Sunday, April 21, 2013
What Would You Ask?
"What people think of as the moment of discovery is really the discovery of the question." - Jonas Salk
The steering team met this week to continue our work. We are a group of people passionate about the Gospel and the Episcopal Church. We came together to reach out to our communities and gather information to help discern a vital mission for our diocese into the future. This sounded straightforward at the beginning.
Yet, we have found this endeavor to be complicated. We have encountered uncertainty and frustration. Like many in the larger church, we are wrestling with many issues – how should the church respond to a changing culture, what is the proper role of the diocese in supporting churches, how do we hear and respond to the voices of those who are not part of the church, how do we act as Jesus' hands and feet in the world, how do we help address the needs of the poor and hurting?
Our group has different answers to these questions. Yet we are united in our determination to find out how God is calling us, the people of the Diocese of Olympia, to live out the Gospel in this time and place. We know those in our group do not have the answers, and we need to hear from many within and outside the church. We know this period of exploration is part of the journey, and trust that with God's help, we will discover how to join in the future God is already preparing for us.
We talked at our meeting this week about the importance of asking the right question. As Jonas Salk says, the moment of discovery is often when the right question is identified. What is the question our diocese should be asking of those outside the church walls? What question will help us reach out, engage, and learn? What would you ask?
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The environmental scan is this: the economic dynamic is the tyrant of this globe right now. The political dynamic is the ally which supports its reign. The cultural dynamic (including spirit life) is the collapsed pole needing to be re-born to its true significance.
ReplyDeleteThe spiritual scan is this: As we move from Fourth World to Fifth World (Look at Hopi prophecy), our next encounter is with the Great Purification. This diocese needs to decide whether it will survive as part of the remnant, or die in the next few years as an old branch falls to the ground. Ask the dearly loved unchurched: soon you will discover, when your old life is taken away, that what the church has is precisely what you need to survive -- the energetic Cup of Life that is always full. When you run out of bread, come to us. Let us live together and fulfill each other's needs. Will you marry me, for the sake of Life and Love?
And this is what this diocese asks itself: I hold the Lord's Cup, but will I share it with the unchurched? Will I marry the stranger and treat them as a family member? Do I understand that my life depends on it?
Wow, these are certainly great points and good questions. You seem to grasp the heart about what we are trying to attempt. Are we going to be a church that shares, invites, and nurtures those who are the "stranger"? Because you are right, if we don't then we become inward focus and essentially we will wither and die. Our life and health as a church does indeed depend on it. Thank you for your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteI can't figure out a way to present my thoughts in a non-marketing way, so you will have to look at these comments in a much broader context. I don't know if this is the question specifically, but on a larger macro scale, how are we not promoting the product we already have? The Episcopal Church in particular and Anglicanism in general has a great product to offer. When I talk with people who are unchurched and they share what feeds them and what they would be looking for in a spiritual home, more often than not they align up with what we offer. But you mention the Episcopal Church and they get lumped into all of the "christian" churches and we lose the differentiation. So my question would be if we have such a great product how come we market it so badly?
ReplyDeleteMy comment is similar to the one previous. Why do we not teach our young people about the strength of the Episcopal Church? Why do we let ourselves be grouped as "main line protestant" which implies that we know we have the answer instead of announcing that we are seeking answers too, and have learned how to grow into answers while still being true to our vision.
ReplyDeleteSuppose we take a different perspective on things. I’m thinking of Eldad and Medad who, not among the 70 Moses appointed at the tent of meeting, were nevertheless found in unexpected ecstatic prophecy outside the tent. (Numbers 11:26ff) The authenticity of Eldad and Medad’s experience is questioned because the genuine brand of utterance ought to go with the franchise holder, namely the tent. Let’s suppose being outside the tent bears a resemblance to being outside the church walls.
ReplyDeleteNow move to a related circumstance, that of Acts 17:19ff, where Paul encounters pagan Greeks on their ground, the Areopagus. Paul discards his suspicion that the Greeks share none of the same spiritual vigor that animates Paul. Instead, he addresses their veneration of an unknown God in order to articulate something the Greeks already implicitly know.
Taking up the Eldad-Medad assumption that they are divinely animated even if outside the tent, the same may be true of many outside the church walls. It would follow that the church doesn’t have an exclusive franchise on authentic utterance. But there is the further complication of Paul at the Aeropagus. The Greek spiritual hunger and vitality is couched in a different language.
People outside the church walls are—in many cases—prompted, challenged, and energized by the same God, but express it in ways having a brand unfamiliar to the church’s franchised brand. We can ask them how they find Christ in their lives, or what the heavenly Father means to them, or how the Spirit animates their hopes, but such questions, sadly, can be shop worn and of little meaning. We need to find expressions within their domain of meaning.
Who has dropped out of active life in the Episcopal Church (both lay folk and clergy)? Who in the church noticed? Who made an effort to find out why they left? How have they fared since they left? If they are happier now, what have they found that's working well for them outside of the church? What might have been learned from such conversations?
ReplyDeleteI would ask, "How is the church meeting or not meeting the needs in your community that you feel are within the church's purview?"
ReplyDeleteI would ask them if they feel walled out, if so, how, and I would hold out my hands to help them come in, if that is where they would like to be. I would ask them, if they see a wall, if it seems to exclude them from God's love. That is the important thing, whether these people ever enter an Episcopal Church or not; we need to be sure that our message of God's love being for everyone, always, no matter where they are is primary. Debbie Butler, Vashon, Washington
ReplyDeleteJesus did not need a church in order to walk His walk, in order to teach by example that we are to "Love one another" as He loved us. As for THE question - I would seek to find THE question in the eyes and hearts of those who are most in need, especially the strangers who are outside the "walls" of our comfort zones.
ReplyDelete