Resonance
What’s Resonance?
Resonance is a flash of feeling alive, awake, a ‘goosebump moment,’ a sudden deep awareness and connection. You feel a sense of resonating with a person, nature, etc. Often tears come.
For something to be considered a ‘resonant experience’ there need to be four factors:
Video introduction to resonance, and why it matters right now: THE CHURCH IN THE ACCELERATING AGE
Part 1: Reforging the Horizons Part 2: Relevance vs. Resonance
Resonance is a flash of feeling alive, awake, a ‘goosebump moment,’ a sudden deep awareness and connection. You feel a sense of resonating with a person, nature, etc. Often tears come.
For something to be considered a ‘resonant experience’ there need to be four factors:
- Something from outside "calls" to you - something other than your own self prompts it – you are touched by the world (e.g., a surprising comment from a stranger, the beauty of nature, impromptu shared grief or spontaneous laughter)
- You respond - (e.g., you feel a tug, you notice, you act, you speak, you feel moved to tears, etc.),
- There’s a transformation - something shifts, something changes in the relationship (such as, you see the world differently, a breakthrough of connection happens, the experience stays with you, the dynamic is altered between you, an action of belonging occurs), and
- It’s uncontrollable - you can ‘t make it happen.
Video introduction to resonance, and why it matters right now: THE CHURCH IN THE ACCELERATING AGE
Part 1: Reforging the Horizons Part 2: Relevance vs. Resonance
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We are in an experiment about resonance!
In a time when everything is moving faster and faster, when to maintain means to increase, when life feels flat, like a to-do list we are always behind on, and when there is no longer the assumption of anything beyond that encounters us, what does it mean to be people of faith? In a time where we seek greater and greater control, what does it mean to be people who live open to moments of uncontrollability? People open to encounter with the Divine? People attuned to our connection to one another and the earth? People watching for transcendence to break into the ordinary?
We get to find out!
Pastor Kara is one of 23 pastors selected to be part of a 3-year project exploring the implications of the ideas of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor and German sociologist Hartmut Rosa for congregations. The pastors met twice in the past year, and we will meet twice in 2024, and in between, each congregation is given a grant of $10,000 to use to support experiences that bring openness to resonance.
Here’s the thing…
LNPC has been living this way for a long time! We call it things like “Kingdom of God Sightings” or “Living in the Way of God,” or “Stories of Resurrection” or “assuming the inner stance of least resistance to being overtaken by the graced event we cannot make happen” (James Finley), or, “heart-singing,” as in, during the last sabbatical when we asked, “What would make our hearts sing?” But now we have a mandate and some money directing us to be attentive and open, imaginative and available to God, others and the world. We're seeking to facilitate opportunities to experience resonance (which is to say, to try to make ourselves open to the uncontrollable event of encounter that we can’t produce).
It's kind of antithetical to the whole understanding of resonance to give money to people to use for resonance, since resonant experiences can't be planned, bought, or coerced. They just happen. So there was some freedom around the perimeters given us for the experiment - it was really wide open.
How we thought about it:
When we began this process, session noted that the thing that feels most valuable and that we long for most is: Time. Time together. Time in rest, and especially in play. Being rushed and hurried is a near guarantee of missing resonant encounters and being closed to transcendent moments, and yet, that’s the state most modern people live in nearly all the time. In other words, assuming the inner stance of least resistance is not a forced or fast thing. And taking in beauty, wonder, rest, and play, having rich conversations, rocking a baby to sleep, really deeply listening, comforting a grieving friend, these are things that take time. So, we thought it would help us warped, modern, speedy people to think that this grant money is buying our time. This money is buying us time to spend with each other, time to be open to God, time to be receptive to the world, time to devote ourselves to things that bring joy.
Some ways we've oriented ourselves toward resonance are through:
The $10,000 grant was allocated the following ways:
In a time when everything is moving faster and faster, when to maintain means to increase, when life feels flat, like a to-do list we are always behind on, and when there is no longer the assumption of anything beyond that encounters us, what does it mean to be people of faith? In a time where we seek greater and greater control, what does it mean to be people who live open to moments of uncontrollability? People open to encounter with the Divine? People attuned to our connection to one another and the earth? People watching for transcendence to break into the ordinary?
We get to find out!
Pastor Kara is one of 23 pastors selected to be part of a 3-year project exploring the implications of the ideas of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor and German sociologist Hartmut Rosa for congregations. The pastors met twice in the past year, and we will meet twice in 2024, and in between, each congregation is given a grant of $10,000 to use to support experiences that bring openness to resonance.
Here’s the thing…
LNPC has been living this way for a long time! We call it things like “Kingdom of God Sightings” or “Living in the Way of God,” or “Stories of Resurrection” or “assuming the inner stance of least resistance to being overtaken by the graced event we cannot make happen” (James Finley), or, “heart-singing,” as in, during the last sabbatical when we asked, “What would make our hearts sing?” But now we have a mandate and some money directing us to be attentive and open, imaginative and available to God, others and the world. We're seeking to facilitate opportunities to experience resonance (which is to say, to try to make ourselves open to the uncontrollable event of encounter that we can’t produce).
It's kind of antithetical to the whole understanding of resonance to give money to people to use for resonance, since resonant experiences can't be planned, bought, or coerced. They just happen. So there was some freedom around the perimeters given us for the experiment - it was really wide open.
How we thought about it:
When we began this process, session noted that the thing that feels most valuable and that we long for most is: Time. Time together. Time in rest, and especially in play. Being rushed and hurried is a near guarantee of missing resonant encounters and being closed to transcendent moments, and yet, that’s the state most modern people live in nearly all the time. In other words, assuming the inner stance of least resistance is not a forced or fast thing. And taking in beauty, wonder, rest, and play, having rich conversations, rocking a baby to sleep, really deeply listening, comforting a grieving friend, these are things that take time. So, we thought it would help us warped, modern, speedy people to think that this grant money is buying our time. This money is buying us time to spend with each other, time to be open to God, time to be receptive to the world, time to devote ourselves to things that bring joy.
Some ways we've oriented ourselves toward resonance are through:
- Time spent learning together and sharing rich conversation at our Church Chats, monthly zoom conversations in 2022-2023.
- Time together through Dinner Party with Holy Listening Groups - When we paid attention to our capacity and waited on God for direction, what bubbled up in both need and ministry is these evenings of dinner and spiritual direction/listening groups. They've now expanded beyond parents to be for all.
- Time together through Brunch with Brittany - connecting with each other in ways that work. (If Brittany can't come to church, church will come to Brittany).
- Simple Summer Saturday Services on the patio or in the Gathering Room, singing, talking, making art, and praying.
- Time reading When Church Stops Working and sharing book discussions together, and hosting an event for the presbytery to share conversations about resonance at the end of October.
- Time telling stories of resonance in October's Waffle Worship.
- Sharing deep time together at our Fall and Spring retreats!
- Recognizing time-rich moments like heading back to school with an outdoor, penguin blessing and mandala-coloring picnic service
The $10,000 grant was allocated the following ways:
- $4,000 for the Retreat Fund. Sabbath Retreats are an anchor of our life together. Time spent resting, playing and connecting with God and each other in nature, guided by morning, midday and evening prayer. But not everyone can afford to attend, and we don't always have enough folks paying to "break even" on the costs. So this turns the retreat fund into a pot that supports twice a year retreats in perpetuity. People still donate (whether or not they attend), and the resonance grant helps us keep retreats on the docket.
- $2,000 to update gathering spaces. We're rearranging our space to make it more conducive to connecting, conversation and hanging out.This includes a fresh coat of paint on the rooms the Swedish Death Cleaners purged, along with some (Craig's List) furniture, some additional patio furniture, and the dream of a pergola where we could hang swings, hammocks, etc.
- $2,000 to connect with faraway LNPC folks. We belong to each other! How can we keep sharing life with one another across the distances? This can help pay for zoom fees, but more exciting, what about helping with visits? Sending Advent/Lent kits? Other fun stuff?
- $1,000 to help fund Dinner Party. This event has been a deeply resonant experience for folks. And it's awesome when people volunteer to cook/host. But sometimes we need to just order pizzas or something. This helps us keep paying attention to people's capacity and desire to serve only out of joy, never obligation.
- $1,000 to seed/contribute to accessibility changes to the building. We know it's a drop in the bucket, but it's a way to say THIS MATTERS. Thanks to donations toward the project, bathroom construction will start in November(!) to widen doors and make main floor restrooms available to all.
