September Church Rhythms

“Where two or three are gathered in my name,

I am there among them.”

[Jesus, Matthew 18:15-22, NRSV]

This month, all over Indiana and Kentucky and across the country, congregations and other communities of faith, large and small, urban and rural and everywhere in between, return to the regular rhythms of congregational life. Sunday School and other education and formation classes crank up. Committees and councils begin to meet again at their appointed hour on whatever second Monday or third Thursday of the month is theirs. Worship attendance returns (we pray!) to its post-vacation season levels. Regular trips to the food pantry or other places of service ministry resume.

The month of September is a busy time, an exciting time, a hopeful and even a tense time in the life of the people of God.

It’s also a holy time.

I suspect – actually I know from my own experience – that in the midst of all the planning and preparation and publicity and implementation for this autumn advent we tend to forget that there is something more than just human activity going on. This is not just a class or coffee klatch or kid’s program or adult fellowship we are preparing or engaging. As incredible as it may sound given some of the things we do when we are together, it’s all part of the gracious reign of God come near and it’s steeped in promise.

Where two or three are gathered in my name, Jesus promises, I am there among them.

Where Jesus is, God’s reign comes near and things happen; people – and worlds – are changed.

Where Jesus is, forgiveness is offered, received, and shared. Tattered lives are held together in love and healed by grace. Deep, holy hospitality is offered to people who are lonely or wandering or hurting, including even those who show up every Sunday morning or Tuesday night. Broken-bodied, poured-out love is offered and available for all in Sunday School classes and discussion groups, in worship and the coffee hour, in prayer groups and committee meetings, in parking lot conversations and quiet moments in a corner of the narthex…Jesus is there; lives are changed.

This is holy time.

Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.

Interestingly, Jesus spoke this world-altering promise near the conclusion of a brief discussion about how to deal with broken relationships in the body of Christ. Surely somewhere along the way this fall, in the midst of the meetings and studies and conversations we now resume, something will go wrong, the fabric of our life together will tear. Even there, where some sin, some selfishness, some hurt or misunderstanding threatens to unravel our life together, even there the promise holds: I am among you. Even there the love we know from a wooden cross and an empty tomb draws near with life-changing, new-world rendering power and grace.

Thankfully, in the midst of all the busyness, the planning, the worry, the hope, the challenge, the joy, the brokenness of autumn days is Jesus, crucified and risen. These are holy days. This is holy work. Jesus is afoot.

Etch A Sketch Church, Part Two

Are we an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad World?

I am grateful for the creative and energetic ways folks have engaged this question, both online and in person. Every person who responded so far has done so with a “Yes.” Some form of lament or critique has accompanied some of those yeses. Other folks have expressed at least some affirmation for an Etch A Sketch church. Everyone has agreed, however, that to simply be an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad world does not make room for the fullness of the gospel to be known and lived in our current North American context.

Here are some of the fascinating contrasts, insights, and metaphoric reflections that have emerged so far from this conversation:

Etch A Sketch Church

relates primarily to itself and its own inner system

limited capacity to communicate and amuse

nostalgic

one function

reductive

incarnational

focused attention

iPad World

 intimately and mutually connected to diverse and far-flung “others”

wide-ranging and ever-expanding ability to communicate and amuse

future-focused

multi-functional

expansive

digital/virtual

easily distracted

What do you think? Do these insights ring true with you in the context of your local mission center or congregation? And, if we are, indeed, an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad world, what does this mean for the ways we live together as the body of Christ and how we engage the world? Etch A Sketch Church, Part Three will begin to explore this in concrete and practical ways. In the meantime, the conversation will continue in person and online as we seek, together, to be faithful servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Please add your perspective to the mix!

(Thanks to the following folks, who responded via Facebook, Twitter or this blog and whose insights are incorporated above: Lisa Dahill, Karol Gafkjen, John Hickey, Larry Isbell, Dan Kreutzer, Steve Stewart, Rebecca Suchomel, Christine Wulff.)

 

Etch A Sketch Church in an iPad World

Sitting in a deli working on a sermon over lunch recently, I noticed an eight or nine year old boy looking for a seat. Carefully cradled under his arm was a half-inch thick red-framed rectangular screen a little smaller than a sheet of paper. “Cool,” I thought. “He’s got an Etch A Sketch to keep him busy while he waits for lunch to arrive.” As he neared, I realized there were no telltale white knobs and the red frame was just rubberized protection for his iPad.

Of course, my initial interpretation of what the boy carried betrayed my own generational habitat and reminded me of the hours I spent turning those beloved white knobs when I was his age. Glancing at the iPad next to my lunch plate I was caught up in a swirl of nostalgia and wonder at how things have changed.

Then, rising from the reflective eddy came a question: Are we an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad world?

It is easy to hear this as an either/or question laden with value judgments resulting in a division of the household of faith into something like “Etchers” and “Padders.” That’s not how I hear it. Etch A Sketch and iPad are very different means of creative expression and engagement with the world. Placing them alongside one another they become metaphors for the contemporary church’s creative expression of the gospel and its engagement with the world for the sake of that gospel. Such metaphors can lead us into fruitful discernment and effective engagement with God’s mission of healing and hope in the world today and into the future. In fact, this sort of playful reflection and conversation might assist us in living into this new day like the early apostles did in their new day. (Now would be a good time to read Acts 10-15 if you haven’t lately.)

For example, I am struck with the self-contained nature of the Etch A Sketch in comparison to the iPad. A person can create beautiful images by twisting those white knobs with care and precision guided by his or her creative vision. But the Etch A Sketch has no built-in interaction with or input from outside the etcher’s immediate local context. An iPad, by nature, penetrates boundaries to provide multi-directional engagement with the world. It is, by default, connected to and welcoming of interaction, resources, insight and input from an almost infinite number of sources far beyond the user’s immediate context. While we can come up with some pretty creative mission and ministry by turning the knobs of the self-contained resources right at hand, might the church, including your congregation, benefit from more immediate, intuitive and multi-directional connection with people, resources, and perspectives from well-beyond the usual red-rimmed boundaries we tend to work within?

Are we an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad world?

Let’s talk about this. Post a comment here. You can also email me, send me a note by mail, chat with me when I visit your congregation or you catch me at Starbucks. Let’s use this metaphor to help each other find faithful and effective ways to follow Jesus into this 21^st century world. In mid-September I will share more of my thoughts about this and respond to some of yours as well.