Dear Friends,
I sometimes hear people talking about how they feel good about someone “showing up” for them.
At Easter and Christmas we have a lot of people show up for worship. That’s terrific. I have been thinking about how Lent is a season of showing up as well. It was great to welcome six new folks into membership on Sunday. We have another group of six – ten people who will be joining relatively soon as well. That’s all good.
In talking with a church member yesterday I’ve been thinking about (it is Lent after all) how I could/can show up better for you as your pastor. Consider this both my Lenten confession and my Lenten challenge to myself.
1) I can do better in pointing out how and where you show up for people. I see it often in your lives in the world and though I try to find ways to notice and celebrate it, I know I can grow a bit lazy in pointing it out to you. I’d like to help create a culture of celebrating the ways you care for one another, not only in the church, but in your communities, in your family, in your nation and world.
2) Years ago a friend of mine from Northwestern University encouraged me to look at things not through the lens of ROI (return on investment) but ROC (return on community). The reason I like this is that ROC, in my experience, is more effective in seeing transformational change happen than in ROI. There is a lot more familiar language to us about ROI in acts of charity: volunteer hours in a not-for-profit, helping serve a lunch to people who live on the street, donating to a food pantry or gifts during a holiday season. I’m committed to doing a better job of finding language in our conversations, on the walls of our church to celebrate the connections, the increasing of social capital (across boundaries of ethnicity and class in particular), and the results/outcomes of these. I will strive to do a better job of making the invisible, visible, of finding new ways to illustrate those connections, which to me are just visible signs of love in action (and they end up changing the futures of our communities in incredibly positive ways).
3) During Lent we have heard a lot of positive feedback on the movement we have been doing in worship, also serving the purpose of introducing people to different spaces in the church and allowing them to appreciate spaces they may not have been familiar with in other ways. I will work to continue to find ways, in worship, to weave together, body, mind and spirit, inviting us to see the world new and listen to your voices. I love it when in worship we ask you to speak to meaningful things in your life and world. How we use these opportunities to celebrate what you are learning about life in this world, about faith, how we can continue to celebrate God’s abundance all around us…are, I believe, centrally important. And I believe we can continue to think imaginatively and thoughtfully about how we do this in ways (both seen and unseen) that increase our faith, confirm our hope and perfect us in love.
This is my Lenten commitment to showing up (for Lent and beyond).
Keep tellin’ the Story,
Mike
During Lent I often find myself listening to the music from Schindler’s List by John Williams. Here is a recording of the theme of that movie, featuring Itzhak Perlman.
This week’s takeaway: How do we show up for one another in Lent? How will Mike try to work on showing up for First Church this Lent?