And a child shall lead them...

I spoke with a Sunday School class last Sunday about being in the business of not making church "members" but "church planters". I received this facebook message from one of the members of the class. She gave me permission to post this here. I think it is exactly what we are talking about in terms of "church planters".

So, I'm trying to wrap my head around your discussion in Pathfinders on Sunday. Then, the passage from Isaiah during worship made me think. God cares enough about every star to call it by its name. So, what's in a name? As a Bible scholar, you know that "back in the day" to know a person's name was to know something about the fundamental nature of that person.

That got me thinking.

Knowing a person's name is intimate in a way. It's how we start relationships.

Then, I thought about how our 3-year old son (who just had a birthday the day before Jude's) is intent on asking EVERYONE he comes across, "What's your name?" This is quickly followed by "Hi, (the person's name) I'm Gabriel." At first I was embarrassed by his upfront questioning of every stranger. But then, I started to notice something. People seemed to leave the interaction with my son just a little lighter than they were when we first encountered them. A small interaction from a small person, but I think he really makes an impact.

I'm not sure that we completely understood your full vision about church planting. I'd love to know about the idea behind "planting churches" that aren't "churches" as we've defined them for so long.

To know a person's name is to know them, in a sense. Maybe my 3-year old is smarter than I am. If it is about deepening relationships in our life - not just in our church life - I wonder if maybe my son is a church planter. And, I'd love to know how I foster that to keep him that way.

Just some thoughts.

-Lynaia

Am I betraying my call?

Every now and again I feel I like the Disciples when Jesus says, "you have been with me this long and you still do not know me?" And it makes me sad, frustrated and immobile. Today is one of those times.

As I sit in my office, making decent money, driving my own car (which my family has three in our possession right now), working on my own laptop, wearing a J. Crew shirt, GAP pants and Sketchers; I reflect on my day thus far and wonder, am I betraying my call as a Christian?

The church I work at has a lot of money and people yet we seem to be an establishment of the status quo. We do not have relationships with the poor (except we send some money and used clothes every now and again), we do not work for social justice in any way, we have worship which speaks to a specific type of person and we have a huge endowment which sits there.

I do not want to bash the church, we do a lot of good, however I wonder if we are focused on maintaining the building, upholding the status quo and reinforcing our own empire rather than transforming our community, building relationships with the poor, and rivaling the Empire.

Here I sit, immobilized wondering if in fact if being a minister at this church and NOT doing these latter things if I am betraying my call?

Praying at restaurants, dining at church...

In NYC there are prayer spaces for Muslim men, many of whom are taxi drivers, located in private businesses. These spaces allow for prayer, fellowship and even a bit of food because many of these spaces are in restaurants. These spaces allow for Muslims who are on the go and allow these men to nourish their soul.

What if these spaces were open to Christians? What if a restaurant has a prayer space for anyone to pray and study?

Even more than that, what if churches (which have prayer spaces) opened up their space and had food, coffee, wi-fi, etc. to give people the opportunity to eat lunch and then give them an opportunity to nourish their soul? Is this possible to do in churches? How could this be done?

If Starbucks maketed like the Church...

I will confess I got this from my friend Kyle (the post-modern pilgrim blog in my list). But I wanted to add it to my personal reflection.

What does the fellas apron mean? I identified this as a caricature on many of the stereotypes of what I see in the non-denoms. What do you think about this in relation to the UMC in the CTC? In what ways are we like this? How are we different? Could we make a video 'parable' about the CTCUMC? Any thoughts on this idea for something like annual conference?