Don't argue scripture

My father told me to never engage in arguments about the bible. When people are trying to prove you wrong or attack you or think they are trying to save you. Let me be clear my nerves are about bit raw this week. I have seen that life is to short to engage in silliness with people. Over the last few months some folks from my past have been trying to engage me on the  sinfulness of homosexuality. So let be me clear,  I know how to read, so  you are not introducing me to scripture that I have not read or heard before. After nearly 40 years being openly gay, I don't need you to be concern for me, be concern for yourself. Be concerned for unnecessary wars, be concern for starving people, be concern for the violence in your community, be concern that you have healthy marriage or partnership. Do not spend your time concern about who love. I'm not lacking in friends where I live in real time and on Facebook. So delete/block is always an option you have, if you don't like what I have say on Facebook or agree with how I live. I use the option quite often. Now as Iyanla Vanzant, "Go be a blessing in some one else's life"

Blooming Congregational Seeds!

One of my deepest passions is seeing congregations thrive in serving God and God’s people.  For the last six years, I’ve studied congregational development and church planting, having read some of the leading thinkers and attending workshops and institutes on church planting and renewal.  I love the analogy of blooming congregations from gardens that contain both flowers and vegetables.   For a garden to grow it must first have seeds planted, the same for congregations new or existing.  I believe that our congregations are gardens from which the seeds of worship, formation and service allow people to bloom in their spiritual walk with Christ!

 Congregations are the mission centers or garden from which all other ministries bloom. Over the last six years I’ve pastored an existing congregation and planted 2 congregations, one that did not bloom and the current one that is blooming.

I’ve spent my time thinking about how these principles would apply in the context of an independent sacramental and liturgical community.

Here’s what I know Sunday worship alone will not sustain a community, we need to grow our communities from three seeds regardless of the size of our congregations. Those seeds are Worship, Formation, and Service centered in Christ and lived out in community as a called out missionary people.

 

One of the impacts of being a missionary people for those who are in the Independent Sacramental Movement is that we cannot plant a congregation on what we are against or what we have left behind. There must be a connection to the greater (Missio Dei) Mission of God that we are seeking to plant in our communities.  Because we are radically inclusive communities we are not debating inclusion, we are living, praying, serving and witnessing to the kin-dom of God.

 The independent sacramental movement(ISM), needs to explore, vision, mission, demographics, ministry strategies, social media.  We need to bring the church outside the building and make our presence known in the community in person and through social media.  Even though we are not part of the  mainline denominations, a lot of our communities suffering from the same issues that they are facing in evangelism and thriving beyond the current generation.

One other unique thing about the ISM movement, we have to be church planters and missionaries, if we expect to thrive.  You cannot plant a congregation from your living room and hanging up a sign that you are open. You will need the skills of being an entrepreneur, creative, and visionary person that can build relationships with people and connect your congregation to your community (local context).   Missionaries go where the people they are trying to reach, not waiting for them to show up. Missionaries study the context that they see, instead of imposing a foreign structure on a local community.  It requires us doing things that do not fit in the box that we have grown up in our respective traditions.

Our mission field is great if we learned or exegete our local community for the unchurched and dechurched regardless of where they came from faith or no faith. Our garden should be a mix of flowers and gardens. We need to find more ways to help people belong, before they come to belie

Unchurched and dechurched folks are seeking to belong to a community, make friends and connect to spiritual practices. Belonging is the front porch for many of our ministries to begin and thrive.

 I’m willing to share what I’ve learn through workshops and retreats on building seeds of ministry in new and existing congregations in our ISM movement and independent congregations. Please follow my page  for to learn more about strategies and connect with others who are seeking to grow congregations.

 Fr David Strong

My personal experience on race and racism in my life!

I grew up in a town where race was always an issue at the surface of our life. Cairo, Illinois was a place that race showed up in ugly ways; you can read the history of its race problem in numerous books.

I want to talk about my own experience of being a black male in this country. It has started early on in my life. We had a news and music store in my home town; I used to go to this store to buy Mad Magazine, model trains magazine and Tiger Beat magazine. Oh yes while there I bought my first book on being gay in this small conservative town. (Loving Someone Gay by Donald Clark)  One Saturday, I purchased a magazine as usually and walked out of the store. As I was walking down Tenth Street, I noticed the White owner of the store following me; he followed down one block across the main street through Cairo. Finally by what was then Mark Twain Restaurant asked me if I stole the magazine from his store, I stated no. I stated that I had purchase my magazine and I don't steal.  I didn't go off him, because even at that young age, I was taught to be careful in how I respond in a situation like that with a white man. I stated from my grandmother. One of the deputy sheriff’s in our county saw this man questioning me.  He asked the store owner what was wrong. The owner stated that he believed I stole something from the store and that he couldn’t believe that I had money to buy stuff. The Deputy asked him did he see me pick up anything. Did he see me ditch anything once he left the store?  His answer was no. This Deputy stated that he knew me and that I would not steal anything. I went on my way. I never bought a thing from that store again.  

During a reading lab, Sister Ruth had us to double up and share a SRA Reading folder. My white classmate stated that my “Dad told me to never share anything with a nigger” The look of utter disgust on my face and my response, I’m not a nigger, still sits with me today

.There were always subtle and overt racism in all of my life, from having someone’s father saying why are you playing with that nigger and another classmate calling me a dumb nigger for a mistake that I made all through high school to people moving away from you on the bus or I have many an empty seat on a crowded bus.

I expected things to be different in college and in the gay community. I have been called nigger so many times in the gay community, I have lost count. At the University of Saint Thomas, I was called a porch monkey by two guys as I was coming out of the Student Union. Had a classmate to walk out of a theology class after being called names every day.  I have been followed in Dayton Hudson Department Store, where I actually worked in Minneapolis.  Yes

 I have been in mostly white/black relationships living in predominately white neighborhoods; I have felt the sense of neighbors asking do you live in the house, as I opening the door with my keys. I have had boyfriends wonder what their family reaction would be to me.  In the last relationship, I have felt deeply loved by my ex-partner’s family from Montana. His sister and other family members grew to accept and love me, even if there were not comfortable in the beginning.  I have watched his nephews and nieces grow up to be people who support racial and LGBT rights. Some of us will have to become a part of each other’s lives to break down barriers.

 

Yes in even in the great liberal Northwest race is an issue. I had a sales clerk at the Bon Marche explain to me how the Ralph Lauren clothes were expensive; I might want to check another section of the store. With cheaper items. My first nonprofit management job as Development Director with a 300,000 budget and my own office, I thought I had arrived where I would not face overt discrimination.  A sales person comes into our office for an appointment with me to sell me a radio spot... We had made the appointment, talked on the phone.  After our receptionist let him in the office, as I came to greet him, he said I’m looking for David Strong, he saw an older white man who worked for me and went straight to him. That gentleman said that was my boss, you just passed with his name on the door.

 

Despite all of the work that I have done in fighting for LGBT community here in Seattle and Tacoma, I have experienced outright disrespect or made to feel we need your black face at our events, but not necessarily your thoughts on how we are doing our work.  

This hardest thing is to hear some white gay men who are conservative and some of my conservative friends to minimize my experiences of racism as being over sensitive. But if you want to know where my sensitivity comes from, it from a history of experiencing racism in this country from people of all walks of life, including other people of color.  So no matter how valid the verdict was given in the Tayvon Martin by jury according to the instructions, my history will influence my reactions to the underlying currents of what happened that evening.

 

But here is what you must know about David Strong, I will not go away or retreat into an all-black world.  , nor will allow racism to make me a hateful person.  I will not lack gratitude for man good white people that I have met in my life, who have been an inspiration, help or friend. I will stop showing up to events where I may be the only black person there. Nor will I stay silent when people say things that are absurd about the black community. I want people to know that in my town where I lot of us grew in public housing at some point in our life are some of the most hardworking, successful and educated African-Americans who making a difference in our community. Yes the majority of us are Democrats and we are not on some dependency plantation that some black conservative leaders are trying to convince us.     It will make me cautious about my interactions. I will not stop bringing up the issues of race when I think is appropriate, and those who know me, I will virgoursly advocate for the rights of black people, women, immigrants and the LGBT Community. It not because I want to keep people tied down, but I want to be able to live free to, not have to worry about being profiled, shot or denied every equal opportunity under the law.  Not because it is about civil rights only, is a firmly based on my faith of the “equality before God of all people!

 

I will not accept a narrative that all white people are racist, no more than I would accept one that  all black people to be judged as one monolithic group. I  think God that I have wanted friends and have had from every racial, cultural background that you can in the world.  God loves people regardless of who they are, I must do the same.

My faith tells me I have to love everyone, even when they seek to do you harm, my enemies and my frienemies.  I have to believe in the goodness of most people, while the sin and evil of racism and other isms continue to exist and color my world.    `

 

I  will not live in fear, I believe that we can become a country where racism can be eliminated, but not by forgetting or revising the history or discounting the personal experiences of people who encountered life like I have  in my 51 years. I pray that my young nephews and nieces and the grand ones, will not have to experience what I did. If they do, I want them to be strong men and women who respect the legacy we have received from our parents, grandparents and great grandparents and respect themselves.  I love my country enough to disagree, argue for change and work for peace.   My ancestors died that I could be free, that I have might have to right to vote, find the best work that I can accord my education, live with dignity and self-respect, work to make my community a better place.

(I know the names of these people, who have done these acts, because I believe in redemption, they may have change since then, I pray.)

Journey to equality, celebration today, work tomorrow!

When I came out many years ago, I recalled a discussion with a friend about gay marriage, in which we thought it would never happen in our lifetime. What a difference two decades make! Today, I give thanks to God, that I have lived to witness this day.   In 2004, I spoke out in the Seattle Times, that this is an issue of civil rights and people of faith should stand up for marriage. This is a day of celebration, then it’s back to work to ensure this we recognize marriage in every state. Only in 12 states and District of Columbia will we have this recognition. We have to fight for an inclusive ENDA to stop discrimination in housing and employment.  My ministry in the last 21 years has been one of inviting every person  to become of disciples of Jesus to build the kingdom of God ,welcoming LGBT people to the table of the Lord.  It is been my joy to baptize, marry, pray, bury people who have been made to feel they are not welcomed in the church. In the words of Maya Angelou “ I wouldn’t take nothing for the journey”  This journey is one in which I don’t have to choose between Jesus and Justice! Keep working until we can say “justice for all” and mean it.

Source: spiritofchristtacoma.org via David on Pinterest

Spirit of Christ Community and eating and drinking into mission and community!

Jonny Baker speaking on ways into small missional communities talked about eating and drinking together as one way into community among other ways:

“Interesting things can happen when people eat and drink together.”

Each week we gather  to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ as spiritual nourishment to strengthen us for the week ahead.  When I named this blog “Let us break bread together” I  had no idea how much food would play in  my ministry. At Sojourner Truth Ministries we called it Truth Café. Now at Spirit of Christ Catholic Community we gather once a month for a potluck after worship. if someone is not able to bring a dish to share at our potluck, we welcome them to help prepare and we all participate in this setup ,eating, conversation and cleaning up of the area.

Last  Sunday we gathered at Corrina Bakery to talk about what our church means to us and how do we share that message with others.  We discussed the roles that each of us will take on to build our missional community here in Tacoma. We learn about the diverse gifts that our members have to share in the life of our church. We believe that we live a community where there is openness to “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord” in Tacoma

I know that some of our people are not only spiritually hungry, but sometimes physically hungry, we have members for whom the food bank is a necessary safety net. Despite this our community gathers food to donate to My Sister’s Pantry a local food bank.  We take seriously that all can serve and give to worship, learn and serve Christ!
Eating together helps builds community and a strong sense of church as the Body of Christ. We gather to break bread together over laughter, discussions on church and community and our mission. We are exploring the idea of  having a monthly Café on a week night with art, music, prayer and  community as a extension of our communion table.  The greatest blessing is that after a liturgy focused on the presence of Christ in bread and wine, we don’t rush away from worship back to our isolated lives,  but spend time basking in the presence of Christ among us.

 

We know that our community is called to be a multi-racial, spirit-filled, radically inclusive, sacramental church here in Tacoma and that we seek to that in a ecumenical manner influence by the World Council of Churches document on Baptism,Eucharist and Ministry. Discerning how our presence might sustain people with spiritual and physical nourishment in a time when so many people live in social isolation.  We are creating a missional community, in which we invite people  who have been been made to feel out of places in other churches to find room at the Table for them at Spirit of Christ Catholic Community.

As you read Jonny’s ways into missional community,know it does not require lots of money  or people to break bread together ,but it does take willingness to get out of the building and be Church in the community.!

Behold I'm Doing A New Thing!

We know that something happens every week when we celebrate the Holy Eucharist(Mass) that the Holy Spirit descends on the elements to make Christ present in the Eucharist and in us and that whole prayer consecrates. Those who are descendants of  catholic tradition hold this as a core teaching of our faith. It is also important that a community of priest and people are present to celebrate this communal spiritual practice.
I'm  one who loves Eucharistic worship with the core of my being, this love was instill by some amazing priests , nuns, and lay people. It was also taught to me in a particular way by Father Dean Braun,(RIP) who love to bring the solemnity of the Eucharist to bear in the community with incense, proper gestures and posture, traditional elements  of the liturgy and as many boys who showed up on Sunday morning could march in the procession. He wore biretta and cassock, he was thoroughly committed to II Vatican Council worship and principles. He also taught me that charismatic expression and African-American culture could be incorporated into the liturgy. He also taught me that the mass is the school for ministry and that what we do in worship needs to be carried to the community. From visiting the sick, helping the needy, and speaking up against injustice.
For this I will forever be grateful and have seen God move in a powerful way in the many liturgies that I have celebrated since being ordained to priesthood in 1992. I bring all of this as I seek to engage people  with the eucharist, community and justice.
One my greatest frustration with the Independent Catholic Movement that cause me to leave it, was that many people seem satisfied with just being able to say Mass and wear the vestments. There is no effort to build community and ministry and certainly not a lot of effort to reach beyond comfort zones.  I think everyone should have a home chapel for private devotion and common prayer, but ministry must be outside where people are waiting for a word, relationship or  opportunity to began a new journey in Christ.
 While I may not agree with every conclusion that he writes, Robert Caruso offers a good grounding in Theology of the Church in his book, The Old Catholic Church, understanding the Orgin, Essence  Theology of a church that is misunderstood. if we applied the Eucharistic Ecclessiology it would change most of our churches and ministries.  It has been on this journey that I sought ministry outside of the IC/OC movement. I joined a denomination the International Christian Community Churches and founded another denomination the Christian United Church that observed weekly communion and sought to plant congregations.
In this journey I embraced a emphasis on good liturgy, powerful, passionate preaching and having the best music, we could provide without a choir and often with  recorded music. I spent the last five years studying small church ministry, evangelism and congregational development from some great Protestant resources in mainline churches and some non-denominational churches. I sought to apply these principles to a Eucharistic-centered church.
I believe passionately that the first mission of the Church is making disciples of Christ, and all the other things grow out of that mission, justice, community. That mission is accomplished by seeking spiritual practices that will transform the lives of those encountering Christ in the Church. I have experience this in the small but fruitful communities that I have pastored since 2003.
In this journey with the CUC, even though we have this Wesleyan emphasis, it has been interesting that the majority of people who have joined us are Ex-Roman Catholics and people who want to move on from fighting for acceptance in their prior churches, to just wanting to be in relationship with Christ in the eucharist and community.  There has been a new found liberation in the new community.  In the last year, I have experience first hand the renewal of the Independent/Old Catholic movement and have been blowed away how the Holy Spirit moved to build groups that are service about mission and ministry. The Ecumenical Catholic Communion, Apostolic Catholic Church and Old Catholic Church, Province of the United States just to name a few.
In the end, Archbishop Joris Vercammen of the historical Old Catholic Church of Utrecht says that our unity comes from our baptism in Christ. I think that it is more important that we engage in ministry and mission and planting new  communities. Our movement has not grown because we don't plant churches, we don't invite people to become a part of Christ's body.  We engage in internal arguments over jurisdiction, validity and vestments.
 We promote people to the office of bishop,  who have not been called by people  to serve, but often to make our small jurisdiction seem larger. Since I  founded the CUC, many of those who approach me about ministry, first comment is you need more bishops to share the work. Well that is why we have laypeople and priests and many of those duties can be shared. I'm sure that should I take or die, the clergy and people can come together to elect one of the priests to be bishop.
 I know that many of our clergy want to do the right thing and are personally frustrated by their inability to do ministry.  Formation and training whether in seminary or a strong formation program is necessary.  Once you are ordained you still need to continue formation.  We need to learn from our evangelical friends how to plant churches and grow communities, many have more in common with us, bivocational, and some seminary trained and others are not. They have to build congregations from the ground up with no financial support for outside of the community. Many of those principles apply to our movement.
 The most important thing to remember that Scripture says: "Behold I am doing a new thing"  Understanding Catholic Christianity tradition, what new thing can we do in God to serve people in this tradition?  Bishop Stephen Cottrell of the Church of England has written about in Abundance of the Heart: Catholic Evangelism for All Christians and many others.
 
My reason for writing this is to offer a word of hope for those in the  Independent/Old Catholic community and a challenge for us to not be limited by the history of the past, but to move forward not recreating the Roman Catholic Church or letting the focus of our efforts to getting recognition by  Utrecht, Canterbury or Rome, but to gather recognition from the mission and ministry offer to our local communities  which include laity and clergy. It is say that I'm Catholic, not Roman, not Old, not Anglican, but one who believes in the Catholic faith and worship  as practiced by those who left their church of orgin and seeking a new identity in what it means to be a Catholic Christian outside of the traditional churches.
 
I believe that we can build real communities that makes disciples of Christ who change the world.  It  has taken me a journey outside of the Independent Catholic Community to realize the we can and must have the same mission and ministry  as other denominations.
Bishops should be resource people on a diocesan level who empower and offer resources to local communities  to engage in their baptismal ministry and clergy should be equippers of the ministry of all. Laity should know that they are called to active participation in the mission and ministry of the Church.
I'm forever grateful to Father Dean Braun, who started me on this journey of mission and ministry, to the people who have served me and allowed me to serve them to best of my ability. I look forward to meeting and sharing ministry with the Renewed, Refreshed vision of the Independent/Old Catholic Community.
This past Sunday as I gathered my small community in Tacoma, around the altar, my 81 year member raise his hands at the Sursum Corda and throughout the eucharistic prayer, it was beautiful and moving and  a reminder  that as a I serve as the sacramental leader of this community as Presider, I share  a common ministry in which we lift up the Lord. I love my community, my ministry and the priesthood. Now let us renew and refresh to do this new thing in Christ.

Equality is about more than marriage!

I'm strongly committed to marriage equality, but this is not the culimination of our fight for full equality. It is one of the steps toward it. First of all, I think of LGBT people of Southern Illinois where I grew up and most of America outside of major cities. We need non-discrimination in housing, employment in the entire United States. We beed to insist that those who serve in the military,rec...ieve the full rights of any family that is currently serving including burial rights and death benefits. We need to include our trans brothers and sisters in any non-discrimination legislation without exception. We need to work on eliminating the racism and sexism that is often covert, but sometimes overt in the LGBT Community. We need to insure that as our LGBT elders grow older that the systems of retirement, health care in nursing homes does not force them back into the closet. We need to know that violence against LGBT people will result in the swift but even hand of our criminal justice system. So whatever the outcome of the Supreme Court, there is still much work for equality yet to be achieve.
Justice Scalia asks just at what point did the question before the court become unconstitutional? The founding fathers didn't forsee a lot of things, the full personhood of black people ,freedom from slavery, right to vote for black people and women to vote. The consitution should not be used as fundamentlists often use scripture. It is a document that will find new questions that might be asked when face with a new reality. So as long as our Pledge of Alliance states "liberty and justice for all" and we mean as more than words, until that is true for everyone, we have more work to due for equality.

A different way of being church and catholic following Christ in a sacramental life!

There is a tension between tradition which says the bishop is called to teach, to govern and to sanctify in the Roman model and in the free catholic movement where all the bishop really is a function just to ordain.

There is a tension between innovation which would give the bishop no more authority then anyone else in the church to having a bishop who rules with absolute authority and no decision is accountable to anyone.

As one who has been in Independent movement for the last twenty two years, I have seen it all and this movement tends to embrace the worse elements of a roman clerical class.  The bishops are not to be blame for this reality alone.  Laity and potential clergy give into by limiting their understanding of what a bishop can and should do from the very denominations that they have left behind for reasons beyond just theology. 

The process leads to a focus on ordination and not mission and ministry.  No one should be ordained who does not have or really begun the process of an authorized, active and accountable ministry in which laity are a key part of the ministry.

So how does a bishop have authority. One they should be elected by clergy and people who are committed to mission and ministry in deed and word.  Secondly, they lead from the altar. The Eucharistic Community is where they take leadership embracing the ministry of presbyters, deacons and laity in the liturgy. This model then moves to expression in the life of the church governing and ministering.  If Christ is the head of the church, the Bishop is sacramental expression of ministry that forms for all in the waters of baptism.  It is chiefly the eucharist that shows the catholicity of the church and prepares clergy and laity to be leaders in the body of Christ.

So it really isn’t about Bishops, it’s baptized people who are called to ordained and non-ordained ministry and community in Christ that is our focus.

 

So as we think about being a church where all the baptized are welcome to the table, how do we do church differently? The Synodal model embrace with a right understanding that it not simply democratic, but that it’s authority comes as a result of our sacramental ministry. We make decisions on how we enable people to do ministry, not on how do leave people out of ministry. A call to ministry involves more than academics, but that we form people to live out their baptismal calling for ordained and non-ordained ministry.  For clergy and laity formation is the key to training for mission.   The World Council of Churches’ document on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry offers a theological rationale for embracing a sacramental lifestyle. We also understand that if a community is not present, there is no ministry. While one’s ministry is formed on the altar, you must leave the altar to engage with God’s people in the community. I’m not sure that just focusing on ex-catholics should be a priority as much as seeking those who are unchurched and dechurched to introduce or reintroduced them to life in Christian Community. Too often in this movement we want to use a build and watch them come church, when it might be a get your vision in prayer and the sacraments and then go out and invite people to be in community. The reason, I love John Wesley so much, he was not content with the established way of church, but going to people where they were and organizing them into societies who sought spiritual and social holiness through the means of grace.

 

We are free to let each local community function in their local context, while embracing a common mission and ministry through the sacraments, creeds and ministry in the community. These communities are called to an authorized, active and accountable ministry, not just the prebyster or deacon.

For us local congregations are where the mission and ministry of the wider church is activated.  At the beginning of a new movement, fellowship or denomination this where our primary focus must engage and we must form leadership from our congregations or communities.

To be ecumenical means that we must not expect all Christians to accept our catholicity, but we must welcome the gifts they bring to us from outside of tradition that affirms tradition and invite new ways of looking at serving the community. We have gained an ecumenical consensus that Sunday worship is one that embraces the word and the table. Go take a look at the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, United Methodist Book of Worship and the Lutheran Book of Worship, we are all on the same path that starts at the font of baptism and finds that at the Table of the Lord, nourished by the Word, we all have a ministry to fufill in this “present age”

One last topic, is has been said to me on more than one occasion, we don’t want to be a “gay church” I understand the sentiment, but if that is who God has called to be in mission with us , because they have been on the margins of church and society than let it be. What I know is that not only will LGBT people be drawn to our work, but our straight allies, women and people of color.  No one complains that most churches are Euro-centric and expects everyone to embrace that model.

I remain committed to having a Christ-centered, radicially inclusive, racially, diverse, spirit-filled fellowship that honors our tradition and ancient, but is not afraid to engage innovation and the future.

I remain committed to created an truly ecumenical Catholicism while embracing the lessons learned from our reformed Protestant friends. I remain committed to a message that embrace liberation from oppression while saying that we believe liberation from sin, both social and individual sin.

I believe that we are first to “seek the kingdom of God and allow the other things to be added.”

 

 

We are called to be a different church, have catholicity that is different from what we have inherited. We are an ancient-future church, we do not fear tradition and innovation and we are not ruled by it alone. We are not a bishop-centered movement, but a sacramental movement  inviting people to follow Jesus Christ.

The Doors of the Church are open!