Last week we started working on exploring 50 ways to connect our church with community. These posts are inspired by the work of Robert Crossman, Ann A. Michel, Kim Mitchel, and Lovett H. Weems, Jr., as found in the article https://www.churchleadership.com/50-ways/50-ways-to-take-church-to-the-community/from the Lewis Centre for Christian Leadership. For more information please refer to our post from May 1. Steps 1 to 3 appear there as well.

Today, we will think about what it means to be and behave spiritually as we prepare to connect to the wider community. The steps recommended in the article appear in blue and my comments appear under each:

PREPARE SPIRITUALLY

Step 4. Acknowledge the synergy between the Great Commandment in Matthew 22 (love your neighbor as yourself) and the Great Commission in Matthew 28 (go and make disciples). Evangelistic outreach expresses our love of others.

Sometimes the word “Evangelism” is a four-letter word in this United Church of ours. The word is so often associated with the kind of Evangelical Christianity stemming from religious fundamentalism and biblical literalism. As is often the case, it is sometimes easier to ignore difficult ideas in our faith rather than to wrestle with them. Me? I’m always willing to wrestle with them if it means that it brings me a little closer to where Jesus is calling me to go.

While it is true that scripture states that after his resurrection Jesus spoke to the 11 remaining disciples at Galilee and commanded them to go out into the world and make disciples, the passage does not say how they were to do this. Unfortunately, this scripture has been used by some to justify colonization, forced conversion, and other oppressive practices that have absolutely nothing to do with the Greatest Commandments to love God and love others as God loves.

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20)

If we allow ourselves to remember that when he was asked what the greatest of all the commandments was, “He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’” (Matthew 22:37-40) then we can filter all we are commanded through this teaching. Loving your neighbour is loving others as God loves us and God does not force us to do anything. Nope, God blessed us with freewill. We are called to honour that freewill. When we do, we will recognize that the way that we are called to make disciples is to be beacons of love in a dark and confusing world. If we shine like that then when others come to know and love us, they come to know and love God. There can be no coercion, no force, no judgement… only love.  We teach by our example!

Step 5. Remember that Jesus primarily engaged people through everyday encounters, rather than in the Temple or synagogues. He fed people, met their everyday needs, and enjoyed the fellowship of others.

If we want to engage the community, then we need to be engaged IN the community. We have begun that work at Cole Harbour United Church by being a food bank location for example. But, what are some of the ways that we could go OUT into the community and offer to serve instead of being a place where people come to us to be served? Is there a way that we could get involved in community action groups or social justice initiatives started by others? Could we offer our help to them instead of only being concerned about how we can get others to help us? How does the song go? “Love is something if you give it away… you end up having more!” (Love is Like a Magic Penny)

Step 6. Express love and compassion for your community in big and small ways. Avoid judgmentalism.

As an Affirming congregation who has done the work of learning how to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community, we are committed to avoiding judgmentalism as a congregation. As individuals this can be a little more difficult. It requires that we acknowledge our natural biases and aversions to certain people and areas in our community. We all have preconceived notions about people that we aren’t necessarily proud of, but it’s not until we put ourselves in another’s shoes that we can appreciate and accept them as people worthy of our love. If we were to put our differences aside, across lines of religion, race, education, wealth and more where do you think we could express more love and compassion to others in our area?

Step 7. Pray regularly for your neighbors and lift up community concerns. 

Praying for others matters. When we pray for someone, we are turning our hearts towards them. No matter how we pray or whatever names we use for God, when we include others in our internal and external dialogue with the Divine it is an intentional act of loving kindness. This is often the first step towards loving your neighbour!

 Step 8. Attend to the faith formation of existing members. Willingness to share faith and reach out to others develops as one grows in faith and discipleship.

Faith formation? You might wonder what this means… isn’t going to church enough? Let me put it to you this way: Is showing up to watch a tennis match the same as playing the game? While showing up on a Sunday morning and being in community with your peers might help your week feel complete, engaging with your fellow gatherers and having conversations about your faith outside of Sunday worship is like moving from watching the game to learning how to play it. It is only by having these kinds of conversations with one another that we learn to express what it is that we believe about our faith and how practice it. More importantly, it is only by listening to others share their ideas and struggles with their own beliefs that we learn to grow in respect and understanding for people that don’t always believe the same things that we do.

In the United Church, we are blessed to have a lot of freedom of faith expression. So often that has been interpreted as freedom to not talk about it at all! Let’s get talking to one another about what we believe about our faith as a form of practice so that we feel really comfortable talking to our neighbours and even members of our family about what we believe. Why are we unwilling to engage others in conversations about spirituality and religion? Are we afraid of being judged? Approaching conversations like this with curiosity and interest, recognizing that we can agree to disagree, changes the whole game. Respect and understanding are the roots of deep and meaningful relationships with others.

Step 9. Prepare spiritually for the transformation that creative, risk-taking outreach will bring.

All of the above are ways to begin to Spiritually Prepare to connect with the community around our church. We are often so much better at preparing financially, logistically, and practically than we are at preparing spiritually. We might have the best of intentions in hindsight, but without having the foresight to prepare our hearts and minds we may not be and behave as lovingly as we might later wish we had. It is so important to consider our true intention before we dive into any new venture. I’ll leave you to consider a few important spiritual questions to ask yourselves before you embark on “creative, risk-taking outreach”. Ask yourselves, “Are we reaching out into the community to be of service to others in a way that is unconditional and loving? Or, is it our intention to bring new people into our church by our actions?” While new membership may be a wonderful side effect of being good disciples by loving God and loving our neighbour, our only goal ought to be to love unconditionally. Ask yourselves, “If we serve in our community and nobody new comes to church, would we feel we wasted our time?” If so, don’t bother. Return to the drawing board. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200! God doesn’t call you to fill the church pews. God calls you to love and serve others. Period.

Stay tuned for next week when we think about how we could get to know our community.

In the Peace and LOVE of Christ,

~k

Kim Curlett

Minister of Spiritual Care

The answer to the above question is,

“No, that’s not enough anymore!”

For the next 9 weeks, we will be exploring 50 ways to connect our church with our community. These posts are inspired by the work of Robert Crossman, Ann A. Michel, Kim Mitchel, and Lovett H. Weems, Jr., as found in the article 50 Ways to Take Church to the Community from the Lewis Centre for Christian Leadership. This article will help me anchor some thoughts I have had about what I’ve observed during my short time here as the Minister of Spiritual Care. My appointment comes to an end on June 30, but before I go it is my intention to share some ideas with you through these posts. I pray that you are inspired to nurture existing practices, foster budding ideas, and birth brand new concepts to help move your congregation towards its vision for the future.

I have been listening and learning a lot about you all during these last 5 months! One thing I know for sure is that there is a strong desire to grow as a community of faith. Although the desire is there, there exists some hesitation and uncertainty about how to get where you want to go. Let me tell you this: This work must include moving beyond the walls of the church building and engaging the wider community. As the Lewis Centre article suggests, “Churches can no longer open their doors and expect that people will come in. Effective congregations go into the world to encounter those in need of the gospel.” Those are scary words for us United Church folks who often cringe at the idea of evangelism! We don’t want to be pushy… but, in our effort to be polite about our faith we have lost our way. God calls us to be bold in sharing the good news of our faith… We are commanded to love God and love our neighbours – it’s really that simple – but simply doesn’t mean easy!

Over the next 9 weeks we will explore these 50 ways that provide tips on reaching beyond our walls. I’ll expand each of the suggestions with questions and comments to help you get started in thinking about these ideas. The sub-headings for the 50 ways listed in this article are:

1. Embrace an expansive concept of community
2. Prepare spiritually
3. Get to know the community surrounding your church
4. Listen and learn
5. Build authentic relationships
6. Turn your existing ministries outward
7. Reach out through community events
8. Extend your congregation’s spiritual presence beyond church walls
9. Connect spiritual outreach to community service

Let’s take a look at the first step of the 50 ways. It is titled “Embrace an expansive concept of community” and here are the tips it suggests:

(1) “Learn to regard your community as an extension of your congregation. A church’s mission field goes beyond its membership to include all the people God calls it to serve. You are connected to individuals who never set foot in your building.”

How are we connected to those people who never set foot in our building? Do we believe we ought to be? Who are our neighbours? Remembering that the church is called to serve more than just its members, who are the people that God calls us to serve? Make a list – identify them… when you start writing them out you may be surprised how expansive your community really is!

(2) “Know that what’s happening within the church — preaching, worship, music, Bible study — is no longer enough to attract people in an age when church attendance is no longer a cultural expectation.”

This is a really important thing that most of us recognize in our thinking, but haven’t seemed to connect with the despair in our hearts. Church attendance has been declining since the heydays of the 1960s because cultural expectation shifted. Here we are almost 60 years later and we are still surprised that numbers continue to wane. Or maybe we are not really surprised anymore, but actually defeated by this reality. We are not a defeated people and need to stop acting like it. If we really believe that nothing is impossible with God, then isn’t it time to let God help us do a new thing for a new age… yeah, it’s definitely time!

(3) “Don’t sit in your church building waiting for people to come. Be prepared to meet people where they are.”

So, where are they? Meeting people where they are can literally mean that – get out – go meet people where they are – at the park, in the pub, at the coffee shop. Talk to the people already in your life about your beliefs. Don’t give up on your family and friends! count your family and friends short. They have beliefs about the way things are even if they don’t go to church.

We are a people afraid of confrontation and worry about offending anyone when we share our beliefs. Let me tell you that when I became brave in my faith I have never offended anyone when I had a conversation like this with them. I’ll tell you why I think that is. It is a very vulnerable act to share such an intimate part of myself with someone and when I am able to do this without expectation that they will approve of me or buy into my belief, I am opening a door for them to share with me.

Meeting people where they are also means going on a spiritual journey together – side by side. Not trying to drag someone along, or convince someone to follow you. It means being a friend. Listening and sharing stories. Finding grounds of mutual respect and understanding. The more I learn about what others believe, the more I am affirmed in my own faith. Be open to let the stories of others teach you something about yourself and what you believe and, in turn, you are modelling that openness for others.

That’s enough for this week! See you next week as we think about how we can Prepare Spiritually for this adventure of learning to Practice What We Preach!

In the Peace and Love of Christ,

~kim

Kim Curlett

Minister of Spiritual Care

April 28 2019 ANNOUNCEMENTS

As you may have heard, I have accepted a full-time call to be the minister at Elmsdale Cooperative Ministry effective July 1. In my remaining 90 hours with you I am dedicated to continuing my work of spiritual care and community engagement. This is the first of many posts that will appear here an on our blog about ways for this congregation to live into what I have read and heard you say that you want for this community.

Did you know that 80% of people that come to church for the first time come because someone invited them? This means YOU have to invite them. Yes, YOU. There is no magical pied piper that will do this work for you… You are the ones that have the existing relationships in the community that we can build on. Each of YOU is called by Christ to be disciples and one of the ways you can do this is by sharing your church with others. When you truly love someone or have good news don’t you want to share it with the world? So, invite the people in your life to church in all its forms: to Sunday worship, to join the choir, to learn contemplative practices some evening, to youth group, to check out the next big event… Ask them to come with you – offer to drive or ask if they will take you!

Check out this video and give it some thought – let me know what you think in the comments.
In the Peace and Love of Christ,
~kim
Minister of Spiritual Care

NEW DATE DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND!!!  Previous dates all SOLD OUT!!

“Delightful Dessert Matinee for the Production of Stealing Away”

SUNDAY 05 MAY 2:00PM   Tickets $20 per person

Call:  902-434-7714 for Tickets!

NEW DATE!!! – Monday 08 APRIL 7:30pm will be an Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation.

Come unplug from your social media, your day, your responsibilities, etc., and recharge your Spirit once a month with Kim Curlett, our new Minister of Spiritual and Pastoral Care. This time of quiet contemplative spiritual practices is for EVERYONE who seeks a sacred and meaningful reconnection to their Source.

Our hour together will include different spiritual practices from various traditions and will always be accessible to most people. Come with a willing heart, an open mind, and a hopeful spirit.

NEW DATE!!! – Monday 08 APRIL 7:30pm will be an Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation.

Come unplug from your social media, your day, your responsibilities, etc., and recharge your Spirit once a month with Kim Curlett, our new Minister of Spiritual and Pastoral Care. This time of quiet contemplative spiritual practices is for EVERYONE who seeks a sacred and meaningful reconnection to their Source.

Our hour together will include different spiritual practices from various traditions and will always be accessible to most people. Come with a willing heart, an open mind, and a hopeful spirit.

Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there.” (Matthew 18:20)

One of the wonderful things I’ve noticed during my short time here is how this congregation is very good at making time for one another outside of Sunday morning worship. Scripture reminds us to never neglect meeting together. Gathering together encourages us to work together to come up with ways to practice what we preach – good deeds, loving one another, etc. (Hebrews 10:24-25). Sometimes we think that the only time that “church” happens is on Sunday morning, but here at Cole Harbour Woodside United Church there are many other opportunities to gather together with God at the centre. 

Women, in particular, have found beautiful ways to do that in this community. Two ways that the women of Cole Harbour Woodside have done this are Women, Wine, and Worship and Widow’s Lunch. 

Women, Wine and Worship is a monthly gathering of women at Pilot’s Pub in Woodside, near the Woodside Ferry Terminal. This group regularly gathers on the 3rd Tuesday of the month around 7:15 pm for a 7:30 pm start and usually finish up around 9 pm. This is an opportunity for women to meet in public to connect with each other over a glass of wine (or other beverage), nurture community, reflect on Scripture, and share concerns through prayer.

Widow’s Lunch is a potluck lunch gathering specifically for women whose spouses have died. This gathering provides a beautiful opportunity to share a meal together, to talk about life, to laugh, and to support each other. They often begin their gathering with a reflection on scripture and prayer. These lunches are regularly held in the church hall on the 4th Tuesday of each month at noon.

These gatherings are open to all people who self-identify as a woman.  Just like on Sunday morning, you do not have to be a member of our church (or any church) to come. YOU ARE WELCOME HERE. If you already come to one of these groups, please remember that small groups may be more difficult for new folks to come to without a personal invitation. So, if you love your time with other women at either of these groups don’t neglect to tell others about it and invite a friend or many to come with you to the next one. If you are new to these ideas and are interested, please come! Your initial nervousness about coming to something new will quickly be dissolved by a warm welcome. Gathering as women who support and love one another is one more way we are Practicing What We Preach!

AFFIRMING PIE DAY 2019!!!

We celebrate and honour the full inclusion at Cole Harbour Woodside United Church of LGBTQ+ individuals, the aboriginal community, individuals of colour, and those individuals with mental or physical challenges.

Please join us Sunday 24 March after 10:30am worship service for tea, coffee, juice and a piece of pie.