The practice of Lent - learning from spiders

A couple of days ago, a friend from Seminary came into town for a job he had in Addison. In the short time he was at AHUMC with Robin Stout (the new youth minister) and I, he shared with me a metaphor that I am holding onto for Lent.

A spider weaves a web. The web comes forth from the spider and is an extension of the spider herself. She moves back and forth working to create a web structure and it is beautiful. It is not enough to just create the web but she goes back over the web a second time, strengthening and augmenting the original web. At the end of this work, she has created an incredibly strong web that has the potential to be life giving for her. But in the moment, just after completion, it is not life giving. Creating the web is exhausting, but it is all she can do.

With the web completed, the only thing left for her to do is to wait. She does not ring bells or flash lights. There is no sign or banner. The only thing the spider can do, ever after all this exhausting work, is to wait and hope. She waits on that which gives her life and hopes it comes her way.

This is the spiders life.

And for the lent season, I will try to embody the posture of the spider. Create something out of my soul, an extension of my own self until exhausted.

And then I will wait on God.

Who owns the car?

Recently I was encouraged by a dear friend of mine who not only reads this babble I post, but also gives me much hope for the direction of Church and the future leadership. Currently he is discerning if he should obtain his PhD in order to teach preaching for the next generation of church preachers. To him, I say, we need you. (Read his blog here).

In a conversation we had a metaphor was shared and it spoke to my heart in regards to leadership and the 'way the church runs'. One of driving.

When you were learning how to drive, no matter how safe a driver you were, you could not drive the way you wanted to drive. We all had to drive the way our parents wanted us to drive (both their good and bad driving habits) because they owned the car. They put their hard earned money and sweat equity into that car and they wanted to make sure the car remained as they desired it to be.

My friend's metaphor lead me to think, "Yes, I can see this happening in the church in many ways. The people who have put their lives into the creation and upkeep of the church want to make sure the church is safe, looks good, and operates. Which means we (new leadership) have to learn to drive the church the way those older than us want us to drive the church, not the way we feel called to drive."

But the thing is, this mentality may work for a car, but the Church is not a car. In fact we do not own the church. The Church belongs to God.

It is my prayer that I never forget that I do not own the Church. It is my prayer that I remember always, especially when I am one of the older church leaders, there are many ways to drive a car, and I cannot monopolize driving techniques on a car that, for all of us, is a rental.

Remove or reclaim shepherd metaphor?

In a book the bishop asked several people (including my wife) to read for the realignment committee there is an argument which states the church needs to remove from its language and mind the idea that pastors are shepherds. The author states the metaphor of pastor as shepherd "is ultimately destructive to effectiveness in ministry".

The author makes a good argument to remove the metaphor in our churches. One point which I thought particularly interesting is "Shepherds were entrepreneurs who raised sheep for their livelihood, for food and clothing. Good shepherds lead their sheep into green pastures and by still waters in order to obtain three results." Shepherds used the sheep for personal gain; for cloth, food and/or reproduction. Pastors should not been seen as shepherds because we do not own people and we do not use people for personal gain (or at least we should not!!).

I know every metaphor breaks at some point, and this book is saying we have a broken metaphor of pastor as shepherd because we have a romantic idea of what shepherds do.

I am curious to know if it is really a good thing to remove the metaphor from our theological imagination or if it would be better if we reclaim it?

There are many metaphors which are destructive and we continue to use them (such as God is only a male). And like I said, all metaphors break at some point (such as atonement metaphors). So should we purge all metaphors which are either destructive or those which have been stretched beyond their limits, as though we are metaphor iconoclasts?

I wonder if instead of taking such a black/white stance on this metaphor if there could be a third way. The way of reclaiming?

What if pastors across the UMC lived out the metaphor of shepherd only in those ways which the metaphor was intended?

For that matter, what if Christians across the world lived out all the metaphors of God in only the ways in which those metaphors were intended?

What would it mean if we only took the metaphor of God as male to the proper limits?

What would it mean if we only took Jesus as lamb to the proper limits?

What would it mean if we only took God is good to the proper limits?

What would it mean if we only took God is love to the proper limits?