I was talking to my friend and colleague Carol about some plans and dreams for the church. Her wise and valuable counsel to me was to make sure that I don't get drained by taking on too much. The challenge, however, is that there is more to be done right now than is "reasonable." So pulling back is not an option.

What I need is to increase what I have to draw upon. I need to be connected to my Source so there is a constant flow. It is impossible to think that I can accomplish what I feel called to accomplish unless I am drawing on God.

Trish and I went to The Salvation Army banquet tonight. It was an incredible experience. Here is a church, and they are a church, who is doing precisely what the church is supposed to be doing--proclaiming and living the gospel. Yeah, their theology is on the conservative side, but the thing about it is the dogma isn't what is important, the action is what is important. It's like they exist in a parallel universe to much of the Christian world. We are all arguing about theological and social issues, pigeon-holing one another. They are out loving people in the name of Jesus.

Thank you God for the experience.

I can't speak for everyone, but I thought that our first "Meetup" was a fantastic experience. I had the opportunity to connect with two fantastic people, both searching for answers in their spiritual lives. In this new world of spiritual interest, there is an incredible opportunity to connect and learn from one another. In an age of spiritual awakening, we can share with one another the tools that we have to pursue the Divine. Now, my hope, of course, is that can happen in and through the Christian church. If it is, we must be nimble, willing to change and then change again. We must hold on to what we understand to be the fundamentals (and I believe our grip even on those must be loose). And everything else must be released if necessary.

In fact, I am willing to go out on the limb and say that, as we Christians would explain it, the only thing that matters, the only thing we insist upon, is a relationship with Jesus. That is our point of commonality. We don't judge those who don't share that. We can still dialogue and work with them and learn from them. But, our touchpoint for deep community comes through that relationship and the language surrounding it.

Today in my scripture reading I came across Acts 2:42 : "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers." From the very beginning, there was an understanding of what was important, what was absolutely necessary, for the success of the church: learning, prayer, participation in ritual (the breaking of the bread was, more than likely, communion), and fellowship.

In their brilliant book, Growing Spiritual Redwoods, Bill Easum and Tom Bandy describe what an effective church, a "spiritual redwood" looks like. The book is golden, every page an outpouring of love for the church. When I cam across the passage from Acts this morning, it reminded me of a passage I had read from their book a couple of weeks ago. They describe what they see as the system of "reciprocal rewards" that is inherent in many traditional churches: "If you do this for the institution, the institution will do this for you." and "If the institution does this for you, it has the right to expect you will do that for the institution." They contrast this with what they call the system of shared disciplines (139):

"First, every individual separately pursues disciplines of prayer and Bible reading...Second, every individual is linked to a small group in which prayer and Bible reading are shared, and in which honest conversation seeks to discern how faith can change and direct daily living...Third, every individual is linked to the larger organism of the spiritual redwood...Fourth, all individuals seriously endeavor to engage their faith with daily living, through constant attention to their mission."

Powerful, exciting thoughts on how to be church.

In the traditional church calendar, the four weeks prior to Christmas are not the "Christmas season," they are Advent. While the world celebrates the season, many churches utilize music that hangs out in a minor key. While Christmas carols play everywhere else, the church sings song of expectation and waiting. We tell stories about John the Baptist and the Apocalypse. There is a massive disconnect between the "sacred" and the "secular" if you are in a church that follows the church calendar.

This year, I decided to get rid of the disconnect and gear my sermons and our worship toward Christmas to, hopefully capture some folks in need of some Christmas spirit. So, we started singing Christmas carols at the beginning of December and there wasn't anything anyone could do about it!

The crowds didn't show up, however. I was a little disappointed that we didn't have more visitors. It seems that waiting won't be denied. Whether we like it or not, we will have to wait. Wait to grow, wait to get better at preaching, wait for transformation to happen.

This afternoon, I read an article by Richard Foster over at Renovare. It was a great reminder of the importance and benefit of waiting.

Waiting, however, is not a passive activity, however. That is where I find the "waiting" of Advent as typically practiced as boring and frustrating. We wait and wait and wait and nothing...ever...happens.

We wait because we must, but that waiting is active. It is the runner at the starting line, itching to move at the sound of the gun. It is the race car mired in the pack looking for an opening to move into. Waiting is an active activity. When we must wait we are driven deeper into the Divine.

In my scripture reading this morning, one of the instances of Jesus' feeding of the multitude popped up. It is a good reminder that God's plan is for there to be enough. It is a major theme of scripture. So often, in our personal life and in our church life, we get used to there not being enough. We accept that state as normal. But it shouldn't be. This story, which shows up in all four gospels, and many, many other stories in scripture--a preponderance of evidence, I guess we could say--point to the fact that when the Divine becomes involved, there is enough and more than enough.

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

We were a little bit nervous at first, unsure about how the community would respond to us, but it ended up being a blast. Twelve of us went out for an hour on Sunday evening, going door to door and handing out bags of candy with a little card telling folks about our church. Most of the people we encountered were surprised but thrilled at the gift. Some tried to give us money. Others were curious and asked questions about who we were an why we were doing this to which we were able to respond that this was just our small way of showing God's love to our neighbors. Yes, a few were skeptical, and a couple of people wouldn't open their doors, but mainly it was a great experience both for our neighbors and us!