Do You Feel the Fresh Air?

Today is Pentecost—the birthday of the Church.

We could spend today remembering the first Pentecost.

We could celebrate the New Pentecost. Our Pentecost.

We stand, sit, and kneel today at a time when the Church is being reborn.

Many look at statistics and see decline. Without a new Pentecost, this thinking could prevail.

I’m betting it won’t. It may seem like a long shot—but hey!—Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit!

There is a great shift in society—one that will greatly benefit the church—if we allow it. The video above explains this shift — mostly from a societal and governmental standpoint. It applies to the Church, too.

A new tongued-flame is swooshing into our sanctuary cages. Just as on the first Pentecost, it is landing on our heads. Stale air is being sucked out. In its place is a great rush of new power. Can you feel it?

It is the power of the individual.

Is this different from that first Pentecost? Probably not. The gathered disciples, including the often unnamed women, experienced a great empowerment that day.

We look back on that day and imagine that all of church structure was magically set in place that day—with all the limitations and constraints that actually developed since.

On that first Pentecost, there were no pronouncements about qualifications for ordination—no breaking the faithful into gender specific roles and rules. No kisses on the ring of any pope. No constitutions were written that day. No votes were taken. Just a magnificent empowerment. The disciples left that room and went their own ways and began carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth—on foot.

In our New Pentecost, we are not locked in a room with people just like us. Instead, we sit alone with our laptops, pads or mobile phones, easily connecting with others in faraway places. There is no cacophony of voices in separate languages. English unites the world. The power of the individual is being unleashed anew.

One of the true struggles in the Church is what to do with this power. We are used to thinking in terms of managing the power of Christians in groups, funneling individual efforts into sanctioned lines of service. This was once a strength.

Today’s New Pentecost is sapping this strength but not without infusing a new energy.

The Church of today and tomorrow must focus on the power of the individual—not to rein it in for the satisfaction of earthly order but to prepare individuals for unfettered use of the Holy Spirit.

It’s time for us in the Church to view our time and talent anew. We don’t have to wait until we are confirmed. We don’t have to wait for committee approval. We don’t have to seek out a congregation where we fit in and wait for years to work our way into leadership roles. The waiting is over.

Happy Birthday, Church. Happy Birthday, Brothers and Sisters.

We Know Where the Preachers Are!
Where Are the Listeners?

I am reprinting Seth Godin’s daily post in its entirety. It describes the pulpit of tomorrow.

The shift is slow and subtle—but the pulpit is no longer the primary place for the telling of God’s Word. Neither will the “preacher” be the primary speaker—if the Church gets it right.

The delivery of a weekly message is a Christian habit—an expensive fix. So much more is possible at far less cost.

Pulpits are growing more anachronistic every day. They are still there—a fixture in church architecture—but many pastors never use them—even on Sunday morning. The physical pulpit sitting at the left or right of an altar in silence for all but 20 minutes a week is no longer where the Word is best delivered. The voice is there. The ears are elsewhere.

Think about this as you read Seth’s post. He’s not writing specifically about preaching, but what he writes applies: (emphases added)

More people saying less (and a few more people saying more)

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may become friends.

Maya Angelou
1928-2014

Shared by Redeemer Ambassadors

Jesus Blesses His Followers and Rises into Heaven

The slideshow is for use on Easter 6, on which many congregations observe the Ascension, which always falls on a Thursday.

The slides focus on the gospel lesson but also depict the joy of Psalm 47. 

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,  reinforced during the worship, please consider subscribing.

Feel free to share!

Thank you.

For we too are His offspring

This week’s lessons are not the easiest to depict visually, but the concepts are important to our understanding of our relationship with God.

Last week’s gospel is a preamble to this week’s. Consider combining the slides of last week with this week for fuller review of John 14.

Here are some images to inspire thought and conversation around these foundational scriptures.

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.

Feel free to share!

Thank you.

Today’s post from the Consulting Group that was once the consulting team of the Alban Institute is by the Rev. Dr. John Wimberley. Dr. Wimberley served an urban congregation for several decades. He knows about the challenges of the urban church scene and overcame many of them.

His post today talks about the discernment process—a current hot topic in the Church.

He points out that when he was engaged in ministry in Washington, D.C., he didn’t know anything about discernment, but he and his congregation engaged in the process without the big word.

Most congregations engaged in discernment WAY-Y-Y-Y long before church leaders labeled it. Assigning this big word to the decision-making process makes it more formal and more formidable. Now we tend to think we need help from the outside to make group decisions. Official help. Paid help. Help that will keep the faithful in line.

Pastor Wimberley points out that the discernment process requires abandoning personal agendas.

There are other agendas in play in the church discernment process.

• There is the personal agenda of each member.
• There is the personal agenda of each clergy.
• There is the corporate agenda of the denomination.
• There is the personal agenda of each corporate leader. 

Oddly, this process with the big name promotes a hands-off stance. Everyone thinks a system is in play with which they should not interfere. This discourages member involvement and empowers the corporate agenda.

Personal agendas are not all bad.  Sometimes, people with personal agendas are actually thinking about other people!

Personal agendas created many a church here in the Land of the Free. They are still creating modern church movements and storefront faith communities in neighborhoods abandoned by mainline denominations that discerned that ministry was no longer economically feasible. When people can’t pay for a church with all the modern expectations, they don’t deserve any church at all.

When immigrants began flocking to America in search of religious freedom, many were fleeing the threat of jail for daring to dissent in the Church that had the power of State. There was no money for full-time pastors. Labor and land were donated. Personal agendas overcame the lack of resources.

These churches started small. Some never grew to be very large.

The large church is a fairly new concept. It gained ground in post-industrial America. Consolidation was the order of the day.

Church leaders saw advantages. Big churches could better support clergy and hierarchy—a new and continuing agenda!

Back when we, who live in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave were both freer and braver, the discernment process usually took place seamlessly at the local level. Today, many congregations turn to outsiders for help. Denominations encourage this with the “interim pastor” concept.

Here’s what can happen.

1. The denomination assigns a leader to oversee a discernment process.
2. Those with agendas that support the denomination’s agenda gain prestige.
3. Those who disagree will be silenced—one way or another.
4. Most of the faithful will not want to engage in the resulting clash.
   • Some will take sides.
   • Some will take a back seat.
   • Some will take a hike.

How much force is used in the discernment process is up to the regional leaders.

We, at Redeemer, have experienced the worst with the regional body attempting to lock out the congregation and suing local leaders, forgetting the reason many immigrants came to America—and forgetting the admonitions of the Bible. They gained support among other churches with an effective and ongoing defamation campaign, easily implemented with clergy gossip.

We’ve seen the discernment process take place with NO involvement of the congregation. But the denomination spreads their story of how they worked with Redeemer in a process of discernment. TRUTH: None of us were invited.

The discernment process can become a manipulative tool. The big word helps with that — makes it seem righteous.

Dr. Wimberley is correct. Selfish agendas must be put aside.

Easier said than done.