Global Ministries: MMI Training

This past Sunday I was one of five members of First Christian Church Scottsdale to attend the Ministry and Mission Interpreters (MMI) Training down in Casa Grande. The Arizona Region sponsored this Global Ministries event and it was terrific! Churches from all over Arizona gathered to learn more about Global Ministries and how we are already a part of their mission and what ways we can become even further involved in the good work they are doing on behalf of the Kingdom of God!

A quick word of back-story: Global Ministries is the common witness of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ responsible for nurturing relationships with international partners on behalf of Disciples and the UCC.

The MMI Training The interpreters are the extended staff of Global Ministries, joining our partners in the US and across the world. The purpose of the MMI Training is to create a ripple effect of raising awareness and passion for mission in the local church by training others to tell the stories and use the  resources of Global Ministries. 

Several very tangible things are going to come out of this training (Global Ministries Sunday in the fall, new updates on our weekly prayer list, new mission partners to work with, etc). Stay tuned for all the good news coming from Global Ministries...and be sure to check out their excellent website at www.globalministries.org

Here are a handful of pictures from the event:

Al Beasley is comissioned as a Ministry and Mission Interpreter by Bob Shebeck the
Global Ministries Executive for Mission Interpretation and Constituency Relationships

 Cecile Duhnke receives communion from Denny Williams (Arizona Regional Minister) and 

Manuel Tovar (President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Mexico)

Me, Bob Shebeck, Al Beasley, and Cecile Duhnke posing next to the Global Ministries display

Newsbrief: From the GMP

I’m going to turn over this space to our denomination’s General Minister and President, the Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins.

This week she used her blog to talk about the death of Osama bin Laden. Her reflections capture some of what I’ve been wrestling with since the news became public, and I thought some of you might be wrestling with the same things. So I wanted to share her pastoral, prophetic words with you all.

Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian

Life, Hope and Love

By Sharon Watkins on 5/4/2011 11:10 AM

The death of Osama Bin Laden gives rise to conflicting emotions. There’s a kind of relief – even gladness – that he’s finally out of the picture.  There is a sense of completion that a goal, long set, is now accomplished - maybe that’s partly where the celebrations have come from.  There’s renewed sadness as memories of 9/11 come flooding back - I can’t imagine what it’s like for the people who lost loved ones in the attacks, who live with these memories every single day.  There’s renewed gratitude for the people who were the first responders on 9/11.  Gratitude for those who stepped up to answer their nation’s call to respond in the various ways, right or wrong, our leaders have felt necessary.


But there’s also a troubled sense that violent death is not cause for celebration. Bin Laden’s life was itself a testimony to the devastation that fear and hate bring when they overcome the forces of life and hope. If I am honest, I have to admit that I resonate with the decision to search him out. But I also know that violence begets violence, and though his death brings a kind of closure to a decade-long search, it will bring its own retribution. The cycle of violence is likely to continue. Others will lose their lives before this tale is completely told.


Maybe that’s ultimately in part why Jesus told us to love our enemies. Not just for the principle of the matter, but also because in practice, hate will circle back and strike at us again.


In the midst of these conflicting emotions, there is the reality that we can choose which ones we act on. Jesus witnessed to the power of love and life. He brought his message into a violent and repressive empire. He expected his followers to resist evil with all their strength – but not by adopting evil’s methods of fear and hate. He called his followers to love at all times and to call upon the power of love to overcome evil, thereby being the sign posts of God’s empire of healing, hope and wholeness.


I understand that Jesus’ way is impossibly idealistic. But there is an idealism of violence that should be recognized as well. It was hate and violence that created Bin Laden in the first place. New instances of destruction and loss will result from his violent death. The relief and rejoicing of the moment will give way to sorrow another day.


So I wonder if, in the midst of the relief and the reflection, there can also be some renewed commitment to Jesus’ way of love and to God’s reign of wholeness. Not in a soft way, but in a tough, overcoming evil way. I wonder if we can take this moment to re-commit to becoming experts in using life-giving, peace-making techniques to overcome fear and hate. Even in our own communities can we seek out those who some might consider our enemies and learn how to treat them with love?


I cannot honestly say today that I grieve Osama Bin Laden’s death. Even so I am grieving. That in the life of Bin Laden and in his death, the ways of violence and death, for a moment, triumphed over the ways of Jesus. It is my prayer that this moment can become the moment where we make up our minds to be extremists for the powers of life, hope and love, where we recommit to being a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.

Whiteboard: Road to Emmaus

On the third Sunday of Easter we continue with the Resurrection Experiences of Christ's first followers.

This Sunday's Gospel reading is another one of those mysterious, "They don't recognize Jesus at first" texts. Two of Jesus' disciples are on their way to Emmaus disheartened and taking stock of the recent events (Christ has been crucified, the woman have visited the empty tomb and shared their testimony). Suddenly they realize that there is a stranger traveling with him. The disciples share the news of Jesus' death and then this stranger (who is Christ the Lord!) teaches them about all the things that have happened and their reason for occurring beginning all the way back with the prophets.

Yet somehow they still do not see him!

It isn't until they share a meal together and Christ took the bread, blessed it,broke it, and gave it to them (sound familiar?) that their eyes are open and they realize the presence of Christ in their midst.

It is an extraordinary story from Luke 24:13-35 and it will serve as the central focus of our worship service this coming week. See you Sunday!

Newsbrief: Thank You!

There are so many people to thank.

And I’ll do my best to thank them all!

Last week was a truly wonderful time in our church, and there were so many folks working so hard to make it happen. I want to take a moment and say thank you to everyone who helped make Holy Week and Easter Sunday so very special. There are surely some names that I will miss, but please know that I appreciate everything that everyone did to make it all happen. Ready? Here we go!

Thank you to our youth who lead the Palm Processional to kick-off Palm Sunday (coming off their overnight stay to cap off the Prayer Vigil no less!) and to their advisors for helping pull it off. Thank you to all of our readers for the Passion Narrative – Al, Mike, Judy, Bob, Charlie, Patty, Marilyn, Carrie, Monica, and Sandi.

Thank you to DWM for hosting the potluck dinner on Maundy Thursday and to Kay for bringing the deviled eggs (always a favorite of mine!). Thank you to the Elders for leading us through the Service of Tenebrae so powerfully – Julie, Carrie, Al, Monica, Mike, Judy, and Patti.

Thank you to everyone involved in all of the special music during Holy Week – the Chancel Choir, the Praise Band, the Maundy Thursday Trio (Julie, Sandi, Nancy), the Easter Brass, and especially Doug for pulling it all together (and writing all of the Brass parts!).

Thank you to the Decorating Crew who made all things beautiful and to Dorothy for leading the charge with a whole team of volunteers. Thank you to the Worship Committee (Carrie, Sandi, Dorothy, Bob, and Don) for helping me to organize the services and plot out how everything would come together. Thank you to Janie for doing double duty in the office to pull off the extra worship services (and for working the lights on Maundy Thursday). Thank you to all of our Sound Board Operators, Liturgists, and Presiding Elders. Thank you to Carrie for working so hard behind the scenes to make sure that we had communion all set up and taken care of. Thank you to the Easter Egg Hunt organizers and to everyone who donated eggs and candy (I think Henry ended up with most of it!).

Most of all, thank you to everyone who joined us in worship!

It was a real thrill for me to spend my very first Holy Week and Easter with you all…and I’m looking forward to many, many more over the years!

Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian

Whiteboard: Doubt

Did you know that Easter is more than just one day?

In the worship life of the church Easter is in fact an entire season that runs from Easter Sunday clear until Pentecost...that is SEVEN full weeks!

In the Season of Easter our scripture readings lead us through a series of resurrection appearances by Christ. The first resurrection appearance is probably the most well known of them all: Christ appearing to "Doubting" Thomas.

I've never much liked that nickname for Thomas. Partly because it seems unfair to label a man's entire life based one thing he said (and miss everything else that he accomplished and the transformation that kicked it all off!). Partly because I'm not sure that doubt was even the root-cause of Thomas' questionable reaction to the Disciples who had seen Christ. And partly because it means we completely miss the powerful way the text speaks directly to us!

We'll cover all that ground and more this coming Sunday. In the meantime you can spend some time with our scripture readings: Psalm 16 and John 20:19-31.

Newsbrief: Holy Week

I was flipping through worship materials this week, when I found this.

It is an old hymn written by Barton Stone, one of the founders of what would become the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). As soon as I read through it I wanted to share it with you all.

As we travel through Holy Week on our way to the victory of Easter Sunday, this hymn is Barton Stone’s answer to the question, “What should we learn from the cross?”

And his answer?

Well, his answer is in the very first line of the hymn, “Behold the love, the grace of God.”

Behold the love, the grace of God,

displayed in Jesus precious blood;

my soul’s on fire, it yearns to prove

the fullness of redeeming love.

The cross I view – O wondrous love!

My sins expire, my fears remove;

my native enmity is slain

I’m reconciled – I’m born again.

Our God is love – O, leap, my soul!

Let warm hosannas gently roll!

Love gave a Son to save our race,

and Jesus died through sov’reign grace!

What love has done, sing earth around!

Angels prolong the eternal sound!

Lo, Jesus bleeding on the tree!

There, there, the love of God I see!

Hope to see you on Maundy Thursday (Potluck at 6PM, Worship at 7PM) and Easter Sunday.

Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian

Whiteboard: Holy Week

I wrestled with what to put on the Whiteboard this week.

You see, we have two Worship Services this week, and they couldn't be more different from one another.

Midweek we will have our Maundy Thursday Worship Service (Thursday evening 7PM in the Sanctuary following the 6PM Potluck Dinner in the Fellowship Hall). At that service we will celebrate Christ instituting the Holy Communion at the Last Supper and follow it with a Service of Tenebrae -- a candlelit vigil through scripture that ultimately brings us to the cross.

Then on Sunday, well, that is obviously Easter Sunday! We will celebrate Christ's resurrection, the gift of new life, and that God's love is ultimately more powerful than the death dealing ways of the world.

So what to put on the Whiteboard? Do I split it in two and dedicate half the board to Maundy Thursday and half to Easter Sunday? Do I change it midweek as my focus changes? Can you really right, "Christ is Risen" in big bold letters before the Holy Week worship services are through?

In the end, I decided to focus on the whole week rather than the particular worship services. Which is how we ended up with this...

I hope to see everyone on Maundy Thursday (Potluck at 6PM, Worship at 7PM) and Easter Sunday!

Whiteboard: Palm/Passion Sunday

The long journey of Lent is nearly complete. This coming Sunday will mark the beginning of Holy Week and worship will be marked by the discord at its center. You can even see it in the name of the Worship Service: Palm/Passion Sunday. It isn't often that a "/" makes it into Liturgical Calendar, but this week it does.

In truth, it will probably feel like two worship services, which is generally something you want to avoid but not this coming Sunday. You see, that discordant note is part of the point really.

The first part of the service will be dedicated to Christ's Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. For six weeks now our Gospel readings have been laden with geographic clues, slight references to ancient cities or towns that are easy to skip over and read past. But those geographic references are important because they underline an important theological theme -- Each week during Lent we have drawn closer and closer to Jerusalem. "Jerusalem, O Jerusalem. Where the prophets go to die." Strangely, Jerusalem is where Christ is greeted with a huge celebratory party complete with palm fronds, a donkey ride, and ecstatic shouts of "Hosanna! Hail the Messiah!" It is a wonderful scene...but it is only the first step in this Sunday's worship service.

You see, if you are a Sunday-only kinda worshiper (and most folks are, if even that much) then all you get during Holy Week is a big triumphant celebration (Palm Sunday) followed by an even bigger triumphant celebration that probably has brass instruments accompanying the choir (Easter Sunday). So for the average (even active) churchgoer you miss the entire crucifixion. And in that sense, you miss the power of the resurrection. After all, you can't really celebrate resurrection -- God's power triumphing over the death dealing ways of the world -- if you skip over the whole death thing.

Which is why we have a second part of our worship service this coming Sunday. It is why we have a "/" in the liturgical title. It is where the "Passion" part of Palm/Passion Sunday comes in.

We'll spend the second half of the service retelling the story of Christ's betrayal, sham of a trial, abandonment, humiliation, crucifixion, and death. If it sounds like a sharp U-turn to make in the worship service, well, it is. And I've always been of the opinion that it should be. It is part of the point of the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem that it is so suddenly and so sharply cast aside in the face of the cross. We'll experience that whiplash induced shift in the worship service this Sunday...but I don't want to say too much about how we'll do it for fear of spoiling the surprise.

All of that is to explain this week's Whiteboard picture which seeks to capture both the celebratory nature of Palm Sunday as well as the solemnity of the Passion Story. The shadow of the cross lingers behind the palm frond on Palm/Passion Sunday.

I hope to see you in church this Sunday, next Sunday, and on Thursday too for our Maundy Thursday worship service at 7PM following our Potluck Dinner at 6PM.

{ps My thanks to Barry for buying me a set of more colorful Whiteboard markers. He's usually the first one to see my Whiteboard creations...and make fun of them! Thanks for the new markers, Barry.}

Newsbrief: Prayer Vigil

The Prayer Vigil is coming up next week.

The event will kick-off with our regular Wednesday Noon Prayers and then will continue each day in the Alpha and Omega Rooms until Palm Sunday.

If you haven’t signed up yet (and most folks haven’t!) then please find the sign-up sheets this coming Sunday and pencil your name in on a day and time (or multiple days and times) that work for your schedule.

In thinking about prayer, I always come back to Frederick Buechner’s excellent book Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC. In it he begins his definition of prayer like this:

We all pray whether we think of it as praying or not. The odd silence we fall into when something very beautiful is happening, or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of us as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the skyrocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else’s pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else’s joy. Whatever words or sounds we use for sighing with over our own lives. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to ourselves but to something even more familiar than ourselves and even more strange than the world. According to Jesus, by far the most important thing about praying is to keep at it.

As the Season of Lent rapidly comes to a close, I we will try to “keep at it” through the Prayer Vigil. We will have supplies and resources ready for you, the room all set to go. All we need is your presence and your prayers to help make it happen.

Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian

Whiteboard: Lazarus Come Out!

This coming Sunday we have two familiar texts, each one dealing with the promises of new life that come from God alone. In fact, they are even more powerful than that. They are both about the power of God to bring what was once dead back to life.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 is the story of the Valley of Dry Bones, the very same valley where Ezekiel prophesied to the Lord and miraculously (and rather graphically) them bones, them bones, them dry bones live again.

John 11:1-45 is the story of Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life. It is also the inspiration for the drawing on my Whiteboard this week.

Enjoy the picture, and I hope to see you in church on Sunday morning!