Travel, Song, Faith Formation

Mars Hill to Valparaiso and Back
It has been several weeks since I have sent out these weekly devotions. Two weeks ago I was on continuing education road trip of sorts: first to hear Pastor Rob Bell at Mars Hill Church near Grand Rapids, Michigan. His "Drops Like Stars" speaking tour looks to be promising, as he tackles the relationship of suffering and creativity. If you are interested in his December 10 show in Columbus, please let me know.

After Mars Hill, we went to Valparaiso University in NW Indiana for the Institute of Liturgical Studies. The theme this year was the Three Days, focusing on the three-part, three-day Holy Week service of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Great Vigil of Easter.

While both venues were very different in scope and content, it was good to be around insightful and faithful people deeply concerned about the church and about walking the way of Jesus.

Daily Dose of Luther
A colleague of mine in Defiance often opens his Facebook day with a daily dose of Luther. I will follow suit (sort of) this morning.

I'm reading his volume on hymns. Luther's editors write: "The hymns of the nineteenth century that form the bulk of today's hymnals were written according to the artistic canons of Romanticism. They use beautifully polished phrases and dance or march rhythms to creation a certain mood or to give an ornate expression to personal religious feelings. But Luther's hymns were not meantot create a mood, but create a message. They were a confession of faith, not personal feelings" (p. 197). That is, Luther's hymns were by and large raw and real, less concerned with the beauty of language and more concerned with the heart of the message. In this spirit, I think John Bell of the Iona Community follows Luther's intentions.

Faith: One Step at a Time
I have just begun reading David Allen's Getting Things Done. It is more in the genre of business productivity, but I am intrigued by his premise and how it might relate to faith formation. He suggests, as I understand it, breaking down projects into goals and doing "the next step" to move forward to completing (hence the title).

Here's the faith connection for me: What if we began with this approach to our faith formation? I think so often we have these nebulous goals (I want to learn to pray for fully. I want to be more familiar with Scripture. I want to learn the virtue of patience.) but they remain simply that: goals. Allen, as I understand it, suggests breaking these down into simple tasks that move us forward: What can I do today to move toward this goal?

Perhaps if your goal is praying more fully, one first step might be learning the great prayers of Scripture. Or visiting a monastery and learning what it means to pray from the monks. Or finding a person who prays well and learning from them. Or simply setting aside specific times during the day to practice different prayer forms.

As I think is the case with faith formation most of the time: baby steps, baby steps... but steps nonetheless.

Book Recommendation
Speaking of prayer, I picked up David Adam's The Rhythm of Life: Celtic Daily Prayer over a year ago and have recently rediscovered it. If you are looking for a daily prayer book, I would highly recommend it. It contains prayers services for morning, noon, evening and night for each of the seven days of the week. It would be ideal for home devotions, personal prayer or in a group setting.

Online
You may want to check out our website if you have not for a while. You can now listen to sermons, download adult Sunday school teachings, print sermon reflection sheets, and see which readings are coming up on Sundays. We even have a link to our stained glass windows (an ongoing project) that coincides with our children's sermon series.

As far as the website goes, I am hoping to move in the direction of broader content management. (In plain English: each group within the the church would be able to update its own part of the website: women, puppets, youth, etc.)

While the plastic and steel sign that graces our Front Street entrance is an important tool, I am increasingly convinced that a congregation's web site is its "public face" and and "virtual sign" for many people.

Help Wanted
If you have experience with mixing digital audio and would like to help create some brief introductions for some of our audio files (sermons, adult Sunday school, perhaps even our weekly radio broadcast), let me know.

Also, if you have graphic design expertise, I have a project idea for a logo that incorporates our congregation's name.