These last two weeks, I have been part of responding to the Western Jurisdiction Committee on Conferences proposal of merger of the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Conferences (http://desertsouthwestconference.org/wj/) with an alternative proposal that would retain traditional identities of the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Conferences (soon to be posted on http://www.yacumc.org/).
I find my reflections and work have been influenced by reading "The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World" by Alan J.Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk. This is the book that Bishop Elaine Stanovsky has asked all Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Conference clergy and lay leadership to read--it will be the primary text for the Professional School of Ministry next spring.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the first two chapters...If any strike a chord with you, I hope you'll post your replies on my blog found at http://theviewfromthewideopenspaces.blogspot.com
"discontinuous change is dominant in periods of history that transform a culture forever, tipping it over into something new. The Exodus is an example
....Discontinuous change is disruptive and unanticipated....the skills we have learned aren't helpful in this kind of change....What do congregational leaders do when the skills that have been effective in drawing people in and building it up no longer get the same results because the growing numbers of emerging generations are no longer interested in being attracted into a church building or joining the church programs?
Congregations Still Matter...Through the Incarnation, we discover that God's future is at work not where we tend to look but among the people we write off as dead or powerless to make things different....But they need leaders with the skills to cultivate an environment in which the Spirit-given presence of God's future may emerge among the people of God.....A congregation must become a place where members learn to function like cross-cultural missionaries rather than be a gathering place where people come to receive religious goods and services
....the most important currency a congregation has to spend is hope.
"to all who boldly declare that the congregation has no future in an emergent, postmodern world, the biblical imagination has another response...God meets God's people with the bright light of the Kingdom in what appears to be the most hopeless and forsaken places....God seems to be present where there is little or no expectation.....
The biblical narratives are full of stories about places and people without hope who become centers of the Spirit’s creative, world-changing activity.....These stories demonstrate not some optimistic wishful thinking but a conviction about the God we encounter in Jesus....."There is nothing in these stories about getting the wrong people off the bus and getting the right ones on to accomplish great ends and become the best organization in the world."
Consider this story of God at work in this "re-think of church", started in a conversation over coffee with 3 missional people from a congregation of 11 that had dwindled from a "once bustling 1,133 members", http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.2042371/k.9D41/In_the_News.htm
Friday, October 16, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Labor Day Weekend
I will be taking the weekend off to spend with my family. May all have time for refreshment and renewal in this last weekend before the bustle of the school and church cycles return. God's blessings are everywhere--take time to notice!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
John Wesley's Health Care Plan
"How are our congregations involved in healing?"
Dr. Scott Morris, MD, MDiv of of the Church Health Care Center in Memphis, Tennesee was our plenary speaker today at the United Methodist Training for District Superintendants and Directors of Connectional Ministry.
As pastor and medical doctor, he urged our leaders to reclaim the connection between body and soul. "We need to remember that there are three primary themes of Jesus' ministry--preaching, teaching and healing. And, we cannot just focus on the first two if we want to be Christ's people continuing Christ's ministry."
Morris reminded us that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was greatly interested in medical treatments for the common maladies of his times. He was advocating various cures and practices that were far advanced over the comman practices of bleeding patients or giving them oral doses of liquid mercury pills, a toxic metal! He expounded upon the virtues of drinking clean water (instead of gin), fresh air, getting exercise, and taking only one medicine per illness. Okay, he did advocate electrification, too, but maybe he was the father of "AEDs" as well as Methodist?!
Morris suggests the church might promote healing by...
http://www.hopeandhealing.org/ and http://www.churchhealthcenter.org/
Dr. Scott Morris, MD, MDiv of of the Church Health Care Center in Memphis, Tennesee was our plenary speaker today at the United Methodist Training for District Superintendants and Directors of Connectional Ministry.
As pastor and medical doctor, he urged our leaders to reclaim the connection between body and soul. "We need to remember that there are three primary themes of Jesus' ministry--preaching, teaching and healing. And, we cannot just focus on the first two if we want to be Christ's people continuing Christ's ministry."
Morris reminded us that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was greatly interested in medical treatments for the common maladies of his times. He was advocating various cures and practices that were far advanced over the comman practices of bleeding patients or giving them oral doses of liquid mercury pills, a toxic metal! He expounded upon the virtues of drinking clean water (instead of gin), fresh air, getting exercise, and taking only one medicine per illness. Okay, he did advocate electrification, too, but maybe he was the father of "AEDs" as well as Methodist?!
Morris suggests the church might promote healing by...
- reclaiming it's place in Society in talking about health as Wholeness (Body, mind and soul),
- articulating and modeling excercise and healthier eating,
- discussing Death as the natural conclusion of life and not as the Enemy that must be put off at any price,
- discussing healthcare and end of life choices with a relevant message of Life, Death and Hope.
http://www.hopeandhealing.org/ and http://www.churchhealthcenter.org/
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Juggling as a Spiritual Discipline
Today we spent more time learning about three important areas of our work as Directors of Connectional Ministry:
Today at School for United Methodist Directors of Connectional Ministry (DCMs), I shared a little about the blog that I stayed up late last night to write when we met together this afternoon. My new DCM colleague, Dan Dick, who has done some excellant work about Church Revitalization has a provocative blog that I and many others enjoy. Dan connected me with this excellant and sobering study he did while with the General Board of Discipleship about the importance of self-care for lay and clergy, and the results of neglecting self care. He writes, "One of the main questions we explored was, “how deep is the well from which you draw?” We explored over 200 pastor’s prayer lives, engagement with scripture, worship lives, self-care, and personal relationships to better understand how pastors renew their spirit and stay grounded in Christ." The results are in this blog:
http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/how-deep-the-well/
In reflecting upon today's main topics of DCM school I can't help but think that we can hardly talk about Church Revitalization and New Church Starts and Leadership without looking at the spiritual life and practices of the clergy-lay teams that lead our congregations.
This year, I hope to test my own thesis. I believe that we can transform our conference by becoming a transforned people--that intentionally focusing on developing deep committments to prayer, spiritual reading, worship and performing self-demanding acts of mercy and justice will transform our leaders, who will transform our small groups, who will transform our churches and their communities and the world.
I did not say change, but transform. Flora Slosson Wuellner writes, "Change refers to adaptation, reaction, without necessarily involving any newness of being....Transformation implies a new being, a new creative energy flowing from the center which acts with creative power upon surrounding events." (from Weavings, May/June 2009)
Learning something new, creating something new causes our brains to function differently and better. Life long learning has been shown to be a life-giving behaviour. We DCMs were asked by our coaches, "When will you make time to learn something new?" And, they gave us some practice--imagine more than a dozen people standing in a front yard of a sedate home in Lake Junaluska, NC, tossing one or two little bags over and over in front of them. Only a couple of people ventured on to three bags!
What do you make time for in your schedule that is life-giving? What patterns of behavior are transforming you and your part of the world?
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Paul writing to the followers of the Way in Rome
- New Church Starts and Church Revitalization,
- Understanding our and others Leadership Strengths
- Managing Time to ensure Ministry and Self Care
Today at School for United Methodist Directors of Connectional Ministry (DCMs), I shared a little about the blog that I stayed up late last night to write when we met together this afternoon. My new DCM colleague, Dan Dick, who has done some excellant work about Church Revitalization has a provocative blog that I and many others enjoy. Dan connected me with this excellant and sobering study he did while with the General Board of Discipleship about the importance of self-care for lay and clergy, and the results of neglecting self care. He writes, "One of the main questions we explored was, “how deep is the well from which you draw?” We explored over 200 pastor’s prayer lives, engagement with scripture, worship lives, self-care, and personal relationships to better understand how pastors renew their spirit and stay grounded in Christ." The results are in this blog:
http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/how-deep-the-well/
In reflecting upon today's main topics of DCM school I can't help but think that we can hardly talk about Church Revitalization and New Church Starts and Leadership without looking at the spiritual life and practices of the clergy-lay teams that lead our congregations.
This year, I hope to test my own thesis. I believe that we can transform our conference by becoming a transforned people--that intentionally focusing on developing deep committments to prayer, spiritual reading, worship and performing self-demanding acts of mercy and justice will transform our leaders, who will transform our small groups, who will transform our churches and their communities and the world.
I did not say change, but transform. Flora Slosson Wuellner writes, "Change refers to adaptation, reaction, without necessarily involving any newness of being....Transformation implies a new being, a new creative energy flowing from the center which acts with creative power upon surrounding events." (from Weavings, May/June 2009)
Learning something new, creating something new causes our brains to function differently and better. Life long learning has been shown to be a life-giving behaviour. We DCMs were asked by our coaches, "When will you make time to learn something new?" And, they gave us some practice--imagine more than a dozen people standing in a front yard of a sedate home in Lake Junaluska, NC, tossing one or two little bags over and over in front of them. Only a couple of people ventured on to three bags!
What do you make time for in your schedule that is life-giving? What patterns of behavior are transforming you and your part of the world?
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Paul writing to the followers of the Way in Rome
Monday, August 24, 2009
moving....and moving on to perfection
"Vigilance, self-knowledge and discernment; these are the guides of the soul." --Abba Poeman
I am using two favorite publications for my morning prayer time that I refer to as "having coffee with God . They are "A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants", compiled by Rueben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck, and the May/June 2009 issue of "Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life". The over arching theme of this issue of Weavings is "Cling Always to God". Both of these are published by the Upper Room publishing house. http://www.upperroom.org/
Today's scripture readings from "Guide", Psalm 18 and John 14:1-11, and the"Weaving's" first article by Dr. Roberta C. Bondi called "Traveling On" have been sticking with me throughout my day here at the School for New Directors of Connectional Ministry and District Superintendants. Maybe it is because so many of us are starting a new path of discipleship as leaders? Many of us are talking about how our lives have changed, how we have moved to new places, how we and our families are adjusting, and what it is that we think we need to do and ......Though we bemoan the stress of upheaval, we are feeling excited about what might be coming our way, too.
Bondi writes about moving as having the potential for good in our inner lives. She says that 5th century Christian monastics, the desert mothers (ammas) and fathers (abbas), made their lifestyle choice recognizing that "being uprooted from our ordinary ways of living in the world" can "make the invisable visable to us in a special way". She suggests "by looking at where we hurt when we move, we are able to see what we actually value most and evaluate what we see." Particularly revealing , she suggests, might be evaluating the patterns of relationship, feelings, and behaviors that repeat from move to move. We may find these are the places that most need God's healing power. I liked this particular story among those she shares from the abbas and ammas...
"A brother was restless in the community and often moved to anger. So he said, "I will go and live somewhere by myself. And since I shall be able to talk or listen to noone, I shall be tranquil, and my passionate anger shall cease." He went out and lived alone in a cave. But one day he filled his jug with water and put it on the ground. It happened suddenly to fall over. He filled it again and again it fell over. And this happened a third time. And in a rage he snatched up the jug and broke it. Returning to his right mind, the knew the demon of anger had mocked him, and he said, "I will return to the community. Wherever you live, you need effort and patience and above all, God's help." *
I still don't like moving, but I am pondering what I observe about my reactions. I know that the feeling of disequilibrium is natural and remind myself that "this too shall pass". But this time I sip and and ponder, thankful for that cup o' joe and Grace. I might just learn something before this is all through.
*quoted by R. Bondi (originally from "Of Patience, or Fortitude" 33, "The Sayings of the Fathers" in Western Asceticism, trans. Owen Chadwick (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958), 92.)
I am using two favorite publications for my morning prayer time that I refer to as "having coffee with God . They are "A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants", compiled by Rueben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck, and the May/June 2009 issue of "Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life". The over arching theme of this issue of Weavings is "Cling Always to God". Both of these are published by the Upper Room publishing house. http://www.upperroom.org/
Today's scripture readings from "Guide", Psalm 18 and John 14:1-11, and the"Weaving's" first article by Dr. Roberta C. Bondi called "Traveling On" have been sticking with me throughout my day here at the School for New Directors of Connectional Ministry and District Superintendants. Maybe it is because so many of us are starting a new path of discipleship as leaders? Many of us are talking about how our lives have changed, how we have moved to new places, how we and our families are adjusting, and what it is that we think we need to do and ......Though we bemoan the stress of upheaval, we are feeling excited about what might be coming our way, too.
Bondi writes about moving as having the potential for good in our inner lives. She says that 5th century Christian monastics, the desert mothers (ammas) and fathers (abbas), made their lifestyle choice recognizing that "being uprooted from our ordinary ways of living in the world" can "make the invisable visable to us in a special way". She suggests "by looking at where we hurt when we move, we are able to see what we actually value most and evaluate what we see." Particularly revealing , she suggests, might be evaluating the patterns of relationship, feelings, and behaviors that repeat from move to move. We may find these are the places that most need God's healing power. I liked this particular story among those she shares from the abbas and ammas...
"A brother was restless in the community and often moved to anger. So he said, "I will go and live somewhere by myself. And since I shall be able to talk or listen to noone, I shall be tranquil, and my passionate anger shall cease." He went out and lived alone in a cave. But one day he filled his jug with water and put it on the ground. It happened suddenly to fall over. He filled it again and again it fell over. And this happened a third time. And in a rage he snatched up the jug and broke it. Returning to his right mind, the knew the demon of anger had mocked him, and he said, "I will return to the community. Wherever you live, you need effort and patience and above all, God's help." *
I still don't like moving, but I am pondering what I observe about my reactions. I know that the feeling of disequilibrium is natural and remind myself that "this too shall pass". But this time I sip and and ponder, thankful for that cup o' joe and Grace. I might just learn something before this is all through.
*quoted by R. Bondi (originally from "Of Patience, or Fortitude" 33, "The Sayings of the Fathers" in Western Asceticism, trans. Owen Chadwick (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958), 92.)
Friday, August 21, 2009
SAME Cafe adds new twist to "Give Them Something to Eat"
Facebook friends have alerted me to a new dining experience at SAME Cafe, in Denver, Colorado. It is the intent of So All May Eat, Inc. to build a healthy community by providing a basic need of food in a respectful and dignified manner to anyone who walks through the door. SAME Cafe is unique in the lack of a set menu as well as set prices.
You can find SAME Cafe at:
Thursday, August 20, 2009
United Methodists in Chester speak in Health Care Debate
WIDE OPEN SKIES (AND POLITICS) is the headline for one of today's New Yorks Time video that voices the many voices in the health care debate in Montana. http://nytimes.com/ The voices of United Methodists in Chester, Montana are heard along with video clips from President Obama, Senator Max Baucus, Govenor Schweitzer, and activist on both sides of the health care debate in Montana.
Go to the New York Times website http://nytimes.com/ scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on the "video"box, click on the politics tab of the "video" box, and there you'll see Grover Briggs, Margaret Novak, and Chester, MT.
Go to the New York Times website http://nytimes.com/ scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on the "video"box, click on the politics tab of the "video" box, and there you'll see Grover Briggs, Margaret Novak, and Chester, MT.
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