Providing Christian resources from the YMCA past and present to nourish inclusive, equitable work in our diverse and global neighborhoods that build up healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?
Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the onPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.
From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.
If you’ve been looking for a new kind of devotion, or needing to get restarted in spiritual reflection, you’ll enjoy these short and encouraging meditations on being in the Holy Land, standing and walking where Jesus lived, and how that shapes our lives today, here.
You can subscribe to these devotions and receive them as an email by going to to timhallman.org and enter your email address into the subscribe box.
At timhallman.org you can also find a link to access the devotions through YouVersion or a downloadable PDF booklet; it was originally published on Pentecost Sunday 2021.
Download the YouVersion app and search for Living Stones devotional or click here if you already use it
The YMCA devotion series is inspired by the writings of Saint Peter, and his urging Christians to imitate Christ as we are built up into a holy and sacrificial calling to love, care and serve those God puts in our life where you lead at work, home and in the community.
“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like Living Stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
If you’re anything like me, sometimes you get in a “woe is me” place and you wonder – does it matter if I show up, if I care, if I put in the effort?
Yes, you matter – it matters how you show up, how you prepare, how you play, and how your pray.
Your loving presence and prayers matter to the children and youth in your life.
Your caring matters.
The attention and attitude, your presence and posture matter to the children you serve before and after school.
Here is a story of Jesus blessing children that reminds me of how much it matters:
“Then Jesus came to Capernaum.”
And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?”
But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.
And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.”
[from Gospel according to Mark 9:33-37 NKJV]
Take a few moments to soak in the loving attention and caring presence of Jesus with the children.
Imagine that is you being drawn close, embraced by the safe and strong kindness of Christ.
And if we take Jesus at his word, when you care for children “in his name” – inspired by his presence in your life – God is present to that little one.
Whoa.
Your caring matters.
You showing up matters.
You being present matters.
You being attentive and safe and trustworthy matters.
Your work matters. The children you care for matter. You matter.
If you’re anything like me, sometimes you get in a melancholy attitude and you wonder – does it matter if I show up, if I care, if I put in the effort?
Yes, you matter – it matters how you show up, how you prepare, how you play, and how your pray.
Your presence and prayers of love matter to the children and youth in your life.
You praying for the kids in your care matters. You praying for their families matters. You praying for your family matters. You praying for your coworkers matters. You praying for your self matters.
If we look around at the world as some kind of guide for how much children matter, how much our caring for them matters, if you based it on wages or prestige or fame, you’d have to conclude that there’s a lot of “talk” but in reality it’s a low value.
But when you listen to the words of Christ, when you see his example, when we believe his instructions, we can conclude that caring for children in the way of Jesus is bring Heaven to Earth, is how God is present to the little ones in our life.
Whoa.
When we care for children with the tenderness and strength with which God loves us, when let children into our life the way we let Jesus into our life, the way we “receive” children is a way for us to “receive” God.
Being with children is a holy, sacred, beautiful, joyous work that requires us to be humble, forgiving, loyal, trustworthy, open, and playful.
It requires lots of love.
St. Paul in his letter to a church failing miserably at honoring each other, he wrote a memorable, provoking, lyrical poem to inspire them to love like God loves them.
It includes this reminder: “love is patient, love is kind.”
It’s a very practical and concrete example.
You know when you have been irritably impatient with a child, when you have spoken unkindly in exasperation and weariness.
It’s easy to defend our impatience and unkindness: if “their” behavior was better, or if we weren’t so tired, or…etc.
But: patience and kindness are acts of love precisely because we are usually irritated by something, generally weary and easily exasperated – it’s in those dreary moments that love is needed most.
When you are at your best with children it’s usually when you’ve chosen patience while still irritable, choosing kind words instead of snapping back – you know when you do it, you sense it in your spirit, and even if no one notices or compliments you on it, it matters, God sees it, and it is significant.
Keep doing the work of patience and kindness when you are tired and stretched thin – it’s good for your spirit, it’s healing for the spirit of the children in your life, and it’s a way that God is present in our midst.
I invite you to meditate on this artistic images of Jesus, to see the patience and kindness in his presence with the children.
See yourself as one of those children, receiving his patience and kindness.
See yourself as being one with Jesus, giving patience and kindness to the children in your life.
Take a moment to text a friend or send a note in the post mail, reminding them that they matter to you, to God, that their caring and kindness to children matters, and that their work matters to families in our community.
May the Grace and Peace of Christ Jesus be with you, always.
YMCA & Faith as a Dimension of Diversity ::: what are some ways we can elevate the role of religion and build a healthier, stronger “C” in the Y as a way to be even more inclusive and equitable?
The extraordinary effort the Young Men’s Christian Association is putting into being inclusive and equitable in light of its diverse and global reality is impressive and inspiring.
Yet, not without critique or flaws, and still in an agile learning mode, humbly trying to do better.
There are many aspects I value about the Dimensions of Diversity Wheel, including how it reveals then builds awareness of many key dimensions of diversity; having been through a training with it, I developed a more complex awareness of myself, as well as a richer perspective on those around me.
Nobody comes to this wheel or training or Association neutral, so I confess that this blogpost comes from a close analysis and personal reflection on my professional work with the Y as a Christian Emphasis Director and ordained Protestant minister.
The dimension of Faith is of particular interest to me regarding my vocation, my identity, my purpose, my lens personally and professionally, though it’s not the only important dimension, nor is it isolated from many others like culture, race, birthplace, etc.
I do want to humbly reflect publicly on the role of faith as a dimension diversity in the YMCA, as it seems to occupy an awkward space in the wheel and our associations.
For example, religion and faith traditions are like culture and ethnicity, you are born into it, they are often all intertwined, and it deeply shapes your whole sense of self, purpose, identity and community.
Yet it can also be experienced as interchangeable like economic status or geographic location; we all know people or have heard of those who “left” their religion or faith tradition.
While these are simplistic examples, they get at the wider discomfort of the role of faith and religion in the Y; as a matter of principle we ought to include it in an equitable and honest way – BUT: it is unlike all the other dimensions in a way that makes it socially and spiritually awkward.
What do I mean? A basic understanding of religion – scholarly or experientially – reveals the comprehensive nature of faith traditions; the role of it is to give overarching meaning and existential purpose to the totality of life in spirit, mind and body as an individual and a community (or tribe or nation).
Yet, in the Y it is generally uncomfortable to talk publicly about ones personal faith tradition or religious commitments (I’d love to hear exceptions to this assumption).
What factors might be keeping the faith/beliefs dimension of diversity in a awkward, suspicious, suppressed, role in the Y?
While there are no simplistic answers, here are a few of my observations framed by my experiences and research:
1. The complexity of secularization in a religiously and ethnically pluralistic society (keep your faith private) [for more read Charles Taylor and Lesslie Newbigin]
2. The critiques of religious violence, sexual abuse, and financial scandals (credibility of faith is corroded) [for more read Rene Girard and William Cavanaugh]
3. The centrality of technology as a means for organizing and and making sense of reality (control comes from us) [for more read Jacques Ellul and Miroslav Volf]
Or, some might perceive it like this: overly religious people do a lot of good, but then they get disagreeable and divisive and at the Y we really want to emphasize what builds harmony and healing; so, since too many religious people either want to be right/exclusive more than loving/inclusive, we will downplay our religious heritage and faith as a dimension of diversity and emphasize that which seems to more effectively forge unity and equity.
Trust me, I get it.
But…
Religion is still a powerful existential reality amongst our diverse membership; if we ignore it, downplay it, dismiss it, degrade it, we will be blind to the way it shapes (for good or bad) our culture, thus preventing us from fulfilling our purpose, cause and mission successfully.
The more people who become ignorant of religion and faith traditions, the more religious bigotry that will be fomented.
If we want less religious violence and abuse, we need to shine more light on religion, not keep it in the dark; more wisdom not less.
With the National influence the YMCA has in 2,000+ communities, imagine the positive effect we could have if we more wisely, bravely, authentically, publicly discussed and educated on religion/faith as a powerful dimension of diversity.
Christians in the Y often don’t want to offend anyone, especially those who are religiously diverse; it’s a warm sentiment, but it often leads to squelching religious expression instead of building up hospitable inclusion.
Christians in the Y too often fail to recognize the vast diversity that exists within there own faith tradition; it’s naive to think that the differences between Protestants and Catholics are irrelevant, or that the tension between conservative and liberal Christians is insignificant.
Factor in the generational and geographic, ethnic and racial dimensions of diversity as it is expressed through religion, and Christians will discover an incredible variety.
But rather than enter into the complexity of a diverse and global Christianity in their YMCA, Christian leaders too often over-emphasize a private expression of faith, or a bland version that doesn’t want to offend anyone, or a suppression of any public religious expression.
What if the YMCA of the USA embraced a intentionally public, responsible, honesty about its extremely religious origins in George Williams and Thomas Sullivan, in Anthony Bowen and John Mott, etc.?
What if the Young Men’s Christian Association cultivated a care-full spirit of mutual respect for the vast diversity of Christians who founded the Y, and for the complicated and rich Christian traditions which nourished the YMCA which we enjoy and steward today?
It could then more robustly and wisely critique that within the diverse Christian traditions which undermines or corrupts equitable inclusion in our generation.
So why does it seem that the Y is sometimes awkwardly embarrassed about the “C” in our name?
I won’t pretend to know all the reasons, and I would welcome many honest responses from readers.
From what I have heard and seen though, my understanding of the conflicted identity is rooted in the three reasons I listed earlier: secularity & pluralism, violence & hypocrisy, science & positivism; it’s a cultural/religious revolution deeply affecting Western civilization and the global community.
This means, at some level, we aren’t even sure what it means to identify as Christian now, belief in God is contested and seemingly unnecessary for the pursuit of happiness; especially when it comes to managerial and economic decisions, prayer seems less effective than benchmarks and best practices.
Yet: religion just won’t go away.
The Y can draw on powerful historical and contextual realities as resources for animating an inclusive Christianity which honestly respects our diversity while strengthening how we responsibly care for all we embrace.
Or the Y can continue to awkwardly stumble into a complex religious-shaped future conflicted about its identity and how to bring healing and hope to our society’s most dangerous and vicious evils.
If I was going to make some proposals for how a more robust Faith as a Dimension of Diversity could empower the Y to flourish as an anti-racist, multi-cultural institution – I would offer up these as a conversation starter:
Elevate faith/belief/religion as a dimension of diversity
Responsibly respect the existential and overarching reality religion and faith traditions have cross-culturally, trans-nationally, and inter-generationally
Cultivate care-full honesty about Y members/staff/volunteers experiences with the best of and worst of religion – for the sake of healing, wisdom, and mutual empathy
Resuscitate our gratitude and indebtedness to Christian Y workers in the past for their religious motivations – ie. invention of basketball or camping, George Williams organizing and John Mott’s fundraising, etc.
Become curious to the ways many different Y workers have religious motivations for their service, and how it is mixed with other motivations.
Celebrate our identity as a Christian Association which strives to be welcoming and hospitable to people from all types of religious and faith traditions, as well as every kind of dimension of diversity.
Have YUSA publicly engage in the Paris Basis and Challenge 21
Be willing to openly critique behavior of Christians in the Y who are behaving badly, without it resulting in the suppression of Christianity as a result.
Be willing to embrace the complexity of public expressions and embodiment of faith in the Y as a way to model for our 2,000 communities how we can do grace-full and faith-full inclusion.
Here are some concluding observations of this post: if I was going to frame in a historically positive way the different kinds of Diverse and Global Christians in the Y since 1844, I would describe them as Evangelical, Ecumenical, Equitable.
George Williams was Evangelical, with an ecumenical and equitable heart.
John Mott became Ecumenical from his evangelical spirit, and raised enormous sums of money for equitable causes.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is our inspiration for Equitable, who embodied an ecumenical yearning with evangelical zeal.
If you had a primary pulse as a Christian in the Y these days, who do most resonate with for how they embodied their faith – George, John, Martin?
If you’re like me, all of them are central to how Christianity can be embodied today in the Y!
But if we revise their Y story and minimize the role of religion, we undercut their powerful example of ways Christianity can inspire, unite, and heal.
It is always easier to critique and see the log in the eye of Christianity; its failures are legendary, some chilling and evil; but: if people are not defined by their worst moments, let’s not do that with any religion or faith tradition.
May many more humble and dedicated conversations continue to multiply around ways we can strengthen faith as a dimension of diversity towards flourishing for all.
What would you propose for a healthier and stronger Faith as a Dimension of Diversity in the YMCA?
What are some examples you have for ways Faith as a Dimension of Diversity has positively contributed to flourishing for all in your Y?
