Blogging the Campus Values: RESPECT

This is the second in a series (the first of which was posted eons ago!) of blog posts with some guest writers. This is the first in a series of blog posts with some guest writers. I have asked some of my co-workers from the Campus for Human Development to write some personal reflections on the seven core values that are contained in our mission statement:

“Through the power of spirituality and the practice of love, the Campus for Human Development provides hospitality with a respect that offers hope in a community of non-violence.”

In this post, the focus is on respect. Our Founding Director Charlie Strobel’s thoughts on respect come first, followed by a very nice reflection that Mary Wilder wrote this spring, where she explains how she encounters respect in the world around her and in our Campus community.

* * * * * * *

Charles Strobel:

This is the operational principle of the Campus for Human Development. Hospitality begins with respect, the unconditional acceptance of the other person. At the Campus it is the operative norm for all the policies and procedures. It is incorporated in the “Rules” that are posted throughout. These rules state that “respect” is expressed by creating an atmosphere that is “free from” alcohol, drugs, violence, etc., a positive statement rather than a series of “Thou shalt nots…”

One assumption this principle reflects is the understanding that the Campus is designed around a relational model rather than a legal one. In a relational model, both staff and participants offer one another mutual trust and concern. This is no small task. In the “sub-culture” that we call homelessness, our participants often do not experience trust and personal concern. There are countless stories of homeless being betrayed, violently assaulted, robbed, ignored, verbally accosted, taken advantaged of, etc. It stands to reason that a primary assumption any participant may have of any staff is that “no one care enough” or “is trustworthy.”

When the experience on the street is compounded by further experiences in their personal life—prior to becoming homeless—such as alcohol and drug abuse, sexual abuse, failures in relationships or in employment, then the establishment of a relationship of trust and concern seems even more insurmountable.

Any agency created to assist the homeless cannot presume that its “clients” automatically believe the agency and its staff care about them. Often comments from the homeless reflect just the opposite, namely, that agencies are “in it for the money” or “staff don’t care; they just want a paycheck.”

In a relational model based upon respect, staff seeks to reverse that history. Staff enters into dialogue with participants with the hope that trust can be established before any specifics of their problem(s) can be resolved.

Respect recognizes the dignity of the other person. Mutual respect honors one another and establishes equality. Respect defuses an attitude of disrespect. It is individualized and recognizes individual rights.

Such respect can only be offered if one has confidence and believes in the power of accepting another person prior to forming any judgment. Degrees and professional qualifications do not guarantee it. Participants recognize such confidence regardless, since it is encourages and empowers them.

* * * * * * *

GUEST BLOGGER: Mary Wilder

The other day I was impatiently waiting at a stoplight in a residential neighborhood. Lost in thought, a slice of color in one of the yards caught my attention. A forsythia bush was in riotous bloom on the front lawn.

This particular area of the city prides itself on its homes and landscaping. All around me was color---the subtle pink of cherry blossoms, the pure white of Bradford pears, the pale green of new leaves. Everything around me was manicured, tasteful, and very pretty. But, somehow, I didn’t even notice. It was the forsythia that shook my senses.

There it was in the middle of the yard. The forsythia stood by itself, like a kind of centerpiece. Its branches curled and danced crazily in the air. Their direction followed no logical pattern; they just grew and moved any way they pleased. As I gazed at it, I tried to think of words to describe its yellow flowers. They were neon, fluorescent. They were ablaze in their own brightness, almost violent to the eye. It was a piece of madness against the decorum of the other blooming plants.

The light turned green, and I had to drive on. But I left with a respect for that bush. It was giving all it had to its own existence.

I walked through the Campus dayroom later that day. I saw Richard, one of our participants who struggles with a severe mental illness. Patient and courteous, Richard often waves his arms at the creatures his mind creates or steps in an exaggerated way across the room to avoid imaginary obstacles. I also saw Charlie, well over six feet tall and excruciatingly thin because of his addictions. He wants me to think his heart feels nothing anymore, but I see his face soften when we greet him. And I saw Mike, a man who has cursed me because I have things in life he does not. But there was one dark night outside our building when Mike stood behind my shoulder ready to protect me from a man who was threatening.

God does work in mysterious ways. Creation brims with beauty, and we seek it in so many obvious places and in obvious persons. But there are moments when something wild and unexpected flares up in front of us. It may be a flash of love from an angry soul or hope sparked within a defeated heart. Maybe it is a wise word from a crazy man.

The Campus has forced me to reconsider almost everything. Of course, I honor and value the ideals my culture has taught me. But I now know to respect the brilliance that is unpredictable and unlikely. The rest of the world may not see it, but it is always, always waiting and willing to come to life in warmth and light.


Mary is in charge of the Campus’s Education Team. That would make her my supervisor. (Wasn’t this the best piece of writing you’ve ever read?) She also works hard from November-March as a Room In The Inn Coordinator. She has special skills in preparing and leading devotions at our retreats, and all of us are always impressed with her skills in talking to people and explaining why we do what we do. She is a native Hoosier, and her parents still live near Evansville where they enjoy receiving balloon bouquets and making aprons to send to Nashville. Whether she’s trying to figure out who her secret pal is (could it be Ms. Anneice?!?!?) or taking us out for some new experience as a staff (hookah, anyone?), it’s always fun when Mary is around.

Correction: Mary's parents live nowhere near Evansville. They actually live in Remington, Indiana, near Lafayette. For you non-Tennesseans, that's pronounced Lah-fee-yette, not La-FAY-et.

The Word Among Us

This past Sunday at Second was the annual NEP worship service. The four of us were responsible for planning and leading the entire service. We each split the sermon time, and talked about where we had found God in our experiences this year. Tara and Patrick's families were in attendance (Chasie and I have

family coming next weekend), and I was happy to see several of my co-workers in the second (which of course means the front) row. I think they probably like seeing their names in print, so thanks to Maggie, Rachel, Mary, Anneice (and daughter/mayoral candidate Cheryl), Martina, and June for coming.

We all enjoyed having special music by Second's Celtic ensemble. They accompanied our last hymn, one of our favorites from the YAV orientation at Ghost Ranch, "Canticle of the Turning," giving new meaning to the musical term "prestissimo." We also sang the spiritual "I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me" with some fairly swinging piano accompaniment by yours truly, which included a little glissando action. Who knew I would include so many musical terms in this post? The service also included a favorite song of mine as the response to the assurance of forgiveness, "Goodness is Stronger Than Evil," which is from the prayerbook of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and set to music by John Bell of the Iona Community in Scotland. I hear there is a recording of the service out there, so if I can figure out how to do it, maybe I will be able to put audio of the service on here.

Here are a few of our sermons from last Sunday's NEP service, based on Micah 6 (What does the Lord require of you?...) and James 2 (faith without works is dead...):

PATRICK:

He has shown you, O people, what is good and what the Lord requires of you;
But to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Show me your faith apart from your works, and by my works I will show you my faith.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

“Mr. Patrick, can I get on your back?”
“Yeah, but we have go to reading.”

For the past ten months I have witnessed the faithful, God-inspired dreams and actions of volunteers and children alike at Preston Taylor Ministries. At PTM, our ministry is to provide free-of-charge, a faith-rooted, educationally-based after-school and summer program for the children of the Preston Taylor public housing community. Over the last 10 months I have succeeded and failed at inspiring God’s children to reach outside of themselves and brush back all the influences that want them to fail. God calls us to “walk humbly,” something that’s easy to say, but harder to put into practice.

When you walk humbly with your Lord, you might wind up in some interesting places, like among the swirling entropy that is 75 children in a converted fellowship hall who aren’t entirely sold on the idea they’ve gathered after school to improve their academic skills. Further along this walk you develop relationships with children who are growing up in an environment that was completely foreign to you during your own upbringing. You wonder where your walk is going and sometimes you might even lose sight of God. But God doesn’t lose sight of you.

Eventually you realize that walking with God means walking with these children, helping them however you can. In the 10 months I’ve worked with PTM, I’ve seen us open up a new building, expand our lunch mate mentoring program, and grow our after-school program to serve over 75 children. The difference we make doesn’t just show up in improved reading scores, it shows up in positive attitudes, and a better outlook on life. I get the privilege to see new, healthy friendships formed among the children, better report cards, and big wide smiles when come in holding their science fair trophies saying “Look Mr. Patrick, I won… my project got first place!” However, the hardest part of my job is dealing with the fact that I probably will never know what happens to most of children I serve. I just do the best I can while I’m here… I pray for the children… and I have to trust the rest to God.

Places like PTM are successful because they are blessed with a wealth of volunteers that come from churches like Second that are answering the call spelled out by God through prophets and apostles like Micah and James: The call is to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

I’m glad my walk brought me here, to Second Pres, and to PTM.
When I tell people I meet that I’m working with a church mission program, a logical follow-up question for them to ask is, “So are you going to be a minister?”

The truth is that we are the ministry, all of us together, whether we’re in the pulpit or in the pews. Consider this your friendly reminder that we are all charged to be ministers and to live out our call as children of the resurrection.

What does your ministry look like?

CHASIE:

Good morning. This year I have been working at the Martha O’Bryan Center. This congregation supports MOB in many ways, so many of you are familiar with it, but for those of you who aren’t it is a Christian community center in the middle of Nashville’s oldest and largest public housing development. My time there has been divided two ways. I work with adults in the GED class in the mornings and then help with the after-school program for youth in the afternoons.

One of the ways in which I have seen God at work this year has been through the people I work with at MOB. I came into this year straight from having worked in the emergency room at a county hospital the summer before. Optimistic to begin with, I had been excited about my job as what they called a critical care representative. One of the biggest parts of the job was to care for families in the waiting room as they waited to see their patient. What an opportunity for God to use me to comfort others in a time of need. And how wonderful to be working with other people trying to do the same thing.

I quickly came to realize, though, that although my coworkers had good intentions, the 12 hour shifts and the weight of working in such a fast paced and stressful environment for years had changed the way in which they interacted with people. I was disappointed and upset to frequently see how employees had lost their patience and/or empathy for the people there.
In order to keep things under control and orderly in the waiting room, certain rules had to be enforced. I saw these rules being enforced with no attention to the specific situation or person being helped, which, of course, defeated the purpose of what critical care representatives were supposed to be doing. People waiting to be seen became just another patient with the same old symptoms that we had seen day after day, and families became just another group of demanding people to deal with.

I left this experience not knowing how in the world you could work in such a place and not become so cynical and hardened. I began to think that my optimistic belief that people could be treated on a case-to-case basis was naive and unrealistic and that real business could not be run that way.

Coming to MOB, though, I noticed a difference in attitude from the first day I was there. Not only did I see volunteers listening to clients, but everyone from the COO was involved in even the simplest tasks like getting a person a bus pass.

It may seem like an odd comparison to make, but MOB is actually similar to the emergency room. You never know who is going to walk in. The problems presented each day tend to be very similar in nature. And there is always someone new in need of help.

It would be simple and understandable for the teacher of an adult education class to drop a student from the role for, at best, sporadic attendance. After all, there are always people waiting to enroll in the class and everyone seems to have an excuse for why they haven’t shown up.
Even in situations that seem as simple as this, though, I think Christ asks us to live differently, and I saw this in the teacher of the adult education class, Judy. She is the only teacher for a class of about 30 adults, and she will tell you that after working with the class for an extended period of time, the issues that students bring to class with them do not seem new or unusual. But she would also tell you that to help students be successful you have to take the time to listen to their individual stories. For example, it may be unacceptable for a woman to miss a week of class unexcused. But when she comes back and explains that she, as an 18 year old single mother of one child and pregnant with twins, has been living in a house with 13 other people where she sleeps on the floor, you begin to see that her situation isn’t so simple. Because she feels suffocated and like the place she is living isn’t sanitary enough to bring twins home to she is trying to find her own housing. All this at the same time as trying to get her GED because she is afraid she won’t have time after the children are born.

So, yes, she could be dropped from the class, and no one could argue, but Judy takes the time to hear her story and see what she can do to help make it possible for her to get to the center and reach her goal before her children are born.

Cases such as this may seem extreme and like they clearly deserve to be an exception. There are many others, though, that are not, and still I have watched as Judy loves each person. The student who is dismissed from class for starting a verbal fight is welcomed back the next day for another chance at learning. The student who disrespects the teacher and then quits the class re enrolls a year later and is greeted with the same enthusiasm and respect.

This way of doing things requires more time and energy, and it is often unclear as to what the appropriate action is to take. But this is what Christ asks us to do. He tells us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. When we humbly ask for God’s guidance, God gives us the wisdom and perseverance to love others as Christ would.

JEFF:

A few weeks ago, I had my annual consultation with the Committee on Preparation for Ministry from my home presbytery. At that meeting, where they were eager to hear how my year as a Young Adult Volunteer working with the homeless at the Campus for Human Development had gone, I was asked a question. It was asked by the same pastor who asked that first basic question to me two years ago in my initial meeting with the CPM, “Why do you feel called to ministry?” Then, after my long, flowery response, she said, “I notice you didn’t mention God at all in that answer.”

This time, she asked, “how has your image of God changed this year?” The answer I gave to that question has really worked as a good way of summing up the experience that I have had over the past ten months.

A year ago, I was finishing up my tenure as a college student and a church music director. My image of God was basically the result of my involvement in the church and my ministry of music. It had a lot to do with community, and a lot to do with majesty. I was also big into social justice as a concept, although I really had experienced very little direct contact with the poor of this world, which has a lot to do with why I wanted to become a Young Adult Volunteer.

Now that my daily life is filled with talk of food stamps, government checks, free lunches and day labor – and that I’ve seen things I had never seen: the horrifying decay of bodies from drug use, men hitting their girlfriends right in front of my eyes, and people dumped by hospitals with no place to go and no resources to provide for their own health – and that I’ve experienced things I never thought I would: breaking up fights, consoling a grieving partner of a man who died from a drug overdose, and even intercepting a drug deal or two – my picture of God has changed.

One day in November, just after the beginning of the Room In The Inn season, we were sitting in the day room at the Campus, and a crowd was really starting to grow. As is often the case, there was a lot of noise and chaos. In the middle of the room sat Leonard, a man who was with us for only a few weeks. Leonard, who dressed in green camo pants and jacket, complete with an orange vest, fuzzy hat and sunglasses, suffered from severe mental illness, and often talked to the staff about he was going to go hunt for owls in Montana. He took special care, and sometimes after a long day, a conversation with Leonard was the last thing I wanted to provoke. That afternoon, as more and more people crowded into the day room, Leonard raised his head and spoke in a loud voice, “Jesus? Is Jesus Christ in this room? Is Jesus Christ in this room?”

The whole room went quiet for a few seconds, and then everything went back to normal, with a few people laughing at what was a clearly mentally ill man. I laughed too, because it was the last thing I was expecting anyone to say. But, it was a question that has stayed with me in my experience this year.

The answer to Leonard’s question is yes. Jesus Christ was in that room, and I have met Jesus Christ in many unexpected places this year.

I always feel the presence of the suffering Christ on that walk to The Guest House, where we allow publicly intoxicated people to come for a warm bed and a meal.

Christ has been there in internet class, when people have reestablished contact with loved ones after learning the skill of e-mailing.

Christ is there when I hear stories from the men in alcohol and drug treatment who tell of experiencing feelings and emotions that they haven’t felt for years, having smothered them for too long with substance abuse.

I see the Christ whose only bed was a feeding trough on early mornings when I see people sleeping on the ground in rolls of thrown-out carpet scraps.

God has become, for me, one who meets us in the alley: a loving creator who still walks among us in what Jesus called “the least of these.”

* * * * * * * * *

About 5,000 times this year, we in NEP have been confronted with Fredrick Beuchner’s definition of vocation. He says, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

When God calls us, it is not always to comfortable sanctuaries like this one, it is not typically to mountaintops where beautiful sunsets speak to us like burning bushes, it is not to minister among those who have it all. Rather, we are continually called to the table where bread and wine bear witness to the sacrifice that was born to fulfill the world’s deepest hunger. We are called to a simple dinner table, where deep gladness abounds between its guests, many of whom we’ve met this year:
those who are hated for the cultures and races to which they belong,
those who do work for long hours and little pay,
children whose parents are too young and too absent,
single mothers who struggle to put food on the table,
those trapped in the bonds of mental illness and addiction,
families torn by violence,
those whose language makes them second-class,
and women and men who sleep on cardboard in downtown alleyways.

It is at this table of God, where distinctions between those who are served and those who are serving blur and disappear, where we are called to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with the God who lives among us in one another. To this table we are called, this table where God is turning the world as we know it on its head, where the reign of God is in the here and now. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Human Development

One of the most hope-filled principles upon which our work at the Campus is built is the belief that every person is capable of making positive changes in his or her life. One of the most fulfilling things we get to see is positive change being made. This can be as simple as when one of our more severely mentally ill participants progresses from refusing to take a shower at all to being coerced to take a shower by a persistent staff member, to signing himself up to take a shower every morning. It can start when we have one of those back hallway conversations with someone that starts with something like, “We’ve noticed that you aren’t looking too good lately. Is everything alright?” and then the tears of pain and regret start flowing.

Some of the best opportunities I’ve had this year to see positive changes have been the times when I’ve been able to work with the men in the recovery programs that the Campus sponsors or partners with.

Every Friday afternoon, I gather with a dozen or so men, ranging in age from 19-late 50s, who are in the Metro Health Department Downtown Clinic’s alcohol and drug treatment program. They live at the Campus’s Guest House facility and attend classes together during the day at both the Campus and Downtown Clinic next door. Typically, they come to Harry’s A&D (alcohol and drug) class, which is pretty much an AA/NA meeting, in the afternoons. On Fridays, we do anger management. I was a little unsure about what teaching a class like this would be like, since I’m fairly inexperienced in things like that, but it has become a nice way to end the week. We begin each session by going around the room and sharing the time during the week that our anger meter registered the highest number. The anger meter is a way to make thinking about anger more concrete by assigning a number from 1-10 to the level of anger one is feeling at any given moment. A 1 is no anger, while a 10 is an explosive amount of anger that results in negative consequences such as violence, jail, and losing friends and family. We talk about the situations that made us angry, and the ways that we tried to diffuse our own anger. I usually present the topic for the day, then give a brief homework assignment, and an hour after we started, I’m letting them out the door.

Dealing with the anger that often comes with recovery from drug and alcohol is an important step in making positive changes. The men I work with often tell stories of anger that’s caused by dealing with the families from which they’re separated, and the mistakes they’ve made in their own lives. Taking a “timeout,” going for a short walk, or talking to a friend or sponsor rather than acting out in violence can be the beginning of a new way of living for these men.

Speaking of new ways of living, our long-term homelessness recovery program, Odyssey, is another place where personal change is lived out in a big way. Men are basically taken from the street and go through a multi-year program of classes and community living that restores their ability to work and live independently. The men in phase 2 of Odyssey, who began the program in November, just completed their Campus internships. Several of them interviewed for intern positions to work alongside regular Campus staff members. Maggie and I supervised David, who worked in the store. I also worked closely with Eddie, who I never cease to give a hard time, and who worked with the shower program, Katron, who worked with the facilities team, and Chris, who worked with Amanda on the administration team. Seeing the dedication that these guys put into the jobs we gave them, no matter how menial they might have seemed, was inspiring. When they begin regular work in the next few weeks, this enthusiasm and dedication will come in handy.

I had the opportunity last week to attend a retreat with the Odyssey guys for an evening. They spent their retreat hard at work, attending workshops and activities, at Henry Horton State Park, between Nashville and Huntsville. They wanted some of the Campus staff to come down to spend some time with the guys, so Maggie, Amanda and I drove down for a Thursday evening. We helped with the cookout for dinner, and then drove to the far side of the park to make banana boats. At dark, we returned to the meeting facility for devotions, led by Mary. She used the familiar passage from Micah 6, “what does the Lord require of you? Do justice, love kindly and walk humbly with your God.” The topic was humility, and we discussed how sometimes the greatest winners in life aren’t really winners in the end. Walking humbly isn’t something that’s admired in our culture, and often doing just that is the first step to making a better life.

At the end of the service, Charlie led us in a service of anointing. First, he marked our foreheads with oil as a sign of blessing for our own lives. After that, we went around the circle, and marked one another’s palms with oil in the sign of the cross as a blessing for service to others. What a change. I remember working with many of these men in the fall when I first arrived at the Campus. They were part of the general homeless population, where walking humbly often gets you nowhere but trampled. Now, ten months later, they have developed into people able to look outside of their own needs a little bit and be commissioned to serve others. Seeing changes in people like this is a bit like catching a glimpse of God’s creative activity in the world, always renewing us, transforming us into an image more and more reflective of our creator. Thanks be to God.

Serenity Prayer

God, grant us the serenity to accept things we cannot change,
courage to change the things we can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

Photos from the Odyssey retreat.

Democracy

Last Wednesday morning, the Campus played host to four of the candidates for mayor of Nashville. They had spent the night participating in an “Urban Plunge” with the Nashville Homeless Power Project, an organization of homeless and formerly homeless people working to organize for advocacy and change. The Urban Plunge experience was meant to give the candidates (Buck Dozier, Karl Dean, Howard Gentry and David Briley participated) a small taste of the experience that homeless people live every day. After participating in the night’s activities, which included an altercation at the Nashville Rescue Mission for David Briley, and being forcibly removed from a downtown restaurant for Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, they gathered for breakfast at the Campus followed by a press conference where they took questions from our participants.

Here is a link to a post from Liberadio, which includes full audio of the press conference at the Campus, and interviews with candidates and those who accompanied them: http://www.liberadio.com/2007/06/20/im-not-homeless-but-i-play-one-on-tv/

Associated Press article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070620/ap_on_re_us/homeless_candidates_2

Tennessean article:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070621/NEWS01/706210376

Homeless Power Project:
http://www.homelesspower.org/

The press conference at the Campus (Photo: AP)

David Briley looking very not homeless talking to some of our guys. (Photo: AP)

Campus participants William and Anthony accompanying Vice Mayor Howard Gentry during the Urban Plunge (Photo: AP)

The wider YAV world

While I was distracting myself while trying to write something for my five minute portion of our group sermon for tomorrow's NEP worship service at Second, I saw a post on another Young Adult Volunteer's blog that I thought was worth sharing. It's Psalm 23 lived out in real life on the US-Mexico border as seen through pictures and words from Andrea Leonard, serving as a YAV in Tucson.

http://www.xanga.com/andreaintucson/595823657/migrant-trail-walk-2007.html

Here's a page from the PCUSA National Volunteers Office with links to the blogs and newsletters of this year's national YAVs: http://www.pcusa.org/nvo/youngadultvolunteers/yavcommunity.htm

PNS: Landmark Nashville church dedicates new building

Article from Presbyterian News Service:

http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2007/07336.htm

One Foundation

It was a folding chair kind of Sunday at Second yesterday. The many events involved in dedicating the church’s new facilities drew many people—probably 400 at the main church service, considering that the sanctuary holds 380 people—including guests from the community, members of the media, former pastors, staff members and musicians. It was a full day’s worth of activities; I was there for almost seven hours. The day was an honor to be a part of, and I’m sure it was much more special for those who have been around since the September 17, 2003 fire. I’ve only been around for the fun parts of this journey—writing my name on the concrete sub floor, being here for the last few months of worship in the activity center and witnessing the first Sunday in the new sanctuary and the completion of the new organ. I have seen this congregation’s identity change so much since the first time I worshipped here. Second has changed from a community primarily marked by the tragedy of the fire to a community whose mission of involvement in the community has been restored.

The day started with me trying to figure out how to play “His Banner over Me is Love.” I was asked to play the piano for the little kids who were going to sing it in church. We didn’t have any music for it, so I was playing off some chord symbols I scrawled on a piece of junk mail from listening to the rendition by the Cedarmont Kids I downloaded from iTunes. After I got everything figured out for the most part, it was off to Sunday School, where the first in a series of visits from mayoral candidates was happening. Karl Dean spoke to us for the hour and took questions. I had met him a few weeks earlier when he came to Second for church as guests of some of our members. He was pretty impressive, and I will probably support either him or David Briley, who is coming next week to speak. Now I just need to register to vote. Bob Clement will be coming in July, after a long time of not being willing since he wouldn’t have the ability to pre-screen the questions, and the other two campaigns haven’t committed yet.

A very large crowd gathered for the one morning worship service we had at 11:00. We remembered the past, and celebrated the present, and looked to the future. I was able to manage remembering how “His Banner over Me” went and played “Little Children Come unto Me” from memory, which I also had trouble doing before the service. The preacher for the day was Rev. Steve Hancock, from Little Rock, who was Second’s Pastor for most of the 1990s. Also present were former pastor Ben Sparks, who used to edit the Presbyterian Outlook, and former associate pastors Kim Rodrigue and Stacy Rector. During communion, we used my favorite liturgy, which remembers those who make our bread, and used communion ware that dated from the 1840s, and which was stolen at one point by the Union army. Long-time members of the church served communion, which was quite moving.

After church, we gathered outside and in the activity center for a great lunch. I sat with some of my friends from the Nashville Homeless Power Project who I know from the Campus, one of whom is formerly homeless and the other who is currently homeless. The formerly homeless woman attended Second as a child, growing up in an upper middle class Green Hills family, and her parents were married in Second's previous building. They came as representatives of that organization since they receive mission grant money from Second. After lunch, we were invited to go to a different space in the church where different dedication liturgies would be read concurrently: the choir room, Peaceable Kingdom, fellowship hall, steeple, etc. I chose the cyber café. We read stories of Jesus offering the gift of food and fellowship to the disciples and said a brief prayer of dedication for that new space, which includes a great sound and lighting system for performances, as well as lots of coffee making supplies that we have all been enjoying on Sunday mornings.

After the dedication of the various spaces of the church, the whole group gathered outside under the steeple. I was a part of the procession into the new sanctuary, which was led by a bagpiper. We stopped outside the sanctuary doors and read a liturgy for the opening of the doors, then sang “To God Be The Glory” as we entered. The afternoon service, which was the formal dedication, was very nice. The main portion included prayers of dedication for different parts of the sanctuary: the pulpit, font, and table. The organist, Nancy Turner, and I together led the prayer of dedication for the piano and organ. Then the entire assembly raised their hands and read a prayer of dedication for the entire sanctuary. A liturgical dancer interpreted the psalm, the choir sang a fantastic anthem written by our interim choir director Greg Gunther, and Jim preached a great sermon on holy vessels. At the end, we sang one of my favorite hymns, “The Church’s One Foundation.”

Instead of a normal postlude, there was an organ dedication concert, which I was invited to play in, along with three others: Dr. Douglas Murray from First Pres., Dr. Polly Brecht from Westminster Pres., and our organist Nancy Turner. I played some of my normal pieces, selections from Timothy Albrecht’s Grace Notes, Joe Utterback’s “Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart” from The Jazz Gospel, and Karg-Elert’s Now Thank We All Our God. Things were going well until I lost one of the photocopied pages that I had made so I wouldn’t have to turn pages. It probably wasn’t my best performance ever, but lots of people said nice things afterward.

Second has made for itself a home where its sense of mission is literally built into its new spaces. From the spaces provided for spiritual reflection, like the prayer room and the children’s worship room, to a sanctuary that reflects our Presbyterian heritage, being in the shape of a Celtic cross, to spaces intentionally designed for hosting our Room In The Inn guests, Second Presbyterian is speaking its commitment to bringing forth God’s reign in this time and place.

Almighty God, we dedicate this place to your worship, that in prayer and praise, in Word and Sacrament, we may know your will and experience your peace and power in our lives. Let this be a place of refuge for those who suffer or sorrow, a fortress for those besieged by temptation, a beacon to light the way in darkness. May we enter your gates with thanksgiving and come into your courts with praise. Trusting in Jesus Christ, we dedicate this sanctuary in your name, you who are the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Amen.

As we dedicate this place, O God, we rededicate our lives to the service of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory now and forever. Amen.

You can get my autograph if you want

Check out www.wkrn.com and click on 'A New Beginning for a Church Family' on the video part of the front page. I can't get the video to work from the story about Second's church dedication, but it will work from the main page.

Tennessean Message of the Week

Message of the Week: Fire tested church's faith, made its people stronger

By THE REV. JIM KITCHENS

It was certainly not a call I would have ever expected.
My wife and I were asleep in a hotel in Bakersfield, Calif., having just left our home near Sacramento on a journey to our new home in Nashville and my new call as pastor of Second Presbyterian Church.

When the cell phone rang at 5:30 a.m., my wife dived for it, thinking one of our daughters was calling. And if she was calling that early in the morning, something had to be wrong.
It was not a daughter on the line but something WAS wrong. The chair of the pastor nominating committee from Second was on the phone.
"Jim," she told me, "the church burned down this morning."
continue reading...

A Week Off

I had been planning to take a week of at some point this spring and go back to Indiana. I finally settled on Memorial Day week as the time to do it. I did take the week off, though going to Indiana didn’t end up happening. It was a really good week, nonetheless, and I’m glad I took a little time off to recharge the proverbial batteries. Here’s a little run down of the week.

MEMORIAL DAY
This was the first Memorial Day weekend I have spent away from the good ole Hoosier state with all its Indy 500 madness. There were lots of people in church here, unlike in Indiana where everybody takes a Sunday off on “race day.” We celebrated the day by going to a picnic at Susan’s house on Monday evening, where her son Kyle, who recently suffered the injustice of not being hired by multiple Kroger stores because he is only 15, entertained us by giving us a real behind-the-scenes look at NEP.

THE WEST WING
My primary goal for the week was to watch as many episodes from season 2 of The West Wing as possible. I think I made it through nine of them and saw some of my favorites, like “In This White House” where the delegation from Africa comes and discusses AIDS medication with US pharmaceutical companies, and “Shibboleth,” a great Thanksgiving episode that focuses on a group of Chinese refugees who arrive in the US to flee religious persecution, while parallels are made with the Mayflower pilgrims. The West Wing was my favorite show, and is actually one of the main reasons I ended up majoring in political science. One day my mom said, “You like watching the West Wing, why don’t you study politics?” And so that’s what I did.

"WOOT CANAW"
One episode of The West Wing that I didn’t get around to watching is the one where C.J. has to get the emergency root canal and can’t do the press briefings because she can’t pronounce anything correctly. I did have my own experience in the dentist’s chair this week. I actually had something called a pulpal debridement, which is the first step in a full root canal. I had been experiencing some tooth pain (enough that I didn’t sleep at all one night a few weeks ago and had to miss work), and went to see a dentist that Fred from work (a retired dentist) set me up with. This Wednesday’s procedure was actually very enjoyable, with no pain whatsoever either during or after. It was my first experience with nitrous oxide, which made things fun. I just remember, all while these two people were digging around in my mouth drilling and probably doing horrible things, hearing the TV that was on and they kept playing this commercial for Cirque de Soliel’s “Delirium” show that is coming to Nashville. At the end of it they would say “coming to the Gaylord Entertainment Center” and I would just keep saying in my head, “it’s the Sommet Center now! It’s the Sommet Center!”

AIN'T NO SMOGGY SMOKE ON ROCKY TOP?
Part of the week in Nashville included a lot of thick haze and a bad smell. It turned out there were some wildfires burning in South Georgia, and the smoke was drifting up here. It smelled very plainly like smoke and it was even hard to make out the downtown skyline from fairly close on Wednesday morning. Things eventually cleared up a bit, even though it’s just been plain old hazy like summer time.

VEV VISITOR
One of the best parts of the week was a visit from Rev. Jim Ellison from the Volunteers Exploring Vocation program of the Fund for Theological Education and the Lilly Foundation. He came to find out as much as he could about the NEP program. VEV works with ten different denominational volunteer programs (Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Mennonites, Jesuits, etc.). He had several meetings with people involved in NEP, and he toured each of our sites. On Thursday evening he took the four of us out to dinner at Bricktops, a nice place on West End. It was great to have a chance to think about the program we were in and do some reflection with him, since it is so easy to get bogged down in everyday life.

POV CPM @ LPTS
On Friday morning, after a meeting to plan our NEP worship service (which is on June 24 for those who are interested), I headed up I-65 to Louisville, where the Presbytery of Ohio Valley’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry was awaiting me for my annual consultation with them. I got there, got checked into my room at Laws Lodge at Louisville Seminary, and headed downstairs to wait my turn to meet with them. The meeting went very well and the committee seemed excited about the direction I am taking and about the experiences I have had this year. They took us to dinner, after which we went back to the seminary for a time with Mark Tammen, the PCUSA’s Director of Constitutional Services from the Office of the General Assembly. He talked to us about the inquirer-candidate-ordination process and also the implications of the Peace-Unity-Purity actions by the most recent General Assembly, which are actually very minimal. After that, we were led by Martha Friz-Langer in lectio divina, followed by a simple communion service in the lodge lobby. I then enjoyed a night in a queen sized bed.

NERVOUS CHARLIE'S
There are so many interesting things between Louisville and Nashville. The three hour drive is shortened by the anticipation of such fantastic things as seeing the signs for the various tourist attractions in Kentucky such as Kentucky Dinosaur World, where life-sized dinosaur replicas roam the hills of Western Kentucky. There are the numerous billboards reminding me to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and that “Hell is HOT.” I was glad that there was one with the Ten Commandments listed, because I was planning to break some of them and seeing them listed in 2-foot tall letters along I-65 stopped me from leading a life of sin. Just north of Nashville there are many signs for “Nervous Charlie’s: Fireworks, Gas and Beer.” I can understand why Charlie would be so nervous with that combo.

SECOND LIFE CELEBRATION
My week off will end in a big way tomorrow with the day-long dedication festivities for Second Presbyterian’s new facilities. The fancy bulletins are ready, dinner for 400 is being prepared, the grass has been cut, the Juget-Sinclair guys have returned from Montreal to put some finishing touches on the organ, and I’ve about got my pieces ready to play for the dedication recital. It should be a red-letter day for the church, as it ends a nearly four-year long process of recovery and rebuilding from the September 2003 fire.