Shane Claiborne was the featured speaker at the Oregon Synod Assembly. He stood out from most of the participants there because he was young, because he had dreadlocks past his waist, and because he identifies himself as part of an irresistible revolution, a missionary of sorts to the American Church. To put it simply, Shane follows Jesus.
Most of us are not going to imitate the life of Shane, living simply and sharing most things in common. Shane, however, can help us unpack what we on Outreach have been doing to reach our neighborhood. One of the words we have chosen to identify Mt. Carmel is "Community." Shane has the following words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer inscribed on his wall:
"The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community."
We at Mt. Carmel understand that the basis of community is love. We serve love at Transition Projects and Jean's Place. We serve love around the tables after church. We serve love around the quilting frame. We at Mt. Carmel have been given a gift from God, like Shane says "we can look in the eyes of those we don't even like and see the One [Jesus] we love."
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Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Aiming for One Percent
For churches with less than 100 worshipping on a given Sunday, increasing attendance by 1% seems like an achievable goal. But is it? How many of us have greeted visitors with the expectation that they would return the next Sunday but we never saw them again. Is it our fault?
The Answer is both yes and no. If we are too occupied with our own problems and concerns, we can make people feel as if they are intruding on our private club. But, if we descend on them en masse, visitors can feel that we are intruding on their privacy. One could argue that we just need to be ourselves. However, like any organization, we all know that much of our community culture is unspoken and varies depending upon whom you consult.
Outreach has decided that there are certain things that we can do to level the playing field with visitors. First, we can all wear name tags. So, begining next Sunday you will be asked to fill out a stick-on name tag with your name. Visitors will be asked to fill out the same type of name tag. For some of you this may seem like a lot to ask. It may seem like a lot to ask for some visitors. But, we have got to start someplace to make our sense of community more tangible.
The Church in Chicago has proposed a one percent growth goal. However, for the Lutherans living in the "None Zone," they have reduced that to goal to 0.5%. So, if Mt Carmel grows by one new person, we will be ahead of the game.
If you would like to write a blog post, please contact me, Susan Doyle, at faithtrends@aol.com or leave a comment.
The Answer is both yes and no. If we are too occupied with our own problems and concerns, we can make people feel as if they are intruding on our private club. But, if we descend on them en masse, visitors can feel that we are intruding on their privacy. One could argue that we just need to be ourselves. However, like any organization, we all know that much of our community culture is unspoken and varies depending upon whom you consult.
Outreach has decided that there are certain things that we can do to level the playing field with visitors. First, we can all wear name tags. So, begining next Sunday you will be asked to fill out a stick-on name tag with your name. Visitors will be asked to fill out the same type of name tag. For some of you this may seem like a lot to ask. It may seem like a lot to ask for some visitors. But, we have got to start someplace to make our sense of community more tangible.
The Church in Chicago has proposed a one percent growth goal. However, for the Lutherans living in the "None Zone," they have reduced that to goal to 0.5%. So, if Mt Carmel grows by one new person, we will be ahead of the game.
If you would like to write a blog post, please contact me, Susan Doyle, at faithtrends@aol.com or leave a comment.
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