spirituality – Page 8 – Southwest Conference Blog

Seeds of Gratitude

by Karen MacDonald

The smooth muted magenta skin

enrobes olive green moist flesh.

The flesh encases small exquisite

pear-shaped seeds.

Skin and flesh sliced in half,

seeds plucked out onto a cutting board—

arrest my attention,

beckon me to notice them,

call my heart to listen:

The lush flesh is meant as food

to nurture the seeds

to sprout as vibrant plants

to in turn bear fruit

to continue their cycle of life.

These luscious grapes have given their life,

their flesh and future,

that my body may thrive.

Humbling. Convicting.

In honor of such selfless self-giving,

How am I giving of my very being

that Life may thrive

in whatever and every being it comes to life?

Changing Pastors: Using This Liminal Time Wisely

by Teresa Blythe

The time between what has been and what is coming up for us is liminal—meaning it is a threshold space, ripe for the transformation of deep spiritual work. It is when you are “betwixt and between,” packing your bags (metaphorically and literally) for the journey ahead. For churches, there is no more liminal time than that period after one pastor has left and a new one has yet to be called.

As a spiritual director, I work with individuals as well as church boards, navigating major transitions in life. Church boards request assistance with the spiritual practice of discernment: making faithful choices through prayer, deep reflection, gathering of information and using imagination and intuition to discover God’s desire for them. Discernment is essential in this period, not just to find the next pastor but to see clearly who you are, right now, as a church.

Many churches use an interim pastor for just such discernment, which is good because interims are trained in helping a church set the stage for what’s next. What follows here is just one suggested process for taking a look at what you want to hold onto and what you may want to let go of while you are in-between pastors.

Taking inventory

The first step in any intentional move through a threshold is to take stock of what was. This is the time for your leadership team to be completely honest about how effective and healthy your church has been with your last pastor at the helm.

What to keep?

What values, work habits, boundaries and agreements served your church well? Do you want to keep those “as is” or look at them with new eyes? This is the time to evaluate that.

This account is what spiritual directors call “a long, loving look at the real,” and what 12-step programs refer to as the “searching and fearless moral inventory.” Start with the positive and use your understanding of Appreciate Inquiry. Ask:

When did we feel most effective and alive in ministry?
What do we value most about this church and its mission or work?
When we look back at this church a few years from now, what do we imagine was our greatest strength, learning and accomplishment?

Develop a historical timeline for your church. Draw a horizontal line on large section of butcher paper with the year the church was founded at the left side of the page and the current time on the right.

What have been the high points (that the leadership can remember)?
Mark those times when the church went through important periods of growth—both spiritual and physical growth. Note anything of interest that happened in the life of the church.
Once you have a timeline full of landmarks, spend some time in prayer reflecting on what you notice. What memories from what was does your leadership want to build upon as you move to what’s next?

What to leave behind (and learn from)

Not every experience at your church needs to be repeated! Some are best used as learning experiences. Consider what has been dysfunctional in your congregation and needs to change. No need to start playing the blame game. This is just a chance to step back, observe the history non-judgmentally, and notice what you don’t want to pack and unload on your next pastor. What values, work habits, boundaries and agreements need to be re-evaluated?

When did this church feel least effective and least energetic?
What just plain didn’t work and we don’t want a repeat of?
Where were the stumbling blocks for your congregation? How were they met?
What new values, habits, boundaries and agreements do we want to establish?

Take another look at your timeline. Now make notes of those events or seasons where leadership felt most challenged. Recall how the relationship with God felt at that time. What did you learn? Bravely facing and reflecting on these low points are where the greatest transformation for the future can take place.

Creating a “rule of life”

After you identify where you want changes made—how you will do things differently—write these down and consider how you might turn this into a “rule of life.”

A rule of life is a valuable spiritual practice handed down from early Christianity. It’s an agreement we make with ourselves (and God) about how we will connect with God; connect with others and live out our faith on a regular basis. Some examples of agreements and “rules” from prominent spiritual leaders and communities of the past include[1]:

St. Benedict’s Rule

Practice hospitality, read the Bible and the church fathers, develop a rhythm of prayer and work.

Rule of Taize

Practice common prayer three times a day, have interior silence, practice mercy and avoid judgment.

Dorothy Day

Look for Christ’s presence in the poor, keep a journal, use the Jesus prayer.

Dom Helder Camara

Pray when others are asleep, see Christ in others (especially those who suffer), be prepared to give up power, privilege and prosperity.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Walk and talk in the manner of love for God is love, pray daily to be used by God in order that all may be free, observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.

Notice many of the rules start with the word “practice,” since very little of this comes naturally to us. It takes work. Add to your rule those practices that help your leadership team and congregation move into this new era grounded in God and approaching the work with hope and confidence.[2]

Let’s say your leadership team decided it wants the next phase of the church’s life to focus more on spiritual formation through working in small groups together. Your rule then would include a statement similar to: Practice prayer, faith sharing and Christian community building through an emphasis on spiritual formation in small groups.

Developing a rule will help your next pastor know what you value and what your hopes are for the next phase of congregational life. Certainly you will want to revisit your rule from time to time to see if you’re practicing it and if it needs to be adjusted. It’s a rule of life, not necessarily a rule for the rest of your church’s life.

Be sure to schedule in time for prayer and reflection on all of this as a leadership team. Discernment is not just about making a choice—it’s about how we make a choice. The more we intentionally enter discernment, the more it becomes a way of life, staying in touch with the Source of Life so that when we make choices, we do so with the help of the Holy Spirit.

“What’s next” is ultimately unknown. Some things you can’t control and simply cannot pack for! There are many variables. You may need to hold your vision for what’s next lightly. And trust that the transformation your church experiences during this liminal “in-between” time is the preparation it needs for the other side of what was.

Teresa Blythe is ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC) to the ministry of spiritual direction and works as a spiritual director for First UCC Phoenix. She works with individuals and groups in spiritual direction and does organizational discernment work through the Sacred Transformation Project. She may be reached at teresa@teresablythe.net.

[1] For more on how to develop your own personal rule of life, see William O. Paulsell’s book Rules for Prayer. (Paulist Press)

[2] Need help finding spiritual practices for your rule? Check out my book 50 Ways to Pray: Practices from Many Traditions and Times (Abingdon Press).

When You Wish Upon a Star

by Sandra Chapin

Stars. Fascinating things. How many – beginning with our evolutionary ancestors – have looked up in wonder and awe at the night sky? Maybe more than the number of visible stars above (around) the earth. The capacity to wonder is one of the gems of our evolved minds.

“When you wish upon a star…” Familiar with that Disney tune, sung sweetly by Jiminy Cricket, faithful companion of Pinocchio? The 1940 animated film is itself a gem, and the song is a part of our culture. My faithful companion Wikipedia tells me that the American Film Institute ranked “When You Wish Upon a Star” seventh in their 100 Greatest Songs in Film History, one of only four Disney animated film songs to appear on the list…

Are you wondering about the other three?

at 19, “Someday My Prince Will Come” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
at 62, “Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the Beast (1991)
at 99, “Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King (1994)

So easy to get lost in the details, isn’t it?

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you

I know there is power in positive thinking but I take these lyrics as poetry, not as a formula. A cricket’s poetry, but I mean no disrespect. I prefer Dianne’s supporting statement: “Make it come true where you are.” Some human involvement (that means you) is usually needed to see the desires of your heart come to pass.

One of 12 calligraphy designs drawn by Dianne Müller

“At First Congregational UCC in Longmont, Colorado, I was asked to make some plaques with my own versions of upbeat sayings to display in different rooms of their Christmas Homes Tour. When that was done, I put them on a wall for the Talent Show, arranged like a clock with 12 plaques around the center Title page: Attitude Platitudes.”

Wishes. Desires. Leads me to New Year resolutions. I got into what Jocelyn wrote in her “Minister’s Meditations” for this issue of the View. Rather than put my focus on specific goals that I must achieve for a happier life (goals that meet their doom over and over again), I will turn my attention to the “qualities” that I can associate with my heart’s desires.

Example: Instead of chaining myself to my laptop to write the novel that will become a screenplay that will be awarded an Oscar and end up listed with the American Film Institute as a movie of worth (whew), I will give myself over to my creative impulses wherever it leads me, creative being the quality of choice.

On New Year’s Day three young women on Good Morning America were discussing a similar approach to the year ahead, each having selected an inspirational word for personal direction:
Impact.
Pause.
Pivot.
Intriguing words, yes?

Let’s consider these words attributed to the Hebrew prophet Joel.

“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.”

Acts 2:17-19

I read this more as poetry than prophesy, carried for many years in the memories of an ancient people. Poetry deemed sacred over 2,500 years ago.
I mean no disrespect.

Visions. Dreams. What the long lineage of humans have been experiencing over and over again. And seeing signs and wonders above and below.

Don’t get lost in the details. Follow your own trail of wonders. Your own pathway to the stars.

Your Extra Hour

by Talitha Arnold

So what are you going to do with your extra hour?

You know—the extra hour we get the first weekend of November
when Daylight Savings Time ends and we “fall back” to Standard Time.
A full hour of free time on a Saturday evening or Sunday morning—
what a gift!

Of course, we’ll “lose” the hour next spring when we start
Daylight Savings again. But right now, what are you going to do with
the gift of those extra sixty minutes?

Because that extra hour is a gift. In fact, all time is a gift, going
all the way back to the beginning of creation. In Genesis, after God calls
forth light, God then set the great lights in the heavens—the sun to rule
the day, the moon to bless the night. God creates the days and the
seasons, and at the end of it all, God creates the Sabbath day—the
“Cathedral of Time,” as the great Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel
called it.

So what are you going to do with your extra hour the first
weekend of November?

We pay attention to time in the church. There’s the practical
aspect of making sure worship starts on time, keeping meetings within
time limits, getting the newsletter out on time. But as people of faith, our
relationship with time goes far beyond the practical. We set aside time to
mark special times in human life, from birth to death. We acknowledge
the passing of time, as when a child starts first grade or leaves childhood
to start adolescence.

Moreover, the church keeps time differently than the world
around us. We begin the “church year” with Advent, a month before
New Year’s Day. The liturgical seasons of Epiphany or Lent seldom
coincide with actual months like December or March. Some seasons
have specific lengths—twelve days of Christmas, forty days of Lent,
fifty dates of Eastertide. But Epiphany and Pentecost stretch from weeks
to months.

Time in the church gets confusing at times. As people of faith,
we always live in two different time zones—world time and faith time.
World time is “kronos” time—chronological time defined by the ticking
of the clock or the numbers on a digital watch. Faith time is “kairos”
time (from a word meaning “fullness of time’). Kairos time is measured
not by the passing of time, but by the fullness of time. Not by minutes,
but by meaning.

We are in kairos time when, no matter what we are doing, we
are aware of God’s presence in that moment. Kairos time is time filled
with God’s hope and love, or perhaps simply with the fullness of God’s
breath.

May this month’s extra hour be a kairos hour for each of us.

No matter how we spend it, may we realize that hour is a gift—just like
every hour is. Indeed, may all November be a kairos month. No matter
what happens, may we trust that God is still present in our time and in
this world. And in this kairos time, may we be fully present to God, one
another, and this world.

Voting as a Spiritual Discipline

by Karen Richter

One of the core purposes of spiritual practice is to remember who we are.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
    mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them only slightly less than divine,
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
~ Psalm 8

We struggle to remember our worth: a little lower than the angels. We struggle to remember our humble embodiment: to dust we shall return. Sometimes we experience both sides of this tension moment by moment in a single day!

Humble and as temporary as the grass… and yet.

Of infinite worth, in the image of Creative Mystery… and yet.

So, vote next week if you haven’t already.

Vote? What? Maybe this feels like a leap. Maybe I’m reaching (picture in your mind my family and friends nodding vigorously). Electing leaders is a tremendous task. The voting booth is holy ground, an acknowledgement of our respect for democracy, a nod to our common humanity and our shared citizenship responsibilities. And yet… my little vote is one of millions, the proverbial drop in a bucket. Voting is a way to remember who we are. Of course, we vote prayerfully. Of course, we vote our values as people of faith. But the act of voting itself – participating in the ground of our communal life – can call us to balance between our humanness and our divine source.

I’ve heard our General Minister and President Rev. Dr John Dorhauer describe the United Church of Christ as a truly democratic institution. So maybe on November 6, instead of rocking the vote, we can sacred the vote.

Do you think the poll workers will scold me if I kick my shoes off before going into my voting booth?

A Prayer for Today:

God of Hopeful Tomorrows – Renew our faith in voting. Strengthen our fight to honor the rights of all. Set fire in our hearts a vision of our communities, state, and nation united in compassion and action. Walk with us into the voting booth and then out into the world. Amen.

10 Sacred Things ~ A Short-and-Sweet Life Giving Practice

by Karen Richter

I’m participating in a webinar this month with Spiritual Directors International on social justice spiritual direction. The first session was great, and I’m expecting to learn lots.

Part of this first week’s discussion was on liberating spiritual practices and the “anatomy” of a social justice spiritual director. One of these practices was new to me and I wanted to share it with you all. It’s quick and involves list making which are both pluses for me!

Make a list of ten things that are sacred to you today.

Yep, that’s it. Here’s my list from earlier this week.

Mountains
Water
Listening
Singing
Back Rubs (especially for my sweet children)
Sexuality and touch
Friendship
Sharing Food
Prayer and Movement
Ritual

This took me about five minutes… the first seven things came super fast, but then I had to think a bit for last two or three. I looked at my scribbled list and felt good about it. Now it’s a bit later and I’m looking again at 10 Things and noticing.

I would have different things to list today: breathing, bird watching, patient waiting, experiences of flow, resistance, and sacrifice. Every day has its own gifts.
There’s less of a differentiation between sacred time and everyday moments than my calendar would lead me to expect. It’s a potential problem for churchy people like me… We get focused on Sunday and miss the sacredness of tea brewing on a random Tuesday. In our achievement-oriented culture, we rush through moments of human connection to cross things off of very different kinds of lists.
My list calls me to spirituality basics: gratitude and paying attention.

And finally, I’m feeling some questions bubbling up. How different would my life look if I allowed myself to be guided by a list of what’s sacred? Could I say No more often to things that keep me separated and unfocused? Could I say Yes more frequently to peace, connection, and love? When there are days that feel like I’m spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast, can I recognize sacred moments and show myself (and others) much needed grace?

Will you make a list today? What will you notice? I invite you to share your list (or a portion thereof) on the SWC Facebook page as a comment on this post or to share your list in whatever way feels affirming to you.

Please use the hashtag #10sacredthings.

Praying for Our Enemies

by Teresa Blythe

If we are to love our enemies, as Jesus emphatically taught, we ought to keep them in our prayers. It’s the last thing many of us want to do these days.

Who is my enemy?

People who strive to be good don’t like to think we have enemies. Your enemy is someone who is working against you; someone who does not have your best interest at heart; perhaps someone who hurt you and shows no remorse. Part of being human is admitting that, yes, we are holding some grudges against certain people for how they treat us. Even if we don’t like the term “enemy,” we probably do have one or two! It’s easier to ignore those who we might label enemy than to hold them in the presence of God as we pray or meditate.

Do you pray for your enemies?

Have you done any deep spiritual work around loving and praying for enemies? If not, the first step might be to simply ask God to assist you in compassion for them. Jesus loved to pray, so if you are a Jesus follower, why not ask him to pray in you or teach you to pray for those who hurt or rebuke you?

I’m one of those who likes to pretend I have no enemies, therefore, I don’t need to pray for them! And then I look at the news and get so angry at politicians who try to take away affordable health care or I fume about men who sexually harass women. So, yes, I need to pray more for my enemies.

A Prayer Practice to Experiment With

When Donald Trump first became president, I struggled with how to love and pray for political leaders who I feel do not have my best interest at heart. I wrestled with how to create a prayer practice that holds our political leaders — even those I would vote against or work to unseat (maybe especially those) — in the light of God’s presence. At the time I was reading a classic book on Christian healing, “The Healing Light” by Agnes Sanford and she suggested that when we feel overwhelmed by evil or tragedy in the world, pick one person or one situation and pray for that rather than trying to pray for everything that’s going on.

And so I did. I chose one powerful national political leader that I find distasteful (a member of the House of Representatives) and began to pray for him. I chose one who speaks frequently of his Christian faith so I thought maybe, hopefully, he will be open to the transformation that we all need to lower the temperature on this nation’s polarization.

I’ve seen no great transformation in him since I began this prayer, but I do see a change in me. I now see this politician as a person — a troubled person — and one that is in a difficult position. Like my Buddhist friends, I pray “May he be happy, healthy and at peace.”

Another Practice to Try

When you want to believe “a change is gonna come” but are having trouble visualizing it on a national or global level, try asking the Divine — and trusting the Divine — to bring “all good things and all good people to work together” for the good of all. Process theology teaches us that God is constantly weaving our gifts and passions together for God’s purposes, and the more we open ourselves to what God is calling us to do or be, the more we become a part of the process of change.

It can be overwhelming to look around at enemies and consider what they are saying and doing. Finding ways to pray for them may feel futile at first, but it’s transformative work. It’s a way of maintaining hope in the face of chaos.

How do you pray for your enemies?

Debts, Trespasses, Sins…??? The Language of Liturgy

by Jim Cunningham

We have done much to update the language of worship to be more inclusive, more contemporary. I was counseled to think of the visitor who has little or no experience in Christian worship – like… print out the Lord’s Prayer! I remember the young adult who asked me, “what is a hymn?” We might add… “Doxology, Gloria Patri, Eucharist, Collect, Sermon, Sacrament, Communion, etc.

Touching the language of the traditional Lord’s Prayer can be an especially explosive issue! Still, many have at least given members the option of “Father, Mother, Creator, Spirit, or some other sacred address. Some have changed or discussed changing “lead us not into temptation” questioning the theology – even the Pope has spoken to this. The congregation I attend is led to read, “let us not fall into temptation.”

I did convince one congregation to move from “debts” to “sin.” Still, what does “sin” mean to those not familiar with church history or tradition?

I wonder how Jesus would word this prayer if alive in our time? Perhaps we should challenge our members to each give this a try. I think the resulting discussion would be most interesting.

I did preach about the Lord’s Prayer as a transitional preacher just before moving to Phoenix in March. I ended the sermon with my contemporary rewrite. I was pleased and impressed with the interest and thoughtful response from many in the congregation. Several shared their own rewrite of the Lord’s Prayer the following Sunday. On my last Sunday, the placemats for lunch were pictures of my ministry and a copy of the Lord’s Prayer version I wrote.

Here is my thinking as of today. I invite you to share your own contemporary rewrite of the Lord’s Prayer.

Sacred Spirit, Creator, the Mystery within all and beyond all.
Your vision for life and creation be realized now.
Give us this day what we need to live fully and faithfully in the moment.
Forgive us when we have been disrespectful,
As we forgive others who have been disrespectful.
Grant us wisdom and strength to resist evil.
We live in your Presence and Love, forever. Amen.

Baby Wisdom

by Davin Franklin-Hicks

Our survival in this life is contingent on how we understand our basic needs. Living is the practice of meeting these needs. Our ability to meet those needs changes as we change. We complicate this extraordinarily well throughout our lives.

We have needs.
We come into this world, screaming and demanding .
Those cries from the newborn beckon us to help them survive.
Their cries beg for food, warmth and safety. And so it starts.

We seem to lose the understanding of our own needs as we grow older. We get conditioned in all sorts of ways as we live. The further we get away from the day we were born, the less we seem able to tolerate our own neediness. We judge it.

It hurts my heart when I witness someone embarrassed to admit that they have a need. We cast shame on people for needing and for expressing that need. Some even taunt others about it. “You don’t have to be such a big baby about it.”

In an effort to be “less of a baby” about it, we begin to push away the awareness that our own needs exist and forget that it’s crucial to have these needs met. We deny our needs and that usually comes out sideways in our living.

We work against our own survival at times because we don’t want to be vulnerable and we don’t want to be rejected. We do not want to have needs that we cannot meet on our own. We want self sufficiency and for others to view us as strong.

So we…
…starve ourselves.
…gamble away our security and safety.
… make choices that leave us out in the cold.

And we sprinkle all of that with a nice dose of shame and loneliness.

In our living, we often focus on the weight of need and it can be burdensome. If that’s where we are focused, we miss the true life-affirming part of need.

When we were babies, completely reliant on others, we learned something each time we had a need met: It’s not our needs alone that make us human, it’s the never being alone in our need that truly helps us live.

In our most vulnerable moments, we may desperately want to deny our needs even exist. We may want to hide the evidence of our humanity. I hope we do that less and less as we grow.

And I sincerely hope we will be big babies about it.

Faithful Decision Making – Rising to the Challenge of the Times

by Karen Richter

When Scott and I were first married, we had a friend named Glenn who worked with Scott at Barnett Bank in Florida. Glenn told us one evening about watching a teller at the bank flipping through a large stack of bills… She touched each bill for a fraction of a second and maybe once in the stack she would pull a bill out and put it to the side. These were the bills that she suspected were counterfeit. Actually more than suspecting, she just KNEW – knew from the slight variations of the texture of the paper and ink under the edge of her thumb.

What does that story have to do with discernment? Discernment is not like that. We very seldom ‘just know.’ Over a person’s lifetime, they make millions of decisions of all shapes and sizes. Over a person’s lifetime, maybe for one of those decisions, they “just know.”

The traditional practice of discernment – faithful decision making – as spiritual discipline owes much to the Catholic Ignatian tradition and to Quaker practices. There’s a history there and much ancient wisdom… but that’s not today’s blog.

Discernment is a practice suited well to the times in which we live. So let’s take a minute to talk about how we might understand these times. So many of us have a gut feeling that there’s something special different unique going on in our churches and institutions. Is it just our imagination or are things truly changing more quickly and more profoundly than in times past? Church historian Phyllis Tickle writes about this idea: that every 500 years or so, the church has a “great rummage sale” in which ideas and notions of the role of the church get all shifty (The Great Emergence, Baker Books 2012). The Protestant Reformation was the most recent of these great transitions (Luther’s theses were posted on Halloween in 1517 – early Renaissance social media LOL). The Reformation was a time in which the authority of the church shifted in a profound way – from the Pope and the hierarchy of the church to the scriptures.

1517… hmmm. Well… TICK TOCK Y’ALL. We’re due for another great rummage sale, and it’s happening all around us. Tickle’s thesis is that the transition in which we’re living now is another change in our source of authority: from the Bible to the Spirit.

Assuming that she’s right*, it behooves us to learn the best ways to hear the voice of Spirit. And that’s what discernment is all about. Spiritual direction is a great setting in which to dive into personal and vocational discernment. I think of direction as a container in which discernment can unfold.

In that container (or in whatever setting we are discerning), there’s an atmosphere of trust.

We trust the deep desires of our heart. When we ask discernment questions, we trust that our hearts are already leaning the right way. We trust that God somehow has placed those desires in our hearts.
We trust the goodness of Life at a basic level. In this way, we are able to hold our decision lightly… to remain open and receptive to the Spirit’s movement, letting go of our own agenda even if just for a time.
We trust our imagination and intuition. We allow our emotions and physical sensations to inform our decision making. My spiritual direction mentor and supervisor Rev Teresa Blythe has this go-to question: ‘where do you feel this decision in your body?’ It took me a while sitting with this question to grasp what it means.
Finally, we trust our community. We lean on one another’s wisdom.

Discernment is entwined with the Cs of our faith journey– commandment, commission, and commitment – and interacts with those concepts around the question of HOW. Discernment is all about the HOW.

How do we respond to the commandment of love? What does our call to love look like on the ground, in real life?
How do we live into the task before us – our commission to embrace this life and embody grace and peace? What part of this work is ours to do? What tasks have my name on them?
How do we sustain the commitment that’s required to build the house of Wisdom?

These are the questions of discernment continually lying before us: as a faithful community, as individuals, as a culture, as a species. May we make decisions that are life-giving. Amen.

*☺ I’m not at all qualified to argue with Phyllis Tickle! Her ideas are given the briefest summary/mangle here. The Great Emergence is a fab overview of church history for lay persons.