Session 3: Relationships and Truth

Who is my Neighbour? 

Some of our neighbours and community partners from Banff Community House. 

 

 

Chapter 3 – Relationships

Eric Law talks about 3 degrees of influence, as opposed to 6 degrees of separation (Christakis and Fowler)

            Do you think we can influence people in this way?   

            Have you ever witnessed it at work?
Which influences are more powerful, positive or negative? Why?

He also talks about applying that theory to our relationship with Jesus, and through Jesus, God. 

However, centuries of theology and tradition sometimes put many more layers, or distance, between us and Jesus, unless we are attentive and developing a sense of a personal relationship. 

 If we look at the images of Jesus we find in our hymns – which do you think are most direct? 

            (In Voices United, the section on Jesus is found at 325-366.)

 

Pick out some that you think are many degrees away from “real” Jesus

Pick out some that you think are three or less degrees away from “real” Jesus

 

Try to imagine that everyone we meet is only 3 degrees away from us – how would it affect the way we treat people?  Would you intervene more quickly?  Would we say:  “It’s none of my business…”

Who is my Neighbour? 

We looked at Ottawa Neighbourhood study sheet for Alta Vista and Greenboro areas.
http://neighbourhoodstudy.ca

What kinds of ministries would build relationships with these neighbourhoods? (the point is not to not get them into church, but to BUILD RELATIONSHIPS!)

Internal Relationships:  Think of someone in the church – how has your contact been with them in the last few months?  Think of someone with whom you’ve had the opposite experience…

We also worked through the relationship exercises in the chapter as well.

Chapter 4 – The story about Homeboys –

Note how the strength of a relationship can change people’s lives – communicates the message that they are worth the attention.

If one person’s all-encompassing passion can change so many, how much of our time does it take to change one or two??

 

Chapter 5 – The Currency of Truth 

What is Truth?  Law has some interesting perspectives on “truth”.

His social analysis proposes that the dominant truth writes the history books, subversive truth (or truths) are often voiceless, but not unimportant.

Compiling “Divine” truth requires some work  Process p. 48/workbook

1)      Raise the self-esteem of the powerless
2)      Listen to the truth of the powerless first
3)      Divine truth is global truth
4)      Exposes system of oppression
5)      Divine truth= divine judgement
6)      Ultimately, restores the community

2 languages:  bring more, deeper perspective

Hebrew – aleph – mem – tav – truth needs beginning, middle and conclusion
            (Like Jesus:  The Way, Truth and Life)
Chinese – 10 eyes on the table – many different perspectives are needed to have truth.

What is truth in the church?  Take a look at the table on p. 49.

 Truth “currency” – a truth that is in motion, taking us to places that aren’t always comfortable – hearing truths that may hurt, and not debating them, or getting defensive, waiting until it is appropriate to speak (if it is.)

 It also takes courage to offer truths that might hurt, and not watering them down. 

Where do we see this in the church? 

            Residential schools

            GLBTQ
            Palestine and Israel
            Mining in Guatemala and Philippines
Locally? 

Closing Scripture:  we read John 18:33-38, the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate – Jesus’ truth collides with Pilate’s, and leaves him wondering:  “What is truth?”

Session 2: Praise God from whom all blessings flow

After our opening prayers, we watched Eric Law's Who Am I? video on YouTube.  He invited us to think of 3 things that others in the group might  not know about us.  How easy it is to stereotype people by their appearance, their employment, their age and gender!

Our lives flow with the currency of God's surprises!  Law shares a story of his parents and how they started a music school in their home, with pianos in every room, local children and music teachers coming together to share in a modest economy of exchange.  It never made his parents financially rich, and yet it was viable and life-giving on many levels. 

Even in situations of scarcity, we can have a spirituality of abundance:

            IF everyone has work that they value, IF they are sharing until there is no hunger.

 

In Cantonese, the word for water is the word sometimes used for money. 

            If it flows… then there is a sense of wealth created.

            If it doesn’t flow… the result is stagnation, or rot.

 

 3 POINTS:  about the cycle of blessings.       

- only valuable as things flow;

- all 6 are needed – Law makes the observation that sometimes mainline churches focus too much on internal relationships, and the system stops flowing;

- the cycle must be replenishing, circular, in constant transition.

 

 

Of the 6 currencies:

 – Which resource do you trust the most? 

 - What would you be willing to pay for, invest money in?

When it comes to money, there is a lot of distrust – we don’t trust anything that involves money at risk, but we also don't trust anything that comes to us free of charge!

 Where have you seen 6 currencies blocked? Where have you seen them flowing?             

 

1.      Time and space 

2.      Leadership

3.      Relationship:  Internal/External

4.      Truth

5.  Wellness 

6.      Money

 

In Chapter 2, Eric Law does some storytelling about his family dinner table and how they dealt with leftovers - they were offered to each family member as a way of affirming their worth, but each one would refuse and offer it as affirmation to another member.  Eventually the leftovers would be transformed into another meal.

 

Law talks about this as a demonstration of how the Christian faith involves “doing more with less”, or even giving until you have less.  A radical notion in this time of materialism.  Even the cross is a symbol of Jesus' giving until he had less, even nothing.  This develops a “spirituality of abundance” that gives us hope and compassion, even in a time of scarcity.

 

As closing, we read: Matthew 25:14-30 - the parable of the talents. 

Jesus was passionate about letting the blessings of God flow! 

Session 1: What does it mean to be missional?

Introduction to the study and the book

Our study will run for 5 sessions (October 7, 21, 28, November 4, 18.)  Each week we will cover a portion of the book, but also draw on other resources to deepen our conversation about the readings. 

The book is called Holy Currencies, by Eric Law.  Its subtitle is: 6 Blessings for Sustainable Missional Ministries.  Eric Law is a church resource person, and has found that 2 questions are practically universal in the workshops he leads:  1)  How can the church be reaching out for new members?  2)  How can we be financially viable?

Sustainability, in both the environmental and financial sense, is not a new concept for the church. A "missional" church, however, is a recent concept for most United Church folk.  We are very accustomed to the notion of mission, and the people who do it (missionaries).  But what does it mean for a whole CHURCH to be MISSIONAL?

The missional living concept is rooted in the Missio dei (Latin, "the sending of God"). In 1934, Karl Hartenstein, a German missiologist, coined the phrase in response to Karl Barth and his emphasis on actio Dei ("the action of God").

The missional church movement first arose during the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

The movement seeks to rethink and redefine the nature of the church and create a new paradigm in which churches are seen as missional in nature, instead of attractional in nature. Leaders in the movement argue that instead of churches attempting to attract people to churches through church programs, churches should instead take the gospel outside of the church and engage society with the gospel, often by being involved not only in missions and evangelism but also in social justice movements.

The missional church defines itself in terms of its mission — being "sent ones" who take the gospel to and incarnate the gospel within a specific cultural context.

 

 

Eric Law cites the work of Reggie McNeal - the missional church has 3 criteria:

A missional church is a church that looks outward 

- from internal to external focus

- from program development to people development
-from Church-based leadership to "kingdom based" leadership

(fulfilling God’s mission, rather than the church’s)

Eric Law combined the concepts of sustainable and missional in setting up the Kaleidoscope Institute.  The seed money came from the remainder of his contract on Diocesan staff, to become an independent consultant going beyond the diocese to lead workshops for many denominations.

Over time, he has developed an appreciation for 6 different resources (or currencies) that keep churches sustainable.  He uses currency to remind us that these resources have to keep flowing in order to work for us - they cannot be held back or they will stagnate. 

Time and place - offering leadership wherever we find ourselves;

Gracious Leadership – creating the right environment, respect, diversity;

Relationships – developing internal bonds within the community of faith and external bonds in the communities around us;

Truth – naming injustice through dialogue rather than debate;

Wellness – seeking wellness in every aspect , removing obstacles to currency;

Money – investing in people means we begin the cycle of blessings over again.

In scripture, we find stories of God’s people using their wits to renew God’s presence, to survive – moving beyond the accepted tradition in order to create something new and relevant.

for example, in the stories of Jacob:

1.       Jacob’s blessing Genesis 25:29-34 -

Puts blessing in the hands of the one who recognizes its value

2.      Rebekah’s plotting Genesis 27:5-29 -

The ability to discern when it is time to act

3.      Laban’s tricks Jacob Genesis 29:15-30 -

Does the end justify the means? 

4.      Rachel and Leah’s competition Genesis 30:14-23 -

Birthing the twelve tribes of Israel 

5.      Jacob’s prosperity Genesis 30:25-43 cross-breeding -

Feeding the 12 tribes of Israel

In what ways do we have to put our creativity to work to shape our churches to be more missional?