Just Frances T 
On our honeymoon, Matt and I took a tour of Disneyland where we heard a lot about its history and development. It was there that we heard Walt Disney modeled the entrance to Disneyland after a movie theater and that is how it remains today.
At Disneyland, you enter the turnstiles into a small square (a sort of lobby). In order to get into the park proper, you enter through tunnels on the far ends of the square (which function as “doors” to the theater proper), each emblazoned with a plaque declaring, “Here you leave today and enter the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” Once you enter through those tunnels, you are quickly swept inwardly into the park and can no longer see the outside world. Read More
I often share that Disneyland is one of my happy places. Makes sense, being “The Happiest Place on Earth” and all. I’ve read books, watched programs, and have been often enough to learn lots of nifty little details which make the park such a special place. I like to think that I’ve been doing research for years to write these posts, but in reality, I just like going to Disneyland.
What impresses me the most is the level of intentional thought Disney puts into every aspect of the park. They have thought through the experience of every guest who walks through the gates and have created ways to make that experience positive, memorable, and powerful. That’s why people go back in spite of the large crowds and high prices.
Naturally, I think of how to apply what I observe in Disneyland to my other happy place, the Church. The next few posts, I’m going to turn my attention to some specific aspects that I believe could really impact the gathered church (i.e. the Sunday worship services) because of how they’ve impacted me personally.
I propose that the same intentional thought that Disneyland puts into their park and services could make our message all the more memorable and powerful.
I also have to say at the outset that each aspect I’ll look at isn’t necessarily new to the Church. That’s why I say (re)teach. These are often ancient ideas that we’ve sometimes forgotten or lost in the annals of time. I also have to say that some churches do these things really well. I’m not making a blanket statement that churches mess this stuff up; it’s more positing, “What can we learn from people who are fantastic at shaping experiences?”
As Peter Pan so boldly declared, “Here we go!”
Up Next: Sacred Spaces
As I was meditating on what ruthless trust* looks like, I thought of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.
After 40 days of fasting, he is hungry. The tempter tells him he can make stones into bread to satiate his hunger. Jesus is taken to the highest point of the temple and told to throw himself off of it because surely God will protect him. Finally, he is taken high up on a mountain and told that if he’d only bow and worship Satan, he would receive everything he saw.
I believe these temptations are common to man. I also believe that each of these temptations, at their heart, is a temptation about trusting God. Read More
I recently reread the story of Solomon asking God for wisdom in 1 Kings 3. I’ve heard others mention the story many times and have read it myself before, but something new struck me this time: why Solomon asked for wisdom.
Beginning in verse 7, it says, “Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
I always assumed that Solomon asked for wisdom for wisdom’s sake, that he was so lofty that he didn’t care about anything in this world. I always pictured someone who aspired to sit in an ivory tower dispensing pearls of wisdom but never getting his hands dirty.
Reading this passage reveals that my picture couldn’t be further from the truth. Solomon cared deeply about the world & his role in it. He recognized the challenge he faced as a leader and knew that he didn’t know how to lead on his own.
Wisdom was an intensely practical request.
This story reminds me that “I don’t know” are some of the most powerful words I can utter. Recognizing my lack of knowledge brings me to a very important place: asking God for the wisdom to face the tasks ahead of me.
Such is a prayer that God loves to answer.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5).
My husband sent this my way today & I loved it: The Futility of Control and Your Reason to Rest
[I started my week by reading this prayer. I loved it, so here it is]
O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I am impressed by my own spiritual insights…Still, as impressed as I am, I am more impressed by the enormous abyss between my insights and my life.
It seems as if I am standing on one side of a huge canyon and see how I should grow towards you, live in your presence and serve you, but cannot reach the other side of the canyon where you are. I can speak and write, preach and argue about the beauty and goodness of the life I see on the other side, but how, O Lord, can I get there? Sometimes I even have the painful feeling that the clearer the vision, the more aware I am of the depth of the canyon.
Am I doomed to die on the wrong side of the abyss? Am I destined to excite others to reach the promised land while remaining unable to enter there myself? Sometimes I feel imprisoned by my own insights and “spiritual competence.” You alone, Lord, can reach out to me and save me. You alone.
I can only keep trying to be faithful, even though I feel faithless most of the time. What else can I do but keep praying to you, even when I feel dark; to keep writing about you, even when I feel numb; to keep speaking in your name, even when I feel alone. Come, Lord, Jesus, come. Have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen.
-Henri Nouwen
When chatting with a friend about this post, she pushed back, saying, “What about the idea that perception is everything in ministry?” I didn’t really have an answer at the time, but wanted to address her challenge because it is a valid one (and I know she subscribes to my blog!).
Many pastors do things to avoid the appearance of evil. That is, they avoid things that have the potential for making it look like they are engaging in sin. For instance:
- Not driving alone with people of the opposite gender
- Counseling the opposite gender with the door open, in a room with a window, and/or in a public place
- Avoiding places that could be seen as inappropriate, such as a bar.
Is it image management to make such choices? Read More
Okay, okay. I’ve been wanting to write this blog post since before I had a blog. I’ve had several conversations with people where the subject comes up and say, “I want to write a post about this…” I had one such conversation yet again this week and woke up today at 3:30 AM with a burning desire to finally write it. So here I am, finally writing in the pre-dawn darkness.
When I was in the process of losing weight a couple years back, I took a trip with my husband to visit my best friend in Las Vegas. In a desire to maintain my weight-loss momentum, I brought a picnic basket full of healthy foods for me to eat while I was there. At the time, her daughter (Reagan) was a young toddler and I realized with a great deal of amusement that she and I ate many of the same foods, such as oatmeal and fruit. I had gone to all the trouble to pack food only to realize that I ate like a toddler, so my friend already had everything on hand.
It was then that I realized an important truth about nutrition and nourishment: I, as an adult, need the same things that a child needs. We need fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and protein. We need different quantities and I like to add certain spices and flavors that some kids won’t like, but by and large the fuel that runs a toddler, runs an adult. Read More
Having been in church leadership and seminary for several years, I have seen the backside of leadership. It’s the part that no one talks about, save in hushed, vague conversations. “I’m struggling, but really praying about it,” seems to be the trump card that deflects any further questions that probe beneath the surface.
I have a burden for hurting leaders and I often find myself asking, “What do you do if you look around and all you see are leaders who are hurting? How do we revolutionize the way leadership is done?” Read More
Christian ministry is more than doing good.
Ministry is an act of service performed either consciously or unconsciously in the name of Christ. Ministry is Jesus Christ expressing his life through us. It is born, therefore, not in activity, but in solitude, where through the spirit we experience the power of life from within. No one becomes a “minister.” Rather, in trust we so open ourselves to the Spirit that Jesus Christ can express his ministry through us. Prayer and ministry, therefore, are indissoluable. In the stillness of meditative prayer we are confronted by God’s loving claim upon us–the most intense intimacy a human being can experience. To know this intimacy we have only to let go. Instead of relying on our own initiative, where we are in control, we discover that we are participating in what God has already initiated within us.”
– James C. Fenhagen, quoted in A Guide to Prayer
Frances
Just Frances T 