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship, Part 2Leadership is Discipleship; and Discipleship, Leadership

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship, Part 3 Telling our Story

Of Mouse and Church: Leadership and Discipleship, Part 4Know your values, look to your vision

Now, let’s cover some background thoughts, and see what magic moments we can find in answering the question!

Seeing Church Through Mouse-shaped Lenses

Leadership, Engagement, and Service. These three principles are the core of the guest service/guest experience created every day across The Walt Disney Company. They are realized in their mission: to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.

But they are also something else. These three principles are what being church is all about, too. We just have a different language for it: Presence, Witness, and Blessing, or Discipleship, Relationship, and Outreach. These words are how we express our values and vision in living our faith out loud. This is the part of Mouse and Church that got my pondering heart beating a little faster.

To reframe the question in a quick sound-bite:

What if churches did ministry like Disney does entertainment?

This series of reflections comes from my participating in the Disney Institute‘s three-part professional development courses (and seeing their values lived out on a recent trip to Walt Disney World Resort). I hope to inspire you with their content as much as I was! Please take a moment to find out more about the courses at their website: www.disneyinstitute.com.

Leadership, Engagement, and Service

“Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.”

Walt Disney

I believe that when faith communities are open the person-first nature of ministry– following Christ’s example of welcome and service–the “business” of the church is creating the most welcoming, deeply personal, and faith-centered “guest” experience every time we open our doors.

And this is where Disney Institute’s approach meets today’s kairos moment. Over this series of posts, I’ll be sharing more on the three pillars of the program:

  1. Leadership Excellence
  2. Employee Engagement
  3. Quality Service

and how these pillars are analogous to the behaviors, the values, and the vision behind being church today. Again, we’re going to find that we have a different language than Disney does, and we’ll need to interpret their insights through the lens of a progressive Christian faith community.

But I remain convinced: I think there’s a lot of wisdom contained in Disney’s guest-centered experience that can help us live out our calling to follow in Christ’s Way of welcome.

What’s Next?

I invite you to join me in prayerful discernment on how God is calling us to understand our Leadership, Engagement, and Service. And I invite you to help form the language that best speaks about these areas from our heritage and values.

This series will be posting out over the next week, and I’d love to hear what you think about seeing the church through Mouse-shaped glasses. Do leave a comment and add to the conversation.

Until next time, friends. Hope to see you real soon!
-HEF


Note: You can read about the inspiration and the foundations of my 2024 Sabbatical by following this link.

Looking Back to Look Forward

Hey everyone! I’m back after our two weeks of family time (see Christina’s guest blog for a quick report on part of our fun!). Now, I’m settling into the second renew/revision part of the sabbatical: looking at leadership, empowerment, and engagement with the wisdom from the Disney Institute.

We’ll be looking back to look forward on how faith communities can understand their ministry impact through this lens. There’s a lot more wisdom than guesswork in how they make their magic! More on that in upcoming posts. Today, I want to open up a question to you, and hope to get your feedback on one question:

What stories or verses from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures speak to the core values of your faith?

So take a moment and head over to my Facebook page. Comment on the post there (or email me directly). Let’s see what stories have formed our faith and shaped us into a community as Christ’s body.


When we look back on the stories that formed our faith, I think we find a couple of “big themes:”

  • “Jesus loves me…” Our earliest understanding of our faith is pretty simple. God made you special and loves us very much (thanks for the summary, Bob and Larry!). This “child-like faith” is echoed in Jesus’ words in the synoptics (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14; Luke 18:17). But please do remember the importance of reading the whole stories and not just the pull-quotes. The Bible provides us depth and breadth in our faith formation, but not when it is used to proof-text. Each of these three verses are sandwiched by stories of people wanting to set their own bounds and calling it “God’s love.”
    There’s a great article on “The Importance of Childlike faith in the workplace” at the C.S. Lewis Institute.
  • “This I know…” Soon, our growing intellect opens out minds to ask the question ‘Why?’ That’s the Spirit-gift God gives us in our thinking, reasoning minds! Our child-like faith wants to grow in “wisdom and strength,” just like Jesus did. It’s developmental–part of growing up. It’s Erickson’s Fifth Stage brought into our faith formation, “Identity vs. Role Confusion.” And It’s why we offer value-centered youth groups, and Confirmation and Coming-of-Age classes.
    One of the great blessings of a progressive Christianity is the guiderails it provides for identity formation. It allows for a centering on the traditions’ values, and for space to challenge the assumptions around them. It holds that the central place of faith in our lives is to help us be us, and not to inflict our beliefs on others (harming their formation into role confusion).
  • “For the Bible told me so…” Now, it’s time to kick the tires, and see where this faith will take us. For some, this may feel like a return to the first theme, “Jesus loves me…” or a rehash of “This I know…” But the nuance is this: Nobody is giving a strict rubric on interpretation. It’s up to you now. You’re on your own, kid. You always have been.
    Except that you’re not, And you never were. “In life, and in death, and in life beyond death: God is with you.” This is a great example of M. Scott Peck’s shift from Skeptic to Mystic (Eric Weaver has a great primer on this, in commentary alongside Fowler’s Stages of Faith).

And so, we find ourselves looking back to look forward. We read and re-read those stories that told us that we are loved for exactly who God made us to be and embrace that spiritual connection with our Creator and our faith community. It may not be that community that nurtured us, and that’s alright. I hope that we are strong enough in our faith identity that we don’t fall into a community that forces us into role-confusing attestations that mask the division within the Christian traditions as “revealed truth.” That’s not how it’s supposed to work.

My hope is that each of us finds one that celebrates our gray areas. A place that helps us in our looking back so we can see where God is still-speaking and still-guiding us in our looking forward. That is how it’s supposed to work.

I’ll leave you with this truth in prayerful reflection.

-HEF

A “Magical” Sabbatical

magical sabbatical

What is a pastoral sabbatical? And how can it be a “magical” sabbatical? Let’s hear the perspective of our guest Blogger: Christina Fairman (FYI, Christina was a Senior Editor for the blog babygizmo!).

We’ll get back to theology, and pneumatology, and church mission/vision stuff in a little bit. But first, let’s answer the “magical” question!

-HEF

Can the Church Change: Japhet Ndhlovu & Miguel De La Torre

The Boiler Plate

During this first weeks of Sabbatical, I’m spending time reflecting on the growing places within the church. In May 2023, Convergence (formerly the Center for Progressive Renewal) hosted a summit of ten Progressive Christian Magi, asking each to respond to the question:

“Can the Church Change?”

These are my reflections on the summit sessions. I give thanks to Spirit-guidance, and the squirrel-thoughts and butterfly-flights that caused me to pause and write, and pause and seek, and pause and ponder. And I trust that the Spirit will do the same for you as you have time and desire to share in the Summit.

I’ll also offer a “And So…” section at the end of each reflection titled Enter/Depart. It will look to connect the five Sabbatical themes to the reflection.

I think it’s important to understand how we embrace change and embody our growth as people of faith. Change is, by its nature, disruptive and cause fear and doubt to rise in us. Change is also, as Heraclitus noted, the only constant in the universe. The question that returned from our Magi is this:

As much as we have agency, what is it that we want the church to change into?

Today’s wisdom is shared by two of the summit’s wise ones: Japhet Ndhlovu and Miguel A. De La Torre. A word of thanks to Cameron Trimble and Jim Keat for their dialogue and guiding questions!


The Wise Ones

Rev. Dr. Japhet Ndhlovu

Rev. Dr. Japhet Ndhlovu

The Rev. Dr. Japhet Ndhlovu is an admittand from the Reformed Church in Zambia, recently served The United Church of Canada / L’Église Unie du Canada as a member of the Global Partnership Program Team in the Church in Partnership cluster of the Church in Mission Unit, as the Regional Program Coordinator for Southern Africa & South Asia (Philippines and India).

Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre

Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre

Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre is an international scholar, documentarian, novelist, academic author, and scholar activist. His academic field is social ethics within contemporary U.S. thought, specifically how religion affects race, class, and gender oppression. He presently serves as Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. A prolific author, you can read more about him at drmigueldelatorre.com.

Both wise ones speak from a position of prohetic witness from their cultures. They each sharedThe question, “Can the church change?” received two very divergent answers from these two passionate people.

Miguel said simply:

“Can the church change and become more justice based? Then I’m quite Hopeless.”

Japhet’s answer was more nuanced:

“The church is changing, but in each part of the world it is different.”

To the former, I said, “Wow. That is the first perspective that said, “No.” I need to know more, and understand his candor.

To the latter, he continued that in the Northern/Western church, the focus is on decline and death. In the Southern church, living beyond the effects of colonization, the focus is on love and transformation. Again, I need to know more: choosing love over decline, and transformation over death.

This reflection will be a bit different from the others. It took me a couple of days to prayerfully digest and reflect on the two pillars. And some more time to witness to God’s still-speaking voice.

Can the Church Change: Hopelessness, Decline and Death

To change for the better, means the church must crucify itself. It must crucify its sin of whiteness; its sin of classicism; its sin of racism; its sin of homophobia.

Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre

Paraphrasing Miguel’s thoughts: If the church’s calling is for justice (a belief that I hold as true), it will more likely be despised. If the church is found challenging the systems of power and oppression in their community, they’re going to get negative pushback.

If the church’s understanding of its mission allows the church to “be the church at rest,” I think it’s fair to ask how God’s transformative Spirit is preached there. Allowing the sins of power and privilege to control the dialogue takes us back to Matthew 4’s indictment of the temptations: abuse of power, safety of privilege, and seeking personal glory. And those take us back to the issues of heresy, and blasphemy, and idolatry (the foci of my reflection on Diana Butler Bass’ summit session).

Can the Church Change: Desperation, love, and transformation.

Discipleship… It’s costly.
To be able to have this belief, it’s the faith that inspires me to be involved in seeking justice. It’s the faith that inspires me to seek transformation-to seek change…
We have to make very serious decisions to lift up our heads and say, “I believe.”

Rev. Dr. Japhet Ndhlovu

This is where Japhet’s belief of living a “life before death” takes over. It’s not a heaven-on-their-minds moment (Thanks Jesus Christ Superstar!). He says this need requires the prophets of today to “seek life now.”

The hymn calls to us: “We are God’s house of living stones…” even when temples are falling. Centering our thoughts, prayers, actions and advocacy around a triune love–love for the divine, Love for God, and Love for the church (God’s people)–forces that serious decision to say “I believe” and then live out the convictions that define that belief.


Enter / Depart

Follow this link to look back on the five Sabbatical Themes

Both Miguel and Japhet challenge us to live beyond ourselves—beyond our places for safety—and to be open to the Spirit’s witness of how others encounter the world.

This is where our Community inspires our Action.

Several years ago, our SEL-based youth outreach program was encouraged to apply for youth diversion grant to enhance its impact. The application was read by a local elected official, who responded, “Oh, it’s that church…”, dismissing the impact of the program because of the witness of the faith community that housed it.

Our members heard about this new moniker for our faith community, and embraced its impact. “What would it like to be that church?” they asked. Their communal convictions spelled out their answers:

  • Embracing the call for creation justice as the first 100% self-generated solar-powered faith community in Illinois, and not stopping there.
  • Accepting the challenge of striving to end homelessness; confront the issues of safety and blight affecting lower-income homeowners; and help people find simple, decent place to call home.
  • Creating a safe place where youth who need to ask questions of identity, and relationship, and emotions, and mental health can do so in safety.
  • Opening the church campus to partnerships that enhance technical education with high school youth; and provide before- and after-school care to families with younger children.

And they lifted up our two ongoing justice commitments:

  • Our extravagant and inclusive welcome as an Open and Affirming (ONA) Congregation; and
  • Our continued commitment as a Racial Justice Congregation.

This mission “to be that church” is love-sharing, hope-transforming movement of the Spirit. And I know we will keep listening to God’s still-speaking word, living these commitments into our growing future.

-HEF


Note: The Can the Church Change? Summit hosted by Convergence took place over the week of May 22-26, 2023. The sessions are available for viewing through subscription at https://convergencesummit.online/can_the_church_change/

Can the Church Change: Diana Butler Bass

communion during COVID

The Boiler Plate

During this first weeks of Sabbatical, I’m spending time reflecting on the growing places within the church. In May 2023, Convergence (formerly the Center for Progressive Renewal) hosted a summit of ten Progressive Christian Magi, asking each to respond to the question:

“Can the Church Change?”

These are my reflections on the summit sessions. I give thanks to Spirit-guidance, and the squirrel-thoughts and butterfly-flights that caused me to pause and write, and pause and seek, and pause and ponder. And I trust that the Spirit will do the same for you as you have time and desire to share in the Summit.

I’ll also offer a “And So…” section at the end of each reflection titled Enter/Depart. It will look to connect the five Sabbatical themes to the reflection.

I think it’s important to understand how we embrace change and embody our growth as people of faith. Change is, by its nature, disruptive and cause fear and doubt to rise in us. Change is also, as Heraclitus noted, the only constant in the universe. The question that returned from our Magi is this:

As much as we have agency, what is it that we want the church to change into?

Today’s wisdom is shared by Diana Butler Bass, author, speaker, and historian. A word of thanks to Cameron Trimble for her interlocution in the summit: great questions, and wise insights through the conversations.


Diana Butler Bass

can the church change diana butler bass

Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality. You can learn more about Diana’s work at her website, dianabutlerbass.com.

Diana’s answer to the core question, “Can the church change?” was this:

Tell me a time when the church hasn’t changed. That’s a historian’s answer…
The church always changes. Why don’t we start there?

I love this perspective, and what history can teach us about the ways the church has grown and rarified and slowed and re-birthed.

Diana and Camron had a long conversation talking about “post-normal times,” the changes in Christian community life, and the need for aspirational visions and experimental communities.

What caught my heart and my attention came at the 37ish minute mark. Diana shared deeply on the fearful impact of Christian Nationalism’s heresy, blasphemy and idolatry on our society. Her challenge to us all is to accept the imperative to “get noisy” in its face.

Let’s see what history can teach us about that ‘unholy’ trinity of words.

Can the Church Change: A Trinity (but not that one)

Heresy, Blasphemy, and Idolatry.

These aren’t typical words used in discussing Progressive-leaning Christianity–in a positive light. In fact on a quick search of “Progressive+Heresy,” every hit was titled something like “Is being a progressive Christian actually heresy?” Or “Progressive Christianity is the best pathway to heresy and progressive pastors are the modern day false prophets.” “Progressive+Blasphemy” and “Progressive+Idolatry” return similar results. No surprises.

So let’s take a philological moment here. In the immortal words of Indigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Heresy is “a belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine.” Blasphemy is “impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.” Idolatry is “idol worship.”

But the word heresy derives from the Greek word αἵρεσις (hairesis): ‘choice.’ The word blasphemy is also Greek βλασφημέω (blasphemeō): ‘to blame.’ And round it out with Idolatry, still Greek εἰδωλολατρία (eidōlolatreia): ‘worshiping idols” (saw that one coming, eh?). *Thanks to dictionary.com and perseus.uchicago.edu for the research tools!

So celebrating someone exercising God’s gift of free will is bad. And calling out someone for acting like they’re God’s gift (or God themselves) is bad. And selectively selecting something from the sacred, elevating it to the utmost, and rendering unto it what should be celebrated with God is bad.

Can the Church Change: “Do not judge…”

Here lies the question: Who’s to judge? Who gets to pick what’s heretical, or blasphemous, or idolatrous?

Luther’s ‘heresy’ of questioning authority is the backbone for the Reformation. Many continuing reformers, like the Quakers, Anabaptists, and Unitarians ‘blasphemed’ for offering a different understanding of God’s revelation (including believer’s baptism, the liberty of conscience, and non-conformity to the world). William of Ockham’s (and others) idolatry of sola scriptura is the razor-edge on which all modern Biblical scholarship is derived.

All three of these charges require us to agree to something: a single, immutable definition of Christian faith. They assume that we’re not experiencing the gift of life in unique ways. They assume that sacred wisdom only comes in a tightly defined box. And they assume that there’s something other than God that deserves our lauds and praise: the single, immutable definition.

Can the Church Change: Being Who We Are

I claim my religious heritage in the United Church of Christ and my upbringing in the church as defining parts of who I am. And this means that I have a definition of what Christian faith looks like from that perspective. Over time, my definition has changed as life lessons and other’s wisdom have shared revelation on that “better way.” And that way is Progressive, and inclusive, and ecumenical and inter-faith.

Living a life worthy of being called Christian challenges me to read the sacred stories with eyes looking for the change that needs to happen around me. Seeing with heaven’s eyes that there are many paths to the sacred enhances my faith, as I can see that its truths stretch beyond one community’s teachings. And with both of these working together, I’m challenged to parse that idol of a “single immutable definition” into its divisive and traumatic parts of specks and logs (à la Matthew 7:1-5). I’m stretched to embrace Christ’s way of justice, healing, and love more fully for the healing of creation..


Enter / Depart

Follow this link to look back on the five Sabbatical Themes

Diana urges us all to “Get Noisy” about what matters. She says with passion:

Fear is not an option. What is our only option: Courage.
We have to continue pressing into love and justice in every way possible…

We teach our children: “Use your words.” And we have faith that our second Sabbatical focus, Language tunes our Love, challenges us to breathe inclusion and expanding love into the world.

Allowing an ‘orthodoxy’ like Christian Nationalism to dictate the religious dialogue is a blasphemy (active or passive). Not speaking against its oppression and allowing it to impiously shape our common living is a heresy. Its presence in the world itself is an idolatry of hate and division.

I am a strong advocate for keeping the church out of politics, and politics out of the church (and thanks to Americans United for shaping my words and witness). It is of the utmost importance to remember the intent of the authors of the United States Constitution and Amendments on this. When ideologies seek to break the separation down, we all need to rise up and ask who is benefitting. I cannot find an example in history of religious nationalism benefitting the majority (or the nation itself).

In a later post, I’ll be reflecting on Jim Wallis’ latest (2024) book, The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy. I expect that his work will better shape my words on this. For now, I’ll leave this topic here. And I will celebrate that we can share our diverse and unique opinions in respectful conversation.

-HEF


Note: The Can the Church Change? Summit hosted by Convergence took place over the week of May 22-26, 2023. The sessions are available for viewing through subscription at https://convergencesummit.online/can_the_church_change/

Can the Church Change: Brian McLaren

The Boiler Plate

During this first weeks of Sabbatical, I’m spending time reflecting on the growing places within the church. In May 2023, Convergence (formerly the Center for Progressive Renewal) hosted a summit of ten Progressive Christian Magi, asking each to respond to the question:

“Can the Church Change?”

These are my reflections on the summit sessions. I give thanks to Spirit-guidance, and the squirrel-thoughts and butterfly-flights that caused me to pause and write, and pause and seek, and pause and ponder. And I trust that the Spirit will do the same for you as you have time and desire to share in the Summit.

I’ll also offer a “And So…” section at the end of each reflection titled Enter/Depart. It will look to connect the five Sabbatical themes to the reflection.

I think it’s important to understand how we embrace change and embody our growth as people of faith. Change is, by its nature, disruptive and cause fear and doubt to rise in us. Change is also, as Heraclitus noted, the only constant in the universe. The question that returned from our Magi is this:

As much as we have agency, what is it that we want the church to change into?

Today’s wisdom is shared by Brian D. McLaren, author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A word of thanks to Cameron Trimble for her interlocution in the summit: great questions, and wise insights through the conversations.


Brian McLaren

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. You can learn more about Brian’s work at his website, brianmclaren.net.

Brian’s answer to the core question, “Can the church change?” was this:

It is always happening. The question really is “Can we change for the better?”

And he challenges us against resisting change:

The very act of resisting change changes the person who’s doing the resisting. So the very act of resisting change brings change.

Can the Church Change: The Fear

I love that the first topic that Brian jumped on is “change resistance / change adverseness.”

(BTW, here’s a link to a great article on overcoming change resistance from MSU Eli Broad College of Business)

Even in forward-thinking program-driven churches get stuck here. Being “progressive” can be just as limiting as other core identities. I recall one church I worked with that held such a high ownership of their “progressive” role in the local community in the 1950s. Now in the 2000s, they could not see that their progressivism had become “protectivism.”

Brian’s shares the idea that “many churches will change by being ever-more resistant to change” starts the slope. They will survive in smaller and smaller numbers, attracting a certain kind of people. Ultimately, it becomes a self-fulfilling loop: We are who we are because we refuse to change. And fear of any change begins to spiral into more embarrassing, violent, and desperate circles.

When you act in fear, that tends to bring out the uglier side. And you can expect ugly, ugly, ugly forms of Christianity to become uglier.

Brian McLaren

From those circles, as the center of gravity shifts to ever-worst, Brian sees hope that “people will defect.” They will say, “I’m ready to risk. I don’t have much to lose at this point.” And from that hope and healing, more beautiful forms of Christian faith will emerge.

I appreciate Brian’s identifying two big drivers of change resistance in the church. The first is a theology: a “changelessness” that drives to infallibility in the organization (the church) and inerrancy in the founding principles (the Bible). The second is economy: the power of money to drive the organization outside of its mission. He reminds us:

“No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Matthew 6:24 NRSV-UE

Both Cameron and Brian note the mathematics of “Whiteness” within these two drivers. White Privilege + Embedded Patriarchy + Capitalism = the history of the Christian church. The existing structures are deeply compromised by these connections, and disengagement will be real change. But, Brian noted:

The church may be a long-shot in picking that baton up, but it’s not easy to think of any other organization that has greater potential to do it.

It’s on this, and the later part of the conversation that I want to spend time on: The Future

Can the Church Change: The Future

During the calling process to St. John UCC, one of the members asked me, “If there was one thing we could do to grow the church, what would it be?”

My answer: Focus on the needs of families with younger children. Be the place that parents can find support and love.

At the 20 minute mark of the conversation, Brian starts a five-minute riff on that it would be like if the church could be the place “to help young parents to do a great job in facing the challenging decade and century ahead.” My heart was more than strangely warmed.

My smile grew and grew as Brian described the dream for this mission:

  • A place where children could become the most loving version of themselves; and
  • could learn how to love themselves apropriately; and
  • love their family members; and
  • love their friends and neighbors; and
  • love the people in their community, and strangers, and aliens, and outsiders, and enemies; and
  • the earth; and
  • God, as God is the love that loves all things.

Can the existing church be a place for this? In my heart, I say, “Maybe.” But it’s going to mean setting aside assumptions, retooling our skills and refocusing our engagement, and yes, changing our attitude about assets. It also means keeping our mission focused “outside,” and leveraging every asset that we have to be extravagantly welcoming. That’s a big ask, but “it’s not easy to think of any other organization…” than a congregation like St. John UCC who could do it. Of this I have faith.


Enter / Depart

Follow this link to look back on the five Sabbatical Themes

Brian ended his session with a quote from Wendell Berry:

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.

Our Real Work, © 1983, from Standing by Words. Counterpoint.

This session left me in wonder-filled deep discernment, in dreaming. Those with whom I worship and minister with regularly know my love for Gil Rendle and Alice Mann’s three questions from Holy Conversations:

  • Who are we?
  • What has God called us to do or be?
  • Who is our neighbor?

I am still in that dreaming. Center to that dream is the question, “If we leveraged ever possible asset to __________ (fill in the blank), what changes would we need to make? What parts of our heritage would we need to retain, and what parts need to go? To discern with our theology, what parts need to decrease, so that God’s love may increase in our living our faith out loud?

Is our call to embrace and expand into the sacred arts and music? Are we called to be the nurturing place for children and youth? What about our caring for the earth and all of God’s creation? What will we discern in our “Blank Space?”

Yes, today’s reflections created some ideas. I’ll have them ready to share when we regather at the end of the Sabbatical. And I’m sure you’ll have some to share, too. I can already see the rainbow of Post-Its on the wall!

Keep dreaming, and discerning, and listening for God’s still-speaking voice!

-HEF


Note: The Can the Church Change? Summit hosted by Convergence took place over the week of May 22-26, 2023. The sessions are available for viewing through subscription at https://convergencesummit.online/can_the_church_change/

Can the Church Change: Karen Georgia Thompson

1959-5-17--Cornerstone Laying at St. John UCC

The Boiler Plate

During this first weeks of Sabbatical, I’m spending time reflecting on the growing places within the church. In May 2023, Convergence (formerly the Center for Progressive Renewal) hosted a summit of ten Progressive Christian Magi, asking each to respond to the question:

“Can the Church Change?”

These are my reflections on the summit sessions. I give thanks to Spirit-guidance, and the squirrel-thoughts and butterfly-flights that caused me to pause and write, and pause and seek, and pause and ponder. And I trust that the Spirit will do the same for you as you have time and desire to share in the Summit.

I’ll also offer a “And So…” section at the end of each reflection titled Enter/Depart. It will look to connect the five Sabbatical themes to the reflection.

I think it’s important to understand how we embrace change and embody our growth as people of faith. Change is, by its nature, disruptive and cause fear and doubt to rise in us. Change is also, as Heraclitus noted, the only constant in the universe. The question that returned from our Magi is this:

As much as we have agency, what is it that we want the church to change into?

Today’s wisdom is shared by Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. A word of thanks to Cameron Trimble for her interlocution in the summit: great questions, and wise insights through the conversations.


Karen Georgia Thompson

The Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson now serves as General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. At the time of the summit, she served as Associate General Minister, Wider Church Ministries and Operations Co-Executive for Global Ministries (UCC/DOC). Born in Kingston, Jamaica, her poetry and writings reflect her Jamaican heritage and culture as well as the traditions and lore of her Ancestors.

The Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson now serves as General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. At the time of the summit, she served as Associate General Minister, Wider Church Ministries and Operations Co-Executive for Global Ministries (UCC/DOC). Born in Kingston, Jamaica, her poetry and writings reflect her Jamaican heritage and culture as well as the traditions and lore of her Ancestors.

To the core question, “Can the church change?” Karen Georgia responded back with her own question, “Change from what to what?” (I love this question/answer!)

Karen Georgia shared her witness on what colonization has done to the global church, and its remnant biases in the mainline churches in the United States. While colonization has undeniably had its impact on the whole of the church worldwide, it has put “a particular whiteness” on the American Christianity. The “missional imperative” to share (and enforce a particular Jingoist understanding of) the Gospel continues to promote the danger of a single White/Western Christian narrative. The challenge for change is to acknowledge this truth, and to move beyond it. The challenge, as Karen Georgia stated it: to let go of the power entrenched in the institution. And that starts with learning who we are in the first place as followers of Christ’s Way.

Can the Church Change: A matter of Identity

To the heart of the matter, I love her bold statement:

“Christianity is not an identity… In our Northern [Western] context and in a lot of places, Christianity is held as a primary identity and we see that on display in a variety of ways that are dysfunctional.”

I find truth in her words. Affirming one’s Christian faith is an active decision, guided by witness and discernment. It is not an inheritance or an identity.

Now, I’m betting folks will take exception to her statement, because it messes with the historic ideology of Christendom. It challenges the notion that, because we claim the label of Christian, we are all on the same team. We all have common beliefs and goals.

Leaning on the wisdom of Erick Erickson: our identity is who we are beyond our choices. Its formation is “the gradual acquisition of a sense of continuity, worth, and integration.” Erickson believed identity formation is an essential process in personality development. However, identity originates from traits or attributes that individuals may have little or no control over, such our biology, family background or ethnicity.

It is true that in Northern/Western culture, personal and secular identity are deeply influenced by the presence of Christianity. But equally present in our American context is influence by adopted/interpreted classical Green and Roman cultures and incorporation of elements from every culture present. We can’t not see it, unless we hide our eyes from it’s truth: The United States is not homogenous. Nor is it or has it ever been, a “Christian” nation. This too is a mis-“identification.” From indigenous ancestors to the myriad of immigrant origins, the parts of us that make up our identities run deeper than an adopted faith tradition.

That old adage reminds us: “Faith is caught more than it is taught.” Taking on the ideals and standards (not the identity) of following in Christ’s Way is a choice. And in following our faith, interpreting those ideals and standards in the face of life’s costs and joys becomes our daily task.

Can the Church Change? From What to What?

Back to the question: Change from what to what? How about from an institution to a deepened witness? How about from a “club organization” to a truer sense of self (and identity)? Karen Georgia had this to say:

I believe that in order for us to deepen our Christianity, to deepen our witness, it calls for us to know ourselves. The way that we know God is to first knowing oursleves.

In order for the church to change we take on the challenge is to make space for each person to know themselves more fully (and their story as valid) as we embrace Christian faith as a changing, growing, radically including way to live. We must choose not to impose a false concept on their identity, but rather open ourselves up to hear their lived story–how their faith has been challenged, changed, and rarified.

Cameron Trimble added this “Refreshingly Scandalous” summation:

Let us study all the dead white men, but let us be released from them being our primary lens.

Let us develop in ourselves (if not already) trusting our intuition, a deep inner knowing that’s unique to each person formed by their ways of knowing as just as legitimate.


Enter / Depart

Look back on the five Sabbatical Themes

When I first engaged this presentation, I thought I would be reflecting on the fifth Sabbatical focus. Discernment: Knowing who we are called to be and do, and who is our neighbor. What I enjoyed to discover was that the fourth focus danced out: Community.

We say “Community embodies our Action”, as we are called to caring, and fellowship, and welcome.

Since our regathering from the COVID pause, this need to think about community differently has been part of my regular journaling. And while I admit my hyper-focus was on the local church being community, Karen Georgia’s call to “inner intuition and spiritual deepening” calls out to me.

In her last few minutes, Karen Georgia speaks to the need to “think about community differently.” She challenged us to think about our spaces differently. She called on us to account for the presence of people differently. And she spoke of a widening space for people to ask more questions and seek the community in which they desire to be part.

How do we do this, to think about community differently, as we enter to worship? How do we live community differently as we depart to serve?

This is the stuff Sabbaticals are made to prayerfully ponder!

-HEF


Note: The Can the Church Change? Summit hosted by Convergence took place over the week of May 22-26, 2023. The sessions are available for viewing through subscription at https://convergencesummit.online/can_the_church_change/

Enter / Depart

The original page of notes outlining the five focus areas of the Sabbatical

Setting the table with the Sabbatical themes, this is the piece of paper that started it all. Enter / Depart. Back in Lent we asked this question:

How does this phrase, “Enter to Worship / Depart to Serve,” challenge us to live our faith out loud in our generation?

We spent a week on each of these parts:

  • Worship is the Center
  • Language tunes our Love
  • Prayer focuses our Passion
  • Community embodies our Action
  • Discernment inspires our Service

Now, I’m building my sabbatical reflections around these same parts. And the Sabbatical Team is developing a strategy for our congregational Sabbatical reflections and study. Let’s ponder these together (again, if you were part of the Lenten Series!):

Consider Worship

Worship is the center. It’s what extravagantly welcomes us home, and focuses us to our own and all of creation’s needs,. It helps us hear where there is brokenness, and where healing can come. Worship engages our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits to following Christ’s Way, setting our attitudes for the Service of healing creation.

Consider Language

Language Tunes our Love. The words we hear, sing, and pray tune us to the needs of the world we serve. Radically inclusive, ever-expansive language of how God continues to create brings us into the centering of worship. ·Language tunes our hearts to new expressions of an ever-inclusive love

Consider Prayer

Prayer focuses our passion. It takes us into relationship with God; prayer is when we open our mouths first, and then our ears second, and let God engage us. Prayer takes us away from a false sense of responsibility that can move us for focused people and turn us into over-driven people. It gathers us in community, and in contemplation.

Consider Community

Speaking of Community: Community embodies our action. It’s caring for others, as much as we care for ourselves. It’s witnessing to the connections that bind us, and publicly striving for sharing more. The third practice is giving of ourselves. When we give in community, we admit that we are not owners. We trustees: trustees of our possessions, our time, our lives. We’re not running the world, because the world is not ours to run. Together with everyone else, we are recipients of this great blessing, and caregivers for the next generation. We are free to rest, knowing that our calling is to care for what we can now. We can trust that God will care for what will come next (just as God cared for all that has come before).

Consider Discernment

When we take time, when we pray, and focus, and share; then we find rest. In that time we consider one more thing: Our Discernment. We ask the questions about who we are called to be as individuals in God’s realm. We delve deeper as the living organism of connection and social engagement—the church.

The "little brass sign" at the Atrium doors that inspired the Sabbatical theme.

Tie these all together, and I believe we find what we each need to “Enter to Worship / Depart to Serve.” We do not collapse from exhaustion. We do not sccumb to a lack of activity. But we do find a deep sense of purpose that spares us from being so driven, distracted, and busy. We are able to find the joy that waits for us in what we do. We get a taste of resurrection in our flesh and bones, our moments and our days.

“On the first day…”

Today – “On the first day…” – I start the pause, the first day of rest and renewal: this sabbatical time.

And, as I said in worship on Sunday, May 19: I’m kinda nervous. I’m nervous I’m going to “fail” sabbatical-ing! I’ve already got a list of like ten things that I’ve left at the office. I’ve picked up my keys three times, saying:

It’ll only take me a minute. I can sneak into the building, and no one would be the wiser!

But we do have those darn cameras and HID fobs, ensuring that the space is safe for all to gather. So, no. No cheating. For these ninety days, my job is sabbath.

I’ve always had my workplace in the basement living room. We set that aside when we moved in. Today, I refit the space for the upcoming asynchronous workshops that start this week. With the pace of life, my desk took on a characteristic of creatively evolving stacks of old projects, things that need to be filed, and precociously piled manuals for the myriad of modern amenities that we acquire in life. Filing and re-piling, Genesis 1:2 kept popping into my mind, how the earth was

formless and empty (Genesis 1:2 Heb. תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ | to-HU va-VO-hu)

The last major organizing binge took place in March 2020, setting out a creative space during the COVID pandemic. My mini-studio for quick clips, and my Zoom meeting space took shape after I sifted out the four years of piles since we moved in. Now four years and a global pandemic later, the space is re-set for the Sabbatical. Very different times, but not so different purposes. Back in March 2020, we were asking, “How are we going to do this?” Worship and prayer? Community and care? How will we keep the body of Christ at St. John UCC thriving and healthy in the “formless emptiness?” We did it by caring and communicating, and chalking ourselves to focus on the needs of our neighbors. And when we got to “Building Back,” it was with careful focus that brought us out of that liminal place.

Now, on the first day to re-enter this space with the Sabbatical theme on “Enter to Worship / Depart to Serve,” I find my mind leaning back into that familiar formless emptiness. But this time it’s with a Spirit of Peace and Renewal. Tomorrow, I’ll write on the five focus points for these twelve weeks. But today, I’ll leave it here: rest into this time of renewal with me. It’ll find form in its time, and be full of so much Spirit. Just as the earth was “in the beginning’s” creative time.

So tonight, no sneaking. Let’s settle into the re-creating. And in the end, we know: that with God, it will all be

“found very good” (Gen 1:31, Heb. הִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד | hiNEH tov m’OD).


P.S. Big thanks to Sefaria and the JPS for The Contemporary Torah (2006) for helping me brush up on my Hebrew transliterations: https://www.sefaria.org/

Sabbatical Countdown

Four years in the making, our Sabbatical Renewal begins on Sunday, May 19, 2024, with a day of dancing tongues of the Spirit’s inspiring passion leading us into reflection and renewal.

The Sabbatical Countdown begins today!

Up to this point

During our planning for the 175th Anniversary, our historians discovered something interesting: We have no record of a pastor seeking or taking a Sabbatical while serving our congregation. So, if the idea of a three-month renewal time is new to you, there’s a good reason for it! Let’s look at how we got here.

A lot has changed since I wrote the first Tidings note on the beginning of Sabbatical planning. Our congregation blesses our pastors with a three-month renewal after five years of ministry. Counting the days, the initial planning was for the Sabbatical to begin some time after 9/1/2021. The COVID-19 Global Pandemic made that hardly a time to plan great adventures in renewal.

The first theme that caught our attention was “Living with a New Wine Spirit.” It was an acknowledgement that where our ministry had been before the Coronavirus pandemic would not be a place where we could return. With the second grant, our focus shifted to “A Light in the Liminal Times,” appreciating that we were starting to see where God was inspiring our witness after COVID’s three years in-between.

Now, as we approach the beginning of our eighth year in ministry together this September, we embrace our third theme: Enter to Worship / Depart to Serve

How will the Sabbatical time “work?”

Let’s continue on how our reflection and renewal will be shaped.

Each month is blocked out into three parts: Engaged Study, Active Reflection, and Family Renewal.

The first study period is a week-long conference hosted by Convergence, a UCC-related consultation group. They will investigate the question, “Can the Church Change?” You can take part in this online conference, too! Registration for the week is free at:

convergencesummit.online

The second study period will be spent at Disney Institute’s “Brilliance” training on leadership innovation, and Welcome. This was a part of the earlier sabbatical plans, and offers “magical” instruction on how to magnify our extravagant welcome.

The third segment will take place at the annual Wild Goose Festival, engaging in its creative and expanding worship. This event is still tentative, pending some other time commitments. Also, there may be some additional renewal activities and events added. Watch for updates throughout the summer.

How will we know what Hank is pondering?

First let’s remember, the sabbatical period is one of separate journeying. If you or your family are in need of pastoral care, please contact Pastor Rachel and Pastor Ted.

Second, it’s natural to be curious about this! I am going to re-engage in curating my Blog (if you’re reading this post on the blog, Hello to you!): hankfairman.com

It all starts today with the sabbatical countdown! I covenant with you to post “pretty regularly” (though I may not reply back to comments).

The Congregation’s Sabbatical

The Congregation’s sabbatical countdown begins today, as well!

What does a church’s renewal time look like? Our Congregational Renewal studies, events and engagements are being finalized as this Tidings goes to print. Look for posts on our Facebook page, information in the weekly Friday Blast Email, and announcements in Sunday’s worship and bulletin.

Our Sabbatical Team is Lisa Ebbers, Council President; Robert Mayfield, Past Council President; Mike Smith, and Marsha Boll, along with Pastor Rachel and Pastor Ted. Seek them out with questions and wisdom!