(failing at not pointing out that a FB email and a visit to a blog and then a link took me to find out that something is happening at the church I go to every Sunday...)
AUGUST 2! The Church Basement Roadshow, at the OD!!
4 years ago
Showing posts with label emergent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emergent. Show all posts
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Sunday, April 01, 2007
...and so the story begins, again, for the 2000th or more time...
Palm Sunday, or as some call it, Passion Sunday.
We celebrate in the evening at the Open Door (for now, at least, though Easter is always celebrated in the morning), so I haven't been to church yet, though I have a few stops to make today:
So here's a taste (get it, a taste??) from Don't Eat Alone:
The first time around, I’m sure there was a much smaller gathering of the faithful at Golgotha than on what we have come to call Palm Sunday. Even the first Easter was not so well attended. I wonder how many years on it was before churches began putting out extra seating for the “Easter crowd.” I don’t know of any minister who doesn’t wonder what could be done to get more of those who come primarily on Christmas and Easter to participate more regularly and meaningfully in the congregation. The reasons for why people don’t find a more significant connection are as varied as the number of them who come: grief, pain, indifference, priorities, hurt feelings, time, to name a few. But on Easter, and maybe even Palm Sunday, they’re in the room.
Let’s start there. Don’t worry about the timing. Feed them.
Go read the rest...it will rock your socks, even if you're still in bare feet.
What hit me (except for the whole post, which almost knocked me off my chair) in this passage was that I'm agonizing over the Easter Feast. Last week at the OD, BJ asked who would be around as they were thinking to have a meal. About 30 folks raised their hands, and on about Tuesday, I shot BJ an email. "Put me on the list to help with that." Which is when BJ told me the OD was not going to have a meal. Well, shoot, I have made a point to NOT go home to see the Louise-in-Virginia family for Easter b/c it's the most important holy day for me, and I wanna be with my OD family, so there's gonna be food. So I shot off an announcement for the OD emails and I'll stand up (in front of my parents and the OD congregation) and say, "We're going to eat on Easter, please join us." (Not knowing yet who "we" are, although I did get two emails.)
Because I worry.
I worry about how many. Let's count noses and nickels.
Let's make sure there's a big to do, dag-gone-it!
Which is SO not the point, anyways.
A community can be two or more "gathered in My name."
So happy Palm Sunday. I'll be posting Lenten stuff all week, sharing about the journey of the Station I made for the OD, which will debut this afternoon at the Union Project, from 4-6. It will be part of the Unblurred First Fridays on Good Friday.
Thanks for being a part of my community. Really. I couldn't have written this without you.
We celebrate in the evening at the Open Door (for now, at least, though Easter is always celebrated in the morning), so I haven't been to church yet, though I have a few stops to make today:
- To the Union Project, where John will help me finish my Station: more on the miracle of that, coming later this week.
- To Bellefield for a women's breakfast, the community of women that have known me (some of them) since I was 19 and a sophomore in college. (I'm 35 now, which seems very bizarre.)
- To clean the apartment in preparation of the parental visit (it was walk through-able after Sally's visit, but the Station making rendered it clogged once more.)
- To greet the parents and have a meal and
- Off to church to celebrate with palm fronds.
So here's a taste (get it, a taste??) from Don't Eat Alone:
The first time around, I’m sure there was a much smaller gathering of the faithful at Golgotha than on what we have come to call Palm Sunday. Even the first Easter was not so well attended. I wonder how many years on it was before churches began putting out extra seating for the “Easter crowd.” I don’t know of any minister who doesn’t wonder what could be done to get more of those who come primarily on Christmas and Easter to participate more regularly and meaningfully in the congregation. The reasons for why people don’t find a more significant connection are as varied as the number of them who come: grief, pain, indifference, priorities, hurt feelings, time, to name a few. But on Easter, and maybe even Palm Sunday, they’re in the room.
Let’s start there. Don’t worry about the timing. Feed them.
Go read the rest...it will rock your socks, even if you're still in bare feet.
What hit me (except for the whole post, which almost knocked me off my chair) in this passage was that I'm agonizing over the Easter Feast. Last week at the OD, BJ asked who would be around as they were thinking to have a meal. About 30 folks raised their hands, and on about Tuesday, I shot BJ an email. "Put me on the list to help with that." Which is when BJ told me the OD was not going to have a meal. Well, shoot, I have made a point to NOT go home to see the Louise-in-Virginia family for Easter b/c it's the most important holy day for me, and I wanna be with my OD family, so there's gonna be food. So I shot off an announcement for the OD emails and I'll stand up (in front of my parents and the OD congregation) and say, "We're going to eat on Easter, please join us." (Not knowing yet who "we" are, although I did get two emails.)
Because I worry.
I worry about how many. Let's count noses and nickels.
Let's make sure there's a big to do, dag-gone-it!
Which is SO not the point, anyways.
A community can be two or more "gathered in My name."
So happy Palm Sunday. I'll be posting Lenten stuff all week, sharing about the journey of the Station I made for the OD, which will debut this afternoon at the Union Project, from 4-6. It will be part of the Unblurred First Fridays on Good Friday.
Thanks for being a part of my community. Really. I couldn't have written this without you.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
We admitted we were powerless...
Friday at the seminary, there was a seminar on the 12 Steps. BJ and Cameron went to the seminar and spoke a little about it during the message. (Oh, and I took a nap this afternoon, and woke up at 6:23, so I missed the first half of church...)
As I drove home, I thought, if life is going to be humiliating (and have you met life? IT IS!) these are two humble men I want on my bus. Sorry, a little Jim Collins there--I'm listening to Good to Great again and one of Jim's concepts is "First Who?" when you figure out who you want working with you. You get the right people ON the bus, the wrong people OFF the bus, and that way, if the bus ends up going to Etna instead of Millvale, you're like, who cares where we go, because, hey, I'm on the bus because of who else is on the bus.
So then I went to Whole Foods and Walgreens and spent too much money...
And came home to watch an episode of Desperate Housewives, which I haven't watched in years. It was an episode where the housewives realized that they only could be responsible for their own responses to life. There's more, of course, but I'm tired, and it's a whole desperate story...
Then I went blog hopping, as I am attempting to get my bloglist on to my blogroll--because Blogrolling has this amazing function where you can see if a blog has updated. Since Bloglines and other RSS reading schemes are crack to me (I'll read forever and never get anything done--more so than usual) this will allow me to see who has updated just by looking at my own blog, with less clicking. (Of course, I'll still go click on my regulars to see where the blogversations are going in the comments.)
In other news, tomorrow I meet with a potential therapist in the morning (cross your fingers) and in the afternoon attend a meeting about a new group therapy concept. I'm not crazy about group therapy (as Lilly said to me when I told her about it, "my experience with group therapy is that half the folks there were crazier than me"). But my psychiatrist recommended it, and I adore the man, so I'll go get INFORMATION. Then I have to cancel the appointment I have with a potential (but not really potential for me) therapist on Thursday. Our phone conversation made it pretty clear that I don't think we'd be a match: I wasn't able to clearly say to him after he gave me one time to pick that that time is when I'm working. (Tip to any therapists reading this: you give someone at least two choices.) And more importantly I have a work meeting that afternoon. So, I'm thinking, if I just want to get the guy off the phone (which I think is why I said yes) it's probably not a therapeutic match. Ugh. Please, I just want a therapist. NOW! (But a good one!!)
Wherein we admitted we were powerless over our need to blog...Goodnight!! And in case a little bird didn't tell you, it's BJ's birthday today (March 18). So wish him a very happy (just don't say you saw it here...)
Buh-bye!
As I drove home, I thought, if life is going to be humiliating (and have you met life? IT IS!) these are two humble men I want on my bus. Sorry, a little Jim Collins there--I'm listening to Good to Great again and one of Jim's concepts is "First Who?" when you figure out who you want working with you. You get the right people ON the bus, the wrong people OFF the bus, and that way, if the bus ends up going to Etna instead of Millvale, you're like, who cares where we go, because, hey, I'm on the bus because of who else is on the bus.
So then I went to Whole Foods and Walgreens and spent too much money...
And came home to watch an episode of Desperate Housewives, which I haven't watched in years. It was an episode where the housewives realized that they only could be responsible for their own responses to life. There's more, of course, but I'm tired, and it's a whole desperate story...
Then I went blog hopping, as I am attempting to get my bloglist on to my blogroll--because Blogrolling has this amazing function where you can see if a blog has updated. Since Bloglines and other RSS reading schemes are crack to me (I'll read forever and never get anything done--more so than usual) this will allow me to see who has updated just by looking at my own blog, with less clicking. (Of course, I'll still go click on my regulars to see where the blogversations are going in the comments.)
**********
In other news, tomorrow I meet with a potential therapist in the morning (cross your fingers) and in the afternoon attend a meeting about a new group therapy concept. I'm not crazy about group therapy (as Lilly said to me when I told her about it, "my experience with group therapy is that half the folks there were crazier than me"). But my psychiatrist recommended it, and I adore the man, so I'll go get INFORMATION. Then I have to cancel the appointment I have with a potential (but not really potential for me) therapist on Thursday. Our phone conversation made it pretty clear that I don't think we'd be a match: I wasn't able to clearly say to him after he gave me one time to pick that that time is when I'm working. (Tip to any therapists reading this: you give someone at least two choices.) And more importantly I have a work meeting that afternoon. So, I'm thinking, if I just want to get the guy off the phone (which I think is why I said yes) it's probably not a therapeutic match. Ugh. Please, I just want a therapist. NOW! (But a good one!!)
Wherein we admitted we were powerless over our need to blog...Goodnight!! And in case a little bird didn't tell you, it's BJ's birthday today (March 18). So wish him a very happy (just don't say you saw it here...)
Buh-bye!
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