Benedict XVI from The Spirit of the Liturgy

The true liturgical action is the deed of God, and for that very reason the liturgy of faith always reaches beyond the cultic act into everyday life, which must itself become “liturgical”, a service for the transformation of the world.  Much more is required of the body than carrying objects around and other such activities.  A demand is made on the body in all its involvement in the circumstances of everyday life.  The body is required to become “capable of resurrection”, to orient itself toward the resurrection, toward the Kingdom of God, in a word: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”  Where God’s will is done, there is heaven, there earth becomes heaven.

Alexander Schmeman, The Church is the sacrament of the Kingdom...

The Church is the sacrament of the Kingdom—not because she possesses divinely instituted acts called “sacraments,” but because first of all she is the possibility given to man to see in and through this world the “world to come,” to see and to “live” it in Christ. It is only when in the darkness of this world we discern that Christ has already “filled all things with Himself” that these things, whatever they may be, are revealed and given to us full of meaning and beauty. A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds Christ and rejoices in Him. And this joy transforms all his human plans and programs, decisions and actions, making all his mission the sacrament of the world’s return to Him who is the life of the world.  ~ Alexander Schmeman, in For the Life of the World 

 

Ratzinger on the meaning of "Orthodoxy"

In his book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, and in the context of an opening discussion of the meaning of "rite" or "ritual", Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) makes a beautiful argument about the role of worship and adoration in the formation of "orthodoxy."  Here's what he says:

"In Greek the word doxa means, on the one hand, opinion or splendor.  But then in Christian usage it means something on the order of "true splendor", that is, the glory of God.  Orthodoxy means, therefore, the right way to glorify God, the right form of adoration.  In this sense, orthodoxy is inward "orthopraxy".  If we go back to the word's origins, the modern opposition disappears.  It is not a question of theories about God but of the right way to encounter him.  This, then, was seen as Christian faith's greatest gift: we know what right worship is.  We know how we should truly glorify God - by praying and living in communion with the Paschal journey of Jesus Christ, by accomplishing with him this Eucharistia, in which the Incarnation leads to Resurrection - along the way to the Cross.  To adapt a saying of Kant, liturgy "covers everything" from the Incarnation to the Resurrection, but only on the way to the Cross.

Ray S. Anderson (and Barth?) on voluntarism and "the image and likeness of God"

“To esteem “freedom of choice” as an expression of individual autonomy and the basis of human dignity and responsibility is to miss the point.  The so-called freedom to be the “master of my fate, the captain of my soul” is at bottom joyless and cheerless.  For this is a freedom which denies dependence on the other as the source of one’s own personhood.  This “freedom of choice,” Barth rightly reminds us, is what lies behind the fall of humanity, not its emergence into true personhood.  We are not only determined by the other, and ultimately and originally by God, but we are made to respond in such a way that we do this “gladly,”  in joyful recognition of our own being.  This is the image and likeness of God.”

~ Ray S. Anderson, On Being Human: Essays in Theological Anthropology

Liturgy & Human Disability III

In many ways, I think, our understanding of what it means to be human (and by us I mean Westerners) is inherently related to an understanding of the imago dei - even if some people won't claim that relation.  When we think of what it means to be human, we often turn to the idea of human capacities.

Hans Reinders, in Receiving the Gift of Friendship, reminds us that this view of humanity as related to human capacity is - unfortunately - directly connected to historical Christian conceptions of the imago dei.  In other words, any Christian effort to insist that "people with profound intellectual disabilities are people just like other people" on the basis of the imago dei is bound to disappointed with what it finds.  

Reinders notes that in his research on the imago dei, he found that the theological support for a capacity-oriented imago dei was broad and deep within the Christian tradition - and not only the Christian tradition.

Personally, I have great respect for people who live profoundly disabled lives.  But can one even say that?  Are the people living such lives the proper object of respect?  Any contemporary textbook on ethics will explain to its readers that they owe respect to all human beings, because of their capacity for reason and will.  These textbooks do not say this because they are contemporary; readers will find the same view in all major Western thinkers, from Kant back to Aquinas to Augustine to Aristotle, to name a few.  One only need substitute "rational soul" for "human being," and one will find the proof of this claim.

Reinders, of course, wants to counter this claim that our humanity or our lives as the imago dei are necessarily related to human capacity.  In working through these claims, I am more than willing to go along with Reinders - but in a different direction that he is going.  I want to say that our humanity is constituted by our relation to other people and to God and, thus, that none of us are fully human unless we participate in life with others and with God.  Of course, this could be a dangerous move because it could lead to the oppression of those who do not understand "right relation to God and others" in the way in which I do.  This is something that I'll have to deal with.  But the further claim that I am inclined to make is that "right relation with God and others" is forged primarily in the fire of gathered liturgical celebration.  Therefore, I have some questions.  Implied in each of these is the question of how "historic Christianity" has asked and answered these questions.

Three interrelated questions on Liturgy and Human Disability:

1. In what ways can liturgy shape our understanding of what it means to be human? 
2. In what ways can liturgy serve as a means of faith formation?
3. In what ways can the inclusion of disabled persons in the liturgical celebration of Christian communities become mutually edifying and spiritually formative?

Liturgy & Human Disability II

By what signs can a developmentally delayed person indicate readiness for the Eucharist?  They are desire, relationships with people who share faith and prayer, and a sense of the sacred as manifest in behavior.  Often these people cannot use words which express their understanding of the difference between ordinary bread and the Bread of God, but they can show that they recognize the difference by their manner, the expression in their eyes, their gestures, or the quality of their silence.  God’s desire to be in communion with the person can be presumed; the person’s desire for communion must be awakened and sustained."

~ Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Access to Sacraments of Initiation and Reconciliation for Developmentally Delayed Persons: Pastoral Guidelines for the Archdiocese of Chicago, 9.

Liturgy & Human Disability I

From an essay entitled "Toward a Spirituality of Inclusiveness" by Don E. Saliers in Human Disability and the Service of God.

Taking one of my accustomed places with others in the great curved choir of the Abbey church designed by Marcel Breuer, I noticed an inner circle of chairs with spaces between them. As we gathered, there occurred an informal procession of walkers and wheelchairs bearing members of the community, most of whom I had not met before.

Following the singing of psalms and a few brief prayers and a reading, vessels of oil were brought forward for the Abbot's prayer of blessing. As this right of anointing was about to begin, something totally unexpected occurred. Abbot Jerome (now of blessed memory) invited all of us, not just the designated deacons, to come forward and lay hands on those in the center. As the blessed oils were applied to those hands and those foreheads, the rest of us followed by touching with a simple word of blessing the whole circle of those elders. This took time. A slow adagio dance. A remarkable circle. The silence was music given pitch and tone by the human and gentle exchange of words and blessing...

In a society whose marketing engines and projected fantasies in the mass media focus on the forever youthful, the ideally attractive, the highly mobile, and the physically strong, such an experience of liturgy is profoundly countercultural. It is the opening up of what is there all the time beneath the bright glitz and glaze of these projected images of our humanity, these projected ideals. Against the oppressive iconography and mythology of the perfect body, something needs to be revealed of another way of doing, and another way of being. At one and the same time, that simple rite of prayer and anointing with oil and human hands, with the touch of faces and foreheads, was both prophetic and priestly. To use nonchurchly terms, the physical action in that assembly was both critical and generative. A critical and generative sign -- a complex of signs -- against the indignity of our noninclusive practices. Yet such a ritual is also a sign of grace and liberation simultaneously.

Mercy-Filled Mondays: Just Peace Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation

JustPeace - Our Attitudes Toward Conflict Matter from JustPeaceUMC on Vimeo.

From the JustPeace website:

What is JustPeace?

"JUSTPEACE, the commissioned Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation of the United Methodist Church (UMC), empowers individuals to engage conflict constructively in ways that strive for justice, reconciliation, resource preservation and restoration of community in and through the UMC, the Church universal, and the world in which we live.

What does the work of JustPeace look like?


"JustPeace brings together the theory, practice and theology of conflict transformation. The scope of JustPeace Center for Mediation and Conflict Transofrmation is to prepare and assist United Methodists with regard to:

• Attitudes to conflict
• Skills used before and in the midst of conflict
• Processes for transforming conflicts
• Ministries of reconciliation that support transformative attitudes, skills and processes.

Learn more about JustPeace here.

Howard Zinn, 1922-2010

I just heard the news that radical historian and humanitarian activist, Howard Zinn, has died at age 87.  Zinn's writings, particularly Just War? and A People's History of the United States consistently challenged me to rethink my suppositions about the history of this country I call home.  The Boston Globe and the New York Times have written obituaries remembering Zinn and his work.

(Photo credit: http://howardzinn.org/)

Faces of Christ Collage (via Google / ReJesus)

Have you heard of Google's free photo editing software?  It's really not a bad deal (since it's free and it does some basic photo editing pretty well).  It's pretty stripped down but I just discovered that it has a "collage" feature.  Below, I've created a collage using various "faces of Jesus" (most of which were found via Google searches or via ReJesus).  Check it out!

(Photo credits: Google Search & ReJesus)

Just The Essentials: Building a Minimalist Youth Ministry

A few months ago, I was able to attend the National Youth Workers' Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.  I was blessed by my time there but not in the way you might think.  Honestly, I skipped almost all of the "big room" sessions and spent very little time in the exhibit hall.  I didn't play the Christian version of rock band and I didn't sign up for one of those Christian CD clubs.  I spent most of my time in a a space that was tucked away in the bowels of the convention center that was centered on helping youth ministers learn to build more prayer-centered, contemplative ministries in their churches.

I attended seminars on lectio divina, body prayer, the stations of the cross, praying with art, creative reading of scripture, creative worship, etc. and I experienced some of the most intensely intimate and meaningful moments of personal prayer and worship that I have ever experienced.  In learning about these Christian practices, old and new, I began to wonder if most youth ministries simply didn't get it.

Looking around the exhibit hall and listening to most of the speakers, I got the feeling that - for most youth pastors - youth ministry is an exercise in creating a Christian alternative to almost every "secular" reality imaginable - from music to food, from video games to clothing.  Even more, I began to realize that the most common ways of doing youth ministry aren't really all that good at creating obedient disciples of Christ.

What's more, youth ministries (and churches) have a bad habit of trying to do way too many things at once. Combine all these factors and, most of the time, the end result of many (if not most) youth work is a program-laden pseudo ministry of little substance run by thoroughly burned out youth ministers and volunteers.

Over the past few years, I have had the unique opportunity to serve in many different church contexts in a variety of roles and my own youth ministry experience coupled with my feelings above have me toying with the idea of cultivating a "minimalist" outlook in youth ministry. In my experience, churches and ministries are most effective when they are able to do one or two things with real passion, care and effectiveness.

In my own ministry, this is fleshed out by the fact that the primary work of our youth ministry can be summarized as follows: eat, play, read and pray.

The only "program" that exists in our youth ministry is a Sunday night meeting in which we eat, play, read and pray together.  That's it.  Of course, there is preparation that goes into this meeting and, of course, we "mix it up" from time to time.  But, in the end, this is really what the regular youth ministry of our church looks like.  But in our local setting our goals are very, very simple: eat together, play together, and creatively read scripture and pray together.

I have yet to find another way of doing youth ministry that is more effective at helping young people to grow into disciples of Jesus Christ.  In many ways, I think so much of what passes for youth "ministry" in our American culture ends up simply making young people more busy than they would be if we weren't around.  What's more, I think that the way youth ministry is done in our culture places very little faith in God's ability to speak to young people through prayer and through the Scriptures.  In a very real way, youth ministry in our culture is quite "faith-less" because it assumes that personal and communal prayer and scripture reading isn't enough.  If I can get young people to spend a few hours each week engaging creatively in individual and communal reading of scripture and prayer then I feel like I'm doing what God has called me to do.

What about evangelism?  What about service?  What about social justice?  Of course we engage in these vital practices of the church - but only after we've eaten, played, read and prayed together.  Maybe I'm naive, but I really do believe that these activities are truly the church's best hope for creating disciples of Christ who not only know what it means to be a Christian but who are willing to follow Christ with their lives.

What do you think?  What's missing here?  I'd love to hear from you!

Mercy Filled Monday Tuesday: United Methodist Committee on Relief

Series preface: each Monday morning on this blog, I want to start the day by briefly highlighting organizations, ministries, practices, etc. that may be of interest to anyone looking to live out the Christian commitment to social justice and the works of mercy.

These may or may not be "Christian" or even "religious" organizations, ministries or practices - the goal is simply to point to ways that Christian people can work to make the world more just and peaceful. For now, the series will be called "Mercy-Filled Mondays." Enjoy!

I have been out of town on a youth trip in West Virginia over the past couple of days so I was unable to post this profile until today (Tuesday). Sorry about that!

Today I want to briefly profile the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), which recently lost two of its most senior leaders in the Haitian earth quake: Rev. Sam Dixon and Rev. Clinton Rabb.

UMCOR is the non-profit global humanitarian aid organization of the United Methodist Church. In this capacity, UMCOR works with United Methodist and ecumenical groups worldwide to provide relief in the areas of emergency response, health, refugee and immigration issues, world hunger and poverty, providing relief supplies and through the work of its 13 field offices in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Not only is the work of UMCOR extensive but it is also trustworthy. UMCOR has received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator and an A+ rating from the American Institute for Philanthropy. You can donate to UMCOR's work in Haiti and to its work throughout the world by visiting this page. And, rest assured, your donation really does go to help people throughout the world because of UMCOR's 100% efficiency promise: Every dollar you give to UMCOR goes to the program you designate. UMCOR is 100% efficient. "The One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) offering allows us to make—and to keep—this promise. OGHS funds the cost of doing business for UMCOR. We do not receive apportionment funds or any other world service funds."

So, if you're wondering how you can help in the relief efforts in Haiti and in other communities throughout the world, consider giving to the work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

An interview with the Swell Season

This interview features some simply beautiful life singing and playing from what is becoming my favorite new band (not to mention some thoughts on creative process and being present to others).  Here's an excerpt from the BoingBoing.net description:

Two years ago, Glen Hansard, singer/guitarist for the Irish group The Frames, and Markéta Irglová, a teenaged classical pianist from the Czech Republic, starred in a small independent film about a busker (like Hansard himself) and an immigrant flower seller on the streets of Dublin. Director John Carney made the film, titled Once, for just $160,000. Hansard and Irglová wrote all the songs for the soundtrack. The film became a surprise hit. Hansard and Irglová won a 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song, the hauntingly beautiful "Falling Slowly."

Cut to 2009: Hansard and Irglová, backed by The Frames, are playing sold-out shows under the name The Swell Season at legendary venues like Radio City Music Hall. The group recently released Strict Joy, their first album since the Once soundtrack. More complex and lush than their previous work but just as emotional and brutally honest, Strict Joy is an intimate, orchestral song cycle that brings them even further into the realm of the great singer-songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell.

Today @ Sojourners: An Evangelical Missionary’s Honest Perspective on Pat Robertson’s Haiti Remarks

This is a fantastic article (IMHO) not just about Robertson and responses to him but also about the significant differences between Western liberal Christianity and African Christianity and the possibility of the religious roots of poverty.  Here's an excerpt:

Western liberal academia might scoff at the idea that idolatry leads to poverty, but for millions of African Christians, the dots were connected a long time ago.  They themselves are fighting against sorcery and witchcraft in their spiritual warfare conferences—without the prodding of Western missionaries.  And for good reason.  Witchcraft is a poor moral base to build a prosperous society.  When people are afraid to succeed in their jobs or businesses because they fear their neighbor will place a deadly curse on them, that’s bad news for the economy.  Most African Christian leaders recognize this.  This is why when Western media and religious elites treat witchcraft/voodooism as a harmless practice that may or may not be compatible with Christianity, what they’re really doing is trivializing the beliefs of millions of African Christians—a sort of paternalism in reverse if you will.

Mercy-Filled Mondays: The Beloved Community Center, Greensboro, NC

Series preface: each Monday morning on this blog, I want to start the day by briefly highlighting organizations, ministries, practices, etc. that may be of interest to anyone looking to live out the Christian commitment to social justice and the works of mercy. These may or may not be "Christian" or even "religious" organizations, ministries or practices - the goal is simply to point to ways that Christian people can work to make the world more just and peaceful. For now, the series will be called "Mercy-Filled Mondays." Enjoy!

Our goal is to create a beloved community and

this will require a qualitative change in our souls

as well as a quantitative change in our lives.

~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, NC is committed to "fostering and modeling a spirit of community based on Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of a "Beloved Community." Through their work, the center seeks to "envision and work toward social and economic relations that affirm and realize the equality, dignity, worth and potential of every person." The center accomplishes these aims through the efforts of eight "working groups." If you are interested in learning more about the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, NC, click the image below.

Pro Ecclesia's symposium on Harmon's Towards Baptist Catholicity

The latest issue of Pro Ecclesia features a lengthy "book symposium" on Dr. Steven Harmon's Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision.  Dr. Harmon was my theology professor during my first year of seminary before I left Campbell Divinity School to spend a year at Duke Divinity School before returning to Campbell to finish my M.Div.  Harmon has since moved to Alabama to teach at Beeson Divinity School where he continues to be a creative and essential voice for the rethinking of what it means to be Baptist (and protestant / evangelical) in light of the "Great Tradition" of the church catholic.

Thankfully, Campbell's library has an extensive collection of such journals, including Pro Ecclessia.  I look forward to interacting with the five essays in the book symposium:

1. "Explosive Devices and Rhetorical Strategies: Appreciation for Steven R. Harmon's Towards Baptist Catholicity" by Richard Crane of Messiah College
2. "Traditions, Authorities, and the Individual Christian" by Nicholas M. Healy of St. John's University in New York
3. "Remembering How to Remember: Harmon's Subversive Orthodoxy" by Elizabeth Newman of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, VA
4. "Towards a Baptist (and Roman Catholic) Catholicity" by Maureen O'Connell of Fordham University in New York City
5. "Why Baptist Catholicity, and by What Authority?" by Steven R. Harmon himself

I am particularly excited about Harmon's essay because the question, "by what authority," is one that I've been asking of this conversation ever since I was introduced to Harmon and other "Bapto-Catholics."  I think it's an incredibly important question and I look forward to hearing and interacting with Harmon's thoughts on a possible way forward in addressing this issue of authority among Baptists.

I just finished reading Dr. Richard Crane's essay.  One paragraph toward the end summarizes pretty clearly why the need for clarity on the issue of authority for Baptists is so important.  Crane writes,

The most intransigent obstacle to Baptist catholicity is the "quasi-Gnostic" soteriological imagination deeply entrenched in Baptist and evangelical circles.  Baptists typically construe "salvation" as a private encounter between the individual soul and God, the "content" of which is the rectification of the individual's juridical relationship with God.  The visible community of Christians, the sacraments, the acts of service are seen as secondary, merely external expressions of the "real" inward, spiritual reality where the individual has unmediated access to God.  The church is seen as desirable as an aid to individual spiritual growth, but dispensable for salvation.

These "quasi-Gnostic" tendencies are not, unfortunately, confined to Baptist or even evangelical Christianity.  I have noticed similar tendencies (markedly so) in my ministry work among all sorts of "mainline," supposedly more "sacramental" communities.  The simple presence of the descriptor "sacrament" or "sacramental" within the life and work of the church in its worship and fellowship, it seems, is not sufficient to engender a truly holy communion among the members of a local body which sees the life of the church as both sacramental and  sacrament.  The question remains, in what ways and by what authority can Baptist (and other "free church" / evangelical) communities claim to somehow be in continuity with the traditions of catholic Christianity when faced with the challenges of gnostic individualism?

Does Hierarchy / Leadership Always Lead to Clericalism?

Frank Tupper has some wonderful thoughts on clericalism and the necessity of a "functioning" laity (via Tripp Fuller @ Homebrewed Christianity).  I'd love for some of you to watch this video and then respond to some of my questions / thoughts below.  

"Clericalism, intended or not, will kill the church.  The primary role of the clergy in the New Testament is to enable the ordinary person in the life of the church [sic] to do the work of the church for which they are uniquely gifted.  Equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.  If that is our primary role as clergy and teachers of clergy, we have failed."

Though Tupper is very clear about what he means by "clericalism," I'd be curious to know how his understanding dovetails with various understandings of "clericalism" now circulating throughout the web (i.e. do house churchers who speak of clericalism mean the same thing as Frank Tupper or Rosemary Radford Reuther, for example).

I've seen the term "clericalism" used and have my own preconceptions about its meaning and pitfalls but I am so far unclear regarding what most people mean when they use the term.  Tupper, at least, makes clear that clericalism represents the lack of participation of the so-called "laity" in the life of the church.  Clericalism as I understand it is the prevention of "every member functioning" of the body of Christ.  For others, like my friend Mike Morrell, clericalism appears to refer to any sort of hierarchical form of leadership in the church whatsoever (hence the title of his post quoting Reuther is Ministry Without Hierarchy).

I personally like Catholic blogger Mark Shea's definition of clericalism:

"Clericalism is basically the bad idea that only the ordained and religious are fully Catholic and that laypeople are more or less second-class. With that idea comes a host of other bad ideas, such as "Father is always right," "Never disagree if a bishop does it," and "Don't question anything a priest or bishop does."

Coming from my "free church" background, you'd think I would appreciate more than anyone a church system without formal hierarchy.  However, in my work in various denominational settings, I've discovered that "clericalism" as Tupper defines it (i.e. the preclusion of the active priesthood of all believers) can occur in most any setting - even in house churches and neo-monastic communities - when a person or group of people elevate themselves above others.  This, as I noted in a comment on Mike's post, is from my perspective primarily a moral and spiritual problem for clergy and not necessarily intrinsic in the structure itself.

I say all of this because I'm curious to know what others of you think.  I have friends, colleagues and classmates from various denominational backgrounds so I hope we can have some varied and fruitful discussion around the following question:  Is clericalism intrinsic to certain church structures or is it, as I stated, more a moral / spiritual problem which the clergy must overcome in order to be effective in their particular calling in ministry?  Stated differently, does a church structure that makes a distinction between clergy and laity necessarily lead to clericalism?

Pray for Haiti (via The Work of the People)

The following video presentation (and the description below) come from The Work of the People.  I invite you to watch and reflect on how God might move you to respond to the need of the Haitian people.  

Organic Life in Christ Outside the "institutional" Church?

Mark Galli (senior editor of Christianity Today) recently posted this piece about the impending demise of the "organic church" movement - a fate that apparently awaits most (if not all) so-called "renewal movements" within the church. The article seems to view most such movements as short-sighted (at best) and even harmful (in the long run). Moreover, the Gospel as Galli sees it never calls for the sort of "transformation" that such renewal movements hope for. Rather, we are called to be salt and light - to be stewards and preservers of the earth and its people (salt) and to speak and live the truth and love of Christ in the world (light).


Veteran organic churchers Neil Cole and Frank Viola have shared their responses. Remarkably (given my propensity to read books like his), this article is the first bit of Cole's writing I have ever read. However, I have long been familiar with Frank Viola and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that my passion for the priesthood of all believers was originally kindled by Viola's writings.  


That being said, over the years I have mentally and emotionally vacillated between the extremes of clericalism and organic church - all the while serving in "vocational ministry" in various contexts.  I have written and commented ad nauseam in other places about my my struggles to come to terms with my background and calling in ministry so I won't rehash that here.  I will say, however, that these days I find myself landing somewhere closer to where Galli is coming from.  


Renewal movements (regardless of whether we call them such) inevitably change and even (often?) become institutionalized.  Whenever people begin to pin their hopes for the global church - or even their individual and communal spiritual lives - on any movement (emerging, missional, organic, etc.), we desperately need voices like Galli to remind us that movements rarely stay the same over time.  If we simply ride the wave of momentum that swells from either controversy or popular support, we will inevitably be disappointed.  If we come to view our version of renewal as the sine qua non of what the church ought to be, we will most likely end up either delusional, angry or both.


This, of course, is very good!  Mike Morrell uses the metaphor of a gardener and of compost reminding us that "God is a gardener, and we – our individual lives, collective lives, our history and our institutions – are compost."  As a gardener myself, I can appreciate what Mike is getting at.  Composting, of course, involves the mixing of old, used up and dying plants and some animal products to create a life-giving soil out of which more good food can grow - some of which will (if a gardener is smart) eventually end up back in the compost pile.  Similarly, the church is the fellowship of a whole bunch of messed-up, used up, sin-filled lives who are able to - slowly and with much patience - become something new and life-giving.  


Of course, a good compost pile needs to be turned and mixed up from time to time.  Thus, at the risk of over-extending Mike's metaphor, I'd say that the various renewal movements represent this turning that upsets the stagnant life of the church to give it air, let it breathe and begin to become a place that nurtures faithful Christian discipleship.


I, personally, love Mike's metaphor because it reminds me (maybe unintentionally on his part) that an authentic, life-giving faith does not need to be as amazing and "transformational" as some folks might like it to be.  Composting is boring and if you've ever been around a compost pile you know that it often stinks to high heaven!  There is transformation happening but it's not the sort that comes overnight.  In the same way, church life may not always look the way we'd like it to look - in fact, it is often just plain boring, but that doesn't mean that transformation cannot happen.  


As Galli says in the end of his article, 

In his providence, God has raised up in our day men and women who rail against church-as-usual, church-as-program, church-as-institutional-management. They are telling us something true and vital about the church. They are disturbing the religious establishment, upsetting our pious social order, causing a holy chaos! These are prophets in our midst whom we should honor, and for whom we should have ears to hear.

And for whom we should pray—that they would keep their eyes not on the prize of transformation, but that their ears may continue to hear and obey that still small voice that called them into ministry in the first place. Only then will they be among us, challenging and energizing us, even when things look as disappointing as ever.

Pray for Missing UMCOR Executives

Please be in prayer for the three UMCOR workers named below.  You can access the entire article here.

United Methodists throughout the world are saying prayers; donating time, talent and money; and planning relief efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Haitian people even as the church worries about the fate of some of its mission workers in the devastated nation.

In the aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude quake Jan. 12, church officials on Jan. 13 were still waiting to hear from three executives of the Board of Global Ministries who were in Haiti. Sam Dixon, top executive of the United Methodist Committee on Relief; Clinton Rabb, head of Mission Volunteers; and James Gulley, an UMCOR consultant, were on the island on a mission-related trip.

No one has been able to reach the three men since the earthquake occurred and communications with Haiti have been difficult, officials said."