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Sacred Space: Why I’m Bi-Vocational

August 13, 2009 By 7 Comments

My sacred space is a cafe.  It’s the cafe where I work three shifts a week, serving coffee, tea, smoothies, and baked goods to the variety of people who come through our doors.  It’s nothing fancy, but it’s one of the local independent cafes in our part of Pittsburgh that attracts the graduate students, the internationals, the professors, and the eclectic and eccentric assortment of characters who inhabit Squirrel Hill.  And it’s sacred space for me precisely because the people around me there aren’t all other Christians. In fact, most are unchurched or de-churched.  And I love them.  As one who experiences God when I’m engaged in mission, I see the Holy Spirit at work when I’m around people who are just starting to get to know Jesus. The cafe becomes sacred space for me every time I have a deep conversation with a coworker or listen to a regular customer share their life-story.  The relationships I’ve been able to develop with co-workers and customers are sacred relationships.  Some people talk to their barista they way one does to the proverbial bartender, and at times I feel like taking off my shoes because I know I’m on holy ground when someone opens up to me.

I’m a pastor, but I sometimes say the place where I do the most real ministry is the cafe.  On the surface, I’m “bi-vocational” (working half-time for our church and part-time at the cafe), but I don’t really see any separation between my two jobs.  There’s been some good conversation recently in the PC(USA) about tentmaking, or bi-vocational ministry, as a viable option for more and more pastors and congregations.  The reason most often given seems to be financial: a church can’t afford a full-time pastor, so the pastor gets another job.  I applaud other pastors who do this, but I think the conversation needs to get beyond the financial reasons for tentmaking.  Here are the reasons why I chose to be bi-vocational: (1) Mission – As a new church development pastor, my “second” job gives me an entryway into the community.  Every day I meet people who would normally never set foot inside a church.  And wherever I’m meeting them is exactly where I’m called to be.  (2) Leading by Example -Working a second job that’s not explicitly a “ministry” vocation also gives me an opportunity to teach and model for members of my church how we as disciples can find meaning in our “ordinary” jobs.  Our churches are filled with people who are discontent with their work and who rarely think of their jobs as places where they can participate in the Kingdom of God. How much of that disconnect is the result of an over-professionalization of clergy?  What would it look like to really reflect in our lives the truth that almost any job can be used to serve God?

Early this morning I met my co-pastor and another friend for coffee in my sacred space.  This afternoon I’ll return and work for four hours, looking forward to whatever conversations God brings my way.  In between I’ll do a little “church work”, but in reality there’s no separation between the two – each job complements and enriches the other. Whether on church time or cafe time, I work and pray, and I look for Christ’s presence in the breaking of bread and the pouring of coffee.

Filed Under: Churches, Emergent, Jobs, Presbymergent Tagged With: , , , ,

Become a Fan of Presbymergent on Facebook

August 12, 2009 By 1 Comment

We’re moving away from our Facebook group to a new Presbymergent Facebook page. This will enable more interaction between everyone and will help us stay better connected with everyone. Please go to our new Facebook Page and become our fan on Facebook.

Filed Under: Networking, Presbymergent, Press Tagged With: , ,

Evangelism is NOT a dirty word!

August 12, 2009 By 3 Comments

Evangelism has become such a dirty word in the mainline protestant world. Our church even changed a committee name a few years back to remove the word so people “didn’t get the wrong idea.” Unfortunately, there is nothing wrong with evangelism – the Church should be rock solid evangelists… but maybe not the ones of our recent past.

Evangelism in America has coincided with proselytizing and typically with some ulterior self-motive, whether it is filling our own pews or filling our own egos. I know evangelism at my own church was about going around the neighborhood and inviting neighbors to join us on Sunday mornings so we could feel good about our full pews and overflowing offering plates. But, I believe evangelism of today is going to be more about the community and less about our churches.

To reach the young adults and youth of today, we are going to have to get off our cushioned pews and get out into the world. Evangelism isn’t slick advertising or a fancy website drawing people in. We must be Christ in the suffering world for the Kingdom’s sake and not for our own. Today, evangelism can’t be about sharing the Word of God so we can increase our membership, but instead sharing the Word of God because people need to know the Hope of the world is here and now. We need to be in our community centers, our schools, our coffee shops, our gyms, and our bars being Christ incarnate for the Church’s sake – not for our churches’ sake.

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New Church Development Discernment

August 5, 2009 By 1 Comment

The PC(USA) Office of Church Growth is sponsoring this New Church Development Discernment opportunity. If you are selected to attend, the Office of Church Growth covers all your meals and travel expenses (up to $250). Applications are due by September 1.

What: NCD Discernment
Where: Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community, Pittsburgh, PA
When: October 15-17, 2009
Why: If you are considering becoming an NCD pastor, or if you feel called to NCD ministry, then this event is a chance to pray, reflect, and spend time with other NCD pastors and coaches.

See the this NCD flier for more information. Feel free to email Meredith Kemp-Pappan or call if you have any questions. The number to call is 1-888-728-7228, ext. 5088.

Filed Under: Events, Presbymergent Tagged With:

Faith and Social Media

July 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

So what do we think about social media and its role in the life of faith? As the church begins to come to terms with Blogging and Vlogging and FaceBook and Twitter, there’s very little doubt that this new form of communication will have a substantial impact on the way we share both the Good News and our lives together. It’s easy for us here in the blogosphere to lose track of just how revolutionary this form of communication is, and it’s helpful to keep sight of where this might be leading us.

There’s a solid article on the contemporary relationship between faith and technology over at CNET today, one that’s worth reading and/or showing to your technology-averse sessions. Got leadership that’s reluctant to take full advantage of this revolution? Print out a copy.

Conversations about what impact this will have are ongoing, and there were some interesting takes recently on the subject from a few folks in the emergent and Presby world. Carol over at Tribal Church was musing about Twittering during church events:

I like it when people twitter during conferences, and even worship. This is why…

There’s some good blog-conversation over that-a-way, so feel free to join in!

At the same time, Bishop N.T. Wright has been featured mulling over the risks of web-based media in a great little Vimeo clip. Yeah, there’s irony there. Go give it a watch over at Blog RPS.

Filed Under: Presbymergent

Evangelism

July 24, 2009 By 2 Comments

Evangelism is a hard topic for me. I’ll keep it short- since I know little about the subject. I hate to feel like someone is selling me salvation. I feel pressure when people think I don’t believe “correctly” and that if I don’t decide to believe a certain way I’m damned. The truth is, I don’t think it’s possible to force yourself to believe something right away.

On the other hand, I’m afraid that if I “sell it” incorrectly, that I really am leading someone astray. So I basically just avoid evangelism at all costs.

At this point the best thing I can do is to just live “out loud”, so to speak, so people will know that they can come to me if they have similar things going on in their lives, and I can tell them how God is working for me in my life. That’s about as far as I can go with my witness as of now.

Now for churches, I don’t know what the answer is except to be welcoming and encourage study, questions, and open discussion. And for members and clergy to practice what they preach, and do the best to live as an example of what God does in your life. In other words, represent well. That’s what people see I think more than power points or brochures.

Filed Under: Presbymergent Tagged With: ,

Looking for info

July 22, 2009 By 3 Comments

I am working on a doctoral project that seeks lessons the emerging/missional church can teach the mainline about local mission; especially in answering the question “who is our neighbor?”  I have a questionnaire that I would love for folks to fill out and e-mail back to me.  If you are interested, let me know.  Thanks.

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A blog about (not) blogging, and other experiences that take my breath away

July 21, 2009 By 4 Comments

For all of my twittering, facebooking, g-mailing, blogging and blackberrying, and so forth, the truth is that I most often find myself in sacred space, in the presence of God Himself, when I dare to put that all away, step away from my techno-centered routines, and simply be.  At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I most often see God when I stop texting and start looking around at the world God made with the eyes God blessed me with, tasting the air on my tongue and taking in the world around me rather than confining my experience of the world to that which appears on a small, digital screen.

* * * * *

Most recently, it has been the reality of the summer—a warm breeze picking through the branches and leaves of the live oaks, the whirring of bugs and beetles high above me, the taste of honeysuckle and thyme in the air—that has brought me back to myself.  There isn’t much cell phone service worth using on the streets near my parent’s northern California home, so I have been forced to set down my phone and amuse myself with my surroundings instead, packing away the email, facebook, or catch-up calls that are so often a feature of my more urban hiking adventures in Philadelphia.  As I walk down the dusty trail that lines highway 130, my ears prick to the gentle rustle of oleander and wild turkey, and I find myself reeling with the recognition that I am a part of something bigger than myself, that the signs of life around me are small reminders of something deeper and grander than anything I could imagine, something that could so easily go unnoticed and then suddenly bowl me over in a instant of blazing clarity.

When John Calvin wrote of the glory of and specialness of creation, I heard what he was saying.  And I recognized myself in his remark that we too often fail to see the beauty that is before us.  Every once in a while, however, a thin space, as the Celts called it, opens before our eyes, and the truth of the world and God’s presence in it is clear to us.  As Calvin would put it, we find that in God we are given spectacles to see the sacred quality of all things, which hide in plain sight before me.

So what are the things that stun me back to the recognition of the Sacred?  There is no pattern that I can discern, no perfect formula for figuring it out.  While I am often bowled over by that which is natural, I also find that God can strip me of my ignorance of the sacred around me in the most mundane or even complicated of circumstances.  I see it in the pattern of a quilt made by my own hands and a well-written poem, or even in the midst of the fray as much as the beauty of a mountain range.  And I could argue that it takes practice to see the sacred with more clarity, and yet even that isn’t always the case.  I have learned that the world will surprise my fuzzy eyes into focus as shockingly when I am looking for the sacred as it will when I am doing everything but.

Ultimately, these moments of recognition are both a mystery and a gift, for like God they are beyond my ability to grasp them, and filled with grace and wisdom.  They surpass knowledge and understanding and are filled with Truth.  They bring me closer to God, to myself, and to my fellow inhabitants on this great, sacred sphere that we call home.  For that, I am thankful.

Filed Under: Blogging, Presbymergent Tagged With: , ,

When did Jesus get so personal…?

July 17, 2009 By 4 Comments

Surely it wasn’t Depeche Mode who awakened the church to this personal Jesus.  But it might have started somewhere around the time the greater church started issuing a space in liturgy where one could ‘accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.’  Okay, so it was probably before that, but it is a fair place to start.  Sometimes I wonder if the traditions that issue this call find it awkward when followers do exactly that?  The declaration of ‘my’ has been an overwhelming call to empowerment and liberation.  My supposition is that as long as the ’my’ is synonymous with the familiarity of the tradition – empowerment is not such a threat.  It is possible though, that the greater church is rethinking its offer to make it personal.  Watching the theological evolution of a personal Jesus has somewhat dismantled the church.  Because really, are we equipped for that?  Shouldn’t we be equipped for that?

It is my experience that when we, as a collective, try to hammer down what or who ‘my Jesus’ really is, in a matter of minutes we subject ourselves ever so subtly to the sin of idolatry.  For those who refuse to believe Jesus is no other than a white man from Dallas, Texas – and for those who are firmly convinced Jesus is a woman, or is Indonesian – this is personal.  We want Jesus to identify with us.  As we are.  Why is it that we want Jesus to be exactly what we want?  In a ’my’ kind of way?  Is this really what we might call an emerging situation?  Plurality in its most infant stage?

The most rational explanation is that the time has come to understand Jesus as more than the white guy from Dallas.  Even though the female Jesus still scares the crap out of so many people – including women – we are even trying to understand the Black Jesus, the Queer Jesus, or the Chinese Jesus.  Substitute ‘my’ for whatever you are – and there you have it.  “_______ Jesus.”

I suppose it really is about knowing who we belong to from the standpoint of identity.  We now know that the answer to the question “who is Jesus?” all depends on who you ask.  We live in a time where what “I” believe is not critiqued as heavily as it once was – for good or for bad – you decide.  We no longer fear excommunication as much because we can just start over in another place.  Heresy is getting harder and harder to ’prove’.  All the “I”s find each other through technology, blogs and twitter.  They create space to dialogue.  A lively, yet untouchable space.  And most often, it is where the like minded “I”s can get together and cyber-duke it out against an opposing set of “I’s” for the entire world to read day after day because that is what we can do now.  No more Aereopagus’s.  Where you have to look your opponent in the eyes when you disagree.

Even more so, the ‘my Jesus’ critique of the traditional church has opened a lot of doors to those who have never had their kind of Jesus represented by the greater church.  And most of those doors have been opened in new spaces.  Store fronts.  Houses.  Back yards.  Industrial garages.  Away from the tradition that refuses to listen to the voice of ‘my‘.  But in my own attempt to critique even the critiquers of the church I have to ask – can the evolutionary personal Jesus stay in the church?  Monica’s Jesus wants that.  Can the ‘my’ crowd maintain a healthy ground in the greater church in order to help reform it?  Or is ‘my Jesus’ going to build a bridge and solidify plurality in a different space?  So that there are lots of ’my’ us’s?  Who knows.  My Jesus probably does.

-Submitted by Monica Hall-

Filed Under: Theology Tagged With: , ,