Our second Rural Ministry Colloquium of the year is now available for download at iTunes U.
Rev. Chuck Warnock led about 45 Duke Divinity Students, faculty, and staff in a Rural Ministry Colloquium on "The Power of Partnership: How a Small Church Made a Big Difference."
The Rural Ministry Colloquia are monthly lunch-time gatherings at Duke Divinity School where a pastor, scholar, layperson, or practitioner is invited to address an issue related to rural life or ministry and then lead a discussion on the topic. These events are open to the public.
Rev. Chuck Warnock is a writer who has written for Outreach Magazine, Leadership Journal, and ChristianityToday.com; a presenter who has led sessions at the National Outreach Convention and the Billy Graham School for Evangelism; and the popular blogger of "Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor," where he commented on his trip to Duke.
Primarily, however, Rev. Warnock is the pastor of Chatham Baptist Church in Chatham, Va. Chatham is a small town that, like so many such communities, has been devastated by the loss of its tobacco, textile, and furniture industries. Recently, however, thanks in part to the leadership of Chatham Baptist Church and its pastor, Rev. Warnock, the town has experienced signs of revitalization, including the expansion of a Boys and Girls Club, the creation of performing arts programs for youth, and the construction of a new community center.
Listen to Rev. Warnock share this inspiring story, as well as some of the lessons he's learned along the way.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
No More Deaths
On Tuesday of this past week, Duke Divinity School was visited by one of God's living saints.
Max Cisneros is an 80 year old retired United Methodist pastor from New Mexico who visited the Divinity School to tell us, in a Hispanic House of Studies Colloquium, of how he walks the deserts of the Southwest along the border with Mexico. In the killing desert heat, Max leaves jugs of water for desperate, dehydrated immigrants who have illegally crossed into the United States. God called him to such work, Max says, by telling him he needed to become the answer to his own prayers for justice.
Occasionally, Max is too late in his ministry of offering living water- sometimes all he finds are the dead bodies of those who have succumbed to the scorching temperatures. At each location where a body is found, Max will make a cross to mark the passing of one of God's children. It is estimated that 7000 such immigrants have been found in the deserts of the Southwest over the past ten years - and Max estimates that thousands more have yet to be found.
Max says that there are those who object to his actions. Minutemen puncture holes his water jugs. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has tried to fine him for littering. Others have accused him of aiding and abetting criminals.
But Max sees the matter very simply: no one should suffer the death penalty for the crime of trying to find a better life for themselves and their families.
Max's mantra is "No more deaths."
Those of us who heard Max speak were profoundly moved. We were angry, heartbroken at the images of suffering we saw. To borrow a phrase from Jesus' beautitudes, we felt thirsty for justice.
And yet, you might say that Max's example of love was, to us spiritually dehydrated people, like a pitcher of clear cool water stumbled upon amid the harsh desert of our world's pain.
To see a video about Max, and to read a great reflection upon his work, "Desert Father," by the Center for Reconciliation's Chris Rice, visit Chris's Reconciler's Blog by clicking here.
Max Cisneros is an 80 year old retired United Methodist pastor from New Mexico who visited the Divinity School to tell us, in a Hispanic House of Studies Colloquium, of how he walks the deserts of the Southwest along the border with Mexico. In the killing desert heat, Max leaves jugs of water for desperate, dehydrated immigrants who have illegally crossed into the United States. God called him to such work, Max says, by telling him he needed to become the answer to his own prayers for justice.
Occasionally, Max is too late in his ministry of offering living water- sometimes all he finds are the dead bodies of those who have succumbed to the scorching temperatures. At each location where a body is found, Max will make a cross to mark the passing of one of God's children. It is estimated that 7000 such immigrants have been found in the deserts of the Southwest over the past ten years - and Max estimates that thousands more have yet to be found.
Max says that there are those who object to his actions. Minutemen puncture holes his water jugs. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has tried to fine him for littering. Others have accused him of aiding and abetting criminals.
But Max sees the matter very simply: no one should suffer the death penalty for the crime of trying to find a better life for themselves and their families.
Max's mantra is "No more deaths."
Those of us who heard Max speak were profoundly moved. We were angry, heartbroken at the images of suffering we saw. To borrow a phrase from Jesus' beautitudes, we felt thirsty for justice.
And yet, you might say that Max's example of love was, to us spiritually dehydrated people, like a pitcher of clear cool water stumbled upon amid the harsh desert of our world's pain.
To see a video about Max, and to read a great reflection upon his work, "Desert Father," by the Center for Reconciliation's Chris Rice, visit Chris's Reconciler's Blog by clicking here.
Encuentro with Christ in Mexico
A slideshow of the recent Thriving Rural Communities and Hispanic House of Studies 2009 "Encuentro" journey to Mexico is now available online.
North Carolina's rural communities, thought of by some as immutable, static backwaters, are actually places of great and continual change. One of the most important of these changes in the last 20 years has been the influx of Hispanic and Latino immigrants into rural North Carolina. According to the Immigration Policy Center, the Latino share of North Carolina's population grew from 1.2% in 1990 to 7.1% in 2007.
To better prepare Duke Divinity Students for this new population of North Carolina residents, two years ago the Thriving Rural Communities Initiative and the Hispanic House of Studies partnered to create the journey called "Encuentro."
The Spanish word "Encuentro" alternately means "encounter," or "I find." The purpose of the Encuentro program is to enable a face-to-face “encounter” between divinity students, rural pastors, and lay leaders and the land, history, culture, faith, and people of Mexico.
Through Encuentro, participants visit the places that have shaped Mexico’s history, such as the Aztec Templo Mayor and the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City. They encounter the gifts of Mexico's culture, cuisine, and landscape. They stay at an indigenous village high up in the mountains of Guerrero.
Most importantly, participants in Encuentro share, worship, and work alongside of members of the Methodist family in Mexico, laughing with them, praying with them, learning from them, and hearing their stories.
Through this encounter, participants in Encuentro
North Carolina's rural communities, thought of by some as immutable, static backwaters, are actually places of great and continual change. One of the most important of these changes in the last 20 years has been the influx of Hispanic and Latino immigrants into rural North Carolina. According to the Immigration Policy Center, the Latino share of North Carolina's population grew from 1.2% in 1990 to 7.1% in 2007.
To better prepare Duke Divinity Students for this new population of North Carolina residents, two years ago the Thriving Rural Communities Initiative and the Hispanic House of Studies partnered to create the journey called "Encuentro."
The Spanish word "Encuentro" alternately means "encounter," or "I find." The purpose of the Encuentro program is to enable a face-to-face “encounter” between divinity students, rural pastors, and lay leaders and the land, history, culture, faith, and people of Mexico.
Through Encuentro, participants visit the places that have shaped Mexico’s history, such as the Aztec Templo Mayor and the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City. They encounter the gifts of Mexico's culture, cuisine, and landscape. They stay at an indigenous village high up in the mountains of Guerrero.
Most importantly, participants in Encuentro share, worship, and work alongside of members of the Methodist family in Mexico, laughing with them, praying with them, learning from them, and hearing their stories.
Through this encounter, participants in Encuentro
- become more knowledgeable about the land, history, culture, language, and faith of the people of Mexico
- gain a broader conception of the church as the international body of Christ
- are strengthened and inspired by the hospitality and witness of the Mexican Methodist Church
- offer the encouragement of their presence to their Mexican sisters and brothers in Christ
- are challenged to reflect more deeply upon the complicated issues concerning immigration to the U.S
- are called to respond more effectively to the needs of the Hispanic population in their own community
- deepen their fellowship with one another as those called to rural ministry
Above all, Encuentro ultimately becomes an “encounter” with Christ: that what participants “find,” across barriers of border, ethnicity, and language, is the presence of Christ in one another.
Click here to learn more and to watch a slideshow about our experiences in Mexico.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Grave-Digger Evangelism
“For though I am free with respect to all,I have made myself a servant to all,so that I might win more of them.To those under the lawI became as one under the law . . . so that I might win those under the law.To those outside the law . . .I became as one outside the lawso that I might win those outside the law.To the weakI became weak,so that I might win the weak.I have become all thingsto all people,that I might by all meanssave some.I do it all for the sake of the gospel,so that I may share in its blessings.”-I Corinthians 9: 20-23
In his presentation on the vision of Solid Rock UMC, one of our TRC pastors, Mike Bass, likes to point out that we are living in the age “after Christendom.” Part of what he means is that we are living in a time and culture when we can no longer take it for granted that the people we see around us each day have any real knowledge of what Christian faith is all about: and often the image that they do have is one that bears little resemblance to the kind of real, vital, and living faith that we all treasure.
Other writers have pointed out that the church’s current position in society is a lot like the situation encountered by the early church: where many people have little idea of what Christians really are- and if they do have some notion, it revolves around some of the same kind of negative stereotypes that Romans had toward those first few strange people who followed the crucified Jesus. Thus the recent George Barna poll finding that the three words non-Christians most often associate with Christians are “anti-homosexual, hypocritical, and judgmental.”
Add into this publicity nightmare the several recent screaming secularist tracts that describe faith in God as an anachronism of the past, as well as the fact that so many people are weary of having their life intruded on uninvited by others with things to sell, and it is easy to see why so many seem ready to put the church in its grave.
It is enough to make us wonder what in the world evangelism, a true, faithful sharing of the gospel, might look like in such a time as this. What should we do?
When so many are trying to put the church in its grave, perhaps we should dig our own grave.
I was talking with a pastor about all of the funerals he had performed recently, when he mentioned that he has taken up a new practice surrounding funerals. After the graveside service, after the last prayer from the little black worship book, after the hugs, after the family climbs back into the funeral car, he takes off his suit jacket and walks over to the grave-fillers standing apart in the distance, and he volunteers to help them.
It all started, he said, when he led the funeral of someone in the community whose family could not afford a proper burial. To help the family, the pastor arranged for some volunteer people from the church to help in digging and filling in the grave, under the guidance of one funeral home director. He found it to be such a powerful practice, such a moving ritual, that he resolved to try to repeat it. Since then, not only has he found that grave-digging has more deeply connected him with the dead, but that it has made new connections with the living. Each time, he says, he has good conversations with the grave-diggers he helps, many of whom can’t believe that any preacher would ever do this kind of thing. One of the grave-diggers has even come to his church a few times.
The apostle Paul would approve. The man who wrote the following words knows what that pastor is up to: “For though I am free with respect to all,I have made myself a servant to all, so that I might win more of them. To those under the law I became as one under the law . . . so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law . . .I became as one outside the law so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel,so that I may share in its blessings.” (-I Corinthians 9: 20-23).
“To those digging graves I have become as one digging graves . . .”
This image of the pastoral gravedigger, of Christian servants graciously rolling up their sleeves and joining people in their (often grim) work, of doing slightly conspicuous or odd things that help people re-think church, of performing deeds that fascinate and captivate the imagination, and that would make absolutely no sense unless Jesus really is Lord – this, I believe, is the present and future of evangelism.
It’s also a pretty good witness to a Savior who joined mortal humanity so deeply and fully that he went all the way down into a grave –
and who still does some of his best work of resurrection in the cemetery.
In his presentation on the vision of Solid Rock UMC, one of our TRC pastors, Mike Bass, likes to point out that we are living in the age “after Christendom.” Part of what he means is that we are living in a time and culture when we can no longer take it for granted that the people we see around us each day have any real knowledge of what Christian faith is all about: and often the image that they do have is one that bears little resemblance to the kind of real, vital, and living faith that we all treasure.
Other writers have pointed out that the church’s current position in society is a lot like the situation encountered by the early church: where many people have little idea of what Christians really are- and if they do have some notion, it revolves around some of the same kind of negative stereotypes that Romans had toward those first few strange people who followed the crucified Jesus. Thus the recent George Barna poll finding that the three words non-Christians most often associate with Christians are “anti-homosexual, hypocritical, and judgmental.”
Add into this publicity nightmare the several recent screaming secularist tracts that describe faith in God as an anachronism of the past, as well as the fact that so many people are weary of having their life intruded on uninvited by others with things to sell, and it is easy to see why so many seem ready to put the church in its grave.
It is enough to make us wonder what in the world evangelism, a true, faithful sharing of the gospel, might look like in such a time as this. What should we do?
When so many are trying to put the church in its grave, perhaps we should dig our own grave.
I was talking with a pastor about all of the funerals he had performed recently, when he mentioned that he has taken up a new practice surrounding funerals. After the graveside service, after the last prayer from the little black worship book, after the hugs, after the family climbs back into the funeral car, he takes off his suit jacket and walks over to the grave-fillers standing apart in the distance, and he volunteers to help them.
It all started, he said, when he led the funeral of someone in the community whose family could not afford a proper burial. To help the family, the pastor arranged for some volunteer people from the church to help in digging and filling in the grave, under the guidance of one funeral home director. He found it to be such a powerful practice, such a moving ritual, that he resolved to try to repeat it. Since then, not only has he found that grave-digging has more deeply connected him with the dead, but that it has made new connections with the living. Each time, he says, he has good conversations with the grave-diggers he helps, many of whom can’t believe that any preacher would ever do this kind of thing. One of the grave-diggers has even come to his church a few times.
The apostle Paul would approve. The man who wrote the following words knows what that pastor is up to: “For though I am free with respect to all,I have made myself a servant to all, so that I might win more of them. To those under the law I became as one under the law . . . so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law . . .I became as one outside the law so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel,so that I may share in its blessings.” (-I Corinthians 9: 20-23).
“To those digging graves I have become as one digging graves . . .”
This image of the pastoral gravedigger, of Christian servants graciously rolling up their sleeves and joining people in their (often grim) work, of doing slightly conspicuous or odd things that help people re-think church, of performing deeds that fascinate and captivate the imagination, and that would make absolutely no sense unless Jesus really is Lord – this, I believe, is the present and future of evangelism.
It’s also a pretty good witness to a Savior who joined mortal humanity so deeply and fully that he went all the way down into a grave –
and who still does some of his best work of resurrection in the cemetery.
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