Reflection Roundup: Prolegomena

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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Does a reluctance to ask for help translate to a theology of prayer? It may. This week, 10 other “first things” take the place of the pride that binds.

1. Prayer for people rather than issues?

Carson Reed writes “Praying for People as a Leadership Practice” for Mosaic, posing poignant and downright hard questions leaders must ask themselves. Is the time leaders invest in ministry focused on people or issues, and are all of the people within the world and our ministries regarded as those who create issues, or as fellow bearers of the image of God? We must mindfully bow, prayerful for the people purposefully placed alongside us, empathetic toward the challenges we share even as those challenges express themselves in different ways.

2. Recognition of the largeness of all works of God?

Karissa Herchenroeder writes “Five Questions With Austin Wright and Shawn Johnson” for Mosaic, generating anticipation for the return of ACU’s Summit this October with “community building and shared learning at the center of the experience.” Wright and Johnson, both ministers at churches with fewer than 150 members, plan to facilitate a special interest group addressing the question, “How can we, as a small church, be faithful to what God has called us to be faithful?” This year’s Summit offerings demonstrate mindfulness of the multiplied joys and divided challenges born when churches come together in curiosity and wonder, eyes on the mission of God within their home congregations and the church at large. Register for Summit 2021 here.

3. Reliance on God’s ear turned toward petitions long made?

Brad East, Resident Theologian blogger, writer, and theology professor in ACU’s College of Biblical Studies, shares “Saint Monica.” It is Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo, about whom East chooses to vulnerably pay tribute. Augustine’s Confessions, his coming-to-faith autobiography, clarifies this connection. Saint Monica prayed diligently for her (wayward) child, who then journaled his journey to Christ and faith. Readers can see in black and white the fruit of this mother’s prayers, prayers with which East hopes to suffuse his own children. May we join East in celebrating Saint Monica during the week of her commemorative feast by petitioning God for our children, those in our homes and those within our communities of faith.

4. Learning the habits of Christians throughout history?

Christianity Today offers this special issue for the month of September, “Teach Us to Pray,” highlighting the perspectives of women on the tension between self-reliance and trusting God. Susangeline Patrick writes “8 Prayer Mentors from History,” chronicling the circumstances and prayer practices of women who can “breathe new life and meaning into our own.” Patrick offers the nuts and bolts of invigorating a modern prayer practice through tried and tested trails traveled by those gone before. Teresa of Avila, Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, and the ancient Vibia Perpetua (among others) exemplify sacrifice, bold trust, and vivid imagery, finding themselves in good company with us and with Saint Monica as our lives speak the fruits of time spent in prayer.

5. Obedience?

Heather Thompson Day writes “She Didn’t Believe, But God Heard Her Cry” with such validating conviction that the reader will be left saying, “Let’s do this!” Her piece left me grateful to a God who doesn’t judge, rank, or in any other way privilege our prayers or shame us because of them. Day’s testimony for Christianity Today exemplifies the strange prompts the Spirit gives sometimes when we commit to following God’s lead in the gray areas of life. Make the call, send the text, have the conversation, part with the thing, and wait (sometimes not very long!) for insight into what God’s been up to. This piece revitalizes our commitment to communal prayer and reliance on the seed of faith within two or more (Matt. 18:20).

6. Response and awareness that it is God who draws us to prayer?

Too good not to include, Kristen Deede Johnson writes of her own disciplined, fruitful prayer practice in “Our Theology of Prayer Matters More than Our Feelings” for Christianity Today. Johnson built something on which she could rely, a place to meet God and to bring others before the throne. It “worked” until it didn’t, and the reader can see the hole coming even in the language used to describe the practice. She built. She participated. She relied on herself, and Christ took her on a journey many (all?) of us must take – one of response, reliance, and rest. In the prayer moment, we are never alone; Christ meets us there. So might we simply enjoy his company? Maybe it’s time to just be, to lay down the crown we place upon our own heads in celebration of our own discipline. If we make this turn, we’ll find Christ waiting for us to cease our striving.

7. Sacrificing our own preferences to make space for the face of difference?

Bobby Ross Jr. and Erik Tryggestad write the editorial piece “How Churches of Christ can grow again” for the Christian Chronicle. They challenge Churches of Christ to refrain from proselytizing believers in other denominations of fellowship, and instead to join with them in reaching out toward those who are truly lost and looking to find God. Ross and Tryggestad offer mindful suggestions, including actively engaging people the Lord brings into our midst with a passion for their soul’s sense of belonging to God, along with ours, that supercedes any political or social issue. Daily immersion in the Scriptures, pointing to Christ as the very imprint of God, helps mold this challenge into practice (Heb. 1:3).

8. Receptivity?

Dave Odom, executive director of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, writes “Searching for a pastor” for Faith & Leadership, suggesting two questions for all search committees to ask. COVID and other factors have created a season of ministry transition for many. While this is challenging for ministers, Odom recognizes the task of the discernment committee. Choosing a trusted voice while in the early stages of getting to know someone can be muddy waters, and assessing someone’s ability to hear from God feels odd as well. Odom clarifies the bottom line: when a competent pastor loves the people of your congregation, let them.

9. Care for the physical needs and the social thriving of others?

Angelique Walker-Smith writes “Sacred Imagination and the Vision of a New UN Permanent Forum of People of African Descent” for the Bread for the World Blog. Walker-Smith carries forth the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in celebrating the “UN General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution supporting a Permanent Forum on People of African Descent set to launch in 2022.” This forum will serve as a space providing “increased direct access to the UN and its international networks,” as well as facilitating the unification of the “Black diaspora” on issues related to “climate crisis, health, hunger, poverty, and the legacies of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.”

10. Interruptibility?

“Walking Free,” a music video from Micah Tyler, says to me, “Let us not get so caught up in what we’re doing that we forget why we’re doing it.” All ministry belongs to God because all people belong to the God who first loved them. We want to join God in loving every chance we get.