The Missional Church

In an article titled, "The 'Missional Church': A Model for Churches?" David Horrox writes, "The church should stop mimicking the surrounding culture and become an alternative community, with a different set of beliefs, values and behaviors. Ministers would no longer engage in marketing; churches would no longer place primary emphasis on programs to serve members. The traditional ways of evaluating 'successful churches' – bigger buildings, more people, bigger budgets, larger ministerial staff, new and more programs to serve members – would be rejected. New yardsticks would be the norm: To what extent is our church a 'sent' community in which each believer is reaching out to his community? To what extent is our church impacting the community with a Christian message that challenges the values of our secular society?"

Well, that lays out a significant difference between a traditional way of looking at church, and even a growingly popular way of doing church (marketing and programs and measuring "success") and a radically new/ancient way of being the church. Ultimately, to be true to the Gospel, the Church needs a transformation. Not a change, but a transformation. The purpose of the church is not to sell religious goods and services to its clients/members. The purpose of the Church is to be foretaste of God's kin-dom and the means to God's missional ends: healing the earth, ensuring the health and dignity of every person and the abolishment of violent way of dealing with differences.

What would it take for First Plymouth to take such a bold step?

Mission Trip, Day 5

Not too many new pictures today--it's getting hard to fit in downloading pictures among all the activities. We do have a couple, though--of a couple of Cameron guys modeling some clothes from a clothing bank, and of one of our groups at Farm Share, a multi-service organization that serves farming families.

Tomorrow we close out our time in Miami and head south to Key West. There's no telling what kind of internet access there will or won't be there, so posts might increase or cease altogether.

No matter what, though, we'll post some photos at the end of the trip--and of course, there will be a slideshow.

Miami Mission, Day 3

Here are some photos of our trip through today. Blogger is being spiteful, so for now these are presented without specific comment. They are roughly, in order, us from the First Plymouth parking lot through our first day of work (with groups 1 and 2 at the Camillus House soup kitchen and shelter; note the vegetarian youth minister holding a giant hunk of meat), last night's concert by Peruvian/Andean band Kuyayky, and today's jaunt to the beach. And Linda found a coconut! They've named it "Lumpy."

Bienvenido a Miami!

The High School Mission Trip has landed in Miami! We're about 24 hours into our annual mission trip, and we've already had quite a lot of experiences. No pictures yet, since the cameras are still "out in the wild" with the youth, but so far today our youth have worked at Camillus House (a homeless shelter and soup kitchen in downtown Miami; picture at left, and web link above) and with children of farmers in Homestead.

Also on the week's agenda: working with seniors at an Alzheimer's day care, working with nuns at another soup kitchen, and much, much more!

More pictures will be coming soon, as soon as we get the cameras up and running. Tonight's agenda: taco bar and an authentic Andean band! It promises to be a wild one.

Know Your Staff: Cathy Benn

We're starting a new series here on the First Plymouth Blog, called Know Your Staff. We've asked each staff member to answer some questions about themselves, and we've posted the unedited answers here. This edition's star: Cathy Benn!

Name: Cathy Benn

What is your official title? Parish Visitor

What would your title be if all titles were completely honest? What does this title say about your work at First Plymouth? Parish Nurse and Visitor.. Many of peoples concerns are health related. I don't have all the answers by far but I do have a nursing background.

How long have you worked at First Plymouth? Three years as of April 1st 2010

What's the best part of your average work day? The visit itself . I have the best job.

What hobbies or interests do you have outside of church? I love to paint paintings. I love to make pottery. I love my garden but I can't work in it as much as I used to because I can't get down on my knees so my gardener, Warren, helps me out so I guess you could say 'I love to look at my garden.' I love to take pictures. I like to bake bread and read and most of all I love to visit with someone who will laugh with me.

Let's play the "two truths and a lie" game. What are two things that are true about you, and one that is a lie? We'll let people guess in the comments section. I love to cook . I have dual citizenship. I have a bear phobia.

What other employment have you had in the past? I worked in pediatric intensive as an RN at the Health Sciences Center in Winnipeg Manitoba as well as an Urology and Orthopedics ward. An Allergy Clinic in Windsor Ontario, A Student Health Service at the University of Manitoba. I worked for Brilliant Ideas, a small business marketing business here in Denver. I had my own basket business with a friend 'The Golden Basket' I worked at the 'Listening Post' for Mabel Barth as a coordinator and I worked for Christian Living Campuses as a Director Of Activities.

How do you spend most of your non-work time? I split it up pretty evenly between my interests. My husband, hobbies ,chores and family. So predictable.

What's your favorite food? Apples that are both tart and sweet. 'Chips Pinks' in season.

What is your least favorite food? Lima beans

What's your favorite season of the church year, and why? Christmas of course because in that season people seem to show their love and compassionate feelings for one another.

What do you believe, in 25 words or less? I believe that there exists a greater consciousness and that we all make up its nature and that it can have an affect on each of us. I believe that we have a higher consciousness in all of us and we decide if we will tap into it.

Tell us something impressive about yourself. I love teenagers

What big new things are you working on at church? The biggest thing I'm working on is trying to be true to my self and yet be supportive.

Where are you happiest? On a walk in nature. Corny right?

What's one more thing that people should know about you? I am direct!

Word from the UCC in Arizona

This is a post written by Eric Smith's good friend and Divinity School classmate Rev. Brian Frederick-Gray, who is serving Encanto Community Church (a United Church of Christ congregation) in Phoenix, AZ. We asked him to write an entry about the atmosphere in Arizona following the passage of the new immigration bill, and how faith communities are coming to terms with it. This is what he wrote:


I was at the Southwest Conference's Annual Meeting when we got word that Arizona Senate Bill 1070 had been signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer. SB1070 (as it has come to be known) is the harshest "immigration legislation" in the country. It requires state and municipality employed police officers, teachers, school administrators, school counselors, social workers, health care workers, and others to check the documentation status of anyone for whom they have a “reasonable suspicion” that they may be undocumented. Without proper documentation individuals may jailed or deported.

Many of us gathered at Annual Meeting had spent the days and weeks ahead of the meeting lobbying, praying, and organizing in hopes that Gov. Brewer would veto SB1070. When we heard that she had signed the legislation we immediately halted our opening business session for a time of silent prayer. The news was simply too gut-wrenching for us to continue our Conference-wide business.

In fact, the adoption of SB1070 dramatically changed the course of our Annual Meeting -- new amendments were added to resolutions, letters were drawn up to be sent to our political leaders as well as the 45 UCC congregations that make up the Southwest Conference, and we even abandoned plans to hold our 2011 Annual Meeting in Sun City in order to hold the meeting somewhere outside of Arizona instead.

After worship that first night I gathered with several friends and colleagues at a local watering hole where the conversation naturally centered around SB1070. Pastors from the border reflected on what their ministry will look like now, while folks from New Mexico talked about how stunningly different their state is from Arizona. Finally somebody asked me, "How will this go over at Encanto?"

For the last 20 months I've been serving as the Interim Minister at the Encanto Community Church, a small, revitalizing UCC congregation on the north side of downtown Phoenix. Church members are almost exclusively white, mostly retired, and not all that interested in hearing politics from the pulpit. "How will this go over at Encanto?" I answered as honestly as I could that night, "I'd be surprised if it registers with them at all."

Two days later I was back in the pulpit at Encanto. I preached a sermon called "The Work We Do" and focused on the "We" in that sermon title in order to preach about Annual Meeting and bring news of all the wonderful things that are happening in our Conference. I couldn't give a recap of the Annual Meeting without mentioning the central place SB1070 had in our deliberations and discussions.

And that is when this little church surprised me. In the handshake line after service and next door in the Fellowship Hall at Coffee Hour person after person came up to me absolutely heartbroken about the passage of this bill. I wasn't expecting that. But almost everyone in church has kids or grandkids who are part of the school system out here (either as students, teachers, or both). And when word started spreading through the schools on Friday that Gov. Brewer signed SB1070 any kid with dark skin started crying. They were freaked out and completely sure that the police were going to come into their classrooms that day, gestapo style, and drag them (or their parents, or their brothers or sisters, or their best friends) out of the country. It is simply appalling and downright scary.

I'm currently considering signing a pledge of non-compliance. The trouble is, non-compliance can itself be seen as an offense in SB1070 and could be enough to earn jail time.

Personally, I continue to hope and pray that this legislation will never go into effect. Injunctions and lawsuits have already been filed, and the Department of Justice worked through the weekend to address it. But then again, I was the same guy who had my doubts that Gov. Brewer would ever sign it in the first place. So I've been wrong before.

Of Immigration and Jesus

What do we do when the law of the land requires us to violate the Gospel of Jesus?

This past week the governor of Arizona signed into law the strictest, some say harshest, law regarding immigrants that exists in our land. Folks from all over the political spectrum are weighing in. Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazine wrote a brief response. Wallis has built his reputation on his balanced political stances and his careful reading of the Christian scriptures. He has this to say of the new law in Arizona:

“The law signed today by Arizona Gov. Brewer is a social and racial sin, and should be denounced as such by people of faith and conscience across the nation. It is not just about Arizona, but about all of us, and about what kind of country we want to be. It is not only mean-spirited – it will be ineffective and will only serve to further divide communities in Arizona, making everyone more fearful and less safe. This radical new measure, which crosses many moral and legal lines, is a clear demonstration of the fundamental mistake of separating enforcement from comprehensive immigration reform. Enforcement without reform of the system is merely cruel. Enforcement without compassion is immoral. Enforcement that breaks up families is unacceptable. This law will make it illegal to love your neighbor in Arizona, and will force us to disobey Jesus and his gospel. We will not comply.”