New Day Alaska

New Day Alaska is the name we are giving to a new missional community in Anchorage.  We are six lay and clergy, UM's and ELCA at the moment, who comprise the lead team.  This is a fruit of the Academy for Missional Wisdom I experienced for two years.  Now is the time to implement what we are learning about how to create new places for new people at the edge.

On Friday, Oct. 25 we will welcome Rev. Kirimi Ikiugu, a Methodist pastor from Kenya.  For the next year he will help us assess the need, network, and begin a new faith community somewhere in Anchorage.  This is a grassroots effort.  We are receiving no institutional funds from any denomination.  But it is ecumenical and we are close to naming four anchor churches from the UMC, ELCA, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches.
I invite you to pray for us as we launch this new initiative.  We have already seen how God is blessing us with offers of help and funding.  We anticipate some bumps along the way, but we are convinced this is a God-inspired movement.  It is already spreading around the country as the Christian Church tries to retool itself to present a meaningful model of faith to a world in need.

Thanks be to God!

Dave

Indigenous People Day

 I am not a fan of celebrating Columbus Day.  I just have an issue with a holiday touting the achievement of a European "discovering" a land that was home to people who had lived here for thousands of years. 

I was talking with Rev. Charles Brower, pastor of Nome Community United Methodist Church, and native Alaskan last week.  He was talking about his contact with a Canadian native woman who is concerned about the effects of colonialism on indigenous people today.  It made me think of the trauma caused to a congregation by a pastor who violates a sacred trust in some way.  Experts talk about the amount of time it requires for a congregation to recover and heal.  They refer to them as "after pastor" congregations.

I wonder if the same thing would apply to entire nations of native people.  Is Alaska an "after colonialist" state?  How deep is the trauma caused by well-intentioned but misguided missionaries and territorial officials when Charlie and other native youth were removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools? 

One thing I believe to be true is that no one can fully comprehend or evaluate the pain of another.  As United Methodist Christians we need to be willing to listen deeply to the hurt of native Alaskans.  People have a deep desire to be known, and part of knowing another is a willingness to hear their pain.

Grace and peace,

Dave

Body Age vs. Mind Age

Today is my birthday.  I have walked this earth for 61 years.  It is weird because I have in my mind an image of a 61 year old man, and I do not fit that image!  Perhaps I am caught up with my baby boomer peers who have always been reluctant to accept the script on how we were to act.  Maybe I am in some form of denial, or immaturity.

As a young pastor I remember visiting Mildred who was 92 and living in a retirement home.  She remarked, "In my mind's eye I am eleven years old romping around my grandfather's farm."  I have always appreciated Mildred's attitude.  She has helped me to have a child like spirit even as my body ages.

There is a difference between childishness and childlikeness.  Jesus teaches us to come to God's kingdom like a child.  I take this to mean expanding our sense of wonder, being grateful for the gifts of life and breath and community, living in the present moment, and asking amazing questions. 

Yes my body is getting older.  But I try to live an active and healthy life.  And my mind age is way younger than my body age.  Thank God for role models like Mildred who show us all how to live as a child of God.

A Bigger Part of the Story

None of us fully comprehend the bigger story of peoples' lives.  As pastors and laity we get snapshots.  The advantage laity have over clergy is that if they live in one community for a long time they are privileged to see and know a larger part of the history of their friends and neighbors.  Itinerant UM pastors promise to go where they are sent.  So it is a special gift when we get to be in one place for a long time.  Kim and I have lived in the same house for the past 14 years.  Our four children all graduated from Service High School.

This may be a stretch but today nature presented me with a rare look at a bigger part of one story.  A bull moose was following a cow moose with the drama unfolding in our yard.  First up was the cow eating from our crab apple tree.  Then a bull showed up and laid down ten feet from our front door.  Eventually they got fairly close with the cow whining at him.  It was evident that the bull wanted this cow, but I could not tell if the cow was rejecting him or playing hard to get!

Later I watched a large leafy branch get stuck in the bull's antlers.  I laughed as I imagined him trying to camouflage himself as he sneaked up on the cow. 

Anyway the point is that mother nature gave me a bigger view of this story being played out in my yard in Anchorage, Alaska.  It made me grateful to have witnessed it, even as I realized I would not see the full story as they meandered down the street.

God knows the full story of our lives.  May God grant us the vision, the heart, and the patience to listen to the stories of others. 

Grace Always,
Dave

A Necessary Dissatisfaction

"How does one transition from the survival dance to the sacred dance? Let me tell you how it starts. Did you know the first half of life has to fail you? In fact, if you do not recognize an eventual and necessary dissatisfaction (in the form of sadness, restlessness, emptiness, intellectual conflict, spiritual boredom, or even loss of faith, etc.), you will not move on to maturity. You see, faith really is about moving outside your comfort zone, trusting God’s lead, instead of just forever shoring up home base. Too often, early religious conditioning largely substitutes for any real faith." 
   -Richard Rohr, Loving the Two Halves of Life: The Further Journey

A necessary dissatisfaction!  This gets my attention.  Rohr is proclaiming that this necessary dissatisfaction that comes to us in our times of sadness, restlessness, spiritual boredom, and loss of faith are necessary if we are to mature in our faith.  In the midst of your emptiness, sadness, and doubt have you ever thought these were necessary steps leading you to a deeper and stronger faith?  In the middle of such experiences we pray for God to remove these burdens.  Perhaps our prayer should be to move through them!  To embrace them.  To learn from them.  To be transformed by them. 

This really speaks to me for I have experienced all these realities that make up what Rohr calls "necessary dissatisfaction."  I am reading a book by Margaret Johnston called "Faith Beyond Belief."  She writes that feelings of the absence of God or even doubting God's existence are simply important stages on the way to a more mature and grounded faith.  I love it when what I am hearing and reading dovetails together to speak to my soul.

So it may be possible that the lousy feelings you are experiencing just might be part of your necessary dissatisfaction.  And rather than removing them or escaping them God may be urging you to move through them to a new kind of faith on the other side of our discomfort zone!

Grace Always,
Dave

How Would You Describe "Fun"?

A couple of weeks ago I was alone at our cabin in the woods north of Willow working on a building project.  I really enjoy looking at space and designing something creative that improves functionality with minimal cost.  For example, my son, Ryan and I, cut dead spruce trees, debarked them, and built a couple of small shelters at the cabin this summer.  I have to say that such projects are "fun" for me.  So this got me thinking about the difference between fun and happiness and joy.

Even though I was working in pouring rain for 5 hours I was having fun!  And I was happy!  And when I connected these feelings to God I experienced pure joy.  And that joy led to gratitude to God for a mind that creates and a body that still works to bring a design to completion.

So, can adults have "fun"?  What is work to one person may be fun to another.  It seems to me that fun, happiness, and joy are interconnected.  For me, though, joy runs deep within my soul.  God is a fun God whose joyful heart delights in seeing us use our God-given gifts in creative and playful ways.

Grace Always,
Dave

Praying for Peace in Syria

I have a prayer list on my smart phone.  As crises arise such as earthquakes, wars, famines, fires these terrible events that cause human suffering have come and gone from my prayer list.  But one thing has remained on my list for the past 40 years...peace in the Middle East.

Last Saturday I joined Pope Francis' and Bishop Grant's call to fast and pray for peace in Syria.  Each hunger pang was a reminder to think and pray for the people of Syria.  I was working on a building project at our cabin in the rain.  When I thought about my physical hunger I redirected that thought to the many refugees who fled the civil war to the many camps across the border.  My discomfort paled in comparison to theirs.

While I don't agree with President Obama's desire for a limited military strike on Syria I do appreciate his courage to have this debate.  Today it appears that through a candid answer to a reporter's question Secretary Kerry may have unknowingly started us down a path towards a peaceful resolution to the immediate crisis. 

Was this apparent change of course the result of millions of people fasting and praying for peace?  I can't answer that.  But I believe that the course of history can be changed when God's people join together praying and voicing their deep desire for all people to live in peace.

Grace Always,
Dave