When Two or Three

CROP Walk for Hunger on October 1st at the Methodist Church in Orange. We have a group walking!! Join us, support us, or both!!

J— was teasing me last week about “aging” myself when I used the word typewriter when I was looking for the word keyboard.  Yes, I learned how to type on a typewriter.  I still own a typewriter, it’s an antique that folds up inside my desk and is pretty cool. I remember the first computer I actually lived with early in college.   

What I really remember…is that beautiful keyboard.  Keys that made letters with the slightest touch—no pinky cramps!!  And the DELETE button!  It was beautiful.  I think I was in love.  I wanted to spend as much time as possible with that keyboard, the DELETE button, that screen.  Goodbye, electric typewriter!!!  

I did what any other rational human being would do to spend more time with the one I loved.  I wrote a novel.  

I had to do something “productive”.  So I wrote.  Somewhere in my piles of pages—pages equal “productivity”, productivity equals “worth”—you can find those first four pages of that first  novel.  

But good luck finding them.  There are pages and pages and pages and pages of writing to prove I was a productive human being.  Pages to prove I didn’t waste my time on idle things, like chat rooms (I did do that too) or buying books on Amazon (definitely did that) or gaming (yeah, that too).  But the pages proved my productivity and my worth as a human being.  

What I have never done is go back and really make those pages…actually good or tidied for publication. They are just piles and binders of words. It’s just quantity.  It’s not quality.  

We all have our own version of the “pile of pages” that are markers of our “success” and “worth”.  We all have our own quantity versus quality things.  I’ve noticed over the years, that “worth” usually means something tangible.  Usually “more”.  Often something that can be quantified and compared.    

We see this in the number of hours we work.  The number of projects we have going.  The hours of sleep we don’t get (this in a strange inverse quantity/quality thing we want to “win” at).  The numbers of social media friends we have.  The number of activities we engage in.  The number of trainings we need to take.  Etc.  Etc.  Etc.  We have this fear of missing out (FOMO).  We have this fear of not being, or more to the point: doing, enough.  

We see this in the amount of money we think we need and the amount of stuff we think we need.  The number…. The number…. The number….

Ever notice it’s never enough?  Ever!!!

Ever notice that more is always better?  Winning is most important—it’s almost okay to cheat to win…as long as you don’t get caught.  No pain, no gain.  Move. Move. Move. Do. Do. Do. Get. Get. Get. This strange idea that if it’s “easy”, it’s not “good enough”.  

A big (see, more again) conversation in the Churches these days is that there are not enough people.  People are leaving in droves.  There are more people who claim “no affiliation”; the Nones.  There are more of those who claim “not any more”, the Dones.  There are big conversations around How Do We Get People To Return To Church?  

How do we get MORE people through our doors?  More is better, after all.  

One of the first questions I usually get when talking to people in other churches is: how many people are there in your congregation?  PAUSE.  

They have no idea where we are or who we are, but there’s a number for immediate comparison.  This is not always a bad thing!  It’s often a comfort: phew we’re all struggling or phew my church isn’t doing so bad after all and it opens up conversations around what do we do?  It opens up really good conversation around what are we offering and what are we building?  So don’t leap to it’s a bad thing.  Most things usually don’t fall into “bad” or “good” even when we do try to box it into one or the other. 

This question of numbers used to weigh heavily on me.  It’s still there, but it’s not so heavy.  It’s one of the reasons for my “return”.  I wanted to be a part of supporting the long term vitality of this Home.  

I used to worry that we didn’t have “enough” people and more scary: what if we don’t get more people????  If I’m being very honest, I almost didn’t accept the Call because I was afraid that I would be the one to carry us through…there’s no one left.  I  was terrified of carrying that.  Fear…if there’s anything I think we most need to be wary of: it’s fear.  Fear rarely takes in the right direction.

And there’s no reason for fear.  First, I don’t think we’re going to “disappear”. There will always be people in this community.  Second, that’s in hands far more capable than mine (the divine, if you’re wondering).  

I had a conversation this week with a group of lovely ladies around the kinds of conversations we have with one another as human beings.  We were lamenting that most of our conversations aren’t very deep.  We convince ourselves we’re having “deep conversations” when we “brave” politics or the news.  But…that’s not very “deep” or very “brave”.  It’s not the real personal vulnerability that is something we need more of so that we don’t feel so lost and alone in this world.  

We discovered that we have lots of people in our lives, but the people we can be really real and vulnerable and graceful with is pretty small.  But amazingly big in a truly “deep” ways.  PAUSE.  

Why do we need or want more?  More money?  More security?  There are some really, really BIG churches out there that are falling to pieces in different ways?  Wise Words: Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.  

Do numbers mean we’re thriving?  My piles of pages don’t make a quality book.  The amount of stuff in our houses doesn’t make us more joyful.  The money in our retirement account isn’t going to keep the “bad stuff” from happening.  We might have more or collect more…but is it better?  

It is quality?  

Jesus says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them.  The Old Testament version of this (my paraphrasing) is where two or three are together reading and discussing the scripture, God is there.  

It’s not fifty or a hundred or a thousand or tens of thousands.  Where there are just two or three.  God is there.  We’re enough, exactly as we are.  Together.  It’s not about the number.  It’s not about the quantity, it is about…the quality.  The Quality of the Love gathered together and then shared.  

Here are the deep conversations. Here. Home.

We do better when we can focus on what we do have and what the world around us needs.  

This world where it can be hard to find faith and love and support, we can offer that.  We can offer gentleness and grace.  We can offer an open door to all those who need a place of comfort, love, and support.  A place where two or three can gather together and talk about their struggles in life…and in faith.  A place where we remember the good and the beauty of this world.  A place of love and laughter.  A place of Deepest Love, Deepest Friendship, and Deepest Grace.  

A place where Grace comes in…

Many of the the highest ranking movies of all time are in a group of movies I learned to call Junk Food Theology movies.  These are movies with “universal stories” that we all understand on a deeper level than the surface.  One of these movies is A Field of Dreams.  

If you build it, they will come. 

The numbers don’t come first.  The quantity doesn’t come first. It’s a leap of faith!!  It’s knowing exactly what you are building. Building something beautiful.  A place that’s needed. Then…then…the doors open…