Reflections on January's
Faith
at Work weekend and our mission to be a Relational Church.
by
George Moore
pastor
of West Hills Presbyterian Church
Omaha
NE
|
Marjory
Bankson and Pastors George Moore and Deena Chandler
with some
of the team for the Faith at Work weekend:
Hank and
Marna Davidson, Pat Minard (Dave is taking the picture),
Chair
Person Mari Greene, and Sue Smith.
|
The Biggest
"A-ha"
In the three
months since Marjory Bankson was here for the Faith at Work weekend in
January, I have not stopped thinking about her time with us. Perhaps the
biggest "a-ha" for me was Saturday morning as she divided us into two groups
by age. All those who were in high school in 1963 or before were put on
one side of the room and on the other side of the room were those who were
in high school after that time. This "generation" division was very helpful
in discovering why some of us see the same things so differently!
Generation
I
Marjory
wrote in the last Faith at Work donor mailing a synopsis
of her "Relational Heart" diagram
that she presented to us at the January conference. For the group in high
school in 1963 (I dare not call them the
"older"
group,
because that term "older" still refers to their parents! So let's
call them Generation I), relational was about connecting
with another person, and largely centered on what Marjory refers to as
the
"personal" side of the heart - Emotional, Physical,
and
Spiritual.
Generation
I came out of a church with strong
"communal"
and "institutional"
aspects
- will, beliefs and ethics.
They
had a strong foundation and a strong
structure. So strong that it was stifling! And the fresh air of personal
relationships was life-giving.
Generation
II
But
a new generation (Generation II)
has now come of age that has been raised by this Generation I. This new
generation was the one on the other side of the room that Saturday morning.
Generation II is a generation raised in a society and church without as
much "communal" and "institutional"
aspects - will, beliefs
and ethics,
only the "personal"
side of the heart -
Emotional,
Physical, and Spiritual.
While
Generation I did not know what they felt, but could recite the Shorter
Catechism, Generation II has known only feelings and has not had
structures of right and wrong. For Generation II, this younger generation,
emotions
is how they have lived - if it
feels good do it, physical is their life - from
adrenaline
rushes to fat free lifestyles to sexual encounters shortly after
saying 'Hello...', and spiritual is anything from crystals
to
Zen
to
reincarnation.
I
mentioned in the fall that the best
examples of all of this are TV sit-coms. The family
sit-coms of the 60's were about strong family units seeking to explore
feelings. The sit-coms of the 90's are about a group of friends lost in
a multitude of feelings, sexual connections and transcendental experiences,
trying to find out what structures are relevant to their lives!
The blessing
of Faith at Work
Some in our
society are seeking to answer this modem search for structure by conservatively
and aggressively returning us to the family unit and society mores of the
50's and 60's. I really
don't think that is the answer. Clearly these solutions would only return
us to where the church has erred in the past. The church too often has
erred on the side of the "institutional" aspects. Rigid. Cold. Without
real human emotional interaction, out of touch with what our bodies are
trying to tell us, and without the life-giving encounter with the Spirit
of the living Christ.
What
a blessing Faith at Work has been to the church in helping it find
this personal side of the heart!
What a gift to West Hills it has been to have found this relational lifestyle
more than 20 years ago. And what a blessing that in our life together we
really have put it into practice. At the last session meeting, the check-in
question was on the fourth value of our mission statement - Embracing
Community Life. It was over-whelming to hear each elder and staff person
present share about their own small group and what it means in their life,
how they have found the life of volunteering in ministry so different here
because it is about the ministry's leadership being a community, not just
putting on a program, and how their own families have caught and reflect
this priority of West Hills' of being community together.
But Marjory
is right when she says: "Today spiritual, physical and emotional
resources are readily available, but without the "communal dimensions"
we miss the
relational
wholeness that Jesus promised when he spoke
of the Realm of Right Relationship's."
It would
seem to me that the real issue is balance. Frankly, the church has never
been too good at balance. Too easily the church can say, "But we don't
do it that way." And change is stopped - forever. Or too easily the church
seeks to be 'hip' and 'relevant' and simply loses its unique witness of
the Gospel of Christ and replaces it with a cultural gospel.
Generation
III
Again Marjory
has put it so well: "Too often we think relational simply means
being friendly or being in touch with our feelings, but the biblical understanding
of heart is clearly more than that."
Won't
you pray with me that we never lose our effort to be personal, connected
in our emotions, connected with our own bodies, and connected with God
and each other spiritually? And won't you pray with me that we will find
gentle ways of holding firm the faith of the church that leaves us open
and not judgmental, but also not lost and adrift in a confused culture
of destruction? But I have to tell you these are not my only prayers. There
is one more. For today there is a third generation that was in the room,
but not given a side to go to identify themselves.
Literature
is referring to them as Generation X, or in this conversation Generation
III - a generation raised by Generation II and now coming of age. This
generation is the product of families in divorce, families in strange living
configurations without moral values or the appropriate boundaries necessary
to help children feel safe and loved. This generation has been described
as angry, alienated, apathetic, depressed, and suicidal. It is in this
generation we find teenagers who can give birth to a baby and put the infant
in a trash can so they can go to prom. It is here that there are young
children that can conceive and carry out a plan to shoot their grade school
friends, without something in their brains clicking-in to stop them.
One aspect
of this generation is what scholars are calling "Post Modernism." It is
a world in which everything is relative. Here there are no objective truth,
no morality, no absolutes. Again how does the church find the balance necessary
to attract this generation, and yet have a unique word of witness?
Relational
Community - Incarnational Witness
Once again
Marjory is so correct - it is balance that is needed to have a relational
heart. This relational balance is the theology of the Incarnation.
John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among
us. The incarnation is God's great desire for a relationship with us.
His coming in a Physical body to participate in the world of our Emotions
and lead us to a Spiritual
encounter with him. But this incamate
God also comes with God's great desire to redeem us. To empower us in this
spiritual walk with the Will, the Belief
and to live with
the Ethics of the redeemed community of faith, the kingdom of God.
We are to be a Relational community
giving an Incarnational
Witness. It is in this framework, it seems to me, that we are able
to find the balance of personal connections and a church community with
the great commission to reach out to each new generation with the love
of Jesus Christ.
I'm
so thankful for the ministry of Marjory in our midst and for the mission
and work of Faith at Work. I hope if you are not receiving the Faith at
Work magazine you will sign
up soon. (it would be a great part of a birthday gift!) I also hope
that if you have never attended a Faith at Work weekend you might be able
to in the near future (FAW Calendar).
George
Faith @ Work Magazine
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