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

Who Killed Indy’s comprehensive smoking ban? or a Sad day for Indy

 

Terrible.  Indy politicians have once again missed an opportunity to improve the health of our community.  There’s a lot of blame to go around about why the city council has once again failed to pass a [nearly] comprehensive public smoking ban.

Mayor Greg Ballard is one person to hold accountable.  Matthew Tully in today’s star writes that the mayor  walked into a closed-door meeting with council Republicans and made it clear he didn’t want the ordinance to land on his desk.” Tully points out that as a canidiate for Indy mayor Ballard approved of a comprehensive smoking ban.

Democrats aren’t blameless either.  First of all, if council Democrats had made a stand during the Peterson era about smoking (or anything, really), this would be a mute point. Indy would have long ago joined the 21st century when it comes to public health.  But Peterson and the council back then weren’t about taking bold stands.

And on the city council, Democrats should feel embarrassed.  Council member Dane Mahern abstained from the vote because, as Tully reported, his father is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. Heaven forbid, you take a stand that might bump against your father’s business interests.   More so, Mahern had his father host a fundraiser for him within a week of the scheduled smoking ban vote.

This was a chance to be a truly bipartisan and  other Democrats didnt’ show up.  Council member Doris Minton-McNeal, Monroe Gray, and, already mentioned Mahern, abstained from voting.  Their abstentions helped kill the bill and  Minton-McNeal didn’t even bother to show up.

Whatever the reasons, other Democrats who voted against the bill include Duke Oliver and Vernon Brown.

Thanks should go to  Democrats Jose Evans and Angela Mansfield and Republicans Barbara Malone and Ryan Hunter for taking a strong stand for making Indianapolis a better place to live.   And don’t forget to thank Smoke Free Indy.

 

http://www.indystar.com/article/20091028/NEWS08/910280381/Tully++Ballard+threat+helped+kill+smoking+ban

Filed under: Broad Ripple, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis politics, POlitics, city council, community, community organizing, economy, progressive , Indianapolis, POlitics, Greg Ballard, Indianapolis Star, city council, Indianapolis politics, Bart Peterson, Jose Evans, smoke free indy, smoking, ban, smoking ban, angela mansfield, ryan hunter, doris minton-mcneal, monroe gray, vernon brown, duke olliver, barbara malone, dane mahern, mayor, comprehensive smoking ban, matthew tully

Job’s One Thousand donkeys or Sh&%$%&*$%T Happens

The Revised Common Lectionary finishes up the book of Job this week.  Job 42:1-6 and 10-17 proves to us that there are such thing as happy endings. From the scripture:42:10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” God even gives Job 1000 donkeys.

There might not be better prooftexting for the prosperity gospel than this very verse.

Last night in our Tuesday night gathering at Lockerbie Central UMC, our most tenured member might have summed it up best.  “I’ve read Job.  I don’t think it justifies any type of suffering.  I think what it says is that SH*T Happens!”

He went on to ask, what about Job’s dead children?  It does them or Job no good that Job is ultimately rewarded for his “patience.”

Job is a tough, complicated book.  It is so easy to settle on simple answers.  I like what Marcus Borg writes about it in Reading the Bible Again for the First Time,”Is there such a thing as religion unmoitivated by self interest?  What would it mean to take God seriously not as a means, but as the ultimate end.”

Filed under: Christians, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, after pentecost, bible, church, economy , after pentecost, bible, creativity and suffering, donkeys, Hebrew Bible, Job, lockerbie central umc, marcus borg, prooftexting, prosperity gospel, reading the bible again for the first time, revised comon lectionary, shit happens, suffering, twenty second week, united methodist