by Howie
Saturday morning I got up early and spoke with my Missouri - Fifth District Congressional Representative, Emanuel Cleaver II, at The Roasterie Cafe following a heads-up email from wecansolveit.org. As suggested by Al Gore’s folks, I briefly covered my concern that Congress pass new energy policy leading to 100% renewable, clean electricity in 10 years. Congressman Cleaver is already on board with the goal, and his position on the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming makes him a good friend to have.
\
Knowing we would agree on that, I covered three points with the Congressman:
- Two of the three main reasons why 100%/10 years is a great idea are traditionally conservative principles; national security and jobs. There is rich potential for common ground here, and I think we should focus our conversations/marketing in these areas…
- Speaking of marketing, we need a catchy meme* such as “Green Shot,” “RePower America,” “Make the Switch,” or even “We can solve it.” The policy can’t be accomplished without creating the political will, which means national and personal marketing efforts.
- I offered myself to the Congressman to do anything his office would find helpful as we work toward the 100%-in-10-years goal.
Congressman Cleaver heard “Green Shot” differently; he thought it worked as slang, like “big shot.” “You see that guy over there? He just turned off his water heater; what a green shot!” (Merrill, you rawk.) My partner in crime overheard him using the term with one of his staffers as we left, though, so maybe it will enter the conversation at that level.
\
* I didn’t actually use “meme” language with the Congressman, not wanting to open that up in case he wasn’t already familiar with that set of ideas.
\
=========================================
\
Bethel United Church of Christ here in Kansas City hosted a open conversation about young people in church this past week; I participated with two friends. We were slightly disappointed that we were the only non-Bethel folks in attendance, as quite a few invitations had gone out to local churches. The conversation was sparked by their evangelism team which had attended a recent summit about how people in their teens through thirties viewed church.
\
Pastor Karen led the group through a series of questions. I couldn’t help but immediately note that the purpose of the event was to listen to teens-through-thirty-somethings, but that an older generation was framing the conversation and silently asserting control by setting the agenda. (Later, Karen opened up the possibility for group members to ask questions and I took advantage of that, but the event was not really set up to support it.)
\
Below are the questions and my notes on the group’s answers.
\
“How has your faith changed as you’ve grown older?”
- From passive to active
- A growing sense of ownership over one’s faith and faith journey
- Increasing emphasis on faith practices
- More intense relationship with Jesus Christ
“What is the best thing about church? About worship? What is the most difficult thing about church? About worship?”
\
Howie’s answers:
- Best/church - People. We are the broken of the broken and drive each other crazy, but at our best we are actively organizing a deep, positive response to each other and the world, and that is rare and precious.
- Best/worship - The potential for transformation in each moment. Personally, any time I can be actively involved in worship.
- Most difficult/church -
- Most difficult/worship - Everything that is top-down, that makes me into or feel like a passive audience member. Seriously, Pilgrimage has pretty much ruined me for top-down worship experiences. I shared my answer to this point with the group, referring them to my “best thing about worship” as a positive example about what is meaningful to me.
(For those to whom my top-down/bottom-up language is new, examples of top-down worship include most everything anyone in our day and age has ever experienced in church; traditional, contemporary, praise, all of it. Bottom-up includes Quaker meetings, Eric’s studio worship, our own Pilgrimage, etc.)
\
“How do you understand your relationship with God, and how does the universal church help/inhibit that relationship?”
- “Church is static, and my relationship with God is dynamic.”
- “Church is not the peak of my God-time.”
At this point I responded to a comment about Pilgrimage/bottom-up worship styles being “unstructured.” Pilgrimage is very definitely and intentionally structured, as you can see from our “form,” - the difference is that our structure is designed to encourage, support, and facilitate spontaneous and planned participation in the worship experience. (As opposed to top-down structure which basically defines participation in terms of singing some hymns and a responsive reading. Maybe prayer requests.)
\
Bottom-up structure is marked by an attitude of permission-giving. The goal of a leader in this context is to find a way to say Yes to whatever a group member is moved to do (within appropriate physical, emotional, and spiritual safety considerations, of course!). Structure serves to empower individuals, and is regularly reviewed to make sure it is serving its purpose.
\
Pastor Karen sort of said that this all sounded great, but how does it (will it?) support a church building and a pastor’s salary?
\
My answer (only in my notes, not shared) is that it might not… but that if it’s where Jesus is calling us, we should follow there anyway. Bethel UCC is bigger than its current building, bigger than its full-time pastor. They could lose both tomorrow (God forbid!) and still be the same church, if they understand their call.
\
The longer answer is that the only way to support a building and a pastor in the long term is to do the kind of Christ-like work that requires those resources. Doing the vital work that makes full use of those things is the best way to keep them around. There aren’t any shortcuts.
\
Karen’s last question was a sort of general “How do you feel about mission?” The group clearly answered that it is very important, and indications from younger folks was that mission precedes message for us. We want to do some work for somebody else before we try to talk about what it means.
\
I asked the group for their thoughts on “What is the purpose of church? Why do we do this Jesus-following thing together rather than individually?”
- Working in groups is better than the alternative
- People need encouragement
- To raise questions we wouldn’t think to ask ourselves
- To experience love
- Refreshment / re-energizing
I reported on St. Peter’s most recent unofficial formulation of purpose, which is something like “Remembering Jesus, Proclaiming Love’s Realm, Healing the World.” Our constant quest for clarity of purpose has been a reliable source of insight and discernment of what our ministry looks like.
\
Those are my notes. Your comments this week might be especially useful; perhaps we can digitally widen the circle of conversation! -h
2 Responses to “Cleaver II and Notes on A New Generation In The Church Forum, Bethel UCC, Kansas City MO 6 August 2008”
Leave a Reply
The point that “100% / 10 years” supports some conservative principles is a good point, and seeking common ground can only be good for the environment, which makes it good for liberals and conservatives alike.
There was an article in today’s paper about global warming. It presented the basic arguments of both those who say it’s real and those who say it’s not, but the article supports the arguments of those who say it is real. One example: those who say global warming is not real point out that at present the earth is actually cooling. The author of the article says that’s cheating with the facts, like taking your first reading in July and you second in January. This article says the earth has cooled the last ten years, but if you look at any 30 year period recently it is clear that the earth is warming.
At the conversation at Bethel UCC it seems that the group’s responses point toward a bottom-up structure as the one that would be most meaningful. And your description of some of what happens in Pilgrimage supports that. So if churches went exclusively to that form and found that it doesn’t support a building and a pastor, we would have some hard decisions to make quickly. Maybe the Quaker meetings are getting a lot of things right, and maybe we have a lot to learn from the Quakers.
As a P.S. to my first comment, I noticed that several people at the Bethel UCC conversation talked about moving from passive to active, being involved in practices, etc. I find that this is true for me as well. The church I am a member of has people in it who are involved in meeting existing needs in the community (example: providing supper for the people who lived in an apartment building that burned down until everyone was settled in a new home a week later) and in the wider community (example: taking needed materials to a small town in Mexico.) Of all the things I do at church, I find these things to be the most meaningful. I feel closest to God, and to other people, when I am doing these things.