The Possible Impossible, Finding New Ways
Beloved Community, we’re BACK!! Summer is ending, and schools have started up. There’s the excitement of new things, and our theme for the month is Embracing Possibility!
I know that returning to school has brought worry instead of the usual excitement, and that for many of the parents and students in our community, this a complicated year. I know that many of our people are still wondering what Fall will look like with the Delta variant coming. We wonder about new laws and guidance. Even our own policies are having to change every month or two in response to new scientific data.
Then, instead of giving you a simple, steady, and predictable space here at church, we are moving into a deep discussion of what we need in ministry. We are actively asking how this church expects to grow and change over the next few years. We are not asking little of you. This is big and important work.
Yet, I think we are ready for this work. I know that the pandemic has shaken us out of fixed expectations. We are less tied to how it’s always been. We make fewer assumptions about the ways it ‘must be’ in order to be church. I think that coming back into our building gives us room for excitement and shared enjoyment in ways that have been scarce in our lives over the past 18 months.
Wise Words of Faith
In the words of the Hebrew prophet, Isaiah, we are called by that holy Spirit, that great inevitability of creation which is change. As the Lord said to Isaiah, and he to the people of his own community,
“Forget the former things;
Isaiah 43:18-19
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.”
Perhaps it is arrogant to call one another as the prophets of old called the people of Israel. Still, this is our time of change, and we are called to embrace possibility. This is this congregation’s moment for discernment. It is a time to perceive what is and all that can be, to seek deeper understanding, to be creative without judgement or rejection of options.
I am excited for you all to do this work of understanding yourselves and your community. I want you to hear your hopes and dreams, and your needs for ministry. In this year, you will enter into collaboration with the Search Team that you created together this summer. Please see the newsletter for the names of these individuals, chosen by congregational discernment.
Opportunities for Participation
Both the Board and the Search Team will be in communication with you throughout the Fall. We will have a Town Hall on September 12th following the worship service. There will be a survey, “cottage meetings,” and updates here and in our newsletter. They are here to work with you all to find out where we all go next. May I encourage you to embrace this process and to work together in trust? It is my hope that you will honor how these people who you selected are carrying this burden of decision-making. They do so with care and in collaboration with you, the congregation! Please join us on September 12th to offer a blessing to our team in worship, and find out more at our Town Hall after the service.
In times of uncertainty, we all can get frazzled and become not our best selves. Remember that not just the congregation, but the WORLD is filled with that kind of uncertainty right now. So, keep on reaching out to one another in faith and in love to ask questions. Seek to understand one another better, and help the congregation in finding our new way in the wilderness!
