Reflection Roundup: Light Bringers
Each week we gather news stories, notable pieces, and other important items for Christian leaders today. As always, listening broadly draws together differing perspectives from which we can learn but may not concur. Here are 10 things worth sharing this week.
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Squaring off against the darkness, acknowledging its created separateness from the light that is God in the lives of people, is our posture for this season.
1. The light bringers in Aurora, Colorado, look a lot like doctors, dentists, lawyers, scout masters, grocers, restaurateurs, and many other non-suspect illuminators of the shadows that envelop the experience of living as a refugee in the Denver area. As the vision of medical doctor P. J. Parmar led him to practice among the local immigrant population, Mango House arrived on East Colfax Avenue in 2014. Filmmaker Ross Taylor began documenting Parmar’s journey and chronicling the expanding Mango House community of resources in 2020. Watch the trailer here. Learn more facts and history about Mango House and the light that has taken up residence in a dark Aurora neighborhood here.
2. Confessing darkness is where the light of this season gains admission into our consciousness. Expanding on the Gospel lectionary for the coming week, Luke 3:17-18, Marlena Proper Deida Graves recounts the shadow side of our country’s colonization and racial superiority complex for the Christian Century. Graves’s chronology, for me, is personalized in the words of a first-year student, “I’ve made some mistakes.” I thought, “Me too.” Thus begins our celebration of the light.
3. What is the “secret sauce,” the unique light that rushes in and fills our hearts in and through our congregational gatherings? John Wimberly writes “High Tech and High Touch” for the Congregational Consulting Group, reminding readers of ways to connect people in congregations when circumstances require modifications. Much of what draws people together are shared experiences. Laughing and crying together often involves touch! Have you ever tried comforting someone without touching them? Or sharing a belly laugh six feet apart? By now we all have, and we’ve all noticed how it feels strange and lacking. Wimberly touches on both person-to-person and online communities, noticing how different generations adapt to this hybrid environment, continually creating Christian fellowship in various ways as we’ve done for thousands of years.
4. What does the emotion overwhelm indicate? If we each had a dashboard indicator (idiot light?) on our foreheads that would light up “overwhelmed” each time this were true, what could we learn? Expert in liminality, Susan Beaumont writes “Overwhelm: Not a Problem to be Solved,” inviting leaders to take this emotional signal as an indicator to step back rather than giving in to the temptation to square our resolve and plunge deeper. Overwhelm is a healthy maintenance signal on our spiritual systems to take a humble posture and allow the circumstances we are in, the people we are with, to teach us. It’s an opportunity to remember that our work is our worship. Beaumont invites leaders to accept the creativity that overwhelm offers. Illumination often comes when striving ceases and while taking a perspective that seems unnatural.
5. Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill in North Carolina offers readers a lightbulb moment through “It’s Time to Slow Down” by Prince Rivers. Curator of Alban Weekly, Rivers reflects on the pace adjustments we’ve required of ourselves, our students, and our congregations over the past 18 months. Once recovered from the whiplash of COVID’s standstill, many of us discovered elements of a slower pace that we appreciated. Now that many have shifted into “recovery mode,” we’re trying to make up for “lost time” and are busier than ever. Trinity School schedules downtime into the days of their students and “celebrates unhurried excellence” as one of its educational values and pedagogical strategies.” Students are encouraged to pursue interests and relationships. What could we, on our church staff teams, learn from this?
6. The Lewis Center for Church Leadership’s podcast, Leading Ideas Talks, offers “Creating Powerful Worship in Small Congregations,” during which guest Teresa Stewart discusses utilizing local resources, tools, and strengths, and the “participation aesthetic” on which smaller groups can capitalize. Every individual changes the energy in a smaller environment. Worship expresses who we are both during gatherings and when we are scattered throughout the week. Stewart has practical ideas for how to bring artifacts representing the “work of our hands” into our worship, concretely representing how God is with us all the time. Stewart also suggests shifting responsibilities and opportunities for leadership on a regular basis. Worship is a work of the people.
7. The Call to Mastery podcast with Jordan Raynor offers a conversation with “Dr. Benjamin Long (Sleep Medicine Physician).” Truthfully, “The Lord gives sleep to those he loves” (Ps. 127:2) and “he who guards you never sleeps” (Ps. 121). Raynor and Long talk about ways to biologically, spiritually, relationally, and practically lean into this healthy rhythm in a theologically rich and multifaceted conversation.
8. This topic has the potential to bring light in a way that’s beyond human control, so it’s worth mentioning twice! Zane Witcher and Benjamin Long converse about Long’s work at the intersection of sleep and faith in this episode of the Onto Somethin’ Pod. Their dialogue centers on sleep as a spiritual practice in which we let God do the rejuvenating work our bodies are created to need from God. The two joke about Dallas Willard answering a question about how to get unstuck spiritually, or to move beyond a spiritual plateau; Willard suggested an additional hour of sleep over 30 more minutes dedicated to prayer.
9. Kendall Vanderslice of Edible Theology presents “On Peace Around the Table” on her Kitchen Meditations podcast. In this episode, Vanderslice explains the liturgical tradition of passing the peace, along with how we might approach the holidays’ unique gatherings as opportunities to experience peace even amid differences and lack of understanding. Common food brings us together and reminds us of other commonalities.
10. Emily P. Freeman offers “A Soul Minimalist’s Guide to Christmas” on the Next Right Thing podcast, asking, “What do I value most in this season?” Consider choosing a posture for the season, “a word, a phrase, or a vibe.” A minimalist chooses one value to promote, and then creates space for it. What does it look like to embrace this posture? These are questions that enable us to see the light.
