Life in the Way

Openness, Permeable Boundaries & Forming Community

Saturday’s District Resource Day in the Raritan Valley District featured Eric Law today. Today started the session with a dramatic reading with him and three volunteers. It was a fictional dialog between the four gospel writers. It was humorous, witty, and challenging. Overall, it was well presented, but it was an overview or an entry level presentation.

I have some training in the area because of my counseling background (which tended to focus on the individual or family system) and get frustrated by the entry level stuff because there is so much to multiculturalism. One of my big hang-ups is openness because it is very difficult to talk about openness and permeable boundaries and forming community at the same time.

As a pastor, everyday your dealing with these concepts of forming open, invitational communities versus teaching doctrine (specifically corrective stuff like sin, right and wrong, Jesus is God, etc.) in different size groups from individuals to congregations and different levels of focus (e.g., visitors, non-member regular attenders, members, members non-regular attenders). Sometimes I find myself moving from and individual seeking Christ and church to an administrative function with a large group of weathered saints.

I think this is one of the most difficult aspects of pastoral leadership because at many levels I feel like I am called by God to bring people into the fold. That requires indoctrination, which is not all that open. I think a practical example of this is parenting, I guide my children and at times have to pick them up and take them where I want them to go. And the spectrum runs rich between babes in faith to saints.

So anyway, this morning I got stuck on invitation and openness versus Truth. [Bad mood rant starting... you might want to skip a few sentences. Sorry.]

I guess to frame it kinda detracts from total openness. And my hang-up seemed to be with the lack of frame. The way I understand life is that there is one absolute truth is really Truth. I also can do the mental stretching to understand that the laws of nature itself can be bent by God (e.g., healings, parting of seas, Jesus walking on the water). So, Truth is God’s definition (there I go again not using inclusive words because “definition” requires… well… definition). Anyway, I understand that other philosophies have really good arguments against my starting point, but my point is not to argue those point, but to simply state that I believe that there is an absolute Truth. With that I need only make one point – if there is Truth – then there is/are untruth(s).

[Rant over...] I guess for the purposes of the church, within the church, defining Truth the way we do, the Kaleidoscope Bible Study Process is effective. As I think about it, to me it is a form of Lectio Davina.

Over the past year, our church has experienced this process at a couple of levels. Our leadership group was led in the process our District Superintendent, Rev. Veronica Palmer. We also used the process on Sunday during worship with everyone.

Here is the process:

1. Read the Respectful Communication Guidelines and invite members of the group to affirm them for their time together.

R=take RESPONSIBILITY for what you say and feel without blaming others.
E=use EMPATHETIC listening.
S=be SENSITIVE to difference in communication styles.
P = PONDER what you hear and feel before you speak.
E = EXAMINE your own assumptions and perceptions.
C = keep CONFIDENTIALITY.
T = TRUST ambiguity because we are not here to debate who is right or wrong.

2. Inform participants that the Bible passage will be read three times. After each reading, participants will be invited to share their reflections.

FIRST READING

3. Invite participants to capture a word, a phrase or image when listening to the passage the first time.

4. Invite someone to read the passage.

5. A moment of silence to capture a word, a phrase or image that stood out from the passage for them.

6. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her word, phrase or image briefly. (This should take no more than 5 minutes.)

7. Invite participants to consider the second question appointed for this passage. (Facilitator should prepare ahead of time a question that is relevant to participants’ context.)

8. Invite someone to read the passage a second time.

9. A moment of silence to reflect on the question.

10. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.

11. Invite participants to consider the following question while listening to the passage again.
“What does God invite you to do, be or change through this passage?”

12. Invite someone to read the passage a third time.

13. A moment of silence to reflect on the question.

14. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.

End the session with a prayer circle:

Invite participants to join hands in a circle. Invite each person to mentally complete the sentences:
I thank God today . . .
I ask God today . . .
The leader will begin by sharing his or her prayers. After he or she has shared, the leader then squeezes the hand of the person to the right. That will be the signal for the next person to share his or her prayers. If the person does not want to share, he or she can simply pass the pulse to the next person. When the pulse comes back to the leader, he or she can begin the Lord’s Prayer and invite everyone to join in. (from Eric Law)

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Tags: Bible Study, District Resource Day, Eric Law, Multiculturalism, Rant, Theology