September 27th, 2006 Creator Choir and Potluck

The rhythm of church life is composed of daily, weekly and yearly cycles. Daily cycles are personal, perhaps a prayer to begin the day, before sleep, and before and after meals which may expand to readings, meditations and other disciplines.

The weekly and yearly cycles often move from the personal to public. We have the liturgical experience which, by its nature, cannot be personal. Choir practice and performance is another experience like this for me. This is the first activity that brought an understanding to me of the rhythm of the church.

So what is this rhythm? Part of it is attending to what is going on, being there. Without attending there is no learning or contribution. Today the contribution was food, friendship and music. The choir had not met since June and it seems appropriate for choir be part of a schedule we return to after summer activities. The group composition was different but there was a quick comradeship.

Choir provides a basic understanding of the change of church seasons. The music is chosen to be appropriate to the season. In communities that get increasingly divorced from natural seasons this becomes more important. Pastor Dayle and Matt keep us on theme for the choir’s Sunday contributions. It increases our anticipation of how the liturgy will celebrate special days and seasons of the church year.

Tonight we sang pieces from David’s liturgy and the choir gained a deeper appreciation of the music David has composed. The words he used to describe how we should be singing the pieces reinforced what our ears heard. After David’s compositions we sang Sing the Beauty of the Earth; one of our favorites from last year.

Friendship in the choir is expressed during these practices in a number of ways. There is the identification with those in your section; soprano, alto, tenor, bass and the temptation for good natured ribbing of those in other sections is always there. Simultaneously there is the feeling of being part of the choir overall. There is a constant attention to blending your voice with everyone else.

Sometimes last year in choir there was a sense that our souls were spilling into one another. I am looking forward to what comes next this year.

September 24th, 2006 - Sunday Service, Ministries Fair and Lunch Potluck to meet Pastor Mark Beatty and Family

Pastor Fred gave the sermon today. Luke played a beautiful Debussy piece during the offering for the second service. There were many other activities of note in addition to worship today. First was the Ministries Fair between the early and late services. Knowing many of the ministries the Creator congregation is involved in is one thing but seeing a good portion of those ministries represented at tables in the Fellowship Hall, the diversity and number of ways to serve was impressive.

This gave people in the various groups and committees some opportunities and deadlines as well. For Hunger Awareness there was an impetus to make and pass out refrigerator magnets that showed what will be collected monthly for the Oregon Food Bank.

There was a Creator Guidebook to Worship, Ministry and Membership that was passed out. Toni worked on putting together this guidebook and Ruth was also responsible for the final product. Photos were taken for an upcoming pictorial directory.

There were sign ups for Music, Sunday school, Adult Education, Youth Activities, Worship Activities, Bible Studies, and Fellowship among others. There was acolyte training and also training to read the Bible for worship given to the children.

After the late service there was a meet and greet lunch potluck for Pastor Mark Beatty, his wife and daughter. After a few delicious salads, sandwiches, wraps and desserts, Mark was given an opportunity to answer and ask questions of the congregation.

A first impression for me – Mark is a thoughtful man of quick wit and deep faith who defines and respects life decisions. He has a mission statement for his life; to live abundantly, love deeply and leave the world around him better or at least as good as the way he found it.

As the youth asked questions it was apparent that there was growth from where they had been when Denise left. They talked about the youth leadership that had been established and what Mark’s thoughts were on that. He was glad they had taken responsibility and there was general talk throughout that being part time and having additional pastoral duties, parents and youth would have to step up to responsibility and leadership for the youth.

Ruth asked Mark his feelings about outreach. He gave a thoughtful answer and referred to the double meaning of outreach; either church serving the community in some way or outreach as intentional effort to create opportunities to build membership. He elaborated that when the church serves the community we must understand this is not done for the purpose of gaining new members.

It was clear from this talk Mark is inspiring. We look forward to the next steps in the call process, the congregational vote and Mark’s decision to accept the call or not.

September 17th, 2006 - Sunday Service

Creator’s Golf Scramble and Barbeque took place this afternoon but out of town company was in town for us and we could not make it. Doug has volunteered his time and works organizing and promoting this event that is always looked forward to.

The service and Debi Stromberg's presentation for the Adult Education hour provided many topics to contemplate. The lesson was about minding what we say, that the tongue is the rudder that we too often follow when we have not thought through what we have said. The gospel reading was Mark 8:27-38 and the focus was on verse 34

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

In the Adult Education hour Debi’s presentation was a report on speakers at an event called Politics and Spirituality she attended in Los Angeles. One of the speakers had talked about how important it was that we become red letter Christians (referring to the red letters some Bibles use to denote the “direct” sayings of Jesus).

Debi reported the speaker talked about how rarely Jesus directly answered a question (there were only three direct answers according to the speaker).

Pastor Dayle referred to one, Mark 10:17-25

17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 24 And the disciples were astonished at his words.

His words, this answer Jesus gave, still has immense impact. The fact this is one of the few direct answers Jesus gave to a question puts even greater weight on it. The command is tough and is at odds with how most people live their lives.

Two challenging Bible verses today, to be taken to heart and prayer.

September 10th, 2006 - Sunday Service

Today was Rally Day. We move from the single service worship we follow in summer to two services with an Education hour between. There was an installation of Sunday School teachers at both worships where the children blessed the teachers with the help of Pastor Dayle and the congregation.

Participating in two worship services when the opportunity presents itself is a blessing. There are different highlights, different places where your attention is placed. An understanding comes about our responses to the opportunities God gives us as a congregation to worship.

In her talk to the children Sara focused on the energy and anticipation of the congregation around the associate pasor call that is progressing right now. Between the call and the beginning of school there was a sense of invigoration present in both services. There were people dancing at both services with a joy that moved us today.

During the Adult Education hour we learned more about the candidate the call committee is recommending to the council now, Pastor Mark Beatty. Susan took us through the process the call committee went through to select him from the five candidates the committee interviewed. Susan also gave us an overview of his background and accomplishments. In three weeks the call should come to a congregational vote.

In her sermon Pastor Dayle spoke of everything we bring to worship as a community and as individuals. She preached on the gospel, about the excitement of the call and the beginning of school and the upcoming 9/11 anniversary. What we bring to worship is not always easy to pull together.

We tend to focus on the joy we want to experience but there is more that is going on in the worship service. Confession, prayer and communion are weekly parts of keeping worship healthy and focusing us on our relationship with God. I tend to not write about them as much in the blog but they are always there. They are another part in the attention talked about before moving to the two services. Today the second communion was a powerful experience for me, during the first my attention was on the music that was about to be played.

Confession, prayer and communion touch places within me I can barely articulate, though I am certain I will try again here in coming weeks to put some of this in words.

September 6th, 2006 - Hunger Awareness Committee Meeting

As we came for the meeting we witnessed the results of a power switch for the air conditioner compressor failing. The water from the melted ice block that was created left ceiling damage and Erik had the cover off one of the florescent lights and was trying to dry everything inside and work to fix the problem.

This meeting was noteworthy for two reasons. We marked the year anniversary of our first meeting as a group and, for the first time, a youth representative attended the meeting.
Josh's presence helped. The San Antonio trip has energized the youth and we talked about the last year's Portland Plunge as well. This was an event where youth had a work day at the Oregon Food Bank, and worshipped at a church in Northeast Portland near some of the people they were helping. It was a powerful experience for them. He will take back to the youth some activities where we could use help.

We planned our table for the upcoming Ministries fair, a piece for the next newsletter and announced we would have three Adult Education Sunday hours set aside for any presentations or discussions we decide on as a group.

After working Matthew 6:3. "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" seems important. There are so many things that can be done the question of supporting one effort over another must almost become reflexive. If the question is asked what is the most worthy effort to support something quickly moves out of focus.

We talked about the Millenium Development Goals at the meeeting; the attempt to end world poverty and hunger which is a noble effort, one that was talked about in San Antonio. Part of our hearts prays for God to help us reach that goal.

There is something else, however, in my heart that sees this as a temptation to focus on an effort that should be (and probably is) as natural as breathing as long as we are not afraid. We saw it in the Hunger Awareness meal last year when people broke down boundaries we erected to share their food that night. We are dealing with bigger barriers and bigger fears; that's all. That moment at the meal meant alot to me at the time.

I have already talked about this too much, I will move this to prayer for a while.

September 3rd, 2006 - Sunday Service

This weekend my attention was drawn to food. There is an upcoming Hunger Awareness group meeting where an agenda was needed. I was reading a loaned book called Food & Faith. Then, this morning the Gospel lesson was Mark 7 which included verses 14-15:

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'

If this had been the Gospel lesson two weeks ago I would have thought this was a somewhat quaint issue that has no bearing on current Christianity. The issue of clean and unclean food was long ago resolved unless, by tradition, you abstain from certain food. Certainly, as Pastor Dayle mentioned, there are other things we now see as unclean. The Hurricane Katrina reporting of the smell of dead bodies, the smell of overflowing sewers highlights how bad smells are unclean for us, today. Those who braved that smell to help others heroically overcame something within them.

For me there was something else, closer to that tightrope walk of faith. I read in Food & Faith the concept of food as sacrament rather than merely fuel. The idea and arguments were persuasive. Today's gospel pointed to an inherent danger with thinking of food as sacrament. Namely, what happens when there is not agreement on the sacrament?

Food & Faith has essays that take on the food industry. There are detailed discussions on healthy versus not healthy foods from the problems of fast food to the merits of GMO. These are all issues with merit. As you would expect from the title, these issues are discussed with a religious fervor. The question is how will disagreement be treated? Will the person who eats the fast food be judged as breaking the sacrament? As not being as spiritual or religiously inclined as they should be? Will that person be treated with the disdain the disciples encountered in the gospel lesson?

After the service there was a presentation from the call committee. It was an update on where we are in the process of calling an Associate Pastor. They went through an interview process with five candidates. They have a recommendation they will pass to the church council and then will go to a congregational vote. It is an exciting time in for Creator and we will learn more about him next Sunday.