Boo!

Now, it's not Halloween, but it might as well be with all the scary stories and horror shows on the air (a.k.a. the news). I'm becoming more convinced that we've lost our collective common sense and have lost any ability to step back and see the whole of any problem.

Granted, I'll be the first to admit that there still is the issue of security and terrorism that we must face and address as a global people, but this "security theatre," as Bruce Schneier points out. Rather than confronting the real issues, the major effort (and display) is a reactionary histrionics that for some reason satisfies the masses until the next worry comes around. It's the equivalent of jingling your keys in front of a crying baby - a lot of show, but not much substance.

But matters of national security aren't the only thing at issue. Just about anything that involves large groups of people can fall victim to the theater of reaction. Life in the church is one example. From one crisis of morality to the next heretical book that must be disproven, we waste a lot of time on doing a lot of nothing.

A book that I just finished reading (recommended to me by Mike), "The Missionary Congregation, Leadership, and Liminality," describes how much of what is going on, especially in North American culture, can be attributed to a collective loss of center. Not just that the church finds itself on the outside of culture and losing relevance, but there is no longer much of any communal narrative - or group story. There is no over-arching story that unites people together. Because of this, we grab onto whatever seems like it might provide a way back to center, no matter how much like a rope of sand it really is. We fight to regain a center that was never really there in the first place.

We are in anxious times. The task is to realistically address this anxiety, not with flailing reactionism, but with a clear-minded approach to what's really going on. The opportunity for the church is that we can provide an alternative and an alternative community to what's going on in the world.

With this new outlook, we can then encounter the world around us with a sense of renewed mission and a renewal of the church, not clinging onto failed and obsolete conventions of the past, but remembering the true core of what Christ offers - that there is a better way - and placing that in context with the culture around us.

Halftime Report

I'm in Pittsburgh, PA this week for Stephen Ministry Leader's Training. So far, the conference has been pretty good. A lot of things have been really elementary, but there have been some useful tidbits, especially since I have not been involved in Stephen Ministry before. I did gain an appreciation for the volume and OCD nature of the training though after talking to a couple of women from Indiana. They were very anxious about going back to be Stephen Leaders in their own congregations because they had never had any type of leadership role before in their church, nor had done any teaching. So, for me, the teaching and leading techniques that come as common sense that we have been going over, were not so mundane for them.

Overall, it's been a prety good trip so far. I've been able to walk several miles around the downtown and see a lot is neat things. The food hasn't been all that great, but hopefully that will change with going to PNC Park tonight and watching the Braves play the Pirates.

Only a few more days to go and I'll be back on Saturday!