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Grace and peace to you in the
mid-winter.
It is mid-winter, depending on which day of the week you look out your
window. Some days the temperature in the 50’s, or some, like this
morning, covered in ice.
I am not writing a weather monologue. But I am drawing attention to
variation, and what we may or may not see.
Because the interim time is about what you see. What you see and what
you choose. And we are about to enter fully into the interim discussion.
Now, under normal circumstances, the work which you did in your last
interim would leapfrog your search to a super fast track. But the world
changed since you wrote that last CIF!
We don’t live in 2008. You will live in 2012 and 2013. And 2019.
Normally, interim discussions revolve around congregational history, and
what it means, and around your vision of the future. But this time there
are
complicating factors, like theological diversity, like the extremes of
demographics (it’s spelled “baby boom” and amplified by cultural
dynamics), like the pressures of on-going economic turmoil. Even the
“call system” of the Presbyterian Church is quite different than it was
4 years ago.
While we don’t need to “solve the problems of the world,” there are
things we need to consider as you move forward. So, put on the love of
Christ, grab your thinking caps, and bring an open heart to God’s
movement in our midst. Let those with eyes see, and those with ears hear
– for God is doing something new.
God is calling forth the future for us as God’s people. We are building
God’s next church.
Isa 43:19 The Lord says,
19 "Look, I am about to do something new.
Now it begins to happen! Do you not recognize it?
I hope you will join in our conversations as we seek God’s will for your
future.
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