Going Home..... well one of the homes

The first time I went to Camp....

 Have you ever noticed that there are some places that are always home? A place that, as soon as you arrive something just feels right?

For me one of those places is Camp Maskepetoon, along the north shore of Pigeon Lake. I went as a camper three time as a child and enjoyed myself greatly. I still have some very clear memories of wide games, of sleeping at outback, of the ghost story The Claw (which we were told the night before going to sleep at outback in 1980--probably not the best timing). I remember a talent show in 1981. I remember campfire singing (where I first learned to sing with glee about the sinking of the Titanic) and telling stories and jokes when we were probably supposed to be singing. We had great times.

Then 8 years later, in my second year of university, I was looking for a summer job. As an Education student I was looking for something that might be slightly career oriented. In the job centre in the Student Union Building was a listing for staff positions at Camp Maskepetoon and I thought it sounded good so I applied to be the Devotions Director. I got an interview (and can still name the three people who interviewed me 37 years later) and was offered the position.

Realistically, I had no idea what I was doing. I certainly had no idea that my  life was about to be changed. It was just a summer job....right?

Cooking at camp
can be...different

I had a great summer. I went back the next year in the same job. Then ended up going back to work in the kitchen for a third summer at camp. Took a few years off, working summer jobs at a golf course clubhouse (which was great, good people but not the same). Then I needed something for another summer and applied to work in the kitchen again. Did that for 2 years.

Then was asked to be on the Board, which I did for three years before going off to finish my degree and start my career. While on the Board I helped hire three sets of staff. And because I had three days or four days off in a row every week (one of the blessings of shift work) I spent LOTS of time out at the lake visiting, singing, and helping with whatever needed to be done.

Camp changed me. Camp changed my life direction. If it hadn't been for those first 2 summers I might not have started to feel called to ministry. But it was more than that.

I made friends at that place. Friends that I have not seen for years but in June when we all gathered for a reunion the connection was still there. I grew spiritually at that place. Eveneings standing on the beach staring at the lake and the sky, nights at outback sitting around the fire, the (sort of) stillness of sitting in one of many canoes as the whole camp group canoes across the  lake. Times that opened my heart and soul.

These were times of laughter. Times of hijinks == the time we hung a bunk in a tree, or the day in 1999 when I came out of the cabin to find that my car (which I had foolishly left the keys in) had been moved to the middle of the cabin area and mummified in saran wrap. There were games played, hiding in the bush, chasing each other around the sports field. It was a place where we were invited to be free to be who we really were. In a time of my life where I had few places where I felt really comfortable Camp stands out as that place. At camp I was free to make a fool of myself (arguably something that came naturally). Before camp I would never have seen myself leading campfire songs.

I would never have thought I might offer the first car I ever owned up for redecoration.

Many years later I moved back to Alberta. My daughters became old enough to go as campers. I convinced them to give it a try -- which was an easy sell as they had experienced church camping before -- and every year as we turned into the driveway to drop them off my heart sang. We always got there early enough to have time to walk around the site before leaving however many of them were staying that week/ I wanted, no needed, to walk around this sacred place, to sit on the campfire benches, to walk down to the chapel. Just to be there for that 45 minutes gave me some renewal.

ANd it worked again. this summer two daughters are on staff (one for the 4th summer) and one is volunteering. For some of us camp seeps into your bones and draws you back.

At the reunion for the 70th anniversary last month I was asked to say a few words about what camp meant to me. The first word that came to my mind was HOME. Wherever I go that place will go with me. Later this summer I am going to spend a week as Camp Dad and general helper. I look forward to seeing what a week at camp looks like now and how it is both the same and different as when I spent all those days there long ago.

If you get a chance to experience church camp ministry TAKE IT. Just be aware that it might affect you more than you expected.

Book Review: From Social Media to Social Ministry: A Guide to Digital Discipleship

 

From Social Media to Social Ministry: A Guide to DigitalDiscipleship By Nona Jones ©2020 Zondervan Press 176 pages.

When it comes to being a hybrid church or finding new ways to be church in an online world we have to move beyond Sunday morning. Much of the time we stop there, thinking streaming worship is enough. But if we are considering how these tools might support, for example, a church who has trouble convincing a clergy person to move to town or can not afford full-time ministry, we have to ask how the rest of the work of the community can be fed/supported/nurtured online. So I was really looking forward to this book that promised to move beyond the live stream.

I was somewhat disappointed, more on that later.

In this short little volume Jones pushes the reader to see Social Media in ways beyond merely another advertising tool to get people to attend in-person events/activities. She reminds us that community can be built online as well. It won’t be the same but it is real. This is something many of us struggled with during the early stages of Covid-19 as we were barred from gathering in-person. How could we be a community without being together in the same space?

In the post-lockdown world the question still lingers. Jones would likely point out that some had started to embrace that question long before March 2020. For a variety of reasons there are some people who prefer (or are only able) to join a community in virtual/online space. How can we make that a full experience of community? I note that she also works (or worked not sure of timelime) for Facebook and much of the book is explicitly talking about how to use Facebook for social ministry. It started to feel a bit like an ad for Facebook at times. This was one of the disappointments.

Disappointing as it might have been, I think Jones raises several good points about what is needed to create a true ministry presence online. I think she is right about the limitations of many platforms to create a safe place for building community and relationships. I am less certain that Facebook is as good for it as she claims (and am relatively certain it might be getting worse as AI slop invades the atmosphere). It is a real challenge to see Social Media as something other than an advertising tool.

The other disappointment I had in the book was that it was treating the online space as creating a separate campus for a church, in the same way that a large church might set up a second (or third or fourth) physical location. With this approach the online church starts to need a whole staffing/support structure that many churches can not (or will choose not to) provide. A small church with one (or no) pastor or staff that wants to create an online side to the community will not be able to designate a pastor for that part of the community. Much of the discussion of how to move from social media to social ministry seemed to assume a much larger church structure than many readers would have.

Still I want to know how we use online tools to build a community, either as a stand-alone or more likely as an adjunct part of the in-person community. How can we use online tools (be that Facebook pages and groups, Zoom, Instagram, or...) to facilitate community building, spiritual growth, Christian Education, stewardship/opportunities to serve as well as Sunday worship? How can online ministry help the church that has no pastor, or the one who only has a pastor onsite half-time? This book raised good issues and questions. It is sorting out those learnings from the sales pitch on one (plausibly one very good) answer that is the challenge I need to meditate on some more.

Book 12 0f 2024 -- Grace and Gigabytes

 This fall I took a course about digital ministry. The course was good but spent far more time talking about AI than I was expecting. It did however make me think more about the role of digital and hybrid ministry in the life of a congregation. If I were to take a sabbatical again that is the area I would take time to explore.

At any rate, the presenter/instructor of the course intrigued me so I went looking at the books that had been suggested for Further Reading and decided to read this one. Panzer lives in both worlds, he has an MDiv and a career in IT, so is very well situated to lead these discussions.

I liked what he had to say about the cultural change that is happening and ideas of how the church which is rather notorious for being behind when it comes to cultural changes) could respond. Panzer is clear that the way to do and plan digital ministry is about far more than simply signing on to a bunch of different platforms or tools. Like any other ways of considering new directions in ministry it means careful deliberation and discerning what is the best fit for your context.  I also really appreciated that he gives high- medium-  and low-tech options for how the ideas presented in each chapter could be played out.

Panzer talks about a variety of topics that address the philosophical foci of this new tech shaped culture. they are: Questions, Connection, Collaboration, and Creativity. I think it could be argued that the church as a whole has a mixed history of effectiveness on all four of those points. It is not just about the technology, it is about how people want/expect their communities to work. The technology is a tool (or a set of tools) to help us do ministry in a changed and changing culture.

This was a good read. It has things I need to ponder more. Now I am contemplating getting this book also by Panzer.

Book 7 of 2018: Hearing Beyond the Words: How to Become a Listening Pastor

One day I was browsing through Facebook when one of my contacts recommended this book. Because Pastoral Care and visiting has always been an area of ministry with which I struggle and because I value the wisdom shared by the contact I decided I would give it a read.

The book uses hospitality as the way in to the topic of listening, which at first I thought was an interesting choice. However it worked very well.

I found that Justes addressed well what it means to listen "beyond the words". The book also captures the intimacy and vulnerability that this brings.

I read through, but did not do, the exercises at the end of each chapter. They really are set for a place where there are groups (or at least pairs) of people working through it together.  I see how it could be a very helpful tool in a classroom setting.

The book raises the question of what it means to really listen to the other. What might it force us to do? What might it cost us? And yet it is what we all really want. At the same time I think I am not alone in acknowledging that I do not always do it well.

I remember a person whose partner had died several months earlier comment that people kept asking how he were doing and yet never gave the impression that they really wanted an honest answer. To be in community means we need to look for the honest answer.  That may mean an interpretation of both the words and the other stuff beyond the words.

Book 8 of 2017 -- Fishing Tips

Yet another book I would like to read with a group of congregational leaders and discuss where they see its wisdom intersecting and/or challenging the life of our faith community. That brings me to three now... (the other two are here and here)

I have been hearing about this book for some time now. Most often with good things being said. Some in my denomination seem to consider it a "must read" when it comes to the topic of revitalizing a congregation. So earlier this year I decided I would read it.

I have been hearing about Hillhurst United Church and their somewhat amazing revitalization for even longer. It is one of those success stories that  get passed around the denomination as something we should try to emulate or even outright copy. Which brings me to the first thing I most appreciate about the book. John is clear that he is writng a descritpion of what happened in one place in one church. He does not think the exact actions and programs are the answer for everybody. Instead he hopes that there is wisdom and principles that might transfer to other locales.

Some of what is in here is in many other books about growing healthy communities. And so to a degree it repeats (and therefore reminds and amplifies) some wisdom about best practices and foundational tasks. Then there are other things that are not exactly new and innovative, or at least not innovative outside the mainline church--which is rarely a place true innovation is found in my experience, but are put in a new "churchy" context with an accompanying spin.

One o the things I liked about the book, and something I think would make it easier to use with a group of leaders is the use of stories. Narrative tends to make a concept more real and accessible much of the time.

Is this book the saving of a congregation? Of course not. Even if the wisdom in it is to be useful more than one person in a community needs to read (and buy in to) it. But I think there are nuggets here that many congregations I have known would do well to learn.  WE are not all going to change teh way Hillhurst did (mainly because we are not Hillhurst and we each have our own context and challenges). We can not simply copy what they did. Nor should we try. But John is not writing a prescription of "do this and that will happen". Which is all too often what books on church growth start to sound like.

I am glad I read this one.

Book 4 of 2017 Bullseye: Aiming to Follow Jesus

During his term as President of Alberta and Northwest Conference Rev. Paul Walfall encouraged/challenged the church to enter an intentional discussion about evangelism.  The Conference website has a number of articles related to that challenge here
.

As a result of this conversation the Conference bought a copy of this book for every congregation.

And I am glad they did. Maybe.

I liked much of what Holtom and Johnson had to say. And I saw lots of possibilities. But to move from possibility to action requires work. At teh same time we are planning some sort of Needs Assessment/Congregational Visioning/"What are we all about?" discussion in the fall so maybe there is stuff here that can be mixed in there. Indeed, as I was finishing the book this afternoon some questions were forming in my mind that could (should?) be included as part of this discussion.

Of course one of the markers is Giving Generously and another one is Serving and we are already planning something around Stewardship for the fall so there are a couple areas of overlap. [The other four markers are: Using Spiritual Practices, Worshipping Together Weekly, Discovering Authentic Community, and Sharing Christ.]

In the end, as with much around congregational development, this is a book that needs to be read by more people in a congregation than the person in paid ministry. It needs to be shared by a core group of leaders.  I wonder how I can make that happen....

Pastoral Care....some rambling thoughts

From the beginning of my first internship I have found one thing to be true.  The part of ministry that I find the most challenging is Pastoral Care.

There are a variety of reasons for this I suppose, but it remains the truth. The biggest block is the so called "regular" visit. I am never really sure what the purpose of these visits is. For visits with a clearer purpose I am much less uncomfortable.

Further complicating matters is the fact that for many of those who are home-bound it often seems that the biggest need the visit is meeting is that of social companionship.  While that is certainly valued, I am not convinced it is the task of the clergy person to provide social companionship to people (interestingly when I asked one Board Chair that question the answer was a quick "yes" as if it was a strange question) -- particularly when said companionship can be provided better by people who have more of a shared history.

Then this summer I read two articles that were not helpful to someone who tends to do less visiting than he would like. One is called How Pastoral Care Stunts the Growth of Most Churches and the other is Fifteen Reasons Why Your Pastor Should Not Visit Much. Both authors make some sound  arguments, though I believe they may overstate the case. And of course context is key in any of these sorts of discussions, what is a norm in one place may seem odd in another.

And at the same time a very common comment in many congregations is that the minister does not visit enough...

But it brings me back to a key question I have been wrestling with for 20 years now.

What is Pastoral Care? What is it not?  What parts of the broad topic are best taken on by the clergy and what parts are best taken on by the whole congregation?

I think that everything we do as a church has at least a touch of Pastoral Care to it. Worship, Christian Development/Faith Formation, Community Building events, Fundraisers (I always counted the many hours I spent helping make apple pies in my settlement charge as Pastoral Care time), even Council and Committee meetings are part of how we are "church" together and so how we care about each other. But obviously there is a more focused piece as well...

In a Facebook discussion this summer some clergy were discussing who in the congregation gets a monthly visit and why. Some said none except in exceptional circumstances, some (myself included) said that there were some (usually "shut-ins") who it was a priority to try and see monthly.

Whose job is it to maintain contact on behalf of the church?

At the same time there is a little matter of choice.

There are X number of hours in a week. And so a finite number of things that can be done.  How do people know who to go and visit? What responsibility is it of the visitor to know who needs a visit and what is the responsibility of the person wanting a visit to make that need known?

Coming back from Sabbatical it is my hope that I can only be in the office in the mornings and maybe one afternoon a week. This leaves the other afternoons available to visit folk. Mind you I have tried to get that going before and it has yet to be successful.

How do you define Pastoral Care?

What do you think the "Pastoral Care" piece of the ministerial job description should mean?

If you are clergy how do you define it?

Book 20 of 2016 -- Looking Back to Look Forward

Asset Based Community Development (ABCD): Looking Back to Look Forward: In conversation with John McKnight about the intellectual and practical heritage of ABCD and its place in the world today.
                  Cormac Russell

This is a short little read. The majority of it is transcribed (and one would assume edited) conversations with John McKnight about the people who have influenced him in his work around Asset Based Community Development.

And yet in this short little read I made 37 highlights. The print version is 80 pages so that would be roughly one every 2 pages. It is a short book with a wealth of insight into community and social development and systemic reform.

I like the idea of the Asset Based approach. It pushes us to ask what we have rather than what we lack. It pushes us to realize that we do in fact have what we need to change and develop our communities. And in this book the reader is challenged to rethink their understanding of how the systems around them work and the whole “it has to be like this” idea that often accompanies systems.

In the church we are often unaware of the systems we have built. We are also good at insisting we do not have any resources with which to make change. For some time now I have thought we need a new way of looking at things. Our systems are not working. We are not aware of all the resources we have (or –more importantly– how they might be used in new and innovative ways). If the present system/way of being is not producing the results we want, why do we want to keep tweaking it instead of building a new system?

I see myself referring back to this book in the near future.

Book 17 of 2016 -- The Emerging Christian Way

The Emerging Christian Way: Thoughts, Stories, & Wisdom for a Faith of Transformation

Edited by Michael Schwartzentruber (Kelowna, Copperhouse) 256 Pages

This book is a collection of essays looking at one vision of the future path or the Christian church (perhaps particularly the mainline church). It begins with a chapter by Marcus Borg where he outlines his understanding of an emerging paradigmatic understanding – which he calls Transformation Centered – of how to be the church (as opposed to an earlier paradigm which he calls Belief Centered). This lays out a basis for the “Emerging Christian Way” that the rest of the writers discuss. It is also not new to readers of Borg's work, particularly Heart of Christianity. In reading this chapter I was reminded how much I like Borg. The other chapter in Part One of the book is by Tim Scorer, who invites the reader to participate in an exercise that looks at five ways that faith can help us embrace transformation in looking at a key dilemma or issue in our lives. Interestingly when I was invited to name that key dilemma the first things that came to mind were issues of identity and belonging and acceptance. Some things never change apparently.

Part Two of the book is called “Key Perspectives”.The writers in this section look at creeds (Tom Harpur), the “great work” of our era (Thomas Berry), relationships to nature (Sallie McFague), post-denominationalism (Matthew Fox), multi-faith issues (Bruce Sanguin), inclusion (Anne Squires), and social justice (Bill Phipps). Some were very good – I was surprised how well the Tom Harpur piece resonated with me and could easily affirm his draft creed. Some were disappointing, in particular the last two. Squires' piece on inclusion was very familiar in this United Church that has made inclusion/inclusivity an idol. I agree that we are called to be a place where all are welcome, but that does not mean we need to be a place where everyone will be able to find a spiritual home. But in UCCan circles it is almost a heresy to point out that we are not called to be a spiritual home for every one. Phipps' piece was not something I disagreed with, but was also not new to me and so I had a “been there” feeling.

The third and final part of the book is “Emerging Forms” and is, I think, intended to give some practical advice for living into the emerging Christian way. The chapters here look at worship styles and liturgy (Mark McLean), singing in worship (Bruce Harding), Christian education (Susan Burt), pastoral care –though really focused on spiritual formation not crisis care – (Donald Grayston), and spiritual discernment (Nancy Reeves) before a short concluding essay by the editor to wrap things up. The most challenging piece in here was the chapter by Donald Grayston and his ideas about providing rites of passage (separate from confirmation) for youth. The Bruce Harding piece was good but again not new to me as I have hear Bruce say many of those things before.

All told this was a good read. Probably would make a better read within a group context, preferably with a leadership group/team of a Christian community, so then the group could discuss “what does this mean about how we are a community of faith?” in response to the various chapters.

Sensio Divina

Last week we went to a midweek service. The church where I grew up is having once a month services of Forest Church. These are services to encourage connection with the natural world (I note that the next one at the end of August is to celebrate the coming harvest). The July service was held out at a wetland area at this park and invited participants to an experience of Sensio Divina.

Sensio Divina?

Some readers will have heard of (and/or experienced) Lectio Divina, a Spiritual Practice that allows one to sink into a piece of Scripture. Sensio Divina is the same basic idea, except instead of a piece of text one uses some sensory input as the focus of meditation and reflection. Here are JPEG scans of the order of service, which includes a description of the process:

BEfore and after we went out for a walk we paused to center ourselves while listeing to the singing of Galai Star. Then we went out to walk the boardwalk (or other trails in the area) and see what drew us in and drew us to God's PResence.




Some pictures from the evening:

There were two things that I took away from the worship.
1) I would love to do something similar here. Every once in a while someone expresses the thought (which I have had and shared more than once) that it would be nice to do a "different" type of worship once in a while. My vision is an evening worship once a month that uses a variety of different worship experiences. This could be one of them,

2) I had forgotten how wonderful it is to have quiet time by the water. When I worked at Camp I would frequently go out and stroll/sit/pray/sing on the beach in the late evening, after all were in their cabins. When I was in seminary I would periodically go for a walk or a bike ride (season dependent) along the South Saskatchewan River. There is something about water that just holds me (which is a little odd since I am not a swimmer by any means -- I float somewhat like a rock). It reminded me that I need to be better/more intentional at making time to be outdoors in the quiet and allow myself to feel the presence of God.

Book 14 of 2016 -- 10 Principles for Spiritual Parenting

10 Principles for Spiritual Parenting: Nurturing Your Child's Soul

Mimi Doe with Marsha Walch (United States: HarperCollins) 375 Pages

“In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, how do we, as parents, honor the spirituality of our children? As we shuttle between school, soccer practice, piano lessons, ballet lessons, birthday parties, and doctors' appointments, how do we find the time to encourage our children, through the ups and downs of growing up, to turn to God for guidance?” (from the back cover)

In this book Doe and Walch outline 10 ways to answer those questions. At times the way they explicate their principles seems very grounded. At others they sound a little “New Ageish” or “airy fairy”. But each to their own. You take what works and leave the rest. And of course this book is aimed at Spiritual parenting in a more generic sense (though one clearly gets the sense that the authors write from a Judeo-Christian mindset) and not specifically aimed at any one faith tradition. Which means that there will need to be a variety of images used.

The 10 principles themselves are:

1. Know God Cares for You
2. Trust and Teach That All Life Is Connected and Has a Purpose
3. Listen to Your Child
4. Words Are Important, Use Them with Care
5. Allow and Encourage Dreams, Wishes, Hopes
6. Add Magic to the Ordinary
7. Create a Flexible Structure
8. Be a Positive Mirror for Your Child
9. Release the Struggle
10. Make Each Day a New Beginning

This is a well written and helpful book. There were times that would encourage most parents. There are times that would convict most parents. And both of those are needed. There are suggestions that make a lot of sense and seem (in theory at least) easy to put into practise. And, as noted above, the reader is free to pick and choose what works for them and what does not.

Each principle gets its own chapter. At the end of each chapter are 5 things that make the book very worthwhile. There is a section called “Parents' Insight Building Exercise” which invites the parent to reflect (in the form of a guided meditation) on the principle that has just been discussed. There is a set of “Parents' Check-In Questions” which also push for reflection both on their own life and in their relationship with their child(ren) and partner. There is a “Children's Guided Journey”, a guided meditation to use with your child(ren). There is a set of “Children's Check-In Questions” to help encourage discussion with the child about the principle. And finally there are “Affirmations” both for Adults and Children.

I am glad I read this book. Truly there were passages that were difficult to read because I knew that what I do in practice is far less helpful than what was being described (Principles 3, 4, 8, and 9 come to mind). But we need to read those things too. At the same time, there were plenty of good suggestions.

One of the reading goals for this Sabbatical was to do some reading and reflecting on Pastoral Care. I chose to read the book because while Pastoral Care is about dealing with all generations. Much of our talk about Pastoral Care is about elderly individuals and/or people struggling with illness/change/mourning. But Pastoral Care is really about helping people grow in their Spiritual life. These principles are ones that the whole church could take on, not only as parents and grandparents but as part of the village that it takes to raise children. When we baptize a child in the United Church of Canada the gathered congregation makes a promise. Paying attention to books such as this would help us live out that promise.

Book 13 of 2016 -- Making Neighborhoods Whole

Making Neighborhoods Whole: A Handbook for Christian Community Development

Wayne Gordon and John M. Perkins (Downers Grove, Intervarsity Press)

8 years ago New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani scoffed at Presidential candidate Barack Obama for being a “community organizer”. Which annoyed many clergy because we know the value of community organizers.

You could easily say that helping to develop healthy communities is a vital part of what it means to be the church in the world. It is Scriptural. It is faithful to the Law and the Prophets. It is also what Gordon and Perkins (and their many other contributors) talk about in this book.

The first part of the book is a bit of history about how the authors came into the world of Christian Community Development and the formation of the CCDA in the United States. The last 2/3 are the handbook. The CCDA has 8 principles for Christian community development and each is given a chapter. In each chapter the principle is explicated, both in terms of rationale and in terms of how it is lived out. But then is the best part.

Each chapter includes at least one story (this is wehre the any other contributors come in) relating to the principle [though of course the various principles inter-relate and it is not always easy to only talk about one]. Story, as any of us know well, is a wonderful teaching tool.

The community development discussed in this book is specifically geared to areas such as under-resourced American inner-city areas or possibly some less developed parts of the world. And so it is not a direct line to use the concepts as described in many congregations (to develop them) or other communities. But there is a lot of cross-over and places where one can extrapolate from the descriptions offered here.

To be in church leadership is to be in the business of developing community. A big part of that is developing the community of/within the local congregation. But we are also called to work and pray for the welfare of the communities in which our congregations are set. Sometimes we are better at that than others. But if we are to flourish as communities of faith we have to live it out. The ideas in this book are a help in figuring out how we might do that.

Book 12 of 2016 -- Aging, Spirituality and Pastoral Care

Aging,Spirituality and Pastoral Care: A Multi-National Approach

Edited by: Elizabeth MacKinlay, James W. Ellor, and Stephen Pickard (Binghamton: Haworth Pastoral Press) [Co-published simultaneously as Journal of Religious Gerontology Volume 12, Numbers 3/4, 2001]

This is a collection of papers related to the topic of the title. And as one often finds in such a work, some papers are more enjoyable than others. It is in two sections.

Section 1: Ethical, Theological and Ethical Dimensions

There are 5 papers in this section. The first looks specifically at ethical issues. It is very dense and was not my favourite. The other 4 were much more readable and accessible. In particular I liked the fourth, a paper co-written by a philosopher and a theologian discussing what wholeness means in relation to ageing – particularly in a culture where frailty and failing health tend to contradict understandings of wholeness. The third essay was also a very interesting read. It dissected a section of 2 Corinthians as a way of discussion “outward decay and inward renewal. The one issue I had with it was that there was relatively little overt discussion of ageing...which seemed odd given the topic of the book. The second paper challenged us to create a new way of looking at aging and gerontology, pointing out that much of the current work is based on biology and medicine and therefore misses some of the less tangible pieces of the puzzle.

Section 2: Issues of Ageing and Pastoral Care

This section has 7 papers. These tend to be a bit more practical in nature than the first section. They address issues as varied as isolation to sexuality to ritual to spiritual development to parish nursing. There are two authors who have submitted 2 papers each in this section. One talks about a dialogue between faith and dementia followed by a discussion of the importance of ritual in the life of faith. The other is a series of two articles relating to spiritual development and ageing (though it appears that these two are in the wrong order). I found both these sets of papers quite useful, though in terms of practical use the first set were more helpful. The last article, dealing with parish nursing (or as termed in this book “Faith Care Nursing”) reminded me of discussions in the United Church about 20 years ago. It struck me as an intriguing idea then bu one that would be harder to sell in financial terms. Still on the whole these papers have planted some seeds about how a faith community can provide optimal support for an ageing population – and in the process provide more support for all generations.

One of the gifts that faith communities have to offer to life is that we are one of the few places in society that are truly intergenerational. There are few places where people can share the energy and wisdom of multiple life stages. If we do it well we will all benefit.

Book 11 of 2016 -- Studying Congregations

StudyingCongregations: A New Handbook

edited by: Nancy T. Ammerman, Jackson W. Carroll, Carl S. Dudley, and William McKinney (USA: Abingdon Press) 256 pages

This book was recommended by a classmate 15 years ago. So I guess it was time to read it.

One of the realities of ministry is that in order to provide leadership you need to constantly be gauging who and where the congregation is (both in their self-understanding and in reality – because those two are not always the same thing).

This book gives tools and perspectives on how we do that analysis. Sometimes you do it intentionally to deal with a specific issue or problem (or “mess” as one quote in the book suggests we do not solve problems – we handle messes). Sometimes you do it intentionally as part of a visioning/re-visioning and mission/goal setting process. You are always doing it at an unconscious level.

I liked that the authors gave a variety of frames or lenses to use in this process of studying. How we look at a situation will often change what we see. Years ago, in my first year theology class I remember the prof saying that the questions are far more important than the answers. Same with choosing what way you will look at a situation. Those things shape the answers we gain. I also appreciated the constant reminder that this sort of study is NOT best done by one person. You need a variety of eyes to get the clearest look at the picture.

But I have a major concern. It is my sense that organizations, perhaps particularly the church sometimes tend to act unreflectively. And so taking time to reflect and study is a good thing. But organizations, and certainly churches, sometimes swing too far the other way. Study and reflection can become the endpoint. We go too far into navel-gazing and never quite get to the action portion (admittedly I recognize this because it is a trap I personally can fall into). Sometimes it feels that the study has not quite given us the magic information that we need to know exactly what action to take.

This book is helpful in giving tools and methods and perspectives as to how we study our congregations. But at the same time I am not about to put it into practice immediately (at least as a formal study process). Sometimes we need to act so that we have something new to reflect upon....

Book 5 of 2016 -- Already Missional

Note: I have also written a piece for the church newsletter based on my reading of this book, you can find it here.

AlreadyMissional: Congregations as Community Partners

Bradley T. Morison (Eugene: Resource Publication, 2016) Pp.123.

One of the key ideas in the world of the church these days is that we need to be missional. Rather than sit and wait for people to come and find out what wonderful people we are we need to be out there actively engaging the community around us, Then people will know who we are and have an incentive to find out more about us.

Which is great. And to be honest I am unsure when this was not the case. Certainly my lived experience of the church has been more of sitting and waiting and assuming that our mere presence is enough to draw folks in. I have not noticed that this approach has been all that effective in my life time – maybe we were always supposed to be missional.

There is a question of how we engage the community. Are we talking about being evangelists and proselytizers, knocking on doors asking folk if they have found the meaning of life? That is certainly one way of being missional and engaging the community. I suggest it is not a way that fits well with most United Church folk. I would also suggest that it is not, in the end, exceptionally effective.

There is another way to engage. This is for the church to become active in the community, to become an active part of trying to make the community around it a better place. This is an approach that is much more attuned to the ethos of the United Church as I understand it. But it raises a whole new set of questions.

Traditionally the missional discussion involves trying to decide what new programs the congregation will offer to the community. Or maybe what formal partnerships the congregation will make with existing organizations. And those are fine ideas. But all too often this approach to being missional leads to the congregational leadership saying to the (already busy) members of the congregation “if we want people to know about us we all have to commit X hours and Y dollars to making this new project work”. And there is the biggest hurdle. How many good ideas have fallen by the wayside because of a lack of resources? The other common problem with these discussions is that there is a tendency for them to involve the repeated use of phrases like “well in they ...” or “Years ago we used to...”. Great. Good for them. But is that something that meets the needs of community where and where you are now?

In this book Brad offers a third alternative. Put simply it starts with asking folk what they are already doing. Church folk in general and United Church folk in particular tend to be very active in the community already. Some of that activity is going to grow out of their faith, to grow out of their understanding of how God would have us live. Normally we fail to recognize that as ministry (both as those doing it and as the church). Having offered that understanding of what it means to be missional, Brad asks the reader to explore a series of questions about how we encourage people to live out the ministries in which they already participate, how the church can recognize those ministries as part of the larger ministry of the congregation, and how the church can support people in their ministry.

This is a book the cries to be read and discussed in a group setting. It is an interesting read for an individual but its power is when a group, say a congregational governing body (and/or the power-brokers—who may or may not be the same people), reads it together and talks about how that congregation might put these ideas into practice.

I have known many people in different places who are active participants in the missio Dei. Sometimes this work is through the church, often it is just because they have a passion for it. Maybe it is time we as the church started to embrace what is already happening rather than think ministry only counts when we can guide and measure and contain it?

#Sabbatical

AS part of the Sabbatical process one is expected to do some form of reporting back at the end. It seems to me that this is actually easiest done if the report is built all along.  Some people start a blog specifically for their sabbatical, but I see no reason to do that when this blog already exists and we have the chance to use the label function.  SO for the period of my sabbatical anything I post that is sabbatical specific will be tagged #Sabbatical.  Most of it will be the annotated bibliography as I work my way through the collection of books I have set aside, but there may also be other reflections, either on the books as they are being read or on other aspects of the rest and recharge period.

Integrity and Community Responsibility...

I am the secretary of our local Ministerial Association (a position I am contemplating retiring from at the end of this year).  It is not an onerus task.  Mainly it consists of sending out agendas and meeting reminders, then taking minutes at the meeting and send those out (all sending done through a group e-mail). Other than that there is some times of being the recipient of requests to speak and taking those to the Executive for decision/invitation. The other piece is to be the central clearing house for items sent to the whole membership.

Normally the last piece is easy.  Something comes in with a request to distribute and I just hit "Forward" and send it on. Occasionally (or even often) the item is not something I would ever support personally but I am clear that it is not my role to screen items to match my social philosophy or theology. My role in this community is to be a conduit, not a gatekeeper or censor.

But recently that was a challenge for me.  I was asked to forward a link to this petition. And I had to stop and consult with the rest of the Executive (knowing that they would want it sent forward) before I could do what I knew it was my role in the community to do. Part of it is because I strenuously disagree with the petition's contents and consider the language ["Totalitarian"] unnecessarily inflammatory. Part of it is because I do not believe the background given accurately reflects the guidelines to which they are objecting. Part of it is that I question if a Ministerial Association should be seen as taking a position on the issue at all, given that by definition there is diversity in our ranks (arguably transmitting a link is not exactly taking a stand -- recipients are free to respond as they see fit). But the big one is that I think this petition asks the government to act in a way that goes against the principle of protecting minority rights and providing a safe school environment.

But let us take a step back.

Last year one of the largest School Boards in the province hit the news because of their difficulty in coming to a fair policy around transgender students. To the extent that some suggested the Education Minister needed to step in and run the district directly. AS a result of this the Education Minister issued a set of guidelines around that very issue, with the requirement that School Boards draft policy based on those guidelines and submit them to the ministry by the end of March for review to ensure the policies are in compliance. A news story about the guidelines is here. The full document (which I admit I have not read completely -- TL:DR) is here.  AND then the excrement hit the spinning blade.

Many places in Alberta are very socially conservative.  The province has already had to mandate that if students ask for a Gay-Straight Alliance then the school is required to provide assistance to have that GSA as a school-sponsored club meeting on campus because some districts refused to do so -- suggesting it could be an off-campus organization instead. SO to tell everyone that they had to abide by these guidelines was like waving a red flag. And to be fair, given that Alberta has a fully-funded Separate (mainly Roman Catholic) School System these guidelines do appear to conflict with many traditional religious teachings. Then again, the publicly-funded school system is not in business to support traditional religious teachings -- there is a question of how far it should go in challenging them.

And so a number of people in the province have found these guidelines (most of which are very common-sense-based when you read them--if you accept that gender is not a binary thing). to be an affront to religious sensitivities and an affront to family values, and an affront to parental rights [one interpretation of them suggested that schools should not tell parents if a child disclosed being transgender, mind you schools have had similar policies around orientation for years]. ANd of course there was the all too common fear mongering that implementing these guidelines around washroom and change-room use would create unsafe environments and male students would use this as a chance to invade the female spaces.

I fully support the guidelines. I watched the press conference when they were released and I did note that the Minister had a real hard time answering when asked what would happen if a board chose to ignore these guidelines. I suspect that the government (or at least some within it) actually wanted these to be regulations-which are much more enforceable- but felt it was more politically palatable to make them guidelines so boards could have some more flexibility. Personally I think at least some of them SHOULD be regulations. I think that actually helps boards who object--then they can say "well we don't want to do it but we have to" (similar to discussions that happened in other places when boards were told they could no longer have the Lord's Prayer led during the school day). Also if they were regulations then boards could go back to the government for cash to redo washroom spaces to make them more friendly to the modern reality.  My personal vision is that instead of a couple of multiple user washrooms based on gender you have a series of individual water closets (fully enclosed rooms with a toilet) along the hallway with a set of common sinks outside. Then the issue of washroom use and safety is automatically resolved. For the record this would be a safer environment for cisgendered students (some people feel very uncomfortable in a public washrooms in general, and school washrooms have a long history of being potential bullying sites) as well.

So I did send the e-mail along.  But I still don't feel good about it.

And to be honest I don't really understand the uproar. Do people seriously believe that these guidelines will make any difference in the life of most students? Do they think there will suddenly be a mass influx of people gaming the system by claiming to be trans-gendered? What is the threat we need to fight against?  I think the threat is to those who are "different" and so we protect them -- even [or especially?] if it means challenging those of us who have privilege because we are not different.

Memories of Ministry

18.5 years ago I started working at Kids Kottage, a crisis nursery program in Edmonton.  Next Tuesday they are having a celebration of 20 years of service to the families of Edmonton and area.  I was asked to share a written message.  Here is what I came up with:

In the summer of 1996 I was thinking about what I might do once my summer camp job was over. And so I was sending resumes all over the place. Having been exposed to the idea of a Crisis Nursery as part of one of my seminary classes in Saskatoon, when I heard that there was a similar ministry in Edmonton they got on my list.

Fast forward a couple months and I got called for an interview, which led to being offered a part-time position and I started in mid-November.

I then worked at the Kottage until August of 1999, and then over the next winter volunteered at least one afternoon a month when I was in town during my time in Lacombe. Most of the time I was there I was working pretty much full-time. And for a good part of it I had the dubious honour of being the only male on staff.

One of the things that gives people satisfaction in a job is the sense that what they are doing makes a difference. And working at Kids Kottage certainly did that. Maybe it was the relief I could see in parents as we met and talked either at intake or discharge, the very real sense that even if we could not make it all better they knew there was someone who cared. Or there was the Client Christmas Party where we had gift bags for the parents and our shock at how touched those parents were at these simple small gifts. Or the joy on the face of a child when you showed up for work (part of me is still astounded that I got paid to spend much of my day in a playroom or out on the playground). Or the difficult time of sitting with a mother as she had to call Child Welfare to say she needed help, that she was at the end of her rope coping with her special-needs child. A difference was being made every day.

An anniversary is a time for memories. And so I do want to share one of mine. I mentioned above that I was often the only male staff-person. That had some strangeness to it. There appeared to be a favourite game amongst my co-workers called “let's see how red we can make Gord get”. Everybody seemed to take great enjoyment at that one (some more than others—and they expressed that joy quite openly). The other strangeness was knowing that it pushed some of our clients to have to deal with a male intake worker. Never really bothered me. But then there were some parents who were openly uncomfortable with me who I later got to have really good discussions with.

One of the things the church asked of me as a part of my formation was to have an experience of social ministry. They had one idea of how I could do that – volunteering at the Bissel Centre. At the time I thought “but I have been living out social ministry for two years”. It may have been a job, but Kids Kottage was also part of my education. And so I thank you.

Earlier I called Kids Kottage a ministry. Many people might have referred to it as an institution or as and agency or as a service. But to me it is one of the ministries in which I have worked. We are all called to serve each other, some of us phrase it in religious terms, some of us don't. For me Kids Kottage was a place where that calling to serve each other was, and is, a place gets lived out every day. When people ask me what we did I would tell them to think of a reason a parent might need emergency child care. We had seen that, and probably a few most people would not think of. Many of us were blessed to grow up with parents who had lots of support. Many people don't get that chance. Kids Kottage is there. You are doing holy and important work. Blessings on 20 years of serving Edmonton families. Blessings on many more years of service to come.

#RAllyRevGals Post Number 2...

Over at RGBP Marthahas challenged ring members to "write a blog post about a woman who has been a positive influence on your ministry (whether or not she is/was a pastor),"

I have two women to write about.  So here is #2:

May also served my home congregation at one point in time.  But while that fact touches on this story, it is not the basis of the story, not the time she had the most impact on me.

After my first internship crashed 20 years ago (on this day 20 years ago I was getting ready to move to Edson for it) I took a break from studies of 4 years.  One of those years I did a unit of CPE, which would later count as 2 course credits when I went to finish my MDiv.

May was my CPE supervisor.

During the CPE entrance interview we talked openly about the fact that we had a past history.  She had served in my home congregation when I was 11 or 12, my father had been on the M&P committee at the time, and her pastoral relationship with the congregation had not ended well.  We talked about if this past made it a good idea or a bad idea for her to be my supervisor.  As she was at the time a provisional supervisor I can only assume she also had that discussion with her supervisor as well.

I think it was a good thing.  More about that in a moment.

CPE was a challenge for me, as Pastoral Care was (and is) a challenge for my ministry gifts.  And at that point I still had a LOT of personal work to do before I would be ready for ministry.  I had little self-confidence, little sense that I had much to offer.  I was uncomfortable with emotional discussion.  So yeah, CPE was a challenge for me.  I was blessed with a good group who were supportively challenging.  And May was an excellent supervisor, both in the group discussions and in the one-on-one.  She helped start me on a path that would lead to seeing a counselor and doing a whole lot of healing and growth.  And I think that she was best able to do that because she knew a different me.

Quite frequently in our discussions May would look at me and say "that isn't who you are, isn't who you used to be, what happened".  She was able to remind me of what had been true before the worst years of school bullying had changed me.  In retrospect I think others had seen signs of it, had tried to draw me beyond the image I had taken on of myself.  But May could provide her own testimony of who she knew me as.  And that had more impact.  I also think that because I knew more of her story, including parts she omitted when she told her story to the group (and called her on when we met one-on-one the next time) it was easier for me to be open with her than it wold have with another supervisor.

CPE was not a magic bullet.  After that I still ended up going to a counselor (on the advice/instruction of my Presbytery E&S Committee) for a couple of years.  But it started me on the road to health.  And May was a big part of that.

Sadly May is no longer living.  Rest in Peace.

#RallyRevGals Post Number 1....

Over at RGBP Marthahas challenged ring members to "write a blog post about a woman who has been a positive influence on your ministry (whether or not she is/was a pastor),"
I have two women to write about.  So here is #1:

It was a woman who first suggested I go into ministry.

Barb came to serve my home congregation when I was in high school, grade 11 I believe.  One of her main roles was support for the Christian Education activities and that is how I got to know her.  She also led an adult Bible Study but I was not heavily involved in that group until after she had moved on (though I heard reports of some of their discussions).  But as part of an active family in the church I got to talk with her relatively often and felt a connection I did not feel with either of the other ministers who served that congregation while she was there.

When I first applied to work at Camp in the spring of 1989 Barb was one of the people I used as a reference.  I remember that discussion.  We talked about my experience with IVCF (a group I was by then finding less and less comfortable in) and how their approach to Bible Study sat with me.

The other time I worked most closely with Barb was when I was on the interview/hiring committee for a new church musician (organist and choir director) and she was the ministry personnel working with the committee.

Then one day she said to my mom: "has Gord ever considered ministry?".  We all laughed. And yet within a year I was sitting in the office of the University chaplain asking about the process.  As I was getting ready to go to seminary I wrote to Barb.  Haven't talked to her for years in person, though we have connected on Facebook.   But without her question, I wonder if I would be where I am now....

And when I remember that story I remember that we in the church have a duty to call out leadership.  And yet I wonder if I would be able to do that, to ask that question.