Archive | April, 2011

Sacred Practice Leadership Series

by on April 28, 2011

This August, I’ll be speaking at the Alban Institute’s Sacred Practice Leadership Series.  It’s a fantastic program geared towards cultivating deep spiritual leadership among pastors and lay leaders.  Here’s more:

Leadership in the church is changing. In the past, leadership often meant knowing and following good business practices, reading the desires of members and developing programs. Leaders were judged by their ability to keep people happy and to make numbers grow. Today there is a growing awareness that our emphasis on efficiency and success often leaves something important out of the mix—namely God and the sacred practices which express and form our ability to respond to God’s call to us.THE SACRED PRACTICE LEADERSHIP SERIES (SPLaSh)is designed for those who lead congregations, both in ordained and lay roles. Six renewal events over the course of three calendar years – with online resources available between events – will feature twelve prominent authors, theologians and practitioners inviting us into conversation and reflection on sacred practices like prayer, discernment, and service. Participants can expect to learn to use sacred practices as a means of shaping their own congregation’s life and ministry, by intentionally allowing God to be a more active player in the life of the congregation.

 

I’ll be talking about the role of hope and imagination in the way we lead and orient others toward God’s future.  If you’re interested in being part of this great continuing education experience, you can find more information here.

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Moltmann Monday returns!

by on April 25, 2011

Happy Easter, everyone!  Ah, how I missed my German friend!  And what better way to celebrate than to share some of his words on the resurrection from The Way of Jesus Christ:

 

Seeing history in the perspective of resurrection means participating through the Spirit in the process of resurrection.  Belief in resurrection is not summed up by assent to a dogma and the registering of an historical fact.  It means participating in the creative act of God.  A faith of this kind is the beginning of freedom.  If God reveals himself in the raising of the Christ crucified in helplessness, then God is not the quintessence of power, such as the Roman Caesars represented. Nor is he the quintessence of law, such as the Greek cosmos reflects. God is then the power that quickens into life, that makes the poor rich, that lifes up the humble and raises the dead. Faith in the resurrection is itself a living force which raises people up and frees them from the deadly illusions of power and possession, because their eyes are now turned towards the future of life.

 

I love Moltmann’s elegantly simple description of how the  resurrection speaks of  a very certain kind of power, one that in its very nature stands over and against other, lesser forms of power (might, law, possession, etc.).  I also am very fond of the definition of resurrection as a process, a creative act of God, a quickening into life.  I envision resurrection as a turning away from one direction of seeing life down a narrow and closed path and toward an entirely new and open direction where the future of life extends brightly ahead of you.  The process of resurrection is the act of looking up and out, ahead and beyond.  I think this is what Wendell Berry means when he urges us to practice resurrection.

Young girl looking out to sea

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Article in Immerse

by on April 13, 2011

I have a brief article on prayer out in this month’s Immerse Journal.  Immerse is a magazine dedicated to issues of relevance to people who work with and for youth.  The magazine has fantastic content, and it’s really lovely to hold and to look at, too.  (Yes, I’m still one of those people who values a tangible book or magazine and loves to feel the weight of the paper and see the color of the inks.)  I’d highly recommend it.

I was asked to write a piece for their Soul Care column, and I talked about my prayer life, which has become mostly wordless in recent years.  Here’s a brief look:

“Sometimes, when I’m thinking about something that is worrying me, I just let out a sigh and close my eyes for a moment, sending it along to God like a quiet postcard.  At times, it feels like God and I are like an old married couple who know each other well enough to shoot a glance across the room at a party to signal we’re tired.  God knows my glances, knows my sighs, knows what it is I struggle with and what I long for and what I desperately need help doing.  Somehow, in not attempting to write a persuasive seminary paper with multiple points every time I pray, I’ve been freed to trust more deeply in that relationship, to breathe, and most importantly, to let go.”

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