Tuesday AM -- Plenary and Workshop #1

Today began with worship. The scripture was Roman 12:1-2 and Acts 1:3-5. The preacher opened her sermon with the opening scene from the movie “Chocolate.” She said it began with people worshiping in a rural French church when the wind blows open the main door and the most pious man in the church gets up and closes the door quieting the forceful wind. The sermon and worship service challenged us to consider how we, or whether we, allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and in our churches.




Plenary #1 – Asset Mapping

The first speaker was Rev. Dwight Andrews, the pastor of First Congregational UCC here in Atlanta. Rev. Andrews is a gifted musician who opened his message with a saxophone solo and proceeded to distinguish between spirituals and blues. He grew up as black congregationalist who was taught that while spirituals were okay, blues and jazz were not for faithful people. More recently he has reconciled the two and realizes that his musical gifts are not inconsistent with faith and we should bring our whole self to God.

His point was that we should understand our selves and our gifts. As a part of knowing who we are, we are also called to understand the why’s of our life, especially why are we here? (what is the gospel) What is our purpose mission? And what is the brokeness in our lives? We should also know the gifts of the people:

He summed up his message with this:

1) Get to know the gifts of the people within your midst

2) Know yourself (your call and your gifts)

3) The church is the future of the community

Two noteworthy comments I heard were:

* Don’t get discouraged or tired. The world needs us more than ever.

* Amidst all of the foolishness of church life, you need to be clear about your call. Be guided by Jesus.



The second speaker was Rev. Amanda McCullough, pastor of Church Without Walls in Wilmington, NC. She is an expert on Appreciative Inquiry.

AI, as she called it, is a method of problem solving used in organizations that focuses on the positive experiences and desires of the community/company/organization. She suggested that we could find out much more about AI by Googling Appreciative Inquiry. After listening to her for an hour or so, I think she is right. However, my observation is that AI is to corporate problem solving, as Rev. David Young’s (last October at the Brethren Center) system of church/faith revitalization is to church renewal. It is a problem solving method that focuses on the positive side of life in order to improve the less than positive things.



Workshop #1 – Church Renewal 101

This workshop was presented by Rev. Michael Piazza. Rev. Piazza has grown several churches across the south, including the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Texas. This church is the largest UCC church in the south and by far the largest liberal church in Texas.

Rev. Piazza made four big points. Keep in mind this event is sponsored by the Center for Progressive Renewal.

Point 1 – (As liberal Christians) We must be vocal about our beliefs and values. We must not be defined by others and we must not allow our beliefs to be devalued by others.

Point 2 – We must be enthusiastic about transformational worship. This means we must move our worship from the head to the heart. Worship is meant to be an encounter with the living God. Our last Plenary will expand on this point.

Point 3 – We must be faithful in practicing (traditional/historic) Christian practices. Under this point he suggested that religion is not bad, countering the comment by many contemporary folk that they are spiritual but not religious. Historic Christian practices connect us and have meaning.

Point 4 – We must be devoted to serving, not to being served. He expanded on this by saying that worship should be designed for those who need God and not those who already have God (ie those paying the bills). The business of a church is to change people. The purpose of a corporation is satisfy people. Churches that get it backwards die.

As for the scary nature of change and “older” members, he suggested that the older members be respected and given permission to keep their faith and beliefs (given permission not to change) but those same people be asked for permission for the church to change.



It is getting late and I am getting tired. I will try to share the second Plenary Session with you in the am.