Reclaiming The F Word

Making Headlines

Speaking of churches making the headlines: 

News reports today indicate the Tennessee church shooter targeted that congregation yesterday because of its liberal stance. Read the story here.

According to its website, the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church "is a nonprofit organization and a community of people who meet to worship, learn, enjoy fellowship, and work together for social change."

The congregation has given sanctuary to political refugees, fed the homeless, supported equal rights for women & gays, founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and been on the front lines of the civil rights movement.

Two people died in the shooting.

According to police, the shooter, 58 year old Jim Adkisson, planned the shooting for a week. He fired his shotgun just 3 times into the crowded sanctuary before congregational members were able to tackle him to the ground but he brought 76 shells with him. This was going to be a blood bath.

Maybe most of our congregations stick to car washes and chicken dinners (see my earlier post) because actually following Jesus is so damn dangerous.

Memorial Day, Again

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back." He's blogging today at HuffPost about the Memorial Day speech he wants Barack Obama to give. It ends like this:

A Great New Front Porch

Not quite a year ago, I wrote a short but sharp piece critiquing the web sites of mainline denominations, including my own (ELCA). It went something like this: 

"Check out the web sites of these mainline denominations and ask yourself, "Which of these faith communities are expecting to EVER be visited by people who aren't members? Which ones are working to communicate with people who don't speak 'our' language? Which ones are really serious about reaching 'new' generations? New cultures? New people of ANY generation or culture?"

Last August, the answer was basically "none of them." In fact, I concluded: 

"...overall this is a dismal exercise. It's no wonder we just keep shrinking. Not even WE expect new people to show up."

Not so today.

Hands On, Again

I don't think I imagined ever doing this again - for all kinds of reasons - but as of a week ago Sunday I'm on the front lines of the renewal effort in a scrappy little church right here in my neighborhood. I'm serving as one of two "pastoral leaders" (let's be careful about the language here) at Christ the King Lutheran Church (CTK). 

Kids Today

LutheranChik, whose beautifully crafted posts from daily church & home life can't help but warm you up, rarely says anything I actually disagree with...but it happened last week! On March 31 she said that a recent excursion into the world of social networking led her to conclude that kids growing up today are doing it in a world that is worse off than the one she and I grew up in back in the old days. (OK, the 70's.) Maybe she was overstating it or just had a singularly bad experience online. On the other hand, I can understand why somebody would feel that way...I've wandered around FaceBook & MySpace, too...I have three kids (21, 19, 15)...I know there are a lot of crappy things going on out there today. But I think this sentiment is wrong. I left a comment to that effect before I left. Here's what I said:

Does Size Matter?

David Hayward, "an artist trapped in a pastor's body," doing a Vineyard ministry out of New Brunswick, Canada, continues to be one of my favorite and I think one of the most honest Christian bloggers out there today. Check out his "Jesus Love Me, This I Knew" T-shirt concept at nakedpastor. And, if you're somebody who, like me, is committed to helping the mainline move out from under the shadow of the radical Christian mega-right so that the world hears a different, compelling, but more nuanced voice (and, ok let's just say, wants to see mainline and progressive churches GROW again!) go ahead and laugh at yourself here:

May The Force Be With You

I'm convinced that one of the biggest reasons mainline Christians have basically disappeared from the public faith conversation is that our theologians have made the whole thing way too complicated over the past several decades. (I mean does anybody know what Moltmann or Pannenberg were actually saying??) Our pastors come out of seminary so theologically tongue tied they can barely string three coherent sentences together (I've done those exit interviews, myself); and, once let loose in the pulpit, they nervously cling to their sermon manuscripts afraid of getting something "wrong." Our layfolk run the other way if somebody starts talking about religion or the Bible for pretty much the same reason. What they've learned has either been inadequate or incomprehensible.

Are We Ready?

Everywhere I go, I see people reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, or The End of Faith by Sam Harris. My hunch has been that even people who believe in God are so sick and tired of the loud-mouthed, mean-spirited, often dangerous radicals that march in the armies of both fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist Christianity that listening to a sermon by an atheist feels like taking a walk through a cool summer rain. Cleansing, somehow. Mind-clearing.

People really are ready for something different.

Spreading Love Around

I've never been a big fan of Valentine's Day, for all kinds of reasons, I guess. I always said it was because, unlike Christmas and Easter, Valentine's Day felt like a "fake" holiday. I'm not the only one who has felt this way.

Crossover Appeal

Writing in a recent USA Today article, D Michael Lindsay reports that more than half - 60% - of the high profile Evangelicals he interviewed over a five year period (including 100 CEOs and business executives, hollywood types and sports stars, and 2 U.S. presidents) are not connected to a local congregation. Instead, they are connected to each other through elite Bible study & fellowship groups and exercise service & stewardship through large, faith-based nonprofit organizations. Although this trend is especially evident among Evangelicals, Lindsay adds that mainline and liberal denominations are experiencing the same phenomenon, which has been growing since the 1950’s.

Why are these powerful, well-connected, highly-capable people abandoning their local churches and denominations?