May 16, 2008
Yesterday, I was thinking about what season I’m in and the questions that arise in this time. It came to me that I and the community I am hoping will grow are very much like the bonsai tree. I’ve grown a deep appreciation for this growing technique which produces such a beautiful beautiful tree that is small but so ancient looking… makes you stop and sit with it for a while. Strong trunk and roots… grown with much care. There is a need to shape, wire, prune, and guide, but not too much or it will die. And yet not enough and it will grow out of control and gangly. Patience… care… water… right soil… right pot… It’s all so complicated. But the best thing is time. Just keep it alive.
I feel like this is where I am. I’d rather start the guiding and the shaping early, so that I take on a beautiful
shape from the beginning rather than having to correct when correcting is so much more difficult. I would rather prune early so that I become full and green rather than getting stretched thin and having to regrow. But it never stops and it takes so much time.
So I am going to look for bonsai trees again. It has been a long time (I wasn’t ready before), but I am ready to have this image, this responsibility again in my life.
May 14, 2008
Everyone knows the phrase “If you build it, they will come.” Field of Dreams. Too often it seems that churches slip into this mentality that if they just offer the right program, get the right pastor, play the right music, people will find enough interest to keep coming back. I grit my teeth as I wonder at what kind of community this creates.
Our Sunday night worship Gathering (5:30 Heritage Hall) just made the move from my house to Heritage hall as we expand and get more creative with how we might gathering and grow our community. We have been asking the questions about “Why we Do what we Do…” (INTRO HERE) We have been addressing every element to our gatherings and to “church worship” and assessing whether we have good reasons for doing what we do. This week we talked about “Sacred Space… Why do we meet here?”
In regards to building something that will attract people, we all cringed as we thought about this. We don’t just want to have people come because they want a hip, trendy, artsy, couch-church that doesn’t care if people dress up, swear, or forget to fix their hair. This is not why we create the space that we do.
What we do hope for is a place that tells the story of who we are. We hope for a place where the wonder and magic of God working in our lives is plastered to the walls, dripping from the ceiling, and rising up from the food that we share together. We long to see each other face to face and have a place that encourages us to be at home… in our own bodies, with each other, and with God’s presence among us. It is in “showing up” - present, real, and honest – that the sacred space happens. We desire to meet in Heritage Hall because here we can express who we are and who we hope to be… much different than meeting someone else’s house. That is someone else’s space and we cannot expand into it. The space cannot expand into us.
Our Sunday night Gathering is open to all. We wonder at how people, whether they are comfortable in church or not, will fit in our community. After all, we are in a church (a mark against us with the non-church folks) and yet we are not meeting like a normal “church” (a mark against us with the church-familiar). We long, though, to offer our stories to those who join us and to expand our community story to encompass the story of others as well. Our “Sacred Space,” where we gather, will tell that story… in every way that we can.
May 14, 2008
If we are to hold solitude and community together as a true paradox, we need to deepen our understanding of both poles. Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one’s self. It is not about the absence of other people – it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others. Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other. It is not about the presence of other people – it is about being fully open to the reality of relationship, whether or not we are alone.
~Parker J. Palmer
May 12, 2008
7:00pm Bend Brewing Company Tonight
Gathering once again we wonder together over the questions… the juicy ones… the questions that we don’t get the permission to ask, but perhaps we ponder more often than we care to admit. Questions that keep us awake at night. Questions that we keep coming back to and our answers keep changing when we are up and when we are down.
Our Bard for the evening, Bruce Schweitzer will give us the invitation into the question of the evening… and a rich one it is.
There will be story… there will be beer. Guests from Seattle, Portland… parker, our founding knucklehead will be joining in the hosting | priesting | holding of the space.
If you have written anything that you may feel inclined to share, bring it along… our space is open and safe enough for sharing.
So bring yourself… and bring any others who might feel so inclined to BE with us.
May you find your shepherd-ness in the midst of the knucklehead,
Nate
May 8, 2008
As I think ahead to our conversation for our Sunday Night Gathering and the conversation that will inevitably unfold so many things come to mind. Questions… why on earth do we do what we do when it comes to church? How is it that Christians place so much significance on this same way of gathering in worship centers and sanctuaries… when it seems to be so vastly different than what someone from outside the church feels comfortable with?
We face the front… we stare at the backs of heads in front of us. We are forced to listen… to usually two people with microphones, the pastor and the worship leader. We don’t get much freedom to talk… except on cue, when we are singing, reading liturgy, or when they tell us to say hi to the person next to us. Do we ever get to ask questions? Maybe in our own heads… but how could we disagree with the person with the mic? After all, he (usually a he) has been to seminary and maybe even has a doctorate. Stages, lights, microphones, pews, rows, big screens… what does it all mean and why is it so significant?
I wonder what we think worship is… what community is… what teaching is… if this is mostly all that we know. So is this space sacred, or is it just the place where we get our weekly fill of “the gospel” or “the word?”
Our Sunday night Gathering has been meeting in my house for the last six months. Before that, we were at church in different places, trying to figure a way of feeling at home. Church was too sterile and too big for us. It wasn’t OUR
space. The house worked for a while… but now it is too small. And it is MY space, not the community’s. There has been some contention as to whether we should move into another house… but again I say, it is not OUR
space. I am deeply passionate about moving into a space that we can feel the freedom and vision to expand
into… that we can create.
I have begun to see that if we cannot find the sacredness in the normal, the common, most of our attempts to experience God in the spectacular are close to fabricated. There is something about gathering together in a place that is common… yet in its normal-ness… becomes sacred. I think to Genesis 28, where Jacob dreams that he sees a ladder extending into the heavens and messengers from God ascend and descend. His conclusion is that this place is “AWESOME!!” and that God truly was there… and he didn’t know it. He creates a memorial there… not out of anything spectacular, but out of the stone that he used for his pillow.
So my question for anyone who wants to dialog is this: What is | was YOUR Space? What is the space where the magic happens or the energy is felt? And does it matter how we create the space we gather in as community?
