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Tag: Moffett-Moore

  • On Knowing and Doing

    by David Moffett-Moore

     
    WalkHere I sit, looking out of the window, busy city streets below and in the distance, the beautiful rolling landscape of Ireland, home of the friendliest people in the world.  The reason I am here is because I had a stroke while leading a group of fellow pilgrims. Ireland is a beautiful country, the people are all friendly, and the health care is state of the art, but I don’t recommend adding a stroke to your itinerary.
    In Life as Pilgrimage, I included chapters on being present in the moment, approaching the day and not borrowing life’s burdens. In Wind and Whirlwind, I listed methods for stress management and self-care. In The Spirit’s Fruit, I shared my struggle with anger management and techniques that have helped. I know what I should have been doing, but knowing is not the same as doing!
    I knew I had high blood pressure, but I didn’t want to be dependent on chemical solutions. I could exercise, I could diet. I could,  but I didn’t. Now I can still exercise, still diet, still do the things I know to do, and now I will also take my medicine!

    I’ve heard that knowledge is what we learn from our own experiences and wisdom is what we learn from the experiences of others. May you have the wisdom to learn from my experience to do as well as to know!

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  • The Jesus Manifesto

    by David Moffett-Moore

    BeatitudesI expect most of us grew up with images of Jesus that were “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” with children gathered about him or as a shepherd with his flock. Certainly understandable for little children, but this gentle Jesus would never get crucified. In this season of Eastertide, it might be good for us to wonder “Why?”.
    I think it is important to remember that Jesus was not executed for religious reasons but for political. The title over his head on the cross was “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” a political charge. He preached good news of the coming Kingdom of God, where the last would be first and the first be last, a radical upsetting of the status quo. I’ve long held that what got Rome involved with Jesus was his clearing of the temple. In addition to being the only place on earth where Jews could offer sacrificial worship, the temple was a major market place, a mint, and the place of the Sanhedrin, their high court. Imagine someone taking over Fort Knox, Wall Street, and the Supreme Court. We would not see that as strictly religious activity.[ene_ptp] Who was this firebrand prophet Jesus and what was so explosive about his message? Christians for centuries have views on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters five through seven, as the summary of Jesus’ teachings. We might look at it as the Jesus Manifesto.
    A manifesto is a summary of someone’s teachings and beliefs, written to inspire and provoke. It is designed to make the message clear, plain and evident. It is a public declaration of motives and intentions and meant to be of public importance. It is radical in that it strikes at the root, reveals the core and foundation of the message. The Communist Manifesto is a brief pamphlet, yet it is recognized as one of the world’s most influential manuscripts. The same might be said of the Sermon on the Mount.
    The Sermon on the Mount is three chapters long, in most translations no more than five pages. It would take less time to read aloud the Sermon on the Mount than most sermons take to preach. In his Daily Study Bible commentary, William Barclay writes over 200 pages of commentary on these five pages of text! St. Augustine and Martin Luther both wrote volumes of sermons on these three chapters. Martin Luther King Jr., Doris Day, Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy all wrote of the significance of this brief message. It certainly satisfies the parameters of being a Manifesto!
    In this passage, Jesus declares what is and challenges us, boldly and practically, on how were are called to live. He says “blessed are; theirs is.” The beatitudes are not a new law for us to submit to, a discipline for us to strive after; he declares how things really are, already. He fulfills the law, not overthrowing it but completing and perfecting it. We can’t help but be both challenged and comforted by his words.
    I enjoyed writing my own take on the Sermon on the Mount, entitled appropriately The Jesus Manifesto, adding my “meek and mild” name to the more famous ones. It is part of Energion’s “Participatory Bible Studies” series. I invite you to consider it in your next study. I think it will help you find new meaning, depth and inspiration from these familiar words of Jesus, the prophet king who is pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

  • From SAD to GLAD

    by David Moffett-Moore

     
    [ene_ptp]We live in a time of unparalleled, immeasurable, and uncontrollable change. The cell phone in our pocket is more powerful than all the computers used for our lunar landing, and that cell phone is obsolete before we can buy it. Everything is changing, and the change is happening at an ever increasing speed.
    This change affects every congregation. Phyllis Tickle sees the church in the midst of a change it has not seen for five hundred years. Phillip Jenkins describes it as a change we’ve not seen for a thousand years. This is a scale that is beyond our imagination. We live for a span of seventy-five years; how can we relate to a change measured by centuries? It is not just a storm of change, it is a tsunami of change, a change that is an earthquake and a tidal wave combined. It is over powering.
    Change, even when it is good, desired, and controlled, produces stress, and stress produces conflict. This change certainly contains elements that are good, but it is often not desired and certainly never controlled. This increases the level of stress and the likelihood for conflict. Long term stress, stress that is not faced and dealt with, weakens our immune system.
    We come to church as patients infected with the disease of conflictual stress. Our “fight or flight” hormones are active and we are looking for opportunities to express our frustrations, to vent. Most churches are safe places for this venting, thought it puts a strain on all our relationships. Our churches become SAD: Stressed, Anxious and Dysfunctional, they become at risk. Fortunately, there is something we can do about it. We can move from SAD to GLAD: Good, Loving And Dynamic.
    There are Specific, Practical, Actionable Methods (SPAM) that we can use to positively manage stress, reduce conflict and strengthen our congregation’s immune system. Maintaining healthy communication is key to maintaining healthy congregations. Always talk about everything. When we have issues we feel we can’t talk about, we create barriers; when we talk about it, we create bridges.
    Communication needs to be direct, face to face. Confidentiality is good, secrets are bad. Confidentiality means those who need to know, know what they need to know, when they need to know; it is based on sharing. Secrets are about maintaining power, never a good thing in a congregation. Mutual respect and personal accountability and the willingness to give our attention to the other rather than focusing on ourselves are all key factors to maintaining a congregation’s immune system. By doing this, our congregations can become resilient rather than at-risk. We can find ways not just to survive the storm of change but to thrive in the midst of it.
    We cannot control the flow or force of the cultural change that is all around us. Yet it need not overwhelm us. We can move from SAD to GLAD with the help of SPAM! We can be resilient rather than at-risk. If you’d like to learn more, I invite you to read my book Wind and Whirlwind: Being a Pastor in a Storm of Change. Susan Nienaber, then Senior Consultant for the Alban Institute, said, “This should be required reading for all clergy early in their careers.”
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