Weekly Recap for Tuesday, September 1, 2015 from ProgressiveChristianity.org from Gig Harbor, Washington, United States
Are we teaching our children the vital life skills they need in today's changing world? Thank you for your support and interest!
Last Week At ProgressiveChristianity.org...
We delved into the topics of Emptying, Life Skills, Truth and Creativity.
Visit our website to join in on the discussion and to view our thousands of spiritual resources!
ProgressiveChristianity.org is a global portal for authors, scholars, theologians and liturgists to share their resources for the progressive spiritual journey. Each week we will send you a recap of some of our new resources and each month you will receive an e-newsletter - our eBulletin- which are always full of articles, reviews, liturgies, events, videos, books, news and more! We are glad you are a part of this community!
Emptying by Jim Burklo
One of my favorite haunts is the Theology Room of the Ghost Ranch Library ... There I sat, contemplating the nature of divinity, and the divinity of nature.
READ ON ... Pedernal’s silhouette, lifting its slightly-tilted, sheer-sided mesa skyward to the west, brooded under a dark and boiling sky as I drove up the winding road out of Abiquiu, New Mexico. It was nearly noon, earlier than usual in the day for a monsoon-season storm. As I crested the pass, a wide vista opened. To the north, sheets of dense rain moved toward walls and promontories of red and yellow stone. Lightning flashed, thunder boomed. As I made the turn up to Ghost Ranch, a huge squall obscured the high mesa above it. By the time I got to the ranch headquarters, the squall had passed over the heights to the east. I walked to the trailhead at the dry wash and headed up toward the golden precipice of Chimney Rock, hoping to get there before the next storm cell approached. To the east, flashes of light were followed by deep booms rolling and tumbling across the broken landscape.
As I approached the base of the mesa apart from which Chimney Rock stood, I heard a roaring sound. Was it wind coming down from the heights above the mesa? Yet I saw no fluttering of branches of the junipers along the trail above me. I climbed to the edge of a cliff, and I saw across a canyon the source of the noise. A rush of dark purple-brown muddy water leaped off the opposing cliff and into a chasm. Looking down, I witnessed a churning stream plowing ahead in the dry wash I had crossed earlier at the bottom. In a matter of minutes, the storm cell had dumped an enormous quantity of water on the upper mesa. It had concentrated into a bone-dry channel of stone and now emptied itself, rippling over a cliff in long sinews of mud down to the desert plain below.
The darkening above me bode ill for safe passage to Chimney Rock. The top of the mesa would have been exactly the wrong place to be in a lightning storm. So I hiked with dispatch down to the Presbyterian retreat center at Ghost Ranch. Spats of rain pocked the dust in the trail as I descended. At the bottom, I leaped across the muddy torrent.
I’ve been there many times over the years, for conferences, art classes, and mostly just to camp and hike. One of my favorite haunts is the Theology Room of the Ghost Ranch Library. It is in the very back of the old adobe-style stucco building with creaky wooden floors. The room has a skylight above a wooden table surrounded by shelves crammed with books about God. I was warmed at the sight of my first published book, Open Christianity, on one of the shelves, and was further warmed to find that an old friend of mine had written his name on the check-out card in the pocket in the inside of the back cover. After browsing among books representing many different religious and spiritual traditions, I eased into a stuffed chair with a view out a window of the glowing gold-and rust- colored cliffs of Kitchen Mesa.
There I sat, contemplating the nature of divinity, and the divinity of nature. I looked at the books, then I looked outside, then looked at the books again. Were they all follies, our verbal exercises in the futility of describing or explaining the Ultimate Reality of the cosmos? Or was it enough that we remind our readers to pay attention to this ineffable divinity? As I turned to gaze again at the wall of stone beyond the library, carved with sublime artistry by a hand unseen, I felt again the urge to describe the indescribable. I found myself chuckling quietly at the hopeless quest that I and my fellows in the God-talk profession have undertaken. At best, our books urge our readers to look out the window. But we look out the window and feel the urge to write more books!
Through the skylight, the diffused light of a stormy day cast a glow onto the table in the middle of the Theology Room. For a moment it seemed that the books worshipped the light, facing it like Muslims praying toward Mecca. All the words on all the pages of the books were lined up sideways, their thin sides facing the center, giving up their identities, abandoning the egos of their authors, in order to point beyond themselves to that which contained them, but which they could not contain.
JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See a video interview about my new novel, SOULJOURN
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
9 Eternally Vital Life Skills (That They Don’t Teach You in School) from HighExistence.com
... so raising and educating our kids as if we have any idea what the future will hold is not the smartest notion. How then to prepare our kids for a world that is unpredictable, unknown?
READ ON ... Kids in today’s school system are not being prepared well for tomorrow’s world.
As someone who went from the corporate world and then the government world to the ever-changing online world, I know how the world of yesterday is rapidly becoming irrelevant. I was trained in the newspaper industry, where we all believed we would be relevant forever — and I now believe will go the way of the horse and buggy.
Unfortunately, I was educated in a school system that believed the world in which it existed would remain essentially the same, with minor changes in fashion. We were trained with a skill set that was based on what jobs were most in demand in the 1980s, not what might happen in the 2000s.
And that kinda makes sense, given that no one could really know what life would be like 20 years from now. Imagine the 1980s, when personal computers were still fairly young, when faxes were the cutting-edge communication technology, when the Internet as we now know it was only the dream of sci-fi writers like William Gibson.
We had no idea what the world had in store for us.
And here’s the thing: we still don’t. We never do. We have never been good at predicting the future, and so raising and educating our kids as if we have any idea what the future will hold is not the smartest notion.
How then to prepare our kids for a world that is unpredictable, unknown? By teaching them to adapt, to deal with change, to be prepared for anything by not preparing them for anything specific.
This requires an entirely different approach to child-rearing and education. It means leaving our old ideas at the door, and reinventing everything.
My drop-dead gorgeous wife Eva (yes, I’m a very lucky man) and I are among those already doing this. We homeschool our kids — more accurately, we unschool them. We are teaching them to learn on their own, without us handing knowledge down to them and testing them on that knowledge.
Read this: Mass Education Fails: Why You Must Become an Autodidact
It is, admittedly, a wild frontier, and most of us who are experimenting with unschooling will admit that we don’t have all the answers, that there is no set of “best practices”. But we also know that we are learning along with our kids, and that not knowing can be a good thing — an opportunity to find out, without relying on established methods that might not be optimal.
I won’t go too far into methods here, as I find them to be less important than ideas. Once you have some interesting ideas to test, you can figure out an unlimited amount of methods, and so my dictating methods would be too restrictive.
Instead, let’s look at a good set of essential skills that I believe children should learn, that will best prepare them for any world of the future. I base these on what I have learned in three different industries, especially the world of online entrepreneurship, online publishing, online living … and more importantly, what I have learned about learning and working and living in a world that will never stop changing.
1. Asking questions.
What we want most for our kids, as learners, is to be able to learn on their own. To teach themselves anything. Because if they can, then we don’t need to teach them everything — whatever they need to learn in the future, they can do on their own. The first step in learning to teach yourself anything is learning to ask questions. Luckily, kids do this naturally — our hope is to simply encourage it. A great way to do this is by modeling it. When you and your child encounter something new, ask questions, and explore the possible answers with your child. When he does ask questions, reward the child instead of punishing him (you might be surprised how many adults discourage questioning).
Read this: The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock
2. Solving problems.
If a child can solve problems, she can do any job. A new job might be intimidating to any of us, but really it’s just another problem to be solved. A new skill, a new environment, a new need … they’re all simply problems to be solved. Teach your child to solve problems by modeling simple problem solving, then allowing her to do some very easy ones on her own. Don’t immediately solve all your child’s problems — let her fiddle with them and try various possible solutions, and reward such efforts. Eventually, your child will develop confidence in her problem-solving abilities, and then there is nothing she can’t do.
3. Tackling projects.
As an online entrepreneur, I know that my work is a series of projects, sometimes related, sometimes small and sometimes large (which are usually a group of smaller projects). I also know that there isn’t a project I can’t tackle, because I’ve done so many of them. This post is a project. Writing a book is a project. Selling the book is another project. Work on projects with your kid, letting him see how it’s done by working with you, then letting him do more and more by himself. As he gains confidence, let him tackle more on his own. Soon, his learning will just be a series of projects that he’s excited about.
4. Finding passion.
What drives me is not goals, not discipline, not external motivation, not reward … but passion. When I’m so excited that I can’t stop thinking about something, I will inevitably dive into it fully committed, and most times I’ll complete the project and love doing it. Help your kid find things she’s passionate about — it’s a matter of trying a bunch of things, finding ones that excite her the most, helping her really enjoy them. Don’t discourage any interest — encourage them. Don’t suck the fun out of them either — make them rewarding.
5. Independence.
Kids should be taught to increasingly stand on their own. A little at a time, of course. Slowly encourage them to do things on their own. Teach them how to do it, model it, help them do it, help less, then let them make their own mistakes. Give them confidence in themselves by letting them have a bunch of successes, and letting them solve the failures. Once they learn to be independent, they learn that they don’t need a teacher, a parent, or a boss to tell them what to do. They can manage themselves, and be free, and figure out the direction they need to take on their own.
6. Being happy on your own.
Too many of us parents coddle our kids, keeping them on a leash, making them rely on our presence for happiness. When the kid grows up, he doesn’t know how to be happy. He must immediately attach to a girlfriend or friends. Failing that, they find happiness in other external things — shopping, food, video games, the Internet. But if a child learns from an early age that he can be happy by himself, playing and reading and imagining, he has one of the most valuable skills there is. Allow your kids to be alone from an early age. Give them privacy, have times (such as the evening) when parents and kids have alone time.
Read this: Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss
7. Compassion.
One of the most essential skills ever. We need this to work well with others, to care for people other than ourselves, to be happy by making others happy. Modeling compassion is the key. Be compassionate to your child at all times, and to others. Show them empathy by asking how they think others might feel, and thinking aloud about how you think others might feel. Demonstrate at every opportunity how to ease the suffering of others when you’re able, how to make others happier with small kindnesses, how that can make you happier in return.
Read this: Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
8. Tolerance.
Too often we grow up in an insulated area, where people are mostly alike (at least in appearance), and when we come into contact with people who are different, it can be uncomfortable, shocking, fear-inducing. Expose your kids to people of all kinds, from different races to different sexuality to different mental conditions. Show them that not only is it OK to be different, but that differences should be celebrated, and that variety is what makes life so beautiful.
9. Dealing with change.
I believe this will be one of the most essential skills as our kids grow up, as the world is always changing and being able to accept the change, to deal with the change, to navigate the flow of change, will be a competitive advantage. This is a skill I’m still learning myself, but I find that it helps me tremendously, especially compared to those who resist and fear change, who set goals and plans and try to rigidly adhere to them as I adapt to the changing landscape.
Rigidity is less helpful in a changing environment than flexibility, fluidity, flow. Again, modeling this skill for your child at every opportunity is important, and showing them that changes are OK, that you can adapt, that you can embrace new opportunities that weren’t there before, should be a priority. Life is an adventure, and things will go wrong, turn out differently than you expected, and break whatever plans you made — and that’s part of the excitement of it all.
Read this: The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts
We can’t give our children a set of data to learn, a career to prepare for, when we don’t know what the future will bring. But we can prepare them to adapt to anything, to learn anything, to solve anything, and in about 20 years, to thank us for it.
Article first published here: HighExistence.com
The Truth Shall Set You Free by Rozelle White
I’ve always claimed this church as my church. I often say I am a bit of a unicorn – a Black Puerto Rican, third generation Lutheran. I was baptized, confirmed, married, educated and called to ministry in this church.
READ ON ... I’ve written before about my beloved albeit broken community; about my church and why I continue to be engaged with a community of faith. I am a member of and leader in theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), one of the largest Protestant denominations in this country. My church has approximately 3.8 million members in around 10,000 congregations across the U.S. and the Caribbean. This church is a historically white church, founded by a German Catholic monk named Martin Luther. He never wanted to start a new church, he wanted to reform the Roman Catholic Church. Luther felt like the church was not speaking in the language of the people and that the church had lost it’s prophetic voice and leadership within society. His 95 Theses marked the beginning of what we now call the Protestant Reformation. In 2017, Lutherans around the world will mark the500th anniversary of this historic event. My church is a church that was born out of truth-telling, risk taking and prophetic imagination.
Last Week At ProgressiveChristianity.org...
We delved into the topics of Emptying, Life Skills, Truth and Creativity.
Visit our website to join in on the discussion and to view our thousands of spiritual resources!
ProgressiveChristianity.org is a global portal for authors, scholars, theologians and liturgists to share their resources for the progressive spiritual journey. Each week we will send you a recap of some of our new resources and each month you will receive an e-newsletter - our eBulletin- which are always full of articles, reviews, liturgies, events, videos, books, news and more! We are glad you are a part of this community!
Emptying by Jim Burklo
One of my favorite haunts is the Theology Room of the Ghost Ranch Library ... There I sat, contemplating the nature of divinity, and the divinity of nature.
READ ON ... Pedernal’s silhouette, lifting its slightly-tilted, sheer-sided mesa skyward to the west, brooded under a dark and boiling sky as I drove up the winding road out of Abiquiu, New Mexico. It was nearly noon, earlier than usual in the day for a monsoon-season storm. As I crested the pass, a wide vista opened. To the north, sheets of dense rain moved toward walls and promontories of red and yellow stone. Lightning flashed, thunder boomed. As I made the turn up to Ghost Ranch, a huge squall obscured the high mesa above it. By the time I got to the ranch headquarters, the squall had passed over the heights to the east. I walked to the trailhead at the dry wash and headed up toward the golden precipice of Chimney Rock, hoping to get there before the next storm cell approached. To the east, flashes of light were followed by deep booms rolling and tumbling across the broken landscape.
As I approached the base of the mesa apart from which Chimney Rock stood, I heard a roaring sound. Was it wind coming down from the heights above the mesa? Yet I saw no fluttering of branches of the junipers along the trail above me. I climbed to the edge of a cliff, and I saw across a canyon the source of the noise. A rush of dark purple-brown muddy water leaped off the opposing cliff and into a chasm. Looking down, I witnessed a churning stream plowing ahead in the dry wash I had crossed earlier at the bottom. In a matter of minutes, the storm cell had dumped an enormous quantity of water on the upper mesa. It had concentrated into a bone-dry channel of stone and now emptied itself, rippling over a cliff in long sinews of mud down to the desert plain below.
The darkening above me bode ill for safe passage to Chimney Rock. The top of the mesa would have been exactly the wrong place to be in a lightning storm. So I hiked with dispatch down to the Presbyterian retreat center at Ghost Ranch. Spats of rain pocked the dust in the trail as I descended. At the bottom, I leaped across the muddy torrent.
I’ve been there many times over the years, for conferences, art classes, and mostly just to camp and hike. One of my favorite haunts is the Theology Room of the Ghost Ranch Library. It is in the very back of the old adobe-style stucco building with creaky wooden floors. The room has a skylight above a wooden table surrounded by shelves crammed with books about God. I was warmed at the sight of my first published book, Open Christianity, on one of the shelves, and was further warmed to find that an old friend of mine had written his name on the check-out card in the pocket in the inside of the back cover. After browsing among books representing many different religious and spiritual traditions, I eased into a stuffed chair with a view out a window of the glowing gold-and rust- colored cliffs of Kitchen Mesa.
There I sat, contemplating the nature of divinity, and the divinity of nature. I looked at the books, then I looked outside, then looked at the books again. Were they all follies, our verbal exercises in the futility of describing or explaining the Ultimate Reality of the cosmos? Or was it enough that we remind our readers to pay attention to this ineffable divinity? As I turned to gaze again at the wall of stone beyond the library, carved with sublime artistry by a hand unseen, I felt again the urge to describe the indescribable. I found myself chuckling quietly at the hopeless quest that I and my fellows in the God-talk profession have undertaken. At best, our books urge our readers to look out the window. But we look out the window and feel the urge to write more books!
Through the skylight, the diffused light of a stormy day cast a glow onto the table in the middle of the Theology Room. For a moment it seemed that the books worshipped the light, facing it like Muslims praying toward Mecca. All the words on all the pages of the books were lined up sideways, their thin sides facing the center, giving up their identities, abandoning the egos of their authors, in order to point beyond themselves to that which contained them, but which they could not contain.
JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See a video interview about my new novel, SOULJOURN
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
9 Eternally Vital Life Skills (That They Don’t Teach You in School) from HighExistence.com
... so raising and educating our kids as if we have any idea what the future will hold is not the smartest notion. How then to prepare our kids for a world that is unpredictable, unknown?
READ ON ... Kids in today’s school system are not being prepared well for tomorrow’s world.
As someone who went from the corporate world and then the government world to the ever-changing online world, I know how the world of yesterday is rapidly becoming irrelevant. I was trained in the newspaper industry, where we all believed we would be relevant forever — and I now believe will go the way of the horse and buggy.
Unfortunately, I was educated in a school system that believed the world in which it existed would remain essentially the same, with minor changes in fashion. We were trained with a skill set that was based on what jobs were most in demand in the 1980s, not what might happen in the 2000s.
And that kinda makes sense, given that no one could really know what life would be like 20 years from now. Imagine the 1980s, when personal computers were still fairly young, when faxes were the cutting-edge communication technology, when the Internet as we now know it was only the dream of sci-fi writers like William Gibson.
We had no idea what the world had in store for us.
And here’s the thing: we still don’t. We never do. We have never been good at predicting the future, and so raising and educating our kids as if we have any idea what the future will hold is not the smartest notion.
How then to prepare our kids for a world that is unpredictable, unknown? By teaching them to adapt, to deal with change, to be prepared for anything by not preparing them for anything specific.
This requires an entirely different approach to child-rearing and education. It means leaving our old ideas at the door, and reinventing everything.
My drop-dead gorgeous wife Eva (yes, I’m a very lucky man) and I are among those already doing this. We homeschool our kids — more accurately, we unschool them. We are teaching them to learn on their own, without us handing knowledge down to them and testing them on that knowledge.
Read this: Mass Education Fails: Why You Must Become an Autodidact
It is, admittedly, a wild frontier, and most of us who are experimenting with unschooling will admit that we don’t have all the answers, that there is no set of “best practices”. But we also know that we are learning along with our kids, and that not knowing can be a good thing — an opportunity to find out, without relying on established methods that might not be optimal.
I won’t go too far into methods here, as I find them to be less important than ideas. Once you have some interesting ideas to test, you can figure out an unlimited amount of methods, and so my dictating methods would be too restrictive.
Instead, let’s look at a good set of essential skills that I believe children should learn, that will best prepare them for any world of the future. I base these on what I have learned in three different industries, especially the world of online entrepreneurship, online publishing, online living … and more importantly, what I have learned about learning and working and living in a world that will never stop changing.
1. Asking questions.
What we want most for our kids, as learners, is to be able to learn on their own. To teach themselves anything. Because if they can, then we don’t need to teach them everything — whatever they need to learn in the future, they can do on their own. The first step in learning to teach yourself anything is learning to ask questions. Luckily, kids do this naturally — our hope is to simply encourage it. A great way to do this is by modeling it. When you and your child encounter something new, ask questions, and explore the possible answers with your child. When he does ask questions, reward the child instead of punishing him (you might be surprised how many adults discourage questioning).
Read this: The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock
2. Solving problems.
If a child can solve problems, she can do any job. A new job might be intimidating to any of us, but really it’s just another problem to be solved. A new skill, a new environment, a new need … they’re all simply problems to be solved. Teach your child to solve problems by modeling simple problem solving, then allowing her to do some very easy ones on her own. Don’t immediately solve all your child’s problems — let her fiddle with them and try various possible solutions, and reward such efforts. Eventually, your child will develop confidence in her problem-solving abilities, and then there is nothing she can’t do.
3. Tackling projects.
As an online entrepreneur, I know that my work is a series of projects, sometimes related, sometimes small and sometimes large (which are usually a group of smaller projects). I also know that there isn’t a project I can’t tackle, because I’ve done so many of them. This post is a project. Writing a book is a project. Selling the book is another project. Work on projects with your kid, letting him see how it’s done by working with you, then letting him do more and more by himself. As he gains confidence, let him tackle more on his own. Soon, his learning will just be a series of projects that he’s excited about.
4. Finding passion.
What drives me is not goals, not discipline, not external motivation, not reward … but passion. When I’m so excited that I can’t stop thinking about something, I will inevitably dive into it fully committed, and most times I’ll complete the project and love doing it. Help your kid find things she’s passionate about — it’s a matter of trying a bunch of things, finding ones that excite her the most, helping her really enjoy them. Don’t discourage any interest — encourage them. Don’t suck the fun out of them either — make them rewarding.
5. Independence.
Kids should be taught to increasingly stand on their own. A little at a time, of course. Slowly encourage them to do things on their own. Teach them how to do it, model it, help them do it, help less, then let them make their own mistakes. Give them confidence in themselves by letting them have a bunch of successes, and letting them solve the failures. Once they learn to be independent, they learn that they don’t need a teacher, a parent, or a boss to tell them what to do. They can manage themselves, and be free, and figure out the direction they need to take on their own.
6. Being happy on your own.
Too many of us parents coddle our kids, keeping them on a leash, making them rely on our presence for happiness. When the kid grows up, he doesn’t know how to be happy. He must immediately attach to a girlfriend or friends. Failing that, they find happiness in other external things — shopping, food, video games, the Internet. But if a child learns from an early age that he can be happy by himself, playing and reading and imagining, he has one of the most valuable skills there is. Allow your kids to be alone from an early age. Give them privacy, have times (such as the evening) when parents and kids have alone time.
Read this: Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss
7. Compassion.
One of the most essential skills ever. We need this to work well with others, to care for people other than ourselves, to be happy by making others happy. Modeling compassion is the key. Be compassionate to your child at all times, and to others. Show them empathy by asking how they think others might feel, and thinking aloud about how you think others might feel. Demonstrate at every opportunity how to ease the suffering of others when you’re able, how to make others happier with small kindnesses, how that can make you happier in return.
Read this: Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
8. Tolerance.
Too often we grow up in an insulated area, where people are mostly alike (at least in appearance), and when we come into contact with people who are different, it can be uncomfortable, shocking, fear-inducing. Expose your kids to people of all kinds, from different races to different sexuality to different mental conditions. Show them that not only is it OK to be different, but that differences should be celebrated, and that variety is what makes life so beautiful.
9. Dealing with change.
I believe this will be one of the most essential skills as our kids grow up, as the world is always changing and being able to accept the change, to deal with the change, to navigate the flow of change, will be a competitive advantage. This is a skill I’m still learning myself, but I find that it helps me tremendously, especially compared to those who resist and fear change, who set goals and plans and try to rigidly adhere to them as I adapt to the changing landscape.
Rigidity is less helpful in a changing environment than flexibility, fluidity, flow. Again, modeling this skill for your child at every opportunity is important, and showing them that changes are OK, that you can adapt, that you can embrace new opportunities that weren’t there before, should be a priority. Life is an adventure, and things will go wrong, turn out differently than you expected, and break whatever plans you made — and that’s part of the excitement of it all.
Read this: The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts
We can’t give our children a set of data to learn, a career to prepare for, when we don’t know what the future will bring. But we can prepare them to adapt to anything, to learn anything, to solve anything, and in about 20 years, to thank us for it.
Article first published here: HighExistence.com
The Truth Shall Set You Free by Rozelle White
I’ve always claimed this church as my church. I often say I am a bit of a unicorn – a Black Puerto Rican, third generation Lutheran. I was baptized, confirmed, married, educated and called to ministry in this church.
READ ON ... I’ve written before about my beloved albeit broken community; about my church and why I continue to be engaged with a community of faith. I am a member of and leader in theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), one of the largest Protestant denominations in this country. My church has approximately 3.8 million members in around 10,000 congregations across the U.S. and the Caribbean. This church is a historically white church, founded by a German Catholic monk named Martin Luther. He never wanted to start a new church, he wanted to reform the Roman Catholic Church. Luther felt like the church was not speaking in the language of the people and that the church had lost it’s prophetic voice and leadership within society. His 95 Theses marked the beginning of what we now call the Protestant Reformation. In 2017, Lutherans around the world will mark the500th anniversary of this historic event. My church is a church that was born out of truth-telling, risk taking and prophetic imagination.
I’ve always claimed this church as my church. I often say I am a bit of a unicorn – a Black Puerto Rican, third generation Lutheran. I was baptized, confirmed, married, educated and called to ministry in this church. At the founding convention of this church, there was a vision that the church would be 10% people of color within 10 years of our inception. This percentage has not come to pass and we’ve actually declined in the number of members of color within the church. There were always small pockets of communities of color within the denomination and people of color who were members of largely white congregations, but as a whole, we have not been good at addressing the cultural divisions that our church continues to embody.
So here I am, a young Black woman who is a leader in a predominantly white church. The past year has been difficult for me to reconcile my cultural identity and my denominational identity. I have long been a defender of the Lutheran church even as I have experienced the structural racism and brokenness that the church exhibits.
I’ve been asked if I went to college by members of this church. Not what college I went to, but if I went to college.
I’ve been told that my ability to articulate theological concepts is impressive.
I’ve been asked if one can touch my hair while being in a professional setting.
I’ve been ignored in congregations that I go to visit until people realize “who I am”.
I’ve been asked when I became Lutheran, because surely a black woman could not be born into this tradition.
I see how leaders of color are viewed and cannot get calls in congregations because “they aren’t a good fit” (read: we are a white congregation and we don’t know how to have a leader of color.)
There have also been microagressions – things that happen in subversive ways that undermine my leadership and authority – that are too many to count. At times I don’t know if it’s because I’m a woman or because I’m younger or because I’m Black. I’m always left wondering.
I’m always cognizant of the way I present myself in mostly white spaces. I think about who’s going to be there, what expectations they might have, how I talk about race and politics, what I wear, what my facial expressions are and how I am present. It’s a lot easier to notice my absence when I’m the only one or one of a handful of people of color at events. I listen to how people talk about people of color who are “difficult to work with” or Black women who “happen to be angry” or women of color in leadership who are “controlling”. I pay attention to these things and I choose to show up in a certain way. To be gracious and humble. To be witty and intellectual. To speak truth but wrap it in love so that it’s more palatable. Like most people of color, I live what W.E.B. DuBois called Double Consciousness everyday of my life. I know without a shadow of a doubt that there are at least two worlds that exist – the white world and the world of people of color. We have to translate language, social norms and behaviors in order to “fit in” and survive.
As details came out of Charleston last week, my heart shattered into a million pieces. At first it was simply because Black people were killed. Then it was because Black people were killed in their church home. Then it was because Black people were killed in their church home as they engaged in bible study and welcomed a stranger. Then it was because Black people were killed in their church home as they engaged in bible study and welcomed a stranger who was a white young adult. Then my world came crashing down around me as the news became public that the white young adult was a member of an ELCA congregation and that two of the people who were killed were graduates of an ELCA seminary.
It hit me like a ton of bricks: I am a part of a church that raises racist white people who then kill people of color who are educated in our institutions. That may seem like an oversimplification to some, but this truth broke what was left of my heart and I plunged into despair.
My thoughts began to swirl and I’ve literally had a headache for over a week.
I have been claiming a church as my own that’s not actually my church. My cultural practices and ways of being are not seen as authentically “Lutheran”.
I have been defending a church that has never repented of the systemic racism that is present within.
I have been leading within a church that is blind to it’s own white privilege and the ways that white supremacy work; that has a hard time actually naming racism as sin.
For the first time in my life, I felt like the church that I deeply love and has raised me was actually not my church.
As all of this was unfolding within me, I was scheduled to be at an event in an official role. I arrived to the event hanging on by a thread and being in a majority white community reminded me that as much as I want this to be my church with my people, that it’s not. During the opening worship of this event, I waited desperately to hear a word of lament; to share in communal grieving; to experience a moment of collective acknowledgement for what was going on in the world around us. I felt like the ground that I walk on had fundamentally shifted and that everyone around me was proceeding with business as usual.
In this moment, I posted my feelings on social media. I shared that I was at an event where we began with worship and I was looking at a shirt with the Palmetto Tree and Moon (images that are on the South Carolina state flag and license plates) and that it was ironic. Nothing was being said verbally about Charleston and worship went on without a mention, a moment of silence, a word. And it became clear that as much as I love my church and the people of my church, we can be so blinded by our inward focus and navel gazing that we miss crucial opportunities to actually show up.
This set off a bit of a firestorm. I later learned that my supervisor, who was also attending the event, was approached by leaders who were extremely upset by my post. The tension began to bubble up and I was set to address the group the next morning. When it was time for me address the community, I made mention to how I felt the night before and shared that I felt like, for the first time, this church wasn’t my church. I later found out that people felt personally attacked by my statements. I was called out for “being a public leader who should be careful about what she posts.” I was approached by a leader who said that they didn’t feel like Dylann Roof had accomplished his goal of creating a race war but that I made them feel like they were now in a race war due to my comments. I was told that I hurt the community deeply. I later found out that another person was asked to remove one of their tweets that was in response to one of my tweets and that “guests should be gracious in this space.”
I was told that I should give the community the benefit of the doubt because we are supposed to be allies. That I should wait to hear the community’s response to things at a later time in the event. That I didn’t understand how the community functioned. It was then intimated that we must not be in relationship because of what I’d done. This struck me because I never thought we weren’t in relationship. I thought that I was in a relationship that I could share how I was authentically feeling and that people would provide the space for that to happen.
It is inevitable that this post will cause more tension and conflict. But here’s one thing I know for sure – once you know the truth, it will set you free.
I am not in the business of hurting people. I am not in the business of being mean spirited or hateful. I am in the business of being authentically who I am and leading with truth and love. I shared my feelings and was then told that by doing so I disrupted a community. And I’m struggling with this. And you, dear shadow lovers, know what I do when I struggle. I write.
So this is my truth:
Weekly Liturgy
So here I am, a young Black woman who is a leader in a predominantly white church. The past year has been difficult for me to reconcile my cultural identity and my denominational identity. I have long been a defender of the Lutheran church even as I have experienced the structural racism and brokenness that the church exhibits.
I’ve been asked if I went to college by members of this church. Not what college I went to, but if I went to college.
I’ve been told that my ability to articulate theological concepts is impressive.
I’ve been asked if one can touch my hair while being in a professional setting.
I’ve been ignored in congregations that I go to visit until people realize “who I am”.
I’ve been asked when I became Lutheran, because surely a black woman could not be born into this tradition.
I see how leaders of color are viewed and cannot get calls in congregations because “they aren’t a good fit” (read: we are a white congregation and we don’t know how to have a leader of color.)
There have also been microagressions – things that happen in subversive ways that undermine my leadership and authority – that are too many to count. At times I don’t know if it’s because I’m a woman or because I’m younger or because I’m Black. I’m always left wondering.
I’m always cognizant of the way I present myself in mostly white spaces. I think about who’s going to be there, what expectations they might have, how I talk about race and politics, what I wear, what my facial expressions are and how I am present. It’s a lot easier to notice my absence when I’m the only one or one of a handful of people of color at events. I listen to how people talk about people of color who are “difficult to work with” or Black women who “happen to be angry” or women of color in leadership who are “controlling”. I pay attention to these things and I choose to show up in a certain way. To be gracious and humble. To be witty and intellectual. To speak truth but wrap it in love so that it’s more palatable. Like most people of color, I live what W.E.B. DuBois called Double Consciousness everyday of my life. I know without a shadow of a doubt that there are at least two worlds that exist – the white world and the world of people of color. We have to translate language, social norms and behaviors in order to “fit in” and survive.
As details came out of Charleston last week, my heart shattered into a million pieces. At first it was simply because Black people were killed. Then it was because Black people were killed in their church home. Then it was because Black people were killed in their church home as they engaged in bible study and welcomed a stranger. Then it was because Black people were killed in their church home as they engaged in bible study and welcomed a stranger who was a white young adult. Then my world came crashing down around me as the news became public that the white young adult was a member of an ELCA congregation and that two of the people who were killed were graduates of an ELCA seminary.
It hit me like a ton of bricks: I am a part of a church that raises racist white people who then kill people of color who are educated in our institutions. That may seem like an oversimplification to some, but this truth broke what was left of my heart and I plunged into despair.
My thoughts began to swirl and I’ve literally had a headache for over a week.
I have been claiming a church as my own that’s not actually my church. My cultural practices and ways of being are not seen as authentically “Lutheran”.
I have been defending a church that has never repented of the systemic racism that is present within.
I have been leading within a church that is blind to it’s own white privilege and the ways that white supremacy work; that has a hard time actually naming racism as sin.
For the first time in my life, I felt like the church that I deeply love and has raised me was actually not my church.
As all of this was unfolding within me, I was scheduled to be at an event in an official role. I arrived to the event hanging on by a thread and being in a majority white community reminded me that as much as I want this to be my church with my people, that it’s not. During the opening worship of this event, I waited desperately to hear a word of lament; to share in communal grieving; to experience a moment of collective acknowledgement for what was going on in the world around us. I felt like the ground that I walk on had fundamentally shifted and that everyone around me was proceeding with business as usual.
In this moment, I posted my feelings on social media. I shared that I was at an event where we began with worship and I was looking at a shirt with the Palmetto Tree and Moon (images that are on the South Carolina state flag and license plates) and that it was ironic. Nothing was being said verbally about Charleston and worship went on without a mention, a moment of silence, a word. And it became clear that as much as I love my church and the people of my church, we can be so blinded by our inward focus and navel gazing that we miss crucial opportunities to actually show up.
This set off a bit of a firestorm. I later learned that my supervisor, who was also attending the event, was approached by leaders who were extremely upset by my post. The tension began to bubble up and I was set to address the group the next morning. When it was time for me address the community, I made mention to how I felt the night before and shared that I felt like, for the first time, this church wasn’t my church. I later found out that people felt personally attacked by my statements. I was called out for “being a public leader who should be careful about what she posts.” I was approached by a leader who said that they didn’t feel like Dylann Roof had accomplished his goal of creating a race war but that I made them feel like they were now in a race war due to my comments. I was told that I hurt the community deeply. I later found out that another person was asked to remove one of their tweets that was in response to one of my tweets and that “guests should be gracious in this space.”
I was told that I should give the community the benefit of the doubt because we are supposed to be allies. That I should wait to hear the community’s response to things at a later time in the event. That I didn’t understand how the community functioned. It was then intimated that we must not be in relationship because of what I’d done. This struck me because I never thought we weren’t in relationship. I thought that I was in a relationship that I could share how I was authentically feeling and that people would provide the space for that to happen.
It is inevitable that this post will cause more tension and conflict. But here’s one thing I know for sure – once you know the truth, it will set you free.
I am not in the business of hurting people. I am not in the business of being mean spirited or hateful. I am in the business of being authentically who I am and leading with truth and love. I shared my feelings and was then told that by doing so I disrupted a community. And I’m struggling with this. And you, dear shadow lovers, know what I do when I struggle. I write.
So this is my truth:
- I am a Black woman called to leadership in a predominantly white church.
- I will continue to call a thing a thing and speak truth.
- I am not despairing because I know that many have gone before me who have endured much worse for much longer and kept the faith.
- My hope does not reside in this church, it resides within the promises and power of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- I still deeply love my church, in its varied expressions and with its varied strengths and its varied weaknesses.
- In the midst of all of this, I can only think of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail:
- “I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
- I pray that as a collective body, as the church I desperately love, that we will continue to seek the truth so that we can all experience liberation and abundant life.
Weekly Liturgy
Week of: August 23rd, 2015
Creativity
Creativity, imagination, intuition… they are all related. The secular world values the left-brain approach, but it’s really only half the story.
READ ON ...
Support Forum for A Joyful Path Teachers by Deshna Ubeda
This is a place for teacher’s using A Joyful Path children’s curriculum in their homes or communities to discuss and support each other.
Here you can:
~Post questions to ProgressiveChristianity.org and each other
~Note tactics and/or supplementary resources which you have found successful with particular lessons
~Share stories and ideas
*Just login to to post a comment or question. For help email us at contact@progressivechristianity.org or call us at 253-507-8657
Worship Materials: Creativity/Beauty/Imagination
From the Celebrating Mystery collection by William Wallace
THEME Made in the image of the God who makes and remakes.
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
New images arise out of the death of old images so do not be afraid of the wilderness or of the dying.
The journey inwards to the place of the inner child is a journey of unlearning – reclaiming trust in one’s creativity and spirituality.
The essence of creativity lies not in slavishly copying someone else’s creativity but in trusting the integrity and complexity of one’s own.
The price of professionalism in the arts has been to encourage the false belief that the great bulk of human beings are uncreative and that creativity is only to be found within the so-called arts.
A five year old child is 90 % creative but most adults operate at a 2% creativity level.
To create a thing of beauty is to create something of the image of God and in so doing become more godlike oneself, for God is beauty.
To give flesh to an idea is an act of incarnation.
The person who has never made a mess has never made anything!
Enlightenment lies not in the denial of the senses but in the training of the senses, for the beyond always lies within.
Do not be afraid of the dragon within you. It is the source of your creativity but it will consume you if you suppress it.
Creativity is part of being in touch with one’s life-force but creativity can be used destructively if it is not directed by compassion.
The path of beauty lies between the decoration that confuses and the simplicity that devalues, between decadent ornamentation and puritanical ugliness.
Creativity can promote the liberation of the people or act as a tool of the oppressor. So look for the hidden message.
Poverty is a prison for the body, ugliness a prison for the spirit.
In playing with the words or images there emerges new discernment of reality.
Ugliness breeds ugliness, beauty breeds beauty therefore cultivate beauty in your spirit.
Don’t confuse simplicity with ugliness. Good design however functional is never ugly. There is no ugliness in nature however simple the form may be.
Simplicity is usually more difficult to achieve than complexity. The flowery sermon is not the product of genius but is usually the product of a flowery mind. An appropriate word is far better than an inappropriate deluge.
The act of creativity is a sharing in the energy of God the Creator.
Taste is the ability to do without.
Between the extremes of sterile tidiness and immobilizing chaos lies the dynamic inter-activeness of creativity
Ownership can become an obstacle to appreciation for appreciation springs from allowing oneself to be owned by the work of art rather than visa versa.
If you have not seen the mystery behind and within the beauty you have seen very little.
Behind all beauty there ultimately lies the tender touch of the divine artist.
Without images the mind becomes imprisoned in arid intellectualism.
Work can be as destructive of human beings as unemployment if it does not promote beauty, love, creativity and justice.
PRAYERS
PRAYER OF AFFIRMATION
All: I AM A LOVABLE, CREATIVE PERSON
MADE IN THE LIKENESS OF GOD.
I GIVE MYSELF PERMISSION TO ENJOY BEING MYSELF
TO LOVE WITHOUT FEAR OF REJECTION,
TO CREATE WITH IMAGINATION,
TO CHANGE WITHOUT FEAR OF THE FUTURE,
TO WORK FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE AS A SINGER AND DANCER
WITHIN GOD’S ALL EMBRACING CREATIVITY.
Help us to accept that perfectionism is a good servant but a bad master and that creativity is not a product but a process.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O God, we acknowledge that we have not fully used all the gifts which you have given us.
You have given us eyes but we have not always noticed the beauty of the world nor the hurts of other people.
You have given us ears but we have not always heard the songs of nature nor listened to what people are really saying.
You have given us fingers but we have not always felt the world with reverence nor touched other people as tenderly as we could.
You have given us a sense of smell but we are part of a society which pollutes the air as well as the earth, the rivers and the sea.
All: HELP US, STARTING FROM NOW, TO ENJOY OUR SENSES AND TO WORSHIP YOU WITH OUR SEEING AND HEARING, OUR SENSE OF SMELL AND OF TOUCH, AS WELL AS WITH OUR THINKING.
PRAYER ON JUSTICE, BEAUTY AND LOVE
O God, you are the God of right distribution,
the right distribution of color, line,
shape, mass, texture,
movement and sound;
and you are also the God of the right distribution of wealth and power.
Give us a new commitment to work to replace
ugliness with beauty,
oppression with liberation
and poverty with sufficiency,
that all your children may share the quality of life
which is their birthright.
O God, help us not to be afraid of either failure or chaos for it is out of failure that new solutions can arise, out of chaos that new order emerges
RESPONSE FOR PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING
O God, you are the earth-maker Cosmic Creator. Help us to make and to love like you, with you and for you.
HYMNS
May the sap flow in our hearts. (BL)
From the womb of mother Earth. (BL)
In the world of nature’s weaving (BL)
God the one forever making. (BL)
From the silence God created. (BL)
When skin becomes the surface of the Earth. (BL)
As flesh reveals a path. (BL)
Come let us think. (BL)
Who is this Herod in my heart. (BL)
Gift of the solar fire.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
God molds the shapes of life.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
With God we shape compassion’s robe.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Rise O my heart.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
The spring will come again.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
God the sacred cosmic life-blood. (STS1)
Throughout the realms of being. (STS2)
Be like young children. (STS2)
If my heart grows icy cold. (STS2)
Come dream the pattern. (STS 2)
Singing the Sacred Vol 1 2011, Vol 2 2014 World Library Publications
SONG FOR TEENS
Abraham had stirring dreams. (SYSJ)
POEMS / REFLECTIONS
THE PATTERN OF THE ACT OF CREATION
The Motivation: The Desire for Change
The Information: Collecting the Data for Change
The Manipulation and Hibernation: Living with Chaos
The Illumination: The New Insight
The Verification: The Change
The Celebration: The Peace
THE FIRE
‘Why do you write poetry?’ he asked.
The answer is simple;
sometimes, suddenly
a pattern of words
catches fire
in my brain
and I must
wrestle with it,
commit it to paper,
if I am not to suffer a small death
at the hands
of its searing intensity.
That fire is not an enemy indeed, I wrestle
with it
with reverence
as in some way,
beyond my comprehension, I know
the fire
is God. (see John 1:4)
A SONG
Between the thing that I see
And the thing that I am
There lies a song.
THE TRANSPARENT JESUS
Between decadent ornamentation and puritanical ugliness stands the transparent Man of Galilee neither dependant upon ostentation nor of vilification of the flesh but clothed in simple garments which hide a coherent inner complexity.
THE ACT OF CREATION(Genesis 1:1-2:4)
In the beginning was the person, an organism consciously or unconsciously recording all the stimuli to which it was exposed.
Then came the desire to create, the subsequent wrestling with ideas, followed by a great silent darkness falling upon the person’s mind.
Suddenly there was an awakening premonition and just as instantaneously, a flash of insight. The stored stimuli and conscious ideas had been re-organized by the subconscious mind to create something NEW – something that filled the person with ecstasy and allowed them to experience a great sense of relaxation.
Then came a refining and testing of the insight and the production of appropriate strategies.
Lastly, came the action – the giving of flesh to ideas.
The creative incarnation was complete.
THE STORY OF ELIZABETH
Once upon a time there was a girl called Elizabeth who wanted to make something different, something new. Elizabeth noticed everything that was going on around her. She dreamt about new ways of making things, she had fun playing and she enjoyed having a rest.
Then one day a new thought suddenly flashed into her mind ‑
‘WOW’ said Elizabeth, ‘this is like heaven, this is like being God. I wonder where that thought came from?’
But it was not enough for Elizabeth to have that new thought -Elizabeth had to test it to see if it would work; Elizabeth had to turn it into something that could be seen or heard or touched or smelt.
If she had not done that, the thought would have stayed in Elizabeth’s head and no one apart from Elizabeth would ever have known what it was.
Can you guess what Elizabeth made?
UNFETTERED MIGRANTS
Though I am more than my words
My words are also more than me:
liberated they explore where I could never go
Landing in hearts of people I could never know.
These linguistic migrants
Leave behind the space
Of imperfection and mistakes
To become
Unfettered
Emanations
Of the within
And beyond
Of I AM’s
Realm.
CREATING
If we are called to be like God and to work with God then we are surely called to create beautiful new things as well as to remake what is broken. But to create we must first see, hear, touch and smell the wonderful and painful world around us.
THREE STAGES OF ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY
See beauty.
See behind the beauty to the obscenity of any oppression that financed that beauty.
See behind the obscenity to the beauty of the mystery.
FOCUS FOR ACTION
What messages about my creativity have I learnt in the past?
Am I prevented from experimenting with my creativity by fear of failure? Who gave me my ideas of what is good and bad in this area? Should I not remind myself that experimentation and failure are necessary parts of the creative process?
How can I achieve a better balance in a way that allows me to be both programmed and creative?
How can I re-programme my thinking so that I regard activities such as gardening and cooking etc. as being opportunities for expression of creativity? If being creative is creating new patterns with
ideas,
words,
sounds,
materials,
movements,
human relationships;
is satisfying fun,
is being yourself,
is being like God,
and can help us discover a spirituality which we can be sure is really our own,
Then how can we reorganize our lives to allow for more time to live in the world of the senses, to nurture our dreaming and to become more playful?
LOGO NOTE: At the heart of the mystery all the separate boxes disappear and all is one, all is love.
SALT Project by Polly Moore
The SALT Project is a not-for-profit project committed to creating beautiful and theologically interesting church media! Check out their website here:
saltproject.org
Eyes for God by Jim Burklo
Because the earth is all around
The earth I cannot see
Because I use my eyes to look
My eyes are lost to me
Because my God is everywhere
And flames my heart with awe
The face of the One I love the most
Is the hardest one to draw
Events and Updates
Silence and Centering Prayer
This online retreat will assist participants in learning, renewing, and establishing a daily Centering Prayer practice as the foundation for the contemplative life.
READ ON ...Silence and Centering Prayer by Carl J. Arico, Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, Contemplative Outreach
“God’s first word is Silence.”
– Thomas Keating
Be still and know
that I am God.
– Psalm 42
We are pleased to welcome our long-time collaborators, Contemplative Outreach, back for a one-month e-course in September on the spiritual practice they have helped to spread around the world: Centering Prayer.
Two founding principals of Contemplative Outreach, Fr. Carl Arico and Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, will draw upon their over 30 years of experience to offer the conceptual background, the method, and many insights Centering Prayer as a way of life. Through emails delivered three times a week and their participation in the our online Practice Circle, they will provide answers to the many questions that new practitioners and even experienced practitioners have about this transformative method of prayer.
We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words. But this is only one expression. In the Christian tradition, contemplative prayer is considered to be the pure gift of God. It is the opening of mind and heart – our whole being – to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words, and emotions. Centering Prayer prepares our faculties to receive this gift.
Centering Prayer is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “…But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). It is also inspired by writings of major contributors to the Christian contemplative heritage including John Cassian, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and Thomas Merton.
This online retreat will assist participants in learning, renewing, and establishing a daily Centering Prayer practice as the foundation for the contemplative life. It will consist of a combination of email, video and audio teachings, as well as the opportunity to share and connect with others in the online Practice Circle.
View all upcoming events here!
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Creativity
Creativity, imagination, intuition… they are all related. The secular world values the left-brain approach, but it’s really only half the story.
READ ON ...
Support Forum for A Joyful Path Teachers by Deshna Ubeda
This is a place for teacher’s using A Joyful Path children’s curriculum in their homes or communities to discuss and support each other.
Here you can:
~Post questions to ProgressiveChristianity.org and each other
~Note tactics and/or supplementary resources which you have found successful with particular lessons
~Share stories and ideas
*Just login to to post a comment or question. For help email us at contact@progressivechristianity.org or call us at 253-507-8657
Worship Materials: Creativity/Beauty/Imagination
From the Celebrating Mystery collection by William Wallace
THEME Made in the image of the God who makes and remakes.
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
New images arise out of the death of old images so do not be afraid of the wilderness or of the dying.
The journey inwards to the place of the inner child is a journey of unlearning – reclaiming trust in one’s creativity and spirituality.
The essence of creativity lies not in slavishly copying someone else’s creativity but in trusting the integrity and complexity of one’s own.
The price of professionalism in the arts has been to encourage the false belief that the great bulk of human beings are uncreative and that creativity is only to be found within the so-called arts.
A five year old child is 90 % creative but most adults operate at a 2% creativity level.
To create a thing of beauty is to create something of the image of God and in so doing become more godlike oneself, for God is beauty.
To give flesh to an idea is an act of incarnation.
The person who has never made a mess has never made anything!
Enlightenment lies not in the denial of the senses but in the training of the senses, for the beyond always lies within.
Do not be afraid of the dragon within you. It is the source of your creativity but it will consume you if you suppress it.
Creativity is part of being in touch with one’s life-force but creativity can be used destructively if it is not directed by compassion.
The path of beauty lies between the decoration that confuses and the simplicity that devalues, between decadent ornamentation and puritanical ugliness.
Creativity can promote the liberation of the people or act as a tool of the oppressor. So look for the hidden message.
Poverty is a prison for the body, ugliness a prison for the spirit.
In playing with the words or images there emerges new discernment of reality.
Ugliness breeds ugliness, beauty breeds beauty therefore cultivate beauty in your spirit.
Don’t confuse simplicity with ugliness. Good design however functional is never ugly. There is no ugliness in nature however simple the form may be.
Simplicity is usually more difficult to achieve than complexity. The flowery sermon is not the product of genius but is usually the product of a flowery mind. An appropriate word is far better than an inappropriate deluge.
The act of creativity is a sharing in the energy of God the Creator.
Taste is the ability to do without.
Between the extremes of sterile tidiness and immobilizing chaos lies the dynamic inter-activeness of creativity
Ownership can become an obstacle to appreciation for appreciation springs from allowing oneself to be owned by the work of art rather than visa versa.
If you have not seen the mystery behind and within the beauty you have seen very little.
Behind all beauty there ultimately lies the tender touch of the divine artist.
Without images the mind becomes imprisoned in arid intellectualism.
Work can be as destructive of human beings as unemployment if it does not promote beauty, love, creativity and justice.
PRAYERS
PRAYER OF AFFIRMATION
All: I AM A LOVABLE, CREATIVE PERSON
MADE IN THE LIKENESS OF GOD.
I GIVE MYSELF PERMISSION TO ENJOY BEING MYSELF
TO LOVE WITHOUT FEAR OF REJECTION,
TO CREATE WITH IMAGINATION,
TO CHANGE WITHOUT FEAR OF THE FUTURE,
TO WORK FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE AS A SINGER AND DANCER
WITHIN GOD’S ALL EMBRACING CREATIVITY.
Help us to accept that perfectionism is a good servant but a bad master and that creativity is not a product but a process.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O God, we acknowledge that we have not fully used all the gifts which you have given us.
You have given us eyes but we have not always noticed the beauty of the world nor the hurts of other people.
You have given us ears but we have not always heard the songs of nature nor listened to what people are really saying.
You have given us fingers but we have not always felt the world with reverence nor touched other people as tenderly as we could.
You have given us a sense of smell but we are part of a society which pollutes the air as well as the earth, the rivers and the sea.
All: HELP US, STARTING FROM NOW, TO ENJOY OUR SENSES AND TO WORSHIP YOU WITH OUR SEEING AND HEARING, OUR SENSE OF SMELL AND OF TOUCH, AS WELL AS WITH OUR THINKING.
PRAYER ON JUSTICE, BEAUTY AND LOVE
O God, you are the God of right distribution,
the right distribution of color, line,
shape, mass, texture,
movement and sound;
and you are also the God of the right distribution of wealth and power.
Give us a new commitment to work to replace
ugliness with beauty,
oppression with liberation
and poverty with sufficiency,
that all your children may share the quality of life
which is their birthright.
O God, help us not to be afraid of either failure or chaos for it is out of failure that new solutions can arise, out of chaos that new order emerges
RESPONSE FOR PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING
O God, you are the earth-maker Cosmic Creator. Help us to make and to love like you, with you and for you.
HYMNS
May the sap flow in our hearts. (BL)
From the womb of mother Earth. (BL)
In the world of nature’s weaving (BL)
God the one forever making. (BL)
From the silence God created. (BL)
When skin becomes the surface of the Earth. (BL)
As flesh reveals a path. (BL)
Come let us think. (BL)
Who is this Herod in my heart. (BL)
Gift of the solar fire.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
God molds the shapes of life.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
With God we shape compassion’s robe.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Rise O my heart.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
The spring will come again.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
God the sacred cosmic life-blood. (STS1)
Throughout the realms of being. (STS2)
Be like young children. (STS2)
If my heart grows icy cold. (STS2)
Come dream the pattern. (STS 2)
Singing the Sacred Vol 1 2011, Vol 2 2014 World Library Publications
SONG FOR TEENS
Abraham had stirring dreams. (SYSJ)
POEMS / REFLECTIONS
THE PATTERN OF THE ACT OF CREATION
The Motivation: The Desire for Change
The Information: Collecting the Data for Change
The Manipulation and Hibernation: Living with Chaos
The Illumination: The New Insight
The Verification: The Change
The Celebration: The Peace
THE FIRE
‘Why do you write poetry?’ he asked.
The answer is simple;
sometimes, suddenly
a pattern of words
catches fire
in my brain
and I must
wrestle with it,
commit it to paper,
if I am not to suffer a small death
at the hands
of its searing intensity.
That fire is not an enemy indeed, I wrestle
with it
with reverence
as in some way,
beyond my comprehension, I know
the fire
is God. (see John 1:4)
A SONG
Between the thing that I see
And the thing that I am
There lies a song.
THE TRANSPARENT JESUS
Between decadent ornamentation and puritanical ugliness stands the transparent Man of Galilee neither dependant upon ostentation nor of vilification of the flesh but clothed in simple garments which hide a coherent inner complexity.
THE ACT OF CREATION(Genesis 1:1-2:4)
In the beginning was the person, an organism consciously or unconsciously recording all the stimuli to which it was exposed.
Then came the desire to create, the subsequent wrestling with ideas, followed by a great silent darkness falling upon the person’s mind.
Suddenly there was an awakening premonition and just as instantaneously, a flash of insight. The stored stimuli and conscious ideas had been re-organized by the subconscious mind to create something NEW – something that filled the person with ecstasy and allowed them to experience a great sense of relaxation.
Then came a refining and testing of the insight and the production of appropriate strategies.
Lastly, came the action – the giving of flesh to ideas.
The creative incarnation was complete.
THE STORY OF ELIZABETH
Once upon a time there was a girl called Elizabeth who wanted to make something different, something new. Elizabeth noticed everything that was going on around her. She dreamt about new ways of making things, she had fun playing and she enjoyed having a rest.
Then one day a new thought suddenly flashed into her mind ‑
‘WOW’ said Elizabeth, ‘this is like heaven, this is like being God. I wonder where that thought came from?’
But it was not enough for Elizabeth to have that new thought -Elizabeth had to test it to see if it would work; Elizabeth had to turn it into something that could be seen or heard or touched or smelt.
If she had not done that, the thought would have stayed in Elizabeth’s head and no one apart from Elizabeth would ever have known what it was.
Can you guess what Elizabeth made?
UNFETTERED MIGRANTS
Though I am more than my words
My words are also more than me:
liberated they explore where I could never go
Landing in hearts of people I could never know.
These linguistic migrants
Leave behind the space
Of imperfection and mistakes
To become
Unfettered
Emanations
Of the within
And beyond
Of I AM’s
Realm.
CREATING
If we are called to be like God and to work with God then we are surely called to create beautiful new things as well as to remake what is broken. But to create we must first see, hear, touch and smell the wonderful and painful world around us.
THREE STAGES OF ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY
See beauty.
See behind the beauty to the obscenity of any oppression that financed that beauty.
See behind the obscenity to the beauty of the mystery.
FOCUS FOR ACTION
What messages about my creativity have I learnt in the past?
Am I prevented from experimenting with my creativity by fear of failure? Who gave me my ideas of what is good and bad in this area? Should I not remind myself that experimentation and failure are necessary parts of the creative process?
How can I achieve a better balance in a way that allows me to be both programmed and creative?
How can I re-programme my thinking so that I regard activities such as gardening and cooking etc. as being opportunities for expression of creativity? If being creative is creating new patterns with
ideas,
words,
sounds,
materials,
movements,
human relationships;
is satisfying fun,
is being yourself,
is being like God,
and can help us discover a spirituality which we can be sure is really our own,
Then how can we reorganize our lives to allow for more time to live in the world of the senses, to nurture our dreaming and to become more playful?
LOGO NOTE: At the heart of the mystery all the separate boxes disappear and all is one, all is love.
SALT Project by Polly Moore
The SALT Project is a not-for-profit project committed to creating beautiful and theologically interesting church media! Check out their website here:
saltproject.org
Eyes for God by Jim Burklo
Because the earth is all around
The earth I cannot see
Because I use my eyes to look
My eyes are lost to me
Because my God is everywhere
And flames my heart with awe
The face of the One I love the most
Is the hardest one to draw
Events and Updates
Silence and Centering Prayer
This online retreat will assist participants in learning, renewing, and establishing a daily Centering Prayer practice as the foundation for the contemplative life.
READ ON ...Silence and Centering Prayer by Carl J. Arico, Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, Contemplative Outreach
“God’s first word is Silence.”
– Thomas Keating
Be still and know
that I am God.
– Psalm 42
We are pleased to welcome our long-time collaborators, Contemplative Outreach, back for a one-month e-course in September on the spiritual practice they have helped to spread around the world: Centering Prayer.
Two founding principals of Contemplative Outreach, Fr. Carl Arico and Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, will draw upon their over 30 years of experience to offer the conceptual background, the method, and many insights Centering Prayer as a way of life. Through emails delivered three times a week and their participation in the our online Practice Circle, they will provide answers to the many questions that new practitioners and even experienced practitioners have about this transformative method of prayer.
We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words. But this is only one expression. In the Christian tradition, contemplative prayer is considered to be the pure gift of God. It is the opening of mind and heart – our whole being – to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words, and emotions. Centering Prayer prepares our faculties to receive this gift.
Centering Prayer is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “…But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). It is also inspired by writings of major contributors to the Christian contemplative heritage including John Cassian, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and Thomas Merton.
This online retreat will assist participants in learning, renewing, and establishing a daily Centering Prayer practice as the foundation for the contemplative life. It will consist of a combination of email, video and audio teachings, as well as the opportunity to share and connect with others in the online Practice Circle.
View all upcoming events here!
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