Being Church

I am leading a study of spiritual gifts in the church using materials I've been working on for more than 25 years -- since seminary really.  I also just began reading Eugene Peterson's new memoir called The Pastor.  I'll be writing a review of the book later on, but near the beginning of the book, in a reflection on the similarities between church and his father's butcher shop -- that should get your attention -- he wrote:

I am quite sure now that the way I as a pastor came to understand congregation had its beginning in the "congregational" atmosphere of our butcher shop.  Congregation is composed of people, who, upon entering a church, leave behind what people on the street name or call them.  A church can never be reduced to a place where goods and services are exchanged.  It must never be a place where a person is labeled.  It can never be a place where gossip is perpetuated.  Before anything else, it is a place where a person is named and greeted, whether implicitly or explicitly in Jesus's name.  A place where dignity is conferred.  (Peterson, The Pastor, p. 41).   

I'll let you check out the book, if you want to know why Peterson uses this analogy, but the point I'd like to raise here concerns the nature of congregation.  What happens in this place we call church?  Note that Peterson defines congregation in terms of people, not building, institutions, or even clergy.  It's people who make up the church, the rest is simply context and support for the people of God to worship and serve God and love one's neighbor.  But also note the importance of church being a place of safety and dignity.  It is a place where "dignity is conferred."  I realize this is describing the ideal.  We know that churches as places harbor gossip, that people can find themselves unwelcome in Jesus' name, and dignity isn't always conferred, but this is the calling, this is the purpose.  So my question is -- how do we become this place, knowing that we are human and we will fail, but how do we move toward such a reality?

Greenhouses of Hope -- Review

GREENHOUSES OF HOPE: Congregations Growing Young Leaders Who Will Change the World. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2010. xvi + 231 pages.

From where will the leaders of the church tomorrow emerge? More specifically, in what context will the gifts and callings to ministry of the church’s future leaders be nurtured? The answers will be found in local congregations, both large and small, where seeds of faith are planted and visions of service are nurtured. Although there are many cases of this happening without intentionality – with young people catch a vision and pursue a calling, even if the local congregation and its clergy are uninvolved and unaware of their callings – there will be greater benefits to the church and to the world at large if congregations intentionally commit themselves to discerning and supporting calls to ministry. These kinds of communities are, as the title of this book suggests, “greenhouses of hope.” These are places where young leaders emerge, desiring to join with God in changing the world.

Dori Baker, the editor of this collection of essays, defines a “greenhouse of hope” as a “Christian congregation freeing itself to experiment with both newly imagined and time-honored ways of following the path of Jesus.” These congregations seek to “embrace the gifts of youth and young adults,” with the view toward young leaders emerging from their midst (p. 2). The book – Greenhouses of Hope – is the culmination of Baker’s quest to discover vital congregations committed to this cause of raising up the next generation of leaders. In the course of her studies of congregations she was looking for the diverse ways in which congregations take up this calling of nurturing a vision of ministry. What results from this work is a series of ethnographic studies, some of which Baker wrote, and some that other scholar/practitioners offered. What we see are “detailed observations of the ways of life of a particular people in order to learn about them, from them, and with them” (p. 3).

Baker is a United Methodist who serves as scholar-in-residence to the Calling Congregations initiative of the Fund for Theological Education. The other contributors to the book are primarily United Methodist, but there are also Presbyterian and AME Zion representatives as well. These other contributors help provide a broader ethnographic picture of congregational practices that nurture faith and visions of service. What we see in these studies is the way in which mission trips, youth mentoring younger children, interfaith engagement, close community that provides a safe place for youth to ask questions and explore vocations, providing a strong sense of empowerment with accompanying opportunities to share in leadership in a particular cultural context (African American), and interestingly enough, even in the midst of conflict. What one finds in common to all of these communities is that they are with some degree of intentionality giving young people opportunities to take leadership, explore their gifts and callings, and affirming them in the process – even if the congregation itself is struggling with conflict.

In laying out this study, according to Dori Baker, the authors sought to keep in balance two seemingly paradoxical perspectives. First, they were interested in young people who were inclined to answer a call to professional ministry, believing that the church has something to offer to the world. She writes:

We want to see bright, creative, innovative young people answering a call to be pastors and preachers who will, in turn, help shape the imaginations and vocations of others. (p. 6).

At the same time the authors of these studies were convinced that “Greenhouses of Hope” could and should nurture callings to purposeful lives among all the young people. That is, through their baptism, all Christians are called to lives of ministry. Therefore, the expectation is that the imaginations and callings of all the people would be stirred and nurtured, even if only some of this number answered the call to professional ministry. The belief is that “People formed by congregations that care about vocation learn to find ways that all of their work in the world can be connected to their call as Christians” (p. 7).

In the opening chapter of the book, Baker explores the image of the greenhouse. The image emerged from a set of abandoned greenhouses that a neighborhood group purchased and renovated. These greenhouses had been built to house roses, but now the new owners pulled out the debris, put in new soil, and planted new flowers, fruits, and vegetables. One of the greenhouses was even renovated to raise a special rose that was found still living within the old greenhouse. What an image that is – something old and now wild was nurtured to health and productivity. There was, however, one greenhouse that didn’t get renovated. Roses still grew there, without fertilizer or care, its only nourishment being water seeping through cracks. These roses continued to grow, bursting through the ceiling of the old greenhouse. But, this happens in spite of many obstacles. And here is the metaphor, the image that drives the conversation. Baker writes that “God will call young lives, with or without the help of congregations.” God will not be left without a witness, but how much better it is when congregations cease being obstacles, and instead commit themselves to being places of nurture and hope, so that young people needn’t be “left to eke out their calling solo, but rather were given the best of their community’s resources of attention, love and nourishment toward their vocational flourishing?” (P. 11). And yes, even “old growth” churches, churches that have been around for generations can and should be places where this nurturing process takes place.

Throughout the book, the authors align their observations around four practices, which carry the acronym CARE. Greenhouses of Hope “Create hospitable space to explore Christian Vocation; Ask self-awakening questions; Reflect theologically on self and community; and Explore, enact, and establish ministry opportunities (p. 30). Each of these practices is important and even essential to the effective nurturing of calls to service.

Each of the chapters offers a look at a specific form of space or action, but one that I found especially intriguing, in large part because it’s culturally different, but maybe very culturally relevant for many of our smaller churches. Sinai Chung writes of a Korean Presbyterian Church that engages in what the author calls mozying. This practice is named after the Korean word for older siblings. The concept that has taken root in this particular congregation is that the older children/youth/young people help care for the younger ones. That is, the older ones mentor the younger ones. The need emerged from the transition from first to second generation Koreans, and the need to help second generation Koreans engage in congregational life. This practice is characterized by a belief in “intensive and genuine sibling love.” It is rooted in an intimacy between the younger and the older. Second, unlike most other mentoring relationships, both benefit. Finally, the practice is “highly contagious.” That is, it leads to chain reactions among all age groups. Although this particular practice has its own cultural roots, it has great potential as a model of making a space for ministry practice and spiritual growth.

In her concluding essay, Melissa Wigington summarizes the various models that had been explored earlier, and offers important reflections. She warns, rightly against the tendency to tokenism – something that occurs in every church. We try to get young people on boards and committees, just to say we’ve done it, without any real thought about the spiritual welfare and development of these young people. She notes as well three common themes that emerge from these ethnographic studies – in each context intergenerational relationships are valued and nurtured, young adults and youth are given authentic roles in the life of the church, and present in each are “embodied spiritual practices that connect lived experience with the holy” (p. 195).

The greenhouse is a safe place to grow and experience life in ministry, but as Wigington points out, eventually these plants have to take root outside the safety of the greenhouse. Issues such as delayed adulthood and the economic realities of the day affect the way in which young adults are able to navigate their world. They face the prospects of burnout, not being able to find themselves, and sometimes having too narrow a vision of the world, and thus feeling trapped by these commitments. What these greenhouses must do is help prepare young adults to be resourceful and open to new opportunities so that they can navigate the world that they inhabit. And their ability to do so will be rooted in those four practices that carry the acronym – CARE.

This is a most helpful and encouraging book, especially for churches that are willing to embrace a call to nurture the ministry gifts of their children and young people. It is a good reminder that congregations can either be obstacles or encouragers. Each of the studies opens vistas that might prove helpful in a particular context. The chapter on churches in conflict allows us to see that even when churches are not healthy, they can still be places where callings are intentionally nurtured, even if difficult to maintain. Dori Baker is to be commended for drawing together a team that can provide Mainline churches seeds of hope for the future.

Churches, Young People, and A Call to Ministry

I have spent the past several days at the annual meeting of the Academy of Parish Clergy, the organization for which I edit the journal Sharing the Practice.   The organization has been around since the late 1960s, born at a time when the church was flush with members and aspiring clergy (mostly male).  The Academy like the church has struggled of late.  But there are signs of hope for the church and for the Academy, but that's really a discussion for another day.

The topic at hand concerns the role of the church in nurturing the call to ministry among youth and young adults.  There was a time when young people heard the call in high school, if not before (see Fred Craddock's wonderful autobiography of his youthful call).  Today it's quite common for people to move into ministry as a second or even third career.  The question is -- where are the young people?  Is God not calling them?

I just started reading a new book called Greenhouses of Hope: Congregations Growing Young Leaders Who Will Change the World, (Alban), edited by Dori Grinenko Baker.  I'm reading the book with a great deal of interest in part because I'm working with a young intern who grew up in our congregation.  This young woman is full of energy, vision, and has heard the call.  The question is -- is the church encouraging the call and in what ways? 

In her opening chapter Baker describes the image of the Greenhouse -- using as an example a set of greenhouses used for growing roses that were abandoned and now have been reclaimed and revitalized for a community garden.  One of the greenhouses has yet to be reclaimed, but there are roses growing in there, untended and unsupported.  Baker writes that this image is an "apt metaphor for God's calling in the lives of young people."  She goes on:

God will call young lives, with or without the help of congregations.  God will bring them bursting through glass ceilings as they grow toward who they are called to be.  But how much better, and how much richer might the journey be if young people were not left to eke out their calling solo, but rather were given the best of their community's resources of attention, love and nourishment toward their vocational calling?  (p. 11)

Baker's question is a good one, one that I'd like to lift up for our discussion.

Becoming Christ's Body in the Eucharist

There are Christian traditions that believe that when consecrated the elements of bread and wine/juice become the body and blood of Christ.  There are other traditions that believe that the bread and wine are merely memorials of Christ's death and burial.  For those of us who are Disciples of Christ, there is a tendency to take a memorialistic perspective, one that emerged largely in reaction to the more literalist understandings of the real presence of Christ in the eucharistic elements.

There is another way of looking at the eucharist, one that holds on to the idea of presence without locating that presence in the elements themselves.  The idea here is that the presence of Christ is found in the body -- that is the congregation.  And the congregation isn't simply the institution of the church, but the gathering of the body of Christ around the Table. 

In a book published nearly 20 years ago, Keith Watkins explored in some detail the patterns of prayer at the Table.  He did this so as to challenge Disciples to examine their practice so that the meaning of the meal can be understood and lived out.  Too often our time at the table is sloppy and irreverent, but more importantly our practice often has little theological grounding. 

Among the implications that Keith notes in his connection of the eucharist to the doctrine of the church as body of Christ is that "in the celebration of the eucharist, the congregation becomes what it already is:  Christ's body."

He goes on to define what this means (I'm including a rather extended quotation from Keith's book Celebrate with Thanksgiving):

The way that the Sunday service is structured and the contents of its several parts are the means by which this realization takes place.  Congregants assemble from their separated lives in the world.  The order of worship focuses their attention upon God and upon God's love and justice.  Despite the distractions and sins that have accumulated during the week, worshipers are drawn once again into the orbit of God's redeeming love in Jesus Christ.  They listen to readings from scripture that tell the stories of God's work long ago.  They hear a sermon showing how God continues to work in these same ways in life today.  By now, the people have been welded together again into a strong and unified assembly.  They are now ready to bring their life in the world more directly into God's presence.  In the prayers of thanksgiving, confession, and intercession the people remember what has taken place as they have tried to live faithfully through the week.  All is offered God with the entreaty that God's will for creation and all it's creatures will be fulfilled.

The intentions of these prayers are also expressed in the the physical elements that now become the focus of the service.  Offerings of money and the bread and communion-wine for the eucharist are brought to the table.  Together these emblems depict the natural world of "blood, sweat, and tears," and of wheat and grapes, now converted into new forms.  The labors of natural life become the substance of purposeful life in families and communities.  The foods of the earth are converted into bread and wine, manufactured products that increase their nourishing properties and our joy in using them.  All of these meanings are compressed into the procession that brings these elements to their place upon the holy table.

At this point, the congregation and its leaders approach God in prayer.  They tell the story of God's creative and redeeming work, the story that reaches its climax in Jesus' death upon the cross and everlasting life wit God.  They express in words their sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that the entire service seeks to present to God.  They ask that Christ's life in them be renewed and that they be strengthened to be the body of Christ in the world.  They they receive back the bread and communion-wine as sure signs that God has heard their prayer and will answer it.  At this point, the eucharist is complete and the church has once again become what it already is:  the body of Christ.  (Keith Watkins, Celebrate with Thanksgiving, Chalice Press, 1991, pp. 38-39). 

As you can see it's not just the prayers or the elements, but the way that the service itself is formed that helps provide the context for the congregation to become the body of Christ at the table.  As I read this, I realize that our practice at CWCC doesn't mirror everything that is present in Keith's discussion.  We don't have the procession of the elements nor do we have prayers of confession or of the people.  After the sermon I offer a Pastoral Prayer, something that has emerged over time and has largely replaced the other forms of prayer.  We have a prayer at the offering and we have a prayer for the elements.  But the basic order is present, as we move toward a climax at the Table, for it is there that community gathers to receive a sign that Christ is present in their midst.  I'd like to invite a conversation about ways in which we can strengthen our practice at the Table so that we might become more fully the body of Christ on earth.