Church in the Cliff

Maternity Leave– CitC Style

Courtney — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:57:04 +0000

After about five different false starts trying to engage with a very challenging lectionary passage for this week (Luke 14:25-33 if you are curious, the “hate your family” passage) I give up. I had this whole idea worked out reading the passage through a non-attachment lens but this morning the writing is just beyond my grasp.

So instead I will tell you why I am grateful for this church. I am eight plus months pregnant which means baby could make an appearance just about any time from next week to a month from now. It’s a kind of intense time, honestly, the waiting for birth and all the changes that a new baby brings. But I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your gracious support.

Starting Sept 12th we begin our OPEN MIKE SERIES at Church in the Cliff. I will be taking a break from leading worship (while juggling a mewling infant) and will return the first Sunday of Advent, November 28th. Thankfully Church in the Cliff is full of folks who dig church and are generous with their time and skills. Some of these are people who are new on the scene, either in seminary or just dipping their toes in a leadership role. Others bring a lot of experience as chaplains or professors and some are in between. Each will bring her or his unique voice to lead worship and our community conversation. Please welcome them and be sweet to them and enjoy a season of fresh vocabulary and ideas about God and our journey together as church. Here’s the lineup:

Sept 12 Jaime Clark-Soles
Sept 19 Scott Shirley
Sept 26 Ross Prater
Oct 3 Cara Stoneham & Mandy Wertz
Oct 10 Paul Semrad
Oct 17 Janalee Shadburn
Oct 24 Jann Aldredge-Clanton (Jaime and/or David available as back up in case Jann needs to be with new grandbaby this week)
Oct 31 Stephanie Wyatt
Nov 7 Reagan Lunn
Nov 14 Adam Brett
Nov 21 Genny Rowley

I’ll also continue to be around and available for one on one chats and coffees-so please contact me (churchinthecliff@gmail.com) if you would like to get together. Scott and Teri are managing programs, weekly emails and other logistics with the rest of the worship team, and Ross and our whole board are available to talk about any other questions or concerns. (Contact info below).

Also, a quick update on community gatherings. As we have discussed the last few weeks at church and community meals, this fall we are taking a break from the regularly scheduled Wed. night meals (so no gathering tonight.) Instead, we are inviting folks to organize different mini-series around particular topics. So far Mikal and Sarah are designing something on spiritual approaches to dream interpretation, Paul and Scott are cooking up a little series on doubt, Teri wants to host a study on Jaime’s new book on postmodern scriptural interpretation, Reagan might like to do a bible study connected to one of his classes at Perkins. And lastly I want to host a series/retreat on the Desert Mothers and Father, or the sayings of 4th century monks in Palestine and Egypt. Stay tuned for dates and times.

The invitation is open to all– is there some topic you have been wanting to dive into? Or would you like to offer your home for a meal and a gathering? Talk to Teri and Scott to get info out in church email, and let them or me know if you need any help finding resources, making connections, or getting started.

I think we are all excited to see what organic connections and intimate conversations grow this fall.

Peace,

Courtney
PS This Sunday we are wrapping up our summer series ‘Filling the Church Shaped Hole’. Come for an informal service followed by a potluck brunch to celebrate new baby Amory-Pinkerton. Want more info on brunch or to coordinate a dish? contact Lisa Shirley at lisawhiteshirley@hotmail.com.
All are Welcome!! 11am worship, brunch at noon also at Kidd Springs Rec Center.

PPS All Souls Community Center is featured in this news clip about the fifth anniversary after Katrina. Check it out to see faces and hear stories from the community we collaborated with in the lower 9th ward on our recent mission trip.

Dry-Cleaning Gratitude

Courtney — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:02:27 +0000

Being a pastor is a weird job. I love the freedom to read, plan worship, talk with interesting people, and sit with scripture and the tradition. But sometimes I just have to laugh at myself and at any expectation I have or someone else might have that I can come up with a spiritual word or reflection. Some weeks the consciousness feels clearer, a gift of the Spirit, and usually a result of time spent reading good words, sitting in silence– God’s primary language– or with loving friends. But what about those other weeks, the weeks like this one where I don’t have childcare and I feel my children and their needs pressed up against me, inseparable from the August heat?

I wake up groggy and Perl is cranky, using her “small voice” demanding apple juice in a sippy cup and determined to change out of her pajamas with flowers on them to pajamas with monkeys on them even as I explain that it is daytime and so we should really be putting on regular clothes. In the end I cave and just let her dress herself and she walks around in nothing but soft blue elastic-waisted pajama shorts pulled up to midchest and a pair of lime green sandals. Richie comments that she looks like a retiree in Florida. Later she dons a string of pearls.

I imagine most of us have situations that push us back to our own version of the small, whiny voice within. Our own challenges and frustrations feel like big rock formations encircling a valley of despair, loneliness, and at times self-pity. Ironically the only path I can find up and out of the valley is compassion for myself, what wisdom teachers call ”Compassionate self-observation.” Don’t try to force a change in attitude, just observe the dark stuff and don’t hold on to it. And sometimes, when I do that, life provides situations that help me reconnect to gratitude and the dark stuff shifts at least for a moment and I can see my next step on the path.

On Monday I gave myself permission to do whatever it took to make it through the day with small children, so that meant we went to Taco Cabana for lunch. And I had a large Diet Dr. Pepper in lieu of a much desired nap (sorry new baby). As we left I noticed a dry cleaner across the parking lot and remembered the soiled cushion cover in the back of the car needing some attention after one of the children from our Montessori preschool co-op spread Aquaphor (which is basically non-petroleum derived Vaseline) all over our new vintage chair. So I drove 20 yards and parked, feeling grumpy in the 107 degree heat as I unbuckled my kids again from their seats and we went inside, where it was even hotter. They had all the doors open and no air conditioning on and the poor man who rang up my order was soaking wet.

He was kind enough to let us use their bathroom, even though it was clearly not meant for the general public. And so we went, like a parade of very pregnant and small people, through the back room filled with clinking irons and steam machines and equipment that hissed and sputtered. There were about six people working back there and most of them looked like they had just stepped out of a shower with all of their clothes on. It was hotter and wetter than a sauna and by the time we emerged from the restroom a few minutes later all three of us had very pink cheeks and sweaty brows. This was my gratitude reality check.

As I buckled Coleman back into his seat I explained that mommy and daddy were lucky to have jobs that we both really enjoy and where we get to work in comfortable conditions. I swear I even felt a shift in the energy of my little people as the AC in the car cranked into high gear, and they seemed more appreciative than before. And then, gracias a Dios, they fell asleep, and after they got in a good nap we made it through the rest of our day.

This week at Church in the Cliff we are talking about emergent church experiences with Janalee, Stephanie Maxson, Lisa and others sharing some of their story. I still don’t have a good short definition for “emergent” but one feature of emergent communities that I do understand is an emphasis on authenticity. Say goodbye to Saturday night/Sunday morning Christian dynamics: we are called to be our whole selves all the time.

I find the focus on authenticity very comforting. It means I can be a cranky mother of young children and a pastor. I can be exhausted and barely put together whole sentences one day and able to articulate complex theological arguments on another. I can enjoy cooking and making art and being sweet to my husband sometimes, and other times just want to lock my bedroom doors and take a nap all by myself or watch Madmen on Netflix and eat popcorn and drink ginger ale. I don’t have to pretend to be loving or profound or self-less all the time but rather can just pray that God use all my pieces, including the ones that seem to me less worthy or interesting.

As a church that is ecu-mergent I think we are on a similar journey toward integration. I look forward to talking about it more tonight and Sunday with you all.

Joy and good things,

Courtney
PS Tamales and conversation tonight at our place, 2515 Gladiolus Lane Dallas 75233. 6:30pm. new and old friends welcome!

Adam asked me to share info about this upcoming Brite Event which looks important and right up our alley. Anybody want to go? I likely will have a newborn by then, but would love to support it and hear a full report.

Beyond Apologetics:
Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 7:00pm
Robert Carr Chapel at Brite Divinity School
Cost: Free and open

Beyond Apologetics is a symposium of scholars and practitioners who are committed to developing a new generation of thought and practice for ministry with transgender, bisexual, lesbian and gay people. The work of participants is based upon the belief that it is time to move beyond an “apologetics of inclusion” to develop theologies and practices that recognize, respect, and integrate the realities of GLBT experiences and new scholarly insights emerging from these communities. Institutional support for the symposium is provided by Brite Divintiy School and Phillips Theological Seminary and funded by a grant from the Carpenter Foundation.

Church in the Cliff Board

Ross Prater, Moderator
Damon Petite, Treasurer
Kristin Schutz, Clerk
James Fairchild, Trustee
Cara Stoneham, Trustee

Please contact Kristin Schutz, clerk at kristinl.schutz@gmail.com or moderator Ross Prater, at pprate@verizon.net with any questions or feedback.

God is Still Speaking

Courtney — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:41:49 +0000

God is Still Speaking

Don’t put a period where God puts a comma, God is still speaking.

Our faith is over 2,000 years old. Our thinking is not.

Church in the Cliff recently voted to explore affiliation with the United Church of Christ (UCC). In addition to being progressive theologically and open and affirming of all people regardless of sexual orientation, UCC seems to be interested in new ways of doing and being church. And they have the coolest ad campaign, as indicated by their slogans above.

Please check out their most recent 90 second video message on religion with relevance.

I’ll admit it, it made me cry. It is beautiful and upbeat, yet not cheesy. It reconnected me to my own hunger to be part of a church that listens for God and loves people radically in real time– in this life, this very moment.

Some people in the Emergent conversation, which we will talk more about next week, would likely suggest that we are crazy to consider aligning with an existing denomination when many emergent communities are trying to shed old identities.

They may be right. But I kind of like the idea of being aligned with more than one denomination ala a relational location somewhere in the middle of Alliance of Baptist, UMC, and UCC. That seems like a gloriously awkward intersection, and we do well with awkward.

We are already affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists, as we talked about last week. And I am appointed by the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church to serve in an extension ministry to an ecumenical and emergent context. And In addition to these Baptist and Methodist connections, it is clear from this summer that we bring stories from a variety of denominations and backgrounds.

Consequently it kind of makes sense that we might benefit by being part of another like minded network like UCC. It also opens up another ordination path and job curcuit for our seminarians. Indeed Nancy Allison, the totally fabulous founder of Citychurch/Church in the Cliff, is now ordained by the UCC. (Please check out her current ministry as the lead pastor of Holy Covenant United Church of Christ.)

These are good things to pray about and to consider for our future. Join us tonight for some of Paul’s famous curry and another round of identity conversations as we talk more about the UCC.

peace to you this hot, hot day

Courtney

community meal tonight at 108 S. Rosemont Dallas, 6:30pm. Please bring drinks and dessert to share.

A thank you note that Chloe asked me to share with the church.

Dear Church in the Cliff,

I would like to thank everyone in the church for giving me the experience of a mission trip. I would also like to thank everyone at All Souls–the kids,the teachers,and pastor Lonell. This trip opened my eyes to all that is around me and taught me about the struggles that people in New Orleans face everyday. It was a joy to be there to help them and talk to them, to listen to them sing, and to be in service with them. Going on this trip has truly been a wonderful, fun, spiritual, moving, lovable experience that i will never forget.

Love,
Chloe Clark-Soles

Church in the Cliff Board

Ross Prater, Moderator
Damon Petite, Treasurer
Kristin Schutz, Clerk
James Fairchild, Trustee
Cara Stoneham, Trustee

Please contact Kristin Schutz, clerk at kristinl.schutz@gmail.com or moderator Ross Prater, at pprate@verizon.net with any questions or feedback.

The Language of God, new UCC video message

Church in the Cliff Website

Pray as You Go (Daily Prayer for your MP3 Player)

Inspiration Board and Quick Links

New to the UCC?

church in the cliff. 214.233.4605. PO Box 5072 Dallas TX 75208

www.churchinthecliff.org

Worship at Kidd Springs Rec Center

711 West Canty Street
Dallas, TX 75208-3917
sunday mornings 11:00 am

Community meal Wednesdays at 6:30pm in Oak Cliff home.

Call for directions! 214. 233-4605

Flirting with Baptists

Courtney — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:38:22 +0000

Church in the Cliff has a story to tell just as each of us do. And this congregation, originally named CityChurch, has an over ten year history with progressive Baptists. Some people think those two terms don’t go together, but they can, and many in our midst claim them both. One of the ways we acknowledge the unique story of our church is to continue to be in relationship with the Alliance of Baptists, a movement which began as a dissenting voice in Baptist life 23 years ago and today connects progressive Christians of many stripes.

Stephanie and Cara take the lead this week in sharing their individual relationships both to CitC and to the Alliance and why they value the connection between the two (which our congregation recently voted to continue.) Stephanie writes that Alliance is a “relational web that reminds us that there are other people in the U.S. and around the world that also share our fundamental values: the desire to welcome and affirm all people, freedom of individual conscience, a desire for deep reflection and thoughtful living as individuals and community, recognition that God is mystery and cannot be contained in a neatly defined package, a desire for inclusive gender language about God and each other, and a commitment to social justice and sustainable living.” (See Stephanie’s entire reflection below.)

It is good to know that we are not the only ones yearning to fill the church-shaped hole with thoughtful and life-giving community. Indeed we are but one of the many many places where God is bringing about the new.

So how to make sense of this connection if you don’t identify as Baptist? I think the answer is simple: as a church we are called to love each other and that means that we are willing to engage with those things that others in our community love. Listen to Cara talk about the power of her experience of being ordained by our church and affiliated with the Alliance. It is a love story. Listen to Stephanie talk about being drawn to an Alliance church that was getting into trouble because it was open and affirming and trying to do things differently. It is another love story. Indeed Church in the Cliff itself is a sort of love-child of a group of Dallas area Baptists who wanted to form a community of grace and nonjudgement and to reach out to folks who would never visit a ‘regular church.’ Long-time member Oz wrote a brief history of Citc/Church in the Cliff which I also include below and hope everyone will take a look at to learn more.

So whether you are Baptist or Ecu-mergent or something else entirely, it is always good to be thankful for friends on this journey. Join us Sunday as Cara and Stephanie and others share more about the Alliance of Baptists and we all reflect on our connection to the broader Body of Christ.
Peace,

Courtney
Ps Tonight Richie and I host the community meal. It is also Perl’s birthday so join us for grilled chicken, Greek salad, and ice cream Sundays at our new place. 2515 Gladiolus Lane Dallas TX 75233. 630 pm. Old and New friends alike!

Stephanie’s Reflection for CitC Weekly Newsletter August 11, 2010

During our summer series, “Filling the Church- Shaped Hole,” we have been listening to each other’s stories and learning about one another’s faith or philosophical journeys. Each week we asked the questions: What does this faith tradition or philosophical path bring to the CitC community? What parts of our personal histories do we feel will contribute positively to the CitC community? What parts of our previous experiences do we wish to leave behind? What draws us to CitC? Who are we as a community and who do we want to be?

This week we shift gears a bit and begin to examine where CitC locates itself within the broader contemporary faith conversation. The next three weeks we will engage the Alliance of Baptists, the United Church of Christ, and the emergent conversation. This week Cara Stoneham and I will be sharing about our affiliation and experience with the Alliance. CitC is the fourth Alliance church I have called home since graduating college.

One of the refrains I hear over and over in Alliance churches is the assumption that “We are the only church like this; aren’t we lucky to have found this place.” While each church is certainly unique, what I appreciate about the Alliance is the opportunity to be connected with a far reaching association of churches whose theology and practice resonate with what I have come to love about CitC. The Alliance of Baptists is not a denomination, but rather a fascinating relational web that reminds us that there are other people in the U.S. and around the world that also share our fundamental values: the desire to welcome and affirm all people, freedom of individual conscience, a desire for deep reflection and thoughtful living as individuals and community, recognition that God is mystery and cannot be contained in a neatly defined package, a desire for inclusive gender language about God and each other, and a commitment to social justice and sustainable living.

The Alliance of Baptists has given me the chance to retain the things I love about my own Baptist heritage, while also allowing me to cultivate values that are central to my life and vocational calling. The fact that I have been able to grow within and contribute to such vibrant, diverse, and quirky communities has made this journey all the more sweet.

I look forward to sharing with you my personal story of discovering and committing to the Alliance and to hear Cara’s story of call, ordination, and endorsement by the Alliance. Come on Sunday for an opportunity to listen, respond, laugh, and be community for one another.

With great appreciation,

Stephanie Wyatt

City Church/Church in the Cliff History by William “Oz” Osborne

We were so excited to have a new Baptist church starting in our neighborhood by a friend from Royal Lane Baptist, Nancy Allison. The first meeting place was at the Pastoral Counseling Center on Lemon. We had a nucleus of about 30 people. The name, City Church was very important to us and we chose it carefully. We expected to be a “City Church”. I started the first website and although it wasn’t nearly as professional as we have now, it was a beginning. We were initially sponsored by Royal Lane, Wilshire, and Park Cities Baptist churches. From the beginning we have been an accepting and affirming congregation welcoming everyone.

Our first move was to the Theater Three in the Quadrangle. We would frequently attend the performances at Theater Three, as a group during half price night. We had many artists, both musical and visual attending CC and participating in various art shows and jazz and other events.
We called ourselves a church in a box, as we had to put everything away each Sunday morning and then get them out again the next Sunday. We had a choir of about 8 or 9 people, and were led by Vaun Little. Our pastor was Vicki Lumpkin. Vaun led us in a Christmas musical production at Wilshire Baptist. Judy Felder was one of the stars.

Vaun Little died suddenly and we were left without anyone to lead the singing. Vicki asked me if I would lead the singing and I told her that I would play my trombone and lead. I did that for several months and enjoyed it very much. Ann Morton was our pianist. We had a business office on Oak Lawn. I was treasurer and was assisted by Judy Bob Moseley. When both of us got overwhelmed, doing the bookkeeping, we hired Clarice Bishop who had been my business manager before I retired.
Vicki and Charles Darwin found a location for us near Oak Lawn on Routh Street which we began leasing. Initially this place was perfect, as we had a business office there, children’s room, Sunday school rooms, pastor’s study and worship space. Vicki resigned and we called a new pastor, Laura Fregin. Her husband, Fred, moved to Dallas with her and they worked together as a team helping to build the church.

We did however outgrow the space on Routh Street and the Fregins found a church, Trinity Presbyterian, in Oak Cliff where we met for several Sundays. We than moved to the present location, Kidd Springs recreation center. In May of 2009, Laura resigned and we called Courtney Pinkerton as our present pastor.

Church in the Cliff Board

Ross Prater, Moderator
Damon Petite, Treasurer
Kristin Schutz, Clerk
James Fairchild, Trustee
Cara Stoneham, Trustee

Please contact Kristin Schutz, clerk at kristinl.schutz@gmail.com or moderator Ross Prater, at pprate@verizon.net with any questions or feedback.

Church in the Cliff Website

Pray as You Go (Daily Prayer for your MP3 Player)

Inspiration Board and Quick Links

Alliance of Baptists

Guitar Mass

Courtney — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:12:22 +0000

On Monday night Richie and I sat outside on our vintage lawn chairs — turquoise, circa 1955, to go with the new house– and watched the kiddos “water the plants” aka play with the hose. We talked about his experience growing up in a Catholic family in New Jersey and I learned things that I did not know about my husband of almost seven years.

Simple things– like what he remembers about the weekly services he attended with parents and siblings. ‘Guitar Mass,’ as it was called, was the more informal weekly service held in the cafeteria of the Catholic school adjacent to the sanctuary. Guitar Mass consisted of a priest upfront, an altar set up and broken down each Sunday, a group of guitar-playing musicians, and rows of folding chairs. On Richie’s favorite weeks everyone sang together of Mother Mary in the Beatles song ‘Let it Be.’

This was starting to sound familiar.

“Church in the Cliff is guitar Mass,” my manfriend explained to me. I had to stop and think about that one for a while. The comment actually helped me realize that I continue to carry some assumptions about “Catholics” that I should probably take out and revisit.

Growing up in a Methodist Church here locally, I did not hear a lot about the Catholic tradition. I had an elementary friend who was Catholic and an awkward visit to her church once where her mom told me I couldn’t take communion with them (She looked at me meaningfully as she kind of pushed me back on my bottom in the pew and said “Someday I hope you can…..” Not her best mama moment. But I digress.)

Mostly I only saw Catholic churches from the outside in. Riding by in the car I would notice that their crosses had Jesus still hanging there and I would wonder about that. I knew that we were all Christian, but I also internalized an unspoken message from family, friends, and fellow churchgoers: there is a difference between Protestants and Catholics, and they are other, and so one should be respectful but a little suspicious of their tradition and practices.

Now, I hope I’ve learned a few things since then. I’ve gone to conferences and heard smart, passionate young Catholics talk about Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and her radical hospitality and care for the poor. I have fallen in love with the teachings of Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation. Thomas Merton, a religious thinker, social critic, Cistercian monk and powerful author provides the quote for our weekly program: “The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.”

Maybe the thick line of ‘otherness’ is not quite so impenetrable.

And yet when Richie said that Church in the Cliff was guitar Mass, some part within me resisted. We aren’t guitar Mass. We are progressive and creative and Mass is well, more formal and uptight, right? It was then that I saw it. My own mental map: the silos where I store information based on what I believe to be true. And somehow I had managed to carry through this idea from my childhood that there is a boundary between Catholic and Protestant traditions and my side is better, more open, and more flexible. Do any of you still carry one or more of these assumptions?

But really, I think Richie’s analogy stands. Especially considering the timeframe he grew up in and the major upheavals occurring in the Catholic Church in the wake of Vatican II. (Pope John XXIII called the second Vatican Council in the early/mid 1960s to “open the windows of the church and let in some fresh air”-specifically with the goals of restoring unity among all Christians and starting a dialogue with the contemporary world.)

Vatican II changed everything and local parishes were engaged in the messy work of trying to figure out what it all meant: how to worship in English rather than Latin, how to make the formal liturgy more inclusive of the voices of the laity, how to change music and venue and whatever else it took to enliven the practice. In this way I think Church in the Cliff and our worship likely does share some attributes with the ‘Guitar Mass’ of Richie’s youth. We too strive for more inclusivity, intentionality with our language, and a healthy examination of theological assumptions.

Now I recognize that I am traveling across some deep and complex terrain in a few brief paragraphs. But I look to the individual stories of our members to ground our conversation this week. Indeed, by inviting folks who grew up Catholic and Lutheran to share in the same week we have an opportunity to honestly examining a historic divide between Protestants and Catholics. Let us come together to listen deeply to Kristin, Damon, Richie and others as they share their experiences and let us be open to the quickening voice of God as She cuts through our previous misconceptions and partial truths.

Church in the Cliff folks seem to enjoy meaty subject matter and a little controversy. So join us tonight and Sunday for what I expect will be good talks and good times.

Courtney

Paul is making beans, rice and a big summer salad. Bring drinks, dessert and a little cash. 108 S. Rosemont, 6:30pm. See you there, newcomers and old friends alike! Call 214 233-4605 with questions.

Spaghetti Monsters

Courtney — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:40:01 +0000

Maybe you are familiar with this paradigm:
Unquestioning Believers (in Jesus Christ as Savior) are number one,
Doubters and Sometime Questioners of Faith are in second place,
and the Poor Souls who claim an agnostic or atheist identity and/or who choose to live their lives outside of the church are on the bottom. They are losing the race of life, they have fallen off the stairway to heaven, they are quite simply, lost.

This structure in my professional, pastoral perspective is Lame-o. Please quote me.

And hurtful too. Hurtful to those labeled as being on the outside, for sure, but also hurtful to those who get to continue to live in a space of thinking they have it all figured out. I can’t find room for mystery, for breath, for movement in a paradigm that celebrates having all the answers.

What a gift to have members of our community who either currently claim the role or have long-time experience as dissenters. They remind us that our God-talk matters. That our truth claims should be invitations, not battering rams. That our lives, not only our words, should bear evidence to the living Spirit of God.

This week we continue with our summer series on ‘Filling the Church-Shaped Hole.’ So far we have heard stories from Baptists, Church of Christers, Quakers, and Methodists in our midst reflecting on what they love from their traditions, what they leave behind, and what kind of church they hope we grow into. This week we open space for those in our community whose stories don’t fit neatly into a denominational category.

We have struggled to find a title for this week. So far I have been calling it Agnostic/Atheist/Unchurched/and Over Church (as in “I’m so over that”) Sunday. While it may be awkwardly named, I find it a refreshing space.

Our church-building project need not be threatened by questions or anger or doubt or confusion. God doesn’t buy into tidy categories. Indeed, I’m not even so comfortable with the idea that some people are ‘agnostic’ and other people ‘believers.’ I think we all entertain doubt and hard, unanswerable questions. Thankfully some folks are comfortable talking about their uncertainty about God. They help all of us to develop a robust vocabulary to talk about the edges of faith and those spaces of deep unknowing.

Join us tonight for spaghetti (Paul’s tribute to the Flying Spaghetti Monster and all good religious satire) and stories. 108 S. Rosemont Ave. 6:30pm Drinks, Dessert and Dinero welcome. 214 233 4605 with any questions! Please come on Sunday to hear testimonies from Paul and Dixon.

Joy and all good things,

Courtney
PS Also please join us after church this Sunday at Rebel’s house (2610 Hood St. Dallas TX 75219) for a potluck hosted by the New Orleans Mission Team. We will share photos, stories and our gratitude for the church’s support of our recent trip to the Lower 9.

Coming Undone for Jesus

Courtney — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:47:14 +0000

We are back from our first ever all-ages mission trip to New Orleans led by Chloe Clark-Soles. I feel the need for a religious expletive here, like an Amen or Hallelujah! There were a lot of variables that could have not gone well as our group travelled to a new city with two pregnant women and one two year old in high summer. But the work at All Souls Episcopal Church/Community Center was provocative and engaging, the children beautiful, the story of Katrina and the flood heartbreaking, and the resilience of the people we met inspiring. And we all kept our health and our wits about us for the most part. Oh yeah, and the food was really good. And the live music was really really good.

The highlight of the trip for me was Friday afternoon when we participated in a mini gospel concert led by a group of New Orleans musicians who teach music to children over the summer. They brought kiddos from another community center to mingle with our All Souls kiddos and led them in selections both groups had previously prepared. Picture sixty kiddos from poor neighborhoods — who have probably seen a lot of hard stuff and been relocated two or three times because of Katrina – singing their guts out. Singing their souls out. Singing their story. And singing an old favorite, “If anybody asks you who I am, tell them I am a child of God.” I felt like I had been properly churched!

Thank you also to the broader Church in the Cliff community who supported us with financial donations and prayers. We were all overwhelmed by the generosity of the community and felt so blessed for the support which enabled us to travel and buy necessary supplies for the camp and our work day and still leave a significant contribution in the All Souls collection plate.

I invite everyone to join us tonight for pizza and our first pass at telling the story. 6:30 Casa Semrad. 108 S. Rosemont. Bring $5, drinks, dessert and/or salad to share. 214. 233 4605 with any questions. Joy to you this beautiful summer day,

Courtney

PS This week we are easing back into our summer series ‘Filling the Church-Shaped Hole’ with Methodist/Mainline Sunday. Wes and Mikal will be sharing testimonies so please join us. Wondering what a ‘Mainline Christian‘ is? Click on Wikipedia link here.

Thank you to Chloe, Ross, Mikal, Paul, Aleah, Iris, Rebel, Kristin, Cara, and Perl for your open hearts and active engagement. I think we are all still digesting and integrating what we experienced. Many of us came home from New Orleans both energized and feeling kind of ‘undone’ — a common side effect of a trip outside of one’s comfort zone. It takes a while to put the pieces back together. And they never quite go back in the same way, which is a gift of the encounter.

Holy Vulnerability

Courtney — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:55:35 +0000

After this, Jesus appointed seventy-two others, and sent them ahead in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them…. “Be on your way, and remember: I am sending you as lambs in the midst of wolves. Don’t carry a walking stick or knapsack; wear no sandals and greet no one along the way. And whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace be upon this house!’ If the people live peaceably there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will come back to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you, for the laborer is worth a wage. Don’t keep moving from house to house.” Luke 10: 1, 3-7

Sent out in pairs they go walking along a dusty road: no stick for security, no purse for carrying or collecting money, no sandals even to come between their feet and the hot earth. This image from Luke’s gospel really moves me. Luke is the only one with such an expansive commissioning. Sure, like Mark and Matthew he also describes Jesus’ commissioning of the twelve and sending them out to extend his ministry of ‘word and deed.’ But Luke being Luke, he gives a shout out to the women and others who were involved in supporting Jesus and his teachings; reminding the reader that like the seventy, we too are sent out into the world to prepare the way for Jesus’ love and healing.

But how does it really work to embrace this invitation to go ahead? Jesus is rather particular in explaining the role: it is one of intentional poverty. He goes on to say that you stay with one household, and eat whatever they give you. I also appreciate the mutuality and dependency of his instructions. You don’t go barging out into the world proclaiming your unique appreciation of Jesus and his wisdom and demanding that others fall in line. As disciples, or students, of Jesus we are totally dependent on being received and fed by others even as we do our best to share a word of peace.

Naked but with a word of peace on our lips: that is a beautiful descriptor for the journey of faith. This ‘peace’ on our lips is more than just a word, more even than a blessing. It is an embodiment of God’s shalom – the unfolding mystery of the reign of God. Those who accept the invitation to prepare the way for Jesus first travel down the social latter. Don’t sign up because you want to be ‘in the know,’ want to have some of Jesus’ superstar status rub off on you, or to be associated with an elite club of like-minded believers.

For here Jesus says clearly, the insiders are the outsiders. The ones on the Jesus Way make a conscious decision to forgo the world’s status symbols and to willingly travel in a posture of humility and dependence.

In one week we go to New Orleans to work with children in the lower 9th ward. I find myself considering them in little moments throughout my days: these kiddos I have never met. What are their stories? What has life looked like through their lenses? Where were they when the waters were rising after the levies broke? Who grabbed them and lifted them up? Who loves them fiercely and who do they love?

We will only get a few days with them but in that time we are putting on a one act play with some collaborators from Grace Church in Alexandria. The play is about Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit. There are going to be lots of good old-school, kid-crafted costume and set designs: think Egyptian’s wearing cuffs and collars made of construction paper covered in tin foil, the Israelites with red prayer shawls and kerchiefs in their heads and all their belongings in brown paper bags, and then the ‘sea’ people with big blue fabric for making waves and hand-held sea plants and creatures. Members of Trinity River Folk, our home-grown band will be providing music. Chloe, our fearless thirteen year-old trip leader, will be coaching the kids in good projection and other theater tips. Perl will be running around like only an almost two-year old can. And the rest of us will be doing whatever we need to do to help channel the energy of forty plus elementary-age children as we prepare for the big day: performing in the Sunday morning Eucharist service at our host church, All Soul’s Episcopal Parish and Community Center.

I ask for your prayers and I rest in the comfort of knowing that there are many who support us from afar. Pray that we can travel with the peace of Christ on our lips. Pray that we will eat what is before us. Pray that we might learn something useful to God and to ourselves and our community through an experience, however brief, of ‘intentional poverty’ as we sleep on floors and foam-mattress bunk beds. Pray that we listen deeply to the children, laugh often, and take our sandals off to feel the dusty road beneath our feet and to know that we walk on holy ground.

Peace to you this day,

Courtney
PS We are still accepting financial contributions for our trip. Anything we collect above basic expenses we will donate directly to the All Souls Episcopal Church and Community Center along with a cello and viola we are giving to their music program. Checks can be made out to Church in the Cliff with ‘New Orleans Mission Trip’ in memo line and given to Lisa or mailed to PO Box 5072 Dallas TX 75208.

Love Slaves

Courtney — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:12:46 +0000

OK, sometimes the Bible can be a little kinky. I am really enjoying this week’s passage from Galatians, chapter 5, “For you were called to freedom, sisters and brothers; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Who has ever been a part of a community that bites and devours their members? That is some pretty strong language. Yet when I reflect on conversations I have had with people involved with Church in the Cliff I think that many of us carry bite marks from previous communities, even (maybe especially?) from other communities of faith. These old wounds are made worse by the fact that the parts of ourselves we presented upon joining said groups were often our most tender bits. For it is those tender parts of our bodies and souls which, like the canary in the mine, first alert us to our need for fresh air and new life.

Let me offer an example. I spent a couple of years in Nicaragua in my mid twenties, living on the side of a volcano. Most of my days were spent with women and children from the community, Mansico, where I lived. We did a lot of talking, sharing ideas, and slowly organized some grassroots banking co-operatives.

In Nicaragua they have a saying, “Hay mas tiempo que vida” or “there is more time than life.” People spend a lot of time waiting for stuff: for the bus to come chugging up the dusty road, for an appointment at the health clinic, for the teachers to make it up the rocky trail to start class. I did my share of waiting too: for community meetings to start, for a local leader to stand up and speak, for the carrots in my parched garden to grow.

In the midst of all this waiting, God started to haunt me. In the potent silence of the in-between times God was busy nudging me into reconsidering my next steps. Ultimately after a couple of years of ignoring Divine promptings I gave up. I came to see that the career I was planning in law and non-profit management was about to take a big turn. And that the kind of justice-work that most inspired and interested me was in fact dependent on my participation in spiritual community. I came to trust that whatever I could contribute to and learn from this hurting world would be richer and more impactful if I could do it as part of a group of people who were hungry for the same things: meaning, traction, growth, even love. In short, God helped me recognize that I was not done with the church as I thought I might be.

So, with all this hard fought spiritual wisdom I applied to Divinity schools. That is where Part I of the story ends and another story begins. Let us just say that the small and growing edges of my soul watered in the silence of Nicaragua had a hard time finding a home in the competitive world of graduate school. And some very yucky internships again made me doubt the beauty and integrity of church life. So, like many among us, I am familiar with what happens when you present your most vulnerable, growing edges to a community and someone takes a big chomp out of them and it really hurts.

Which is why Paul reminds us in this letter to folks in Galatia that the stakes are high. Church is to be the wading pool for an even bigger experience of the Divine, not a place that makes us retreat from whatever individual truths we have gleaned through reflection and hard life. We are scripturally mandated to be each other’s love slaves because we need an experience of God manifest through flesh and blood if we are to continue to live deeper into the vulnerability modeled by Jesus. It is scary to trust our inner canaries and the still small voice of God.

This summer we are creating space to listen to each other’s stories about church. About what we have learned and about where we hope we are headed. Join us tonight and Sunday as Jen and Alan and others with Bible Church/Church of Christ experience give voice to what they love, what they choose to leave behind, and what they draw from their traditions which helps them articulate the church they want us to be.

Joy and All Good Things,

Courtney
PS Paul is making a surprise dish sponsored by Jen tonight. Drinks and dessert welcome. 108 S. Rosemont Ave 75208. 6:30pm

LOVING THE WORLD BACK TO LIFE

One of the joys of pastoring a church such as Church in the Cliff is how engaged this community is in social investment of various forms. We give money, we organize, we volunteer, we enter into relationship with the poor, locally and globally, and we help and love each other.

Chloe, Ross and I had a wonderful recon trip to New Orleans. Photos will be posted on Facebook and the All Souls Summer Camp blog tonight (Teri is going to help me :) We now have one dozen Church in the Cliff folks going, which as Ross pointed out, is a pretty great ratio– one third– when you consider we usually have thirty-six in worship on Sunday. Thank you to all who have generously contributed to support our work so far. Chloe, Ross and I feel so energized by what we saw on the ground and cannot wait for our community to participate further. If you would like to make a donation, please make a check out to CitC and write ‘New Orleans Mission Trip’ in the memo line. Checks can be mailed (PO Box 5072 Dallas TX 75208), put in the offering basket, or given directly to Lisa Shirley. Thanks!

Baptist-Flavored Broth

Courtney — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:12:04 +0000

A seminary professor of mine, Stephanie Paulsell, once talked about a dilemma she experienced as part of the diverse worshiping community of Harvard Divinity School (HDS). HDS is both an ecumenical and a multi-faith environment, and every Wednesday we would gather to create ‘suspended space’ and to worship together. At times it got confusing and awkward, as you would imagine, but other times it was powerful and unexpectedly beautiful to be interpreting our traditions to one another. (Just to give you an example, one week worship would be led by Harambee, the black student union, with lively hymns and preaching and the next week by the HDS Islamic community, who prepared and shared with us all a traditional meal to break the fast of Ramadan and gathered in a corner of the cafeteria to face Mecca and pray, kneeling again and again in a beautifully fluid motion to rest their foreheads on the ground.)

Stephanie noticed an unusual phenomenon within herself related to these Wednesday worship services: the more different a tradition was from her own (Stephanie is a Disciples of Christ pastor) the more willing she was to cut them some slack. She would pretty much happily do whatever was asked of her (cover her head, speak, not speak, eat, not eat, sit on the floor etc) to get to participate in a worship experience from another religion. However, she said the hairs on the back of her neck would rise and her indignation with it if a Christian denomination asked women to sit in the back or cover their hair, so much so that it became almost impossible to even sit through the worship service, much less actually use it as a time to commune with God. ** Now just to
clarify, neither Stephanie nor I really can abide women being put in an inferior position in any tradition, but read on for her broader point. **

Stephanie named this phenomenon ‘The challenge of the proximate other.’ i.e. the more different someone is, the easier in some ways it can be to create space for mutual engagement, relationship, and dialogue. However, if someone is really similar to you (or to your group) and uses mostly the same vocabulary, tells the same stories, etc. but is not exactly the same then all those specific differences are brought into relief. And often used to define one group against another (baptism by ‘sprinkling’ verses ‘immersion’ comes to mind.)

Tonight we start the first of our summer series exploring the various ‘flavors’ that comprise the broth of Church in the Cliff. Last week we talked about the unique history of the church as an urban and welcoming place started by a visionary female pastor and generously funded by three area Baptist churches. So it makes sense to start with the Baptist denomination as it was foundational to the church, even as we recognize that folks from a dozen or more traditions make up the Citc community today.

Each week we will ask roughly the same questions of those who claim a certain identity either as their church of origin or as an important identity to this day. The questions are: 1) What do you love (about your tradition), 2) What have you chosen to leave behind? and 3) What do you think your tradition contributes to the unfolding identity of Church in the Cliff?

Join us tonight for Baptists, baked beans, and Paul’s homemade mashed potatoes. All are welcome to participate in what will likely be a lively conversation!

peace,

Courtney