Braving The Waters

I wrote this for the local paper...it isn't much and it is very "politically and religiously safe" because I don't think my little spot in the paper should be used for tearing the community a part. We all struggle in our own way with the state of the world. These are just a few of my thought on how we can maybe struggle together...without beating each other up about it. Pasrson to Person  “There is No Easy Answer or Solution?” Rev. Andrea Brownlee First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) The work of ministry is nothing short of finding the balance between absolutely crazy and astonishingly beautiful.   In the course of a week it is not unlikely for me to sit at someone’s beside in the hospital, spend time with children and youth discovering what it means to be a follower of Christ, visit with a couple preparing to start their life together, help someone figure out how to pay an overdue bill or find food to feed their family until next month’s check arrives....

My mom made this for me for my ordination June 30, 2007 Wow I can’t believe tomorrow I return to work!!  These 64 days away have brought much relaxation and renewal. They have given me the opportunity to reflect on the past 11 years of congregational ministry as well as time to discern what God has  in store  for the future. Did I do all the things I planned to do while on sabbatical? No, not really. Was I able to do some things I didn’t think were possible? Yes and I am thankful. I spent time with friends and family, which rejuvenated my soul. I spent time making new friends, who reminded me of the vastness of God’s table. I spent with God, not only in prayer but in the laughter of my nephew and niece, in hugs from friends I hadn’t seen in years, and even in the sweetness of tears as I headed West to return home last week. Of all the things I learned while on sabbatical, the most important is to make the time. Make the time for the people who are important t...

The weeks are running together because of the timing of when retreats start and end. I began my “3 weeks” on a Tuesday but my 6 day retreat began on a Thursday…When I posted last Saturday I was almost 2 days into my retreat. Now, as I sit here typing this reflection, I am 2 days out of my retreat back into to volunteering (believe or not I am washing dishes and cleaning bathrooms again). The 6 day retreat was a wonderful experience. It was time spent deepening my understanding and belief that all things are part of God’s creation.   We were silent, except for the hour we met in the morning after breakfast, during signing in morning mas, and the hour we met in the evening. You think being quiet and being silent are the same thing until you experience it for yourself. There were a great number of extremely loud silent people on retreat with me. While they weren’t talking, they were stomping through the hallways, shutting doors loudly…I am sure to other I was a very loud quiet ...

Thursday ended my first 10 days of volunteering at St. Mary. After a short trip to town to walk around the mall, a quick load of laundry and a new set of sheets I was ready for the evening supper bell to ring and for my retreat to begin. I posted on Facebook that I would be reflecting on my week of volunteering a friend and colleague wondered how theologically deep one could reflect on cleaning bathrooms and washing dishes…well Jim here we go! Just for clarity, dish washing has never been an enjoyable house hold chore for me.  Another point of clarity, I do my own dishes but I have one of those “fancy automatic washers”, as my grandma would have said so it isn't that terrible. I don't know if it is because I never worked in food service as a teenager, maybe it is some underlying desire to work in food services, I don’t know, it could possibly be a slight undiagnosed case of OCD. Whatever it is, industrial dishwashers have recently started to intrigue me. Their sheer si...

Today began my 2 month sabbatical. A time of reflection, relaxation, study, discernment, rest, renewal...I will explain more as the weeks pass by. It is a time to disconnect from "my world" and reconnect to God and my calling as a minister within the Body of Christ. However, it is unrealistic for me to totally stay away from social media and technology because well…if you’ve met me you know the answer to that. However I will be significantly limiting my use of all things electronic over the next 2 months. I will not be responding to emails, I will not(unless you have been otherwise notified) be answering phone calls or text messages, and I will not be spending much time on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram except to post the occasional picture, blog post, or significant update. I hope that limiting my time with these avenues of communication will allow me to truly be in the moment!  I have many hopes for this sabbatical and I want to share them with you as I go along...

8 years ago(yesterday) I was Ordained into the Order of Christian Ministry in the West Virginia Region of Christian Church(Disciples of Christ). It was a day filled with bagpipes and preaching, singing and laughing, praying and crying, hugging and even some dancing! It was a blessed day in my opinion and one I will forever remember in my heart, mostly because there are very few pictures. I don’t need pictures to remember the words spoken out of love for me and for the Church. 11 years ago, in August/September, I began serving in congregational ministry while in seminary, in Lexington, Kentucky. Those were 3 of the greatest years of my life. I learned so much not only in the classroom but from the congregation and friends out at the pub(LTS had Pub Theology…before Pub Theology was a recognized thing). 17(or so) years ago I stepped forward during closing vespers at CYF Conference at Bethany College, in Bethany WV to affirm and confirm God's call in my life to serve the church ...

As some of you might already know I am gearing up for a 2 month sabbatical. I will be working on a writing project as part of this sabbatical. I have created two surveys to help me with this project. I would invite you, if you are reading this blog, to click on the links below and fill them out! Your help is much appreciated. If you are a member of my congregation and you read this blog, if I try to give you a paper copy of these same surveys and you HONESTLY have already filled them out online, just tell me and I won't "make" you fill them out again! Either way,  I ask that you fill out the surveys with an open mind and an open heart, allowing yourself to reflect on your current worship practices.  It is my hope, from these surveys, to create a worship resource for individuals and families to grow in their spiritual life. This resource will have common and perhaps uncommon spiritual practices that will encourage you to grow in your prayer and worship life. I hope this r...

This picture is from the Maundy Thursday service last night but, I think it is fitting for today as well. Good Friday, a day of reflection, a day of sorrow, a day like no other. What does this day mean to you?

Meditation from Maundy Thursday service. The bread and cup, two symbols that mean a great deal especially to us as Disciples. The Lord’s Supper is a central part of who we are, each week when we gather we find ourselves celebrating this symbolic meal. I invite you to hear(read) our scripture for tonight found in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 22: 7-23 Perhaps the greatest symbols of Jesus sacrifice are right in front of us, at least on a weekly basis. We often take them for granted. They simply become just “part of what we do” and can begin to lose their meaning over time. Which is why Maundy Thursday is such an important service for us to celebrate. It is a chance to be reminded what the symbols of the bread and cup mean to us, individually and corporately. The Table - fellowship, friendship, nourishment, unity...what are other things you think of when you think of the table, communion or otherwise? Bread - work of so many hands. Those who prepare the ground and plant...

The turning point I often catch myself think “what if” when I reflect on major turning points in my life. What if I had chosen Hiram over Mount Union when I was deciding what college to go to? What if I had stayed home the summer of 2003 instead of working at Camp Cedar ?  What if I had gone to United Seminary instead of Lexington ? What if…what if… What if the disciples had gotten it the first time Jesus tried to tell them what was going to happen to him? What if God had decided there was another way when Jesus prayed in the garden? Perhaps you, like I, spend a good bit of time on the “what ifs” when we really don't need to. When we find ourselves at a turning point and we have weighed all the what if’s and might be’s and make the decision to go left, right, forward, backward, or stand still…that then becomes the known, not the what if. The turning point has past and we are now headed in a new and different direction than before. For me, Wednesday of Holy Week...

A prayer for the Tuesday of Holy Week Giving God as we get closer to the day Christ shared a last meal with his friends; remind us to be thankful for those we gather around the table with this week. Show us opportunities to invite new people to join us at the table Jesus prepared for all. Merciful God, as each step of this day takes us closer to Friday remind us of the steps Christ took with a heavy cross on his back. Give a chance to carry the burden of another so they might know Christ through our actions. As we move ever mindfully into Easter morning remind us that we are forgiven. Help us forgive those who because of your love deserve our forgiveness too. Have mercy on us O God, break into our lives and teach us to live in ways that are pleasing and acceptable to you. Amen.

from churchart.com  Do you ever see someone doing something or hear someone say something and think “seriously…why. Why would you do that or say that…?” Do you ever wonder how some people have made it to where they are in life? Do you ever question how you have made it to where you are in life? Do you ever wish that you could change someone else’s attitude or thought process? Do you ever wonder how things would be if you had done one thing differently 5 or maybe 10 years ago? Just this morning I think almost all of these questions passed through my mind. What is that I hear from you, is that a resounding YES! Glad to know I am not alone. What are other things you wonder about? I wonder how my life would be different if I hadn't listened to the voices of those around me saying that I should explore the idea of vocational ministry. I wonder where I would be if I had, in my stubborn nature, continued on my way to become a band/choir director. I ...

Picture from Churchart.com  While I was in seminary I drove past the same church every day on my way to and from campus. For a short time their front marquee read “If you want a better Pastor…PRAY for the one you have.” Every time I drove past that sign I thought “duh, shouldn't people already be doing that? What a concept.” As I silently watched flipping from CNN.com to my Facebook news feed the words of that church sign scrolled through my mind: “If you want a better Pastor…Pray for the one you have.”   As I read words like “great…we’re screwed!” or “I’m moving out of the country, I can’t believe this happened.” As well as things like “Take that Romney-better luck NOT next time.” or “4 more years to ‘shut the other guys’ up- GO OBAMA!” (These are all paraphrased as not to call anyone out) .  In a country that seemingly prides itself on being Christian, can you tell me where in those statements Christ can be found? If when you w...

Sometimes it is hard to be me. I don't say that because, I have a terrible life or because I wish I had more of what I already have. I say it because at the depths of who I am (mind,body,spirit) it is hard to be me- a contemplative person in a chaotic and havoc stricken world.  It is hard to be me in a world that is always on the verge of something-bigger, better, more productive than yesterday. It is hard to be who you are when who you are is a person who does not always want to be on the verge of something bigger and better but wants to appreciate the now before moving onto “the next”. Plain and simple, it is hard. Every once in a while I try to be different than who I think I am. I try to move onto the next big thing before I have fully appreciated what it is I was doing before. I try to not care about people and things that are happening in society (because it would seem that caring about these things SLOWS down the next big thing). I try to do things that I see o...

picture from churtart.com   We all have a favorite hymn or three. I would venture to say most of us don’t think about the theological significance of the hymns we sing. Even as a pastor, I don’t always think about all the words and what the implicitly or explicitly say when I pick hymns for Sunday morning worship. “Does the congregation know this one?” is often the first and last thought when picking most hymns. I wish it weren’t that way but it is what it is, I guess. There is such a great depth of wisdom and soul in hymns that is often overlooked especially when the hymn becomes so familiar that we sing it without thinking about the words.  Several years ago I was given a book entitled 101 Hymn Stories, as you can guess it has stories about 101 different hymns. These stories tell of the deep heartaches, overflowing blessings, and profound understanding of God in the author’s life. It is interesting to me that out of one person’s most unfathomable grief or abunda...

What does it mean to belong? We belong to families, circles of friends, clubs/organizations, churches, interest groups, secret societies, and most importantly we belong to God. We learn from an early age what it means to physically and emotionally belong or not belong. If you come from a close knit family that shows acceptance, care, patience, and above all love you probably have a pretty good idea what it means to belong. If growing you were different from the other kids and never fit in the “in” crowd, never got picked first in gym class, always had less valentines (even though everyone was supposed to bring one for everyone), and never felt accepted for who you were, you might have a good idea what it means to not belong. If it was always easy for you to belong and then you have trouble finding a place to fit in you might wonder what is wrong with you. If you never felt like you belonged and now you have found your place you might always be waiting for someone to come and say “sorr...

What does it mean to be a theologian? Being a theologian is part of being a Christian. Don’t let that frighten you. Before I started seminary Lexington Theological Seminary sent me a book, How to Think Theologically. Every incoming student was supposed to read it before arriving on campus for orientation. If I remember correctly some parts of this book were easier to read and understand than others. Within the ten page introduction of this book the authors outline basic thoughts about theology, the church, and the Christian faith. What has stuck with me from this book is that no matter who you are, clergy, lay person, someone new to the faith, someone who can’t even remember how long they have believed, this book reassures even the most doubtful among us that you- yes even you are a theologian. Like I said before don’t be frightened by that thought, but empowered that you are able to hold such an advantageous title! To be a theologian you do not have to develop a theory about t...