Fresh Air in Winter

After a couple particularly full weeks, I decided to take advantage of sunny skies and mild temperatures to take a much-needed break and soak in a bit of nature therapy before the snow rolls in tomorrow.

It was a very lovely day and the outdoors are always good for the soul, so I thought I'd share a bit of my adventure to encourage you in case you've got the winter doldrums from being cooped up inside.

In the midst of suburban central New Jersey, I'm blessed to live not far from the estates of Doris Duke, where nearly 1000 acres of land are preserved and cultivated as a model for environmental stewardship.  Open to the public for free, and a mere 3 miles from my house, Duke Farms is one of my favorite local outdoor hangouts. With 18 miles of trails, I visited often in the summertime for a change of pace on my running schedule, but I thought it might be worth seeing what it looks like in winter too.

Finding Home in Exile - Part 3

For a running start, see Part 1 and Part 2.

As I have begun my work in the Church, I have been fortunate enough to stumble into communities of like-minded people.  I serve a wonderful congregation, have been blessed with the friendship of fellow young clergy, and have been welcomed by several of my more seasoned colleagues into the ministries of the higher governing bodies of my denomination.  I have been particularly encouraged by the work of The Synod of the Northeast to reinvent and re-imagine what a synod (the third most comprehensive of the PC(USA)'s four levels of governance) is and to figure out what unique service it can offer to the well-being of the Church.  In discerning a new way forward, the Synod of the Northeast has chosen to embrace the wealth of diversity within our midst, working to find ways to discover and draw upon the wonderful gifts already present in our communities, and helping the Church to focus on the mission and ministry Christ has called us to do, channeling our energy and giftedness toward fulfilling these purposes.

I cannot tell you how excited I am!  It's like discovering a team of people working to translate my forgotten native language into English! 

Together we have begun to put words to those deep things we feel and are convinced we know even though we don't know how to describe them.  And as we learn to speak these truths aloud, we begin to feel less crazy and we discover that the tiny bit of life we sensed was buried deep down there in the darkness is not tiny at all, but a strong subterranean stream.  This fills us with joy and hope, and gives us the determination and energy we need to keep moving forward in this work.  We sense there really will be a time when this stream will bubble up to the surface and spill out into the light of day, becoming apparent and a source of life to all.

In the meantime it's hard work.  We cherish these little splashes of light, these times together, these sustaining relationships.  And I'm so excited that the work of the Synod of the Northeast is actively endeavoring to encourage this!  The water is starting to bubble toward the surface.

Finding Home in Exile - Part 2

For a running start, see Part 1.

In the conservative evangelicalism of my youth, knowing ourselves to be in exile was encouragement to stand firm in our counter- (or sub-) cultural commitments and values, especially when we found them to be in conflict with "The World."  While in college, my reflections on the relationship between faith and culture were greatly expanded and nuanced by my encounter with the paradigms of H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture, but my experience as a person of faith has not become any less an experience of exile.

Left:  Summer Youth Mission Team c. 2001   Right:  The congregation where I was raised c. ~Present
Church communities and people from whom I now feel in exile in a variety of ways.

Already committed to Christ and his way, I fell in love with the Church in college: with church history, with Presbyterians, with the beautiful way God has woven us into communities, orchestrated our gifts, and called us to participate in the divine work in the world.  I've seen the glorious vision of what the Church could be, what it has been in some ways at some moments, and what it's called to be and become -- and it's absolutely stunning!  My heart sings, my bones ache, and my soul comes alive to pursue achieving that reality.

But because I love the Church so much, because I know what it can and should be, sometimes I hate the Church with a fierce passion as well.  I hate the way it reduces the life-giving freedom of Christ to life-constricting rules and oversimplified dogma.  I hate the way we silence questions and exploration because they threaten our easy answers and comfortable customs.  I hate the way we co-opt the language and image of Christ's values to hide and serve our own -- for example, through activities we name "outreach," "mission," and "evangelism," we simply seek to recruit new members to boost our ego-sustaining statistics and fund our budgets.  I hate the way we believe being "nice" is the ultimate Christian virtue, so we avoid disagreement and conflict like the plague, squashing it down and ignoring it until it squeezes out in nasty passive-aggressiveness or full-out vicious warfare.  I hate it!

Finding Home in Exile - Part 1

"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ... seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."  ~ Jeremiah 29: 4-7

For many of us, the concept of exile resonates deep in our bones.  It captures all the various experiences of feeling off-kilter with the world around us, of being rooted in place in the midst of a bustling crowd or trying to move in a world frozen in place.  It strings together those sometimes half-noticed moments when our perspective seems out of joint with those of the people around us and we begin to wonder if we're a little crazy or if we're really living in the same world as everyone else.  It affirms the sense of trying to translate something untranslatable and living alone in a place where no one else speaks the native language of our heart.  It bears the feeling of being banished from home and the impossibility of returning, of abandonment, rejection, and non-belonging.  The concept of exile gives all these experiences meaning, and weaves them into a coherent narrative with a name and vocabulary.

New-Old Adventures

Hello everyone, thank you for reading, and for your great enduring faithfulness - I apologize for being so infrequent and sporadic in my posting!

The last year-plus has been a wonderful, full, and eventful one!

I'm very excited to be removing the adjective "potential" from the title of this blog - these are now no longer the "Pastimes of a POTENTIAL Pastor" and officially the "Pastimes of a PASTOR"!

I was called to be the Associate Pastor for the people who worship here:

The Presbyterian Church at Pluckemin - Photo courtesy of Dave Moore

The Presbyterian Church at Pluckemin (aka Pluckemin Church).
The people are even more lovely than the space where they worship.

Sanctuary during Confirmation Sunday - Photo courtesy of Tom Dodd

My responsibilities include Christian Education (with a focus on Adult Education) and Mission.  I also get to do all the other ministerial duties such as preaching - which I do approximately monthly - pastoral care, and participating in our higher governing bodies.

I also have the privilege of teaching and having fantastic conversations with our youth when they journey through Confirmation. We are blessed with a fabulous group of young people whom I adore, and they inspire me with their love for one another and willingness to engage deeply with each other.

I really do love this congregation, and I sense that God is on the verge of drawing them together anew to do something really neat and life-giving for our community and world.  This is extremely exciting for me, and I pray Christ will show me how to help lead, and live, and do this together with them!

Thanks for reading!

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Image from the Archdiocese of Malta webpage

Many of you may know that I have recently returned home from a month long trip in Germany to visit my brother James.  I have lots of thoughts about that trip which I look forward to sharing with you.  However, I'm not going to do that right now, though this post may, in a way, be an introduction to those thoughts.

My new desk-top calendar from PTS tells me that today is the "Day of Prayer for Christian Unity," and I decided to try to find out more about it (despite the fact that Wikipedia is down today in protest of the current anti-piracy bills before Congress).  It turns out today is the first day of a whole WEEK of prayer for Christian unity (Jan 18-25).  If you're curious, check out the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute for more info about it, and for study/reflection/worship resources visit the World Council of Churches page and download a copy of the "brochure" in the language of your choice.

I have felt the need for Christian unity very deeply in the last several months - particularly in my own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA).  In the summer of 2010, our most comprehensive governing body made a decision on a controversial topic, that of course many feel strongly about.  And, because we're Presbyterian and develop momentum slowly (somewhat similarly, I suppose, to a reaction to poison oak or ivy), the implications, reactions, and responses have been emerging and picking up steam gradually since then.  Which means that I, as a theologically moderate Presbyterian, have had plenty of agonizing time to watch, seemingly helplessly, as the denomination I love and have been preparing to serve drifts deliberately into ever increasingly distant factions and devolves toward schism.

The Unexpected God

This was the meditation I gave for the Wabash Presbyterian Church's Women's Christmas Dinner.  Perhaps it contains a message for you too.

As we take a moment for reflection, I'd like to begin with a story.

Allow me to introduce you to Mary Anne:  Mary Anne is a typical Northwestern girl, of average intelligence and good looks.  She enjoys nature and loves people, and she appreciates an eclectic variety of music, and of course, a good cup of coffee.  And though she may grumble a little to herself when she's in a hurry, in general she's glad that she lives in an area where a quick trip to the grocery store can easily turn into an hour, or an hour and a half, because you're bound to run into someone you know.  She's deeply rooted in the beauty and quirks of the culture of this region.