Workshop on Community Transformation

In a collaborative effort of the four "downtown" United Methodist Churches, Brown Street UMC, under the direction of Rev. Barb Marshall has organized a Bible Study / 4-week workshop on Community Transformation. We're encouraging out-of-the-box thinkers, perhaps those newest to our congregation, to participate. It'll be on Tuesday evenings, 6:30-8:30pm, beginning on Sept. 29 at Brown St. UMC (corner or 9th and Brown streets) in the basement.

If you plan on participating, please email Barb.Marshall@inumc.org with your name and church affiliation.

PREPARATION:

Week 1: There are readings suggested for our first gathering. You are invited to read the first part of Job (in the Bible), Chapters 1-28. We will be working from 2 excellent books. If you have not come across them before they are well worth reading. I have included a link to the synopsis for each book if you would prefer to read that.

• Job, Chapters 1-28
• The synopsis Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community, Changing the Nature of the Conversation http://www.peterblock.com/_assets/downloads/Civic.pdf
• Block, Peter. Community: The Structure of Belonging. :Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008.

Week 2:

• Job, Chapters 29-42
• The synopsis: http://southwood.org/files/pdf/WhenHelpingHurtsSummary.pdf
• Corbett, Steve; Fikkert, Brian, When Helping Hurts, How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009.

No further reading is planned for weeks 3 and 4. However, a list of reference materials will be available at our first meeting.

Further information how our workshop conversations connect:

BOOK OF JOB
In Job we are witness to his experience of a range of emotions as he struggles with the incomprehensibility of his fate. His connection with his family, friends and community are all impacted as each imparts their own wisdom. Sure of his faithfulness, Job rejects their worldview that insists he repent of his sin. We will look at the folly in wisdom as Job comes to a new understanding of his relationship with God and his place in God’s creation.

EMERGENT DESIGN
We will look at simple but fascinating discoveries of modern science to arrive at new insights in our worldview. Then along with Job, we will reconstruct what new knowledge suggests for our interactions, with and place in, community.

COMMUNITY
Drawing from Peter Block’s writing on community, we will look at the current state of our communities and the place they hold in life. As Block suggests, rather than looking at fixes for current problems, we will begin to look at ideas of what might be possible using our own inter-church community as an example.

MISSIOLOGY
We have some wonderful examples within our INUMC conference of how the UMC is active in partnering with and serving in community. We will touch on the topics of evangelism, charity, and missiology and what they have to offer to our conversation on community in making disciples for the transformation of the world. We will reflect on how our community interactions connect with the mission and vision of our churches.

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
Appreciative Inquiry will be introduced as a tool for use in guiding the continuing work of a conversation circle to better discover and name connections and resources already at hand.

EPIC: Relational Evangelism

One way we communicate, which has been a part of human existence since the beginning of time, is through storytelling. In fact, until things were written and people had ready access to printed materials, storytelling and oral tradition were the ways information was transferred from person to person and generation to generation. Storytelling is still the primary mode of communication today, even with so many tools and gadgets to deliver the story or message. That's why developing your storytelling skills is essential to communicating faith in the 21st century.

Jesus, as you may be aware, was something of a storyteller, and he went to significant lengths to make himself heard. If you doubt this, try giving a sermon while standing in an open boat. But Jesus was more than just a good storyteller. He had something urgent and extremely important to say, and he said it in extremely creative ways. His message: The reign of God is at hand.

One storytelling technique that Jesus used was the parable. Through this technique, Jesus explained complex theological truths in language that fishers, tax collectors and those living on the margins of society could understand. He told stories that were vivid, memorable and open to deep exploration.

Jesus understood how important it is to speak in fresh and inventive ways. Jesus let his audiences know he understood their world, their hopes, their failings and their fears by infusing his stories with characters, landscapes and situations familiar to those with whom he spoke.

What does this mean for us today? We are called to share compelling accounts of what our faith means to us through clear explanations of the nature of our spiritual experiences, descriptions of our church communities as places where people are committed to working for justice and peace, and stories about the ways God has changed our lives and the lives of people we know. We do this most effectively by sharing something in which we are experts, such as our own faith journeys and lives. Tell the stories of what God is doing in your life. Tell the stories of what God is doing in your community.

As Leonard Sweet suggests, we must tell stories that are EPIC: Experiential, participatory, image-rich and connective. These stories, Sweet says, are told as though our lives depended upon it.

Relational Evangelism

So, at Congress Street we're taking a fresh new approach to evangelism. We're valuing the stories and the light that others have to contribute to their society, community, and maybe even Jesus and the church in significant and powerful ways. In a three-week reflection series, we're diving into more specifics, but I have heard from some that they desire more interaction and feedback.

This blog post is being set-up just for this. Please feel free to share your recent experiences in sharing your faith or journey story; post questions about relational evangelism; or, perhaps, just receive some positive feedback and encouragement from your peers about what this CAN look like as we continue as evolving followers of Jesus for the transformation of the world!

Remember: THE WORLD IS NOT DARK! You do not necessarily have the "light" that every one else needs to be judged to be lacking. Instead, every one has light within them that needs hope and encouragement -- and the world needs every one's light to shine brightly!

Beyond Your Easter Sunday Obligation...

Easter, more so than Christmas, challenges a pastor in understanding those individuals who choose to only attend worship on that day of celebration. Now, this isn't referring to those who are visiting from out-of-town to be with family. I'm talking about those folks who live locally, claim such-in-such church as their home, and make the choice to only worship on Christmas or Easter. Now, why is it harder to for the pastor at Easter than Christmas, since both these times tend to be irregularly high attendance moments?

The reason for this is simple. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. It can be experienced in its fullness at a one-time event, just like most any other birth. But Easter.... Easter is different. One cannot at all understand the Resurrection unless having experienced the life in Jesus in ways that can't be done outside of community.

I have seen and heard and experienced real life stories all the time of people who were spiritually dead, with spiritual obituaries, with spiritual death stories, and God put new life back into them. That is also what Easter is about and I hope and I desire so much that if you are considering Congress St. UMC to be your church home that you make the decision this year to be involved in something offered beyond Easter Worship. Am I talking about being present in worship EVERY Sunday? No. Heck, I won't be there EVERY Sunday. But there are new things starting and Congress Street's vitality can only be as strong as those who want Congress Street to be a vital, alive, breathing, world-changing church! There are regular, small groups (and these have VERY diverse offerings) throughout the week where you can offer your voice in the spirit of community. Your thoughts, ramblings, stories, musings, experiences can only have significant value when shared.

“Most likely.” No, that is not a strong enough phrase. “Inevitably,” there will be people in attendance Sunday who are spiritually dead or who are so close to being spiritually dead, you would never be able to tell that they were alive. Looking at them and talking with them, you feel that they are spiritually comatose. You put a spiritual stethoscope on their religious heart and it would go (repeat slowwwwwly), “boop…..boop…..boop…..boop.” You think that their hearts are almost dead; at least, their spiritual hearts seem dead; they seem to be in a spiritual coma. Too busy for things of Ultimate Reality. Too preoccupied making their daily bread, no time for spiritual bread. Too busy running in circles and God is not part of their circle. “Boop…boop…boop… boop.”

For some, your spiritual life is as dehydrated as the dry bones described in the book of Ezekiel. Your life is relatively unaffected by spiritual things. On Thursday, how much will you be contemplating Jesus' final hours? Experiencing the community of communion, prayer, servitude? On Good Friday, how will you be spiritually experiencing Jesus being nailed to the cross?

The monitor of your brain, the line of your brain waves, is almost flat, and you'll barely remember Jesus on Good Friday, and you probably won't experience the community of Congress St. for Holy Thursday / Good Friday service at 7pm on Thursday (See? We have one service to help make your week a little easier.) and you will barely allow Jesus to enter into your daily decisions in life. The study of Scripture, theological conversation, spiritual story-telling, and daily prayer are beyond your world of comprehension. Spiritually – little frightens you and little attracts you. This life is so all-consuming for you and your brain. And deep down inside, in all honesty, you may – as people would say – not give a rip about God or Jesus or life lived under and with the Divine daily. Oh, you may pray when in a jam, just like about everybody else. Oh, you may believe in the “Man Upstairs,” (which I should add, God doesn’t have a sex and God isn’t upstairs – God WANTS to be within you, among you, and beyond you) but that daily authentic walk with God, as understood through the incarnate Jesus – for Christians – is not part of your life. “Boop…boop… boop…boop.”

So, attend your Easter worship service, but don't kid yourself into thinking God and the World doesn't expect more from you. Through new initiatives happening at Congress St., through a new journey group program, through a new evening prayer service, and through community outreach and increased emphasis on the spirit of volunteerism, there is a place for you beyond your obligatory, lackluster, self-appointed incarceration known as, "I attend church on Easter."

Conference of the Birds