10/27/2019
Isaiah 61
Chris Breslin
“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability- and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you. your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste.“ – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“[We are invited] to start exploring and experimenting with the possibilities of Slow Church. Not as another growth strategy, but as a way of reimagining what it means to be communities of believers gathered and rooted in particular places at a particular time.” -C. Christopher Smith, Slow Church
“The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother/sister’s is sure. And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation. As such, God permits them to meet together and gives them community. Their fellowship is founded solely upon Jesus Christ and this “alien righteousness…” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Lord, let my ears go secret agent, each
a microphone so hot it picks up things
silent, reverbing even the hum of stone
close to its eager, silver grill. Let my ears forget
years trained to human chatter
wired into every room, even those empty
except of me, each broadcast and jingle
tricking me into being less
lonely than I am. Let my ears forget
the clack and rumble, our tambourining and fireworking
distractions, our roar of applause. Let my hands quit
their clapping and rest in a new kind of prayer, one
that doesn’t ask but listens, palms up in my lap.
…
Hear me, please. I just want to be
still enough to hear. Right here, Lord:
I want to be.
–Prayer to Be Still and Know by Nickole Brown
Mentioned:
Best of Enemies by Osha Gray Davidson (book)
“Want to unify the country? A community organizer and a Klan leader showed us how” by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (Washington Post)
Songs for Today’s Worship Gathering:
I Woke Up this Morning (With My Mind on Jesus) by Tweedy/Staples
Be Thou My Vision by Forgaill
God With Us by Ingram/Jordan
Jesus, What a Beautiful Name by Riches
Heal Us by Cowper/Twit/Morton
Steadfast by McCracken/Jordan/Silverberg/Nouwen
Doxology
Other Resources:
Where Mortals Dwell by Craig Bartholomew
The Temple and the Church’s Mission by G.K. Beale
Sex, Economy, Freedom, & Community by Wendell Berry
The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith by Walter Brueggemann
The Worship Architect by Constance Cherry
Placemaking and the Arts by Jennifer Allen Craft
Scripture, Culture, & Agriculture by Ellen F. Davis
Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission by David Fitch
The New Parish by Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens & Dwight Friesen
No Home Like Place by Leonard Hjalmarson
Seeing Jesus in East Harlem by José Humphreys
A Christian Theology of Place by John Inge
Sidewalks in the Kingdom by Eric O. Jacobsen
Race and Place by David Leong
Watershed Discipleship edited by Ched Myers
The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak & Dave Runyon
Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus by C. Christopher Smith
The Power of Proximity by Michelle Ferrigno Warren
The Case for the Psalms by N.T. Wright
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