This week’s slideshow illustrates the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and Ezekiel’s macabre encounter with a massive collection of dry bones.
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1 Samuel 16:1-13
John 9: 1-41 Jesus Heals the Blind Man
We mortals rely on sight as empirical proof for everything. Seeing is believing.
Today’s scriptures revolve around sight, its general importance, and its link to understanding.
First we read the story of Samuel and David. A reluctant Samuel sets out to find Saul’s successor. Things aren’t going so well with Saul. God chose him to lead but he fell in love with power. A course correction is needed.
Samuel travels to Bethlehem to review the sons of Jesse. A parade of fine, strong, handsome young men are brought before Samuel. God tells Samuel to reject all. Finally, David, still a boy, the runt of the litter by virtue of his age and birth order, is called in from the lowly task of shepherding (Here’s where today’s psalm ties in—Psalm 23). Jesse and his sons cannot believe their eyes. Samuel chooses the kid brother.
The disciples and a crowd of people in today’s gospel experience something equally incredible.
Read this story with your congregation slowly. Allow them to visualize the scene. Act it out if possible. You might assign a reader or readers to read just the questions as they occur in the story. This will call attention to the questions in the text—and there are many.
Choose an optical illusion for your talk today. There are a number of great ones on the web.
We’ll use the one above.
You see black lines and an orange dot.
Your mind will read the black lines as a box. Your mind is not likely to think about it being a box with poor perspective. Our eyes can be forgiving when we want them to be!
Your mind will also see an orange dot.
That’s enough for most people.
Start asking questions.
Is the dot outside the box on the right front panel? Is the dot inside the box on the back panel? Take a poll!
Is the dot suspended, bouncing from side to side, trying to escape the box? Is the dot butting up against the outside of the box, trying to get in?
That’s the dilemma facing all the players in today’s gospel story. All those present who can see, see a pathetic blind man (trying to get out his box). They start asking questions. Whose fault is it that this blind man cannot see?
That question become less important when Jesus removes the impediment. But more questions follow.
First it was, “Who caused the blindness?” Now, the question is, “Who cured him?” Sometimes you can’t please anybody!
The people are trying to understand. They want to be in the know (on the inside of the box).
They were stuck. The evidence before their eyes was unbelievable to them. It didn’t fit into their view of what their “box” should look like. Solution: Get rid of the dot. Get rid of the problem. What’s wrong with just having a box? That they could understand.
And so the blind man who has just seen his first glimpse of the world — must hide.
With this analogy in mind, analyze the various questions in this Bible passage.
In the end, pay attention to the questions Jesus asks.
The decisive question comes near the end: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
Well, do you?
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If you find our resources useful, please share!
Please Consider Subscribing to 2×2
2x2virtualchurch adds a slideshow and object lesson to our library each week. There are nearly 100 in our collection. If you like our easy, interactive approach to teaching adult learners, please consider subscribing.
You will receive a weekly slideshow (which you can use on your church website or during worship), an object lesson and many other church planning ideas—all geared for small church use.
Slides are in editable form. Individual slides can be posted on websites or converted to jpgs for use in a bulletin or newsletter. (Please include appropriate credits.)
This week’s slideshow focuses on the Psalm for the day, Psalm 23. 2×2 slideshows usually incorporate scripture from each of the lectionary readings, Psalm 23 is used several times a year in most churches, so we made this week’s slideshow a stand alone for Psalm 23.
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Please Consider Subscribing to 2×2
2x2virtualchurch adds a slideshow and object lesson to our library each week. There are nearly 100 in our collection. If you like our easy, interactive approach to teaching adult learners, please consider subscribing.
You will receive a weekly slideshow (which you can use on your church website or during worship), an object lesson and many other church planning ideas—all geared for small church use.
Slides are in editable form. Individual slides can be posted on websites or converted to jpgs for use in a bulletin or newsletter. (Please include appropriate credits.)
The stunning news that the Alban Institute is closing deserves some attention in the Church.
The same fate awaits all top-heavy church structures. That includes most mainline denominations.
Learn from this now. Or learn from this later — and take your neighborhood churches down with you.
Alban was an institution that made it a calling to help congregations enter the modern world. It spoke to us of change and advised us on best practices. Then, it failed.
Perhaps the mistake it made was in believing its own advice.
2×2 has criticized some of the advice given by Alban writers, most notably the 2001 book, Transforming Regional Bodies by Roy Oswald and Claire Burkat.
That book talks about the natural life of a congregation, recognizing its waning days and even helping it along the way. In other words, it didn’t have answers.
And so the Alban Institute accepted its own demise—unable to get a foothold in the modern world, unable to strategize for its own survival, much less advise congregations. Staff and salaries ate away at assets. $5 million in assets was whittled down to less than $500,000 in just four years.
This same scenario is already happening in countless churches across the country.
The Washington Post made the same observation we make: “…it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve been feeling some real stress,” Roozen [David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religions Research] said. “The electronic world isn’t the natural gift of religious systems yet.”
I often wondered why The Alban Institute was heavy on on-site seminars geared to clergy whose congregations could afford to send someone for a two- or three-day event. The same material could be handled in webinars and opened up to lay leadership as well as clergy. This would have expanded the base of support and helped congregations, including laity. But the help was always geared toward upper management in larger churches. That’s a very limited audience.
Alban Institute was in a prime position to develop this medium. But others—private consultants—ended up opening the door to the future. Congregations learned they could go directly to the consultants. Opportunity lost.
Alban Institute was also in a prime position to create community among church leaders of many denominations and faiths. That would have created a larger base of support and enhanced its authority. It barely stuck its toe in the social media water.
Most mainline denominations are following the same losing formula.
Alban Institute founder, Rev. Loren Mead, was a visionary in many regards. His successors failed his vision.
The Redeemer Ambassadors went out today for the first time in a while.
The job of being an Ambassador in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is discouraging. We visited 80 churches—half of the congregations in Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod. We found that half the churches in SEPA—if they care at all about their denomination’s behavior in East Falls—are unable to influence their leaders. No reason to believe the other half will be any different.
So today we went to the church in our neighborhood that for several years has met in the movie theater just across the Wissahickon Creek on the edge of Manayunk—about 100 yards from East Falls.
Two of our ambassadors had visited EPIC before. This was my first visit.
EPIC has three Philadelphia campuses—Roxborough, Manayunk, and Center City. They are opening a church in Denver.
EPIC is everything the 80 churches we visited in the ELCA are not.
The theater was packed for both services 9 am and 10:15 am. There were probably upwards of 500 in attendance.
The congregation was demographically mixed—something Lutherans talk about but have not been able to achieve except in a few small congregations (like Redeemer). There were a number of wheelchairs, some older folks, lots of 20s to 40s, lots of children and babies. All races were represented in more equal numbers than we see in our own denomination—although still mostly white—appropriately representative of the neighborhood.
The service was heavy on music and the Word. Short on prayer, scripture, and liturgy—remembering that liturgy is structured as a conversation with God.
There were no robes or religious imagery. No cross. No church bulletin. No art. The videos played during worship were city scenes.
There was a very cute video sequence of children (7-9ish) telling us what they’d like to be when they grow up. It ended with the encouraging message that they can be anything they like and wouldn’t it be nice if they knew the Lord on their journey.
Following some opening music the congregation was asked to “high five” the people near them and tell them. “It’s good to see you in church” — easier for us to take than the passing of the peace, since the people passing us peace for the last six years have been trying to take our property and destroy our Christian community.
People stood for everything but the sermon—like a concert venue. One reason is the use of projection. If the first row stands, everyone must stand if they want to see. (Never a problem for Lutherans since we all sit in the back!)
A five-piece band led the music and all were invited to sing, but the band was loud enough that there was no way to know if anyone was participating outside of standing there. God knows, I guess. In fact, the congregation — at least in worship — were spectators.
Coffee, juice, bagels and donuts were made available as people entered the theater (sanctuary).
Last week the combined attendance of the three Philadelphia EPIC churches (called campuses) was more than 1400. It would take about 30 ELCA city churches to reach that level of effectiveness.
The opening video professes the power of the individual in relationship with God. And they are on to something with this.
We at Redeemer have spent years hearing church hierarchy tell us what we can’t do. SEPA leaders (in self-interest) have strayed from Lutheran teaching. Our denomination is hurting for it. Lay people who insist that “yes, we think we can do this” end up being made very unwelcome indeed. It is a shame because Martin Luther, our namesake leader, was huge on empowering individuals.
EPIC’s sermon was from the Old Testament—Moses and the Burning Bush. It was the second in a series of sermons entitled “Selfies”—God in relationship with his people as individuals.
There was no announcement made to silence cellphones for worship.
The congregation was actually encouraged to pull out their cell phones. We didn’t hear a single cell phone ring.
The speaker talked about how last week they had all used their smart phones to take selfies, kicking off the sermon series. Today, worshipers were encouraged to turn their cell phone cameras on themselves and look at their own image. The pastor then went on to talk about our ability to find fault with ourselves. The pastor read the story of Moses and the burning bush—how Moses found one fault after another that would keep him from serving God.
Outside of a reference to Psalm 46, (God is our refuge and strength) this was the only scripture read. No epistle. No gospel.
The same sermon was delivered at the same time in all three EPIC venues via video feed. 2×2 has been writing for a while that the expense of 160 pastors each writing a sermon for 160 separate congregations with an average attendance of 50 is ineffective use of resources and is putting many a congregation out of business.
The message was no less moving because the speaker was two miles up the road.
Before the offering was taken, the pastor gave a specific wish list for the ministry.
Air conditioning for the Roxborough campus. $40,000 (Interesting that all the “campuses” were asked to help with a need of one of the campuses—something you don’t see in the “interdependent” Lutheran structure. All our congregations seem to be competing for the same resources.)
New sound equipment.
$10,000 for a grand Easter Egg Hunt for 5000 participants.
Help for new churches.
The wish list totaled about $100,000!
They used plastic pails for offering plates. And they were filled.
Time was spent early in the service, explaining the EPIC mission via video. Participants were walked through the process of filling out interest cards to be placed in the offering plate. There were many greeters, hosts, ushers, band members, sound team, etc. involved in the morning service and their web shows that a number of people sponsor Bible studies during the week. Assistance in paying babysitters is offered to those who’d like to attend.
The interest cards were revisited as the offering buckets were passed.
The pledge card asks what your next faith step will be. I wrote—”writing about EPIC on 2x2virtualchurch.com.
I have kept my pledge.
We hope we can become strategic partners as we move our ministry forward.
This week 2×2 had a visitor from Gaborone, Botswana. Gaborone is the capital of this southern African nation. We’ve had a number of visitors from Botswana.
Gaborone is a fairly new city, planned to be the capital from the end of its colonial association with Great Britain in the mid-1960s. It was a small town then with about 4000 inhabitants. It was chosen to be capital because of its proximity to fresh water and railroads to Pretoria in neighboring South Africa. The plans called for a pedestrian friendly city that would be home to about 20,000 and the center for government, education and culture. The building projects attracted workers from around the world. Gabarone surpassed plans within seven years. By 1992, the population was 138,000 and has doubled in size again in the last 14 years.
The southern part of Botwsana constitutes a Roman Catholic diocese. There is a Hindu temple and a number of Muslim mosques. One of our pastors and members had served as a missionary to Botswana.
Many may recognize Gaborone as the home of Precious Ramotswe, the first female private detective in Alexander McCall Smith’s series of novels, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Very entertaining reads, by the way.
Yesterday we posted children’s art sent to us by leaders of New Life Fellowship in Pakistan. The work was part of a contest. We published just four of the many photos sent. Each of the images is an image of a church building — remarkable in that most Pakistani Christians do not meet in any church building but gather in homes and on rooftops. A few months ago, some who worship together in a sanctuary were bombed by terrorists as they left worship for fellowship time.
I took a second look at the posted art and I noticed that each image of a church building had two things in common. Prominent crosses and roads leading to the door. The roads seemed to be a very important part of each image as they are treated with artistic care. The roads are bright, sparkling, rainbow-colored.
A reminder. Church life is a journey. The road leads to the cross. The journey along that road is very important. It can be difficult. It can be beautiful.
Thank you, Pakistani children, for an important object lesson.
(TIP 1: You can use project these photos and show them to your congregation or repost them on your church website.)
(TIP 2: Sponsor your own art contest to see how your members view their Christian journey.)
The respected Alban Institute, founded in 1974 with a mission of helping congregations build their future, has announced that they are closing as of the end of this March—ten days from now!
Their consultants will now work independently. Their educational programs scheduled for April are canceled. Their publishing operation has been acquired by Rowman & Littlefield. They are working with Duke Divinity School to create an endowment with the remaining assets. The endowment would further their work in providing assets to assist congregations.
WOW!
The experts in leading faith communities in their discernment processes for the future are calling it quits.
I sensed trouble when they discontinued their Weekly Forum. It just disappeared a year or so ago. They used to invite comments at the end of their posts and suddenly they provided no such options.
No problem. People have their own platforms for comments these days. And we used ours!
The Alban Institute was never good at social media. Their forum was moderated and comments were subject to approval. That often took days—which of course doesn’t encourage engagement.
Very recently I read that they intended to improve this and make forums available to program participants. More vetting. Now they are giving up on that approach!
In general, the Church doesn’t understand social media. Had Alban Institute mastered modern communication skills, they might not be closing!
In short, the trend makers had trouble keeping up.
This is a sign that traditional church structure is going to have similar problems.
I enjoyed reading Alban Institute articles, which were mostly posted to help sell books. Even so, I felt like an outsider. The forum was top-heavy with clergy as can be expected.
But that’s just it. Today’s church needs to empower laity — not as servants of clergy or church structure and not just to fund professional endeavors.
The church needs to empower laity to use their skills. All of their skills—without vetting every effort. Adult lay workers do not need to have their homework signed every night.
Lay people have many of the same skill sets that clergy are expected to have. They also have valuable complementary skills. Some lay people are great motivators and leaders. Some are great speakers and communicators. Some are financial wizards. Some are gifted teachers. Some have an eye for injustice. Some are passionate and compassionate caretakers.
But the structure of the church still insists that all of these skills be exercised under the control of an unwieldy structure and approved by people who have no expertise in the skills they are judging. Sometimes this process is congenial and welcoming. Sometimes it is judgmental and exclusive. It has existed this way for a very long time.
But now people in the church have options.
Alban Institute’s announcement said that their stable of consultants and advisors would continue to be available, working independently. That’s the wave of the future!
Congregations will soon discover that they can serve out their missions better without all the structure, too.
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
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Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
