Clergy spirituality: Centered in ministry

In a recent seminar about missional churches, it was noted that the ability for ministers to remain effective, centered and non-anxious amidst the transitions and chaos of today’s world (within and beyond the church) must be understood as a gracious and benevolent gift that comes only from God. Amen! And yet, God also offers certain possibilities through which church leaders are more inclined to experience such gifts of centeredness for their ministries in this world. Indeed, many understand daily spiritual practice to be the most important key to developing vital leadership abilities for this time in the church. Such practice helps ministers return, daily, to their authentic sense of call in a way to renew focus, vision, and wisdom for the kind of leadership they will need amidst the church’s current transitional experience.

In a recent non-scientific polling of a few clergy — a list began to develop with regard to some of the practices that can be counted on to open up a minister’s life to the wellness experienced in God’s centering grace. For the chaplain, pastoral counselor and congregational minister a faithful life is not about martyrdom, nor is it about selfish indulgence, but rather finding a way to live in sacred balance amidst vocation and leisure so that ministry might be sustainable, as well as transforming for the children of God these ministers are called to serve. It is hoped each minister reading this article, and any others as well, might recognize the wisdom of this list as it lifts up what clergy too-often sacrifice to hectic lives of ministry. Such practices are activities through which to begin claiming transformation for the development of your own leadership.

Here are just a few practices (along with an occasional example or two) contributed by clergy who say such has led to a sense of wellness and vitality in their own ministries:

• Getting enough rest;
• Healthy eating;
• Time with family;
• Regular exercise;
• Getting away for vacation;
• Get together with other clergy for support in prayer and discernment (Friends of the Mystery groups);
• Making pilgrimage;
• Centering prayer (forms include Thomas Keating and Mindfulness Practice);
• Time with friends for dinner;
• Cloister time (reading, gardening);
• Singing, dancing, or playing a musical instrument;
• Contemplative scripture reading (Lectio Divina, "Dwelling In The Word”);
• Discernment in decision-making (Ignatius Exercise);
• Sabbath-keeping;
• Learning to graciously say "no;"
• Keeping silence;
• Creation Stewardship (community gardens, stream restoration, litter patrol).

Through what body of regular and disciplined practices have you found your own life centered in ministry?  What activities on the list above may God be calling you toward? How will you make room in your life for these other kinds of practice? Do you need to let go of some other busyness or activity in order to make room for this practice? Is anything getting in your way of practicing a balanced life in ministry? If you have questions, or would like more information, about any of the items mentioned above, you are invited to call or e-mail the Office of Search and Call at Disciples Home Missions; ask for Warren Lynn.

The Rev. Warren P. Lynn, Director of the Office of Search and Call in Christian Vocations, is a native of Salem, Ore., and a member of Allisonville Christian Church, Indianapolis.

Moving beyond words to transform worship

In a recent article written by Robert Glick for the Alban Institute, he notes, "Different people use different parts of their brains to varying degrees, and these differences have considerable ramifications for Christian worship ... worship must engage the whole person, and I believe that this is a healthy trend. Today’s younger people ... are hungry not just to know about God, but actually to know and experience God with all that they are-mind, heart, body, and soul.”(Alban Weekly, Week of 7/3/2006)

Laurie Rudel, pastor of Queen Anne Christian Church in Seattle, Wash., notes that according to Harvard Professor and psychologist, Howard Gardner, "there are seven types of intelligences or ’ways of knowing’ that lead to perception, understanding and insight. These ways of knowing are: verbal, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. (An eighth intelligence type has been added by Gardner, the naturalist type.) The vast majority of our (Disciples) worship services dwell in the first two "ways of knowing”: verbal, and logical-mathematical." Rudel notes, "As worship leaders our task is to expand the ’ways of knowing” we use to worship.

Indeed, throughout the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) many congregations are discovering a transformation of their worship life as we move beyond worship wars and "fill in the blank” style orders of service toward a deeply collaborative effort to create worship that is fresh, balanced, and inclusive of all the gifts through which life and faith can be made real in our lives. For such congregations it is no longer enough to be concerned about what words are said. In fact, as Ron Greene, the pastor of Central Christian Church in Great Falls, Montana knows, the lack of words can be as powerful as any spoken word. In reference to Central’s regular use of silence as a part of worship during their last Lenten season, Greene notes, "Some say the time of silence has brought us the most depth in our worship services.”

Between the words and the silence, however, is a vast landscape of possibility for the kind of worship that empowers individual lives and helps to transform entire congregations.  A place to begin creatively navigating such choices is in the complimentary wisdom of Laurie Rudel and another Disciples pastor, Joan Dennehy of Findlay Street Christian Church in Seattle.  Rudel reminds us that as we develop a life of worship for our churches we must remember, "God is the focus! Worship is about God, it is not primarily about us.” But Dennehy also would have us remember, "… God does not need or require our worship. It is we who benefit from it, who need it, who are strengthened by it.”  Certainly, the options for great worship are wide open even when such wisdom is honored, but it is an invaluable place to begin as we consider how each of our congregational communities might worship in a way that, as Robert Glick notes, "is fuller, richer, more biblical and thus more receptive to the Holy Spirit of God."

The Rev. Warren P. Lynn, Director of the Office of Search and Call in Christian Vocations, is a native of Salem, Ore., and a member of Allisonville Christian Church, Indianapolis.