.Top Ten.

As I approach ministry in an internship site in the fall and professionally (in two years, G-dwilling), I found this to be of serious help and importance. Written by my pastor/mentor, Emily Joye, for a friend's ordination, she posted this on facebook. (If you re-post, please give credit where credit is due.)


What's most important to know for the work of ministry... a top 10 list:

1. It's more important to embody the ethic of Jesus than it is to preach the ethic of Jesus. Incarnating Christ in your body, in all your interactions/words/deeds/relationships (at home and at work and in the streets) is the living witness the world needs. Hence an open mind/body/soul to the Holy Spirit should be the pastor's number one priority which is impossible if you're running around trying to fulfill every obligation under the sun. A posture of humility toward God and the ability to say "no" will preserve you.

2. People's responses to you (especially the things about you that are 'minority' in any context: color, gender, denomination, etc) are about them and not about you. Figure out who you can trust, people whose feedback is honest, genuine, and faithful whether their feedback is affirmative or critical. Listen to them and change accordingly. But do not give yourself over to any old person's opinion.

3. People will outsource their spirituality to you. Don't let them. Big difference between a missionary and a steward. I think too often, because of ego (savior complex b/c we don't trust God), we try to be missionaries when we should be stewards. "Equipping the saints for ministry..." in Ephesians 4. Not "saving the saints for ministry..."

4. Preach the context of the text as much as the meaning of the text. The biblical illiteracy in our society is epidemic and has given way too much license for foolishness in God's name.

5. If you quit growing spiritually, you will be of no use to God. Stay disciplined in the practices that connect you to the Holy Spirit.

6. Good colleagues/friends will save your life--especially colleagues with a sense of humor that can laugh HARD with you. Have a select few that you can tell *everything.* Get together often with them and let it all hang out.

7. The Church is not God. If you start feeling like you're serving a religious institution to the peril of faithfulness to the Living God: quit.

8. Do things that have nothing to do with ministry when you feel burned out: read a novel, walk outside, listen to music, play with your kids, etc. A little time away can work wonders.

9. Don't EVER sacrifice your family.

10. Even when it feels scary, horrifying, too big, too much--speak/be the truth. You will only do this if faith in God's revelation is more important to you than human approval. It's not for the faint of heart but it is life sustaining, life changing, and life-saving practice for you and those you serve.

.on the brink of pentecost.

"My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them. My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul. What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.”

(Barbara Brown Taylor, from An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith)

.really live- not merely exist.

This prayer/poem/scripture by Howard Thurman is a constant source of strength and joy and challenge in my life. Finding it particularly helpful and relevant these days...

(This image is of the poem as it hangs on the wall next to my bed. I wrote it out and emphasized the words with color. In case it's hard to read, you can read it in full here.)

.covenant.

For those of you who don't know, I recently accepted a field education position at Community Congregational Church of Belvedere-Tiburon. This means that during the next school year, I will intern with this church as a "Minister-in-training" (which sounds ridiculous, but that's the legit term) for 15 hours a week... in addition to taking three other classes and a seminar class in which we process our experience.

This past Sunday I went to CCC so the pastor/my mentor, Rev. Dr. Curran Reichert, could introduce me to the congregation. I was welcomed with so many open arms, it brought me to tears. They are so excited to have me and I cannot express how mutual that feeling is.

On top of this introduction, they were also welcoming three new members into the fold. As part of this ritual, the congregation recited together the covenant, which might be the most eloquent/poetic covenant I've ever read. It says this:

To live out the questions together hand in hand,

supporting the fragile,

protecting the wounded,

giving the angered space and time,

dancing with the freed,

celebrating moments of balance and 

not fearing the unfolding of imbalance. 

Believing in the power of God's revelation

we share a living awareness

that faith and hope and love

are the inhaling and exhaling of life...

...as necessary and real as the air we breathe. 

Therefore, while praying, studying, working

and celebrating together

we shall experience the moments

of our lives in the spontaneous response

to the call of God. 

This was written sometime in the 1960s or 70s but is still incredibly present and visible in the community today. I am thrilled to be embarking on this internship experience with this church. Here's to a year of growth, change, transformation, and joy! 

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

                 .wendell berry.