Pure Praise

I’m beginning to work my way through Laurence Hull Stookey’s book, Let the Whole Church Say Amen! a Guide for Those Who Pray in Public. It’s a basic text for anybody who leads worship — whether pastor or lay speaker or liturgist or small-group leader —  well, when you get right down to it, anybody who prays aloud in a group, especially as a leader of a group’s prayer.

It’s a workbook; most chapters have exercises. I’m leaving it blank, though, so that I can loan it out to whoever wants to borrow it. (Let me know if you want to borrow it.)

I’ll be using this blog to share what I’ve written as I go along, both prayer and reflections. If it’s useful to you, either directly, or as food-for-thought that leads you in different directions from my own, I’m thankful.

The first chapter is “Pure Praise.”

Pedestrian matters

For the past 2 months, I’ve walked the parishes of the Tacoma Connection: The United Methodist churches of Bethany, The Bridge, Fern Hill, First, Grace, Kalevaria, Parkland (not in that order). I walked the parish of Epworth LeSourd last.

What I’ve learned can’t be distilled into a single article, but here are some points:

Sometimes I walked alone; sometimes with other pastors, including the pastor of the parish we were walking.

Alone, the walks gave me a prayerful sense of the presence of God in the city: God’s love flowing for each neighborhood, blessing each act of community-building, grieving each sign of brokenness.

Beating the Bounds, Learning the Ground

I’m going to revise it and revive it: the English church tradition of “beating the bounds.” Maybe we’ll even do it on Rogation days (I love Wikipedia!). The tradition comes from old England, a land long divided into parishes by law and custom. Each church of England was assigned its geographic area of responsibility, and every bit of England was assigned to the parish of one church or another. The boundaries between parishes were marked by boundary-stones. Annually, or more often, members of the churches both old and young, led by robed priests & acolytes, would make procession along the boundaries of their parishes, singing and praying – and inspecting the boundary-stones, to be sure they had not been moved, damaged, or lost. This was “beating the bounds.”

[more below the fold]

“Do You Believe In Hell?”

Dear sisters and brothers!

The controversy spurred by Rob Bell’s recent book, Love Wins, is continuing, in some Christian circles. I haven’t read it yet, but the argument it started is less about the book than about the simple question of whether a Christian (and especially a pastor) is required to believe in hell, or not.

The flap has spun out into United Methodist circles as seminarian & student pastor Chad Holtz was removed from the pastorate of his North Carolina parish after writing that he doesn’t believe in hell. I don’t know Chad’s future with the United Methodist Church, but I know he has a pastor’s heart and a keen mind; in my opinion, he’d be a better pastor than most of us of any denomination.

About believing in hell: “believe in” is a funny phrase, isn’t it?

• Sometimes “I believe in” means “I believe that something exists.” I believe in the rubber-band on my desk. I believe it exists. That is a very, very trivial belief. Some people “believe in” God that way: they believe that God exists, but this belief doesn’t make any significant difference in their lives. That is also a relatively trivial belief. (The Epistle of James says even devils believe that God exists!)
• And sometimes, “I believe in” means “I trust my life to.” This kind of believing has a more familiar name, Faith. This is Christian belief. It’s not about believing a doctrine, it’s not about believing that something exists or doesn’t exist, it’s about trusting in the object of your belief – for Christians, trusting God – with your life.

“So, pastor Wes, do you believe in hell?”

No. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Church. I believe in the indwelling spirit and image of God in every person living. I believe in you.

Love,

Wes

Lent. Lento. Lentissimo.

Lengthening days.

The world’s long-dormant life unfolding around us and within us, worthy of our full attention.

Lento. Lentissimo.

Taking things slowly, letting the music unfold with all deliberateness, savoring each note.

Lentils.

A centuries-long tradition of fasting, and abstaining from meat. Also, an invitation to simplify diet and lifestyle.

Lens.

Putting our lives under the lens of self-examination. Putting the world under the lens of careful and reverent observation. A time for study and reflection, for prayer and silence, for worship and dedication.

The season of Lent began Ash Wednesday, March 9,  and continues forty days (plus Sundays) until Easter, April 24.

Having the Form, Seeking the Power

[This is my column for the March, 2010 church newsletter for Epworth LeSourd]

John Wesley's monogram -- today, would it be his "avatar"?

People asked John Wesley about the network of religious societies he was organizing all across Britain, the people called “Methodists.” He responded that the Methodists are a company of people “having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation.”

Having the form, and seeking the power of godliness. The idea in that phrase is that we can form our lives for God’s power. The form, up to us. The power, up to God.

Class Leaders and Classes

The form of organization of the Methodist societies included division into groups of about a dozen. Although these groupings were called “classes,” they may not have met together at all; the “class leader” would meet weekly with each member, one-to-one, to “inquire how their souls prosper; to advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as the occasion may require; to receive what they are willing to give toward the relief of the poor;” and to report back weekly with the leaders of the society. [Note: at the beginning, the classes didn't meet together. Later on, the meetings of the classes became one of the most powerful methods of the Methodist movement. I'll get into that next month.]

If we shaped our congregation like those early Methodist societies, just imagine! What a network of care we would have: a covenant with each member for weekly check-in with a leader for in-depth care and encouragement. Some of us find that depth and consistent encouragement in a covenant group; most of us, most of the time, hold back.

From Above #18

Can you identify this United Methodist location in the Northwestern US? It’s a snip of a Bird’s Eye view at the Bing Maps website.

We’re looking toward the north, by the way …

To find the view, open Bing Maps, go to the area you want to look at, change “Road” to “Bird’s Eye View” on the upper right menu bar. If you zoom in on this location, you should see this image on the big screen. Now, click the Envelope icon in the lower left corner of the page to get the address of the view, and put the link in a comment (below, in this blog), along with the name of what we’re looking at, and you’ll gain immortality, at least for a while, in cyberspace.

Sorry, that’s how long immortality lasts in cyberspace.