Supporting the (weary?) Justice heart, Talking about money with your church, Lenten book study, and more in The Latest newsletter

 

New year blessings to you, from me and all of us at LeaderSHIFT. And, hoping this Friday evening message finds you when you can take, or create, a cozy moment for the news within; consider the invitations before you and the collective delight of sacred-birth-story-sharing and all that new life offered!

Depending on the choices your community of faith has made, you may have either just celebrated the baptism of Jesus in worship, or are about to. The baptism of Jesus is one of my favourite stories of our faith. Jesus is claimed as God’s own, as God’s beloved, in whom Goddelights - and all before he has done one. single. thing.

celebrated

Jesus is not beloved because of what he’s accomplished, what he’s taught, who he’s healed, or the stories he’s told. He just IS beloved, because he is a child of God. In Jan Richardson’s blessings, “Beginning with Beloved", she suggests, “Begin here: Beloved. Is there any other word needs saying, any other blessing could compare with this name, this knowing? Beloved."

 In Jesus, God comes to be with us, to be one of us. We too, are children of God, who are beloved just as we are, without having to earn, accomplish, deserve, or achieve one. single. thing.

beloved


Of course, beginning with beloved leads us to notice and affirm the beloved-ness of the rest of God’s people and the entire creation, too. Which compels us to stand in solidarity with those whose beloved-ness is denied, by the forces of racism and sexism, homo/bi/transphobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, unfettered capitalism, and the drive for power. As Howard Thurman wrote,

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among others, to make music in the heart.”
 

invitation

The opportunities that follow are an invitation to you, and to your community of faith, to begin with Beloved, to join together in the work of Christmas that has only begun.
 

Living Generously: A Stewardship Webinar Series
Beginning Jan 23, 2024, Four sessions in total, Online Via Zoom

Daring Justice: Uniting in Dialogue and Reflection Course
Beginning Feb 15, 2024, Six sessions in total, Online Via Zoom

Lenten Book Study: 'Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory"
Beginning Feb 20, 2024, Online Via Zoom

Anti-Racism Work & Action: First Third Ministry Leadership Conference
April 4-6, 2024, In-Person Only at Vancouver School of Theology

Introduction to the Theological Banquet: For Ministry Leaders
April 16, In-Person Only at Jubilee United (Sussex) Burnaby BC
 
Guatemala: a Tour for Ministry Leaders with Treena Duncan, World Pilgrim Global Education Tours
Tour Date: 2-12 August 2024
Info Sessions: Jan 30 or Feb 9, 2024, Online via Zoom 

So many opportunities to learn, grow and build life-giving community. Full details (date, time, investment, registration) are below. Please scroll down to take it all in. Won’t you join us?
 
Blessings,
 
Michelle

info page coming soon!

 

Ready or not, here he comes!

Friends,

It’s true! Whatever we have left to do, to create a meaningful and joyful Christmas for our communities of faith, our friends, and our families – no matter how imperfectly we get it all done: the Christ Child is coming! I am praying for you during these final few days of the Advent marathon, that you will find moments to open yourself to the hope and peace, love and joy, that the Christ Child brings, even in the midst of it all.

You have no time to read this now…but please bookmark it to return to you’ve had time to rest after all your hard work this season. 

LeaderSHIFT “save the dates” for the year 2024 are....

Daring Justice:
Uniting in Dialogue and Reflection, with Jane Dawson.

  • This six-session exploration will meet 1-4pm, Thursdays, beginning Feb 15, and closing on April 25. Details and registration will be posted to LeaderSHIFT's website soon.



Stewardship Webinar:
Narrative Budgets, Tuesday, January 23, 1 pm.

  • As you prepare for the annual meeting of your community of faith, come and learn the practice and wisdom of creating a narrative budget, to communicate more effectively the ministry and mission of your congregation. Offered by Vicki Nelson, Community of Faith Stewardship Support, and LeaderSHIFT. Registration for this free webinar will be available early in the new year.



Anti-Racism Work and Action
First Third Ministry Leadership Conference runs April 4-6, 2024 onsite at Vancouver School of Theology.



GUATEMALA PILGRIMAGE
for Ministry Leaders: NEW DATES – August 2-12, 2024.

May you be blessed with energy, creativity, and joy this coming week… and then have time to rest and savour the gifts of the season! You have surely earned it, and your efforts are appreciated by so many.
 
Faithfully,

Michelle

Words of Advent Blessings, this week of Hope

 

Dear Friends,

I’m writing this from the Pacific Mountain and Chinook Winds Regional Council Staff Retreat, at Loon Lake Lodge in Maple Ridge, BC. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to here – I highly recommend it if you haven’t. It’s a place of great beauty, stillness and hospitality.

I am reminded of the previous experiences I’ve had in this place which, as it happens, have all been as a participant in various LeaderSHIFT events over the last decade – including the Sowing Promise, Growing Leaders program with Peter Short, the Holistic Engagement for Missional Leadership with Tim Keel, and the Holy Ground: Sowing the Seeds of Wild Church just this February with Victoria Loorz. I’m so grateful for the intentional and careful work of my predecessors in LeaderSHIFT – Keith Howard, Treena Duncan, and Allison Rennie, for the many excellent learning and growth opportunities they shaped and provided.

Some of the gathered regional staff, with Winter Retreat facilitator Caitlin Frost, Loon Lake Lodge, December 2023.

During our time here at Loon Lake, I have been thinking about all the leaders that LeaderSHIFT seeks to serve. I’m especially mindful of you who are leading congregational and community of faith life during the season of Advent. This season can include greater pressure and expectations of ministry personnel – carol sings and cantatas, pageants and Christmas lunches, poinsettias for the homebound and Advent book studies, pastoral letters and Advent wreath candle-lighting liturgies, Messy Church and caroling, and so much more. I’m tired just from typing it all out!

Whether your faith community began Advent two Sundays ago, or just celebrated Advent 1 in yesterday's Sunday worship, I am praying for you – that you will be blessed by the Holy Spirit moving within you and the community of faith that you lead and serve. I hope you will make take for yourself, to savour this season as a traveler on the way to Bethlehem, as you lead your community of faith along the same road. In fact, why not start or end each day with a short Advent devotional to feed your own spirit? I’m going to use Kate Bowler's Bless this Advent devotional. Why don’t you join me?

I pray that you will be fed, strengthened, encouraged and blessed, even as you seek to provide the same to the people of your congregation and wider community. May God bless you richly in this season of anticipation, and may your longings be, somehow, miraculously, surprisingly, be fulfilled in the coming of the Christ Child.

an advent blessing when you need a little hope

We are saying Merry Christmas
but these are heavy days—
for our struggling earth,
for our countries and their leaders,
our friends and families,
and for ourselves.

Blessed are we with eyes open to see
the world as it really is,
who say: where are you God? and
where are your people?
the smart and sensible ones
who fight for good
and have the power to make it stick?

This Advent, we wait
for the world to be made right.

Oh God, help us
in our fear and confusion,
in our uncertainty and grief
in our despair and longing.

Infuse us with a hope that doesn’t make sense,
with a love that doesn’t add up,
and with joy enough
to endure the long, long nights,
as we wait in hope for thy kingdom come.
- Kate Bowler
 

May it be so, for you and me, and all of creation.
 

Blessings,

(Rev.) Michelle Slater