The Hyphenateds

by Phil Snider, Editor

Diana Butler Bass coined the term “re-traditioning” several years ago to describe the ferment afoot in churches; Phyllis Tickle applies the term to the diverse forms of religious life seen in new Christian communities sprouting up on the American landscape.  Tickle calls attention in her work to the five-hundred-year cycle in Western history wherein civilization undergoes major upheaval.  The most recent such upheaval occurred in the 16th century; its religious face was the Protestant Reformation which, while it gave us a fresh new expression of Christianity,  can also be characterized as “a set of sensibilities and values shared by a very multifaceted form of Christian belief and praxis.”   How else can explain the varieties of Protestant faith be explained?

Tickle contends that we are now experiencing a comparable upheaval and sees in the new emerging forms of church a certain parallel to the Reformation.  She suggests, however, that differences exist, none of which “is more absorbing to watch or more portentous than is the presence within Emergence Christianity of the Hyphenateds”.  They are the Christians who are solidly in the emergent camp in terms of values, assets, ways of being, theological questioning – – but at the same time they are also “reverent and proud inheritors of the traditions, praxis, and structure of their own inherited denominations and communions.”  They seek to re-tradition, to keep the best of their particular tradition, merging it seamlessly with the best of the emerging church movement, hence their names as Presby-mergents, Catho-mergents, Metho-mergents – – Hyphenateds!

Phil Snider, an ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ, has edited this helpful collection that includes leading voices from among leaders in the emerging church scene on a broad range of topics.  Doug Pagitt,  in his Afterword titled “All in the Family”,  writes movingly of his own blended family that includes biological and adoptive children.  Names are important, he says, and this is true for those who are making a new life together as a faith community.  So what, he asks, is this hyphenated thing about?  In part it is “all of us trying to figure out the best way to move forward in our world from the particular pasts from which we are emerging” as a blended family.  And that, he concludes, “is a beautiful thing whether we use the punctuation or not.”

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/12/the-hyphenateds/

Honoring Excellence in Ministry

It is not too late to honor those who demonstrate excellence in ministry in our churches.  The deadline for nominations has been extended through November 4, 2011.

Nominate an individual from your church by downloading and completing the Nomination Form.  Then download and complete a Banquet Guests List  in order to make your reservations to join your sisters and brothers in Christ at the banquet on Friday, November 11 as we honor our nominees together.  Mail both forms along with your check to The Resource Center by November 4. Please note: One honoree from your church is considered a guest of the Resource Center to the banquet.  All other banquet tickets are $50.

Visit our events page to learn more about the banquet or contact us for further information.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/10/honoring-excellence-in-ministry/

Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain (DVD)

by Robert Gardner, producer/director

A thousand years ago in Southern Spain, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived side by side in peace, and thrived.  Their respective cultures and beliefs intertwined, the knowledge of the ancients was gathered and reborn, and produced the seeds that would be the Renaissance.  Sadly, their world vanished all-too-quickly, swept away by creed, fear, and intolerance.  Absolutism and puritanical judgments snuffed out the light of learning and, within a few centuries, the fragile union was dissipated like smoke.  This film raises two questions: What can we learn from this small window in time?  Must history forever repeat itself?  (PBS)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/10/cities-of-light-the-rise-and-fall-of-islamic-spain-dvd/

Leaders Who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your Ministry

by Margaret J. Marcuson, Author

The author is a seasoned pastor who speaks and writes on leadership and works with church leaders nationally as consultant and coach.  Acknowledging at the outset that leadership in ministry is difficult today, she asserts that it need not be a recipe for burnout – – that there is an easier way.  Her book focuses on the following suggestions:

Be more of a leader and less of a controller.  Adopt a new system of seeing yourself and those you lead.  Focus on yourself and the resources you bring rather than trying to help, fix, or change others.  Respond to others with more clarity calm and creativity.  Remain more thoughtful during challenge and crisis.  Increase your influence without increasing your workload.  Reduce your overall stress about issues of congregational life.

A great book for clergy peer groups to read and discuss together. It just might save them from burnout.  (Seabury Books)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/10/leaders-who-last/

Like Breath and Water: Praying with Africa

by Ciona D. Rouse, Author

A beautiful book on so many levels – – pictures, words, prayers, theology.  Pages filled with passion and desperation, injustice and insensitivity, death – – and hope.  The author of liturgies found in the Africana Worship series responded to the advice of an expatriate from Mali who told her, “If you want to learn to pray, go to Africa.”  She did, and she learned much.  The prayers, she writes, “that fuel our hearts – – our very survival – – run deep n the soul of Africa.”  Not simply petitions to God for the latest iGadget or “to beg for a quick fix to a real problem,” it is “a life force, like breath and water   .  .  .  one way to know that we are alive.” Every prayer or prayer request she heard in Africa uncovered a story that revealed the hearts of the people and “I was no longer a stranger who shook their hands and walked away; I was invited into a vulnerable part of their story.  To read this book is to begin to see the world with different eyes.  (Upper Room Books)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/10/like-breath-and-water/

Theology of Resourcing

My home base for ministry is in former classrooms on a seminary campus.  There is a place to view videos and a children’s corner, tables and chairs here and there, and shelves everywhere.  On the shelves are curriculum and periodicals, puppets and games, videos and DVDs, an authentic Hebrew scroll in its satin cover – – books, of course, and periodicals.  There are filing cabinets containing folders filled with the best clippings, articles and indispensable ideas gleaned over the years, several deep files for teaching pictures, a storage rack especially designed for us to contain our growing art collection – – and a wonderful old chest.  Once that chest stored maps or blueprints, but now it is the ideal refugefor those large posters and vulnerable unframed prints we treasure.

By this time you may have guessed that my place of ministry is a resource center – – actually, The Resource Center.  “TRC”, as it is known locally, is never as tidy and organized as I would wish it to be.  Some days I look around with love and see creative disarray; on other days I see clutter!  What do these thingshave to do with ministry?  How does one do ministry in the midst of so much stuff?  What does it have to do with Christian formation, and how does one speak of it theologically?  Is there such a thing as a ministry of resourcing?

Several years ago, in a video called The Resource Center, produced by the National Training Center for Resource Center Directors, Dr. David Graybeal of Drew Theological Seminary points out that a resource is defined as something needed to fulfill some purpose.  It is a concept that has ancient and spiritual meaning for the church.  Beginning with the first few chapters of Genesis we learn that God filled the world with resources – – everything that was required for human life.  Later, for Moses and the Hebrew people, there was the cloud and the pillar of fire, manna and water from the rock.  As they settled into the new land, the people themselves were called upon to be resources to nature, becoming vine-dressers, shepherds, herdsmen and planters.

The pages of scripture are filled with wonderful stories of people being resources to one another, Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan, Jesus and his disciples.  Then, when those disciples feared their most precious resource was lost, God sent the Holy Spirit – – a resource that could never be diminished or depleted, a resource that empowered them for ministry.

As the letters of Paul were gathered, then the gospels, and both were added to Hebrew scriptures, the Bible became, and remains, the central resource for the church.  The church continued to create other resources through the centuries: cathedral windows that told stories, bible translations made possible by the printing press.  In the 19th century Sunday schools were established so all ages could study the Bible together.  In the 20th century, in order to compete for attention with billboards and radio, churches began to produce print resources, later followed by the adoption of new visual aids: flannel boards and slide shows, filmstrips, movies, videos.  Demands on the church increased, and the range of resources became greater and more costly.  Now, early in the 21st century, churches are learning to use not only websites and e-mail, but blogs and e-zines and more, as we increase our comfort level in cyberspace.  To be heard today, the church must still compete for attention.

The point, of course, is still to tell the old, old story but we must tell it in ever new ways.  The ministry of resourcing is about helping churches tell that story in ways which speak to today’s children, youth and adults.  Putting the right resources into the hands of those engaged in Christian formation, providing the right information at the right time,  whether to highly educated professionals or to committed volunteers, is a form of ministry.  Storing and maintaining costly resources where they can be shared by many churches is good stewardship.

On those days when I look around at the things on our shelves, I often remember one of my early visits there when the director, Ginna Minasian Dalton, gave me a guided tour.  A decade later Ginna was to become my mentor in resourcing.  “This place,” she explained, “isn’t about resources.  It isn’t about things.  It’s about creating life, the life that is created between persons when they share each other’s faith journey, even for a short time.  The things, the resources you place in another person’s hands, are of no value unless they contribute to a journey you both have shared.”

The gospel is inherently about communication, and resources are vehicles of communication.  My contribution to Christian formation as a resource center director is to place the best vehicle of communication I can find in the hands of another, sending them off on their own journey with a plan for using that resource.  Paul’s words in Romans sum up what I believe to be the spirit of good resourcing: I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you . . . or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (Romans 1:11-12 TEV)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/10/theology-of-resourcing/

Dream. Think. Be. Do.

We read and hear much about the “emerging Church” and the many ways in which we are rethinking Church in our time. Some folks, like best-selling novelist Anne Rice, are fed up with what they see as the refusal of Christians to take Christ’s teachings seriously, and they abandon institutional Christianity. Others simply settle into a cultural Christianity that Jesus wouldn’t recognize. Some, along with Rice, leave the Church and put their intellectual and spiritual energy into new directions – – e.g., house churches – – shunning the layers of tradition that address problems of other centuries, in favor or forms they see as more biblical, more faithful to Jesus’ vision.

Maybe it’s better that they go. For the most part we don’t make critics of the Church feel very welcome. What I have seen firsthand, what countless of my students have testified to in recent years, is that today’s church is question-averse. Not a place where questions are welcomed, much less met with intellectual honesty. The result is that those with questions simply stop asking. Or, like Rice, they go away. Brian McLaren, the sought-after speaker and author of A New Kind of Christianity (the latest in a series of books that trace his refusal to ignore the deep questions of his heart), challenges others to “come out of our closets and admit we have been asking these and other questions in secret,” and that “we must stop pretending to be content with unsatisfying answers.”

United Methodist pastor and blogger Jeffrey Harlow does exactly that in his July 29 entry in which he laments the missing voice of spiritual progressives in the political strategy arena, but acknowledges that he is one of them. However, he writes, “a new wind is blowing . . . a new voice . . . the voice of the Spirit is blowing across the land.” Owning that “I have been part of the problem before,” he adds, “now, with a bit of support emerging to help me raise my voice, I find myself more confident. OK, I am a spiritual progressive. There, I said it.”

It shouldn’t be that hard. Asking questions, unpacking ideas. Apparently it is. Living the Questions is the publishing group that seeks to give voice to the progressive wing of the Church. It releasedDreamThinkBeDo this past year, a DVD-based curriculum for use with young adults, college groups and adults in their twenties and thirties. Its twenty sessions, each of which can stand alone, contain a 20-minute DVD segment drawn from the popular LTQ2 series, but updated with connecting narration, graphics, and music likely to engage young adults. DVDs and downloadable participants’ guides can be used as is, but they also can be customized to suit your group and setting. DreamThinkBeDo honors questions; indeed, it encourages them.

Israel Galindo, Dean and Professor of Christian Education at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, assesses the content of the series as “solid and presented in a concise format” that presents and explicates theological concepts simply. Less than enthusiastic about its production aspects (more a function of its low-budget origins than the skills and aims of its production team), he found its “short attention span theater” segments usable as discussion starters, and a resource worth looking at, especially in the hands of an effective teacher.

A few good discussion starters, along with an effective teacher with a heart for honesty and candor – – and maybe a little humility. Seems to me that could be a step in the right direction, if we want to reach a couple of generations on their way out the door.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/09/dream-think-be-do/

Taking Faith Home — Workshop Selections

Most workshops are offered at both the morning and afternoon sessions.  Those offered at only one session are indicated.

#1 Family Stories by Denise Bennett

How stories can enrich family life, help create family rituals and traditions, and play a role in nurturing faith.  Learn how to find your own stories and learn techniques for “interviewing” other family members to find their stories too.  Denise Bennett is Chaplain/Educator at The Hermitage in Richmond, a published poet & songwriter, and a professional storyteller & musician. An M. Div. graduate of Union-PSCE, she performs and teaches at professional conferences, in schools, churches, libraries and retirement communities. She is a long-time member of TellTale Hearts, a Richmond performing group, and appears regularly at storytelling festivals.

#2  Kids Living Their Faith by Beth Christian

From Pre-school to Pre-teen, children of all ages can make a difference in this world. We will look at hands-on mission ideas that kids can do. It is also fun and important for families to serve together. We will talk about ways that families can work side by side and how your church can creatively offer events and ministry that is mission-focused.  Beth Christian is in her 10th year as Director of Children’s Ministries at Woodlake UMC. She also serves in the Virginia UMC Conference in many different roles. Beth is always looking for new ideas to bring to ministry and to help children to know, love, serve and share Jesus.

#3  The Faithwalk by Geraldine Berry Johnson

At Home, At Church, At School, At Work!!! How visible is your faith?!! Remember, the only Christ some people will see is the Christ that’s in you! Geraldine Berry Johnson is the Founder/Director of St. James’s Children’s Center (the first pre- school in the metropolitan area to introduce inclusiveness: the acceptance of children with learn- ing, emotional and physical challenges in a traditional setting. She received her Bachelor of Science in Special Education from Virginia State College, her Masters Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, and her Bachelor of Science in Christian Theology from Virginia Bible College. She has received several awards for her contributions to children and the community.

#4 Social by Nature: How to Approach Technology Today by Jon Messer & Sammy Frame (AM only)

Technology, in particular social media, has inundated our society. Families are on Facebook, Twitter, texting and other forms of electronic communication. What is the family’s role in this technology? What are the advantages for families? How should families connect? What is the role of the church?  Jon Messer is an academic technology consultant for the University of Richmond and a Ph.D. student at the College of William and Mary studying Curriculum and Educational Technology. He has worked in the church as children’s minister, education minister and family ministry consultant. He also created a children’s magazine to help families learn about Baptist heritage.

#5 Social by Nature—- but What About Nurture? By Jon Messer & Sammy Frame (PM only)

Online all the time could be the motto of the family today but at what cost? How is social media impacting families? Do social media and mobile devices enhance our connections as family or have they become a liability? What, if any, impact do these social technologies have on our re- lationships with our kids and parents? Do spiritual (and biblical) notions like solitude, study, and assembly have a place in our increasingly virtual world?  Sammy Frame is small groups pastor at Powhatan Community Church where he creates and implements strategies to help people do life in small groups. He also leads a 7-9th grade small group for boys where he learns firsthand the impact of technology on our youth.

#6 And What About the Caregivers? Equipping Adults to Be Faith Formers by Marilyn Sharpe (AM only)

The Bible tells us often that it was God’s idea to make faith formation a robust part of everyday life, done most powerfully by those primary caregivers for all of God’s children. When we baptize children, we in the congregation promise to surround and support not just the child, but those who will raise the child. Research tells us that ministry to children & youth is most powerful when it partners home AND congregation … but most of us have no idea how to do that. How can we give youth both a Christian peer subculture AND a family that is close, supportive, faith-filled & fun? Marilyn Sharpe is our Keynote Presenter.

#7 Engaging Adults in Meaningful Bible Study by Emerson Shelton

This workshop will offer tools for teachers to help their adult students better understand scripture and its relevance to their lives as Christians today.  Emerson Shelton is a retired pastor in the United Methodist Church. Now at Welborne United Methodist Church, he is still often asked to lead classes for adults.

#8 Using Music & the Arts in Christian Education by Sandy Shelton

Come experience a mini “EXULTA” session where Sandy and other staff members will lead participants though a Bible lesson, choir, and two choices from a violin lesson, a ballet lesson or an art lesson. Sandy Shelton is a retired Christian educator in the United Methodist Church. She is a part of the staff of the EXULTA (“Experience Ultimate Love Through The Arts) Fine Arts Academy for elementary-aged children at Welborne United Methodist Church.

#9 Praise God by Protecting His Gifts by Harriet Thomas (AM only)

This workshop will help members learn new ways to be a better guardian of God’s Creation. We need to be supporters of the environment. There are alarming new statistics about the state of our earth. Discover simple ways to protect God’s Creation and experience a hands-on activity. Harriet Thomas has a lifelong interest in the natural environment and preserving what God has given us. Educated at James Madison University, University of Virginia, University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and University of Kent at Canterbury (England), she is a long-time professional educator on elementary, high school, community college, and university levels, and a passionate member of the Operation Earth Committee at Trinity UMC.

#10 Strengths, Spiritual Gifts and Passions by Desda White (PM only)

Everyone has gifts, talents and strengths to use as they do God’s work. Do you know what yours are? Find out how knowing more about yourself allows you to work at your maximum potential in areas you love. Build teams and work groups that will soar! Desda White is a Certified Strengths Consultant, trained by the Gallup Corporation to “help individuals de- fine, understand, and more fully utilize their God-given talents to achieve extraordinary results in their relationships, careers, and community involvements.” In addition to heading up Trinity’s Living Your Strengths Ministry she has been a resource for other churches and local businesses in the field of Strengths Building.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/08/toolbox-2011-workshop-selections/

INSIGHTS: Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

This is another day, O Lord. I know not
 what it will bring forth, but make me ready,
Lord, for whatever it may be.
If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely.
If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.
If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently.
And If I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.
Make these words more than words, and give me the
Spirit of Jesus. Amen[i]

I love the above prayer; it is from the Ministrations to the Sick, but I think it appropriate for many spiritual situations.  Quiet bravery, patience and doing nothing gallantly do not come easy to most of us.  All of these attributes are consistent with our Lenten disciplines.  We’ve being doing self-examination, spiritual redirection, and have sought reconciliation with God, the deeper self and others.  It is the last Sunday of Lent; next Sunday is Palm/Passion Sunday and we begin the pageantry of Holy Week. We will enter profoundly into sacred time and space and become one with our own Christian history.  It is truly an awesome and holy time, culminating in the glorious Resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday.

Today’s lections are a foretaste of that great event, reminding us that God is always ready to resurrect our deadened spirits and renew his people when their individual and/or corporate lives have become dry and empty.

The prophet Ezekiel bemoans the sins and poor choices of the people of Israel. He calls us to worship an authentic God who holds people accountable for their actions and longs to put a new heart and spirit within them (us).  Then renewal will “flow like a river” and we (they) will know that God is God. [i] In Ezekiel 37:1-3(4-10) 11-14, the prophet has a vision.  The dry bones of the house of Israel are lying in a valley; the breath of God reforms their flesh and sinews and they come to life.[ii]  God tells him to prophesy to God’s people. “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open up your graves and bring you forth…I will put my Spirit in you and you will live”.

The Letter to the Romans is a realistic and practical discussion of our Life in Christ; salvation is a free gift. We are redeemed by God’s love.[iii]  Romans 6: 16-23 tells us that we “have been set free from sin…the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.”

The Gospel is John 11(1-16) 17-44 where Lazarus of Bethany is raised from the dead.  The Gospel tells us he is the brother of Martha and Mary. “This Mary…was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.”  The sisters send for Jesus.  He stays where he is, doing nothing gallantly for two days. He then tells the disciples “Let us go back to Judea.”  The disciples are concerned for Jesus’ safety; they fear the Jewish authorities will stone him.  But Thomas says “Let us also go that we may die with Him”.  When they arrive, Martha informs Jesus that her brother has been in the tomb four days. Both sisters acknowledge that “If you had been here Lord, our brother would not have died”. But it is Martha who declares “You are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world”. Despite her concern about the stench of a body that had lain in the tomb four days in the heat, she obeys Jesus and has the stone sealing the tomb rolled away and Jesus calls Lazarus forth.  He comes out still wrapped in his shroud.  Jesus says “take off his death cloths and let him go!”

This is a very dramatic story crammed with all sorts of redemption.  Yet nowhere does it allude that Lazarus was a sinner.  He simply died and was brought back to life.[iv] We often think of Martha as the lesser sister, because in Luke (10:38-42) she is focused on serving their guests and annoyed that Mary sits adoringly at Jesus’ feet.  Jesus tells her not to worry so; it is Mary who has chosen “the better part”. Yet Martha proclaims (before the crucifixion) that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  Similarly history has condemned St. Thomas as a doubter, because in John 20:24-29 he refuses to accept the resurrection until he sees the scars and places his fingers in Christ’s nail wounds. Yet we completely forget that he does neither when he actually sees the Risen Lord, but boldly states “My Lord and My God”! [v] In this passage he demonstrates the ultimate loyalty; he is willing to stand by Jesus even if it means he will die with him.

The followers of Christ are complex people who seek the truth.  We are not limited by just one moment or event. There are times in all our lives, when we become very task-oriented, times when we need a sign from God. There are times when we are as spiritually dead as a valley of dry bones or Lazarus in the tomb.  Yet we are the same servants who would lay down our lives for our Lord, throw off our death cloths and proclaim him as the Christ who has come into the world.  It is the all encompassing Grace of God that enables us in all humility to be Christ in the world today.

The OT and Gospel Lessons lend themselves well to dramatic readings for all ages. Youth and adults might want to discuss the concepts of spiritual “dryness’ and how God breathes renewal upon us. Perhaps they would be comfortable sharing times when they felt God had called them out of the tombs of sorrow and disillusionment.

Younger children might enjoy acting out the Lazarus story with puppets (at Manakin we’ve a very nice puppet of Lazarus wrapped in his grave cloths) or do it like a play.  It is also a good Sunday to prepare your students for the events of Holy Week.

O God…by the resurrection of your Son…
you conquered sin, put death to flight,
and gave us hope of everlasting life:
Redeem all our days…
forgive our sins, banish our fears …and steel us to wait…

[i] Spiritual Formation Bible,  p. 1098
[ii] The New Prayer Book Guide to Christian Education, p. 72
[iii] Ibid # ii, pp. 1485-1492
[iv] Harper Collins Bible Dictionary,  p 596.
[v] Ibid, p. 1144

Permanent link to this article: https://www.resourcingchurches.com/2011/04/insights-fifth-sunday-of-lent-year-a/