September 2021

Dear Gatherers,

I’ve been thinking about a conversation I had several years ago with a mainline Protestant pastor. “We don’t evangelize,” she said with a stern expression. As a newcomer to the tradition, I was clearly out of my depth. Still, I had to ask, “How does your community grow?” She looked at me through squinty eyes, as if I’d posed a riddle. “That’s a good question,” she said. Then she changed the subject.

With many evangelical Christians painting themselves so far into a right corner, a devout intolerance for evangelism has surfaced among moderate and progressive believers. To avoid identification with cousins who adhere to narrower social and political views, many Christians have decided talking about their beliefs is intrusive or (God forbid!) impolite. Sharing faith with someone who may be seeking a deeper spiritual experience is taboo. Too coercive!

But data keep telling us mainline Protestantism’s resistance to evangelizing is a serious mistake. Numerous studies, including a significant 2020 census by the Public Religion Research Institute, shows early stages of migration toward progressive churches, with mainline non-evangelical Protestants bucking an overall decline among white Americans as the only Christian category currently trending upward. (Churches of color have proven remarkably stable over the past 15 years.)

The numbers confirm what many of us already know anecdotally through experience. Disaffected people are seeking, and finding, homes in more affirming faith communities. But does that suggest we can take it easy and not bother following the command of Christ to spread the word? No! In fact, it substantiates a very real need exists all around us. It’s time to step out of the shadows and start talking about faith, because a lot of folks are listening for our message of unconditional love and social justice, i.e., the kingdom of God exactly as Jesus declared and taught. Open hands, open minds, open hearts—we talk about these things all the time, and in some churches we even sing about them. But do we risk holding too little in our open hands, thinking too small in our open minds, and loving too few in our open hearts simply because we’re afraid to open our mouths? It’s time to break the silence.

What might happen if we overcame our dreads about evangelism? That’s the question we’ll ask this coming Thursday at 7:30pm CDT. Sign on and join the discussion. You’ll be glad you did!

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84710869833

Meeting ID: 847 1086 9833

Or dial 1-312-626-6799 using the same meeting ID.

See you this Thursday at 7:30p CDT!

Blessings,

Pastor Tim

Hello, Gather friends and family.

About a decade ago, the United Church of Christ launched a print and TV campaign with this message: Never put a period where God has placed a comma, reflecting the UCC’s tagline: God is still speaking. Some of us UCC vets may have heard this so often we don’t pay it much mind. But together, the two slogans pack quite a punch.

We can’t ever put God in a box. Thinking we’ve got God all figured out and know exactly what God wants or plans to do will find us sipping a toxic cocktail of foolishness and arrogance. Scripture repeatedly shows this, both in word and example—none more explicitly than Isaiah 55:8-9, where God flat-out says, “My thoughts and my ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours.”

1. Got it. But if it’s not all signed, sealed, and delivered in the Bible and tradition, how is God continuing to speak? We’ve not had any reports of booming declarations from the sky. Not even a still small voice whispering from a windy cave. No divine social media presence, either. If God really is still speaking, how’s that supposed to work? A few questions are in order.

Might God speak through us? It could be we’re the living, breathing, walking, talking media that embody God’s word and will and way in the world. That’s a pretty radical idea. But it’s hardly new. Paul told his friends in Corinth, “You are like a letter written by Christ… not written with pen and ink or on tablets made of stone. You are written in our hearts by the Spirit of the living God” (2 Cor. 3:3).

What kind of mail are we delivering to the world? When folks open us up, what do they read? How do we become these living letters that spill out good news of unconditional love and grace? That’s the focus of this Thursday’s Bible study. Our virtual pastor, Shea Watts (fresh off his and Kat’s trip to Scotland) will have a lot to share with us on this topic. Don’t miss it!

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84710869833

Meeting ID: 847 1086 9833

Or dial 1-312-626-6799 using the same meeting ID.

See you this Thursday at 7:30p CDT!

Blessings,
Pastor Tim

Something to Think About This Week

Are you satisfied? Did you impulsively answer, “Of course not. Never!”? As participants in a relentlessly commercialized, competitive, capitalist culture, we’re conditioned to be discontent.

Think of the pressures we’d be rid of if we actually lived as though winning wasn’t everything and our success wasn’t measured by job title, income, looks, popularity, education, address, and innumerable other ways the world assigns worth. You know who succeeds when we get worked up about such things? The people who sell us stuff! Their satisfaction depends on our chronic dissatisfaction. They constantly send us the same message: Contentment is for people who have no ambition or drive. You need more, they insist—and you must spend all your time and energy getting it. What might happen if we turned our competitive drive down and cranked up the contentment meter?

When St. Paul famously wrote, “I have learned to be satisfied with whatever I have” (Philippians 4:11), he was talking about more than material possessions. In fact, he connected satisfaction with peace of mind, because contentment grows out of how we think. Writing these words from prison, Paul hands us the key to contentment two verses later: “Christ gives me strength,” he says. True satisfaction and peace come when we admit what we have for now is enough, because with Christ there is always more. “I can face anything,” Paul insists. Even with the likelihood of execution staring him in the eye he had the peace of mind to prove it.

This Sunday We’re All About Satisfaction

So, again: Are we satisfied? Are we at peace? This Sunday’s live worship experience will celebrate satisfaction in joyful music and testimony, sacred word and meal. Join us this Sunday at 5pm CDT at William McKinley Park, at Pershing Road between Damen and Leavitt, near the outdoor basketball courts. All you need is a chair and/or blanket for seating. We’ve got the refreshments covered. The weather outlook is beautiful—almost as beautiful as the contented, peaceful folks who make Gather what it is. And for those who can’t be with us in person, make sure you tune in to the live feed on YouTube!

Come for the worship. Stay for the dance. (And bring friends!)

I look forward to being together as we Gather in the park!

Peace and blessings,

Pastor Tim