Today

Today we went to the grocery store, played outside, changed too many diapers, ate chalk (only one of us ate chalk) and watched a movie.

Parenting

So I am going to take a short break from writing specifically about church or theology and just write some observations about my week with the boys. My wife is on a much needed vacation. She left me with the 3 boys until friday. As she walked out of the house my 2 older boys (6 and 9) were wrestling and my youngest (19months) was completely naked except for some leather shoes and there was urine on the ottoman. It is going to be a wonderful week. I will try and keep you updated.
Mark

Posting

Well I did not get to a longer post. This blogging this is harder than I thought it would be. I have been fairly busy with pastoral duties, family and whatever else it is that I do. I will try and post something more substantial in the next few days.

Mark

Annual Conference

I have been away for a little while at the United Methodist North Carolina Annual Conference. Basically, a big get together of UM clergy and laity. It was great fun. We had lots of good conversation. I will post a longer post tomorrow.

Mark

Summer Cafe

Our church last summer started a summer cafe for kids and families in our community. We provide a meal for the children in our community who are at home during the summer. On Wednesday's at 11am a few volunteers serve meals to around 60 kids. Some are from the community, some come from the summer education program at the elementary school. We want to provide these kids with a good meal. Ultimately we want them to know we love the people of our community, we are a part of this community and we want them to know God loves them.
One of the dangers for our church is the fact that we know how to feed the community but we don't always know how to be a part of the community. It is easy for the volunteers to serve the kids and then stand back, watch them eat and leave (I have done that). What if the church is called to not only feed but to "get up in people business?" I tell my congregation that it is my job to be in their business. In other words, the church is called to make the communities problems our problems. To make the trials that kids face our trials. We are called not stand far off while children eat what we have provided, but to grab a plate, sit with them and talk with them. All great events begin (and end) with a meal. So be a part (not apart).

Mark

Serving Christ in the Church

Church is always an interesting place. Many of us attend church looking for something. We want to be different. We want to be forgiven. We want to feel better. We want our children not to grow up to be serial killers. We want our spouse to be a better person. We want to meet people. Or the ever popular, there is free food (sometimes). I will admit that some Sundays, even as a pastor, what gets me out of bed, into my clergy collar and onto the chancel is the promise of Eastern NC BBQ after the service. It is who we are as people to assume that the church is here in the world to do something for us. I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say they like a church because it "meets their needs." It makes sense. Every store we go to, every restaurant we go to, almost every place we go to we go to meet our own perceived needs.  If they do not have good customer service we go somewhere else. We go to what we like, and when we do not like it anymore we go somewhere else.
Church is different. We "sign up" for church to serve Christ in the church. We go to church not to get something but to give and serve someone else. Often times we get in the habit of believing that we go to church to get our gas tank filled up. But our attendance at church is not only to get something.
I have a friend who might just be the smartest person I have the pleasure of talking with. The other day I called him to talk about J. L Austin's  philosophical understanding of performative utterances and constative utterances and I asked him first what he was doing. He told me he was at the church mowing and replacing light bulbs. It struck me as funny. Here we are talking about serious philosophical concerns while doing the simplest tasks of service.
What we do receive at church is sacramental formation. God uses the physicality of the church to train us to service. We are practiced and formed to be Christ in the world. We do receive the grace of God in  Baptism and Holy Communion (the 2 sacraments in the United Methodist Church). In that reception of God's grace we are then transformed to be in service. The final prayer that we pray at the end of our time of Communion reads: Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your spirit to give ourselves for others. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
God gives God's self, so that we can become means of grace to others. In other words, be in service to Christ through your church. If you are not in service you are denying God's gifts to you.

Mark

Methodism and Other Traditions

When it comes to discussions of doctrine, Wesleyan works are no doubt placed at the head of most Methodist theology subsequent to Holy Scripture. Wesley's practical theology provides Methodist pietist roots with plenty of fodder for discourse. Wesley's Anglican roots provides Methodism with a rich historical development of dogma.  But often times Wesley's "methodism" lacks a certain attention to metaphysics (probably because of his historical situation and the epistemological philosophy of his day). But where we Methodist find Wesley lacking, turning to St. Thomas Aquinas is particularly helpful. Read in conjunction, a fairly wholistic theology emerges.
I say all this just to remind us that we Methodist would do well to reach beyond our own tradition and seek out a more eclectic theology from Christians who provided Wesley with his own thoughts. Often times when I am faced with a theological problem I turn to St. Thomas and Catholic sources.  
Let me give you an example. Wesley's Mariology is quite thin, that is to be expected but a few months ago I was doing some reading from scripture, preparing for sermons and concentrating upon the life of Mary. The issue of Immaculate Conception came up and I was wondering how it was that Mary was with/without original sin. The Methodist sources on this question were thin, but the rich text of St. Thomas Compendium were particularly helpful. I don't want to leave you in suspense, I was not questioning whether Mary was without original sin, but I was questioning how she was without original sin. Meaning: Was she born without it or was she granted a specific dispensation (St. Thomas said the latter, but Duns Scotus made the correction later).
Now you may be saying to yourself, "Who cares?" Well...I do. I think questions like these are fun and help train my mind to think about the things of God (which I always need help with). If we focus on theological questions we might just skip thinking about who is going to win American Idol (and come on, that has to be good). Now before I go into a rant and loose you (if I haven't already) let us return to Methodism.
It would be a grave error for us Methodist to believe that our "method" is solid and fully efficient to explain the intricacies of Christian theology. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, an early 19th century theologian, wrote, "the true is the whole." The whole of Christian theology, every tradition past and present, presents us with a truer picture than one tradition can provide (I would even suggest that an non-theology can provide a measure of truth). What is my point? Don't not be a afraid, as a pastor or laity, to demand more theology from your church. More than one particular theological tradition. The richness of theological sources can provide a lifetime of thinking about the God we serve.

Mark

Praying and Working

Ok,
I have not posted in a long while. I will try and do better. There are a lot of people who need prayer these days and when someone comes to me with a concern it is second nature for me to say, "I will pray for you." Many times I wish I could do more than pray and sometimes I can. Is praying enough? Don't get me wrong, praying is essential to the Christian life and prayer is doing something (it is efficacious). Many people are praying for those affected by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. It is also the job of Christians to find others ways to help those in need.  Perhaps a church can raise money together and donate to a sister church "on the front lines."
In early Christian theology many writers made a distinction between the contemplative life and the practical life. The contemplative life is often focused upon prayer, study and fasting. While the practical life focused more on the "hands on" work of ministry. It might do us good to be mindful of these distinctions and seek, as Christians, to learn the value of both. We United Methodists have a tendency to emphasize the practical, because of the nature of John Wesley's ministry(so in might be helpful for UMs to be a little more contemplative before we charge in with our pragmatic swords). The Christian faith seeks to establish both the contemplative life and the practical life as essential to a faithful Church. Pray church. Work church.

Mark

Article 8: Obedience of the Church

This article seeks to highlight the importance of obedience. Often times we only obey what we agree with. This is really not obedience. Obedience comes when we do not want to do what is commanded of us but we seek to submit ourselves to a proper authority and do it cheerfully. For example: My sons have no problem obeying me when I tell them to watch a movie on the internet, but they do have a problem obeying when I tell them it is time to go to bed. Obedience is most important when we are weak  as individuals. The church is a covenant community. This is a community that stays together even when there is a fundamental disagreement. Instead of the church being organized by people of like mind, we are organized first by the call of God (as is Article 1) and the covenant made in baptism. 

Obedience then, is our will conformed to Christ who has established the church as the sign and instrument of God's work in the world. In other words, obeying is most important when we find ourselves in disagreement. A radical modern individualism counters this understanding of obedience, suggesting that what is correct for us to do is what we think in our own minds is correct. But inherent in a Christian understanding of the world is a call to humility (we do not always know right and wrong on our own). As Thomas a' Kempis writes, "if we desire that God be among us, we must sometimes set aside our own will (though it seem good) so that we may have love and peace with others. Who is wise that he can fully know all things? No one, surely. Therefore, trust not too much in your own judgement, but gladly hear the advice of others." (The Imitation of Christ) 


VIII. Obedience of the Church


"In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."
(Judges 17:6)
In the Baptismal Covenant, church members promise to: renounce and resist evil in this world,

confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, be faithful to Christ's universal Church, be loyal to Christ in a particular church (denomination or communion), and participate actively in a congregation. (Most churches have baptismal vows that are similar to the above.)


We believe that faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, clergy and laity, are found in joyful obedience to Christ, in the Holy Spirit's power, through the church's Baptismal Covenant. A disciple's relationship with Jesus Christ is lived out in a covenantal relationship in the Body of Christ, the church.


We reject the assumption that Christian discipleship is basically disconnected from the church, practically devoid of discipline, and fundamentally shaped by individual preferences. 

Article 7: Worship by the Church

This article states that we need to pay attention to our worship. It affirms Word and Sacrament as the activities in which the people of God most profoundly encounter and are confronted with the risen Christ. Worship is not just something people do for God, but an encounter with God. This article speaks against a kind of "consumer" type of worship (worship that fills up our spiritual gas tank), or a worship built on attraction and pragmatism.


VII. Worship by the Church


"And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness." (Acts 4:31)
"'God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.'" (John 4:24)


We believe the church's corporate worship joyfully binds hearts and minds together to praise, glorify, and honor the Triune God. In public worship, the Risen Christ through Word and Sacrament, the means that most profoundly reveal divine grace and truth, encounters the congregation. The centrality and substance of Word and Sacrament are the criteria by which worship is best evaluated.


We reject the assumption that the church's worship should be determined by the expectations of culture, the needs of individual worshipers, and the latest fads in religion. 

Article 6: Ministry of the Church

This article states that Word, Sacrament and Order are essential to church. Now I think there are creative ways in which these three are expressed. As the quote from Lumen Gentium suggests, the church, as a body called together by God, is a sign and instrument of the union of God and Creation. Christ's presence, in the form of both Word, Sacrament and Order, is the ministry of the church. All other practices flow from the presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit in Word, Sacrament and Order.




VI. Ministry for the Church
"The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men [and women] in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." (Article XIII, Of the Church, The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church [2008]. Most churches have similar doctrinal statements.)
"The Church, in Christ, is like a sacrament -- a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity with all men [and women]." (Vatican II, Roman Catholic Church, Lumen gentium 1 [November 21, 1964])


We believe the Church is of God. The faithfulness of the church is made possible by God in Christ working through Word, Sacrament, and Order (including doctrine and morals). As shepherds who are servant leaders of the flock guided by the Holy Spirit, clergy through Word-and-Sacrament ministry serve the church in worship and life. Faithful laity, guided by the Holy Spirit, serve the Gospel in their places in the world, as well as in the church.


We reject the assumption that the ministry of the church, her leaders and people, should rely primarily on organizational, business, or political models, and that the church should preach, teach, and live in a way that seeks to remain culturally inoffensive. 

Article 5 Mission of the Church

This article is basically saying that the church's mission is to make disciples. This discipleship making is not easy and is not driven by "whatever works."  "Whatever works" begs the question of who defines what is working. Rather, the church is to not be afraid of discipline and obedience to its doctrine and teaching. Often times we think that in order to reach people we must be relevant. This article (and this pastor) is not interested in being relevant but being faithful. Now I understand that those things might not be diametrically opposed, but many times in an attempt to become relevant we forsake what makes us holy and separate from the world. In other words, maybe the whole point of church is to be not relevant to the world, but to be a kind of alternative to the world. A body of people continually calling others to be irrelevant to the world. 


V. Mission of the Church
"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.'" (Matthew 28:18-20)


We believe that the source of the Church's mission is the risen Jesus Christ. The church's mission has many dimensions (worship, evangelism, education, prophetic witness, service, and fellowship), but the mission itself is to "make disciples of all nations..." This mission requires Christian adults to lovingly lead children and youth in obeying Christ and in fulfilling His church's mission.


We reject the assumption that the church's mission is based on American pragmatism. Pragmatism in American Christianity is most often demonstrated today in the rush to offer religious goods and services, to increase institutional security, to adopt fashionable political formulas, and to bend the church's teachings to incorporate certain aspects of culture even when the Scriptures teach otherwise. 

New Baby Interlude

I figured I would take a short break from our march through the Pro Ecclesia Confession to give some details about the birth of our 3rd son.
We came into the hospital around 7am yesterday morning and had prayer with Rev. Stallsworth.  Syndi was in surgery just after 9am. Asher Bryant was born at 9:43am. He was 8lbs 3oz. 20in long.  He is doing very well along with his Mommy. We are both so happy and thanking God.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Mark

Article 4: Marks of the Church

Some context: This is article four of a confession on the nature of the church drafted by pastors and laity in our local community. 
In this article it may seem strange to reject diversity, pluralism and inclusivity, considering that this is the latest wave of church language. But the article does not out right reject this language only the idea the the church "is best defined by diversity, pluralism, and/or inclusivity." To be sure the church is diverse and inclusive but not at the expense of God's ability to transform lives. This simple means that the church does its best work, not when it flings its doors wide open, but when it seeks the transformation of humanity into the children of God. Christianity is demanding and includes discipline. This demanding discipline transforms the church into the people of God called to be in the world but not of the world. The article is trying to start a conversation that includes both God's love and justice. 


IV. Marks of the Church
"We believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church." (The Nicene Creed)
We believe the essential marks of the Church are: unity (see John 17:20-23), holiness (set apart
for God's purposes), catholicity (universality in faith, practice, and outreach), and apostolicity (message and mission traceable to the apostles). These marks, given by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:1-3), evidence the Church's faithful, attentive response to the gracious Headship of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:4-7).
We reject the assumption that the church is best defined by diversity, pluralism, and/or inclusivity. The radical hospitality of the church is not to be promoted by limiting or eliminating the transformative power of the Gospel that unifies and enculturates the church, and blesses the world. 

Holy Spirit

In the third article the Holy Spirit is affirmed as the sustainer of the church. As the Father calls the church into existence through the Son, the Holy Spirit sustains the life of the church. We spent some time discussing the phrase, "organic growth." What is trying to be conveyed is a sense of constant movement within the church as a whole. The church grows in many ways. All of those changes are connected with one another just as an organism grows as one being. Also we believe it is faithful to the language of Ephesians. 
While the Son builds the church the Holy Spirit guides the congregation. This article speaks implicitly against a pragmatism that suggests the program and direction of the church is guided by "whatever works." This article hopefully challenges our understanding of what works in the church. The church is always seeking guidance through prayer and worship, not through whatever new program claims results.


III. Holy Spirit: Sustainer of the Church
"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place...And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit..." (Acts 2:1,4a)
"...so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love." (Ephesians 4:14-16).


We believe the Holy Spirit gives steadying power, increasing faithfulness in love, and organic growth to the church. Since the first Day of Pentecost, God's Spirit has given life, structure, purpose, and direction to the church.


We reject the assumption that the church can measure her own faithfulness, determine her own identity, and set her own course, according to conventional wisdom. 

Article Two

Following the ancient creeds, article two of the confession speaks of the Son in relation with the gathered church. It is God's eternal Word spoken in the Son that builds the church. What is being rejected is our attempt to establish the church with our own efforts. Often when a church sees itself in crisis, such as dwindling membership, we try and safe guard ourselves and blame each other for the crisis. In these moments we often lack patience and hastily determine that we need a specific program or more relevancy to deflect the crisis (assuming that crisis is not part of God's grace). But the church's main construction is not based on our relevancy, rather the church is called together by God and receives its existence from the Son.
The article starts with the eternal Word, which is Christ Jesus. The Word is eternal therefore anything that is not grounded in the Word can "erode over time." 




II. Son: Builder of the Church
"'And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.'" (Matthew 16:18)
We believe the church receives life from God's eternal Word, and Jesus Christ builds the church by working through Spirit-driven, Word-and-Sacrament ministry transforming the Christian community and witnessing to the larger community.
We reject the assumption that the church builds herself by making herself appealing and attractive to the world -- in appearance, in program, and in preaching and teaching. When Jesus Christ is not the church's builder, what is put together in the name of the church is bound to erode over time.

Article One

I hope that this confession is helpful. I think it does call some current practices of the church into question. This confession is a good point to begin discussion on what we really believe the church is. So here we go into the main body of the confession. 
After the circumstance is stated the confession moves into the body. Article I begins with the call of God the Father, demonstrating that the church exists because God calls the church into existence. It is not a loose affiliation of people, but a distinct relationship of God with God's creation. This article suggests the church is not gathered only to meet needs. The church is not an interest group where people of like minds gather to share their hobbies and interests. Rather the church is brought together by God, not humanity, to live in covenant with the God who called the church into existence. To be sure, we find commonality with in the church, but it is not the "gathering" principle.


OUR CONFESSION
I. Father: Sovereign of the Church
"'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves; because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.'" (Genesis 26:4-5)
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy." (I Peter 2:9-10)
We believe that both the Old Testament and the New Testament reveal God initiating a covenantal relationship with a people -- first with Israel, continuing with the Church. God's relationship with the Church is based not on the merits of the people, but on the steadfast love and missional purpose of Almighty God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
We reject the assumption that the church exists primarily to satisfy the perceived needs of needs-driven individuals. This assumption misunderstands the church to be merely a social organization, in competition with many other such organizations, rather than a people called by Almighty God to covenant. 

"Pro Ecclesia" (For the Church)

For the past few months an ecumenical group of clergy and laity have met, almost monthly, to put together a confession on the nature of the church for our community. I was asked to be a part of this group and have found the experience very rewarding. For the next few weeks I will post sections of the confession. For those who take the time to engage this text, please feel free to ask questions. The confession may prompt many different responses, which I think would be great.
This first section is the introduction. It gives a summary of our circumstance and the context in which American Churches find themselves. It also demonstrates the need for such confession. Enjoy.


[PRO ECCLESIA (FOR THE CHURCH): AN ECUMENICAL CONFESSION

OUR CIRCUMSTANCE
"You are the salt of the earth...
"You are the light of the world..." (Matthew 5:13a,14a, RSV here and following)
God's purposeful love is the starting point for this world. In Genesis, God creates the world and
humanity, forming the human person in His image and likeness (1:26-27, 2:7, and 2:21-22). God tells humanity to flourish and multiply, and grants us dominion over all creation (1:28). God empowers humanity to cultivate, and fosters the division of labor that enables us to flourish. Even more, through the prophets and His Son, Jesus Christ, God assists, judges, and blesses humanity's cultural efforts. So by creating culture, we participate in God's love.
But centuries of war, poverty, and oppression, along with momentous achievements in the arts, literature, science, technology, politics, economics, and social organization, attest to the truth that culture -- how a people defines and organizes its life -- is always a flawed project in a fallen world. Therefore, God's purposeful love gathers the Church* to be the primary community through which God's redemptive love in Christ is continuously manifested. The Church is to be the "salt of the earth" and "light of the world," called to stand both within, and apart from, culture as a herald of God's Word, presence, and power. This calling leads to a divinely designed relationship, and an unavoidable tension, between Church and culture.
Through the ages there is ample evidence of the Church, as the Body of Christ on earth, accepting and fulfilling its commission to go into all the world to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Humanity has often been blessed by the message and model of grace and truth exhibited by the Church. The Holy Spirit has worked through the Church to embody and advance righteousness, justice, integrity, morality, compassion, and forgiveness, and to remind culture of its dependence upon God's providence, grace, and judgment. However, at times through the ages, the Church has notoriously compromised her faith, witness, and life.
Today many North American churches are dangerously accommodated to excesses of American culture -- secularism, materialism, individualism, consumerism, relativism, and sentimentalism. We, clergy and laity, are complicit. We take responsibility. Too often we lack the faith and courage to be the church that is the Body of Christ in this world. We treat the church as a business to expand, as an organization to promote, as a political lobby, as a therapeutic group. Many clergy and laity now appear apathetic toward the church -- her faith and practice, her message and mission. From years of apathy come the apostasy and atrophy of the church, leading to doctrinal and moral scandals with little communal discipline. Church shopping and schism are taken for granted in American Christianity.
Because of this widespread, cultural accommodation of the churches in the United States, there is an urgent need for confession. When the churches' faith and faithfulness are seriously eroded by cultural compromise, the confession of Gospel truth is compelled by God.
The time has come for American Christians -- clergy and laity, Protestant and Catholic -- to confess Gospel truth about the Church and to reject cultural compromise.]

Waiting

Greetings,

Much of our lives is spent waiting. We might wait for the bus. We wait for each other. We wait in line at the post office. We wait for our food at a restaurant. Sometimes we wait for phones calls or for an important letter. Waiting can be trying, and we do not always like to wait. But what if waiting is precisely the time that we find meaning? R.S. Thomas in his poem "Kneeling" ends his poem with the line, "The meaning is in the waiting." Of course, Thomas is referring to waiting on God and that may be something we all have to do. Waiting on God to act, to answer or to speak is not foreign to us.

This year was the second year that our family had a garden. We bought some seed and a starter kit and we let the kids plant the seeds. We waited and waited for the seeds to grow into plants, and now our back deck is covered with plants. Waiting for that first summer tomato is hard, I will admit, but the more we waited with the kids, checking the garden each morning, the more anticipation grew. I would love to tell you that we have a wonderful crop of tomatoes, but that was not to be this year, there was another group waiting on our tomatoes, and they decided not to wait until the tomatoes were bright red, but preferred the green ones. So we spent our time of waiting starring out the window waiting to run outside to chase off the squirrels that would throw themselves into the tomato bush and make off with a big green tomato. The kids enjoyed the chase and maybe learned a valuable lesson; something like "even if you wait you may not get what you expect."

I am not sure exactly how we extract meaning from this kind of waiting. But the time spent waiting on our crops to grow and the time spent chasing squirrels is not without a certain level of being. That kind of waiting I will take any time. The waiting holds the same level of reality as the thing that we wait for. There is a moment right before we start service at Cherry Point UMC that always passes so quickly but it holds as much excitement as the moment of benediction. As we all gather for worship and the pianist finishes the prelude, there is brief moment of silence right before we all rise for the processional hymn. In that moment we expect that in the next hour God will show up. Maybe waiting for crops to grow and waiting on each other, and waiting in line at the post office is the same, or bares some resemblance to the moment right between the end of the prelude and the beginning of processional--that brief silence before the chaos of worship. We may be expecting big ripe tomatoes, but we may end up chasing the squirrels away.

Grace and Peace,
Rev. Mark Woods