The Yale - Edinburgh Group

Continuing Education with Lamin Sanneh

Last week I participated in an academic conference with the Yale – Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity. This is an annual conference sponsored by Professor Lamin Sanneh of Yale Divinity School, Professors Andrew Walls and Brian Stanley of the Centre for the study of World Christianity at Edinburgh University, Scotland. The conference was a fascinating and eclectic mix of world renowned scholars in the area of world Christianity, graduate students, and church leaders from around the world. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to get outside the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) conversations, and connect with the growth, vitality and energy of Christianity all around the world.

It was a particular delight for me to have the opportunity to listen to and have some conversation with Professor Lamin Sanneh. I have been reading his academic work in the area of world Christianity for some time. Most recently, his amazing autobiography, Summoned from the Margin: Homecoming of an African tells his remarkable life story from his upbringing in a scholarly, aristocratic Moslem home in impoverished Gambia, West Africa to his journey into the Christian faith and now his status as one the leading scholars in World Christianity. His professional career has included teaching positions in Nigeria, Aberdeen, Harvard, and now Yale.

For sure, one of the most influential books for me in the past decade is Lamin Sanneh’s Translating the Message. This is one of the unique, powerful and truly transformative books that has the power to change one’s whole perspective which it did for me. This book changed my understanding of world Christianity and, most of all, helped me appreciate the amazing contribution which the classic missionary movement, including our Presbyterian contributions, made to the vitality of the Christianity in the world today. At the Yale Divinity School website, Sanneh’s biography describes the thesis of Translating the Message this way: “One influential book, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture, argues that Christianity’s success and proliferation, ancient or modern, have hinged on the faith’s ability to translate the gospel from culture to culture, adopting and adapting in local languages and idioms, refusing to enshrine any particular civilization as the exclusive or normative expression of the faith.”

The Yale- Edinburgh group is essentially a collection of scholars and students who seek to follow in the important theological trail blazed by Lamin Sanneh and Andrew Walls in understanding and celebrating world Christianity. Listening to the many papers presented, the discussions, and, maybe most of all, chatting informally with Christians from around the world convinced me again that we must, in our little expression of the church where we are, make an intentional effort to live in a larger, global Church and connect ourselves with the remarkable vitality of Christian faith in our world today.

Report to the Presbytery May 28, 2013

A Theology of Hospitality

Is it possible for all the congregations of our Presbytery to agree on a common goal and objective? I believe there is a common focus we all may share. I believe we all need to reorient and refocus towards membership growth.  There are many, complex reasons why many of our churches do not have any growth in membership. There are cultural and demographic issues involved, there are leadership issues involved, there theological issues involved and there are questions of priority and purpose within our congregations. If you look at the statistics that I included in our packet, you will see that 2012 was a terrible year for our membership statistics.

I would like to say that we should all, every one of our churches, make a commitment to membership growth. This is a worthy goal. I would like to say that, at least, every one of our congregations should make a commitment to stop the membership decline. This is a worthy goal. But given the culture and context where many of our congregations are located, many are not going to grow. I propose something more modest. There is something every one of our congregations can do. We can create a spirit of hospitality. We can, as a starting point, create a spiritual attitude that every person who walks through the door on Sunday morning to worship with us is a blessing and a gift. We can, as a starting point, be more intentional about helping every person who walks through our doors to know they are a beloved, blessed and welcome child of God.

Our congregations like to think of themselves as friendly and welcoming. I am sorry to report that most of time this is simply not true. I am typically in a different church every week. Of course, the few people that know me speak to me. Except for the official greeter who says “Good morning” but never asks me my name, it is very common when I come in to a church that no one comes up to me and no one speaks to me. It simply does not happen. Very few of our people, usually no one, will get up out of the pew where they are sitting to initiate a conversation with someone they have never met before. But this is exactly a skill which we must cultivate and learn.

Today people in our culture do not know how to do hospitality. In our culture, we do not welcome and talk with people we do not know; we avoid strangers. Avoiding strangers is the way children are raised today. We must teach our people about hospitality and cultivate a spiritual attitude of welcoming the stranger.

I propose a simple hospitality program which, if we had the leadership and desire, could easily be implemented in all of our churches. The pastors must lead the way. Let’s call the fifteen minutes prior to the start of worship a time of hospitality and welcome:

1) Pastor, what are you doing in the fifteen minutes before worship? I propose that the pastor should be out in the congregation, greeting, welcoming, and talking, individually and personally, with everyone who arrives for worship. Pastors, as a test, I suggest you should know the name of every person who worships with you. If someone is there who you do not know, you have an opportunity before worship to greet them. At the start of worship I like the image of the pastor, not showing up through some hidden door, but actually coming up out of the congregation.

2) I am going to engage the worship wars with this proposal. I suggest that we should encourage conversation and active fellowship in the sanctuary before worship. We should encourage our people to meet and greet one another during this time. This should not be a time for silence. We do not know what to do with silence. If we want a period of silence we should include it intentionally after the service begins and give clear instructions of what to do in the midst of the silence. Before worship our people should be encouraged to talk and to greet everyone by name. We teach this by example.

3) The ‘friendship pads’ which most of our churches use are not working. No one understands these as an expression of hospitality and welcome. They are simply a chore, a sign-in sheet which many people skip. I suggest we intentionally train teams of people to join the pastor out in the midst of the congregation for 15 minutes before worship. These people could intentionally pass those friendship pads among the people, study the names, and introduce themselves to everyone they do not know on the spot.

4) We all know that attending worship is optional for our people today. We know that the worship attendance of even our most active members is dropping in frequency. We must create organizational systems so that we know who is in worship with us. We should regularly, personally thank them for participating so that they know that we know. Most of all we must become aggressive about reaching out to the many, many people who are slipping out the back door of our churches unnoticed and unnamed.

We can create an attitude of hospitality in the name of Jesus. We can make sure that every person who walks in the door is blessed, cared for and known by name. We can teach ourselves and our people to care for one another which, of course, begins with knowing one another. That to me sounds like church.

Book Review: Phyllis Tickle, Emergence Christianity

Phyllis Tickle. Emergence Christianity: What it is, Where it is Going, and Why it Matters. (Baker Books, 2012; available for Kindle.)

Phyllis Tickle’s earlier book, The Great Emergence, was an important conversation starter all around our Presbyterian Church. This conversation was encouraged when Tickle was the keynote speaker for the theological reflection seminars offered by our Office of the General Assembly along side of the 2010 meeting of the General Assembly. The thesis of the Great Emergence is now well known. The Christian Church has cycled through a series of huge transformations every five hundred years. The last one, the 1500s, was, of course, the Protestant Reformation. Now we are in the midst of a new Great Emergence which is shaking the foundations of the established church and ushering in a very new expression of church in our culture.

In her new book, Tickle picks up again her historical theme but this time focuses specifically on American Church history. This is the good book which carefully tracks the history of the new, emerging Christianity in American history. Tickle pulls together some history and the many different pieces of the current, diverse practices into a good story and a compelling thesis that Emergence Christianity is here to stay.

Here is, in my opinion, her thesis statement about the characteristics of this new Emergence Christianity. She unpacks each of these characteristics in a full and clear way:

“Of the several general characteristics that the Great Emergence and Emergence Christianity hold in common, these of deinstitutionalization; nonhierarchal organization; a comfortable and informed interface with physical science; dialogical and contextual habits of thoughts; almost universal technological savvy; triple citizenship with its triple loyalties and obligations; a deeply embedded commitment to social justice with an accompanying, though largely unpremeditated, assumption of all forms of human diversity as the norm; and a vocation toward greenness – these undoubtedly are among the most characterizing.”

There is something new happening in the church. What is it? What is the relationship between the new, emerging thing and our established church? In what ways can the emerging church and the established church touch and support one another? In what ways can they learn from one another? For those of us immersed in and committed to the established church I believe this is an important conversation. Tickle’s overview of the new thing that is happening in our midst is informative and helpful. There is a deep tone of courage and hopefulness in her writing. There is nothing to be afraid of; God is doing a new thing in our midst.

I will cherish the opportunity to have more conversation around Tickle’s new book with other church leaders. 

Charge to the Market Square Church

"Long and Slow"             

My wife, Kris, and I have three boys; Kyle is 24, Michael is 21 and Eric is 13. On a Tuesday evening this past September, Kris and I were driving to Eric’s eighth grade back-to-school night. Kris said to me, “This is our 35^th back-to-school night.” I said, “What!?” Kris answered, “This is our 35^th back to school night. We have never missed a back to school night. If you count all three boys this is the 35^th." Only a Mom could possibly remember and calculate such a thing.

            

My friends, how long does it take to raise a child? How long does it take to form a Christian? How long does it take to build a church? How long does it take to create a more just society? How long does it take to bring peace?

           

My charge to you, the congregation and friends of the Market Square Presbyterian Church, is to continue the long and slow journey of faith you have been on since 1794. Continue this long and slow journey of faith. These words “long and slow” are important. I am borrowing them from a classic book: Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Eugene Peterson is a Presbyterian minister, now retired and a prolific author writing in the area of biblical spirituality and Christian formation. I never met Peterson; Tom did during their days together long ago in Baltimore. Peterson’s book “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” is an old book that has become a classic for pastors and church leaders. The book is a beautifully written reflection of biblical spirituality for ministry today. The outline of the book is taken from the fifteen Psalms of Ascent, Psalms 120 to 134. This collection of Psalms are all pilgrimage Psalms, probably originally used by the Hebrew people as part of their daily prayers while they were making pilgrimage up to Jerusalem. Peterson develops this image of pilgrimage for us, for our Christian journey in the Church. The task of ministry today, the task of being the church today is a long and slow task. This to me seems to be a vitally important word as you turn the page to a new chapter and begin a new relationship with a new pastor. The task ahead of you should be a long and slow journey together which builds each one’s individual life in Christ, which builds up slowly and authentically a new pastoral relationship and which continues your long journey building the church. I might add, of course, that this long and slow journey should also continue your abundant and generous participation in the ministry of our presbytery.   

           

I am not going to develop it now, but it would a fruitful discussion to consider the many ways that this Christian commitment to long and slow is deeply counter-cultural today. Our culture is obsessed with speed, what Peterson calls “today’s passion for the immediate and the casual.” In the face of all of that, I am asking you to be long and slow together, building up one another, building up the church, and slowly ushering in a more just world. Thanks be to God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

            Mark J. Englund-Krieger

            Tom Sweet Installation Service

Market Square Church

Book Review: Rendle. Journey in the Wilderness

Purposeful Relationships

Book Review: Gil Rendle. Journey in the Wilderness: New Life for the Mainline Churches. Abingdon Press, 2010. (Available for Kindle).

This quote is the first paragraph of Rendle’s reflection on the mainline churches today:

“People no longer join congregations because they want relationships or because they want to “belong.” As far as relationships that serve as social friendships, increasingly people already have as many as their time and lifestyle allow. Rather than simply seeking social relationships for which there is less room in a harried contemporary lifestyle, people now come to congregations because they want a purposeful relationship with others who are seeking a purpose and meaning in response to the questions they feel in their lives. For many the function of relationships in congregations has now shifted from being only social to being also purposeful. This shift that removes the congregation from its position as a central institution that provides friendships out of which members then shape a personal identity is difficult news to many congregations, which continue to think of their only strength as being warm and friendly relationship providers.”

I believe the simple idea presented here is stunning if we ponder what Rendle is truly saying. How many of our churches are still motivated by the desire to be friendly and attractive while not truly being about a “purposeful relationship” with Christ?

What is the purpose of your congregation? Is that clear when people walk in the door? Is your congregation excited about that purpose? These are hard questions. These are difficult questions. But the answers to these questions may define whether or not your congregation will survive this wilderness time.   

Report to Presbytery Dec. 4, 2012

Theological Community

            Being a pastor today is an exhilarating, joyful calling and a stressful, confusing job.  Yes, being a pastor is an exhilarating, joyful calling. I borrowed those words from Eugene Peterson. He writes, “There’s a kind of exhilaration because God is doing something, and even in a little way, it’s enough at the moment.” I believe it is a blessing and great fun to live at this time which is truly an era of Reformation for the Christian Church in the world. The foundations are trembling, some old things are crashing down and some new things are growing up. God is at work in our world. Thanks be to God.

There is a particular piece of this great era of Reformation which I would like us to ponder, the vocation of the pastor. Eugene Peterson may be one of the best guides to this new territory of pastoral life today. Peterson has now written a whole stack of books pondering the question of the pastor’s vocation. These sentences from Peterson’s old book, The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction, copyright 1989, may be one of his earliest explorations of this terrain. “The essence of being a pastor begs for redefinition. But one by one, pastors are rejecting the job description that has been handed to them and are taking on this new one or, as it turns out, this old one that has been in use for most of the Christian centuries.”

Being a pastor is an exhilarating calling and a confusing job:

We live with almost complete vocational uncertainty. What does it mean to be a pastor? How should pastors be prepared for this work? Today the academic preparation of pastors in our seminaries is separated from the life of the church. What should pastors learn? How should we define a faithful career path for a healthy pastor?

Being a pastor is an exhilarating calling and a confusing job:

There is confusion about the professional boundaries of the pastoral vocation. Pastors, in our church, are skilled professional people usually with full time salaries and benefits. Any yet many of the people we work side by side with in the Church – Ruling Elders and Deacons – are, in fact, volunteers. Can Teaching Elders and Ruling Elders be professional colleagues? Can they be friends? Is that allowed? Who can be the pastor’s friends? Does your pastor have any friends in your Church? What does that mean? Is it possible to be a pastor and a friend?

Being a pastor is an exhilarating calling and a confusing job:

What exactly is a pastor supposed to do with their time? How much should pastors read and study during their work week? Are pastors today perceived as working too much? Or are pastors perceived as not working enough? What is the difference, and who decides?

Being a pastor is an exhilarating calling and a confusing job:

We now live in a fully disestablished Church. I believe this is a good thing. But it raises some difficult questions for pastors. Pastors in a fully disestablished Church have no social clout, no cultural status and no innate, cultural authority. So where does the authority of the pastor come from? What is the authority of the pastoral office? Does your pastor have any authority? What does that mean?

I want to support pastors. I want to support all of our Church leaders. In the Presbyterian Church we are all in this together. We will seldom separate off the pastors for special concern, although that fact itself may be an interesting discussion point.

I have three pieces of advice for our pastors, and all our church leaders, as we have fun together in this era of Reformation:

1) Make your spiritual life a high priority. Pray often and immerse yourself in the spiritual life. Prayer is always bigger than us. Prayer is always inviting us, calling us, beckoning us beyond ourselves and back to Christ. Learning  to pray is something we might do every day.

2) Seek accountability: The paid, professional pastors in our midst should, I believe, take the initiative to seek accountability within the congregation. The pastor should invite conversation about the time, the tasks, the goals and objectives of their ministry. There should be common discussion about what the pastor does most and least, where and when. By seeking accountability the joy and challenge of pastoral ministry will be shared throughout the whole community.  

3) Create theological community: We need to do this together. I would like to create avenues, forums and time where we can build theological and spiritual community together. I am not talking about support groups. We are already doing that very well. I am talking about theological community.

Kim, the moderator of our Strengthening our Congregation Committee, put together a wonderful sheet which is in your folders. This describes a series of 24-hour retreats at Camp Krislund. I have been pushing for this. Many people have participated in creating this idea and planning this forward. Let us use our beautiful Camp Krislund. Many of you have told me you have never been to Krislund. You need to visit there; it is not very far, just up the road. It is not like going to Honduras. We have pushed out these plans and ideas which in different ways create theological community. These may be great plans. Maybe you have better ideas. But let’s do it together. Let us connect and talk and get to know each other. Pastors and all Church leaders, let us find ways to talk together about the joys and challenges of this work. Theological community. Let’s do it together.  

  

Report to the Presbytery Sept. 25, 2012

Honoring Christ

The short statement copied here was approved by the General Assembly of our Church this year. This Action Item has not received a lot of publicity or attention. I believe this Action Item, if we can take it to heart, may be essential to the health, vitality and faithfulness of our Church today.


General Assembly (2012) Action Item: 07-17 From the Church Orders and Ministry Committee; On Honoring Christ in Our Relationships with One Another

This item was approved by the Assembly with a vote of 405 YES to 230 NO.

“The 220th General Assembly (2012) acknowledges that faithful Presbyterians earnestly seeking to follow Jesus Christ hold different views about what the Scriptures teach concerning the morality of committed, same-gender relationships. Therefore, while holding persons in ordered ministry to high standards of covenant fidelity in the exercise of their sexuality, as in all aspects of life, we acknowledge that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) does not have one interpretation of Scripture in this matter. We commit ourselves to continue respectful dialogue with those who hold differing convictions, to welcome one another for God’s glory, and not to vilify those whose convictions we believe to be in error. We call on all Presbyterians to join us in this commitment.”

We are typically polite, courteous and respectful of people in the church with whom we disagree. But when those disagreements rise to questions of biblical authority and interpretation we are seldom, I believe, truly able to engage the depth of our differences. We talk past one another. We retreat into like-minded groups. We fall silent in the face of massive disagreement. We close our hearts to the other. I suspect many of us are convinced, in our heart of hearts, that there is only one way, one correct answer and one true interpretation.

Are we in the spiritual, emotional and intellectual place within our own selves to truly believe “that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) does not have one interpretation of Scripture”? Is this not good news for us? This is an Action Item that may become a prayer concern. May we each “commit ourselves to continue respectful dialogue with those who hold differing convictions, to welcome one another for God’s glory, and not to vilify those whose convictions we believe to be in error.”