Blessed to Be a Blessing Resources: Face

Week Three: Face

Caring enough to learn their story:

“More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.” —Henri Nouwen

This week, in the place God has placed us, as we slow our pace and notice those around us, we practice what Nouwen calls this “simple ministry of presence:” learning people’s stories, listening deeply, allowing God’s blessing to us to flow through to those around us.

Resources for further reflection:

• “Evangelism, Meet Soul Care,” Kimberly Penrod Pelletier: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/january-web-only/evangelism-meet-soul-care.html

  • This article teaches us how we can love others better through our own experiences of Christ’s love for us. As we receive God’s love and become aware of the Holy Spirit speaking to us, we learn to be aware of how God is moving in the lives of those we encounter, and are moved to help them engage with his love.

• The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction, by Adam S. McHugh

  • This book emphasizes the importance of listening as a way of life. The author begins by focusing on how God listens to us and how learning to listen to him extends into a countercultural way of life, marked by listening to God and others.

• “The Power of a Dinner Table,” David Brooks: https://nyti.ms/2edd04H

  • This article shares the story of one family who opened up their home and table to teenagers living in poverty. This article shows how extending a listening ear to others can be the first step to opening your life to bless others in powerful, concrete ways.

Hear Father Kevin’s sermon on Face by clicking here.

Word from Father Kevin: Prayer and Pain University

Since Karen entered Pain University 16 months ago, and I’ve been studying alongside her, we’ve been learning many things. One is this: It’s hard to pray for yourself and your loved ones when you’re suffering. 

Caregiving throws you out of your prayer rhythms, as does interrupted sleep. Grief and fatigue and medications affect your capacity to perceive God in ways that formerly have been life-giving for you. Your difficulties make it harder to rise up in faith. Your mind is more distracted, your heart less at rest. If there’s any good news here, it’s this: if you’re experiencing this, you’re normal.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to have friends praying for you. For them to do what you cannot do as well. Karen and I feel so grateful for how all of you friends of the Savior have prayed for us—during Prayers of the People, privately, on the phone, during visits. This prayer brings much more than physical healing; it brings spiritual protection.

Jesus told his disciples, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). In Pain University, you face temptations like self-pity, unbelief, fatalism, despair. To choose life, to press into God and to mine the gold from the ore, you need the prayers of your friends. 

So thank you, Savior, for carrying us in prayer. Through those, we are rising up. We feel so grateful for all of you. (And please remember the many in our midst who have had journeys much longer than ours.)

Spotlight on Mark Hinsch

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.

Mark Hinsch coordinates Savior's Setup Team — you've probably noticed him moving tables or hanging banners if you've come to church early or stayed late. He leads a ministry that affects all of us as we worship each Saturday but that often goes unnoticed. Today, we learn a little more about Mark:

Where do you live now and where are you from?

I currently live in West Chicago with my wife, Betsy, and our cat Musette. I was born in Florida. I’ve also lived in California, England, North Dakota, Colorado and Illinois. I’ve been happy to call Illinois home for about 21 years now. There are so many things to love about this area!

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

I work at Tyndale House Publishers as a Distribution Analyst. When we’re not at work, my wife Betsy and I enjoy cooking, reading, going for walks and spending time with friends and family.

How does the Setup Team serve the life of our congregation?

We facilitate a welcoming and worshipful experience for all who attend Church of the Savior as we set up the sanctuary and information table for each worship service. We also put things away after the service.

How can people get involved with the Setup Team?

The Setup Team needs your help! We are looking for individuals to help set up before the service and take-down after the service. Those who serve typically do so once a month, but we also need on-call / substitute helpers. If you are interested, please see Mark Hinsch at church, call or text at 630-745-0184 or email thisismarkh@yahoo.com.

Surprises on a Prayer Walk through Wheaton

Fr. Kevin’s introduction: In a recent sermon on Place—settling down and seeking the peace, I invited people to take a prayer walk near their home or in their workplace to see what God brought to their notice. Alice Teisan took up that invitation and writes about her experience:

On September 23, I took a prayer walk from my house to The Compass Church. As I set out, I was struck by how on my block we have me, living below the poverty line, then blue-collar workers in the two houses next to me. Two of us own the cheapest houses you can buy in Wheaton, and the guy in the middle rents. Neither of my neighbors has interest in faith. 

Just west is an apartment complex where social gentrification happened last year: a developer from Skokie took over the apartments and raised the rent from $800 per month to $1300. The developer would redo an apartment, then tell residents they had to move into the refinished apartment or leave when it was time for theirs to be redone. In this complex live individuals from the Bhutan people group, with a father and son who are translating the Bible into their language.

The apartment complexes between Blanchard and Stoddard remind me that some of the loneliest, unreached people dwell in apartment complexes. Rents here range from lower than $1300 per month and up. I think, How can those starting out afford such rent?and How are they making it without being overburdened by stress?

Then I reach Wheaton College housing, where some of the richest children, with representation from all over the USA and throughout the world, live. On to the “International Village” complex at President and College where people from many countries, speaking many languages, live. They walk past my house to Glen Ellyn Evangelical Covenant Church, where in the summer they have garden plots, then proudly carry their yield home. 

On the south side of College Avenue is a laundromat, where the homeless hang out because they can wash up in the sink while doing laundry. Behind that is the third-busiest train station on the Union Pacific-West line, where people of all walks of life pass each day. From the city some come to panhandle on Wheaton College’s campus. 

West of President is Bethany Chapel, a small church that owns a multi-unit apartment complex where they rent and let people stay for free. In that complex live a couple from Haiti, with the goal of producing Bible resources translated into Creole for pastors. Then on to Wheaton College, where people come from all over the world to study at this top-notch Christian College.

Heading north on Chase, the landlords rent rooms to people like one woman I know, who would be in a mental institution, if some still existed, for substance abuse and mental health issues. On the east side of Chase are townhomes, owned by Missionary Furlough Homes, where missionaries can live, paying subsidized rents. Then a big, beautiful house, which represents the mid- to higher-end homes in Wheaton. On Roosevelt sit businesses, just before I arrive at The Compass Church.

In this small, mile-and-a-half circumference, live people from every socio-economic class--from refugees, immigrants, international students, the downtrodden, and ex-offenders, to students from every socio-economic class of families, to the CEOs of companies.

Indeed the Lord has the whole world in his hands, and the entire world is represented between my house and The Compass Church. I asked my dad in March, “Do you think I should move back to Detroit?” 

He said, “Alice, Detroit doesn’t have anything for you. Your ministry exists because of where God has placed you in Wheaton.” 

All I can do is thank the Lord that I have the privilege to live in Wheaton, where my love for the world, the marginalized, the educated, and the extremes of diversification are only a few steps away. 

Blessed to Be a Blessing Resources: Pace

Week Two: Pace

...slowing your speed of life so you can notice people with compassion and still have some time and energy to serve them.

Eugene Peterson asks, “How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am perpetual motion? How can I convincingly persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to constantly juggle my schedule to make everything fit into place?”—from “The Unbusy Pastor"

This week we will consider what this kind of slowed pace might mean in our own lives, families and communities.

Resources for further reflection:

• Sacred Chaos by Tricia McCary Rhodes

  • This book focuses on practical ways that we can learn to meet God in our present lives, no matter how chaotic they feel to us. Rhodes teaches her readers how to be present to the presence of God and prayerful in the life they have right now.

• “God Is in Our Moments” by Tammy Tkach: https://www.gci.org/articles/god-is-in-our-moments/

  • This article encourages us to slow down and notice God’s presence in individual moments in our lives. Slowing down and focusing on a particular moment can teach us to be fully present in our lives and to pay attention to God’s incremental work.

• Godspeed: https://www.livegodspeed.org/watchgodspeed/

  • This is a brief documentary about one pastor’s journey to discover the slow work of God in his small Scottish parish. Father Matt Canlis begins his ministry with big ideas about how to change the world for the sake of the Gospel, but by walking his parish, he learns that God’s work is done in slowing down and spending time with people.

• Activity: Spend one day—or even an afternoon or a couple of hours, whatever time you have—intentionally slowing yourself down so that you can notice the people and circumstances around you. We all fall into habits of multitasking--doing more than one thing at a time, like making phone calls while we drive, listening to podcasts while we cook dinner, or working while we eat lunch. As you are able, practice doing one thing at a time, and when you do so, ask God to make you more aware of your surroundings.

Listen to the accompanying sermon here.