http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/ The blogs of Trinity Church en cammiller@trinitybuffalo.org Copyright 2010 2010-09-28T13:44:01-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/blade_running/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/blade_running/#When:12:44:01Z The precariousness of the religious life we share. “Bladerunner” was the name of a movie I never watched, but it is a compellingly graphic image that feels about right as a descriptor for the religious life I live and share with many of you.  In my imagination, if you run on the exact edge of the blade it won’t cut your feet – like testing the sharpness of a knife on your thumb.  But fall out of balance even a pinch to the left or right and, yikes, there is blood. As you probably know, I was originally a Chinese Philosophy major in college until I shifted to Western Philosophy in my junior year.  At the time I knew far more about Buddhism, Taoism and Confucius than I knew about Jesus and Christianity.  But then came the long, slow trek up the mountain of Church History in seminary, and learning about the endless wrestling sumos of doctrine and dogma, both Roman and Protestant.  That has been followed by a steady wade against the current of popular religion to fish in the deep pockets of progressive Christians and the Un-churched.  Now it seems, and in truth for many, many years, I am surrounded by people that participate in the community of Trinity and at the same time have beliefs and spiritual practices that likely would not be affirmed in most Christian churches, even Episcopal churches.  The vibrancy, the utter exuberance of spirit that we share together, is directly related (I believe) to the thick and textured nap of beliefs in Trinity.  We have people who have lived and studied in ashrams in India and others who have been passionate partisans of Evangelical Christianity.  Think about the texture of that landscape. We have folks that practice yoga as their central spiritual practice and others that offer copious intercessions to Christ as their weekly spiritual discipline.  Conjure the tensions and shared mojo of such a difference.  We have many, many people that know far more about the daily content of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal than the content of the Bible, and others that study the Bible, Tao te Ching or Sutras.  How rich is that soil? The precariousness of such blade-running for Trinity is derived from who and what lies on either side of the balance.  There are those who are actually hostile to the fact we host such a broad and rich community.  They say we are not Christian, or that we are not Episcopalian enough, or that we have left the broad faith of the Christian tradition because we welcome people with so many different journeys.  On the other side, there are people who are hostile to us simply because we are a Church.  All religion is bad in their minds, and Trinity is suspect and dangerous along with all the other churches.  Somewhere in between there are those who earnestly desire a deep spiritual life and pick and pull from popular authors and seemingly exotic traditions but consider Christianity a dark splotch on the spiritual landscape, and so wouldn’t step near Trinity.  The blade upon which we run is quite fine and the risks, it seems, expansive and numerous.  If I was going to rant about this precariousness, i.e., vent my frustrations and anxiety about it to you, I would complain about the attacks and hazards and pull on the chain of easy judgmentalism I can get into if not careful.  When I get too close to that well of negativity the best thing to do is stop, take a deep breath and look around.  I have the best view in the house on Sunday morning and evening, and from my perch I see your faces and hear your voices and all of it evokes gratitude.  “How could I be so fortunate,” I frequently wonder.  Blade-running has its obvious risks but oh, my, what spectacular rewards.  In peace, Cam 2010-09-28T12:44:01-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/arrogance_prejudice/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/arrogance_prejudice/#When:02:17:00Z I arrived at my locker in the basement of the Jewish Community Center as usual, the world shuttered tight on the outside of my quieted mind.  A routine can be meditative and I have a routine at the JCC into which I was slipping.  The man getting dressed next to me was on the outside and I hadn’t really taken note of anything about him in favor of falling inward.  Yes, even outrageous extroverts like me travel inward. “Maybe you should preach about arrogance and prejudice” he muttered under his breath.  Unaware that I knew him the fact that he knew I was a preacher was a little startling.  “I beg your pardon?” I said. “Maybe you should preach about arrogance and prejudice,” he said again, this time more firmly and yet from a distance. “Are you saying that you think I am arrogant and prejudiced?” “I am not saying anything else,” the man said as he scurried about a little faster now, getting ready to leave. “If you feel that I have been arrogant and prejudiced, I wish you would give me some feedback about how or why I came across that way.” I have been on vacation so any defensiveness I might normally have felt was mercifully absent.  I felt calm and curious, ready to listen and learn from this unexpected encounter. It seems that I did know the man and he reminded me that we had met several times.  I felt crest-fallen that I had not recognized him and angry at myself.  To make things worse, I had been ignoring him for some time at the gym, even when he smiled in recognition to me.  Even when he was standing between me and my wife.  I felt deep sadness for my neglect, and marveled that I could be so outgoing and observant and yet so walled-in and obtuse.  It brought to mind the movie, “Schindler’s List” in which the main character, a Christian, was so utterly oblivious for so long, to the pain of Jews who suffered around him.  I don’t mean to trivialize Christian murder by comparison with my small oversight, but Liam Neeson’s character is what came to mind. Anyway, I apologized for not recognizing him and explained as best I could that at the JCC I was like a taxi with its light turned off—shut down in order to recharge and that must be the explanation for my neglect and insensitivity.  I could not explain it otherwise and that it had nothing to do with my arrogance (which I have at least a normal strain of) or prejudice (of which I likely have more than I am aware). So why do I tell you about this sad moment in my day?  Because it strikes me as symptomatic of the newish cultural acceptance to publicly withdraw while still in public.  I am thinking of my ipod, which I could hardly wait to insert that morning.  I am thinking of cellphones, and of my own blackberry that I was reading as I heard his whispered comment.  I am thinking of television monitors in every direction in so many of our public spaces and the zoned out stares of people unconsciously sharing the same space without any actual recognition of one another.  I love my ipod as much as anyone does, and find the phone useful if not pleasurable, but reflecting upon that chance encounter I realize I have slipped further into the cultural ooze than I realized.  I like people, I like being around people, and I pride myself on being keenly observant and easily cognizant of nonverbal cues.  So if I am publicly withdrawing while still in public then it has likely reached profoundly toxic proportions.  It is Ramadan, perhaps one discipline to practice might be disengaging from public withdrawal while in public.  For those of us not celebrating Ramadan, it may just be a good thing to practice anyway.  It’s a thought.  Let me know how it goes. 2010-08-12T02:17:00-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/an_august_break/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/an_august_break/#When:00:50:00Z Just so you know, I am taking a break in August.  I hope you have a nice long, slow deep breath in your future too.  Cam 2010-08-12T00:50:00-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/the_hunger_that_nourishes/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/the_hunger_that_nourishes/#When:17:31:00Z A hunger that nourishes… Deep at the bottom of the stomach, below anxiety and underneath nausea, there is a deep well of emptiness.  We know of it from because of a gnawing hunger we attempt to staunch with any available pleasure or pain.  We feel it as a thickening thirst that begs to be slaked.  We rarely, if ever, peer into it directly and see it for what it is.  Like the eclipsed sun, we cannot look at it directly and see it in its fullness.  Instead, we become aware of it several ‘floors’ above, in our loneliness, anxiety and fear. It is the place, were we to visit it, where we live alone with God—or swim alone with God if you want to use Jungian imagery.  It is a deep, vast subterranean (or its psychic equivalent) reservoir or aquifer that flows beneath our daily consciousness and upon which we ride like the the oceans are cradled in the arms of tectonic plates. Most hungers or thirsts require nourishment in order to still but the hunger or thirst derived from this chamber we inhabit with God, actually nourish us by their continued and gnawing presence.  To be drawn into it through our hunger to know more, or want more, or seek more is actually life-giving.  As we drill down into this mysterious ocean of life beneath the surface, we are fed by insights and revelations and understandings and perspectives we can receive from nowhere else. But alas, we mostly attempt to fill that dangerous hole underneath our fear.  We attempt to drown the thirst with alcohol or drugs, self-medicating what we perceive to be harmful loneliness instead of allowing ourselves to be drawn into it and discover the potential bliss of aloneness.  We attempt to fill the hole with business that keeps us distracted from anything that does not feel good. We race away from our hungers in hopes of outrunning them, and when if ever we stop in exhaustion, we start running the minute we can hear the thumping of our own hearts again.  The hunger that nourishes is within us and cannot be satiated.  Instead of trying to stuff ourselves full, or drink ourselves drowsy, we do well to slowly lower ourselves down, down, down into the deep well of aloneness where were swim with God alone.  2010-07-26T17:31:00-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/broken_system_broken_thinking/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/broken_system_broken_thinking/#When:18:27:00Z Every once in awhile I take down an old systematic theology volume and read for little bit just to remind myself of the way I used to think.  It is not so much the content of the thinking, as in Jesus is God and here is why… It is more the idea that thinking must be systematic and construct a little log house made of logic in which every end is tucked into another with nothing out of place.  It is the idea, the big fat idea, that Reason dictates logic, and logic is required for describing truth.  The Rev. Al Kirshaw was the rector of Emanuel Church, Newbury Street in Boston when I was in seminary, and I remember hearing him say that theological language is a dead language in our world—and that music is the only language conveying holiness.  He was ahead of his time, and certainly far ahead of me.  Then again, he was the “Unofficial Chaplain to Jazz.” The Fundamentalist-Evangelical system of thinking still necessitates systematic theology because as irrational as many of its faith claims seem, it is a belief system built upon an extremely rigid matrix of logic.  If you believe that the Bible is the direct revelation of God to humankind, and therefore it cannot contain mistakes or contradictions, which is a belief they share exactly with Muslim thinking about the Koran, then one error in logic proceeding from that assumption will undo the whole system.  It requires the kind of systematic thinking that would make Aquinas just glow inside. But modernity has blown that kind of thinking away.  Are there 13 dimensions to the universe, an infinite number or zero?  Physicists can’t agree.  If we do not even know how many dimensions there are, how can the pyramidal universe of Genesis or flat world of Renaissance theology reveal anything other than the imagination of human culture during a moment in history?  The problem that modernity creates for such thinking is that the scientific method has totally secularized the culture and cultural ways of thinking.  When a team of scientists unveil a new discovery, they do it in a professional journal and expect—they don’t fear it or resist it or deny it, they expect—that their findings will be challenged and debated and confirmed or disproved.  Argument and debate are not only expected, they are embraced as means of furthering human knowledge and understanding.  Dogmatic and doctrinal thinking neither welcomes nor opens to debate, refinement and change.  It pronounces and then attempts to defend and protect itself from any challenge.  Silliness, utter silliness in 2010.  Faith is not rational.  Religious experience is mystical.  Revelation is historic and open to endless interpretation.  Nothing about God is proven or replicable or in any way worthy of a systematic argument.  Rather, it is worthy of embrace, openness, experiential learning and the shared wisdom of a community engaged in seeking the presence of God in their midst.  So what do you think?  2010-07-13T18:27:00-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/domesticating_god/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/domesticating_god/#When:18:31:00Z What passes for Christianity in the United States, is more often than not, actually “Civil Religion.” I was reminded of that fact this past week as I drove across Ohio and Indiana, then across Pennsylvania and back up to Buffalo. All along the way I noticed churches with massive American flags waving in the wind, or even colorful digital flags waving across the huge screens in red, white and blue. When the nation or the constitution becomes the “ultimate” to which citizens are asked to pledge their lives, or even give their lives, the nation takes on the mythic dimensions of religion. Claims about God get totally intertwined with claims about the nation, and they become indistinguishable for many people, so that the nation or the constitution or the flag becomes the “ultimate” value to which people give their all. Now this is in contrast to the primal narrative of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, each of which claim that making the nation, or anything other than God the ultimate concern, is idolatry. God and only God is ultimate, according to Christianity, and nothing can replace or mediate God as the essential meaning of life. But this thing called Civil Religion, American Civil Religion in this case, is pervasive and powerful and it is co-mingled with Christianity to such a degree that millions do not recognized the difference between the two.  If you are not certain which religion, civil or Christian, you participate in, here are the bare bones of American Civil Religion as expressed in 21st century political rhetoric. U.S. Civil Religion runs something like this: The United States of America is the biggest, best-est and onli-est true Democracy in the world. We are God’s gift of freedom and, as Ronald Reagan used to say, “The beacon of light upon the hill.” In earlier times, leaders and speech-makers spoke of The United States as the New Jerusalem – (but that was before Americans understood how complicated Jerusalem is). Our way of life, according to this rhetoric, is enshrined in The American Dream; a dream that is never clearly defined but has something to do with owning our own home and upward mobility. The American Dream has become inextricably linked to Capitalism, and “Free Market” Capitalism in particular, which rooted in Consumerism. The narrative of this Civil Religion is told in numerous stories, and through the image of numerous personalities from George Washington to Joe the Plummer. Anyone that threatens our way of life, that is, anyone who threatens our ability to own our own homes and drive our own cars and get wealthier by the generation, is our enemy. We declare and warn the world that we will fight our enemies. We will defend ourselves, and the world, for the sake of Freedom – our special brand of freedom the likes of which no one else anywhere in the world has ever achieved. American Freedom and the American Dream are somehow rooted in and supported by Biblically-based Christian faith. Now when said like that, it sounds absurd. Yet that is pretty much our political rhetoric on the left, right and middle.  Imagine any politician of any stripe today arguing against those tenets?  Under the terms of our Civil Religion, it is our highest duty – the ultimate sacrifice – as individuals and citizens of the nation, to serve our country by protecting the Constitution…with our own lives if need be. That is American Civil Religion in a nutshell, and it’s Primal Narrative is found in our earliest history, and runs from the revolution against an oppressor and continues with our advancement against aboriginal tribes. It is being graphically reborn in the rhetoric of the so-called Tea Party movement in 2010. Christian churches participate in this rhetoric and willingly give it a theological tinge, some of them even unknowingly. American Civil Religion’s Scripture is the Constitution; it’s altars are Arlington National Cemetery and the Washington Monument; and its authority to take and sacrifice life, is absolute within the confines of the law. Personally, as a pluralist and desiring to honor the dignity of any person of faith, whatever their religion, I am not espousing the eradication of this civil religion that seems so inviolatable in U.S. society.  Rather, I am agitating for its radical severance from authentic Christianity and for its disabuse of the Gospels.  As Santa is a bastardization of Christmas and the Easter Bunny a commercial trivialization of the Resurrection event, the domestication of Christianity into the US civil religion is an abomination.  2010-07-06T18:31:00-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/house_church_a_spiritual_base_community/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/house_church_a_spiritual_base_community/#When:20:59:00Z I am interested in exploring the creation of a “house church” as an extension of the Trinity community and I am wondering if that has an appeal to anyone else.  Trinity is already a constellation of different worshipping communities and a house church would be another unique contribution. The concept of a base community and the idea of a house church are not new or unique, they populate the world and even Buffalo.  Christian base communities emerged from the Liberation Theology movements in Latin America and South Africa and are a way of doing church that is smaller, more concentrated and with a higher degree of personal commitment required than the more traditional version of Church.  It normally involves some kind of action/reflection process, commitment to a neighborhood-focused outreach, and worship. So I am running it up the flagpole to see who salutes, so to speak.  It would involve purchasing a house on the near Westside and giving it some care, creating one or two market rental apartments in it, and opening up the first floor for a worshipping community of twenty-five to fifty people.  From there, the community would meet, serve and worship together with a clear set of expectations and commitments for membership.  It would also, remain connected to and serve Trinity and our mission. If you are interested in exploring this possibility, join me for a casual discussion on Tuesday, July 13th at 7:00 PM in The Connector conference room (come to the double glass doors all the way in the very back of the courtyard).  Maybe I’ll see you there! 2010-06-26T20:59:00-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/secret_8_a_theology_of_congregational_leadership/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/secret_8_a_theology_of_congregational_leadership/#When:17:22:00Z Okay, so you want a theology of congregational leadership to assure you that you are doing the right things because a functional description is not enough.  Look no further than the story of the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 8:28-34).  The bruised and battered madman who was feared and pitied all at the same time by those who knew of him, begged Jesus to take him in the boat with the disciples.  “No, you go home to your friends and tell them how much God has done for you, and what mercy you have received.” As an ordained minister who is in the leadership of a congregation you have been left behind like the madman; left to those who have become your friends but with whom you are always an outsider.  You may have wanted to go on a more prestigious adventure with Jesus but you have been left behind to tend the congregation because that is where your power lies.  You are the steward of that power.  You need to let Jesus and his closest disciples go do their thing and then go on doing the thing you have been given to do: figuring out better and more successful ways to grow a thriving congregation because that is your job.  The larger your congregation the more opportunity you will have to share the gospel and that is the point of all this splendid effort after all.  2010-06-25T17:22:00-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/secret_7_good_worship_is_what_works_in_your_place/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/secret_7_good_worship_is_what_works_in_your_place/#When:13:55:00Z You probably gave up your corner hardware store for Home Depot because of price and convenience not because you didn’t like the corner store.  In fact the corner hardware store was lovely and sometimes we miss it especially when we go into Home Depot or Lowe’s looking for customer service.  But, and this in an important exception, we still do most of our shopping at the Big Box store even though we may have liked the little hardware store better. Likewise, mega-churches are winning over more and more people because of congregational culture and programs not doctrine or politics.  Americans aren’t flocking to mega-churches because they thirst for conservative theology but because growth-oriented congregations adapt their worship to our indigenous pop culture rather than hanging onto the forms, customs and music of 19th century classical Europe.  Imagine how long Home Depot would last if its Business Plan were to offer the consumer only the supplies and materials it believed the consumer “should” use rather than what the consumer wants.  When we offer worship designed to preserve what we presume is the only right way to worship then we are simply saying to those with a spiritual yearning, “Go elsewhere.” The question is how not whether you will adapt your worship to exploit the niche you have chosen and so attract the prospects that inhabit that niche.  The criterion for “good” worship is what works in attracting and retaining a growing number of people with whom we can then share the gospel.  Check back tomorrow for #8 Special Announcement coming Monday 2010-06-24T13:55:00-05:00 http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/secret_6_feeding_the_consumer/ http://www.trinitybuffalo.org/blogs/entry/secret_6_feeding_the_consumer/#When:02:30:01Z The times have changed, get over it.  Sure there is a nugget of church-folk at the core of your congregation and they still want to get their hands dirty in the committee life of the congregation but most of the people you will succeed in attracting simply are not interested in institutional maintenance.  Why should they be?  You want people giving their best energy to living out the Gospel where they live not propping up your institutional structures.  So how can you get all those dirty deeds done with the minimum of people and effort while at the same time broadening your member’s investment in the congregation?  The first and hardest step is to convert that hard core of church-committee types to the belief that all of their efforts are dedicated to pursuit of those who are not part of your congregation yet: the prospective members and seekers.  So instead of building a nest to their liking and the hell with everyone else, they need to move beyond their own self-interest and make a nest that is attractive to prospects and seekers.  It is all about meeting people at the door as they are and inviting them in rather than expecting them to be something else before they can enter and take part.  What is your product and what are the best and most accessible ways to get it into the hands of those who might be interested?  Will they have to buy and read an entire instruction booklet before they ever get to taste the product or benefit from its fruits?  Check back tomorrow for #7 2010-06-24T02:30:01-05:00