Monday, August 31, 2009

Connecting: Our Fifth Core Value

Connecting is our fifth core value. In all three of our statements we use language that points us to connectedness. We speak of being "community" and a "congregation." We also write about the benefit of "participation". While connecting may appear the easiest of our core values to live out, I believe it is in reality the most difficult.

Connectedness appears to be an easy value to live out because we gather together on Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights, occasionally for Bible studies, P.W. circles and other activities such as the rummage sale. We can look at those moments and say to ourselves, "See we are connected because we are in the same place doing the same thing." The question becomes however, is that really connecting?

When I speak of connecting I am not simply speaking of congregating…getting together. While that may be more connecting than many people engage in today it still falls short of the Biblical image of Christ-like connectedness which Paul discusses in his letters. The Apostle writes of a body of Christ in which each person (and their gifts) was spiritually connected to the life and work of the community. The church was a body in which all shared what they had (time, talent and treasure) so no one else was in need. This was a body that ate, prayed and sacrificed together. This was a body which understood that they were spiritual brothers and sisters.

That kind of connected community, one in which lives, resources and faith are intimately shared is a reality which has been largely lost in 21st century America.

It has been lost because the church is seen by many to be one more voluntary association in which we come to have our spiritual needs met. We pay our membership dues and we expect to receive something for them (great music, good preaching and opportunities for our children/youth to know about faith). We will volunteer and help out when needed but we do so knowing that we can opt out whenever we want.

It has been lost because we are so focused on the singularity (whether that is one person or one family unit) that the idea of being intimately connected with others not in that singularity is a foreign concept. Therefore the idea that all of those people sitting around me are truly my brothers and sisters is just a bit suspect.

It has been lost for many other reasons as well (read The Great Emergence for more details), yet that is the community life to which the scriptures, our Book of Order and our own mission statement call us. The PCUSA Book of Order puts it this way:

The church is called to demonstrate " by the love of its members for one another and by the quality of common life the new reality in Christ; sharing in worship, fellowship, and nurture, practicing a deepened life of prayer and service under the guidance of the Holy Spirit."

We at First Presbyterian Church are called to live out a new common (connecting) life in Christ. To do so will require an intentional effort to define what that life looks like and then attempt to live it. Though this will be a counter cultural endeavor, I believe the connections which will be created will be worth the effort. (also see: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090828/what-does-the-real-church-look-like/index.html)

Monday, August 24, 2009

Celebrating: Our Fourth Core value

Celebration is our fourth core value. Though we do not use this exact word in any of our statements it sums up the essence of two of our most important activities, worship and music. Our statements put it this way: "We respond to God in Christ…through ministries of worship." And "We believe Christ called us to reach out…by leading in creative ministries of…music."

I realize that for many people the equating of "celebration" with "worship" seems a bit off. Many of us have grown up with worship that was somber, cerebral and to be perfectly honest, boring. In some ways this is part of our heritage. Worship was to be a holy encounter with the Holy God focused on the proclamation of the Word of God. Worship was filled with lots and lots to words with some music thrown in…and even the music was filled with lots and lots of words. Chances are "celebration" was not the word most of us would have used to describe what we were doing.

Scripture, especially the Psalms, offers us a very different look at worship and the place of music in it. Worship was to be a celebration of the might, holiness and faithfulness of God. Worship was a response to the mighty acts of God which had set a people free from bondage and saved them in difficult times. Worship was a response to the God who provided everything in creation.

Praise God with trumpet sound; Praise God with lute and harp!

Praise God with timbrel and dance; Praise God with strings and pipe!

Praise God with sounding cymbals; Praise God with loud clashing cymbals!

Psalm 150:3-5


 

"So David went and brought up the ark of God…to the city of David with rejoicing….and David danced before the Lord with all of his might." II Samuel 6:12-14 (selected)


 

This is the kind of worship that gives glory and honor to God. This is the kind of worship that makes celebration a reality. This is the kind of celebrative worship in which music is used to its fullest. This is the kind of celebrative worship to which First Presbyterian is returning thanks to our Worship Grant and the hard work of many of our members.


 

Over the past year the church has had a worship grant from Calvin College to be used in exploring not only the meaning and purpose of worship, but how the worship experience can be broadened to be more celebrative and inclusive. Through the inclusion of the arts, technology and movement worship has become richer and more alive.


 

The PCUSA Book of Order puts it this way: "Christian worship joyfully ascribes all praise, glory and honor to the Triune God. In worship the people of God acknowledge God present in the world and in their lives." (W-1.1001) "They (the people of God) bow before God, lift hands and voices in praise, sing, make music, and dance. Heart soul, strength, and mind, with one accord they join in the language, drama, and pageantry of worship." (W-1.2001)


 

We commit ourselves therefore to celebrate the love, grace, provision and holiness of God with all of our heart, soul, mind, body and strength through music and worship.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Welcoming: Our Third Core Value

In both our Focus and Inclusion policy statements we make clear our belief that everyone is welcome in the midst of our family of faith. Our statements put it this way:

Inclusion statement: "We welcome the participation of all people regardless of race, ethnic origin, worldly condition, or any other circumstance not related to profession of faith (see our First Core Value)." Our Focus statement makes a point to expand on this idea by mentioning those individuals with special needs. We believe that this emphasis on welcome is at the heart of being followers of Christ.

Throughout Jesus' ministry the twelve disciples were constantly trying to decide who was in (themselves) and who was out (women, children and foreigners, to name a few). In the minds of the disciples this practice of exclusion made sense. Their identity as Jews, as God's people, was under attack from the onslaught of the Greco-Roman culture. Without some boundaries they would be assimilated into a culture which would bring an end, or so they thought, to their faith. By maintaining clear boundaries of who was in (holy, acceptable) and who was not (unclean, unacceptable) they believed they were protecting their God and their faith.

Jesus however had other ideas. Jesus' vision was one of God's kingdom that was large and not small; growing and not retreating; welcoming and not rejecting. God's kingdom did not need walls to keep people out; it needed a welcoming community to invite people in because by so doing God's kingdom would assimilate the world, rather than be assimilated by it. We see this in Jesus' welcoming children, speaking with foreigners (Samaritans and Greeks), healing the unclean, eating with sinners and tax collectors, and in the conversation with the woman at the well, doing all of the above. Jesus' teachings and actions demonstrated a welcome that was unheard of during his lifetime.

The early church took this welcoming vision to heart and grew rapidly because of it. The church welcomed Jews and Gentiles, men and women, young and old, slave and free, Romans and pagans. Each person was intentionally welcomed into the community as a brother or sister with no distinctions for wealth or rank…and when such distinctions were made (see the Book of James) the leaders of the church upbraided those who treated persons differently or excluded some based on worldly condition or position. People flocked to the church because in the welcome of Christ they found out that they were valued and loved by God.

The PCUSA Book of Order puts it this way:

"The church is called…to a new openness to its own membership, by affirming itself as a community of diversity, becoming in fact as well as in faith a community of women and men of all ages, races, and conditions, and by providing for inclusiveness as a visible sign of the new humanity." (G-3.0401.b)

The challenge for us at First Presbyterian is to continue to make welcome more than a vision. We have made an excellent beginning, now we need to continue to explore God's calling to open our doors and our hearts to all.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Reaching: Our Second Core Value

Reaching Out: Core Value Two

    The football teams come out onto the field. They huddle up. The clock begins to tick but nothing happens. They remain in their huddles. Mercifully the first quarter ends and the teams switch ends of the field but still they remain in their huddles. Not long thereafter halftime arrives, then the end of the third quarter and finally the whistle blows ending the game. At long last the players emerge from their huddles, congratulate each other on a great game and go home. If we had been sitting in the stands watching this event we would not have called it much of a game…which was the point being made by Harvey Carey the pastor of Detroit's Citadel of Faith Covenant Church (http://citadeloffaith.org/) at last week's Willow Creek Leadership Summit (http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2009/index.asp). Pastor Carey used the illustration of describe many churches whose entire life is focused inside the Sunday huddle and who never venture out to impact the world.

    The second core value which we as First Presbyterian Church proclaim is that we commit to break the huddle and get into the messy game of life by "reaching out." Both our Mission and Focus statements remind us that we are to be not only an outward looking community but that we are to be an outward reaching people.

    Reaching out is perhaps one of the most Biblical of values. God was always the one reaching out. God did not remain a remote and distant deity. God's reaching out began with creation itself. God reached out from God's own self and brought something new into being. Next God reached out for a people through whom God would bless the world. The rest of the scriptures are a series of stories in which God reaches out through prophets, priests and kings to impact the world. The pinnacle of this reaching out was when God reached out through Jesus of Nazareth. Finally the Book of Acts and Paul's letters remind us of God's continual reaching out through the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reaching out by First Pres-ers takes many forms. It has been as simple as letting people know that we exist and that we would love to have them come and join us in ministry and mission. It has been as daunting as reaching out by sharing our faith stories with those who do not know the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ. It is as humbling as serving communion to a shut in. It can be as rewarding as mentoring a child or youth through the Pontiac Project. Regardless of the form this reaching out takes we have committed ourselves to be a family of faith that remembers that we have been blessed in order to be a blessing.

    The PCUSA Book of Order puts it this way:

"The church is called to be Christ's faithful evangelist by…Going into the world, making disciples of all nations…healing reconciling and binding up wounds; ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless; engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear, oppression, hunger and injustice; giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer; sharing with Christ in the establishing of his just, peaceable and loving rule in the world" (summarized from G-3.0300c)

    The challenge for us is to continue to ensure that we break the huddle and reach out into the world in the name of our risen and reigning Lord, Jesus Christ.

John

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Jesus as our Core Value

Core Value One: Jesus Christ.

I realize that it may seem odd to say that Jesus Christ is a core value. After all Jesus was both an historical figure and is, at the heart of our faith, the risen and reigning Lord. It might appear to be more appropriate to say that faith in Jesus, or following Jesus is a core value. However, in the end it is the person of Jesus Christ; his preexistence, birth, life, death, resurrection, reign and return that are at the heart of who we are. To limit our core value to faith in or following of Jesus limits how Jesus' existence can impact our life together.

Each of our statements contains Jesus or Christ language. Such repetition demonstrates that we believe that Jesus Christ matters. We believe that this person who lived, died and was raised more than 2,000 years ago still has something for us today. Even in the face of those who have tried to limit Jesus to being no more than a mystic first-century wisdom teacher or advocate of social reform we profess that he offers us more than either good advice or a new social ethic (though he does offer us both).

We do so because as Presbyterians we profess the mysterious orthodox understanding that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate (think of in-fleshed) in our midst; fully human and fully divine. In other words if we want to know who God is, look at Jesus. If we want to know who we are to be, look at Jesus.

We do so because as Presbyterians we profess that in Jesus Christ salvation has come to the world. The Bible tells the story of Jesus in which he understood his life and death to be a fulfillment of God's plan to save all of creation. He died on the cross in order that we might find full life; that we might find forgiveness; that we might find a new relationship with the living God. This salvation changes us and changes the world.

Having Jesus as our primary core value is not only of central importance in defining who we are for ourselves, but for the world. In his book They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Dan Kimball quotes a young man who says, "I would be totally into going to a church if the church revolved more around the person of Jesus than around the personality of the pastor." In other words people in the world around us are hungering for a spiritual relationship with God (or as some put it "a higher power") and are open to finding that relationship in and through Jesus. By keeping Jesus as our core value then we open the door for others to encounter and be encountered by the living God….thus changing their lives (as well as ours) forever.

As the PCUSA Book of Order puts it, "Christ calls the Church into being, giving it all that is necessary for its mission to the world, for its building up, and for its service to God." (G-1.0100.b) My friends Jesus Christ is our first core value, above all others, because he is not only our hope, but the hope of the world, that God is at work forgiving, reconciling and saving us and the whole of creation.

Peace, John