I bragged on my congregation in the above video; that in a 20-month
period we had 112 God Conversations. Friends, colleagues and people on the
internet wanted to know more, particularly what we did and how.
First off, I need to acknowledge this wasn’t my idea; when
the ELCA announced our goal
to “Share the story of Jesus and the ELCA by engaging with 1 million new
people as we grow the church together” there was a webinar for pastors that
offered this marble exercise as a way to do this.
Materials
Two
clear pretty containers—Make sure the containers can hold all 112 marbles.
Place them in a noticeable place in the sanctuary. During the week congregants
tell the Pastor or worship leader when they have a God conversation. Then on a
Sunday (in our case as part of the Children’s Message) the marbles are moved
from one container to the other. Seeing that progress is really exciting! It
points to the faith we practice in worship being lived out in the world.
The Challenge
I have to admit I was pretty open ended with how I
challenged my congregation, perhaps even too much so.
At based, I encouraged my congregation to notice and have
God conversations with their neighbors and tell me about them—or at least that
they had them. Then as a part of the Children’s Sermon I reported any God
conversations in the last week to my people by counting together the number of
marbles moved into the second container.
My challenge included the word notice, because folk are
often having God conversations with their neighbors, but they don’t realize it,
and by not realizing it they miss out that the Holy Spirit was at work. So much
of the God Conversation Challenge was really an exercise in noticing, seeing how
we speak and listen in Christ for our neighbors. We regularly have
conversations with people about their values and goals, their fears and hopes—those
are God conversations!
On one hand, I did strongly encourage folk to talk about God,
tell their stories, testifying to God’s work in Jesus Christ, confess their
faith. After all, “Lutheran Laryngitis” the observation that the average
Lutherans shares something about their faith once every 23 years, is a tragedy.
We’re ceding the Gospel to folk who are more outspoken about their faith, and
often times misrepresent Christianity in ways that are anti-evangelical;
instead of Christ’s message being good news, they offer bad news! The Lutheran
understanding of the Gospel is freeing, why wouldn’t we share it?
On the other hand, I took a cue from Bonhoeffer:
“Many people are
looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians,
because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who
can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God
either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too.”
We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Part of this
exercise was to listen, really listen, to what folk are saying about God’s work
in the world, about, as I said above, their fears and goals, their hopes and what
they value most.
Additionally, we were listening to language, learning to
speak in the vernacular of our neighborhood. What does God talk look like in
the 08826 zip code?
Finally, we listened because the Book of Acts continually
attests to something amazing; the Spirit goes out ahead of the Church. God is
already at work among our neighbors, and sometimes the best thing we can do as
a congregation and a Church is pitch in, catch up to God’s actions. Perhaps,
because of what we know about the God revealed in Jesus Christ’s life, death
and resurrection, we can be helpful discerners and interpreters; we can point
and say to folk already experiencing the Spirit, “Wow! Did you see it? God is
doing something here!”
Results
It took 20 months.
Early on having God Conversations felt inauthentic, or at
least uncomfortable.
There were worrying dry spells when marbles didn’t move for
months at a time.
Several people were shocked by how prevalent neo-Paganism is
in our area.
Folk had the opportunity to listen to what extended family
members thought about forgiveness.
People helped friends wrestle questions about healing and
hospice and what ought to be prayed for.
By the end, people were noticing these deeper conversations
when they occurred; we began to come to worship anticipating that at least one
person would report a God Conversation each week.
When the last marble moved, there was a sense of
accomplishment, also some people worried that their God Conversations wouldn’t “count”
going forward.
There are a lot of places to put your energy at in ministry,
I would say having 112 God Conversations and marking them with marble movement
is a worthwhile investment.
