[Dialogue] Did NOT WORK????

Mon Mar 10 15:43:20 EDT 2008

>From Janice Ulangca
A fascinating thread.  And started by a provacative statement (did not work) that compelled many to say "DID TOO!" and talk about how.   So no apologies, please, Jim.  

Here's my take on what is happening.  Bits and pieces of the many things the local church/galaxy (LCX) strategy tried to do are popping up in many places.  It is interesting to me to name some of these bits and pieces, starting with what's been mentioned in this thread. I'll also include, in blue, what each does not have that the LCX had, at its best.
  a.. Helping people to grasp the significance of their faith in a complicated and global world.  Boy, do congregations, young people, all of us continually, ever need this!  Exciting resources I've bumped into:  For theological grounding, materials put out by the Living the Questions folks, started by two young United Methodist pastors in the Phoenix area.  After the original Living the Question series done locally for a summertime ecumenical group of 30 in 2005, I'm now part of a weekday small group that's using the DVD series called "Saving Jesus"  (basically "saving Jesus" from contemporary irrelevance).  It's terrific, with Jack Spong, Marcus Borg, Dominic Crossan, Matthew Fox, the wonderful Amy Jill Levine, Brandon Scott, Bill Nelson, Sr. Helen Prejean, many others, going at it full-tilt with their best fairly brief  comments.  I would characterize this as "recent scholarship and the 2008 relevance and enormous excitement of the Jesus Way - for thinking people".  Excellent printed quotes and questions go with it.  What this series does not do is move on to specific mission.
  b.. Theological basis for relating to non-Christian spiritual traditions.  I remember the story JWM told of the three old men walking together in India - Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and seeing that he and the other two were elders drawing from different wells but tapping into the same underground water stream (living water).  The Network of Spiritual Progressives, founded by Rabbi Michael Lerner, is doing great work in relating interfaith depth spiritual tradition to the biggest issues of our century. Another summer's ecumenical discussion on Lerner's book "The Left Hand of God"  found great insights, broad global context, and exciting specific proposals.  The national NSP organization (very interfaith - co-chaired by Sr. Joan Chittester and Cornell West) is actively working on some of these proposals.  To my limited knowledge, what they do not yet have is the most powerful methods to enable broad participation and strategic focus to target the most catalytic places.  Excellent methods were characteristics of the LCX at its best. One place strategic approaches have continued to be enriched is through the movemental spin-off, the IAF - International Association of Facilitators.
  c.. What if the new form of the local church is all those inventive community based ngo and non profits??  On the side of being Mission, every time I get Harvard Business Review I am overwhelmed by their embrace of a sort of wedge blade consciousness.  Organizations written up in Harvard Business Review are generally terrific in terms of management, measurable objectives, at least some aspects of global context, strategies.  They may, in secular terms, draw on some of the same deep wisdom that is available through great religious traditions.  But they may have weaknesses in terms of relating to Biblical justice, of drawing on deep wells of commitment, and the vision of resource accessability to "every person on the planet" is probably limited.  Current work of ICA International carries on movemental  justice traditions of passionate work on behalf of the most vulnerable; they work with courage and very effective use of resources. Their vision involves developing the potential of every person and community on the planet, via accessibility to the best learning and planning methods and strategic resources.  Effective global interchange is important to their strategies.
  d.. Still, what other structure is reaching out to do the congregating task in a context welcoming of the ongoing and future activity of G - O - D as well as the past activity (as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be . . .)  Ah - this is where the local faith congregation seems to me to be irreplaceable.  These days I find myself passionately interested in local church renewal, being "the secular religious",  and ecumenical/interfaith insights on actions vital to the planet's future.  Faith communities can provide crucial context and depth motivation for working on key issues, including political decisions.  Serious spiritual disciplines, soaring worship, learning opportunities, and effective, strategic missional engagement are rarely found in one place but can be found here and there in congregations.  We are thankful when we can grow and serve in such a faith community.  The LCX at its best also had an interchange mechanism that shared struggles, victories, and "best practices."  There was a sense of the whole moving together that I do not find other places.  Perhaps this can be reinvented for the 21st century?
      With profound gratitude for all this and much more,
      Janice Ulangca

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: James Wiegel 
  To: Colleague Dialogue 
  Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:08 AM
  Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Did NOT WORK????

  I apologize, I just thought, from some old documents that the point was not for us each to be IN ONE, but somehow to make a difference in the form and structures of the MANY, MANY OF THEM  around the country and the world.  I thought the insight, coming out of the experience of Joe and Joe in the war was that many lay people (soldiers) did not have a very good ability to grasp the significance of their faith in a complicated and global world.

  Re:  Randy's comment:  What if the new form of the local church is all those inventive community based ngo and non profits??  On the side of being Mission, every time I get Harvard Business Review I am overwhelmed by their embrace of a sort of wedge blade consciousness.

  Still, what other structure is reaching out to do the congregating task in a context welcoming of the ongoing and future activity of G - O - D as well as the past activity (as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be . . .)

  Wilson Priscilla <pwilson at teamtechinc.com> wrote:
    ala Niebuhr...I would say that I am in a "church" today. We claim to be mission church on Mission Road...and we work to fulfill that claim. Plus we are pushing to put a theological base under that. We are fortunate to be where we are. 
    Priscilla Wilson

    On Mar 10, 2008, at 7:58 AM, R Williams wrote:

      Where do we find the "church" (ala Niebuhr) today?  It is seems not to be, with some noteworthy exceptions, the cigar boxes with steeples, and I am "in a church" to use Dick's words.  Randy

      Richard Alton <dick_alton at hotmail.com> wrote: 
        Margaret, you must be right! The only problem with Jim is that he is not in a church! Dick

        Richard H.T. Alton International Consultants and Associates 'building global bridges' 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:1.773.344.7172 richard.alton at gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back Babe Ruth

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          From: aiseayew at netins.net
          To: dialogue at wedgeblade.net
          Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 20:06:59 -0500
          Subject: [Dialogue] Did NOT WORK????

          Jim, surely you did not say that.  Some one of those fundamentally sinful people John mentioned commandeered your computer, right?

          I just finished a four meeting strategic planning with my smallest congregation.  There are only fifteen members.  We met with never more than seven at a session through blizzards, ice storms, blizzards and frigid cold.  Only one member (and myself) were at every session.  Ten of the fifteen were there for at least one session.  They struggled with vision, but they really got into the contradictions and concluded that they were not out to declare the Word with every activity of the church and that they had not embraced the new challenges of their diversity.  This was in adddition to confessing that they were tired and skeptical of a plan that might demand more than they had left to offer.

          I could talk about the authenticity of this process and struggle for hours.  I couldn't be more proud.  We decided on two new events, a regular study that will last six weeks starting after Easter and two Family Fun Saturday afternoons that will reach out to the whole neighborhood.  We'll evaluate in six months and see where we are.  That they managed to move off the dime is miraculous.  That the church has been their sustenance for centuries, that they are still sustaining it and waiting, willingly praying is equally miraculous.

          The journey to Jerusalem never ends.  We are once again on our way to Jerusalem and I have been asking for most of a lifetime of myself and others if we were ready, truly ready for the crucifixion. This last week I was so sick with the flu and trying to take a relationship to Lazarus' story that it felt like a mighty intervention of the father himself and his question has been, Are we ready for the resurrection?
            ----- Original Message ----- 
            From: James Wiegel 
            To: Colleague Dialogue 
            Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 12:30 PM
            Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Fine editorial

            too bad the local church / galaxy strategy did not work.  There would be ecclesiolas in every "cigar box with a steeple" at every cross roads and local caring people all across the country would have  access to a deeper formation in what is going on than seems currently available re:  depth study, reflection, conversation, etc.  

            John Cock <jpc2025 at triad.rr.com> wrote: 
              Amen! to a fine editorial, Diann. Thanks. 

              But believe there is and will be more villainous, depraved, and vicious stuff coming than just slurs about racism, sexism, religionism, Christianity-ism, USA-ism, military-industry-ism, party-ism, and my-candidate-ism. Hate, divisiveness, and profiteering can't wait to get out of the box -- with campaign permission -- and go crazy.

              Is this sort of evil potentially in all of us? Nah! Sounds like hard-core, die-hard, fundamental sin to me.

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              From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of McCabe, Diann A
              Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 12:11 PM
              To: dialogue at wedgeblade.net
              Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Fact Check re: Obama

              Nicholas Kristof says what I had wanted to say:

              http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/opinion/09kristof.html?th&emc=th

              --Diann McCabe
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