...a "post-congregational" form of Christian life and community, and
your family based stuff could be relevant to that. The challenge, I think, will
be to find a way to talk about family that doesn't sound like the religious
right.
Amen.
The brief SS overview I presented to the Board of CE the other night
sparked a great discussion in that group (12 members) about how SS will give
parents, families, friends, aunts/uncles, grandparents, etc. tools that have
been bred out of the daily family practices in the past 2-3 generations. What
once was a natural conversation and habit (prayer, discussions about God,
sharing daily life) has sadly become the church's job because we (parents) have
outsourced our responsibility. We hire people to clean our houses, mow our
lawns, even shop for groceries...and we hire the church (is that what
stewardship is?) to do our religion.
Stepping Stones can and will change all of that. I really, truly believe
that to be a true statement. For churches who will invest the time and energy
and resources to train leaders to reach out and give families permission to
trust that they do have the ability to talk to God and each other, those
churches will grow and thrive in ways they can't even imagine. Deeper. Stronger.
Intentional relationships.
The tricky part will be getting the mainline churches to trust that this
isn't some fundamental, right-wing, conservative program as it is the
fundamental, right-wing, conservative churches who are touting the biggest and
best (whatever that means) family ministry programs. Getting the mainline
churches to listen will be no small task. Wording and language is very
important--which is why I rewrite some of the SS and H2H stuff to make it smell
more like the UCC--it really matters.
A comment from a dad with five kids at Tuesday night's
meeting/presentation: "I love Plymouth and it made me sad to think that I might
have to look somewhere else to find something like this for our family. I've
wanted this for so long--something that will not only strengthen our family but
I believe it will bring back our extended family as well. I want my parents to
take these classes and my brothers and sisters, too."
If Plymouth doesn't make budget/receive enough pledges to afford all of the
changes we're talking about here (included the SS program), this guy is going to
go on a mission to personally raise the money we need.
OK--preaching to the choir and I haven't even had my morning coffee yet. I
just wanted to say: thank God for Brian McLaren and thank God for you and your
dreams.
Love ya. Have a great Saturday.
Ang
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