Showing posts with label emerging church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emerging church. Show all posts
Friday, April 9
Reflection's on the Insruection Tour stop in Chicago
Reconciler has some connections to the Emergent Church movement. And Peter Rollins and company of the Insurection tour are somewhere in the mix though to what degree they so self identify I am not sure. In any case I went to the tour stop at Trace bar last night. On my personal blog I wrote a post on the experience check it out if your interested.
Monday, June 29
Outreach: Sharing our Faith
There are numerous voices out there telling congregations what churches should be about. Terms fly about: emergent, missional, outreach, justice ministry, relevant, etc. Recently some members of Reconciler have spoken about wanting others to experience what they have found at Reconciler, yet how to share this in a situation and culture in which gathering together as a community for worship is hardly a priority at times even for many religious or spiritual people. There is a challenge for Reconciler in that our Sunday worship isn't' necessarily the best way to first encounter our faith community or Christianity, unless one is the type to be comfortable participating in something one might not fully understand. Yet since we have considered Eucharistic centered worship essential to Reconciler's work and for the support of Christians in their various callings, we have not been willing to make our main service "seeker" sensitive, or more accessible. This means that there needs to be some other way for people to be introduced to the congregation and even introduced to our worship life. We have attempted somethings like keeping a booth at some of the sumer neighborhood festivals here in Chicago, as well as events intended for people to get to know us and what Christians might do with the Bible, with a potluck themed as Beer, Bread and the Bible. This was somewhat successful in that it was well attended but only had one. We also had a panel discussion on Fair Trade and had planned to have more but the attendance was small and organizing something like that takes a large amount of time and energy.
Church is a complex thing, for although there is certainly something to the claim that congregations don't exist for the members it is also true that a church community is for those who are part of the church community. We gather to worship to be formed into the body of Christ to be spiritually empowered to live out our callings as followers of Christ, we are both gathered and sent, both under care and caring, ministered to and ministers. To be out in the world to let people know about Reconciler both things need to be kept in mind. Also, we need to keep in mind what is our faith? Why would we feel the need or have the desire to invite people into our Community, why is Jesus Christ important? Why, do we seek to make a difference in the world? In this sense any outreach needs to be willing to say that Christ makes a difference, that in some sense what Christianity offers is true in ways that other paths aren't. This truth should be in the life offered in and through the community of the Body of Christ, thus the ways in which knowing Christ brings truth into our own lives and transforms us, both our failings and our successes. In outreach we are telling our own stories of encounter with the truth who is Jesus Christ. If we are not sharing this and offering this opportunity of encounter with others than all our attempts to be relevant or to seek after justice, or be place of healing etc, will seem abstract and lack authenticity. In a world of choices if we believe people should be interested in Christianity and spend there time on church, then what we bring to the conversation should have some weight that other attachments and communities can't or don't bring people. We can offer something beyond relevance, we can offer the spiritual root and stamina to work for justice, we can offer a path of transformation in and through Jesus Christ both personally and corporately.
This requires a willingness to be vulnerable about how Christ has made us truer, how encounter with God in Jesus Christ transforms us and gives us a vision and the spiritual resources to look at a world of injustice and work for justice. It means finding ways to introduce a worship that should support all these things and lead us to encounter God in these ways, so that a complex symbol system can be entered into once someone does actually come to worship.
We need to stop seeing our worship as the place of initial invitation and see ourselves about proclaiming inviting and explaining before someone ever enters into worship with us. Events like Bread Beer and the Bible or sponsoring panel discussions from a Christian POV on current issues of justice and politics and culture I think are good places both for Reconciler and other churches to start, but we also probably need to think of ways to introduce people to the symbol system of the church a sort of pre-catechumenate mystagogy, I suppose.
I am beginning to wonder if the various types of alternative worship services liturgies, coming from variety of denominations and groups,shouldn't be viewed or offered as the worship of the church, but ways to introduce or re-introduce people to the symbol system of Christians worship. In other words are there ways to give people some sense of the meaning of Baptism artistically and symbolically before they undergo baptism or as they are investigating Christianity, the same for Eucharist and other things.
Church is a complex thing, for although there is certainly something to the claim that congregations don't exist for the members it is also true that a church community is for those who are part of the church community. We gather to worship to be formed into the body of Christ to be spiritually empowered to live out our callings as followers of Christ, we are both gathered and sent, both under care and caring, ministered to and ministers. To be out in the world to let people know about Reconciler both things need to be kept in mind. Also, we need to keep in mind what is our faith? Why would we feel the need or have the desire to invite people into our Community, why is Jesus Christ important? Why, do we seek to make a difference in the world? In this sense any outreach needs to be willing to say that Christ makes a difference, that in some sense what Christianity offers is true in ways that other paths aren't. This truth should be in the life offered in and through the community of the Body of Christ, thus the ways in which knowing Christ brings truth into our own lives and transforms us, both our failings and our successes. In outreach we are telling our own stories of encounter with the truth who is Jesus Christ. If we are not sharing this and offering this opportunity of encounter with others than all our attempts to be relevant or to seek after justice, or be place of healing etc, will seem abstract and lack authenticity. In a world of choices if we believe people should be interested in Christianity and spend there time on church, then what we bring to the conversation should have some weight that other attachments and communities can't or don't bring people. We can offer something beyond relevance, we can offer the spiritual root and stamina to work for justice, we can offer a path of transformation in and through Jesus Christ both personally and corporately.
This requires a willingness to be vulnerable about how Christ has made us truer, how encounter with God in Jesus Christ transforms us and gives us a vision and the spiritual resources to look at a world of injustice and work for justice. It means finding ways to introduce a worship that should support all these things and lead us to encounter God in these ways, so that a complex symbol system can be entered into once someone does actually come to worship.
We need to stop seeing our worship as the place of initial invitation and see ourselves about proclaiming inviting and explaining before someone ever enters into worship with us. Events like Bread Beer and the Bible or sponsoring panel discussions from a Christian POV on current issues of justice and politics and culture I think are good places both for Reconciler and other churches to start, but we also probably need to think of ways to introduce people to the symbol system of the church a sort of pre-catechumenate mystagogy, I suppose.
I am beginning to wonder if the various types of alternative worship services liturgies, coming from variety of denominations and groups,shouldn't be viewed or offered as the worship of the church, but ways to introduce or re-introduce people to the symbol system of Christians worship. In other words are there ways to give people some sense of the meaning of Baptism artistically and symbolically before they undergo baptism or as they are investigating Christianity, the same for Eucharist and other things.
Thursday, May 7
Explorations in the Liturgy
As I found myself the only pastor at Reconciler this past January, one of the challenges I felt we faced was how we would authentically keep an ecumenical witness to our liturgy. To some degree this has always been a challenge. The way we faced this chalenge originally was in creating a liturgy (the form of which coincides with most church's liturgy of word and table) in which each of the three pastors when they lead that portion of the service did so from within their tradition. The clearest way this happened was at the table each of the three pastors followed their tradition. However, attempting to duplicate either the Baptist or Episcopal way of celebrating communion wasn't really an option for me, and I didn't want this to simply become a "high church" Covenant worship service. It was clear early on that this was in our worship the place of challenge to the ecumenical vision.
As I reflected on this I remembered that our liturgy itself was an adaptation of the BCP Eucharist service and the Lima Liturgy of the WCC, along with some Baptist elements (a form of altar call) and what might be called emergent elements (like discussion after the sermon). So, during the Octave of Prayer for Christian unity I used the Lima liturgy unchanged, and it seemed to fit us more or less and the feedback I received on the liturgy was positive (though only a few gave feedback). The challenge of our current situation turned into an opportunity to explore making some changes to our liturgy that may bring about an adaptation of the Lima liturgy to a congregational and weekly used order of worship. Also, on other Sundays I have been adapting the Eucharistic prayer from the Apostolic Constitutions of Hypolotus of Rome. In the past couple of weeks I have been playing in our liturgy and the Lima liturgy, seeing how our liturgy may be more informed by this ecumenical liturgy designed for ecumenical worship and how the Lima liturgy may be adapted to our context.
Our context includes the space we worship in. This has lead me more and more to play with the idea of simply using the "east facing" altar in the chapel, which would mean facing the same direction as the congregation during the Eucharistic liturgy and not facing the congregation. Of course such a posture could communicate many different things, including exclusion and distance. However, the original idea of all including the priest facing towards the altar and not facing the people is that we are all praying together, rather than one person performing for everyone else: priest and people have a singular action which the priest does on behalf of all. Most importantly though we are all praying together facing God as a community. An altar against a wall is called "east facing" because it was the practice to build churches such that the sanctuary of the church where the altar is was on the east side of the building. This all has lead me to think about having our congregation move in our space so that at the liturgy of the word we sit around lectern at the rear of the chapel and then move and stand at the front near the altar all facing the same direction at the Eucharist, maybe even at some point having all process in together at the beginning of the service from outside the chaple.
All of this thought of getting us moving more, with the liturgy becoming something we do with our whole selves and together, presents a difficulty if we are all carrying books and papers, not impossible but certainly more difficult. Which has me rethinking the role of projectors and screens in worship and the liturgy. I am beginning to wonder if we have been thinking too piecemeal when it comes to the use of "media arts" and projections. Liturgical books were to be "media" aids towards the right and orderly performance of the liturgy, and then a means like with the Book of Common Prayer that all could know and understand what the liturgy was and what was going on, but still as a "media" aid to prayer and the work of the people. But now as we look at the liturgy and attempt to delve the depths of Christian worship we are rediscovering that worship and liturgy are more than words, it is an act and action we do with our bodies. There are varieties of way of attempting to live into this: some of which abandons much or all of whatever might be viewed as "tradition" or "traditional", or we attempt to add things and integrate thing into a "traditional" liturgy. But what if "media art" is like books have been? What if we use them to communicate and direct the congregation in the act of worship; that is what if what is projected on the screen using various technologies isn't there to augment or create ambiance but is itself giving direction to the congregation in the way our bulletins and hymnals and worship books do now? Reconciler is a long way from possibly getting rid of paper and books, or so it seems right now, and whether projection would work in the chapel at Immanuel is another question as well. However, the challenges of January have at least for me, your pastor, lead into an opportunity to play with the liturgy and explore how we can both be more ecumenical in our worship but also engage our whole selves in this ecumenical worship.
As I reflected on this I remembered that our liturgy itself was an adaptation of the BCP Eucharist service and the Lima Liturgy of the WCC, along with some Baptist elements (a form of altar call) and what might be called emergent elements (like discussion after the sermon). So, during the Octave of Prayer for Christian unity I used the Lima liturgy unchanged, and it seemed to fit us more or less and the feedback I received on the liturgy was positive (though only a few gave feedback). The challenge of our current situation turned into an opportunity to explore making some changes to our liturgy that may bring about an adaptation of the Lima liturgy to a congregational and weekly used order of worship. Also, on other Sundays I have been adapting the Eucharistic prayer from the Apostolic Constitutions of Hypolotus of Rome. In the past couple of weeks I have been playing in our liturgy and the Lima liturgy, seeing how our liturgy may be more informed by this ecumenical liturgy designed for ecumenical worship and how the Lima liturgy may be adapted to our context.
Our context includes the space we worship in. This has lead me more and more to play with the idea of simply using the "east facing" altar in the chapel, which would mean facing the same direction as the congregation during the Eucharistic liturgy and not facing the congregation. Of course such a posture could communicate many different things, including exclusion and distance. However, the original idea of all including the priest facing towards the altar and not facing the people is that we are all praying together, rather than one person performing for everyone else: priest and people have a singular action which the priest does on behalf of all. Most importantly though we are all praying together facing God as a community. An altar against a wall is called "east facing" because it was the practice to build churches such that the sanctuary of the church where the altar is was on the east side of the building. This all has lead me to think about having our congregation move in our space so that at the liturgy of the word we sit around lectern at the rear of the chapel and then move and stand at the front near the altar all facing the same direction at the Eucharist, maybe even at some point having all process in together at the beginning of the service from outside the chaple.
All of this thought of getting us moving more, with the liturgy becoming something we do with our whole selves and together, presents a difficulty if we are all carrying books and papers, not impossible but certainly more difficult. Which has me rethinking the role of projectors and screens in worship and the liturgy. I am beginning to wonder if we have been thinking too piecemeal when it comes to the use of "media arts" and projections. Liturgical books were to be "media" aids towards the right and orderly performance of the liturgy, and then a means like with the Book of Common Prayer that all could know and understand what the liturgy was and what was going on, but still as a "media" aid to prayer and the work of the people. But now as we look at the liturgy and attempt to delve the depths of Christian worship we are rediscovering that worship and liturgy are more than words, it is an act and action we do with our bodies. There are varieties of way of attempting to live into this: some of which abandons much or all of whatever might be viewed as "tradition" or "traditional", or we attempt to add things and integrate thing into a "traditional" liturgy. But what if "media art" is like books have been? What if we use them to communicate and direct the congregation in the act of worship; that is what if what is projected on the screen using various technologies isn't there to augment or create ambiance but is itself giving direction to the congregation in the way our bulletins and hymnals and worship books do now? Reconciler is a long way from possibly getting rid of paper and books, or so it seems right now, and whether projection would work in the chapel at Immanuel is another question as well. However, the challenges of January have at least for me, your pastor, lead into an opportunity to play with the liturgy and explore how we can both be more ecumenical in our worship but also engage our whole selves in this ecumenical worship.
Sunday, June 15
Reconciler Update for June 15, 2008
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good....For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body..." 1 Cor. 12: 4-11
+++ REFLECTION +++
Dear Friends,
There have been a few things recently I feel particularly excited about -- that I think speak to our health as a religious community and areas in which we are growing.
One is the recent Fair Trade event, sponsored by our Social Justice Committee. For this event, the committee got together a group of three panelists, one a Loyola professor, the other a fair trade worker from Ethiopia, and the third a member of Chicago Fair Trade.
Each of the panelists spoke convincingly and compellingly -- in his/her own unique voice -- about the need for fair trade. I appreciated the opportunity to buy and sample fair trade goods. The hand-out packet listing venues that sell fairly traded goods will be very helpful. I liked the combination of in-depth background information and specific suggestions for action steps. Members of the audience had thoughtful questions and comments. Several expressed interest in worshipping with us. The hospitality was a nice touch (wicked good chocolate chip cookies there).
Another significant piece was that the Reconciler laypeople who organized this event were demonstrating the priesthood of all believers. Ministry is not just for ordained people or professional clergy, it's something for every member of the church, to the degree to which they feel called and capable. Clergy serve as representative leaders, icons if you will. Ordained ministry represents a specific level of commitment and training. But clergy do not have -- and are not meant to have -- a monopoly on ministry, which belongs to all the people of God. Paul talks in 1st Corinthians 12 about the variety of spiritual gifts, and likens church members to parts of a body which united is greater than the sum of its parts. We worked on this passage together on our retreat in December, when we identified areas in which we as a church wanted to grow.
In seminaries and churches there is much talk about every-member ministry and the need for lay people to be actively engaged and empowered, but often this is more talked about than lived out. I am glad to see Reconciler showing health and growth in this area, as demonstated by the Fair Trade event and the harmonious work of our search committee for a new Baptist pastor.
Another exciting new development is our invitation to explore a partnership with North Shore church, a Baptist church in our neighborhood, that is seeking to assist a church in New Orleans with its re-building efforts. To that end, North Shore is planning several mission trips to New Orleans. Larry and I attended an exploratory meeting last week at North Shore, with members of other Chicago-area churches.
Another thing I'm excited about is a conference on the emerging church, sponsored by the Episcopal diocese of Chicago, which I recently attended. Reconciler demonstrates many earmarks of the emerging church movement, including a merging of old and new traditions, an emphasis on community and relationality as exemplified by the Trinity, a concern for social justice, a general "thinking outside the box." And again, an understanding of the church as the body of Christ, a la Paul. Our new bishop, Jeffrey Lee, is supportive of innovative ways of being and doing church, and expressed enthusiasm for follow-up conversation and a visit to Reconciler. I found the emerging church conference exciting, heartening, and instructive, and will be excited to share more with you about it in the days to come.
Yours in Christ,
Laura+
for The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
+++ ANNOUNCEMENTS +++
Melissa Browning, our candidate for the Interim Baptist pastor position, will be preaching today at our 5:00 p.m. worship service.
The Pulse: A Gathering for Christian Artists, is having a special event on Saturday June 28th, 1 PM at the Brixen Ivy Community Center 1242 West Addison. The event will be featuring the Labco Dance Company and the Matoto Children's Choir.
Pastor Laura and her family are in the process of moving. She is inviting the Reconciler congregation to a "P" party at her home: Pizza and Packing with Pastor. Date to be announced soon.
We will have a booth at the Clark Street Festival on Sunday July 13th. Talk with Kate or Daniel if you'd like to help set up, take down, and/or take a shift staffing the booth. It's fun! and good outreach to the community.
Reconciler's next church council meeting will be next Thursday June 19th, 7:30 PM at the 'Nidge. All are welcome to attend.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++ REFLECTION +++
Dear Friends,
There have been a few things recently I feel particularly excited about -- that I think speak to our health as a religious community and areas in which we are growing.
One is the recent Fair Trade event, sponsored by our Social Justice Committee. For this event, the committee got together a group of three panelists, one a Loyola professor, the other a fair trade worker from Ethiopia, and the third a member of Chicago Fair Trade.
Each of the panelists spoke convincingly and compellingly -- in his/her own unique voice -- about the need for fair trade. I appreciated the opportunity to buy and sample fair trade goods. The hand-out packet listing venues that sell fairly traded goods will be very helpful. I liked the combination of in-depth background information and specific suggestions for action steps. Members of the audience had thoughtful questions and comments. Several expressed interest in worshipping with us. The hospitality was a nice touch (wicked good chocolate chip cookies there).
Another significant piece was that the Reconciler laypeople who organized this event were demonstrating the priesthood of all believers. Ministry is not just for ordained people or professional clergy, it's something for every member of the church, to the degree to which they feel called and capable. Clergy serve as representative leaders, icons if you will. Ordained ministry represents a specific level of commitment and training. But clergy do not have -- and are not meant to have -- a monopoly on ministry, which belongs to all the people of God. Paul talks in 1st Corinthians 12 about the variety of spiritual gifts, and likens church members to parts of a body which united is greater than the sum of its parts. We worked on this passage together on our retreat in December, when we identified areas in which we as a church wanted to grow.
In seminaries and churches there is much talk about every-member ministry and the need for lay people to be actively engaged and empowered, but often this is more talked about than lived out. I am glad to see Reconciler showing health and growth in this area, as demonstated by the Fair Trade event and the harmonious work of our search committee for a new Baptist pastor.
Another exciting new development is our invitation to explore a partnership with North Shore church, a Baptist church in our neighborhood, that is seeking to assist a church in New Orleans with its re-building efforts. To that end, North Shore is planning several mission trips to New Orleans. Larry and I attended an exploratory meeting last week at North Shore, with members of other Chicago-area churches.
Another thing I'm excited about is a conference on the emerging church, sponsored by the Episcopal diocese of Chicago, which I recently attended. Reconciler demonstrates many earmarks of the emerging church movement, including a merging of old and new traditions, an emphasis on community and relationality as exemplified by the Trinity, a concern for social justice, a general "thinking outside the box." And again, an understanding of the church as the body of Christ, a la Paul. Our new bishop, Jeffrey Lee, is supportive of innovative ways of being and doing church, and expressed enthusiasm for follow-up conversation and a visit to Reconciler. I found the emerging church conference exciting, heartening, and instructive, and will be excited to share more with you about it in the days to come.
Yours in Christ,
Laura+
for The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
+++ ANNOUNCEMENTS +++
Melissa Browning, our candidate for the Interim Baptist pastor position, will be preaching today at our 5:00 p.m. worship service.
The Pulse: A Gathering for Christian Artists, is having a special event on Saturday June 28th, 1 PM at the Brixen Ivy Community Center 1242 West Addison. The event will be featuring the Labco Dance Company and the Matoto Children's Choir.
Pastor Laura and her family are in the process of moving. She is inviting the Reconciler congregation to a "P" party at her home: Pizza and Packing with Pastor. Date to be announced soon.
We will have a booth at the Clark Street Festival on Sunday July 13th. Talk with Kate or Daniel if you'd like to help set up, take down, and/or take a shift staffing the booth. It's fun! and good outreach to the community.
Reconciler's next church council meeting will be next Thursday June 19th, 7:30 PM at the 'Nidge. All are welcome to attend.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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