This Talk was delivered by Toby Jones at the first summer gathering held Tuesday, June 23, down at the Bear River Shelter in Petoskey. 25 people attended. Here's what you missed! Join the conversation! Read it! Leave a comment! Subscribe! And tell others about it! Then join us next Tuesday, June 30 as we continue our journey together!
I am so excited to be here
tonight and even more excited and
grateful to have all of you here with
me. I’m here tonight because for the last six years, since leaving the church,
I’ve been trying to follow Jesus and continue my broader spiritual journey
alone, and it’s so hard…maybe even impossible. You know that famous quote from
the creation account in Genesis 1, where God says, after creating Adam, “It is
not good that the man should be alone…”? I think that this truth applies to our
lives as spiritual creatures and to our spiritual journeys. It’s not good for
us to be alone in our search for God and for meaning and for ways of making a
positive difference in our community, wherever we find ourselves.
And I know for a fact that I
am not the only person trying to follow a spiritual path on my own. As you’ve
probably read and perhaps even experienced in your own life, and among your
family and friends, the most rapidly growing religious population in this
country – spiritually speaking - is known as the “Nones,” – not N-U–N-S, but
N-O-N-E-S – as in NO RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION. Far and away the fastest growing
population – both in America and right here in Petoskey, Michigan – is the
folks who don’t go to church and claim no particular religious affiliation. And
once you make that decision – the decision to no longer connect with a church -
you are pretty much on your own, where spiritual journeying is concerned.
So in a lot of ways, that is
what tonight is about, that is what those of us who have organized tonight’s
and the next seven Tuesdays are trying to do – build and offer some sort of
healthy, vibrant, outdoor, globally- minded, inclusive form of Christian
spirituality to our friends and neighbors here in Northern Michigan. So if
you’re up here for a couple weeks ,or for the summer, or for the rest of you
lives, we’d love to get to know you and travel with you on the journey of life…
So none of us has to be alone…
(Musical Break– to play and sing
Message in a Bottle by The Police)
Now, when confronted with the
fact that fewer and fewer Americans are still going to church, most people
conclude that that means we are less interested in God, that we have become
MORE selfish and LESS interested in matters of the spirit. But you know what I
think…? I think the opposite is true. I think that we are actually MORE
interested in God and in spiritual things, and in living lives that matter than
we have ever been! It’s just that we’ve found over the years that the churches
around just aren’t helping us to get there.
I want to bring up a new
friend of mine, Megan Heintschel, because I think her story and faith journey
will resonate with many of you…
(ten minute live interview
with Megan)
Thank you SO much, Megan. I want to build a little on what Megan shared
and get you to dream with me tonight of what a different kind of spiritual
community might look like, right here in Petoskey, Michigan. I want us to ask
the best two-word question in the world – “What if…” What if…?
Here’s “What if” #1 – What if
a church or a spiritual community didn’t have to be a group of people
who all believed the same thing? What if your individual beliefs and mine took
a back seat to a collective humility shared by the group, a humility that
affirms that beliefs are…well…beliefs! They are things that none of us really
know, that can’t be proven, that aren’t facts. I think that’s why they call
them “BELIEFS,” isn’t it? Do we need our church or spiritual community to force
us to believe certain things or to push us into some sort of box with everybody
else in that community? What if a spiritual community simply encouraged us to
keep asking our own questions, to keep exploring our own spiritual journey?
What if a church could be an active partner in helping us grow, even if it
wasn’t in the direction everyone else in the group happened to be heading?
I want to share with you a
little known fact about Jesus, but a fact nonetheless. In the earliest and most
accurately recorded Gospel – the gospel of Mark – Jesus says nothing –
absolutely NOTHING about what people, including his disciples, should believe.
Never does he determine whom he’s going to hang around with or who he’s going
to invite to journey with him based on belief. Furthermore, do you know what
the earliest communities of Christ followers were called? Do you know what they
were known as? People of the WAY – as in way
of life, a way of living. Jesus
was never about beliefs – so why
should a church - named after him - be?
What if a church or spiritual community wasn’t all about what we believe…? What
if???
Here’s What If #2… What if a
church or spiritual community could be a place of practice, a kind of active
living laboratory, where we learn to BE like Jesus, to actually DO the kinds of
things he and the other great spiritual teachers DID and asked their disciples
to do? One of my favorite Christian writers Brian McLaren has a great phrase
for this; he says that a church or spiritual community should really be a
“community of practice.” A “community of practice,” where we gather to show
each other and help each other how to do things – Christ-like things – like how
to feed the poor, how to visit the sick, how to assist widows and those in prison?
What if those of us who were good at building things said to the rest of us who
aren’t, “A bunch of us are spending this Saturday working for Habitat over in
Alanson working on a home for a homeless family. Why don’t you come with us and
lend a hand?” Or what if those of us who were fairly comfortable with visiting
elderly folks said to the rest of us who aren’t, “Hey, were going over to Bay
Bluffs this Thursday after work to play some games with the residents. Why
don’t you come along?” What if that is
what a church was and how a spiritual community worked? What if each of us did
what we’re good at doing – we do it for others – and then we simply invited
some folks who aren’t so good at it to come with us, so they could get good at
it too? What if the church were a community of practice?
I’m pretty sure that’s what
Jesus was up to when he just told the disciples to follow him and to come with
him. They just hung out with him while he fed people and healed people and
comforted people. Jesus was good at it; they weren’t. So they just hung out
with him for a while, watched, and learned.
And then, after a while,
Jesus asked them to give it a try. He gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every
disease and sickness. And sending them out two by two, – so they wouldn’t be alone - he said, “You try it…and come back and tell me
how it goes…”
What if a church
could be a community of practice? What if…?
I’m sure the
disciples were a little freaked about going out to try all that stuff without
Jesus. But, again, they weren’t going alone…They went out with their friends,
and we can do a lot of stuff with a little help from our friends, right?
(Musical Break - Play
and sing “With a Little Help from my friends” – The Beatles)
So – one more What If - #3: What if a church didn’t have to be a place we gathered?
What if a church didn’t
have to be a place at all?
For many years, I
used to ask my congregations and audiences to picture and then draw the first
thing that came to their minds when I said the word….(wait for it…) “church.”
Everybody – from the oldest to the youngest – always drew a building.
And the real problem
here is not just that people picture a building when they hear the word church;
the problem is that buildings have taken over the life and energy and budget of
the church! In my second book, The Way of
Jesus, I make the point that American churches spend an enormous percentage
of their annual budgets simply on maintaining their buildings – the mortgage,
the heat, the electricity, the roof. Buildings have become the tail that wags
the dog of Christian communities, dictating what they can and can’t afford to
do in the name of Jesus.
So what if…what if
there were no building? My good friend and mentor Tom Dickelman started a
building-less church 16 years ago. They meet on a beach on the other side of
Lake Michigan from Memorial Day through Labor Day and then they rent an empty
chapel from the local college for the rest of the year, for about $20 a week.
Because of that, they have very few expenses as a congregation, and that has
resulted in their giving enormous sums of money away to the hungry, the poor,
they’ve even built and started an orphanage and a school in Uganda that has
helped raise and educate hundreds of kids.
What if the church
was not a building at all, but a group of people who, together, endeavor to
live simply as good stewards of God’s beautiful and free earth? Now keep in
mind, plenty of “new churches” get started without a building. But it seems
like they are just waiting to get big enough, to get rich enough, to get
“legit” enough to get their own building. I’m talking about NEVER getting a
building! My buddy’s church in Chicago has been around for 16 years, and not
only do they still not have a building; it is their expressed intention NEVER to
have one!
What if we could pool
our collective resources from time to time to help the hungry or the homeless
in our area, instead of paying for some building we only use once or twice a
week? What if a spiritual community had nothing to do with a building? What if?
I’d like you to think about
these 3 ‘What if’s’ in the coming week. Take them home with you and talk about
them with people you care about. Let’s see if we can keep this “What if?”
conversation going throughout this week. Think about it. Meditate and pray
about it. Ask the God of your understanding if living out these principles
might be possible? And consider whether you and your family might like to be a
part of making them a reality here in Northern Michigan.
I’d love to hear what you think.
Email me or better yet, go to my blog, where you’ll find a copy of tonight’s
talk and leave your comments and thoughtful feedback. Send your friends to it
so we can really ignite a conversation here in northern Michigan. Who knows
what we’ll come up with or what God has in store? That would make my week.
Thanks again for coming and for being with me. It’s so good to know that in
each other, we’ve got a friend…
(Musical Break – to play and
sing – “You’ve Got a Friend” by Carole King)
Let’s close our time tonight
in a prayer circle. Let’s stand up and gather around and join hands.
There are so many ways to pray,
so many postures and styles. Feel free to keep your eyes open if you’re someone
who sees God in nature. Or close your eyes if you’re someone who likes to turn
inward when you pray. However you want to do it, let’s pray …
God, Creator, Spirit…we are
so grateful to live in such a beautiful place…We are so thankful for having
others to journey with, to question with, to dream with, and to stumble through
our darkness toward the light with. Thank you that we don’t have to settle with
what is, where church and spiritual communities are concerned. You want us to
dream and to hope and to shape something new…something better…something that
makes sense in this time and place. Open our hearts and open our minds as we
journey together here in Northern Michigan. Amen.
