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The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Staged Reading

by | September 27, 2011

This post was written by Anastasia McAteer about her staged reading of the book of Revelation.

(The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Staged Reading is located in the Worship Texts/Dramas section of the Clayfire collection, “Discipleship for the Real World.”  Included with the reading are detailed performance notes for casting and staging. It is available for local use with a subscription to Clayfire.org.)

The Revelation is a casebook of visionary excess… [but] also an ordinary human vessel, a letter meant to be read aloud. It begins and ends with a blessing upon those who read it to others, and those who hear and heed it.

This is a poet’s book, which is probably the best argument for reclaiming it from fundamentalists. It doesn’t tell, it shows, over and over again, its images unfolding, pushing hard against the limits of language and metaphor, engaging the listener in a tale that has the satisfying yet unsettling logic of a dream.

Kathleen Norris, Revelation (Pocket Canon), pp. vii, viii & ix

The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Stage Reading began with a sermon series. My pastor, Darrell Johnson, had decided that he wanted to share this book about “discipleship on the edge” with his congregation, and it being the year 1999 and end-times all the rage, he figured he could get away with it. This wasn’t any normal little series, however – it was 32 weeks of intense theological digging into perhaps the most deep, poetic and misunderstood book of the Bible.

After each week’s service, I would go home and meditate on the scripture which had been presented. As usually happens when I hear scripture read aloud, I began to hear different voices reading it with varying inflection and interpretation. I considered how the words may be presented by not just one, but multiple readers. The very beginning of the book states quite plainly that the words are “meant to be read aloud.”  This book, which as a child I’d read during boring sermons for sensational entertainment, turned out to be an epic poem which was intended by its author to be read to others. Not turned into cheap fiction, not made into bad movies. It was a letter from one disciple to others, and originally would have been read aloud to the congregations mentioned therein as well as many others. Why couldn’t we, today, have the same experience – the original intent?

Of course, to hear these words as simply a beautiful poem or a sensational story is not wrong – the art of the book is part of what makes it so special. But going deeper within the text adds a new dimension of understanding to the much-maligned familiar scenes taking place in the spiritual dimension. Simply put, the further one dives into this book, and the more one understands its true meaning and intent to change our lives, the more one will enjoy this staged reading. Indeed, I wish that all audiences of the piece would learn the theology behind what they are hearing. Thus, I was delighted that the first performance of TRoJC concluded the sermon series mentioned above. It was a perfect ending to a year of intense study and debate, for everyone listening could recall how the verses they were hearing had been unpacked and wrestled with. It brought back the truths we had discovered together, while at the same time reminding us all that, in the end, the book is an amazing work of art.

Download an excerpt of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Staged Reading.

© Anastasia McAteer

Anastasia McAteer is a freelance writer and liturgical consultant. She holds a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Worship, Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary, and has done doctoral work in Liturgical Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. She authored the popular blog Feminary while at Fuller. Stasi has also written a variety of worship resources for local use and national publications. Her essay “Exorcising the Spirit” is included in Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical (Cascade Books, 2009). Stasi is married to John and their two children, Maggie and Kieran, help her fulfill her priestly calling on a daily basis.

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Leadership Lessons From the Netflix Queue

by | September 16, 2011

This post was written by Darren Fink.

One evening, perusing the “thriller” genre on Netflix lead me to the title, Frozen. Understanding that my family – who enjoys comedies – would be back from their trip to Texas in three days, I persuaded myself to watch this movie, a movie that promised to make my body come alive with suspense-filled adrenaline. The promise of suspense won the night and I was soon being taken into this adventure of Joe (best friend #1), Dan (best Friend #2), and Parker (best friend #2′s girlfriend, at a ski resort.

The financially challenged students coerce Parker to flirt with the chair lift operator to give them access to the lift. She is successful and the character development begins. Joe is immensely upset that Parker is taking all his buddy time away from Dan. Parker slowly, over the course of the day, begins to pick up on this aggression toward her coming from Joe. Dan, who plays the role of leader, attempts to be “Switzerland” during the whole day to keep both parties satisfied.

The resort is beginning to close down. The students persuade the same lift operator to let them do one more run. Through a series of random and quick events the operator is called away from his station and the chairs are eventually shut down along with the entire resort, which is not scheduled to reopen for five days. The students’ conversation on the halted chair slowly goes from annoyance to pure terror at their situation.

The aspect of this tale that made the biggest impression on me was the fact that the student’s did NOT band together in their crisis. Instead, the friction between their personalities – which was small at the beginning of the film – caused them to bicker even more as the day went on. Each tried in their own way to escape into their private world to console themselves: the girlfriend reached for a cigarette, Joe actively recited the phone number of a girl he met on the slopes. Everyone attempted to keep themselves individually sane until Dan notices the start of severe frostbite on Parker’s face. The crisis then spins into a new level of chaos, causing Dan to jump from the elevated chair in an attempt to save his crew. Impending doom ensues as there are broken legs, tourniquets, and an issue with a wolf pack.

Pause.

How many times as a leader do you see this situation play out? You are among a group of phenomenal individuals that are passionate about connecting people with God. However, sometimes the Joe’s and Parker’s personalities in the group begin to grind on each other. As a leader, like Dan, you attempt to smooth over the situation and keep the group moving forward toward the common goal.

As Director of Art and Technology at my church, I once had a volunteer that did not respond well to criticism. When a church member with a perfectionist personality tried to give weekly advice to my volunteer, I had to provide encouragement to calm this individual. For the most part, this kept everyone overlooking differences and we had great worship services where guests were able to meet with God. This approach kept everyone in their own world and sane until a crisis came along to magnify the problem. My volunteer was having problems at work that were threatening his job. The complaints about getting weekly critiques became louder, the encouragement no longer consoled, and I ended up losing this particular volunteer.

Replay.

The turning point of the movie was actually when Dan was no longer in the position of leadership. This threw the group into a greater crisis but also allowed them to speak openly about each other. Once feelings were out in the open, forgiveness took place in order to close the gap that was hindering the teamwork of the group. The group began to function as one instead of as three separate parts.

Pause.

As a leader, I’m now inclined to ask myself: Am I fostering an environment where people can be vulnerable with each other? How vulnerable should I be as a leader with my team? Am I allowing an atmosphere where it is okay to be a recovering sinner? Are the members of the group worried about the team or themselves?

© Darren Fink

Image © iStockphoto

Darren Fink’s great, great grand-dad was a poor and illiterate man in Germany who was once asked to pick his family name. That man drew a picture of a finch (Finke) to communicate his idea. Like his great, great grand-dad, Darren has always had a passion to communicate concepts through other means besides talking and writing. As the director of Art and Technology at Christ Community Church, in Murphysboro, Illinois, it’s Darren’s job to ensure that God’s message is presented visually to compliment the spoken message.

Darren and his wife Margie are currently fostering four children.

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Working at Worship, part 2

by | September 10, 2011

This post is part two of a two-part post by John Jensen. Read part one here.

Godly Work
I believe there are a few things that we can do to make our work Godly. First, like the bible says, we work as if our boss is not our boss (scripturally slave owner) but rather we subvert this relationship by working as if God is our boss. This means we would work hard, and diligently, but far from just being a pillar of the protestant work ethic, we would also work with moderation and justice. We would refuse to work to the extent where our person is exploited, or where the ideals of sabbath and rest are not realized. We live a different ethic, one of justice, and grace, and compassion.

Secondly, we do not take part in work that is used to exploit others. Once, when I was out of work for a long time, I was given a lead on a job that would have paid my rent. After bidding the job, I found out that what this business was going to be was a lingerie shop. Only, it was designed as a place where men could come and sit in a private room, and young women would come into these private rooms to “model” the lingerie. In other words, it was just a front for prostitution. In my mind, prostitution is a horrible business that uses and abuses everyone involved for the profit of a pimp. I would not take part in a business like that, I would not take their money, nor provide the ground work for this to happen. This is essentially an issue of worship.

And lastly, Godly work is work that we take pride in the creation of. The first words of our faith narrative tell us that God creates, and not long after that it tells us that we are made in this creator’s image. In some way, we are made as creators. What we do at work is reflect this image.  Whether it is creating a house as I do, or a dress as others do, or a website, or an opportunity for people to own a home, we should take pride in our creation. For you, this might mean creating a work environment of mutual respect.

Aware Work
Probably the most important of these three “works” is aware work. I struggle with this one all the time. I get caught up in the fast paced, get it done world I live in, and forget to be aware. And in this, Brother Lawrence is the most compelling example for us. Brother Lawrence tells us in the practice of the presence of God, “I find that I am as much in the presence of God while doing the dishes, as when taking the holy sacrament.” How can we cultivate this kind of spirituality? By practicing. This is a discipline, not something that will just happen. We must try more and more every day, to realize the truth of our faith… God is with us. God is among us, in us, and sustaining all things. We are truly never alone. As we work, we have a constant companion, and that is the loving Spirit of Christ.

I remember one day I was walking down the dirt street amidst a bustling jobsite. There were rugged manly men of all trades, hurrying back and forth. It was hot, and there was a lot to do. But, as I walked down the street with my tool belt jingling, all of a sudden I had this profound revelation, that God, my Father, was with me. And I was filled with this incredible love. I felt like I got hugged in the middle of my work. It was so overwhelming I began to weep. I hurried to a dark closet until I could compose myself. Don’t want the guys to see me like that, of course. One of the most incredible, personal, and worshipful moments of my entire life, and it happened in the middle of the hustle and sweat of a construction site.

But the truth is, God is always that near, and always loves that deeply, and it is our awareness of this, or our lack of awareness of this that keeps worship from being a daily outpouring of our spirit to God. Work is a place where God resides, and we must be aware of the Spirit’s empowering presence in the midst of all we do.

These are my truths. They are my journey, and struggle. As I type this I am quite ashamed that I do not live this out nearly as well as I want. But I hope that in sharing these thoughts you could perhaps be challenged in your journey as well.

I would also love for you to share your stories, your truths, and your ideas about how worship and work interact.

© John Jensen

Image © iStockphoto

John Jensen is just a normal, average, post-evangelical christianarchist who has been planting organic communities of faith with his wife Raquel and his daughters Ade and Cheyenne for twenty years. You can leer at his lunacy at johnthereverend.com. And, follow him on Twitter @rev3j.

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Working at Worship, part 1

by | September 9, 2011

This is part one of a two-part post written by John Jensen. Read part two here.

The word worship means to prostrate oneself. Laying face down on the ground on the construction site… well, that would be difficult. But what I have come to understand worship to be, is not always the physical act of prostrating oneself, but rather the bowing down to, or acknowledging of God’s rule. Many find the singing of songs, with lyrics about God’s Lordship to be helpful in this, but I generally don’t. For me, it is the day in, day out struggling, to give myself over to God’s leadership in my life. This becomes especially difficult in the situations where God’s kingdom rule is in direct opposition to the culture of today. For me, there aren’t many places in our lives where this is more apparent than in our places of employment.

So what does it mean to worship God in our work? There are three key aspects that comprise my answer to this question: Good work, Godly work, and Aware work.

Good Work
Right in the beginning of our creation narrative we slam into an interesting thought about our relationship with work. When Adam and Eve decide to follow their own path, they unbalance all of creation. And God tells Adam that the ground will not yield its fruit easily, that he will with much toil and sweat fight with the ground to bring about his sustenance. Our adversarial relationship with work is a result of our adversarial relationship with God, and God’s good creation. Our toil and hardship is part of what is often called the curse.

But ours is a narrative of liberation. From start to finish, the scriptures are stories of liberation from oppression. And this liberation has its ultimate climax in the person and work of Jesus the Christ. Jesus, through His death and resurrection, begins the work that liberates us from the curse of sin and death. Including the beginning of our adversarial relationship with work. And Christ teaches us about the now, and not yet, rule of God, in which we begin to live in the liberation of all things here and now, as our proper expectation and hope of the future, complete redemption of God.

In simpler terms… we live as if we are in heaven now, practicing our faith in heaven’s ultimate victory.

So what does this have to do with worship? And work?

In my mind, quite a bit. I am sure you have heard many cliches that express our relationship with work. If you enjoyed it, it wouldn’t be called work. Or, Do something you enjoy and you will never work a day in your life. etc. Well, this is not living in worship. Worship says that God is God of all of our lives. And that we submit ourselves to God’s rule in all of our lives, including work. If our God is expressed in fullness in the person and work of Jesus Christ, then we are to walk in the liberation from the curse, not under it. Which means worship should mean “good work.”

Now at the risk of alienating people, I would suggest that trading large chunks of your life, energy, talent and creativity, for money and security only, is not good work. It is, in a sense, wage slavery, and is living under the adversarial relationship with work. This is the curse. What I am suggesting is that we choose work that feeds ours souls, even if it means we are less secure and less financially prosperous. I know, this is much easier said than done.

Our work should be done as worship, which means walking in the redemption of Jesus, not under the burden of sin. Our work should come from our heart, we should have a love for what we do, and it should express who we are. Even if it means quitting our “normal” jobs. During my life I have lived this out by following my heart into a number of trades, most of them around building things. The satisfaction of creating something where there was nothing, of using my hands, of feeling physically tired or even exhausted at the end of the day, is “good work” for me. It is where worship meets work.

Read part two tomorrow, in which John continues with Godly work and Aware work.

© John Jensen

Image © iStockphoto

John Jensen is just a normal, average, post-evangelical christianarchist who has been planting organic communities of faith with his wife Raquel and his daughters Ade and Cheyenne for twenty years. You can leer at his lunacy at johnthereverend.com. And, follow him on Twitter @rev3j.

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Categories: Formation 1 Comment

Holy Meals and Mangled Metal

by | September 6, 2011

This post was written by Kevin Rains.

My worlds collided and united on February 5th, 2011.

I have owned an auto body shop in Cincinnati for the past 8 years and during most of that time I was also the pastor of a network of house churches and an intentional community. No matter how much I’ve learned or even taught that “all work is sacred” and “we’re all ministers” the world of the body shop and the world of ministry have remained apart. I had no embodied experience to bring them together. Until that day in February.

As part of my doctoral studies I’ve been working on a curriculum for spiritual formation for our communities called FORMED. One of the monthly modules of the FORMED curriculum is on work. This module coincided with the body shop buying another building (that used to be a transmission shop) for expansion so we decided to host the FORMED gathering in this new space… this chaotic, greasy, dirty, space.

We went about the business of planning for the 40 or so people who were coming. Setting up chairs, hanging cloth from the rafters to soften the space, converting an old office space into a child care room and just generally getting all the old transmission parts moved out of our way. But right in the middle of all this was a frame rack that we had recently purchased for the expansion. A frame rack is typically the largest tool in a body shop. It took up almost 300 square feet of floor space and weighs in at several tons. And it was right in the middle of the space we were creating for this gathering. It was completely in the way.

And then someone had the idea. “What if we made this our table? What if this became the gathering place for our meal?” One of the presenters that day was a local urban farmer and he had already volunteered to design a meal of locally grown food as part of the gathering. So the frame rack that was “in the way” now became the centerpiece of our gathering. With some beautiful fabric, string lights all around and candles adorning both sides it became the locus of a shared meal, hospitality, gathering, prayer, learning, nourishment and worship. In short it went from a grimy tool that untwists and straightens metal to the Lord’s table, a place of communion and community. And for me it became an icon of the intersection of my work and my worship.

I once heard Tim Keller say that all work is bringing order out of chaos and that is one of the primary ways we reflect the image of God who did just that at creation. (see Genesis 1:1-2) In the body shop I’m daily reminded of the chaos that still surrounds us as cars are towed in with leaking fluids, bent metal, broken plastic and shattered glass. And it’s amazing to watch the transformations that occur! Frames are straightened, new panels are welded on, plastic is repaired, glass is replaced, and cars are painted and buffed to look better than they did before the accident.

This is true of your job as well. From dentists who fill damaged teeth, to plumbers who get leaky pipes in order, to educators who transform the chaos of teenage minds into ordered learning of biology, to administrative assistants who take the chaos of their boss’s email inbox and calendar and wrangle it into something manageable and meaningful. And you do it too wherever you work!

Here are a few ideas to help you curate worship in the workplace:

1. Have your small group members bring an icon of their work to your meeting and let each one explain how that represents what they do and how they bring order from chaos. Pray a blessing over each person as they hold the symbol of their work. This could also be adapted to a larger gathering as well.

2. How might you include blue collar tools and talent in your next experiential worship gathering beyond just setting things up or building something for it?

3. How might sharing a meal with your co-workers foster community and worship?

© Kevin Rains
Images © Amanda McLaughlin

Kevin Rains is the owner of Center City Collision, an auto body shop in Cincinnati. He is also finishing up a doctorate in leadership and spiritual formation at George Fox University. His dissertation is centered on developing a curriculum for spiritual formation that is both communal and missional. This developing project is called FORMED. He also blogs regularly at The Kedge. He lives with his wife, three children, two dogs and seven friends in the Brownhouse.

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