Hearing the Voice of Our Mothers and Other Women

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day, a day when we honor and give thanks for our mothers.  All of us, however, have been shaped by multiple women.  Perhaps our mothers were the principal caregivers when we were growing up, but many feminine hands have shaped us, encouraged us, and corrected us.  This is a day when we can give thanks for all the faithful women who in one way or another have “mothered us” and remember how they enriched and brighten our days.

One of my enduring memories of my own mother comes from a family fishing trip when I was a child.  It is 6:00 a.m. on rainy day in mid-November; we are drifting along the shore of a Tennessee lake.  My 2 brothers, my father, and I are casting minnows under the rock ledges at the water’s edge hoping to entice a large bass to strike.  My mother is sitting in the front of the boat in a heavy coat with a plastic sheet pull over her head.  She is reading a copy of “The Ladies Home Journal,” carefully turning the pages with gloved hands.  We are staying in a cabin at a fishing camp where we cook all our own meals and must clean the place before we leave. 

We made this trip twice a year.  It never occurred to me that this was not my mother’s vacation of choice.  In retrospect, I suspect it was not.  In the 1980’s, she went back to work as a nurse and began to earn money. She and my dad started going on cruises about that time.  Apparently she found her voice concerning vacations.

Women have been finding their voice in Baptist churches for centuries.  In 17^th century England, when women were allowed no leadership role in the Church of England, Baptists were part of the nonconformist movement, which permitted women to preach and engage in ministry.  In 1846, Ruth Bixby was licensed to preach in Iowa by her Baptist church.  The first extant record of a woman’s ordination in America dates from 1869 when a Rev. A. Gerry was ordained among northern Free Will Baptists.  Rev. Susan Elizabeth Cilley Griffin (1851-1926), of the Elmira Heights Baptist Church, NY State, was the first woman whose ordination was nationally recognized by our denomination (called the Northern Baptist Convention, at that time).

Rev. Edith Hill is an excellent example of a woman finding her voice among her fellow Baptists.  On Friday April 13, 1894, at 8:00 pm, the ordination council for Miss Hill convened.  The church was full to capacity.  Miss Hill recited eighty-five scriptures affirming the place of women in the public work of the church.  The Rev. Scott preached a sermon on Psalm 68:11 and Galatians 3:28.  Then Miss Hill was asked about her Christian experience, her call to public ministry, her experiences in pursuing that calling, and her theology.  The ordination council was quite impressed.  They conferred and then recommended that the (Eden) First Baptist Church of Pittsburg, KS, delegate her to the work of an evangelist and, in the absence of an ordained person, that she be authorized to administer the ordinances. Upon hearing this recommendation, Miss Hill replied:  “I hope that the church will remember that the condition under which I [accept] the pastorate is that I shall be regularly ordained as a minister of the Gospel.”  This was said quietly and distinctly amid the profound and sympathetic silence of the congregation.  The mover of the motion explained that he had misunderstood and withdrew his motion.  Since the crowd that day was in no mood for the compromising of what they felt to be the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the committee conferred a second time and recommended full ordination.  Rev. Scott offered the prayer of ordination, a Brother Martin gave the charge to the candidate, and Rev. Hill offered the benediction.  They probably ate potato salad and chicken after that.  In that crowded church, the voice of Rev. Hill was heard.  Rev. Hill spent three years as the pastor of [Eden] First Baptist Church of Pittsburg, where she immersed 170 men and women.

Quietly and distinctly, boldly and faithfully, women have been speaking words of grace, challenge and healing in our lives and our churches.  As mothers, teachers, neighbors, friends, and pastors, they have enriched our lives and our congregations by exercising their gifts and pursuing their diverse callings under God.  This is one reason why I am proud to be an American Baptist.  The full partnership of women in our churches is not universally affirmed, but it is characteristic of our ABC/USA family.  This is a character trait that sets us apart from many other Baptist groups.  As we worship on this Mother’s Day and give thanks for the women who have nurtured our spirits, we can have a sense of pride that the voices of women have been and are being heard in our churches.  We can give thanks for courageous women like Rev. Edith Hill who would not permit their voices to be muted.

Blessings,

Jim Kelsey

Executive Minister

Discovering Who We Are

We knew who we had been.  In the late 1800’s the Second Baptist Church of Germantown became a community institution--an emblem of the growing prosperity of northwest Philadelphia. Through the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, we had been one of the leading churches in the city and the denomination.  One former pastor had national and even international name-recognition among Baptists.  Powerful people of national prominence were numbered among the congregation.   Our large Romanesque sanctuary on the corner of Germantown Avenue and Upsal Street was a landmark used in giving directions.

In the 60’s, the neighborhood became more ethnically and economically diverse, and the church intentionally mirrored those changes.  In 1971, the large sanctuary burned; only the stone arches from the entryway were preserved as evidence of the former grandeur of the structure.  In recognition of changing circumstances, the congregation chose to renovate their original smaller sanctuary and build for themselves a less financially burdened future.  About the same time a new sign was erected that read:  “An Integrated Church for an Integrated Community.”  That made us distinctive in those days.  The congregation knew who they were and where God was leading them.

Fast forward to 1994; I am sitting in a gathering of the Committee on Church Renewal.  The question we were struggling with that day was:  Who are we now?  We knew who we used to be.  We discovered that we had been at least three different churches in the past 127 years. We knew we were no longer a “department store” church that could provide everything for everybody.  A perceptive woman, who had been with the church through several transitions, observed that we were like a “boutique church.”  Her comment resonated with me like thunder from on high.  Indeed, we were like a boutique.  We did not have something for everyone, but we did bring together a distinctive set of characteristics that could not be found elsewhere among our sister churches in the community.  We were 85% African-American, yet our services lasted only a bit over an hour.  We were a thinking church where there was the freedom to ask any question that occurred to us; nonetheless, a warm, pious, experiential faith permeated the place.  We would talk about the meaning of divine providence and never reach any consensus about how that works and then spend 40 minutes in intercessory prayer about our lives, the lives of those whom we loved, and our world.  Women were accepted as full partners in ministry.  We had a white pastor (me), yet we observed a robust celebration of Black History Month.  We periodically read the Apostles Creed, and most of us could also name the seven principles of Kwanzaa.  We brought together a distinctive set of qualities that made us unique in our community.  If you wanted what we had, you had to join with us.

We took this realization about who we were and used it as the pole around which we developed a fresh sense of identity and, consequently, a renewed vision for ministry.  Israel Galindo writes:  “Having a clear sense of identity allows a congregation to act with integrity.  With a strong sense of identity, members will have the capacity to make decisions consistent with who they are and based on shared values.  They will be able to make difficult decisions based on principles and beliefs rather than expediency or anxiety” (The Hidden Lives of Congregations, p. 131). 

What is an identity?  It is the persistent set of beliefs, values, patterns, symbols, stories, and style that makes a congregation distinctive (Carol, Dudley, McKinney, Handbook for Congregational Studies, p. 12).  Our church identity is that collection of things that make us who we are and unlike anyone else.  It is good, now and then, to stop and think about who we are—who we have become since we last took stock of ourselves.

Once we have discovered who we are, then a coherent, contemporary vision for ministry is much easier to forge.  We get this backwards sometimes. We want to talk about vision before we have constructed a clear sense of identity.  Once Second Baptist realized that we were a “boutique church,” we moved fairly easily to a vision of what God was calling us to do and to whom God was leading us to minister.  I encourage you think a bit about who you are; it will make what you are being called to do a bit clearer.  As always, I am glad to facilitate such a conversation among your church family.

Blessings,

Jim

Hate comes home

We see news clips of people burning American flags and shouting “Death to America.”  We see people running through urban streets seeking retribution against neighbors of a different religion or ethnicity.  We see dead bodies in their own homes, showing evidence of rage.  And we wonder what type of society brews up this toxic cocktail of violence and hate.  It seems so distant from our lives.  And then hate comes home.

On Passion Sunday, April 13^th, a man with a shotgun killed two people outside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas.  He then proceeded to Village Shalom, an assisted living center, where he killed a third person.  It was quickly established that the gunman was a white supremacist, a Klu Klux Klan member with a history of anti-Semitism.  This was no random act of violence; it was a calculated attempt to rent asunder the fabric of our nation.  This crime opened a door to a piece of our national life that persists in spite of all our attempts to eradicate it or simply deny it. This was hate coming home. 

What can be learned from this tragedy?  First, it should sober us up.  We live in a nation of enormous diversity.  We have made good progress in learning to appreciate and even celebrate the richness of our national family.  Having lived abroad for 10 years, I have seen countries adjusting to a type of diversity that became common place in America a century ago.  We are much further along than many other countries, but we have not yet arrived.  We must still strive to carry the journey further.  We must resist any attempt to turn back the clock on what we have accomplished; vigilance is still necessary.  To dismantle the safeguards we have put in place would impoverish the lives of all of us.

Second, we should be mindful that there are no “innocent” prejudicial or stereotyping remarks.  We have been reminded anew that there is still hate in the homeland.  We must walk through our lives as if we were walking through a shop full of crystal figurines sitting on glass shelves.  We want to be careful that we don’t set in process something we did not intend.  Remarks like “She hoards money like a Jewish banker” or “He drinks like an Irishman” or “She dresses like she’s still in the ‘hood” or “What a redneck”  may seem like harmless remarks; we’ve all heard them—maybe even said them.  The killings last Sunday remind us that in a world where hate is always looking for the slightest license to justify itself, we should tread carefully as we speak.  The writer of the book of James warned of the power of our words, writing “Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body [James 3:5b-6a].”  The Apostle Paul cautioned us to be careful as we speak, instructing us: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt [Col. 4:6].”  Prejudicial remarks never meet the standard of “full of grace, seasoned with salt.”

Lastly, it is not lost on us that this killing took place on Passion Sunday.  As Jesus reached the summit of the Mt. of Olives and saw Jerusalem in all her splendor pulsing with the excitement of Passover in the holy city, he knew the violence that waited in the wings, lamenting:

If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God. [Luke 19:42-44]

Jerusalem is the world, and the world is Jerusalem.  As we wind down Holy Week and cannot help but anticipate Easter Sunday, we can be hopeful; but we must not be naïve.

Jim Kelsey

Executive Minister-American Baptist Churches of New York State

Not My Type—The Sequel

In a previous journal (which you can find here) I suggested that people are looking for a particular “type” of congregation.  It is a bit like all those ads for dating services that we see on TV.  These services specialize in particular types of mates:  Christian Single (if they are not single, why are they viewing a dating service website—ever wonder that?); Jewish; over 50; under 25; marathoner; etc.  People know with great particularity what they think they want.

People seeking a church are also looking for a particular “type” but may not consciously know that they are being selective; they do,however, know when a particular congregation feels “right.”   At least that is what Israel Galindo writes in his book The Hidden Lives of Congregations—Discerning Church Dynamics. He writes that congregations demonstrate six broad styles of spirituality.  People intuitively sense very quickly whether a particular style is their “type.” In my last article I listed the first two of these styles:  cognitive and affective spirituality.  The other four styles he lists are pilgrim, mystic, servant, and crusader spirituality.

Pilgrim Spirituality:  This a church for people who want to be “on the journey.”  They are hesitant to commit to a single worship style or denominational identity.  Gatherings, including worship, are highly interactive and experimental.  They are comfortable with drawing from multiple faith traditions and entertaining open-ended questions.  Even if the congregation is large, much of church life is grounded in small groups.  This type of spirituality can foster openness and tolerance.  On the other hand, it may weaken members’ resolve to take stands or actions out of conviction, lest they appear provincial or narrow-minded.  In being open to all things, they may lose an appreciation for their own traditions and practices.  People who need a more affirmative confession of belief may quickly move on to another congregation.

Mystic Spirituality:  Mystic tends to describe not so much a congregation-wide characteristic as it does a subgroup within a larger congregational system.  The majority tolerates this subgroup as an unusual but harmless presence within the larger body.  This subgroup is contemplative in their spirituality, taking it very seriously and practicing it through classic spiritual disciplines.  Listening and silence are key components of their seeking after God.  They seek inward spiritual formation that requires a level of dedication and discipline that few are willing to embrace.  They seek worship experiences in small group or retreat settings.  At its best, this style fosters profound growth in people.  At its worst, it generates an isolated group that is disconnected from the broader community.  This can lead to a withdrawal from the world and an overly pietistic and private expression of faith.  People must maintain a healthy balance between inward and outward expressions of faith.

Servant Spirituality:  Congregations who embrace this style rally around the cry:  “Faith in action.”  Discipleship that results in ministry to the world is at the core of this congregation’s life, and they believe that authentic faith “gets its hands dirty.” This congregation is busy mobilizing people, helping them discover their gifts, and encouraging them to share their resources.  They have strong clarity of purpose. Teaching focuses on obedience rather than on understanding.  They would rather train people than indoctrinate them.  These churches are concerned with their image in the community and are often a powerful witness to the Gospel through their immersion in the community.  At their best, these congregations push people to embody their faith in concrete ways.  At their worst, they breed a type of “works righteousness.” They sometimes lack a strong rationale for why they do what they do.  They must keep a strong theological imperative for their work in order to maintain a balanced well-rounded faith.

Crusader Spirituality:  Like servant spirituality, these congregations also have an outward focus to their lives; but they are focused on a mission task and not necessarily the needs of the world.  This mission task can be any number of things:  a doctrinal emphasis or orientation; a denominational identity; a social issue; a reactive posture to something in the broader culture; an ideology; or a perceived injustice.  Congregational life coheres around one or more of these causes.  The life of the church is narrowly focused and all aspects of church life are a variation on a single theme.  All resources are geared toward this one task.  Other orientations are not given a hearing.

At their best, these congregations engage the broader world in the public square and make their presence known in an unapologetic way.  At their worst, these congregations can seem very narrow and exclusive to those who do not share their singular passion.  They can end up alienating perceived enemies and actual friends.

Conclusion: A congregation’s spirituality style informs the church’s belief and practices.  It shapes worship and the expectations placed upon pastors and lay people.  It influences who feels welcome and at home in the congregation and who does not. 

Visitors are trying to discern: “Are these people like me?”  This is done more intuitively than analytically, meaning we don’t realize we are doing it.  People do this by listening to the language we employ, identifying the music and liturgical style we use, and observing how the members relate to one another and what they talk about.  They look at the church’s programming and role played by the pastor within the community.

You may look at all these styles and see something good in each of them and say, “I like them all;” but no congregation can be all things to all people.  Some congregations are our “type” and others simply are not.  Galindo concludes (pg. 113) that understanding the hidden spiritual style of a congregation can help leaders and members appreciate that no congregation is for everybody.  He goes on to write “the clearer a congregation is about its own hidden spiritual style, the better it can serve its members and the more effectively it can move toward providing a more balanced approach to worship, education, practices, and relationships that address all of the components necessary to foster effectual faith in its members.”

Think through how you experience your congregation and try to uncover why it is your “type.”  The wisdom born of this exercise will better equip us to appreciate and strengthen our fellowships.  It will also guide us as we seek to include others in our congregations.

Blessings,

Jim Kelsey

Executive Minister

Voices that Have Not Been Heard

When you read through ancient histories, you notice that you rarely hear the stories of the common people, the peasants and shepherds.   Most history is written “from above.”  This means the winning general, the king whose coup succeeded, or the merchant who cornered the market and reaped a fortune, writes the story.    It is written by the powerful and the wealthy.  The British historian J.H. Plumb, in his book The Death of the Past, observes that history is written to give sanction to the existing social institutions, government, and morality.  The writers seek to establish that the right people won and things are just the way they should be; they want to justify the status quo.

The Bible is different.  Those with power and status do not get to write all the stories. Here we find many stories written “from below.”  Peasants, fishermen, women, exiles, and slaves are prominent in many of the stories and are the ones who pass them on from generation to generation..  We get material that challenges the status quo, rails against the rich and powerful, and praises the common folk.  Jesus and Jeremiah were particularly pointed in exposing the flimsy claim of the status quo to legitimacy.  We do hear from kings and generals and landowners, but we also hear about the lives of their subjects, the victims of their conquest, and tenant farmers crushed by debt.  In the scriptures a voice is given to people who have no voice in other ancient texts.

Modern history is often written “from above” as well.  The majority dominant class gets to choose which stories are told and which stories are buried in obscurity.  This is the rational for Black History Month.  It is an effort to make sure that all the important stories of our nation get told.  Did you know that M. B. Rhodes, a black American, patented the first water closet that paved the way for the introduction of flush toilets?  Having spent time in places where flush toilets are not available, I appreciate Mr. Rhodes’ ingenuity. Did you know that Lloyd Hall, another black American, patented the process that cut the curing time for bacon from several weeks to a few hours?  (Too bad he didn’t invent the angioplasty at the same time.)  Did you know that Granville Woods, a black American, invented the third rail, a series of conductors that allow trains to move?  He also collaborated with Alexander Graham Bell so often that Bell frequently sent him to court to testify in patent cases.  (The Italians tell us that Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci invented the telephone, but he was too poor to challenge Bell’s patents; but I do digress.)  Matthew Henson and Admiral Robert E. Perry set out in March of 1907 to reach the North Pole.  They had tried twice before and failed.  On this third try, Perry fell ill a few miles from their goal.  Henson, a black American, continued to the Pole and planted the American flag.

During Black history month, we remember that some of the important stories of our history must sought out and recovered from obscurity.  We believe that all of us are made in the image God, gifted and precious in God’s eyes.  All of us deserve to have our stories told and our achievements celebrated..

Blessings,

Jim Kelsey

Executive Minister

Not My Type

All of us have heard it: He/she is not my type.  There is nothing overtly wrong with the person; it is not that they are a sociopath or eat spaghetti with their fingers.  Nonetheless, they just doesn’t feel “right.”  Finding the right type has become a huge industry in America.  Dating services have become a $2 billion a year industry, employing over 3898 people in 2013.  Some services are specializing in particular types of people--Christian, Jewish, over 50, etc.  Finding the right type has become a highly sophisticated process involving exhaustive questionnaires and computer programs.  

Finding the “right type” is big deal. 

When individuals go looking for a church, they are looking for a certain “type” of congregation.  They may not think of it that way; they may not even know that they are doing this.  But, they do know when it does and does not feel right.  There are no questionnaires to complete or computer program to run.  People reply on the feeling they get as they walk through the door and begin to hear conversations and experience the worship service.

Israel Galindo, in his book The Hidden Lives of Congregations—Discerning Church Dynamic observes that there are six broad styles of spirituality, or types, that characterize congregations: (1) cognitive spirituality; (2) affective spirituality; (3) pilgrim spirituality; (4) mystic spirituality; (5) servant spirituality; and (6) crusader spirituality. No style perfectly captures any single congregation, but these 6 styles help us to understand our congregation and why some people connect there and others do not.  These styles are shaped by theology, doctrine, local culture, and/or a deliberate marketing strategy.  A congregation selects them, consciously or unconsciously, because that particular style has affinity with the members’ social world.  In other words, this style resonates with and makes sense of those people’s experiences and the world around them.  In this journal, I will discuss two of the spiritual styles, and then next time I will discuss the other four styles. 

Cognitive Spirituality: This style reflects the preoccupation of Western culture with rationality and scientism.  This “spirituality of the head” tends to emphasize, even perhaps overly emphasize, the cognitive component of effectual faith {Galindo, p. 106].  Attention is given to right concepts and doctrine.  Right belief rightly interpreted is a priority.  This style of spirituality is prevalent in mainline churches.  Worship tends to be liturgical with a lot of attention given to the biblical text itself.  The preaching has an overt teaching to it, and it is important for the preacher to appear to be well educated.  These churches have a strong Christian education program.  There is room in this congregation for seekers, skeptics, and doubters, because members have strong confidence in their beliefs and are not threatened by other beliefs or unbelief.  This is a church of people who know what they believe and can articulate that belief in a compelling way.  This spiritual style can, however, neglect the more emotional needs of the congregation.  It can fail to recognize that not all of the life of faith resides in the cognitive domain. This style of faith can confuse “cognitive” with “rational.”  Effectual faith requires attention to the affective, behavioral, and volitional components of faith as much as the cognitive component (Galindo, p. 107).

Affective Spirituality:  Movements within Western culture that have reclaimed for spirituality a heartfelt component have been renewing for our churches. Affective spirituality raises up the felt, pietistic, and devotional dimensions of faith.  Experiencing the faith is very important in congregations of this type.  Warm and intimate fellowship is central to the life of these congregations.  Feelings of intimacy and belonging and affirmation take precedent over other aspects of faith and church life.  These churches require pastoral skills that will engender and multiply these feelings.  Worship takes on the tone of celebration; it is enthusiastic, joyful, and unapologetically emotional.  Praise is a word often on the lips of people in these congregations. Unlike in “cognitive spirituality congregations” where hymns are chosen for their elegant texts in support of well-articulated orthodoxy and tradition, in “affective spirituality churches” the music is chosen for emotional impact.  They may repeatedly sing choruses that do not have profound meaning, but the music “moves” the worshipper to a deep experience of transcendence.  The prayers are impromptu, highly personal expressions that communicate sincerity and authenticity.  The first person singular “I” may replace the corporate “we” in public praying.  Priority is given to speaking of evangelism, the need for conversion, affirmation, or hope.  At its best, affective spirituality “shapes a hopeful and optimistic membership with an ability to embrace life’s challenges… [Galindo, p. 108].” It can, however, be dismissive of the content of Christian faith.  People lose the ability to discern between one experience and another, healthy belief and unhealthy belief.  You can end up with a situation where one experience is as good as the next.  “Without the corrective that critical discernment provides, members are at risk of not appreciating that some experiences ennoble us, while others diminish us—even though they ‘feel’ good {Galindo, p. 109].”

Next time we will look at the other four spirituality styles.  None is perfect, but looking at them helps to understand our congregations--what we are and what we are not.  Begin thinking about the spirituality type of your congregation.

Blessings,

Jim Kelsey

Executive Minister

The Passing of Seasons

I didn’t park the car and go in with him; I left him curbside at the terminal.  I was taking my older son to the airport after Christmas to fly to California to visit with his girlfriend’s family.  From the time our children learned to crawl and then to walk, we have been letting them go, setting them free to become who God created them to be.  As I dropped my son off, I realized that the day would come when his mother and I will not be the primary relationships in his life. I became aware of the passing seasons in our life together.  The writer of Ecclesiastes noted this long ago:  “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven [3:1].”

²We are always transitioning through a particular season--saying goodbye to what is familiar and comfortable and embracing that new and unknown thing that God is bringing.  We live in this matrix of grief and hope.

Marie, the narrator in Alice McDermott’s book Someone, is lying in a hospital bed in Brooklyn with both her eyes bandaged after surgery; and she writes:

Somewhere in the room during those long days of bandaged blindness, my children sat, talking mostly to one another, mostly about where they had managed to park their cars and what time they had left home, what time they should head out again to avoid the traffic: tunnel or bridge, the Southern State or the L.I.E.  I heard the bustle of their winter clothes, zip and unzip, buckle and snap.  There was the jingle of car keys and the odor of exhaust.  I listened to their familiar voices with a vague indifference.  Rattle and clink.  It was my first sense of their lives going on without me.

There is something reassuring about the realization that the world will go on without us.  Our lives are a sequence of seasons that someday will exhaust themselves, but the families we have built, the people in whom we have invested, and the churches for which we have sacrificed will all go on without us someday.  The investments we make will enrich a future we will never see.   

As you pass into the season of a New Year and all that it will bring for you, may the faithfulness of God surround you and the hope embodied in the Christ child sustain you!

Jim Kelsey

Executive Minister, American Baptist Churches of New York State