Christianity in 25 words or less

As you know, faithful reader, neXus hosted a goodish contingent from the Gur Sikh Temple to a potluck and Sunday evening service last week.

I was charged with welcoming our guests and giving them a brief explanation of what we are about as a Christian congregation.

How do you do that? It's safe to say that Christianity is vastly more diverse than Sikhism in style and theology. Virtually none of our guests had any experience with Christian churches.

I was reminded of the time a couple of Chinese exchange students asked Sharon and me to take them to church. At the end of the service, one of them inquired, "Why did I not see Jesus?"

Say what?? Did she think that he was still alive and well and living, in bodily form, in British Columbia?

Thus we were somewhat confused as to what she was anticipating, but eventually figured out that her knowledge of the Christian church was limited to pictures she had seen in China of Catholic churches. She was expecting a crucifix in our church building.

With that confusion in mind, this is what I decided to say to prepare these mostly Indian-born, life-long Sikhs for what they were about to experience. I decided to touch on two issues only:

1. That we are a casual, contemporary church in terms of style, but that there are other, very different forms that churches took.

2. That while our style is different from that of the Sikhs, there is a great deal of overlap in our worldviews.

And all in two minutes or less!

Jas Singh, as he did for much of the evening, adeptly provided simultaneous translation services.

Ladies and gentlemen, community neighbours, and our sisters and brothers in faith:

My name is John Sutherland. On behalf of Nexus Church I welcome you on this historic occasion. The council of the city of Abbotsford has set as one of its goals that the many and diverse faith institutions in our community take the steps necessary to learn more about each other. As two congregations that love God and seek to do His will, Nexus Church and the Khalsa Diwan Society are the first in Abbotsford to meet this goal.

I want to acknowledge the presence this evening of Med Manzanal. Med is the person that the city hired to give leadership to their diversity goal. She is the person who worked with Jasbir Singh, Satwinder Bains, Mr. Hundal, and myself in making this special service tonight a reality.

The city of Abbotsford is not alone in pursuing this goal of greater understanding among the diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups in our community. The Abbotsford Board of Education is a partner in this objective. I would like to acknowledge the presence of Abbotsford School Trustee Preet Rai, who has been a wonderful ambassador for the Sikh community on the school board.

Christian churches take many forms. Some have very large and beautiful church buildings; others meet in more modest places. Some have clergy who wear special clothing; others are much more casual. Some Christians use a good deal of ritual in their worship; others are more spontaneous; some are very traditional; others more contemporary. As you can see, Nexus Church fits into the modest, casual, spontaneous, and contemporary category.

We look forward to worshipping God with you this evening. We will begin with a song sung by Chris Janzen. Chris serves as the worship coordinator in our church, and has picked out this song especially for this evening. Then our main teachers, Peg Peters and Dave Phillips will speak for about 10 minutes about our Christian religion. Finally, Peg and Jasbir Singh are going to discuss the ways in which Sikhism and Christianity have similar perspectives.

Thank you again for coming. I hope that you feel very welcome.

We sought and we found

Sunday afternoon, April 3, 2011 was closer to hellish than heavenly. I don't think I was more nervous before my wedding day. "Why is that?", you say. Thanks very much for asking. You're so polite and such a good listener.

I had been busily involved for the prior month in arranging for a group of Sikhs from one of the gurdwaras (Temple, place of worship) in Abbotsford to attend neXus. The motivation was twofold.

My first reason for this was because such activity is consistent with our values (the colours I talked about in my previous post) of inclusiveness, cultural engagement, and our belief that God and the truth of the Gospel are actively revealed through all of God’s creation; everything and everywhere.

And secondly, it was a means of cooperating with our city's goal of breaking down the "silos" that surround the many racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural groups of cosmopolitan Abbotsford.

The Friday before THE Sunday, I met with a young woman named Med Manzanal, Abbotsford's diversity coordinator, and three representatives of the Gur Sikh Temple: Mr. Hundal, the president of the Temple executive; Satwinder Bains, a prominent woman in town and chair of the Indo-Canadian Studies Programme at our local university; and Jasbir Singh, a teacher in the Abbotsford School District who has been my opposite number in terms of getting this initiative together.

We discussed what the service would look like, and what level of involvement there would be by the Sikhs themselves. In the course of the conversation Mr. Hundal, who is approximately my age, admitted that he had never been in a Christian church. I hastened to reply that I had never been in a Sikh Temple, although I had visited their elementary school. I'll admit that it was hard to judge his enthusiasm for the project, although Satwinder and Jasbir (or Jas, like jazz, as we call him) were clearly keen.

At any rate, I arrived good and early at the rented facility we use for our Sunday night services. People were setting up round tables, dressing them up with tablecloths and daffodils, and getting the food and beverage service ready. I continued to pace, wondering if the regulars would be eating a mountain of goodies all by ourselves.

And then a trickle of guests showed up--Jas and his family, including his spouse, daughters, and parents. The girls had brought along a couple of their friends. Med was there, putting out information on Abbotsford's diversity initiative.

The trickle became a bit of a stream--a few older Sikh gentlemen in their characteristic turbans, members of the Temple executive. Then as we neared the starting time, the flood began. Guests poured in. We were rolling out additional tables. Preet Rai, my colleague on the Abbotsford School Board arrived (all 6'5" of him) with his lovely wife Rupinder, and his father, a retired Indian army colonel with his back still ramrod straight.

We even had a few community members we hadn't known were coming: our local MLA John vanDongen, the federal liberal candidate, the former executive director of Canadian Food for the Hungry. Soon 150 people packed a space typically occupied by 50.

Now I was nervous for another reason--how would the service go over with people largely born in India and some with very little English. As Preet told me after, it was "brilliant." Jas helped with with simultaneous translation of my welcoming remarks. Our worship coordinator, Chris Janzen, sang Ron Sexsmith's God Loves Everyone with the words on a screen.

One of our teachers, Randall (Peg) Peters, talked with Jas about our respective faiths. He did this by asking Jas, "What are your dreams for your daughters?" Jas teared up a bit. The first thing he said in response was, "That they would love God." At the end, Peg and Jas hugged each other. That memory will go with me to heaven.

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Some quotes from those in attendance:

“Tonight is about embracing two cultures as one and about accepting diversity, openness, truth, and honesty,” said Jasbir Singh, representative from the Khalsa Diwan Society. “It’s been overlooked that these two cultures actually have a lot in common. Today’s Nexus service reminds us about being present in the moment, about extending acceptance and that is why this initiative is so great.”

In a letter of thanks, Kabal Hundal, Khalsa Diwan Sociey President stated, “Everyone really enjoyed themselves watching the presentations and interacting with the community. We also took great pleasure in the variety of delicious food made available. It was a very rewarding event and we learned a lot about bringing all the nationalities together for a bright future.”

“It’s great to see our Sikh neighbors and Nexus members eating together, talking together, and praying together,” said Heather Peters, Nexus Church member. “It’s amazing to be a part of something that is truly in the spirit of bridging the cultural divide.”

To see a few interviews with people who attended the service, go to YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ-5QUuAPCM.

neXus stretch

Colours? In before you're out? Cultural engagement? And nothing on long weekends? What's a traditional boy like me (well, a 63 year old boy) doing in a church like this?

My wife Sharon and I began attending this little church (little by Abbotsford BC standards where Sunday attendance ranges from 1000 to 4000) last fall. Significant participation was hindered by my inadvertent slip on black ice at the end of November resulting in a cracked pelvis and 14 weeks of convalescence. But I am now getting around without use of walker, crutch or cane, and am ready to wean off physiotherapy. This leaves me motivated to get back at things that have been on the back burner for these last three plus months.

As for blogging, I've been at this form of communication for three years now at johnonlife.blogspot.com. But I think for the foreseeable future I'll move over to this emerging relationship with the emergent church.

Next post? Sikh and you shall find.