What do Lebron James and Young Clergy have in common?

If you have been in a cave for the past four weeks, then you have not heard but Lebron James is a basketball player. In fact, he is the most sought after player in a long time. He played for his home team, the Cleveland Cavs, for seven years and his contract expired. As a free agent, he had several offers from all around the league. It was quite the hoopla. While the World Cup was going on (the most watched sporting event in the world) I could not get highlights on ESPN because everyone was speculating "where will Lebron go?"

This 'drama' reached it's apex last Thursday when on an hour long special James declared that he would be leaving his beloved Cavs and head to the Miami Heat.

People reacted as they do.

I was thinking about all this and how it hit me was how much the decision feels like what I am in conversation with my young clergy peers about.

Let me explain.

"King James", as he is called by media and fans, turned down more money and even better teams to play with the Heat. Let me rephrase that, Lebron turned down money to play with friends.

The NBA is a league built around individuals. Jordan. Shaq. Dirk. Kobe. It is known as the "superstar" model. That is, get a "superstar" and your team will go far. Because lets face it one superstar on a team of 5 makes a HUGE difference. So teams go after these superstars. The NBA markets the stars. Show me a time which you saw a team picture of an NBA team other than when they just won the championship and I will show you a picture of the year 1951 and all the players are Anglo.

Lebron moved directly counter to the entire leagues push get a "superstar" to lead a team to the championship and joined up with a team of stars. Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade and Lebron James are all friends. They all wanted to play basketball together. They all were willing to forgo the whole 'superstar' thing and take a pay cut in order to work on a team.

Many of my young clergy peers are tired to churches pushing the superstar model. Olsteen. Moore. Jakes. Graham. Warren. I would be interested to know if most people know what the name of the church (team) these people are connected to. They are superstars and people like superstars.

However, many of my friends in ministry are tired of super-stardom. We, like Lebron, desire to work on a team. We want not only other clergy to let their egos die but also for laity to be willing to take the lead at times. We desire a team of stars not superstars.

It is my hope that the Heat have success and fun as they work together to accomplish tier goal.

I have the same Hope for the Church.

I am not religious but spiritual...

There are a number of reasons for which the growing trend for people to self identify as "spiritual but not religious". It is something for which I have never really understood. I do not know how one can be 'spiritual' but not integrated into a religious community. It is something that I just have not understood. This post is not about that. Rather this is a post about a quote for which I was recently given by my colleague in ministry Rev. Nancy Allen.

In true community we will not choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. Instead our companions will be given to us by grace. Often they will be persons who will upset our settled view of self and world. In fact, we might define true community as that place where the person you least want to live with lives!…

Community reminds us that we are called to love, for community can break our egos open to the experience of a God who cannot be contained by our conceptions. Community will teach us that our grip on truth is fragile and incomplete, that we need many ears to hear the fullness of God’s word for our lives. And the disappointments of community life can be transformed by our discovery that the only dependable power for life lies beyond all human structures and relationships.

Parker J. Palmer, 1977
Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity by Catherine Whitmire

After reading this quote it dawned on me that perhaps some of the reason that some identify as "spiritual but not religious". If community is what the Church is attempting to foster, and a community is that place which you did not 'self select' to participate in then I can see why there is a strong rejection of religious community. We live in a world where we self select more and more groups we are associated with, yet Church is a place which is trying to build a community which harvests the value of a community for which we did choose our companions.

For instance, in the UMC there are things for which members cannot choose. They cannot choose the ministers of their congregations. They cannot choose where all the money goes to support (we have these things called 'apportionments' for which the UMC supports ministry around the world). When you join a UMC congregation, you are choosing to join the church but you are not totally choosing all things in the church.

Congregational churches, typically known as "Bible Churches" (which by the way I dislike that name in that it makes it seem like other Churches do not use the Bible or that we use the Koran or the Vetas), these church members choose much more than the members of UMC.

Perhaps this is why the UMC is having, in part, difficulty in gaining members. We value the values of not choosing everything. We value the value of non-choosing.

Are you connected to a community for which you did not and cannot have a voice in all that the community does?

Lesson from Hawaii

I had the privilege to spend last week in Kauai. I became aware of something while I was there. Are you ready for this groundbreaking statement?

People go to Hawaii because the island is beautiful.

Shocking, I know.

Everyone I have spoken with who has been to Hawaii says says the same thing but phrases it as a question, "isn't is beautiful?" It as though everyone is overwhelmed by the beauty of the island that you almost have to say that in the form of a question just to make sure that what you saw was real.

What strikes me about this is not that Hawaii is beautiful, but that the Hawaiian natives are nice! In fact they are more than nice, they all seem to embody a spirit that is engraved in their DNA or their souls. They are crazy nice to everyone almost all the time. And you know, they do not have to be.

In fact I would be willing to bet that Hawaiians can be total jerks and people would still visit Hawaii in mass numbers because people visit Hawaii for the beauty of the island not for the people. And yet, the people are insanely nice and hospitable.

Why?

I asked several native Hawaiians why they are so nice to tourists. I expected to hear some statement about how natives don't really like tourists but are nice to them because they supply money to the economy. But I did not hear that. Not even from people who were in the hotel or restaurant business or even the locals I met on the peer. Rather they all said basically the same thing.

"Well, I guess we are nice because we understand it is a real gift to live in such beauty."

They live in a place of such beauty. They identify they are not entitled to the grace and beauty around them. There is a humility that seems rooted in their voice as they talk as though they take such pride in the island that they cannot help but share it.

I think there is a message here for the Church. What would our lives looked like if we stopped treating hospitality as something we do but as something we are because we too identify that we are not entitled to the grace and beauty around us? What if we took so much pride in the beautiful message we call "Good News" that we could not help but share it.

The Hawaiians I encountered were hospitable as though they needed to be in order to survive. The church speaks of hospitality as though it is something we do in order to get members.

I desire a faith that I cannot help but be hospitable because I identify the beauty around me and know that grace that is in my life is not earned. I want a faith that is hospitable because it engraved in my DNA or my soul.