Faith and Community

A friend and fellow blogger and I have talked a good bit recently about faith and community. He passed along the following quote from M. Scott Peck, author of the bestseller The Road Less Traveled, who died earlier this week:

“How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others ... But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.”

Church, the body of Christ, is the place this should happen most naturally and authentically. I wonder why it doesn’t more often.

Combining the Best of People, Information and Technology

Nacogdoches, Texas and Gandhinagar, India aren’t worlds apart after all.

When it became apparent that Hurricane Rita would roar through east Texas, Sue Kennedy, county judge who also acts as emergency coordinator, decided to set up a phone bank to provide area residents with necessary information.

She contacted Effective Teleservices, a Nacogdoches-based firm that runs call centers. They had the backup equipment they would need during a massive power outage but didn’t want to place employees in harm’s way by asking them to work during the storm.

No problem. The company’s operating officer proposed to Kennedy that they redirect calls to the site in India. Kennedy and her staff quickly prepared a script containing vital information: locations of shelters, what people should take when they left home and answers to other specific questions.

Meanwhile at the call center site in Gandhinagar, operations director Jim Iyoob pulled together 15 of his customer service representatives and specifically trained them to work this emergency hotline. Iyoob had lived and worked in the Nacogdoches area for three years, so he could supply information in addition to the prepared script and give his coworkers a good idea of what to expect from callers.

Over the course of about 30 hours, representatives 7,000 miles away averaged 25 calls an hour. Information, technology and people combined to create a seamless process. Kennedy reports no problems.

Ineffective leadership is in good supply, and I’m prone to notice it and call attention to it. It can serve as an excellent teacher for those who are willing to watch, listen and make applications. So for a change, here’s an example of effective leadership.

Kennedy and others showed wisdom, skilled decision-making, grace under pressure and a willingness to explore an unusual solution to a pressing problem. She didn’t wait for state or federal government to come up with a plan or a solution. She worked with available resources and embraced the proposed solution when she easily could’ve said, “We’ve never done it like that before.”

Imagine that.

A Reliable Voice

Of particular interest to educators in moderate Baptist churches is a new booklet scheduled for release in December titled An Introduction to Baptist Principles.

Written by Dr. Bill J. Leonard, dean and professor of church history at Wake Forest University Divinity School, it promises to identify Baptist ideals and values clearly at a time when many people struggle with what it means to “be Baptist.”

The Baptist History and Heritage Society is producing the 24-page booklet, which will sell for $2.50. For more information, contact Charles W. Deweese, executive director-treasurer, at cdeweese@TNBaptist.org.

“The Abyss of Our Ignorance”

The Christian Century Magazine has published an essay from the upcoming book by Wendell Berry titled The Way of Ignorance and Other Essays. The essay, “The burden of the Gospels: An unconfident reader,” and no doubt the entire book, are must-reads for those with responsibilities for helping others understand the message of scripture.

Berry captured me with his opening paragraph:

“Anybody half awake these days will be aware that there are many Christians who are exceedingly confident in their understanding of the Gospels, and who are exceedingly self-confident in their understanding of themselves in their faith. They appear to know precisely the purposes of God, and they appear to be perfectly assured that they are now doing, and in every circumstance will continue to do, precisely God's will as it applies specifically to themselves. They are confident, moreover, that God hates people whose faith differs from their own, and they are happy to concur in that hatred.”

And he held me through to his conclusion:

“If we take the Gospels seriously, we are left, in our dire predicament, facing an utterly humbling question: How must we live and work so as not to be estranged from God's presence in his work and in all his creatures? The answer, we may say, is given in Jesus' teaching about love. But that answer raises another question that plunges us into the abyss of our ignorance, which is both human and peculiarly modern: How are we to make of that love an economic practice?

“That question calls for many answers, and we don't know most of them. It is a question that those humans who want to answer it will be living and working with for a long time—if they are allowed a long time. Meanwhile, may heaven guard us from those who think they already have the answers.”*

Between the beginning and the end, he offers enough to keep us thinking, talking and questioning for weeks. And that’s just one essay from the book.

How healthy and honest to acknowledge we have more questions than answers, and how arrogant and deceptive to say that we don’t.

*Copyright 2005 CHRISTIAN CENTURY. Reproduced by permission from the September 20, 2005 issue of the CHRISTIAN CENTURY. Subscriptions: $49/year from P.O. Box 378, Mt. Morris, IL 61054. 1-800-208-4097

The Difference Between Kids and Adults

Tomorrow afternoon in a local park, hundreds of people will gather for cultural games and activities from Africa, a performance by the contemporary Christian group Jars of Clay and the main event: Ellie’s Run for Africa.

“There are five people dying every single minute of AIDS in Africa,” says Ellie Ambrose, the brains and name behind the event. Now in its second year, last year it raised nearly $20,000 to benefit health clinics in Cape Town, South Africa, and Nairobi, Kenya, and a Kenyan school.

Ellie was inspired to do something to help people in Africa, especially children, after hearing a speaker at her church and watching a video presentation. She was particularly haunted by the images of malnourished young children.

She went home and prayed about what she could do, and God gave her this idea.

Ellie Ambrose is a 12-year-old sixth-grader.

She was even younger a little more than a year ago when she began making initial plans. That didn’t matter. She was convinced that people in Africa needed help. She believed could make a difference. And she was confident that she could inspire others to help, too.

A fellow church member agreed to head up the first event, and Ellie has kept the momentum going ever since, speaking to local students from elementary-age to college and appearing in radio and television public service announcements to promote the event.

“It just goes to show that kids don’t know what they can’t do,” said Tres Scheibe, chief executive officer of Thrift-Smart, an event sponsor. “An adult would think of why it wouldn’t work. She didn’t think about that. She just went for it.”

Leaders who inspire compassionate actions come in all ages. One thing they have in common are arms long enough to embrace the world. Another is faith that believes and acts. Period.

“The Levees Have Been Broken,” Gaddy Says

Few government programs can claim the success of Head Start. Begun in 1965, it has provided early childhood education and development programs for children of low-income families. Thanks to Head Start, millions of children have begun school on a more level playing field than they otherwise would have. Now Congress is considering some changes to the program that will deepen the cracks in the wall dividing church and state. The Reverend Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance, briefed some congressional members and their staffs earlier this week about the wrong-headed thinking behind the School Readiness Act (H.R. 2123). The bill would allow government-funded Head Start providers to exercise religious discrimination in selecting teachers and volunteers for their programs. Tax dollars would, in effect, subsidize religious discrimination. The amendment “is just one example of political opportunists taking advantage of a national tragedy to institute policies that have not found enough support for passage in more normal times,” Gaddy said. “Religious organizations have had a long and proud history in their active participation in Head Start programs. For years, houses of worship have made substantial contributions to their communities with the existing workplace protections in place. If those in Congress who seek to repeal these employment safeguards are successful, thousands of children, teachers and parent volunteers who have dedicated themselves to this program could find themselves no longer welcome at religiously affiliated Head Start programs because they are of a different faith than the sponsoring organization.”

Something We Can Do Without

I’ve somehow missed the flurry of media activity surrounding the talking Jesus dolls, which debuted in August. Until now. Religion News Service reports today that doll maker One2believe is unhappy with Scholastic Parent and Child magazine’s decision to refuse advertising for the dolls, foot-high figures that spout Bible verses. The magazine cites the need to respect preschool students of all faiths. Scholastic’s Kyle Good said that the magazine does not “accept any kind of religious advertisement” and “has a long-standing credo that promotes tolerance and diversity.” Since the magazine is often distributed in public classrooms, advertising the Jesus dolls would be inappropriate. Good for Scholastic. And as far as the doll, I see little difference between it and the analogy a Southern Baptist seminary president recently used in which he compared the love of God to the Energizer Bunny. Some things not only are poor education; they’re also in very poor taste and trivialize matters of faith.

Facilitating Relevance

Following is the third and final part of my conversation with Israel Galindo, professor of Christian education at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR) and executive director of Educational Consultants, Inc. See “One of Our Greatest Challenges” and “It Takes More Than a Name Change” below, for the first two parts. Dr. Galindo has studied and observed congregational Christian education for years. Here he talks about challenges Christian educators face today as we plan for and provide Bible study for adults. I don't think the challenges are unique or need be defined by contemporary conditions. The fact is that in terms of spiritually, people today learn the same way people have always learned. The most critical issue today, I think, is relevance. Bible study needs to be perceived as, and in effect be, relevant to the lives of people—and they are less tolerant or patient when it is not. While we may wish that Bible study for the sake of Bible study would be enough for most believers, the fact is that unless the message and the MANNER in which they study the Bible is relevant to their lives—that is, actually makes a difference in the way they live, the way they think, the choices that they make, and the relationships they have—then Bible study in and of itself is no different than any other activity one could choose from. And if it makes no difference, then why would they not choose something else? The challenge for Christian educators, then, is to facilitate those "ways of knowing" and those approaches to Bible study, corporate and as an individual discipline, that makes the message of the Bible relevant in the lives of the believers and which makes a difference in their lives.

Preaching, Teaching and PDAs

A Georgia pastor has begun preaching entirely off of notes and text from his PDA. He says, “I am a mover when I preach or teach, so I may be on stage or out among the crowd. Were I to be constantly linked to the pulpit, much of this (mobility) would be impossible.” Two frustrations he’s encountered: pulling out the stylus and the PDA itself becoming a distraction, more of a focal point than the message itself. “Nothing frustrates me like seeing a mouse pointer or Windows menu system during a ministry or business screen presentation. It is a huge distraction from the message. The hearer’s destiny is on the line here, so I wanted to make certain that the message got delivered whether my geek factor got shown-off or not.” The pastor, Pat Horne, offers more detailed tips, in case you’re interested. He might well be onto something. In 10 years, Sunday schools might be completely paperless, with teachers and students alike holding PDAs to search scripture.

It’s Not Just What We Say

When I was a child, my mouth occasionally got me into trouble. Sometimes it was because of something I said when I knew better than to say it. Other times it was a tone or verbal attitude that spewed out in a derogatory, sarcastic or hurtful way. Fairly regularly, my mother would tell me, “It’s not just what you say; it’s also how you say it.”

Though the process took years, I developed a certain degree of personal responsibility for my speech. Since my career path has led me to work with words a significant part of every day, it’s been an invaluable lesson.

The more I hear and read, though, the more I encounter instances of conversation that cuts and writing that stings. And it’s intentional. Civility in language is often, in fact, viewed as weakness instead of strength.

Our spoken and written words offer the world a picture of our faith. They can do a great deal of good, but they can also inflict tremendous harm and pain.

Each day, people of faith have the opportunity to help frame conversations and written communication positively and proactively. We can do that when we better understand what’s behind our words, learn to listen, choose our speech carefully, encourage healthy dialogue, respect differences, adhere to the facts, avoid manipulation and apply biblical teachings.

It would be easier, of course, just to keep quiet. Easier, but not at all helpful.

Neutrality: Not an Option

Beginning November 1, passport authorities in Germany will accept only pictures taken from the front showing “the most neutral facial expression possible.”

That’s so biometric scanners can pick up people’s facial features. The systems that recognize and match key features on passport holders’ faces work best when the faces in the pictures have neutral expressions and closed mouths. “A broad smile, however nice it may be, is therefore unacceptable,” according to Germany's Interior Ministry.

The new passports are part of wider security measures the German government passed following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Neutrality might be desirable when it comes to passport pictures, but it’s not an option for the Christian. We’ve see far too many results in the last couple of weeks of what happens when we’re unwilling to take stands on behalf and in defense of our nation’s poor and disenfranchised.

A mature faith lives the word; it doesn’t just talk about it. It presses for impartiality, speaks wisely and thoughtfully to exert influence on key leaders and pursues justice diligently.

Long after the donations of money, food and clothes stop, people of faith must continue to do the work of faith. That will inevitably mean taking some counter-cultural stands.

Neutrality’s not an option.

One to Watch

Delia Gallagher has been chosen as the first full-time faith and values reporter for CNN, according to Religion News Service. She will cover the religious angle of breaking news and will also produce some more in-depth features on subjects of interest to people of faith.

"It's going to be a great experience, because it's the first time that CNN is putting itself out there, realizing there is a religious voice that needs to be brought into the mainstream," she said.

She’s already been on the job, covering the efforts of Catholic schools to teach children who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Gallagher, who is Catholic, worked five years covering the Vatican as a contributing editor to the news magazine Inside the Vatican. Since 2002, she’s worked as CNN’s Vatican analyst.

She believes her experience in Rome will help her report on all religions: "To cover any religion, you've got to already be imbued with one of them."

It will be interesting to follow Gallagher’s reports and see how they are similar to and different from straight news reports.

Purposefully Paperless

It always distressed me as a minister of education to walk through the educational building and see piles of unused literature stacked in corners of rooms. My distress grew when I later became an editor of Christian educational materials and would discover the publication I edited, along with many others, tossed aside in dark classroom corners.

That’s not a problem in my present Sunday school class, which seems to reinforce some recently-released statistics from The Barna Group related to churches’ use of technology. We’re practically paperless. We receive our Bible study resources via email, and it’s a preference for class members who’ve expressed an opinion.

At the present time we’re following the lectionary, and our teacher emailed each of us a file containing the readings we’ll consider. We recently completed a study of Real Baptists, and after a time of lessons from the lectionary, we’ll turn to another study in PDF format. We save the study guides to our laptops or desktops, and we’ve got everything we need to engage in thoughtful reflection and dialogue.

It’s fast, simple, inexpensive and environmentally friendly.

It Takes More Than a Name Change

Following is the second part of my conversation with Israel Galindo, professor of Christian education at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR) and executive director of Educational Consultants, Inc. See “One of Our Greatest Challenges,” below, for the first part.

Dr. Galindo has studied and observed congregational Christian education for a number of years. Here he talks about some things that have not changed, and a few things that have.

In the congregational context, there seems not to have been too much change in terms of Bible study, though some factors can be identified. Things that have not changed include:

• the appalling level of biblically illiteracy among the members of the congregation (arguably, it's even worse now);
• the lack of effective teaching methodology due to the poor job congregations do in training their dedicated volunteer teachers;
• the lack of support given to the educational enterprises in congregations in terms of staff and budget;
• the overdependence on curricular resource products;
• and the reality that much of what passes for "Bible study" is non-transformational in the lives of most members.

At the same time, we do see some changes in the landscape, some of which are positive. These include:

• the willingness of churches to seek out more effective resources regardless of which denomination produces them;
• the continuing awareness in some congregations about the power of small group Bible study;
• the influence of more responsible (less doctrinaire and uncritical) Bible study interpretation resources for the laypersons.

While the recent emphases on "spiritual formation" as the new catchphrase for "Christian education" may be a positive step, the reality is that in most congregations, it's been merely a change of name without a change of understanding or educational approaches. Few seem able to define what "spiritual formation" is, or know how to go about shaping an educational enterprise that actually facilitates spiritual formation.

Heart Transplant

If we follow lectionary texts long enough—or any comprehensive Bible study, for that matter—sooner or later we’re going to have to deal with some of the more uncomfortable biblical teachings. Sunday’s Matthew passage is one of them. It includes the parable Jesus told when Peter asked him how often he should forgive.

Gracia Grindal, professor of rhetoric at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, offers some good insights into dealing with this passage in an online column from The Christian Century Magazine.

“The church has quit talking about sin and forgiveness, and ‘plays’ at community without getting to the depths of the heart where the forgiveness must start,” she says. “The Lord’s Supper has degenerated—it cannot be a rite of community without true forgiveness. We should not be taking the cup until we have made things right with our neighbors. Forgiveness is necessary for us to be one in Christ.”

Some of what she says ought to make us uncomfortable, just as we should become uncomfortable when we read some of what Jesus said and realize he’s got a better understanding of us than we have of ourselves.

“We have mainlined grace so cheaply that we no longer understand the disconnect in our own spiritual lives. As Bonhoeffer argued, we have begun to justify sins instead of sinners. We insist on a superficial forgiveness and judge people who are judgmental and unforgiving. Here is where Jesus gets us again. It needs to be from the heart.”

If we’re honest, we’ll admit, as Grindal does, that we do not always have it in our hearts to forgive like this. “For many of us,” she says, “the only solution is to get a new heart.”

Her column is worthy of your consideration if you will teach or preach from this Matthew text on Sunday.

For the Price of a Cup of Coffee

Some of what churches call Bible study is simply not that at all. Some of it is designed not to explore and apply what the Bible says but instead to tell people what they want to hear.

As a result, our world is paying an appalling price.

A case in point: if churches had historically done a better job examining everything the Bible says—not just the “feel-good” passages—global poverty would not have reached its current, frightening levels. Had we Christians been personally transformed and motivated to action by the Bible’s clear call to take care of the poor, our world would look much different.

The United Nations released a major report yesterday that ought to shame not just world leaders for their failure to act but all of us for our failure to hold them accountable and for our own greed and selfishness.

In 2000, members of the U.N. set the year 2015 as a target for halving extreme poverty, reducing child deaths by two-thirds and achieving universal primary education.

Kevin Watkins, chief author of the 2005 Human Development Report, called those goals “a promissory note, written by 189 governments to the world’s poor people. That note falls due in less than 10 years time,” he said, “and without the required investment and political will, it will come back stamped ‘insufficient funds.’”

The lives of millions of people are literally at risk if we do not act and act quickly, the report warns. While some progress has been made, some things we could have long ago changed have worsened:

• In spite of growing global prosperity, more than 1 billion people still survive on less than $1 a day.
• 10.7 million children die before their fifth birthday.
• 115 million children are not in school.

One-fifth of us live in countries where many people regularly spend $2 or more every day for a cup of fancy coffee. Another one-fifth of humanity survives on less than $1 per day.

A careful study of scripture will cause us to battle inequalities, advocate for human rights and take unpopular stands against greed and corruption that fill the wallets of the wealthy on the backs of the poor. It will push us to demand that wealthy nations give greater aid to poorer nations with no strings attached because it is the right thing to do.

“As a global community, we have the means to eradicate poverty,” the report said. “If ever there was a moment for decisive political leadership to advance the shared interests of humanity, that moment is now.”

If ever there was a moment for decisive Christian leadership to advocate for policies that help end global poverty, that moment is now.

A Bible study on poverty and God’s expectations for our response to it might not be the feel-good Bible study our groups think they want.

All the more indication it’s exactly the kind of study we need.

One of Our Greatest Challenges

Israel Galindo, professor of Christian education at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR) and executive director of Educational Consultants, Inc., graciously responded to a series of questions he’s uniquely qualified to answer. The questions and his answers will appear here over the next several weeks and offer numerous entry points for thought and dialogue.

When asked about areas in which congregational Christian educators have excelled, as well about areas of weakness, here’s what he said:

This is one of the areas of greatest challenge. The function of Christian education is critical in the life of every congregation—it is the single most important force, in its potential, for helping people mature, grow spiritually, and for making them true disciples of Jesus Christ. And so, the role and function of the congregational educator is critical. The pragmatic reality is that most congregations go a long time before they can call, and financially support, a paid educator to develop and lead the educational enterprises needed.

Too many congregational educators, for a number of possible reasons, seem to not be "real educators." That is, they are too dependent on programmatic approaches, lack training and education in theology and educational theory and philosophy to help them do what an effective educator actually needs to do. To say this is not to disparage their calling, their passion or their good intent. It just seems that what passes for "Christian education" in most congregations is not educational at all, and that it is uniquely Christian is suspect. The potential and importance of effective Christian education is too critical for us to be content with this state of affairs.

I'll provide two specific examples. I visit many churches and spend time with many congregational educators (both clergy and lay) across the country. It has become my habit for the past several years to ask two questions of the "resident educator" in the church. First, I ask, "What is your philosophy of Christian education?" The typical response is a blank stare. Having asked this question for over ten years, I've not had one single congregational Christian educator able to answer that question.

The second question I ask is about programming. Specifically, I ask about the retreats that the congregation offers for its adult members. Most Baptist congregations do not offer spirituality retreats for their members. For the few that have offered retreats, they tend to be no more than glorified workshops, for the men, or for the women, or things like a "marriage retreat"; or they restrict retreats as an activity for the youth (which involves more hours in recreation than anything else). The reason this is telling is that if you're in the business of "spiritual formation" then practicing spiritual disciplines, like retreats, is necessary. Yet most churches do not program or offer this formative experience (emphasis on "experience") for their members.

Bridled Talk, Loving Actions

Ideas flew out of people’s mouths yesterday in my Sunday school class more quickly than my mind could process them.

Our dialogue centered largely on ways we could respond to help those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. According to local news reports, as many as 13,000 evacuees have already made their way to our area and have begun looking for jobs, enrolling their children in schools and piecing their lives back together.

Within minutes, our class identified several options for offering immediate and practical help. We developed a plan for gathering much-needed items like towels and bed linens and decided how we would get them to area shelters.

We quickly collected some money to buy diapers for a young mother who found herself here unexpectedly and with a negative bank balance. Someone volunteered to buy the supplies she needed and deliver them that afternoon.

We talked about ways to provide children with what they would need to start the new school year—again.

No one speculated about why this disaster happened, and thankfully, no one offered a quick and simple explanation that somehow attached it to “God’s will.”

As we concluded, our teacher wisely reminded us to be careful about how we speak about this tragedy.

Good advice. Rhetoric is not in short supply these days. Much of it is not helpful; some of it suggests a completely distorted and unbiblical picture of God’s will.

Scripture reminds us to control our speech and warns us against speaking foolishly and carelessly. The writer of Proverbs champions speech that flows out of critical thinking and is uplifting, redemptive and truthful.

James advocates for love-filled speech that reflects the presence of God in our lives.

Our words will add brush strokes to the picture of Christianity many people have. The biblical witness about speech has never been more important.

A New Teaching Tool

The new NBC show “Three Wishes,” premiering later this month, is “a teaching tool,” according to host Amy Grant.

The one-hour reality show moves to a new town each week where its hosts listen to residents describe their deepest wishes. By each show’s end, three of them will have had their wishes granted.

Grant believes the show is important because it reminds people to care for each other, something a lot of us may have forgotten how to do.

“We live in an age when people are not connecting the way they used to, not meeting each other’s needs on a basic level,” she said.

From all accounts, the show appears to be quite different from standard reality show fare. Andrew Glassman, one of the producers, says that the people whose wishes are granted “are caught in an emotional crossroads in their lives” and “genuinely are asking for a little help.”

Isn’t that one of our purposes as communities of faith—to give help to those who need it?

This show might well be a new teaching tool, but it’s only a place to start. We can continue through creating genuine fellowship, pursuing justice, giving generously and loving unconditionally.

Stemming the Tide of Hopelessness

Stunning images of destruction and devastation have filled our television screens this week. The pictures of terrified people revealed horrors for which words proved insufficient: some fighting the surge of rushing water down normally dry streets; others clinging desperately to each other on rooftops; still others heartbroken as they surveyed piles of rubble that was once their home.

Television film crews captured the image of a woman leaving a store to wade through a flooded New Orleans street, her face shamefully covered with the package of diapers she had taken for the infant she carried on her hip. Also in full view, faces uncovered and jubilant, were packs of people carrying away things like cigarettes and beer.

At first I thought that these scenes revealed two distinct faces of humanity. One, I thought, was desperation, with hands that grabbed for and clutched life’s essentials. The other, I decided, must surely be the face of greed: out-of-control people tightly clutching things that were of no use to them.

But then I realized how desperate they all were, grabbing and clutching anything they could because it was all they had access to. And I also realized that the face I most needed to study was my own—our own—the faces of people who don’t have to struggle and fight just to get life’s essentials and in fact enjoy more luxuries than we should.

What does it say about us that we have created a culture in which people are so disenfranchised and impoverished that they quickly dissolve into chaos and lawlessness? Their behaviors reflect in part our own: our greed, our gluttony, our lack of compassion, our inaction and our unwillingness to pursue justice for all.

We are not without fault here. We must do what we can to help now, but we must also work to correct a society that keeps some people so squashed and hopeless that they resort to violence to get what they need.

They didn’t need televisions and computers. They have no electricity. What they need is long-term attention to the plight of their poverty and unemployment. They have our attention now. I hope they still have it in the months and years to come.