A couple of weeks ago I challenged the congregation to join me in closing down “Pandemic Church” and step into the Advent Season with anticipation that God is preparing us for something new. This Wednesday, Nov. 30th, we’ll gather together to look back (hindsight), engage in conversation about this present moment (insight) AND offer a heartfelt prayer of communal closure (foresight).
For those of you aware of our creative Maundy Thursday Services…..this week’s Dinner church will feel familiar.
1. The rhythm of this week’s dinner church is unique in that the majority of us will be eating in the physical sanctuary and remaining in that space throughout the evening. 2. Preschool – 1st grade will eat and meet in their usual space. 3. It’s really important for folks to RSVP by 7 p.m. (Monday evening)
STAGGERED SEATING FOR PIZZA DINNER
5:45 – 6 p.m. Anyone that arrives in this window will begin eating when they arrive.
6:15 – 6:30 p.m. Second seating begins.
UNIQUE PROGRAM: Ending and Preparing Well.
6:00 p.m. – 6:20 PM Video presentation (some of us will be at the table and others in the pews)
6:20 – 6:45 PM Group Dialogue (“ “ “ “ “ )
6:45 – 7:30 PM “Exploration” and dialogue with smaller groupings
HELP NEEDED
8:00 – 9:00 PM I need about 5-7 folks to stick around and help disassemble the sanctuary installation.
I hope you’ll consider joining us….even if you’d rather just wait to eat supper until you get home! It’s really important for folks to RSVP so that we can figure out the logistics and order the right amount of food.
Tonight’s Zoom Meeting, regarding Fire Protection, has been postponed.
The decision to postpone tonight’s zoom mtg. is based on updated information our lay leadership received this morning. Thanks for your flexibility and also for helping us put the word out to your classes, committees, teams, and small groups.
We’ll reschedule the meeting after we’ve explored the info we’ve just received.
Earlier this fall the youth group kicked off a new weekly program with high aspirations and minimal fuel to make the engine “go”. Long story short, after a couple of weeks of experimentation, it became pretty clear the most recent reboot of our youth program isn’t sufficient.
WE MAKE THE ROAD BY WALKING.
Good News:
God is doing something exciting in our experimentation and intentionality. We’re feeling encouraged to see our students integrating into the specific spaces of belonging we’re building for intergenerational Discipleship. We’re seeing God at work in and through the lives of those participating in Community Ministry (Saturdays), Dinner Church (Wednesday evenings), and Woven (Sunday mornings). God is bearing fruit in the deliberateness of our relationship building, through the continuity and deliberateness in our holy conversations.
Challenging News:
1) The identified need and desires we’re seeing in our younger youth are radically different from what we’re seeing and hearing from our older youth. This has always been true AND there is a palpable and definitive tension unique to the moment.
2) The vast majority of the adults in our congregation, including many parents of our children and youth, do not express feeling called or remotely equipped to disciple children, youth, or adults.
3) We have not been able to identify a core group of adults to make a weekly investment in the intentional discipleship of children and youth. Yes, there are individuals but no core groups of adults. We have no reason to believe this will change anytime soon.
4) Families with children/youth are in constant motion. It was true long before the pandemic began and it’s even more true now. We have no reason to believe the pace of life is going to slow down anytime soon. We have no reason to believe that “church” will ever be the center of family life again nor should we assume the church should be the center of family life again. The road ahead doesn’t resemble the place we’ve come from.
5) We can’t seem to put down the baggage of the past (discipleship as a program) which gives us little or no capacity in the embracing of discipleship as a deliberate form of relationship building with Christ at the center.
6) The Church is adrift. We have not come together to identify our priorities and we can’t make critical decisions together until we discern our priorities together.
None of us, myself included, saw the missional drifting when it first began; we can’t identify when it actually began. We certainly didn’t make a conscious decision to drift. Let’s be clear, no parent, leader, partner, community or organization drifts away from purpose….. on purpose. When we drift, and all of us do, we don’t usually know it’s happening. Maybe it begins when we get ahead of ourselves or a little full of ourselves? Maybe it happens when the tired sets in? Maybe it happens when we get scared or overwhelmed? Maybe it happens when grief claims our focus? For whatever reason, we’re all prone to gently drift asleep at the wheel. If only the awakening would be so gentle.
For the record, we have not come together to make a collective decision to radically change course and nobody has deliberately sabotaged our vessel. We fell asleep at the helm and we’ve been awakened by a crisis.
1) We didn’t see the need to recommit to our priorities, or discern new priorities during our chapters of thriving.
2) The lack of seeing the need to clarify our priorities gave each of us, individually and as little groups, silent permission to determine our own priorities.
3) A church full of individuals, boards, official and unofficial committees, each determining their own priorities, is a church adrift.
4) The wake-up call continues to be painful.
The most obvious proof of our missional drift is our lack deliberate walking with children, youth, and their families. Judy, April, a couple of lay leaders, and myself are not able to do this on the church’s behalf. As it relates to ministry with children, youth, and their families, we must clarify what we’re trying to accomplish. We must receive the resources God is providing for the purpose of equipping. We must embrace our commission to make Disciples.
Great news:
1) The leaders of the church are actively creating a plan to bring all of us together so that we can actively discern what God wants us to prioritize. Your voice is needed. More importantly, your listening heart and ears are needed! Mark your calendars for a church-wide spiritual renewal weekend, January 13-15, 2023 and pray for our leaders as they help prepare the soil.
2) In the meantime, as it relates to children, youth, and their families, we’re creating new spaces for you to make an immediate investment. The table you choose to sit at, the attitude you arrive with, your motive for participating, the risk you take in sharing, your gentle listening, makes more difference than you know.
3) We don’t have to succumb to either/or thinking. It is entirely possible to remain a committed member of a class/group AND also participate in intergenerational spaces of belonging. Venturing out of your regular class/group, once a month, is healthy and undergirds the priesthood of all believers. What a gift it will be to return to your group the following week, to testify in what God is doing in the life of your church. We urge you to carve out time, at least once a month, to participate in in one of our new spaces of belonging (Sunday mornings, Wednesday evenings, and/or Saturdays)
3) Whoever said that what God wants is for any of us to put church at the center of our lives? Jesus certainly never said that. He speaks of himself as God’s Temple, continually moving in the neighborhood. God wants us to put Christ at the center of our the totality of our lives. What a tremendous opportunity we’ve been given to help families learn to disciple one another so they might share God’s love with those they are actually “doing life with”… on the sidelines of sports fields, on field trips, at work, and all of the gazillion places they find themselves on any given day.
5) And then there’s this…… best news ever…..God is with us AND for us. Drift is inevitable AND God is faithful. We may have wandered but the Spirit guides. The crisis we’ve brought on ourselves in missional drift brings opportunity for Jesus to help us find our way again. Our intentional walking in these last two months of the calendar year could very well determine whether or not we thrive in the year that follows.
We have some amazing kids in the life of this church. Their parents, surrogate parents, and grandparents are also pretty amazing. Don’t even get me started on the newcomers that have only recently found an home in our little corner of the world. Each and every one of us, a child of God, full of holy potential, yet-to-be-discovered wonder, and renewed purpose. Each and every one of us with a part to play.
We make the road by walking.
Yours in Christ, Sterling Sterling W. Severns, Pastor
Joseph Myers in The Search to Belong, with the help of sociologist Edward T. Hall, identifies four kinds of spaces in which we find a sense of belonging. DISCIPLESHIP HAPPENS IN ALL FOUR OF THESE SPACES. Each intentional space has a unique purpose and set of expectations.
Our goal is to prompt each one of us to take a deeper step in our walk with Christ.
PUBLIC SPACE:A generously inclusive space for the “masses”
Public space is about sharing a common experience in a larger space, like a public worship service.
WE SHOULD EXPECT to come to worship with expectation of encountering the living God, prepared to listen to stories about the in in-breaking of the Kingdom of God, and leave with a renewed sense of purposefulness. We should not expect this space to do the challenging and long-term work of transformation.
WE SHOULD NOT EXPECT this space to do the heavy lifting in the long-term work of transformation. While this space may feel intimate to those participating, it isn’t meant to be a replacement for the smaller spaces where people can be vulnerable and practice accountability.
AT IT’S BEST, corporate worship becomes missional if it reshapes people to inhabit God’s story in their everyday lives.
COMMUNITY SPACE: The prime building block for the church. A generously inclusive space where people from all walks of life become a missional community.
Community space is where people select a community – people with whom they want to go deeper – to belong to. In our congregational setting, this space is more like a mid-sized group of 20 to 40 people. The It’s small enough for people to experience authentic community, but big enough to mobilize.
WE SHOULD EXPECT this space to facilitate deeper relationship building and lighten the load by spreading out the work.
WE SHOULD NOT EXPECT the deepest levels of vulnerability and accountability to take place in this space.
AT IT’S BEST, this space gives people a foretaste of the Kingdom, where people are known and, together, we’re living out love and relationships in meaningful ways.
PERSONAL SPACE: A generously exclusive space where relationships are deeper because of the trust we build through accountability.
Jesus discipled the disciples through constant invitation and challenge. Personal spaces of belonging are small by design, 5-12 participants, and are uniquely suited for a deeper formation.
In this closed and temporary space we invite people to live out a common rule of life and share in habits together that will help us to have eyes to see, ears to hear, and practices that will encourage us to live out the mission of God.
WE SHOULD EXPECT accountability to happen in this space because Christ calls us to help one another explore our unique struggles, hopes, and callings. In this space we invite and challenge one another to open up honestly. We create safe space a shared commitment to expectations and embracing the importance of keeping trust in the holding of one another’s stories.
WE SHOULD NOT EXPECT everyone to feel comfortable to participate (yet) and we shouldn’t assume this is space where we expect the “naked truth” of our lives to be fully revealed.
AT OUR BEST, The farther we move from the public space into personal/intimate spaces, the greater the accountability and vulnerability becomes and the more intentional we should be in fostering the invitation and challenge to walk with Christ into a hurting world.
Higher depths of accountability and vulnerability don’t come easy for many of us. Trust takes time to build. Whereas, we should assume that everyone is expected to go deeper, with each step they take with Christ, the stride and pace of those steps will vary dramatically. If you’re ready to step into something that promotes vulnerability and accountability, we’ll have a space for you now. If you aren’t ready yet, it’s ok. We’ll be ready when you are.
INTIMATE SPACE:A generously exclusive space where the “naked truth” is shared, without us feeling “ashamed”.
This is like the space Jesus had with Peter, James and John. Whereas, we aren’t yet ready to invest energy in creating intimate space, we want to be mindful of it’s importance!
“What would the church look like if everyone in the church used their God-given gifts and talents to equip the rest of the church in such a way that the entire church became more like Jesus?” For if the whole church looked and lived more like Jesus, how much more would our neighborhoods and cities look more like heaven?
– JR Woodard
The Pastoral Staff has been hard at work in preparing to equip the church in this next season of life together. Early this week, we’ll share the details of what the church can expect. This document will serve as a primer in better understanding why we’re beginning “here” and what to expect from each space we’re creating. Our goal is to prompt each one of us to take a deeper step in our walk with Christ; we make the road by walking.
DISCIPLESHIP IS THE GOAL
It’s all about equipping the people of the Church to be more like Jesus in a world that needs the love of Jesus. Christian discipleship is about calling others to join us in practicing a way of life in which we embody (flesh out) the life of Jesus in the context of the world as we journey to fulfill God’s mission together.
Discipleship is a way of life, not an intellectual assimilation of ideas or a program.*
We must deliberately practice discipleship in our daily lives, if we want to disciple others; It’s essential for us to practice what we teach.
Discipleship is about inviting people to become whole again, to become more like Jesus, overcoming destructive habits and building life-giving habits
Discipleship takes place in the street and the sanctuary, the classroom and the living room, its about being “with people” in everyday life
Discipleship happens when we are on mission together, joining God in the renewal of all things.
We continue to lift up Eloise, Massie, and the entire Fulks family, as they grieve Margaret Anne’s death and celebrate her homecoming.
Alcorn, Margaret Anne Fulks, 66, of Boise, ID, formerly of Richmond. VA, joined her beloved ancestors and her Heavenly Father on August 4, 2022.
She was the third child of Melvin Earl Fulks, Sr. and Margaret Broach Fulks. Margaret Anne was a loving, caring, and mighty child of God. Though quiet and willowy she had an unyielding personal sense of justice that would summon her into immediate action when a stranger, dog or cat needed help. She leaves behind her two children, Matthew Alcorn and Samantha Alcorn, as well as ex-husband, Scott Alcorn.
Margaret Anne had a long career as a meticulous, cheerful legal secretary in Boise. Her sense of humor and many hijinks kept everyone laughing. Her siblings, Melvin Earl Fulks, Jr. (Lynn), Eloise Fulks Hines (Vic), George Massie Fulks (Betsy) and Darryl Wayne Fulks will miss her greatly. She also leaves behind seven nieces and nephews and a host of great-nieces and great-nephews.
There will be a Graveside Service at Forest Lawn Cemetery on Monday, August 29, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.
Before I get into the specifics, I want to acknowledge that the majority of the Deacon’s job description was just parsed out to the entire congregation:
If we were to actually embrace “Priesthood of all believers”, the deacons cannot be identified as “the spiritual leaders of the church”.
If we assume Jesus’ mandate in John 13 is an expectation for all Disciples, thus creating a deeper culture of care, the deacons are no longer the primary caregivers of the church family.
In the systemic identity crisis – the job description for the deacons has become less focused on active walking/leading and more akin to structural maintenance workers. For example, in our current structure the Deacons are entrusted with supervision of the pastoral staff while the personnel committee is charged with the supervision of the support staff. The last handful of Deacon Boards, Personnel Committees, former and current staff members, will all agree that the model hasn’t served us well. The other administrative duties assigned to the Deacons have created a culture of high burnout. The last handful of nominating committees haven’t been able to identify folks that feel called to serve on the Deacon Board.
Ok, that’s the bad news. Here’s the good news…
it’s a new day and God is doing a new thing. Whereas, I have no specific recommendation to bring forward about long term structure, I do have a specific recommendation to carry us through the remainder of this year. As we practice intentional walking and listening, I am confident God will give us what we need. Here it is again, “We make the road by walking”.
Recommendation for the remainder of 2022.
Gather “official” leadership and staff together to create nominating team, share the names with the congregation for feedback, and then trust the “official” leadership of the church to vote to approve. Taking the vote to the entire congregation is best practice when the church is deeply connected and in the right head space. The last several business meetings have not been very healthy and it’s going to take some time for us to practice walking differently. Trusting the folks the congregation voted into “official” leadership last fall seems healthy to me but only after the congregation has had an opportunity to share responses.
We all appear to believe that Deacon Ministry is really important. Thus, anyone we elect to serve as a Deacon cannot and should not have a current Leadership role that carries heavy responsibility for coordination or implementation of another area of ministry in 2022. It is possible the nominating committee will ask someone if they would consider stepping down form a current position if they feel called to serve. Should that happen, we’d need to determine if it’s critical the position is filled officially or if there is another option that makes more sense in this year of practicing together.
Ask the nominating team to identify six individuals to serve as Deacons specifically called to care for members of our immediate community that are experiencing isolation and/or loneliness.
The early Christian Church relied upon a small handful of folks, all with unique backgrounds and giftedness, to care for the “widows and orphans”. A deeper form of care was needed for those without traditional support structures. I believe we need 6 folks, all with unique backgrounds and giftedness, to care for those most isolated among us. (e.g. folks living with deep depression, those privately struggling with substance addiction, couples that might have experienced a recent miscarriage, etc.) Privacy would be paramount and it would be presumed the six would work closely with the pastoral staff and likely help to creatively coordinate the meeting of physical needs along with spiritual and emotional needs.
4. Ask the nominating team to identify 2 individuals to serve as Deacons, specifically installed to work closely with our teachers, small group leaders, and staff in equipping the church to establish a deeper culture of care. If Jesus expects us to love one another, he probably intends for us to offer deeper care to both those in our immediate circles AND those in the church outside of those circles. Having a couple of trained and called deacons to focus on changing culture feels faithful and wise.
5. Ask the nominating team to identify 1 person to serve as the Deacon Chair. This individual would work closely alongside the personnel committee in supervision, support, and encouragement of the staff. The Deacon Chair would also stay in close contact with the other two groups of deacons and, should the need arise, call the entire group together should a major issue or opportunity need to be addressed.
6. Lastly, I would like to suggest the nominating committee identify 2 members to join Eleanor Brown in researching Stephen Ministry, an innovative model for caregiving that could be invaluable in shifting culture and helping us explore potential for caregiving and relationship building in Abundant Community.
Please join me in praying for guidance as we embrace the moment God is giving us, recommit to purpose, and bury practices that feed our addictions. I’m not certain that the recommendation I’ve shared is the right next step but I give you my word that I’m thinking about it a lot, I’m continuing to pray about it, and I genuinely want to hear what God is prompting in your own hearts in your listening.
“We practice what we preach and then we practice some more.“
We help each other overcome our addiction to control and contempt, through deeper forms of relationship building. Work to develop a culture that invites vulnerable sharing in appropriate spaces and foster a deeper culture of care through awareness of those outside of our familiar circles.
We practice what we preach and then we practice some more. Let’s create programs in this next season that are more about culture than strategizing. This is how we’ll build trust.
As we continually remind and invite one another into “a more excellent way” of walking together, there is life to be found our testifying to what Christ is revealing along the way. Lets practice testimony more actively in every aspect of church life.
We identify those among us experiencing spiritual renewal and listen for what God might be revealing.
We identify those with unique giftedness in creating space for deeper listening and invite them to help us practice.
We assume that every gathering is a form of active discipleship…even though most of it won’t likely resemble anything we traditionally associate with discipleship.
We identify the giftedness and potential in one another and get busy leaning into a relational form of leadership.
Weprepare to welcome an influx of new energy and new people. We open our hearts to them in sharing fuller versions of our stories.
We constantly clarify who makes what decision and then communicate clearly before and after the decisions are made.
We continue to trust the Spirit to help us make the road by walking.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Sterling W. Severns, Pastor
Tomorrow, we get really specific. Part Four features the promised recommendation for Deacon Ministry.
Still walking! Well done. In part two, I’m going to make a case that our leadership conundrum isn’t as simple as it seems….Let’s get to it.
Baptists are freedom people:
Soul freedom
Bible Freedom
Church Freedom
and Religious Freedom.
I want to focus specifically on Soul Freedom here (aka Priesthood of ALL Believers). As Baptist, we believe that followers of Jesus are a priesthood of ALL believers. It means we don’t need an intermediary between ourselves and God and it means that we’re all on equal footing with one another. “Priesthood of All Believers” is a beautiful principle in it’s purest form and pretty awful when it goes amuck. As I’ve pondered how to best identify the opportunity and challenge here, I’ve come to see our dysfunctional deacon structure not so much of an identify crisis for a specific group of leaders and much more of a systemic crisis of identity. I believe that we’ve joined the majority of western christians in confusing disciple identity with democracy identity.
DEMOCRACY:
Theoretically, a democracy puts all of us on equal ground: every person matters and every life is full of potential. Democracy supports the idea that we all work together to build a society that helps people live into their potential. Theoretically, in a democracy, every vote counts the same. We vote to give certain folks authority and those folks help enforce and/or create boundaries that respect the dignity of all citizens. Here’s the thing, democracy is beautiful in it’s purest form and pretty awful when it goes amuck.
Once somebody has been given authority, it’s pretty hard for that someone, or a group of someones, to resist onset addiction to control. If you’ve every seen someone in the world (or mirror) struggling with an addiction, you know the struggle is real. It’s doesn’t take much time for things to get out of control.
In a democracy gone amuck, here’s what the addiction looks like. Those in the controlling party find themselves growing more and more fearful they’re going to lose control. In turn, those in authority justify their disfunction. Dehumanization is the strange fruit born of addiction to control. When we feed that addiction, we cease to believe that all people matter because we don’t really see “those people” as human and those in authority become less human every time they feed the addiction. Addiction to control creates a culture addicted to contempt.
Keep walking. Stay with me, here
PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS?
As Baptists, we are a Priesthood of ALL believers. It means we don’t believe anyone in a position of authority gives us access to God. It means that we don’t believe that any one person is more important than another. It means that every person, every voice, counts the same. It’s extraordinary when practiced faithfully and incredibly destructive when it isn’t.
Here’s the thing, Church isn’t a democracy. “Church” is what happens when a group of beautifully diverse individuals, find themselves actively walking with the One that each of them calls “Lord”. A Priesthood of ALL Believers, by name and definition, fall under the authority of Jesus Christ. In principle, we don’t have to worry about addiction to control because we understand that we aren’t in charge. On our best days, we understand that God is actively at work in the world to transform, something better than any of us could possibly offer.
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done…..
I believe the problem we’ve experienced with Deacon Ministry points to a systemic problem, an addiction to control. The signs of addiction are everywhere.
When is the last time you felt as if you were standing on holy ground during a committee meeting or business meeting? If recently, did that feel like an exception or the norm?
How often have you heard, or repeated, “Yes….BUT…..let’s be practical” in the middle of a conversation about taking a communal leap of faith?
In our heyday of our 140 year old story, the two major Boards of our congregation were full of successful white businessmen. We justified our decision to leave women and minorities out of the mix, based on an addiction to a literal interrelation of scripture. (aka Bible Freedom gone amuck).
How often do we find ourselves delighted by God’s creative resourcing of the church only to sit around a table to discuss how me might best protect it for a rainy day.
How much longer are we going to pretend that priesthood of all believers is actually just democracy dressed up in his/her/their “Sunday best”?
Yes, the church is a business. Yes, we are citizens of two kingdoms.
AND
It’s not your business. It’s not my business. It’s God’s business.
It’s not “God bless America”. It’s God has called the church to be a blessing to ALL of the world.
The Kingdom of Heaven on earth cannot be confused with the Kingdoms of this world and the le church cannot be run as if it were a local government, bank, or a moose lodge.
WE ARE CALLED TO BE A PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS…
Which means everything we do begins and ends with spiritual discernment and faithful action, especially in the moments when the priesthood of all believers feels like God is calling us into reckless abandonment. If we don’t believe this to be true, we should stop telling the stories of all those first disciples and apostles that followed with wild abandonment.
YOU ARE A PRIEST. I AM A PRIEST. WE ARE ALL PRIESTS.
We are ALL everyday saints and sinners.
We are ALL priests on equal footing……under the Lordship of Christ and guidance of the mysterious Spirit of the living God.
A CHURCH LEADER IS A SPIRITUAL LEADER.
There is no such thing as a “non-spiritual” priest” and no such thing as a priest that others don’t look to as a leader. In turn, there is no such thing as a non-spiritual leader in the life of the church.
LEADERSHIP IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS IMPORTANT.
There is no such thing as a Christian that isn’t called to be a leader.
Leadership is mentorship. The Jesus school of Leadership is 100% mentorship.
Discipleship is a process that helps people continually discover their unique giftedness and equips those people to use their gifts to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
If the church is full of leaders, the leaders must discern how decisions are to be made. Some of those decisions are so big, the entire church should make them together. Most of the other decisions need to made in smaller circles of leadership. Walking more intentionally brings awareness of the Spirit’s presence. In turn, the Spirit helps us build trust in one another. When trust is present, we will discover a tremendous amount of freedom in identifying which circle of leaders should feel emboldened to make specific decisions.
THANK GOD WE’RE NOT IN CHARGE.
All of this may not seem very practical because it isn’t. It may not be efficient because it isn’t supposed to be. It may not be the way you or I would choose to run a business or a government. . Fortunately, the Church isn’t a bank, moose lodge or a democracy.
THEN WHOSE IN CHARGE?
God is.
Siblings in Christ, the first step in recovery is admitting we’re powerless over our addictions. We mustn’t continue to pretend as if we’re capable of managing the unmanageable. In these tender days of rebuilding, I pray we will all come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore our hearts so that we might be healthy enough to participate in the restoration of the world.
