FireFall Vol. 3: A Prayer for Creativity
Amplifying women in ministry: Australia in the 1970s, Clergy Renewal Grants, Faith & Food Justice, Women Lay Preachers Who Prayed for D.L. Moody, Theology Cat, and More
Creativity can look so many ways; I’m not sure today’s collection is more creative than another, but grace threads through. Maybe ministry, in part, is like a “quilting bee.” My Grandma quilted, and I still own a quilt she pieced for me. She stitched together something that still keeps me warm even though she’s gone, and if that isn’t a definition of receiving the grace of our mothers in the faith who came before us, I don’t know what is.
God, take our scraps and stitch them into a crazy-quilt of grace. Sometimes in ministry, we see the to-do list but not the finished product; we wonder if the bits and pieces of tasks and meetings and sermons make sense in the big picture. We don’t always see ourselves as creative, but grace stitches remnants together in the life of the Spirit. We give You ourselves. Free us from pressure suggesting our ministry has to look like someone else’s. Give us the boldness to offer You our whole selves – we who follow Your call and who like algebra or whales, watercolors or mechanical engineering, horticulture or the Maillard reaction, coaching soccer or spreadsheets. If we’re tempted to box ourselves into compartments, let your grace tilt and jumble all our pieces together into a glorious tumble of texture that by Your grace will warm those who come after us.
Encouragement from Women I’ve Never Met
Behold this glorious newsletter cover from 1970s Australia! So nostalgic. A couple decades later, I was probably among the last high school students to actually crop yearbook photos with a paper cutter. This Magdalene issue - “A Christian Newsletter for Women” - on JSTOR was fascinating. So many hurdles for women in ministry sounded familiar, yet there was palpable hope.
A few things stuck out: an ordination sermon from Yale on the homelessness of ministry; a book review praising a guy who now has grandkids and just recently published a well-received book on women in ministry - way to be in for the long haul!
And there was a short comment that brought Susanna Wesley’s famous letter to mind.
“I am certain I have gifts of ministry for which I will one day have to give account. Whose is the great guilt - those who refuse to exercise their gifts or those who prevent others from doing so?”
Brief Review: Lilly Clergy Renewal Program Grants Pros & Cons
Hopefully ordained pastors in the U.S. know about the Lilly Clergy Renewal Program.
Is highlighting this program amplifying women’s voices? This is like preventative health: drawing attention to something that might help you keep your voice.
Don’t even try to tell me you don’t need renewal.
The Lilly website: “Renewal periods are not vacations but times for…for regaining enthusiasm and creativity for ministry. The annual programs are designed for those congregations and pastors who have a strong relationship with one another, a high degree of mutual trust and support, and are eager to see their relationship strengthened, renewed and continued.”
I asked a friend about their experience applying to the program. They generously took time to answer my questions.
Pros: In the end, it was very worthwhile and allowed for a meaningful experience for the clergy family and congregation.
Cons: There was significant up-front investment of time and energy into detailed paperwork for both pastor and committee members. Proposals should demonstrate some kind of specific theme and how the renewal grant will integrate back into congregational life.
Participant takeaway: They’re very glad they did it, while hoping the process is tweaked for future applicants. It’s considerable time and energy even for those familiar with grant processes, when the audience is burned-out pastors.
Summary: high hurdle, high payoff, lots of detailed-driven paperwork, requires good relationship with your congregation, can yield significant funds for a pastor (and family if applicable) to travel according to interests.
For more, visit here.
Listen – When Your Call Unfolds: Ministry, Faith, Food Justice
Rev. Dr. Yvette Blair-Lavallais is an experienced pastor, anointed preacher, and gifted and incisive writer and editor. So many times, she drops a word on social media that halts my scroll and my soul, straight from the Holy Spirit to my heart. One thing I love about her story is how her background, experience, and gifts weave together in meaningful ways whichever direction her calling presses.
When you enter ministry, you don’t always know where that road will lead. You may picture pastoral ministry, say yes, work in ministry, yet find yourself saying yes to new vocational shapes. Like Yvette, you may eventually find yourself partnering with Bread for the World or earning a DMin in Land Food and Faith at Memphis Theological Seminary.
In this Food and Faith podcast episode on food insecurity in Texas, Dr. Blair-Lavallais provides a great overview of the challenges of both urban and rural food deserts as well as creative responses and partnerships that churches can pursue in their communities.
She shares valuable insights into the ways a community garden can feed and promote flourishing – but also, the way physically pulling weeds from soil can uproot and process some deep-rooted trauma among older Black believers with childhood memories of how painfully their grandparents related to working soil.
In the midst of this, Dr. Blair-Lavallais challenges believers to explore how we relate to creation and to each other.
For her fantastic Lent resources on food justice, scroll to the bottom of this page; check out the digital version of her book on food insecurity in Texas here.
(To explore more, see Wheaton University 2020 Global Scholar Award recipient and Yale graduate student Danning Lu’s Cultivating Vibrant Gardens in Urban Communities: Success Factors of Community Gardens in Beijing and Shanghai.)
Pause to Pray: Grace Al-Zoughbi, Lausanne Theology Working Group
Recently I came across the scholarly work of Grace Al-Zoughbi - then realized she lives in Palestine. Please pray for our sister in Christ. Christianity Today quoted her, reporting:
“The church is trying to cling to any glimmers of hope it can find,” she said. “The situation is deeply disturbing, the atrocities appalling.”
She also was shocked by rocket fire, landing from the opposite direction near her home in Bethlehem. Families rushed to the grocery store to stock up on goods, fearful of escalation. Representative of an already struggling population under lockdown, she said the loss of tourism will further devastate the economy as the church seeks to help as much as possible.
“Lord, take all the evil, smash it as glass, and grind it to nothing,” Al-Zoughbi pleaded. “In this we hold our hope, that one day soon your ways will prevail.”
She asked believers on both sides to be peacemakers. And for herself, she focused on Psalm 122: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May all who love you be secure.” (Full article here)
Lay Preacher Sarah Cooke’s Wayside Sketches, or Handmaiden of the Lord (1896)
Imagine being a lay preacher traveling through the 1870-80s, meeting Free Methodist founder B.T. Roberts, surviving the Chicago Fire, hearing Salvation Army founder Catherine Booth preach, seeing the hype of the World Fair, traveling by horse across the Midwest, preaching and praying at churches and camp meetings. Sarah Cooke wrote of her traveling group, “from the very commencement the blessing of the Lord rested upon us. The band was composed of Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Methodists, and were all one in Christ Jesus. No denominational bickerings disturbed the harmony of our work.” (p. 25)
Then imagine you meet D.L. Moody and decide he needs to be sanctified and you tell him so.
Free Methodist lay preacher Sarah Cooke’s book is part travel journal, part scrapbook of letters and poetry, sermon, and hymn excerpts.
On Praying for D.L. Moody’s Sanctification: She writes, “At this time Mr. D. L. Moody was a very active worker in the Young Men's Christian Association. Living quite near the rooms, I soon became deeply interested in their work. At their Yoke-Fellows' meetings, temperance, noon and other meetings, women of God were heartily welcomed. Mr. Moody was an earnest, whole-souled worker; but ever to me there seemed such a lack in his words. It seemed more the human, the natural energy and force of character of the man, than anything spiritual. I felt he lacked what the apostles received on the day of Pentecost. Dear Sister Hawxhurst and myself would after the evening meetings talk with him about it. At first he seemed surprised, then convicted; then asked us to meet with him on Friday afternoon for prayer. At every meeting he would get more in earnest, in an agony of desire for this fullness of the Spirit, while the travail of the soul for him…I shall never forget. He has often told, himself, as to when and how the mighty baptism fell on him in Wall street, New York, and of its blessed results.” (p.25-26)
On Finding Out She Was Scheduled to Preach Three Times in One Day: “Last Sabbath was a day of special blessing; on the Saturday before, to my surprise, I found it had been announced in the "Gazette" that I would preach three times on the Sabbath, the afternoon appointment being six or seven miles away, on the most rough and hilly road I ever traveled in the hill country of Jo Daviess County. I dared not excuse myself, as the notice was out. O with what trembling I held on, not only for strength of body, but for grace to "preach the unsearchable riches of Christ," and both were given. Never…did God's Word open more blessedly as the command came, "preach the Word;" the message all my Lord's, I only a voice in the wilderness…” (p.118)
On a Woman of Color Preaching: “Sister Brewington, of Springfield, one of Africa's sable daughters, preached on Saturday night, on the ‘open door, which no man can shut;’ and seekers pressed to the altar. Scarcely a meeting but seekers went forward for God's pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace. This morning, as I write, the sobs of the seekers at the altar mingle with the shouts of the redeemed. One old gentleman of seventy-three, in the love-feast, with the enthusiasm of youth, told how his substance had been given for the advancement of Free Methodism…” (p.135)
Comparing Catherine Booth to Chrysostom: “Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, preached truth as clearly and definitely as does Catherine Booth, of the Salvation Army, and the same results followed, everywhere. The leaders, Holy-Ghost-baptized men and women, labored.” (p.165)
On Services in Sheridan, Indiana: “Break forth into singing, ye trees of the wood; For Jesus is bringing lost sinners to God.” “And still they come. Every class of society here has been reached; people of every age…” (p.204)
To read more, see the full digital version here.
BEHOLD, THEOLOGY CAT!
Anyone following theologian Dr. Beth Felker Jones is familiar with her catechesis via Dwight, her theology cat. Subscribe to her for posts like this on the Bible and the end of patriarchy or her popular theology text Practicing Christian Doctrine or for Northern Seminary’s DMin degree in Theology, including specialization in Women in the Church.
But she may recruit my daughters to theology quite efficiently with one simple mug: theology cat! “Dwight Knows Theology”
Every picture I see of Dwight makes me want to ensure he’s being fed only the finest Fancy Feast.
There’s also a delightful selection of theology quotes, lists of women martyrs, and more, adaptable to shirts, mugs, stickers. For example:
“Your daughters shall prophesy” tee in a variety of colors:
Or stickers like this celebrating women in theology:
or Dwight again:
Do you have a parsonage pet to share?