As a non-Catholic, going to confession is not within my religious framework. Richard Foster reminds us that confession has spiritual and cathartic value. This weekend I stumbled on a confession note that just didn’t seem right. Instead of commenting on the note, I did the most ecumenical thing possible: I shared the note with the monks of Unvirtuous Abbey. The results were… well, expected:
I’m moderating #chsocm on Twitter tonight @ 9:00 p.m. If you are a church-ie social media type, just join in on Twitter with the search and hashtag #chsocm. It’s pretty easy to join in. Just keep #chsocm in your search on Twitter and follow the conversation.
My topic tonight will be centered around handling crisis within the church using social media.
A lot of you are wondering, “What the heck is #chsom?” It’s Church socialmedia. #ChSocM (ch-sock-em) is a weekly Twitter-based chat about using social media to build church and faith. Welcoming, informative, ecumenical. Tuesdays, 9PM, ET. Commentary, interviews, transcripts, and fun stuff on the blog.
My good Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest friend Meredith Gould started the Twitter chat topic/community about 2 years ago. Since then, it has grown into a weekly meet up for lay people, pastors, seminarians, and social media church geeks (that includes me).
Don’t be a non-participate observer! Join in! (I loath the word “Lurker” or “lurking” for social media listening. It’s too creep-stalker-ish. See you tonight on #chsocm!
I’m moderating #chsocm on Twitter tonight @ 9:00 p.m. If you are a church-ie social media type, just join in on Twitter with the search and hashtag #chsocm.
A lot of you are wondering, “What the heck is #chsom?” It’s Church social media. #ChSocM (ch-sock-em) is a weekly Twitter-based chat about using social media to build church and faith. Welcoming, informative, ecumenical. Tuesdays, 9PM, ET. Commentary, interviews, transcripts, and fun stuff on the blog.
My good Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest friend Meredith Gould started the Twitter chat topic/community about 2 years ago. Since then, it has grown into a weekly meet up for lay people, pastors, seminarians, and social media church geeks (that includes me).
Don’t be a non-participate observer! Join in! (I loath the word “Lurker” or “lurking” for social media listening. It’s too creep-stalker-ish. See you tonight on #chsocm!
As millions of football fans will undoubtedly will be glued to their televisions and social media, they will hunger for the latest information about NFL draft picks. The NFL draft is part pageantry and part celebration for football teams and their fans. Draft day means that a team can have hope for a better season as new athletes come on their roster.
This is also a tense time for football teams. Owners, coaches, agents and managers are all trying to work together to pick the best player. With all those high powered people trying to work together sometimes egos, tempers, and anxiety can play a major role in the team’s success. In order to get the best draft position teams will give away players, negotiate terms, trade draft spots, and participate in a number of complex agreements. The world of the NFL draft is truly a dizzying drama for teams but also there is tremendous opportunity.
In the world of the NFL, resources and money are seemingly endless as players are paid multi-million dollar contracts. For churches, the search for staff and volunteers is a frustrating process. Many churches lack the financial resources for say a full time youth minister or education minister. Often volunteers have to take on that work load without pay. Unlike the NFL, churches do not have ability to search for and pay for staff that could grow their organization.
In the church world of limited resources, what if churches joined together to have a Church Draft?
I live and minister in a small community with five mainline churches within a mile of one another. Our worship is similar and so are our ministries. We pastors get along very well. Back in 2009, we started meeting regularly and formed a clergy organization. We started to dream of the ways in which we could work together. We already had a number of connected ecumenical gatherings, but we wanted to do more.
One day, I jokingly asked if I could steal one of the other pastor’s secretary since we were in search of one. He replied that I would have to trade my choir for her. A few months later we were searching for an office manager. I went back to the same pastor and reminded him of our trade agreement but this time it was for real. I wasn’t going to give up my choir but we negotiated terms to share his staff person for our church office administrator position. BOOM! It worked. Fast forward a few years, and now all of our churches are talking about sharing a community youth minister and are supporting community based youth ministry! And, we continue to negotiate and draft ministry people to work in all of our churches.
In our community, it makes sense to work together and “draft” staff and volunteers. Each individual church may not have the resources, but together we are able to work together as one team and not five teams working against one another. Churches in the 21st century need to think about their staff and volunteers as players in the big game of ministry and not see each other as competitors.
Alan Rudnick is the author of “The Work of the Associate Pastor”, Judson Press.
Surprise and shock are an understatement when it comes to Pope Benedict XVI‘s resignation. Only a handful of Popes have called it quits. The Pope’s decision continues to spark speculation about who the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church will be. This decision will have far reaching impact for Catholics around the world… and certainly for Protestants.
As most readers know, I’m not Catholic. I’m an American Baptist clergyman. I come from a tradition that fought to continue the reforms of the Church of England. Baptists were one of the many English separatist groups that wanted to go further than breaking ties with Rome. Separatist movements during the Reformation were, in general, about freedom of religious expression, freedom to interpreted the Scriptures, and to free themselves from Rome’s hierarchy.
Some 400-500 years later, the Church in Rome and it’s Pope still matter to Protestants. Though we Protestants are free from persecution, this new Pope’s election will impact the way we Protestants interact with our Catholic brothers and sisters. As much as we protestants distance ourselves from the Catholic Church, we are connected common belief and ministry.
In recent years, ecumenical relationships formed between Protestants and Catholics have strengthened. Beyond sharing common basic doctrinal beliefs, (The Trinity, Salvation, etc..) Protestants and Catholics are getting better at how we treat one another. Mostly because of leadership within both traditions. Much of how this new Pope leads the Catholic Church will set a tone throughout Christianity. Protestants will wait to see if this new Pope will begin a period of transformation. Will we see more ecumenical acceptance of marriage, sacraments, membership, and ministry like the Catholic agreement with Reformed churches on Baptism?
If this next Pope leads Catholics to more common ground, we could see a new wave of Catholic and Protestant relationships. Think about it our challenges are the similar: shrinking memberships, public perception, changing church demographics, declining evangelism efforts, and diminishing financial giving. If more could be done together our common challenges, we could share common success. Measurable success could be made globally and nationally with ministry among the poor, basic health care access, developing nation building, fighting injustice, and access to education. The cause for the common good could something that we could work together on.
This is not without problems. There will always be groups within our own traditions that will fight against such “togetherness”. We Baptists are known for our exclusionary behavior when it comes to differences in theology with other Protestants. However, if leadership from our Protestant groups can commit to working with this new Pope and his leadership, our challenges can begin diminish.
This new Papal change is an opportunity for transformation for Catholic and Protestants. If both Catholic and Protestant leadership plan to work together in our common struggles, a new chapter could be written for Christianity. A new Pope could lead his faithful to turn their attention to breaking down our separation instead of seeking to build more doctrinal walls.
An earlier incomplete post was accidentally published. This is an updated post.
Today was a great day of visits and meetings. It was full of though provoking conversations with leaders.
Our first meeting was with Jack Sara the President of Bethlehem Baptist College. Jack is a Palestinian Christian and is an alum of the school. His perspective of education was through the lens of peace and transformation of the area. He talked about being imprisoned and beaten because of his work with churches and education.
As we sat in the newly built building, he told us how the school was created. With a vision of a Christian college in the area in 1971, a pastor responded joyously that he wanted to help it start with a donation. The pastor quickly gave $20. So with $20, the school was created. Jack is leading a community of Christians who are very hopeful that local people can be transformed through the hope of the Christian message. He also believes that mercy plays an important role in reconciliation conflict in Israel. Christians are a shrinking group in Israel but they are still leading the way for peace and transformation.
It is very reassuring that Baptists are leading the charge in transformational change and education in a place where Christians only make up 2% of the population. The school offers a BA, MA, a program for mass media, and a course of study in tourism guiding. A number of Muslims attend these programs and give people education for a career. Unemployment in Bethlehem is high. Jobs are tough to get.
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Ballston Spa (across the street from my church, The First Baptist Church) is holding a very special mass and I’m going. The Ballston Spa Life newspaper has the details about the mass:
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church will open its doors to the community on Tuesday, June 8, as part of a celebration of the lives of priests, deacons and others from the village whose legacies include being faithful to the vows of their vocations through what is being described by organizers as “tireless hidden service and universal charity.”
The event, which will include a procession in front of the historic Milton Avenue church, will mark the culmination of The Year for Priests.
The mass is an unique worship service for Catholics to celebrate “The Year for Priests.” This special mass celebrates the ministry of priests and, “to reflect with heartfelt gratitude on the immense gift which priests represent not only for the Church, but for humanity.” itself.” This special occasion marks a 12-month period that Pope Benedict XVI declared.
So, why is a Baptist making plans to go to a Catholic Mass? I’ll tell you why.
Tony looks pretty “hip” here.
2010 Come Alive and Thrive PDF
Session 1, 2: May 21, 2010 Session 3: May 22, 2010. First Church Albany, NY
Tony Campolo was a professor at Eastern University (it was a college when I matriculated) when I was a student and I attended many of lectures and talks. He taught in my sociology class the final year of full time service to the college. That year, he retired from teaching full time and became a professor emeritus at Eastern. From time to time, I would bump into him walking on campus, in the gym playing basketball (with his grandson), at the seminary, or in the hallways and he would always entertain a little conversation with me.
Tony was the reason why I went to Eastern. I heard him speak at a District of Columbia Baptist Convention meeting in November of 1995 and said to myself, “I want to be at the school he teaches!” After talking with him after the meeting, he encouraged me to come to Eastern. (James Dunn made a similar proposal that night for Wake Forest University, but I turned him down. Sorry James.)
You can anticipate hearing his unique perspective on what the church may look like in the coming decade and how it can address issues of the modern world while remaining faithful to core values and beliefs. How can the church remain relevant, energized, pro-active and connected? How can the church thrive and be significant in an ecumenical and diverse world?
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