Who Will We Love?

So, Scottsdale Congregational United Church of Christ is, well, a church. It has existed for more than 50 years. In those 50 plus years it has excelled at meeting each generation’s challenges head on. The Urban Abbey is our way of facing the current generation’s challenges.

One of the spokes of emphasis in the Urban Abbey is our Outward Mission. Seeking an outward mission is the simple recognition that our calling actually exists outside of our walls. God exists and moves and acts in the whole world all of the time, not just the few hours at church when we have meetings or worship services. If we really want to know God, then we need to get to know the people that God spends the most time with: real people in the real world (which is why the fundamental principle of hospitality is that we greet every stranger as though they are Christ).

Finding that outward mission is a daunting challenge: what is the big thing that calls us? What is one direction that can unite us a faith community? We would love to find a project that we can send a hundred people out to accomplish. But we want to do more than just doing good. We have stated that one of the foundations of this mission we seek is to find people that we can look in the eye. Another way I’ve put it is that we are looking for people that we can fall in love with. And finding one place that can accommodate our whole congregation is almost impossible to imagine. Nonetheless, it should be one direction that we can all put our energy and our hearts into.

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ heart-driven mission is to proclaim that the Kin-dom of God is at hand. To accomplish this, he gathers a group of followers around him. He invites them to join him in this mission, and joining him he sends them out to attempt it on their own. But he doesn’t send them out in groups of twelve. He sends them out by twos. And instead of equipping them with the latest technology and a full wallet of resources, he sends them out empty-handed and barely clothed. Even so, they accomplish astounding things. This is even more astounding when you realize that in the verses just prior to sending them out Jesus himself was unable to do much of anything.

So before we paint ourselves into the corner of being unable to find the perfect Outward Mission, Jesus’ example beckons us to consider a couple of things. Jesus wasn’t concerned that his disciples had enough resources or numbers. He just sent them. They all went out on the same mission, but not all together. Jesus sent them out to continue the mission that was the passion of his own heart. As we seek to find relevant ways of following Christ in the 21^st Century, our mission will likely also be following in the passion of our own hearts, united as we seek to continue Christ’s. The question is not what do we want to accomplish as much as it is who do we want to love?

Why an Urban Abbey?

              We live in turbulent times. It seems like the world is no longer a safe place for intellectual pursuits, for artistic exploration, for asking deep questions of theology or philosophy. Every day offers too many examples that our day and age is dangerous to body and soul.

The times of the Middle Ages were every bit as dangerous. In those days, people sought refuge in the abbeys. There the brothers and sisters of those communities welcomed people weary of the perils of the world with a radical hospitality that greeted them as cherished family.  The abbey was the place that guarded the important books, the thinkers and artists, even offering women an alternative to their limited roles in society.

Our Urban Abbey will not hide behind thick walls; instead we are seeking to create a safe and sacred community reintroducing the idea of a deep hospitality into our dangerous world. We will not be monks sequestered away from the world, but we will be intentional in our commitment to each other and to making the world a more peaceful, compassionate place. We seek to create something new for those who are hungry for a spiritual community because we know that many people find their souls are not nurtured by conventional religion.

We are going to begin to create this Urban Abbey by focusing our efforts in these areas:

• Hospitality that greets each person as they are, where they are, as Christ to us
• Ongoing exploration of who we are as Christians in a rich and diverse world
• Following Christ into the world to serve and enter into a relationship with people with whom we can see face to face
• Worship that invites a real world encounter with a Still-Speaking God

We are an artistic, revolutionary, and evolutionary spiritual community whose activity, voice, and vision take place outside of our walls and in the world. We encourage and celebrate creative and daring expressions of faith and theology as we continue to grow in the Spirit and community of Christ in this day and age.

We don’t know exactly what the Urban Abbey will look like as it develops. We want to follow the Spirit wherever she leads us. Maybe you are looking for a safe and sacred space to be exactly who you are and to follow the deep questions of your heart. We hope the Urban Abbey can be such a place.