A Ministry to Mark Milestones

In my last post I said would tell about an important ministry in the church designed about marking milestones in people’s lives.

Remember: milestones are those occasions in our lives where something important happens, often meaning a real “before” and “after.” These milestones might include events celebrated in the home; others in the congregation (or community as well). The Christian ministry of milestones takes place in the recognition and the ritual, keeping close the Christ connection: that we are “in Christ” even as we leave behind the old and face the new.

Who among us doesn’t recognize the importance of getting a driver’s license? It’s a teenager’s dream! Of course my beloved aunt found it pretty exciting at 65 years as well. Here’s a definite before and after. A real milestone filled with promise and responsibility. A Milestones Ministry recognizes this – deliberately.

If anyone that deserves credit for lifting up this element of baptismal spirituality, it’s The Youth and Family Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are at the center of exciting work to pass on the Christian faith especially within families and congregations. Check them out. They say:

A faith milestone is a marker along life’s journey that says, “This is something important and God is here, tool!” It’s time to pause, to share the joys and sorrows, to give and receive support.

As you might guess, some milestones are very public, such as high school graduation, and others more private, such as parents sending their child off to school for the very first time. So they may call for different kinds of celebrations, more public in the congregation or more private in the home. The Youth and Family Institute recognizes the differences, and it works with congregations to find their own pathway into this local ministry.

The opportunities to mark milestones are many. I know a congregation that for many years has given handmade quilts to its high school graduates on a special Sunday. I just served a congregation, Holmen Lutheran, that has been presenting the baptized with faithchests® to keep important mementoes and items for growing in faith through the years. Then there’s my personal experience: when I retired recently, my congregation celebrated, remembered, and did a Ritual for the Closure of a Ministry.

With Milestone Ministry, there’s a real sense of “before” and “after,” as I said, but in the words and the rituals, we realize there God is here too. Over the expanse of time, we truly we grow in faith and experience belonging to God.

Will Smith’s Search for Meaning

“The Gospel of Will Smith” from the December 8 issue of Newsweek is an interview of searcher who is comfortable in his own skin.

His films like “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “I Am Legend,” and “Hancock” are into the tougher side of life. That’s where Smith wants to go. He says that he loves “the nature of humanity’s search for meaning. For me,” he goes on, “I’m certain about my relationship with the model of perfection of human life that’s laid out with the life of Jesus Christ.” Then he goes on to add, that it’s being at home in that basic relationship that takes away his fear of sitting “in a mosque or a synagogue or a Buddhist temple.”

Here’s another way to be a Christian. Be so anchored and secure in your identity as a follower of Christ that you can be open to others and their beliefs. The object is not first to convert them or convince them of your truth, much less put them down, but to listen to them and maybe even learn from them.

As I read the full interview with Will Smith, I admit that I don’t always see life quite like he does. But there’s good stuff here! Like “Life is all about death and rebirth and how do we manage to deal with those things when they happen. And not just death in terms of life. You know when you lose your job or your house – that’s a death of something that is a part of your life. How do you manage that?” Will Smith goes after these things in his films

I found this interview fascinating because it’s filled with baptismal spirituality, especially our dying and rising, as in the last paragraph. It’s also about who we are. In our baptism our identity as a child of God is secured, and when that identity is really lived out, it can – as Will Smith indicates – open us to the world and other human beings without fear and defensiveness. I believe that baptismal spirituality can mean for us both a committed heart and an open mind. Will Smith appears to be a good example. He makes me want to go and see another movie.