Do you know what thinking is?
It’s just a fancy word for changing your mind.” —The Twelfth Doctor In 1938 economic collapse, unrest, and conflicted had altered the shape of global affairs and shaken the foundations of modern theology, the editors of The Christian Century reached out to prominent theologians and church leaders asking the question, “How has your mind changed in the last decade?” The request described a proposed essay series as “a kind of testimony meeting” for “the free exchange of experiences.” The 34 contributors were to respond both intellectually and personally, offering deeply reflective essays that were published by the magazine. Karl Barth, Georgia Harkness, and Reinhold Niebuhr were among those who submitted essays, with Niebuhr confessing he had experienced “’a fairly complete conversion of thought which involved rejection of almost all the liberal theological ideals and ideas” which had been part of his earlier work. It is a question to which the magazine has returned, each decade asking religious thinkers to reflect on the ways in which their understandings have changed. Some essayists profess a constancy to their thought. Others such as Langdon Gilkey saw the changes in process rather than complete, writing, “I prefer, if I may, to say ‘How My Mind Is Changing.’ Instead of having the sensation of motion followed by present rest and clarity…, I am now overwhelmed by the sense of being theologically still in passage.” It is a question worth pondering, how our thinking changes over time. Asking the question of ourselves requires honesty, a fair bit of humility, and vulnerability. Today as the divisions in society seem greater than ever before, admitting to a change in thought demands courage. Our politicians are criticized for changing their positions on issues, sometimes rightly so if those changes are for political expediency. Yet, I would argue the ability to state publicly, “I was wrong. I changed my mind,” reveals a strength of character which our culture sorely lacks. Asking myself the question, opens up many ways in which I’ve shifted my thinking. A newsletter article is too small to describe how much my mind has changed through the years, however, looking back there seem to be two consistent threads when I’ve clearly changed positions. First is the lens of God’s abundant grace which I experience at communion. Moving away from my formative experiences of the Lord’s Supper growing up in a conservative Baptist congregation in which our unworthiness and sinfulness was a primary communion theme, I have been reshaped by an expansive view of God’s radical welcome in the sharing of the Eucharist. Secondly, in those most consequential issues where I have changed, more often than not it has been because I have listened to the stories of others, heard their experiences of pain and injustice. Those stories opened up new ways of understanding. There is much talk of echo chambers and confirmation bias in our culture. It is tempting to stay in our own safe camps and point fingers at those who disagree with us. And yet our God is always doing an new thing, always creating, always at work for transformation. If we are fearful of our current circumstances, asking the question, “how has my mind changed” might be a good place for us to begin. Acknowledging where we’ve been and how we’ve evolved may open up constructive possibilities for our future. As my opening quote reveals, I am a lifelong fan of the British television show, Doctor Who. I’ll close with a bit of wisdom from the thirteenth and current Doctor, who in the 2018 season opener introduced herself saying, “We’re all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve while still staying true to who we are. We can honour who we’ve been and choose who we want to be next. Now’s your chance! How about it?” Now’s our chance. How about it? Your fellow pilgrim on the way, Pastor Nancy
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Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
—Albert Camus Fall is my favorite time of the year. Crisp cool mornings, warming afternoons, the trees in all their magnificent multicolored splendor—it’s glorious. As we make the turn into autumn, my heart is full of gratitude. I am thankful for the gracious welcome you have extended to me since my arrival. You all have made my move to Kentucky one of joy and adventure. And thank you to everyone who helped make our Season of Creation worship series in September such an amazing experience! It lifted my heart to catch glimpses of the your world, places cherished by many of you. What a thrill to have so many voices coming together to celebrate creation, to lead us in worship, and to imagine how together we can respond to God’s call to care for the earth. We are very blessed to be surrounded by wonderful musicians who readily share their gifts with us and our community. I want to give a big shout out to our musical staff: Genny Jenkins, Jiyeon McGillicuddy, Caleb Fouts, Anna Grayson, and Bailey Hobbs. And a special thank you to Andrew Preston and our very own Roy and Jean Reynolds for making the worship for River Sunday even more meaningful. I’m also incredibly grateful to all of you who have given financially to the Amplify Our Reach campaign to modernize and upgrade our audio-visual technology. Because of your wonderful generosity in the last month we are able to begin with the implementation of upgrades to our video streaming capabilities. And a big thank you goes to David Perkins for putting in many hours helping us improve our internet connections and network. His work gives us improved upload speeds for livestreaming worship services from the sanctuary which will greatly enhance our broadcast capabilities. These are investments not only for our short-term situation, but for the future vitality of our congregation. We are experiencing a shift in the way churches gather, worship, and minister to our communities. In many ways the inability of gathering in person for worship has pushed us to recognize the world had already changed even before COVID-19. The challenge for us going forward will be to integrate these multiple ways of communicating, gathering, and being church together when we are able to worship in-person again. In our weekly vespers service on Zoom, we share in prayer together. We are invited to give voice to our prayers in two categories: gratitude and concern. We begin those prayers of the people with gratitude as a spiritual practice. Giving thanks requires that we pay attention—we look to our daily lives and find gifts, big and small, which bring joy to us. Focusing on gratitude allows us to look beyond ourselves; it nurtures humility and empathy for others. There is much in our world which can lead us to despair. In the coming months we will find it hard to resist the temptations to focus on fear or to retreat into our corners. Let’s not take the bait. As people of faith we can choose gratitude and we can work to heal divisions. We can march for justice, and we can be peacemakers. In other words, we can be disciples of Christ. May God grant us wisdom and courage for the living of these days. In gratitude, Pastor Nancy To dwell means to belong to a given place.
--Christian Norberg-Schulz We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. --T.S. Eliot Moving to a new place is disorienting. Things you took for granted, suddenly require more effort. Which direction is east? Where’s the grocery store? What’s my street address again? Although there are fewer unpacked boxes in my home, I’m still settling in, getting my bearings. I am busy learning the ways FCC Morehead does church together. This past week I learned what it’s like for students to move back into and how that changes the way the community feels. And I have yet to reprogram the radio stations on my car radio. (FYI, right now it’s set on WMKY.) Learning a new place takes time and intention. Our current social and economic systems make it easy to ignore the places in which we live. My Fred Meyer grocery shopper’s reward card from Washington state works at the Kroger in Morehead, because Kroger owns both. We can travel about the world, yet still eat at the same chain restaurants. Yes, I’ve been in a McDonalds in Athens, Greece and Frankfort, Germany; and perhaps more surprisingly a Krispy Kreme in Oxford, England. One of those things I’m discovering is that people who live here often name where they live by county. So, not only am I learning new towns and cities around here, but I’m often trying to figure out which direction Harlan county is from here or how far away Clark county is! I’ve learned we live in the Lower Triplett Creek watershed, and I’m slowing getting my bearings as to the different parts that make up our watershed. My dog Stoney and I have walked the trail around Eagle Lake, and just last week I enjoyed a picnic lunch near Triplett Creek. These are the living waters for those of us who call Rowan county home. In September our worship services will be rooted in the place where we live. Each Sunday we’ll focus on a different aspect of place: Forest, Land, Wilderness, and River Sundays. Rather than live stream our worship services from inside the church sanctuary, members of our congregation will be recording parts of our worship from around the area. You may hear and see a call to worship from Rodburn Hollow Park, a Scripture reading from the middle of someone’s garden, or special music from a porch front. This shift in focus of our worship in September gives you an opportunity to participate in a new way and we’ll be able to see the faces of our congregation as we worship together. If you have a phone that records video, that’s all it takes; no fancy equipment needed. Is there a special place you’d love to share with others? You can sign up to record a small piece of our worship from that spot. The more folks who participate, the richer our worship in September will be. To help out, email the church office, let me know, or contact our new worship chair, Alana Scott. I’m excited to see what we will create together! --Pastor Nancy Through the looking glass,
down the rabbit hole, into the wardrobe and out into the enchanted forest where animals talk and danger lurks and nothing works quite the way it did before, you have fallen into a new story. --Lynn Unger, “On the Other Side” As I write to you our governor has just announced new measures to help our state stop the rising number of COVID-19 cases. The trend lines in our state are disturbing. We may feel insulated here in Rowan County, but our numbers have been increasing in July, and we are only a short drive away from areas with rising rates. Our recent survey of the congregation included questions about COVID-19 and how it affects our worship practices. From the responses to the survey nearly 50% indicated they had an underlying risk which would prevent them from worshiping in-person in our sanctuary. Last week the elders discussed the pandemic, the results of our survey, the recommendations of our region and national Disciples leaders, and our own concerns. We talked about the struggles local businesses, the school district, and Morehead State University are having as they attempt to create safe environments for opening back up this fall. Through it all we remain committed to the ministries of our congregation and our call to be a voice for hope and inclusion in our community. The elders and I recommended to the board that we continue with on-line only worship through November 2020. As we enter the fall, we will have a better understanding of how the unique dynamics of our county are responding to the pandemic, and we will reassess our worship practices going forward into 2021. We recognize how disappointing this decision is. We are keenly aware of the longings many of us have to come back together in person, to worship side by side with one another, and to share in communion in one place. We do not come to this conclusion lightly, but through much prayer and reflection. It is our intention to focus on our current worship offerings and to provide the best possible worship experiences we can. Our worship will continue to be streamed live on Facebook every Sunday, and we will gather on Thursday night for Vespers services on Zoom. I continue to trust that this unsettled time can be a gift to the church. I know it’s frustrating; I know we are all exhausted. Nothing is easy as we are navigating these changes. Trust me, the learning curve for online technology can be daunting! Nonetheless, in many ways this crisis has forced the church to acknowledge we have been slow to recognize the massive cultural, technological, and generational changes that have already been shifting the world around us. A recent Barna survey on Christianity in the U.S. found only 25% of Americans are practicing Christians down from 45% in 2000 (State of the Church 2020, Barna Group, March 2020). That decline has occurred in every age demographic. What we’ve been doing hasn’t been effective, and simply starting back up things just like we were doing before the pandemic won’t change that. Why do I see this time as a gift? Because we follow a God who is constantly at work to bring life into the world, who is always innovating, never satisfied with the status quo. The prophet Isaiah gives voice to God, writing, Do not recall the first things, and what came before do not consider. I am about to do a new thing, now it will spring forth and you shall know it. (Isaiah 43:18-19) We Christians tend only to hear these words during the season of Advent, as we prepare for Christmas. When we read it through the lens of Advent, we know what the “new thing” is—Jesus. But God continues doing new things throughout history, and today is no exception. The hard part sometimes is tearing our eyes away from the past so that we are able to catch a glimpse of the Spirit at work in our world right now. The Scottish hymnwriter John Bell composes many of my favorite contemporary music for congregational worship. In one of his short songs for worship, rooted in words from 2 Corinthians and Revelation, he gives us these reassuring words of faith, "Behold, behold I make all things new, beginning with you and starting from today. Behold, behold I make all things new, my promise is true for I am Christ the way." We are a new creation in Christ, even amid a pandemic, perhaps especially now. We have fallen into a new story, a new story which God is writing with us. Now is not the time to despair. For this is the day we have been given. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! --Pastor Nancy Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
--John Lennon Little did we know three months ago when congregations across the country began suspending in-person worship services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that in July we would still be worshipping online, rather than gathering in our sanctuaries. Weeks have turned into months, and even with summer now here, predicting what our worship practices will be like this fall is difficult. What started as a temporary emergency response has now become our new normal. In May I closed out my pastoral ministry in Puyallup, Washington with a taped video message, a surprise congregational parade outside my home, and an awkward Zoom meeting filled with goodbyes. Nothing in my seminary training prepared me for such a transition! And now, after a six-day road trip through eight states, I’m here in Morehead, Kentucky. My heart is hopeful. However, just like my goodbyes in Washington, seminary never offered a practicum on starting a new ministry amidst a pandemic. The usual first steps of shaking hands, sharing conversations over coffee or a meal, visiting with folks in their homes or in my office are not advisable. These next few months will be a challenge as you and I find new ways to get to know one another. One of the unforeseen effects of our adaptations to living through this pandemic is that we as church have learned we can try new things—lots of new things. We’ve adapted church meetings, bible studies, worship services to share over Zoom calls. People have tuned into Facebook Live prayer services. Churches who never imagined having a YouTube channel have been uploaded worship service videos for months now. It has been such a joy to join in worship services around the world—to pray with the Taize’ Community in France, to join in prayer with friends in Alabama, Indiana, Montana, California, Colorado, and beyond. Our General Minister and President Rev. Teri Hord Owens led congregations around the country in worship on Easter Sunday. And last weekend the Poor People’s Campaign had more than 1.2 million viewers for its online demonstration. God’s Spirit is moving even in the middle of a pandemic! It’s easy to want to focus on the future, intent on when things will get back to the way they were before the word coronavirus entered our vocabulary. That would be a mistake. God isn’t waiting for case numbers to go down or a vaccine to be developed, God’s Spirit is moving in our world now, always seeking the best in every situation, even in a pandemic. I believe this time has given the church freedom to explore new venues, to dip our toes into social media in ways we might never have tried before, to reflect on our purpose and calling, and to hear voices which have not been heard. It’s also underscored the power of traditional ways of maintaining connections with others—cards, phone calls, and front porch visits are all important, too. Through all of this I’m hopeful the church will remain open to experimentation and creativity in our common life together. God is always doing a new thing in our world, and too often the church lags behind. My prayer during these past several months has been for courage to step out in faith and for the gift of vision to see the possibilities Spirit is offering us in these unsettled days. I am glad to be in Morehead with you! You have already done so much to make me feel at home. I’m deeply grateful for the generous gifts filling my pantry shelves and for so many other kindnesses folks have shown me. Thank you especially to the members of the search committee, the executive board and others who are helping me get my bearings in this new place. Streets are starting to become more familiar to me. I’m slowly matching names and faces. And I am thoroughly enjoying the nightly firefly dance held in my backyard each night! Today and every day is a holy gift. May God grant us eyes to see and a wise heart. For this is the day we are given. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! --Pastor Nancy |
AuthorA native of Illinois, Rev. Nancy Gowler lived for 26 years in the Pacific Northwest. She joined the ministry of First Christian Church in Morehead, KY, in July of 2020. Archives
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