We think we're nearing the end of the road in the search for a pastor for Nexus church. I'm more of a deist when it comes to G-d intervening in human affairs, although I do believe in the power of prayer (more on that later if you'd like). Anyway, if I used such language, I would say that our search has been a "God thing" as they'd say at the Vineyard. We have selected a final candidate who will be leading our service this coming Sunday.
This is a fine line to walk. We have to maintain confidentiality about the identity of the candidates in the search process. But, we all agreed that we want to disclose as much as possible about what is going on to the full church. So, with that in mind, I want to update you on what has happened over the last couple of weeks.
I go back and forth on the whole church thing. Is it worth it? Why am I doing it? Then, I get a reminder of why we need churches like Nexus. This is a real email from a pastor:
We had another meeting last night- the first to actually review candidate profiles. Man, this is even more work than I thought it would be. But, it's going really well. Nexus has received a dozen candidate profiles (which means at least a dozen people are interested in exploring the possibility of being the pastor at Nexus). The meeting went amazingly well. We went through a dozen candidates in about an hour and did a quick up/down vote on each. Up means we want to know more about them, down means we think they are better suited for another opportunity.
Yesterday at church we had a speaker from the Islamic Center of Cincinnati visit us to talk to us about Islam and the relationship between the Christian church and the Muslim community. Dr. Durrani did a fantastic job of explaining the origins of Islam and the similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity. As a person who was raised in a Catholic school, he knows both Islam and Christianity better than most Christians know Christianity (and I'm guessing he knows Islam better than most Muslims know Islam). I will give you a brief overview of some of the topics he talked about. But, I want to encourage you to ask your church to reach out to the Islamic center near you and see if you can put together one of these dialogs. Update: Gregg (our pastor) recorded Dr. Durrani. Here's a link to the talk. Dr. Durrani's Talk
What a difference a few days can make. According to Christian tradition, on Good Friday, things looked hopeless and on Easter Sunday, we have new life and hope springing eternal. The last few days or couple of weeks has been that in a microcosm for me. A few days ago my attention was turned to things that were making me frustrated, disappointed and yes even angry. But, over the weekend, I saw some things that have renewed my hope, lifted my spirits and made me proud of my pastor, my church, my denomination, my country and even a little prouder of my wife and kids (if that's possible). I posted a poll on my blog, asking why you attend the church you attend. One of the things I explore in this post is why I attend the one I go to.
I apologize in advance to anyone here only to read about Universalism. There is a breaking news story that I feel I have to comment on. That concerns the videotapes recently release of Barack Obama's former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. To those of you sick of hearing me talk about Barack, you may be excused now. But, before you go, this is more than about just Barack Obama. This story exposes some things we don't like to talk about and I feel I have to speak out about it. In fact, several people have asked me to blog about it. So, at the risk of alienating some of you, I am going to proceed with the post.
It's been a little while since I've written about Nexus. My last post about the honeymoon being over drew some interesting and completely unexpected responses. As you may know, Nexus is the start-up United Church of Christ I've been attending for about a year now. The church is "progressive" (I'm learning that means different things to different people) and is open and affirming. The first year at Nexus has been great. Ty and I are heavily involved in what we feel is a worthwhile endeavor to bring a message of social justice, inclusivity and unlimited grace to a place where most people might thing progressive Christianity is an oxymoron. I joined Nexus partly because I could get something out of it, but mostly because I believe a church like Nexus is desperately needed here in Southwest, Ohio.
The last several weeks at Nexus we've been discussing "social justice" issues. Poverty, debt, hunger, illegal immigration and health care have been our topics for discussion. I guess some people have questioned what these topics have to do with "spirituality". But, IMO, they're exactly what we as progressive Christians should be discussing on Sunday morning. As Nexus is forming, one thing I keep asking myself is "What is the role of church in the life of a Progressive Christian?" You can't get us out of bed with the threat of hell anymore. Most of us aren't going to come because of the old guilt motivator. So, what's left? Assuming we're going to have a sermon on Sunday morning, what should we be talking about?
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