Well...

 

...here we go. 

I haven't written regularly on here in years, but it's time. With Trump coming back into power, and with a certain section of Christianity embracing him, I'm going back to using this digital space to record what I do as a pastor each day. I'd like this space to show, in an unpretentious way, to any who care, what "liberal" Christianity looks like on a granular level. What does a pastor think about? How does following Jesus affect my life? What really happens in our church? I'll touch on all of that.

This last week has been hard. I dislike Trump intensely. Many in our congregation of 350+ feel similarly. Every conversation I've had this past week begins, "how are you handling the weight of all of this?" Folks are worried, angry, searching, sad.

The church goes on, regardless of the outcome of any election. Now, however, as part of the liberal church, I feel more and more out of alignment with the culture. I described it yesterday to a colleague as a tectonic shift in our location in the Niebuhrian "Christ and Culture" scale--from mainline Protestantism's traditional perch in "Christ Transforming Culture" to something more like "paradox" or even "against" culture. Liberal Protestants may need to re-read Hauerwas' Resident Aliens, or Bonhoeffer's Life Together for our model of the future of our churches.

Yesterday was still a good day of ministry.

• A breakfast meeting furthered a significant institutional partnership in Decatur that I've been nurturing for 3 years. It was so delightful to see a long-range agreement begin to take shape. I'm so excited for these partners to come together! Hopefully there will be more news to announce soon.
• Wonderful supervision conversation with our seminary intern. He's super talented. Our conversation moved from preaching, to how to tend to the relationship with the immigrant congregation housed in our church--how to be supportive without being paternalistic, to what is "spiritual formation?" I love that last question. We used to think spiritual formation was about practices--adding a little prayer to your life or maybe some Lenten fasting to go along with Sunday worship, as though that sprinkling were enough to "form" a disciple of Jesus. So wrong. We are literally being formed all day every day. Our phones form us, the economy forms us, housing patterns form us, schools form us, work forms us, cultural norms form us--all in ways that be profoundly disorienting and contradictory to the way of Jesus. The church is losing the human and moral/spiritual formation game, every damn day. Don't know what the answer is.
• Had staff meeting with our wonderful, talented staff. We talked about whether it is OK for me to come out so strongly against Trump--not Republicans, but Trump the person. We talked about caring for ourselves and our own spirits as we seek to care for our congregation.
• Zoom Bible study led by our seminary intern on Isaiah 6. Great text. "Send me," and "I am a person of unclean lips!" Remind me to tell you the story of what happened when I heard that line read and interpreted by a lesbian--changed the way I think about that whole story and what it means.
• Met with a terrific architect to map out details for a sanctuary renovation. Chairs, baby!
• At night, hanging out outside my son's music lesson, I ran into Michael, an unhoused friend. I've helped him so much over the years, but he's never been able to climb out from under alcoholism. He was walking down the sidewalk, in a t-shirt with no shoes on. He had just left the hospital--he has major health issues. I took him over to the church to find a sweatshirt and coat to wear and I couldn't find him any shoes. I took mine off and tried to get them on his feet, but they were 1/2 size too small--his feet are so painful, he couldn't squeeze into them. There was no place to take him at 7PM--no shelter would welcome him at that time of night. I gave him cash, told him to get shoes and food at Walmart. I hope he made it to the MARTA to stay warm.