David Loar's blog

New Year's Eve 2012

2011-12-31T19:28:00.000-05:00

This past year has been one of major change. You can read about most of it in our Christmas letter http://www.loar.biz/Loars2011xmas.htm .

I am grateful for the directions Kate and Molly are taking in their lives. I want to speed up time to see what will be in the next 5 years, but it is good as it is now.

our family at Kate's senior voice recital in late Nov 2011

2011-12-12T09:51:00.000-05:00

Molly with my mom and step-father

2011-12-12T09:38:00.000-05:00

Molly with my mom and step-father when we visited them in Tucson in early June, 2011.

A window in time

2011-10-27T14:43:00.001-04:00

i think it was Madeleine L'Engle who had a similar title to a great children's book called "A Wrinkle In Time.". Time has not been easy in the past 3-4 weeks. Jesus said folks will persecute us and say all manner of things against us as we seek to follow him with our lives. I have been there in these past weeks.

If you read this, I ask you to pray with and to God for the peace of Christ, that is beyond all of our understanding, to continue to flow around our church's preschool, our church, and with my family and myself. And for people who are focused on our demise. Many people have been hurt. None of us, no matter who or where we have found ourselves in this conflict, needs to feel what many of us have been feeling.

I am deeply grateful for the leadership of the church and all the members of the Fairlawn West UCC community who have been so supportive and taken actions on their own to facilitate resolution of the conflict. I see a deep maturity in this church that this situation has become an unintentional mirror of how God has strengthened us to go forth into the world. We have had surface in the past few weeks some new people in our church who have graduate degrees in early childhood curriculum which we did not know were present! What a godsend particularly at this moment in time.

As always, it is life a day at a time.

--

David Loar

http://discipledavid.wordpress.com

http://www.loar.biz

http://davidloar.blogspot.com

Molly teaching & playing soccer with city kids

2011-07-25T15:13:00.000-04:00

Here are two clips of Molly with her friend Alana Gaither, teaching and playing soccer and kicking the football with kids from one of the most difficult neighborhoods in Akron at the Miller Ave UCC Vacation Bible School.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK-5BT-higc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q5x0Rd_VHc

summer 2011

2011-07-15T07:38:00.000-04:00

Here are Martha and I a week ago at one of Molly's friends graduation party.

This is our summer of transition. Within a month I will be on my way to CA to help Kate drive back. Molly and Martha will be on their way to Otterbein University. Then...Martha and I will be walking the dogs far more.

keeping up with the Loars

2011-07-06T12:19:00.003-04:00

my reflection blog is over at http://discipledavid.wordpress.com. I started with this blog many years ago and then shifted over to Wordpress for the reflective pieces. This original one has evolved into more of a family piece, but the original postings of the mixed bag of reflection and family are here up to around 2009.

So as of today, Kate is on an internship in Santa Barbara, CA at the Music Academy of the West. She is the development intern. Quite an experience and will be very helpful both for her resume for grad school apps this fall and just the first hand experience. She is interacting with some heavy hitters in the international classical musical world and in the development/philanthropy world. She has an apt on the beach in Carpinteria and watches the dolphins. She and I drove out there in June so she could have a car. I will fly back in mid Aug to help her drive back to begin her senior year at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, OH.

Molly is spending the summer nannying and conditioning for her tryout with the Otterbein University soccer team. She reports Aug 19th. She will be a Sustainability Studies major (new multidisciplinary major) and a dance minor in the music theater dept which is considered of the top ones in the country. Otterbein is in Westerville on the northeast side of Columbus. Molly will room with her close friend and soccer teammate since 3rd grade, Alana Gaither, who will also be trying out for soccer and as the kicker for the football team. Alana set a national female high school record this past yr with a 43 yd field goal and her percentage of made field goals was over 90%.

These days Molly and I are glued to the tv watching the women's soccer World Cup. I am back doing a lot of good swimming. Been feeling a lot of chronic pain in my upper right side. 3 mos of physical therapy made it better but it eventually started to get worse again. Swimming, yoga, and weightlifting seem to reduce the pain quite a bit, I hope possibly eradicate it.

Martha is in the senior ranks of tenure at Old Trail School. She is also doing some administrative tasks and tutoring beginning this summer. She spends a lot of time shepherding our dogs, especially Winston our boxer/lab. Maggie our mainly border collie who is in her 12th yr seems to live in a world of her own. She no longer tries to herd chipmunks, but still tries to root them out.

Molly and college choice

2011-02-02T17:53:00.002-05:00

Molly auditioned for the dance dept at Alma College north of Lansing, Michigan last week. She is waiting to hear. She also did an overnight with some freshmen members of the womens soccer team which she really enjoyed and had a good visit with the coach Jeff Hosler.

On Saturday, she and her good friend Alana Gaither went down to Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio on the northeast side of Columbus for the soccer recruits overnight. She had a real good time there too. She goes down this Friday to audition with the dance department there.

Originally Otterbein was the clear first choice, but after the good visit at Alma she is not sure yet.

late Jan in Mich for college visit

2011-01-27T06:35:00.000-05:00

Molly and I are in Alma, Michigan for two days for her to audition for the dance dept, stay overnight with some members of the soccer team and meet with the soccer coach.

The drive up here Tues night was great. The whole way Molly and I were in constant conversation. Great stuff. Stuff about the world. Stuff about us personally. The kind of conversation you wouldn't trade for anything.

I heard from her such that which continues to reaffirm for me that the world is moving into good hands with her generation. Wish more folks could have those conversations.

We head home today. I am looking forward to the drive and the conversation.

Jan 11 2011

2011-01-11T15:00:00.003-05:00

It is 1-1-11.

Kate and Wally drove back to Heidelberg at mid-day and made it just as the big snow storm was arriving in Tiffin. Martha and I have been home sick for the past two days and it looks we will be snowed in tomorrow. Molly starts semester exams tomorrow. Then will be two weeks of dance auditions at Alma and Otterbein for her along with soccer connections at both schools.

I find myself slowing down but not from tiredness. Rather from questioning what really has been accomplished in the world at the level of activity I have lived most of my life.

May and June will be a time of transition as Molly decides which school she will go to. She and Kate along with their boyfriends pretty much spend their own time as it is either at our place or out and about. This summer I will do the canoe trip with Duane Ewing and anyone else who joins us on the Big South Fork in KY and TN. I would like for Martha and I to spend a week in retreat at Gethsemani outside of Bardstown, KY. Maybe visit Kate if her summer internship turns out to be someplace else.

a wonderful time of year

2010-11-11T14:54:00.001-05:00

On Monday Molly and I traveled to Slippery Rock University in PA for her audition for the Dance Dept. She will find out in a few weeks. There will be 2 other auditions by March. There are 40 spots available and Molly's audition had 52 trying out! She felt good about it.

Tomorrow we go to Otterbein Univ outside of Columbus, OH in the beautiful, bucolic college town of Westerville. This will be a first meeting with the dance dept there and then we will watch the women's soccer team play Calvin College as O'bein hosts a first round game in the NCAA Division III soccer tournament. O'bein is 17-0-1 and ranked #3 in the country. Molly and her good friend Alana are both considering playing soccer there.

On Tues we were at the final Firestone HS soccer banquet. Molly got her 3rd varsity letter. It was a good and sad time all wrapped up into one. I have been very active in the booster club for 4 yrs serving in many capacities including as treasurer for 2 yrs. Molly as a captain gave her thank you and when she got to a section where she started to thank me she started crying and had to pause. Itwas a deeply gratifying moment and I had tears too.

Alma College in Alma, Mich will be visited again for some time with the soccer team and a dance audition. Then we will wait until April to figure out where she goes.

Molly's last high school game

2010-10-17T07:05:00.001-04:00

Molly played her last regular season game yesterday and they beat Northwest HS 2-1. They finished 8-6-2. Wednesday they play Cleveland Holy Name in the first game of the district tournament. Holy Name was a Division 2 state champ a couple of years ago. This year they tied Medina when Medina was ranked #1 in the country. Their record is 9-5-1. We can be competitive with them if we are focused from the beginning. We shall see. Game is at St. Ignatius High School soccer field in Cleveland at 7:00 pm.

quiet time

2010-08-05T20:53:00.001-04:00

It is a nice, quiet summer evening. Martha and I at home reading. Kate camping with her boyfriend's family for the weekend and Molly out with friends. I am reading "The Courage to Teach" by Parker Palmer. It reinforces the power of quiet. excerpts

David Loar, Akron, UCC, United Church of Christ, Hanover College, Eden Theological Seminary

I have moved

2009-11-04T10:06:00.000-05:00

I have moved this blog to http://discipledavid.wordpress.com

reading the Bible

2009-10-24T11:24:00.002-04:00

Understanding the themes of the Bible and how they develop is far more important than being able to quote scripture. Here is a study prepared by Brian McLaren around the 7 major themes of the Bible. Try it. The 3 pieces I think that are essential for congregational renewal are practicing prayer as a church such as Contemplative Prayer, SOAP Daily Bible Journaling and Bible reading groups all around the congregation. A great resource for the whole attitude, atmosphere and practice of the spiritual life which is at the center of our life as a church is Renovare.

http://www.brianmclaren.net/emc/archives/How%20to%20Study%20the%20Bible.doc

Akron, United Church of Christ, UCC

let's share boys and girls

2009-10-23T09:10:00.003-04:00

Akron leaders have had a lot of personal conflicts which preempt so much time and energy and passion that is needed for truly helping this city to be better than it is. Right now the Firefighters Union and Mayor Plusquillec are squaring off about a very suspicious call to police about the mayor's driving late night a few days ago.

But this isn't the first of it. The Mayor is sideways with the police union. He's been sideways with some social justice leaders in the community. He's done a lot for the city, but he is very emotionally immature and turns so many things into personal dispute by his putting down or labeling the people who disagree with him as less than he is.

Where are the leaders of Akron who rise above the personal? It is risky these days to poke your head above the ground because the Mayor will go after you. But then it sounds like the police and fire unions will go after the mayor too. Oh God, please save us from the personal conflicts of our safety forces (the mayor is the safety director of the city).

some guidance on praying

2009-10-19T11:12:00.001-04:00

John Ortberg is a great teacher. Here is an excerpt from a video series he and his wife Nancy made on spiritual discipline. This excerpt is about prayer. This is one of the spiritual disciplines that is important for our church to focus on in renewing our purpose as a church.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJWElTqKcyw

Centering Prayer - a beginning of renewal

2009-10-18T08:53:00.001-04:00

Here is a video by Father Thomas Keating on Centering Prayer. I believe that for rewewal in the church - particularly the church I serve - it takes a refocus on our spiritual disciplines to strengthen our core relationship with God. Like all churches, it is easy to swap out running the church with being the church. Centering Prayer is one of the important disciplines I think we need to recover. Along with that is Daily Bible Journaling and Bible Reading Groups.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IKpFHfNdnE

video quotes from Madeliene L'Engle

2009-10-17T09:07:00.001-04:00

Check it out! The late Madeliene L'Engle is one of my guides in the Christian spiritual journey. Here is a video of important quotes from her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogwXXvZ4XE4

passion for forgiveness

2009-10-16T09:00:00.002-04:00

I am passionate about forgiveness...for myself. I know I need it, want it, and seek it.

However, the passion for forgiving is not as strong. Jesus tells us that the two intertwined - forgiving others leads to forgiveness for ourselves. The Lord's Prayer says that. Jesus says it in other contexts.

The church has a mission to share the Gospel. The heart of the Gospel is the love of God for humanity that he gave his only beloved child, a son, who was full of love in human form, to forgive us for the past, the present and the future. The best of proclaiming is to live it.

God, may I receive your love and live by forgiveness.

United Church of Christ, UCC, Akron, Ohio, Loar, forgiveness, emergent

what do we really need

2009-10-15T14:15:00.001-04:00

What do we need to be disciples? What is sufficiency as an apostle? These two passages below make it clear that we don't need much. What we need most of all is to rely on God on this journey. I wonder as I look at a lot of church buildings and the homes that a lot of American Christians live in how we reconcile these passages with what we think we need today to live. And are we more concerned about our living or serving God as indicated in these passages?

Luke 9
¹Jesus called together his twelve apostles and gave them complete power over all demons and diseases. ²Then he sent them to tell about God's kingdom and to heal the sick. ³He told them, "Don't take anything with you! Don't take a walking stick or a traveling bag or food or money or even a change of clothes. ⁴When you are welcomed into a home, stay there until you leave that town. ⁵If people won't welcome you, leave the town and shake the dust from your feet as a warning to them." ⁶The apostles left and went from village to village, telling the good news and healing people everywhere.

Luke 10
¹Later the Lord chose seventy-two other followers and sent them out two by two to every town and village where he was about to go. ²He said to them: A large crop is in the fields, but there are only a few workers. Ask the Lord in charge of the harvest to send out workers to bring it in. ³Now go, but remember, I am sending you like lambs into a pack of wolves. ⁴Don't take along a moneybag or a traveling bag or sandals. And don't waste time greeting people on the road. ⁵As soon as you enter a home, say, "God bless this home with peace." ⁶If the people living there are peace-loving, your prayer for peace will bless them. But if they are not peace-loving, your prayer will return to you. ⁷Stay with the same family, eating and drinking whatever they give you, because workers are worth what they earn. Don't move around from house to house. ⁸If the people of a town welcome you, eat whatever they offer. ⁹Heal their sick and say, "God's kingdom will soon be here!" ¹⁰But if the people of a town refuse to welcome you, go out into the street and say, ¹¹"We are shaking the dust from our feet as a warning to you. And you can be sure that God's kingdom will soon be here!" ¹²I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Sodom will get off easier than the people of that town!

quiet practice

2009-10-15T11:20:00.002-04:00

I have read and heard from a few ministers who have focused their congregational life around deep spiritual practice of prayer, meditation, scripture and worship. I have heard Madeliene L'Engle and Phyllis Tickle say the same.

I feel like my own church life has been overcome by anxiety about the budget, the building, and community. We have lost our focus on our relationship first and predominantly with God.

Renovare
Shalem Institute
Weavings
prayground
Sacred Space
Northumbria Community
Wicker Park Grace Community

passionate & radical

2009-10-14T14:36:00.002-04:00

I acknowledge that I am passionate about giving my life to follow Jesus. Also I am a radical when it comes to social & political issues. Now, what do I do?

I need to pay more attention to the log in my own eye. Yet, I struggle to reconcile my passion & radicalness with much of the predominating behavior I am around. I hear things like "compromise" & "be reasonable."

I don't see Jesus compromising on the mission nor on his training & expectations of the disciples. Can we?

time spent

2009-10-06T15:47:00.001-04:00

I just watched most of a documentary about a man killed on death row in Texas in 1989 who it now looks like was innocent and the chaplain at the prison who believed he was innocent. The chaplain was a conservative, Presbyterian pastor who was with 140 prisoners who were executed for their last 12 hours as well as with them while they were on death row. When they did the documentary they found out he had made audio tapes after each one as he anguished about the individual and the death. He is now retired and out spoken against the death penalty.

http://www.ifc.com/movies/433052/At-the-Death-House-Door
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Pickett
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/pickett.html

It got me passionate about opposing the death penalty which I have as long as I can remember. However, I have not been as outspoken in recent years. In the last few hours since watching the movie I have pondered about how much I have avoided in speaking out. I wonder if I have allowed myself as a pastor to have spent too much time trying to manage the status quo.

I do firmly believe that we must be in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and turn our lives over to God to be saved from our sin. For most of my early years I avoided saying that like the plague. I thought that was the way many people were ducking dealing with the injustice in our society. But then in my own life I came to realize that Jesus was real and was changing me. Yet, I still believed and have been outspoken working for justice. Yet, in my 35 years in parish ministry, I find myself sucked into too many personal squabbles. I find people who want Jesus to be their savior, but they are continually living in a life of pain. Its like they are unwilling to offer their life even with its pain to Jesus Christ. And thus the church becomes a never ending cycle of personal defeats, fears, anxieties and losses. There are moments of grace and hope. Moments of charity. But not much courage to face the power of the demonic which conforms us in our personal lifestyles to not face the economic injustice by which we are able to to live in our own comfort while others suffer very deeply. Even in this time of financial collapse, most of us are not hurting. We are more afraid, though, of losing what we have. The paradox...like the rich young ruler, Jesus asks us if we are willing to give it all to the poor.

Jeremiah 6
¹⁰ To whom can I speak and give warning?
       Who will listen to me?
       Their ears are closed
       so they cannot hear.
       The word of the LORD is offensive to them;
       they find no pleasure in it.

¹¹ But I am full of the wrath of the LORD,
       and I cannot hold it in.
       "Pour it out on the children in the street
       and on the young men gathered together;
       both husband and wife will be caught in it,
       and the old, those weighed down with years.

¹² Their houses will be turned over to others,
       together with their fields and their wives,
       when I stretch out my hand
       against those who live in the land,"
       declares the LORD.

¹³ "From the least to the greatest,
       all are greedy for gain;
       prophets and priests alike,
       all practice deceit.

¹⁴ They dress the wound of my people
       as though it were not serious.
       'Peace, peace,' they say,
       when there is no peace.

¹⁵ Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?
       No, they have no shame at all;
       they do not even know how to blush.
       So they will fall among the fallen;
       they will be brought down when I punish them,"
       says the LORD.

Amos 5

¹¹ You trample on the poor
       and force him to give you grain.
       Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
       you will not live in them;
       though you have planted lush vineyards,
       you will not drink their wine.

¹² For I know how many are your offenses
       and how great your sins.
       You oppress the righteous and take bribes
       and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

²¹ "I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
       I will not accept them.
       Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, ^[b]
       I will have no regard for them.

²³ Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

prophets

2009-09-24T10:55:00.003-04:00

What does it mean to be a prophet these days? Biblically prophets spoke for God to matters of social injustice and sham worship. Prophets were individuals, not institutions or organizations. There were the court prophets, but it was the prophets who God called out of the not so obvious contexts that the people of God listened to and placed in the Bible.

Did the prophets measure the cost before they spoke and acted? Did they do it willingly? Did they argue with God? Mark 6:4 Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor."

So, what say you?

I copied the following review of Walter Brueggemann's book "Prophetic Imagination" from the blog "Gregg's Gamble".

Walter Brueggemann this time, with The Prophetic Imagination. Brueggemann is an old testament scholar, but this book merely uses that background as a foundation for exploring what the purpose of the church is. Rooting the purpose of followers of Jesus in the character of God (not a bad idea!), he begins with the foundational event of Israel’s history, the rescue and exodus from Egypt. He paints with meticulous beauty an utterly free God, constrained by nothing, whose character and task is to release the oppressed…release them from an oppressive royal regime that has co-opted and domesticated its gods to control and oppress and support the affluence of the status quo.

This, foundationally, is who God is. God is utterly free and beyond control by any human person or regime. And God stands with the oppressed always.

Moses is the quintessential prophet, and his task becomes ours: to criticize and dismantle the human royal regime, and to energize toward the new reality that God wants to bring in. This new reality existed more or less until the time of Solomon, when Solomon recreated within Israel the same conditions they experienced in Egypt: affluence of the ruling class at the expense of the poor, oppression and enslavement, and static religion, sanctioned and with access controlled by royalty.

Solomons and Pharoahs arise in every culture. The church becomes enculturated to the point where our affluence numbs us, our power structures silence the prophetic voice, and we domesticate God in order to keep our own status quo society. Brueggemann notes that the traditional “liberal” theological position has been excellent at the prophetic act of criticism, but has lost any real connection with God to allow for true hope of energizing change. The best the liberal prophet can do is critique. The traditional “conservative” theological position excels at holding on to hope of a future that energizes, but has lost any real distance from the dominating culture to offer a genuine challenge to what is. The best the conservative prophet can do is hope for heaven after a burned up earth.

Prophetic imagination is to criticize and to energize. Or, to use philosophical terms which have developed after Brueggemann originally wrote in 1978, the task is not done when we deconstruct, but only when we make space for God to create a new reality.

This is why we question. This is why we refuse to act as we have always done. This is why we should refuse to have our churches be market driven and to be consumers in our worship. This is why to truly, radically follow the way of Jesus Christ is upsetting not just to the dominant culture, but also to the dominant leadership of our churches and meetings. This is why I struggle.

I’ll close this post with a quote from the book:

I suggest that the dominant culture, now and in every time, is grossly uncritical, cannot tolerate serious and fundamental criticism, and will go to great lengths to stop it. Conversely, the dominant culture is a wearied culture, nearly unable to be seriously energized to new promises from God.

prophets, church, United Church of Christ

Jim Fisher and Molly Loar

2009-09-20T11:13:00.003-04:00

Jim Fisher died a week ago. He was a friend and a colleague on the mission of Jesus Christ. Yesterday we buried his body on a beautiful hill in southern Ohio, Stone Creek, with his beloved late wife Nancy. Nancy died 4 years ago at age 57 of cancer. Jim had cancer and was 65.

I miss them both. And look forward to God revealing their lives to me in the days ahead.

My daughter Molly is scored a goal in the Firestone High School soccer game on Wednesday against Ellet HS, which meant that Firestone won the City Series championship. The score was 5-0. The quirks about this is that Molly is a defender and it has been years that she has scored at any level. She chipped it in over the goalie's head from beyond the 18 (goalie box). Also, the lone senior (and one of the tri-captains with Molly) was out sick, so the whole starting line up was juniors, soph, and freshmen. In fact 5 starting freshmen. Jim Fisher was a rabid soccer fan. He rooted for Stoke City of the English Premier League. He would relish any Molly soccer stories. He and Nancy were the godparents of the professional football player Mike Vrabel. Nancy was our Kate's confirmation mentor and she had planned to be Molly's before she died. God bless Jim and Nancy and all who knew them.

Akron, United Church of Christ

reducing tension in our communication

2009-09-04T14:27:00.005-04:00

Seems to be a lot of complaining going on around me lately. I've been trying to "hog tie" and control so many things that I either don't have control over or have very little influence over. So I am working on reducing my complaining and letting go of too many things I have been holding on to.

Will say that it is a great respite to be at home with Martha and Molly and the dogs. And communications with Kate are also great. We are heading over to see Kate at Heidelberg University tomorrow for a sorority family picnic. And possibly Molly and I heading back the next Sat for a women's soccer game between Heidelberg and Alma. Alma has a dance program that Molly might be interested in.

Even though Molly is a junior, she is one of three captains for the Firestone High School girls varsity soccer team. They are a young team starting 5 freshmen and only 1 senior. They are 0-4, but have played some pretty tough teams at the beginning of their schedule. It looks like they are moving into some easier competition over the next two weeks. After their last game against Cuyahoga Falls, as the Firestone girls walked to their bus, a group of Falls football players started harassing Molly "Hey number 3..." because she had some aggressive and good play as a defender. In fact, she was called for a foul which led to a direct kick at the goal, but as the ref came up to her with the call, he told her it was a good play. Due to the record, it has led to some tension on the team and she is learning what it is like to be a leader in the midst of this. She is particularly concerned that the freshmen are not discouraged or berated by others, but are encouraged and helped with constructive comments about their play since this is such a major change for them from what they are previously used to. She, Martha and I have had some good talks in the evenings over the past few weeks.

Been hearing some similar levels of communication around the church and among other folks. I am reminded by these situations to pay attention to try to use non-violent language. Giraffe Language Compassionate Communication Center for Non-Violent Communication

Molly is soccer captain

2009-08-23T18:53:00.001-04:00

Molly was named as one of 3 captains for the Firestone High School girls' soccer team for 2009. She is a junior and a returning starter and letterwinner. You can follow the season at http://www.fhssoccer.net

simple church

2009-08-11T07:35:00.000-04:00

There is a book out called "Simple Church" and a web site that goes with it. http://www.simplechurch.com/

A lot of the North American church has become complex organizationally and business wise. The running of the church has consumed the mission of Christ. Buildings and programs as well as holding on to members and attempting to get new members has sabotaged much of the American church.

Simple Church isn't the only movement to try to refocus the body called the church. In the last 15 years especially I have been fortunate to be with a number of folks who are calling the church to simplify and re-center itself solely and fully on the Living Christ. Ironically, it seems, it takes a lot of courage these days to simply follow Jesus!

its vacation time

2009-07-28T07:48:00.001-04:00

Our family spent our annual summer re-coup at Martha's folks on Linger Lake north of Crossville, Tenn on the Cumberland Plateau. Being up on the mountain along the lake with the hospitality of the Bonds is next to heaven. We got to visit with some folks who were close friends and part of the church I served over 20 years ago (which is now disbanded). It was a good visit. Great to remember and to catch up...after 20 years!

Martha and I are now headed to the Inn at Honey Run near Millersburg and also to see the outdoor drama "Trumpet in the Land." This is one of those seemingly ignored parts of Ohio history.

I will take Molly for a few "light" college visits later this week. Just some campus tours to see whether she might want to come back during this next year for more serious consideration. We are headed to SUNY at Fredonia, SUNY at Brockport and Lake Erie College. Each one has a dance program and possibly a soccer program that would fit for Molly. She starts soon two a day practices for the Firestone High School girls soccer team and will be one of 4 returning starters as a junior.

And then, who knows. One more week I am taking now. This year will be the first year in probably 10 years that I will have taken my full vacation. A sad comment. I always figured each year that I would take a week here or there to use it all, but just got wrapped up doing other things. And since the girls have gotten older, their schedules had things that kept us around the house more each summer.

Kate leaves for Heidelberg College on Aug 15th. She has been part of the orientation team this summer and will be busy right up to the time classes start on the 24th.

I hope to do some camping yet and maybe even a river trip. That's hard to do late in the summer when the rain is less, but will see.

quotes from Walter Brueggemann

2009-07-22T22:41:00.001-04:00

The following excerpts are from the book "Peace" (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2001), by Walter Brueggemann, UCC minister and retired professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta and Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis.

. . . So morality is sorting out the demands and claims that emerge out of the precious moments when life is whole and new. Consider how we would act if we were to live according to the exodus:

•Exodus people honor the Sabbath, because it is a reminder of the contrast between oppressive work and healing, humane rest.

•Exodus people don't covet, because the tyranny of Pharaoh was in coveting after he had enough.

•Exodus people don't steal, kill, or commit adultery, because now they know that life is too precious to be abused or perverted. The laws of Israel are informed by exodus.

There are some things you can count on. The world will not fall apart. At the bottom of life are a confidence and buoyancy about the world. The world will not collapse, and we need not be frantic about the prospect that it will. This, I believe, is a dimension of reality lost in our time, impressed as we are with our capacity to make and unmake the world . . . we cannot finally unmake the world because we have not made the world.

. . .God rested! Think of the boldness of that statement. God rested. The One charged supremely with ordering the world was not in a tizzy about making it go. And the commandment is very clear: We rest because God did (Exodus 20:8-11). And God rested because the reliability of the world has been ordained by God and is not in doubt . . . The world is whole and faithful enough that we need not be consumed in efforts to secure our own existence. It has been secured . . . The world is safe, and that calls for wonder, amazement, and gratitude.

People who lack that sense of astonishment are likely to take themselves too seriously, and for them the world may finally become too anxious.

What is it God has promised that the world does not know? Simply that which separates the followers of Jesus from the slaves of this world – suffering love. This little, seemingly powerless community (the Church) is ordered and identified by its practice of caring, transforming, empowering love of the towel-and-basin variety.

. . .this little community consists of those who have gotten themselves untangled from the values of this world. We are not like the others. Our perception of the world is different, and because we see differently, we can both act and believe differently.

The truth into which the church is led by the dying one is that the world is being dismantled, and a new world with a quite different code of operation is at hand. It is this dismantling that the church knows about and that the world has not yet begun to suspect . . .

Newness is about to burst into our lives and, indeed, into the world. But the newness comes not without a price, and the price is death to all present arrangements, death to fear and to small hopes, death to old visions and memories. And those who are ready for death to all that the world calls 'life' are the ones to whom life can come. The world that will hate us does not know about joy; it knows about management and security and competence and stability, but none of that can yield joy.

. . . the movement from this world to the next is not made with full hands, but requires empty hands.

quote from Brian McLaren

2009-07-22T22:39:00.001-04:00

The following excerpts are from the book "Finding Our Way Again" by Brian McLaren. Brian spent 3 days with us here at Fairlawn West in 2004.

First, they may go to church without understanding the potential and purposes of the communal practices they encounter there. As a result, they may engage in spiritual malpractice instead of spiritual practice, leading to spiritual malformation rather than spiritual formation. That's why, according to the apostle Paul, gathering in the wrong way can be worse than not gathering at all: "Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse" (1 Corinthians 11:17 NRSV). The apostle James erupted in a full-fledged rant along similar lines, suggesting that the common practice of "favoritism" (or cliquishness, a failure to properly practice the presence of people) made him wonder whether the so-called Christians to whom he wrote really got the message of Jesus at all (James 2:1-7)

=================

So our planetary ecology is in trouble. But isn't that outer disharmony and imbalance integrally related to the disharmony and imbalance in our inner ecology? If we are controlled by greed or fear or hate or lust internally, won't that inner ecology be expressed in the kind of world we have? If God wants the outer ecology healed, won't God necessarily want our inner ecology restored to balance and health as well? So, when we think of spiritual practices, shouldn't we think of practice that form and transform both the outer and inner ecologies of soul and world?

We could also say it like this: Jesus called disciples so he could send them out as apostles. They were called together to learn so they could be sent out to teach and serve. When a master musician invites promising young musicians to be her students, her ultimate goal is for them not to be students only, but also to become master musicians with students of their own, so the way, the tradition, of music goes on generation after generation with continuity and creativity—preserving the past but never being restricted to replaying it. Jesus calls disciples for the purpose of forming them into apostles, whom he will send out to form disciples and apostles, and so on, across all social boundaries and generations, so the "good news revolution" he launched in his little corner of the world will spread to all creation.

the church is not a charitable organization...

2009-07-22T13:00:00.001-04:00

rather it is a faith community of people who know not only that God will change the creation, but has already created a new creation in Jesus Christ. Thus, we cannot be willing to live in a context where we make excuses why we can't do more or why things are the way they are i.e. "human nature."

a good quote from a Facebook friend today:

The church ... cannot be content to play the part of a nurse looking after the casualties of the system. It must play an active part both in challenging the present unjust structures and in pioneering alternatives. - Donald Dorr Catholic missionary priest

David Loar
check out my blog
visit the Fairlawn West UCC "Forgiveness Page"

sharing reflections from friends on FB

2009-07-20T08:18:00.001-04:00

this is from Mary Mount's pastor when she is in Fla. Mary is a member of Fairlawn West. He and I are Facebook friends.
Jorge Acevedo James 4:1 confirms it. Great communication begins with an inside reorientation by God. "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?" It's the stuff on the inside that needs healing so that the words that come out of my mouth honors God and helps people.

some good reflections from other Facebook friends

- do you ever get the impression that David [Bible David] (at least some of the time) when praying for deliverence from enemies, is referring to the enemies within...those wicked thoughts that invade his mind and desire to take him captive?

- JESUS (to people who knew their Bibles off by heart): 'You say you see but you have your eyes closed'. A student asked a Zen master, 'What can I do to become enlightened?' 'As little as you can make the sun rise in the morning'. 'Then what use are these spiritual exercises?' 'Ah,' says the teacher, 'To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.' -from Richard Rohr,

-"God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try."...Mother Teresa

praying for something to change

2009-07-17T10:18:00.000-04:00

Will we open ourselves to the radical love of God that changes the world? If we pray for God to change other situations such as health, employment, emotional struggles, addictions, relationships, world conflicts, then we must expect that God has the power to bring about change. But our prayers for any change is hollow unless we pray for and are open to the radical change of repentance that Jesus Christ preaches with the kingdom of God being at hand. And that change means everything is on the table about our lives. God may not change it all, but we put it all on the table without reservation with the willingness to accept what God does choose to change about us. That is the journey of a disciple.

prayer in the western world

2009-07-17T10:05:00.002-04:00

Prayer has unfortunately lost a lot of its mooring in the American Christian church to reflect more of the consumer secular culture than the spiritual practice of those who follow Jesus. It has become an item to use to get what we want. It has become like a shopping list of items as though God does not know what is needed or how it is needed to be done.

We need to recover a sense of prayer that is more listening and more being open to what God would have us do rather than what we want God to do. God doesn’t answer prayer by the style of words or the number of prayers about any specific request. What God hopes is we will spend time in deep concern for all the pain of the world and we will lift up that which we know of and we will also seek to learn about and lift up those who are not part of our circle of friends and family or in our comfort zone. Then God hears our prayers not as personal self-centered requests but as deep spiritual transformation.

"you've carried those burdens long enough"

2009-07-17T04:15:00.003-04:00

Zephaniah 3:17-18

17 Your God is present among you,
a strong Warrior there to save you.
Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love
and delight you with his songs.

18 “The accumulated sorrows of your exile
will dissipate.
I, your God, will get rid of them for you.
You’ve carried those burdens long enough.

In a world that has at its core "oughts and shoulds" and at a time when organized "Christianity" has accepted at its core that same world value, a passage such as this (which is one among millions!) is needed to be heard not only by those outside the church, but it seems particularly by those inside the church and even more particularly those who have accepted responsibility for leading the church.

UCC, United Church of Christ, Akron, Ohio, David Loar, Fairlawn West, Christian, Jesus Christ

become a child to follow Jesus

2009-07-12T18:59:00.001-04:00

I have put together all the New Testament passages that say that to follow Jesus and to enter the Kingdom of God/Heaven, we have to let go of our "adult" (controlling) ways and become like children again. This is clearly counter to what we are taught and trust in ourselves and in the world. We resist and argue with it if not outwardly, at least inwardly. The phrase, "someone has to be responsible" is the most prolific excuse in the church and in the world to truly following Jesus' example and teaching on this.

The paradox is as leaders of the church, we have to allow our own lives to become like children to be able to lead the church to become like this. Otherwise we are preaching one thing (follow Jesus and prepare for his kingdom - become a child) and doing another (take charge, be responsible, be mature).

The apostle Paul says that we must become mature spiritually and he chastises more than once churches that he says are stuck in what they think is the "end" place of where they need to be in their spiritual journey. What that leads around to, they are stuck in "control" mode. To mature, they need to become less in control and more trusting of God i.e. become like a child.

Our Thurs Mall Bible Reading group just started reading Paul's epistle to the Romans this morning and we read the 1st two chapters. Paul lays it out clearly. If we don't let go and trust God fully with our lives (repent and have a "life change" as he puts it) we will experience the fires of hell. Not as a final judgment but as ongoing pain, confusion and suffering in our earthly lives.

So, are we ready as the leaders of Fairlawn West to become like children? Read the list below.

Matthew 11
²⁵At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

Matthew 18
²He called a little child and had him stand among them. ³And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 10
¹³Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

¹⁴Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." ¹⁵When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

Mark 9

³⁶He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

Mark 10

¹³People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." ¹⁶And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

Luke 10

²¹At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

Luke 18

¹⁵People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

John 1

¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

Romans 8

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. ¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Ephesians 5

¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

1 John 3

¹How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

...

⁷Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. ⁹No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

prayer

2009-07-12T18:55:00.001-04:00

What is the nature of prayer as a follower of Jesus Christ? I put a quote in the bulletin today that was from personal correspondence with Brian McLaren. It reflects how prayer has become more from us than toward God. I am trying to sort out how we practice a disciplined spiritual life when prayer has seemingly become controversial and shaped a great deal by American culture more than the breadth of the Biblical scripture.

I have listed below links from commentary on prayer that has shaped me in my spiritual journey. I have recently heard a criticism of me for not being an adequate spiritual leader because of a seeming lack of response on my part around a prayer request.

article by Henri Nouwen on prayer "First, Unclench your Fists"
quotes by Nouwen on prayer, scroll down toward the bottom

http://www.prayerinamerica.org/

Lenten Prayer by my old prof Walter Brueggemann
review of a book by Walk on prayers and preaching including a significant prayer
another review of the book plus at the end good commentary on the struggle for true spiritual prayer

myfriend Brian McLaren offers some prayers and views on prayer
a prayer for justice and peace
at the bottom prayers

interview with Leonard Sweet about how to take in the whole world in our prayer life

Carlyle Marney Facebook page

2009-06-26T11:00:00.002-04:00

I just created a fan page on Facebook for Carlyle Marney. http://snipurl.com/kxf90 I was fortunate to have known of him and then to spend a week with him the summer of 1977 - a year before he died and a month after my father died. I talked with Marney about Dad's passion, vision, ministry and sacrifice for the Gospel and my own (I had just been ordained a year earlier and was struggling through a difficult first church!). It was a time of pure grace and sabbath and yet vision and hope in Christ. It is a place to go to more often.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Carlyle-Marney/97063128255?ref=nf

manifesto on Jesus

2009-06-25T07:01:00.002-04:00

A Jesus Manifesto by Len Sweet and Frank Viola.

This expresses to the core my own belief and concern. I see in the UCC how we have fallen prey to what they describe. How we have watered down Jesus. Its what E. Stanley Jones said after conversation with Gandhi about the lack of growth of Christianity in India in the mid 1940's. Basically, Gandhi said that Christians didn't act like they truly believed in Jesus Christ. They had turned Jesus into a reflection of themselves and what would fit for them rather than turning their lives over to Jesus Christ.

The American church has about reached the end of its rope on adulterating Christ to serve itself. It has come back on us and the world yearns to know the truth about Jesus, not about us and our churches.

A Jesus Manifesto Len Sweet Frank Viola United Church of Christ

family life

2009-06-14T15:06:00.001-04:00

In April on Earth Day Martha & I celebrated 20 years of marriage also known as falling in love. On the 5th Molly turned 16. Today Kate 19. Molly is dancing today between innings for the Akron Racers professional softball game. She had a great recital where she danced in 11 dances from ballet to hip hop. She finished up a pretty good spring soccer season. Kate made 4.0+ & Dean's list both semesters at Heidelberg. She is officially a Jr after one yr. Both girls are nannying for the summer.

living in the world

2009-06-10T13:30:00.002-04:00

Sunday for the Vision I used the passage from 1 John 2:12-17. It includes in it (from The Message) ^15-17Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

Then I quoted from an article from Walter Brueggeman (who was my prof of OT in seminary), "Enough is Enough." It seems like everything I am reading in scripture and otherwise is pointing to this same core, especially at a time that the "world" is working overtime to try to get control of itself.

I think we are all -liberal and conservative - trying to change the world on the world's terms. Many churches are trying to convince the world of Jesus, on the world's terms. There are periods of "success", but eventually it leads to frustration because it can't be sustained. We are looking for eternal answers with short-term, worldly fixes. Jesus teaches via the Sermon on the Mount in a place away or a quiet place. This sermon is great teaching and it could only soak it beyond the tired brain cells of the disciples, on retreat. We live in a "world" that needs more retreat from it so we can serve in it.

I've been reading again the small book by JB Phillips, "Your God Is Too Small." This is from it in reflecting on the Beatitudes:
"Happy are the pushers: for they get on in the world.
Happy are the hard-boiled: for they never let life hurt them.
Happy are those who complain: for they get their own way in the end.
Happy are the blase': for they never worry over their sins.
Happy are the slave-drivers: for they get results.
Happy are the knowledgeable (humans) of the world: for they know their way around.
Happy are the trouble-makers: for people have to take notice of them.

"Jesus Christ said:

Happy are those who realize their spiritual poverty: they have already entered the kingdom of Reality.
Happy are they who bear their share of the world's pain: in the long run they will know more happiness than those who avoid it.
Happy are those who accept life and their own limitations: they will find more in life than anybody.
Happy are those who long to be truly 'good': they will fully realize their ambition.
Happy are those who are ready to make allowances and to forgive: they will know the love of God.
Happy are those who are real in their thoughts and feelings: in the end they will see the ultimate Reality, God.
Happy are those who help others to live together: they will be known to be doing God's work."

I like Eugene Peterson's version in The Message:
"Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

³"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

⁴"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

⁵"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

⁶"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

⁷"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

⁸"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

⁹"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

¹⁰"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

^11-12"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble."

David Loar, Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, Akron Ohio church consumed by the world of wanting and getting

where am I headed with my life?

2009-06-07T08:48:00.002-04:00

Galatians 2:19-21 (The Message)

^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

Philippians 1:21-22 (The Message)

Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!

And I'm going to keep that celebration going because I know how it's going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don't expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn't shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose.

As long as I'm alive in this body, there is good work for me to do.

David Loar, Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, Akron, Ohio not about me

the lighter load on the journey...

2009-05-22T10:12:00.003-04:00

For the last week I have walked 5 miles a day. We had a dog behavioralist come over last Friday. 3 hours for $65! The dogs are the best I have ever had...in only a few days. He is like the "Dog Whisperer." He said 90% of training is walking (not peeing & pooping or exploring, but just straight walking.) It works!!!! And I have lost 4+ lbs! I walk Winston and Maggie 3 miles in the morning and 2 miles in the evening. Clearly the training was more of Martha and I so we could then be in charge of our dogs and not just their human buddies.

I find that I am more relaxed with the dogs and during my day. As I walk them all three of us relax together. I get stopped often complimenting me on our well behaved dogs. When I tell them we just started last Friday they can't believe it. BTW, Winston (our year old Lab/Boxer/Shar Pei we got from the pound in March just a little while before he was to be put to sleep also works out on our treadmill for up to 20 minutes at a time!). I took both dogs to the vet on Tues when in the past I had trouble just handling one dog in and of itself at the vet's. Winston has gone from 39 lbs when we got him to 56 lbs and it is clearly a lot of muscle!

I can understand St. Francis much more now. The time with the dogs is very centering for me. I now follow it with reading Eugene Peterson's "Living the Message: Daily Help for Living the God-Centered Life" daily devotional and Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest"daily devotional. The discipline is about God. Not about me. The dogs are clearly a gift to help me let go of my self and be with God.

I am troubled by much in the world and at our church. God's purpose is not for me to stay stuck in that troublesome place. It is to move on and listen to God and to be obedient to God's will in the here and now. I have been seeking a Christian community where that could happen. I have found it 5 miles a day with my dogs. I pray that I will find it with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

David Loar, Akron, Ohio, United Church of Christ, dogs, Christian spirituality

Will Campbell and the church

2009-05-07T15:03:00.002-04:00

One of my heroes is Will Campbell. He is a preacher up there with Frederick Buechner and Madeleine L'Engle. Yet, he can't stand the church! He has been involved in some of the most courageous stuff around civil rights and the struggle for peace in the world, and yet he can't stand politics.

I find myself at the same point on both counts. I love the body of Christ, but my experience of church seems to be running away from trusting God and accepting our identity in Christ. Folks feel like I am badgering them to be the "church." Maybe its time I just found a church and then let that experience of church/bodiness speak for itself.

I fear we have "compromised"* the church to death! Fortunately, we don't save ourselves!

*fudged, lied, short-cut, been so codependent to others,

I find conservatives and liberals have done this. We have "cherry-picked" scripture to support our own pre-concieved ideologies. Campbell was ostracized by the civil rights community because he believed we needed to be consistent in sharing love as he went to meet members of the KKK in North Carolina to see what of the Gospel they needed in their personal lives.

Will Campbell, David Loar, Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, Akron, OH

closing churches

2009-05-04T20:54:00.002-04:00

In this economy many churches are falling back into or deeper into a pit which will lead to their demise. That pit is to put more time and energy into their building and their past history to try stave off the anxiety they have about the future. The fastest growing style of property for sale in Ohio are church buildings of congregations who held on to them, using up their money and energy until there was no one left to keep them going, but by then the congregation was decimated and had lost their missional purpose.

We are trapped by our success in the past.

10 Deadly Sins of a Dying Church
Abandoning a Building Centered Model
summary of "Pagan Christianity" (book) on church buildings

A live church has parking problems
A dying church doesn’t

A live church has lots of noisy children around
A dying church enjoys peace and quiet

A live church often changes the way things are done to do them better
A dying church doesn’t need to

A live church dreams greater dreams for God’s Kingdom
A dying church has nightmares

A live church invites people to risk involvement and new ideas
A dying church plays it safe and never risks anything

A live church supports world mission
A dying church says “charity begins at home”

A live church uses tradition and buildings to serve God and people
A dying church uses people to serve the tradition and buildings

A live church worships
A dying church worries

A live church is filled with tithers
A dying church is filled with tippers

A live church forgives and seeks forgiveness
A dying church never makes mistakes

A live church looks for challenges and opportunities
A dying church looks out for problems and dangers

A live church evangelizes
A dying church fossilizes

Frederick Buechner "If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter"

2009-04-30T16:34:00.003-04:00

If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business. The world says, Follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified. The world says, Drive carefully—the life you save may be your own—and Jesus says, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love. The world says, Get, and Jesus says, Give. In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks we can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.

David Loar, Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, Akron, Ohio

morning meditations

2009-04-28T08:07:00.002-04:00

I taped ten 1 minute devotions for radio station WAKR. The first one started yesterday. Here is a link where you can read each of them.

I love this quote about reality of scripture:

Forget about Bible reading and "the quiet time"; Bible reading is the disquiet time. And don't read Scripture text to fuel devotional feelings, but to ignite imaginative faith in the God who dares us to think and act otherwise. Scripture text is not intended to confirm for us our spiritual and theological status quo, but to call us and our communities of faith into question, to unsettle our settled convictions because God is always urging us beyond what we already know and have learned to live with.

- Jim Gordon, Principal of Scottish Baptist College

driven to spiritual discipline

2009-04-20T05:09:00.005-04:00

The more tired I feel, feel like I am being put upon, or unfairly judged or anything in that vein, the more I tend to isolate. Then I only see things that are all about my world and my self in that world.

However, my path and passion is to glorify God. The one who has created, forgives, and continues to redeem me in all time and circumstance.

At the very time it feels like pressure from both outside and inside myself is driving me down, that I need to spend more time "doing my job" and fulfilling the expectations of other folks, I am aware that I really need to spend more time in the spiritual disciplines both individually and with others.

Worship, Bible reading and reflection, and prayer are three that I desire to spend more time in with other people. I need to invite others to do that.

Meditating, prayer, reading the Psalms, waiting on God...at least in the morning and at night...I am starting to do more of on my own.

I am developing a journal for folks who visit with Fairlawn West to help them in their spiritual journey and possibly how they could do that through Fairlawn West. I am copying from a journal that Kate (my older daughter) received when she visited Goshen College two years ago. I started working on it at that time, but couldn't quite discern all the kinds of things that I would need to do to transfer it from the college context to the church context. Then a few months ago I received a little booklet from Renovare that spelled out 6 ingredients that could help us in our spiritual journey and with some very specific things we could do in that process. Those six were what I was looking for. I hope to have this personal journal done with in a few weeks to have available so that as folks are guests of our congregation, they could take this with them to help them become more clear about their spiritual journey and the process they are in to find a spiritual home.

I am looking for folks who are also "weary and heavy ladened". Together we could journey to Jesus who will give us rest. That we might take his cross upon us. I am having coffee this afternoon with an old friend who was a powerful spiritual influence in my life and I know he is feeling the burden in his life. It starts with us burned out sinners seeking Jesus...as brothers and sisters on the road.

the days of...

2009-04-09T18:22:00.002-04:00

With all the details of prep for the services the of this week and the weekend, plus all the other church stuff that needed to get done, I am tired.

Have I spiritually prepared myself? I think not. I have tried to live the ordinary, regular pace and then expect that I will be able to "observe" these holy days. It is as if Lent lost its way in these last days. And I like the disciples with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane couldn't keep watch with him even for a little while.

I am worried that with my anxiousness about these days, I have acted in ways that has upset other people. I have felt impatient. I want to get back to the spiritual path and it seems as though the worldly path has made it into a six lane expressway with traffic buzzing all around. Which lane should I be in? Will I find the Christ on this road?

I have amends to make. But right now I don't know if I am feeling truly sorry or just plain tired.

pic of David from Lights Out Ohio news conference

2009-03-26T14:46:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I spoke at the news conference sponsored locally by the Sierra Club, City of Akron, and Summit County to introduce "Lights Out Ohio" on Earth Day this year. It was at the new Metro bus center which is lighted by solar energy.

spending time

2009-03-23T19:26:00.008-04:00

Catching up with some pictures. Here's Molly from Winter Formal at Firestone HS.

I've been spending a lot of time raking, composting, tilling, trimming, and getting ready to plant. I was so delighted with the rich compost I got both from my rotating barrel and my 3 bin system. I get up early each morning with the first light and go out with the dogs - Maggie and Winston. They run and wrestle with each other while I do my yard work for 45 minutes to an hour.

This has been very spiritually centering for me and I have lost some weight during this time too.

I remember my dad was talking about retiring to a small farm. Then he died of cancer at age 58. Dad was raised on a farm and basically framed until he was 21 and went to college. His gardens of flowers especially were fabulous.

I never spent any time with Dad gardening. Now that I have taken it on for myself, I appreciate the experience he had while doing it.

This year we will have our 10 x @ 20 ft kitchen garden plus a lot of beds of perennials. Plan to get do some more annuals this year. Thinking about adding another apple tree to the back yard and possibly another spruce tree for the birds. Last summer added mock orange and lilacs as some buffers to the patio.

Doing this, hiking and canoeing/camping bring great peace to my life. Just spending time with my family does that. I am very grateful for Martha, Kate and Molly. They are joys to be with. Wonderful conversations and ideas are shared.

Winston, whom we got at the dog pound about 4 weeks ago is very well behaved, smart and quite a character. Can't believe we got him not long before he would have been euthanized. He was picked up off the street. He is Lab, Shar Pei, & Boxer mix.

I will add pictures of the yard and garden as time goes on. Also have plans for an organic garden at the church and inviting neighborhood kids to help with it.

Loar, Akron,

complexity/confusion

2009-03-15T08:49:00.002-04:00

First, here's the link for my podcast introducing this week's Vision on the 10 Commandments at Fairlawn West UCC.

Since the 1960's I have tried to enable myself and my family to live a simpler lifestyle. But I grew to believe over the years that living more simply would disconnect us from the predominant culture around us. I thought we could still be part of it and not be compromised by it.

And all around us the sophisticates of the economic and political theory were trying to convince all of us how complex and intricate was our national economy and international economy. We became more and more convinced that only the "experts" could manage the main pieces of our economy.

Then Alan Greenspan, the great priest of US economic thought, admitted that he had misjudged in the decisions and the observations he had been giving us for years as the head of the Federal Reserve Bank. We have seen major corporate ceo and manager after another make decisions that have drastically affected all of our lives. The hubris of our system and what has done to all, great and small, has been deceptive and demeaning.

I am returning to focus more on living more simply. Complexity does not mean wiser or more intelligent. In the matter of money, it appears now to mean simply complexity which bamboozles from the least to the greatest of them...novice to expert. (check out Jeremiah 6 Message version and NIV which has the language of "least ... greatest")

David Loar, UCC, United Church of Christ, Akron, money, economy, simple life

the long journey needs refreshment

2009-03-10T10:13:00.004-04:00

The journey this Lent has been deeper than others in recent years. I have been stressing with our congregation that Lent is a tithe (1/10th) of the year to give ourselves fully to God. It is a time to grow more deeply in our practice of the spiritual disciplines. That the journey with Jesus is like crossing a desert. You can start out somewhat easily, but along the way you will need some water. Many of us burn out on this journey. The spiritual disciplines are like the water of the desert journey. Without them, we will not make it. And we will wind up probably being more "churchified" rather than disciples and apostles. Its the refrain of the retirees, "The young people need to take over." But the young people aren't around to take over. And now congregations struggle to let go often of their treasured personal history and their buildings while God is trying to call them out to a new time, a new era, a new creation. But the "canteen" is dry and we are afraid. And the road ahead seems to not even dead-end, but just gradually to peter out.

So, we are seeking to do more listening than talking around Fairlawn West...which is one of our stated bedrock beliefs of our congregation about prayer. Pray to listen more than to chat.

A great voice of God comes from Madeleine L'Engle:

“Have courage and joy. Sometimes our moments of greatest joy come at [the] times of greatest courage,” she says simply. “Our children need to hear over and over again that there is no such thing as redemptive violence,” she adds. “Violence never redeems. And what we do does make a difference!”

Madeleine pauses before reinforcing, softly emphasizing each word, “Be brave! Have courage! Don’t fear!” And echoing the message proclaimed and lived by all prophets, she adds, “Do what you think you ought to do, even if it’s nontraditional. Be open. Be ready to change."

Sacred time and space in an urgent world

2009-03-06T08:30:00.004-05:00

Sacred space and sabbath are core places/experiences as a child of God. Right now our country is trying to hurry to fix our economic wows. The urgency is important, but we will create more havoc and chaos if we continue to rush into this without time and space which is focused solely on God. Listening to God. Being with God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian martyr of WW II - killed by the Nazis just a few days before the Allies liberated his prison, celebrated the Lord's Supper weekly in his cell using the toilet seat cover as the communion table, with other prisoners and guards receiving it as he officiated. Nothing was more urgent than this, to be at table with our Lord and other brothers and sisters.

David Loar
Fairlawn West United Church of Christ
Akron, Ohio

give up money for Lent

2009-02-25T17:40:00.002-05:00

What if we gave up money for Lent? Ok. Then how about giving up using the atm and credit card for Lent.

The point is, if we are really serious about "giving up" something that God could use to help us grow spiritually deeper as a disciple of Jesus Christ, it seems to me money would be a good one. It clearly is at the center of most of our lives, and is the greatest competitor with God for our attention, let alone our devotion.

Valentines Day

2009-02-14T08:58:00.003-05:00

I once heard that Valentines was started by a guy named Valentine who as his personal mission would leave a card at the door of prison cells so the prisoners would know that at least one person was thinking of them. Romantic, huh?

But then, Mother's Day was started by Juliet Ward Howe (who wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic") as a way for mothers to protest their sons being taken off to war and used as fodder by people in power. Sentimental, huh?

But then, Easter was started...eggs and bunnies right? Cute, huh?
David Loar Fairlawn West United Church of Christ Akron, Ohio Valentines Mother's Day Easter

hibernation

2009-02-07T10:02:00.002-05:00

The last month has clearly felt like a hibernation mode for me. As time has gone on, snow been on the ground for over a month, and cold temps were predominant, I found myself going through the motions rather than "forging ahead." No wonder the Native American Indians didn't stay here in the winter, but migrated south. Just like they didn't stay along the Gulf Coast in hurricane season, but moved more inland. Mobility has its assets.

Our ancestors in the Judeo-Christian faith were mobile. In fact, they went for a large number of generations before they were given their own land. Up until the end of the exodus, they were always aliens, foreigners, depending on the hospitality of other peoples. Even then, the land described as "flowing with milk and honey" would seem pretty barren to us.

I lived most of my life on the move. Never lived anywhere more than 6 years until the last 13 1/2 here in Akron. I was haunted by the feeling of using a "geographical fix" to deal with the issues of my life. But there is part of me that also wonders about the "settlement" that has led to so much lack of adaptability, flexibility, and mobility. One of the things about emerging churches is that people move as families to new settings as "missionaries" to start new churches. They don't just plant a church, but they grow community among themselves and invite others into those spiritually centered, missionally reaching out communities. My geographical fixes were alone or just my family. Even when Abram started out from Haran, he had quite a "flock" with him. (tee hee hee, "flock", get it).

Settled in, hunkered down...I think we have lost our ability to follow God where God leads and desires us to to go to live. And by live, I mean LIVE! To be alive!

money

2009-02-01T13:12:00.002-05:00

There's a lot of turmoil in the US and the world right now about money. Especially among those who have been use to having sufficient if not more than sufficient funds to enjoy life as they are accustom to.

Truth be told, money has been an issue for at least 2/3's of the world for most of the 20th Century. We accepted in the US a level of around 5% unemployment as ok. We thought we could never get everyone employed. But we never developed the infrastructure of an economic system or governmental system that would truly help those who were part of the permanently unemployed. In fact, we played as more of a moral issue "they are lazy...they could find work if they tried." Yet, many of those of us who made those comments weren't in ongoing relationships with any if a majority of those folks who made up that "5%."

Well now, we are way up over 5%. And the welfare system works! Hallelujah! Folks who were leaders of companies who have tanked or been folded in to other companies in many cases received their millions in bonuses. Even when those bonuses came from federal bail out money.

Now, I don't think any of those are lazy. In fact, I suspect most of them worked hard. But I also don't think that any of the permanently unemployed folks are any more lazy than these newly unemployed or underemployed.

I think the best form of a bailout is to feed the funds to local yokel folks who have credit card debt and are behind on mortgages. Allow them to pay down their debt, which increases their opportunity to be more avid consumers again, and that then feeds the money to the banks and financial service businesses who hold those cards and mortgages. "Trickle down" has had its day since the Reagan era. Let's try "trickle up" for a while. It can't be any worse.

David Loar
United Church of Christ
money
Akron Ohio

different and still the same

2009-01-24T09:29:00.004-05:00

We hosted an open time for folks to drop by on Tuesday to view and hear the inauguration via our large screen and good sound system in the sanctuary at Fairlawn West.

I was teary eyed and pumped.

Now time is the same again. The news reports have the same voices on the same topics with different policies implemented, but the world has not changed!

The election of Obama is the culmination of wider change. Oh, maybe not the culmination, but a major accomplishment on the road. But the world has not changed.

These are the times when I am confronted by and reminded that true change comes from God and it is a change that happens from the inside out of all of us. Barack Obama is no more a change agent than the rest of us. Right now he is a great gift of a vessel used by God to show us on what God can do with each of us. And all of us as a human family. And many have allowed God's work in them to change them which has led to where we stand today with the son of an immigrant from Africa (we've had lots of European immigrant children become president).

However the election, new policies and directives, a Democratic controlled Congress and White House...these in and of themselves do not indicate true change. Whether we are joyed by this reality in Washington or are cynical and critical of it, we all need to be changed...from above. Day by day. Step by step. Breath by breath. And this is what Jesus Christ has done and is doing as God's change agent. Thanks be to God for servants like Barack Obama who accept this change from above as the guide of their life. There are more like him. They may be much more anonymous than him. But no less vital in God's action in human history. And they aren't all overtly "Christian." Yet they are no less followers of Jesus Christ than those who are overtly Christian. In truth many who follow Jesus and aren't overtly Christian are more true to God than a number who claim the title "Christian" for themselves. That's a sign of how God is in charge and we aren't!

Here's the link for a great, short youtube video by Brian McLaren on what it means to follow Jesus today...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NtgjNLNpao

back to "sabbath" again

2009-01-12T06:36:00.005-05:00

This thing about the practice of sabbath as a center piece of the journey of the Christian community continues to come back center for me. Not as an ought or a should, but seeing how the erosion of the spiritual center of much of Christian church life is due to many local churches and denominations accepting the terms of the culture and particularly the business model of the culture as the way to be productive and to accomplish. Ironically, I just read a note on Facebook by another local church pastor that now the business community has caught up with the church community in facing empty coffers.

I have read both Eugene Peterson and Abraham Heschel about sabbath and have posted in the past months on their comments. I started reading yesterday morning (Sunday) before the worship service in my study the book "Sabbath Time: Understanding and Practice for Contemporary Christiasns" by Tilden Edwards. I am copying below some comments in describing the book. This and the book by Brian McLaren "Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices" about recovering our ancient worship and spiritual practices as a daily piece of our life, I think are the stream that much of the church needs to pay attention to. We still need to focus on social justice and organizational life as well as our method of education and stewardship and so on, but I think we have lost our center. Thus we have lost our identity not just as individuals, but as a church. We as the church no longer have anything to communicate or offer different from any other secular organization in our society because we try to live part of our life using the terms of the culture, and then put a spiritual veneer over it.

Well, here is the one summary of Edwards books from a book review at Spirituality Practice.

Edwards begins with a description of the sabbath as an alternative to the drivenness of contemporary 24/7 culture. In both the Jewish and Christian traditions, this holy day anchors the rhythm of time. The author discusses the sabbath as a day of rest, a commemoration of liberation, a sign of covenant, and a sign of hope. Best of all, it offers a surcease from the pressures of achievement in the work arena and the mind-numbing escapism of so much contemporary entertainment. Edwards goes on to examine some the factors that have eroded this oasis in time, specifically individualism and a devaluation of the contemplative.

Sabbath time offers a release from our normal routines and work while also delivering us into a free space where reverence, play, laughter, a celebration of the arts, relaxation, and quiet contemplation take center stage. We especially like the following passage where Edwards salutes the value of intention and the Sunday morning service: "Corporate worship, in order to be its intended self, needs to be surrounded by a protective time zone, a time of preparation and reflection, of quiet openness with nothing to do except appreciate the presence of God in the smallest random thing in and around us. If this is done, then corporate worship is more likely to become a radiant crystal whose facets catch up all of life in God's light, placed in the midst of a velvet Sabbath bed that sets it off. Without such surrounding sabbath time, worship more likely will resemble an opaque rock that reveals nothing of life's giftedness and integrity in God, only our own rushed anxiety."

In four practical chapters, Edwards outlines how Christians can deepen their experience of the sabbath, stretching from dinner on Saturday evening through sundown on Sunday evening. He covers rituals, silences, readings, and blessings. This classic resource ably demonstrates how, as Edwards puts it, "an understanding and living of sabbath time can help support a sane and holy rhythm of life for us."

(United Church of Christ, sabbath)

9 years since Y2K

2009-01-05T11:06:00.003-05:00

Remember all the anxiety 9+ years ago about Y2K? That was the fear that with the new millenium dating, computers would not rollover and all kinds of systems world wide would shut down. From the Pentagon to the banks, they weren't sure if their computers would keep functioning.

Little did we know that there were going to be rollovers that would change much but not due to Y2K. 9/11 changed everything in regards to the Pentagon and much of the life of our nation and the world. Then, the last year has changed the banking system. Again not due to computers, but due to human behavior.

And the fears we thought were behind us as the first week of the year 2000 unfolded when the computers did rollover, we find are deeper and wider with the events of the unfolding decade.

So, should we begin a watch for Y2K10? What should we prepare for? Everything will change. It is certain. Just as everything seems to have changed in the last 10 years.

Ten years ago I was hearing how the church would change in 15-20 years. It seems that the predicted struggles and changes started showing up in 5 years. There are folks talking about how the traditional/denominational/institutional style of church is making a comeback in recent years. I don't see it. And the present economic down turn is hitting churches up front as the first line of charitable giving declines. Churches are not viewed as an "essential" "charity." So folks will stop giving to it before they will to food banks, social services and other people helping groups. It will feel like everything has changed for the church as we have relied on buildings and staffs to make the church run. But God is turning things 1 step back to take 2-5 steps forward. "Church" will more and more be identified not by street addresses or buildings or favorite pastors tenures. Church will be identified by spirit, faith, love, and courage...that come from beyond anything we could provide on our own.

quiet

2008-12-30T10:59:00.005-05:00

Sabbath, quiet, prayer, meditation, and reflection are integral parts of the Christian spiritual journey. Yet, they seem like luxuries to many of us. We think that once we get our "work" done then maybe we can do those kinds of things.

Jesus carved out daily time for these practices. It was the only way he could truly know his Father. In his last time of sabbath prayer and meditation we are allowed to listen in...the Garden of Gethsemane. It is deep struggle and yet deep obedience also. And it leads to deep connection in the most god awful moments on the cross.

In Genesis 1 God created the world in "7 days." In the first six days of creation God says each day's creation/work is "good." But on the 7th, the sabbath, he calls it "holy" rather than good.

We live in a world that is obsessed with the good. We think the ultimate purpose of our life is to be good or to become good. Church has been twisted to supposedly help us to be good people, good citizens, good Christians, good parents, good children and so on.

Our ultimate purpose in life is to be holy rather than good. And like Jesus in his daily regimen of discipleship spirituality as we hear it in Gethsemane, we can only become holy when we allow our lives to decline or as the Apostle Paul says, as we die to ourselves so that we might be alive in Christ.

With the world's demands on us, this is not easy. We will be called lazy or off task or not getting the job done. That is why reading the Bible is so important! That is the purpose of the Bible. To help we creatures to allow God to restore us not just to a good status, but to our life of holiness. Pray, mediate, reflect, observe the sabbath.

now truly a senior...

2008-12-24T17:04:00.003-05:00

Oh yea, I turned 60 yesterday. Today I got my 60+ Program form from the University of Akron where I can audit any class for free if there is room. I went online and checked out the course listings for the spring term. I am drooling. Probably will wind up in politcal science or history to start.

The state helped me to remember that I was now a senior by sending me unsolicited my "Golden Buckeye" card. Not really depressing. More of a surprise.

I got the ultimate birthday gift for someone entering his senior years...a new furnace! And it works great. So, though my circulation may not be as good as it was in the coming years, I won't be cold! (unless the power grid shuts down and climate change comes about...maybe I better start taking some environmental studies courses too.)

how many of us are Bernard Madoff's

2008-12-24T16:35:00.002-05:00

How many of us really are "Bernard Madoff's" in our daily lives? Most if not all of us won't have $50 billion to attempt it with...but we are often trapped in lives of outward image management.

Thank you God for your gift of forgiveness in a world based more on outward image than authentic soul.

This night, the eve of Christmas, for we who are disciples of Jesus, we celebrate again that ultimately it is not our image, but the light of God in Jesus Christ that shines through us that is real.

to wait upon the Lord and ponder God's Word

2008-12-18T16:02:00.003-05:00

"A parsonage without a study is comparable to a church without a pulpit." (Karl Buchsel, 1803-1889).

Not to read or study at all is to tempt God. To do nothing but study is to forget the ministry (Pasquier Quesnel, 1634-1719).

Dost thou pray? Thou art speaking with the Bridegroom. Dost thou read? The Bridegroom is speaking with thee (St. Jerome, ca. 346-420).

breaking the law with greed

2008-12-15T07:44:00.002-05:00

from Romans 7:

"The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, 'You shall not covet,' I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it. "

Sounds like what we've done with capitalism.

a Romans 7 life

2008-12-15T07:30:00.001-05:00

my life these days finds God in Romans 7

http://snipurl.com/88r89

doing what we want or doing what we need to do for ourselves

2008-12-12T16:01:00.003-05:00

from Eugene Peterson's book Working the Angles

"We not only have bodies, we are bodies, so none of us is capable of untainted objectivity regarding our own bodies. All of us...want coddling, not healing. We prefer comfort to wholeness. And we can deceive ourselves about ourselves endlessly."

the dark night

2008-12-12T14:19:00.002-05:00

The "dark night of the soul" began to be defined with St John of the Cross. It is knowing even in despair that this is part of our spiritual journey given by God. I know of it at this time of my life. Like the Apostle Paul the good tbat I intended 2 do does not seem 2 get done

Romans 7
17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

song of the homeland

2008-12-11T04:51:00.003-05:00

Like our ancestors in exile, being Christians observing Advent in the American christmas culture is like singing the Lord's song in a strange land

Psalm 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.

2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill .

6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.

7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
"Tear it down," they cried,
"tear it down to its foundations!"

8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us-

9 he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.

and finally from Heschel

2008-12-10T09:05:00.004-05:00

Here are my last postings from the book "The Sabbath" by Rabbi Abraham Heschel.

"Monuments of stone are destined to disappear; days of spirit never pass away."

"Inner liberty depends upon being exempt from domination of things as well as from domination of people. There are many who have acquired a high degree of political and social liberty, but only very few are not enslaved to things. This is our constant problem - how to live with people and remain free, how to live with things and remain independent."

"All days of the week must be spiritually consistent with the Day of Days. All of our life should be a pilgrimage to the seventh day..."

David Loar
Pastor of Fairlawn West United Church of Christ
Akron, Ohio

time is holy

2008-12-09T06:51:00.003-05:00

I am finally finishing the book "The Sabbath" by the late Rabbi Abraham Heschel. I now know why this book is so important. Its here at the end. Heschel makes clear what has been clearly spoken in the Bible...time is far more holy than space. But we have made space far more holy and made time a tool for ourselves.

I just posted this on my twitter: finishing Heschel's "The Sabbath". Time is far more holy than space. Yet so much of Advent in our culture is about rushing

We have reduced holy "time" down to an hour on Sunday. However, we have transformed space (buildings) into the "church." We most often use the term "church" to refer to the building we use and to what we do on Sunday morning "I went to church." (rather than, "We were in the worship of God.")

We have turned material into our idol. And like our ancestors of old, we worship them with our time and money. Because space is clearly where we spend more time and money than in the act of worship or sabbath and in the care of our brothers and sisters...as a church. We ask people to "commit" to the church, but that boils down to time and money to an organization based in the building.

God finally gave in to king David and agreed to have the temple build. But God still said that the sabbath was holy, not the temple. Over and over again. Six days of creation were "good", but the seventh was/is "holy."

We will continually and always lose our way when space remains our focus. We are unwilling to give our time to God. Even here in the Christian season of Advent, which is all about time!

sabbath, regular days and holy

2008-12-08T04:09:00.003-05:00

Great quotes from the late Rabbe Abraham Heschel in his book "The Sabbath."

In the Bible "The good is the base, the holy is the summit. Things created in six days (God) considered good, the seventh day (God) made holy."

"We usually think that the earth is our mother, that time is money and profit our mate. The seventh day is a reminder that God is our father, that time is life and the spirit our mate."

age

2008-12-05T14:37:00.000-05:00

Oh to be 55 again!

Advent time in a Christmas world

2008-12-05T08:19:00.001-05:00

everywhere its Christmas around me. but on the christian calendar its advent. waiting & hoping. that's where most of my life is spent. there are those rare glimpses of heaven that are pure joy. that's Christmas! so I'll wait in advent because those glimpses of joy are worth the wait.

a whole lot of shaking going on

2008-12-05T07:44:00.000-05:00

"We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them." Charles West

pastors are...what?

2008-10-31T16:02:00.004-04:00

Check out this video from Walter Brueggemann who is my former professor of Old Testament at Eden Theological Seminary and is now retired from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. Walt in a 2 1/2 minutes video deals head on with the dilemma of being a pastor/preacher/leader of a church which functions as a business/social organization in the early 21st Century.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5nPlPMDDQ0

forget about ME

2008-10-31T15:40:00.001-04:00

Matthew 9
35-38Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. "What a huge harvest!" he said to his disciples. "How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!"

Matthew 10

The Twelve Harvest Hands

1-4 The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. This is the list of the twelve he sent:

Simon (they called him Peter, or "Rock"),
Andrew, his brother,
James, Zebedee's son,
John, his brother,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
Thomas,
Matthew, the tax man,
James, son of Alphaeus,
Thaddaeus,
Simon, the Canaanite,
Judas Iscariot (who later turned on him).

5-8Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:

"Don't begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don't try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.

9-10"Don't think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don't need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.

11"When you enter a town or village, don't insist on staying in a luxury inn. Get a modest place with some modest people, and be content there until you leave.

12-15"When you knock on a door, be courteous in your greeting. If they welcome you, be gentle in your conversation. If they don't welcome you, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way. You can be sure that on Judgment Day they'll be mighty sorry—but it's no concern of yours now.

16"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

17-20"Don't be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don't be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they've done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don't worry about what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.

21-23"When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don't quit. Don't cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you've run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.

24-25"A student doesn't get a better desk than her teacher. A laborer doesn't make more money than his boss. Be content—pleased, even—when you, my students, my harvest hands, get the same treatment I get. If they call me, the Master, 'Dungface,' what can the workers expect?

26-27"Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now.

28"Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

Forget About Yourself

29-31"What's the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries.

32-33"Stand up for me against world opinion and I'll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you?

34-37"Don't think I've come to make life cozy. I've come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me.

38-39"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.

40-42"We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God's messenger. Accepting someone's help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I've called you into, but don't be overwhelmed by it. It's best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won't lose out on a thing."

bldg and/or mission

2008-10-20T16:27:00.002-04:00

David Loar (Fairlawn West United Church of Christ/UCC), Akron OH

It seems to me that local churches who are struggling to be transformed by Christ to be more "in" the world instead of being "of" the world...are losing their struggle! I hear of churches selling their buildings because they can't afford to keep them up...and the churches folding up. I wonder why they fold up. I am experiencing a similar thing as we struggle with building issues and it feels like we are going to hold on to and struggle with the building until our last breath.

We are renting to another congregation to use our building. They are nice folks, but their basic sense of what is a church and our's is different. But we feel beholden to them because of among other things...the money they pay helps us keep up the bldg. My sense is that we are spending valuable time and energy on being a landlord and bldg management in this relationship so we can keep them in the loop for their rent money that could and should be focused on our reaching out to the wider world as the body of Christ.

There are misunderstandings developing among our staff and with folks in our church about issues with the bldg both long term and just day to day needs. From my view, it isn't worth it.

I would prefer we develop a bldg management group of three people and let them make all the decisions about the bldg. The rest of us can then get on with what is our calling as apostles, teachers, preachers, and so on of the Gospel.

mid October

2008-10-17T10:34:00.003-04:00

Kate is home for fall break from Heidelberg College. She and Molly are going to a Obama support concert at the Civic Theater with the three major rockers from the Akron area over the years...Chrissie Hynde (who went to Molly and Kate's high school - Firestone), Devo, and The Black Keys (both of who also went to their high school and the father of the drummer, Patrick Carney, is part of our church, Jim Carney).

Molly had a wonderful first season as a sophomore starting for the girls varsity soccer team at Firestone. Their record was more losses than wins, but they probably played one of the most difficult schedules in northeast Ohio. Their first game in the state tournament was against Strongsville, who is #1 in the state and has been in the top 10 in the country for most of the season. They are presently at 15. We lost 0-8, but it was the best soccer game in skill and sportsmanship I have ever seen on both sides. Here is the note their coach sent one of our parents who sent a compliment to them. Powerful!!!
In life, your job, school etc... its about the effort put in. Never before
in my 20 years as a coach have I witnessed a team with more fire and effort
in a game. Most teams that we play if we are up by 3+ goals give up, lay
down, and become a bit foul. Last night was an example of a team (parents
included) that never gave up. I kept commenting to my coaching staff about
your positiveness and drive. Never once did I hear a negative from your
players or parents. Just cheers to keep trying, keep pushing, and never
give up.

This example alone will be remembered for as long as I coach. Thankyou
again for the compliment but more for the example of what sports should be
like!

Jon Felton adidas National Showcase Girls Director Strongsville HS Head
Coach

Would that the adults who are in leadership and politics in our country would learn from this!

golfed 100 holes

2008-09-23T07:29:00.001-04:00

I golfed 100 holes of golf yesterday! It was a marathon to raise money for Interfaith Hospitality Network of which I am president of the board and our church is very supportive as well as a host church for homeless families every 9 weeks. I am sore, but not as bad as I expected.

the time of life

2008-08-29T15:48:00.002-04:00

After this latest hiatus I am into the comments again.

Kate is now at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, OH and greatly enjoying being in college. Molly is a sophomore at Firestone High School and starting for the varsity girls soccer team.

I am spending time these days reading "The Sabbath" by Abraham Heschel, "Working the Angles" by Eugene Peterson, and "Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense" by N. T. Wright.

Here is some good reading from Heschel's book:

The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.

The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans or the Nazis were able to burn; a shrine that even apostasy cannot easily obliterate: the Day of Atonement.

The Bible is more concerned with time than with space. It sees the world in the dimension of time. It pays more attention to generations, to events, than to countries, to things; it is more concerned with history than with geography. To understand the teaching of the Bible, one must accept the premise that time has a meaning for life which is at least equal to that of space; that time has a significance and sovereignty of its own.

He who wants to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the profanity of clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil. He must go away from the screech of dissonant days, from the nervousness and fury of acquisitiveness and the betrayal in embezzling his own life. He must say farewell to manual work and learn to understand that the world already has been created and will survive without the help of man. Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone else. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world; on the seventh day we try to dominate the self.

knowing God and doing church

2008-07-26T22:36:00.003-04:00

I am confounded by the contrasts I find of doing church stuff from local church to denominational activities with that of knowing God. I am reading Your's Jack which is letters from C. S. Lewis. As I read Thomas Merton, Madeleine L'Engle, Will Campbell, Lesslie Newbigin, Lewis and others, I find myself separated from the spiritual reality of God, the incarnation in Jesus Christ, and the power of being crucified with and risen with Christ.

It isn't that we don't touch on the center of the mission given us in Christ, its that we are pre-occupied with so much "otherness" of our own lives. And we have laid upon or imposed upon the "church" much of our life, rather than our growing into the life of Christ. We seek to be "good" so that God will give us brownie points for the future rather than accepting we cannot accomplish the good, but only can be forgiven by this amazing love of God that redeems us both now and "then."

I am told to at times to just accept whatever small bits of progress that may happen in the name of "church", and be happy with that. To accept as inevitable that we humans cannot really become the true church, body of Christ. Its only an illusion. A false reality. That is probably true. BUT when we accept Christ fully as our life, it is no longer a future promise or an illusion. Its the reality of heaven breaking in here on earth! I am convinced of that by faith.

I continue to seek those who seek to be in that deeply entrenched faith community. Nothing else matters. I know that from scripture...and from revelations of that message from many I have known and been with over the years. As I go back and re-read notes I took over 30 years ago in seminary, I realize that I was being prepared to lead in the church in faith by that reality. For years I have been tried to be convinced by others, often in the "church", to give it up and just accept things the way they are. "Give it your best shot, but don't take it to heart that much!"

I have greatly reinforced in this faith by conversation with John Gossett from my congregation who is reading at my suggestion Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity by Eugene Peterson. John continue to comment to me how much he is realizing what ministry is from reading this book, and how demanding it is to be a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a culture that has done a bait and switch by convincing folks that the gospel is really not that demanding and that it is more about us than it is about Jesus Christ.

I am presently in a denomination that advertises itself rather than simply proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not that they intend to, but they come close to sounding like the Church of Christ or the Mormons as though the reality of Jesus is mainly known in our nation through the United Church of Christ. The reality of Jesus Christ is known where God wills it. In humility we seek to be ready for God to use us as God wills. But it is never about us. We are to be the light of God to the world. The UCC as well as Fairlawn West UCC will die with Christ, so that we may proclaim that we will all be raised with him. But these days many in the UCC stop short of saying that...because they think it is "aniquated" thinking. We spend more time promoting social issues and our own right thinking in the present, and we cherry pick our own historical strands to present how we were on the right side of history. Conveniently ignoring much of our own history that promoted the values and actions that today we condemn in others. We distinguish ourselves by our ideology, but our methodology is similar to that of those we condemn.

May Christ save us all!

MOLLY!

2008-07-19T17:02:00.003-04:00

Here's Molly at the premiere of "Batman 2"

And here she is playing in the adidas National Showcase Soccer Tournament...click on the picture

mid July

2008-07-17T18:13:00.002-04:00

Molly is playing for the Firestone HS soccer team in the adidas National Showcase tournament Fri through Sun. 7 games in 3 days! Kate, Martha and I leave Sun afternoon for Heidelberg College's student and parent orientation. We come back to Akron late Mon and all four of us take off for a week at Martha's folks in Crossville, TN on Linger Lake...all up on the 2200 feet Cumberland Plateau. Not almost heaven, truly heaven!

grad pics

2008-07-11T07:40:00.004-04:00

Per the request from the anonymous commenter, here is a link for graduation pictures. That is Kate on the left, Molly in the middle and Kate's friend since the 1st day of kindergarten, Molly Saks, on the right.
http://snipurl.com/2wopz

still around...

2008-07-06T14:39:00.002-04:00

Yep, I'm still around. Starting to rev up the ole writing elbow here.

Since Kate's graduation we have been settling in for the summer. Kate and Martha on Kate's choir tour to Arizona. Kate directed the choir at the assisted living community where my mother and step-father live and including Church of the Red Rocks in Sedona, a UCC church whose minister was my sr pastor when I was an intern in Philadelphia 35 years ago. Molly has played in two soccer tournaments (Jarosi and Continental Cup) and is in conditioning with her high school team getting ready for the adidas National Schowcase in two weeks.

And me...reading. Right now the book "The Serenity Prayer" - Faith and Politics in the Times of Peace and War, by Reinhold Niebuhr's daughter Elisabeth Sifton. It is great history, interesting reflection on Niebuhr's intention when he first developed the prayer, and his own personal life situations.

Kate graduates

2008-06-09T12:13:00.001-04:00

What a glorious time! Kate graduated from Firestone High School on June 2 as one of the valedictorians. We had her graduation party yesterday. We go with her to Heidelberg College on July 21 for two days of orientation and then she moves in with freshmen on August 21. Time moves fast.

David Loar
fairlawnwest.org
loar.org
David's blog

nothing worth writing about

2008-05-28T07:54:00.003-04:00

I haven't written here since April because there's nothing been worth writing about. It seems like everything that's been happening nationally and internationally...we've already been around those barns many times.

My personal life...well, it feels like its going through another time of change...and I don't like it. And yet I am excited realizing that God is doing something with me and those around me that will mean a new direction in my life. It has not been easy. It has been hard work. And I am learning new things. Well, not really new things, but re-learning some old things, and finding things I have known to be shifting into new ways of being.

That's good. But I still don't like it! I like other folks want things to stay the way they were. No, not really. I don want things to change, but I want to be in charge of declaring how the change is taking place. That's it! And I am clearly finding out that as much as I may encourage change, I am not in charge of it and I am no immediate fan of what it feels like to change more than the next person.

Kate has finished high school. Graduation is next Monday. Then she and Martha are off to Arizona for their last Summit Choral Society Touring Choir tour. Wow!

American church - liberal or conservative?

2008-04-16T08:10:00.001-04:00

This is the beginning of an article that speaks for me to the great predicament the American church has painted itself into the corner with... - David Loar

WHO'S RIGHT? THE LIBERALS OR THE CONSERVATIVES?

Today's church is plagued by political bias. And its leaders have turned this biaswhether left/right, blue/red, liberal/conservativeinto a pseudo-religion, something sacred in itself.

Yet, there's really no such thing as a "liberal Christian" or a "conservative Christian." The world views of both liberals and conservatives may offer helpful insights into justified concerns, but the tragedy comes when they get trappedand stay trapped!in their own agenda. Jesus' message, after all, was never a political message. And in our time, an older and wiser Billy Graham insisted the Gospel plainly "transcends party lines." (more)

from Thomas Hohstadt at "Future Church"

gossips and rumors of gossip

2008-04-11T16:00:00.003-04:00

There's been a lot of hoop-la about Jeremiah Wright the recently retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the church where Barack Obama is a member.

It brought some recent memories for us at Fairlawn West United Church of Christ in Akron. About 10 years ago we set out to be a church that is consumed by the mission of Jesus Christ and that we would be sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world around us rather than focused on ourselves and keeping the church more for ourselves, our convenience and comfort rather than being servants of God. That led to some major accusations towards me, animosity by some folks within the church, and a major blow up in the life of the church with some folks leaving to go to other churches. Along the way we took the pews out of our sanctuary and put in chairs and round tables. We gave the pews to a number of churches from Missouri to Pennsylvania that were white and African-American, and pentecostal to fundamentalist.

That latter move on top of the stories floating around these parts of Akron for some years before, led to wild stories about us in other churches and just out on the "street" among folks. It sounded like we had almost become devil worshipers who had sold our mothers into slavery! What we heard is that we were no longer a church...because we got rid of the pews. That we had misappropriated upwards of $800,000. That I had been emotionally abusive of older women in the church. That we had removed our large pipe organ (which apparently grew out of the horror that we had removed the pews.) The stories were legion, and the antipathy toward us by a variety of "church folks" was deep. But we found in the 4 years since that a number of other folks who were looking for a deeply spiritual, outward reaching, not self consumed church found out about us and have become part of our life. Some even heard about us through those wild stories.

Like Rev. Wright and Trinity UCC, people heard blips and decided from that about the whole. Like Jesus said in Luke 6:

22-23"Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you like!—for even though they don't like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.

recovery and transformation personally and as a church

2008-03-27T19:35:00.005-04:00

I just posted the following comment on the UCC Local Church Transformation listserve or email discussion group. I thought afterwards it was something I should post here. It is in response to two other pastors expressing their lostness in how to lead their congregations to listen and discern God's will for them and their own frustration and desire to cut and run because of all the resistance and sabotage they experience as pastors at the churches they are serving:

The first thing that helped me was 17 years ago beginning working a 12 step recovery program and learning in practical ways what it meant to have a spiritual relationship with God. After years of "talking about God and Jesus" and focusing on the "social justice agenda", 12 step led me to see the necessity of and what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I had avoided the latter for years because the fundamentalists only talked about that seemingly all the time in my opinion to avoid the question of social justice. But I began to realize I was cutting off my nose to spite my face. And that it was my way of keeping large pieces of my life from God's control or believing that I was. I kept calling it "responsibility" as if by having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and trusting God with my whole life I was somehow becoming a numbed out idiot who would never again act responsibly in the world if I "turned my whole life over to God." What I found was that I began to act more responsibly! And that my life was changing in ways I never imagined. And that listening, and prayer and Bible reflection and meditation became daily practices in my life. I couldn't live without them now. It is the only way I can preach God's Word because I know God and God's beloved Jesus Christ...rather than knowing about them.

Thus, when 10 years ago we began to look at "transformation" here at Fairlawn West...or when I began to and when I began to hear from Bruce Cole and Bill Easum and Tom Bandy and others the hard work that would lie ahead...I trusted that word because I trusted God. I shifted from being a local church service manager to being a spiritual leader. I just kept modeling personally and as the pastoral leader that role. Its what my ordination vows and my installation covenant called for anyway! Not everyone liked that. They wanted me to be more their personal social worker, to be the church manager, to be their personal "prayer", to take all the responsibility for the spiritual life of the church. I would not except that but continued to model my own personal and church pastor spiritual life. I had to trust it myself or I could never help them to see the power of trusting in their lives. So...transformation has to begin with us...personally!!!!!....first!!!!! Focus on your spiritual life. Take the time. Give your life over to the commandments! For me the 4th...honor the sabbath and keep it holy...is preeminent. Not talking about Sunday per se, but an every 7 day sabbath which is the beginning of my doing what God does. My life through sabbath observance begins to be in line with God's "weekly" practice from Genesis 1. And then...all things will follow. I need fewer if any "retreats" to monasteries or church camps, because sabbath is part of my life. If you ask our congregation now...they will tell you that the practice of prayer, Bible reflection and listening to God are much, much more clear for us. Whereas even up to 10 years ago for me it was still something "out there" I was struggling to do let alone understand it now was becoming something naturally part of our whole life...it was a recovery or a transformation...by the grace of God. Our corporate life is focused first spiritually...and the justice work multiplied at least 4x when our spiritual life became a core value and a bedrock belief of our congregational life. But it took Bruce many years ago in an email on the Easum Bandy leadership listserv when we were just starting and I was ready to throw in the towel, saying the word "persevere" that I decided to keep at.

My family took a deep wound during that time. I hit a severe depression for 6 mos in 2002. I was looking for a way to get out of here, but I couldn't find anywhere else that was as "far down the road" as we were!!!!! I would have to start over with this process at any church I read and knew about on "UCC Employment Opportunities." PLUS, my family said they weren't moving from Akron. It was home to them. The latter is what forced me to stay even when I was responding in the early part of this decade to Fairlawn West the way you and xxxx are to your congregations. I began to trust God...and the rest is history...or God's salvation history (oh, that good ole heilsgechichte)!

Love,
David

media and truth

2008-03-23T11:06:00.004-04:00

I remember over 30 years ago hearing Marshall Rosenberg talk about not accepting the truth as coming from the "mind-numbing media." I wonder if we have expected too much from it in the recent life of the United Church of Christ. And now we feel betrayed by it with the brouhaha over Barack Obama and the former pastor of his home church (Trinity UCC in Chicago), Jeremiah Wright. I think the media is what it is. It numbs the mind into expecting it will get it right or get it the way we want it to be. Its almost if we live by the "sword" we will be attacked by the sword.

I was struck on this past Thursday which was Maundy Thursday of Holy Week the reading from the Gospel of John of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples in the lowest rung of the social ladder role of a servant, on the night of his betrayal. And then telling them there is a new Great Commandment. The 10 Commandments and the Golden Rule don't even measure up any more to this singular great one - to love one another as HE has loved us. I wonder how the UCC would be perceived if all of us who claim its identity would have spent the last few weeks washing the feet (or similar action) of other people around us?

Back on Jeremiah Wright - he is being portrayed as a inflammatory demagogue. Even aside from whatever is the reality of decades of his sermons, let along pastoral leadership, I was struck by his successor, whom he personally selected and mentored at Trinity for the past few years - Otis Moss III. I heard Moss on "All Things Considered" of National Public Radio this week. He is a very measured and thoughtful man. He spoke with a good listening of the interviewer AND he conveyed the Gospel in the midst of it. He talked about his wish that out of this whole thing people would know the living Christ and the saving grace of God. Powerful! And the wild-eyed Wright got him as his successor. hmm. Crafty as a fox he is!

Thomas Merton quote on God

2008-03-16T12:19:00.003-04:00

I am re-reading Merton's "New Seeds of Contemplation". This paragraph speaks to me in a time when we are attempting to be "intellectually spiritual" and trying to work through in our minds what we will accept about Jesus and what we will discard as irrelevant or "out dated" about God.

In all the situations of life the "will of God" comes to us not merely as an external dictate of impersonal law but above all as an interior invitation of personal love. Too often the conventional conception of "God's will" as a sphinx-like and arbitrary force bearing down upon us with implacable hostility, leads men to lose faith in a God they cannot find it possible to love. Such a view of the divine will drives human weakness to despair and one wonders if it is not, itself, often the expression of a despair too intolerable to be admitted to conscious consideration. These arbitrary "dictates" of a domineering and insensible Father are more often seeds of hatred than of love. If that is our concept of the will of God, we cannot possibly seek the obscure and intimate mystery of the encounter that takes place in contemplation. We will desire only to fly as far as possible from Him and hide from His Face forever. So much depends on our idea of God! Yet no idea of Him, however pure and perfect, is adequate to express Him as He really is. Our idea of God tell us more about ourselves than about Him.

Thomas Merton

Good Fri & Easter...so what

2008-03-12T07:46:00.001-04:00

So many people claim to believe in the Resurrection, and yet it means so little to them. It has no effect in their lives. It is not enough to celebrate Easter and say “Christ is risen!” Indeed, it is useless to proclaim it at all, unless at the same time we can say that we too have risen.

The long passage of time has brought with it a temptation to keep on speaking about Good Friday without being moved by it. We hear about Christ’s death, and we sit there bored, as if we were reading a newspaper. In fact, we would find a newspaper a good deal more interesting.

- C. F. Blumhardt in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Orbis, 2005)

Thomas appears to have been a realist - reserved, cool, perhaps a little obstinate. He wanted proofs, wanted to see and touch. Then again, it might have been rebellion deep within him, the vainglory of an intelligence that would not surrender, a sluggishness and coldness of heart. In any case, he got what he asked for…in that state of unbelief which cuts itself off from everything, that insists on human evidence to become convinced. But nothing that comes from God can be proven like 2 x 2 = 4. It must touch one; it is only seen and grasped when the heart is open and the spirit purged of self. Only then can it awaken faith.

Romano Guardini in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Orbis, 2005)

it's Heidelberg

2008-03-07T10:25:00.005-05:00

Kate has decided to attend Heidelberg College in the fall. She was awarded their 2nd highest academic scholarship, Founder's Scholarship, and was accepted into the music department from her audition. She will be part of the Honor's Program which is something I would have loved to have had when I was in college. When we looked at other schools' honor programs they didn't seem to be as focused communally and offer the variety of interdisciplinary work that Heidelberg offers.

Heidelberg was not on my original list of schools when we started looking. Kate made the connection at a college fair a few years ago at her high school. She stopped by the table because her grandfather, my dad, had graduated from H'berg. (She had never met him since he died in 1977.) I have come to appreciate Heidelberg the more we visited and investigated. I think it is a good place for Kate.

She was down to St. Olaf and Elizabethtown. Great options to have.

Ohio primary election

2008-03-05T12:26:00.006-05:00

I voted for Obama. My daughter Kate in her first election to vote voted for a woman for president, Clinton!!!! My younger daughter Molly who is a freshman in high school has been pushing for Obama since May of 2007. Thank you God!!! We have a ways to go, but you surely have guided the world to a place where my daughters are able to truly advocate for issues and ideas rather than gender and race. We pray for the day when sexual orientation and other human "categories" are not limiting factors to be able to consider the spectrum of human possibility in electing our political/governmental/legislative leadership.

Lent...trying to fan the flames

2008-02-27T07:10:00.001-05:00

Reflection for a day in Lent, Feb 27...

Ok. So we're into Lent a few weeks and all that great intention back a few weeks ago...well, its been blown away by the wind or at least, its blowing in the wind. Like an old flag that should be replaced, the journey with Lent quickly becomes shredded. It begins to become forced in around the regular activities of the day and week. And then eventually (in a few short weeks), it becomes "something I need to do" again.

So, here we are at crunch time. A few weeks into Lent. Its time to buck up and decide whether you are going to turn your day over to God as you said you were going to back there on Ash Wednesday.

Psalm 118
20Here is the gate of the LORD!

Everyone who does right

may enter this gate.

21I praise the LORD

for answering my prayers

and saving me.

22The stone that the builders

tossed aside

has now become

the most important stone.

23The LORD has done this,

and it is amazing to us.

24This day belongs to the LORD!

Let's celebrate

and be glad today.

25We'll ask the LORD to save us!

We'll sincerely ask the LORD

to let us win.

26God bless the one who comes

in the name of the LORD!

We praise you from here

in the house of the LORD.

27The LORD is our God,

and he has given us light!

Start the celebration!

March with palm branches

all the way to the altar. 28The LORD is my God!

I will praise him and tell him

how thankful I am.

29Tell the LORD

how thankful you are,

because he is kind

and always merciful.