Personal: First Impressions

I'm impressed.

Today we had a long presentation in a hot church.  The air conditioning system failed us for the second Sunday in a row.  Most of the solid members of our congregation were present, and most of them stayed the course through the presentation and Eucharist and then for the pot luck discussion of the process of discerning (perceiving through prayer and reflection) what God is calling Reconciliation to do and be.  Everyone got a glimpse of all the work being done by our Bishop's Committee and the Listening Team on this critical discernment which will determine the future of our congregation.  These are my first impressions of the day.

RELIEVED
First, I'm relieved.  I believe that the hardest part is over.  Yes, we are a long way from being finished with the process and there is a lot of work ahead.  But I believe that we have the most difficult, most trying part behind us.  For those who really saw the whole big picture today for the first time, it was a little (or a lot) overwhelming.  A lot to take in, and a wake up call that we do all have some work ahead of us.  It isn't going to be a few meetings of a few people behind closed doors.  But the hardest part of building a future for Reconciliation is the messy, tedious, confusing, awkward steps of just getting started in discovering where God is calling us to go - rather like bobbing for watermelons!  I'll admit that I have been a little anxious about how much work was going to be involved for everyone in securing a future for our congregation.  So first of all, I am relieved that we have made it through the most difficult part, and most everyone is still hanging in there.

AMAZED, ENERGIZED, ENCOURAGED
Before the day was over, I was impressed by what happened.  Thanks be to God!  The goodly number of folks who stayed to the end were taking charge of their church!  We shared one another's dreams and passions for collaborating with our neighbors and blessing people in our community.  People shared from a place in their hearts where there was strong energy, hope, and enthusiasm - signs of the stirring of the Holy Spirit (enthusiasm = en theos = in God).  After a rather exhausting morning, I found myself being filled and recharged by the strong, clear, focused expressions of compassion around the room.  It is definitely one of the high points of my ministry here to feel affirmed that we have it in us to do great things, to do (as Jesus put it in the Gospel reading today) even greater works than him.  Wow!

CHALLENGED
The challenge I am feeling about the work ahead of us is how to ever channel everything we heard today into a single direction.  Today I saw a church community that has great dreams and passion that are all over the map.  There was a great diversity of care and compassion for the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of children, of women, of the elderly, of the grieving, of the homeless, and of the environment.  I am very aware that we are not a large enough group to do everything for everybody.  So what are the themes and patterns that can unite us in going forward in the same direction together?  Integrating and focusing such diversity so that we don't dilute our energy and resources in all directions is going to be a challenge.

I also feel challenged about identifying and connecting with the people in our neighborhood who share our dreams and passions for blessing our community.  The neighborhood around the church is not just our first mission field, it is our first partner in reaching out to the larger community.  The mission of the Church isn't going to happen in here (inside our church); it can only happen out there (outside the walls of our church).  We have a lot of face-to-face work to do to get to know our neighbors and then to get to know those who we are called to bless in the larger community.

So thanks be to God and to the godly people of Church of Reconciliation for affirming today that we do have it in us to be a dynamic, life changing, Christian community that is about to become the eyes, and legs, and hands of Christ in Corpus Christi in our own unique and powerful way.

Your partner on the journey,
Fr Bruce+