Diana Butler Bass @ LPTS January 19

I have just confirmed with Peggy Owens and Jay Magnus that, thanks to a partnership between the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky, the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky and the Lifelong Learning Office of Louisville Seminary, Diana Butler Bass will present four lectures in Louisville the third weekend in January.

Bass is the author of the Publishers Weekly "Best Book of the Year" Christianity for the Rest of Us, and a major interpreter of the emerging church movement in the United States.

Her presentation at the Episcopal Cathedral on Friday evening, January 18th, will be for clergy. On Saturday, the 19th, she will give three presentations in the Seminary Chapel. Both events will require advance registration and space is limited.

More information on costs and how to register will be available on www.lpts.edu when the links are up and available.

Updates on LPTS Lifelong Learning Events Calendar

The published calendar for Lifelong Learning is always a changeable feast. Here are some of the changes to watch for and check the online version (www.lpts.edu/lifelonglearning).

• The Susanna Heschel event originally planned of September 9 has been moved to the first weekend of December. She's coming sponsored by Interfaith Paths to Peace. Terry Taylor will get us more information soon.
• The Presbyterian Pension Board Events were switched on the printed calendar: The January 29-30 event is the pre Retirement seminar "Growing into Tomorrow Today." And "Getting In Shape Fiscally" is offered on May 6th, adjacent to the new "Render Unto Caesar" event on the 7th. Registration for these events is through the Pension Board's website http://www.pensions.org/.
• The Seminary Luncheon for Louisville's Festival of Faiths, Monday November 5, will feature Dr. Gene March, A. B. Rhodes Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, and storyteller Mary Ellen Hill, on the topic of "Interpreting and Retelling Creation Stories." Lunch is $15, register online through www.brownpapertickets.com. The overall theme of Festival of Faiths is "Birth and Creation Through the Eyes of Faith."

Church Shopping--Signs of Life

My 35 year old son was just transferred to Raleigh, North Carolina, for nice promotion in his work for a large mutual fund company. I visited last weekend to see his new digs, see the communities of the "triangle" of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, and gladly give it all my paternal blessing. Since he has had little to do with church since college but continues his interest in things spiritual, I asked if we could hunt up a church to attend on Sunday. He agreed. We immediately rejected the little church on the corner near his apartment which looked pretty "closed up and uptight" and had on its signboard something about pleasing God by following "His" commandments--strikes two and three! Not surprisingly that church has no website. But there are lots of other Presbyterian Churches in Raleigh, so we looked them up. Looking through the eyes of a 30-something, most of them looked pretty "stuffy" with late middle-aged white men in leadership (not that there's anything wrong with that) and what looked to me like "business as usual/the status is quo" church life. Now understand we're both coming from a pretty progressive point of view so some things jumped out as objections pretty quickly.

Only one church showed what I call signs of life on the web site. North Raleigh http://www.nraleighpc.org shows a picture of an appealing woman pastor, an unusually interesting mission statement and goals ("a vibrant spiritual life" for example), and descriptions of programs that went beyond the usual everyday couple and family oriented church programs. It's not in Dan's neighborhood, but we were willing to make the half-hour drive for the level of interest the website generated. We were not disappointed.

• The building is fresh, attractive, welcoming, and well-maintained.
• The service was relaxed but thoroughly Presbyterian, which Dan liked.
• The sermon was clear, interesting and pretty gutsy (she tackled the "women keep silent in church" admonition of Paul),
• and the congregation of about 150 that morning included a full range of ages.
• They even took in four new members and with some children in tow on that Summer Sunday!
• The pastor who is very confident and easy with people promised to contact Dan based on information he gave on the registration pads,
• and a few members greeted us after the service.

I think he was impressed--not an easy test!

If you're looking at your own congregation, check to be sure there are "signs of life" all around, especially on the web if you want to attract the young folks.

Reflections on Mormon Territory

In a week and a half in Utah, including six days in Salt Lake City I could not avoid reflecting on the phenomenon of the Mormons, "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. Their culture and influence is powerful in that territory. Although I can't find a lot about their current expression to agree with, and think it was a desolate place for them to settle just to get away from critics, I still admire the spirit of Joseph Smith's willingness to critique the Christianity of his time and to take the risk to believe that God could still speak to humanity with some new insights.

The Mormons emerged during the time and spirit of the 19th Century Great Awakenings that also produced the Campbellites, the Shakers, and the Harmonists of New Harmony, Indiana. My wife's family are descendants of another of those spiritual/social experimental groups, the Icarians, who settled in Nauvou, Illinois after the Mormons left.

What hits me now is that old-line protestant groups like my own Presbyterian Church are currently in conflict that may just be a resistance to any new inspiration from God on social and spiritual issues. We are so caught up in that fight that we are missing the opportunity to stretch and grow and be transformed by discernment of God's moving in the world. The United Church of Christ has it right with their motto "God is still speaking."

I'm wishing for more zeal and enthusiasm and risk-taking to move us into new possibilities to become a spiritually awakened and attuned church for the 21st century. If we don't, the zeal and enthusiasm of the Mormons and the evangelicals and the emerging churches will simply move on and leave us in the desert!