Sharing meals and time is sacramental. Image: Bigstock/Rido81
Methodist house churches: Group dynamics by Dave Barnhart
The following article is part seven of a ten-part series exploring all aspects of organizing, worshipping, and growing as a house church community. Read the previous parts here.A warning
If you are implementing an organically-multiplying house church strategy, you are always in church-planting mode. There is no magical place you “arrive” when you are done with planting and can cruise on institutional momentum, when you can breathe a sigh of relief and say, “Thank God we are now institutionally stable! We’re done!” No, a house church (or a network) is a complex social web full of complex people. People are messy. Relationships are messy.One thing I’ve heard from many, many church planters is this: beware toxic people. Especially if you are trying to create a community that reaches people who have been hurt or burned by church, you need to be aware that “hurt people hurt people.” There are folks who will be drawn to new churches because their manipulative, bullying or predatory behavior wasn’t tolerated by the last three or four churches they left in a huff. There are folks who will be drawn to small churches (like house churches) because they get to be a big fish in a small pond, and they will stymie efforts to reach new people. There are folks who like “small” and “new” as long as it remains small and new. There are folks who feel that proximity to the pastor gives them power they lack in the secular world, and if you prioritize your mission over their personal need, you will become their mortal enemy.
All of this goes with the territory.
Of course, all of these characters make regular appearances at established churches, too. But in established conventional churches there is more likely to be size, tradition or institutional inertia that mitigates their influence. Organically-reproducing house churches can’t rely on institutional inertia or size, so they must develop a healthy culture. A healthy culture is obviously a more desirable immune system, but I’ve come to appreciate that even institutional inertia has some benefits when it comes to toxic people!
I have met pastors who have become bitter and hurt themselves because of their encounters with toxic people. In professional clergy circles, we often romanticize the messiness of human relationships, especially when we talk about “meeting Jesus at the margins” without recognizing that the margins also represent the fallout of trauma, abuse and oppression. In order to do ministry with people who need healing most, we have to think theologically about group dynamics and creating a healthy culture in the congregation.
Dynamics are about power
Power is the ability to do work or create change. “Dynamics” is simply a description of how that power operates (from the Greek dynamis, power). When we talk about group dynamics, we’re talking about who is in charge (formally and informally), who wields influence, how people get their psychological and spiritual needs met within the group, who speaks and who is silent, and who feels included or excluded. Huge sections of the New Testament are given to describing the dynamis of the Holy Spirit, but as Martin Luther King Jr. said, Christians are often reluctant to talk about power — either socially, spiritually or interpersonally. Once we open the door to talking about power, we also have to become aware of how things like racism, patriarchy, classism, cis-heterosexism and ableism find their ways into our personal relationships. We have to be honest about things like fear, power-sharing, vulnerability and healthy boundaries.
The pastor of a house church can uncover some of these dynamics by simply asking some questions: Who speaks up in the group? Whose voice, though it may not be loudest, seems to sway others? What roles do various actors and stakeholders seem to play? How does my presence and absence, my speaking or my choosing to remain silent, affect how the group operates?
Finally, and most importantly: Has this group reached a point where they can operate without me, or with a substitute coach or leader?
This final question is really the goal of all disciple-making leadership, in my opinion. The organic house-church movement anticipates a future where professional full-time clergy are increasingly rare. Rather than building big-box retail churches that can support a giant staff, we are doing grassroots community organizing to midwife into existence an ancient-future way of being church together. In order to accomplish this goal, the communities we create are going to need to model spiritual maturity and healthy group dynamics.
Here are just a few principles I use for thinking about healthy group dynamics in house churches:
The dishwasher principle: The one who loads the dishwasher gets to decide how to load the dishwasher. I use this illustration to talk about how married couples (and groups) often create unnecessary conflict. We all may have different opinions about the correct way to load the dishwasher, but if you are the one loading the dishwasher, you get to decide how it gets done. If someone else has strong opinions on how to load the dishwasher, they are free to share their ideas with you, but they are not free to judge you. If they start judging, they can either do the job themselves, or hush. (This could also be called the “no armchair quarterbacks” principle).
Complaining is helpful; criticism is not: Of the many principles John Gottman shares for making marriage (and other relationships) work, this one is primary: a healthy number of complaints indicates long-term relationship success. People who complain are giving you a gift: they are helping you make your relationship better. But a complaint is not the same as criticism. A complaint names a specific behavior, names the way it makes you feel, and names a specific action that can improve the relationship. For example: “When you leave your wet towel on the bathroom floor and I have to pick it up, it makes work for me, and I feel frustrated. If you would hang up your towel, it would keep me from having to do more laundry.” That is a complaint. A criticism attacks the character of the other person: “Are you too lazy to pick up your towel?”
We are often taught that complaining is bad, but if someone complains to me in an appropriate way, it’s because they don’t feel they have to walk on eggshells around me. It takes courage to complain, because if you admit ways someone else’s behavior has hurt you, you make yourself vulnerable. If you complain, you trust that there is enough respect in the group that a complaint will be received and honored. We need to model good complaining in all our relationships in church.
There is no substitute for time: Group dynamics are built on individual relationships. That means conversations in small groups and one-to-one meetings where we share what’s going on in life. In a house church or leadership team meeting, someone may be worried about their finances; someone may have found out their loved one has cancer; someone’s child is depressed and struggling in school; someone is hurt and angry because of a church decision that didn’t take into account their needs. These private worlds we bring into a church are not secondary to “church business”—they are church business. But often they remain hidden while we plan Vacation Bible School or clothes closets or make hiring decisions.
It is essential that the congregation embody what we professional clergy often call “pastoral care” for each other. This means meeting together in one-to-one conversation and in small groups, both informally and formally. Although many churches describe themselves as “friendly,” Natural Church Developmentevaluates loving relationships with a very concrete question: “Have you shared a meal or coffee with someone from your church in the past month outside of normal church hours?” Sharing meals and time is sacramental. If we do not spend time with each other uncovering our common self-interest and caring for each other’s pain and joy, how can we embody the love of Christ to the world?
Being part of a house church is like having a master class in group dynamics. If there is a concrete gift house churches can offer the wider church at large, it is how to build authentic community and healthy groups.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Barnhart
Dave Barnhart is pastor of a new church named Saint Junia, whose mission is to become a diverse community of sinners read more…
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The pastor's study: Passing from darkness to light and memorizing Scripture by Clifton Stringer
The beginning of the Easter Vigil is dramatic, and its drama may be remembered even now, at the other pole of the year, during our passage through autumn. Easter Vigil begins Saturday evening, in the dark. The darkness and the subdued solitude and anticipation of the gathered congregation each reflect the 'being dead' of our Lord Jesus Christ. Holy Saturday is the interim space par excellence in the life of the Church — between Christ's death on Good Friday yet before the full celebration of the resurrection that sparks the light of Easter Sunday. So the congregation gathers in darkness and silence, buried away still in the darkness of our Lord's sealed tomb.Then the inexpressible mystery takes place. In the fathomless darkness, there is light: a small but indomitable spark unto flame. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. A candle is lit, a large candle, the "Christ Candle" — the congregation's liturgical reenactment of that mystery of all mysteries, that originating mystery of the Christian faith: our Lord's passage from death to resurrected and eternal life. Christ's resurrection appearances are the manifestation and actualization in history of the eschatological reality of Christ's, and our, transformed, spiritual, glorious resurrection.
In the Church catholic, as for Christ her Lord, there is a passage from death to life, from darkness to Light.
This passage from darkness to light also takes place intellectually in the life of the Christian believer — or so teaches 12th century educator-theologian-mystic Hugh of St. Victor. The passage from intellectual darkness to light, from ignorance to a penetrating and illumined knowledge of the Truth, is a Christian's own participation in Christ's burial as it inclines progressively to its terminus in the Light of resurrection. Extending Hugh's thought for today entails the claim that every pastor's hidden labor of study is a participation in Christ's own transitus, in Christ's own passage through death to eternal life. The pastor who takes seriously the part of their vocation to continuing study and theological reflection is, as St. Bonaventure might characterize it, a "true Hebrew," a true spiritual sojourner passing from death in Egypt through the birth canal of the Red Sea and into the luminous and vast if vivaciously arid space of intellectual struggle, temptation and transcendence: the desert. And, like the Hebrews in the desert, it is a continual temptation for pastors and other Christians to neglect the devotion to God that is, especially for the pastor, continued theological study. There are so many things to attend to, so many requests and tasks, and the best of us, I suspect, are quite imperfectly obedient in this regard. Yet the call and the possibility is there, and it is given, again and again: make use of the mind God has given you, and the vast intellectual tools at your fingertips, to continue growing intellectually. Continue participating mentally in Christ's paschal mystery, the better to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and the better to equip and guide others to do the same.
Now that I've painted all this theologically, let me get specific.
There are several things one needs in order to participate intellectually in Christ's Passover. The first is memorization of Scripture. That's the labor of participation in Good Friday. It is foundational to the others. The second and third pertain to Holy Saturday: one needs a mind made dynamic by well-formed in habits of dogmatic thinking. And one needs to continue probing the borders of one's own theological understanding, growing, constructing, rethinking, seeking greater light. All of these are work. Today I'll say a brief note about the foundational discipline: the memorization of Scripture. Next week, I’ll dive into the second and third disciplines, and make specific reading recommendations.
The foundation: Persisting familiarity with the text of Scripture
For Hugh, one's familiarity with Scripture — which is to say, one's reading and rereading of it such that it is, and remains, available and accessible in one's memory — is the foundation of Christian theological thinking. It is a labor to become, and remain, so familiar with Scripture. Yet, of the three disciplines here discussed, it is the one that pastors most frequently excel at. As my friend Barry, a United Methodist pastor, likes to say: it is good for everyone to go through a Baptist phase in order to learn a lot of Scripture. And many pastors are deeply familiar with the text of Scripture, through intense periods of study while growing in their own faith or during formation. This familiarity with and available memory of Scripture is continually re-formed in a pastor through the engagements with Scripture that make up a normal year: going through the lectionary texts, perhaps, or reading and studying through particular books in the course of preaching; leading Bible studies; reading part of Romans 8 to a person in hospital or hospice care, etc.
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Bonaventure points out that having Scripture available in one's memory absolutely corresponds to one's skill, freedom and dynamism as a preacher. To be a virtuoso of the preached word is to have facility with the biblical words written in memory. Evangelical biblical historian N.T. Wright and the late Miltonist and writer Reynolds Price both recommend the discipline of actually memorizing entire books of Scripture. (Price was also proud of the 80 or so odd students who had memorized Milton's poem “Lycidas” following his encouragement over the more than 40 years of his teaching at Duke.) For Hugh of St. Victor, one's memorization of Scripture is a kind of labor, a dying, a participation in Good Friday. Looking back, perhaps you yourself remember — when the words of Scripture's texts were being imprinted in your memory like the nails were being impressed in Jesus' hands.Next week we'll discuss the second and third disciplines: the dogmatic formation on one's theological thinking habits and the continuing pursuit of light beyond what one has thought and grasped before. Those are both, for Hugh, participation in Holy Saturday's movement into the Light of Easter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Clifton Stringer
Clifton Stringer is based in Austin, Texas and holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Boston College. He previously read more…
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Advertising apologies
Corporate apologies by Lyndsey Medford
In a recent television commercial, Dara Khosrowshahi, the new CEO of Uber, is shown talking to employees and riding around in a car driven by one of the ridesharing app’s drivers. In a voiceover, Khosrowshahi promises to listen and be more responsive to the needs of those using the app and those affected by Uber’s growth. The commercial is, in essence, an apology for a number of high-profile public relations failures during the tenure of founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick.Uber’s commercial is just one example among many where companies have invested in advertising campaigns to apologize for their public blunders. In the aftermath of a scandal where its employees created millions of fake accounts to meet sales goals, Wells Fargo invested in a series of ads both to apologize to customers and to promise that the bank had recommitted to “a new day.” In another set of ads, pizza chain Papa John’s thanked its customers for expressing their anger and disappointment over the racist comments made by its eponymous founder and former CEO.
In years past, many public relations strategists would have simply advised corporations to move forward from public scandals without dwelling too much on the past. A company might offer a cursory apology in a short press release, but rarely would it draw attention to its mistakes as part of an expensive, long-running ad campaign. After all, companies typically create ads to associate their brand with positive feelings — not expressions of regret. Clearly, something has changed in our society that has convinced many companies that it’s worthwhile to acknowledge their mistakes and ask for the forgiveness of their customers.
Holding companies accountable
In the United States today, corporations are more powerful than they’ve ever been. Some, like Wells Fargo or Facebook, directly handle our money and personal information. Even companies without direct access to this kind of sensitive information can still make important institutional or political decisions that affect the lives of their employees and their standing with the public.
The fact that corporations apologize at all shows the extent to which they depend on consumer goodwill for their success. When a company does something the public finds objectionable or that actively harms their customers or their community, consumers have the power to hold them accountable for their actions.
In any broken relationship, including between corporations and the public at large, apologies are necessary to show that the offender understands what they’ve done wrong and that they desire to change. Sometimes, though, an apology is only meant to save face or sweep an issue under the rug. Alternatively, an apology may be made in earnest, but the promise of restitution or change may never be fulfilled.
While we may not be able to demand perfection from the companies we buy from, how should we decide whether to offer them forgiveness or if we should trust them with access to our sensitive information?
Asking for forgiveness and making amends
Yet another corporate scandal made headlines last spring when the manager of a Philadelphia-area Starbucks called police to have two black men arrested for sitting in the store while waiting for a friend. Public outrage ran high, but Starbucks didn’t fire the manager, nor did the company buy advertisements to apologize. Instead, Kevin R. Johnson, the CEO of Starbucks, posted a personal apology on the Starbucks website. In his apology, Johnson acknowledged that the issue of racism wasn’t the failure of just one person, but should be addressed throughout the organization. In response, the company closed 8,000 stores in the United States for an afternoon so its employees could engage in training and conversations about racial bias.
Some have criticized Starbucks, saying it’s naive to expect an afternoon of training to change people’s long-held biases — but we must admit that this action probably did more to express real remorse and to remedy the situation than spending millions on an ad campaign would have.
Every parent knows it’s possible to apologize without being truly sorry. While many corporate apologies are truly offered in the interests of acknowledging wrongdoing and being transparent about the organization’s efforts to change, others are made as cynical attempts to quickly buff up a tarnished image — less “We’re sorry” than “We’re sorry we got caught!”
Responding to an apology
Whether an apology comes from a corporation or from a friend or family member, it can be difficult to discern what constitutes a true apology. But no matter who is apologizing, the next step can be even more challenging: How do we respond to that apology? Depending on the relationship and the severity of the offense, it might be very difficult to forgive the offender, whether they’re a company or someone close to us. This can be the case even when the offender is truly remorseful.
In the Bible, this move toward forgiveness and reconciliation was described more as a process than a single act. Whoever was at fault must first turn away from their wrongdoing and humbly ask for the pardon of the person they had harmed. Only then could they try to make amends (Numbers 5:5-7; Matthew 5:23-24). However, in other circumstances, forgiveness was offered preemptively as an invitation from the injured party to the one who had hurt them. Either way, forgiveness and reconciliation were a mutual act that required work beyond an apology.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lyndsey Medford
Lyndsey Medford is director of discipleship at Two Rivers United Methodist Churchin Charleston, South Carolina. Lyndsey read more…
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While in college and seminary, I pastored several small churches. And after graduating from seminary, I was appointed to serve another one. Like other small-church pastors, I was tempted to buy into the “bigger is better” view, but I am writing today to say that one of the best things that ever happened to me in pastoral ministry was serving small congregations.In doing so, I learned there is no such thing as a “small” church. Every church is beyond our capacity to serve it. From day one we are in over our head, which enables us to define being successful in ministry as radically relying on grace. As Solomon wrote, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
There are no small churches because people are in them, and the needs of people are as real in little congregations as in bigger ones. In the small churches I served, people were poised to grow. They were ready to move from membership to discipleship. In these churches people got sick, they died, they had discouraging marriages, they had wayward children, they had aging parents to look after, they had stressful work settings, etc. Potential blessings and painful problems were present in small churches. People needed good shepherds there as much as anywhere else.
I also learned the perception that most churches are larger ones is an illusion. It was true decades ago, and it is still true. The last time I saw a statistic, I found that even in today’s “megachurch” environment, 50% of congregations in the United States have less than 75 members.
But perhaps most of all, small churches are places to learn what Henri Nouwen once wrote to a friend who was discouraged because of a small response to her ministry, “In the area of spirituality, statistics do not count. Two or three people who hear you well, may be able to do miracles.” [1] Having pastored small churches, I understand the truth and significance of Nouwen’s words.
When I responded to a new call to move from pastoring churches to pastoring seminarians, I found myself wondering if I could do better if I had served larger congregations. But I am happy to tell you that the Holy Spirit quickly squelched my skewed thinking. Some of the things I have written about above became precious memories to share with students, most of whom would graduate from seminary and be appointed to small churches as I was — and some of whom would mostly serve small churches throughout their years of service.
In the end, it was my pastoring small churches which
[1] Henri J.M. Nouwen, ‘Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life’ (Convergent, 2016), 310.
Steve Harper is the author of For the Sake of the Bride and Five Marks of a Methodist. He blogs at Oboedire.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Harper
Steve Harper taught spiritual formation and Wesley studies to Christian divinity students for more than thirty years read more…
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I’ll never forget the time I visited Miss Randolph, a homebound member of the church. As the associate pastor assigned to pastoral care, I made a point to visit this grateful member at least once a month. One time, after I prayed for her, she asked me a mind-boggling question: “What do you do for work?”“Lady,” I wanted to cry out, “I visit you! What do you think I do for work?” Luckily, I held my tongue. Turns out she hadn’t realized the church had an associate pastor, since it was a fairly new position. But it reminds me of other mind-boggling questions asked by parishioners.
Being a pastor is just a one-day-a-week job isn’t it? If you only knew, I have wanted to say.
What? You shop for food? This one always comes at the grocery store when I am pushing my cart down the aisles. I cringe as I realize I have thought the same thing when I’ve seen other high-visibility people in the grocery store.
What are you doing for the holidays? Again, lady, I’m making sure you have holiday services to attend! Poor lady.
In this month when we intentionally appreciate pastors, I would like to de-mythologize a few not-so-obvious things, and recommend five tips:
- Insist on time off. Your pastor is dedicated to you and to the life of the church. Their calling is more than a career choice. Most full-time pastors put in far in excess of 40 hours per week. Most part-time pastors work more than the 10 or 20 hours you are paying them for. They often work seven days a week. Yes, they are overworking. No, this is not healthy in the long haul. Make it do-able for them to take a weekly day or two off, annual vacations and intermittent rest times away from the congregation.
- Recognize their humanity. Your pastor is a person first. He or she gets hungry, angry, lonely, happy, tired, energized and excited just like you do. Take them off the pedestal and recognize their humanity. Even as you acknowledge the mantle of authority they have received to lead the congregation.
- Acknowledge them on holidays. Your pastor likely doesn’t go away for the holidays. Putting together special services, writing sermons and developing worship materials intensifies at the holidays. That’s true not only of Christmas, but Easter and Thanksgiving, too. Invite them for a meal or a party; or give a holiday gift or a card with money at the holidays. This will be appreciated. Sometimes, creating space so they can enjoy their family at the holidays is also welcome and appreciated.
- Celebrate and pray. Your pastor has been anointed, appointed, authorized and is an accountable ambassador of Jesus Christ in your community. Be sure to celebrate their contributions to your congregation and community, and to uplift them in prayer.
- Don’t triangulate. If there’s a behavior you don’t like, or a critique you must deliver, go directly to your pastor. Don’t triangulate by talking to everyone else about it first. Creating emotional triangles complicates things and won’t lead to quick or easy resolution. Have the courage to speak directly with them. Be kind as you do so. Be willing to listen to their response.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rebekah Simon-Peter
Rebekah Simon-Peter is passionate about transforming church leaders and the congregations they serve. She’s read more…
President Trump speaks via a live feed to anti-abortion activists as they rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19, 2018, during the annual March for Life. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Politics as a substitute for religion will inevitably let you down by Tom Krattenmaker / Religion News Service
Whether you are religious or secular, conservative or liberal, caring about politics too much — caring the wrong way — can contaminate your soul and poison your emotional and spiritual core. It can leave you high and dry on an island of anger and disillusionment.In a heated election season like this, the headlines and campaign messages toss you around on a wild roller-coaster ride. The subject lines take you from happy and excited to “heartbreak.”
They bring tidings of “bombshells” and “collapses” and “shocking” new twists in this or that race. You’ll be urged to get mad and seek revenge for the latest bad thing done by your political enemies.
One moment, you’re elated by a new poll showing your candidate surging. Your faith in humanity is restored by an inspiring video on Facebook. The next moment, this restored faith is crushed by headlines about sinister voter suppression tactics or the horrible thing that was just said or done by a dastardly hypocrite from the other party.
No one rides these chaotic tides for very long without burning out or breaking down.
Caring deeply about electoral politics can bring you highs, for sure. You’ll occasionally experience the sweet taste of victory and the satisfaction of seeing righteousness rewarded.
You will also suffer the sick feeling of defeat. You’ll see good deeds punished and bad deeds rewarded. You’ll know the pain of witnessing awful people winning and gloating about it.
You’ll be encouraged to turn a blind eye to the unethical tactics your side will employ to win.
You’ll be drawn into despising people on the other side and coming to regard them not as people but as cardboard cutouts representing all that’s loathsome in the world.
This is no way to live.
Make no mistake: Responsible, faithful citizenship requires political engagement. Never in recent history has voting been more important and — depending on your demographic group — more under threat. There is dignity and meaning in the struggle for a fair and just society. Please, get involved. Vote!
But don’t kid yourself that political outcomes will bring you meaning, purpose or salvation.
Invest your ultimate in faith, in enduring principles, in relationships with full human beings who are more to you, and you to them, than Democrats or Republicans. Invest in the value of the struggle itself — the struggle for a fairer and more humane world. It is the dream that is never fully realized but can never be snuffed out.
Invest in those things because they will still be there regardless of what happens on Nov. 6.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Krattenmaker / Religion News Service
Tom Krattenmaker writes on religion in public life and directs communications at Yale Divinity School. His latest book read more…
Eugene Peterson lectures at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle in May 2009. Image: Creative Commons
Eugene Peterson, author of ‘The Message’ and pastor to other pastors, dies at age 85 by Emily McFarlan Miller / Religion News Service
(RNS) — Eugene Peterson, the best-selling author of “The Message” and longtime pastor praised as a “shepherd’s shepherd,” passed away Monday morning (Oct. 22) at age 85.Among Peterson’s last words were, “Let’s go,” according to a statement from his family.
“During the previous days, it was apparent that he was navigating the thin and sacred space between earth and heaven,” according to his family. “We overheard him speaking to people we can only presume were welcoming him into paradise. There may have even been a time or two when he accessed his Pentecostal roots and spoke in tongues as well.”
Peterson pastored Christ Our King Presbyterian Church, a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation he founded in Bel Air, Md., for 30 years while also writing widely to encourage and develop other pastors.
He is best known for The Message, his popular paraphrase of the Bible in contemporary language that made the Bible accessible to many Christians. Altogether, he wrote more than 30 books, including his 2011 memoir The Pastor and the Christian classic, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.
“Eugene Peterson has encouraged, formed, and often literally saved the ministry of more than one pastor over the years through his writing and thinking (I would include myself in that list),” wrote Truett Seminary professor Robert Creech in an Oct. 13 Facebook post.
“He has refreshed Scripture for many through his thoughtful paraphrase of the Bible published as The Message. He has taught us to pray.”
Creech encouraged prayer for Peterson and his family in that post as the author and pastor was placed in hospice care last week, facing the progression of dementia and heart failure.
Peterson was hospitalized Tuesday, Oct. 9, “when he took a sudden and dramatic turn in his health caused by an infection,” according to an email from his son Eric Peterson included in Creech’s post.
When the family shared with the author and pastor he was nearing the end of his life, Eric Peterson wrote, his father thoughtfully responded, “I feel good about that.”
He closed his email: “I’m not exactly sure what he meant by it, but one of the last things he said to me this evening was, ‘It just seems so sacred that they trust me so much.’
“Every moment in this man’s presence is sacred.”
The family statement on Monday said Peterson remained joyful and smiling in his final days.
“It feels fitting that his death came on a Monday, the day of the week he always honored as a Sabbath during his years as a pastor. After a lifetime of faithful service to the church — running the race with gusto — it is reassuring to know that Eugene has now entered into the fullness of the Kingdom of God and has been embraced by eternal Sabbath,” according to the statement.
Peterson had retreated from public life last year after publishing his final book, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, but not before causing some controversy with his words to former Religion News Service columnist Jonathan Merritt in one of his final interviews.
The longtime pastor told RNS at the time he would officiate a same-sex wedding if asked to do so today by a gay couple who were “Christians of good faith.” Later — after some backlash — he retracted that statement.
It was the messiness and ambiguity of living Christian theology as a pastor, rather than teaching it as a professor, that originally led Peterson, a scholar of biblical Greek and Hebrew, from academia to the pulpit.
After taking a part-time job at a church to make ends meet while a professor in New York City, he once told RNS he came to believe “the church is a lot more interesting than the classroom. There’s no ambiguity to Greek and Hebrew. It’s just right or wrong.”
“And in the church everything was going every which way all the time — dying, being born, divorces, kids running away. I suddenly realized that this is where I really got a sense of being involved and not just sitting on the sidelines as a spectator but being in the game,” he said.
Peterson founded Christ Our King in 1963 after he was asked to start a church in Bel Air with the assistance of the Baltimore Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and First Presbyterian Church in Bel Air. He retired as pastor in 1991.
Without that experience as a pastor, he wouldn’t have been able to write The Message, he said. It took several requests from publishers to get him to agree to write the paraphrase and 12 years to complete it.
Even after it was finished, he said, he never felt like The Message was “my book.” Translating the words of the prophet Isaiah or the prolific Epistle writer Paul into the idioms of his congregation, he said, “I was just pleased I was able to get into their life and do it in my way.”
While some took issue with the paraphrase of Christian Scriptures, The Message has been praised by many — from laypeople who struggle to understand the language of the Bible to U2 frontman Bono, who said it “speaks to me in my own language.” The two appeared together in a 2016 video for Fuller Theological Seminary’s Fuller Studio.
David Taylor, assistant professor of theology and culture at Fuller and director of its Brehm Texas initiative, grew to know Peterson first through his writing and later as a professor and friend. Peterson’s classes were filled with times of singing long, theologically dense hymns and silent prayer, Taylor said in an email to RNS.
“At the start of the term, it only irritated me to waste so much time singing. I was anxious for him to get on with his lecture notes. But for him, the silence, the praying, the singing, the listening, the waiting, the being present were the teaching,” he said.
Peterson connected with readers because he made the biblical text come alive, according to his friend.
His life’s goal was to “change the pastoral imagination of pastors today,” to urge them “to slow down and to be present to their lives” so that they could help their congregations do the same, he said.
And for those who knew and loved him, Taylor said, “It’s his joy that will remain the gift that shapes me most deeply.”
“Even now, as I read the news of his passing, I find myself weeping, not just with sadness, but with joy, because I know that his joy is being made full and he would want us to share in it, too.”
With the publication of his final book last year, Peterson said, he felt a sense of completion.
“I think I’ve pretty much mined everything I’ve learned and made art out of it,” he told RNS at the time.
He wasn’t afraid to die, he said, simply curious. As a pastor, he’d spent time with many people as they were dying, and their conversations were some of the best he remembered having in his lifetime.
“We do know what’s going to happen, those of us who believe in the Trinity. For us, there’s something quite … I don’t want to use the word ‘miraculous’ in a sloppy way,” he said. “But there are people who die well, and I want to be one.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily McFarlan Miller / Religion News Service
Emily McFarlan Miller is a contributor to RNS. read more…
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Let’s go treasure hunting! How about searching for a millionaire’s treasure chest? Forrest Fenn has provided the treasure — all we have to do is figure out the clues.According to a news report published this past April, Fenn estimates that around 350,000 people have searched for the prize that he hid in the Rocky Mountains back in 2010. A former Vietnam fighter pilot who spent his career as an art dealer, Fenn enjoyed teasing all those thousands of people who succumb to the draw or sheer curiosity of what’s hidden in the mountains.
What it’s worth
Fortunately, Fenn did leave clues that can be found in his memoir, The Thrill of the Chase, which contains a cryptic, 24-line poem supposedly describing the location of the treasure. The report mentioned earlier stated, “There are a number of online forums where enthusiasts trade theories about where the treasure might be, including an entire subreddit called r/FindingFennsGold that’s devoted to the cause.” Sadly, at least four people are believed to have died in search of Fenn’s treasure. What some might treat as a fun family adventure, others have allowed to take over their lives.
Keeping the treasure hunt in mind, how many of us, do you think, have spent way too much time searching for the wrong riches in life? Humans distract easily; that is just our nature. In this earthly life, we seek any number of treasures that promise rewards of some kind or another. Yet the pursuit of God and God’s truth, the greatest treasure, is the only quest that truly matters.
True wealth
Our genuine devotion is displayed in a few primary ways — what we worry about most, how we spend our time, and where we invest our money. Training our heart to be devoted to God first is not easy. Faithfulness develops and grows through consistent worship, practicing spiritual disciplines, the giving of our time and money and even in our conversations with others.
Question of the day: What’s the most exciting thing you’ve ever found outdoors?
Focal scriptures: Luke 15:11-19; Jeremiah 29:10-13; Deuteronomy 4:15-23; Matthew 6:19-21
Luke 15:11 Again Yeshua said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that will be mine.’ So the father divided the property between them. 13 As soon as he could convert his share into cash, the younger son left home and went off to a distant country, where he squandered his money in reckless living. 14 But after he had spent it all, a severe famine arose throughout that country, and he began to feel the pinch.
15 “So he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him any.
17 “At last he came to his senses and said, ‘Any number of my father’s hired workers have food to spare; and here I am, starving to death! 18 I’m going to get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers.” ’; Jeremiah 29:10 “For here is what Adonai says: ‘After Bavel’s seventy years are over, I will remember you and fulfill my good promise to you by bringing you back to this place. 11 For I know what plans I have in mind for you,’ says Adonai,‘plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future. 12 When you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you. 13 When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly;; Deuteronomy 4:15 “Therefore, watch out for yourselves! Since you did not see a shape of any kind on the day Adonaispoke to you in Horev from the fire, 16 do not become corrupt and make yourselves a carved image having the shape of any figure — not a representation of a human being, male or female, 17 or a representation of any animal on earth, or a representation of any bird that flies in the air, 18 or a representation of anything that creeps along on the ground, or a representation of any fish in the water below the shoreline. 19 For the same reason, do not look up at the sky, at the sun, moon, stars and everything in the sky, and be drawn away to worship and serve them; Adonaiyour God has allotted these to all the peoples under the entire sky. 20 No, you Adonai has taken and brought out of the smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of inheritance for him, as you are today.
21 “But Adonai was angry with me on account of you and swore that I would not cross the Yarden and go into that good land, which Adonai your God is giving you to inherit. 22 Rather, I must die in this land and not cross the Yarden; but you are to cross and take possession of that good land. 23 Watch out for yourselves, so that you won’t forget the covenant of Adonai your God, which he made with you, and make yourself a carved image, a representation of anything forbidden to you by Adonai your God.; Matthew 6:19 “Do not store up for yourselves wealth here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and burglars break in and steal. 20 Instead, store up for yourselves wealth in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and burglars do not break in or steal. 21 For where your wealth is, there your heart will be also. (Complete Jewish Bible).
For a complete lesson on this topic visit LinC.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Bonner
Paul Bonner loves the LORD, his family, and working with teenagers. Paul has a passion to help young people grow in read more…
In today’s sermon, she preaches from Mark 10:46-52, the story of blind Bartimaeus. Put yourself in Bartimaeus’ shoes and join Dana as she preaches to him and to you. Imagine how you might answer Jesus if he asked you the simple question, “What do you want me to do for you?”
This sermon is from A Sermon for Every Sunday, a series of lectionary-based video sermons designed for use in worship, Bible study, small groups, Sunday school classes or for individual use.
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