I’m often amused by what church leaders anxious about numbers and attendance assume about non-church-goers. A lot of loopy and unfortunate ideas get foisted on “prospects” in an effort to entice them into the church front doors—especially the 20-somethings and young adults. More often than not, it seems to me, those efforts tend to do their best to make church more palatable, friendlier, “inviting,” and “less threatening” only resulting in stripping the Church of all the distinctiveness it offers as something “set apart” from culture. I often imagine prospective seekers asking, “If there’s no difference, then what’s the difference?” Here’s another item from the June 12, 2008 issue of the Christian Century, this one on sacred space and architecture.

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One of the concepts I continually stress to my seminarians is the concept that Christianity, and faith, is corporate in nature. One expression of the concept is the idea that while there is a personal dimension to faith, faith is always corporate in nature. In other words, “You can’t be a Christian by yourself,” or, “You cannot be a Christian apart from the Body of Christ, the Church.”The corporate concept of Christianity and faith often is a challenge for many students reared in overly- or exclusively individualistic experiences of faith and church.

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The latest issue of the Leadership in Ministry Workshops newsletter is now available. Check out this latest issue for articles, news, and updates.

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My friend Marty and I are just finishing up a book project on how to plan and organize congregational Christian education. In a couple of weeks we’ll send off the manuscript for Planning and Organizing for Christian Education Formation: A Community of Faith Approach. It will be published by Chalice Press and should be out in the fall.

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Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I think I heard more voices than ever this year suggesting that we consider toning down the cultural excesses of Christmas gift-giving.  We’ve certainly not eliminated gift-giving in my world of family and friends, but it has become more modest in recent years.  Counterintuitively, Christmas has not become less important to us; if anything, the opposite is true, because it offers us time as family to be together.

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In many ways my native language has always been dance.  I moved stories before I told them in words, heard music most clearly when it flowed through my body and out again into the waiting space.  In secret my deepest prayers were danced before God.   Perhaps that is why I am drawn to those who, writing about religion, note that we are creatures with bodies.  Christians have some trouble with this reality.  Often, if they affirm their bodily state at all, it is to triumph over it, to deny its power, to dismiss its claims on us.   Rarely do they celebrate the body and own the sheer joy of abandoning oneself to the dance.

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Although I no longer serve as pastor of a congregation, invitations to preach come my way from time to time.  The latest instance was yesterday when I helped a Presbyterian congregation surprise their pastor with the opportunity to worship among them, free of leadership responsibility.  The occasion was the thirtieth anniversary of her ordination and the tenth anniversary of her ministry in that place.  Not knowing what the lectionary for the day was, I was pleased to learn that they were accustomed to hearing their pastor preach from it.  I love the tussle with scripture that pushes me to stay grounded in its teaching while saying something useful about its bearing on our lives today. 

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