Slow Church vs. McMinistry - Christianity Today

“Through discernment and a broader understanding of vocation, people can be encouraged and empowered to exercise their own gifts and passions. For pastors who need to be in control, it’s going to be unsettling. We need to get away from the four characteristics of McDonaldization: predictability, calculability, efficiency, and control.” – John Pattison

“What we’re encouraging is for churches to grow deeper, to know the people in their congregation and neighborhood, and to be attentive to these people. Ultimately, slow is not about speed, it’s about attentiveness. Once we start to grow deeper in our knowledge of our place, our neighbors, and the people in our congregation, we’re able to respond and discern better what really needs urgency and what doesn’t.” – Chris Smith

—From “Mary, Martha, and Slow Church,” on Parsemagazine.com.

“Faith grew from seeds of doubt, and I came upon a whole new world that, for the first time, actually made sense to me. To this day, I do not find faith stifling but liberating and transformative. It has opened a constellation of meaning, beauty, hope, and life that I had been indoctrinated to deny. And so began a lifelong quest to know, study, and teach about the one whom Christians called Lord.”

—Michael Bird, responding to Bart Ehrman’s “de-conversion” in “How God Became Jesus—and How I Came to Faith in Him”(ChristianityToday.com)

David Foster Wallace: Prophet of Cultural Cynicism?

A recent essay from Salon.com sees iconic novelist David Foster Wallace’s views on irony and cynicism as pop-culture prophecy. A key question of Wallace’s work asked how cultural expression can move from commoditized, self-obsessed irony to something “sincere and redeeming.”

The authors note that:

“Irony is now fashionable and a widely embraced default setting for social interaction, writing, and the visual arts. Irony fosters an affected nihilistic attitude that is no more edgy than a syndicated episode of Seinfeld … . Wallace called for art that redeems rather than simply ridicules[.]

“For a rising generation, media-fueled cynicism and irony are the default settings for approaching life, relationships, and yes, faith and worship. Perhaps pastors ought to mine pop-culture prophets like Wallace to help blaze a new path to redemptive sincerity.”

—From “Irony is Ruining our Culture,” 4/13/14, Salon.com

PARSE //A Top 10 Ministry Blog

Since our launch of PARSE in January, ministry readers around the world have connected with our unique blend of cultural insight, ministry savvy, and unusual subject matter. So much so, that PARSE was just listed (using key industry metrics) as #10 out of the top 300 Christian Ministry blogs in the world by ChurchRelevance.com. Are you a faithful reader? Thanks! Not been there yet? Check it out at PARSE

The Protestant Return to the Parish

If you missed it, be sure to catch my conversation with author and activist Tim Soerens on how “The New Parish” can open up your neighborhood, your congregation, and your heart. Here’s one question from our chat. – Paul Pastor

What have churches lost in losing their connection to their neighborhood?

Tim: The first word that comes to mind is reality, the second is possibility.

Outside of presence in a neighborhood parish context that embraces some sort of limitation and accepts a healthy measure of responsibility, it’s nearly impossible to discern what effect their communal life is having upon others. This is one reason we see the parish as a timely gift to the current state of the church today. Responsibility and limitation may not be the sexiest words, but we can neither be truly human, nor communally present, without naming how we will be limited, and how we will be responsible. As my friend and co-author Paul Sparks repeatedly says, “The parish is an invitation to the real.”

—Read the full interview at Christianitytoday.com/parse

“There is a growing conviction in urban centers that food intake is not a neutral, amoral choice. Your diet can either be good or bad, loving or unloving—to yourself, to animals, to local farmers, to the environment, or to your loved ones.”

-Pastor Aaron Damiani in “Food is the New Sex.”

Stay-at-home moms on the rise

“After decades of decline, a rise in stay-at-home mothers,” reads the headline of a recent report from Pew. They chart a reversal that is complex, as much a factor of economic or social realities as it is the product of choice:

The recent turnaround appears to be driven by a mix of demographic, economic and societal factors, including rising immigration as well as a downturn in women’s labor force participation, and is set against a backdrop of continued public ambivalence about the impact of working mothers on young children.

The key takeaway? In ministry to moms, don’t assume too much from whether they work inside or outside the home. As always, our generation’s dynamics of work, family, and calling are complex. Get to know mothers and their family stories one at a time.

— From PewSocialTrends.org

America’s 53 million Latinos now make up the country’s largest ethnic minority. A recent report from Barna traces many of the key demographics for this population. One key takeaway is the powerful vision Hispanics have for their work. 85% find personal meaning and fulfillment in the work they do, and 69% see their work as “creating a better world.” However like many other demographics, they struggle to connect work and faith—72% see their work and faith as two separate parts of life.

—From Barna.org