BBQ and Belhar

"BBQ - it's not just what we do, it's who we are."

I have to admit that my first reaction to this restaurant marquis was, "Ew, who would want to be BBQ?"  But then, I've never been a huge fan of barbeque, so maybe I just don't get it.

However, there are some things that I'd be willing to say go beyond just something I do, down to the core of my being, to who I am.  It also seems to me that there are some things that we as a denomination don't just do; we are.

This week we will take one more step in the process of approving the Belhar Confession as one of our standards - not the last step, but very, very close.  As I thought about this idea of doing vs. being, I realized even more how much I hope that the Belhar passes.  It is one thing to say that we're going to do what we can to eliminate racism in the RCA.  It's yet another to confess that part of our identity lies in being a people who hope and work for a future of justice.

Someday, I'd like us to be able to put that on a sign: "Justice - it's not just what we do, it's who we are." 

Preparing for General Synod

Today is my so-called day off, and I am using it to get myself ready for General Synod.  Not that I haven't been preparing for weeks; the official parts of my participation are long finished and ready to go.  But today I am putting together the small but important things that keep GS from being miserable: hangers (although it galls me to have to find the space for them), a new book for the flight, clothes appropriate for weather that could vary between the 40s and 90s, a small fan in case the temperature wanders toward the upper limit and I end up in a dorm without air conditioning.  This year I can leave the supplies for making a decent cup of coffee behind, as Holland has a couple of good coffee shops within walking distance.  General Synod coffee is famously bad - like church coffee on a larger scale - although I admit that I snarf it down with everyone else during our much-needed breaks.

GS, in case you have never been, is a grueling experience of fourteen-plus-hour days where the mood on the floor often vascillates between tedium and tension.  And yet, I love it.  I'm a lurker who has been around in some capacity for seven previous sessions of GS.  Some of why I love it has to do with the "reunion" aspect of it; it's a good opportunity to catch up with friends in this very small world denomination.  (I do wonder how different the experience is for elders, who generally come there without having gone to seminary with a quarter of the other delegates.)  But it also goes beyond that.  This is the meeting of the church.  This is where we have to deal with each other, at our best and worst, and fight, and pray, and discern.  It's not barrel-of-monkeys-fun, but it is good.

This year I will be at GS as the corresponding delegate for the Commission for Women, of which I am the moderator.  It's a big year for the Commission, between overtures relating to the Office of Women's Ministries and the 30th anniversary of women's ordination to the ministry of word and sacrament.  It's also going to be the first GS chaired by a female minister.  I'm pretty excited...and trepidatious, as I consider how much mic time I may have this time around.  

Change is in the Air

This morning in our pastoral team meeting, we talked about change - which is apparently to be the sermon topic for this week.  Together, we mulled over such questions as:

- Do we (people in general) really want to change?

- What are the motives for change?

- How do we go about changing?

- What support/inspiration/prodding do people need in order to change?

- What sort of change do we need in our church?

Good question, all...but too often short on definitive answers.  This congregation has changed a lot in the last two years, and we're looking at more change, but it needs to be focused, intentional change.

I am also freshly returned from the inauguration, where I stood about as far from the actual ceremony as one could possibly get and still be considered to be on the Mall, packed shoulder to shoulder with such an immense number of people that I feel the 1.9 million estimate I heard today must be about a million short.  The word "change" was whispered, discussed, and shouted all around me, not just on the jumbotron, but by the crowds who had traveled to participate in the occasion.  Such a hopeful feeling pervaded the event that I can't help but think of the possibilities of real, nationwide - and by extension worldwide - change.

Meanwhile, the Church Herald's February issue also seems to be very much about change, albeit not so explicitly.  For some, being "missional" is merely a change in language; we can't forget that there are people and churches who have long been focused toward God and the world rather than toward their internal issues (even without knowing the word "missional."  Shocking!).  For others, this is such a complete paradigm shift that they're having a hard time conceptualizing what it might look like. 

Nonetheless, the call is clear.  The church, like the government and the culture, needs to change.  But what that looks like and how we get there is not so clear.

Clayton Smith's article about emergency responders struck a chord with me.  I hadn't previously thought about how emergency responders might fit (or not) in the church, but I meet people every day who, for one reason or another, just don't feel like they have a place in the church, even if they are people of deep Christian faith.  Usually, these are people who are just not good at the things that so often define church life.  They are not good at sitting passively while someone talks at them.  Rising occasionally to recite something in unison or to sing a hymn does not help them connect with God.  Spending more time in meetings deciding what to do than actually doing things doesn't sit well with them.  The world of committees and sedate corporate worship is not their world; it doesn't seem to have any connection or relevance to what they deal with in the rest of their lives. 

These are valuable people, valuable to God, valuable to the world, and valuable to the church.  But in order to engage them, the church will have to change.  The church will have to be less defined by orderly sitting and standing, and more by walking out the door. 

Change is in the air.  Now it's just a matter of taking the word and the hope behind it, and turning it into the action that gets us there.  

MIA

I know, I know, I've been completely missing for a good two months or so.  Before you know it, they'll be deciding that I'm unfit to blog. 

I have what I like to think is a good reason for being MIA, however.  My job has completely swallowed me.  This probably sounds like a bad thing, and it is a little overwhelming at times, but I haven't felt burnt out by it - just absorbed. 

First there were all the Christmas activities.  This is a much bigger church than my last one, and there are a LOT of Christmas activities.  I poured myself into organizing a Living Nativity (a long-standing church tradition that I have never seen, don't entirely understand, and have inherited in the way of things you're not sure you really want around but can't get rid of), only to have it cancelled when we were hit by one of this winter's weekly snowstorms.  For the Christmas Eve family service, the kids scared me by not showing up for rehearsal the week before, and then barely making it the night of the service.  Fortunately, they have all been doing this exact same service every year for their entire lives, and pulled it off without a hitch, while I twitched with anxiety on the other side of the chancel.

Then, I had the illusion that things would slow down a bit...but that's because I had forgotten that we leave on Feb. 15 for our youth mission trip, and in the meantime have a couple of major fundraisers.  So, my "resting" hours have been filled with dreams about chili (Chili Cook-off!) and gift certificates (Auction!), occasionally interspersed with various scenarios involving trying to get ten teenagers in and out of the Louisiana Bayou.

In the meantime, I'm also trying to maintain the areas of my job that are not the youth piece, and it's been a challenge.

So forgive me, readers (assuming I have any), if I've been rather absentee.  In fact, I'm going to try to find that online edition of the Herald right now and see if anything sparks some sort of brilliant thought.       

Mission Consultation

I'm currently in Grand Rapids, coming down the home stretch of a three-day consultation on the future of global mission in the RCA.  It's a pretty fascinating group of people, as diverse in geography, ethnicity, age, citizenship, background, and perspective as any I've ever encountered in our denomination.  I find myself wishing General Synod looked more like this (preferably with a little more gender balance, but I guess we can't have it all).  Not all of us are entirely sure why we were invited.  I thought I knew why I was invited, but now that I've experienced the process, I'm not so sure...but I'm glad.

Somehow we're managing to talk with one another, and to come up with common hopes and action steps.  Honestly, it's a little surprising.  There are people in this room whose theological perspectives and ministry methods couldn't be more different from mine - and yet, we seem to be pointing in a common direction.  Granted, we have some very different ideas about what all this looks like.  But we're all talking about broadening our definition of partnership in mission, developing creative and mutual relationships with mission partners, and expanding our view of mission to include our own contexts.  Exciting stuff. 

As is usual with these sorts of meetings, I'm not entirely sure what will be done with the conversations we've had.  I trust that our conclusions are going to be considered by staff in some way, but how much and to what end, I have no idea.  I also don't know whether any of this - or even the occurrence of the consultation - will be shared more broadly.  If nothing else, I wish that more people knew that this level of diversity exists in the RCA, and that we can actually get along.