Phil's Blog
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Effective March 27, 2007 Phil's Blog is in the Articles Section of the Website. Click on Articles on the left side of the page and choose a subject.
March 13, 2007
Two Roads Converged in a Faithful Place…
Well worn is Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken. Even so, it is rich with truth: “And both that morning equally lay in leaves no feet had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.”
Whenever two services were offered year round (rather than only in the summer months) some wondered if we “should ever come back” (together). Well, as you have heard in other conversations, and read elsewhere in this newsletter, the General Board, at its meeting March 5th, unanimously affirmed the Worship Committee’s recommendation that one worship service be celebrated on Sunday morning. I celebrate such a decision for several reasons, but the most important one (for me) is to bear witness to a unity that is made possible by Christ’s claim on our lives. In a time when families and individuals are running in a “thousand different directions,” this one (First Christian Church, Owensboro) has decided to travel together. And we will do so with the listening conference report on worship as our road map.
With five lay people (representative of the former 8:30 service and former 10:30 service), along with the music staff, and gathering on a regular basis, worship experiences will be created for God’s glory. And, with God’s help and grace, they will be ones that connect to both mind and heart (two of the most important organs of any body).
This group will not meet until after Easter, but I want to encourage you to hold this group (yet to be named) in your prayers. And, of course, I hope that you will share this recent decision with your unchurched friends and neighbors so that they, also, may know the blessing and benefit of being involved in this place of faithfulness.
Two roads converged in a faithful place, and we gladly traveled it together!
Blessings,
Phil
March 6, 2007
Micah, Zechariah, You and Me…
In a recent article of the Lexington Theological Quarterly, Dean Daisy Machado rouses and inspires the reader to look at matters of immigration through lenses other than economic or legal. In fact, she rightly cites two Old Testament prophets (Zechariah and Micah) as for why there is a biblical tradition to do so. At one point she writes, “I have been shaped by a biblical tradition that calls me to do what the prophet Micah reminded his people; we are called ‘to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.’ (Micah 6:8), and furthermore, ‘Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy…do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor…’ (Zechariah 7:9, 10) Then, after writing in a heart wrenching way about the costs immigrants are willing to risk and pay as they run toward the border, she concludes with a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”
It is so easy in this country to “look the other direction, and mind our own business” when we witness injustice. In fact, in a rather ironic way, we tend to hide behind “our freedoms” as excuses for not getting involved in the lives of others or the plights in which they find themselves. But just as there are fine lines that serve as distinctive markers in other areas of life, there is one that runs between “not being nosey” and “not being interested or caring.” Micah and Zechariah evidently did not get that memo. Compelled to do that which they understood God calling them to do, they stuck their necks out and put their lives on the line in order to speak truth to power, even as they sought to teach truths that God finds pleasing.
There are times when it is good to keep silent; but, obviously, there are moments when we cannot. May we have the wisdom and courage to know the difference.
Blessings,
Phil
February 27, 2007
“Can We Let Go?”
In the middle of her kitchen was an old lawn mower that did not run. Beside it, and on top of it, and all around it were boxes upon boxes of newspapers as well as a variety of other things. Some of her acquaintances in the church were becoming increasingly concerned about her. Because she had no family, some believed, as her pastor, I was the rightful one to convince her to move into some sort of assisted living facility. The woman (I’ll call Mildred) had great difficulty taking care of herself, and it was, in all honesty, a pitiful situation. Everyone in town thought her to be a “bag lady,” but few really knew she was fairly wealthy. She drove an old car, and wore the same thing nearly every day. When she came to church, it looked as though she had just rolled out of bed even though she had been up for hours.
I cannot remember what the tipping point was for me to finally take the initiative and to begin the discussion with her about the possibility of moving to a place that would be more safe for her, but I do remember that the day I went to Mildred’s home to begin the conversation, there was just enough space that served as a pathway from the kitchen door to her living room. I had never seen so much stuff packed into such a small space, but I do remember thinking, “If Mildred really needed to get out of the house in short order, she probably couldn’t.” Clearly, I was in the presence of one who held on to things, kept things, and found security in things. And when I gently inquired why she held on to all of that stuff, she said, “I may need it some day.”
Mildred, like many, had difficulty with “letting go.” Letting go, of course, can have to do with everything from reducing the mail pile to giving a loved one “permission” to leave this earthly life for a greater one. But, “letting go” can be rather difficult work. I’m not sure I understand why, but in our house, it is difficult to get rid of Christmas cards. Each year, we read them when they arrive, appreciate the fact that we were remembered, and then place them in a basket by the Christmas tree. Then, when Christmas is over, we put them in a box and take them to the attic where…they take up space. Don’t ask, because I do not have an answer.
There are a couple of different conversations going on in the life of our congregation right now that beg the question, Can we let go?” The first is, “How many worship services do we need in order to be a faithful congregation?” And, the second is, “Can we adopt a new way of structuring ourselves so as to propel us toward more mission and ministry?” Both of these questions certainly stretch us, and will cause us some initial angst. All of the “t’s” may not be crossed, nor all of the “i’s” dotted. But somewhere, deep in our souls, we know that God will not let us go. And that, quite frankly, is why we ought to be able to answer the question (that serves as the title of this article) with a resounding “yes.”
Blessings, Phil
February 20, 2007
Like Lights on a Dashboard…
Last fall, before the cool air turned to cold, I decided to “flush” the radiator in our car to protect it against the kind of winter weather we have recently experienced. I followed the directions on the bottle of anti-freeze/radiator flush. Everything seemed to work out fine until I filled the tank with new antifreeze and turned on the motor. One of the red lights on the dashboard suddenly illuminated and when I looked in the owner’s manual, I discovered that it was the warning light for “low anti-freeze.” I checked the reservoir; the fluid level was just fine. It turned out that during the cleaning process the sensor (which is built in to the plastic reservoir bottle) was ruined. And, unless I want to pay $80 for a plastic bottle with a sensor in it, the light on the dashboard will remain lit all the time. One of my neighbors said, “Well, maybe you’ll check it more often now that the light stays on.” Hardly. Like everything else that is constantly present, it will probably be taken for granted. I’d prefer the light to work when it should—when the fluid level is actually low rather than burn all the time and serve no real purpose.
Like dashboard lights that serve as reminders or warnings, the seasons in the Christian year operate in a similar way. Lent, the season of the Church year we have just begun, is one that invites us to a period of repentance. It was about the year 350 when Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem told those preparing for baptism, “You have a long period of grace, forty days for repentance.” If, at no other moment in the course of a given time span, we do not take stock of our lives and turn from that which isn’t beneficial to our relationship with God, lent is such a time. It is an opportunity for us to go to the desert of our faith lives, and allow ourselves to be tested. In the process, we might better understand what is getting in the way of our response to God, and keeps us from offering a more emphatic “Yes!” to Christ’s call and claim on our lives. Lent, like warning lights on a car’s dashboard, asks us to see if the levels are in the range that allows for maximum performance.
May we all use these forty days for that purpose.
Remember to be a blessing,
Phil
February 13, 2007
Step by Step Into the New Frontiers…
There is a conversation going on in the congregation that I encourage you to be a part of. And while I hope it stirs our passion, I pray it is not one dominated by emotion or immediate reaction and where the dynamic is set up for there to be “winners” and “losers.” The topic of which I write revolves around the prospect of one Sunday morning worship experience rather than two. From my perspective, I want you to know that I am supportive of the idea. I think the time has come for such a development.
When the Spirit gave birth to the Church on that first Pentecost (Feast of Weeks in the Hebrew understanding), we are told that devout Jews from all over the known world were together in one place. Luke writes, “When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1). They weren’t in separate rooms, meeting at different times, insistent upon their native language being the one used in the Spirit’s time with them. Instead, somehow able to surrender that which would seek to divide them, those who were present allowed the unifying power of God’s Holy Spirit to do something we all can say is rather significant: Give birth to a movement of people committed to the teachings and lifestyle of Jesus Christ. And even though ministry took place by individual followers of Jesus before that special Pentecost day, few, if any, can dispute that such an event was what helped propel the church forward. But before that could happen, one could make the case that everyone had to be in one place before God could do anything with them.
As I think about what that might mean for us, I am inclined to believe that the synergy which could come from everyone being in the same place would translate into a language that would allow us to say, “The Spirit of God is moving among us.”
Yet, I am astute enough to know that such a way would ask us all to surrender something: expectations, ideas, or preferences. But, In our surrendering we may discover something we could not have should we choose to stay apart. And while each of us may “march to the beat of a different drum,” the One who makes all of our music invites us to the new frontiers of our faith. And step, by faithful step, we go.
May our conversation be bathed in prayer…
Blessings,
Phil
January 6, 2007
Take a Week Off to Brighten a Tomorrow…
One of the many beauties of the tradition we call the “Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is that our roots are in the “American Frontier.” Duane Cummins does a great job in telling our story in his book, “A Handbook for Today’s Disciples.” In it he writes, “By 1800, the tumult of the American Revolution was receding in time and with it a winter season in the annals of American religion. A new religious revivalism surged across the land, challenging institutional religion and calling for a return to the New Testament church. In due course, the new revivalism blended with the frontiering process, following its natural way of establishing religion as the next level of social organization, above the family. The frontier, always a fertile field for social and cultural experiment, became a virtual seedbed for new religious sects, factions, and beliefs.”
Geographically, of course, we are no longer a “frontier people,” but hopefully, surely, we have not lost the “frontier spirit” that allows us to step out into the unknown areas of life. Indeed, because we are “people of faith” we can do little else. Unlike those who need to live and walk by sight, we walk by...faith. Having said that, I segue into a proposal I want to make as we approach our denomination’s “Week of Compassion” celebration.
After checking with Janice Pulliam, our Office Manager, I feel completely comfortable in asking you to take a week off from your giving toward your pledge to make some unknown other’s tomorrow a little brighter. Taking that “frontier mindset” I want to ask you, if you cannot write two checks, to take one week off in your giving toward your pledge and write a check for whatever amount you would typically give and give it to the “Week of Compassion” instead. I think our financial situation is healthy enough to take this risk, and to step out in faith, and send a “hefty” and substantial check to the “Week of Compassion.”
As a tradition, we do quite a few things rather well, but none more so than this one. The offering will be taken on the Sundays of February 18th and 25th.
Blessings,
Phil
January 30, 2007
Being “Missional” is a Prerequisite…
One of the recent church leadership magazines I subscribe to focused on the theme of “Going Missional.” One of the articles focuses on a Texas congregation that chooses not to be about weekends (the worship experience and Sunday school hour). They do it, but it isn’t where they place a lot of their energy. The suburban Ft. Worth church, Northwood Church, is a congregation of about 2,000 members and it has helped plant 89 other churches in the last fifteen years. When asked how, why, etc., the pastor, Bob Roberts, responds by saying, “We aren’t about weekends. We aren’t just trying to get people into church.” And then he speaks about how each person in the congregation is encouraged to use his or her gifts for “kingdom work.”
“In kingdom work, we make a mistake when we start with ecclesiology. We should start with Christology. Our first approach should be “How can we live out the love of Jesus in this society?” It’s not “How can we start a church?
People living like Jesus: that’s what changes a society. Too often, we start with a preacher who tries to gather a church first, thinking that, in time they’ll get around to engaging the world. That’s backwards. It teaches people to think engaging the world is something we pay people to do after the church is built, or that it’s an occasional trip we make.
No, we want people to understand the Great Commission is not the church’s project, but it’s something we all own personally. ‘You mean me go and use my job?’ What in the world can a plumber do over there (foreign nation)?’
We want everyone to think mission first. Mission doesn’t mean multiplying churches, but finding ways to show God’s love and greatness to the world.
If you focus on mission, churches will follow, but if you focus on churches, mission often gets lost.”
There are a couple of other points the article makes, and though we may not use the same language, we can certainly affirm the ideas:
1. Mission begins with Christology not ecclesiology.
2. Following Jesus leads us to mission, which leads to
churches gathering.
3. We serve not to convert but because we have been
converted. We serve because Christ has changed us
and made us servants to people who are hurting and
lost.
4. God’s kingdom will be established not by human
power or entertainment, but by realizing God’s con-
cern for humanity and the whole of society.
Surely, the Great Commandment lies at the hart of our mission as a church, and the Great Commission informs us with whom we are to share the love found in that command.
I’ll see you at the “mission place” waiting to hear how you lived out your ministry between Sundays!
Blessings, Phil
January 23, 20007
“If you are yourself at peace,…
…then there is at least some peace in the world. Then share your peace with everyone, and everyone will be at peace.” That is what Thomas Merton said, and I came upon those words in one of the books I am reading: There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem” by Wayne W. Dyer. Dyer suggests that we have misunderstood how to live in a peaceful state, and we have expected someone else to give us what only living in concert with God can do. And he suggests that the sooner we connect to “thy peace” (God’s peace), the more quickly we will know peace. He writes, “Thy peace” is the essence of our universe. It is God at work, at play, and everywhere in between. It is infinite love. There is no anger, fear, greed, malice, or envy. There is a vast ocean of peace always available when one comes to know “thy peace.” It is only a thought away. In this place, problems do not exist.
The most compelling aspect to all of this is that “thy peace” can become exclusively yours one hundred percent of the time whenever you make the conscious decision that this is how you are going to live. “Thy peace” becomes what you are an instrument of… When followed, it provides you with a spiritual solution to every problem.”
Unfortunately, we often think or say things like, “If only this or that were happening or taking place, then I would be able to rest easier and be at peace.” Or, “If my neighbor thought like me, voted like me, had faith like me, took care of the yard like me, then I could be at peace.” Under those conditions, one can never be at peace. With that mindset and understanding, it is highly likely one will always be stirred up and “on edge.” Connecting to “thy peace”, on the other hand, promises to give us what we want. In other words, if you look for someone to give you what only God can give you, restlessness and disharmony will be your constant companions. And if you are waiting for the world to be at peace before you can be, then you will never know it.
Please do not mishear: We can never grow complacent in working for peace and justice. And we cannot cease calling for disparate systems to give an accounting for their unhealthy and hurtful ways, and our voices must never tire of preaching against war and hatred. However, we can know a sense of peace before all things are righted; if we choose.
Blessings, Phil
January 16, 2007
What Kind of Unity?
Today, as I write these words, our nation pauses to remember Martin Luther King, Jr. As you know, he was a preacher and teacher in addition to being a leader in the civil rights movement, and his vision for human equality was rooted in theology. Tragically, his prophetic voice was silenced on April 4, 1968 in Memphis by James Earl Ray. As it is with other news stories like this one, there are conspiracy theories that question Ray’s guilt. But there is one thing we know for certain: Fear causes individuals, groups of people, and governments to act in unhealthy and “deadly” ways. It can even lead us to war.
Some times the death that comes from the hands of fear is actually physical in nature; most often, however, a sense of trust and respect are the casualties. Worse yet, when we find ourselves afraid, it seems as though we lose our ability to be civil and choose, instead, to operate from an animal instinct that compels us to lash out at that (or those) which/who appears to be threatening us. Rarely do we “reason together.” Instead, we seek to silence (through whatever means we must) those who think, believe, or live differently. Such a mindset makes unity nearly impossible.
Even so, some of us will not give up working toward unity even as we seek to guard the dignity of those who live in different places than we do. Some of us will continue to work for it, because we realize uniformity is not nearly as faithful as unity. Indeed, uniformity does not challenge us, inspire us, or cause us to dream; in fact, uniformity requires little of anything—just “tow the line” and “don’t make waves.” Unity, on the other hand, challenges us to put love and respect at the center of everything we do and say. And it encourages us to play the part God has in mind for us.
Blessings,
Phil
January 9, 2007
Still Dreaming…
As I was making coffee early one morning last week, I heard John call out in a start…”Aaaahhhh!” But before I could get there, Stephanie was standing in his doorway, and I overheard him say to her, “I had a bad dream.” There are those moments when our dreams are scary, unsettling and seem more real than reality. They intrude upon our need for rest and occasionally shake us to the core. But those bad dreams do not keep us from dreaming; the mind still finds a way to dream again.
It has been more than forty years since Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke from the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. about a dream he had for a new social order: one in which people of color had the very same rights and responsibilities as those of us who have no color to our skin. And, for some, his words resembled something more akin to a nightmare than a pleasant dream. In fact, to some, his words probably sound something like Paul’s did when he wrote to the Galatians, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Surely, some upon receiving those words cried out in a start, “Aaaahhhh! Who will we be if we don’t have a national, ethnic, or sexual identity?! How will we make distinctions?”
Well, that is just it. We won’t. We can’t. And it is rather clear that those of us who are baptized Christians should not. That is what makes the act of baptism so dramatic: we die to our old selves so that we might be new creations. No longer is the hospitality we extend to others partial; no longer do we see pigmentation of skin or other distinctions. One of the challenges of being a baptized person is seeing the holy in all others…even those of other faiths or traditions.
This Sunday afternoon at 3:30, we will host the Martin Luther King, Jr. service in our sanctuary, and I count it a blessing. As a congregation within a great communion that has made the commitment to being an anti-racist, pro-reconciling presence in the world, it only makes sense that we would be a host site for such a celebration. And, because Christian unity is our “polar star” it is only right that we would host the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” service four days later.
I’m certainly proud to be part of a movement that chooses to build bridges rather than walls. And I still dream about that day when the vision becomes real.
Blessings,
Phil
January 2, 2007
Staying Connected…And Inviting Others
Sunday felt different—at both worship services. I could have prepared for it; I should have prepared for it. After the healthy attendance numbers for the first four weeks of the month, and having everyone together for singular worship experiences, I should have anticipated the dip and the “settling out,” but I didn’t. And though I choose not to place any value judgment on that feeling (good or bad), it felt to me much like it feels after various generations of one family gather for a special meal, but soon go their separate ways when it is over. It is too easy to become disconnected until the next major “get-together.” I am praying that isn’t what becomes of us as a community of faith; and, in fact, it is my hope and prayer that we continue to find ways to stay connected. The Membership Committee (by hosting the pot-luck luncheon after the second service this Sunday) has offered us an opportunity to “catch up” with one another.
It is also my hope and prayer that in this new year we will make a concerted effort to expand our circle to include new folks into the life of the congregation. Imagine what might happen if each of us (as an individual or family) invited and assimilated one new person or family into the life of the congregation! Lives would be transformed, friendships deepened, and the community of faith would have a broader base/foundation upon which to deploy our ministry. For this to happen, we must work together and build community.
If you take this challenge as your own (inviting another individual/family) to plug into the life of our congregation, chances are you will be asked why they should give us a chance. And that is a fair enough question. I invite you to come up with your own list of reasons, but allow me to offer a few:
Committed people who regularly and faithfully lead Sunday School for all ages
Commitment to mission work by youth and adults
The building is used as a mission outpost by several organizations including groups like Boy
Scouts and GIRLS, Inc.
Shared leadership by women and men
Gifted musicians who teach, lead, and play music
Involvement in a variety of outreach ministries
Worship spaces that contribute to focusing on the holy
Active and vital ministries with children and youth
Of course, like all other congregations, there are some things we do not have, but it is clear that there is an abundance of gifts and graces present within this community of faith. And we would do well to stay focused on them, even as we stay connected to one another.
Blessings,
Phil
