September 04, 2007
Welcome to America
An article in the September 3rd issue of the Montrose Daily Press reports on a Nigerian priest who will begin serving in our local Catholic church. Reporter Kati O’Hare writes that Rev. Augustine, “… ‘came to serve where he is needed,’ and with a background strong in spirituality, he hopes to provide an authentic expression of his culture’s humanity.” [I’m sure this is one of the items at the top of the Lord’s priority list.] Augustine said, ‘…the Catholic religion in the United States is much like it is in Nigeria, practicing the same rites.” [One would think so.] “He also wants to work with the youth ministry and develop charisma to Christian music.” [Contemporary worship leaders are going to love hearing they need more charisma.] The current priest, Father Malin, says of his new co-worker, “We’ll be talking a lot, dreaming a lot and visioning a lot.” Welcome to American churches where everyone seems to have a vision.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I believe it is good that everyone in American churches seems to have a vision. I believe life in the Lord is deep and engaging when one lets go of the guardrail and moves toward the heart of it. It is there the movement of the mind should follow Scriptural paths through the concerns of ordinary life and continually turn up solutions. These are visions.
-----I believe the problem with visions in the American church is not that everyone has them. I believe the problem is that everyone has uninvited visions for everyone around. I do quite well in my life. There are a number of things I think I could do better, some, I think, far better. Occasionally I will turn to someone with a situation for which I need a bit of advise or moral support. I welcome my friends’ visions at those times. But I so tire of all the visions brought to me about this program, that workshop, the seminar over there, and the prayer group over here. Church leaders seem to be the worst. It almost seems they think they are ordained and paid to dream up programs, activities, and events through which spirituality is supposed to just somehow penetrate into the participant.
-----Well, I also have visions. And I am outspoken about them. But I keep a distinct realization that my visions are for my life. I do not overestimate my self importance to the point that I think my visions are given me to hand out as lifejackets on a sinking ship. I remind myself continually that even though I often place my visions where others might view them, their primary relevance is not for others. Therefore, I do not expect others to participate in them, find them relevant to their lives, or walk into them as if they were some sort of light. My sense of self worth and fulfillment comes from the Author and Creator of all things finding a bit of interest in me and my greatly limited vision. And that will do well until truth brings more.
Post a Comment