The Hole in Our Congregations

February 2012

“Making a Difference" is the title of a regular segment of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. The narratives are generally worth observing and pondering. I used to think that “making a difference" was a worthy mantra for congregations engaged in gospel work in cities. No longer! Because the human needs in cities are so overlooked, and because every city congregation has assets and real public value, I would suggest that city congregations are called to “Make a Transformation".

Instead, too many of our congregations have a “hole". They tend to have “silo” mentality, remaining within their own walls. Threats cause them to close their doors to “the Light" in their city. They rarely consider doing ministry in partnerships with other congregations or nonprofits.  And so, the “hole" in those congregations grows larger. What is necessary for contemporary congregations to become risk-takers rather than risk-managers (as they say in the insurance markets)?

The Hole In Our Gospel

February 2012

The Hole in Our Gospel. It's the arresting title of Richard Stearns’ important book . It captures a troubling truth for many of us who do ministry in city churches. There is a “hole" in our Gospel. Stearns was an executive in corporate America (with a conservative, evangelical theology) who became President of World Vision, Inc. in 1998. Traveling the world, learning and doing the good work of World Vision, Inc. (the world's largest nonprofit), Stearns experienced a “conversion". While observing and working with desperate global poverty, battling the absence of potable water and the massive presence of waterborne diseases, and ministering to a portion of 12 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, Stearns came to a radical conclusion. He determined that something fundamental is missing in the contemporary understanding of the Gospel. He knows (as do we) that the word gospel literally means “good news".

Stearns found himself haunted with critical questions:  What is the “good news" for three billion people in poverty?? What is the “good news" for millions of  Africa's AIDS orphans?? Or, to ask some of our questions: What is the “good news" for hundreds of invisible people in our cities who are enslaved in human trafficking for sex? What is the “gospel" for children in our cities who have little or no access to human rights, be they impoverished or homosexual or children of "illegal" parents?

Behind such questions, we must ask ourselves a prophetic question: Just what Gospel is it that most of us embrace today? The answer is found in the title of Stearns’ book: a Gospel with a “hole" in it. The “whole”  Gospel means much more than personal spirituality. It also means a “social revolution”.

Now, we must ask if the churches with which you and I are engaged are doing the work and ministry of social transformation? What would some faces and forms of the “good news" of social transformation look like in your cities?

Steadfast Hope

January 2012

This is the title of an excellent congregational study guide on the Palestinian Quest for Just Peace. It was first published by the Presbyterian Church. More recently an Episcopal version, developed through the efforts of Episcopal Peace Fellowship, has been published. 

I serve on the Palestine-Israel Task Force of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. We are preparing a resolution to our January 2012 diocesan convention which will seek to educate congregations about the complex realities of a just peace for Palestine-Israel. We will be developing this through joint congregations, studying across the diocese and ecumenical churches who will work together using Steadfast Hope. I commend this booklet for your study and use. For more information, and to order the study booklet, click here.

Now, is this not something dazzling for a “demonstration” season: prophetic congregations doing mission work which emphasizes Light and Hope for our very world!

Krakow's Nativity Crèche

January 2012

In 1989, Family Rybinski, Polish refugees from Kraków who escaped from behind Communism’s brutal Iron Curtain, found freedom and new life through the Refugee Resettlement efforts in Memphis and Calvary Episcopal Church. From their arrival in Memphis, through their later move to Chicago and into the present, Family Rybinski has remained close and dear to our family. At Christmas time in 1999, marking the 10th anniversary of their new life in America, Family Rybinski gifted Family Bailey with a touching and memorable Christmas gift: a Krakovian “Szopka".

A “szopka" is a nativity crèche made only in their Kraków. From ancient traditions, each crèche is uniquely crafted by hand. It’s amazing uniqueness is that this crèche appears not in church buildings but on the public porches of Kraków's city buildings. Using the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture of Kraków's actual public buildings, each artist  “demonstrates” the nativity scene in the heart of the city, to be discovered and encountered by all who walk the streets.

What a great portrait for the authentic reality of Christmas: The Light of Christ in the marketplace. The Hope of Christ in the city. It is a sacramental reminder (physical and spiritual) of God's Christmas mission through Krakóvian Szopkas.

The Baby Grew Up

December 2011

Dr. Halford E.  Luccock (1885-19610), prominent Professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity School, is reputedly one of the most persuasive and prophetic preaching voices of the 20th century. One of his oft-quoted sermons is a Christmas Homily titled, “The Baby Grew Up". I've read only references about this sermon, not the actual sermon itself. However, apparently, the title says it all, for both listener and preacher. It seems to convey that we do injustice to the Incarnation when we  confine the Bethlehem Babe to swaddling clothes and a manger.

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An "Adults Only" and Missing Christmas Carol

December 2011

The carols that are piped over the cities of our nation and globe this Season will omit one of the loveliest songs and texts of all.  This excruciatingly beautiful (“grown-up”) carol breaks my heart every time I sing it.  Yet, it cheers and warms my heart.  And, without fail, it fills my heart with hope:

Each Winter As the Year Grows Older

Each winter as the year grows older,

We each grow older too.

The chill sets in a little colder,

The verities we knew

Seem shaken and untrue.

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"Thanks" from a Bag Lady

November, 2011

I suppose most downtown churches in America have stories like this one from Calvary Church, Memphis where I served as Rector for over 20 years. She is unknown and unnamed. She must have noticed the glass doors of the church as she paused among the sidewalk crowd. She observed a burial procession making its way out the church doors, across  the broad brick  sidewalks, and then the placement of the casket in the funeral hearse parked on a busy downtown street. Maybe the lights on the altar attracted her attention on that late September afternoon. Maybe her interior spirit and the Spirit guided her.

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