Got Questions????

Well so do I...I meet lots of people who are ready for "church people" to embrace personas of answer keepers.  You know people who don't live in the ambiguity of life but who know the answers and don't need to struggle to understand the things that happen because the answers are right there!  (I believe this is a faulty stereotype, most people I have met are filled with questions and those that have it all figured out can't hold onto the facade for long)  This isn't really about answers though, its about questions.

Unfortunately the "church" has been perceived and in some place is a place where questions are unwelcome.  But then where should we ask questions?  I think that our communities of faith are the perfect places to ask questions about everything.  Surrounded by people who love you, who are journeying with you towards understanding what our lives should love like, and people who struggle with their own questions about life, faith, family, culture, hope, fears, doubts...you get the point--everything!  That sounds like it could be a safe place to explore and maybe even live your way into the answers you seek.  It will also be a good place to realize that some questions have answers that we may never know and we can learn together how to hold those questions lightly and with respect.

So, if you could ask any question in church what would it be?  There are not right or wrong questions.  What might you like to hear about from the church's perspective?  What questions would you be shocked to hear in the context of church?

At Z Tree we will be exploring questions in worship as we begin the new year, so your thoughts would be very helpful!  Thanks!

A New Life

Yesterday I met Phoebe, my friends' newest family member.  She is beautiful and while I held her and waited for a bottle I wasn't surprised that she cried.  She was hungry and I wasn't helping her out.  Babies do not distinguish between needs and wants, they don't struggle with their needs in relation to the needs of another; they simply ask for (cry) what they need until someone answers.  As we get older it seems that some of us forget that we are allowed to have needs and some of us forget that our needs may not always be top priority.  There is a balance here between recognizing our needs and our wants.  I often wonder just how I can get so distracted by things in my life that are pretty insignificant when I believe they are needs.  Upon reflection I am pretty sure that my needs are minimal and so is my gratitude.  So there I was holding this brand new life, and I realized that in the presence of such possibility I had forgotten the things in my own life which had been so important in the car.  Somethings just serve to distract from our vision, and in no way giving us energy for the future.  What things get in the way of your vision?  Do you ever feel like you can't see the forest for the trees?  What helps you clear the view?      


As I marveled at how small she was and how amazing it is that we participate in creation in such a wonderful way, it reminded me that building a community is similar.  We start small, with tremendous needs and amazing possibilities.  It is in the beginning that we have all the energy of new life and all the possibilities of clean blackboard.  What do we want to see?  How will we accomplish the things that God is calling us too?  Who will join us?  In any new life there are lots of questions and hopes--I believe that if we live into our dreams we may find that God has been giving them to us and will continue to see them through.  There are lots of things to do and many things to try and if we leave distractions behind we may be able to celebrate the amazing life we have in these precious beginning moments!  


In a season of preparation for the coming of the Christ Child, it seems right to see the world with wonder and amazement! May you also find new life in your daily living and be reminded of the love that God has for you in each and every wonderful moment!  

Spirit2 Discussion Gatherings!

Our world is full of lots of voices, answers, questions, ideas and choices.  But there are very few places where we come together to talk about things that are happening and think about how they affect our lives.  As a community we want to make room for conversations about how our lives intersect with our faith, experiences and the world.  Here are some pictures from the last year of discussions, laughter and community at Spirit2!  

Why We Do What We Do (article from Moravian Magazine December 2010)

Here’s a little story about man and a tree, and why that story makes all the difference to me…Zacchaeus was a man who no one liked and that did lots of things that were harmful to others.  So when Jesus came into town and sought out Zacchaeus, instead of the other more suitable candidates, it was shocking and unexpected.  It wasn’t showy or miraculous, but it was a simple invitation to dinner that made the difference for Zacchaeus.  The invitation to relationship with Jesus started to transform this man from the person no one cared for, into a person that cared for everyone.  It is that transformation that I invite people to experience when they participate in the life of Zacchaeus’ Tree Congregation (formerly New Hope Community Church in Indianapolis, IN). 

As a community we are called to seek out those people who don’t believe they are included in what God is up to or who have been excluded by stereotypes, negative experiences in churches, or media distortions of “who” Christians are.  We work together to live more like Jesus, and to follow in his footsteps, by making our faith an intentional journey towards building the kin(g)dom of God on earth.  Our congregation is shaped by many of the ideals shared by leaders of intentional communities.  Responding to their call to live in community and discover how God can use those relationships and complexities to shape the Christian witness, these leaders have many thoughts and challenges to offer to the established church and its developing congregations. 

Our church plant does not currently have in its development plan the creation of a live-in community, but it is not divergent or impossible that the future may bring such a witness to our congregation.  For now we are studying, praying, serving, worshiping, and following the call to be a congregation of people whom God seeks out to invite into relationship.  The conversations that help build our vision for the community of faith are inspired, in part, by the lives of those people in the early church, early Moravian History, and current leaders in intentional communities.  They help us challenge the assumptions that church is a place to go rather than an invitation to be the Body of Christ in the world; that church must look like it always has in order to be the church; or that church is a place where we come when we know things rather than a place we come to ask questions and learn. 

I have met many people in my 18 months in Indianapolis who are looking for community.  People who are dying for a place to ask questions, to find hope, and I believe to be told how much God loves them and wants to know them!  I am heart broken when I hear stories filled with hate, hostility and mistrust connected with their experience of the church, which often translates into their experience of God.  I grew up in the church and have known such great and amazing love, forgiveness and hope—it is this church I hope to share with others.  I hope to be unexpected in the same way that Jesus speaking to Zacchaeus was unexpected.  I hope that our congregational life will live out Jesus’ hospitality and presence in the lives of those most unexpected people. 

There seem to be lots of people hanging around in trees in every community in the world, wanting to see Jesus.  I believe that it is our invitation as believers to call out to them and invite them to the table for the bread of life and the blood of grace.  So at Zacchaeus’ Tree we intentionally seek to be a community that embraces the call to find those people who seem to be furthest from Christ and invite them to learn with us what Jesus meant when he came to give life and to give it abundantly—right now and forever more.