Blessed to be a Blessing Resources: Place

Week One: Place

The first practice for us to be a blessing to people around us is to root in a place. Often, we can be ambivalent about where we live, or work, or the family we’re in. So we withdraw emotionally and relationally; we keep ourselves on the edge. But God calls us to “work for the peace and prosperity” of the place where we live (Jeremiah 29:4). This week, we want to consider what this might mean for all of us.

Read:

• “This Time, This Place: An Excerpt from Eugene H. Peterson’s The Pastor”:

  • This is a brief reflection from Peterson on our situatedness. His reflection encourages us to notice where we are and see the uniqueness of our own time and place.

• Theology of the Ordinary by Julie Canlis

  • This book is about living an ordinary life in the presence of God. Born out of her family’s experiences of living in a small parish in Scotland, and then in a small community in Washington state, Canlis explores the practical theology of slowing down and noticing where God is in our everyday lives and learning to do his work there.

Listen:

• Kingdom Roots Podcast, “The Neighboring Church (Conversation with Rick Rusaw),” Episode 24

  • This podcast is a conversation between Scot McKnight, one of C4SO’s Canon Theologians, and Rick Rusaw, a pastor. They discuss how Christians can learn to follow Christ’s teaching to love our neighbors as we build relationships with people right where we live.

Act:

• Take a prayer walk around your neighborhood, or sit on your porch and pray as you watch people walk by. As you begin, ask God to remind you of how he has worked in your neighborhood before and to open your eyes to how he might be working now.

  • This activity can encourage us to notice where we are and who is here with us. It’s a small step toward blessing others by engaging in the life of our community or neighborhood more intentionally.

To listen to the sermon, click here.

Word from Father Kevin: Blessed to be a Blessing Series

Dear Friends of the Savior:

Starting this Saturday, we begin a sermon series titled “Blessed to Be a Blessing.”  I see this as one of the most important series for Savior this year. I pray it provides a vision, an impartation, to Savior that will help us on our outward journey. Specifically, I’m hoping this series will:

•  affirm that many things Savior people are already great at—e.g., listening, caring, showing interest in people—are a gift for people in their community and workplace 

• re-frame the idea of evangelism, which in many people’s backgrounds was high-pressure sales work for extroverts.  Maybe we can accept (wink), “Savior, you may think you’re reserved and thoughtful and not naturally suited for evangelism, but you really do have what it takes, because your gifts in compassionate spiritual direction are perfect”—if we re-conceive evangelism in a more generous way

•  start to lead us all in answering our recurring prayer, “Show us the people and places you would have us serve."

In the 5 weeks, we will be drawing upon themes from Eugene Peterson, from the short film LiveGodSpeed, and of course, from the way Jesus interacted with people.  Here are the titles:

 Sept. 22: Place: the power of staying put (Fr. Kevin)

Sept. 29: Pace: slowing so you can notice people with compassion (Deb Nickerson)

Oct. 6: Face: asking questions that help people tell their story (Fr. Kevin)

Oct. 13: Grace: affirming how God is already at work (Fr. Kevin)

Oct. 20: Embrace: finding the relief of not being on your own (Sandy Richter)

Pastor Sandy will be creating a resource guide to help us all take these practices deeper in our lives.

Would you please pray that God sends his Spirit upon us as a people during these weeks?  That we receive what he has for us?

Also, if you have any questions or want to talk further about the series, I welcome that.

Spotlight on Josh Steele

Over the next several months, we're highlighting ministry leaders at Savior. These leaders have answered some questions to help us get to know them and their ministries better.

Deacon Josh Steele, along with his wife Rachel and brand-new daughter Eva, has been attending Church of the Savior for a little more than a year. Josh serves in multiple roles at Savior, including volunteering with youth and on the worship team. He also manages Savior's website and coordinates the Pastoral Care ministry.

Where do you live, and where are you from?

I live in Carol Stream, IL with my wife Rachel and daughter Eva. I'm originally from Toledo, OH.

What do you do when you’re not at church?

I'm a Ph.D. student in theology at Wheaton College and the Managing Editor at AnglicanPastor.com.

My hobbies include holding Eva, watching soccer, and reading about productivity and leadership.

What's something unusual about you?

In high school, I ate mostly oatmeal (at least twice a day) for an entire year.

How does the ministry you lead serve the life of our congregation?

I hope that the website, the Breeze online directory, and my coordination of pastoral care all help to enlarge and enrich the sense of community at Savior.

How can people get involved in the ministry you lead?

For the website, we could use another person or two to join JoAnn McNeely in uploading old sermons to the Sermon Archive. For the Breeze online directory, we could use a few people who are willing to learn and train others on the basics of volunteer scheduling using Breeze.

With pastoral care, we could use a few more people who are willing to spend time with and encourage others. If you're interested in any of these things, please contact me—in person, by phone, or by email.

Word from Father Kevin: Saving the Saved

In the past 2 weeks, I’ve described Savior’s leadership capital and resilience. This week, I want to suggest that Savior has a particular gift and call to “save the saved”— to make church and Christianity possible and desirable again for people who in some way are finding them hard. Why do I say this?

 First, I’ve had conversations with a number of people at Savior who are in “the borderlands of faith.” Their childhood faith no longer works for them, and they are at Savior in part because it feels like a safe place where they can decide what, if anything, they will carry from that childhood faith into the rest of their adult lives.  

 More broadly, the “evangelical church culture” (ECC) is struggling. Younger leaders had already rejected the megachurch model and the political stances of that culture, before the recent #churchtoo scandals put a big period on the end of that sentence. Here in Wheaton, I keep running into people who have tasted but not been satisfied by ECC, and they are looking for (pick one) transcendence, humility, honesty, less busyness, fewer requests for money, and a place that is not anti-science, not unjust in its practices toward women, engaged with the poor, etc. 

 We are not perfect. This is not to pat ourselves on the back. “Saving the saved” is an unusual charism and not what every church can or should be doing.  So today’s Word from Fr. Kevin is simply my saying, “I notice this. I intuit it.  And I celebrate that Savior is a place of safety, refuge, and welcome for people who, I hope, will find their way home to Jesus and walk with him for the rest of their lives."

Word from Father Kevin: Resilience

Last week, I shared that Savior has an unusual level of leadership capital. A second feature of Savior I pointed out to the Vestry is our resilience.

I’ve said several times that church theorists consider the biggest single change in a congregation’s life is the transition from founding leaders to next-generation leaders. Yet Savior has come through that remarkably well. There is a sense of peace and gratitude, with Fr. Bill and Mtr. Linda still in our midst, cheering on Karen and me, and we love seeing them minister.

About the time that transition was well underway, Marilyn Stewart was diagnosed with melanoma. And as Doug cares for her, this meant Savior no longer had the daily leadership of two more founding members. We all feel the grief for their suffering. Yet Savior continues on, still with a sense of hope and optimism.

Psychologists in recent years have emphasized the power of “grit.” Perseverance and resilience change the outcome for students and for workers. And for churches.

I notice this quality in Savior. I celebrate this. And I want to commend all of you for this. What is God saying to us through this?

I don’t know, but perhaps, “You’re stronger than you know.” We will need to be resilient to follow God into new adventures, but we’ve shown that with God’s help, we can handle a lot. “Fear not, little flock, for it pleases your Father to give you the kingdom.”