Exports

Everyday as I drive home across the Wando Bridge I take a look at the ships at the Wando Terminal. It is a gauge of how business is going. For a long time now it has seemed that all we hear is bad news on the economic front--how business at the port is down; how that is a reflection of weakness in the national economy. And there have been some afternoon when I have driven home, almost depressed at another glimpse of an empty port, wondering what are we sending out?

Recently however, there have been fewer and fewer of those days. In fact, Charleston recently had a visit by the MSC Rita, the largest ship ever to call in Charleston. We are not back to pre-recession levels, but it is a sign of hope.

Which got me to thinking--what are we "exporting" at Providence? What is it that we are sending out into the world?

Well, this summer two of our college students will be serving as interns in churches. CBF received a grant from the Lily Foundation to assist students work in churches this summer. Ben Guerry will be serving at First Baptist Clemson, while Savannah Flowers will be going to St. Charles Avenue Baptist in New Orleans. Just an example of what we are sending out in to the world!

We all have a chance to be an export this weekend, April 24, as a part of Providence Cares. It won't be as far away as Clemson, or New Orleans, but it will give us a chance to be the church outside the walls--at the VA Hospital, at Crisis Ministries, at Cainhoy Elementary School--just to name a few places. I hope that you have signed up to be a part. If not, there is still time. Just let Woody know you want to be a part!

One thing we have learned is that without exports our economy suffers. If we don't export our faith, our compassion, the ministry of our congregation, the Kingdom of God suffers!

I look forward to seeing where our ships sail--and the good things they will carry from Providence!

Same Place--Different Structure

On April 4 we gathered for a double celebration. Not only was it Easter, a time we always celebrate, but it was also the 10th Anniversary of our First Sunday on Daniel Island. In the years since we have watched a town grow up around us. We have seen families choose to find their spiritual home at Providence. We have watched families form, children born, said goodbye to individuals and families as they have moved away or died. In short, we have grown up as a congregation! That is reason to celebrate!

But some things have not changed. While our congregation has tripled in size, while our facilities have more than doubled, while our budget has grown 4 fold--our organizational structure has remained the same. After 13 years, we are beginning to feel the restraint--like a teenager who is still trying to squeeze into the same clothes she wore when she was 4! It is a bit snug!

We knew this day was coming. In 2001 David Odom, who was at the time the President of the Center for Congregational Health, told our 2nd Long Range Planning Committee that at some point we would need to take a look at our structure. When our next LRP committee made their report in 2005, they recommended that we examine our structure. It has taken a while, but that time has finally arrived!

Some have asked, "Why mess with something that has worked?" That is a valid question. The most obvious answer is the one already mentioned. We have outgrown it. We need groups now that didn't exist 10 years ago--and with our current structure that would mean watching our Coordinating Council grow from 12 to 15 to who knows how many. At some point the numbers make meetings unwieldy. In fact, we have already reached that point. There are times when discussions are repeated many times over--before they ever get to the congregation. It is frustrating and time consuming. Even more, it doesn't help ministry happen.

Our current structure allows us to maintain what is currently happening, but leaves precious little time or room for planning and dreaming. What are we trying to achieve as a congregation this year? Are our programs, our priorities, our budget working towards that end? Our proposed structure helps our congregation decide on priorities, and then gives our various groups the freedom to make decisions to achieve them.

The proposal also gives us room to grow--both in size and spirit. There is the freedom for needed groups to be added, while groups that have served their purpose are allowed to disappear. It also calls on us to grow in trust and responsibility--allowing individuals to discover gifts that they may have never known existed.

On April 25 we will be voting on the proposed change in our By-laws. Before that time we will have time to talk--on Wednesday nights, and during Sunday School on April 18. I hope you will be a part of the conversation; that you will ask your questions; that you will begin to dream of what might be.

On that Sunday 10 years ago we could scarcely dream of what would take place around us. But we had the wisdom to move to a place we could expand and grow. I pray that same spirit is still at the core of who we are!

You've Got the Time--A "Final" Reflection

Last summer I was sitting at the CBF General Assembly in Houston Texas in the middle of the summer hearing Bo Prosser talk about this new opportunity to “listen to the Bible” during Lent. 28 minutes a day for 40 days. Sounded good to me—but then, I was in Houston in July! What could I have been thinking?!

But it did sound like a good idea! What better way to encourage our congregation—people who claim to be people of the book—to actually know what is in the book. Let’s be honest, how much of the New Testament have most of us read. Even when we read it we do so in short segments in worship, or in a Bible study. But whole chapters, several chapters at a time—my guess is that is not something we regularly do. (At least I don’t!)

But I committed! I said I would do it, and to make sure I decided to blog about the sections each day. Thank God I said I would blog! Otherwise, I am not sure I would have made it. 28 minutes a day turned out at times to be more difficult that I imagined. My commute is about 8 minutes. Exercise in the midst of this cold winter did not happen—oh, maybe 28 minutes a month! The blog forced it to happen.

In reflecting on the experience I would echo Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” How to distinguish them may take a while, however!

It was a great opportunity to again hear the stories. I heard things that I have never heard before—as my daughter put it, “If I were reading this I would just skip over that part.” How many times have I done that? Listening to an entire chapter, a whole section, put stories into context, opened up new avenues of hearing a too familiar story. It also allowed me to hear things that even with all the New Testament classes and sermons and readings I had never heard before.

And that may be part of the problem. Often times I did hear things that I would never have guessed were there. Jesus making sure that his disciples had swords as they headed out to the Mount of Olives? What do I do with the angry Jesus; the regular/constant admonition against sexual immorality in the church; the strong case for maintaining the status quo in regards to slavery. What I heard—really heard in a way that reading it had never hit me, was how much the culture of he 1^st century is laid atop the biblical message.

What are we to do with that?

How do we decide what to keep, and what to toss away?

It seems to me that the issue of hermeneutics (how is that for a theological word which means how we read the Bible) is crucial for the church as we go forward. It is at the crux of so many of the denominational battles that are being waged. It is at the core for many turning aside after being told that they have to accept all-or-none.

I often joked—or was I—that I wasn’t sure that it is a good thing for people to read the Bible! It is too disturbing, too controversial, too thought-provoking. The “problem” is that it is also so life giving. How do you balance that?

It will take more than 40 days. Maybe even a lifetime!

I am grateful for those who added their reflections and comments to this blog--both written and verbal. It was encouraging, and a reminder that we were doing this "as church." It made it a much more meaningful experience and a meaningful Lenten season. Thank you!

You've Got the Time--Day 40

Revelation 16-22


It is finished! I know that is a Good Friday line, but it seems so fitting for today! We have reached the end of the New Testament! What a journey it has been! I want to give it some time before reflecting on the whole experience--and so today I am just going to reflect on this last section!

Reflect!

It just keeps on coming! I still don't know what is going on--even after the reflection! With the way that so many have used this book to further their own agenda, I was just a bit perplexed why Al Gore hasn't seized on Chpt. 16 as a prophesy about global warming! See, this is what is so surprising. People of a more progressive (was going to say moderate, but that whole admonition to Laodicea stopped me!) theological bent have chosen not to use scripture. They/we tend to use other methods of discussing our faith-based values, and as a result are branded as heretics, liberals (and some are!) or just plain wrong. Maybe we need to get over our aversion to scripture and actually read it--or listen to it! I have been surprised, and bothered, by what I have heard. But at least knowing it would allow us to "be Greek to the Greek," to speak the language that others might understand.

As this book and the whole experience closes, it comes with the reassurance that in the end God wins. Even in the darkest of days--when the dragon is eating newborns and mothers are driven into the wilderness; when scorpions and plagues come on the earth; when children continue to be deprived basic necessities and religion is perverted into hate-based rhetoric and actions--even and especially then, we need to remember that God is the beginning and the end, that in the day when God's kingdom is realized every tear shall be wiped away.

That is Saturday hope--waiting hope. Until that day we wait, hoping and praying, "Maranatha. Lord come quickly" even to us.

You've Got the Time--Day 39

Revelation 10-15

As much as I enjoy listening to this drama played out, I must confess that I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about. There were times in which I remembered hearing Beowulf in Olde English--some of the words were familiar, but the meaning was lost!

That is the great mystery of this book! You need a program to know who the players are--and therein lies the rub. With the program you get a theology laid on top, someone's idea, speculation on what in the world John is talking about (or as one person mentioned to me who would never post it on the church blog, "whatever John was smoking!") I know we do that with all scripture, but this book seems especially prone to that danger.

How is one to read this text? Is it a blueprint for the future, spelling out the way things will be? That is how so many have interpreted this book. Countless hours are spent figuring out just exactly who Babylon is, and where this temple is to be built, and who these angels are. We need to remember that their speculation is just that--their speculation! (How is that for a Baptist reading?!) As far as I know there isn't THE Definitive Interpretation on the Book of Revelation available. Oh, many will tell you that there is, and it always strangely has something to do with some enemy of the country or their political persuasion. I tend to be wary of the blueprint reading, can you tell?

Or is it apocalyptic poetry--a story that ranks up there with the Mad Max movies, or Independence Day or one of those movies in which the world is threatened but is saved at the last minute?

Or do we just throw up our hands and avoid this book no matter what?

I think all of these are used at times--and I confess to using all of them. But even then, I have to remember that at the very core "I don't know." At least not the details. But then, maybe the final day will answer all these questions! We will see.

You've Got the Time--Day 38

Revelation 1-7

After the dramatization of the readings, I had been anxiously awaiting Revelation. After hearing Voldemort (as Savannah described the tempter in Matthew) I just knew that this book would be just full!

And so far I have not been disappointed! It has various voices, a new soundtrack, even new songs! It is like listening to a Broadway show!

Which may very well be the intent of the entire book. I have always been leery of those who see in this book a roadmap to the future, finding in every character, every lamp stand, every angel a "Ghost of Churches to Come." I remember James Blevins, one of my profs in seminary, suggesting that Revelation should be read as a Greek play to be staged. Always felt he was right, but hearing it read convinced me of it!

That is not to say that there are not words that we need to hear. This was obviously meant for people under persecution and meant as both warning and comfort. Perhaps that is why the angel of the churches keeps saying, "I have seen your works, but..." The warnings are something that we need to hear today--items like loosing the love and passion of our beginning; causing people to stumble; sexual immorality (there really was a lot of that going on in the early church!) living off their reputation.

The warning that hit me the hardest is the warning to the church at Laodicea. ¹⁶"I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. " I must confess that I think of these verses every time I hear that we are "moderate Baptists." GAG! Isn't that like saying we are neither hot nor cold? Can't we find another word--progressive, intellectual, compassionate, even 'Spirit-fired and salvation intent Baptists?" I would be fine with flaming liberal Baptists, but that starts to sound like an oxymoron these days!

Letting go of the past, letting go of the literal hearing of this book really does open up possibilities! I might just make it through it after all!