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Empowered by God!
Shepherding the church! Serving the world! |
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| Bishop's Message | e-Newsletter (click on logo) |
| Silencing the 'Storyteller' In her book A Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor says there is a part of the left hemisphere of our brain that she calls “the Storyteller”. A tiny portion of the storyteller, however, is excellent at exploring thought patterns that have the potential to derail our feelings of inner peace. These are cells in our verbal mind that are totally resourceful in their ability to run loops of doom and gloom. These cells tap into our negative attributes of jealousy, fear and rage, etc. They thrive when we are whining, complaining and sharing with everyone about how awful everything is. The negative loops and thought patterns can and will run over and over in our minds and dominate our lives. The negative becomes our master and our Lord. As our economy takes a downturn, as our membership dwindles in the church, as our financial resources diminish in terms of our mission and ministry, I wonder if we are letting the negative “storyteller” part of our brain take precedence in our lives. I wonder if the negative overcomes the positive in our actions and words. When a congregation becomes less viable, or a rostered leader experiences negative pastoral ministry or diminished capacity to do ministry, the negative part of “the storyteller” begins to explore thought patterns that derail inner peace within the institution and/or the individual. Conflict increases. Generalized statements become the norm- “The church is dying”. The use of dramatic tone increases. The ability to risk, dream, or envision something new diminishes. The focus and energy is put into that small part of our brain that controls our feelings and our thought patterns that lead to the negative, which then can lead to an inability to forge a new direction. As I work with congregations in re-missioning, seeking missional directions, assessing the faith community they are a part of, I see some of this inability to move ahead, to deal with the realities of congregational life. I see some who expend a great deal of energy “telling their story” in terms of what they DON”T have rather than in what they do have. Yes, there are real issues within the church and our denomination that have held us captive to the negative. There are concerns and worries that weigh on the minds of congregations and individual members. These exist and it would not be beneficial to develop a “Pollyanna” attitude to avoid them. However, in the season of advent we have hope- hope that our world becomes better, our faith becomes stronger, our lives become richer- through the coming birth of Christ into the world. Hope can override hopelessness. We have the physiological and intellectual ability to do this. Jill Taylor says perhaps we ought to be dealing with the other LARGER parts that can be accessed, to emphasize the positive, bring us perspective, and give us peace. She says that we need to be aware of, and monitor the thinking processes and activity within our own brains. She suggests that we self-regulate our thoughts and actions so that this smaller part of the brain actually becomes a smaller part of our lives. Self regulation is difficult to do, especially when our world is falling down around us, or when we see injustices and corruptness and other unhealthy behaviours evident in our world. Perhaps a task for us throughout advent is to name where we see hope, where we see opportunity for growth, where we see reconciliation. Perhaps we can name the things that we DO have that are our assets for ministry. Perhaps we can feed off of those thoughts to help us to envision a different faith community, a different denomination, a different person in us. May Christ be your hope for a peace filled Advent and Christmas season.
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