Diana Butler Bass makes a crucial distinction between what she calls "I-questions," those questions that derive from and are driven by the "need for self-actualization and a sense of entitlement," and those questions she calls "God-questions."
"God-questions," as Bass calls them, shifts the focus away from what individuals want of and from the church, and toward "what God wants of" the church and its people.
So where and how has God been in your life this week, this month, this year? What does God's question have you do?
What "God-question," rather than an "I-question," do you think God has you asking of St. Paul's? What is God asking you of and for this church that is beyond even your idea of what church is or should be?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I missed you all tonight. The grace I found in missing the study was in watching ten beautiful young women expressing their passion for life on the basketball court. They are all shapes, sizes, and colors, and their affection for each other is authentic and touching. This is an All Star team, and they are incredibly skilled. I watched my daughter, remembered the chubby fingers and legs of toddlerhood, and marveled at her strong body, and her hummingbird quickness.
Okay..the book.
This was an interesting section of the book. Discernment has never been my strong suit, although I clearly go through certain processes in determining what I think I ought to be doing in my life. I tend to observe, formulate, articulate, gather input, then reform my ideas. I am a big believer in looking at other models and existing forms for inspiration. Sometimes, like when I decided to return to school for a doctorate, seem decisions made out of the blue (lightning bolts, my family calls them). Analysis reveals that actually the decision was years in the making, but only articulated in a single strong statement.
Since before this study - but actively, so actively! - since it started, I have been doing all of the above in relation to my life in this church.
I think there are a couple of God-questions for St. Paul's at this point in the parish's life that come quickly - and persistently - to mind. These questions seem to be particularly rooted to me, meaning that I am coming back to them as possible anchors for philosophy and program again and again - and I truly feel God is holding these things up to me. I see different angles each day. It's a feeling of looking at something priceless through glass, or of snorkeling and having treasures revealed to me through clear water. I can see them clearly, but I haven't begun to touch them, really, explore their possibilities fully, or entirely understand their potential. That's the God-question.
The first is our facility, our location, being at the center of midtown, across from the County hospital and its satellite public agency offices (including Public Health), near the transit center, in a much-traveled part of town (foot and car).
If you sit on the corner of St. Paul's and Loma Vista, on the bus bench, within an hour, a dozen dramas unfold. You just have to pay attention. Low-income patients in gowns wander out of the hospital to smoke (some carrying drips), or are released in wheelchairs to secure public transportation home. Hospital staff - nurses and the doctors completing their residency program here, and others - park in the neighborhood, walk by our church, and sometimes meet and consult with each other. Today, I saw a nurse carrying a crockpot walking across the street, obviously bringing something to eat with coworkers. The county Public Health and Psychiatric Services staff intake patients, offer educational programs, all within a block of us, and their clientele, many low-income, trudge by our church, the poorest of the poor in our community, seeking assistance. In the afternoon, high school students - members of the track team - run by in groups, trailing for 1/2 a mile down Loma Vista. There is a vibrant community life outside our gate, people in need of comfort, in need of food, in need of...the hospitality of a Christian community.
The God-question is clearly: how does God want us to use this space? This beautiful space, this clean beautiful space. Clearly, the school's fortunes have declined, and I'm not certain what the future holds in that regards, but even if it continues its ministry, space consolidaton could occur to provide space for ?...that's the God-question. Does God want us to become the center of this neighborhood, the village church, the place where all kinds of people can cross paths and belong in Christ?
The second God-question that aligns with the first is, how does God want this parish to use its tradition of hospitality? Not just our friendly Sunday selves, but the kind of radical hospitality Lou and Jim have shown to the mentally ill through their advocacy to AMI, the kind of radical hospitality we show to AA (a much needed program in our community), the kind of radical hospitality we are capable of.
The third God-question that comes to mind is this: How does God want us to form Christians in this particular church? Where is He leading us in terms of family life ministry and Christian education? Does He intend for us to model new possibilities? Is radical hospitality and using our space to recreate a village church that is the heart of this few square blocks a part of this third God-question, how does God want us to form Christians in this place?
Could adopting radical forms of hospitality while utilizing our physical location/space actually become the vehicle for Christian formation for this church? Could that be more powerful for our youth and children than something more traditional? Is it less about hiring a body and more about BECOMING the body of Christ, and all that implies in terms of hospitality for the least, the lost, the lonely?
These are the God-questions that keep coming to me.
Best to you all.
Post a Comment