October 22nd, 2006

My approach, until now, has been to report Creator's activities as they transpired in order to give an "objective" report and move it away from a personal focus. Certainly what is written here is, by nature, personal but I wanted to leave personal “baggage” out. The possible exceptions to this were thoughts, readings or song lyrics I believed to be pertinent to the subject at hand.

However to be true to the power of the service last weekend and the events that contributed to my understanding of the service I have a different approach for this entry.

On Saturday I went to my sister’s 50th birthday party. She was a prominent member of Victory Music, an organization based in Tacoma, Washington that promotes music and musicians. For her birthday she invited friends and family to an area restaurant that was, and still is, important to most of them. Anyone who had the desire could perform at the invitational mic which was a focus for the celebration.

Fifty or so people showed up. It was a memorable and uplifting night for many who attended. This was not only for the celebration or musical performances, although there were incredible performances on Saturday night. My sister invited people who were important to her from her past and present. The core group of friends who ended up in the restaurant, however, were predominantly individuals from Victory Music during the time she was involved. As each took the stage it became apparent why these were the friends who came.

Victory was, for some, a circle of people who transformed each other’s lives by inspiring and helping one another. The purpose of Victory Music, according to its mission statement, is to support acoustic music in the Northwest by fostering a community that nurtures musical growth, creativity, and the appreciation of acoustic music. For the people there on Saturday night, by providing that support, important lifelong friendships were established.

I remember talking to people in Victory when my sister was actively involved. More than one commented at that time that Victory events were like (or more profound than) church to them. I can see why that was said. Being in community and having the community transform who you are is powerful. To participate in the community by using your talents and the skills you felt you could develop is a powerful component of what a church could aspire to do.

Now there are many in Victory and church members who might take umbrage at that last paragraph and I apologize to all of them. Faith and belief are tricky subjects and trying to ascertain the impact of an organization, "community" or church is bound to have a number of different view points and answers to what it was or is about. The same holds true trying to conclude how successful it was or is.

I mention this here, in part, because at Creator we are invited to think about what is next for the church. Last Sunday Kelly drew an analogy between what we wanted to be about as a church with the Sunnyside Road construction in front of the church. He said it was hard for most of us to think abstractly about the future of Creator in the same way it was hard to visualize what Sunnyside Road was going to look like when the work was complete. This weekend put many questions in mind, from my past and present experiences.

Our new pastor, Mark Beatty, gave the Children’s Sermon. It cemented a piece of this idea in my mind (together with being a brilliant introduction for a pastor to Creator). He asked for help from the children to find out where the children’s sermon was normally given and then he went on to clarify the gospel reading about a leader being a servant to everyone. He called this "being a helper to people" and made it apparent that is what he would be striving to do at Creator. That we should be helpers to one another was obvious but, if I think about it, I do not operate much from that idea. Far more often I feel like I am taking on responsibility for a task that needs to be accomplished.

The questions now come to my mind. Should church members be about transforming each other’s lives, what does that look like, and is Creator doing that? Are we creating lifelong bonds with one another?

These questions can personally be answered in many ways. In my first few years at Creator the transformation of my life was obvious to me. Marcus Borg, in several of his books, draws a distinction between the existing and emerging church. I won't get into the definitions here (follow this link http://aspenchapel.org/sermon2-1-04.html and scroll to Marcus Borg's book for an introduction) but my prior Lutheran experiences were with the “existing” church as Borg defines it. Creator was an opportunity to know the “emerging” church paradigm as it is practiced today. To encounter that was transformation at a profound level for me.

Attending services regularly quickly became important, in a way I had not experienced before. Actively participating at Creator became a core piece of life. Transformation, at least personal transformation, stayed apparent to me in my first couple of years with the church.

Current transformation for me is harder to define. Pastor Dayle has preached that the cross in the passage “Take up your cross and follow me” can be seen as talking about the stake of rut and routine we all tend to follow in our lives. It can happen in our church activities as well as our personal activities and I must admit there is work I am involved in as much out of habit as intention.

The Creator Vision Quest team, when it was meeting, ran into a dilemma it never fully resolved. At one point there was a gap analysis made with surveys of the membership of where we wanted to go as a congregation and where we were. The theory was to promote and add activities the membership found important and revamp or drop activities that were not important.

The team in the end, I think wisely, concluded the vision we were after was not about added or dropped activities. There were great insights and ideas but the daunting task of defining an overall vision that worked for the entire congregation mired the team. The Vision Quest team produced a mission statement to snapshot the identity of congregation. Putting substance to the vision of what Creator aspires to accomplish still remains uncompleted.

I will work on my own answers to these questions I now want to open up to you, “Is the Creator community transforming our lives?” and "What does that look like?"

Please feel free to comment. Perhaps you don’t think that is what a church should be about. I think any answer to these questions will be revealing.

Some people reported posting comments is difficult. Let me know or feel free to email me and I will make sure your response is included.