Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Star Word 2025 - This time for real.
Why the Church Needs to Focus on Inclusion
Why does the church need to focus on inclusion?
This is a question that I have struggled to answer well. Today it seems more clear to me.
Aren’t we supposed to focus on Jesus? Well, sort of. I think it’s more accurate to say that we’re supposed to focus on following Jesus. That’s the invitation Jesus makes to the disciples. “Come follow me.”
In the gospel of John, the direction Jesus gives in the upper room on his last meal with the disciples is to “go and do likewise.” Not to focus on him but on doing like he has done. If we interpret that too narrowly, we’d have to be setting up foot-washing stations all over town.
It is often hard to know what to focus on because there’s so much to be done. People are hungry. Injustice is easy to find. Hopelessness and despair are always hanging around somewhere.
Jesus gives us marching orders at the end of Matthew’s gospel. “Go and make disciples, baptizing them…teaching them…” Some churches have made this into a mission/vision statement: Reach the lost, make disciples, send them out. To fully live that out, we have to be inclusive.
We often pray for God to give us a vision for being the church in this time and place. Why are we here in Sterling, Kansas (or wherever you are) in 2025 (or whatever year it is when you read this). I wonder if we truly expect a clear answer?
To me it’s clear that the most excluded demographic is the one that needs to know the most clearly that we want them to be included. Churches have been telling LGBTQ that they’re welcome, but only if they’re willing to change. Studies show that one in three people has experienced religious trauma, and the incidence is dramatically higher for people who are LGBTQ. They also have higher rates of suicide. (Read more here.) These much higher rates shouldn’t be surprising considering how many churches are still telling them that they’re going to hell for being who they are. If we aren’t being explicit about inclusion, people will expect to be excluded because of the church’s history.
In a more populated area, it’s not too hard to find truly LGBTQ-inclusive churches now, thankfully. But in rural central Kansas where I live, there are none. It’s a ministry gap that exists because people in rural areas tend to assume that there aren’t any LGBTQ people here. It’s hard to know who exactly is hiding here, but for sure they’re hiding.
In 2 Corinthians 5, the Apostle Paul says we are called to the ministry of reconciliation - restoring broken relationships with God and with one another. In regards to LGBTQ people, the church has a lot of reconciling work to do…not only with those who are LGBTQ, but also their family and friends. This is work that we are called to do, and especially in this time and this place.
I know that this is difficult. Our culture has raised us to be anti-LGBTQ, even to the point of anger and revulsion. We have been trained to react negatively to non-heterosexual behavior. It takes time to unlearn what has been ingrained in us so deeply.
I hope we’ll keep on moving forward. It’s the least we can do.
Thanks for reading.
Star Word 2025
I can't believe it's already June and this is the first time I'm posting about my star word for this year. This tells me two things: 1) I disliked this year's word so much that I've almost entirely disregarded it, and 2) I am still wrestling with depression and in some ways with God.
The word that I drew out of the basket of words at church in January is "gratitude." The concept is great. It's just so obvious. I preach about it. I pray about it. I share daily thankfulness with my husband and one of my long-time friends. I can recite scriptures about thankfulness from memory.
I guess I was hoping for a more challenging word.
A colleague suggested to me that it's ok to just coast sometimes. I don't seem to be very good at doing that for very long. I take days off. I take naps. I'm set to take all my vacation and continuing education this year for what may be the first time since I became a pastor. I even had a three-month sabbatical last year. Gratitude should be a nice, easy coast.
Except that sometimes it's not. I've had some days when my mood was quite bad and gratitude was extremely hard. I can always say I'm thankful for my coffee, but when I say it I want to really mean it.
I don't like the memes that say "there's always always always something to be thankful for." It's true, but sometimes what I need more is to be allowed to be angry or sad or frustrated. There are bad days. Sometimes they happen for no good reason, and that makes them even worse. Sometimes there are reasons and those reasons are awful. Being thankful on those days feels horribly hypocritical, and it took me months to allow myself to skip the thankfulness on those sorts of days.
So that's probably why it's taken me till June to write about the word I got in January.
There's another reason, too. The person who continually encouraged me to write blogs moved away in January and died in February.
I know other people read them. Thank you for reading!
Most of all I'm thankful that I know that God is infinitely patient with me about all of this, as God is patient with us all.
Thanks, God.
. . .
P.S. I just scrolled back through past blogs and it turns out gratitude was last year's word! Sheesh. I don't even know what my 2025 word is. When I figure it out, I'll post again.
Maybe.
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Bringing God-Colors to Light
You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in
the world. – Matthew 5:14 MSG
Recently I’ve become fascinated with stained glass
windows. In many churches, they’re the
most colorful part of the sanctuary—sometimes the only colorful part. One of the reasons for that is the teaching
of the Swiss reformer Huldrich Zwingli. In response to the ornateness of Catholic
churches, Zwingli felt that a plainer church would have less to distract the
congregation from focusing on God. Maybe
so, but I find the plainness to be the distraction.
In the Bible there are a few descriptions of visions in
which people meet God. The settings are
never plain. They’re imaginative and
colorful and filled with sights that cause awe and wonder. Maybe Zwingli felt the church shouldn’t try
to compete with that. But I think the
church would do well to reflect those colorful visions of our creative God.
Of course, “God-colors” are more than stained glass windows
and fantastic visions. The world is
filled with color, both literally and figuratively. There are more than 400,000 different kinds
of flowers in the world, and they come in all sorts of different colors. There are 10 million colors and 18 decillion
variations of color. No wonder the paint
companies keep coming out with new shades to paint with.
Our sporting events are narrated by color commentators who
help us interpret the actions happening in the game we’re watching. After a political speech, the commentators
color our understanding of the words said by giving us their perspective. There are potentially as many different
perspectives as there are listeners.
Maybe God-colors are less tangible, less visible. The essence of God is goodness. 1 John says that God is love. Bringing out those colors would be to do good
things, love one another, notice the goodness and love in one another, and
encourage each other to be compassionate, considerate, and kind.
Bringing out the God-colors might also be shining light on the
ways and places that people are being hurt or mistreated. In Acts 16, the magistrates have Paul and
Silas beaten and imprisoned. The next
day they seem to regret their decision and tell the jailer to let them go free,
but Paul refuses to leave in secret. He
wants the world to know that something wrong has happened, so he makes some
noise about it, bringing the issue to light.
In my own life, I fight plainness and resist dull and drab
and beige and gray. I enjoy color. It
helps my mood. It feels more fun. It feels more like God to me.
What does “God-colors” mean to you?
Thursday, January 9, 2025
Star Word 2024 - Prep for 2025
If you follow me, you've probably noticed that I write about star words twice a year...at the end and at the beginning. (One year I recapped all my star words here.) This year I'm a bit late, and I don't have my new star word yet, so here's what I usually write at the end: a recap of my year with my 2024 word "gratitude."
As usual, I wasn't thrilled with this word when I got it. Hadn't I already spent enough time talking and thinking about gratitude? I've even been processing the idea of toxic gratitude. When depression is hitting hard, do not tell me that "there's always always always something to be thankful for." There were many years during which I would agree about being always thankful, and probably even quoted Paul's letter to the Thessalonians which says to "be thankful in all circumstances" (1 Thes. 5:18). If I ever did that to you, I'm sorry.
Unfortunately, Paul's words have been overused and abused, and I don't think the average white middle-class American has much understanding of the kinds of circumstances Paul had encountered, anyway. I know I haven't experienced war or jail or shipwreck or whipping, and I hope I never do. But I also hope I'm better at having empathy than I used to be, and better at just listening.
It may have happened this year that I got in the habit of ending blog posts and sermons by saying, "Thanks, God." So I guess the gratitude has found its way in at least a little bit.
I used to be somewhat religious about writing thankfulness lists in my journals, and writing thank-you notes to people. Now I'm more likely to send a text or email. I think I'm probably more likely to be thankful in the moment than in looking back to write a list. And maybe that's better anyway.
Only God knows for sure.
Thanks, God.