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More Than Valid: A Ministry of Word and Story

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, Layton Williams is curating a series we’re calling “Ministry Out of the Box,” which features stories of ministers serving God in unexpected, diverse ways. What can ordained ministry look like outside of the parish? How might we understand God calling us outside of the traditional ministry ‘box?’ We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Laura Cheifetz

I’m grateful beyond words to colleagues who are called to parish ministry; for their ministry to me and my family, for the places they show up. And I’m grateful I’m not one of them.

Beauty in art, nature, and human interaction makes my heart sing. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, with parents who made sure we went hiking, went to the theatre, and visited museums, it was easy to sense the holy all around me. But now that I live in a landscape foreign to my spirituality, I feel the vitality of God’s call is with other people. I will turn to the stories of people, to their yearnings, real needs, and lofty dreams, before I turn to strict rules or orthodoxy. My own reading of Scripture, my relationship with God, both hang on how people flourish. Or don’t. That is my call.

Photo credit: Presbyterian Outlook

I have been gifted with opportunities to serve the church – in theological education, young adult leadership formation, governance, advocacy, and publishing. Like parish pastors, I’m never bored. I have long felt called to live ministry in the world in ways that make sense, rather than wedging myself into a position that is the wrong fit. I can be up front, but I’m also skilled in working as part of a team. I am good at operating within big systems, interacting with lots of different people. I flourish in ecumenical work, which is so Presbyterian. I enjoy leading worship, but I have more fun facilitating conversations, writing blog posts, working behind the scenes to make something happen. I have the freedom to speak my faith convictions within the bounds set by my supervisor very differently than if I were in a parish setting.  

What does my ministry offer to the church? I give to you, the church, the ministries of speaking out, getting stuff done so the church has an event to attend/resources to access/a service for worship, making connections between people and communities, all in the body of a queer Asian American woman. I am a specific ministry by my representation as much as by my actions. I get to show people that their specific bodies can also be in ministry.  

Now, working in religious publishing, I am in what is referred to in my judicatory as a “validated ministry.” Working to publish books, interacting with others on behalf of the press, going out to hear what the church is discussing at the moment, collaborating with other religious bodies to make something happen, that is validated. We Presbyterians are an educated bunch. The books published by my workplace have been formational for religious leaders from many different traditions. But ultimately what validates this ministry for me is that books tell the stories of what makes us human and our relationship with the divine. I have on my desk a stack of academic tomes, thoughtful general reader books on Christian living, and bible studies, all reflecting the vitality of our faith. Being human is beautiful; after all, God created us this way. But to be a human who reads and writes is to share who we are and whose we are through the power of the written word. This is ministry.


Laura Mariko Cheifetz serves as Vice President of Church & Public Relations and editor of “These Days” at the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. She has served with the Forum for Theological Exploration and at McCormick Theological Seminary. She grew up a double pastors’ kid in the Pacific Northwest and holds an MBA from North Park University and an MDiv from McCormick Theological Seminary. For fun, she watches television, reads fiction, delves into post-colonial feminism and critical race theory, and rages against the system of which, she is clear, she is a part. 

NEXT Church 2015 Gathering: Day 1

By Laura Cheifetz, Social Media Curator of #nextchurch2015

We can all acknowledge it’s weird to mix the media, to have Tweets read from the church lectern. But that’s what we’re doing, knowing that the conversation is happening in multiple ways. If you’re like me, the conversation is happening live, in real time, at Fourth Presbyterian Church, while it happens via text and private message on a personal phone, while it also happens via Facebook, and while it happens on Twitter. Bringing the Twitterverse together with the live/real time conversation means bringing more voices to the conversation. We have formal responses to presentations up on the platform, and we have responses online.

At morning worship, @TheRevHanPowell preached about Peter. There weren’t enough bulletins for everyone. (That’s cool, admit it.)

Tweets heated up in a discussion about the use of Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” during worship. @TheRevHanPowell got a laugh out of us when she called our passing of the peace “competitive.”

We wrote down things to let go on strips of paper, and people posted photos of the papers being stapled together into chains.

She brought up the “Jesus question” – Jesus as historical figure? Jesus as savior?

@pstamaury stated, “Protestantism reduced confession and reconciliation to piety from its sacramental and communal status #reclaim it”

@miheekimkort said, “Maybe church should focus on facilitating confession rather than proclamation.”

Themes that emerged in the morning session included:

  • The hard work of diversity, and addressing race and racism. The church is too white.
  • White people committing to the work most people of color have to do by default
  • How can we share, support each other in having difficult conversations about race
  • How churches can involve more ruling elders and members in NEXT
  • How to make the conference concrete after returning home, live what we learn
  • Wisdom comes from diversity
  • Intersectionality – how can the church talk about race as well as other identities facing discrimination
  • The importance of testimony

@bookkats was concerned with how church can best support and include millennials, who need time and money, by helping with debt reduction, perhaps exchanging loan payments for volunteer time.

On the Topic of Giving Up Membership

@MBauhof says @uvchurch didn’t have membership for its first three years

On the Gift Economy and Social Enterprise

@CNeely says Time magazine speaks of social enterprise this week

@gklimovitz loves the concept/praxis of Gift Economy. Sounds like Acts 2.

@miheekimkort says it is yucky to talk about the ethos of consumption tied with compassion

While

@landonwhitsitt Market economy can be a tool for bad or good

@marykathryndean notices “this ‘gift economy’ video talks about paying it forward and all, but doesn’t address people who can’t afford lunch.

For Workshops

The workshops with the most buzz discussed failure, culture change, mission, and formation. No one could tweet out of the movement workshop (fair enough), and not much tweeting came out of the incarceration workshop, but I know it was happening thanks to @CoachRevJen

On failure

@kathleenhenrion #failurelab telling stories of failure without “tying it up with a bow,” no lesson assigned at the end

Many mused on failure, how we can give permission without destroying each other, without enjoying the failure of others, and how to reflect on failure without giving into despair.

Mission

@RevMcWhit mission is less about people coming to church & more about church being sent to people. Less transactional & more relational

@revfelipe Missional church: God is already working in the community, we just may not have noticed. – Edwin Andrade

There has been ongoing conversation about how in the presbyterian church, we don’t really have lay people. We have Teaching Elders, Ruling Elders, Deacons, and members. Others mused about how membership as a model doesn’t work as well as it used to, with some considering “covenant partnership” as a model instead of “membership.”

@kathleenhenrion Confession as countercultural #failurelab

@theleannem How do we avoid the schadenfreude in this format? #failurelab

@erincounihan Culture Change Workshop: you should always have someone under 25 in leadership!

@jasaface Less magnet-ministry, more slingshot-ministry; get out into the world instead of waiting indoors

@rosynotrosie #nextchurch2015 is curing presbyopia (old eyes) #missionalcommunities

At the Jazz Service

@revmamd I’ve got a front row seat as Lucy Smith leads this jazz combo and it’s pretty rad

The Rev. Joy Douglas-Strome preached about the third space, faith, and the uselessness of our anxiety, and Twitter blew up.

@spooks1185 Where is your third space?

@scottpcusa “Maybe someday we’ll all find that rainbow connection.” (Rev. Joy Douglas Strome) #Word

@kathleenhenrion Easter spoiler alerts at #nextchurch2015

@mnewgale Jesus: “Can’t let a little thing like crucifixion get in the way of what I trained you for!”

@fyamada We have been given the gift of the gospel, and our energies are hijacked

@thesoulstepford “Faith has never been dependent on sight”

@jodicraiglow “You may called into a weighty institution, but the ministry of Jesus Christ is alive and kicking.” Joy Douglas Strome.

@nanettesawyer Lives are depending on us living out the good news

@chrisbjames I challenge you all today: find a better job than this one.

We then wrote on ribbons what gives us courage to step forward, to do this best job in the world.

And for Fun!

@erincounihan How to mess with Presbyterians: Sit in a different pew for every session.

@presoutlook When I was 10, I read books. The original hand-held device. – Joe Small

Laura Cheifetz is a pastor and the executive director of Church and Public Relations for the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. She blogs at https://churchrelations.blogspot.com 

What Mandela and Pastors Have In Common

Each month we ask a different person from the NEXT Church community to assemble a series of posts around a particular theme. This month, Lee Hinson-Hasty is curating a conversation around theological education. Have ideas or reflections to share? Offer your thoughts in comments, on our Facebook page, or contact us here.

What Laura Mariko Cheifetz (in conversation with Lee Hinson-Hasty) thinks is coming and becoming in theological education.

“’People are rejecting leaders who rule by the formal authority of their position and command by hierarchical power,’ said Seidman, but ‘they are craving genuine leadership — leaders who lead by their moral authority to inspire, to elevate others and to enlist us in a shared journey.’”

Thomas Friedman, December 10, 2013, “Why Mandela Was Unique”

Nelson-Mandela-in-public-hd-wallpapers.jpg-228x131Some say there is no future in theological education. Church membership is down almost across the board, with the exception of Pentecostal churches, Seventh Day Adventists, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Enrollments are down in many seminaries, and the Master of Divinity is widely expected to continue to be a degree that draws consistently fewer applicants each year.

What future? Why would we bother to talk about it?

Lee Hinson-Hasty declares the death of theological education to be premature, and not just because it’s his job. We sat down the other day for a conversation, and Lee pulled the December 10th edition of the New York Times with this Op Ed on Mandela out of his pocket. Mandela did not march into his position of power planning a giant social takeover, but instead led on the strength of the moral authority he had built over years of leadership, whether that leadership took place from a prison or within his party. Institutions of theological education are preparing people, despite the predictions of ultimate destruction. As Lee sees it, these schools are forming people to lead with moral authority and inspire others to join in a shared journey.

Where pastors and Mandela differ is that Mandela’s leadership could have relied on giving orders based on his power, instead of working to persuade people with his moral authority. Pastors in the PC (USA) can’t make other people do anything. They can’t march around and give orders, although pastor’s orders sound like they would be deeply satisfying to give, and difficult to follow. “Believe!” or “Seriously, just go talk to that homeless person over there” or “You guys. I just need you to tell other people at least once in your lifetime that you’re a Christian and why you’re a Christian” or “I’m going to give you a two minute-limit to share your opinions in this meeting, and no one gets to repeat points made previously.”

The power that pastors do have is to lead with genuine moral authority, and inspire others to do the same.

Here’s the thing: people like having the most attractive pastor. Some feel like their church is the best because they use the same strategic planning techniques used by organizational development professors or a social entrepreneurship think tank. While the church has much to learn from the world of business and other sectors, churches and their leaders do not get their authority from having the best model, making the most money, or selling the most products.

Churches are fundamentally different spaces. Churches do not look for the best, most highly qualified members. Churches are not looking for only the wealthy, the attractive, the successful, the most highly educated. Churches do not seek out only the perfect families. Churches look for those who seek or live with doubt. Churches are places that search for those who struggle with mental illness. Churches open their doors to felons. Churches work to ensure there is enough food on the tables of the members of their community. Churches understand we as human beings are connected to the lives of people halfway around the world, and we cannot ignore our own impact, economic and environmental, on others. Church leaders have the privilege of serving the wounded, the unpretty, the struggling. Church leaders can persuade people with the gospel and their own moral authority to live into a better way to be a community, one that is open to the whole people of God instead of exclusive to the well-put-together-who-never-have-any-problems people of God.

Consider what the world would be like if everyone led by the power of their moral authority, and not on the power vested in them by virtue of their positions. It is a lot more work.

We who belong to churches have a faith community that inspires us, and has the potential to elevate us to lead with moral courage and authority. Those of us working out there in the world are confronted with many leadership models in our local, state, and national governments. We see authority where we work and where we go to school. Church has the potential to offer an alternative leadership model, particularly to those regular church people serving in prominent positions in the public and private sectors.

Seminaries and divinity schools are not the places to go to learn command-and-control leadership, or how to terrorize your own staff. They are not primarily focused on skills-based education for creating the best programs or for learning aggressive expansion. Pastors who engage in that kind of leadership learn that somewhere else. Instead, these are spaces of formation for an alternative kind of leadership. Most of these leaders will be footnotes in history, instead of headlines.

The world needs alternatives. Theological education is one of those alternatives.


UntitledLaura Mariko Cheifetz is the Executive Director of Church & Public Relations at the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, one of the six agencies of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Prior to joining PPC, she worked with The Fund for Theological Education and McCormick Theological Seminary. Laura is an ordained teaching elder in the PC (USA). She holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University, a Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary, and a Master of Business Administration from North Park University. She blogs at churchrelations.blogspot.com and can be followed @lmcheifetz

Lee H2 copyLee Hinson-Hasty @leehh is coordinator for Theological Education and Seminary Relations and a lead staff person for the Committee on Theological Education of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbyterian Mission Agency. Ordained in 1995, he has served as a campus minister and pastor in Virginia and as director of church relations at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in North Carolina.  Hinson-Hasty actively engages in dialogue, study and initiatives that foster relationships and leadership development in the church and academy including on his the blog, “A More Expansive View: Encounters with Presbyterians and our Seminaries.”  A graduate of Wake Forest University (BA-History), Louisville Seminary (MDiv), and McCormick Theological Seminary (DMin), Hinson-Hasty is interested in leadership in a multicultural world, serves as Vice Chair of the Fund for Theological Education, is a member of Lectio Jubilate, and is married to the Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty.  Elizabeth and Lee are parents of Garrison (13), Emme (7), and a four month old puppy, Basci.