Beneath the cross of Jesus

2011-12-23T12:35:00.004-05:00

Christmas Eve, 2011
There is something undeniably palpable about Christmas Eve night.
You can just tell, you can just sense that ... it is different from other nights.

You first notice it at about 4:00 in the afternoon, as the Sun begins to set. Winter light has a special and discernible quality to it at the end of the day. Long shadows spread out across the landscape,and the last rays of the sun’s departing light are seen now only as they make the tops of the trees to glow.

Even in Augusta,the temperature begins to drop noticeably,as winter air, deprived of the warming sun, quickly cools and the sky darkens. The first stars begin to appear, poking holes in the darkness as one poet has written; and soon the sky is filled with a seemingly uncountable number of stars.

The nearest star to us, is Alpha Centauri, which is actually three stars that appear as one to the unaided eye. It is 4.37 light years away from the sun. A light year, I’m sure you will remember, is roughly about 6 trillion miles. So, it would take the space shuttle, which orbits the earth at 18,000 mph, 37,200 years to travel one light year.

I love looking at the night sky and like the carol from the Appalachian mountains . . . I wonder as I wander out under the sky -- wondering what it was like for those shepherds out in the fields, keeping their watch a sweeping horizon spread before them, a huge dark blue canopy overhead filled with stars, maybe a bright moon, light from their small campfires dotting the hillsides ... smoke curling, wafting skyward, with a stillness and quiet one can hear.

On any December night, you can imagine that night, 2000 years ago by our counting, perhaps two days ago by God’s, and if you pause for a moment, you can almost hear the angels sing . . . Glory to God! Glory to God! Glory to God in the highest!

It is easy enough to see how the psalmist, or anyone for that matter, might look up at the heavens and write: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what is man that you are mindful of him, mortals that you care for them?”

The universe is so astronomically huge and time so, well, long . . . infinity so incomprehensible . . . as to be simply unbelievable. It bedazzles the mind. Just trying to comprehend it makes your head hurt.

Now, there is nothing that is as readily accessible to every person as the night sky, and nothing, other than perhaps the vastness of the open sea, that so puts one in mind of the smallness, the nothingness, of human beings.

How could we possibly matter in a universe that is so astoundingly large ... or so old? Yes, the scope and complexity of the universe challenge the meaningfulness of our lives, as they mock our imagined sense of importance.

Look at the night sky and you will inevitably, at some time, wonder who you are ... wonder what is the point of all this? and wonder is there a god out there?

And just as soon as the sheer size of the cosmos overwhelms us and convicts us of our smallness, almost simultaneously, it also reveals an intelligence, a creativity, a purposefulness and an attention to detail and integrity that is equally startling.

Science has revealed to us a number of unique, unlikely, exceptions to the norm, odds astronomically against them happening, sorts of things ... without which you or I, or anyone else would not be here tonight, or ever. They are the unique circumstances that make life possible on our planet . . . like the rotational speed of the earth, or the 23̊ tilt of the earth on its axis, or the amount of water in the oceans,

Now take something close at hand, like the moon, for example. We would not be here if it were not for our moon. Roughly 25% the size of our planet, we are the only planet in our solar system with a moon big enough in relation to the earth to positively affect our planet. Why is that? How did that happen?

If we did not have a moon the size of our own, the earth would loose that little 23̊ tilt it steadily maintains as it orbits the sun at 67,062 mph.

Mars, without a lucky moon like ours, wobbles anywhere from 0̊ - 90̊ on its axis. Because of this, the Martian polar ice cap moves all over the place. Without the stability that the moon provides, the earth would wobble and even tumble, playing havoc with our climate. The earth could begin to careen around the inner solar system like a drunken sailor.

Just a 1̊ alteration in the tilt of the earth a long, long time ago changed what we know today as the Sahara Desert from lushness to desert, and set off a mass migration of people.

Without the moon, our planet would turn much faster on its axis, so that our days would only be 6 hours long, making our planet much too cold for us.

The moon is a big player in the set of unique circumstances that allow life to exist on, as far as we know, our planet alone, in all the universe.

So, where did our moon come from? At the height of the Apollo moon missions, it was realized that the prevailing theories about the origins of the moon did not work, that the math and evidence would not support these theories. As a result, one astronomer asked: Why are we going to the moon? It should not be there. But it is. Why? A mere accident or something else?

The accepted theory today is that, early in the earth’s development, it was struck by something the size of Mars, which came hurtling through the solar system, colliding in a glancing blow with the earth, gouging out a chunk of earth debris that became our Goldilocks moon . . . not too big, not too small, but just right!

And, by the way, the moon is leaving us . . . moving out of its earth orbit at the rate of about 1.5 inches per year. In some couple of hundred thousand years
it will leave earth’s orbit. I don’t think I’ll be here to see that.

Well, in response to the questions we’ve been raising here tonight – like the questions of meaning, purpose and identity that come from looking at the night sky –or the questions that science raises as it reveals the unique, exceptional, unlikely facts, without which there would not be life on our planet, well, in response to all these questions and more, the astounding claim Christians offer is that there is a God who does indeed care about us. Deeply. He has made each of us on purpose and for a purpose. We matter to him and the clearest, most definitive expression of this claim that God cares is that God himself, the Creator of the unbelievable universe,
would unbelievably come among us,literally pitch his tent with us, by becoming one of us in Jesus Christ.

The child born in Bethlehem is conceived as a result of God’s own initiative, God’s own agency. Nothing else, save the help of a young Jewish woman who responded to God,“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word”; nothing else, made him to be flesh and blood, only the love and will of God made it so.

Now, if you believe God created this universe in its great expanse with its mind-boggling exceptions . . . with all of the unlikely factors necessary for you and me to be here tonight, and even though they scientifically established facts, they are nonetheless unbelievable!!;

If you believe God started it all, then is it really all that great a stretch to believe that the same God entered into time, space, history in a unique, unbelievable event known as the Incarnation or simply as the birth of Jesus?

It is a birth that expresses God’s steadfast love and intent to redeem, restore, and set right, all that is amiss. To do for a lost and confused humanity what it is incapable of doing for itself, mainly and namely saving us from the disastrous, cumulative consequences of our collective human failures.

Madeline L’Engle writes of this night that the transcendent, beyond our comprehension, Creator of the Universe is “cribbed, cabined, and confined within the contours of an infant.” As this child, God takes upon himself our humanity and all our human situations in order to redeem them, to bring meaning, purpose, and hope to us and to our lives through his own transforming and self-giving, sacrificial love.

Martin Luther referred to it as the Great Exchange. He wrote “Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; you set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not.” and this is, what we know, what we call, the Gospel -- the Good News of God in Jesus Christ for all people.

Is there any better time than tonight to greet the One born for you ... to welcome and invite him into your life, not only as your constant companion and good friend,
but as Lord of your life?

That is to say, as the One on whom you constantly think, as the One whose own example you attempt to initiate, as the One whose mind you strive to know, and as the One to whom you give your own life in response to the giving of his own life for you?

Is there any better time than tonight to take that leap . . . this leap of faith, to believe and trust in God? It is a big step but not so great, or so unreasonable, or as intellectually untenable as many would have us think. A missionary martyred in Ecuador before his death put it just a bit differently as he wrote in his journal: “It is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

The universe is filled, filled with so many unbelievable, incomprehensible things. The several factors which allow us to exist on this planet are themselves unique, exceptions to the norm and beg for explanation and in that way they hint at the unique and exceptional way that God will answer all the questions that really matter by making himself known to us in Jesus Christ:

God from God
Light from Light
True God from true God
Begotten, not made
Of one Being with the Father

And we have seen his glory, glory as of the One and Only who came from the Father full of grace and truth.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

2011-11-28T14:55:00.005-05:00

Money is the most important indispensable thing in life…right?

In the climactic scene from the movie A Few Good Men, Navy lawyer, LTJG Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), questioning Marine Corps COL Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson), shouts, “I want the truth!” to which Colonel Jessep explodes, “You can’t handle the truth!” The truth we cannot handle is that, despite what we say, we believe and therefore act, like money is the most indispensable thing in life.

Truth is, everything we need … food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and medical care … is obtained with money. Things we want, like healthier food, finer homes and furnishings, luxury automobiles, more fashionable clothes, trips, and other luxuries, are obtained with money.

Many important relationships simply do not even begin or cannot be sustained without money. We live in a cash economy. Money is the medium of exchange and the measure of value in that economy. A cash-based economy allows more people to engage in commerce with others than bartering allows. We give our time, energy, and abilities … in sum our life … to some enterprise for which in return we receive cash. We then take that cash to provide for the basic needs we have and, if there is enough, to meet the desires that are unique to each of us.

Given the necessity of money for every person then, is it any wonder that its place in our lives, in our thinking, and in our behavior is so skewed? Is it any wonder that it is easier to act as if we have put our trust in money, rather than in God, to provide for us?

Those who follow Jesus Christ hold a very different understanding of, and relationship to, money. First, they believe that their money is not their own. It is all God’s. It is given to them by God to provide for the needs that God knows every person has. It is entrusted to their individual management so that they may make their way in the world, provide for the common good, and provide for God’s purposes in the world.

Next, followers of Jesus Christ are grateful for all they have received, be it income, liberty, health, family, the list could be quite long. They understand that, while some of these blessings are attributed to their own industry, discipline, or good habits, nonetheless, more of it is attributable to factors not of their choosing, such as their genes, parental support, education, and so on. As the great hymn Old 100th proclaims, “Know that the Lord is God indeed, without our aid he did us make.” But, most of all, they are thankful for incalculable value of God’s grace gift of Jesus Christ in redeeming and renewing their lives.

Therefore, followers of Jesus Christ tangibly express their gratitude as they honor God with their lives (measurably and concretely represented by their money) by undertaking an intentional practice of giving. This disciplined approach puts money back into its appropriate place. The followers of Jesus Christ are masters over their money, not mastered by it, and when money is put into its right place in our lives, then God may have his. And the truth is, He will not settle for anything less.

2011-11-28T14:45:00.002-05:00

Waiting for the Messiah

This Sunday marks the beginning of a new Christian year and our entry into the season of Advent. Advent challenges us to prepare ourselves for the three-fold coming of Jesus Christ into the world.

Its first emphasis is on Jesus’ coming again at the end of human history, or at the end of your life, whichever comes first. Scripture warns us that either one of these events can come quickly and without warning, so don’t be unprepared! Get your house, your business, in order! Don’t put it off!

While attending to the business of the previous paragraph, with urgency by the way, Advent also invites us to hear again the story of God’s loving purposes as he became incarnate in this world, entered into this reality in Jesus Christ to save and redeem all the world. Whatever else the culture wishes to maintain about different religions and other spiritual ways, the scandal of the Christian proclamation is that the only God that there is, is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

Born in Bethlehem, lived in Palestine, up and down the dusty roads teaching,
preaching, and healing, crucified in Jerusalem, buried there, raised from the dead, now at the Father’s right hand, Jesus is either who he claims he is as the Son of God, or he is a calculating, manipulative liar.

This Incarnate Christ is always coming into this world making himself accessible to us in the scriptures, through preaching and holy communion, through friend and stranger. A kind word, a simple gesture, care, and concern for others, any act that makes life easier for others … all of these and many more become the avenues by which Jesus continues to come to us.

Open your hearts, your wills, your imaginations, and welcome him in. For the Messiah that has come, is coming, and will come again. Come, Lord Jesus!

2011-07-18T15:01:00.001-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Final Report in a Series

“Get up, let us be going”
After the last supper, on the night that he was betrayed, Jesus and his disciples retreat to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus undergoes an agonizing time of doubt and struggle prior to his trial and execution. That time of uncertainty ends however, with a clear, decisive, resolute and imperative command to his disciples: “Get up, let us be going.”

With these words, Jesus fully embraces the way of self-giving love that will redeem the whole world and bear witness to the amazing grace of God the Father and he calls us to follow his own example.

For all of its sophistication, complexity, antiquity and ambiguity, sometimes Holy Scripture can be blindingly clear in what is expected of God’s people:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind . . . and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Our time of discernment and prayer regarding God’s call to us in this particular place and time is at end. It is time now for us to get up and be going. While we do not presume to possess the kind of clarity that marked Jesus’ own times of prayer and discernment, nonetheless we go forward, if not confident in our discernment, then confident that it is Jesus who calls us and goes with us.

Becoming a Missional Congregation
The word used to describe those congregations that are attempting to shift their emphasis from program to people, from being church focused to kingdom focused, moving from Christendom1 assumptions about ministry to those suited for the new apostolic era2 is “missional.” Missional congregations are preparing the people of God for caring service to others motivated by God’s love and for sharing Good News of Jesus with others as the Holy Spirit leads and gives opportunity to do so. Good Shepherd aspires to be a missional congregation.

Taking it out on the road
We have had our eyes opened to see clearly that our world and the world our children and grandchildren will inherit has changed substantially from the world we have known. Ways of being the church that have served the cause of Christ well enough for 1,600 years are no longer working and we believe the Holy Spirit has been nudging us to try other ways of joining with God in his redemptive work in the world.

This fall we begin responding to some of those Holy Spirit nudgings, trying some other ways, emphasizing some other aspects, of being Christ’s people in this place.
Look for these first steps this August and beyond:

Unrolling the Scroll
The bible Jesus knew, read and quoted was made up of the books we call the Old Testament or Hebrew scripture. The writings of the Torah and Prophets were carefully and painstakingly copied by scribes on parchment and rolled up as scrolls for storage and safekeeping. These texts, though copied by hand, have been faithfully transmitted over centuries with a high degree of accuracy and few scribal mistakes.

In the synagogue today, this scripture is read in Hebrew from scrolls which are reverently displayed in the Ark, which occupies a place of honor in the synagogue, much like the altar in a church. Much ceremony attends the removal of the scroll from the ark for public reading and it is a great honor and responsibility to be selected to read from the Torah. Carefully and reverently is the scroll handled and unrolled and the reader uses a pointer to keep place rather than touching the scroll with a finger.

This is all in keeping with the belief that God still speaks to his people through his written word. Given this understanding one experiences a sense of anticipation as the scroll is unrolled: perhaps God will once again speak to his people or even speak to me!

To be intentional about sharing Good News of Jesus requires us to know and experience that Good News in our own lives. Knowledge and familiarity with the scriptures is essential to this ministry. The lack of basic knowledge of the bible stories is well known in our time and widespread across all denominations. If the people of God at Good Shepherd are to engage God’s redemptive mission in the world by sharing Good News of Jesus it will require us to become more knowledgeable of our story as it is recounted in the bible.

To this end and beginning on August 21st, we will begin a fourteen week program of reading in sequence the key stories of Hebrew scripture. These stories will be our sole focus in worship, preaching and study until Advent where we will turn our attention to the story of Jesus. The whole parish, across all ages, will undertake this study together. We are calling it Unrolling the Scroll as our focus for the fall will be on the Old Testament.

Service Sundays
The parish gathers and prepares people for caring service in Jesus’ name. Good Shepherd as a congregation has a long tradition of generosity when it comes to community and world ministry. This will continue and increase! But caring service will increasingly become a part of the ministry of smaller parish groups like Sunday school classes or the men’s group, or youth. Individuals will look for ways to serve each day. Families will seek their own opportunities to share God’s love with others together as a family.

To hold this emphasis before our parish, the whole parish will be invited periodically to join the procession from church to go out into the world to serve together. Sometimes service can be offered on our campus. Other times we will load the buses and go somewhere in the neighborhood, returning to the parish after an hour or so for lunch and celebration.

The first Service Sunday is August 14th following the 10:00 am service.

Sharing Good News of Jesus
We will begin to be more intentional as a parish and as individuals in our willingness to talk about our faith experiences with each other and with others. Once or twice throughout the year we will invite the whole parish to meet in parishioner homes again for fellowship and sharing using the “thin place” model used at the start of this process. We will offer classes and other opportunities that help us to find our own “voice” that allows us to share Good News of Jesus.

This September 20-21, we will partner with other congregations in welcoming Anne Graham Lotz to Augusta for a retreat of refreshment and renewal with women of our community. Anne is a popular speaker and writer and the daughter of Billy Graham.

Formation: the main work of the church
Decades ago when the Episcopal Church decided it was time to get serious about financial giving, it adopted the tithe as the standard of giving. It adopted a slogan too: Stewardship is the main work of the church. In this new apostolic era, formation is the main work of the church and parishes, individuals and families had best get serious about forming ourselves as followers of Jesus if we are to withstand and critique the barrage of cultural assumptions constantly coming at us, subtly subverting Christian manners.

To enter that wide-open marketplace of competing ideas, ideologies and philosophies, Christians must know our life shaping narrative well enough to give an authentic and inviting account of ourselves and of our faith if others are to consider following Jesus themselves.

Good Shepherd will begin to steadily emphasize our own formation efforts preparing our parishioners to live as Christ’s people in this culture. This year’s Parish Retreat Weekend at Kanuga, September 9-11, will have some time set aside for exploring with parents and others, ways of nurturing our faith lives in our own homes.

Wait a minute!
You may be thinking “Episcopalians don’t do this!” “Other Christian denominations may talk or act this way and that’s why I joined the Episcopal church in the first place!” If so, then terrific! You also, are beginning to awaken to the realization that has taken hold of the Vestry and Staff, namely that old ways of thinking of ourselves and of our ministry are signs in and of themselves of how captive we all are to Christendom assumptions about the world and consequently, how we minister in that world. We have to regularly remind ourselves that world no longer exists, and we have to discover the adjustments to be made so that we may be faithful in our ministry in the new situation.

All will be well
Julian of Norwich was born around 1342 in England. Thirty years old, she was gravely ill, even given last rites, when suddenly on the seventh day her pain left her and she experienced fifteen visions of Jesus’ suffering that brought her great peace and joy. Her writings can be found in Revelations of Divine Love, a tender and touching reflection on God’s love exhibited in the life of Jesus. Often Julian refers to Jesus as “our courteous Lord.” Many people have found strength in the words Jesus gave to her:

“I can make all things well; I will make all things well; I shall make all things well; and thou canst see for thyself that all manner of things shall be well.”

Even though the world has changed so quickly and profoundly as to be disorienting and disheartening, and even though the church, not even Good Shepherd, can escape this vortex of change, may our courteous Lord give us eyes to see that in him all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things shall be well. God is on the move. Get up, let us be going.

_____________________________________
1 The word “Christendom” is used throughout this series as short hand to describe a number of assumptions (see Part One) about the culture that have shaped and formed Christian practice and mission over the last 16 centuries. The church has been slow to recognize that a Christendom culture no longer exists which presents significant challenges and opportunities for Christians today.

2 The expression “new apostolic era” is short hand for those assumptions (see Part One) being made about the present culture and their implications for Christian practice and mission today. Some use the expressions “post-Christendom” or “post-modern” to describe this culture. “New apostolic era” reminds Christians that the first four centuries of the church’s life and mission took place in a culture that had much in common with today’s context and therefore may provide guidance for how the church goes about its mission today.

2011-07-13T14:06:00.003-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Ten in a Series

Good Shepherd has now completed a two year process of discernment and is committed to making those shifts of emphasis necessary to be an effective congregation for Jesus Christ in the early years of the 21st century. One of our many learnings has been the recognition that in the post-Christendom context of the new apostolic era, it is the People of God, deployed and dispersed in their homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities, who are the primary vehicle of sharing the Good News of Jesus in the world. This represents a shift from the Christendom model in which the physical place of the church, through its programs and clergy, in an attractional model, is the primary vehicle for sharing the Gospel in the world.

What does this look like for Good Shepherd?
Hopefully this picture can sum it all up memorably and succinctly. Click on the picture for a larger image.

First, the Church of the Good Shepherd, specifically meaning the People of God gathered in this particular place, are directed, pointed and focused on the task of engaging God’s redemptive mission in the world. As recognized in the opening paragraph, it is our individual members who are now the point of the spear so to speak, rather than the place, or the clergy professionals, or the program that is offered on site. The work of the staff becomes coaching, encouraging, and preparing people to answer God’s call to them at this moment in history so that they may be sent into the world.

God’s redemptive mission is first and foremost, nothing less than “restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” (Book of Common Prayer, page 859) Many Christians are awaking to realize that God is already about this work in the world with or without the church! Rather than starting ministries and asking God to bless them, God’s people need to get out of their churches and meet God in his world to discover what God is already doing there. Congregations then discern ways to partner with God in his mission (not the Church’s emphasis added).

Engaging God’s redemptive mission in the world takes place around three equally important and equally supported areas of ministry and action:

-Building up the Parish Community
-Caring Service in the Community
-Sharing Good News of Jesus

The notes on the illustration say a bit more about each of these three foci of action.

Building Up the Parish Community
Since the end of the Second World War in America Building Up the Parish Community has received the vast amount of time, energy and resources from Christian congregations. All you have to do to be convinced of this is to drive around our community and see all the buildings, with their construction costs, maintenance costs, and staffs busy creating programs and ministries to attract and retain members (Good Shepherd included!). Truth is Building Up the Parish Community became an end in itself rather than a means to ends, those ends being offering caring service in the community and sharing Good News of Jesus.

Churches are beginning to rediscover their first and true callings again expressed in service motivated by agape and a desire to invite others to follow Jesus Christ.

Caring Service in the Community
For over two decades now Good Shepherd has intentionally devoted itself to making a difference in other people’s lives in the name of Jesus Christ through community and world ministry. Since 1992, somewhere between 23% and 29% of annual giving in any year has been given through the parish budget for caring service in the community. That is a total of $5,308,342 given for God’s work in the wider world since 1992. Mainly through COGS and Interfaith, parishioners have also engaged in hands on ministry for others.

All and all through God’s grace and blessing we have tangible evidence of our desire be a Great Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40) parish.

Sharing Good News of Jesus
Despite saying for many years that we aspired to be a Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) parish, we have not tangibly demonstrated that we are serious about the work of inviting others into life giving, life changing relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Yes, like almost all other Episcopalians and mainline Christians, we have implicitly shared Good News of Jesus by hoping others would be attracted to him through our worship, fellowship, programs and service. We are very comfortable with this Christendom, low key, low commitment, attractional approach to evangelism.

Yet, in the new apostolic era characterized by a wide open marketplace of loud and competing philosophies, and ideologies demanding people’s loyalty and allegiance, we shall have to taken a different approach. The attractional model may have worked in its day, but that day is now past.

Marching Orders
Well, there you have it! As best we are able to figure, in conversation with you and with others in other churches, prayerfully and with humility, we believe we now have our marching orders. If we are mistaken in any of our working assumptions, no harm can come to the parish. If we have rightly read the signs of the times, then by God’s grace and almighty providence we may have just set Good Shepherd on a path, in 10 - 20 years time, to be a vital, useful and continuing place for God’s purposes in the world and to the glory of his incomparable Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May God make it so. Amen.

Next: Part Eleven: Get up, let us be going.

2011-04-19T10:06:00.003-04:00

Andy Menger, Assistant Rector at Good Shepherd and Vicar of St. Mary's reflects on his weekend retreat with families who have lost a family member in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Witness to the Sacrifice

This is Holy Week and millions of Christians are following the path of Christ as he enters into his Passion and Resurrection so that we might be saved. In all honesty, as powerful as the words of the gospels are in our ears, there is a disconnect between this glory and our experience. Neither I, nor any of you, have ever witnessed a crucifixion. We hear about the sacrifice of life but we seldom if ever have the actual experience incorporated into our actual lives.

Well, I am here to tell you that I have just been a part of such an experience and it was one of the most powerful and challenging times of my life. Weeks ago I was invited by Laurie Ott and the Wounded Warrior program to help staff a retreat supported by the Georgia National Guard and the SOS (Survivor’s Outreach Services). My response was immediately in the affirmative. However, as time passed I realized with some trepidation just whom I would be speaking to. My area of expertise is grief and loss and I am fairly well versed in the process of nurturing and guiding those persons who have lost a loved one. The fact hit me directly in the face that I would be confronting persons who had loved ones killed in the service of our country. My words would be shared with the family members whose loved ones had made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our nation. All of the military personnel who had died were young. All were part of a family structure. All wore the uniform of our country, took an oath, and were faithful to that oath in a manner very few of us can even fathom.

Of course, I was not an actual witness to the deaths of these persons. What I was a witness to was the ongoing struggle still waged by wives, children, parents, to whom these soldiers were not just statistics but an integral part of their lives. As I listened and shared with the survivors I heard not one word of bitterness or histrionic anger. I did hear words of love, compassion, and most of all concern that the death of their loved one would not matter to the American people.

It is a bit disconcerting that the average American probably does not think nor pray about those men and women who every day in faraway places, put their lives in harm’s way for mission, comrades, honor, duty, and country. While we are concerned with the antics of Hollywood types or highly paid athletes who have been busted for drugs or tax evasion, American military personnel, the vast majority of them young, are concerned about what the pile of dirt on the roadside hides, or does the next hill or farm harbor a sniper? While we here at home focuses on what matters most to us, those young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan are honed in on their comrades and their buddies. They know far better than any of us the value of true friendship and the price of being faithful unto death. For those incredible Americans such words are not high flung oratory; they are the real stuff of life.

What can we do for the families of Americans who have made that ultimate sacrifice? What they seem to want is not pity or trite words. If you read this blog, respond by seeking out those who still walk our streets and come to our churches and work alongside us, but who bear every day a vacant spot that was once filled by someone they loved and who died in this nation’s defense. Tell them that their loved one mattered. Ask how they are doing. Offer to help in simple ways, take a child to a baseball game since his father will never do so again. Cut the grass if it is a bit too high. Show up with groceries if needed. Best of all, just love them and show as well as tell them that the great sacrifice of their son, daughter, father, husband, mother, sister, or brother mattered and matters still. Pray for them in your faith community in every service. Welcome home those who come home and who often feel like the elephant in the room.

As a priest of the church, I have been enabled by my experience with those wonderful survivors of sacrificial death, to better understand the emotions and power of this Holy Week. I will approach the Cross and the empty Tomb with a bit more awe because I have truly been in the presence of persons for whom every day is both a crucifixion and a resurrection. These persons are living proof that death is not the final word. Many of those I met at the retreat were stumbling and struggling to put life back together, but others were already starting to soar. The winds of life are giving them lift and power to move into lives of service and productivity.

I cannot help but think of that rag tag group of Jesus’ family and friends who were certain that in his traumatic death that their world had ended. They were crushed by injustice, stunned by cruelty, and sickened by what they saw inflicted upon their beloved Jesus. They had to have asked, “Does any of this mean anything? Or, is it just all human cruelty and utter degradation?”

Military survivor families often go through identical questions. They must make sense of a death that often seems senseless and void of meaning. They must find new ways to “live” again. Overwhelming and shocking sadness, the lack of understanding from the world around them, and a recovery of hope and new ways of being are all part of their journey. All in all, these resilient and embattled persons have grasped well the meanings of sacrifice and resurrection. God bless them all.

2011-04-14T10:21:00.002-04:00

Were You There?

Some of you will be interested in the recently released movie The Conspirator. It is about the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination and particularly focuses on Mary Surratt, the only female charged as a co-conspirator in the trial of those accused of murdering the President. It premiered at the scene of the crime, in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, where John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865.

Robert Redford, the director of the film, has commented on the profound silence that hung over the event as guests viewed the film’s depiction of the assassination of the President just mere feet from the VIP box where Lincoln sat. Can you imagine having been at the premier yourself and experiencing this moment? It is almost overwhelming to contemplate how the momentousness of that event could cross 150 years into the present moment in palpable fashion.

Something like that is what Holy Week liturgies attempt to create for us as we re-enact what is arguably the most momentous event of all human history, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, brought out of 20 centuries of time into the present moment. In fact, this is what happens at every Eucharist when we begin the recitation, "On the night he was handed over to suffering and death." The technical term for it is anamnesis, which means remembering, and can be remembered as the opposite of amnesia, a kind of forgetting.

Much of Christian life involves remembering some key things about God and ourselves, and much hardship and heartache comes from forgetting those same basic truths.

Whether on any given Sunday or in Holy Week, the goal of our worship is to recall these events from the past into the present in some sort of way that allows our own participation and incorporation into the event itself.

Long before the advent of film, with its powerful, evocative visual images, Christian choreography has had to rely, by comparison, upon the humble tools of word, music, and symbol to awaken and engage the imagination. The African-American spiritual "Were You There" is sound evidence that such resources are good enough for the past to speak to the heart of the present.

2011-04-13T15:27:00.005-04:00

Beating the Bounds
In medieval England, when maps were rare, it was customary to make an annual perambulation of the parish boundaries on Ascension Day or during Rogation Days, days that were set aside to pray for the planting of crops in the spring and early summer. This annual event took place in a context where the parish was a geographical area, whose inhabitants were entitled to receive the ministrations of the parish church. Fixing the parish boundaries then, identified who was entitled to these ministrations, charitable and other, and who was not. Young boys were often taken along and bumped on the boundary stones to make sure they remembered the boundaries and to ensure that there were witnesses to the boundaries for as long as possible into the future.

With the exception of the state of Louisiana, no one refers to parishes as geographic areas any longer. There is no established church in America and Augusta isn’t medieval England, but nonetheless, it is a useful and usable image for us as we continue to discover what God is up to in his redemptive mission to the world and how we might be part of that.

To focus any effort that our parish might undertake that would make a difference in the lives of others, we have taken a map of Augusta, drawn parish boundaries on it (the 30904 zip code) and now we need to go and beat the bounds to see what’s out there.

If you are interested in an outing to take a look at our "neighborhood," to catalog the public schools, other churches, and see what’s up out there, then come go with us on Sunday, May 1st at 11:00am. We'll go from the church and take a box lunch with us. If needed, we'll get a bus! Make your reservation for a lunch by calling the parish office at 706-738-3386.

2011-03-04T11:12:00.027-05:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Nine in a Series

Are We There Yet?
Everyone can recall from either being a child, or having a child, the trip where the parents are constantly asked: “Are we there yet?” We are all going from one place to another in a myriad of ways, from the mundane to the metaphysical. The experience of taking a trip or journey then, becomes a handy metaphor to talk about the evolving, unfolding nature of daily life, business, raising children, career, marriage, relationships, or many things, as well as our experience of God.

The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is defined and described in many ways. We are using this expression as shorthand for a life that is conceived of, lived and ordered with God and his gracious rule at its center. Jesus talks a lot about God’s kingdom that is coming, that is here now and yet, is still to come in God’s good time to its perfect fulfillment. Jesus compares it to many things; he encourages some with their closeness to it and challenges others, suggesting they are further from it than they think. But always, the Kingdom of God is an unfolding thing, completely under God’s control and rule with a sense of urgency about it!

Good Shepherd is a gathering of people seeking, discerning, and hoping to experience God’s presence, power and grace in their own lives. We are on this journey individually with God, and we are on this journey together as a parish. However, what now makes this journey both exciting and disconcerting is our realization that we are making this trip in a time of great change and transition. (See Part One)

So, Where are We?
A group of about 45 parishioners, staff and vestry have reviewed all of the information gathered from the five exercises (See Parts Four - Eight) that the parish began in Lent of 2010 with the Thin Place Exercise and concluded with the other four exercises this past fall. We have sifted through many pages of newsprint. All of the wonderful post-its with the gifts people want to give to God (over 1,500 of them!) have been entered in a computer database where they can be accessed and put to use for God’s purposes.

Now after all of that, this statement of purpose summarizes the key points that we have gleaned from the wisdom of the people of God at Good Shepherd and that we can use as a compass to guide us on the journey we have begun together.

The People of God of the Church of the Good Shepherd desire to join with God in His redemptive mission in the world. We humbly and prayerfully seek His grace in this journey which honors Jesus Christ as the center of our communal, familial and individual lives.

We understand that our life together is shaped by these signs gathered from prayerful and guided discernment:

1. We will grow in our discipleship and in our willingness to encourage others in their own discipleship of Jesus Christ.
2. We offer our lives as active partners in God's mission remembering that we are people blessed with an amazing array of gifts and abilities to bless others.
3. We seek out those who are lost or left out for caring service and to hear Good News of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
4. We stand on an Anglican heritage and traditions that guide and shape our common life, ministry and mission for today.
5. We sustain children and young people and their families, and those of every generation, striving together to know, love and serve our Lord Jesus.

Key Points!
Sometimes a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. This illustration helps me to “see” what we have discovered and where we are headed.

The two pyramids illustrate the shifts in emphasis that are taking place and must take place in order for the church, the Christian people of God, to realign ourselves with the redemptive mission God is already, even now about in God’s world.

Yesterday: For 1700 years all churches have ordered and organized their life and ministry with a mainly “top down” approach. Certainly church life in America since the start of the 20th century has seen vast amounts of time, energy and resources be applied to the building up of the institution of the church. This is a model that works by attracting people to come and join the church to receive all that the church has to offer. In all honesty, significantly smaller portions of resources were directed to outreach if any at all. Again, in all honesty, the Episcopal Church almost has an aversion to any explicit ministry of evangelism to those who have not heard the Good News of Jesus.

At least since the 20th century we have, at the end of the day, acted as if the building up of the church were an end in itself, rather than a means to ends, chiefly offering caring service in the community and pursuing an intentional mission of conversing with others about Jesus.

Today: This pyramid illustrates the shift that is taking place as we become more kingdom centered rather than church centered; more externally focused than internally focused; and as members become missionaries, or if that word is problematic, disciples. In this model the emphasis is on the people of God dispersed and deployed in their homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, and community to build the reign of God through caring service and evangelism. Clergy and other church leaders provide vision, guidance and equip the people of God for their individual missional callings.

Sometimes hyperbole can serve to make a point more clearly as this drawing illustrates. The Christendom model over time became fixated on attendance, money, and involvement. Someone has named this fixation, hyperbole granted, as exploitation! The model for the New Apostolic Era emphasizes building up people, discipleship and nurture, and is named as edification to strike the clear contrast.

This illustration applies these points to what is already happening at Good Shepherd. The bottom box represents our ministry, our parish life. From it we move out into the world for caring service and to share the Good News of Jesus with others.

Some explanations:
The four classical signs of the church’s ministry are, using the Greek words, koinonia (fellowship), didache (instruction), diakonia (service) and kerygma (proclamation). At Good Shepherd we have articulated and applied these as Connect with us, Grow with us, Serve with us and Worship with us.

We are doing a fair job with our ministry – by which we mean specifically that which happens within our parish and on our property. We have made outreach a priority for decades as part of our mission, or that which specifically takes place outside of our parish. Please note the upper right hand box is empty. Beyond our public worship, we do not do anything intentional as a parish in the area of sharing the Good News of Jesus with those who do not know him.

What’s Next?
A couple of things: Beating the Bounds, Stop Hunger Now and the 1 Diocese 1 Book study for starters.

Beating the Bounds
In medieval England, when maps were rare, it was customary to make an annual perambulation of the parish boundaries on Ascension Day or during Rogation Days – days set aside to pray for the planting of crops in the spring and early summer. This took place in a context where the parish was a geographical area, whose inhabitants were entitled to receive the ministrations of the parish church. Young boys were often taken along and bumped on the boundary stones to make sure they remembered the boundaries and to ensure that there were witnesses to the boundaries for as long as possible into the future.

With the exception of the state of Louisiana, no one refers to parishes as geographic areas any longer. There is no established church and Augusta isn’t medieval England, but nonetheless, it is a useful and usable image for us as we continue to discover what God is up to in his redemptive mission to the world and how we might be part of that. To focus any effort that we might make to have significant impact in the lives of others, we have taken a map of Augusta, drawn parish boundaries on it (the 30904 zip code) and now we need to go and beat the bounds to see what’s out there.

If you are interested in joining a small group to go out and take a look at our “neighborhood,” catalog the public schools, other churches, and see what’s up out there with a mind to shaping caring service in this “parish,” then please give me a call.

Stop Hunger Now
On Sunday, March 27th, we’ll be acting missionally when we roll up our sleeves and pack 15,000 dehydrated, high protein and highly nutritious meals for hungry people in our schools and around the world. Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger relief agency that coordinates the distribution of food and other life saving aid around the world. Serve with us!

1 Diocese 1 Book
Good Shepherd is participating in this Lenten study. Together with others in the parish and around the Diocese of Georgia we’ll be reading and discussing 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer thought long and hard and wrote powerfully on the nature of Christian discipleship. A leading spokesman for the German Confessing Church, the Center of Protestant resistance to the Nazi’s, Bonhoeffer was implicated in the plot to assassinate Hitler, and was arrested and imprisoned. He was executed on April 9, 1945. Grow with us as we learn more about this remarkable man’s Christian witness.

So, Are We There Yet?
Well, in classical Anglican fashion we would say yes and no!

Yes, in the sense that the process of discernment that we have been involved with for two years has come to its conclusion as summarized in the statement of purpose at the head of this article.

No, in the sense that although this process has given us direction and a compass, the journey still needs to be taken. Beating the Bounds, Stop Hunger Now and 1 Diocese 1 Book study are but the first baby steps of Good Shepherd’s entry in the New Apostolic Era, a journey that generations who follow us will still be making when the time of our stewardship of Good Shepherd is past.

And all of this mirrors and reflects to some extent the ongoing, unfolding nature of the Kingdom of God. God’s saving, redeeming initiative in Jesus Christ is both a done deal and an unfolding reality. Each of us will spend the rest of our days on this journey of incorporating more fully this grace gift into our lives. Only when we die and leave this world, can we in any meaningful sense say that we have reached our final destination: seeing face-to-face the Triune God in his incomparable glory and enjoying this communion and that of all the saints forever.

Pray that the Lord of the journey will bless, provide and guide the people of God at Good Shepherd on His way.

Godspeed to all!

2010-12-01T13:41:00.008-05:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Eight in a Series

The Fount of Every Blessing
Robert Robinson was born in 1735. While young, his father died. He became uncontrollable as a young man and finally his mother sent him to London to learn barbering. He quickly became an excellent student of drinking and gang life instead. A chance encounter with the great preacher, George Whitfield sowed the seeds that three years later changed Robinson’s life.
At age twenty, he entered the ministry and wrote “Come, Thou fount of every blessing” as a hymn to go with his sermon for the Day of Pentecost, 1758. Having discovered God’s purpose for his life, he worked faithfully at it until his death at age 54 in 1790.
I begin here where our last All Parish Gathering ended, with the singing of Robinson’s beloved hymn. It was a moving and powerful conclusion to the night with included a bible study on the parable of the sower.
Now there is a nice Holy Spirit coincidence, singing Robinson’s hymn, with his life’s trajectory redemptively altered by Whitfield’s sermon and the seeds sowed therein, and studying the parable of the sower to focus our evening reflection on God in our lives, individually and collectively at Good Shepherd.
We want very much to make a difference in the lives of others in the name of Jesus Christ and this parable certainly informs missional ministry in the new apostolic age of the 21st century where each of us, rather than the institution of the church, may be called upon to sow the seeds of God’s good news in Christ in more intentional ways each day.
I’ve written of how the evening ended, now let’s turn to how it began as Ginny Inman offered these words of challenge at the start of our meeting.

Agents for God
A few weeks ago, I brought my two year old into church for communion. Upon reaching the pew, he looked around and pronounced in a whisper so loud that the choir could hear, “I don’t see Jesus anywhere.” “Look,” I said, pointing to the beautiful stained glass window depicting Jesus as the Good Shepherd that hangs above the altar. “Ohhh,” he said, with wide eyes, before launching into a robust version of “Jesus had a little lamb (to the tune of Mary had a little lamb).” Of course, you know the powerful ending of that revised song. “And everywhere that Jesus went, the lamb was sure to go.”
Where will we go now? Where is Jesus leading us? This church is founded on the powerful promise made by Christ to the beloved community recounted in John’s Gospel: “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. I am not like the hired hand who scatters at the first sign of danger, but have come so that the sheep may have life and have it abundantly.” (paraphrase of John 10)
The Good Shepherd stands at the center of our common life. This powerful and precious image of our Lord stretches back to the God of Israel who cared for his people with compassion, steadfastness and gentleness. Recall the words of Psalm 100, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” We belong to the Good Shepherd. The shepherd not only leads his sheep, he sustains them. In the familiar words of Psalm 23, “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, ironically becoming the sacrificial Paschal Lamb so that we might be saved.
The Good Shepherd asks only that we, his sheep, follow his voice. In a world where it is hard to find still waters, when the demands of each day drown out goodness and mercy, we are listening together for the voice of the Shepherd. As the daughter of a cattle farmer, this in itself is remarkable. Sheep actually respond to the voice of their shepherd, coming when they are called. For the last year, this church has committed to exploring where Christ is calling us and how we might answer that call. There is no question that Church of the Good Shepherd is a community of continued worship and service, strength and refuge. In fact, the first stage of this parish-wide process began last spring when 350 people gathered in one another’s homes to share their thin places at Church of the Good Shepherd, places where heaven and earth met, where they encountered Christ in this community. These stories, filled with hope and light and laughter, witnessed to how Christ lives among us. But the challenging thing about shepherds is that they never set up shop; they are always on the move. In a church that is stable and healthy, but not growing, the real task at hand is to challenge our complacency. To that end, we have engaged in several exercises this fall – each designed to awaken our senses, our sight and hearing, our awareness of what it means to follow the Good Shepherd here in 2010 at the Church of the Good Shepherd.
Now a word about process. It is astounding that Jesus changed the whole world with twelve disciples (eleven when it was said and done). Even more remarkable is the fact that he chose ordinary fishermen to proclaim the Good News of God to the ends of the earth without so much as a phone interview. He doesn’t solicit resumes, run a background check or require a proficiency exam. Face it. These were not members of MENSA or the Harvard brain trust, these were ordinary people who said yes to a rabble-rousing rabbi. He empowered and charged these disciples to heal and teach and proclaim, as the Holy Spirit does us even now. Discipleship is not the job of clergy or church professionals, it is the call of all baptized Christians. At baptism, we pledge to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ and are marked as Christ’s own forever, the sheep of his pasture. It is up to you to discern and respond to the Good Shepherd’s call.
I was talking with the adult confirmation class last week about how Jesus is a man of strong verbs. Do. Love. Repent. Heal. Give. Pray. Sow. Feed. Clothe. Forgive. Trust. Welcome. And perhaps the most difficult of all, follow. Follow me, Jesus says. Following Jesus means going where he goes, touching who he touched. In August, we gathered to explore “Who is our neighbor?” Presented with data about the 30904 zip code where we are located, we learned, among other things, that the poverty level here is higher than the national average and that there is a high number of single mothers and non-traditional families. Even more interesting than the data may have been our resistance to it. We protested and qualified that such a snapshot did not represent the members of the parish who live in at least ten various zip codes, the largest percentage of parishioners coming from outside our immediate geographic area. But that misses the point or perhaps reinforces it. Are we a vital faith community right here where we sit? How are we proclaiming the good news of God’s grace to our own neighbors? Are they finding God here? Is this lovely Victorian church on the hill a sign of God’s presence in the world? That exercise illustrated that there are a number of lost sheep right here in our own pasture.
Next, we named our gifts, recognizing that God is the good giver who endows us with resources, talents, skills. Those gifts become blessings when they are shared. We will discuss the parable of the sower in a few minutes, the one who chooses generosity over efficiency. God does not meticulously till the earth and line up the seeds, but instead God flings them forth with excessive abundance. Our shepherd is a God of staggering grace. Look at our walls – those post-its are not inexpensive wall art, they are manifestations of the abundance of God, God’s gifts to the people of this parish. It is time to do something with them. Last month, we shifted the looking glass and were stretched to see in new and creative ways how God is at work in the world. Like detectives of divinity, we used our collective vision to challenge old perceptions and see the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Follow me, Jesus says, and we are commanded to do the gutsy, fabulous work of serving the Shepherd, of caring for the flock, of seeking the lost sheep. You see, it is not enough to display a sign that says “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You” or create catchy literature that describes the Church of the Good Shepherd as a place of purpose. We must mean it. We must live it. We are not just a pretty place to sing in Summerville each Sunday. We are more than a well-dressed group of polite people with good taste in liturgy. We are the Body of Christ. Our call is not just to welcome those who cross our threshold, but to walk outside these walls to meet the needs of those who are hungry and thirsty, lonely, sad or sick. The Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to retrieve the one who has strayed. When the lost one returns to the fold, he doesn’t say, “where have you been”, but instead, “welcome home.” Finding a single stray is a reason for rejoicing.
I am tired of all the books and blogs and seminars about why mainline Protestant churches are declining. When Church becomes a consumer driven encounter where clergy market their Christ to shoppers seeking the best deal, we have failed to embody the truth that the Gospel of salvation is alive. Jesus Christ walked among us, was crucified and rose again so that we might have life. That is good news worth sharing.
There is an old story of two men who recounted the 23 Psalm before a large audience. The first, a polished orator delivered the Psalm with eloquence and was met with great applause. The second man, older and less polished, then spoke the same words. He was met with complete silence. The great speaker rose to his feet and said, “Friends, I wish to offer an explanation of what happened here tonight. You gave me your applause, but when my friend had finished, you remained reverently silent. The difference is, I know the Psalm, but he knows the Shepherd.”
We know the Shepherd. We were created to participate in Jesus’ saving mission for all the earth. If we are the hands and feet of Christ in the world, as Theresa of Avila writes, what is our witness? What are we teaching others about the Good Shepherd who leads us? Are there lost sheep in our own parish? When we encounter people at work or school, at the soccer field or golf course, will they know we are Christians by our love, by the way we care for one another, for the least of these, for the lost? At the end of the day, we fail to follow if we do not live the incarnate love we proclaim.
You already know that you can live the love of Christ. The cottage meetings last spring revealed that you have seen the face of Christ in one another. You have bound up one another’s wounds, made casseroles and knitted prayer shawls, you have prayed for those in trouble, spent the night with those who have no place to lie their heads and stocked food pantry shelves. You live in a place endowed with assets and opportunities – an army base, medical school, an internationally known golf tournament. You are a people blessed with bountiful resources and tremendous faith, intellect, skill and compassion. You already have everything you need to answer Christ’s call now. We have discovered our neighbors, named our gifts, seen our community of faith with new eyes. What Jesus asks of each of you is the courage to commit. He asks that you follow the Good Shepherd.
At the close of John’s Gospel, the resurrected Christ appears to the disciples on the seashore and shares a bread fish breakfast with them on the beach. Jesus asks Simon Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” Simon Peter replies “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him: “Feed my lambs.” A second time Jesus said, “Simon Peter, do you love me?” Again Simon Peter responds, this time sounding like a hen pecked husband, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” Jesus said to Simon Peter a third time, “do you love me?” Peter felt hurt at this question, but replied “Lord, you know everything: you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
The shepherd is calling.
What will you do?

A Sower Went Out to Sow
Following Ginny’s remarks, we read Luke’s account of the parable of the sower (Luke 8:5-15). Nearly 140 parishioners engaged several questions about the parable. Groups were asked to give particular attention to and report back on their responses to the question: What deeply matters to the Church of the Good Shepherd?

What’s Next?
We have now completed the All Parish exercises in this process of renewal and discernment that began early this year. In December, a small group of parishioners and Vestry will begin the process of reviewing and sorting all the information that the exercises have provided us about our life and ministry, reporting back to the congregation in late January or early February.

Tune Our Hearts to Sing Thy Grace!
While we await the report of this group, one thing we know for sure – Good Shepherd is filled with people who know of God’s amazing grace and are deeply grateful for it. As a parish we know that God is the fount of every blessing that we have received and we are determined that our hearts shall sing of his marvelous grace.

2010-10-19T08:17:00.005-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Seven in a Series

What Do You See?
Of the five senses, seeing is arguably, the most critical to our functioning in the world. Sight is a veritable superhighway of information to our brains. So overwhelming and profound is the place of physical sightedness in our lives that it readily lends itself as a metaphor for comprehension and understanding. Who can argue against the notion that seeing a full moon on a clear night, or a mountain vista, or a baby’s face conveys far more than just an image to our mind’s eye.

In this metaphorical sense, not seeing is a source of frustration and confusion. How many times do you talk to (or yell at?) a politician or a commentator on your televison screen because they don’t “see” something? We are affirmed when others see what we see and when they don’t, well, most of the time we try to get them to see what we see, as contrasted with, asking them “What do you see?”

The Lord Does Not See as Mortals
A steady, persistent theme of scripture however, is that God does not see as human beings do. Humans typically look on the surface or the appearance, where God looks into the heart, the soul, and sees the character of a person
(I Samuel 16:7). God’s ways are not our ways and what seems right to us is often an offense to God. Hmmm . . . we humans have a significant disconnect here!

The good news of course, is that the Holy Spirit will assist us to see the world and people in it as God does. And seeing as God sees, can move us to act in ways that are pleasing to God.

At Good Shepherd we are involved in the work of trying to “see” what God would have us to do at this particular moment in our life and ministry. While we will not all see everything in the same way, none the less it is important to share a common vision that unites us in common mission for the love of Jesus Christ.

Everyday Creativity
Obviously, the starting point for seeing the world as God sees it is holy scripture, but sometimes because of its familiarity, we think we already know what the bible says even as we are hearing it. To get around this tendency we viewed a short movie titled, Everyday Creativity. In this film, National Geographic photographer DeWitt Jones, uses the art of taking pictures as a vehicle to see the extraordinary. Along the way he introduces nine key concepts that apply equally to your life, or your business, as well as they apply to seeing things with God’s holy perspective.

The Key Concepts
• Creativity is the ability to look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary.
• Every act can be a creative one.
• Creativity is a matter of perspective.
• There is more than one right solution.
• Reframe problems into opportunities.
• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
• Break the pattern.
• Train your technique.
• You have to really care.

After the movie, those seated at tables were given one of the Key Concepts to discuss around these three questions:

1. How did you see this concept appearing in DeWitt’s film?
2. How do you see this concept at work in your world?
3. How might this concept guide and shape our life and mission at Good Shepherd?

As is becoming usual now, 75 parishioners were very creative in their responses to the assigned task. The movie was very well done and provided a terrific jump-off for conversation about Good Shepherd.

Key Point
This interesting film effectively helped us to see, that engaging the world and its challenges is largely a matter of perspective and that shifting perspective can unleash energy and creativity. Holy Scripture and particularly the story of Jesus are ever inviting us to see things as God sees them with his perspective and unleash in our lives his grace.

Conclusion
Significant and useable wisdom resides in the people of God. Parish life and ministry in the 21st century must avail itself of this resource and in the process invest God’s people in God’s redemptive mission in the world beyond the parish threshold.

2010-09-22T10:44:00.003-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Six in a Series

What Can I Give Him, Poor as I Am?
Christina Rossetti asks this question in her poem, “A Christmas Carol,” which is known to us as the hymn text “In the bleak midwinter.” (The Hymnal 1982, #112) She reflects on this question as a response to God giving his Son as the Incarnate, Jesus Christ. The Christian scriptures are persistent in their regular asking of a similar question, “Who do you say that I am?”

The Usual Approach
We are all familiar with the stewardship approach that invites members to make an annual financial commitment to the work of the parish for the upcoming year by completing a pledge card. In fact, those cards and letters are going out, or will be going out soon, to more than 300,000 Christian congregations all across America. Sometimes these pledge cards are accompanied with a request to complete a “time and talent” card as well.
These cards normally list the various ministries the congregation is carrying out and invite the member to find their “spot” and “fit in” with what parish leaders have determined constitutes the life and ministry of the congregation. For several decades this has been the standard approach to meeting the financial and people needs of the institutional congregation and it has worked well. It inadvertently however, limits members to thinking of the gifts they can offer only in terms of what the congregation is doing when unbeknownst to them, they have so much more to offer.

Another Approach
Asset mapping is the name of another approach to identifying the gifts that we can offer to God’s glory and service. A couple of preliminary understandings:
● An asset is a gift known for its usefulness
● There are five types of assets:
- Individual
- Associations
- Institutions
- Physical
- Economic
● The asset questions are simply:
- What are you good at doing?
- What do you like to do?
- What do you have that’s useful?

Key Points!
The kinds of assets we are thinking about here might also be considered as blessings, things like: I love working with young children; I am a breast cancer survivor; I speak Spanish; I have a van; or I am good at fixing things.

Key, Key Point!
A blessing from God remains a blessing only if it is offered to glorify God and to benefit others, elsewise it is no longer a blessing and may even become a spiritual burden! Blessings are to be shared. God has blessed us for his purposes not just for our own benefit.

The Exercise
About 100 parishioners took up magic markers and post-it notes and began to list the assets they could offer to God. It started slowly and gathered steam. Soon the parish house walls were covered with sheets of newsprint, themselves covered with yellow post-its, nearly 1500 in all! You could feel the energy rise in the room as those seated at tables engaged each other in conversation, light bulbs going off in people’s minds one after the other, as it became clearer and clearer to them the gifts that they and others at the table had to give Emmanuel.
When this was completed and the sheets of newsprint were posted all around the room, our leaders pulled off five post-its at random. Reading them out loud to the group, they asked each table to create a ministry plan with those five assets to be shared later with the whole group. It was quite amazing to witness the creativity involved as each table “cooked up” a ministry making use of a coach, someone with military experience, someone who likes to tell jokes, a big kitchen, and someone who loves to teach art to children. (HINT: Something to do with military families and Wounded Warriors.)

Key Point
This was fun! Our eyes were opened to see ourselves and what we could offer for God’s glory and the benefit of others in a different light. We are the people God has blessed and sent into the world to be a blessing to others. Don’t let your blessings stop with yourself but be a blessings conduit!

Conclusion
Christiana Rosetti saw herself as poor compared to the great God who gave his only Son for the world. Oftentimes, we too, see ourselves as poor, but not in comparison to God but to others around us. Consequently, we don’t believe we have anything of value to offer God, or when it comes to our collective ministries we are anxious that there is not enough.
All those post-its presented us with a very different dilemma: how can we possibly use all that God has put in this place for his glory and the welfare of his people?

Next time we explore seeing the world with God’s holy perspective.

2010-09-17T15:35:00.002-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Five in a Series

Quirinius who?
Luke tells the story of the birth of Jesus by locating it in human history, in time and space, when Caesar Augustus was emperor and while Quirinius was governor of Syria (6 - 4 BCE). The God who has created everything that is and who transcends all limits has entered into human history, come among us redemptively , as Jesus born in Bethlehem. In the world, God’s activity occurs in a context, in a particular place and at a particular point in time; therefore, efforts to renew our congregational life, or efforts to serve others in the name of our Lord, must take the place and time in which we live seriously. The context exercise was designed to do that by looking at Augusta, the place of our ministry.

The People in Your 30904 Neighborhood
Good Shepherd is located in the 30904 zip code of Augusta and draws members from 10 zip codes. Making an intentional difference in the lives of others, or making life easier for others involves knowing something about the people you wish to serve. Fortunately today, there are a number of resources that provide detailed demographic information about the people living in a particular area.
We use information provided by the Percept Group who have been providing ministry area profiles for over 20 years. For the purpose of this exercise we confined ourselves to reviewing data obtained only from the 30904 zip code, though clearly, a complete ministry plan would require studying the information for the other nine zip codes where we have members. Through the generosity of our diocese we have easy access to this information. If you would like to see the Percept data for the 30904 zip code, it is available by calling the parish office.

What Did We Learn?
About 190 participants were asked to list any new information or surprises from the data that were different from what they already knew about our neighborhood. Some of the observations were: the population is decreasing, the poverty level is higher than the national average, the average age is younger than expected, there is a higher percentage of single mothers and non-traditional families and a high percentage of church goers attend for recreational purposes.
From this information each table was asked to identify five issues that Good Shepherd might address on behalf of the community. Some of the suggestions included: literacy programs, single parent support and education, mentoring programs, home repairs and life skill training.

Key Point
Effective ministry and outreach requires knowing the needs of people and their life circumstance. Decisions about ministry plans should be data driven and led by the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion
Every Sunday we are sent out to serve in the name of the risen Lord and to share his love by loving others. There are significant numbers of people in our own neighborhood, even at our very doorstep, who need a helping hand and to hear good news.
It is all too easy to ignore their situation (Luke 16:19-31) but surely a parish named in honor of the Good Shepherd must be willing to follow the Good Shepherd’s own example and actively seek out those who struggle with the many manifestations of lostness (Luke 15:1-7).

2010-09-10T10:34:00.004-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Four in a Series

Mining for the Mind of Christ
We begin this process believing that God had already given us everything that is necessary for Good Shepherd to join with him in his mission to the world. The people of this parish are collectively, the repository of these insights and assets for mission. All that is needed is a way to discover or uncover what is already here. The five exercises and the year-long time frame provide one method to “mine” what God has revealed to the people here in their common mind. Entering into this discernment we hope to be inspired by Paul’s guidance to the church at Philippi: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5-11)

Getting Started
You can never go wrong by reflecting on the grace of God who has ordered, sustains, and purposes our lives and that is how we began this work at the start of the year. Once an Energy Team of 16 parishioners had offered themselves to manage and shepherd this renewing work on behalf of the parish, we prepared for the Thin Place Exercise.

Thin Places
The idea of thin places is taken from Celtic Christianity as practiced in Irish and British churches until the seventh century. The Celts believed there were actual, physical places where the boundary between heaven and earth, between this world and the next, was so thin that you could get a glimpse the other reality. People visiting these places often experienced something like a door opening between the two worlds, cracked for a moment, offering understandings of things constantly hoped for, and only rarely seen.

So, we were introduced to the idea that the Church of the Good Shepherd, at 2230 Walton Way, is a thin place, a place where every once in a while, in ways subtle and profound, people here experience God’s own presence. All jokes aside, it is an awesome notion that people might actually experience God in this church or among its people! The Thin Place Exercise asked small groups of parishioners to gather in the host homes of fellow parishioners and invited them to share their best experiences of God either at Good Shepherd or through the life and ministry of this parish.

Thin Places at Good Shepherd
This past Lent, 350 parishioners of all ages were involved in a cottage meeting for the Thin Place exercise. Many participated even though they were skeptical, or did not quite understand what we were trying to accomplish, or are basically shy or reserved persons. Some gladly looked forward to the opportunity to meet other parishioners and to engage in conversation that matters.

Some shared their experiences of God at Good Shepherd, some did not. All spoke or listened appropriately. Some people enjoyed the exercise and expressed hopes that something like it could continue in the parish. Others were amazed by the depth of experience, and some were surprised at how much God is present around Good Shepherd and in the lives of people here! This preference of God to act and be present in the ordinary more often than in the extraordinary, was evident. All drew encouragement to look further for the signs of God’s presence around and among us.

Key Points!
We are all very busy, so busy in fact that we miss a lot of what God is doing in the world. Because we miss it, we might become habituated to not even look for it. Scripture is persistently telling us to wake up! Open our eyes, seek and trust God.

There are all “sorts and conditions” of people at Good Shepherd, each one unique, each one having much in common. Yet, nurturing and encouraging each one in their discipleship of Jesus will require nimbleness and creativity from parish ministries.

In the new apostolic age, some of us will need to move beyond the instinctive Episcopal reservation about talking about matters of faith and learn how to winsomely engage others in conversation about Jesus and our Christian practices. We have all promised to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.

See! We are already making progress at strengthening broad ownership and increasing stakeholders in the mission of God at and through Good Shepherd. The Energy Team of 16 planned and prepared for this exercise. Thirty-four Good Shepherd parishioners offered to open their homes for cottage meetings, 45 volunteered to be trained to facilitate the meetings and 350 of you participated. Not a bad start!

Conclusion
One of the hallmarks of Anglican theology is the understanding that the great eternal God, who is beyond time and space, makes himself known in time and space through the use of the things of this world: art, music, bread, wine, water, creation itself can all become outward, visible and apprehendable signs of a God whose reality is beyond our comprehension. The Thin Place exercise affirmed for us that our church building is itself a sacramental sign of God’s presence sought, desired, and experienced by those who have gone before us in this place. But more importantly, it affirmed for us that the Body of Christ in this place is built of the living stones who share this time and their lives with us. Together, we are a living sacrament set forth to share God’s love and grace made known to us in the most amazing sacrament of all - Jesus Christ our Lord.

Next we will take a look at the neighborhood and community we live in which is the context, or the place where God has put us for mission.

2010-09-08T13:57:00.003-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Three in a Series

Where do we go from here?
There is a saying: “If you don’t know where you’re going, then any way will get you there.” The Vestry has resolved that this will not be true of Good Shepherd! We are presently involved in a year-long process to accomplish three things:

1. We hope to renew and replenish the sense of energy and excitement at Good Shepherd about the mission God has given to us. Our goal is to move to the early Prime stage of the Congregational Life Cycle. (See Part II.)
2. We hope to discern more particularly how God would have us be the church in Augusta, Georgia. (More later about our context in Augusta.)
3. We hope to become an effective and faithful parish for Jesus Christ in the early decades of the 21st century. (See Part I.)

The five All-Parish Gatherings that have been planned for this year are designed to work together to help us realize these hopes and aspirations for our parish. Again, they include:

Thin Places: Sharing our best experiences of God in this place
Context: Looking at Augusta, the place of our ministry
Asset Mapping: Identifying the gifts we want to offer to God
Everyday Creativity: Exploring the holy perspective God has given us
God in Our Lives: Discovering God’s purposes for Good Shepherd

Please note the active verbs that characterize this effort: sharing, looking, identifying, exploring, and discovering. The process depends, to some extent, upon as many of us doing these things together as is possible, hence the all-parish nature of these gatherings. Broad ownership is the key to renewing energy about out mission here!

Key Point!
Broad ownership, increasing stakeholders, is the key to energizing the mission and life of the parish. The more people feel that they are a part of, they have a stake in our efforts to make disciples of Jesus Christ, to serve others in the larger community and world in his Name, to care for, support and encourage fellow parishioners, to catechize our children and youth and to worship Almighty God both in our lives and in our liturgy, the greater will be the sense of excitement about God’s purposes in and through Good Shepherd.

Conclusion
Unlike much strategic planning, where a process is initiated and…presto!…out comes a plan 12-18 months later, this is a rolling process. By which we mean, we are actually getting to where we hope to get as we do the work together, rather than waiting for an outcome some months hence. This can prove a little confusing, even frustrating, when we would prefer “map quest”-like directions to our destination. We are reminded of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-16) where Jesus compared the uncontrollable movement of the Spirit to that of the wind: it blows where it chooses, which can be disconcerting enough for all of us!

Next we begin to consider individually, the five exercises that give form and structure to our discerning work.

2010-09-07T14:14:00.002-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part Two in a Series

“To everything there is a season”
These well known words from Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) acknowledge that God is the one who determines events, their time and their timing. This refers in equal part to those events that just happen to people, like being born and dying, and to occasions to which people must respond, like planting and harvesting. The words also describe poetically the journey that each person makes as their own life unfolds from birth to infancy, to childhood and adolescence, to young adulthood and the prime of life; from maturity to old age and finally to death. Books describing the stages of life use this imagery and are thusly titled The Seasons of a Man’s Life and The Seasons of a Woman’s Life. While every person is unique, there are enough similarities between persons that allow for useful generalizations to be made about life’s different stages.
Just as people move through the phases of a life-cycle, some have observed that the birth to death progression could also be used as a way of thinking about the vitality of schools, businesses, organizations, programs, or even relationships. Marti Saarinen is one such person who has devised a way to apply the life cycle concept to religious institutions.

The Congregational Life Cycle

This diagram illustrates how the life cycle could be applied to a congregation like Good Shepherd. Some explanatory notes are in order to help interpret the diagram:
1. Religious organizations have a “gene” structure made up of four major components: energy, program, administration, and inclusion. Energy refers to the level of excitement and participation in the life and ministry of the congregation. Program includes all the organized ministries in a parish and those to the larger community, things like Sunday School, fellowship, outreach, etc. Administration includes communications, fund raising, maintenance, staffing and all those functions necessary to sustain an organization’s life and purpose. Finally, inclusion names that part of the community’s life that has to do with attracting, welcoming, involving, and serving members.
2. At each stage there is a presentation of the gene structure that describes and defines that phase. An upper case letter indicates increasing function in that particular area, the lower case indicates diminished function.
3. Please note that each stage of the growth side of the cycle is always characterized by an upper case “E” for high energy. Correspondingly, the decline side is always characterized by a lower case “e” for decreasing energy.
4. A congregation like Good Shepherd, 141 years young, has undoubtedly been through this life cycle several times already! Unlike human beings, organizations are always cycling through the stages.

Key Point!
Moving to the decline side is inevitable and unavoidable for congregations. The challenge for leaders of these organizations is to recognize when that has happened and to begin to take the necessary steps to renew and revitalize the congregation’s self-understanding and purpose. The further the congregation descends on the decline side, the greater the dynamic of denial in the congregation about its true situation. It also follows that correspondingly the deeper the descent into decline, the greater or more radical change that will be needed for rebirth.

Application Beyond Good Shepherd
Before applying this to our parish, I’ll offer a few opinions as to how this way of looking at religious organizations might be applied to some other religious organizations that interest us, such as our diocese and our national church.
I think that the Diocese of Georgia is in the Birth stage of the life cycle. We have a new bishop who is just beginning his ministry and there is much excitement about how the Diocese of Georgia might renew its mission and purpose. Diocesan leaders are reassessing programs, the Diocesan staff has been restructured and new efforts are underway with respect to administrative functions. We’re just getting started! Yet no one can know how long, or how challenging, even bumpy will be the journey to Prime, fully firing on all our cylinders, so to speak for, the sake of Jesus Christ and this church in South Georgia.
How about the national church? In my opinion, and there is sure to be disagreement with this assessment, the Episcopal Church is in the Bureaucracy stage. Like all mainline denominations experiencing decades long numerical decline, we are caught in important controversy, incurring significant legal expenses, and stuck in Christendom (see Part One) assumptions about the church. Again, in my opinion, denominational leaders are in deep denial about the state of our denomination and it seems that many of them are pursuing authoritarian approaches to try to stem the hemorrhaging of people, assets and energy out of the church. As noted in Part One, our denomination is significantly impacted by the dramatic shifts well underway in our culture.
Remember: the Anglican Church has been on the American scene for four hundred years and has been constituted as the Episcopal Church since 1789. Obviously, the Episcopal Church has been through this cycle before.

Application to Good Shepherd
So, where do you see Good Shepherd in the congregational life cycle?
When the Vestry and Staff first asked ourselves this question in early 2009, almost all of us placed Good Shepherd somewhere between the Maturity and Aristocracy stages.
We have struggled for some time to interpret some parish trends. For instance, Average Sunday Attendance at Good Shepherd has declined from a high of 575 in 2002 to 480 in 2009, yet Great Wednesday participation has been going up and remained steady all throughout this past year. The average financial pledge keeps increasing year after year, even in the down economy, from an average of $2,837 in 2002 to $3,839 in 2010; but the number of households financially contributing has decreased from 539 in 2002 to 467 in 2009. Our membership has held steady and we have even experienced 1% growth. Participation in service ministries has remained strong but participation in Christian Formation opportunities has been soft.
The Congregational Life Cycle model was helpful to us as we worked to understand and interpret what was going on at Good Shepherd. More importantly, this model offered a way to renew and redevelop parish ministry and move us forward to the energy side of the cycle again.

A Last Piece
There is one last piece to assembling the puzzle of what is going on at Good Shepherd. As Christians we follow Jesus who said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21) We are called and sent into the world to share the love and revelation of God as it is presented to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. In Christ, God is loving and saving the world for his purposes. Put another way, God has a mission to the world and he also has a church that is to be an agent of his redemptive project in the world.
This point was powerfully made for the Vestry at the retreat at Kanuga in January of 2010. The Reverend Dr. Reggie McNeal spoke convincingly about the full blown post-Christendom culture in the United States (see Part One). The Vestry enthusiastically received his comments as both accurately descriptive and a call to congregational response. A series of articles have since appeared in The Shepherd’s Fold reviewing Dr. McNeal’s book, The Present Future, that addresses the shifts in emphasis that congregations need to make in order to partner more faithfully with God in his mission to the world in the 21st century.

Putting it Together
The Vestry participated in the annual Vestry Conference at Kanuga in January 2009 and January 2010, not expecting anything more to happen than having a good team building weekend together, reviewing the past year at Good Shepherd and establishing some goals for the upcoming year. Little did we know that the presentations there on two separate occasions, each separated by a full year, would each speak to us clearly and in tandem of the call to renew and refocus congregational life and ministry at Good Shepherd so that God’s purposes might be honored and that people might be led to more intentionally follow Jesus as Savior and Lord in these times.

Key Points!
Since moving back into a wonderfully renovated Parish House in November of 2004, parish leadership has sought new focus for Good Shepherd’s mission and ministry. A number of worthwhile and productive efforts have been undertaken, but none of them have successfully addressed the sense of complacency at Good Shepherd, most widely experienced as diminished energy about the parish, its life and its mission.
The Congregational Life Cycle as a tool helped the Vestry and Rector to name its sense of what was happening in the parish and to begin to address it creatively and constructively.
Reggie McNeal’s inspiring and exciting vision of a God of mission on the move in the world persuaded the Vestry that Good Shepherd should ask God to show us a way to more faithfully and more fully align our energies and efforts with his purpose, at this moment, in this place.

Conclusion
We began this section of the series by quoting Ecclesiastes, “to everything there is a season,” and acknowledging that God alone is the one who determines the who, what, where, when, and how of his purposes. Exciting things are happening all around the world where Jesus Christ is concerned. There is a new movement of the Holy Spirit at work in the world. We have determined to discern how Good Shepherd, by God’s grace, might be part of it. As much as we would all like to know exactly where this is headed we must remember that God’s call never comes with a detailed plan but only with the assurance that if we say yes, that he will be with us.
Look to Part Three for an introduction to the year long process of discernment, now in progress, to renew and refocus our mission and ministry in Augusta.

2010-08-30T12:39:00.002-04:00

What’s Going On at Good Shepherd?
Part One in a Series
In October 2009, the Rector and Vestry agreed to work with the Reverends Randy Ferebee and Alan Akridge in a year-long process that would replenish and renew the energy and sense of excitement in the parish about the mission God has given to us.
This process consists of a series of five exercises for the whole parish that began with the “Thin Place Exercise” in Lent 2010. Over 350 Good Shepherd members met in fellow parishioner’s homes to share their best experiences of God at Good Shepherd. This fall, this process resumes – with the four remaining exercises, one scheduled for each of the months of August, September, October, and November.
The purpose of this series is to communicate, in greater detail, the context, goals and hopes for this work and the promise in Christ that it offers to Good Shepherd.

“The times they are a-changin’”
When I was a boy, men and women wore hats in public. Even the small town I grew up in had several hat stores. Not anymore! Somewhere about 1960 fashion changed and the demand for millinery collapsed. One can only hope that hatters saw this coming and were prepared.
People in business know how essential it is to keep a keen eye on how the wind blows with respect to their particular enterprise. Staying on top of, or better yet, ahead of trends can pay dividends. Failing to discern the signs of the times (Luke 12:54-56) can cause problems, even catastrophe.
Although Good Shepherd is certainly not a business, the analogy still applies to the Rector and Vestry as leaders of the parish, tasked with keeping an eye on the life and ministry of the parish. Part of this shared oversight means paying attention to what is going on in the parish, the local community, and the world around us. Part of this involves understanding the culture that surrounds us so that we might engage with it and share with it the Good News of God made real in Jesus Christ.
Most importantly, the Rector and Vestry must seek and listen for God’s particular call to Christ’s people in this particular parish at this particular moment. Once that purpose is discerned, we pray for the grace and courage to respond with trust and obedience to what God has for us.
We believe the wind has shifted for the church in North America and it’s time to adjust our sails.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto”
When Dorothy and Toto were blown into the Land of Oz, it was clearly apparent to her that they were no longer in the familiar landscape of Kansas, but had entered an entirely different world. If this was lost on anybody viewing the movie, the shift from black and white to color film dramatically emphasized the changed reality. Her famous observation to her little dog is a classic understatement.
Something like that has happened to the Christian church in North America. Those of us who are of a certain age recognize just how much America’s deference to Christian sensibilities has changed. We attended schools, where prayers or devotions were often a part of each morning. Friday night football games began with an invocation by a student member of the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes.) Many stores and movies were closed on Sundays. It was assumed that almost everyone was a Christian and went to church. Many laws and morals had biblical basis. You could “catch” the Christian perspective from the culture whether you attended church or not. TV and radio were free of sexual innuendo and profanity.
However you choose to characterize it, Christianity has lost that privileged place in American culture and people are increasingly uncomfortable with any references to religious, and particularly Christian, points of view in the public square.
Church historians and other religious observers of the culture have noted and commented on this shift for several decades. Loren Mead, an Episcopal priest, wrote a book in 1992 that has become a classic on the subject titled The Once and Future Church. He argues that the social and communal shifts which are changing the nature of how the church relates to the surrounding culture are real, profound and lasting changes. He offers three models or paradigms, to help us organize and bring 2000 years of Christian experience into useful focus and application to this new situation.

The Apostolic Era
The first model that Mead identifies is commonly called the Apostolic Era. This covers the period of time from the resurrection of Jesus to the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine in 314.
In this era, the church understood itself as existing in a hostile, antagonistic, and persecuting world. Early Christians saw themselves as following the “way” of Jesus which offered very different values for behaving and believing, making Christians distinct from others in the world with them. The marketplace of ideas was chock full of competing ideologies, religions, and philosophies.
Life in the early Christian communities was intense and personal with each of its members aware that they were called to witness to God’s love in Christ to that hostile world. The early church saw its mission as right outside its front door. Every member was a missionary. The mission of communicating the Gospel was a task for every member. The congregation sought to build up and equip its individual members to engage in that mission.

The Christendom Era
As Christianity became, in both name and law, the official religion of the Roman Empire, the church and the western world became virtually one and the same. The church no longer existed in a hostile and antagonistic environment, but one which supported the work of the church and at times, regrettably, co-opted it for the purposes of the state. Mission now took place at the boundaries of the Empire and was engaged in by missionary specialists sent out to convert barbaric tribes and nations.
The congregation became a parish, the church in a geographic area, and everybody born in that area was a member of the parish by birth. Being a Christian meant being a good citizen and law and government described and enforced Christian values. The differences between the secular elements of the society were not easily distinguished from the religious elements.
Christendom, a term that refers to the global community of Christians and is also used to describe the informal cultural hegemony that Christianity has enjoyed in the world for nearly 20 centuries, is the word used to describe this long time period which dates from the year 314 to the mid-twentieth century, over 1600 years!

The New Apostolic Era
The old Christendom paradigm is not working. Something new is needed and is emerging. What that will finally look like is not yet clear and may take some time to finally emerge. What is known, is that in the new paradigm, no longer can it be assumed that all people are Christians or know much about following Jesus. Sometimes negative stereotypes are all that people know of Christians and consequently they reject the church as having any interest or value for them.
The congregation is no longer a geographical area and the front door of the church once again marks the boundary of the mission frontier. Some have suggested that the dearth of biblical or theological understanding inside the Christian community means that the congregation itself may be the area of mission!
Clergy do not hold high status roles as chaplains in the community. Lay people are once again missionaries, not members, and everyone is called to ministry beyond the congregation.

Conclusion
Loren Mead refers to this last model as the Emerging Paradigm. Others call it the Post-Christendom or Post-Modern Era. Several of my colleagues have taken to naming it the New Apostolic Era because there are many similarities between the world of the first century and the twenty-first, and there is the opportunity for a new and vital Christianity to emerge that has much in common with the first century of Christian believers.
Mark Twain has famously said, “Nobody likes change, except a baby with a wet diaper.” Once we Christians are past the grief of what has changed or been lost; or the frustration about being marginalized in the large culture; or the anxieties of what is to come for our children and grandchildren; or realize that Christendom cannot be restored in America by political means; perhaps then, we can begin to look around the larger world and see that God is on the move; that amazing things are happening in other places and that through the power of the Holy Spirit and grace of God they may happen here too!

Key Point!
Many of us have grown up shaped and formed by the Christendom paradigm of being and doing church. Most congregational, denominational, and even ecumenical structures assume a Christendom reality. While many can see the clear evidence of the shift in culture and context that Loren Mead describes, conceptualizing a new model of how the church communicates the Gospel in this context is very difficult. It is clearly a work in progress!

Look to Part Two for a description of some other dynamics at work in Good Shepherd.

2010-05-11T14:06:00.001-04:00

I am looking forward to opening this blog with equal measures of excitement and trepidation! Please keep a novice blogger in your prayers.