“If you
build it, they will come.” That now-famous phrase is, of course, from the 1989
movie Field of Dreams. It came from the mysterious voice that urged
Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) to take the ridiculous step of ruining a perfectly
good Iowa cornfield to install a full-size baseball diamond. A huge leap of faith. Build the field, things will happen.
I think of
that phrase sometimes when I’m at the front end of a new year, as we are
now. I just finished putting together a
new schedule for staff meetings through the end of June. I try to do that both prayerfully and
strategically. I think about things that inevitably encourage and stretch us,
if we just build them into the schedule.
And the truth is, by the time six months is up and we look back, we find
that God has met us in exciting ways. If
you put it on the schedule…things happen.
Most of
what I put on the schedule involves reading.
Naturally, the staff also prays, does calendar work, and worships at our
meetings. But many Tuesdays we also talk
about a reading I have assigned ahead of time. I try to vary those readings-
newer things, older things, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scripture, blogs,
magazine articles. We try to discern how the books and articles might challenge
our faith in Jesus, and strengthen our ministry. If you put it on the schedule…it will happen!
So here is
a little snapshot of what our staff (sometimes the whole staff, sometimes just
the pastoral staff) will talk about between now and the end of June:
(1) Incarnate Leadership, a small book by Bill Robinson, the former
president of Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. Great stuff on leadership, humility and
servanthood.
(2) an article
from the NY Times Nov.12, 2011 “Generation Sell, by William Deresiewicz.
One way of looking at the trends and values of younger generations.
(3) “It’s Okay to Expect a Miracle,” an
article from Christianity Today (Dec 2011)
by Tim Stafford. A fascinating interview exploring miracles and their
place in the Christian faith.
(4)“A Senior Moment,” another
Dec.2011 Christianity Today article by J. Kennedy. This one looks at ministry
opportunities for senior citizens in churches.
(5) Just after Easter, we will read the
post-resurrection scriptures from Matt 28:16-20, Mark 16:12-20, Luke 24:13-53,
John 20:19-21:25, Acts 1:1-11.
(6)
A sermon from Gardner Taylor called “His Own
Clothes.” Taylor was a marvelous
African American preacher in Brooklyn for over 40 years.
(7) Selected readings from John Calvin’s Institutes.
(8) A reading
from a Christian Century blogsite,
Sept 2011, by Lillian Daniel called
“You Can’t Make This
Up.” An interesting pushback at today’s “individualistic spirituality” that
minimizes or attacks the church.
(9) A reading
from writer Evelyn Underhill, a British mystic of deep faith from the early 20th
century.
(10) selected
poems from Little Girls in Church,” by
Kathleen Norris, a writer and speaker who also happens to be Presbyterian.
So that’s
the lineup for these months. Right now,
they are just items on a schedule. But
if we read, discuss, argue over, pray about and reflect on them…who knows what
might happen?
See you soon,
Pastor Dan
