­­­­­ For the last six years I’ve served on the Ministerial Committee of Central District Conference.  We oversee credentialing of pastors and chaplains, and give support to CDC pastors and our conference minister, Lois Kaufmann.  Along with the other committees and the board of CDC, we meet twice a year at Camp Friedenswald in southern Michigan.  This past Friday and Saturday were the final meetings I’ll attend before my term ends this summer. Much of the conversation this time around had to do with our conference’s relationship to Mennonite Church USA – or rather, how the denomination is relating to us.  Our denomination is quite theologically diverse and has different views of where authority should be held.  CDC has always given congregations freedom to discern their own path while remaining in relational accountability with one another.  Other conferences emphasize more clearly defined guidelines and expectations.  Because CDC is willing to

On Monday, I had the opportunity to attend a one-day conference at The Methodist Theological Seminary in Ohio that was focused on how people of faith can engage in prophetic ministry through organizing and preaching for social justice.  This broad topic was explored in many different and helpful ways throughout the day, and all of these helped me to reimagine and stretch my ideas about what it means to be prophetic.  When the culture of the Church seems more often to value the status quo, middle-of-the-road, non-confrontational, privatized way of living out its faith, what does it mean to be prophetic?  There is no one way to answer this question, but a story shared during the conference helped me see one important way of thinking about how to answer this question.  One of the activist-scholars was talking about how her own understanding of prophetic ministry has been shaped throughout her

  Easter Sunday is past, but the liturgical season of Easter is only beginning, running up through Pentecost Sunday, May 15.  During this Easter season our worship theme will be “Conversions.” The plural is intentional.  We’ll be looking at different conversion stories in scripture and in more recent history, beginning this Sunday with Thomas the Twin, aka, Doubting Thomas (John 20:19-29).  We’ll also be looking at the multiple kinds of conversions we experience throughout life – what we are converted away from, and what we are converted toward.  Or, to use biblical language, how we “die” to different paths and versions of ourselves, and how we are “born again,” again, and again. The theme of antiracism will continue to be an undercurrent of our worship, although we won’t be hitting it quite as hard for the next number of weeks.  As we ponder conversions we’ll also be considering ways to

  Cuba has been in the news this week, and our congregation recently received a gift from Cuba that will be on display at tonight’s Maundy Thursday service. In January CMCers Joe Mas and Linda Mercadante led a group of seminary students on a Cuba trip.  Cuba is Joe’s place of birth.  While there they were given a small banner displaying Jesus washing Peter’s feet.  The patch on the back of the banner says, “Hand-made by Presbyterian Church women, Matanzas, Cuba.  Presented to CMC by Linda Mercadante March, 2016.”  Matanzas is a provincial capital city, about 55 miles east of Havana.   The mighty Jesus stooping down to wash feet is a powerful image of the kind of action that turns hierarchies on their head.  The master serves.  I love that CMC now has a banner displaying this that is a gift from a small country long deemed an enemy

“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.” — Luke 12:51 Say what, Jesus? Needless to say, this is not a verse championed by Mennonites.  Do you think Jesus came to bring peace to the earth?  “Yes!” is my enthusiastic and hopeful response.  And I can cite a whole bunch of scripture to back it up. But these words from Jesus seem to tell a different, or at least more nuanced, story. Truth be told, this Lent anti-racism theme of “Trouble the water” is stirring up some things in me that I’m not finding particularly peaceful.  In confronting the persistence of racism through history and, Gasp, in myself, I’ve found myself angrier than usual, less patient, and more socially confrontational.  In short, the feelings I’ve typically associated with being spiritually grounded – calmness, patience, and niceness – are