reyes-chow :: FAITH

What excites you about your worship experience?

[Image from mbcc worship: sculpey, journals, pipe-cleaners and coffee]

While I do enjoy worshiping with various congregations throughout my travels, I do miss worshiping with the community that I serve, Mission Bay Communion Church. There is so much I miss about worshiping with this group of folks and after a few weeks away, I have a tad bit of withdrawal from our particular congregational culture.   I make no apologies about loving to worship with the congregation I serve as I know not everyone can say this is the case for their church.  I am grateful beyond words.

During the past few months at MBCC we have been integrating new spiritual disciplines into our worship services that have been particularly life-giving.  For those of you who have never been to MBCC, it is a pretty adaptable group of folks when it comes to pretty much everything including worship.  While abundantly reformed in structure and content, over the years elements of worship have included interviews, lego stations, clay, sculpey, live mural painting, cooking, community prayer creation, live blogging, journaling and yes, twittering.  The past few months we have done a few other interesting things that have felt pretty good:

• Weekly Communion - I just adore weekly communion.  I think there is something powerful about coming to the table each week.  We may do it differently each time, but the idea that we return to the bread and cup each week has been meaningful.  I think communion is such an amazing opportunity to remind the community what our faith is about and to invite visitors to enter into the journey of faith.
• Reflection Stations - As we had Communion each week, we have also added some stations to allow folks to keep moving during the reflection time after the sermon/conversation.  This usually included Communion, a prayer/candle station, offering station and stations of cross art throughout the sanctuary.  Folks were also invited to journal, sing along with the band, twitter or simply pray.  Over the summer we won't do Communion, but we will add some others stations, maybe an anointing or art station.  We shall see.
• Actual silence - The most interesting thing that we did during Lent and have continued is to take time for silence.  With our daily lives as crazy as it is, what better way to acknowledge that fact than with intentional silence.  And no, not the kind of silence that has background music, but actual uncomfortable sitting with only your breath and God to speak to you.  During Lent we got up to about 15 minutes and since then we do about  2-3 minutes after each scripture reading.   I would like us to do more, but baby steps.  We as worship leaders are so concerned and uncomfortable with "dead time" during worship that inviting the silence is a good way for folks to become more comfortable with the movement of the Spirit.  And I often say by way of introduction, "We [meaning I] may not like the discomfort that silence creates, but we need it."

Feel free to check out our summer order of worship if you want to know more, but what I want to know is, what excites you about your worshiping experience?  What brings you joy, healing, laughter and life within the context of your worship experiences? The breadth of the ways people connect to and worship God amazes me.  So . . . if you want to complain, feel free, but only if you follow it up with, "But I also really connect to God when we . . ."  Deal?

So what about your worship experience gives you life and brings you joy?

What we can learn from the Hillary vs. Barack saga

DISCLAIMER: While spurred on by today's political climate, this post is much more about cultural/social shifts.  And Jesus of course.

Yesterday on NPR my wife and I were listening to some of the commentary surrounding the democratic convention.  This was just after the first night and Michelle Obama's speech and folks were in full pundit mode around the issues of gender, sexism and the political landscape.  DNC, night #2, was to have Hillary Rodham Clinton on the stage so folks were all a flitter about what she would do, what would be her tone, would she be able to be part of some healing of the Democratic party.

By the time this post goes live, we will know. 
Some will be impressed, others will not.
Come on people, lets give her a break.  Seriously.

Still, I love to play armchair political analyst as much as the other person, and I certainly have my thoughts about both Hillary and Obama, their respective roles in the party, politics and world, but there was one thing that was said that really drew a distinction for me.

One of the analysts when addressing a caller that was mad that Hilary didn't run her campaign "as a woman" and was trying deny her womanhood,  responded basically, "If Barack can run as a post-race candidate, why can't Hilary run as a post-feminist one?"  Almost in unison, my wife and I responded with a "Because she isn't a post-feminist person."

Now this is not a dig on Hillary or a kudo for Barack - and yes, I am on a first name basis with both of them - but an illustration of the worldview shift that is creating so much anxiety right now, a factor that I believe trumps ideology and/or theology.    Much like in Kelly Goff's Book about generational shifts, what we are seeing in this interaction is the shift in power and influence between a generation that was formed by the days of the civil rights movement and those who's political consciousness has been formed since then.  In the days of civil rights and in some ways, the cold war mentality, there were clearly defined "us" and "them" postures.  We knew who the enemy was, we knew who our friends were and we all, conservative or liberal, were rabidly loyal and willingly stayed in those boxes.  Regardless of how bloody the fight got, we knew the lines and we never crossed them.  Loyalty to the platform required us to buy the whole package.  Step outside of that and you were no longer playing the game as it was always played.  Appreciate the perspective of or interact with the "enemy" and your loyalty to the cause was called into question.  Act outside of perceived norms of gender, class or race and you were a sell-out, no longer "x" enough to be part of the "in" crowd.

I do believe the tables are turning.  Not only is the next generation breaking all those rules, but they are not feeling guilty about it at all.  Their worldview is different, their vernacular about justice is difference, the way they see the future is different, the way they interact across previously uncrossable lines is different.  In fact - gasp - they are embracing the possibilities that can come out of a new way of seeing the world.  And now it looks as if this way of being will dictate the ways in which politics will be run for the next decades.

As I have said before, this is not just a new way of DOING things, this is an entirely different way to see the world and to be part of a community.  At least two groups - modern and postmodern if you will - and the degrees within them, are not even speaking the same language.  One group is speaking Czechoslovakian and the other is speaking some dialect from the Philippines.  Both use their voices and words, but neither has any idea what the other is saying.   No wonder there is tension, anxiety and downright animosity between the two. And no wonder it is easier to fight over other things, important as they may be, rather than to look at deeper, more complex cultural shifts.

Hmmmm . . . sound like the church much?

While it may manifest itself in different ways, we too, mainline denominational institutions, are struggling with this blurring of traditional lines of community, institutions, loyalty and solidarity.  This development is throwing the institutional church into a time of actual anxiety and perceived disarray.  We may not always get to the level of the political arena - okay yes we do - but we have this little common denominator that will help us get through it.

Jesus.

What then shall we do? 

Open our eyes.

I think one thing we must do is to begin to acknowledge that this shift is indeed happening and stop trying to control, confine and otherwise limit this wonderful and amazing church that gathers around a common covenant in Christ.   No one is saying that we should embrace everything that culture embraces and succumb to relativism, but if we are not able to acknowledge and reflect upon cultural and social shifts how will we ever be able to faithfully discern that which we embrace and that which must stand against?

Quite simply, if we do not come to grips with the fact that the world is changing around us and we are losing - or have lost - our relevance and impact, we cheapen our response to the amazing grace that God gives to the world. 

And lest we blame "the other" - take your pick: liberal, conservative, urban, suburban, mega, elitists, institutionalists, congregationalists, etc. - again, this is about worldview and not theological position.  In fact, if we continue to resist the idea that many are stretching hands across those traditional battle lines, those of us who know only too well how to exist within said lines are doomed to wander further into irrelevance.

I do not want to go there.  Does anyone really?

Wow, this post has turned far more ranty that I had intended, but therein lies my passion and excitement about the church.  We are at an amazing and tumultuous time in the life of the world and the church.  Lets take it head on, lets be open to what may be, stand against what should be denied and boldly walk into the future knowing that we have not avoided the storm ahead, but have been the peace-filled and non-anxious presence that Christ has called and joined us to be.

Peace out!

Why FB is a great tool for transitioning from a "Pastoral" to a "Program" church

Due to a variety of reasons - mostly too many freaking people were come to church - about six months ago MBCC decided to intentionally transition from being a "Pastoral Church" to being a "Program Church."  You can see the definitions and characteristic's of each congregational size in the article, How to Minister Effectively in Family, Pastoral, Program and Corporate Sized Chruch by Roy M. Oswald, Senior Consultant, The Alban Institute.

Good stuff if you are into congregational system theory.

To recap, Oswald basically says that that as churches go through stages of growth or decline they require different leadership models and conversely different leadership models can help determine whether or not a church grows or declines.  He does not argue that any one model is optimal, simply points out the obvious, leadership must understand the system if they are to minister well within that system.  I would go so far as to say that it is sinful to ignore the system within which we work as we can unintentionally do harm to a community's health.  But that's just me ;-)

Basics of a PASTORAL CHURCH

• 50-150 active participants
• primary relationship with with the pastor
• most things go through the pastor
• everyone pretty much knows each other
• leadership is interpersonally focused
• most churches thrive at this level

Basics of a PROGRAM CHURCH

• there are pockets of activity, fewer "all-church" activities
• everything does not flow through the pastor, but other leadership take on pastoral functions
• leadership is planning and development focused
• not everyone knows everyone else

MBCC decided to do this once we realized that our growing population really did want to connect, but pretty much everything flowed through me.  And while I was pretty good about not controlling relationships, it became clear that we were growing, we would continue to grow and we needed to make sure that my bandwidth did not hold us back.  This meant a shift in everything from how we stored our data (From my computer to StaffTool) to how we organized small groups (From me instigating and leading to open formation and organizing).

I must admit, I was a tad bit apprehensive.  In an abstract "God-can-do-all-things" kind of way, I knew it could happen, but our track record had not been all that strong.  Still we have boldly moved into this phase and over the past six months have worked through the difficulties of this kind of transition.  There have certainly been some places where things have gone very well and others not so much.  But overall, good God stuff is happening.

From a pastor's view, however, there are certainly some reactions that we have to fight if this transition is going to happen well AND we do not intentionally or unintentionally sabotage the transitions.  Oh, it would be so easy to do, especially if one does not REALLY want to change systems.  If we are not secure in our role as pastor or genuinely do not want to shift in our role, DO NOT try this.  It will suck for everyone.

Getting back to the title of this post, if you do think this is in your future here are some of the doubts that "one" might have with the transition process and then how FaceBook can be a "happy place" for our own insecurities.

The insecurities, apprehensions and doubts.

• People surely can't REALLY connect to the church through anyone but me.
• Folks will not step up and organize, lead and/or follow-through on anything.
• Nothing is happening . . . I should step in save the day.
• I need to have a deep connection with everyone to feed may own needs of pastoral worth.
• Damn, now I will need to really focus on nurturing leadership and big-picture vision.  What excuse will I have now?

How Facebook eases the transition

The brilliance of FB is the public networking and connecting that happens.   All of the insecurities that I may have about leaving the role of  "pastor" of a pastoral church are addressed by the very nature of FB.  My need to be "in the loop" is addressed because as more and more folks from MBCC comment on each others pictures, post on walls and generally interact without I am in still the loop, but not the conduit of the interaction.  The same goes for events, groups and any other planning.  I see that folks are engaging, stepping up, and following through, I have no need to jump in.  Now of course not everything in the life of MBCC happens vie FB, but just enough does to alleviate my overarching fears.

This has all been surprisingly wonderful for me.  We are still figuring out the intracacies of MBCC's version of the Program Church, but from all indications, my fears have not been met with reality and we are slowly but surely making the shift.

Thanks be to FB, God and the church!

What the bleep is going on at MBCC?!?!?!?

First coffee in the "sanctuary" and now this?!?!?!

And this?!?!?!?

As part of our Series "Re|Creation: Meeting God in the Here and Now" we added a few elements to our "normal" worship experience.  In order to expand the ways that we might experience God, we invited folks to participate in any or all of the following activities during the course of the service.  Basically, as the service progressed, as folks felt called they could sit at their table/pew/couch and create or join in one of the communal projects.

• Community mural creation
• Community prayer creation
• Clay sculpting
• Pipe Cleaner Chenille Creation
• Lego creation
• Journaling
• Live Blogging - [Tiffany's Post] [Ryan's Post]

It was a tad bit chaotic and it was certainly was not neat.  We have certainly learned a great deal about ourselves and have discovered some amazing gifts of imagination and artistry.  So far I think the experience has re-affirmed our willingness and ability to be creative and open, while remaining focused on creating a sacred space.

I am proud of us.

[more pictures]

MBCC Mii Jesus raising a ruckus.

Oh now we gone and done it!  Our 2008 "Come and Follow Mii" postcard has totally blowuptuated in the gaming world.  They laughed, the cried, they defended and they mocked.  And in the end I think it is pretty awesome that an small idea born at the end of a book group over bubble tea and laughter has created such a level of conversation.

Unlike many at MBCC, I am not a gamer, so these websites - and much of the vernacular used within them - is totally foreign to me.  Still the blend of thoughtfullness, passion, anger, judgment, humor and insight was fascinating.

Here are three sites w/comments worth taking a look at or you just need to google "follow mii" or "mii church" and you'll get a bunch of links.  [Ongoing List]

kotaku.com
gonintendo.com
digg.com

You really have to read the comments yourself, but here are a few highlights that show the breadth and depth of the reactions.

On the color of our Wii Jesus // omicron1

Also, on racial issues: Jesus' human body would have been similar in race to his Israeli parents - neither white nor black, per se, but a sort of deep tanned skin color - sort of like the Mii above. However, as we really don't have any photographs of Christ's Bar Mitzvah, it has fallen to various church elders to reconstruct Christ's visage in their own mind's eyes and transcribe it to statues and paintings - thus we have black Christs in Africa and white Christs in Europe. It really doesn't matter either way, to be honest.  

On MBBC's irreverace // Chibi Forte

Can you say “emergent”?  “Seeker sensitive”, perhaps?  And, obviously, “irreverent”?  Really, this whole idea of “Churches being relevant to the culture” is driving me nuts. Can’t we just stick to sermons that are preached exegetically and reverently and go from there?  I mean, I would begrudgingly let them pass muster in a few areas on their website (membership classes, membership not equaling true conversion, lack of clown communion, etc.), but the sheer irreverent attitude and the pathetic mission statement disgusts me, frankly.  I’ll keep listening to my John MacArthur and John Piper, thank you.

On the intent // OnLegendary86

It's not sacreligious dude. Jesus was a man who had fun and danced and drank wine. There is nothing wrong with some cool advertising that makes people look at Christians and think of church differently.

There are many observations to make from the comments, least of all the passionate and strong opinions that are shared about the church and Jesus.  There seems to be both a reverence and repulsion about the church as well as assumptions about what kind of community MBCC is.  Again, fascinating.

In the end, like our website, if it offends you at that level, MBCC might not be a place where you will be fed.  But . . . if you could take it for what it was, a playful attempt at wit and welcome, MBCC might be a place for you.

Again, fascinating.

The underwhelming nature of the church I serve.

The world has a fascination with the next big thing.  We are enthralled by size, power and explosions metaphorical and real.  The church is the same way, especially those of us in the church already.

A good example of this is  Mission Bay Community Church, where I serve as the pastor.  Because we are an NCD - Presbyterianese for Church Plant - with some street cred in terms of of being urban, Presbyterian and younger, we are often lifted up - justified or not - as a church to see.  We often get lookyloos on Sunday AM that have heard of us and want to check us out.  They are usually from seminaries, people on vacation, and the occasional pastor looking for new ideas.  That's cool.  If we can help spark some conversations and/or questions for other folks, I'm down with that.  We have no territory issues here.  The odd thing is that the biggest reaction we get from people who are "observing" the animal known as MBCC, is that they basically, say "Huh, it's just a church."  And while most people are pretty positive about this, there is also the occasional, "Well, that's not all that big of a deal."  Both reaction are cool.  One, we never claimed to be anything more than a church and two, see number one.  All we have ever claimed to be is a church.  I think a special place should you choose to engage, but nevertheless, just a church.

I can soooooo live with that.

Why church sucks!

I can see it now.  Moderatorial aspirations die with post about why Church sucks.  What kind of language is that to use for a Moderator?!?!?  Sheesh.   I'll just have to take that risk as no other title seems appropriate.

Church sucks!  Yes, I said it.  The cover of the latest Wired Magazine has the lead headline, Why Things Suck: The 33 Things that Make us Crazy. A second tag line is "Nothing works the way it should . . . our 18 page report on the most annoying problems of everyday life."

Church is not on the list.  But it really should be.

I often wonder why people come to church.  Why engage in any faith community be it Sunday AM''s, house church or otherwise?  One can point to some outward things about many church: music, style, preaching, community, food, location, parking, coffee, demographics, etc. as reason why one would visit, stay or run away.  The reality is that when it comes to measuring the effectiveness and/or usefulness of church, we fail miserably . . . at least by human standards.

The reasons why are too numerous to get into, but here are some that strike me at this moment.

• We take too long to make decisions.
• We are not nice.
• We judge.
• We act out of expectation.
• We really only want church to be done our way.
• We fight.
• We gossip.
• We walk-out.
• We don't commit.
• We want things for free.
• We want to be served.
• We fight change to our own detriment.
• We change for the sake of change.
• We try to look like what we think we should look like rather than just look the way we are.
• We place faith last on our priorities.

Yeah, why do we come to church?

And then God somehow wiggles into the mix and we discover that despite our suckiness, we experience the holy in church and community.  And, if not only for glimpses of those times, we do not suck.  In fact we are pretty awesome.

Thanks be to God.

Does your religion dance?

Darn!  And I thought I was original.  Nope, just the social/cultural hack that I have always been.  In any case, my sister-in-law sent me this link in response to my post on the death of the PC(USA).

From Mark Moford's column, Does your religions dance? Behold, the most dangerous issue facing modern faith: Its inability to evolve, nakedly.

It's a topic that jumped up like a stunned ferret from God's own hot plate three separate times recently — indicating, I think, that I'd better pay some sort of attention to it — the topic being the obvious but still desperately under-discussed idea that perhaps the most dangerous problem facing man in this modern age of radical technology and dazzling scientific conundrum and otherworldly raspberry vodka and ever-expanding notions of love and sex and human interconnection is the sad and treacherous fact that, well, religion and belief as we know them in America are, by and large, far too horribly stuck, limited, fixed in time and place and stiff karmic cement.

Put another way: We as a culture just might be suffering a slow, painful death by spiritual stagnation, by ideological stasis, by cosmic rigor mortis. It has become painfully, lethally obvious in the age of George W. Bush and authoritarian groupthink that our major religious systems and foundations don't know how to move. They don't learn, adjust, evolve, see things anew. They don't know how to dance. And what's more, this little problem might just be the death of us all.

Amen brother, amen.

 

The Day Jesus Came to Preach

h/t: Heather

Courtesy of The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus

Church shopping in San Francisco

Brian LePort just posted: The the Church of San Francisco: A Newbie Guide where he offered some options for folks looking for a church in San Francisco. MBCC was on his list and that was cool despite the fact that Brian's only knowledge about the church is little ol' me.

Thought I would follow suite with 10 Churches that would be on my SF Church Shopping list.  I'll only comment on the positive aspects.  These are church that would be on MY list to visit.

Cornerstone Fellowship // Great band, high energy.

St. John's Presbyterian // Solid pastors, solid, theology, traditional, but welcoming setting.

Great Exchange Covenant Church // Never been, but sounds like a youngish, lively community.

The Journey // New plant worth checking out.

Noe Valley Ministry // Progressive, social outreach focus and a very cool space.

SF Lighthouse Church // Because Brian is a good-guy and solid theologian, this is on my list of places to check out, especially the evening service.

Metropolitan Community Church // High energy Christ-centered community.  Solid pastoral leadership.

Glide United Methodist // Have never been, but draws from a wide variety of people, great music and very active in the community.

Grace Fellowship // Urban focus ministry with some solid leadership

I posted something about Church Shopping a ways back, but ultimately when it comes to finding a place where you can both feel accepted into the community and challenged to growth in faith, sometimes you just know.  No one church can be all things to all people, but as a whole, maybe, just maybe.