Your First Sunday Back

Your First Sunday Back

by | Jun 1, 2020

“What should we focus on during our first Sunday back in the building?” someone recently asked me. “Celebration,” I said, without thinking. “Celebrate who you have become through this pandemic.  A crisis of this proportion has expanded your capacity.  Own it. Celebrate what you accomplished together. Even if, and especially if, you have sustained losses. Don’t let their passing be without meaning.”

The scriptures lay out a history of celebration in the midst of national trauma. The Passover celebration took place in the wake of a dozen plagues. Both Moses and Miriam led the Israelites in song and dance after crossing the Red Sea. Even the song was sung at contemporary Passover Seders, Dayenu (translated “it would have been enough”), is a litany of God’s faithfulness in light of an unspeakable tragedy.

In this article, I am going to share the three steps to celebrate your first Sunday back even as COVID-19 continues to spread. Just as importantly, I’m going to share a bonus step with you about how to not waste a good crisis.

Celebrate Your First Sunday Back

On your first Sunday back, a celebration is highly appropriate.  But when you celebrate, make sure that you don’t focus on God’s faithfulness to the exclusion of your own. God’s faithfulness means nothing if you don’t join in the dance with God. Likewise, your readiness means nothing if you have missed God’s cues. Celebrate your wins as a mutual partnership with the Divine.

Remember the Journey

As you prepare to celebrate, first, highlight the events and turning points that led you to this moment. For instance, when and how did you make the decision to go online?  When and how did you throw caution to the wind (figuratively speaking, of course) so that you could quickly organize for worship outside the building?  When and how did you decide the way you would make online giving available?  Online pastoral care?  Online missions? How did you reach out to your community?  What ministries have continued unabated?  Who has been involved in these decisions and ministries?

Gather these memories as stones on a journey, markers of the terrain you have traveled. But don’t stop there. Reflect, too, on the spiritual lessons the pandemic has taught you.  Think about the funerals, memorial services, and weddings you may have performed. What did you learn about the value of community? The value of presence? Gather these memories to share as well.

Finally, consider those who have served your congregation and community with kindness, skill, and passion. Be sure to lift them up in prayer, celebrating their integrity and sacrifice.

Choose Your Words with Intention for Your First Sunday Back

Second, as you select which memories to share, be intentional about word choice. You are crafting a narrative that will live on in the minds and hearts of the people. How you frame your communal story sets the stage for what comes next. Instead of getting caught in the post-pandemic blues, set the stage for your next vision and the next stage of growth.

Three steps to celebrate your 1st Sunday back at church. Read more here: Click To Tweet

Growth and Gaps

Not everything you recall will be cause for celebration. Doubtless, you goofed up on some things.  You mishandled a challenging situation or relationship. Probably you let some things slip through the cracks. So, third, find ways to acknowledge the gaps as well as the growth. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Both the gaps and the growth can lead to your deepened skill as a leader, and your deepened faith as a congregation.

Forty Days of Apostleship: Can We Rise Again?

Forty Days of Apostleship: Can We Rise Again?

by | Apr 6, 2020

This is an Easter like no other. With COVID-19 impacting everything, from the way we shop to the way we worship-life has been upended. Initially, I had hoped that by Easter, we could be out and about again. Hoped that life could return to some semblance of normal, that the curve could be flattened. It seemed like a good plan, a hopeful goal until it was clear that it wasn’t to be. We can learn a lot from 40 days of Apostleship.

This disappointment has given me pause. I’m no different than the disciples—they, too, hoped for a quick Kingdom victory. Instead, they lost Jesus to crucifixion. After, the disciples hid in fear—we are sheltering in place. The disciples feared they had no future—we are consumed by constant bad news. The disciples did not know about Jesus’ resurrection; we are agnostic about when and how this nightmare ends.

We say we are an Easter people, but the persistent question is, can we rise again?

It's not easy to maintain a strong belief in possibility in the face of frightening news. Even the disciples had a hard time with it. Click To Tweet

Forty Days of Apostleship 

As we complete these 40 Days of Apostleship, we have focused on expanding our faith from believing in Jesus to believing like Jesus. As we explore Jesus’ beliefs, we have identified six key ones. 

Today we come to the sixth of his most important beliefs: Jesus believed that he would rise again. In other words, Jesus believed in possibility.

Jesus Believed in Possibility 

Several times in the Gospels, he confided in his disciples that things would get very dark, very bleak. However, the light would dawn again. Jesus told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days He will rise.” Mark 9:31

Not only did Jesus believe in the possibility for himself, he thought it for his disciples. He told them that even though they would all scatter once he was threatened, he would still be there for them. “But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Mark 14:28 Indeed, he met them on the path as they headed back to Galilee.

Soulful Step 

Right now, right here—amid disappointment and social disconnection—it’s time to up your faith in a positive, albeit unseen, future. The bleaker the circumstances, the more critical it is to believe in possibility. Besides practicing social distancing, washing your hands, and taking other precautionary measures, thinking in opportunity is the most critical thing you can do right now.

Embrace the Belief  

As your soul makes room for this new level of belief in possibility, use the DARE model to embrace and embody the idea. Adapted from Dream Like Jesus: Deepen Your Faith and Bring the Impossible to Life, this model invites you to use your imagination to call forth something new into being.

DARE to Dream

DREAM:

  1. Begin to dream now of what a positive future could look like.
  2. Focus on your future habits, gratitudes, family life, or congregational structure.
  3. Consider how the pandemic will bear good fruit for the state of medicine, community services, and the health of the earth.
  4. Allow the Holy Spirit, rather than the newscasters, to shape your vision and guide your thoughts.

ALIGN: Align yourself with God by receiving divine courage, comfort, and confidence to dare to dream. Then invite others into your dream of a new future by sharing it out loud. One caution: don’t share your sacred vision with naysayers whose only interest is in doom and gloom.

REALIZE: We have realized just how precious our human connection is. Precisely because they are sheltering in place, one friend is hosting weekly neighborhood potlucks by Zoom. My own four siblings and I are gathering weekly with my parents via House Party. This week, we’ll have an online Passover Seder. It’s been years since we’ve all been together on holiday. I dream that after the pandemic has passed, we’ll continue our precious new habit.

EXPAND: Watch how one good idea expands into others. Watch how spirits rise, buoyed on the life-giving stream of possibility. To broaden your dream, even more, collage, paint, or draw it. Engaging in this level of imagination isn’t wasted. Nor is it pie in the sky. This expression of possibility is co-creation with God.

Apostolic Action

Build your resilience to fear, resignation, and hopelessness by carrying good news on your lips. Resist the temptation to repeat the latest talking heads’ talking points. Instead, make it a point to note that He is Risen. And that we too will rise again. We will.

I know it’s not easy to maintain a strong belief in possibility in the face of frightening news. Even the disciples had a hard time with it. 

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe Your Life Has Purpose

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe Your Life Has Purpose

by | Mar 23, 2020

The world has altered dramatically since Ash Wednesday and the launch of this Forty Days of Apostleship. The rapid spread of this current scourge has changed everything—restricting or shutting down many public spaces, including churches.

Now that Christians have effectively been kicked out of the nest, church doors clanging shut behind them, it’s time for you and your people to take on the mantle of the apostle you are! No more hiding behind the safety of numbers in worship or the protection of the pews. Your people were thrust out into the world. It’s a scary place to be!

That means people are looking to you to continue to teach them. This is your moment. They need you, and they know they need you. There will be no assurance from the news or the government. They will be looking to their faith.

You can give them the deep connection they are longing for by empowering them to believe like Jesus. That’s the mark of an apostle.

Jesus Believed in His Purpose

What did Jesus believe? In his divine partnership with God, he believed that his prayers had power and that he had superpowers. Most importantly, Jesus believed his life had a purpose.

And Jesus handed that purpose to you. Your job is to embrace the belief that he had. And to share it with others. So how do you believe like Jesus, and how does that lead to action? Use the following process to deepen your faith and that of the people you lead.

Jesus believed his life had purpose and he handed that purpose to you. Your job is to embrace the belief he had and share it with others. Click To Tweet

Soulful Steps: Jesus’ Four-Part Process

Jesus’ life reveals a four-part process of identifying purpose in the Gospels. Take, for example, this story of healing in Luke 4:40-44.

At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness and laying his hands on each one, and he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Messiah. At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him, and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns because that is why I was sent.” And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

You can see the four-part process and how it connects you with Jesus and the purpose of this story.

Part One—Doing What You Love

What deeply engages you, comes easily, is natural for you, and serves the greater good? That’s (at least one of) your purpose (s). In this story, Jesus was laying hands on people who were sick and ailing—physically and spiritually. He healed them and cast out demons that were tormenting them.

Part Two—Challenges Arise

Something contrary to your purpose happens. Identify what pulls you off course or causes you to settle for a lesser good. In Jesus’ life, the people he had healed came back to beg him to stay with them. Understandably, they didn’t want him to go.

Part Three—Clarity Emerges

Contrary or challenging conditions make you get clear on your purpose. In this Gospel story, Jesus answers the people, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also because that is why I was sent.” In other words,—No can do. I have other places to go and people to heal.

Part Four—Clarity Leads to Action

This chain of events makes the way clear for you to take action. We see it in Jesus’ life: “He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

Embrace the Belief that Your Life Has Purpose

To embrace the belief that your life has a purpose, personalize the process by writing out these steps:

First, write out the things that come naturally and easily to you and serve a greater good.

Second, write out situations that have arisen contrary to the things you noted in step one.

Third, note what you have found yourself saying or thinking that points you back to your purpose.

Fourth, write what actions you have taken or can take that align with your life’s purpose.

Apostolic Action

Get into action! Say YES! to requests, needs, and circumstances that are consistent with your life’s purpose, or create the conditions in which the world needs your gifts.

But don’t worry if you are not crystal clear on your purpose. I remember when I was agonizing over my call. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, but I didn’t. One day it occurred to me that my gifts were my path. God would not have called me to a path that I wasn’t prepared for. Just as Jesus’ purpose is in his gifts, your purpose will be too.

If all else fails, act as though you do have a purpose. And that what you are currently involved in reveals some aspect of your purposeful life. “All things work for the good of those who love the Lord and are called to God’s purpose.”

Don’t Let The Scourge Discourage You.

Above all, don’t let the scourge discourage you! You are not alone!