MBCC Blog

Are all voices equal?

[image: daniel duende]

Well if you were in church today, we finally had one of those, "this is what we don't have conversations in church" moments.  For those that were not there, this evening we had someone come to church that had a great deal to say, felt like we were not teaching the Bible and well . . .  had a great deal to say regardless of who else was talking.

Now beyond issues of social interaction, worship flow, maintaining a focus and other distractions that arose before she stormed out of worship . . . we were faced with a fundamental questions in how we handled the situation . . . how do we welcome all of God's people?

Answer: Let Bruce deal.
Just kidding. 

I think in the big picture no one felt threatened so we allowed for her to speak her peace, I did my best to try and guide and moderate the conversation, but at a certain time it became clear that there was nothing I could do but abandon our normal way of interacting.  Folks gave gallant tries to cue her into our flow, deflect the conversation, but I am  not sure where is much we could have done.

Now I do not now how she came to find us, or why she chose to be with us, but she did.  I also make no judgments about mental health or intent, but it was clear that this threw us a bit.

That's okay.  Being tossed to and fro by people in our midst reminds us of a great many things when it comes to being a community of faith.  All people are welcome to worship, worship is not about perfection and order and in the end, all of our interactions give us a glimpse of God somehow, some way.

Despite the awkward nature of it all, I never got a sense that we did not welcome her.  In fact, my sense what that we were yearning for a way to share out welcome but also communicate our culture and ways of interacting that would not have been oppressive. 

We know all are welcome and and again, we are being challenged to live that out.  I think we did all we could do this evening and for that I am grateful.

Introducing our first class of Elders

During our worship service on December 14th, among other things, we will be ordaining our first every Elders.  According to our tradition as described in our Book of Order, Elders in the Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation are . . .

 . . . chosen by the people. Together with ministers of the Word and Sacrament, they exercise leadership, government, and discipline and have responsibilities for the life of a particular church as well as the church at large, including ecumenical relationships. They shall serve faithfully as members of the session. (G-10.0102) When elected commissioners to higher governing bodies, elders participate and vote with the same authority as ministers of the Word and Sacrament, and they are eligible for any office.
 . . . should be persons of faith, dedication, and good judgment. Their manner of life should be a demonstration of the Christian gospel, both within the church and in the world. (G-6.0106).

I am so very excited about this step in the life of our church as we begin to mature and grow as a community.   As we have discussed in our training . . .

            To be an Elder at MBCC is to embrace and embody what it means to be MBCC

Over the next few months, the elders will be engaging in some training as well as beginning to think through their particular areas of ministry to help us move forward as a community both in our spiritual as well as physical growth!

INTRODUCING . . . . OUR SESSION [Pictures on Facebook]

• MARKETING and PR - Debbie Yoon
  Responsible for communicating MBCC's unique personality, presence and ministry to those outside the church.
• HOSPITALITY and WELCOME - Mark Regis
  Responsible for the integration of visitors into the MBCC community:
• CONNECTIONS and MEMBERSHIP - Ricky Choi
  Responsible for the building up and sustaining MBCC community connections: small groups, deacons, membership
• MUSIC and WORSHIP - Megan Dunchak
  Responsible for the corporate worshiping life of MBCC
• ARTS and STYLE - Morgan Cullen
  Responsible for the creative life of MBCC
• TECHNOLOGY - Toby Sterrett
  Responsible for the use of technology in all aspects of MBCC life.
• EDUCATION and SPIRITUALITY – Ryan Tang
  Responsible for the educational life of adults and children at MBCC. 
• MISSION and SERVICE - Eliz Roser
  Responsible for the outward mission and service life of MBCC
• ADMINISTRATION and SUPPORT - Katina Miner
  Responsible for the operational, fiduciary and stewardship life of MBCC.
• CLERK OF SESSION - Lisa Rode
  Responsible minute taking, record-keeping and parliamentary procedures of the Session.

Chartering, Ordination, Installation . . . Oh My!

YOU ARE INVITED!

MBCC Worship Celebration
Sunday, December 14, 2008
5:30pm with heavy hors deaurves following
32 Ocean Avenue @ Mission Street
Directions | Facebook Event Page

Childcare provided, come early for parking

For the past eight years, MBCC has been what is called a "New Church Development" in the Presbyterian Church (USA). An NCD is a community where most of the long-term vision and leadership is provided by the "Organizing Pastor" in our case, Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow.

MBCC is now at the point where leadership can and should be shared in new and creative ways so that more folks are able to help shape and embody what it means to be MBCC now and into the future.

To help celebrate this time, you are invited to join us for an uber-ginormous celebration and worship to commemorate three major rituals in our life as a community.

• "CHARTERING" of MBCC as an official Congregation in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
• "ORDAINING" of 10 Elders as our first official leadership team (Session) of the newly chartered MBCC.
• "INSTALLING" of Bruce Reyes-Chow as our permanent and called pastor.

A lot of Presbyterian lingo, but make no mistake this is a big day! There will be heavy hors dourves after service so come on by for an evening of celebration and worship.  Hope to see you then!

Wednesday Word: Gratitiude

[image: Annemarie Rysz]

As you all know by now, our family has been rocked by the tragic shooting death of Robin's brother, Brian Pugh.  While words cannot begin to describe the depths at which this has hit us, especially Robin, his wife, Carol and his parents, we are all going through much the same journey as we try to understand such an utterly incomprehensible situation.  Questions of "Why did this happen?", "How could this have been prevented?" and "What do we do now?" are all valid yet frustrating discussions that go round and round in all of our minds.

And yet . . . and yet.  God has clearly been present in the midst of our mourning and grief.  The family has been incredibly supportive of one another, friends and strangers have offered meaningful words and actions and the grace-filled resilience of our children has reminded us that even in the midst of despair, the joy that is God can be seen, heard and embraced.  Keeping me grounded is the knowledge that God did not intend for this to happen, for we are each given choices in our lives within the confines of God's hope for us, nor does this mean God has forsaken his children.  No, as we move through this time of grief, we are reminded now more than ever in the blatant presence and grace of God.  And now more than ever we all need to rest in that knowledge and reality if we are to continue to grow into who God hopes us each to become.

Our lives have been changed forever and we grieve doubly to see our loved ones in so much pain, but what gets us through is that each morning we awake with a new day, new breath and a new chance to live fully this precious gift of life that we have been given. 

And for that I am thankful.

You are all, of course, welcome to attend the services this Friday at 1:00 in Los Altos [SERVICE INFO] or if you wish to leave prayers for the family, especially for Brian's wife Carol and their two young children, you may do that [HERE].

THOUGHTS FROM THE PEWS: Ban the Catholic Eucharist by Ryan Roser

DISCLAIMER // MBCC's "Thoughts for the Pews" is meant to encourage faithful and passionate discourse around issues of politics, culture, life and faith.  While this piece has been been approved for posting by a member of the pastoral staff, the opinion/s of the writer are not necessarily those of MBCC.

[image: femgeek]

Ban the Catholic Eucharist
by Ryan Roser

We good Protestants should join together and ask the State of California to eliminate the right of Catholics to take Eucharist, for when those people are able to join together in communion it devalues and debases our traditional, wholesome, Hawaiian-bread-and-Concord-grape-juice Protestant Eucharist. Now, we won't ban Catholicism, of course. We tolerate Catholics. They can keep dressing in their gaudy outfits, and have their all male hangouts, and believe whatever they want, but let's not let them continue to corrupt our Eucharist. What do you say? Obviously, the argument is absurd and offensive, yet in this past election many intelligent, well-intentioned Christians used this same argument to eliminate the right of homosexuals to marry.

Suggesting that gay marriage reduces the value of "traditional" marriage is as reasonable as supposing that allowing Catholics to take communion somehow diminishes the value of the Presbyterian Eucharist, or that allowing a Muslim to believe in and worship Allah will reduce the value of a Christian's belief and worship of Jesus. Prop 8 does not defend traditional marriage. It does not defend anything. It is an attack. With Prop 8, California has declared that, while a minority group can believe what it wants, its ability to act in no extraordinary way on its own beliefs is subject to regulation by the majority, even the slimmest 50%+1 majority.

I assume that many who voted Yes on 8 did so because they believe gay marriage to be wrong, immoral, and that the churches and pastors who supported the ban did so primarily on these grounds as well. Now, I have no desire to debate what is moral, in fact I feel strongly that it is the place of a church to define what is and is not moral according to its creed. But I do expect that churches and pastors are capable of distinguishing between legality and morality. From Pilgrim to Mormon, America's history recounts the times and people who struggled to free themselves from a religious morality based majority made law. The churches and pastors that support Prop 8 know this history and owe their current freedoms to these struggles. In supporting Prop 8 they knowingly become the oppressor they have fought to escape.

Churches operate from a unique position of authority and privilege. I do not want to see America's churches abuse their power regardless of my view on a particular issue. Our nation relies upon the separation of church and state to help allow all of us to live side by side, harmoniously, while maintaining well reasoned but conflicting view points. It saddens me when churches attempt to legislate their views. Somehow they have forgotten the long hard fight that was necessary for their own current freedom of conscious and freedom of expression.

We as churchgoers should take care to protect and abide by the laws that allow churches to operate as they do. We should not abuse our power. We should also call out those churches who go beyond the law, flaunting and jeopardizing the systems that maintain the freedoms we enjoy. We should fight to protect the legality of minority belief and practice, for in doing so we defend our own rights.

Wednesday Word: Connected

[image: Erica Marshall]

MBCC is growing and there are more ways to connect with each other.  Not only should EVERYONE sign up for our eZine*, but we also want to encourage folks to take part in the following networks and online communities if you feel so inclined.

Now I know that not everyone engages in social networking, but you would be surprised at how many do.   I for one have appreciated the ability to stay connected with folks even amidst an increase in my moderatorial travels.  Thanks to the many MBCC'ers who provide my spirit with great laughter and comfort through these many forms of communication.

MBCC FB Fan Page // This is our presence on Facebook where we have pictures, event invitations, etc.  You can also find the other MBCC fans and followers here.

MBCC on Twitter // If you are want to interact throughout the day, find out about prayers and/or virtually sit through various MBCC gatherings such as staff meetings, session meetings and even worship.  You can also see who MBCC is following for other MBCC'ers that are tweeting throughout the day.

Online Directory on Stafftool //  If you have submitted your information for the directory, please be sure to update your info so people can get in touch with you.  Remember, this is an secure site where your profile is only made public if you choose and MBCC staff have approved.  It would greatly help staff if you would edit your and your family's info so we can more fully communicate with the community.  If you have forgotten your login/password OR want to be added, please contact Nick Larson.

That's it for now,

* If you’d like to stay up to date with the goings-on of the Mission Bay crew, you can subscribe to our weekly eZine by sending an email to ezine-subscribe@missionbaycc.org.

 

Mission Street Health Fair - 11.08.08

Mission Street Health Fair
Saturday, November 8, 2008
10:00am to 3:00pm
@ San Francisco Christian Center
5845 Mission Street (Near Sickles St.)

Wednesday Word: Bittersweet

[Voting Machine image: k♥money]

Now I know that I tread lightly as I talk about reactions to last night's election results in the context of my pastoral role, but, really, to NOT offer some kind of reflection seems pretty non-pastoral.  Keeping in mind that there are a variety of thoughts about some of these issues and I thank the Lord each and every day that MBCC is not a "if the pastor says it, it must be true" kind of place. 

Still, much of the conversation after last night has been that folks are feeling pretty mixed.  "Bittersweet" being the word that has been bandied around the most.  I suspect that no matter your political/social leanings, it is an appropriate word for the day.

On that note, here are a few reflections that I offer to us as a community:

1) OBAMA - What to say.  Folks have known that I was, am, will be a supporter of his vision for what our country can be.  Best quote was from one of my kids who was surprised that I was not going to get an invitation to the inauguration because I am Mr. Moderator.  Sweet.  I suspect that post-election those of us who agree with his vision will need to follow his lead in the grace and humility in which he accepted the election.  I also think we cannot underestimate the long-term impact upon our culture to see a family of color with young kids inhabiting the highest office in the land.  Middle asked us that if we ever met the Obama family if she could have a play date with his daughters.  Too cute, and oh so powerful.

2) Proposition K - While I understand the need to protect the rights of all people especially the many people in the sex worker trade who have suffered great injustice in the past at the hands of law-enforcement and others, this proposition had it passed would only further embolden the sex-trafficking of human beings in our city.  The coalitions built to fight this, liberal and conservative, is a witness to the broad negative effect that many felt would be the result of this had it passed.

3) Proposition R - Okay, cooler heads prevailed.  Only in San Francisco does this one even make it onto the ballot.

4) Proposition 8 - Most folks know where I am on this issue of homosexuality, but this was much more about civil rights than anything for me.  Regardless of what you think about the issue, know that there are many in our community who are in great pain and grief over the results of this proposition passing.  I suspect that there will be more reflections about this from members of MBCC.

Okay . . . so there are some very surface reactions on this day-after.  In fact, so surface that if you are a participant here at MBCC and would like to offer your perspective on these or any other things that relate to our ministry here in San Francisco, please let me know.

Bring Canned Goods on Sunday!!!

Hey MBCC gang.  We have been invited by Bruce's dad, Bill, to participate be a part of the world's largest food drive ever!!  His employer, Synesco, is trying to collect more pounds of food than anyone else EVER has... I think the goal is 900,000 pounds of food.  MBCC can put a dent in that (though probably a modest dent). 

So, WE NEED YOU TO BRING CANNED GOODS THIS SUNDAY!   If we collect two barrels of food, the church will earn fresh fruit to munch on for one of our services.  If we collect four barrels, Synesco will provide one of our weekly meals... and it will be quite the spread.  So, let's do it.

After all...  In Matthew 25, Jesus says:

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."