It is called Fort Worth Dish Out, but I call it church
About a year ago I was fortunate to be a part of the first ever Fort Worth Dish Out (website, facebook, twitter). It was crazy fun to be associated with such an event and I am blown away at where the board is taking it these days. Frankly, it is a source of great personal pride.
For those who do not know what the Fort Worth Dish Out is, it works like this:
The next Fort Worth Dish Out will be held on November 4th at 809 @ Vickery (809 W. Vickery Blvd., Fort Worth, 76104) from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
- Everyone puts in $20 to get access, a meal, booze, fellowship and the ability to hear about 3 local non-profits.
- Everyone hears the non-profits speak for 5-7 minutes to tell what they do.
- Everyone votes on the non-profit they would like to support.
- The winner of the vote gets 60% of the funds, the other two split the remaining 40%.
We can talk about this as an event or a function or a fundraiser or even as a non-profit in its own right.
But I call it an expression of Church I want to be apart of.
When we gather for a common cause, break bread, learn, share, have fun, fellowship, encounter new people and new ideas, give, grow and support those around us - I call that Church.
So for those of us who want the Church to continue into the future and ensure that it remains relevant, I would submit that we look at the essence of what is done on a Sunday morning, take those core elements and see what expression of church you will get.
What can you create with some combination of these elements:
- Learning new things
- Meal
- Meeting people (old and new)
- Giving of resources
- Celebration
- Sharing
- Group participation
- Music
- Dance
- Wine
Sounds like a recipe for Church to me.
The next Fort Worth Dish Out will be held on November 4th at 809 @ Vickery (809 W. Vickery Blvd., Fort Worth, 76104) from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
If everyone has access to expert, then what is the function of clergy?
I had a conversation with my friend Kyle and we were talking about how he did not need a plumber to fix a leak in him home because he watched a YouTube video on how to repair it. What would have cost him hundreds of dollars just a few years ago, cost him much less because he did not have to pay for the knowledge the expert plumber has.
The access many people have these days to 'expert' knowledge has called into question the need for a number of jobs. Why do I need a travel agent if I have Travelocity? Why do I need to hire a professional camera person when my friend has a nice camera and would enjoy taking my family pictures? Why do I need a minister, who used to be the local theologian, if I have access to the same resources?
For a while the minister was the local 'expert' on morality and theology and ethics. People would seek out a minister for a number of spiritual, moral and ethical problems/concerns. The minister was the one with the 'expert' knowledge and the seminary education which qualified the minister to be the local theologian.
While some people still come to a minister for questions and counselling or theological questions, it is more and more the case that people are self-diagnosing and using the internet to come to their own opinions and understandings on the questions they have.
So if everyone has access to "expert" knowledge, then what is the future of the "expert" theologian minister?
Perhaps one of the roles of the minister is to no longer be the expert but the one who is given trust and time to pilferer through all the "expert" knowledge that is out there and discern what is of value? Perhaps the minister is a job that morphs from "expert" to "filter". Perhaps the minister is a job in which one is asked to take the time to help filter out the noise that is all around us and invites us to hear what is Good.
I am sure there are still places in which the minister is the local expert and there are ministers who see themselves as the expert on a good number of things. As I see it, spending time being an expert is a fine thing, until everyone knows what you know.
Christians are not experts in salvation or faith or religion or spirituality. We are called to be filters who observe and listen to the world and discern what is Good. What would a spirituality look like if it was not pursuing expert knowledge but becoming a noise filter?
The access many people have these days to 'expert' knowledge has called into question the need for a number of jobs. Why do I need a travel agent if I have Travelocity? Why do I need to hire a professional camera person when my friend has a nice camera and would enjoy taking my family pictures? Why do I need a minister, who used to be the local theologian, if I have access to the same resources?For a while the minister was the local 'expert' on morality and theology and ethics. People would seek out a minister for a number of spiritual, moral and ethical problems/concerns. The minister was the one with the 'expert' knowledge and the seminary education which qualified the minister to be the local theologian.
While some people still come to a minister for questions and counselling or theological questions, it is more and more the case that people are self-diagnosing and using the internet to come to their own opinions and understandings on the questions they have.
So if everyone has access to "expert" knowledge, then what is the future of the "expert" theologian minister?
Perhaps one of the roles of the minister is to no longer be the expert but the one who is given trust and time to pilferer through all the "expert" knowledge that is out there and discern what is of value? Perhaps the minister is a job that morphs from "expert" to "filter". Perhaps the minister is a job in which one is asked to take the time to help filter out the noise that is all around us and invites us to hear what is Good.
I am sure there are still places in which the minister is the local expert and there are ministers who see themselves as the expert on a good number of things. As I see it, spending time being an expert is a fine thing, until everyone knows what you know.
Christians are not experts in salvation or faith or religion or spirituality. We are called to be filters who observe and listen to the world and discern what is Good. What would a spirituality look like if it was not pursuing expert knowledge but becoming a noise filter?
IsItOld.com, Tom and Jerry and Christianity
There is this little site called is it old. What it does is you plug a link into the search bar, it will search for how long that link has been around and then give you a report of how old that link is. So while you may have just found this video of a tribe that has never had outside contact before (and it is still fascinating each time I watch it), according to is it old, this video is "really old".
What is nice about isitiold.com is that before I send a video out, I can sort of see if I am late to the party or not. It is like seeing a movie years after it has come out. No one wants to talk about Forrest Gump anymore. Even if you have just seen it for the first time.
Can you see where this is going with the way the Church proclaims the Gospel?
Each Sunday churches around the world have an opportunity to preach Good News to the world. And the problem is each week the Good News is presented in worship in such a way that, if it were plugged into isitold.com it would come back as "really old".
We tell the same story in the same ways that people can say "I get the gist of it" and walk away just fine without it. I do not need to see any more Tom and Jerry shows to "get the gist" of what is going on - Tom tries to capture the illusive Jerry.
People I encounter tell me that Christianity is nice because it teaches a good moral code or that it lays a good foundation for morality. Self-sacrifice, love, peace, reconciliation... I get the gist of what Christianity is about. I do not need to participate in a worshiping community to know what is being taught in the faith.
Christianity needs teachers and preachers who are willing and able to proclaim the Gospel in such a way that it captures the imagination of people once again. We need to stop preaching Tom and Jerry sermons, people get the gist of that rather quickly. No one tells their friends they need to see the new Tom and Jerry show because that way of telling the cat and mouse Story is really old. However, people told me that I needed to see the latest cat and mouse story out there.
What is nice about isitiold.com is that before I send a video out, I can sort of see if I am late to the party or not. It is like seeing a movie years after it has come out. No one wants to talk about Forrest Gump anymore. Even if you have just seen it for the first time.
Can you see where this is going with the way the Church proclaims the Gospel?
Each Sunday churches around the world have an opportunity to preach Good News to the world. And the problem is each week the Good News is presented in worship in such a way that, if it were plugged into isitold.com it would come back as "really old".
We tell the same story in the same ways that people can say "I get the gist of it" and walk away just fine without it. I do not need to see any more Tom and Jerry shows to "get the gist" of what is going on - Tom tries to capture the illusive Jerry.
People I encounter tell me that Christianity is nice because it teaches a good moral code or that it lays a good foundation for morality. Self-sacrifice, love, peace, reconciliation... I get the gist of what Christianity is about. I do not need to participate in a worshiping community to know what is being taught in the faith.
Christianity needs teachers and preachers who are willing and able to proclaim the Gospel in such a way that it captures the imagination of people once again. We need to stop preaching Tom and Jerry sermons, people get the gist of that rather quickly. No one tells their friends they need to see the new Tom and Jerry show because that way of telling the cat and mouse Story is really old. However, people told me that I needed to see the latest cat and mouse story out there.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.