 |
|
|
Rector's Blog
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Over the past week in our class "Connecting with Our Children" (using Roberta Gilbert's book of the same name) we've talked some about thinking of our society as an organism: how it's less an abstraction and more of an aggregate of the smaller family emotional processes going on in the families of which "society" is made up. This has gotten me thinking of an analogous connection with these ideas and our demonstration on Sunday of the parish time line that featured "Our Story of St. Tim's" and the individual stories that we contributed.
At the annual meeting on Sunday, around 100 folks shared in the beginnings of a powerful conversation that will continue during Lent when we embark together on a ministry re visioning called "Going from Strength to Strength: A Time for Action." As we shared lunch, reviewed 2006, and where we're headed in 2007, there was some time to share with one another how to think about "our story" that emerges from the time line that we've put up in our parish hall/Edwards Hall. (FYI: Sara, our communications director, created a really large time line stretching from the 1920's to the present, with local/global, personal, and St. Tim's categories; and people were asked over the past few weeks to put up some milestones in the categories. The effect was fantastic: lots of stories and milestones.) Some of the insights were around the interdependence of those who have come at different times and generations; how we are built in layers, with the work of one generation supporting the next and so on; and how around these milestones were blank spaces that were hardly blank, but feature supporting structures that we often don't think about or see that make our story and life together possible. I enjoyed the insights that people shared and gained some for myself.
As a side note, recently someone shared with me that men of the parish each contributed 100 hours to build St. Timothy's--so this strength we have of community that I talked about last week is one that goes back to the beginning.
Over the next few months, we'll follow a dialogical path to discerning what God is calling us to do and be in the next few years. I have my dreams to be sure: people still growing into being Christians (who ever arrives?) wherever they are already with Christ--through bible study, covenant groups and other spiritual disciplines; strong kids whose spiritual life is growing; college students who can look back on mentors and people at St. Timothy's who helped them along the way to connect their life, with its highs and lows, with God the source of life. These are among my hopes and dreams, but others have dreams, too. Together, we'll enjoy discerning together: creating the church that God wants us to be and we want to have over the next few years. It was a great way to begin the conversation Sunday; I look forward to resuming it in Lent.
link | Comments []
[back to top]
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
This month we're talking about the strengths of St. Tim's as I've discerned them in my visits with folks over my first 4 months as Rector. After joy I see in St. Timothy's a real strength in community. Community is a vague word, as I mentioned in my sermon Sunday, and can mean all sorts of things. But there is a specific kind of community that is intentional in its life together. Where we can drop the masks that we all wear, and among friends share with each other, learn together, and grow in faith in God. Where we are given the opportunity to look at our relationship to God and one another and be moved to take new steps towards living the kind of healthy life that God desires.
Covenant groups is how we do that; worship is how we do that; giving of ourselves, from what we have been given, is how we do that; inviting others to experience what we are through worship and groups--these and other ways are ways we take those steps towards healthier life. And through participating we learn the truth of community--that we are, in the words of Gen 12, "blessed to be a blessing"--we are a community that blesses one another and blesses God. St. Timothy's is a community of faith that takes Jesus seriously when he says to his disciples, "This is my body" and "this is my blood": "do this in remembrance of me". We remember him--through our bodies, all that we have and are, we recall him to life. In our life together we become and are called ever more to be the body of Christ in the world.
Community--what a strength! It's our strength, given to us by God, and resident in St. Timothy's.
link | Comments []
[back to top]
Friday, January 19, 2007
St. Tim's has deep strengths. What are they?
Since coming in September, I've had the treat to visit almost all our covenant groups. I've visited people in home, hospital, office, and coffee shops. I've visited ministry groups from A (Altar Guild) to Y (Youth Ministry)--no Z yet. (My conclusion: I'm biased, but I think St. Tim's has got the best people!) Through all these experiences and meetings and conversations I've been listening. What in the world is God doing here? Who is God calling us to be and where is God calling us to go?
In Lent together we'll discover where God is calling us to go (more later on the parish-wide revisioning across successive Wednesday nights in Lent).
But as for what God is doing here now, I've discovered St. Tim's strengths; and across this time, our top 3 have emerged, and my conversations with staff and leaders have confirmed it.
Our top strength is joy. In our community there is great joy. We not only have we been given joy--it is a strength from God after all, not something that we've made--but it's also something we share among ourselves and with others with whom our lives come into contact. It would be one thing if we just had a sense of personal happiness that comes and goes. But there's joy. St. Tim's is a people who go through all of lifes ups and downs and yet have this joy going on, too. Not always happy, not always pain-free, not always fun, but joy: because our joy is a spill-over from God's joy in creating us. The strength we share at St. Tim's--joy--is because of his joy in creating us, and then coming us as he is. God is our source of joy, and thanks to be to God that joy is the first of St. Tim's strengths.
link | Comments []
[back to top]
Archive:
09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006
10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006
01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007
02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007
03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007
04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007
05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007
|
|
