September 2006
This month
STORIES
• Mission in the work of show biz
RESOURCES
• A teleclass for an easy introduction to member mission
• Get to evangelism through your daily missions
• Help when folks do not fill out the worksheets for discerning their daily missions
• Help with questions 7 and 8 on the worksheets – Basic Tools 3B on the website
• Adapting the worksheets for planning
• Toward a nonviolent atonement
FOR MEDITATION
• Where do you go for stories . . . .
STORY
Mission in the work of show biz
For Anne Phillips – singer, composer, arranger, lyricist, and producer – her spirituality is intertwined with her music and leads her to others with deep spirituality. Her show, "Bending Toward the Light . . . A Jazz Nativity,” is the Christmas story told through the medium of jazz and attracts stars such as Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton and Tito Puente who play all the roles. Their own spirituality leads them to volunteer their talent for this show which is performed annually in New York City. Twenty years ago she put it together for St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and it has played since in both churches – even in a synagogue – and theaters at Christmas time. Also among her works is “Behold, How Beautiful . . . Readings and Music of Creation,” commissioned by St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis and performed at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York.
When I asked how God helps her, she replied: “Writing comes through me – not all intellectually figured out. ‘I Know the Way’ [from her Gospel musical, A Spark of Faith] was an experience I had absolutely nothing to do with. I was in stressed state at the time. It just came out of my mouth and I was smart enough to write it down. So it was for the other songs in the show.” She had written the songs separately and someone said she should hook them together somehow. From the American Bible Society’s Good News for Modern Man, she selected Gospel passages that “felt right for each song to tie them together.”
I had known Anne as a member of St. Paul’s Church, Montvale, NJ where I was serving as the rector. She presented A Spark of Faith for the first time as a benefit for the church. As I listened to it again recently, I heard it as about the reality of oppression and the reality of hope. When I shared that with her, she said that for her, “The major theme in my work is hope.” For more, go to her websites at annephillips.com and jazznativity.com.
Cat lovers will enjoy Anne naming her cat “Chance” from Anatole France’s: “Chance is the pseudonym God uses when he doesn’t want to sign his name.”
RESOURCES
A teleclass for an easy introduction to member mission
“Are you searching for some thread of meaning in a ‘too busy’ life? Are you ready for a wholly new way to connect Sunday to Monday?” That’s a good way to put what member mission is about. A teleclass, “How to Find and Do God’s Work: Living Your Faith in Your Daily Mission Fields,” explores how your Monday-to-Saturday life is precisely the place where mission can and does happen! Sign up for two Tuesdays, October 3 and 10, from 7:00 – 8:15 pm (Eastern time) at http://www.eministrynetwork.org/cmcministry.htm at a cost of $24.00. Class size is limited to 8. The first teleclass was so valuable to the participants that they asked for a special follow-up session.
Get to evangelism through your daily missions
You’ll need a teammate or two to help you. When the time is right, raise how you see God might be connected with what you are doing. Listen with care to the teammate’s response. It may be an open door to the most authentic witness you can make. Since your mission is rooted in love or justice, you have already been proclaiming the Gospel. Now you can use words – words of God’s power to overcome what blocks love and justice and Jesus’ gift of sharing that power with us (John 20:21-22). You have put evangelism where it belongs – inside of mission. For some help in finding and working with teammates, go to “Basic Tools 10 – Building a team to help me in each of my daily missions” under Basic Tools from the Making the Vison Work menu on the website.
Help when folks do not fill out the worksheets for discerning their daily missions
The worksheets on Basic Tools 3B on the website can be “too organized” for intuitive people. They may come to a session saying, “Sorry, I didn’t fill it out.” Respond, “No problem – they don’t work for everybody. Let’s talk our way through it.”
“First, What do you sense God might want you to do in this mission field?” You are helping them to talk their way through questions 1 and 2.
“Now, what, specifically, do you see yourself doing?” You are helping them to talk their way through questions 3, 4, and 5.
“Good, and who might be a teammate and how might you recruit them?” You are helping them to talk their way through question 6.
“And when you believe it’s time to talk with them about God and the church in some way, how might you do that?” You are helping them to talk their way through questions 7 and 8.
Occasionally, anyone – both those using the worksheets and those not using them – will draw a blank on a question. If so, invite the rest of the group to help, “Let’s all be Pete / Mary. How would you put it if you were Pete / Mary?” You’ll be surprised at how the ideas can flow. And, if it’s just two of you, offer your own ideas, “Would this work? Maybe, say . . . ”
Help with questions 7 and 8 on the worksheets – Basic Tools 3B on the website
On the worksheets for discerning your daily missions, questions 7 and 8 can be hard to answer. So many of us have had little practice in talking about how we see God at work and the place of church life in how we live. Here are some ways to try.
Question 7. As I recruit and work with my teammate and when the time is right, how might I talk about how I see that what we are doing is or can be part of God’s mission? Answer with words you might actually use.
– “I really feel called to . . . .”
– “I really care about (the specific mission) and my faith is guiding me as I try to make it work.”
– “I believe we are meant to . . . .”
Question 8. As we work together for this needed change and when the time is right, how might I encourage my teammate to seek help in church life? Answer with words you might actually use.
– “I find a lot of strength at (the name of the church) that helps me find what I should be doing. How about you?”
– When you sense your teammate is finding the work hard: “This really is tough work. Can I share with you where I go for help?” If, the answer is yes: “Just being in church on Sunday makes my week go better. It might work for you, too.”
As you have guessed, the key is to use words such as “call,” “faith,” and “belief” that point to religious meanings fairly easily. We might call it “indirect” religious language. It omits “direct” reference to God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and quotes from the Bible.
Adapting the worksheets for planning
David Sutcliffe, interim pastor at St. Luke’s Church, Saranac Lake, NY, adapted the worksheets for discerning your daily missions for use at a vestry planning meeting as follows.
Finding a mission to strengthen our church life and/or the outreach of our church
1. What do I believe God wants done at our church to make life there better / or to make the outreach of our church to our community better? [Try beginning with: “I believe God is . . . .?”
2. What in our church life / or in our outreach to our community is not as faithful or loving or helpful or just as it could be?
3. What change is needed to make our church life / or our outreach to our community more faithful or loving or helpful or just than it is?
4. Considering my interest, gifts, limitations, and values, what will I do to make our church life / or our outreach to our community more faithful or loving, or helpful or just than it is? [Limit yourself to just one action of mission.]
[For the worksheets on which Sutcliffe drew, see Basic Tools 3A and Basic Tools 3B on the website’s Making the Vision Work menu.]
Toward a nonviolent atonement
The Nonviolent Atonement by J. Denny Weaver (Eerdmans, 2001) explores the history of the doctrine of atonement. Weaver is professor of religion at Bluffton College in Ohio and was named the Harry and Jean Yoder Scholar in Bible and Religion in 1999. He holds up Christus victor – God at work in Jesus Christ to overcome evil, sin, and death – as the nonviolent atonement that avoids the violence in the satisfaction atonement – Jesus’ death paid the penalty for sin. He reviews the black, feminist, and womanist objections to satisfaction atonement and the arguments of those defending satisfaction atonement with particular emphasis on the work of Miroslav Volf. He restates Christus victor for this time in history in what he calls a “narrative” form and deals with objections to it as he traces it through the whole of the biblical story. Those working with the member mission resources will find Christus victor as presented there in harmony with Weaver’s work.
FOR MEDITATION
Where do you go for stories of church members on mission? To the members of your congregation! All of the pictures in this newsletter are people in our church. So, just look around! – A.W.S
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