Happy New Year! Let us give thanks for the year that has unfolded and take time to envision what 2020 can be for us. Last year we posted about Spiritual Goal Setting. I encourage you to take a look at the article to identify what goals may work for you in this coming year and how to set them. I find it important to reflect on what has happened this year. Let's look closer at some of the awesome content from the blog. Spiritual Practices This last year I took on the endeavor of providing an in depth look at various spiritual practices each month. I will continue to do this in 2020 to expand our ideas of what a spiritual practice is. Spiritual practices help connect us with God and shape our discipleship. Continuing to find what practices work for us in our busy lives is imperative so that we can continue our spiritual formation. So lets quickly list the ones I covered this last year with links to the posts. I encourage you to find the ones that work for you and practice them. 1. Exercise and Movement 2. Dwelling in the Word 3. Journaling 4. Gardening 5. Neighborhood Walking 6. Intentional Breathing 7. Being in Nature 8. Labyrinth's 9. Dancing 10. Art 11. Pilgrimage Guest Bloggers I want to thank the wonderful guest bloggers we had this year who I have listed below. I have added links to their posts and encourage you to read them. 2020 will bring some new voices to the blog with lots of unique perspectives. The first post of the year will be a guest blogger sharing her awesome story of finding God in her life. William Ottens "Diversity and Your Bookshelf" Justin Delong "The Welcoming Mission of Jesus" Emily Hartford "Finding God's Spirit in Parenting" Steve Hensley "The Similarities Between Comedy and Church" Dakota Matthes "Dakota's Faith Journey" James O'Neil DeAtley "What Do You Wish To See? A Divine Invitation to Awakened Life" Caleb Brian "A Glimmer in Time: A Snapshot of Science and Religion" Anna Rider Gard "The Connection" New Year Hopes This coming year may each of us move forward along our faith journey. May we let our curiosity run wild as we ask the difficult questions. May we find joy in the simplistic things around us. May we value the people we are with and pay attention to the spirit speaking through them. May we search for a deeper connection with the divine. May we experience joy, love, and happiness. May we suffer the best we can during difficult times. May we be comforted and loved unconditionally in our not so good moments. May we give our time and talent to others. May we find a faith community to journey with. May we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to those around us connecting us deeper to them. May we walk confidently knowing we are loved for who we are. May we believe we are valued and have worth despite any worldly events that unfold. May we live love each day! Thank you to all those that have contributed to the blog this year and those who continue to follow us each week!
Go out and celebrate the New Year!
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Our guest blogger this week is Anna Elizabeth Rider Gard. Anna is a lifelong Community of Christ member from the Independence, Missouri area. Anna attended Graceland University and graduated with degrees in Vocal Performance and Music Education K-12. Anna went onto receive her Masters of Music at Kansas State University. She is now an Elementary Music teacher at Blackburn Elementary. Anna spends much of her time outside of work with her husband Tanner and her cats Katniss and J.K. She also sings as a Soprano for the Center Place Singers. We are so excited to have Anna share how music connects her with God. Growing Up With Ministry of Music Baby memories are very uncommon…the earliest I can remember was when I was 2 years old. And before that all I can remember is warmth. This warmth I know is from unconditional love, first given to my parents from the Lord and then passed from them to me. My parents are both organists and love classical music. I’m not talking about the genres of classic rock or country, but classical as in J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, G.F. Handel, and the list goes on from there. I grew up with the sounds of these composers’ minds, perhaps their feelings, and thoughts of life (we will never fully know). My parents filled my life with a musical energy and passion for it that as a child little did I know would develop into a love for life. However it was not just music, it became a passion for giving to others in a way I’m still trying to understand. What I speak of is a beautiful presence called Ministry of Music. Feeling The First Connection The first time I felt the connection to God through music was singing in children’s choir at church. At that time, I’m not sure how profound it felt to sing with a group of my church family peers, although I remember feeling the love of the congregation. And how appreciative they always seemed when I sang with the choir and then eventually singing solo, ministry of music. The second time I felt the connection was through campfire songs. Whether we were singing silly or serious songs, God was right there singing through the words and the people around me. It has come to be such a comfort over the years. During my school years, I really struggled with test taking, so my parents decided to take me to a therapist. I would go and talk to this man about test anxiety. The final question he asked me was… “Where is a place you could be that will take your anxiety away?” My thoughts went immediately to a campfire at church camp. There is a calm and joy in the atmosphere of campfire. It is the community, music and spirit that surrounds all those who witness its passion and power. As a young kid, I don’t think I really understood music ministry was such a powerful strength to help lift people up. As a high schooler, I was invited to come and sing solo at many congregations in the Independence, MO community. Each time I sang for a congregation, it became easier to share my love of music and put my true feelings into my voice. My Community – Center Place Singers At the end of my college years, like many students, who wish to some day be a teacher, I was doing my student teaching back home in Independence, MO. I was invited by a church choir to come and sing with them. This wasn’t any church choir; this was the Center Place Singers. CPS was a group I had grown up listening to and coming to their Independence famous “chicken dinners,” in which they would serve the food and then sing. Their main service though was and is ministry of music at local congregations around the area. This group helped me continue singing in a community at a time when I felt quite alone. They became a blessing and I quickly grew to love each of the members with all my heart. After I graduated college and got married, my husband, Tanner and I moved to Manhattan, KS where I pursued a master’s degree and at the time was unable to sing with CPS. Once I finished my graduate degree, Tanner and I decided to move back to our hometown, Independence, MO. And I was back singing with CPS again. Currently I have been singing with the Center Place Singers for 4 ½ years. We have recorded songs for the church hymnal, recorded our own album at Graceland University, Carol Hall, and have had many beautiful ministry experiences singing in many places around the Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa areas. I can’t really put into words what these people have done for my life, but I will say God has made each of us for this body of Christ that has made so much of an impact on my life and many others. Together our music gives warmth and unconditional love to all who hear us. And for that I am eternally grateful. Beliefs of How Music Connects Me to God I believe the creator gave us music to have a universal language for the world. Music connects each of us to all of the connections through various subjects. To count the rhythm is to understand math. To develop understanding of sound waves is to be a scientist. For a composer to add words or leave it instrumental they create reading. To listen to music and add dance and movement gives physical development. Using this universal language to understand many cultures becomes social studies which creates peace among all peoples. As a music teacher, I see each of my students slowly start to make these connections and then use it to give them understanding. In my opinion to make music is how we feel God’s joy for all. I have always felt to sing is to share a little bit of your self each time. Each persons voice is unique and gives flight to the soul to share it with others because it is so personal. God gave me this gift not to keep it for myself, but share it with others. When I share music ministry there are times people clap for me as though it is a performance. Sometimes they approach me and tell me how much it meant to them for me to share my gifts. A few times I have had people ask, “Does it bother you to receive applause?” I always say, “no, because the clapping I know is not for me, but instead for the glory of God. The almighty gave me the gift of music and singing so I could share it and use it for the Lord’s glory.” And I will continue to do so all the days of my life. Connection It is a deep understanding of warmth and unconditional love. I know for my whole life I will continue to try and make sense of this music connecting me to God. As I write this, I know in my whole heart that God gives me strength and this understanding of his love. The connection is so deep and so vast that nothing we do will separate us from the divine. Music gives God a vessel unlike any other connection to unify people as one. When I sing, I feel the warmth within the middle of my body and the energy expands outward filling the space around me. 11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, 12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever! - Psalm 30:11-12 - New Living Translation (NLT) My Musical Testimony My Master Hath A Garden Music by Eric H. Thiman & Words - Anonymous My Master hath a garden, Fulfilled with divers flowers, Where thou may’st gather poesies gay, All times and hours. Here not is heard but paradise bird, Harp, dulcimer, and lute, With cymbal, and timbrel, and the gentle sounding flute. Oh! Jesus, Lord, my heal and weal, My bliss complete, Make Thou my heart Thy garden plot, True, fair, and neat; That I may hear this music clear, Harp, dulcimer and lute, With cymbal, and timbrel, And the gentle sounding flute. Before each and every ministry of music and performance, my mother and father would always quote the following words written by J.S.Bach and G.F. Handel at the end of their compositions: S. D. G. (Soli Deo Gloria – Glory to God alone). These two composers have been a large part of my musical beginnings. In learning that they used these words as a focus for each of their sacred works has become a lifelong focus for my music connecting me to the Lord. When I use this focus, I in turn feel God’s blessings and strength. There have been times I am unwell, but the Lord is always right there guiding my voice with divine direction and grace. Also, other times I struggle with the understanding of song text and what the deeper meaning may be. It is usually made clear either right before I sing a song or while I am giving my music ministry. This is definitely the Lord giving a blessing of understanding and connection to his unfailing grace. We each have our blessings, gifts and what connects us to the Lord. And when we find our connections to God, we are richly blessed with a lifelong understanding of unconditional love. A big thank you to Anna sharing her gifts and passions with us. May we all use Music to connect with the divine.
This week find music that speaks to you and listen to God in the midst of it. Our guest blogger this week is Caleb Brian! Caleb is a self-sustaining seventy in Community of Christ who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife Tiffany and dog Ramona. They attend the St. Paul Community of Christ. He works as a Product Development Specialist at 3m (think Post-It® Notes and Scotch™ Tape). He has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin and an undergraduate degree from Graceland University. Caleb spends his free time playing summer softball and winter volleyball. He also manages a vegetable garden and goes hiking as much as he can. Again we are very thankful for Caleb bringing his thoughts with us this week. I’ve often begun to wonder when the conversation changed from science and religion to science vs religion. When did it become one or the other, with people in both camps deciding that the other must possess some fallacy that makes it seemingly incorrect or unworthy of exploration? Shouldn’t both be about the questions, about the search for answers, and about understanding that there are so many incredible forces at work in the world today that we fail to comprehend? Growing up my parents started multiple iterations of house churches all while tackling the questions of embracing science and religion, seeing as my dad is a 70 and a biochemist, and my mom is a high priest and a recently retired nurse practitioner. My entire life has been a combination of the two, from searching for dinosaurs under rocks in our back yard to chemistry experiments in our basement in high school to actively participating in church youth groups growing up. At Graceland I studied Chemistry and got a minor in church leadership. At the University of Wisconsin where I received my doctorate in Chemistry I spent just as much time with people in the local Community of Christ congregation to live and imagine what a community of believers could really do if we had the time and resources (age old question, right?). Now we live within a half mile of the St. Paul, MN congregation, and it is fantastic to be a part of the neighborhood that surrounds the church, understanding the intricacies of this community and being a part of it. So where to dig in? Where to offer a small piece of my mind into the ongoing struggle of science and religion that can be captured in this guest opportunity. I think I’ll start here: “Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.” - Isaac Newton The beginning of time seems to always come up as a hot topic in the “war” between science and religion. A reading of Genesis 1 would posit that God spoke the universe into being, created contrasting pieces, and worked out all the small details within it. It’s a beautifully written creation story that reflected some sense of understanding of who we are in the vastness of space. Science on the other hand would say that the beginning of the universe took place via the Big Bang and that all matter that at one moment that had been highly compressed into a single dot erupted due to some unknown event to grow and swirl and splinter into the universe we observe today. It’s a compelling theory that reflects some sense of understanding of the visible universe around us. And why do the two have to compete? 13.8 billion year ago (give or take a few) something happened that caused a chain of events that led to Earth that led to organisms that led to humans. I believe that God could be in that space and watching over that expansion in ways that we still do not comprehend. Intriguing enough, it was a Roman Catholic Priest, Monsignor Georges Lemaitre, who is credited with the idea of the expanding universe that came to be referred to as the Big Bang theory. At the same time, I wonder why we spend so much time arguing between the circles of science and religion about something like the beginning of time when I don’t know that either should have a bearing on our interactions in this time and place. Whether God spoke the universe into being from simply nothing or compelled enough energy into a single massive particle to cause it to explode into everything we see and more should not be our driving force for interacting with the world today. There are countless new discoveries on a daily basis that will change the way we interact with the world more than arguing over how the universe began in the first place. This is where I think the new horizon of the intersection of science and religion must exist. For example, I was sitting in a discussion about recycling today. How, in the 1950s, consumerism shifted from durable materials to disposable materials and our rate of consumption has only increased from there. I’m constantly tempted to get the newest phone, but the one I have now is working just fine for what I need it to do. I look in my closet often at the vast array of shirts I have that I can wear to work and get bored sometimes because they are the same shirts I’ve worn for a few years now. A stunning statistic in our discussion this morning was that in the 1930’s women would have maybe bought two pieces of clothing a year and kept it for 5 years. Today the amount of clothing items purchased has jumped to 65 a year, and they’ll only be worn on average 3 times. Now, some could argue that is the increased purchase power we’ve gained in the last 80 years, but at the same time the science of clothing has changed in such a way that these goods are no longer made to last or at least to hold interest for long periods of time. But Caleb, this is supposed to be a discussion on science and religion, and now you’re talking about clothes? You’re right. I believe that our faith comes into action when we begin to consider the best use of our resources and the planet’s resources when we gain the increased purchase power that science has provided. For me, in Community of Christ we are called to value the Sacredness of Creation and to make Responsible Choices. Additionally: “The earth, lovingly created as an environment for life to flourish, shudders in distress because creation’s natural and living systems are becoming exhausted from carrying the burden of human greed and conflict. Humankind must awaken from its illusion of independence and unrestrained consumption without lasting consequences.” - Doctrine and Covenants 163:4b I would say that our faith calls us to more responsibly choose the clothing that we wear, how often we purchase it and from where, and then what do we do when that clothing has lost its ability to function or to “spark joy”. This then frees us up to step out of the silo of religion to begin to partner with organizations that are looking to use science to properly reduce the resource burden of our fashion (or other industries) on the planet. Indeed, there is great work looking at how to take old clothing and deconstruct it in such a way that it can be used as thread for new clothing (so cool!). To me, this facet of science then has no negative bearing on my understanding of God, rather it further highlights the incredible complexity in the universe that exists in God. I could go into a whole post about how amazing Organic or Analytical Chemistry are in terms of some of the minute details that take place in complex chemical reactions point to a facet of God in nature. My final example for this post is this. As the future of the church continues to feel uncertain and undefined, the church has much to learn from the freedom to ask questions which is present in science. When we allow ourselves the openness to explore our faith and understand the things that we believe and why we believe them I feel that makes us stronger. If cell biology had stopped when Robert Hooke first described cork cells in the 1600s we wouldn’t have many of the medical advances that we have today. The same is true of our faith, of our growth as Christians, in understanding a God who deeply loves us and yearns for the wellness of creation. No longer is our faith “just because” but it begins to move and breath with a deeper sense of life about it. This deeper sense of life has the added benefit of making our faith community more relevant to our friends and neighbors who are searching for spiritual homes even if they too don’t know how to define them. We could imagine a question such as “How would you reconcile the creation story in Genesis 1 with the current understanding of the Big Bang theory?” We could invite them in, and offer to talk about that. About how a complex and undefinable God is present both in our faith and our scientific traditions. Then we could set about the task of understanding how the two can successfully interact in the world today to preserve what has been created. From humans to hippos, from sequoias to sunflowers, from paper to plastic, and many things in between. There is still much complexity left to explore in the universe and it’s my belief that it will take all kinds of religious and scientific believers to help us continue to push the boundaries of understanding while seeing the complexity and intimacy of God. This is what excites me about sitting at the intersection of science and religion on a daily basis. A big thank you to Caleb for being our guest blogger and helping us work through this difficult subject!
This week ask yourself how science impacts your faith and vice versa. |
Please Note The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Community of Christ. We believe individuals should be allowed to have their own opinions and be at different places in their faith journey.
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