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You all have undoubtedly heard me call the early Jesus movement, “The Jesus Fan Club.” I use this term to indicate two aspects of the early community that surrounded Jesus during his ministry and shortly afterward: 1) this movement was not originally separate from the 1st Century Jewish tradition but existed within 1st century Judaism & 2) Jesus did not set up an organized religion with a leadership structure and strict doctrinal beliefs. In comparison to the order and organization of our current congregation, Jesus’ ministry was outright chaotic. He wandered town to town on a preaching tour whilst a rag-tag group of people surrounded him and listened to his teachings. So, when did the Jesus fan club become “The Church”? On Pentecost!! Pentecost is often called, “the Birthday of the Church.” It is the day when the Jesus fan club became more than just a fan club. It is the day when we remember how the Spirit came down and empowered the followers to go out and continue the ministry that Jesus started. Back in November 2024 when we were still hammering out the details of the lease agreement with CCB, we were discussing dates on the liturgical calendar that would be good times to do joint worship services between the two congregations. Because it is the Church’s birthday, it only felt appropriate that the two congregations should come together as two pieces of the Church Universal to celebrate. Well folks, Pentecost is on June 8th and plans are already underway. Here are the details as they stand:
Dear *|FNAME|*,
What does it take to know a person? How do you know when you truly know a person and their character? This question used to haunt me when I was younger. Many young people feel misunderstood, especially in their teenage years when they are trying to figure the world out for themselves while also filled with complex emotions that they are trying to make sense of. In the mix of normal teenager experiences, I moved to a new state and began to attend a new school where no one knew my reputation as “the weird girl” in elementary school. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by a school full of kids that only knew as much about me as I was willing to share. But that realization brought with it another question: How much would they have to know about me until they truly knew me. My first assumption was that people would know me if they knew trivia about me: what my favorite color was, what music I liked to listen to, what my favorite subjects in school were, etc. However, this led to shallow friendships. Some people knew a lot about me but didn’t seem to understand how those pieces fit together and there were others who knew very little about me in the way of trivia but were still people I counted as friends. Meeting new groups of people at high school, college, and graduate school would have me return to my question: what does it take to truly know a person? My conclusion today is that knowing trivia about a person doesn’t mean you know them but instead can create a false sense of closeness. Mistaking trivia for knowledge about a person is what leads to parasocial relationships where fans believe they know and understand their favorite celebrity. Instead, I find that I feel like I know a person when I can, to a certain degree, predict their responses or behavior to most situations. Yes, this often requires a certain amount of knowledge about a person’s past and trivia about them; but it also requires knowing how the person reacts to the world and the ways they navigate problems and opportunities. It is having a sense of what will upset a person and knowing if they are likely to read something if you email them an article. Keeping that in mind, I find myself asking today, “What does it take to know our new committee structure?” I am realizing that it is not enough to know trivia about our committee structure. It helps to know who is on which team, what people’s titles are, and when are meeting. However, it doesn’t feel like we know this structure well even if we can recite all the trivial details about it. Instead, we need to know how it will exist in the world: we need to see how this structure responds to problem and to new opportunities. We need to know how the system is able to react and have a sense of what will knock it off balance. Remember, we have only had this new structure for two months: We are still getting to know it and how it works. This week, we are going to experience it in a new context: Zoom. I know many of you are nervous because you feel like you barely understand the new structure as-is. But I promise we already have the skills we need to make this work. By testing out our structure in a new context, we will learn even more about it and how it can be utilized by our community. Session has practiced and prepared for leading the breakout rooms. If you have any question, feel free to text or email me in advance. During the meeting, I will make sure that everyone knows what is happening and where the important buttons are. So, do not be afraid. If you need a reminder, here is the schedule for the meeting: - 7:00 p.m. Group Meeting - 7:05 p.m. Pastor Report - 7:10 p.m. Session Report - 7:15 p.m. Treasurer’s Report - 7:20 p.m. Breakout Rooms for Individual Meetings. See your email for the Zoom link. Blessings, Pastor Chris “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begins in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin, 19 November 2014, Speech in Acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. (Click here for a transcript) I tried my best to recite the above quote at the end of a worship service as a part of my charge and benediction. This quote came to mind because I was once again talking about working together to create a better world. If you have been paying attention to the themes I return to again and again in my sermons, you will have noticed my underlying belief that we need to do more than fix the systems of society that we live under. I have often talked about imagining a better world that is just beyond the horizon of what we can see today. And I fully believe that it would not be enough to use our current tools to fix what has broken in our society. Instead, we need to create new tools to address the particular issues that we are facing today. Part of this belief was encouraged by fiction authors like Ursula Le Guin who speculated about what the world could be like.
I know that discussing the end of capitalism is topic that will make some people automatically tune out and start angrily compiling an angry comeback. If that is you, dear reader, take a deep breath. I promise you that I am not going to pull out the Communist Manifesto or quote Carl Marx. Instead, I want to invite you into the holy space of contemplating what could be. Here is what we know for certain: our current system is not working. While we enjoy an abundance (mostly) affordable fresh food regardless of the season, the way we farm strips the soil of its integrity, drains our fresh water resources, and has inequitable distribution so that some go hungry while mountains of food spoils. We enjoy affordable clothing, electronics, and gadgets but our clothing is made in sweatshop by the underprivileged in other countries and the material for our electronics and gadgets are mined by slave labor. Most of us have secure housing but seeing housing as an economic asset has made for housing crises in much of the developed world. While we have more technology than ever to help us glide effortlessly through life, that same technology is threatening many people’s jobs and livelihoods. Whatever you might think about Adam Smith’s theories about how economies worked in his time, our world is radically different than the one he knew. Some thinkers like Yanis Varoufakis are even starting to suggest that we have already moved beyond capitalism into what he calls Technofeudalism (book or article about his ideas). Even if our systems were working better than they are today, our current world still relies on exploitation, extraction, and the degradation of our natural resources. In essence, I think we can do better than just fixing this. But… how? This is where I return to Ursula Le Guin’s quote again: The Divine Right of Kings was a broken system that seemed inescapable. The Book of Revelation in our Bible was a speculative book written to a persecuted people about a future where they win and life is better - and not even John of Patmos could envision a future beyond the rule of a King. Yet, humanity was not only able to envision a future where everyone ruled collectively through democracy, they fought to make that a reality. Now it is the dominant system of governance across the world. We, too, can envision a world beyond scarcity where a few at the top horde wealth and resources. We can envision a world that doesn’t rely on coercion and domination to function. We can envision a world that lives in harmony with the diversity of cultures across the world and lives in harmony with the natural world. And if you don’t know where to start to envision something beyond what you can see around you, let me recommend a short novel called A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. It has been a while since I have read a book that felt healing in the same way as a good cup of tea on a cold rainy day. Blessings, Pastor Chris For the next little while, we are going to be jumping into the Lectionary.
For those who don’t know that fancy term, the Lectionary is basically a Sunday curriculum that organizes the main stories of the Bible into a three-year cycle. Every Sunday, the lectionary gives four scriptures to use: 1) Hebrew Text [Old Testament], 2) Psalm, 3) Gospel [1 year for each synoptic], 4) Epistles [Letters & Revelation]. The idea for the Lectionary originally came from the Medieval Jewish community in Europe. Their weekly Torah readings are standardized in a very similar 3-year schedule. What we will be using is The Revised Common Lectionary which was assembled by North American Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) and the International English Language Liturgical Consultation and released for public use in 1994. It is used by the Catholic tradition and most Mainline Protestant Denominations. In addition to using the lectionary, I will also be utilizing the resources put out by the Presbyterian Outlook. The Presbyterian Outlook is a PCUSA National Publication. While the Presbyterian Outlook is not owned or run by the PCUSA officially, it is the officially sanctioned magazine of the denomination. Every week, the Presbyterian Outlook publishes a worship liturgy based on the scripture in the Revised Common Lectionary. These liturgies are original works written by PCUSA pastors from around the nation. The Presbyterian Outlook publishes them for free as long as you credit the authors. Occasionally, you many have seen Prayers of Confession or Pastoral Prayers attributed to other pastors by name. This is an indication that I am not the author but have used the resources that the Presbyterian Outlook has made available. In addition, the Presbyterian Outlook has a wealth of articles, thought pieces, book reviews and PCUSA updates that they publish regularly. They have a magazine that you can order, or you can subscribe – like I do – to support their work. Otherwise, I believe you can access three articles for a month before you hit a paywall. All of that to say: by jumping into the lectionary, we are entering into the conversation that spans across our country and across the Christian world. We will be joining in the words that others are saying and contemplating the same scriptures as other communities like ours… and unlike ours. The one promise that I make to you all is that we won’t be reading all four scriptures on any given Sunday. As when I plan sermon series, I will focus on one scripture - and maybe a second - if it is really necessary. I know that some folks find the Lectionary repetitive after a while. So, I also plan to check in with folks and see what they think. Blessings, Pastor Chris |
AuthorPastor Chris Hallam earned her degree at Princeton Theological Seminary and moved to Michigan to become a pastor. Also trained as a studio artist and graphic designer, with an interest in pop culture and social science, her passion is thinking creatively about the future of the church. Archives
June 2025
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