Apathy?????
Apathy?
Let me preface this diatribe by stating that I mean no offense to those of you to whom the following statements do not apply. If offense is taken, I would urge you to examine yourself for the root of that offense.
The progressive Christian movement is growing. There are new individuals, congregations and organizations appearing frequently. On the other hand, many of us seem content to identify ourselves as progressive and remain silent. Sure, we join groups like The Center for Progressive Christianity, CrossLeft, and Progressive Christians Uniting, et al. We click the “join this group” buttons on Facebook. Then what? Is it enough that we identify ourselves as Progressive Christians, and rest in the knowledge that we have found a spiritual home without inviting others to the nurturing environments that we have found?
Of those groups in which we have found a home, many are struggling to present the Gospel of Grace to a larger audience. We know that there are progressives who sit in their conservative churches and bristle at hearing things that they do not believe; yet we allow them to sit there anyway, we allow them to believe that they are alone. Likewise, we know that there are many who mourn at having abandoned their faith, due to the failure of “the church” to teach a gospel that speaks to them. Yet we remain silent. For many, “church” becomes completely irrelevant, and they feel abandoned by the very God that created them. And yet, we remain silent. So, conferences are planned, personal sacrifices are made to secure funding, and precious few, it seems, are willing to move from behind their computer screens or “their” church pews to attend events which could only serve to edify them and help spread the Gospel. What the Hell? We remain silent and apathetic. We remain lukewarm, neither hot nor cold.
Why? WTF? Are we afraid that we will be called radicals? Heretics? So was Jesus branded. That didn’t stop him. Are we so afraid of coming across like the fundamentalist agents of intolerance that we remain silent and unwilling to share the Gospel that we hold dear? If so, shame on us for being more concerned with how we are perceived than those who suffer in silence. Or is it simply that we don’t care enough? Woe be unto us if that is the case. For we know the gospel of grace, we know our truth. If we are so apathetic to the needs of others that we will not move, I truly am ashamed.
For those of you living in the Southeast US, there is an opportunity upcoming to move out of your comfort zones and make your voice heard. Please join us in Atlanta for The Beloved Community: From Formation to Action; October 10-11. http://belovedcommunity.eventbrite.com/ This movement needs you. Are you willing to move out of your comfort zones? Do you care?
This event is in danger of being dramatically scaled down because, though many have expressed interest, registration has been very slow. If you are in the Southeast United States and plan on attending, or would like to attend but can’t afford it; please email: kimberly.knight@emory.edu or roger@progressivechristianalliance.org
Furthermore, if you take exception to anything I’ve said in this post, please email me. I would be delighted to be corrected.
Rev. Roger McClellan
Progressive Christian Alliance
roger@progressivechristianalliance.org
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Preaching to the choir?
All,
I apologize for the tone of my initial post as well. This was, I believe, a classic case of "preaching to the choir".
Like Kimberly, I was also guilty of a couple of assumptions: chief among them being that CL/IPC does not have much active participation from folks in the South. That combined with hesitation to add further burden to folks who are already standing up and speaking out in support of the progressive agenda we are trying to promote, led to my oversight there. It is great to hear that CL/IPC is eager to become more engaged in the future.
Finally, I did not mean to seem to throw Kimberly under the bus, either. She has been tirelessly working to plan, promote and fund this event almost single-handedly. If CL/IPC were not propely engaged, a great portion of that fault should lie with me.
Now, all of that being said; I stand by my initial post for the most part; there is a troubling pattern of silent assent among many. Thankfully, this community is underserving of that criticism, and I regret implying that any of that criticism was directed to ya'll.
It is however my great hope and belief that communities such as this, PCC, PCC, PCU, IPC, etc. can be catalysts for the next great revival or reformation of the church. It is my prayer that our willingness to stand up and speak out will free those "progressives in hiding" to join their voices to ours.
It's quality, not quantity
Rev. Roger and Kimberly,
While I jokingly responded to Steve's kind words re: finding me, I was genuinely surprised by them and deeply appreciated the sincerity of his words.
Yes, you may not get a large turnout. However success is not determined by numbers but the quality and caliber of those who do attend. I found out about the Nov. '06 CL sponsored IPC organizing event via a CrossLeft organizer, Zeus Yiamouyiannis, at a July Network of Spriritual Progressives conference here in DC. I was very impressed with the quality of the CrossLeft attendees, the obvious enormous work the organizers had done and the mix of speakers; that they had invited Naomi Wolf, a leader in the Jewish community to be the Keynote speaker for a progressive Christian organizing event! That, to me, indicated that this new group had a very different and refreshing world view. That's what hooked me.
So I urge you to not gauge the success of the event by the number of attendees, but by the quality of those who do. I truly believe I was divinely guided to attend the CL/IPC event. It turned me on to a fine group of people who have become my friends, folks with whom I can enjoy a good joke and learn from. We have a 3 generation mix on our 6 member Board. I am in awe of the abilities of our 2 youngest members, Steve and Kety. Kety's vision and passion for justice inspired the creation of both organizations. Steve's tireless organizing efforts, vision and energies keeps both CL and the IPC humming along. The energies, wisdom and talents of these two just blows me away. The wise kind leadership of the Rev. Mark Farr, who soothes our passions every once and a while, the wisdom and intellectual power of Frank Cocozelli is incredible and Jim Ramelis' fascinating mix, being a liberal Vietnam vet, a passionate advocate of all things progressive, a man near my age, tells me divine guidance is leading us, to where we don't know, but we sure are having a ball finding out! I add what ever I can from my prior experiences from organizing several other non-profits.
Now we have you Rev. Roger stepping forward to help us follow the divine path set before us. The Reverends Gary Vance and Ian Lynch add more Christian wisdom and joy to the mix. Angelo adds a whole new refreshing gentle wisdom. Then there's Bill Peltz, our oldest wise man, Richard from Jersey and more. (I miss the humor and wisdom of Janet Margul and the keen insights of the Rev. Tripp. I hope they both come back, soon.)
Each time I open the CL site I find more great new voices adding to the mix. I could go on and on (as I often do) :-) so I'll stop here.
Just simply understand that who ever attends will come because somewhere deep in their soul, they will feel an urge, one they may not fully understand, as I did, but will be there to help you fulfill the vision your passionate souls bring to this earthly plane.
May the love, light and wisdom of Our Creator guide you as you organize what has already been divinely consecrated as a very successful event.
Peace, love and much joy. A big virtual hug to you both!
Rich
Apology
Stephen and all of CrossLeft,
I am deeply sorry that I did not make the more intentional contact in the planning of this event by asking you to be a partner in the effort. Please know that this was not an premeditated slight, but falls into two categories.
First - this event took on a life of its own before I realized what was happening and although I am passionately devoted to the work I am doing I am overwhelmed and missing opportunities to connect with people that should absolutely be central to my work.
Second, being my assumption (yep I know what they say) that everyone is so very busy with their own projects, in their own regions, I felt as it would be a burden to ask others at this time to jump on board with my project and hoped that folks would be relieved to not have to get deeply entangled with yet another project.
Please accept my genuine apology for over thinking or maybe more accurately under thinking my strategy.
As you say, this is a critical time, and many of us rightly realize that the most important election of our lives is mere weeks away. It is my thought on this point that a connection with people's faith that speaks to their politics works in the push toward winning our nation back.
It is my ardent wish and prayerful hope that we have the opportunity to work meaningfully together in the future.
Peace and grace,
Kimberly Knight
Servant Leader
Progressive Christian Cooperative, Atlanta
apology gracious, not needed
Kimberly,
Thanks for your kinds words and genuine apology. We've done a few of these events in the past one in which we attempted to involve every progressive Christian group when we launched CrossLeft, and the others when we were launching the IPC where we didn't really do much outreach to other groups because we were trying to engage individuals. So I understand that's its difficult when organizing these events in terms of who to involve etc.
And in some ways the apology about not involving us isn't needed. I think I speak for CL and the IPC that we have no expectation that we would be invited to speak, plan, or assist every conference within the community. While I worry that we don't have the collective capacity or interest to start new progressive Christian groups, I think the energy for launching conference and another couple of organizations is great.
The rub for me came when we were just receiving marketing materials with little context or in some cases not even a friendly note asking for promotion assistance. While I appreciated Rev. Roger excoriation for greater involvement, I thought it missed some of the analysis as to why folks weren't engaging which in my case at least was the organizing methods employed. Its both the organizing strategy employed AND the fact that our community is not engaged as we would like it to be.
Good luck with the event. CrossLeft is an open forum and I hope you use it to promote the event. If you would like us to send a press release out over the progressive faith newswire we'll do so for free.
take care,
steve
Thank you
Stephen,
Thank you for your reply and for you offer to send out a press release over the PF newswire. I am certainly sorry that our relationship began with an abrasive rub due to my lack of forethought or tact. I would very much appreciate not only the press release, but at some point in the future - when our schedules allow, talking to you and learning from your vast experience. It is my hope to contextualize this movement (as small as it may be) to the south - but your experience with the workings of the PC community on the national scale will be valuable beyond measure.
Kimberly
Point well taken
I concede your point. There are many small groups out there, acting in virtual autonomy, and almost blind to the work of the other groups. Case in point: In June 2008 there were 2 progressive networks in Atlanta; and one 70 miles away in AL, that were unaware of each other. The Progressive Christian Alliance, The Progressive Christian Movement and the Progressive Christian Cooperative. All were working with similar visions and goals. The Progressive Christian Alliance and The Progressive Christian Movement became aware of each other's existance and agreed to merge as the Progressive Christian Alliance. Several months later we learned of the existance of The PCC, after they had set the wheels in motion for the conference. The PCA has since fallen in step with the PCC in trying to promote that which was already planned. So it is entirely possible neither IPC nor CrossLeft were engaged in this to any large degree; as the majority of the groundwork was already laid. It is my hope that there will be broader engagement across the board in the future.
The sad fact is that, although we (the PCA and PCC) have had many folks in the local area express an interest in the conference, only about 1/10th of them have registered. This leaves us with a conference in 2 weeks, with speakers due to fly in from diverse points, and only 20 registered attendees.
We progressives are often accused of disoganization, fragmentation and apathy. It is my hope that we can become better organized and less fragmented. It is my prayer that we are not apathetic to the concerns of others.
i think you missed part of it
Rev. Roger,
I appreciate your willingness to look at the situation objectively, but I think you missed at least a little part of what i was saying. Its not as though IPC/CL weren't engaged at all, but rather how we were approached. We just received marketing materials and were not asked to play any type of meaningful role, even a meaningful role in helping with outreach. While fragmentation is a problem even in this instance, it goes beyond that to the actual organizing method and the inclusiveness or lack thereof in the conference planning efforts.
And in general it doesn't surprise me about 20 registrants...hopefully it picks up to be much more before next week, but my bet is that it won't be too much. We had 65 people at the IPC launch in Washington DC 2 years ago and that was only after a tremendous amount of effort and strain. It was a great group though and we got on CSPAN for Naomi Wolf's speech. Most importantly, we found Rich!
Hmmm
"Most importantly, we found Rich!?" Ha, you may yet still live to regret it! :-)
not feeling all that engaged Roger.
Roger,
I know that you all have engaged some of the other organizations in inviting them to come and speak, but other than marketing materials, I personally am not feeling all that engaged. I also don't think anyone from IPC or CrossLeft was asked to speak, facilitate a session or play any meaningful role in planning the effort. If there isn't a meaningful role to be played and there isn't a way for people like me to plug in to contribute meaningfully, what do you expect.
Sending marketing materials and asking us to distribute is not meaningful participation. So if there's a lack of engagement it may be the approach that is being taken and not whether folks are engaged. Even though I've received the materials, I'm not entirely sure what the end goals of the conference are and where you and the other organizers are hoping to take it.
From a practical standpoint, having a conference right before the election doesn't seem to make a ton of sense. Folks are really motivated right now to winning the most important election of our lifetimes. People's energies ought to be there.
Having said that, I would also offer a warning on levels of engagement within our community. Having organized a few of these events in the past, and sitting on the boards of 3 different Progressive Christian organizations, I would also just in general temper your expectations about the Progressive Christian and Progressive Faith communities in general. All and I mean all of the organizations have significant problems engaged large numbers of people in conferences or their work. Even the largest group, Sojourners, with 30 years experience, has numbers that are frankly not indicative of any type of mass movement.
I wish I were wrong about that, but my experience to date has lead me to such a realization.