Growing Disciples...

Growing disciples is not some program for "children" or "youth" or a few adults who continue to come to Sunday school.  Growing in our discipleship and growing other disciples is something God expects of us 24/7/365...something we are expected to do in and with the Christian community.  The process started long before we came on the scene and will continue long after us.  It works through our participation and God's Spirit..

Craig Dykstra, professor of Christian education at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary and now a vice-president for Religion at the Lilly Endowment tells a great story that explains how we teach. (Growing in the Life of Faith, p. 72, slightly paraphrased)
     This is precisely what coaches and mentors do— and work hard at doing well— when they are intentionally striving to help others learn to do something better. Often a coach will teach by demonstrating something, by making one of the essential moves and asking the learner to watch.
     Then the words begin.
           Questions: What did you see happen at the start of my swing?
           Descriptions: What I’m doing is planting my right foot and bringing my right arm close to my side to start the action of the swing properly.
           Explanations and reasons:  What that does is shift your weight and the momentum of the swing toward the target so you can hit the ball hard.
           Then, the coach suggests the learner try it…and the process starts again.

A definitive switch occurs in the ninth chapter of Luke. Up to that point, Jesus lived his faith, healing, praying, loving, serving without a lot of explanation. As he turns toward Jerusalem, we see him focus on growing his disciples, and suddenly, he is teaching at every turn. You can see the difference in the explanation/questioning/challenging when you look at the text. Jesus is not just living the way, he is teaching his disciples… using descriptions, explanations and reasons… asking them to try…and starting the process again.

That is what it means, I think, to help each other grow in the faith.  To reach our potential, we have to do more than show up and watch on Sunday mornings.  To help our children, we have to follow the same process with our faith that we do with our sports.  Participation...questioning...descriptions...explanations and reasons...challenges to try again.  To help ourselves, we have to be in relationship with fellow disciples who will follow those same steps with us...and us with them.

Often, we act like becoming a disciple is some mystery that only a few people can accomplish.  As I read the text and listen to Jesus, it seems a relatively simple process that we are never asked to master, only to faithfully follow.  I see it work with those who fully engage in the questions, the descriptions, the explanations and reasons. 

God's promises are ours already, but the potential for so much more is ready for us.  I wonder what we are waiting for.

Stepping Back...

David Brooks wrote a great article in the NYTimes about the weakness in our country's moral character, specifically lamenting the mental component.  He compares the early 1800's to today's willingness and ability to consider our weaknesses, our sinfulness, the possible "wrongness" in our positions and opinions. He says:
In this atmosphere, we’re all less conscious of our severe mental shortcomings and less inclined to be skeptical of our own opinions. Occasionally you surf around the Web and find someone who takes mental limitations seriously. For example, Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway once gave a speech called “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment.” He and others list our natural weaknesses: We have confirmation bias; we pick out evidence that supports our views. We are cognitive misers; we try to think as little as possible. We are herd thinkers and conform our perceptions to fit in with the group.


Nothing is really new here...thirty years ago when I studied persuasion a la Aristotle we were discussing the same thing.  What is new in the mix is the ability to so completely avoid facts and opinions with which we disagree and the constant stream of unverified, even false information used as gospel truth.  Brooks says:
To use a fancy word, there’s a metacognition deficit. Very few in public life habitually step back and think about the weakness in their own thinking and what they should do to compensate. 


As I work on the bulletin for Sunday's service, I prepare the corporate, public, confession of sin.  If we take it seriously, we are publicly "stepping back and thinking" about our weaknesses, hopefully considering what we might do to compensate, and then rejoicing that even in our weakness we are forgiven and have a new start through the grace of God.


My young adult children are grieving the tone of the political debate and the apparent brokenness of our way of trying to live together as a country.  They wonder what can be done.  They wonder what they can do.  They feel hopeless and helpless.


Me too, sometimes.  But is that one strength of corporate worship?   If we worship in awareness and not in habit on most Sundays (recognizing, or course, in a very reformed way that our worship will never be perfect, from outside or inside...) does that allow God (and encourage us) to work on building our moral character?  Isn't it interesting that church is one of the few places left that "steps back" on a regular basis.  


Course, that doesn't mean that we can always see our weaknesses--even as church...but I suppose it can be a start.  Stepping back now...

Faith IN the mess...

So my Friday is my Saturday. Because I work on Sundays, my weekends start after work on Thursday and because I go to school on Saturday, my weekend ends at the end of the day on Friday. So Friday I am up at 5 (because I take after my crazy father who gets up at five instead of my crazy mother who goes to bed at five...both a.m.) and I read several chapters for class, empty the dishwasher, make coffee and breakfast, then I wash the dog, shower, and got ready for my "day off."

I usually have a nice cup of coffee with my husband, and then I hit the pharmacy and the grocery store before I go home to dust, vacuum, and do more homework.

That's not to say I dust and vacuum every day off. Sometimes I mow and rake. Sometimes I clean the garage. Sometimes I clean out closets or run errands.

What I can't seem to find is that idea of weekend that I thought I'd have when I was imagining what being an adult would be like. Walking through the lush green spinach and lettuce of a backdoor garden and smiling at the rabbits having a snack in your private produce department...reading the whole New York Times cover to cover with coffee, white terry robes, and a very handsome man in my very luxurious bedroom with a table and chairs, sofa, and, of course bed with breakfast tray...sailing in a beautiful boat with good friends and good wine...hiking the Appalachian Trail in very cool boots and shorts...dinner parties in your backyard garden at big farmer's tables with tablecloths and plates overflowing with beautiful food, candles, and no pile of dirty dishes waiting in the kitchen...do you get the picture?

I sometimes look for that in my faith. I want that faith that allows your head to glow with a heavenly light and your eyes to glisten with just the hint of tears of joy and fulfillment. I want a faith that allows me to turn water into wine and have a heck of a party with my 200 closest friends. I want a faith that allows me to walk on water without ruining the topsiders.  I want a faith that inspires people to want to build temples in my honor...a faith that packs the house and brings more in.

But I don't live in the TV world and the longer I live and the more I read of the scripture, the more I realize that the childhood perspective of miracles as magic is wrong.  Jesus eats with sinners...probably means bad food and less than opulent accomodations.  Jesus heals lepers...nasty disease in case you forgot.  Jesus challenges the status quo and winds up on a Roman cross for his efforts to love God and neighbor.

Faith is in the mess.  Faith is where we do live...not where we want to live...and that, I think, is the miracle.I don't have to create the fantasy to find faith.  It's in the real world with me!!

Amazing VBS Grace...

Honestly, it was a little hard to get "pumped" for VBS this year.  Our church lost two families to relocation, a couple more families were out of town, and so I didn't really know how this was going to work at all.  We do an intergenerational/missional Bible School...classes for all ages...but then everyone comes together for service projects at the end.  Adults help/mentor kids.  Kids entertain adults.  It's cool.  But I wasn't sure anyone would come.

It ended last night...and Grace (yes, with a capital G) abounded.  Here are precious moments that graced me:

1.  Our youngest, Caroline (14 mths), was fascinated with the huge mural of Noah and family disembarking the Ark on the wall of the fellowship hall.  It has been there for years and many of us who have seen it day in and day out for years, love it, but don't pay much attention to it.  If she was in the room, she was at the mural.  Look, a rabbit, an alligator, people, clouds.  She entertained us...she reminded us of the beauty that graces our lives...she was entranced by the story in living color. "Come as a little child."

2.  My oldest daughter remarked on the way home from the last night that being a kid at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church was like having your faith nurtured by one set of parents and 20 naughty uncles (and aunts)  who loved to spend all their time playing with you...she is right...and they also hold you accountable, teach you all they know, and love you no matter what!



3. We studied the Bible and laughed til we hurt...no pictures of this...we were too busy studying and laughing...

4.  Young adults who shared time and talent to teach and model what it means to be a disciple of Christ...coolest ever...ever.........ever...

 5.  Three generations together in faith...one yet to appear...

 6.  Good friends...

      7.  Generations...

8.  Hearts and hands for service...(weeding the garden at Northwood School to get it ready for the kids return)

        9.  Silliness...

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10.  More silliness...












And at the end...our faith grows...our community thrives...our blessings abound.  Amazing Grace, indeed!

"Grow up"

Sometimes you get insight from God in a Mt. Sinai experience with thunder and bolts of fire. Sometimes God is in the still small voice that you hear after the cacophony of wind and storm. And sometimes it just appears as a “duh” in the most mundane of moments. Wouldn’t you know, that would be my experience. No excitement, nothing to write a book about…just a “I-can’t-believe-I-never-thought-about-that-before” revelation.

We were chatting at Montreat…high schoolers thinking about leaving for college in a year or two and college students talking about their experiences being away from home. Some kids leave their home church and quickly find a new church home. Others visit around and never find anything that “feels” right.

And I found myself saying, “You know, when you leave home as a freshman in college and start looking for churches, you look to find a place where you feel like you did when you were ‘at home.’ When you are in your home church, you are children to be nurtured. Everyone takes care of you, loves you, provides for you. The churches you visit see you as young adults, not as children to be cared for. When you join as a young adult, you are expected to serve the church and nurture others. So it doesn’t feel the same. But what I do know is that when you step into that adult role and serve others, your faith is nurtured and you do feel part of a community—that part is the same.”

OK…where did that come from? I have never had those thoughts before…but there is was, and, to me, it made perfect sense. Looking at my own children, the one who expected to go and “be served” never found a place that felt right while she was in college. The ones who went and began to serve others…found that church “home.” Through hundreds of years and millions of different churches in my life (OK, a bit overstated), I have known people who come in to be “served” and pretty soon disappear because church just doesn’t “feel” right. And I have known people who come in to “serve” who very shortly are so much a part of the community that you would never know they were “new.”

I have a new message that needs to be communicated to our children and youth before they leave home. There is a time to be “grown” in faith and a time to “grow” others. Now, while you are a child of the church, now is the time to be “grown.” When you leave home, it will be the time to expect to “grow” others. Some of the young people thought it was a bit frightening to leave home and have to be an adult. Perhaps it is, but we adults also assured them that it was fun and rewarding, challenging and rich with experience. I have a great childhood in the church. I was loved and nurtured and taken care of. But now as one who, like every other adult in the church, is called to nurture others, the depth of my faith and the sense of peace in good times and difficult times is one I wouldn’t trade for all the childhood love in the world.

God's word from Ephesians
Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
But that doesn't mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people…
[Jesus] handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ's followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

No prolonged infancies among us, please… God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. Ephesians 4:6-16 (The Message)

Thanks be to God…even if he did just tell us to “grow up.”

Back....

A bit of a vacation from life and blogging...probably more like complete collapse from a summer filled with extraordinary opportunities but no sleep. 

I have a million things to talk about and the sense that I don't even know where to start.  When people come back from retreats or mission trips they often cannot find words to express their experiences.  If they do find words, it's hard to get them to make sense to people who have never been on a retreat or mission trip.  Encounters with the holy are like that...hard to describe...impossible to experience through someone else.

And, frankly, I'm not sure anyone would count what I have done this summer as an "encounter with the holy."  I drywalled a house in Louisianna.  I coached youth in worship leadership...repeating the words "slow down" until the kids will never be able to remove those words from their psyche.  I hung out with kids from my own church as they got their summer retreat fix and explored issues of faith and life together.

Jesus didn't show up at our dinner table for fish and bread.  No burning bushes appeared--which was probably good because we certainly didn't need any more heat or humidity.  None of us were transformed in ways that caused those around us to want to build temples on our behalf.  We worked and sweated and laughed and learned.  We loved each other and hated each other.  We paid deliberate attention to our faith every day, but not in ways that would get us elected pope. 

But God was there with us.  And God was speaking to us through each other and the scripture and the experiences which showed us both God's kingdom here and how and the need for God's kingdom to come quickly.  And while I wondered for a few days if I was going to die, I would do it again tomorrow.  I can't articulate the impact, but I can feel it.