Ministry in the Middle

This summer, the elders in my congregation and I have exchanged a specific piece of the worship service that we lead.  Since before I began serving as senior minister in this congregation, the pastor has been responsible for providing a short meditation before Communion each week.  This summer, each of them has had the opportunity to offer this meditation/invitation to the Lord's Table.  In exchange, I provided an offering meditation and prayer for the gifts offered -- typically something that the elders have led. In our denominational tradition, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Communion is the centerpiece of worship.  In key ways, it represents the heart of our shared theology of Christ's presence in our midst, of radical grace and acceptance, of the teaching of the New Testament about the centrality of the Lord's Supper and Baptism.  Personally, I love the chance to reflect on part of what it means for us to gather and share Communion in the name...

Last week, the Pennsylvania attorney general released a grand jury report detailing credible accusations implicating more than 300 Roman Catholic priests in sexually abusing more than 1000 children since the 1940s.  As in other parts of the church, bishops and other church leaders protected the priests, downplaying and ignoring accusations of abuse and misconduct. This news provides more opportunities for outrage about people who should have accepted responsibility and done things differently.  Priests, those entrusted with sharing and teaching about the love of God and Jesus, perverting that message into a weapon for pursuing their own selfish desires through abuse and rape.  Church leaders, who were entrusted with holding priests to account for their behavior, but who instead protected their friends and colleagues behind a wall of silence and a tendency to simply move accused priests to other parishes.  Police and prosecutors who felt powerless to question the a...

"Come as you are.  The Lord welcomes us just as we are." Almost every time that I offer a meditation or invitation before Communion, I end with these words.  In part, I feel they reflect the radical grace of Jesus, which is celebrated in the Lord's Supper, even though we do not entirely grasp the full meaning of this radical grace and love.  In part, I hope that we as church can slowly grow to live out the promise of such a radical grace. I thought about this invitation again as I read a recent article about "Crying in Worship" in The Christian Century .  The author, Heidi Haverkamp, is an Episcopal priest who I met when we overlapped as students at the University of Chicago Divinity School.  In the essay, she admitted that she had often told others that it was okay to cry in church, but she had a different appreciation when she attended a worship service and cried. Now, those who have been around me when I lead worship services know that I don't need ...