Seeking Authentic Voice

A reflection on the readings for Easter 3A, Luke 24:13-25 Recently I attended a worship service, as a member of the congregation, at the church where a friend of mine is the rector. When it was time for the peace my friend greeted me and my husband Dan and moved on. It was clear to me that my friend did not recognize me. Now, I wasn't surprised by this, my friend hasn't seen me in person for 13 years. We do “talk” on Facebook but otherwise we have lived in different states. Actually I have grown accustomed to people not recognizing me. If I change the way I wear my hair people won't recognize me. If I pull it back, wear down, let it go curly or blow it dry and straighten it, or change the color, or the length, some people will look right past me. So I was neither surprised nor concerned about this. Later, when the service was over we joined the group of people leaving the church, and then I had the opportunity to tell my friend who I was. Then of course, she recogniz...

The RevGals theme today for the Monday Meet and Greet is Hospitality. It's in honor of their retreat which begins today on that same theme. Here is my contribution: In her book, Christianity for the Rest of Us , Diana Butler Bass describes several small mainline Christian churches from different denominations that are experiencing growth because they have engaged, in deep and transformational ways, with ancient Christian practices. Christian practices are those acts of discipline that a faith community engages in which shape, form, and transform the community into deeper faith. These practices include prayer, testimony, beauty, and hospitality, among others. These practices tend to rise up naturally, organically within a community. But the churches in her book took the time to discern the practices already at work in their community and develop them intentionally into stronger, deeper practices. At a recent conference with Diana Butler Bass she said that it takes 10,000 hours of pr...