AuthorParker Johnson  I've been a member of Community of Christ (formerly Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) all my life, but yesterday was a first for me. Before yesterday, I'd never attended an ordination service for a young adult, and it wasn't until I was in the midst of live-streaming it and leading the congregational support portion of the service that I realized it was happening. There's something deeply moving about anyone accepting a call...whatever that call may be. It could be deciding to move closer to home to help an ill parent or loved one. It could be the fulfillment of a dream that you've worked so hard to achieve. It could be a lot of things, and in this single case...it is a lot of things. Accepting a call to the priesthood is like asking for daily - perhaps even hourly - disturbances to your everyday life rhythm as a true servant to others. It isn't a status that suddenly denotes respect, and it certainly isn't going to get you a raise. Watching someone in their twenties accept a call was moving, because it is probably one of the most selfless things a person can do..and let's face it, when we're in our twenties...we aren't always terribly selfless, am I right? The community came together to celebrate this call as well with lots of cake, singing, laughter, tears, and testimonies of support for this call. Family members drove in, secular friends made a point to attend, and the congregation smiled. This call has been a long time coming - we heard that several times from several different people. I'm very grateful that Caitlin said 'yes' when she was ready. She is going to be an incredible priest. Caitlin saying 'yes' will be one of those moments in my "Community of Christ life" that I'll likely never forget. If you missed the service, I've uploaded the live broadcast to YouTube and included it below.
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AuthorParker Johnson It's been roughly one year since our congregation put forth its first communications strategy, and what a year of firsts it's been! In collaboration with the newly formed Communications Team (made up of 60% millennials), we charged ahead by first examining our pre-existing web presence. We evaluated what other churches of comparable size were doing and surveyed our own congregation to find out what meant the most to them. The survey results were incredibly helpful and were immediately implemented on our website and social media channels. In one year, we launched and maintained the following:
One of the most rewarding things about web-based marketing is that we are able to see accurate, reliable insights in real-time. Every click of a mouse, every visit to our website, every 'like' or 'retweet' on social media...all of it is logged and recorded for us. This information is invaluable to our community. But more important than simply reading this data or sharing it is that we act upon it. Continuous check-ins with these metrics begs the questions: What is working? What isn't working? How can we improve? Who is our target audience? How does our target audience prefer to be communicated with? We are forming new expressions of ministry based on data-driven decisions...and it's working. Community of Christ International Headquarters, located in Independence, Missouri, USA, recently recognized us as being a 'best practices' congregation in the area of communications. See for yourself in our Calgary Communications Report below. Enjoy! Special thanks to the Calgary Communications Team for all your hard work and dedication! AuthorParker Johnson Admittedly, as I drove out into the foothills to view the solar eclipse today it became evident that I had not done my homework. While en route, I asked, “Eclipses don’t last that long, right? Like what…half an hour, maybe?” Jahnelle laughed and said, “Two and a half hours from start to finish…beginning at 10:20 a.m.” “Oh,” I said. “That’s substantial.” Rewind to last night when I asked what time at night the eclipse started. Obviously, science and space are not my forte, but more importantly, today's eclipse was a reminder that I am not always able to see things in their entirety through my own eyes. 9:45 a.m. We positioned our lawn chairs facing opposite the sun on the bank of the Elbow River in Kananaskis Provincial Park, complete with a 20-pack of assorted Tim Bits, coffee, and water…and we waited. We were early, but prepared. Jahnelle put together two pinhole cameras for us the night before, and we were eager to test them out. Likely operator error, they didn’t end up helping much at all. While we waited for whatever was about to happen, we talked about just how big it was going to be. We both expected that the local news, by stating 80% coverage, meant 80% darkness, and, while absolutely oblivious to any science or space-related information, we most certainly knew not to look directly at the sun, because that would clearly result in a SciFi-inspired zombie experience resulting in 100% blindness and lots of blood. We figured we knew enough. 10:45 a.m. As we waited, we skipped rocks, sang some hymns and campfire songs, and commented on how clear the water in the river was. We used Snapchat to try to look at the sun over our shoulders, but ultimately grumbling each time because the sun still looked like a perfect circle. Couples and young families, complete with their dogs, began showing up and setting up viewing areas near the same bend in the river. Facing away from the sun with faulty pinhole cameras…we really had no clue what was happening behind us, but we were certainly not going to look. Time ticked by, and the colour of the light surrounding us was noticeably different. It wasn’t quite sepia tone, but I’d equate it to maybe buying a cheap pair of blue sunglasses at WalMart. We noticed that much. We continued to skip rocks and began commenting on just how chilly it was getting. Jahnelle put on another jacket, and I started jumping up and down to warm up. “Weird,” we said. “Didn’t think about how the sun being blocked out might impact the air temperature.” Aside from the blue sunglasses filter and the cooler temperatures, I really wasn’t impressed. 11:30 a.m. (remember…the eclipse has now reached 80%) A man’s dog approached us – Abby was her name…a standard poodle – and while we pet her, I safely stored the Tim Bits out of reach. Busily tending to Abby, the owner handed Jahnelle a pair of eclipse glasses and said that he’d noticed we were without. We thanked him and asked, “Can you see anything yet?” (idiotic, I know) “Oh, yes!” he replied, as if to insinuate that he knew something we didn’t. And he did. We put the glasses on and saw a sliver of the sun…blotted out (apparently 80%) by the moon. It was happening, and we weren’t even aware! But seeing it through the filter gave us a new lens to see the event, and it changed everything. The moon…the sun…they were nearly in sync with one another millions of miles away…and I could feel it. The goosebumps I’d been complaining about were my body telling me that the sun was no longer sending all of its powerful rays hurdling towards the Earth. The blue sunglasses filter was my eyes telling me that the majority of the sun’s light was being blocked by a large mass orbiting Earth. HOW IN THE WORLD COULD I HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED?! We stared in awe (with the filter obviously) and carefully took photos of what we could see, and then packed the car up and headed back into the city. As I reflect on what happened this morning, I am reminded of the Chris Rice song, “Hallelujah.” My aunt used to sing this song sometimes on Sunday at church, and it always gave me goosebumps. Its words are filled with detailed imagery that I can’t quite get out of my head…just like the connection I finally made when I saw the eclipse through the viewing glasses. I hope I can hold the image of the sun and moon in my mind for years to come as I continue to seek perspective and understanding in our world. Chris Rice - "Hallelujahs" (lyrics)
A purple sky to close the day I wade the surf where dolphins play The taste of salt, the dance of waves And my soul wells up with hallelujahs A lightning flash, my pounding heart A breaching whale, a shooting star Give testimony that You are And my soul wells up with hallelujahs Oh praise Him all His mighty works There is no language where you can't be heard Your song goes out to all the earth Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! O cratered moon and sparrows wings O thunder's boom and Saturn's rings Unveil our Father as you sing And my soul wells up with hallelujahs Oh praise Him all His mighty works There is no language where you can't be heard Your song goes out to all the earth Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! The pulse of life within my wrist A fallen snow, a rising mist There is no higher praise than this And my soul wells up O my soul wells up Yes my soul wells up with hallelujahs Oh praise Him all His mighty works There is no language where you can't be heard Your song goes out to all the earth Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! O hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! AuthorAymie Neudorf  Matthew 13: 1-9 (NRSV) That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!” After watching a video (below) about the similarities in gardening and one’s life, the scripture above resonated with us all. In order to have a holistic life you need to tend to the many needs in one’s life. The same as when you plant a garden. Our soil needs to be open to awakening the life within the seed. We are the soil that needs to be open and receptive to new life in our midst. Like with a harvest, you have to till the soil. You have to cultivate the soil. You have to turn it over, you have to grab the dirt clobs and break them apart. You have to remove root systems and old weeds that threaten to choke out life. You have to be willing to disrupt the soil so that new life might emerge. This is the same in congregational life. We have to be willing to disrupt the soil. Encounters with God and the Holy Spirit can cause disruption. It can be uncomfortable. It can be chaotic, but it can also be transforming.
Learning about the different seeds that you have to plant and what complexities each one has is such a vital part of growth. Where can we plant it so that it might thrive most fully? In this act we abandon the mentality that one size fits all. Are we paying attention to both soil and seed? We must relinquish control and trust. That in the darkness life is forming. Are we willing to wait and trust in what is unseen? When we tend to our soil it can be a hard and daily task to ensure that life is becoming. This is a practice that never ends, day in and day out to constantly ensure life is thriving. Are we paying attention to what is still needed for growth and are we willing to put in the effort to sustain what is coming alive in front of us? When it comes time to harvest, we then get to enjoy that life. That life we have planted and tended to. It is a time to celebrate, a time to rejoice. In the end, our final step is rest. Rest is when we renew the soil. We let the nutrients back so that life may be sustained again. We need Sabbath in our spiritual lives. That time with God allows us to feel refreshed. In each of our lives we have found that we become robotic to our daily tasks, we fall into the wash, rinse, and repeat cycle. But coming to Hills of Peace is the rest we look for, that feeling of being whole as an individual and as a community. We renew those past relationships so that we can thrive in our communities at home. We have laughed, cried, and found strength in each other. We know that we have learnt more about each other and ourselves, and in the end we carry this part of the mission statement with us: “God, Grant us the courage to risk somethings new.” AuthorCaitlin d'Esterre  Each participant of The MOM Project will receive a welcome packet like this one. As a Community of Christ member, I believe that we are all called, compelled even, to approach our lives in a critical way. We are urged to look at the world around us and see opportunities for growth, change, betterment and empowerment. We are then driven to think outside the four walls of our church, and be innovators to help our communities.
As a nurse in one of the busiest Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICU) in Canada, I see families from all walks of life facing their worst nightmare: a sick newborn baby. One day I was working with a particularly small baby who had never gotten any breastmilk, even though her mother said she was pumping regularly. I asked this mother about the pump she was using. It turned out she couldn’t afford a hospital grade pump rental, which is essential to the milk supply of a NICU mom. I called every resource in the city looking for an affordable option for this mother. I was startled to learn that most mothers without employer benefits do not qualify for any sort of cost relief. The most vulnerable mothers in our province are denied the opportunity to give their babies breast milk because of finances. This situation plagued me for months, until I realised that I was being called to invent a solution. My congregation could initiate the kind of service these women needed. After several weeks of work with my pastor and other supporters, The Mother’s Own Milk (MOM) Project was born. The Calgary congregation purchased six hospital grade breast pumps to be rented to mothers at a low monthly cost. We can abolish poverty and end suffering by simply allowing mothers to feed their children the way nature intended. This was my calling. AuthorParker Johnson
In our everyday lives we often try to impress people with our knowledge, our strength, or perhaps our humour, but what about our online selves? Yes, it would appear that in the 21st Century we now have to worry about multiple identities…wasn’t one enough? When we create profiles on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, we are carefully selecting what we share and don’t share with the world. Now, social media isn’t all that bad, I’ll be the first to say I love being able to maintain relationships quite easily with friends and family around the world, but it isn’t just about maintaining a relationship…it’s about the maintaining the authenticity of that relationship. I oftentimes think I am way funnier via text message or Twitter than I am in real life. Why? Because I spend 10 minutes or more crafting content I’m going to share so that it’s the perfect combination of wit, self-deprecation, and charm. But that isn’t really me. I’m Parker, a socially awkward, prematurely greying gay man from Oklahoma trying to sound Canadian. Doesn’t sound so cool, does it? But who cares? I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve learned the awkward moments are the ones I love most and that I could actually label 99.9% of the people I know as awkward at some point or another. So, yes, we will probably keep taking 20-30 selfies before we get just the right pose or carefully craft a tweet for way too long, but that’s okay…as long as we know that there will always be a difference between our on- and off-line selves. Embrace your quirks, and don’t compare your offline self to the one you’ve spent way too long rehearsing. It isn’t genuine, and we like the real you more anyway. I found this video to be incredibly relevant for me. I hope you enjoy it! AuthorDoug Hayden  With the downturn in the Alberta economy, especially in the Oil Patch where I work as an Independent Geological Consultant, my income has been severely reduced the past two years. Consequently, my “true capacity to give” is somewhat limited these days. This past week I learned a couple of important lessons about giving, and how we old baby boomers can connect with Millennials.
My daughter Alicia had purchased a new couch and asked me to haul away her old one. At the suggestion of my mother, Ethel Hayden, instead of just tossing a very useable couch, I took it home and put it on Kijiji. I sold it for $100 to a nice woman who was buying it for her daughter who was moving out and needed a couch. Although my daughter didn’t expect to receive any money for it, I felt funny keeping the money for something that really didn’t take much effort to sell. Then I thought about the recent request from our church for donations for Haiti to help recover from the hurricane. I immediately went online and transferred the $100 to the church’s Abolish Poverty and End Suffering fund with a special designation for Haiti. When I called my daughter and told her what I did with “her”/our money, she was thrilled. Yesterday, two very cool, funky, young women came to pick up the couch that Mom had paid for, and as we loaded it in their truck I told them to let their Mom know that their $100 was on its way to Haiti to help with hurricane relief. I thought they were going to cry. They were clearly touched and moved by the small decision I made and told me that their mom would be very pleased as well. The two lessons I learned in this situation were that we can always find innovative ways to give even when our income is limited, and also that when us old boomers are trying to find ways to connect and relate to Millennials, we need to remember that their generation is very passionate about social justice and being mindful of the vulnerable in the world. When we recognise and make efforts to support the vulnerable, perhaps Millennials will see us as more than just handy furniture movers and a place to crash for a free meal. |
AuthorsCalgary Spark is a collection of stories told by members and friends of the church alike. Each person's story is helping to shape our community in new ways. Archives
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