Sunday's Benediction from Rev. Dr. Gilbert Ferrell

"Charles King once said, 'The church is mission.'  It does not have a mission, it is mission.  It does not sent missionaries, it itself is sent.  And the church exists for the sake of the world and not for its own sake.  And it can never forget that without becoming apostate.  Go then people of God, into the world God loves, teach it a song, break the bread share the cup, decry injustice, wage peace.  And God of peace go with you where you are.  Amen."

Quotes from two meetings

I had the wonderful opportunity to be in two meetings with two amazing people; Rev. Eric McKinney on Wednesday and Rev. Mike McKee on Thursday.  They each had wonderful things to say in these respective meetings, but here is one line from each of them for you to ponder...

McKinney speaking about the clergy and leadership in the Central Texas Conference of the UMC:
"The Church is more open to change than we have the courage to lead."
I am beginning to truly believe this is the case.  More and more people in the church are open to change and the "New things of God" more than we, the clergy, are willing to allow.  Perhaps the greatest obstacle for the UMC clergy to help lead the UMC is the clergy of the UMC?


McKee speaking about what Christianity measures:
"We measure throughputs instead of measuring outcomes."
I believe his point is that the UMC spends a lot of time measuring throughputs - the amount of people that come though for worship, the amount of money that comes through the church office, etc.  However important these throughputs are, outcomes are even more important.  Outcomes being transformed lives.  We need to place greater emphasis on outcomes and remove the "importance" of throughputs.

If either of these ministers read this post then I would be honored in you clarified these comments if I have misunderstood them, but know, nonetheless, these were some of the powerful statements you made the other day that I connected with.

Generational gap - revisited sort of.

While reading the book The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life by Richard Florida I ran across several quotes which I thought were greats. However, this quote instantly connected me to a previous conversation which took place here on this post.

The author of this book writes about the different worldview and values of what he identifies as the “creative class” which is budding in the United States and which, he forecasts, will be the dominate group of people in the USA.

On of the characteristics which Florida identifies with this “Creative class” is the value of diversity. He writes that “When they [members of the “creative class”] setare sizing up a new company and community, acceptance of diversity and of gays in particular is a sign that reads “nonstandard people welcome here.”

This is a good way of putting what I feel is being expressed by my peers and what I hold as a personal value as well. Maybe this is why my peers and I, in many ways, do not talk much about or think about homosexuality being a sin because it reflects an underlying value – diversity. That is to say, if homosexuality is a sin then being different is a sin.

This book is a fantastic read and does not talk about theology at all. It is a cultural study of sorts and one for which (and I know several of you people out there will shrill when I say this) I resonate with deeply. It speaks to my situation and position in life it reflects the values for which I hold in many regards. If you are looking to understand some of the people in your life whom you think are ‘lazy’ or ‘odd’ or just plain ‘different’ and cannot understand why the young people of today are the way they are – then you should check this book out.

I do not remove black from my home but...

I am a fan of the book “The Evolution of God” even though it is at times laborious to read and sometimes feels like a conspiracy theorist making his/her case. While I do not have the time to go though the entire book I wanted to share a line from the book and then what it evoked in me.

The author is talking about the rituals that a fisherman and canoe builders in ancient tribes would do in order to ‘please the gods’ of their home or tribe. Some of these things that were done seemed rather odd and seemingly unrelated to fishing or canoe crafting, but the author writes, “is indeed hard to argue that removing all black from the home is, in and of itself, time well spent for the ambitious angler. Still, the combined effect of all these rituals was to cloak the business of canoe building and fishing in an air of solemnity that presumably encouraged exacting and conscientious performance.”

While it seems sort of silly for me to think that people believed a bigger catch or better canoe would result in the removal of the color black from their homes, I can appreciate it.

What I mean is that I too have my rituals and my disciplines which, to some viewing them from afar, might seem silly or unrelated. I read the Bible. I engage in conversations on theology. I maintain a blog. I cross my forehead, wipe my face and kiss my left ring finger after a prayer. I worship on Sunday. I even have a ritual when I get to work each day.

Ritual is something in my life that is very helpful not because I believe I am persuading the ‘gods’ to work on my behalf as though my wishes are first on God’s ‘to do list’. Nor do I engage in rituals in order to keep ‘the gods’ happy. I do not worship to persuade or keep God happy. I worship, I partake in ritual in part because it “encourages exacting and conscientious” living.

Everyone has rituals in their lives. You might not even be aware of them. So the next time I see someone praying in a certain way, walking in a certain way, or even to the extent of practicing what I might consider “superstitions”, I will give pause to consider that perhaps their ritual may not be as silly as it looks.