As a follow-up to the first community forum about the East West Connector BRT line, we are happy to host the next meeting of the Woodlawn neighborhood association on Thursday, August 2, at 7pm in our fellowship hall.
The July 9 community forum created lively conversation (see the Tennessean article) and we are glad to provide a space where our neighbors can gather to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and give their input to this significant public transit project.
Next Steps in Nashville's Promising Development of Public Transportation
The Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and the Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee will kick off a series of ongoing public information sessions on the East-West Connector bus rapid transit (BRT) project with four sessions in July. The East-West Connector Community Forums will be held at four locations (including Vine Street Christian Church) along the East-West Connector corridor from the White Bridge Road area in West Nashville to Five Points in East Nashville.
The Community Forums will provide information on the proposed route and transit station locations, as well as how BRT differs from traditional bus service.
Vine Street Christian Church
Monday, July 9, 5:30 p.m.
4101 Harding Road
“After several weeks of studies and preliminary design work by our engineering consultants, we now have a route and preliminary transit station locations to share with residents, business and property owners, and employees who work along the corridor,” said Nashville MTA Board Chair Freddie O’Connell. “These forums are an important opportunity for us to listen to individual comments, concerns, and suggestions that will help us plan a successful BRT project.”
The East-West Connector will run along an eight-mile corridor that stretches from Five Points in East Nashville to the White Bridge Road area in West Nashville. The BRT service is expected to serve more than one million passengers in its first year.
“Public input is critical to the success of the East-West Connector,” Mayor Karl Dean said. “I urge Nashvillians to make an effort to attend one of these area forums to learn more about this transformative project and provide feedback that will be invaluable as planning for the BRT line moves forward in the next year.”
The East-West Connector Engineering and Environmental Analysis is being led by URS Corporation, a leading provider of engineering, construction and technical services for public agencies and private sector companies around the world.
To follow the project, “like” it on Facebook or sign up for updates from the Transit Alliance.
“The Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee is committed to working with MTA and Mayor Dean in making the East-West Connector a cornerstone of our regional transportation network,” said Charles Bone, chairman of the Transit Alliance.
When we gather for worship, the sanctuary is filled with the sound of human voices - songs of praise, the spoken words of scripture and prayers, glorious anthems and "Little children, come unto me..." Then there are the sounds of organ and piano, of handbells and guitars and brass and more. Worship has a rich texture of sounds.
After 36 years "on the bench," our Organist and Director of Music Ministries, Julia Callaway will retire in the fall. Sunday to Sunday, year after year, she has played the organ and the piano, accompanied the choir and many soloists, selected hymns and musical offerings, introduced new songs and orchestrated the flow of every service. Julia has given 36 years of her professional life to the glory of God and the worship life of God's people at Vine Street, 36 years of beautiful, creative worship sounds. And while we are making plans for retirement parties and celebration concerts, we must also talk about the next chapter in Vine Street's ministry of music.
Over the next few weeks we will get together in groups of various sizes to talk about worship sounds and what kind of music leadership we will need. Our leaders want to hear from all of us so they can develop staffing scenarios that are in tune with our vision for the future.
We ask all our members and friends to participate in a triplet and/or attend a listening group. The triplets are groups of three that meet five times (between March 10 and April 15) to talk about songs, instruments, worship, and related things. All you have to do is sign up, and we'll let you know who your triplet buddies are. The triplets schedule their own sessions, and they are free to talk about a wide range of issues. We will provide a set of guiding questions/statements for each session, and each triplet will appoint a scribe to report important findings.
The listening groups are three open, facilitated sessions, each following the same agenda (so it's OK to attend just one, but it's also great to attend more of them: with different people in the room, the dynamics will be very different in each case). The agenda of the listening groups is a very condensed version of the topics the triplets will discuss. This may sound pretty confusing at first glance, but it's actually a pretty flexible process:
The point is, each of these combinations (and any other combination you can dream up) works; what we are aiming for is to give all our members and friends an opportunity to participate in this important conversation about leadership in music ministry. The only rule: when you make a commitment to a triplet, you commit to make every effort to participate in all sessions (that's why each triplet gets to schedule their sessions independently).
To make room for sharing music and comments outside of these meetings, we created a page on Facebook. Check it out, and feel free to post your own favorite worship songs and listen to what others have posted.
This turned into a much longer post than I expected, but I don't want to end it without encouraging you to sign up for one of the triplets; please complete and submit this form, and you will soon hear back from us. Thank you!
In 1945, Rabbi Julius Mark of the Temple and Dr. Roger T. Nooe of Vine Street Christian Church encouraged the men’s clubs of their congregations to have a dinner meeting in February as a celebration of what was then known as “Brotherhood Month.”
The men met for dinner and decided to make this “Brotherhood Dinner” an annual event. Within just a few years, the women of the congregations joined them, and the tradition continued as the “Brotherhood/Sisterhood Dinner.” Over the years, other Nashville congregations were invited to participate, and the inclusion of Catholics and African-American Baptists showed the intention to build bridges where the community at large seemed too comfortable with disinterested coexistence or outright segregation.
For more than sixty years, this dinner gathering was an occasion for many to reflect on the role of faith communities in the fabric of our public life. In recent years, leaders from the Temple (Congregation Ohabai Sholom), St. Henry Catholic Church, First Baptist Church - Capitol Hill, Belmont United Methodist Church, and Vine Street Christian Church realized that our desire to include the Islamic community required some fresh thinking. In addition, we noticed that younger generations were not nearly as eager as their parents to come to the “Brotherhood/Sisterhood Interfaith Banquet.” We wanted to continue the great tradition of coming together to grow in our mutual understanding and to build and strengthen bonds of friendship in our city; but we also knew that new forms had to be found.
For a few years, I had been reading about a young man in Chicago, who was doing excellent work with college-age men and women of many faiths. A couple of times, I had heard him on the radio, thinking, “I wish we could bring this guy to Nashville.” When the congregations of the Brotherhood/Sisterhood Interfaith Banquet were looking for a new form to channel and direct their interfaith passion, I thought the time had come. I called theInterfaith Youth Core, the organization Eboo Patel had founded in Chicago, and learned that his work had gained international attention - bringing him to Nashville would be possible, but the cost was beyond reach for a handful of congregations. Then I learned that Vanderbilt was interested in bringing this recognized interfaith leader to Nashville, and the Elders quickly decided to partner with the university.
Funding from the Roger T. Nooe Lectureship for World Peace made it possible for us to reserve Langford auditorium on the Vanderbilt campus for the keynote event on February 21 (see the poster below). In the morning of that Tuesday, we invited faith leaders from Middle Tennessee congregations and schools to discuss with Mr. Patel how we can continue our work for mutual understanding. We’ll only have breakfast, but to me it will be another course in the banquet of community. Rabbi Mark and Dr. Nooe would be pleased to see what became of their dinner idea.
I hope you will join us for the lecture on Tuesday, February 21, at 7pm, and that you will invite your friends and neighbors. We encourage our members and neighbors to meet at Vine Street at 6:30pm, so fewer vehicles will be used and people with limited mobility can be dropped off near the entrance to Langford auditorium.
On Sunday, January 29, we begin a six-week exploration of the place of music in worship and spirituality. We will examine the roots of our worship music and the various branches it has developed over generations. We will also have conversations with music professionals about the influence of church music on their faith and their music careers. Listening to examples of different expressions of spiritual music as well as singing along are natural parts of our journey.
We believe that this exploration will be of interest to many people in our community, and so we want to be very clear that guests are welcome to any of the presentations.
All sessions will be held on Sunday mornings at 9:30am in the Fellowship Hall, and the presentations will be made available on video for those who are unable to attend.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has strong commitments to seeking Christian unity through dialogue, service, and prayer. Vine Street Christian Church has long been involved in ecumenical efforts in our city and nation, as well as globally.
We gladly extend the invitation to an ecumenical prayer service in observance of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The service has been prepared by Christians in Poland; here in Nashville, it will be hosted by Otter Creek Church of Christ on Wednesday, January 18, at 7pm.
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Begun in 1908, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is celebrated each year in cities and towns across the country and around the world.
The theme for the 2012 observance of this week is "We Will All Be Changed by the Victory of Our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:51-58)
The service, which will be held as part of middle Tennessee’s observance of this annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, will take place at 7:00 PM at Otter Creek Church of Christ, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN.
Reverend Joseph Breen of St. Edward Catholic Church will deliver the message. Special music will be provided by Otter Creek Church. Area pastors will be leading prayers and scripture readings centered around this year’s theme.
In conjunction with this Prayer Service, Operation Andrew’s United 4 Hope and Room in the Inn will be collecting donations of coats, especially children and teen coats, for distribution through the school system and other social service agencies.
So, please come and pray with us and bring a coat for the collection!
The Vine Street Outreach Committee welcomes us to an exciting way of caring and sharing during the season of Advent and Christmas. It’s our Matthew 25 approach. We all look forward to partnering with them in this wild and wonderful endeavor. After reading and reflecting on this powerful scripture, we want to be very intentional about simple gifts to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Serving the least of these: Bring new board games and toys for our Hope Camp Christmas Angels to the church. Please don’t wrap them, and please deliver them by Sunday December 18th, when we will dedicate them in worship. If you have any questions, ask Hope.
Feeding the hungry: Your offering on Christmas Eve will be donated entirely to The Campus for Human Development.
Welcoming the stranger: We will be hosting Room in the Inn on the Wednesday after Christmas, December 28th and again during the week of February 5th [sign up here]. Will you be a Secret Santa and sponsor backpacks and toiletry kits for our Room in the Inn guests? If you have any questions, ask Hope.
Welcoming the stranger: We invite you to help with the TNT Christmas Party on December 10th from 2-3:30 pm. The TNT Club is a social group for adults with developmental disabilities, and they are the friendliest strangers you will ever meet! If you have any questions, ask Hope.
Clothing the naked: The women from the Rivera House/Theotherapy Project need winter clothes. Do you have a coat or sweater you can share? Please bring new or gently worn clothing items to the church by December 18th.
Caring for the sick: Take 10 minutes to write a note to one of our shut-ins or someone on the prayer list. Need names and addresses? Contact the church office.
Visiting the imprisoned: The girls from the youth group will be spending an evening with the women from the Rivera House/Theotherapy Project. They’ll bake cookies, eat cookies and share stories while making Christmas cards. Do you want to join them? Talk to Hope for details.
The Matthew 25 Approach:
Advent means coming, and it summons us to turn to God with trust and joyful expectation, even as we enter the long darkness of winter.
We may still be wondering what to do with the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers, we may be busy writing Christmas lists and shopping for gifts, and we may have a million other things on our minds, but in worship we practice living to the rhythm of God’s time.
At Vine Street, we have a beautiful tradition to mark the beginning of Advent. At the end of the day, we gather in the sanctuary for what we call the Hanging of the Greens.
We sing some of our favorite carols (before we get tired of hearing them in every store and shop); we listen to stories about bells and stars and evergreens; we deck the sanctuary with wreaths and candles; we watch the great Moravian star as it rises over the baptistery; we say a prayer that our hearts may be prepared to welcome the birth of Christ; and we drink a little hot cider.
This festive and beautifully simple service invites us to enter the gates of Advent together, and we look forward to doing just that on Wednesday, November 30, at 6:30pm. You are welcome to join us for dinner at 6pm as well, just let us know you’re coming by making a reservation online or calling the church office by Monday, November 28. No one is too young or too old for this family gathering in God’s house.
At first the answers may seem simple. Prisons are for the punishment of people who have broken the law. Prisons are for the protection of the community from potentially dangerous offenders. Prisons are for the correction of behaviors that threaten life in community. But prisons are also communities where people live and work, where babies are born and people die of old age. What do we make of the fact that the U.S. has the largest prison population in the world? How effective are prisons in accomplishing what they are supposed to accomplish?
This fall we will meet numerous times for conversations around incarceration and how it relates to our faith. Some of the conversations will happen in our fellowship hall, others in homes, in a local prison, and in our sanctuary. We are well aware that we cannot address every dimension of this seemingly simple question, What are prisons for? Once the planning team started naming themes for programs, we quickly realized that we were looking at a complex and multi-layered set of issues.
The idea behind prison:360 is not to look at an issue from every possible angle. What we try to accomplish is integrating traditional classroom learning with opportunities for fellowship and service, as well as spiritual practice and reflection.
All of the programs are open to the public, but please note that a registration is required for some.
6:30 p.m. (dinner begins at 6 p.m. ) in the fellowship hall
Robin Porter – How Do Prisons Work?
Robin began working in prisons as an intern when she was a student at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and today she is the Director of Victim Services with the Tennessee Department of Correction. She will share with us from her own experience how prisons work, system-wide and on the day-to-day level in a specific setting.
Make your dinner reservation by Monday October 10
8 p.m. Documentary night at the Kleinert’s
American Drug War (2007)
The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world, and illegal drugs have a lot to do with that. The War on Drugs has become the longest and most costly war in American history, the question has become, how much more can the country endure? Inspired by the death of four family members from “legal drugs” Texas filmmaker Kevin Booth sets out to discover why the Drug War has become such a big failure.
9:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall
Gayle Ray – What Are Prisons For?
Gayle is a former sheriff of Davidson County and former Commissioner of the Department of Correction. She will talk about the purpose of prisons: what is incarceration supposed to accomplish, and how well does the system work?
10:45 a.m. worship
Lee Camp, guest preacher
Lee is Professor of Ethics at Lipscomb University, at both the college and graduate level, and he is well known as the host and creator of Tokens, a “theological variety show.”
7 p.m. Documentary night at the Kleinert’s
What I Want My Words To Do To You ( 2003)
The film goes inside a writing workshop at New York’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility led by playwright Eve Ensler. Fifteen women, most of whom were convicted of murder, delve into and expose their most terrifying realities as they grapple with the nature of their crimes and their own culpability. The film culminates in a prison performance of the women’s writing by acclaimed actors Mary Alice, Glenn Close, Hazelle Goodman, Rosie Perez and Marisa Tomei.
5:30 p.m. Riverbend Prison
Life Behind Bars
We have the opportunity to visit one of Nashville’s prisons, Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. Visitors get a close look at life behind bars as well as time to talk with two of the inmates. The group size is limited and early registration is required. Please register here or call the church office at 269-5614.
9:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall
Prisons – Places of Healing?
Many non-government agencies, groups, and ministries work with inmates and ex-offenders. Mark and Dana West are with The Theotherapy Project, and they will tell us about their work with convicts while in prison as well as after their release, when they face the challenges of life outside. Graduates of the program will talk about their experience during worship.
7 p.m. Documentary night at the Kleinert’s
The Dhamma Brothers (2008)
An overcrowded maximum-security prison in Alabama is dramatically changed by the influence of an ancient meditation program. Behind high security towers and a double row of barbed wire and electrical fence dwells a host of convicts who will never see the light of day. But for some of these men, a spark is ignited when it becomes the first maximum-security prison in North America to hold an an emotionally and physically demanding course of silent meditation lasting ten days.
6:30 p.m. (dinner begins at 6pm) in the fellowship hall
Charlie Strobel – When Crime Becomes Personal
Most of us know and love Fr. Strobel for his work with the homeless in our community. What many of us don’t know is that Charlie’s mother, Mary Catherine, was murdered in 1985 by a man who had escaped from a prison mental ward. We have invited Charlie to talk about how his faith shaped his response to the violent and painful loss of his mother.
Make your dinner reservation by Monday, October 24
6:30 p.m. (dinner begins at 6 p.m. ) in the fellowship hall
Robin Porter and Nicole H. Smith - Victim Impact
Incarceration is a means to punish and rehabilitate offenders. What about the victims of crime? How does the prison help offenders take accountability for what they have done? What systems are in place to support victims of crime? Robin is the Director of Victim Services with the Tennessee Department of Correction. Nicole has used her experience as a victim of crime to teach victim impact classes for inmates and facilitate victim offender dialogues.
Make your dinner reservation by Monday, October 31
8 p.m. Documentary night at the Kleinert’s
Prison Town, USA (2007)
In the 1990s, at the height of the prison-building boom, a prison opened in rural America every 15 days. The film tells the story of Susanville, California, one small town that tries to resuscitate its economy by building a prison — with unanticipated consequences.
After weeks of conversations and experiences, we address in worship and in the context of the gospel some of the questions that have been raised. Our faith traditions speak and sing about prisoners losing their chains and prison doors flying open, about repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation, and the scriptures are full of prison stories – Joseph, Daniel, John, Peter, Paul, to name just a few. Who knows what will emerge when we juxtapose recent experience and ancient tradition, burning questions and living Word?
4:45 p.m. Documentary night with the youth group
(the title of the film will be announced shortly)
Earlier this month, I asked you to help me create a sermon series. Many of you participated (Thank You!), and after the race was neck-to-neck for a while, in the end it was a clear victory for "Seven Questions."
Now this means that we are starting a crowd sourcing project: I invite you, your friends, neighbhors, distant relatives to submit questions: Do dogs go to heaven? Is sin just another word for bad morals? What is good about Good Friday? Questions like that. Any questions you think the preacher should address (i.e. not the kind of questions you think any preacher should stay away from).
You can submit your questions online (there should be a box at the end of this post), via email or twitter @thomaskleinert, or via handwritten notes (in the offering plate, under the door, or in my mailbox). I will collect and post all your questions, and then you'll get to rank them. I will address the top seven of your choices as best I can. That's what I call a grassroots campaign.
Calling all Nashvillians! Vine Street Christian Church is organizing We Are Nashville - Bucket Brigade to help our neighbors who have been affected by the recent storms and floods. We know what it's like to clean up and rebuild after a flood - and we know the power of coming together to tackle a challenge!
We want to fill a truck with Emergency Clean-Up Buckets, which Church World Service collects and distributes in their disaster relief work. The Nashville buckets will be taken to a disaster assistance center in Little Rock, Arkansas, and from there they will be routed to the effected areas and to those in need.
What exactly is an Emergency Clean-up Bucket?
It's a 5 gal. bucket filled with items such as sponges, rubber gloves, disinfectant spray, laundry detergent and insect repellent. You can find a list of all the items at the Church World Service website or scroll down and print the list below.
What can I do to help?
Photo: Rolanda Hughes/CWS
1. Send a link to this article to at least 10 people you know in Nashville... co-workers, the neighborhood association, the parent-teacher association, etc. We want to get the word out to as many people as possible; the more buckets we collect, the more people we can help.
2. Decide how you will fill your bucket.
*will you go to the store, list in hand, and fill a 5-gal. bucket with all the items?
*will you send a check for $56, the approximate cost of each bucket, and let us fill it for you?
*will you challenge your co-workers to a bucket filling contest?
*will you host a bucket party?
*or will you send a $5 or $10 or any $ donation so that we can purchase items to fill a bucket?
Any way you decide will be a great help!
3. Fill that bucket (or 2 or 3) and bring it in. Bring completed buckets or monetary bucket donations to Vine Street Christian Church on June 6th, 7th or 8th from 9am-7pm. We will sort, count and assemble buckets. Then we'll rent a truck and drive them down to Little Rock on June 10th.
Questions? Send us an email.
We are Nashville - Let's fill some buckets!
During May, we continue our aging:360 focus with a series of Wednesday night programs and meals. Our members have raised many good questions, and we will address at least some of them each week:
As an adult child, how can I be more diligent in ensuring that my parents are able to retire and be cared for? Are there any tips on how to talk with aging parents about choices? At the end of life, when is it time to let go, and how do I make my wishes known? Medicare, long-term care insurance, supplemental insurance, reverse mortgages – it’s such a jungle! Where is God in the so-called Golden Years?
Dinner 6pm – Program 6:30pm - Dinner reservations by Monday, May 2
Childcare provided - Call the church office if you need transportation
Facilitator: Carol Smith, Counselor, Pastoral Counseling Centers of Tennessee
Communication between aging parents and adult children is often strained because of difficult decisions that need to be made. Many of us just don’t know how to talk about making the home more accessible, changing living arrangements, finding in-home care, monitoring bank accounts, writing living wills, managing medications, or dealing with driving limitations.
Carol Smith is a Family Therapist; she will give us some tips that apply to all kinds of situations, and she will also try to answer our very specific questions.
Dinner 6pm – Program 6:30pm - Dinner reservations by Monday, May 9
Childcare provided - Call the church office if you need transportation
Facilitator: Nancy Pertl, Caregiver Education Specialist with the Mental Health Association of Middle Tennessee
Caregivers provide 80% of the care for individuals. Especially with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia, caregiving can be particularly stressful. Making decisions about healthcare, communicating with physicians, knowing what to expect as the disease progresses, mobility and safety, making arrangements so the individual can stay at home and making decisions when that may not be possible any longer, are all decisions that caregivers face. What about the caregivers needs? When do they feel that they have time for friends, church, a movie, or a walk in the park? What about the caregivers’ health and well-being?
Dinner 6pm – Program 6:30pm - Dinner reservations by Monday, May 16
Childcare provided - Call the church office if you need transportation
Facilitator: Greg Rumburg, Chaplain, Odyssey Hospice
Our physical, emotional, and spiritual needs change as we near the end of our life. When individuals and families are faced with decisions about the type of care they prefer at the end of life, they often wait too late to make their plans. Discussions about hospice care for life-limiting illnesses and discussions about palliative care for those with terminal illness can often be supportive to both the individual and to the family members. Knowing what to expect and making plans can take some of the burden off the family. Grief is inevitable, but support from clergy and bereavement experts can help. Knowing the individual’s wishes about funeral arrangement can help the family make better decisions with which they feel comfortable.
Greg Rumburg is an Elder at Vine Street, and as a hospice chaplain he walks, talks, sits, and prays with individuals and their families as they approach death. He will share his knowledge and wisdom with us.
Dinner 6pm – Program 6:30pm - Dinner reservations by Monday, May 23
Childcare provided - Call the church office if you need transportation
Facilitator: Lucy Utt, Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability, Supervisor, State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP)
Medicare is a federal government health insurance program that provides medical care and prescription drug benefits. You become eligible for Medicare when you turn 65 years of age or if you are under the age of 65 and have a disability. Medicare Part A is for hospital coverage, Part B is for medical care, and Part D is for prescription drug coverage. What all does Medicare cover? Do I need an Advantage Plan? Do I need supplemental insurance? What about long-term care insurance? What happens if I need long-term care in my home or in a nursing home? What if I can’t make decisions on my own? What if I run out of savings, will I lose my home?
The Wednesday nights in May are great opportunities for learning, but they are also opportunities for fellowship and for getting to know each other. So pick up the kids and come on over for dinner! We have partnered with Copper Kettle to provide a delicious meal for us each week, and we will have childcare available as well.
We ask that you make meal reservations no later than Monday morning of each week, but you can make them as early as right now. We will take your reservations online, over the phone (call the church office at 269-5614), in person on Sunday mornings (look for the people carrying sandwich boards!), or with print forms available in various places at church.
“Every generation refreshes the world” was the voice over at the end of the Pepsi commercial during the 2009 superbowl. The soundtrack was a mashup of Bob Dylan’s song, Forever Young, with Will.i.am rapping about busy hands and swift feet.
Bob Dylan’s song was one of the hymns of the baby boom generation. The boomers have long been famous (some would say, infamous) for their desire to stay young, and many wonder what they will be like as seniors. Many predict that they will reshape the nation’s view of old age by staying active longer than their parents. Others worry that their numbers will break the generational contract behind programs like Social Security and Medicare: On October 15, 2007, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, 62, a retired schoolteacher from New Jersey, applied for Social Security. She was born a second after midnight on January 1, 1946, the first of a generation of 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. Until 2025, one of them will retire every eight seconds.
Aging has more dimensions than I could even begin to name in a brief article. There are the personal aspects of a life story with physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions; there are interpersonal aspects of changing roles and relationships; there are societal aspects with economic and political implications. We are familiar with some of the questions; we have either asked them ourselves or heard each other ask them: Will I ever be able to retire? Why don’t they have shows on tv I’d actually want to see? How do I tell dad that it’s not safe for him to drive? Who will take care of me when I’m old? Can’t they make a phone that’s just a phone? How can I explain to my children that I don’t want to move to a nursing home? He says he loves my wrinkles, but I wish they hadn’t come so soon. What’s wrong with my eyes? Dad has Alzheimer’s – what am I supposed to do now?
During April and May, in a program series we call aging:360 we will get together several times to address various dimensions of aging. Our first meeting, Aging Baby Boomers, will be on Sunday, April 10, at 12:30pm in our fellowship hall. Kathy Zamata will introduce us to some key issues such as
During that first meeting, we will also solicit your input: What questions do you have? What particular issues would you like so see discussed? The results of that survey will determine how we fine tune the remaining sessions, which will take place on Wednesday nights during April and May. So far, we have identified five areas we want to address:
If you would like submit your questions and suggestions now, you can do so with this simple form.
by Thomas Kleinert
Thomas Jefferson called Paul the “first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus,” and he was neither the first nor the last to accuse Paul of being “the Dysangelist” (a bearer of bad news rather than an evangelist, a bearer of good news).
Paul certainly is a towering figure in early Christianity, and through the centuries, he has been an apple of discord. Chances are, you have some strong feelings about this “thirteenth Apostle” of Jesus.
Would you consider a reintroduction to this controversial man?
Garry Wills is a historian with a doctorate in the classics, and he is a Catholic who once studied for the priesthood. He is also an excellent writer who won several awards for his publications, including the Pulitzer Prize for Lincoln at Gettysburg.
In 2006, Viking Press published What Paul Meant by Gary Wills, a little book some reviewers loved and others didn't love so much. I read the book last year, and I like it. It is a very readable and solid introduction, and it makes a great conversation starter.
I invite you to be part of a six-week book club, based on Garry Wills, What Paul Meant. Used copies of the book are available for under $1.00, both online and at local book stores. We will meet on Wednesday nights at 7pm, starting on March 2. Week to week, we'll read about thirty pages and meet to discuss how we have been enlightened, suprised, offended - who knows. It will not be an academic conversation, but a good way to talk about some of the basics of our faith. Perhaps you will make this group part of your spiritual practices during Lent.
If you are interested, please register below.
Prayer: what is the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps a familiar phrase from an ancient prayer or a line from a Psalm. Perhaps you recall gathering with others for morning worship or evening prayers, or you remember those quiet minutes at the beginning of the day when you pause to read and pray for your family and friends. For most of us, prayer is an essential part of our life, or it is a dimension we would like to live more fully.
Very often, the hyperactivity of our days and our minds creates obstacles that keep us from praying well. We may find ourselves saying the words, but we notice that we are not really present; our lips move, but our minds wander. Something within us yearns to simply rest in the presence of God. Silence may not feel like prayer at first, because we are so used to saying words, but silence allows our hurried souls to arrive in the present moment. Silence can help us become more attentive to the still, small voice of God.
For six weeks in January and February, we will offer an opportunity to explore silent prayer in a group. At each gathering, we will begin with a brief teaching, no more than 5-7 minutes, and then we will simply sit for 20 minutes, quietly following our breath as it leads us from busyness to stillness.
Does that sound like something you would like to do? It gets even better. This group is not only an exploration of silent prayer, but also an effort to discover new possibilities for interfaith spirituality, and so it will include Jews and Christians. Rabbi Kliel Rose from the West End Synagogue and Rev. Thomas Kleinert from Vine Street Christian Church developed the format together, and the group meetings will alternate between the synagogue and the church.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Rabbi Rose or Rev. Kleinert. The first meeting of the group will be on Wednesday, January 19, at 6:30pm at the West End Synagogue, and meetings will continue for five more weeks (until February 23) on Wednesdays at 6:30pm. The group is free, and there will be no homework. We will sit in chairs, and people of all ages are encouraged to participate.
Please register by submitting the form below. Thank you!
Bonnie Carenen works with Church World Service in Indonesia. She and I never met in person, but a couple of years ago I read a series of excellent meditations for Advent she wrote when she was a Week of Compassion intern, and since then we have stayed in touch. Last week she wrote a brief update about the work she does in Indonesia.
Those of you who receive Week of Compassion updates via email, Twitter or Facebook may have read it; I also sent it to those of you who subscribe to our electronic prayer list (and I only mention this to remind you how easy it is these days to stay informed about the good work of Week of Compassion and Church World Service).
On a recent Saturday, Bonnie and her team were rained in in the town of Sikakap, the main city for aid distribution and relief work after the October 25 earthquake and tsunami in the Mentawai Islands. The sea was too rough to travel by boats, and the roads were too muddy for aid vehicles, even the trusted motorcycles Church World Service frequently relies on. So they spent the afternoon in the makeshift hospital into which the local Protestant church had been converted. More than one hundred patients and their families had been welcomed there and received treatment, and fortunately, many of them had recovered and found other places to stay.
They heard about one recent patient, an infant, whose parents both had died; rescue workers found him two days after the earthquake – still alive. No wonder the locals talked about him as the miracle baby, Baby Emmanuel. You’d think that if you wanted to write a brief article about your work in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and you heard this story about a little child who miraculously survived, and you’re told that the child’s name is Emmanuel, God with us – you’d think that would be plenty to write a moving Advent reflection on the urgency and promise of the work of Week of Compassion and Church World Service in a place of great need. But Bonnie started a new paragraph.
One young woman and her family were still at the hospital, living on rolled-out mats on the concrete floor of the church building. She had given birth at the hospital two months prematurely, just three days after the tsunami. She had lost her home in the disaster, and not just her home, but also her husband. Her child was seriously jaundiced and had to be treated at the nearest real hospital, on another island, more than twelve hours away by boat.
The mother was lost in her grief. The loss of her husband and home, and the premature birth of her baby had happened almost a month earlier, but her child still didn’t have a name. They all knew it wasn’t because there hadn’t been an opportunity for a proper christening or baptism – the young widow and first-time mother was severely traumatized and completely overwhelmed.
Somehow the mother’s friend overheard that Bonnie was a minister, and – imagine that – she asked her to name the child. Bonnie couldn’t believe she was serious, but she said, “I can’t name the baby unless the mother says it is okay.” Translating into the local language, the friend asked if it was alright, and the mother gave a short shrug, and said that was fine.
The baby was a girl. How do you name a child that isn’t your own? It’s difficult enough to pick the right name for your own son or daughter – you want them to bear a strong name, one that becomes an anchor of their identity, a source of strength. But how do you name somebody else’s baby? Holding the child, Bonnie thought about the importance of a person’s name and what an honor it was to have been asked to name this girl. She looked at her and she asked her who she wanted to be and who she already was and how the world might be blessed through her.
And the name came to her. Amelia. This little girl would be Amelia, a name that means “to make better.” Bonnie describes her deep hope for this girl: May you make things better for your mother, your family, your entire community after the unimaginable loss they have endured. May you be a gift of hope, and may you find strength in that calling.
According to the local tradition, Amelia also needed a middle name. Bonnie continued to hold her, wondering what her middle name would be. She considered many of her favorite women in the Bible as well as women from her own life. She thought about this child’s birth in a church after her family’s life and community had been shaken and carried away by a wave. She thought about Advent, the season of expectation, the world’s waiting and wanting to be the world God created it to be. It was Saturday, and the next day another Advent candle would be lit, and the whole world was ready for the dawn of joy. “Joy will come in the morning,” Bonnie remembered the words from Psalm 30. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Amelia’s middle name will be Joy: the anticipation, expectation, and ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise.
Bonnie named the child by giving a name to our hope for the girl and her mother and their community. May Amelia be the gift that makes life better for them, and may the circumstances of her life continue to improve. Bonnie told the family that Joy means “holy happiness from God,” and now we pray for those who hold the little girl, and sing to her, and feed and bathe and rock her, that she will remind them every day of the miracle of Emmanuel, God with us.
I told Bonnie that we would hold Amelia Joy in our prayers and, better yet, that we would put her in the crib with the little boy from Bethlehem. We go to Bethlehem and we gently lay our hope in the cradle that holds God’s salvation – our hope for the world, our hope for all the children born into it, and our hope for a peace that excludes no one, not even the dead. We lay our hope next to Jesus who came to save us from our sins, and who is with us always, to the end of the age.
We go to Bethlehem, because that is where, according to Luke and Matthew, the story begins. For Luke, it’s all about Mary. Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel. Mary asks good questions. Mary says yes to God’s wondrous plan. Mary sings the exuberant words we spoke together in worship. Joseph? He stands on the edge of the scene.
But Matthew tells the whole story differently. For Matthew, the story begins when Mary is found to be with child before she and Joseph lived together. Nobody sings in the first chapter of Matthew. The spotlight is on Joseph, a good man whose world just fell to pieces. All he knows is that Mary is pregnant, and that the child isn’t his.
Joseph faced a serious dilemma. On the one hand, he needed to consider the demands of the law of the God he loved. On the other hand, he needed to consider Mary, the young woman he loved. In those days, you couldn’t just cancel the wedding and take the ring back to the jeweler for a refund. Publicly filing for a divorce meant condemning Mary to life-long shame. Accusing her of adultery might also have resulted in some hot heads demanding that she be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:21, 23), and Joseph didn’t want anything like that to happen. Yet the law, the honor of his family, and his personal honor required that he break off the engagement. So Joseph chose of all the options he had the most loving one: he would dismiss her quietly.
I imagine that he was completely exhausted after looking, from every possible angle, at the mess his hopes and dreams had become. Just when he had decided what he would do to honor both the law of God and the love he shared with Mary, he fell asleep. And in his sleep, a messenger from God spoke to him; this was an option not written in the law, an option even his love could not envision: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Do not be afraid. This child is entirely God’s initiative. Mary will bear a son, and you are to name him.
Joseph didn’t say a word, but he said ‘yes’ with his life to God’s saving initiative. He took Mary as his wife and he named the little boy Jesus.
You know what it’s like when your dreams crumble, not necessarily in an earthquake or under a tsunami wave – but it can feel just like that, overwhelming. Your plans in pieces, you find yourself presented with circumstances you did not, would not choose. You don’t know how it happened, let alone why, and all you can think about is how to get away from what has become of your life. You are so exhausted and tired, you can’t think of a name for your hope.
Matthew tells us that’s the moment when Joseph heard the voice of an angel, “Don’t be afraid. God is faithful and true and at work. Say yes. Don’t be afraid.” And Joseph believed the messenger and laid his hope in the cradle and he gave it the name he gave his son, Jesus.
Joseph said ‘yes’ with his life, and Mary said ‘yes’ with hers, and the Messiah was born. And as we get ready for Christmas, that’s all we do as well: learn to say ‘yes’ with our lives to God’s desire to save and heal and make whole. We learn to give a name to our hope. A strong name, one that rhymes with Emmanuel and Amelia.
We are pleased to invite members, friends, and the community to this year’s Wayne H. Bell Lecture on Ministry, on November 6 and 7.
Our speaker is Dr. Dan Moseley, Professor Emeritus at Christian Theological Seminary and former Senior Minister of Vine Street Christian Church.
The workshop and lecture will focus on a common experience in congregational life: conflict. The lightning speed of change in our culture creates a context of intense feelings of anxiety. Churches, which for decades were able to deal with the conflict produced by change, are now finding themselves in more profound struggles.
In the workshop, we will explore the psychodynamics of conflict and the multiple layers of tension that characterize congregational conflict. Since conflict is a natural part of change and transformation, we will explore the spiritual significance of this conflict. We will discover that conflict, when processed with pastoral sensitivity and care, can be an occasion for hope and new life.
Click to download a flyer for this event.
Dr. Moseley is Professor Emeritus at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, IN. He is a graduate from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville and has served in three roles at Vine Street Christian Church. He was a ministerial intern while at Vanderbilt and then served four years as Associate Minister under the leadership of Dr. Wayne Bell. Dan was called back to Vine Street to serve as Senior Minister from 1983-1997. He became the Herald B. Monroe Professor of Practical Parish Ministry at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis in 1997 and retired in July, 2009. Dan is author of "Living With Loss" (Xyzzy Press) and "Healing Relationships: A Preaching Model" (Chalice Press) and is currently working on a book "Leading in Conflict: Helping Congregations Navigate Change and Loss." He currently travels extensively lecturing and leading workshops. He lives with his wife Deborah in Indianapolis and between them they have five adult children and eleven grandchildren.
The Wayne H. Bell Lectureship on Ministry
Vine Street Christian Church has been a leader throughout the decades in calling and training ministers for the Christian ministry. Its leadership has included ordained clergy from judicatory offices and university for decades. It has nurtured hundreds of students who are training for ministry and has ordained dozens throughout the decades.
Dr. Wayne Bell, senior minister of Vine Street Christian Church from 1960-1974, was instrumental in developing and stabilizing a ministerial intern program at Vine Street that has since produced dozens of clergy who are in leadership roles throughout the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). His commitment to the future of the church and the importance of well-mentored ministers was such that it led him to accept the presidency of the Lexington Theological Seminary a position which he held from 1974 until his retirement in 1986.
In 1992, the Congregation of Vine Street adopted a long-range plan calling for the establishment of this lectureship in honor of Dr. Bell and to highlight Vine Street’s role in ministerial training. Through the generosity of individuals and families, this memorial lecture ministry continues into the future. If you would like to contribute to the Wayne H. Bell Lectureship on Ministry Fund, you are invited to do so by writing a check to Vine Street Christian Church and indicating your designation to this special fund.
When Gallup Polls asked Americans in 2005 what they most admire about Muslim societies, the most frequent response was “nothing.” The second most frequent response was, “I don’t know.” Combined, these two answers represented 57% of Americans.
Many of us tend to conflate the mainstream Muslim majority with the beliefs and actions of extremist minorities who tend to get most of the media attention. Nevertheless, we are curious about many things:
Over the course of six years, the Gallup Organization conducted tens of thousands of hour-long, face-to-face interviews with residents of more than 35 predominantly Muslim nations – urban and rural, young and old, men and women, educated and illiterate.
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think is a book based on those interviews representing 1.3 billion Muslims – more than 90% of the world's Muslim community, making this poll the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind.
What the data reveal and the authors illuminate may surprise you:
Vine Street Christian Church invites members, friends, and neighbors to a five-week study group based on the book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.
We will meet on Wednesday evenings, 7pm – 8pm, starting on September 29 (October 6, 13, 20, and 27). We will read about 30 pages per week and get together to talk about what we discovered and what questions remain for us.
If this is something you would like to do, get a copy of the book from your favorite book merchant and complete the form below to let usknow you are coming. Thomas Kleinert will serve as convener of the group, and he will be glad to answer any additional questions you might have about this study opportunity.
In 2008, Charlie Rose did an interview with the authors of the study, John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed; watching it may help you decide if you want to read their book with us. Esposito is Professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University and a prolific scholar and author. Mogahed is the Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.