|
|
| September 2010 Every year since 1998 Professors Tom McBride and Ron Nief from Beloit College in Wisconsin have produced what they call a "mindset" list for the incoming freshman class. The list was originally intended as a way to help their fellow instructors understand the cultural forces that shaped the eighteen-year-olds arriving on campus that year. Over the years it has also become a revealing portrait of cultural change through succeeding generations of young adults. The mindset list for the incoming class of 2014 includes the following: • Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail. • Entering college this fall in a country where a quarter of young people under 18 have at least one immigrant parent, they aren’t afraid of immigration...unless it involves "real" aliens from another planet. • They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone. • The first home computer they probably touched was an Apple II or Mac II; they are now in a museum. • Czechoslovakia has never existed. • Nirvana is on the classic oldies station. • Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine. • The U.S, Canada, and Mexico have always agreed to trade freely. • Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court. • They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S. I wonder what a "church mindset" list for this same class might include: • Women have been ordained in the Presbyterian Church since their grandmothers were young women. • The Presbyterian Hymnal has always been bright blue. • The battle over the role of openly gay persons in the church began when their parents were in high school. • Their classmates were just as likely to be Muslims and Buddhists as Baptist or Catholic. • Youth Sports leagues have always scheduled games on Sundays.What do these mindset lists have to teach us as we consider the ministries of our congregation? Pastor Karen Sapio Summer 2010 When you list your assets, what do you list? Money in the bank? Real estate owned? An investment portfolio? These kinds of assets are fairly easy to measure. Harder to quantify is the value of our social capital. The website BetterTogether.org defines social capital as the collective value of all "social networks" [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other ["norms of reciprocity"]. The term social capital emphasizes not just warm and cuddly feelings, but a wide variety of quite specific benefits that flow from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks. Social capital creates value for the people who are connected and - at least sometimes - for bystanders as well. In the gospels, we see Jesus working to create social capital among groups of people who did not normally relate to one another: tax collectors and religious leaders, fishermen and political activists, Roman soldiers and Jewish peasants, Samaritans and Judeans. The Book of Acts refers again and again to the new social capital emerging among the early church as barriers between Jew and Greek, male and female, slave and free began to come down. Many observers of contemporary culture lament the decline of social capital in our lives. Neighbors do not know one another. Fewer people have time for church, PFAs, or community service organizations. Even such simple acts of hospitality as inviting friends over for dinner or hosting spontaneous playdates for your kids and the kids down the block are happening less frequently. When social capital declines, they argue, communities are impoverished even if, on the surface, they seem quite affluent financially. Jesus tells his followers that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Does this tell us that Christians have a unique role to play in their communities as creators and sustainers of social capital? This summer we will explore this idea through a sermon series called Table Talk: Social Capital around the Table Stories in Luke and Acts. Luke often sets his stories about Christian community around a table or meal. We will consider together what these stories might teach us about social capital both through worship and through activities that invite us to take steps toward bonding, bridging and linking with others. See the July/August calendar for a calendar of these special events. Pastor Karen Sapio June 2010 As I was preparing for our Pentecost worship service, I remembered a
song that was new and very popular when I was a kid:
I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together! All who follow Jesus all around the world! Yes, we’re the church together! Singing that song in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and summer church camp, I deeply absorbed the view of the church celebrated in these lyrics. "We are the church together!" I t occurs to me, however, that it is also important to remember that we are also the church when we are NOT together. Day by day, as we live out our lives scattered throughout Claremont, the Inland Valley, Southern California, or wherever we find ourselves during any given week, we are still the church. We are bearers of the gospel, messengers of Christ’s peace, ministers of God’s compassion wherever we are. The things that we do when we are the church gathered – worship, prayer, learning, fellowship – all these are meant to form and strengthen us for our most important work: being the church when we are NOT gathered, but dispersed throughout our community and our world. Wherever you find yourself this month, take a moment to think: "I am the Church in this place! What would Christ have me do here?" Pastor Karen Sapio May 2010 Do you remember your favorite birthday present? Was it the StarStreak bike you got when you were eight? The cool new transistor radio/Walkman/iPod when you were fourteen? The gold watch for your eighteenth? Did you know you were finally a grown up when you got a state-of-the-art lawnmower or vacuum cleaner and found yourself pleased rather than disgusted? This month, on May 23, Claremont Presbyterian Church will celebrate its fifty-fifth birthday. Plans are in the works to mark that occasion with a "reverse birthday present": a gift FROM our congregation TO two communities that have been important to us over those years. Part of this reverse birthday present will go to the Near East School of Theology. This school in Lebanon trains pastors and lay leaders for churches throughout the Middle East. When CPC conducted a capital campaign in 1999 in order to renovate our sanctuary, we gave a portion of the funds raised to the NEST to aide them in building a gymnasium that could assist in their educational programs and outreach ministries. The other part of our reverse birthday gift will go to the ministries of the congregation that gave birth to us fifty-five years ago. CPC was founded by members of the Pomona Presbyterian Church who lived in Claremont and wanted to have a Presbyterian congregation there. Pomona Presbyterian gave key support, both financial and organizational, in the planting of Claremont Presbyterian Church. In the five decades since then, Pomona has changed significantly. The Presbyterian Church there now strives to serve an urban neighborhood facing urban challenges and opportunities. If you have not yet had a chance to contribute to our Reverse Birthday Gift, consider doing so now. We would like to have the donations in full by early May so that we can have checks ready to present as part of our birthday celebration during worship and coffee hour on March 23, Pentecost Sunday which is often referred to as ... The Birthday of the Church. Pastor Karen Sapio
| |
|