Sacramental Living

My heart’s cry:

To go where healing love is needed, and give it in a way in which it can be received, often means acting in the teeth of our own interests and preferences, even religious interests and preferences.  Christ risked his reputation for holiness by healing on the Sabbath; he touched the unclean and dined with the wrong people; he accepted the love and companionship of a sinner (that most wonderful of all remedies for the wounds of sin).  He loved with God’s love and so went straight to the point: What can I do to restore my fellow creature and how?

–From The Light of Christ by Evelyn Underhill

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How easy or difficult is it for you to be like Christ in these ways?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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Over at Young Clergy, I stumbled on this little gem which aptly describes why we need culture change in the church for a new generation of clergy to be welcomed, nurutured, and sustained:

I am finding out time and time again that we do not have a welcoming culture, but a culture that says it is your job to become one of us. Do the paperwork in a timely matter and that proves your worth. Do this and do that and that will show you care enough…

I have learned that a call for a pastor should not be a call to “come be one of us, do what we want you to do.”  No, no, no.  The call comes from God and invites us to go be agents of change, renewal, and vision.

It seems that our Church culture has not embraced this movement yet.

Our office manager told me Courtney was on the line for me.

“Courtney?”

“She said, ‘Hi, is Brian in; it’s Courtney.’”

I know some Courtney’s … but none that casually.  Who knows …

“I’ll take it.”

Courtney started out by asking if I received the really nice pen with Grace Community Church imprinted on it that she sent me for free.

“Ummmm … I’m sure our office manager might have seen it.”

“Well, can I direct you to a place on line that you can see what it looks like.”

“Courtney are you trying to sell me something?  Because we wouldn’t be interested in buying any promotional items.”

“Oh, well how do you promote yourself?  How do you say ‘thank you’ to your clients that come to your services.”

I’m thinking to myself that so many things are wrong with the question she just asked:

We don’t have clients; we have people.
We don’t thank people we see; we embrace them.
We don’t ask people to come to “services”; people are invited to worship gatherings.
People can’t come to “service”; people must go out to engage in service.
What the heck does promotion in a faith-community setting mean anyway?  (I’ve discussed this in response to church marketing before)

Instead of calling her on those points, I just replied to Courtney:  “We thank people by equipping them to be Jesus in their daily lives.”

Long pause … A few words incoherently started and abruptly changed … Finally Courtney says:  “Well, do … uhh … how do the people in your area know about your church?”

“Courtney, we just try to be the hands and feet of Jesus all the time.  As relationships and friendships are built, some people want to walk on the journey of faith with us.  Our thanks go to God for working ahead of us, and through us, and in us.  It’s hard to express that with a pen.  Much better to just live it, like Jesus did, don’t you think?”

Long pause … again … Finally:  “OK.   Well you have a good day … Thanks.”

“Thank you, Courtney.”

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How is your energy and money being used these days to live like Jesus … other than in pens?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.