What Do You Want People in Other Contexts to Better Understand About Your Context?

Over the past few months, The Ministry Collaborative has released podcasts for a series called, When Politics Is Upstream of Faith.  Our hope is to help pastors, leaders, and congregations reflect on what it means to be the Church in this political season and time of polarization.  We gathered with diversely gifted and positioned ministry leaders from across the country for thought-provoking and rich conversations.  These are challenging times that demand faithful and effective leadership, and we believe these podcasts can be an effective tool of ministry engagement.

Several important themes emerged through the podcast series that invite further exploration and elaboration.  We continue our most recent blog format of inviting additional voices from our network to join the conversation by answering a few key questions.  Today we examine the observation and experience that people, congregations, ministry contexts, and/or communities are often mislabeled or misunderstood.  In an effort to improve awareness and understanding of our sisters and brothers who serve in countless different ways and places, we asked,

What do you want people in other contexts to better understand about your context?  How are people in your congregation and/or community often mislabeled or stereotyped? 

“Farm Church is a congregation that exists without a building of any kind. We don’t own or rent property; rather, we grow fruits and vegetables (and community) on a piece of land that we gratefully borrow. We built a 12’x12’ shed on this property, and it’s where we keep shovels, rakes, seeds, and a cup and plate for serving communion, among other things. I would like others to know that this way of being church is so utterly freeing. I know so many churches and church leaders that are struggling to manage the institutional weight of their physical plants, and I’d like to remind them that there are indeed other ways to be church – ways that are no less meaningful, faithful, and connected to community – ways that actually benefit without the distractions that inevitably come along with bricks and mortar structures. Perhaps it’s because we don’t have a building that we are often mislabeled as something other than “church.” People approach Farm Church with all kinds of questions and one of them, perennially, is ‘Are you really a church?’ Our association of ‘church’ with ‘steeple’ is so ingrained in our collective psyche that sometimes it’s hard for us to see church emerge in new forms. For us to move more nimbly forward, more of us need to consider possibilities for nurturing community without a building (and all it requires) as a central organizing structure.” – Ben Johnston-Krase, Pastor of Farm Church, Durham, NC

Currently, I serve pastors and future pastors. I think one of the confusions we have about pastors and that pastors have about themselves is that typically, one really does get into ministry to try to dedicate their working hours to doing justice, loving mercy, and walking with God. This doesn’t make them holier or better than any other role or position, but it does mean that one of the quickest ways to burn out a pastor is to isolate them from work that feels like it is practicing those things directly or making a difference in their communities in those ways. Sometimes pastors need the opportunity to engage mercy and justice work directly within and beyond churches.” – Karen Rohrer, Associate Academic Dean, Princeton Seminary, Princeton, NJ

Wil McCall headshot

I have the privilege of working with a diverse community of Christians across Dallas — different in denomination, age, race, and political views. Yet, beneath it all, people long to be heard, seen, and respected. When fear takes hold, it divides us. At our best, faith in God’s protection drives us to love and serve beyond our differences.” – Wil McCall, President/CEO, Dallas Leadership Foundation, Dallas, TX

 

“I serve a community in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, an area known for its significant affluence and privilege. Despite our advantages, forming a genuine Christian community is challenging. Many of the groups we engage in—from alumni associations to country clubs and non-profit boards— prioritize wealth and prestige. Our church is a welcome sanctuary offering space for curiosity, vulnerability, accompaniment, and inclusion. Yet, we must continually remind ourselves that true community is not built on material acquisition and consumption, but on the faith of Jesus Christ.” – Jamie Butcher, Pastor of Covenant Presbyterian, Atlanta, GA

“Based on our geographic location, race, and dress we are not as conservative as one may think. However, based on our denomination we are not as liberal as one may assume. We are not dualistic thinkers. As a whole we are, like all humans, multi-splendored, complicated, hurt, and loving people.” – Barrett Payne, Pastor of James Island Presbyterian Church, James Island, SC

 

There is a poem by William Stafford called ‘A Ritual to Read to Each Other’ that gets to the heart of the question. The poem recognizes that humans are relational beings but there is something about the human condition that complicates our relationality and keeps us from knowing each other. In this excerpt, the poet suggests that if we are not careful a false relational ‘pattern’ prevails, and we end up ‘following the wrong god home.’

 

‘If you don’t know the kind of person I am.

and I don’t know the kind of person you are.

a pattern that others made may prevail in the world.

and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.’

As the poet suggests, what’s needed is to be awakened to the patterns of desire made by “others” that keep us from knowing and being known. As the theologian James Alison says, what’s needed is ‘another Other’ who can change our patterns of desire so that we can see and know each other for who we are – beloved of God.” – Kris Rocke, Executive Director, Street Psalms, Tacoma, WA

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit …

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 27

How would you respond to the question?  We’d love to hear from you!

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