My Experience at EmergingUMC2: Friday night and Saturday Morning

It has been over a week now since EmergingUMC2: Restoring Missional Methodism finished up.  At  high noon, Saturday, November 14, our gathering headed back into the world.  Some having a 700 mile ride back home on a minibus. 

Where do we go from here?  That was the big question for me. 

We spent Thursday night watching and discussing The Ordinary Radicals, a beautiful film about what Christians are doing across the country to reclaim the faith from both apathy and the dark years of the Christian right era.  On Friday morning we walked through downtown Indianapolis and met  with arts leaders, janitors, and hotel workers, and got some context for how Lockerbie Central UMC developed and is developing its missional focus.   We spent Friday afternoon thinking about Methodist history and the current story of the United Methodist Church, especially the history of class and society meetings and their relationship to congregations.  

On Friday night some of us went to nearby Englewood Christian Church and saw Shane Claiborne speak as part of another conference going on that week, Through the Consuming Fire.

So, where do we go from here? 

A week out, that Saturday- morning seems like a blur.  I am sure I am leaving some things out.  

First off, we talked about our experience Friday night watching Shane Claiborne speak.  I showed up late Friday night  and just in time to hear Shane speak. For those who haven’t seen Shane speak before, the guy is a rock star.  When he spoke at our church, we had nearly as 1,000 people show up–the biggest crowd we probably have ever had in the 125 year history of the church. 

I know our group wa s a bit annoyed because the music prior to Shane went on and on and on and on.  And on. It went so long that the scheduled Q and A session had to be cancelled.  The thing that stuck out to me though was the power of Shane’s story–even though I had already read his books and have seen him speak before.   Here, a small group of people dedicated themselves to living out the Gospels and they launched a movement.  Nine people living together in community and in friendship and solidarity with the broader community.  That’s it.  And they are changing the world through their witness, activism, and Christian discipline.  Last year, UMC youth in Carmel, IN–the wealthiest city in the state were so moved by Shane’s Irresistable Revolution that they begged the church’s leadership to invite Shane to lead worship on a Sunday morning.  (He accepted their invite.)

Still, I feel that for some of us Methodists, Shane’s  Irresistable Revolution gets lost in translation. It might be called the Impossible Revolution for us United Methodists.  But for me, that was the great hope of EmergingUMC2.  In our own ways, given our deep traditions, we United Methodists could begin to restore missional Methodism. 

As the conference concluded and before our final worship gathering together, we broke up into small groups to talk about how we might begin to work together.  I talked with two UMC clergy from central Indiana.  It was exciting  to begin to dream about how local congregations and individual Methodists could work together in real ways. 

We finished up with a powerful  worship service that sent us back into our communities  hopefully ready to restore missional methodism.

Filed under: Christians, Earth House, Indiana, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, Thursday Night Film Festival, church, emergent church, shane claiborne , art, Carmel, Christians, class meetings, emergingumc2, Englewood Christian Church, fringe festival, hotel worker' uprising, hotel workers, IN, Indiana, Indianapolis, Irresistible Revolution, janitors, Justice for jANITORS, lockerbie central, lockerbie central united methodist, methodist, methodist history, missional, missional church, missional methodism, music, ordinary radicals, shane claiborne, society meetings, Through the Consuming Fire, united methodist

My experience at EmergingUMC2: Thursday Night and Friday Morning

I hope to blog out my thoughts about EmeringUmc2: Restoring Missional Methodism over the next several days.  Here is my first attempt to summarize my experience at the conference.

EmergingUMC2 has come and gone. You can see the twitter conversation (#emergingumc2)  here.

 It was an event that my congregation, Lockerbie Central United Methodist, had lobbied hard to get.  We were a small congregation that had been left for dead but had found new life in the emergent/missonal way.   We wanted to show and tell our story. 

I went into the conference feeling a little bit out of it though.  In this season of the H1N1, I woke up Thursday morning–12 hours before the conference started–puking my guts out.  Lucky for me, it wasn’t the flu and I made it through the weekend. 

Thursday Night:

We screened the movie The Ordinary Radicals to start the conference  and as part of our normal Thursday night film series. We had about 1o0 people in attendance.  Director Jamie Moffett was in town and it was exciting to see Lockerbie Central’s brief appearance in the movie.  The film tells the story of “Ordinary Radicals”– everyday people whose faith and commitment to community have begun to provide an alternative to what it means to be a North American Christian.   Imagine a Christianity that actually took Jesus seriously–that is what the Ordinary Radicals are. The film follows Shane Claiborne and his merry band of Christian troublemakers (in the best of that word) and jesters (in the best sense of that word) across the country  in a grease powered bus during the summer of 2008 as part of  the Jesus For President (book] tour.

The movie was inspiring but I could tell that for many conference attendees, the Ordinary Radicals’ movement wouldn’t quite translate to the county seat churches.  Well, lets just say it wouldn’t happen over night. 

Friday Morning:  

After a worship gathering, we took a three hour walk across downtown Indianapolis.  We wanted to give conference goers a sense of our missional context. 

We headed from the church, across Lockerbie Square, and over to Mass. Ave. , where we met Pauline Moffett at the Indy Fringe Building.  Pauline is executive director of the Indianapolis Fringe Festival, a 10 day uncensored and unjuried theater and arts festival, where all ticket sales go to the performers.  Our church has worked with Indy Fringe for the last four years and last year hosted the festival’s dance performances.  I’ll talk about it more in a later post, but it was quite amazing how much the mission of Indy Fringe met up with the ideal of the conference. 

From there, we walked towards downtown, talking about Indianapolis history—the good, the bad, and the ugly– and then met with the Justice For Janitors campaign on the steps of  Monument Circle.  A half decade into the struggle, janitors won their first union contact last year with the help of clergy leaders.  If the campaign continues to succeed, 2,000 lowpaying  jobs will be tranformed into living wage jobs that can support a family.  From there, we walked a few more blocks, saw the state house, and then met with Stuart Mora, a hotel worker and Lockerbie Central member, who is working with his coworkers to organize a union at downtown hotels.  Like the janitors, if the hotel workers suceed thousands of jobs will become living wage jobs.  If clergy and the church get involved in real and meaningful ways in these types of struggles, our economy will be transformed and perhaps the church might have a future.

Having walked three miles or so, the group headed back to Lockerbie Central UMC and had lunch.  We read this qoute off of our church sign:    

It may be that the day of judgment will dawn tomorrow; in that case we will gladly stop working toward a better future. But not before. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

Filed under: Christians, Earth House, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, Thursday Night Film Festival, church, community, community organizing, economy, flu pandemic, united methodist , bonhoeffer, community organzing, contract, county seat, day of judgement, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Earth House, emergent, emergingumc2, friday, Fringe, fringe festival, H1N1, history, hotel workers, indianapolis fringe festival, jamie moffett, janitors, judgement day, Justice for jANITORS, living wage, living wage jobs, local history, lockerbie central united methodist, Lockerbie square, Mass. Ave, methodist, missional, ordinary radicals, shane claiborne, stuart mora, thursday, unions, united methodist

No more Sins By Silence. Stopping Domestic Violence in Indiana

Brenda Clubine; founder of Convicted Women Against Abus

The Indianapolis metro area has suffered through a horrible year for domestic violence.  Angela Warnock in Brownsburg.  Beth Stayer in Zionsville/Anson a week earlier. Just before Christmas, Yvonne Kretzer was murdered by her husband in Plainfield.  There were 65 deaths in Indiana last year attributed to domestic violence.  Every day 1000 people seek help from domestic violence in Indiana alone.

Last night at Lockerbie Central United Methodist and Earth House, we screened the documentary Sin By Silence and heard from filmmaker Olivia Klaus.  Most amazingly, Brenda Clubine was there.  She is featured in the documentary and it was her work and vision that created Convicted Women Against Abuse; an innmate support and advocacy group that transformed California’s Domestic Violence laws.

Brenda was serving seventeen years to life for defending herself against her abusive husband.  Last night was the 1 year anniversary of her release from prison.

There is so much to be said about the movie and last night’s gathering.  There were tears, standing ovations, and a commitment to make Indiana free of all violence.

Thank you so much for the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence for  organizing this screening and bringing Ms. Clubine and Ms. Klaus to Indianapolis.

Filed under: Earth House, Thursday Night Film Festival, community, documentary, family life, film, film review, movie review, prison, prison justice, prison ministry, rememberances, united methodist , Indianapolis, Indiana, Earth House, lockerbie central, death, united methodist, documentary, zionsville, Brownsburg, violence, domestic violence, angela warnock, beth stayer, plainfield, anson, Yvonne Kretzer, Convicted Women Against Abuse, deaths, abuse, california, brenda clubine, sin by silence, olivia klaus, Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence