Jun 4, 2009

Covenant Stories: Claud's Vision

In 1996 Claud McHorse asked the church leaders to meet with him after worship. We sat with Claud at one of the cafeteria tables. He announced that he had received a vision.

This was unusual for two reasons.

First, we’re not really a vision kind of church. We’re more of an introverted bunch, with a tendency toward quiet introspection and careful discussion. Even a raised voice is rare at our church. We believe that God’s Spirit is present in our church, to be sure. But so far the Spirit of God has spoken in hushed tones at Covenant, which is nice of the Spirit, because anything more than that would frighten us. What I’m saying is we’re not the sort of church where people leap to their feet in the middle of the service and speak. Unless of course they are listed in the order of worship, in which case a certain amount of leaping is tolerated, though we’d prefer it if you’d move slowly so as not to get the children all riled up.

Second, Claud is not really a vision kind of guy. He’s more of a computer nerd and intellectual. Claud was, I think, the first person who found our church on the Internet. He is an ex-pilot who ended up working with computers at USAA. His current passions include Go, an ancient game of thoughtful, almost philosophical strategy from the far East. At present Claud is the only person I know who has even HEARD of Go, much less played it. Claud is a numbers guy. He’s been our church treasurer for years. He’s very smart and given to careful, logical considerations. So yeah, it was a little strange to hear Claud claim to have received some sort of vision. But there is something else you should know about Claud. He is a good man. He had only been a member for a little over a year at the time, but he was a faithful part of the community. Everyone respected Claud. We may tend to be a little suspicious of visions, but if Claud says he had one, well, we’ll listen to him. A person gains that sort of respect over time at a church.

What follows is my best reconstruction of the conversation in the cafeteria that day.

“This is going to sound crazy, and I’m normally the last person who would ever say something like this, but I’ve had a vision. An idea came to me about our church, and I can’t get it out of my mind. So I want to tell you about it.”

He paused. There was a moment of silence, then we all said, “Yeah yeah, go ahead. What is it?”

Claud took a deep breath. “I think we should build a retreat center.”

There was nothing but silence for a few moments. This was completely out of left field. No one had ever even considered building a retreat center. Up to this point, we were operating on a rather standard, Baptist church model. Get a bunch of people together, try to grow, try to get some money saved, and then enter into a building program of some kind. We hadn’t really talked about what our building would look like, but I think we were all imagining a typical Baptist church building. Pews, aisles, a stage and pulpit up front, perhaps a baptistry behind the choir, that sort of thing.

Claud continued. “So many of you have talked about Laity Lodge and the Great Hall there, with its fireplace and comfortable seats. I think that’s what we should build. A big room with a fireplace in it. And that’s where we would have church. Our land it filled with trees. We should keep it natural. Someday I think I could see us being both a church AND a retreat center. What do you think?”

It’s interesting to watch a group of people when a completely new idea first makes its appearance. There are a few moments where everyone digests the idea, then they usually break into two groups. Some jump on the new idea quickly with enthusiasm. The more careful, conservative types play devil’s advocate, pointing out potential problems. Not this time. Everyone there felt the “rightness” of what Claud was saying. A retreat center/church seemed to fit our personality perfectly. As I recall it, the enthusiasm from the group was immediate. Ben, who had been to Laity Lodge many times and sat in the Great Hall, began talking about our church as “The big living room.” Mark Jones started contemplating a name for our future retreat center.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Claud’s vision immediately reshaped the way we thought about our church and its purpose in the world. Ultimately, his vision led to a particular architectural style and a quiet practice of worship. We formed the Covenant Center for Contemplative Spirituality in 2007 and now lead Franciscan retreats for people all over the nation.

So let me ask you something. Was Claud’s vision from God or was it of human origin? Did God plant this vision in Claud’s mind, or did Claud simply have a nice idea that everyone liked?

I used to ask questions like that a lot when I was younger, but that kind of question doesn’t interest me anymore. I don’t know, and I don’t think it matters.

But if you pressed me and demanded that I give an opinion, I’d say it was both.

Gordon Atkinson

Oh, and by the way, Claud reads all of these stories, so he will see this. Hi Claud! We love you.

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The Covenant Center for Contemplative Spirituality
Our First Franciscan Retreat
Laity Lodge