This morning and early afternoon we had a speaker, Sally Morgenthaler. She had some good things to say, speaking about passionate worship. Jay was a very thorough note taker on all the sessions: 1, 2, and 3. I appreciate him sharing these with us.
The one thing I will say about the sessions was that toward the end she asked for questions and someone brought up the issue of keeping worship as worship, and not entertainment. She didn't say a lot on this, but I was glad someone brought it up, because it is a big deal. What she did say was that we have to keep our focus on God.
As my computer is now running on reserve battery, my wrap up of Conference will have to come later!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Annual Conference Day 2.1
I left after the amendments to join the Martin Alumni Choir! It was a very exciting experience. The choir was to sing at the Martin Dinner and then at the Laity service. There were about 45 people, from graduating class of '51 to just starting at MMC this fall. The choir was directed by the choral director at Martin. It was so much fun. Both my mom and mother-in-law sang, and I got to see a lot of people I went to school with who I haven't seen since, along with some of Mark's friends.
Personal joy aside, the choir just sounded really good, which is pretty amazing when you just invite a bunch of people, you don't really know what you're going to get. Martin has been working toward lots of improvement, both physically and in programming. One of the bench marks has been to increase the student body to 1000 students, and they'll cross that number this fall. So, our theme for the Martin Dinner was "O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing."
There are so many exciting things going on at Martin, and it is always so great to share the excitement of the school with the conference. Check out what's going on, and see how this college is truly modeling what it means to be a church-related institute.
Personal joy aside, the choir just sounded really good, which is pretty amazing when you just invite a bunch of people, you don't really know what you're going to get. Martin has been working toward lots of improvement, both physically and in programming. One of the bench marks has been to increase the student body to 1000 students, and they'll cross that number this fall. So, our theme for the Martin Dinner was "O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing."
There are so many exciting things going on at Martin, and it is always so great to share the excitement of the school with the conference. Check out what's going on, and see how this college is truly modeling what it means to be a church-related institute.
Annual Conference Day 2
Okay, so I'm a day behind.
Yesterday afternoon was the Constitutional Amendments. It was very interesting to see the conversation. The majority of people who spoke on the first amendment was pro. I know there are a lot of forward thinking people in our conference who aren't "afraid" of what this amendment could mean. And that's the bottom line of what's been going on - those "in the know" who are against this amendment have been using a fear tactic to scare those who aren't really up on the latest news to fear what this could mean. We're scaring people into doing what we want them to do instead of educating them and trusting them to make their own decision. I was so happy to see so many people taking a stand against that fear-tactic and standing up for inclusion.
One pastor brought the example that a 6 year old told him he wanted to join the church, and he said that if this passes, then he would have had to offer membership to this child, instead of telling the child she was too young and needed to wait until she was older. My thought? Umm... what's the problem with a 6 year old becoming a member? We hold this thing called "membership" so close, like an exclusive club, that only those we deem ready are allowed. You have to go through confirmation. You have to go through this class. You're not ready. You have to meet with the pastor. What's the problem with them doing that after they join? You can join! Now! Yes! Come! Our doors are open, not only for you to come and worship, but for you to BELONG! No wonder church feels like a country club...
I really wanted to applaud when one pastor spoke out against this element of fear by saying that we need to stop being afraid of what might happen if we accept everyone, and look at what IS happening - 2/3 of our members aren't keeping their vows as it is. What are we afraid of? More people who don't support the church with their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness? Or are we afraid that we might have to actual mean what we say: Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors?
We still don't know the result of our voting, and I'm surprised we haven't heard it yet. We may have to ask for it. I've been keeping an eye on amendment tracker as the rest of the conferences weigh in. It looks like General Conference is quite representative: we're split down the middle. Now, if we can just admit that, it'll be a step in the right direction.
Yesterday afternoon was the Constitutional Amendments. It was very interesting to see the conversation. The majority of people who spoke on the first amendment was pro. I know there are a lot of forward thinking people in our conference who aren't "afraid" of what this amendment could mean. And that's the bottom line of what's been going on - those "in the know" who are against this amendment have been using a fear tactic to scare those who aren't really up on the latest news to fear what this could mean. We're scaring people into doing what we want them to do instead of educating them and trusting them to make their own decision. I was so happy to see so many people taking a stand against that fear-tactic and standing up for inclusion.
One pastor brought the example that a 6 year old told him he wanted to join the church, and he said that if this passes, then he would have had to offer membership to this child, instead of telling the child she was too young and needed to wait until she was older. My thought? Umm... what's the problem with a 6 year old becoming a member? We hold this thing called "membership" so close, like an exclusive club, that only those we deem ready are allowed. You have to go through confirmation. You have to go through this class. You're not ready. You have to meet with the pastor. What's the problem with them doing that after they join? You can join! Now! Yes! Come! Our doors are open, not only for you to come and worship, but for you to BELONG! No wonder church feels like a country club...
I really wanted to applaud when one pastor spoke out against this element of fear by saying that we need to stop being afraid of what might happen if we accept everyone, and look at what IS happening - 2/3 of our members aren't keeping their vows as it is. What are we afraid of? More people who don't support the church with their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness? Or are we afraid that we might have to actual mean what we say: Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors?
We still don't know the result of our voting, and I'm surprised we haven't heard it yet. We may have to ask for it. I've been keeping an eye on amendment tracker as the rest of the conferences weigh in. It looks like General Conference is quite representative: we're split down the middle. Now, if we can just admit that, it'll be a step in the right direction.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Annual Conference Day 1
Disclaimer: My two greatest fears in life are being boring and being wrong. And being hypocritical. Okay, three. I fear I may be all of the above in this following post, but I will try my best to not succeed.
Yesterday was... it's really hard to be nice. The conference began with a laity briefing session that discussed the amendments from General Conference. The head of our delegation discussed each of the amendments, though very scattered. He didn't go in order of the amendments, or even in order of the way they had been grouped to make things easier. It was very confusing, and in the end he told us how to vote, saying we should only vote in 2 or 3 of the 32. I was shocked, at first, to hear him telling us how to vote (especially since a lot of people here are first timers and aren't used to the politics). However, toward the end of his time I became outraged when someone asked why, if these are negative things, did they pass General Conference in the first place, and their response was that by the time they were voted on, about 200 people had already left, and the rest of the people there probably didn't understand what they were voting on. What?? I would imagine that the attendants at General Conference who were fully present and completely understood that they were voting for inclusiveness, voting for Jesus' words of spreading the gospel to ALL people, resent that comment.
Laity address today. The lay speaker told us that if we're still angry over the "progress" last year, that we need to "get over it." We're supposed to be reaching children and youth, and yet the conference has alienated this exact group of active people by their decisions last year. And now, we're just supposed to "get over it." Get over being marginalized, get over being ignored, get over being pushed aside and had our work scoffed at, saying it wasn't ever enough. I think he has some other things to say that may be good, but it's really hard to listen to him after that. He made a big point of saying we need people of all ages to be involved, but yet, when we do get involved and are completely overlooked and ignored, we're just supposed to get over it.
Okay... I need to think about some good things. The report for our camping ministries was really good. It was during the laity briefing, so we haven't heard the actual report to conference. The issue has been with one of our two camps that had a criminal incident several years ago, and really, the conference became afraid of the safety of this facility, and got to the point last year of considering closing the camp and selling the property. Fortunately, a committee was formed to look at this camp and discuss what needs to be done with it. This is the report that we heard, and basically they said there's nothing wrong with the camp, it just needs facility improvements and programming support. The problem is not with the facility, it's with us and what we've done with it. He said that one camp does not have to meet all the needs of a conference, and that one can focus on the needs of adults, and the other can focus on the needs of children and youth. It was an encouraging report, to know that this facility for summer camps will hopefully continue, and be improved to serve children and youth better.
Yesterday was... it's really hard to be nice. The conference began with a laity briefing session that discussed the amendments from General Conference. The head of our delegation discussed each of the amendments, though very scattered. He didn't go in order of the amendments, or even in order of the way they had been grouped to make things easier. It was very confusing, and in the end he told us how to vote, saying we should only vote in 2 or 3 of the 32. I was shocked, at first, to hear him telling us how to vote (especially since a lot of people here are first timers and aren't used to the politics). However, toward the end of his time I became outraged when someone asked why, if these are negative things, did they pass General Conference in the first place, and their response was that by the time they were voted on, about 200 people had already left, and the rest of the people there probably didn't understand what they were voting on. What?? I would imagine that the attendants at General Conference who were fully present and completely understood that they were voting for inclusiveness, voting for Jesus' words of spreading the gospel to ALL people, resent that comment.
Laity address today. The lay speaker told us that if we're still angry over the "progress" last year, that we need to "get over it." We're supposed to be reaching children and youth, and yet the conference has alienated this exact group of active people by their decisions last year. And now, we're just supposed to "get over it." Get over being marginalized, get over being ignored, get over being pushed aside and had our work scoffed at, saying it wasn't ever enough. I think he has some other things to say that may be good, but it's really hard to listen to him after that. He made a big point of saying we need people of all ages to be involved, but yet, when we do get involved and are completely overlooked and ignored, we're just supposed to get over it.
Okay... I need to think about some good things. The report for our camping ministries was really good. It was during the laity briefing, so we haven't heard the actual report to conference. The issue has been with one of our two camps that had a criminal incident several years ago, and really, the conference became afraid of the safety of this facility, and got to the point last year of considering closing the camp and selling the property. Fortunately, a committee was formed to look at this camp and discuss what needs to be done with it. This is the report that we heard, and basically they said there's nothing wrong with the camp, it just needs facility improvements and programming support. The problem is not with the facility, it's with us and what we've done with it. He said that one camp does not have to meet all the needs of a conference, and that one can focus on the needs of adults, and the other can focus on the needs of children and youth. It was an encouraging report, to know that this facility for summer camps will hopefully continue, and be improved to serve children and youth better.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Annual Conference
The time has come again! I'm headed to Annual Conference today. We're cramming it into two and a half days. I appreciate the honoring of our time, but we'll see what happens when we get to Resolutions and GC Amendments. I (averts eyes in shame) haven't read through the amendments yet. I don't know if there will be much debate - we don't debate a lot, with the exception of last year's Conference resolutions. We'll see how this year goes.
As always, it's sure to be an adventure.
As always, it's sure to be an adventure.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Twitter. I think my favorite commercial right now is for some phone or internet company (effective advertising right there, people) that gives stats on what viewers are doing... "47% are leaving the room to refill your drink," "62% are flipping through the channels to see what else is on," "24% are twittering," "38% don't know what that means." It's quite humorous. But seriously, twittering has become quite popular. At PodCamp, this was made known to me quite clearly, as there was a twitter feed running all day that people could tweet to to let others know what was going on - which sessions were good, which were bad, when the beer was being served. And since then, I've encountered it a couple of times: my sister now has a twitter account, and upon attending a district meeting, the Christian Ed director at the church we're, I guess, now attending tweeted his response to the meeting, and shared it with me and the pastor we rode over with after the meeting was over.
But, most interesting about twitter, I think, is this article from Time, and the responses I've read about it here and here. The Time article is about Twittering in church, and how some pastors are supporting this, even setting up a screen with the twitter feed on it to scroll during worship. The responses are both positive and negative - yeah, this is a great idea to get people more involved, and this is distracting, and takes away from the personal connection that is created during worship.
I can see both sides of the issue. On the one hand, I appreciate the GBOD article (first link) in responding intelligently on this topic, giving both positives and negatives, and looking at the deeper issues connected with this. It asks why Twittering would be necessary, and challenges congregations to look at what Twitter would accomplish and ask how and/or why/why not this is already happening in the worship service. The second article simply states four reasons that Twittering should not be used in worship. The author provides four good reasons, but I don't think he really explained himself very well. However, I'm not here to critique his article. I have a few thoughts of my own to offer.
First off, I am impressed that there are churches responding to new technology. There are always some, I know, and so I'm not surprised, but pleased that the church isn't all overlooking new ways to connect and reach people. The church, as a whole, is often very behind the times in terms of contemporary issues, so it's good to see some trying to be involved in what's going on in the world. Being in the world, but not of. I also think some of the critics are a little harsh - give them a break! At least they're trying. It's like Amazon's Kindle... the first one, I'm sure, sucked. There were good things about it, but bad things, too, but at least it was out there, and it could be improved on from that point. Twittering in church, if it's ever going to happen, has to start somewhere. We're just at the beginning.
On the other side, however, I completely agree with the GBOD's article and the four points in the other blog about why this is a bad idea - namely, taking away focus on what's going on in worship, and removing that personal connection. Twittering is supposed to help people connect when they are not together. When you're together, talk to one another. Connect face to face. And, also, worship is supposed to be a stepping out of your daily life to renew. If you twitter and tweet all week, isn't a break needed?
The best thing I think from the original article was its discussion of what's happening at Next Level, a church in North Carolina. The article cites that this church is not monitoring or displaying the twitter conversation, but isn't discouraging it from happening. I think this might be the way to go - people who want to be involved in it can be, and it won't distract others. Isn't that what twitter is in the first place? It's there to be there for those who want to use it, and if you want a break, or don't understand it, or are distracted by it, you just don't have to be involved.
Finally, I think churches considering this need to ask a very important question: why do we worship? I think we get so involved in wanting to bring more people in to worship, into membership in our community, that we forget the real reason we're there. We're there to worship God. We're not there for ourselves. Worship is an act for God's glory. We're not even really there to "get something out of it." Bible study, Wednesday night dinners, covenant groups, and all the other activities of the church are there for us to learn and grow and serve. But Sunday morning worship (or whenever you worship) is specifically about honoring God. So, as we look at making worship purposeful, we have to remember what the real purpose is.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Earnest...
Okay, so I know the show was, what, two months ago? But, finally, here are some pictures from my theatrical re-debut in The Importance of Being Earnest!
Here's the whole cast...
And my favorite scene... after spending an afternoon despising one another because we thought we were engaged to the same man, we realize we've been hoodwinked, and become immediate friends! "My poor, wounded Cecily!"
It was a great show, lots of fun. I am so glad I did it, not only because I got to be involved in theatre again, but I got to know some great college students.
And it's only just the beginning! I've been cast as Miranda in the upcoming production of The Tempest. I'm so excited!
Here's the whole cast...
And my favorite scene... after spending an afternoon despising one another because we thought we were engaged to the same man, we realize we've been hoodwinked, and become immediate friends! "My poor, wounded Cecily!"
It was a great show, lots of fun. I am so glad I did it, not only because I got to be involved in theatre again, but I got to know some great college students.
And it's only just the beginning! I've been cast as Miranda in the upcoming production of The Tempest. I'm so excited!
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