A huge part of my church is a ministry or, rather, ministry chain, called Storehouse. Everything from food to clothing to debt management to job hunting strategies to Friday church to New Christian small group. Everything. And I'm sure there's stuff in there I don't know about yet either. Either way, the whole network is incredible and it's picking up steam around the city. Where at one point they used to have to call up churches and businesses to try to find partners, they now receive those phone calls.
Well, last night, Shelby and I went to the "family meeting." All the different branches come together at the City Centre Storehouse building to share stories, drink tea, pray, and worship with one another.
It was also an opportunity to listen to Pastor Alan's heart and perspective on the ministry.
A few quoteables/paraphraseables:
"Our ministry is less about the alleviation of poverty and more about the restoration of dignity. I don't want to lead something that's functional. I want to lead something that celebrates others."-Pastor Alan
The team believes in honoring one another. Honoring under the definition of, "treating someone as specially uncommon. Finding their uniqueness and calling it out."
The ministry, while Christian, isn't out to make new Christians. It's not a "pound for a prayer" kind of deal. Instead, they seek ways to build relationships, hoping that in those interactions, those who come will see Jesus in the ministry workers and want in on the secret.
Pastor Alan: "Jesus didn't call us to pray a prayer. He called us to make disciples."
And, shortly after stating that, Alan continued with a thought I've been munching on. He reminded us that even though he's been a Christian for 25 years, he still screws up. But we forgive him. We give him grace. Because being human and being Christian is hard. However, when we see a new Christian back at the bar or back in their respective sin, we're discouraged; we're disappointed.
Why?! "If after 25 years, I'm still not getting it right, how do we expect new Christians to have broken countless years of sin habitudes overnight?"
We can't, is the answer. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to hold one another accountable, but that does mean, in the words of Tom Harrison--Pastor of Asbury United Methodist--that we should rather "lower our expectations and raise our commitment."
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Meanwhile, in Research Methods...citations.
No, not the naughty kind that I could get a good story from or have to pay a ticket for. Internal citations and work cited pages.
Today, the English and Languages MAs had a little get together over a heart-warming powerpoint and three hours worth of manual citations. We paired off into groups (have I mentioned lately my sentiments toward the words "break off into groups"?), were given sheets of paper with information, and set free to cite, cite, cite! On foreign keyboards that type "/e" every time you want to have "E" and where the heck are the quotation marks?!
My partner? Could smell my American-ness from a mile off and claimed to be from "Michigan." I honestly thought she was joking and told her so by way of accent evidence (I'm actually getting pretty good at accent naming). I could focus on nothing else until she said the words "Russian boyfriend" about an hour in. Zingo.
They did, however, give us coffee and biscuits. It's hard to hold a grudge against someone handing you a cookie. Or three.
Sometimes lowering my expectations has to extend to my academic life.
I raised my commitment (to WB Yeats and Flann O'Brien) here today:
The McClay Library. Second floor. Shelf PR 8899.O and I are becoming quite close.
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