LIFE TOGETHER - Simplicity

matthew 6:25-38

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.

34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

We talk about KINDRED being something that we are creating together.  It’s not something you go to, it’s something you’re a part of.  The Restart Team together with the Holy Spirit has discerned that KINDRED is cultivating bold community that reveals God’s presence in the city. to prevent that vision from becoming a meaningless static statement, we identify these enduring values that guide our life together:

Word of God. Boldness. Simplicity.  Equality. Families & Framlies. Our City - Houston.

Today I want us to think about simplicity.  For me, this is perhaps the most challenging of all our values, because I so desperately want to complicate things. Just last night I was on my way out with friends, and we were trying to figure out who was going to ride with who because so-and-so will come back here, but then this car won’t come back.  And there’s room for 2 people in this car, but there’s kinda 3 people in our group, so who’s going to ride where? All just to get some pizza! I long to things simple, but I drift toward complication.  I long to better balance the sacred rhythm of work and rest.  I long to embrace the solace of simplicity, rather than try to fill it up with more and more and more.

I hear the promise that Jesus offers in this text, the promise that we will be cared for - clothed and fed, but I’m skeptical.  It can’t be that simple, can it? I’ve got to keep busy, I’ve got to be stressed out, because that’s how the story goes when I hear about successful people.  If I’m not worrying and scrambling, how will I be glorified when I overcome the obstacles with all my smarts and hard work, and my own awesomeness? And as soon as I’ve said it, as soon as I confess this truth in my heart, I realize that might resistance to simplicity is about building my own empire and not God’s kingdom.

The Kingdom of God is simple, it is we who try to complicate it with our caveats and debates of minor details. God simply...offers it up - offers us love and grace and care. But that freedom is too scandalous. Surely it can’t be that easy, that accessible… The Torah, which Jesus had intensely studied, contained 613 commandments - rules to live by, defining what should be done and what shouldn’t be done. And so….out of 613, the pharisees thought they could trip him up by asking which was the most important.

Matthew 22:36-40

36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

All the 613 laws could be boiled down to these two principles.  Love God. Love People.  It’s that simple.  This is what it means to be the church, followers of Christ, the people of God -  Love God. Love People.

It’s a simple promise and a simple commision.  God loves you, love one another. My sinful self immediately races to qualify these statements.  Sure, God loves me...but not THAT part of me. Yeah, we should love one another, but surely I’m not supposed to love THAT other. It is sin that keeps me from simple - the sin that lets me think I can fix it on my own, the sin that tells me I’m not worthy or that someone else isn’t worthy, the sin that even claims God’s promise is not trustworthy.  

What truly keeps you from simplicity?

What is one thing that you could do to make room for simple in your life?

For me, simple is both a matter of stuff and a matter of soul. I start to get that insatiable desire for more, more stuff, a new pair of shoes, new trips, new restaurants.  And I don’t think those are inherently bad, but I have to check my motivations - is this something I need or something I want? If I look around, do I already have enough? Do I really need a third pair of wedges that are a little trendier, a slightly different color….? And simple looks like taking 5-10 minutes of my day, just 10 minutes with my cup of hot coffee to just sit, and rest, and be - to be with God, to acknowledge God’s presence in my day, in my work.  And I find that if I do this second thing, this simple time with God, I find myself more satisfied.

Simplicity is not easy. And simplicity is not reduction, it’s not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  Simplicity is not deprivation.  Simplicity is discernment as to what is essential and what is not. Simplicity is the continual practice of clinging to what is central. Fighting for focus. Simplicity is about trust in God, and one another, in what God is doing through one another.  

This past week I got to visit Rothko Chapel and as I stood there, dwarfed by these massive monotone paintings, I realize...it is the simplicity of these works that reveal their richness.  Their simplicity helps me to notice subtle differences and details I would overlook in other pieces.  There’s a nuance of texture.  And even in a monotone painting, you realize THAT black is different from THIS black, and there’s almost a hint of blue or purple here.

Simplicity is confessing that we cannot create our own salvation, we can't program our way to perfection.

Simplicity is like pushing all the furniture to the edge of the room so that we can recognize how much space we have for activities.

Simplicity is the acknowledgement of abundance, that there is enough for me - enough stuff, enough grace, enough love for today.

I was five, and I didn’t want to go

guest blogger: Meredith Massey

I was five, and I didn’t want to go. I cried, I pleaded and from my car seat I kicked the back of my mother’s seat ferociously. We were headed to the community swim complex. Upon arrival my mother put the car in park and turned out of concern and confusion, “Honey, why do you not want to go to swimming lessons?”  Staring back at her I answered, “Because I don’t know how to swim.”

Maybe it’s my competitive nature, my fear of the unknown or uneasiness in trying new things…but I am often uncomfortable in settings I can’t control. My life has instances that resemble five year old Meredith’s hesitancy, denial and blatant disregard for things that may be difficult at first. One thing that fortunately has never felt difficult is my faith and trust in God, in Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit. I have my parents, several mentors, influential pastors, camp counselors and a loving community to thank for that.

In my first 25 years I’ve only ever known the Lutheran tradition and it’s as if I never had to learn it, because it was always there. I have loved traditional liturgy, hymns and the ritual of worship flowing from the green, red and occasional blue books in the pews in front of me.  The order of worship was predictable. The words and tunes brought comfort. And the confession, and word, and sharing of the peace, and sacrament were routine. These components helped to nurture the DNA of my faith, and they are sacred traditions to me that I will never fully abandon.

However. Predictability, comfort and routine no longer sound like discipleship and mission to me, it sounds more like hospice care. Trial and error, discomfort, cluelessness, risk, occasional chaos, honest conversations and new relationships are the components to me of the community boldly rediscovering what it means to be the church in the world, particularly in the city of Houston.

+KINDRED is a community that is diving head first into a city often inundated in waters streaked with racism, prejudice, fear of the stranger and content. How is it that we engage our city in word and sacrament to share the grace of Jesus Christ and multiply the peace that surpasses all understanding? We have ideas…ways to tread water, ways to make waves, and people to make sure we don’t drown. 

What about Dinner Church? I don’t mean let’s eat dinner in the fellowship hall and then head to the sanctuary for church. I mean let’s eat the sacred meal around a table that was once a pew. And while we’re eating, let’s engage in conversation that corresponds to the day’s text. What about Workship where we pray and serve with our neighbors as a form of worship? These are just a couple of the new components redefining my faith through +KINDRED to better reflect how the community around me interacts with God.

+KINDRED is teaching me a different language of love and service. +KINDRED is translating the fundamental components of the Lutheran identity into words and actions the people sleeping on our doorstep can understand. +KINDRED is reminding me that I’m not meant to float contently in the waters of my baptism. +KINDRED is the lifeguard to my faithful flailing and splashing and gasps for the Holy Spirit in the sea of uncertainty and challenge. For once I am not uneasy being a part of a community doing something we’re not exactly sure how to do, and I think that makes God smile.

LIFE TOGETHER - Be Bold

In worship this past Sunday we heard Acts 4....you know...that whole chapter.  Because it's soooo good!  Have you read it?  CLICK HERE TO READ IT AGAIN.

We talk about KINDRED being something that we are creating together.  It’s not something you go to, it’s something you’re a part of.  Belong. Become. Be loved. We are a community that is still becoming.  Together, we are midwifing this KINDRED life into the world.  The Restart Team together with the Holy Spirit has discerned that

KINDRED is cultivating bold community that reveals God’s presence in the city.

to prevent that vision from becoming a meaningless static statement, we identify these enduring values that guide our life together:

Word of God. Boldness. Simplicity.  Equality. Families & Framlies. Our City - Houston.

Today, we explore what this boldness is about.  I couldn’t help from reading all of Acts, chapter 4, because of the amazing display of boldness throughout. Sometimes Christianity gets painted as a religion of the meek and mild, of quiet propriety and docile morality. There is a time for gentleness, there is a place for solace and serenity.  We follow a God that went away to quiet places to pray and reflect.  But let us not forget that we also follow a God that went down streets he shouldn’t have, ate at tables he shouldn’t have, with people he shouldn’t have and literally flipped the tables when necessary.  Jesus challenged the status quo, the ruling authorities, the keepers of tradition.

But it’s also important to remember that Jesus does all this in service to Gospel. He’s not a rebel without a cause, an anarchist, or an obnoxious contrarian.  He’s not just breaking the rules for the fun of it. It’s intentional.  Every time he breaks the rules it is to point toward grace, toward hope, and toward life...in a way that the current system is not capable. Bold is not reckless, but it is risky. I quote the wise teachings of Mufasa, who said, “i’m only brave when I have to be.  Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.” Here, the early church lives into bold proclamation, bold prayer, and bold generosity.  Certainly risky, but always pointed toward the Good News of abundant grace.

Bold is...

Bold is calling a thing what it is.  Naming that which must not be named.  Bold is standing in places that most would abandon.  Bold is telling the truth, even if your voice shakes.  Bold is trying new things and not allowing the shadow of fear or failure to snuff out the light of hope.  Martin Luther said that we should “sin boldly...but believe even more boldly still.”  Bold is being willing to mess up big because we know that God is bigger.  Bold is the woman who will not sit silent as an accessory but who powerfully asserts her voice in meetings and bold is the man who keeps others from interrupting long enough so that they can hear her. Bold is the one who defies that gender binary and lives into the fullness of God has created them to me. Bold is walking into a place, a part of town where people don't look like you or talk like you but you go and listen anyway.

Where have you witnessed and/or lived out BOLDNESS?

How would you finish this sentence, "Bold is…...."

Be bold. Be strong. For the lord your God goes with you.

LIFE TOGETHER - Words Create Worlds

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

We talk about KINDRED being something that we are creating together.  It’s not something you go to, it’s something you’re a part of.  Belong. Become. Be loved. We are a community that is still becoming.  Together, we are midwifing this KINDRED life into the world.  It’s an exciting time.  The Holy Spirit is doing so so much in our midst that I feel like we’re just trying to keep up!  Have you noticed it?  When we gather together, this almost palpable passion for possibility?

That raw lurching in your chest? That divine curiosity?  That yearning for something more and having this sense that something is happening, is coming, even if you can’t quite put your finger on it?  This is what Pentecost does to us.  It stirs us up.  And for what?  Because it’s not just agitation for the sake of itself.  Remember, last week Paul told us in his letter that ese various gifts and passions are given not for ourselves, our own glory, but for the common good.

So how do we keep this divine energy, these sacred stirrings, from missing that mark? From going off in just any direction?  We do that by coming together, by faithfully looking to scripture, and by praying for discernment and guidance, so that we might know what God is up to around here, and align ourselves with that vision.  So to get us started, this is what your Restart Team has been doing.  Beth, Allison, Kinnon, Chris Markert, Angela, John....at the time Xavier was with us... and we all met weekly since January to read the book of Acts together, to learn about how the Early church was born, to witness their life together, to take a look at what values they clung to, and to pray that we might be faithful to those same values, following in the way of Christ. After months of looking to scripture, to God, looking to each other, and to our neighborhood and our city...we had a stronger sense of what God was calling us, as KINDRED, to be.  And so, to be keep this divine energy pointed toward God, to keep our focus as a community on Christ, we wrote down what we understand to be God’s vision for KINDRED.  Here it is:

KINDRED is cultivating bold community that reveals God’s presence in the city.

Now, it’s easy to wax eloquent about these theological matters and then turn around and continue to live our lives no differently.  I get that.   I confess that I am guilty of this often, that the church has been guilty of empty words for millennia.  But God fills up that which is empty, even beyond its banks until it overflows.  God takes what is dead and gives it life.  God creates an entire universe out of a formless void. As KINDRED, to prevent that vision from becoming a meaningless static statement, we identify these enduring values that guide our life together:

Word of God.

Boldness.

Simplicity.  

Equality.

Families & Framlies.

Our City - Houston.

Pentecost has stirred us up, animated us with gifts to share.  Now we get to explore those gifts in practice. Just as the natural world has season, so too does the church year follow a rhythm of seasons.  Now we enter the season AFTER Pentecost, one of the great green growing seasons.  Now we, as KINDRED, will spend our summer exploring what this life together means, what it looks like. SO each time we gather for DINNER CHURCH, for WORD & WONDERING, we’re going to be looking at one of our values.  Today, I want us to talk about the WORD OF GOD. I want us to talk about it in three different ways.  The Word of God as Anchor. As Promise. And As Creation.

When I say Word of God, what do you think of?

Growing up, I thought about the Word of God in one way - scripture.  The Good Book, the WRITTEN word. As I continued to read it, to study it alongside others and with mentors, I discovered that even the bible isn’t as static as I thought.  It’s not a simple encyclopedia for living, or a manual as some call it.  It is poetry, and humor, and innuendo, and metaphor, and vibrant history, and mystery, and song, and prayer, and letters, and parable.  It is the story of God, of God’s people, our story, our people. When we look closely it is beautiful.  Just don’t look too closely at 1 and 2 Chronicles.  I really struggle to find the beauty in lists of genealogy  And it’s true, not all of the bible is beautiful.  It is also raw - a story of pain, of fear, of wrath and violence. But I’d rather have a bible that’s honest and real.  I want scripture that can speak to God’s presence in the midst of THAT. God’s story with people throughout the whole of experience.  

2 tim 3:16-17

16All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.”

Scripture anchor us in God’s story throughout creation, throughout our lives. It reveals God’s presence and faithfulness throughout time, it shows God’s people wrestling with God and with each other throughout time.  It points us back to God and God’s hope for the world, it grounds us in this hope, so that we don’t get blown about by every breeze or shiney thing that crosses our path. It keeps me from creating the church of “me.”  The Word of God as Scripture anchors us in something bigger than ourselves.

That points us to another understanding of the Word of God.  The Word of God is hope, it’s promise, it is good news!  It is not only literary but alive. It is living and breathing.  It is not abstract but actual.  It takes shape and form, it takes on flesh and blood. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the embodiment of the Word, of this promise. A Word that transcends time but also enters fully and deeply into a specific time and place, into humanity, into the human body.  The Word is incarnational, in the carnal, in the body, in OUR bodies. This Word of God does not exist separate from the world we live in.  It enters our hearts.  

The prophet Jeremiah tells us,

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The Word is relationship, connection, embodied.  It is something we can touch and taste.  The Word of God is the word of communion. “This is my body, given FOR YOU”  “taste and see that God is good.”

The Word of God is living promise.

And that, that does something to us.  It’s affecting, it affects us. It forms and transforms, right? God speaks and we are changed, the world is changed.  Jesus tells the paralytic man, get up and go, take your mat and walk….and it happens.  Jesus says your go and wash, your sins are forgiven, and it is accomplished. This has been the power of the Word of God since the dawn of time.  “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”  The Word of God is an act of creation, still speaking, still creating.  

KINDRED, we have the Word of God to lean on in scripture to ensure we are following Christ and not just ourselves. KINDRED, we we get to witness, to be on the lookout for the Word of god active in our midst, in the voice of friends and strangers, in our relationships, in our humanity, in our flesh and bones.  KINDRED, we get to be a part of the Word of God in it’s act of creation, creating a way of life, creating a bold community that reveals God’s presence in the city.
 

What does the Word of God mean for you?

What questions do you still have about the Word of God?

NEW SEASON, NEW RHYTHMS

The summer brings new rhythms and a new season in our life together.  This Sunday will begin a Sermon Series to explore our values as +KINDRED.  You can find our values articulated HERE. What are we about? What do we dream about as a church? What are the things that anchor us? How will we live our LIFE TOGETHER?  This series is more than an information session, you will be a part of the evolving formation of our way of life, our communal culture.  +KINDRED isn’t something you go to, it’s something you’re a part of.

How we gather is also changing.  We get to try out new ideas and experiment with new (or actually really really old) ways of being church.  DINNER CHURCH is one of those new/old experiments.  Starting June 5th, our practice of worship will adopt a new rhythm of communion, community, and commission. Our DINNER CHURCH liturgy will happen on 1st and 3rd Sundays, while 2nd Sundays will be +KINDRED KITCHEN (we’re gonna learn to cook new things as a community and try our hand at bread baking!), 4th Sundays will be WORKSHIP (praying and serving with our neighbors like…Montrose Grace Place), and if there’s a 5th Sunday….POTLUCK!

So it looks like this: same time, same place.  Every Sunday at 5:30PM, so you don’t have to worry about which week is what. And ALL of these gatherings are WORSHIP.  Like the early church who “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (ACTS 2:42),” we will honor God with simple and sacred practices.

1st Sunday – DINNER CHURCH - Full liturgy in the sanctuary over a scrumptious meal

2nd Sunday - +KINDRED KITCHEN - Baking bread together…for others

3rd Sunday – DINNER CHURCH - See above

4th Sunday – WORKSHIP -  Serving alongside our neighbors

(5th Sunday) – POTLUCK - Bring a dish, share stories, and enjoy each other’s company

As we live into this new rhythm, we’ll be talking more about the significance of these practices, so stay tuned. 

2515 WAUGH DR. - Beyond Sundays....

As +KINDRED, we are cultivating bold community that reveals God’s presence in the city.  THIS CITY.  Clutch City. Houston. HTX.  So when local teachers call you up looking for help, you say yes. God’s presence is revealed not only in prayers, but in dedicated teachers and parents who want to provide something meaningful for the next generation.  This week they’ve put together the Opt-Out Academy for families who want an alternative to standardized testing and its impacts on education.  Read more about it here - https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-opt-out-academy.

This week the halls are abuzz with young voices. Kids from 6 different schools have come together to learn, to explore local parks, and to dream big. The tables that +KINDRED uses for DINNER CHURCH on Sundays have become coloring tables, geometry projects, and more.  There’s no reason for the church building to sit dormant for most the week.  We’ve got fantastic community space, let’s share it! This provides a glimpse of what is possible when we get to know our neighbors, share our passions, and work together.  This is just the beginning.  This is the difference between hoarding our gifts and giving them away. This is the difference between a church that wants to better itself, and a church that wants to serve the city. And in that pursuit, I have no doubt that God is revealed in big bold ways.

why +KINDRED will never have a mission

Lots of communities, organizations, and churches talk about “being on a mission.”  Companies spend thousands on consultants to develop statements that are marketable.  Movements inevitably find a rallying cry or hashtag.  Our language matters.  Our words matter.  Words create worlds.  They shape our imaginations and cultivate our culture.  They have the power to ground us and inspire us….

…but we are mistaken if we claim them as “ours.”  +KINDRED does not have a mission.  God is the author of all things and is already present and on the move in Montrose, in Houston, and in all places.  We get to join in.  We are invited into God’s ongoing activity, GOD’S mission.  +KINDRED doesn’t have a mission, but GOD does.  We will never “have” a mission, we will be part of God’s mission. +KINDRED is a part, a particular part, but certainly not the whole. God is stirring us up and providing us with gifts and passions to be a part of it in a particular way.

The ReStart Team (Beth, Angela, John, Chris, Allison, and Kinnon) here has been praying and studying the early church in Acts, listening to community leaders and neighbors, learning what people are passionate about and how they are gifted.  This past Sunday, we put pencil to paper.  We’ve discerned that God’s vision for KINDRED is about:

CULTIVATING BOLD COMMUNITY

THAT REVEALS GOD’S PRESENCE IN THE CITY.

To prevent this from becoming a meaningless static statement, we identify these enduring values that guide our life together:

+    WORD OF GOD

as it is made known in the bible and the still-speaking Spirit that stirs us up. 

It anchors us in something bigger than ourselves and draws us into the fullness of our being.

+    BOLDNESS

that means being open to risk, to standing in vulnerable places,

to new ideas, to trying new things, to getting it wrong, to starting over. 

+    SIMPLICITY

the implications of following Christ are complex but the church doesn’t have to be complicated. Our structures, communication, and practices will always strive toward

simplicity that follows the organic movements of the community. 

We try to keep ourselves in check so we don’t get in the way of God being accessible to all.

+    EQUALITY

for the marginalized, the overlooked, the oppressed. In our neck of the woods,

that’s highlighted as (but not limited to) the LGBTQ community and people in poverty. 

So we’re keeping our eyes and ears open for opportunities to appreciate, advocate,

and celebrate alongside these folks from our community and beyond.

+    FAMILIES & FRAMILIES

whether you were born, adopted, surrogated, divorced, separated, or brunch-ed into it. 

Whether you share DNA or not. If you don’t have kids, and if you do.

But you should know, we honestly love kids, and so we respect and honor them.

Basically, we value all enduring relationships marked by love, challenge, and accountability.

+    OUR CITY - HTX

from our immediate neighbors in Hyde Park and Montrose, to City Hall, and the burbs…

 we love this city and we’re committed being a vital part of it.

+KINDRED, I ask you to join in the listening for God’s voice, to pray for wisdom and guidance, to be on the lookout for God in our midst.  This is what we’re lifting up as our way of being in the world.  Don’t let these words hang empty.  If you see an opportunity to be bold, invite your KINDRED to stand alongside you.  God is here in the city, point your KINDRED to where you witness that.  With overwhelming rain and floods, this week has been a rough one for many. Tell your KINDRED how we can help.

What is DINNER CHURCH?

The simple explanation is that it’s church, but over dinner.  As with many simple ideas, it also holds a broader significance. What seems like a radical departure from tradition is actually a return to our Christian roots...

From God’s provision of food to fleeing refugees of Exodus, to the celebratory feast of its remembrance, our food and our tables are marked as sacred.  The earliest church knew it too.  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)  The sharing of a sacred meal is the heritage of the church, not as an institution but as friends and followers of Jesus.  Jesus invited friends, strangers, and outcasts to sit around the same table and break bread together.  That kind of experience changes us by bringing us to recognize the face of God in the face of the person passing the potatoes. In two weeks, on Maundy Thursday, the church will recall the story of Jesus’ last Passover meal. We remind each other of the promise that in the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup, God is re-membered, re-animated, re-creating. God is brought together in life again. This is true not only in history but in every single time we gather.

When food is more than food.

God is abundant in love and the source of all goodness.  We experience the truth of that promise when we physically experience the abundance of a good meal.  Rich, sumptuous, and satisfying fare points us back to the character of God. One traditional invitation to Holy Communion comes from the pastor proclaiming, “taste and see the goodness of God.”  How much more does that take on when the bread is still warm from the oven and what you see are the eyes of a fellow child of God?  The table is a common language we can all relate to and everyone we can all contribute to.  We practice at the table, in this set apart space, the kind of rhythm and relationship that echo into our more hectic daily lives.  It gives us a glimpse of what is possible beyond the filtered light of stained glass windows, but also in our streets, our offices break rooms, our City Halls, and our homes.

But really, what does that look like?

We gather with heartfelt prayers, smoky incense, a centering song, and the lighting of candles. We sit down to eat family style with all generations and walks of life sharing the same sacred bread, a hearty meal, and meaningful conversation. We’ve got high chairs, couches, pews, “regular” chairs… whatever floats your boat.  We tell the old, old story and engage its significance for our lives.  Youth and adults have space to engage and young children have their own space to engage. We create intentional space for each, but are still within the same sacred sanctuary. We are moved into further prayer and song, the sharing of gifts, and finish with a cup of blessing.  You don’t have to know all the words, we teach them every week as we learn together. Everyone’s invited reset the table for the next person – to continue the connection through clearing carafes or doing the dishes. If you have to rush home one week to make sure homework is ready for the next day or the dogs get let out…we get it.  The work you do at home is holy too. Here’s the deal…we share our lives in their wholeness, their brokenness, and their hopefulness.  We create the community together. 

What's in a name?

You know how interior designers use inspiration boards to guide their creative endeavors? Swatches of fabric with texture, contrasting colors for interest, small samples of tile, rough artistic sketches that are only echoes of a whole thought, but reflective of the overall mood they want to create in a space?  That’s what it felt like to discern a name for the “Montrose Restart.” It started with raw words, hoped-for experiences, essential elements, half-dreams that held something holy on the tip of your tongue but just out of reach. 

rhythm. ritual.

Simple. Sacred. sacramental living.

bless. flame. Spirit. dust.

Connective. consequential. creative.

generate. revive. resurrection. Relationship.

desert blooms. bayou blessings.

Welcome. jubilee.

Intimate. challenging. vibrant.

circling. rippling.

font and table.

threshold.

Family.

Kin.

+KINDRED.

For 94 years this community had lived as Grace Lutheran church, but that life had come to an end and something new was emerging.  We must take a new name. Sarai becomes Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel, Saul becomes Paul.  Names have been changed throughout our history in order to mark the change God has made in us. I prayed, I listened, I pondered.  After months of relying on mostly my own cleverness, I sat in my car listening to the radio, stopped at the light at Montrose Blvd. and W. Gray.  As I zoned out to the radio host banter, suddenly someone uttered “KINDRED” and it struck my ear.  Kindred. Kindred? What does that remind me of?  Where have I heard that before?  Why is that clinging to my heart?

“how very good and pleasant it is when KINDRED dwell together in unity.” – Psalm 133:1

KINDRED are those connected in relationship, the bonds of kin-ship, familial intimacy.  Kindred spirits are understood as those that share likenesses, but on its own KINDRED is more expansive.  Just like I don’t always agree with my uncle at thanksgiving dinner, KINDRED means we are not all the same but we keep coming back to the table. We are connected to each other by holy relationship and inspired to dream big under God’s ever-widening tent.

the KIN-dom of God is near

Last Sunday I was at a friend’s house, watching the Super Bowl halftime show and doing my part to crash Beyonce’s website upon news of an upcoming tour, when I got the message that a beloved brother of our congregation had died.  He too was watching the game with friends when he suffered a sudden heart attack.  This past Sunday, we gathered together at the church for his Memorial Service.

Robert Wittliff had been a Catholic Priest in the Basilian Order, he had the sharpest wit, and he spent some of the best days of his life with his partner Danny and their dear friends.  He had gone blind later in life, and so had become active in various organizations and communities to advocate and empower others without sight. But I met Robert as a vibrant part of the church (then Grace Lutheran).  He had been a leader in the congregation for years and he moved mountains to get out of the hospital and speak at our final Legacy Service in January.  It was there that he spoke of the meaning and memories this community held for him.  He spoke of a church that challenged him to embrace expressions of church that had been foreign to him, cultivated a spirit of generosity in his soul, and embraced him fully as a beloved child of God.  This is the legacy we stand on.

For the past month since that last service, the church has been transitioning to life as a Restart Congregation.  The Restart Team has been meeting neighbors, studying scripture, and discerning God’s hope for this people. Now, we are +KINDRED – exploring and experimenting with what church can be.  Still Lutheran, still at 2515 Waugh, still embracing people of all sexual orientations and identities, of all family structures, of all income levels and housing status.  We have this beautiful legacy, but we are becoming something entirely new.  How do we honor both while leaning into this new way?

Yesterday we entered the church building for the first time since that Legacy Service, for the first time as +KINDRED.  The worship space will soon change, removing pews for tables and chairs, but the old pews are still there.  This could have easily been a divisive experience with long-time members of the predecessor community on one side and newer faces on the other.  Rather, this moment was a unifying one.  Indeed, “how very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.” (Psalm 133)  In this moment I saw people coming together to lend their experience, their hospitality, and their passion to help so that all Robert’s friends might know welcome and peace on such a day.  The folks that know the church kitchen backwards and forwards made room for the contributions of those who struggle to find the silverware drawer.  We had a full house and many of us are still learning our way around, but we learned as we went along.  Almost a third of the folks who came were blind with varying mobility, but their cabs and metro lifts were met at the curb with an eager hand to guide them as needed.  Two young boys offered communion cups into their hands, and those cups were filled by a woman who had never served the sacrament before. One man who sleeps on the streets nearby was outside with a broom and dustbin, cleaning up cigarette butts before the guests came and he was still helping clear empty plates from tables at the end of the day. 

I had to take a step back to witness the beauty of it all.  It could have been chaos, but God was stirring up new life out of the dust.  There were certainly imperfections – I plowed right through the timing for someone’s solo and a few things were clumsy, but the presence of the holy was unmistakable. During this season of lent, we pare our lives down to clear space so that we might notice what could otherwise be overlooked.  We simplify so that we can recognize the richness of the ordinary.  This is what the Kingdom of God looks like.  It’s not all splendid temples of gold, but a community of diverse people that come together to care for one another in practical yet profound ways. It is the Spirit’s work connecting millennials, retirees, and strangers in divine relationship to one another.  It’s the relationship that reveals the sacred.  This is what makes up the Kingdom…the Kin-dom that is drawing near.​

Re-Start

I arrived at the church early on a Sunday morning while the streets were quiet and still.  I didn’t even have keys yet, but this would be my first day as Restart Pastor here.  I waited on the front porch with others who were looking for food and warmth and with those who would provide it.  I walked in through the stone arches and open doors of Grace Lutheran Church to discover the courageous, wounded, and hopeful people who have called this place home.  I was struck by the diversity of those gathered.  The homeless sat in the same pews as those who were moving into the luxury condos around us, the blind sat next to me in the front, and the republican shared the peace with the woman wearing a t-shirt that read “Transgender Veteran.”  This is evidence of God’s presence here.  These are my people.  This is the legacy of 94 years of ministry.

Months ago, with the support of their interim Pastor, they made the bold decision to become a Restart Church.  Like many mainline churches, they experienced shrinking numbers and challenges greater than their current resources.  At the same time they recognized the continued promise and potential of God’s activity in the area.  So….a Restart Church.  It’s a pretty new model in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, our denomination).  In fact, we don’t really know of any others doing this yet.  It’s basically the gutsy move to take a church back to ground zero and start over. It take hutzpah and humility. And it poses the intriguing question, “if you had a blank slate to create a community of faith, what would you do? What would it look like?”

This past Sunday, the congregation of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church was closed.  In the same moment, new life began to emerge.  +Kindred is its name. The beautiful building with its stained glass windows and its vaulted wooden beams remains, but it is witness to a new thing.  It is the tomb where Grace was laid to rest, but we return to find the tomb empty and God on the loose again.  We proclaim the Gospel, the Good News of the Resurrection, of new life not just with our words but in the way we embody these things in our structures and our relationships.  Don’t just talk about it, be about it!  This new way is so much more than a church that is “new and improved,” “Grace 2.0,” or “the faith force awakens.” It stands on the legacy of this beautifully rich community to respond to God’s call in an altogether new way.  In Christ, we are a new creation. 

As of today, I have been an ordained Pastor for two months.  I was invited into this particularly interesting call as Restart Pastor, not really knowing what I’d agreed to.  I have had the opportunity to lead this community in its final months of worship, rediscover the vibrant neighborhood of Montrose, and witness the heart of God who stirs up in us a love for this city and for each other.  We get to experiment with how that all converges.  We get to practice being faithful and playful at the same time.  We have the chance to explore what church might be, given a firm foundation and the freedom to try new things.  How do we create a church that isn’t just something you “go to,” but is something you’re apart of?  That actually means something when we’re at our desks, walking down the sidewalk, or out for drinks?  That’s the kind of church I’ve always wanted to be a part of.