anointed?

We've been hanging around with this Christian community for a while now. New to the area, singed, burned, scorned, and scarred by various Christian communities over the years, we've not been in any particular hurry to formalize the relationship.

It's an interesting bunch of people. There's a wide mix of professionals (professors, business owners, specialists of one sort or another, etc), a burgeoning younger demographic, an array of blue collar folks, and a bunch of very long time survivors. It's these survivors that amaze me.

Along the wilderness path of this community, it's been the point leaders who have done the real damage. Mostly, they violated relationships of one sort or another--mostly sexual. And given that sordid history, the community had times when prospective new leaders decided it was the better part of prudence to avoid the mess of this community.

But here's the thing. The community seems to be the better for it all. They have fashioned a style and commitment to "being the body together" in such a way that it doesn't all depend on the point leader. Point leaders, like anyone else, can come or go; the body will endure. So worship is led by lots of people. The pastoral care, too. Though when a "point leader" is in place, that person's gifts are celebrated and embraced along the way.

Recently, a few of these folks invited Connie and me to join them on a Sat eve trip downtown. We carpooled for the ride, ate together in the open air, and then enjoyed some live theatre together (the theatre was free, since we volunteered to do the ushering duties). It was a great afternoon/evening. But most memorable for me was the "anointing."

About mid-way through our meal, I was being pressed a bit by one of the group about what Connie and my plans were viz a viz the church. Would we become members or not? It was clear that they wanted us to say yes. That was nice, of course. But something didn't feel quite right about it all, either, for the person went on to assume that I'd offer some kind of "leadership."

And that's when the anointing happened. As this person was "pushing" me to accept the legitimacy of the community's expectation that I should be willing to offer something special, a bird flew overhead and dropped its doo on me.

Now, what should a person make of this?

Do we dump a load of crap on a person when we assume roles for them? Or does any person anointed to leadership inevitably suffer a load of crap? And why must people be anointed with so much crap from their leaders?

Whatever the case, it's the survivors that amaze me. May the crown of life--and life more abundant--await those who persevere in faith and hope. Amen: Let it be so.

... and he was a samaritan (Luke 17:16)

Simone Weil suggested that prayer is fundamentally a matter of paying attention. Paying attention is, of course, not always easy to do. Weil believed that if we developed the discipline of actually paying attention right through each petition of the Lord's Prayer, and prayed it in that way first thing each morning, it would transform us.

The Heidelberg Catechism teaches (Q&A 116) us that prayer is the most important way that we can express our thankfulness to God.

So if prayer is how we express our gratitude and thanks, and prayer is fundamentally a matter of paying attention, it should come as no surprise that we rarely give thanks unless something has first caught our attention.

Big leap .....

Lately, I've found myself in a variety of situations and conversations in which the topic has been evaluating worship. It's been quite a ride. Some have argued that worship is "ridiculous" unless it is centered on and consumed by doctrinal instruction (remember, this emerging generation has more than a few who long for the security of the old absolutes). Others claim worship is boring and "churchy" unless it offers mostly music and that music should be led by accomplished praise bands, or rising singer/songwriters (indeed, some of this emerging generation do not know any hymns for ever since they've been in church these past 20 years the only songs sung have been contemporary and up "on the screen"). Others expect worship to be limited to 65 minutes, and not a second more lest the social patterns of Sunday morning get crunched. Some desire "prophetic preaching" while others don't want to challenged so much as to be assured that they don't need to change. Nobody wants a scandal, but a little notoriety is o.k. if it brings in more members. Others want ... and on and on it goes.

In a pluralist world, who gets to decide what worship _ought_ to be like?

Here's a modest proposal.

If worship helps us to pay attention--to notice if we are known by our love (I John), to notice if we are known by our generosity (Acts 2), to notice is we are known as peaceful, gentle, kind, (Galatians 5), to notice whether or not we are "parable people" of the kingdom, etc. it is good.
If worship helps us to pray--to actually live with thanksgiving with what we have (rather than complain about the entitlements we think we deserve), it's good.

If we worshipped like this ... our Samaritan neighbors would notice. That's gospel.

perfectly perfect perfection

Not too long ago, I found the following poem written by a teen about perfection.

Dear Perfection,

Sweating, Working

Perspiring, Aspiring

Never there, always out of reach

In the distance, but on the horizon

Midnight tears

Tears of sorrow

Reaching towards the Goal

Failing

but then… there is you

Always winning

Always making the Goal

Laughs and Smiles to all your buds

A smirk back to the losers

Me…

the Loser

Trying, failing

To forgive myself

signed,

Imperfection

I suspect that desiring to be the perfect leader isn’t far from most of our consciousness. No one wants to lead imperfectly. If you don’t know what your imperfections are, just try leading. They’ll jump out at you like those massive lit signs on a nighttime freeway. They’ll stare you down and wear you down. One thing I’ve learned along the way about leadership: leading exposes imperfections. So, we try to be perfectly perfect…and we fail, miserably.

And then, moments like Maundy Thursday, Good Friday & Easter come along. They challenge the perfectly perfect perfectionism in us. They offer grace. They remind us that God has addressed our imprecations and that when our imperfections show, there is grace, forgiveness and victory in a cross and empty tomb. Suddenly, while leadership seeks to expose our imperfections, God seeks to heal them. This young teen was on to something. “Trying, failing to forgive myself” isn’t possible. There’s only one forgiveness we need: God’s.

a new mantra

Long before consultants endlessly chirped the mantra "Plan the work; work the plan" and way before "strategic planning" surged to the fore, a word of wisdom was heard way out in the desert.

Planning, of course, is necessary and good if we are to properly steward our gifts for the good of the kingdom. I wonder, however, if "strategic planning" is most often just the admission that our other planning is not what it should be. All planning, if done well, is strategic in the most basic sense.

Planning, and especially strategic planning, gets problematic as soon as it takes on the aires of being authoritative, declarative, and settled. It locks down certain possibilities and excludes others. Life is rarely quite that linear.

There's some old advice in scripture that seems to capture the best of what we seek in strategic planning but doesn't lock it down. Leadership, it seems to suggest, is anchored in deep discernment--the fruit of being steeped in the law (God's teachings).

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no (vision/revelation/prophecy), people cast off restraint (get out of hand/perish). But happy (blessed) are those who keep the law.

This little proverb sits among a number of others that call us to heed the "teachings" of God. Indeed, the term "the law" at the end of the proverb can be translated "the teachings."

People perish, they get out of hand, they cast off restraint, the proverb indicates, when there is no vision or revelation or prophecy from God to lead them. In other words, when we fail to discern--to perceive, to contemplate, to gaze into--what it is, or where it is, or how it is that God is providing for us (as we carry on the teachings), we'll inevitably fall prey to this or that trend of the day, charismatic figure, or fortune teller.

Perhaps we would do well to coin a new mantra: Discern the way; the Way leads to discernment.

billvg

He is risen!

The grave is empty.
Death is defeated.
Now, all that matters, is a new creation.
Today and ever more.

Good Friday

God is love.
At just the right time, while we were still dead in sin, Christ died.
In this world, Love suffers ...

leading and following

One day last week during my usual commute, I was travelling with two cars when after a few miles I looked back and realized we had become a “train” of cars. There were probably 10-12 cars moving in concert together. As I began to notice the group holding together along the freeway, I wondered about the interaction of leading and following. None of the original three cars were technically leading – if leading means heading off into unchartered territory. We were following a well laid out freeway – one that provides the stability, the structure, and the direction to get us to the small town where we, presumably, were headed. On the other hand, we were leading - if leading means that others kept joining us and becoming part of our group. Some cars entered the freeway at different locations and joined us. Other cars joined in after we passed them and decided to go the speed we were going. However it came about, it became a “train” that lasted for about 10 miles. The group eventually fell apart as we hit the first of three exits that leads to the area where I live. Eventually, I reached my exit (the third) and went my own way.

As I went my own way, I was struck by the experience. The experience of being in the group. The experience that somehow that day I had traveled with these cars rather than next to them. The experience of whether I was following or leading.

It seems to me that following and leading are almost always this difficult to separate. Leading is in essence being a good follower. Following well almost always leads to some degree of leading because others join in. Maybe, that’s what the foot washing of the disciples was meant to convey? That following well and leading well are almost always inseparable. Maybe that is what gets most leaders in trouble…when they separate following and leading. When we – who think of ourselves as leaders – forget that we must remain followers in order to lead well.