Outreach International, a charity affiliated with the Community of Christ, is advertising a long-term volunteer position in Haiti. For information, click here.
Volunteer in Haiti with Outreach International
Posted January 13, 2012 by Matthew BoltonCategories: Haiti, Outreach International, Peace and Justice
A Real Gift: Community of Christ Commercials
Posted December 24, 2011 by mattfrizzellCategories: Christianity, church history, Community of Christ, Congregations, religious identity, Young Adults
Tags: church and culture, Community of Christ
Christmas weekend, a commercial invitation for Community of Christ will be airing on local TV stations in the greater Kansas City area. It is being aired by three mission centers: Central Mission, Midlands Mission Center, and Far West.
The commercials were created by a team including Tom Cochran, Brady Cackler, and Bryce Veazey. The commercial advertises a link that will help visitors find a Community of Christ congregation near them. The site goes live Christmas eve.
I celebrate these commercials.
As I think of these commercials airing across Kansas City, it’s interesting to consider the mixed views surrounding the current relationship of church and culture. The idea of Community of Christ commercials certainly takes a step toward our world of media dominated communication, multimedia experience, and its emotional power over us. The long discussion of the relationship between church and culture is a centuries old theological one. Listen to the variety of perspectives on issues like sexuality and mega-churches or contemporary worship, you will hear the legacy of perspectives and their imprint on the church today.
Consider, for instance, the many views among church-goers on mega-churches and contemporary worship. Especially among members of small churches, you don’t have to go far to find those who lament how worship has become more and more like entertainment. It’s more than a few. I’ve heard liberal and conservative, young and old, express how mega-churches cheapen church membership and entertainment doesn’t belong in church. Listen to the heated opinions around sexuality and orientation and you’ll also hear members policing the borders of church and culture even more. Both sides lay claim. On one side, accepting homosexuality just dilutes faith with more worldly attitudes. Culture has gone morally adrift. While the other side is adamant that discriminating against same-sex love is less-than-prophetic at best, and reflects the spiritual failure of popular Christianity. Again, where the church marks off its separation from the world and culture is deeply important.
With commercials, Community of Christ again joins the fray.
Now that I live in Lamoni,I live among the Amish. The Amish are an example of Christian community whose identity is deeply embedded with a sense of separation from surrounding society. On one end of the spectrum, the Amish police the boundaries of their community and its practices to preserve a way of life that sets it apart and keeps sacred a visible sense of community and culture. The Amish do not have televisions or internet, let alone commercials inviting others to join them.
On the other end, the seemingly most culturally accommodating Christians – American evangelicals – do the same. Driving minivans and crossovers to the mall and talking on iPhones, evangelical Christians permeate ever strata of our society. Yet, they mark themselves off with a strong sense of belief and religious identity. The success of evangelicalism, however, rests not in their separation from our culture but in the success evangelicalism has in baptizing almost anything. From raves to retro, fashion to finances, and dating services, evangelicalism is distinct in how it accommodates and transforms any cultural medium with its message. Christianity crossed with mass production.
It’s interesting to consider how the RLDS/Community of Christ fits in this sort of continuum. On the one hand, the church has been too small to have a television presence like the Mormons. However, the church’s media presence, however small, is not new . In the 1920′s, the RLDS church owned a radio station (KFIX, later KLDS and KMBZ), which broadcast from the Auditorium. Rummage around an old congregation and you will still find the broadcast sermons of Arthur Oakman or Evan Fry, either in print or on tape. The church also ran TV ads sporadically in the Kansas City area in the 1980′s and 90′s.
While the relationship of church and culture is interesting, to some degree it doesn’t matter. There is something powerful in watching the faces of friends on the screen in this new commercial. I’m moved as I see the church where Margo and I were married (Stone Church), and the images of people projected upon it in a way that transforms the building. I have emotions as the commercial ends with the name of my church in the center of the screen.
If God would stoop so low to be born human, any church that bears Jesus’ name should consider any means necessary to extend God’s invitation. “A community for you,” that’s what the commercial advertises. It is professionally done, moving, and creative. While I’m sure the commercial took tremendous time, effort, and money, I think the challenge will not be getting it aired. It’ll be delivering on what it promises: a community for whomever’s watching.
Great job, brothers Tom, Brady, and Bryce. May our congregations live up to their name and embrace whomever walks through their doors.
Over 250,000 may be watching.
Would a CofC Bishop Get Arrested for Occupy Wall Street?
Posted December 18, 2011 by Matthew BoltonCategories: Community of Christ, Economics, Peace and Justice, Zion
Tags: Bishop George Packard, Community of Christ, Desmond Tutu, Duarte Square, Michael Elick, NYPD, Occupied Bishop, Occupy Wall Street, Trinity Church Wall Street
I was at Duarte Square, Lower Manhattan, this afternoon as retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard, and several other clergy were arrested supporting Occupy Wall Street’s attempt to start a new occupation on land owned by Trinity Church Wall Street. For a video of him talking with protestors in the back of an NYPD paddywagon, click here.
“I am still baffled that the Episcopal Church of which I have been a member all my life could not–through Trinity–find some way to embrace these thousands of young people in our very diminishing ranks,” said Bishop Packard, the former bishop for the armed services, on his blog, Occupied Bishop.
Packard is not the only high-ranking Episcopal leader who has supported the movement. In an open letter to Occupy Wall Street, anti-apartheid hero Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and former Deacon at Trinity Church, said:
“Injustice, unfairness, and the strangle hold of greed which has beset humanity in our times must be answered with a resounding, ‘No!’ You are that answer. I write this to you not many miles away from the houses of the poor in my country. It pains me despite all the progress we have made. You see, the heartbeat of what you are asking for–that those who have too much must wake up to the cries of their brothers and sisters who have so little–beats in me and all South Africans who believe in justice.”
To watch a video of interfaith leaders addressing the Occupiers at Duarte Square today, click here.
Do you think Community of Christ clergy should join the Occupy Movement? How should the church more generally interact with the Occupy Movement?
[Updated 19 December 2011]
Do we need an Occupy C of C Movement? A Response
Posted November 21, 2011 by Matthew BoltonCategories: Community of Christ, Economics, Peace and Justice
Tags: Community of Christ, Corporations, Occupy Wall Street
[This thoughtful post was written by Jim Craft, in response to the earlier post by Matthew Bolton: "How Should the Church Interact with the Occupy Movement?" -- Ed.]
During the last few months, we have been bombarded with images of fellow citizens camped out in public parks around the nation. Most of the attention has focused on a group in Manhattan which is called “Occupy Wall Street”. This group has taken their grievances to the people they feel are responsible for whatever ills society is suffering from today, Wall Street.
What I have noticed is that the message isn’t entirely clear. When the protests first started, I was listening to a broadcast from Dave Ramsey while driving back to my office from a rural courthouse. Mr. Ramsey was having audience members who identified with the Occupy movement call in and explain what and why they were protesting or considering themselves members of this group. There was absolutely no clear consensus among ANY of the callers why they were protesting, other than they were just “mad” about the way things were going for them. Almost none of them could explain the economic injustices they were protesting, or even what they were experiencing.
Welcome All
Posted July 4, 2011 by Matthew BoltonCategories: Community of Christ, homosexuality, Peace and Justice, Race
Tags: civil rights, Community of Christ, Examiner, homophobia, LGBT, marriage equality, New York
Two Sundays ago I was invited to preach a sermon on the theme “Welcome All” at a congregation in Independence. It was just a few days after the passage of the marriage equality bill in New York State and so I felt compelled to preach on the importance of the Community of Christ becoming a welcoming church for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. I also wanted to use the opportunity to publicly apologize for my own homophobia, which as a young adult I had accepted uncritically from those who had given me religious instruction. I show that the church has often struggled to be prophetic on human equality, using examples of race and the American Civil Rights movement. I call on Community of Christ congregations to become inclusive churches.
I wrote up a summary of my sermon for my column in The Examiner (Independence, MO). Click here to read it.
Diverse Voices: Measuring the Potential for Non-Americans to Express their Views at World Conference
Posted June 25, 2011 by Matthew BoltonCategories: church history, Community of Christ, World Conference
Tags: Community of Christ, Diversity, Resolutions, Statistics, World Conference
In a variety of previous posts I have reflected on the implications of the Community of Christ’s decline in its traditional geographic ‘core’ of the American Midwest, and growth in the ‘periphery’ of Latin America, Africa and Asia. I have also reflect on the ways people express discontent in the church, using the economic model of “Exit, Voice and Loyalty.” However, I haven’t really had any meaty data to work with.
This week I had a rushed visit to the Community of Christ archives for a couple hours and tried to get a little more hard data. It is necessarily inadequate because I didn’t have a lot of time. Nonetheless I think it tells an interesting story of the way “Voice” is changing in the denomination. There is a slow, but definite trend, of World Conference becoming a venue of increasingly diverse voices, while the USA and Canada remain dominant.
I went through all the Bulletins for every World Conference since 1958, when the church expressed its desire to become a “world church”, and counted how many World Conference Resolutions proposed by field jurisdictions were from each area of the world. I did not count the resolutions that came from the headquarters leadership. A less rushed scholar would have looked at how many of these resolutions had ‘policy success’ by actually being passed by the chamber and avoiding amendments — maybe one of you Saints Herald readers can take up that challenge! (See the asterix at the bottom for some methodological notes).
Proportion of Proposed Resolutions from Field Jurisdictions, by Region
Implications of the ‘Mormon Moment’ for the Community of Christ
Posted June 13, 2011 by Matthew BoltonCategories: Community of Christ, Mormonism
Tags: Book of Mormon musical, Business Week, Community of Christ, liberal Mormons, Mitt Romney, Mormon Moment, Mormons Rock, Newsweek, Pew, Tony Awards
The Book of Mormon musical swept the Tony awards last night. Newsweek’s cover this week says we are living in a “Mormon Moment”: “Mormon’s Rock!” they declare. Business Week has tried to figure out why so many Mormons do well in business. A recent Pew Research poll examined how the American public would feel about a Mormon presidential candidate.
In all this, the Community of Christ has been conspicuously absent from the discussion in the media. I am interested in what you all think. Is it better for the Community of Christ not to be associated with “The Mormon Moment” given their long attempt to distance themselves from their Utah cousins both doctrinally and in public perceptions? Is there a way for the Community of Christ to take advantage of the public interest in Mormonism to articulate the Community of Christ as a ‘liberal Mormon’ or ‘Protestant Latter Day Saints” alternative? Given that the American public’s perceptions are slowly becoming more tolerant of Mormons, does it make sense for the Community of Christ to continue to be sensitive about being mistaken for Mormons?
What do you all think?
Terry Tempest Williams to Receive Community of Christ Peace Award
Posted June 6, 2011 by Matthew BoltonCategories: Community of Christ, Peace and Justice
Tags: Community of Christ, environment, Mormon, Peace Award, Terry Tempest Williams, University of Utah
Terry Tempest Williams, a Utah-based environmental activist with a Mormon heritage, will receive the Community of Christ Peace Award on 21 October 2011 at the church’s Peace Colloquy on “Creating Hope, Healing Earth” in Independence, Missouri. See the official announcement here. A list of previous awardees is here.
Her website says Williams believes “environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice” and asks the question, “what might a different kind of power look like, feel like, and can power be redistributed equitably even beyond our own species?”
Williams is currently Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah.
Jim Slauter Resigns as C-12 President in Community of Christ
Posted May 6, 2011 by Rich BrownCategories: Community of Christ
Tags: Council of Twelve, Steve Veazey, World Conference
UPDATE 5/11/2011: First Presidency Fills C-12 Vacancy
On Wednesday, May 11, President Steve Veazey released a Letter of Counsel Regarding the Presiding Quorums in which Barbara L. Carter was called to be an apostle.
That priesthood call will not be considered until the April 2013 World Conference. However, the Letter of Counsel further noted that effective August 1, 2011, Barbara Carter will function within the Council of Twelve as an apostle designate. Because her ordination cannot take place until this call is approved, President Veazey took what is believed to be an extraordinary and unprecedented step by explaining that she “will be assigned by the First Presidency to provide leadership and supervision to an apostolic field. She will participate in Council of Twelve meetings and other World Church leadership gatherings according to the nature of her assignment and responsibilities.”
In a related move, Apostle Scott Murphy was named as Director of Field Ministry and Apostle Linda Booth, as C-12 secretary, will serve as acting president of the quorum until September when quorum members select officers. New field and ministry assignments for the Twelve are listed here.
* * * * * * * * * *
Earlier this week Community of Christ President Steve Veazey announced that Jim Slauter, president of the Council of Twelve Apostles and director of Field Ministries, has resigned from those positions and will be retiring from World Church appointment. The resignation and retirement will be effective August 1, 2011.
Brother Slauter requested this action so that he and his wife could give greater attention to the ongoing medical needs of their five-year-old grandson Matthew. Jim was set apart as president of the Council of Twelve at the Special World Conference in June 2005 (at that Conference Steve Veazey was called from his then-position as president of the Council of Twelve to assume the position of president of the church). Jim was called and ordained as an apostle at the 1996 World Conference. He first accepted World Church appointment 24 years ago.
The full text of the “Letter of Counsel Regarding the Presiding Quorums” is here.
Jim Slauter’s letter of request is here.
A letter of support from the remaining eleven members of the Council of Twelve is here.
Although no official announcement was made, it appears the vacancy in the Council of Twelve will not be filled until the next World Conference, scheduled for April 2013. The positions of council president and field-ministries director presumably will be filled by current members of the Twelve, at the direction of the First Presidency.
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