I have been thinking about our conversation a lot. I appreciated your sharing about your spiritual journey and the honesty with which you even shared some of the more challenging aspects of it.
After meeting with you, I thought a lot about my internship supervisor from many years ago named Terry Moe. Terry is a deep, deep soul with a broad passion for community organizing.
Why did I think about Terry when thinking of you? Well, I know many spiritually deep people, but they are not always particularly engaged in works of justice in the world (like Jesus' turning over the tables of the money changers as an indictment of the whole economic system and the way religion colluded with it). And I know lots of people who are engaged in community organizing, even faith based organizing, but they are not always that spiritually deep. In fact, they sometimes burn out in their justice efforts for lack of enough spiritual depth.
You impressed me as somebody who has a real spiritual depth AND you are a systems thinker who can see real injustice in so many systems within the world, including the healthcare system in which you work. You are very appropriately angry at this, and anger, when carefully channeled using our spiritual resources can be a gift God uses to bend the world toward greater justice. (I think that is what was happening the many times that Jesus expressed frustration as he critiqued the power systems of his day... and then he would go off to the mountain by himself to pray that evening or the next morning. It was always this balance back and forth between contemplative prayer and engagement in acts of healing that were often simultaneously critiquing power systems.
I thought of Terry Moe several times after our conversation because Terry is the person I know who, more than any other person I know, has within his being the deep integration of spirituality and organizing for justice. (He remains a good friend of mine who I cherish to this day even though it has been a couple decades since he was my internship supervisor.)
So I had been thinking about all of this. Then Director Vinci mentioned to me that you will be going to the retreat Terry is leading at Mt. Angel. That seemed like as much of a "coincidence" as you meeting Gini Graham the second Sunday you came to Spirit of Grace. Now, you may already know Terry since he has been doing some interim ministry coverage for St. Andrew lately. I am not sure if you have gotten to talk to him much. I have no idea how many people will be attending the retreat but I am going to send Terry an email asking him to make sure to connect with you a bit on the breaks.
Like you, Terry is also more of an introvert and a writer. Just a couple years ago he finished writing his story about the integration of spirituality and organizing within his ministry. With the thought that you may not have seen Terry's book, I was moved to send you a copy of his book to you just now. It should arrive to you on Saturday. Don't feel any pressure to read the whole thing unless it is of interest to you, but I think you will particularly appreciate his story of how spirituality and organizing came to take on such deep meaning in his life and how those two streams came together in his experience as a parish pastor.
Feel free to keep the book (and even have Terry sign it if you want just for fun), or if you come to a point when you do not want it taking up space in your home, feel free to simply give it to the Spirit of Grace library. (No need to feel pressure to keep it forever unless you want to.)
They say in organizing that if somebody has a story with some kind of passion underneath it, they are a good candidate for getting involved in community organizing. You clearly have a work story and you have some appropriate energy behind it. One way you could explore that would be to take the training with Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good that is free to you as a member of Spirit of Grace because we are a dues paying member institution of MACG. I have been to this training at least seven times and learn something new every time. Director Vinci is going to this training later in September for the first time and is welcoming anybody else from Spirit of Grace to join her. The training will take place on two Sunday afternoons from 1 pm to 5 pm September 18 and 25. If you simply register as a member of Spirit of Grace (which you will be by then) the tuition cost is waived. If you want to learn more or consider registering, you could do that at this link: https://www.macg.org/sept22lipl And if it does not work out for you this time, know that it will be offered again in the future.
So where it concerns the above, Jason, as they say in recovery movements, take what you like and leave the rest, 😊
It was a pleasant surprise to say the least. I'm really happy that I decided to start visiting Spirit of Grace, and I really appreciate how much Pastor Robyn tries to reach out and help minister, support, and guide people whenever she can. She's just as incredible as Pastor Amanda.
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