Welcome to MPC Connected! With our church family separated, we will be communicating with you throughout the week in a more intentional way, including emails from Max and Jeff, opportunities to serve others, and more. Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
Jeff here. I hope you are hanging in there.
One of the things I've been doing at night, especially with the lack of sports on TV, has been catching up on some pleasure reading. I've read a little bit of Wendell Berry, but had never read his classic book Jayber Crow. It was so good, and it hit me hard in several spots. (Full disclosure: I am aware of people in our church who did not enjoy this book, and I am currently re-evaluating my friendship with them).
One of the most interesting parts of this book is when Jayber Crow (the main character, a barber who spent most of his life in a town called Port William) critiques his local church and its young pastors who would show up for a brief season and then move on to a bigger and better place:
The preachers were always young students from the seminary who wore, you might say, the mantle of power but not the mantle of knowledge. They wouldn't stay long enough to know where they were, for one thing. Some were wise and some were foolish, but none, so far as Port William knew, was ever old. They seemed to have come from some Never-Never land where the professionally devout were forever young. They were not going to school to learn where they were, let alone the pleasures and pains of being there, or what ought to be said there. You couldn't learn those things in a school.
I'm not here to offer critiques of young seminary students or preachers and/or church members who move on (it happens, often for good reason!). Instead, what struck me about this passage was the privilege of deep community. For all of us - pastor or not, we are in the process not just of learning about God or the Bible, but of learning where we are. This is true in our neighborhoods, workplaces and, yes, in our church. Over time, we begin to learn the delights of our community as well as the hardships. It's not a perfect place, but it's ours, given to us by a good God that loves us.
We don't know what the next few weeks and months are going to hold. There are dire predictions and we may be entering a season full of far more grief and lament than we are used to - but I'm comforted by the knowledge that I'm in a place full of people who are "staying long enough to know where they are" - where I am known and loved, (faults and all) with people committed to one another and to our Lord. He is with us. Thank you for being with one another even through this season of physical separation.
Worth Reading
Brett McCracken has a good post over at The Gospel Coalition that I probably need to heed more. A few years ago, McCracken came up with a "Wisdom Pyramid" - kind of like a food pyramid, except for knowledge and information:
He says:
Among the many distressing aspects of the COVID-19 global pandemic is the stress of information overload. Everyone has something to say about it. Millions of self-proclaimed experts chime in online, crowding out or contradicting real experts. Our minds are spinning because of this article we read, that tweet thread we saw, or any number of other charts, graphs, scenarios, and projections we’ve picked up on our streams.
Read the whole thing for some great advice on wisdom that will apply in this season and beyond.
Worth Watching
My favorite seminary professor (Jonathan Pennington) interviews one of my favorite authors (Mike Cosper) - a little bit about how we live "disenchanted lives" and the need for us to "recapture the wonder. Also some great points about how the book of Esther (which we preached through over a year ago) is an excellent resource for Christians in our day and age. This is all done in Dr. Pennington's car as part of his "Cars, Coffee and Theology" web series. It's a light listen/watch that will still yield some food for thought.
Worth Hearing
Jim Waldron recommended this version of "His Eye is On the Sparrow." This is a song that was made famous by Mahalia Jackson - this version by Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount is powerful and reminds us that as much as God cares for the sparrows, so much more does He care for us:
I also wanted to recommend one more - I was so sad to hear that COVID-19 claimed the life of Adam Schlesinger, the lead singer for one of my favorite bands, Fountains of Wayne. He specialized in unique, slice-of-life pop songs, exhibited by the simple and sweet "Hey Julie."
Worth Tweeting
Worth a Laugh
That's all for now. Love you and miss you.JeffThough we are separated during this unique season, we want you to know we are available. We will be doing our best to stay in touch in many ways, but if you need prayer or just need someone to talk to, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. You can always send a prayer request to Donna (mpcadminteam@gmail.com). You can also email or call Max or Jeff or any of our elders. Max's email is mbenfer@meadowcroftchurch.org and his phone # is 484-886-7726. Jeff's email is jeff@meadowcroftchurch.org and his phone number is 540-818-6215.