I’ve been reading some wonderful books this summer and one of the common themes that has tugged at my heart and mind is the idea of community with God that is available to us as believers. Robert Barron writes in The Strangest Way,
“Not only is God active and aggressive enough to track us down in love; God is also “flexible” enough to include us in his own being. The Father sent his Son in order to gather us into the Spirit, which is the love that binds them together – and it is in this central place that we are privileged to exist. Whenever Christians pray, they invoke the names of the Trinitarian persons, because they are praying, not so much outside of God as a petitioner, as, strangely enough, inside of God as a sharer in the divine communion.”That is an amazing concept! Read it again: we are praying from within the holy communion of the Trinity, not as an outsider knocking at the door or someone “down here” sending prayers “up there” but we are at home in this community of the Father, Son and Spirit and our prayers are the conversation we engage in with them. Where do you “stand” in relation to God when you pray? Are you sending prayers long-distance or are you like Abraham, eating under the trees at Mamre and walking along the road to Sodom with your prayers a conversation with a present Person (Gen. 18)? In fact, we seem to have an even closer position than that of Abraham speaking with the Lord, because we don’t meet God as visitors among us, but we are inside the community of God, abiding in him as he abides in us. What a beautiful mystery!
Nowhere is this concept of community with God more apt than at the Communion Table. When we eat of the bread and drink of the cup, “Christ enters us and we him”, as Robert Webber wrote in Ancient-Future Worship. While he is ever present in this world and with us always, there is some “mystery of faith (that) embraces the reality of the incarnation and an incarnational presence in the bread and wine.” Do you think of this mystery, this union with Christ, when you take Communion? I hope you will begin to. If you combine the ideas of Webber and Barron, you may be present with Christ in a new way as you accept the Body and the Blood and can celebrate the Presence in a fuller, more meaningful way.
Barron urges us to find our center in Christ, to forsake ourselves and surrender to the power and presence and beauty and truth that are in him. He uses a delightful teaching of John of the Cross to make his point,“John says that the inner Christ, is like a hidden wine cellar. This metaphor focuses, not on strength and safety, but on intoxication. The divine source, opened up by Christ, is an inexhaustible font of delight and elevation of consciousness. When we drink fine wine, we are lifted up out of our everyday preoccupations and become playful, imaginative, a bit daring. In the same way, when we drink of the spirit of Christ, the divine liquor, our minds are lifted up out of their obsessive concern with “the body” and opened to a higher, more joyful, dimension of experience. This inner wine cellar is buried within the souls of believers, but, says John of the Cross, most of us have lost the key.”How wonderful that sounds! I hope that you will search for the key to this place of hidden delight. Start with prayer and the Lord’s Supper and tell me how your search goes.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Divine Communion
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14 comments:
After just receiving word, from Mike in a email stating glorious things, then the other foot dropped stating Sat. evening services will be discontinued after the 23rd of Aug. There will be staff layoffs, etc., then it finished with this is a good thing it will promote togetherness of the congregation. I would like a response something real from the elder board on this. Have we lost our mission? What have we become, where are we going?
This may help, see below:
Churches as organizations go through a
lifecycle. The idea of an organization having
a lifecycle was developed by a business consultant
named Ichzak Adizes from Los Angeles. It has been used and refined by many, but my favorite is the lifecycle found in the book by William Bridges entitled Managing Transitions.
The first stage of the lifecycle is
DREAMING THE DREAM. In this stage
the church is just in the concept stage in the
mind of a group of people. The excitement
grows as this group talks and prays.
The second stage is LAUNCHING THE CHURCH. This is the time of the church’s infancy and childhood. Birth has taken place, the church is “out there,” and people join and bring their friends and tithes. This is an exciting time and there are lots of activities with everyone jumping in a doing things. This kind
of energy, flexibility and looseness is needed to launch the new venture off the ground.
The third stage is GETTING ORGANIZED. To some, this stage feels like a step backward, since many of the ways to bring order to a chaotic situation force you to slow down and do things in some standardized way. This is a time when roles
start to become more specialized and more formally defined. It is the time when financial controls are established and policies are spelled out.
Fourth, we have a stage called MAKING IT. This is the point when the church’s “adulthood” begins. From this point on, the organization has what it needs to be a significant factor in its mission field and community. A church that is successfully
making it can expand and grow more complex for a very long time without ever leaving this stage.
Stage five is called BECOMING AN INSTITUTION. The
emphasis moves from doing to being and from the results to the external impression made. The imperative shifts from that of taking and staking out territory to occupying it. Reputation is something that the organization has - it is no longer being earned.
The sixth stage is CLOSING IN. This phase often grows almost imperceptibly out of the self-satisfaction that so often
marks institutional life. In an earlier time, when external competition was not as sharp in some fields as it is today (banking, religion, manufacturing, education, etc.), this inward turning
could produce a rather attractive “aristocratic” stylization of effort. In this stage, church members forget the mission and focus on internal matters in a way that can seem almost perverse and certainly non-productive. Arguments focus on rules and status while the whole mission slowly collapses.
The final stage is DYING. Unlike individuals, for whom dying is an event with a date and cause, churches tend to come to the end of their lives in ways that make the fact of death less obvious. Even if they are still going through the motions, they come to the point where the activities and the
identity that once were that church no longer exist.
If you understand the stage in which your church is in, then you understand why the church acts the way it does and what to do. Stage 5, Becoming an Institution, is the stage that
a church needs to RENEW itself by starting over on either stage one, stage two or stage three. This is, of course, easier said than done. Although it can be done, it takes intention on the part of the leadership or else an act of God. If a church
slips into stages six or seven, it probably is time to think about becoming a LEGACY CHURCH that recycles its people and property into another new church or into another church that is in the Making It stage.
Dear Anonymous, we have not lost our mission, our vision or our way. The elders and pastors remain committed to the vision we believe God gave us eight years ago. All new changes are a direct result of trying to carry out that vision within our current context. When we were a seeker church, we were staffed and programmed for a very large church and while many of our programs have changed to better reflect our mission, we have not changed the organizational structure of Oak Hills to match who we currently are: a medium sized church that seeks "to invite people to experience the reality of life in the Kingdom of God."
One of the functions of the Elder Board is to continually seek out where God is moving in our church, and we have lately felt him calling us to focus on community. This is something exciting, that we are all grateful for, and our current restructuring will hopefully foster what we sense is a movement of God in our midst. This seems to us to be a wonderful season in the life of our church. We believe that there are opportunities for us as a medium sized church and we want to take advantage of them and use our strengths to celebrate the fellowship and community that is possible when we gather together as the Bride of Christ.
I would like to encourage you to do three things:
1) Attend one of the August evening meetings (13, 22, 29)
2) Mark your calendar with Sept. 27 and plan to gather together for an all-church Vision Night
3) Pray for Oak Hills and give thanks for God's continued blessing and provision to us
I would like to preface this by saying this is from my heart.
Response to your answers. “The elders and pastors remain committed to the vision we believe God gave us eight years ago.”
What I heard and observed eight years ago, was a “very large church hitting the wall” happens around 1600 people. Results from being over worked and spiritually tired, senior staff on down. Where was the joy in the blessings that God had given us. Discerned from the testimonies and statements given by senior staff, and participating staff members. Both Mike and Kent made statements that any church following the Very Large Church formula would be successful. Completely ignoring what God had done for us. The congregation was more involved in the “Kingdom of God” than staff. During that time there was a large “Community hearing God” worshipping, serving, and evangelizing on their own at Oakhills. Result was you missed where God was moving. Because of this we spiraled down, then hiring, rehiring, dismissing, rehiring. New programs, killing programs, programs, killing programs. Moving the stage, not moving the stage, just some examples to express how the congregation feels. Still trying formulas and we eliminated church services, and now elimination of Sat. night church service. Don’t tell us that this will bring the church together. We once did multiple church services well, and even by eliminating Sat. we’ll still have split services on Sunday. The truth. You state ‘When we were a seeker church, we were staffed and programmed for a Very Large Church and while many of our programs have changed to better reflect our mission, we have not changed the organizational structure of Oak Hills to match who we currently are: a medium sized church that seeks "to invite people to experience the reality of life in the Kingdom of God."’
Why haven’t we completed this task? Did we hear God? Are we trying to drive a parked car?
Why haven’t we moved out of the “Very Large Church” financial structure, unburdened ourselves and moved into a “Medium Sized Church” long ago?
So who hasn’t let go of the “Very Large Church” structure the senior staff, etc., and why?
You state “We have lately felt him calling us to focus on community. This is something exciting, that we are all grateful for, and our current restructuring will hopefully foster what we sense is a movement of God in our midst. This seems to us to be a wonderful season in the life of our church.”
So does this inward movement put us in the “sixth stage is CLOSING IN”? This phase often grows almost imperceptibly out of the self-satisfaction that so often_marks institutional life. In an earlier time, when external competition was not as sharp in some fields as it is today (banking, religion, manufacturing, education, etc.), this inward turning_could produce a rather attractive “aristocratic” stylization of effort. In this stage, church members forget the mission and focus on internal matters in a way that can seem almost perverse and certainly non-productive.” Is this Oakhills? Move that stage, praise team no praise team, preach from the stage, preach from the floor.
”The final stage is DYING. Unlike individuals, for whom dying is an event with a date and cause, churches tend to come to the end of their lives in ways that make the fact of death less obvious. Even if they are still going through the motions, they come to the point where the activities and the_identity that once were that church no longer exist._If you understand the stage in which your church is in, then you understand why the church acts the way it does and what to do. Are we dying?
We’re not jumping in doing things so phase 2 we aren’t.
Phase 3? Could we be in phase 3? “The third stage is GETTING ORGANIZED. To some, This Stage Feels Like A Step Backward, since many of the ways to bring order to a chaotic situation force you to slow down and do things in some standardized way. This is a time when roles_start to become more specialized and more formally defined. It is the time when financial controls are established and policies are spelled out.”
Even Dallas Willard says you have to go through a inward phase when trying what Oakhills is trying, but he also warns about staying to long in the inward looking phase.
Have we not let go of the “Very Large Church” like we should have if we are acting on what God is guiding us to? Are we coveting the “VLC” and looking back?
Or should we repent for misusing his gifts 8 years ago so that we can move on? Yes there are exciting things that point to God still working in His Church at Oakhills. People are still being Baptized! Mike preaching – admitting that there can be Joy in suffering! But where does that put us? Promised land or 40 years of probation? Our Lord was working then as now. So it is OK to ask and be told where do you think we are presently?
This series of meetings seems backwards. Before any of this the Church should have been asked to “Pray for Oak Hills and give thanks for God's continued blessing and provision to us.” Then followed with, “Plan to gather together for an all-Church Vision Night”, and then finished with “Evening meetings” gathering information on the Vision.
As I’m writing this out I’m hoping we’re in the 3rd phase.
Anonymous, thanks for your comments and concerns. I can't seem to muster up any enthusiasm for applying a theory of the lifecycle of an organization to Oak Hills or any church. The mystery and supernatural power of God is always active and creative in drawing his people to a deeper knowledge of him, in transforming us into image-bearers of Christ, and in releasing us to affect the world around us. There is nothing formulaic or static about God and his church! I hope you stay engaged and suggest as someone who is obviously well connected to the church (since you know much more than has been announced) that you take the next step and contact a ministry leader, pastor or elder to discuss any issues that aren't dealt with to your satisfaction after Wednesday's meeting.
Please forgive me for weighing in late to this blog thread. Though I am on staff, I would like to share some personal thoughts (i.e., not necessarily the views of this station).
The act of engaging in meaningful dialogue while maintaining anonymity is a common practice in today's world, but it seems to be entirely in opposition to Biblical community. Biblical community is about people called to love one another, encourage one another, disciple one another, and sometimes resolve conflict with one another. It is never done in anonymity. It is always done with love (reference Phil 2:2, Matt 18:15-17, etc.)
I've received a good number of anonymous letters and notes over the years. Some were valid, some were nice, most were opinionated, a few were nasty, but none encouraged Biblical community.
I would love to extend an invitation to meet one-on-one with "Anonymous." Please call me at the church office, 983-0181, and we'll have coffee and talk. Please engage with me in sharing your dreams, your concerns, your thoughts. Lets be the church together.
Blessings,
Manuel Luz
Creative Arts Pastor, OHC
This is all very good conversation. I'm glad we have this medium to bring up concerns since I believe many of us were not going to do so last Wednesday night. Maybe next time, you could have slips of paper to write ?'s on. So, here's my question. I believe the leadership is correct, we are no longer a large church. I think it's great that we are coming to terms of who we are and getting staff size and getting finances under control. I just wonder how many mid-size churches have 2 senior pastors. How has leadership justified this while cutting staff beneath them? This is very corporate. Keep the VP's and Directors and lay-off the admin. I understand that Kent & Mike will be raising the bar on their own functions within the church, but how do larger churches survive with just 1 senior pastor? Are you affraid of losing more people if one of them leaves?
I'm the Anonymous blogger from the 5th and 7th of August. I'm not the August 15th blogger. I want you to know, "Manuel" that I have no conflict with the Church or with anyone at this time. And after reading the August 15th response, they don't need to be disfranchised either. Our Lord allows many paths to accomplish His Will. With Faith, Hope, and Love we'll all be in Our Lord's Will.
Anonymous #2 - We have certainly looked at every scenario and the elders are not asking our pastors to update their resumes at this time. You are right, we are in a unique situation with two senior pastors no matter what size church you want to talk about. The level of mutual submission, open communication, belief in the other (basically all the ingredients of a really good marriage) make this something of a rarity in any leadership structure. As I'm sure you realize, the smaller the church staff the more the church must rely on volunteers to help cover the administrative functions. Kent, Mike, and the other pastoral staff will have to pick up some of their own admin and find volunteers to do the rest, but it would not be possible for admin staff to pick up the ministry leadership (nor would they want to). This is very typical of a church our size: Staff the jobs that require vision, leadership and strategic thinking and fill in the other slots with qualified lay people.
I've heard some people have wanted to post to this blog but don't want to be anonymous and don't have gmail, so here is a quick tutorial: Click on the "Open ID" and you should be able to type in your name and join the discussion. Thanks
We're losing $25,000/month. That's three $100,000/year jobs or six $50,000/year jobs, or twelve $25,000/ year jobs.
How damaging to ministries would it be cutting the lower wage positions?
You stated, "We have certainly looked at every scenario and the elders are not asking our pastors to update their resumes at this time." "Staff the jobs that require vision, leadership and strategic thinking and fill in the other slots with qualified lay people."
Is it now systemic at Oak Hills to believe Pastors can only fill "Vision" positions or is this just one view? This is not exclusively the case at other Churches.
We have many more than 2 Pastors filling positions that were filled by lay people earlier in "Oak Hills" history, and are filling positions that have been Senior Pastor duties in our past history. Some of these positions are not "jobs that require vision, leadership and strategic thinking", especially at a medium size church level.
Can lay people have the same "Vision"? Using more lay people fewer Pastors wouldn't this help with building community. How will all of this affect our younger Pastors and future leaders of "Oak Hills".
I believe we're all in a transition that requires a review of all the paths to our "Vision".
I know any questions after you have stated, "we have certainly looked at every scenario", may sound divisive, but that's not the intent at all. Every Pastor on staff is loved and have been shining examples true shepherds. To all of you overseers, shepherds, and staff you have my prayers, and I pray that goes for the rest of the congregation.
Anonymous #1
Once again weighing in...
I think Anonymous #1 might have missed the point I am trying to make. By remaining anonymous, you disenfranchise yourself from community, and disenfranchise the community from you. And even if you say there is no "conflict," any meaningful dialogue between believers should be done in the context of community.
You have chosen an anonymous path to voice your opinions for reasons known only to you. But please understand that there is no Biblical precedent for this, particularly as it relates to community.
Once again, I extend an invitation to you to go one-on-one with me. I encourage you to share that "Faith, Hope, and Love" in the context of knowing and being known.
Blessings,
Manuel
Manuel,
Read Mark 8:23-26;
23 He took hold of the blind man by the hand, and brought him out of the village. When he had spit on his eyes, and laid his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything.
24 He looked up, and said, "I see men; for I see them like trees walking."
25 Then again he laid his hands on his eyes. He looked intently, and was restored, and saw everyone clearly.
26 He sent him away to his house, saying, "Don't enter into the village, nor tell anyone in the village."
There's one "Biblical precedent". Jesus just didn't need or want the publicity at that time and neither do I. You are aware you have a Anonymous identity button to sign in with to use the comment box? I'll stop this is silly.
Thank You Val
With no disrespect to anonymous...
Regarding the Mark 8 passage: You imply that the way you choose to model Jesus to your church is by being anonymous. I'm sorry, but I don't follow the logic in that one, especially as it relates to Biblical community.
Please let's not continue to debate this in this way. Face to face...please.
If you choose not, I will accept that...and not continue this thread.
Reading through this tread I saw nothing wrong with the Anonymous writers.
I looked up the book one of them referenced on Amazon, Managing Transitions and found this Product Description below
The business world is a place of constant change, with stories of corporate mergers, layoffs, bankruptcy, and restructuring hitting the news every day. Yet as veteran consultant William Bridges maintains, the situational changes are not as difficult for companies to make as the psychological transitions. In the best-selling Managing Transitions, Bridges provides a clear understanding of what change does to employees and what employees in transition can do to an organization. Directed at managers and employees in today's corporations, Bridges shows how to minimize the distress and disruptions caused by change. Managing Transitions addresses the fact that it is people who have to carry out the change. When the book was originally published a decade ago, Bridges was the first to provide any real sense of the emotional impact of change and what can be done to keep it from disrupting the entire organization. With new information and commentary on layoffs, corporate suspicion, and the increasing tumult in the business world, Managing Transitions remains the definitive guide to dealing with change.
I'll buy 2 one for Manuel and one for me. It addresses the fact that it is people (congregation, employees) who have to carry out the change. I'll bring it to you Manuel that is unless your in a meeting.
Reminder: there is another Q&A tonight (Friday, August 22) up in the chapel at 7pm and another one next Friday, August 29 same time and place. Hope to see you at one of these if you have questions about any of the things happening this fall.
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