On Tuesday, February 16th our church hosted all of the clergy in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church for the Bishop’s Lenten Day Apart. I have been highly impressed by our new bishop. Bishop Peggy Johnson is extremely humble with a servant heart. Probably the best compliment I can give her is to say that I can see Jesus in and through her. She has recognized a need for change within our denomination locally, as most mainline churches have consistently seen a decline in recent years. This, coupled with the denomination’s embrace of the Rethink Church campaign, has strongly encouraged me. The speaker for this event was Shane Claiborne. Just the fact that Bishop Johnson invited Shane to speak at this event was a great positive step. Shane is most well-known for his recent books, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, Jesus For President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals and Follow Me to Freedom: Leading as an Ordinary Radical along with founding the faith community the Simple Way, where he lives in Philadelphia. Shane is a passionate follower of Jesus who lives as if Jesus really meant what he said. Shane is in his 30′s, makes his own clothes, has long dreadlocks and looks much like an Old Testament prophet, a little unusual in our suburban environment. He brought an important word to our group.
I furiously took notes, so here is a brief recap of the highlights:
“The Kingdom spreads best not through force, but fascination.” Are we living our faith in such a way that people are fascinated?
Shane spoke out of Luke 7:18-23, where John the Baptist’s disciples, with John in prison, come on his behalf and ask “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Shane paraphrased Jesus’ response as “you tell me; look at me and tell me who I am.” Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 61) for the second time (the first being when he began his ministry). Shane asked “what if he really meant what he said?”
“God moved into a neighborhood where they said no good could come.”
Shane said that it’s possible to worship Jesus without following him. I’m still contemplating this one and whether I agree or not.
He quoted the theologian Karl Barth who said, “to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” This was a fitting recommendation for the balance of theology and culture.
“The Gospel should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” This hit home in our suburban “pretty” environment.
He mentioned a banner that a group of homeless friends hung at the entry to the abandoned Catholic church building they took up residence in that said, “How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?”
“On the cross, we have the clearest picture of what it looks like for love to stare evil in the face.”
This was an important step in re-charting the path forward for the United Methodist Church and I was strongly encouraged to see leaders willing to rethink the status quo or what has been done in the past for the sake of reaching people who desperately need to hear the message of Hope.
Tags: bishop peggy johnson, eastern pennsylvania conference, god, hope, jesus, rethink church, shane claiborne, united methodist church
I saw Shane in a documentary called The Ordinary Radicals — it provides an extremely compelling outline of the lives of Christians around the country who live as if they really believe what Jesus told them. Check it out — http://www.theordinaryradicals.com/
Austin, thanks for the comment and link. I was not aware of the documentary and website.