A New Way to Remodel Churches?

In my Second Life wanderings, as I've looked for assignments for my religion class, I ran across the church that I'd visited and written about back in June. (Here's that post.) You'd hardly recognize the place. Here's a new picture of me (or rather Ishah, my Mercy avatar) resting in the same congregation's space that I'd worshipped in back then.


There's almost nothing similiar. The floor cushions have been replaced by comfortable chairs, the room is arranged differently, the outside of the building has been remodeled, and the cross and pulpit are in entirely different places. I'm guessing that the pastor has been doing this as she's learned various things that make worship and congregational gatherings work better in the space. If only our first world congregations were as willing to find ways to change the space to make it more accessible and relevant (and of course, if only it could be changed as inexpensively as it can in SL)!

How Shall We Teach Them (and Us) Not to Tiptoe?

When I went out for a walk this morning with Chase and saw the first fallen maple leaves lying on the grass, it hit me that summer is really coming to a close. It finds me right in the middle of seriously revamping my classes at Mercy and writing church school curriculum for the kids at South. As I do so, I'm trying to keep this quote from Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution in mind:

“I am convinced that if we lose kids to the culture of drugs and materialism, of violence and war, it’s because we don’t dare them, not because we don’t entertain them. It’s because we make the gospel too easy, not because we make it too difficult. Kids want to do something heroic with their lives, which is why they play video games and join the army. But what are they to do with a church that teaches them to tiptoe through life so they can arrive safely at death?”

Wikinomics for Universities and Churches

Don Tapscott’s Wikinomics seems to me a must read for anyone who wants to understand not only what’s happening on the web and in business but in the world today. Not only do the ideas in the book explain a lot of Web 2.0 uses, but they suggest the basic value of democratic, horizontal collaboration as the keystone of 21st century postmodern culture.

I became painfully aware as I read Tapscott that both educational and religious institutions are so far behind being within, much less on the cutting edge of, current cultural organizations. How can either universities or churches hope to be vital participants in building a new world if they’re still stuck operating in entirely 20th century (or really 19th century) models? I know that both institutions are conservative by their very essence, but unless each adapts to new ways of being accessible in the public square, neither will have anything at all to offer in the near future.

At Mercy, for example, if what my students tell me is accurate, most of the work being assigned is still of the closed, monologue type, with data guarded (through citations among other things!) closely and websites still used as if they’re nothing more than digital books. Even old-fashioned collaborative assignments in a classroom are rarely given. When will educators move toward assignments that make use of Web 2.0 sources like Zoho’s free, collaborative office suite to partner students together in creative, innovative assignments? And when will churches start trying to catch up with 20th century website culture and move toward building ministries using blogs, wikis, and other new collaborative tools that can form ad hoc groups across all kinds of boundaries that used to stand in the way? What will it take to pull these two institutions into the 21st century?

Attending a Second Life Worship Service

Last night I attended a church service at a Second Life progressive church (as opposed to lifechurch.tv, the conservative church that opened on Easter and has spent tons of money creating a second life campus that can stream its regular service in world) called the United Church of Christ in SL. The building, built by a second year seminary student at Emory and her partner, was beautiful—individually designed cushions in the center of the floor to sit on, mats lining the walls for extra seating, large, clear glass windows making up the roof and other details made being in the space quite pleasing, although I could have lived without the large cross hanging suspended over the one entryway. (Crosses are, by their very nature, meant to be grounded in the earth, aren’t they, both because of their original use as instruments of torture and because without an earthy connection, what would Easter mean?)

Having said that, the service itself was very weak. It made me aware of the need to really think through worship from scratch if it’s going to work in world. I’m sure a little of the problem was that the service was designed and led by a seminarian without a lot of worship experience (though with a big heart and a worldview that seemed warm and hospitable). Aside from sitting on the cushion, much of the worship was structured in typical modern style, with the worship leader standing behind a pulpit talking at the congregation during the sermon or leading the congregation in prayer. While this style clearly has limitations in our ‘first’ life churches, it has even more problems in Second Life. The preacher stood behind the pulpit and typed the lines to the sermon one by one. We sat there and watched her type. There were none of the body signals or facial expressions or tones of voice that so often carry a first life sermon, just the hands moving and arms going up and down for the typing. The long pauses in between lines of text appearing made it very hard to follow, much less engage with. And the responsive prayer, which we were given ahead of time along with the lectionary passage, also didn’t work very well. Each time we were to do the ‘all’ part, we each typed in the response line, which showed up again and again on the screen. The only part of ‘traditional’ worship that seemed to work well was the sharing of joys and concerns, where individuals shared a hope or worry and then the worship leader responded to each concern with a brief prayer.

The service left me wondering about the best way to do worship in world. It’s clear that worship has to offer something other than the kinds of things that lifechurch or this UCC church have tried. Maybe there are other houses of worship in 2nd life offering more engaging worship. I’ll try to search around and check it out because if there aren’t, someone needs to puzzle through what kinds of worship would work in Second Life that would actively engage those participating in a congregation.

Books, Cheese, Gardens, and Papers

It's been a busy month. My desktop crashed, causing me to have to reload Windows and then copy everything from the laptop. At the same time I had a 50 page paper due for one of my grad school courses and then, when that was done, all the termpapers and final exams that my students turned in had to be graded. But they're DONE!!!!

So now I'm turing my attention to summer type things. With the exception of the Onaways (which I would have thought would show themselves first), our potatoes have all begun to show themselves.

We put cucumbers, peppers, and lettuce in last week, along with a lot of different kinds of flowering annuals. We've also planted the hanging baskets and gotten them up on the front porch. And about two hours ago, I put our tomatoes (four different kinds this year, including Green Zebra and German Johnson heirlooms) in the ground.

My hopes for the next month until my summer grad school courses start are mainly to:

1) play lots of guitar and flute;

2) knit. I finished one scarf this weekend, but I've two more that I've promised people to go before I can start something more creative;

3) play video games. I'm part way through Zelda on the Wii and will have to redo Scratches, since most of the game was lost in the computer crash. Plus there are my avatars in A Tale in the Desert and Second Life to keep busy; and

4) make cheeses of various kinds. Late Saturday night we made mozzarella for the first time and then promptly ate it, so I want to spend more time making not only soft cheeses but hard ones as well.

Unfortunately the reality is that the three summer courses have each assigned three to seven textbooks that Ishould try to get through before they begin in mid-June, I've got to have a doctoral project in mind before those classes begin, and the church still has its regular daily demands so the music and games may have to wait a bit until some time in August.

Away From Christendom

The conversations going on about underlying issues at Emerging Grace and The People Formerly Known as the Congregation is giving voice to so much of my concern with the existing Christendom forms of community and the possibilities of another way of intentional living together. Here’s just a small excerpt from “Emerging Grace”:

Passivity
We are convinced that a church system which allows believers to fulfill their weekly spiritual obligation by listening to a sermon creates a consumerist audience who have not been encouraged to step into the responsibility of being a disciple and discipling others.

Buildings
We are convicted that the millions of dollars spent on buildings for churches has not been wise stewardship of the resources that have been entrusted to church leaders.

Programs
We are convinced that becoming busy with programs within the church removes us from developing relationships with those who aren't involved in church. We no longer equate service in church programs with faithful commitment and service to God.

Incarnational living
We purpose to minister in the opportunities that our daily lives present, and we are intentional about involving ourselves in the lives of others in deeper ways than a Sunday service allows or requires.

Following the spirit
We are convicted that dependence on the Holy Spirit is required to move forward into becoming the people we were created to be. We are also convinced that the Holy Spirit is leading us away from the systems and structures that provide a comfortable complacency rather than the challenging mission we are called to.

How could one quarrel with any of it? It's right on target. It leaves me wondering: how do I find or join with others to build such a community in this part of Westchester? And, in my work as a pastor, how do the congregation I work with and I respond to such statements?

Second Life Church

I'm spending more and more time thinking about creating a Second Life church, since the ones that already exist on world seem to be either non-Christian (the church of Elvis, a church for vampires, etc.) or extremely conservative. My view is of a progressive, welcoming intentional community that would find a way to teach and embody the best of Jesus' radical hospitality, both on world and in everyday life.

The downsides? I've never planted a church before, I don't know how to build things or program in Second Life, and I don't have a team to work with me. I keep checking around to see if there's someone else out on the internet who might have similar interests but so far I haven't been able to find anyone. Still, I keep feeling the pull of the Spirit in this direction!

Where Are They Worshipping?

So I know the studies showing the percentage of the American population who are gay vary-- anywhere from 4% to Kinsey's better-known "1 in 10" study. I know that among my daughter's friends are several who are gay. And my younger son clearly knows many lgbt folks in their 20s from the gay clubs and bars in NYC. But where are the gay men and lesbians who are in their 40s and up? And where are any of these folks who live in the suburbs worshipping? Every once in a while someone gay or lesbian stumbles through our "welcoming" church doors, but most of the time they only come one or two Sundays and then they're gone-- this in a congregation that's touted as one of the most lgbt- friendly places to worship in Westchester!

I spent lots of time this weekend trying to figure out from websites what churches were both saying they are welcoming AND actually had some gay couples attending. I began by going through the databases that are available online for "gay-friendly" churches in this part of the country. Among the churches listed, I know from first hand experience that so many don't have a single out gay person in their congregation, much less a gay community there. Then I began to do a search of websites using regional directories of various denominations-- Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, UCC, Unitarian. Again, most of the churches say they are welcoming and they may yearn to be so but the websites of Christian congregations in this part of the country seems to reflect a very different reality.