an open and affirming community of faith
n open and affirming community where faith is questioned and formed, as relationships are made and upheld.
Rev. Bojangles Blanchard (Highland Baptist Church), Rev. Sherry Roby (Open Door Community Fellowship), and Rev. Derek Penwell (DBCC) at a public rally this summer.
The ordination of our good friend Maurice 'Bojangles' Blanchard was featured in the Courier Journal's Unforgettable Images of 2012. Of course, we already know he's a pretty unforgettable guy.
Here is the article he was featured in this summer.
Congrats, Bojangles!
We hope you've all enjoyed the Holidays with your loved ones. After a wonderful break for Christmas and New Year, we are ready to get back to delivering content and keeping you updated on all of the things going on here at DBCC, our community, and our world.
Merry Christmas!
Happy New Year!
Welcome to the year of our Lord, Two Thousand Thirteen. We're excited to be spending it with you.
"There is more to him than a mere warm-up act for the main stage appearance of Jesus. Still, I fear he will be remembered by Christians as a predictor rather than a truth-teller for his own time and ours. We would all do well to take him more seriously as a prophet who warns us that when the messenger of the covenant shows up, he will have more in mind for us than a sweet baby and a tinsel-filled tree."
“This morning we hold our pain and we look for something better. And maybe, just maybe, we see glimpses of the joy that not even the greatest violence can totally destroy.”
In our attempts to process the horrors of this world, we are reminded that the Peace of Christ lives in these moments of pain, suffering, and confusion. It trancends them all to create a light in our darkness.
Rev. Penwell in response to Friday:
“Help us to find the words to put to our rage and despair, to find the words to comfort those who need be comforted, to find the words to speak justice and peace to a world bent on filling graves with the bodies of children, to find the words necessary not to meet this violence with more violence.”
And all of God's children said, "Amen."
Adam Ericksen hits the nail on the head. Great commentary on the lessons of violence embedded in the story of David and Goliath, as well as the misuse of scripture as a beacon for glorified violence.
Rev. Penwell examines what "the Wilderness" really is, and gives insight to John the Baptist during this Advent season.
The website Religious Tolerance.org has listed us in their timeline for significant steps toward marriage equality!
Click here to see what they said!
Looks like we're in good company.
Mark your calendars, folks.
On January 26th from 9:30 to 11:30am, Donald Taylor of Louisville Youth Group (LYG) is going to be visiting Douglass Blvd. to educate us and the Highlands Community on suicide prevention.
Think of it as a CPR/First Aid course. The idea is to empower ourselves with tools to save lives in our everyday. If you'd like to know more about the program, check out the Kentucky Suicide Prevention Group website.
Well, the title pretty much speaks for itself, now doesn't it?
Rev. Penwell, folks.
Want to shop for yet another person this Christmas? Of course you do!
In order to help our friends at the Freedom House, we have a tree full of Christmas Wishes from their children. Just take an ornament, buy the gift, wrap it, and bring it back to the DBCC Church Office with the Ornament attached.
Truly, you all, this is a fantastic partnership we have with these folks and the Volunteers of America. Be sure to pick one up this Sunday.
Merry Christmas!
At one point the blog, [D]mergent, posed the question: Where is the church's greatest strength? It offered six possible answers: community, worship, personal morality, spirituality, social justice, and other. The poll wasn't intended to be scientific in either its methodology or its conclusions. Nevertheless, I think the results are important to highlight.
With six possible answers one would assume that the leading vote-getter would garner only a plurality, that a majority would be difficult to come by. In this case, however, 'community' received 50% of the vote (or as near a majority as it's possible to get). Tied for second were 'worship' and 'social justice,' followed by 'other,' 'personal morality,' and last, 'spirituality' (which received no votes). Some of the answers included under 'other' could be summarized in this way:
In my interactions with people about how the church is changing in these uncertain times, it has become increasingly clear that whatever else the church may be (or fail to be), it has the potential in many people's minds to offer some kind of meaningful place for people to belong. For a variety of reasons (e.g., a more mobile and transient work force, a decreasing sense of being rooted in a particular place, longer work weeks with longer commutes, etc.) finding community gets harder as time passes.
Previous generations (not that far back) in the U.S. could reliably depend on living within rooted frameworks of social interaction--which is to say, you used to be able to count on being born, working, and eventually dying within the same nexus of communal relationships. And while such a life rooted to a particular place is still a possibility, very few people can trust in it as a likely option for themselves anymore.
This social fragmentation has people yearning for human contact within the structural framework of community--whether that's through clubs, sports teams, non-profit volunteerism, or other affinity groups. The church must come to terms with the intense longing, especially among young people, for a place to belong. The church is a community. And rightly ordered, it is a beautiful community.
Community, however, is not a good as such. Communities improperly ordered, like families, can do indescribable damage. Moreover, similar to other communities, Christian community can fail to live up to its highest calling--which is to equip people for the reign of God--wreaking just as much havoc in the process. Consequently, we ought to be careful not to romanticize community--Christian or otherwise.
But rightly conceived, community seems to be very much what the church at its best has to offer. We would do well to reflect more intentionally about just how we can cultivate the kind of space that people seem increasingly to need.
On Sunday, we were delighted in welcoming Rev. Joseph Pusateri to the pulpit to deliver the sermon in Rev. Penwell's absence. Just in time for the holidays, Rev. Pusateri examines time, tradition, and our service to a God that both encompasses and transcends them.
If you'd like to read more of Rev. Pusateri's stuff, check him out at his blog, Isa 61.
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"Then which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny?"
What do you have to be thankful for?
Rev. Penwell discusses what we should know, what we shouldn't know, and whether we should concern ourselves regarding the destruction of temple.
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Bob Cornwall writes about the difficulty of the Church, the public sphere, and politics:
As a church, we must be a collective voice for those who need to be heard; a voice remaining beholden to the message of Christ, and not necessarily a political agenda. While they do often align, they nearly as often to not. This is the balance we must continue to manage.
Rev. Penwell gives us insight on what a widow's two copper coins may really be telling us.
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