Feedback, and Forward Thinking

 Feb 27, 2011

First we did a short Bible study of Luke 5: 1-11 and answered the question What features of spiritual growth, discipleship, and learning about God do you see in this passage?

- the people were listening to Jesus, hungry for his teaching

- perseverance and listening for a ‘nudge’ from God

- communication with a wider circle

- reluctant faith

- emphasis on working with Jesus as opposed to working on our own

- humility and reverence

- shared the wealth/ called on partners

- the disciples made lifestyle adjustments but kept their day jobs

Individually, using our sticky-note ballots, we each “voted” for three topics, and three formats. Here are the results (below). I divided things up by general topic, a subjective process done totally according to my own thoughts.

We also talked about what we liked from the past few years of the C3 class. Notes from that are even further below.

Basics about our Faith: 4 votes

1 Faith Basics: Alpha Express

1 The various creeds

1 About Being a Presbyterian: What’s it all about

1 Book reports (oral and written): Protestantism for Dummies

The Bible: Basics / Overview: 11 votes

6 Walk through the Bible

1 Reading the Bible in a year; a year of the Bible

4 Grand Themes of the Bible (How do all the Bible stories we know connect together?)

Specific sections/ books / people of the Bible: 8 votes

4 Hebrew prophets

1 Specifics on people – in-depth look at characters of the Bible

1 Highlights from the Book of Job

1 Parables: lesson to learn (or consider further)

1 Another study like we did with Philippians

Focus on Jesus: 5 votes

3 Getting to Know Jesus

1 The business-person’s (or busy person’s) Christ

1 Keeping strong with Christ every day!

Themed studies: 12 votes

3 Forgiveness

3 How to Evangelize without a hammer / sharing God’s word with others (how & when)

3 Caregiving and support:

             Supporting one another in good times and bad

             How can we, the church, care for the world?

             Personal Challenges: sickness, death, unemployment, relationships

2 Prayer
             Various types of prayer;
             Why does not God heal even when many prayers are sent heavenward?

1 Celebrations: Mother’s Day, Missions, Heroes

History/Biblical culture: 3 votes

1 Josephus, the early historian and how he illuminates the early church era

2 Jewish culture during Bible times
               - (like learning a skill so that you can always earn a living) example: Paul was a tentmaker /
               - Holy Land & Biblical customs & worldview

Hands on Projects/Mission activity: 1 vote

1 Working together on projects: kits for kids etc

Book Discussion: 2 votes

1 Contemporary book discussion

1 Book Discussion of “The Next Christians”

World affairs/ current events: 2 votes

World Relevant topics: Afghanistan, Tunisia, Libya, Governments (US and state) 2

1 Book report (oral and written) Middle East for Dummies

* * * * * * * * * *

Class format ideas:

Small group/ round-table discussion: 9 votes

Guided discussion: 9 votes

            This includes

            - “ 20-30 minute presentation & 20-30 minute discussion”

            - “Discussion led by real-life experience of Hiland Member”

            - “Guided discussion with worksheets”

Mission activity: 5 votes

Lecture: 5 votes

Video: 3 votes
              (includes “Video like we had a few years ago about discipleship with
               book to read and fill in the blank”

Book discussion: 2 votes

Inspirational/responding to music or art: 3 votes

Panel discussion: 2 votes

Drama / role playing: 2 votes

Quiz show format: 1 votes

I have also added in here the ideas from three people at the Friday morning Bible study, who usually attend C3 but were not able to this time.

* * * * * * * * * *

What we liked from the past few years of class. I wrote everything down, but forgot to bring it home, so this is from my memory. Feel free to add to this list in the comments.

- people from the Bible, lined up chronological order

- role-playing the part of Rahab

- the “Fill the Church with Food” event

- Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture”

- Youth group

Sticky note ballots for topics (close-ups below)

 

Sticky note ballots for class formats

Close-ups of Sticky note ballots for topics
Can you spot yours?  Click on the photo to enlarge.

Financial Peace University

The classes are essentially about learning how to return to God what we already know is his.

The deadline to register and for payment is Monday, March 14th. Each kit costs $100. Questions and Registration: Contact Sue Fichter (412-366-7067 or jhfichter@verizon.net) Don’t let the fee stop you—help may be available.

About 70% of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck.

If you follow the rules of the Financial Peace University, over time, you will have financial peace. It’s 80% behavior, and 20% head knowledge. The Envelope system is key.

In the first class offered at Hiland, in 2006, there were 8 couples with a total of $700,000 in debt. During the course of the class, 80 credit cards were cut up, $73,988 debt was paid off, and savings amounted to $13,925.

New Church Developments in Pittsburgh Presbytery

Why New Church Development?

By Vera White

Feb. 13, 2011

You can read about New Church Developments in Pittsburgh Presbytery here.

In the fall of 1999 we were the most clueless of presbyteries when it came to new church development. We had to learn how.

At first we thought we could learn how to do NCD from other presbyteries but soon found out that process was unlikely to work in Pittsburgh. What this presbytery did not need was new church buildings.

So if learning from other presbyteries was out, what else was there? Oh yeah – pray! Maybe it was a good thing that we knew so little 12 years ago because we didn’t know how to do anything except pray. This is the Gospel message that has guided our prayers for 12 years:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-38

This morning I would like to share a few things we have learned about NCD and particularly why NCD matters to the whole body of Christ, even old churches like Hiland.

Prayer comes first.

We learned that prayer comes first and is the most important part of new church development. Prayer is recognition that church planting is God’s job.

When the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community seemed like an impossible dream, a handful of young adults gathered in the basement of a tattoo parlor on Carson Street on the South Side. They prayed 24 hours a day for a week, not for the success of the new church but for the community of the South Side and the city of Pittsburgh. They asked God to show them how they could provide meaning and hope to one particular neighborhood. Instead of a church building, God provided relationships with students and young adults and street people and community developers and young urban professionals -- out of which a church has grown.

The African Christian United Fellowship, a congregation of African immigrants, many of them refugees, speaking many languages, meets every Friday evening to fast and pray all through the night. They pray for the congregation, for the people of Pittsburgh, and for the people of Africa.

The Upper Room NCD began when two seminary students started walking around neighborhoods of this city praying for those neighborhoods.

NCD begins with prayer, but so does any ministry. I wonder what each of our congregations would look like if we took this passage from Matthew seriously and prayed for God to send laborers into God’s harvest field.

Following Jesus is missionary work.

Our God is a sending God. This passage marks a shift in the direction of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is about to send the disciples out on a missionary journey. New church development is at its very essence missional activity. We worship and serve a God who wants to be a blessing to the nations and who goes looking for lost sheep, coins, and people calling them back into communion with God and one another and the world.

Reaching communities with the love and the justice of Jesus, of course, is not just the job of new churches. However, new churches are all about community outreach and evangelism. They are fragile entities which cannot succeed without being 100% committed to reaching new people for Christ. That can only happen by finding ways to matter to the community.

The Open Door PC created a community garden in Garfield that provides fresh produce for that community and a place for children to hang out. The HMB Faith Community invites the whole South Side to dinner every Tuesday evening. New church developments bless the communities where they live.

We need new church development.

Still, times are tough right now. NCD costs money. Maybe church planting was a good decision for our presbytery twelve years ago when our economic situation was more promising, but is it really essential to who we are as a presbytery? Can we still afford to do new church development?

I have come to believe that we as a presbytery need new church development if we are to choose life and faithfulness and a future -- not because we need to add to the number of churches on our roster or because we need to make up for a loss of members or because it enhances our cool factor. New Church Development is an essential part of a healthy ministry. It provides the wider body of the church an opportunity for trying new things – new forms of worship, new ways of being the church, new faith expressions. It revitalizes existing congregations and builds new leadership for the whole church. It is entrepreneurial and evangelistic in essence, qualities that enrich the church as a whole.

Church Planting has the power to transform. It requires doing things that have never been done before, in ways that have never been tried. Not everything works – in fact NCD can yield some spectacular failures. But permission to fail is actually a gift that new church development gives to the body. NCD is hard work – nationally only one in four new churches succeeds. The ones that last are financially vulnerable for many years.

But the risk is worth it. It is God’s harvest. I urge you to enjoy the harvest – find ways to get to know some of these amazing young pastors and church leaders. Invite them to lead worship for this congregation. Develop a partnership with a new church. Could this congregation consider becoming a parent church to a new church development? There is no better way to participate in the mission of God than to plant new indigenous churches.

The harvest is plentiful. Choose life and a future. Thanks be to God for God’s amazing abundance.

The Four Gospels: John

From the class on Jan 30, 3011

Date of the gospel

The Early church points to John being the last Gospel written with the apostle John living to an old age - dating the Gospel sometime around 90-100 AD. Papyrus found in Egypt which had several verses of John’s Gospel on it is dated to 125.

Implications of the Date:

1. There had been 70 years between the events and the writing of the Gospel… that’s a lot of time to remember and tell the stories under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

2. Jesus Christ told the apostles that he had many things to say which they could not bear at that moment… He promised that the Holy Spirit would interpret in due time what he had said (John 16:12-15)

3. Nobody could expect a verbatim report after 70 years - so there’s interpretation blended in with the words of Jesus. What probably happened was that John said: “you remember how Jesus said…?” and the followers of John answered, “Yes, and now we know what he meant when he said that.” This is the process of the Holy Spirit’s work, thinking through the mind of John after 70 years of remembering and living with the risen Lord.

Structure of the Gospel of John

2 major parts:

1) The Book of Signs (Ch 1-12), which focuses on Jesus Christ’s identity as Messiah, king, and Son of God.

2) The Book of Glory (Ch 13-21), in which Jesus prepares his followers for his death. Jesus is seen as the king with full authority who allows himself to be crucified and conquers through his death.

The Gospel of John is unique from the Synoptic Gospels. John contains 73% unique material, no parables, emphasizes Judean ministry (rather than just Galilean ministry). John includes extended discourses.

In John’s discourses, there is a particular pattern which appears often:

(1) An inquirer/opponent hears Jesus make an ambiguous statement

(2) They misunderstand it

(3) Jesus gives a clearer, more specific teaching

It is important to pay attention to the clarifying statement which Jesus gives - this represents the real teaching: it is more important and clearly stated than the opening vague statement.

Key Features of the Gospel of John

John focuses on Logos Christology (John’s prologue). The 7 “I AM” statements connote a divine signature. Note the dualisms: Lightness vs darkness, Jesus Christ vs the world, what is above vs. what is below.

The overall purpose of the Gospel: “… that you may believe Jesus is the Christ… and have LIFE in his name” (John 20:30-31). Eternal life is available now (whereas the synoptic gospels feature more “kingdom” talk). Language of being brought into the divine family: Jesus Christ ‘abides’ in the Father in love and unity, and his mission and prayer in 17:21 is that his followers also may be one ‘as you Father are in me, and I in you… may they also be in us.’ It’s actually similar to the synoptic understanding of the Kingdom of God - a life shared with God and with the people of God, being a part of one flock under one shepherd, or a branch in the one true vine.

John has only a few central points which he repeats to hammer home the message (it’s easy to miss this because we conflate the details of all the gospels together):

a) The person of Christ

b) The need of faith

c) The gift of life

For example: John tells us who Jesus Christ is right in Chapter 1:

the divine Word; the light and life of men; Word became flesh; called God and the Son of God, the Lord, the Lamb of God, the Messiah/Christ, Rabbi, the King of Israel, Son of Man. These ideas/titles which John wants us to connect with Jesus are given in the 1st chapter and repeated throughout the Gospel.

John’s use of symbolism

John’s timing of the Crucifixion makes it a symbol of the redemptive effect of the death of Jesus, who saves his people, this time not from political bondage in Egypt, but from the bondage to sin. The miracles are a symbol of the spiritual ministry of Jesus tied to discourse. For instance, the healing of the man born blind is a symbol of Jesus’ ministry giving light to the world.

IMPORTANT: in spiritual things, it is never possible to prove authority by outward words or acts… the very nature of faith is a discernment of truth and a glimpse of God by the eyes of faith. The claim of Jesus Christ could not be ‘proved’ empirically. So what does this mean with Jesus Christ’s ‘signs’ in John? Jesus was misunderstood and rejected, but his words and acts were clues to those whose spiritual eyes were open. The real meaning of Jesus’ life and work is not irresistibly clear to everyone. John doesn’t expect everyone to see/accept the claim of Christ, but he does emphasize that a strong witness to it has been given by the ministry of Jesus and the church.

An important side note: The opening of the spiritual eyes is the role of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God’s grace comes before faith… Faith is a response to God’s grace. God acts first! This is why we have infant baptism - to show that God reaches for us before we can “choose” God.

The Four Gospels: More on Luke

Details of Luke’s Gospel

Luke is referred to as the gospel of Great Pardons. These stories of pardon are found only in Luke: The sinful woman (Luke 7:36-50), b) The despised tax collector (Zacchaeus in Luke 19) and c) The penitent thief (Luke 23).

Luke has also been termed the “ecumenical” gospel because it proclaims good news to the last, the least, and the lost.

Notice the movement in Luke. The action moves to Jerusalem, and then Acts moves broadly in the opposite direction, away from the city. Luke places at the central point, the heart of his books - the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus… this is the key moment Luke is pointing to. (Chiasm)

The Backbone of Luke’s Gospel

The Central section (The journey to Jerusalem 9:51-19:27) has at least one parable per chapter - with the intensity steadily increasing in 15-19 which has been called “The Gospel of the Outcast”. Luke has more parables that either Mark or Matthew. The parables in Luke are indispensable in telling THE STORY related by Luke. The story is

1. The universal outreach of the good news to outcasts/the marginalized (Samaritans, Gentiles, women).

2. Prayer

3. Possessions

4. Table Fellowship

5. Joy

6. Repentance

7. Grace

Many of your favorite parables are found in Luke - Prodigal Son, Good Samaritan, Pharisee and the Publican. Luke knows how to retell a good story well. Luke carries a tone of mercy and grace. Luke’s parables are full of “grace” notes.

At the heart of Luke is the great chapter of Luke 15 (Parables of the Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, Lost/Prodigal Son). The theme is that things are Lost, then they are Found, and there is Shared Joy. The communal aspect of shared joy is important to Luke.

These stories are not nice stories, but they are shocking because they seem ridiculous by human standards. Here we have the core of Luke’s Gospel: God’s Amazing Grace which looks like foolishness to the world (i.e. the cross).

This highlighted grace is displayed against a backdrop of self-righteous protest from Jesus’ opponents. Luke’s Banquet emphasis is a continuation of the Grace/Mercy theme. Not only does Jesus eat with publicans and sinners (he even calls them his friends), but 3 times in Luke, Jesus also is seen to be eating with the Pharisees (the establishment). Jesus’ table fellowship frequently is the setting for Lukan parables and is itself an enacted parable.