MyQuest | my thoughts on life's journey

New United Church

Welcome to the United Protestant Church of France, joining the international chorus of United Churches.

UCC general minister applauds Obama on marriage equality

Rev. Geoffrey Black, the General Minister and President of the UCC, applauds President Obama for his position on marriage equality.

And Rev. Otis Moss III's statement from the pulpit:

 

Congregation-wide "Bounce" game

Last year while reading Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken, she described a game she designed entitled Bounce.  The purpose of this game was to connect young people with senior adults.  I was enthusiastic about the game and its community-building potential.  I was also intrigued by the larger idea of incorporating ideas from game design into congregational life, not only because games are popular and would connect congregational life with something people enjoy but also because, as McGonigal had persuaded me, games have great potential for helping solve real-world problems (including making people happy).  I first blogged about Bounce and my intention to design a congregational game of it here.

Last autumn I played a prototype round with our confirmation class and a predetermined list of senior adults.  I worked with the Congregational Care Ministry in putting the list together.  Only two of the confirmands played the game, one very enthusiastically.  The senior adults gave positive feedback to receiving the calls from young people, particularly the one enthusiastic young man.

So, based on that prototype, I designed a congregation-wide version of the game.  It seemed to fit the playful ethose of First Central and would fit well during the season of the year when we are very focused on family and community -- the mid-spring when we have the all-church retreat, pie day, the church's anniversary, the super sale, graduation, confirmation, mother's day, etc.

I bounced :) the idea off of the church staff and others and got good responses.  I took it to the Congregational Care Ministry who backed the idea and gave good feedback.  I began advertising the game on Easter Sunday (when we had 311 in attendance) and advertised throughout April.  The game was to be played the final week of April, first week of May, culminating on anniversary Sunday with the awarding of a trophy.  My hope was it would become an annual tradition with a traveling trophy.  The Sunday the game was to commence, there was a bulletin insert with the questions, rules, and call log.

By Wednesday I was concerned that I hadn't received any calls myself.  I had decided not to do the calling myself, as I designed the game, and I also call church members all the time anyway.  I continue to promote it daily on Twitter and post comments on our Facebook group.  I asked people about it and encouraged at least one family to have their kids play.

Sunday morning people were to turn their call logs in before service so that the award could be given at the conclusion of the service.  No one turned anything in.  More than one person told me that they had intended to call around, but just hadn't gotten it done.  They were disappointed that no one did.

So, mark that experiment failed.  Thoughts and feedback?

Happy Easter

What Facebook Makes Us

A postmodern minister engages this idea (in conversation with Foucault, Levinas, Derrida, and Zizek).  He ends up with these questions:

What is Facebook making us? What kind of subjects are we becoming? How is Facebok creating a new subjectivity? How is Facebook shaping how we respond to the other and all the others with whom we interact and toward whom we gesture, bid, greet, and the like? What is it doing to us when, in light of the fact that there is no “real” face, the ethical interaction is no longer obligatory but merely optional? What are we becoming if/when we do not respond? What does the banal act of hitting the “Like” button do to us? What happens to our local community when we create a virtual instantiation of that community in/on Facebook as a “group” and when we use the technology to create and coordinate “events?” How is our ritualistic (liturgical?) use of Facebook in conflict with our liturgical practices in the ecclesia? This is especially pertinent and pressing when our liturgical use of Facebook isan ecclesial practice (does your church have a Facebook page, or more than one?).

Working Out Our Faith -- My Statement

For our "Working Out Our Faith" class at church, we were to construct our own faith statement.  I didn't go the traditional route.  While out hiking today in Fontelle Forest, I paused beside the Missouri River and did mine.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Making History Today

My latest article for the church newsletter:

I just returned home from an incredible faith rally tonight at First United Methodist Church. Billed a "Rally for Equality" it was in support of the Equal Employment Ordinance. 265 people attended the event which was filled with incredible singing, prophetic preaching, moving stories, and enough Holy Spirit energy to send you out dancing (if you are inclined to do such things).

It reminded me of the stories I've heard of the Civil Rights Movement. During the Montgomery bus boycott, for instance, the people gathered in churches every night and heard preaching and singing. It was these moments of communal worship which sustained them through their civil disobedience campaigns.

The faith communities who gathered tonight represented some of Omaha's oldest and most historic churches, including ours. Our Congregationalist founders came to Nebraska in the 1850's to guarantee that it would become a free territory. In the 1870's we were one of four churches who stood with Chief Standing Bear in his court case defending that Native Americans are persons who deserve their human rights recognized by law. In the early twentieth century some of our members lobbied for women's suffrage. Our denomination was active in leadership and grassroots involvement in the civil rights movement of mid-century. A few decades ago, we embraced the full inclusion of women in leadership as laity and clergy and developed gender-inclusive worship. In this century, we became an open and affirming congregation and advocate now for the full equality of LGBT persons. And we have set as a goal making ourselves more accessible to the differently abled.

For over 150 years we have provided a moral conscience and Christian leadership to this city; we continue in that tradition today.

Peace,

Scott

 

 

 

Jesus didn't exclude people. Neither do we.

First Central's God is Still Speaking banner appeared prominently in a news report last night.  

Prayer for Faith Rally

Here is the text of my invocation tonight at our Rally for Equality at First UMC. 265 people attended.

 

Holy and everliving God,
Compassionate and Merciful,
We, your servants, are listening.

We come before you today on the eve of a great, historic debate for our city.
We come with some anxieties, unsure whether our efforts will bear the fruit we so desire.

Your prophet Isaiah has asked,

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
The Creator of the ends of the earth.

You do not faint or grow weary;
You give power to the faint, and strengthen the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
And the young will fall exhausted;
But those who wait upon You shall renew their strength,
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Give us the courage to dream new dreams; to see new possibilities.
To look forward with hope, resting in your blessed covenant
That each day is a new day
That the heavens are ripped open
And your spirit is poured forth upon the earth
That a straight path might be made in the wilderness
And all your children will make it home.

So, today, with abiding faith and calm assurance
We invoke your presence on these proceedings.

You are the Creator and Parent of us all.
In your divine majesty you have made us each and every one an image of you,
Our splendid diversity reflecting your infinite glories.

You are our Redeemer and Liberator.
Companion to the poor,
You have promised to
Lift up the powerless and cast down the powerful,
To gather the outcasts,
Heal the brokenhearted,
And bind up their wounds.
You have proclaimed release to the captives,
Recovery of sight to the blind,
And to let the oppressed go free.

You Sustain and Comfort us
Filling us with your Holy Spirit
And thereby uniting us with all creation in every time and place
A fellowship of solidarity
A beloved community
Reminding us that what we have done unto the least of us, we have done unto thee.

We call upon this good news
In this year of the Lord's favor.
Give these elected representatives of your people
Courage and wisdom
That they might be instruments of your peace
Sowing love where there is hatred,
Pardon, where there is injury,
Union, in place of discord,
Faith, instead doubt,
Hope, not despair,
Light to cast away the darkness
And where there is sadness, joy.

We, your humble people, beseech thee.
And in all your many names, we pray.
Amen.