Officially, I am spending much of today preparing for tomorrow’s Adult Sunday School class. Right now, I’m taking a break from reviewing Christian history from Emperor Decius (about 249 CE) to Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicea (325 CE).
It is a pretty typical Saturday. We both attended a meeting at church earlier this morning – today it was a First Communion training class for those who will come to the Lord’s Table for the first time next Sunday on All Saints’ Sunday - then spent a little bit of time with our supervising pastor reviewing the plans for worship tomorrow on Reformation Sunday and then the schedule for the next few days. After that we came home to work from here.
In case you are worried that our schedule is all work, let me clue you in – Ray is currently sitting on our deck reading a science fiction novel, with Smokey curled up by his feet, supervising the neighborhood. It is a beautiful fall day and we are enjoying having the windows open to let the fresh air and sunshine into the apartment.
It has been a busy week, with a large group of volunteers staying at the church. That means that after a day at the LDR office, we normally join the group for dinner and some fellowship; sometimes at the church, sometimes at a local restaurant. Of course, everyone needs to eat, but more importantly, it is a time of sharing.
We all come away at the end of the evening grateful for the work we are able to do, for the food and the fellowship, and for the opportunity to rest before the next day. We also gain a sense that the church is something larger than one congregation. Rather, it is something much larger - a community of believers that circle the globe and span across time. This Church, with a capital C, has the capacity to both touch individual lives and to transform the entire world. As the Body of Christ, we are indeed blessed – with God’s grace and love and with a sense of purpose. What we cannot begin to experience or accomplish alone, we can together, with God’s gracious help.
It has been a joy to experience the group this week. They are truly members of the body who have enjoyed being together, and it showed. They were enthusiastic and energetic, with some practical construction skills, from plumbing to painting. They have worked and played hard. I believe they will arrive home later today tired, but with a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
Does internship require 4 wheel drive?
Seems that it might. After recent storms that brought five tornado warnings and heavy rain, this was the road to the LDR office where we are currently working. This photo was taken about 4 hours after the heavy rain moved away; earlier this same morning, there was about a foot of water on parts of this "road."This is one of many instances that have convinced me that our Jeep is a good vehicle for our internship. There are many roads in this area that look like this, and it is good to be able to travel these roads with confidence, knowing that 4 wheel drive will get us back out!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Studying Again (or is it still?)
A member of the congregation asked us the other day if we were studying or 'just working' this year, since we are on internship. Our first answer was that we are 'just' working at the church and at LDR, since we aren't officially taking any classes on campus. But a more accurate answer would be that we are also studying - and it's actually quite a wide range of subjects!
For example, we have taken Red Cross Shelter Management training along with members of the congregation, to learn how to run an emergency shelter in the church. We are also participating in an enrichment class for the confirmation age youth; where we are all learning basic Latin from a member of the congregation.
We are teaching a 10-12 week Adult Sunday School class on Early Church History. While we have each taken two semesters of church history, these were not the classes that either of us enjoyed the most or did the best in during our first two years of seminary, so we are doing quite a bit of studying to review each week in order to do a good job of teaching!
And, last but not least, we are also doing considerable research on disaster preparedness and response, as we begin to prepare the presentation we will be giving to churches all over Alabama for LDR on Congregational Preparedness. Much of this research is done over the internet while we are in the office, but we have also located several recent books on the subject.
Plus, we have some books on congregational ministry that we both want to read. So, in any spare time we have, you can likely find one or both of us with a book in hand as we continue our studies...
For example, we have taken Red Cross Shelter Management training along with members of the congregation, to learn how to run an emergency shelter in the church. We are also participating in an enrichment class for the confirmation age youth; where we are all learning basic Latin from a member of the congregation.
We are teaching a 10-12 week Adult Sunday School class on Early Church History. While we have each taken two semesters of church history, these were not the classes that either of us enjoyed the most or did the best in during our first two years of seminary, so we are doing quite a bit of studying to review each week in order to do a good job of teaching!
And, last but not least, we are also doing considerable research on disaster preparedness and response, as we begin to prepare the presentation we will be giving to churches all over Alabama for LDR on Congregational Preparedness. Much of this research is done over the internet while we are in the office, but we have also located several recent books on the subject.
Plus, we have some books on congregational ministry that we both want to read. So, in any spare time we have, you can likely find one or both of us with a book in hand as we continue our studies...
Monday, October 09, 2006
Traditions
I’ve been thinking lately about traditions in the church. Not the core traditions of worship or liturgy, but matters of adiaphora – the things that can be changed from one place to another.
We attended the Fall Festival at our internship congregation today; seems that this is a tradition each year for kicking off their stewardship drive. The festival is a big lunch after church: hot dogs and bratwurst (cooked in beer and onions, of course, before they were grilled), plus an assortment of salads, side dishes, and desserts that members of the congregation brought to share. Now brats don’t say either ‘stewardship’ or ‘festival’ to me, but they do to members of this congregation – so what makes something a tradition?
Can it be just one or two occasions, or how many repetitions does it take? When is a tradition something that should be honored and continued, and when is it just an old habit that should be changed? And how can we tell the difference in the church?
I certainly don’t have the answers, but I do think it is important for a pastor-in-training to consider. After all, in a couple of years, I hope to be beginning my ministry in another congregation – which will probably already have its share of traditions. Some that I will want to embrace and unfortunately, some that I will very likely want to change. How does one go about learning the traditions of a congregation? And how do you begin to change them?
I suspect I will rely on my experience here during internship, and try to learn about and experience most (but probably not all) of the congregation’s traditions before I would attempt to make any major changes.
(I suddenly had the urge to go look for the lyrics to the song “Tradition” from Fiddler on the Roof! Interestingly, those lyrics only apply to the roles of the papa, mama, sons, and daughters of the Jewish family. Wonder what verses we could write for the Christian community?? The chorus, of course, would be: “The church, the church! Tradition!”)
All this has me thinking about the traditions of our home congregation – what has been the most meaningful to me at Incarnation, what I miss most after being away for over two years, and – especially now that our congregation has just this month merged to become part of two point parish with another quite different congregation – what I may never have the chance to experience in quite the same way again.
We attended the Fall Festival at our internship congregation today; seems that this is a tradition each year for kicking off their stewardship drive. The festival is a big lunch after church: hot dogs and bratwurst (cooked in beer and onions, of course, before they were grilled), plus an assortment of salads, side dishes, and desserts that members of the congregation brought to share. Now brats don’t say either ‘stewardship’ or ‘festival’ to me, but they do to members of this congregation – so what makes something a tradition?
Can it be just one or two occasions, or how many repetitions does it take? When is a tradition something that should be honored and continued, and when is it just an old habit that should be changed? And how can we tell the difference in the church?
I certainly don’t have the answers, but I do think it is important for a pastor-in-training to consider. After all, in a couple of years, I hope to be beginning my ministry in another congregation – which will probably already have its share of traditions. Some that I will want to embrace and unfortunately, some that I will very likely want to change. How does one go about learning the traditions of a congregation? And how do you begin to change them?
I suspect I will rely on my experience here during internship, and try to learn about and experience most (but probably not all) of the congregation’s traditions before I would attempt to make any major changes.
(I suddenly had the urge to go look for the lyrics to the song “Tradition” from Fiddler on the Roof! Interestingly, those lyrics only apply to the roles of the papa, mama, sons, and daughters of the Jewish family. Wonder what verses we could write for the Christian community?? The chorus, of course, would be: “The church, the church! Tradition!”)
All this has me thinking about the traditions of our home congregation – what has been the most meaningful to me at Incarnation, what I miss most after being away for over two years, and – especially now that our congregation has just this month merged to become part of two point parish with another quite different congregation – what I may never have the chance to experience in quite the same way again.
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