Centering Prayer and slowing down

God is amazing! Today ended up being an extremely Spirit centered day for the congregation. People were listening to God and looking for guidance from the Holy Spirit and I could see the congregation longing for spiritual guidance in this discussion of the congregations future.

It was a hard week - full of anxiety and gossip and some nasty behavior. Walking into worship this morning I knew I was entering into a space where people were still upset from the gossip heard and sadness about our organist taking a vacation day today and next week being his last worship with us. I read a statement from our organist where he shared his regret for taking another position but also shared about the excitement in the possibilities. Then I ensured the congregation that this is a door that will always be open for him. This was not the only hard piece of today worship - the text for the Gospel reading was a hard one to preach on considering all the felling in the congregation.

The text: Matthew 21:33-46

So today, instead of preaching I lead the congregation through centering prayer. I read the text and asked that each person focus on the image or phrase that jumps out at them and reflect. Read it again and asked that they visualize this image or phrase and meditate.Read it again and asked that they sit in prayer on what ever it is God is trying to tell them - to open their hearts to listen for the word of God. Then read a last time and asked that they write down something they want to take with them to continue praying about this week. Then we went into singing "Spirit of Gentleness". This was powerful.

This sense of feeling centered went into a special council meeting right after worship. The council meeting was organized so we could lay out what we would need for the annual congregational meeting on Oct. 30th. At the last council meeting 2 weeks ago the council voted to bring the vote to close to the congregational meeting. At this council meeting, however, they revisited that decision. This shows the growth the congregation has done! After reading the covenant the council created a few months ago they realized that they are not fulling living out the covenant by not listening to the needs and ideas of the congregation first and they decided to slow this process down a bit.

The new plan:

1. Send a letter out to the congregation this week that states at the annual meeting the congregation will be talking about future possibilities for the congregation. These are the facts, this is where the council is sitting, but we would like to hear more from everyone. And, that we are asking for the congregation to pray and have spiritual discernment in this process. Then, including a stamped postcard for people to write their plans for the congregation - their ideas. The council's plan is to bring all the ideas to the congregational meeting and discuss them and bring the list down to a realistic and workable 2 or 3.
2. In June the congregation took a survey called the TAG survey, or transforming church index. We had a person come in and debrief the results with the council and the Turn Around Team. These results are actually one of the factors leading the council and the Turn Around Team in their decision to recommend closing. But, the survey has not been debriefed with the entire congregation. There are many reasons and excuses - but we decided that it has to happen before any vote can take place. So, Nov. 20th a consultant from TAG will come and lead a 1/2 day workshop with the congregation based off the congregational meeting results and the TAG survey results.  The hope is to get down to one option of the future for the congregation.
3. Dec. 4th after church there will be another congregational meeting where we vote on the future - whatever that may be.

At this meeting questions about what typically happens at an annual meeting came up, like approving a budget or voting for new council members and it was decided that our current budget is approved through Jan. 1st and the "future vote" will happen on Dec. 4th and at that meeting we will probably have a better read on how the vote will go and what the vote will be, THEN we will know better what kind of budget and council we will need for the next year.

This council meeting was simply amazing. We even gave ourselves permission to make mistakes along the way and to not be afraid to come back to decisions made and re-examine because this is a new process for all of us.

(Above photo from: Christian Symbols website)