We are in the season of Lent, a time of spiritual renewal leading to Easter.  Lent is a period of 40 days, not including Sundays (since Sunday is considered a “little Easter,” the first day of the week on which Jesus arose from the dead). This season recalls Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and prayer in the wilderness, before he began his ministry. For Christians today, it is a time to re-turn to God and re-focus our lives more intentionally through actions and attitudes of repentance and renewal.  Since ancient times, people have chosen various kinds of spiritual practices to observe Lent.

One form of spiritual practice is abstinence – to let go of something – such as fasting from food, drink or other things that capture our attention and distract us from God.  Some people choose to fast from electronic media, soft drinks, cigarettes, meat or candy for a period of time, in order to focus more clearly on God’s provision and presence in their lives. Others may fast from certain meals and use that time to pray.  Some choose to give up an attitude or activity such as worry, complaining, gossip or over-work, in order to renew gratitude, trust, compassion, and joy in their lives.

Another form of spiritual practice is to intentionally take on an act of service or commitment. This might be volunteering at the homeless shelter, collecting food for the food pantry, writing to legislators, or working on a project of reform or justice in the community.  Or, it could be offering a listening ear to a family member or friend, walking or riding bicycle to enjoy God’s creation and reduce fuel consumption, caring for a neighbor’s children, or spending 30 minutes each day in prayer and scripture reading.

Either way – whether we abstain from something, or add on a commitment  – it is important to remember that spiritual practices are not for the purpose of earning God’s favor, impressing other people, or simply improving ourselves.  In Matthew 6, Jesus warns against ulterior motives for religious practices, when he says to his disciples:

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven…  ³But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.   ⁵“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. ….⁶But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you….  ¹⁶“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you….²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

On Sunday, January 25 the BCMC Senior High youth hosted a soup luncheon for the congregation, as a fundraiser for upcoming activities.

Led by youth sponsor Ben Lichti, Senior High youth served both a tomato vegetable and sausage rice soup.

BCMC Senior High youth are raising funds primarily for two upcoming events. The first event is a trip to Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp for Snow Camp which will take place February 13-15. The second event is a trip to MCUSA Convention 2015 in July.

The approximate cost for a student or sponsor to attend Snow Camp is $170, while the approximate cost for a student or sponsor to attend MCUSA Convention is $550. About 15-20 total youth and sponsors plan to attend each event. We estimate that $9,000 will be needed to fund these events.

As a relationally-focused youth group, both events will provide opportunities to grow in our relationships with one another and God. Senior High youth are eager to participate in energetic worship opportunities and local service projects at these events.

As the Senior High youth begins to enter a season with multiple big events, plans are in process for additional fundraisers in the coming months. Senior High youth deeply appreciate all of the support and love from the congregation!

– John Tyson, associate pastor for faith formation

To read previous posts, click on “Pastor’s Post” below, and scroll down.

On Sunday, Dec. 14, BCMC folks were invited to wear black to worship, in solidarity with the message that “Black Lives Matter” and as a witness for racial justice in our country, in light of recent deaths of black men and youth at the hands of police. This request came from the ecumenical association Christian Churches Together, forwarded to us from our own denomination, Mennonite Church USA, which is a member of CCT.   (For more information, see http://www.mennoniteusa.org/christian-churches-together-not-a-time-to-be-silent/ and http://christianchurchestogether.org/ )  That Sunday morning, I was moved when I looked out across the gathered congregation and saw a sea of (mostly) black.   I also want to assure those who chose not to wear black, or who were simply not aware of the invitation to do so, that their presence was also valued! Likewise, I value the variety of responses, questions and perspectives that this experience raised. One person told me that she was grateful for this simple yet significant opportunity to respond to current events in our nation. Some choir members raised the question of whether to replace their robes with “concert black,” pointing toward the fact that there can be a variety of reasons people may dress in black, and context matters. Someone else raised concern that public actions such as this can be reactive or simplistic, vulnerable to misinterpretation, or ignorant of other perspectives. If we say that “Black Lives Matter,” don’t all lives matter? Yes, of course. All lives matter. All life is sacred. All persons are children of God. Yet our society historically has not treated all lives with equal dignity, respect, and opportunity. Systemic oppression, racism, prejudice and profiling has devalued the lives of people of color, and privileged the lives of people with white skin. So, to say that “Black Lives Matter” is to protest these disparate realities and to stand with those who have suffered as a result. To say that “Black Lives Matter” is essentially to say that “All Lives Matter.” To wear black on Sunday was to follow the lead of the Black church community in this matter, rather than to presume that the definition of reality from the perspective of white people is the most valid definition. I hope that the experience of wearing black raises awareness, questions, conversation, deeper understanding, and ongoing efforts to seek God’s shalom for all people.

– Heidi Regier Kreider

To read previous posts, click on “Pastor’s Post” below, and scroll down.

I remember when I first encountered Facebook. I was a freshman at Eastern Mennonite University. I had just uttered goodbyes to all my friends from high school only to be reunited with them a few weeks later as my very first set of Facebook “friends.”

I did not imagine that creating my Facebook account would be something that I still live with a decade later.

No one imagined that Facebook would have 1.23 billion users worldwide a mere decade later either.[1]

But here we are: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and who-knows-what’s-next are with us to stay. Each of these social media platforms are a living entity, continually innovating themselves as they respond to the desires of users and a rapidly evolving online world culture. They offer unique services, but ultimately each is in service of connecting people. They provide a virtual space to share conversation, information, and images.

The rise of social media leads many to believe that increased communication and connection will result in a more empathetic and peaceful world. I am skeptical of this narrative, although Twitter has been immensely helpful in allowing youth to organize in protest of injustice in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Wall Street, and Ferguson, for example.

Some rejoice that social media platforms and increasingly user-friendly devices offer us an unprecedented opportunity to enter into deeper relationships with more people across greater distances. Others find it hard enough to just keep up with the people we see on a daily basis.

Overall, it’s probably wise to resist “salvific” narratives that suggest social media platforms will dramatically improve the world. It’s also equally wise to recognize the powerful gifts and opportunities that social media offer us as a vibrant community of faith.

Perhaps, we might think of social media as tools.

Tools are handy. They make achieving difficult tasks easier. They help talented carpenters to construct beautiful buildings. And when we admire those buildings, we don’t stand around in awe of saws, hammers, and screws.

I think of Facebook as a tool for inclusion and hospitality, a useful tool among others for helping congregations connect with one another to encounter the movement of God in our communities. That’s what’s truly beautiful.

Leaders working at the intersection of new technologies and Christian community engage with social media purely as a means, not an end.

One of those leaders is Kyle Matthew Oliver, who is employed as a “digital missioner” at a large Protestant seminary. Oliver puts forward the idea that social media and other web-based tools, like podcasts of worship services, can help congregations reach folks that are typically under-served in our communities.[2] For Oliver these include:

✧ People who work anything but a 9-5 workday Monday through Friday,

✧ people who can’t always provide or afford childcare or transportation,

✧ people with physical disabilities or special learning needs not well accommodated by aging church buildings or noisy groups,

✧ people who are new to the faith and not ready to prioritize faith learning, and

✧ people whose lives are over-structured as it is, and who have the courage to recognize that attending one more meeting or class right now will create more spiritual chaos than the meeting or class has any hope of redeeming at present.

Engaging with social media as a congregation enhances our ability to provide hospitality and connection to more people, especially those who are not served by the traditional Sunday morning gathering time – like those doing service at a long distance, or those in our wider fellowship who are no longer able to attend on Sundays, but long to connect to this place that they have grown to love.

In his work Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan famously introduced the phrase “the medium is the message.” McLuhan understood that the message produced by a particular medium is solely an effect of the medium. New mediums generate the possibility for new effects, new messages. Put differently, the best way to communicate a new message is to find a new medium.

As a congregation, we are not seeking to put forward a brand new message, but might we be interested in tools – mediums – that allow us to express an old message in a new way?

At the center of our mission statement is our calling to: “Unite in the worship and praise of God; stimulate Christian growth and discipleship; provide opportunities for fellowship, sharing and support among members; engage in service and outreach; practice hospitality; and invite others to faith.”

These are the longstanding values that have formed the mission and message of the congregation from the beginning. As new technologies emerge, we are faced with the challenge of translating our longstanding mission and message into contexts increasing awash in digital culture. Amidst this reality, we ought to continually discern what use these mediums might be as tools in our work to spread this message and pursue this mission.

Facebook is easy to navigate and helpful as a tool to explore how social media platforms might allow us to communicate our mission and message in a new way and, potentially, to new people.

But the first value stated is that we “unite in the worship and praise of God” and this is something holy that occurs in the visible, enfleshed presence of one another and God. This is beautiful and it can’t happen online, but we should probably share about it on Facebook.

[1] http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/01/29/facebook-passes-1-23-billion-monthly-active-users-945-million-mobile-users-757-million-daily-users/

[2] http://www.faithformationlearningexchange.net/uploads/5/2/4/6/5246709/the_virtues_of_online_learning.pdf, page 2.

– John Tyson

To read previous columns, click on “Pastor’s Post” below and then scroll down:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Campus ministries at Bethel College recently sponsored a 24 Hour Prayer vigil, inviting members of the college community to sign up to pray for blocks of time beginning 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and ending 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. The prayer vigil took place at the Agape Center in the Richert House, just across the street from BCMC.

In advance of 24 Hour Prayer, student chaplain Ben Kreider offered some reflections about prayer in a chapel service. “By intentionally praying around the clock as a community for a full day we hope to discover the ways in which we can pray ceaselessly at all times,” he said. “When the word prayer is mentioned, a lot of thoughts or feelings may surface. We may feel awkward or uncomfortable with prayer. We may feel guilty about how little we pray. We may not know what prayer is. We may experience prayer as stagnant, as simply a conversation in our head. I don’t have a nice definition of prayer all worked out but some possibilities of what it can be. Prayer can be taking off our shoes and declaring the ground under our feet to be holy. Prayer can be crying in pain and lament to God. Prayer can be sitting in silence and waiting for God. Prayer can be an explosion of holy creativity manifest in art and song. Prayer can be the words of familiar Psalms and hymns when we have no words of our own. Prayer can be free-form, spontaneous, and spirit-filled. Prayer can be a simple posture of gratitude and hope.” Ben concluded with his hopes for the 24 Hour Prayer vigil: “I hope that we come to know prayer as something life-giving, a way to connect with our Creator. I hope that prayer can begin where we honestly are, with all our worries and foibles and questions, and find its end in the peace and the love of God who is always listening and present.”

I participated in 24 Hour Prayer early Sunday morning. Student chaplains had set up different forms of prayer for participants to engage in: Lighting candles along with prayer requests written by students at the chapel service earlier in the week, scripture, written prayer guides, music, devotional images to meditate on in silence, and visual art. 

I was grateful for this time and space in which to slow down, become mindful of God, and to join the flow of prayer and the community of pray-ers who came and went during that 24 hours. As I arrived for my hour of prayer and entered the Agape Center, I noticed that the person who I was replacing had left their shoes by the door: A sign of holy ground. I too removed my shoes, just as Moses had removed his sandals before the presence of God in the burning bush. Any place is holy ground when we recognize that God is there, and open ourselves to be present to God.

I began my prayers that morning by reading from the classic devotional book, A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie, with prayers for morning and evening of each day of the month. Here is a portion of the morning prayer for the 9th day of the month, which wonderfully expresses both the mystery and mandate of prayer:

Here I am, O God, of little power and of mean estate, yet lifting up heart and voice to Thee before whom all created things are as dust and a vapour. Thou art hidden behind the curtain of sense, incomprehensible in Thy greatness, mysterious in Thine almighty power; yet here I speak with Thee familiarly as child to parent, as friend to friend. If I could not thus speak to Thee, then were I indeed with out hope in the world… Dear Father, take this day’s life into Thine own keeping. Control all my thoughts and feelings. Direct all my energies. Instruct my mind. Sustain my will. Take my hands and make them skilful to serve Thee.   Take my feet and make them swift to do Thy bidding. Take my eyes and keep them fixed upon Thine everlasting beauty. Take my mouth and make it eloquent in testimony to Thy love. Make this day a day of obedience, a day of spiritual joy and peace. Make this day’s work a little part of the work of the Kingdom of my Lord Christ, in whose name these my prayers are said. Amen.

May it be so – on this day, tomorrow, and every 24 hours…

– Heidi Regier Kreider

To read previous columns, click on “Pastor’s Post” below and then scroll down:

In her book Almost Christian: What the Faith of our Teenagers is Telling the American Church, my seminary professor Kenda Creasy Dean argues that the largest predictor for the quality of faith in a teenager and young adult depends on the quality of faith of the significant adults in their lives.

Dean also suggests that the most important thing about these relationships is that they last well into the years that immediately follow graduation from high school.

At BCMC, we seek to provide students from grades 7 to 12 with a mentor that will help them navigate their emerging Christian faith, values, and goals in the context of our pluralistic culture. In these relationships, youth have an opportunity to develop a significant adult relationship that serves to compliment their existing relationships with parents.

The mentoring program is one of the foremost ways that BCMC practices being a truly intergenerational community. Mentors often spend time helping youth learn how to drive, bake, or play music. Mentor pairs rotate in taking care of children in the nursery during worship services. Mentors often can be spotted at sporting events or concerts supporting their mentees.

The mentoring program is also one of the foremost ways that we practice stewardship. By being stewards for the lives of youth – being with them through years that can be profoundly disorienting – we are caring for and valuing the most important gifts that God has graciously given us.

BCMC youth are all young people currently developing skills for leadership in the diverse activities that they engage in on a weekly basis. Someday soon, they will be sent out and scattered into the world as agents of God’s love. For now, as our mentors know, the mentoring program is one way that BCMC sends God’s love to them.

– John Tyson

To read previous columns, click on “Pastor’s Post” below and then scroll down:

“Healing Connections: Land, People, Spirit” was the theme of the Fall Festival worship service at BCMC on Oct. 19.  It considers the call to restore right relationships with the land, with other human beings, and with God, as essential to peace and wholeness in the world.

I have pondered these connections more after attending the annual Prairie Festival at the Land Institute near Salina, KS, in September. The Land Institute is a non-profit research and education institution seeking to develop an agricultural system “with the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield to that comparable from annual crops” – in other words, a system of food production and consumption that is environmentally sustainable. The Land Institute mission statement says it well: “When people, land, and community are as one, all three members prosper; when they relate not as members but as competing interests, all three are exploited. By consulting Nature as the source and measure of that membership, the Land Institute seeks to develop an agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned, while promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring.”

The recent Prairie Festival focused specifically on ethical, religious and spiritual foundations for agricultural and ecological sustainability.   Speakers inspired and informed us from the perspectives of biblical scholarship, philosophy, faith, and science. They provoked us to reexamine our beliefs, commitments and lifestyles in relation to the ecological disaster that human beings have created through modern agricultural and economic practices. I was struck again with the importance of making connections between environmental, social and spiritual realities. The answer to the current ecological crisis essentially lies not only in technological solutions, but in a renewed commitment to live in covenant relationship with earth, other human beings, and the Source of all being.

The Prairie Festival gave us opportunity to experience these connections in tangible ways. Demonstration plot tours showed progress in developing perennial crops. The local-foods dinner menu featured bison stew and bread made with flour from Kernza a perennial wheatgrass grain developed at the Land Institute. Music and art cultivated our spirits through songs and images of lament, hope, and beauty. Interactions with a variety of people nurtured relationships that opened new insights, perspectives and possibilities for positive change in the world.

For me, several connections at the Prairie Festival were especially meaningful.

During the break between afternoon lectures and dinner, I visited with my former seminary professor, Ellen Davis, who now teaches at Duke Divinity School. As one of the featured presenters, she spoke about Biblical foundations for earth-care. She noted that the Hebrew scriptures are rooted in a culture of farmers, while also reflecting issues of economic and political power similar to our contemporary world. It was great to catch up with Ellen, and to share memories of the Hebrew class I took from her. I am currently reading her book Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible.

For dinner I joined a picnic table of college students. They had traveled all the way from St. Catherine College in Kentucky to attend the Prairie Festival.   I met one of the students – a freshman from Kinshasa, Congo – while standing in the meal serving line. Her name tag caught my attention, since I had lived in Congo as a missionary child years ago. She invited me to join her and her colleagues – a faculty member, and students from Uganda, Burkina Faso, India, and several U.S. locations. They explained that they were all studying sustainable farming and ecological agrarianism through the Berry Farming Program at St. Catharine College, founded recently on the lifework of activist, farmer, and writer Wendell Berry.  As the St. Catharine College website says: “For more than fifty years, Berry has been a leading voice in the sustainable foods and farms movement – nationally and internationally.  In fiction, poetry, and essays, he urges readers to support small family farms and to use nature as measure in cultivation and land-use practices.  To meet the urgent need for bolstering rural communities, small farm production, and local markets, Wendell’s daughter Mary Berry Smith, Executive Director of The Berry Center in New Castle, Kentucky, sought a college with which the Berry family could further its commitment to improving farming through education.  St. Catharine College proved an ideal fit because of its devotion to land stewardship and community engagement.” Wendell Berry has been a longtime friend of the Land Institute, and these students were excited to finally visit this special place in the middle of Kansas! I was equally inspired by their passion for living responsibly and creatively on the earth.

As we make healing connections with the land, people and God, may we too experience God’s shalom.

– Heidi Regier Kreider

To read previous columns, click on “Pastor’s Post” below and then scroll down:

We are blessed at BCMC with an abundance of wonderful youth. A good portion of my energy over the past six weeks has been spent getting to know them: their names, families, passions, hopes, dreams, and struggles.

Each and every participant in BCMC’s youth program is involved in numerous activities on top of school – from football to school newspaper to youth orchestra to tennis and cross-country. In the midst of an endless flurry of activity, I am constantly humbled when they all show up to be together on Wednesday nights and even Sunday mornings – laughing, sharing, and sometimes venting about odd teachers and boring classes. I hope that BCMC can be a true space of Sabbath for our busy youth.

The season of life we call “youth” is a roller-coaster ride. Contrary to popular belief, teenage years are probably not the “best years of your life.” Youth cope with immense challenges and stressors far beyond choosing where to attend college or how to navigate relationships with parents and teachers. Youth sponsors, David and Karen Levan and Ben Lichti, and I wonder about how to best be a supportive and life-giving relational presence for youth as they navigate their growing sense of independence and identity formation. How do we as a congregation continue to communicate how a life modeled after Jesus is relevant in this stage of life?

During a recent time of sharing, a couple of our youth group members who spent two months with their family on a bike trip to Alaska talked about how their eyes were opened to the vast landscapes, diversity, and possibilities of God’s creation. The same can be said about the life of faith, and the same can be said for our youth as well – vast, diverse, full of possibility, and created by God.

– John Tyson

The CROP Walk for hunger relief has been a part of my life for many years in the different communities in which I have lived.  I walked the CROP Walk vigorously as a young adult, trudged a shortened version of the CROP Walk as a pregnant mom-to-be, pushed an infant all the way in a stroller, walked hand-in-hand with dawdling young children, picked up the pace to keep up with teenagers, and – in recent years – pressed on in spite of aching joints and sore muscles .  At our local CROP Walk on September 28, I will take a break from walking, and instead join another pastor from the local community to staff one of the stations along the way.  I look forward to offering a cup of cold water and a snack to walkers as they go past!  Whether we walk, sponsor a walker with our financial contributions, or find other ways to serve the hungry and thirsty, may we always hunger for justice and thirst for righteousness.

Here is a hymn of dedication by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette for those participating in CROP Hunger Walks:

O God, you send us out to walk,
For faith is more than idle talk;
It’s more than saying, “Be well fed!”
When others don’t have daily bread.

We walk with joyful, eager feet
So others will have food to eat.
We staff the checkpoints, offer rest,
And serve you, Lord, for we’ve been blessed.

When we grow weary, may we know
That some must walk where’er they go.
For water, food, or work to do,
They walk till they grow weary, too.

O Lord, we walk in safety here
And know that others walk in fear.
They flee oppression, flood or war;
Each fear-filled day, they walk some more.

Not all here walk with strength or speed
But all can give to those in need.
And as we serve you, may we know
You walk with us where’er we go.

The fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO – and the protests that have erupted following that tragedy – have again triggered a much-needed national conversation about the realities of racism and  poverty in communities across the United States.  Recently I was pondering news reports about these issues, as I drove my car around town doing errands.  I happened to pop in a CD by Sweet Honey in the Rock, an African-American women’s a cappella singing group.  The first song caught my attention as an eloquent commentary on the violence in our nation: 

Ella’s Song – Lyrics by Bernice Johnson Reagon

Refrain:

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Verses:

Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons
Is as important as the killing of White men, White mothers’ sons

And that which touches me most is that I had a chance to work with people
Passing on to others that which was passed on to me

To me young people come first, they have the courage where we fail
And if I can shed some light as they carry us through the gale

The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hand of the young who dare to run against the storm

Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be just one in the number as we stand against tyranny

Struggling myself don’t mean a whole lot I come to realize
That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survive

I’m a woman who speaks in a voice and I must be heard
At time I can be quite difficult, I’ll bow to no man’s word

I pray that out of the anger and despair boiling in places like Ferguson, the voices of truth may rise to help our nation hear and respond in ways that bring true justice and healing.

Heidi Regier Kreider