Moments of Grace

Southside Abbey is a small church. We can't offer much in the way of pomp and spectacle. (Unless by spectacle you mean chaos). We rent our space, and so we worship around art that is not necessarily religious. The nightmarish teddy-bear with claws comes to mind as a prime example. It can be a bit noisy, and yet, even with the noise, the artistic oddities, and the unpredictable people, there are moments of striking beauty and grace. In fact, these moments are essential to Southside Abbey. They are our ministry. A bunch of strange people get together and there are little hints that life could be another way. Maybe God is Love. Maybe Jesus is the Lord of the Cosmos. Maybe we should actually do what Jesus tells us.  Maybe we are saved by grace. Maybe we are all forgiven. It isn't always spoken, but you can see it, if you have eyes to see.
Here are some moments that have struck me:

Sudanese children blessing the eucharistic host with the priest

An ex-convict, ex-motorcycle gang enforcer leading worship

Lutherans, Episcopalians, and dis-enchanted Baptists singing in unison

Praying over pizza crust to become our communion bread

A drunk asking for quiet during the sermon

Repeatedly reminding a man with a traumatic brain injury that he is, in fact, one of the saints of God

A formerly Mormon wild-woman bringing the cookies every week

A sermon from a quiet and kind policeman asking us to reflect on how we respond to suffering


You can't make this stuff up.
What are some moments of grace that have struck you?

A Mission of Relationship

I find myself thinking about relationship lately.  We live in this world that increasingly allows us to choose our communities and ignore the people who live near us or who challenge us.  I have been teaching and preaching on the Johannine Epistles and the Gospel of John.  I am inspired by Jesus’ initial engagement with followers as he first invites would be partners-in-ministry to, ‘come and see,’ (John 1:39 and following).  This is how ministry with the Christ begins, as an opportunity to come and see; to move into relationship. I have wondered about what such a command/invitation to relationship might mean for practical ministry and mission in Chattanooga and in my community.

What would our ministry and common life look like if we simultaneously followed the example of Jesus, inviting others to ‘come and see,’ while at the same time following the command of Jesus to come and see what Christ is doing in and through others.  What if we became a missional people who majored in relationship and only supported that with money? What if we began to believe that what we have to give is not from our power, or our money, or our ideas, or our strengths, but instead from our very selves?  What if our mission was to become vulnerable to others, a mission of relationship, community, and reconciliation?  

I think this would mean creating the opportunity and space to eat with, hear the stories of, and share our own stories with those who find themselves ostracized from us and from each other. I believe that the Missio Dei (mission of God) is partly expressed in the redeeming work of building community by connection in vulnerability.  The examples of the life of Jesus are centered on sharing: meals, experiences, ministry, worship, and conversation, all with striking vulnerability.  Jesus gave up everything to be in relationship with his human community.

A mission of relationship is about life changing engagements, about finding the Divine in the face of those who we are estranged from.  Lower socio-economic school aged youths might encounter parents, educators, and college students.  Fathers behind on child support (some 50% of those court mandated in TN) would enjoy conversation with parents struggling to understand their children.  The refugee from Sudan might share a meal with an undocumented immigrant working at a local chicken plant.  Those struggling with mental illness might find companionship in an alcoholic/addict.  The over worked, over committed business woman might find herself in the life of a homeless person. Conservative/evangelicals might explore God's identity and work in the world with progressive Protestants.  The services that might be provided: tutoring, social work, mental health care, 12 step, housing, food, outreach, worship, are all secondary to and a result of relationship.

What is the Church?

Let's start by defining what we do not mean.

1. The Church is not the building
Many folks would assume that the church is the building. Many folks would be wrong.
A body without blood ceases to be a body. It is a corpse.

2. The Church is not the people
There are those who think that church is whenever their buddies get together and pray a bit. They may have a point, for Christ is present, but they are also missing out on a lot: eg. the Eucharist.

3. The Church is not the institution
It is foolishness to conflate God's redeeming work in the world with human power structures. Such confusion causes people to claim that their denomination, and their denomination only, is the true church. The Holy Spirit is not beholden to any organizational chart or doctrinal point. The wind blows where it will.

So there we have it. The church is not those things.
However, we should also define what we mean by church.

1. Sometimes the church is the building
Or put better, churches are places. A building isn't necessary, but a place is. People live in place and place shapes our spirituality. In that same vein, art and architecture shape our spirituality. Having a beautiful building in which to worship God means something. It means that we associate God with beauty. It meant something when God told the Israelites to worship him in a tent. It meant God can be worshipped anywhere. Place matters.

2. Sometimes the church is the people.
In prayer, in the ministry of their daily work done well, in the love of their neighbors, in their care for the poor, the people in the pews act as the body of Christ in the world. This is where the rubber meets the road. It is one thing to love all of humanity, abstractly and safely. It is another thing entirely to love the person next to you.

3. Sometimes the church is the institution
If there are no sacraments, if there is no process for ordaining leaders, if there is no tradition, no carryover between generations, no capacity to meet the needs of the community, then you may not be involved in the church. It is mostly likely a dysfunctional bible study. Organization brings stability, and stability keeps people safe. God likes that sort of thing. It gives him something to work with: eg. the ordinary means of grace.

So the church is not these things, but the church is definitely these things. The church is a mysterious intersection between the people, the place, and the institution that is somehow more than the sum of its parts. It's a mystery, and you can bet the Holy Spirit has got something to do with it.

Now some rational types may be complaining at this point, ''C'mon, I can't throw a rock without hitting another so-called 'mystery' in Christianity." The rational types can chew on those rocks for all the good it will do them. Reality is mystery. Truth rests on paradox. And the beauty in that reality is that it releases us from determinism. Logic won't let us see all the way to the end of where this whole cosmic endeavor is going. Love maybe, but not logic.

Social Media: Who Are We Promoting?

I've been thinking and writing recently about social media. Two posts ago, I mentioned that when I go places to speak, I am asked – and it is assumed – that we have social media guidelines in place at Southside Abbey. Well, no we don't. What we do have – when we are at our best, which is not always – are how to treat one another guidelines. We all have access to these guidelines in the life and ministry of Jesus and his followers and the prayers that shape our corporate lives.

A lot of social media conflict that I have seen fits into a question that I consider a lot: Would you rather be right or would you rather be in relationship? Much of the conflict on social media occurs between folks who want to be right, often at the cost of relationship.

Social Media is still young. We might even think about as having some maturation ahead. We are coming from an internet of anonymity, to posts with real-life repercussions. Maybe we've all got some growing up to do in this arena.

At Southside Abbey, we are about growing spiritual maturity (which requires social maturation). This is a good time to consider our social media posts with another question: Who are we promoting? Are we promoting ourselves, our parishes, or Jesus. These things are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but the pictures and posts that point to our savior are the ones that disarm in the best of ways.

Posts are tied to language, so we want to be careful there. At Southside Abbey, we have banned the words “help” and “outreach,” because for our community, these are words that can reactivate the pain of the great one-way exchange of the church and those “helped” by the church. We tend toward words like advocate and share that point to the fact that we are in this together. These words of terror might be different for your community. Have some fun with the discernment of these words as a spiritual exercise that can inform you social media flow of information.

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on August 21, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

Social Media in Times of Crisis

It happened two weeks ago today, at the time I send this for publication, and I still can't believe it. An armed gunman opened fire on United States military recruiting offices in our town of Chattanooga.

I think a lot about my identity as a priest in the church. Let's call that discernment. One of my thoughts is that, in some ways, I am in the business of believing. I try live my life in such a way – believing so “loudly” in peace, love, family, relationships, and God – that hopefully others are drawn to that way of life. At least, that's my working theory. So to write that I cannot believe something is tough for me. In the weeks I have had to reflect, I think what I cannot believe the most is tragedies like these are always happening somewhere in our country.

According to an article in the Washington Post), there have been as many mass shootings in the United States this year as there have been days so far this year. That's what I cannot believe. My two hometowns – the one where I was born and the one where I live now – are Charleston, SC, and Chattanooga, TN – were both hit a month apart. News coverage can paradoxically simultaneously draw attention to the sensationalistic aspects of while shortening our memories of the events' impacts on the lives of those left in the wake of senseless violence. It can all get to be too much some times.

But I got to witness something recently. In the aftermath, our city, Chattanooga – still fragmented by the aftereffects of segregation and institutionalized racist policies – is trying to come together... and it is happening through social media.

Not long after the attacks, the hashtag (#chattanoogastrong) started showing up on posts and pictures from our town and in support of our town from all over the world. And I want to believe. I don't want to go to my dark, Generation X, cynical place. I don't want to think about the ways that this sentiment will be used to sell us stuff, or “prove” some side is right, or anything like that.

I want to believe that this will be the thing that changes all the things. I want to believe that our state – which not-too-long-ago changed laws to allow for guns in corporate worship, giving new meaning to the phrase “The 'piece' of the Lord” – can change. I serve the Prince of Peace, THE thing that changes ALL things. I want to believe that this will spark a church-wide grass-roots movement where we can talk about race, reconciliation, and guns.

Will this be the tipping point? I want to believe, I am, after all, in the business of believing, but my believing won't make change. Social media has proven its ability to affect real change. It has strengthened relationships, it has changed policies, it has shamed corporations into doing the right thing, and it has even toppled governments. Is it possible the Holy Spirit can move through this moment and this medium?

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on August 5, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

Social Media & Face-to-Face: What Works for Us

I have been booked several times now to speak about Social Media in the Church. Friends and family who know me well find great humor in this, as do I. Asking me to speak at a conference on social media is a bit like asking a videotape to parse Latin sentences in the presence of ocelots.

When I am booked for such work, I try to talk the person booking me out of it. The truth is: I am not a big social media person. This is when the person booking me tells me that she or he is up against a deadline or that really they just wanted to hear Southside Abbey stories and their only free slot was in this social media. This is not to say that I do not think Social Media is important, because I do. I really, really do. The Apostle Paul used all the media at his disposal: he talked to people, he spoke in public (sometimes in chains), and he wrote letters. We have to be using every type of media at our disposal too.

Let me explain. Southside Abbey has a fair number of people who do not have cell phones or computers or anything like that as an ever-present part of their lives. This may be due to social location, geographic location, educational location, or temporal location, but it is there as a reality. We also have a fair number of people who post a lot of pictures, quotes, videos, articles, and the like. These two groups have kept me from 1) relying on social media for communication with our entire body and 2) kept me from learning a lot about social media because I am surrounded by people who like to do engage that way and who do it a lot better.

This may sound like a digression, but one of the things that I have been asked for more than once is a set of Social Media guidelines. When I have asked as a followup, it is because Southside Abbey's facebook presence (Group for locals and Page for the diaspora) has so far been free from back-and-forth arguments that plague some churchy digital domains.

I can't give what I don't have, but I do have noticed some trends that work for us. My first and foremost rule is that email is for factual transmission only. If an email is as long as this blog post, the information contained therein is probably better shared over a cup of ice cream or the telephone.

The second trend ties deeply to what we are about at Southside Abbey in terms of formation. We do a lot of leadership development, in tandem with working toward spiritual maturity. Social maturity is a prerequisite to both of these, so we work on social maturity too. This work is paying off in our digital space, but may have as much to do with who we are promoting: not ourselves or our way of doing things, but Jesus.

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on July 22, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

Innovative Leadership Rounds Explained

Perhaps I got ahead of myself with my last blog post. It happens. I am often guilty of: “Ready. Fire. Aim.” In mentioning the Minnesotans' trip to Southside Abbey, I mentioned the Innovative Leadership Rounds, without really unpacking what that program is.

First, the Innovative Leadership Rounds program is made possible by the generosity, support, and faithfulness of the Episcopal Church Foundation's Fellowship Partners Program. For those who had not heard, I am humbled and honored to be named a Fellow for 2015. I am humbled and honored beyond words, which is rare for me – to be without words, that is.

This reality calls to mind the speech the character Kevin makes at the end of an episode of the television show, The Office. Kevin, who is not known for his knowledge or wisdom, is part of a team that has just won a trivia competition. Upon reflection, he offers: “Look, I know it's easy to say tonight was just a fluke, and maybe it was. But here's a piece of trivia: A fluke is one of the most common fish in the sea, So if you go fishing for a fluke, chances are... you just might catch one” (The Office, “Trivia”). That's some deep theological stuff right there. How often are we in the presence of the Holy Spirit, present in the ordinary, and we just miss it?

In short, ECF has been gracious enough to see the Holy Spirit present in the work that Southside Abbey is doing and supportive enough to offer that work as a resource to others engaged in similar work around the Church. This is what the Innovative Leadership Rounds program, which is funded by the Fellowship, is all about.

The Innovative Leadership Rounds are based medical rounds, which demonstrate the best analysis and treatment of real patients to groups of physicians, as these patients personally share their stories. Observing, sharing, and inquiring in groups can teach more than one-sided lectures or presentations. The Innovative Leadership Rounds Project will invite missional church lay and clergy leaders to participate in Rounds with other like-minded leaders from across the Episcopal (and Lutheran) Church.

The Church will tangibly benefit by having leaders developed and learning documented and disseminated. The Rounds project could be a resource for dioceses contemplating starting missional communities, or in early stages of such work. Leadership of dioceses not yet engaged in this kind of work might even be more supportive of an emerging community with an established model and program, like Southside Abbey and the Rounds project.

In a broader sense, the Church will benefit by having more current clergy and lay leaders thinking missionally and communally about spreading the good news of Jesus. People who haven’t traditionally been raised up as leaders will also have an opportunity to participate in the growth and future of the Church, benefitting creativity, diversity, and strength.

Southside Abbey is not the model of the Episcopal Church moving forward. We are a model. The Rounds project is mutual learning. Hopefully the Episcopal Church can learn much from Southside Abbey and the communities with whom we partner. Look for the fruit of this labor to be shared on Southside Abbey's website under our Open Source tab in the coming year, as well as continued sharing through ECF's Vital Posts.

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on June 23, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.