by Michiana Covenant | Feb 14, 2017 | Women's Ministry
By Elizabeth Sunshine
A few weeks ago, for the second time I had the tremendous privilege of introducing a child to my church in Chinese. The Lynn family, who are members of our church, just adopted a daughter from China. Her name is Audrey. Since I studied Chinese in college and used it regularly for three years while working in Taiwan, they asked me to meet with Audrey before her baptism and explain to her what we were going to do.
I met Audrey on a Thursday night about four days after she arrived in the U.S and three days before her baptism. We wanted to recognize her as a member of our church in virtue of being part of a Christian household, just as we do babies born to members of our congregation. But Audrey is 10 years old, old enough to be confused about what was happening. She hadn’t learned anything about Christianity during her time in China. Honestly, I was really nervous about the meeting. Explaining baptism to a child with no background knowledge would be challenging in English, let alone in Chinese. But Pastor Wallace and I agreed that we didn’t need to go into great detail on the theology. Audrey will have plenty of time to learn about God from her family and in Sunday School. Mostly, for now, she needed to know that baptism was the church’s way of recognizing her as part of the Lynns’ family – and ours.
That evening Audrey’s father, brought her and her sister Ava (who was also adopted from China) to the Wallaces’ house. For most of the evening, Ava played with the Wallaces’ two youngest children, and Audrey sat on her father’s lap and watched. It was obvious that a few times she thought about joining them, but she didn’t get up. Pastor Wallace commented, “It’s clear that she’s watching everything and trying to figure out what her place is in all this. And right now, her place is right there, on her dad’s lap.”
Pastor Wallace eventually started talking to Audrey, and I translated. I told her who we were, that she was going to go to church and be baptized on Sunday, and that that was the church’s way of recognizing her adoption. She seemed to be listening, but she didn’t say anything or look directly at me.
Then I said, “The church is another kind of family, and when we baptize you, we’re saying that we want you to be part of our family.”
At that moment, she looked up and gave me one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. She understood. That moment alone would have made all the years I spent learning Chinese worth it.
On Sunday, I stood up front with Audrey as she was baptized to explain what was happening. I didn’t try to translate everything that was said; much of it wouldn’t have made sense to someone who didn’t know the Bible anyway. But when the congregation stood up to receive her I told her, “These people are promising to support you, love you and pray for you.” Then I told her, “Your parents are promising to pray for you and to teach you about God.” Then I said, “The pastor is going to baptize you to make you part of our family.” On Thursday I had told her the pastor was going to put water on her head. In retrospect, I should have mentioned that he was going to do it three times. She was a little shocked, but she came away smiling.
That Thursday night, Pastor Wallace asked Ava whether she remembers her baptism. She broke into a big grin and said, “Yes!” I hope that Audrey will also look back on her baptism as the moment we received her into our family and God’s.
I certainly appreciate the reminder that when I hadn’t done anything to earn it, God accepted me into His family and said to me, “You belong here.”
by Peter Wallace | Nov 4, 2016 | Family, Pastoral Notes, Pastoral Practice, Worship
You Are What You Love — Liturgy and Habit
“The mall is a religious site, not because it is theological but because it is liturgical. Its spiritual significance (and threat) isn’t found in its ‘ideas’ or its ‘messages’ but in its rituals. The mall doesn’t care what you think, but it is very much interested in what you love. Victoria’s secret is that she’s actually after your heart.” (p41)
With this in mind, James K. A. Smith launches into a liturgical reading of the shopping mall — rightly seeing the architecture of the mall as an echo of the Gothic cathedral. He notes that “here one finds an array of three-dimensional icons adorned in garb that — as with all iconography — inspires our desire to be imitators of these exemplars. These statues and icons (mannequins) embody for us concrete images of the good life. These are the ideals of perfection to which we will learn to aspire.” (p43)
“This temple — like countless others now emerging around the world — offers a rich, embodied visual mode of evangelism that attracts us. This is a gospel whose power is beauty, which speaks to our deepest desires. It compels us to come, not through dire moralisms, but rather with a winsome invitation to share in this envisioned good life.” (p43)
We then enter “one of the chapels” and are “greeted by a welcoming acolyte” and we make our way through its labyrinths, “open to surprise, to that moment where the spirit leads us to an experience we couldn’t have anticipated.” (p43) Having found the holy object, “we proceed to the altar that is the consummation of worship” where the priest of this “religion of transaction” transforms our plastic card into the object of our desire, and we leave “with newly minted relics, as it were, which are themselves the means to the good life.” (p45)
The Notre Dame lunch group has been reading and discussing James K. A. Smith’s You Are What You Love — a thought-provoking essay on “the spiritual power of habit.” The chapter for this week “Guard Your Heart: the Liturgies of Home” reminds us that the patterns and practices that shape our hearts will also shape the rhythms of our life (or is it the other way around?!).
Smith shows us how the basic patterns and rhythms of worship (historic Christian liturgy — like what we do at MCPC) should form and shape the patterns and rhythms of life. “Embedded in the church’s worship are important pictures of what flourishing homes and families look like.” (p114)
The Problem of Compartmentalization
In the modern world we have compartmentalized life into “family,” “church,” “work,” and “play.” When we compartmentalize our lives, then you hear me saying this: The pastor wants me to spend more time doing “church” things. And while I do encourage families to read the Bible, pray together, sing together, memorize the catechism together — these things only scratch the surface of what I mean.
When the worship of God becomes the pattern for our lives, we realize that in our baptism, we have been united to a new family in Jesus. My “family” is redefined in Jesus. Our society — like many before it — has idolized the family and turned it into an ultimate end (ironic, because our society is destroying the family — but that in itself should prove the point: idolatry always destroys the very thing that it seeks!).
Likewise, our work — not just the thing we get paid to do, but the labor that characterizes our creational callings during the “six-days shalt thou labor and do all thy work” — that work is redefined in Jesus. How should I think about my six-days labor? Well, what we do every Sunday in our liturgy reminds us of our true identity in Christ. Christian liturgy is designed to draw us back into the story of what God is doing in history. (As I said it last Sunday, our problem is when we think that the story is about us — when in fact, the story is about Jesus!) Only when we see that the story is about Jesus do we see where we fit into his story.
What God has done in Jesus is not just “save our souls.” He saves us body and soul — he feeds us, body and soul — unto everlasting life. Therefore, since we participate in this grand and glorious story, we can take a long-term perspective and realize that God brings change through the power of his Holy Spirit working in his church, bringing renewal and regeneration throughout all the earth.
Re-Forming Daily Habits
So how can we re-form our daily practices — our routines and rhythms of life — in ways that conform to the heavenly liturgy? Here are a couple suggestions: 1) If the church of Jesus Christ is our new family, then look for ways to connect what you are doing during the week with others in the body of Christ Do you go shopping? Develop a pattern of shopping together with others who share a common desire to conform their shopping practices to the Word of God. Do you watch college football? Invite others to watch with you who will help you avoid the dangers of modern sports idolatries. In short, if we are seeking one thing — if we are seeking to know and love and see the living and true God — then we should look for ways to connect everything that we are doing to that one thing.
by Michiana Covenant | Sep 25, 2016 | Ginger Wallace, Women's Ministry
This is the question in the minds of many parents of small children as they struggle to parent in the pew. The answer to this question is pretty simple: those parents were YOU at one point. Those children were not born quiet and obedient!
A child’s natural, normal behavior is somewhat like a puppy: everywhere at once, peeing in the wrong places, chewing on the wrong things, barking/talking at the most inappropriate times! And in a similar way, it’s about training, lots of training. And lots of wondering if it’s even worth it…
The difference to keep in mind that it IS worth it, because they were created in the image of God and were baptized into His family, children can praise their Father, they can glorify HIm!
We are created in a beautiful way. Created in the image of our God! But tainted by SIn–But Redeemed by the blood of Jesus! This “sin” thing really messes with us, it twists something beautiful into something messy and hard–for right now. It confuses us and makes us doubt that we can change–or that our children can change. But remember that the promise of deliverance is for you AND your children. And that God gives His Word to all of us for knowing Him, for understanding Him and for Enjoying Him.
A few years ago, I was still struggling through toddlers beside me in the pew thinking ”What’s the point here?”. Why should I have my kids who don’t understand any of this in Worship with me? “Why am I in Worship?” I had conversations with friends, I listened to sermons (well, parts of sermons…I still had to leave during the service for kid-related reasons) and the thought came to me, “We come to hear the Word, we come to know and love God, to respond to His love to us with voices of confession, of thankfulness and of Praise.” All the rest, the sitting still, the snacks/no snacks, the Do-you-really-need-to-pee-or-do-you-just-want-out, the to spank or not to spank, all this was not the point, the point was, “These are children of God, the way that children learn and grow is to hear their Father’s voice so they can be like Him–so they can see His Power, know His love, feel His Grace.”
I actually like to imagine that we are all gathered (ALL the saints–not just MCPC) in a big yard, we are in the sunshine that is perfectly tempered so that each is comfortable, and we are seeing Jesus and hearing His voice. And we don’t want to be anywhere else.
“Yet you are He who took me from the womb, you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.” Psalm 22:9
So here is a thought, if we can focus right now on listening, on hearing the Word — the Word will change us. It will change our children. Our job is to teach them to Listen. God’s job is to change their hearts. When your child talks during the sermon, motion to them to quiet their mouths, and Listen with their ears. (No one can really listen while they themselves are talking…!)
When the congregation is singing, or otherwise responding verbally to God, ecourage your children to do so as well. Expect it of them. We ALL do ALL of this together, corporate worship IS worship together.
If you are going through a time in your training where yor child is having difficulty restraining their tongue, then there are mutiple options available: You can take your child out of the service to speak with them about “listening, not talking”– and then return to service (the Quieting Room works well for this), or you can make use of the Training Room so that you can train your child in a setting that allows hearing of the Word for you/your child, but also keeps your childs voice confined to that room. While we want our children to worship with us and to hear the Word. We also want to be considerate to the rest of the congregation and enable them to hear the Word as well!
And remember: we are all doing this together. Ask those other familes, “How did/do you do it?”. Ask for assistance for during the service. There are teens/families who would love to sit close by to help as needed. I used to have a friend sit with me every Sunday, she would hold the newest baby, and I could train the toddler. This is what family does. We walk through this together.
