I have spent most of the day packing my office. Yesterday was the last sermon at Community. It really is the end of a 2 year roller coaster of ministry. I have learned a lot, got my footing in a field that many times eats people up and spits them out, and have fallen in love with a congregation.
When you grow up always going to church, you don’t know how to truly appreciate a congregation. You take for granted that you see people every week and that they are there for you in all the happy and difficult times. As a pastor, I have really begun to appreciate all that being a part of a congregation can be: celebrating births, mourning deaths, encouraging creativity, developing leadership, affirming life’s beauty and challenging its difficulties, dealing with people who others would rather shake off like lint. There is a depth to living in the community of a congregation that is rarely found in other ways, at least not as easily formed.
In all that I do, there will be a piece of Community in me. And, hopefully, the work the God has done through me will live on at Community.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
8th Graders for the Love of God
Many Christian youngsters have a summer ritual. First, go to Vacation Bible School (aka VBS). Second, go to church camp. I was one of these youngsters. My mom always (or it seemed like always) directed the VBS at my church and I hopped on the church van (an old 1980’s white Chevy 15 passenger we called “Vanna White”) headed to camp in Tioga, Louisiana.
Tioga was a special place. It had a converted chicken coup with a stage and busted out windows, a circular dorm with one half for girls, one half for boys, and the smell of wet concrete. There was an old pool just steps from the vespers area and lake that no one was allowed to touch, much less invited to swim. And, there was the dining hall complete with a sign that read “DINNING HALL.” We loved that place with its pealing paint, rickety doors and absolutely fantastic food prepared for us by a local Pentecostal family. (Besides my Catholic school, camp provided wonderful ecumenical/inter-denominational experiences.)
Many of the people that I met there are those who I speak to regularly. And, thanks to the internet, I have kept up with many others over the past few years. Because of those friendships, I now make it a priority to counsel camps each summer. I have been doing this since my sophomore year in college. This year, I ended up co-directing the very first 8ers camp of Tall Oaks. This camp is done across the country with a Sexuality/Sex Education Curriculum called “Created to Be Me.” Given that it was the first year (and a transition year) we opted out of the regular curriculum, but kept the eighth grade only format. This was the most amazing week of camp I have ever been a part of as an adult. We had an amazing adult staff who I loved working with. We also had an amazing group of 8th graders (heading into 9th) who created a truly Christian community.
So many times, Christian communities are isolated, exclusionary, and filled with catch22 statements. I should say those aren’t actually Christian communities. They are groups that call themselves Christians, but act differently. What I witnessed last week was the forming of a place where everyone was invited to share the gifts God gave them: from singing, to dancing, to running, to praying, to telling a joke, to…! What I witnesses this past week was the creating of a group that truly loved and respected each other and held each other accountable when one missed up: “Come on, be a part of the team;” “Let’s start over so everyone can have a part;” “What do you think, You haven’t said anything yet.” It was amazing.
I am so thankful to have been taught by 8th graders how life should really be and how we should create community. I kept finding myself, what if what happened with these youth happened in our world. (No, not by making everyone become Christian. That has never and will never work.) What if the ways that these youth treated each other were they ways in which people everywhere treated each other? It would be an amazing way of living, as if every voice mattered, as if every person had gifts to bring, as if every heart is beautiful not because someone jumped through the right hoops, but just because they ARE.
Thanks be to God for the gift of church camp. Thanks be to God for the gift of 8th grade youth. Thanks be to God for a vision of life where all of creation is loved not because they have the right label, but because they are.
Tioga was a special place. It had a converted chicken coup with a stage and busted out windows, a circular dorm with one half for girls, one half for boys, and the smell of wet concrete. There was an old pool just steps from the vespers area and lake that no one was allowed to touch, much less invited to swim. And, there was the dining hall complete with a sign that read “DINNING HALL.” We loved that place with its pealing paint, rickety doors and absolutely fantastic food prepared for us by a local Pentecostal family. (Besides my Catholic school, camp provided wonderful ecumenical/inter-denominational experiences.)
Many of the people that I met there are those who I speak to regularly. And, thanks to the internet, I have kept up with many others over the past few years. Because of those friendships, I now make it a priority to counsel camps each summer. I have been doing this since my sophomore year in college. This year, I ended up co-directing the very first 8ers camp of Tall Oaks. This camp is done across the country with a Sexuality/Sex Education Curriculum called “Created to Be Me.” Given that it was the first year (and a transition year) we opted out of the regular curriculum, but kept the eighth grade only format. This was the most amazing week of camp I have ever been a part of as an adult. We had an amazing adult staff who I loved working with. We also had an amazing group of 8th graders (heading into 9th) who created a truly Christian community.
So many times, Christian communities are isolated, exclusionary, and filled with catch22 statements. I should say those aren’t actually Christian communities. They are groups that call themselves Christians, but act differently. What I witnessed last week was the forming of a place where everyone was invited to share the gifts God gave them: from singing, to dancing, to running, to praying, to telling a joke, to…! What I witnesses this past week was the creating of a group that truly loved and respected each other and held each other accountable when one missed up: “Come on, be a part of the team;” “Let’s start over so everyone can have a part;” “What do you think, You haven’t said anything yet.” It was amazing.
I am so thankful to have been taught by 8th graders how life should really be and how we should create community. I kept finding myself, what if what happened with these youth happened in our world. (No, not by making everyone become Christian. That has never and will never work.) What if the ways that these youth treated each other were they ways in which people everywhere treated each other? It would be an amazing way of living, as if every voice mattered, as if every person had gifts to bring, as if every heart is beautiful not because someone jumped through the right hoops, but just because they ARE.
Thanks be to God for the gift of church camp. Thanks be to God for the gift of 8th grade youth. Thanks be to God for a vision of life where all of creation is loved not because they have the right label, but because they are.
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