I believe there is a church out there for everyone, and that hunting for a church is a lot of work.
Category: The Church being Born
I wish we did more in church….
Things I wish I had time/space to do in church
paint stuff
cartwheels
color
pray using arts and crafts
do more stuff with flowing water (which is totally Biblical)
make a mess…without worrying about it….
read fantasy
leave the doors unlocked
encourage kids to dance… in the aisles
have a quiet place to pray
have a noisy place to pray
grow things in gardens
do theater on a very regular basis….
have an open toyroom for kids to play whenever they want
do real and interesting things on fb, twitter, etc.
and that’s all I can think of for now
God and Gardens: Summer Series Prt 1
Then God looked around at the earth he created, and She had a thought….I need a garden and gardeners….one thought….
God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground (see below for full passage)
God the master creator, created life to be in relationship from the very beginning. From the first moment, God said, we need life. He planted us in a garden, to coexist with and work with plants.
God the gardener
We are at no more than co-gardeners
In reality we would probably do better to think of ourselves as plants.
With this is mind, lets begin our exploration of the Bible with plants…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFzXaFbxDcM
Genesis 2:1-9 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
In the day that the Lord[a] God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6 but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,[b] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Stop Everything! Its a defining Moment!!
My new definitions of spirituality and church….”I think that belief is an individual thing and faith is a group thing…personally I like to have access to both”
Why do people god to church part 2 (you gotta love my defining moments ha!)
Why do people actually go to church?* (or …its like a family)
Whenever I talk to people about why they like going to church…the reasons I usually get come down to two reasons. (*Katy’s poll is totally anecdotal)
What Church People are actually saying
1. Its a like a family/the relationships, etc.
2. for the kids (although that tends to be a baby boomer reason)
Seldom to I hear (What church people aren’t saying enough of)
1. We are actually helping people 
2. The prayer is amazing
3. I feel connected to God
4. Worship is so meaningful
5. We are actively welcoming of all people…..
Pastor Fail? Denominational Fail? Gospel Fail? Church fail? Institutional Fail?
Where is the disconnect… (PS families are great, but to me there is more to it)
Ozma of Oz, Eon/Eona, Song of the Lionness and coming out of the closet
Spoiler alert: if you haven’t read “The Wonderful Land of Oz,” I’m about to ruin it for you….
I think “The Wonderful Land of Oz” is the first cross gendered story I ever read..True I had read other tales of girls dressing as boys to escape whatever…but Ozma is the only “truly” transgendered character I can think of….She simply changes from a boy to a girl–turns out she’s been a girl all along. Kind of like the book “Boy Meets Boy” its almost too blase about the acceptance…but hey, I like to think this is how it will be in a perfect world!
PS its the total feminine empowerment story, every power-player is female!
“Eon/Eona” does the girl disguise thing plus a legit transgendered character who is lovely, as does “Song of the Lioness”, Robin McKinley’s Spindle’s End hints at other kinds of love, even though sexuality isn’t really the point. of course Malinda Lo does a great (no-cross-dressing needed) out and out lesbian fairy tale. (PS want a great history of sexuality? Check out “Coming Out Under Fire” an amazing history of gay and lesbian sexuality)
All this makes me think about all those transgendered people are under enchantment, they don’t look like who they are supposed to be….
on the other hand, most fantasy is about that (I’m part fairy, I’m dating a vampire, I have superpowers, I’m really a girl in disguise, I’m a prince/princess turned into a frog)
Being a fantasy nerd, I often feel frustrated with who I present to the world and who I really am
Its difficult on so many levels..
I’m a pastor, fantasy-loving, mother. I am not right-wing, or conservative, but I’m not an atheist either. I had children young and am a professional career woman. I am creative, cheerful, optimistic and yet strong, a leader and am super-responsible.
I’m hard to stereotype.
So I read fantasy, I read it because I know that I am not limited to what other think Christianity is (THANK GOD), but at the same time I think that my Christianity defines my entire being. I read fantasy, put my family first and dress the way I want to because I am Christian. Being Christian isn’t a guideline for me, it is the very fiber of my being and I continue to find more and more ways to live fully into it…..
If I’m in disguise, and I think all of this is a part of being Christian, what parts of Christianity are being unexplored when we are exclusive. What do gay men and lesbian women experience in Christianity that I miss out on? How about single parents, immigrants and the transgendered?
Fantasy is not about escapism, for me its about the facts of life
1. the world is full of a multitude of unique and interesting beings
2. we have to learn to get along
3. there is a battle between hatred/greed/powerseekers and love–good and evil do both exist…..
4. Even when humanity is failing, hope exists, heroes emerge, and love wins
5. Everyone has a call: a unique part to play in this ongoing quest for hope and love, and it doesn’t matter who we are, because the call is perfect for each and every one of us (only fantasy literature seems to do a good job of defining call!)
Living into this is hard, but this is my reality, and for me fantasy is another way to understand real life and the Bible….
Gotta love the irony of that…I’m sure God gave me an appreciation of wry humor so I can straddle all of that..
So some day fully believe I’ll come out of the closet…….and find Narnia
HA!
“I know why God…
“I know why God created atheists, because he loves diversity.”–a friend
How’s that for (w)holistic theology?
Trinity: Unity and Diversity, How we are all unique and yet part of one whole
Batman and Baptism
Baptism Message: You are beautiful and loved and perfect as a newborn naked baby, the more “Naked” you can be with God, the more you can share in the glory of Christ’s love (both reviewed in Skinny Dipping and Embodied Spirituality and Nakedness)…
Reality…Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be batman. This morning a batman costume helped to relieve any nerves during baptism….yep today I baptized batman..
Nakedness
A synopsis of Sunday’s Sermon
Naked Babies are beautiful–I’m pretty sure everyone can agree that naked babies are beautiful. Maybe this was why baptisms used to be done naked because (although a little dangerous) what is cuter than a naked baby?
God made us, as all good mothers, God made space for us and then formed us as a part of her lives…God made us naked babies, beautiful and perfect, and then Jesus offers us the spring of life.
God knows our own mother’s are not perfect, but there is great comfort in knowing that God fills in the gaps–God is the perfect parent, able to be both mother and father to us….
God thinks we’re beautiful…and invites us to baptism, to spirituality to swim fully in the glory of God.
And of course that means nakedness….
Removing all those loads and pieces of clothing that separate us from God. Fully claiming ourselves and our bodies in Christ (for more on this see my post on Skinny Dipping).
And when we get naked, we start to notice that our bodies are imperfect, there are scars, we have fat and wrinkles and everything doesn’t work right….so maybe we can only put our feet in, but whatever we can do to get some spirituality allows us to be loved. How can we participate in the River of Life.
I have a rule–every baby I see is the most beautiful baby in the world …And its true, every baby is a miracle, every baby is beautiful and so I know, for a fact that every baby is the most beautiful baby in the world.
We are God’s Babies. We are the most beautiful people in the universe, and that beauty comes from God! God’s glory and love is in us, and since Christ is in God we are in God’s glory (John 17). And God, as a good mother, doesn’t love us in spite of our faults, but including them. Seeing all our flaws, faults and cracks. God loves us, because we are the most beautiful children in the world–and we need to affirm that to one another. To look at one another and say–you are beautiful, just like naked babies are!
Embodied Spirituality: (w)holistic faith and what it means
Good Examples of Embodied Spirituality tend to be as follows
yoga
monks working
liturgical dance
and Mr. Rogers (because he’s the Presbyterian Superhero of faith 🙂
Here is the Spiritual but not religious issue in sum:
Christianity–more and more abstracted and spiritualized religion, emphasizing the moral lessons of the Bible, essentializing Jesus as love and pursuing faith. Like good Augustine-type-people we have more and more distanced ourselves from the body, turning communion into a remembering of Christ. Barb Hedges-Goettl concludes that we have moved away from the reality of the broken, embodied Divinity present in Jesus Christ. A particular example of this can be found in how communion is celebrated (more about this below/in the thesis)
Hence Christianity is about being “spiritual” and has almost nothing to do with our bodies
If anything we should deny our bodily needs, giving quick and easy solutions to issues of 1. addiction: denial, proof that worldly wants are addictive and evil 2. homosexuality: denial its just a bodily impulse and the body is evil 3. Health Issues: If you are truly pure your body will be healed, otherwise better luck in heaven. These are broad generalizations, but you get the idea.
Hence we have an entire generation of the spiritual not religious, because if Jesus is only love, and we should deny the body, why do we need to gather and/or embody Christ through the church? The church doesn’t embody Christ, in fact, it doesn’t even consider embodiment important, so bodies are–literally–gone from the church. Spiritual but not religious people can do all that from home. So that’s it, they’ll be Spiritual, they don’t need to be religious.
If what we eat, how we care for our bodies, where we are present and how we are active are spiritual activities, then spirituality very quickly turns religious….
Barb Hedges-Goettl suggests to us that a vital piece is missing, and that is the living body of Christ. My question is : If we say Christ’s body is both present in communion and embodied by the church, what does this do to our faith: God is NOT JUST present when we see love, God is calling us to presently embody love as a corporate (ie enfleshed/embodied/living-flesh-corpse) of Christ that is out in the community….I find this especially interesting in a digital world, where embodiment is finding new expression–and yet still nothing beats a face to face meeting (you can’t hug on skype)
“In my dissertation I wrote that faith is about meeting God and God acting upon us. God is the life-changing agent/subject, not the object of belief. The living resurrected Christ changes us; he is not just an example to emulate or the purveyor of an ethic or value”–Barb Hedges-Goettl 
Dr. Barb Hedges-Goettl ‘s thesis is : The Body is Missing: Eucharistic Theology of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Conversation with Zwingli, Calvin, and Nevin” (10107), has been submitted to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in preparation for posting on ProQuest)
PS Shepherd is the best fictional clergy, EVER
katyandtheword 