Congregational Conversation - Reality Sinking In

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

There was a sense of letting go today. Tears were shed, passion was expressed, anger was faced, fears were shared, and emotions were released.

Today was our second conversation with a guest facilitator. A consultant from TAG Consulting spoke with the congregation today about the results of our TAG survey, realistic visions of the future and what kind of change would need to happen, what we have tried in the past 2 years in light of what has been done over the last 20 years, and our feelings. The meeting lasted about 90 minutes and a lot was covered - and it was covered well.

It's kind of hard for me to express into words how the meeting went. There were moments it was tense, moments it was sad, moments it was passionate, moments it was challenging, and at the end there was the moment where I could feel so many people in the room allowing themselves to just simply let go. This moment brought tears to my eyes. I was grateful I was not leading the conversation - I was allowed to feel and be present in the conversation. I was allowed to grieve and actually just be with the members of the congregation.

God was present with these faithful members of Christ body. These are faithful disciples that really want to give glory to God, they really do want to have Christ in the center of all they do, they love God and they want to do the best with everything God has blessed them with. However, they just needed to be allowed to say it's hard, it's scary, it's not fair. They needed to be given a vision of the glory that still can be, the blessing that are still waiting for us - but maybe in a different way than we would like to see them.

There were 3 specific moments where I saw shifts in mood and feelings expressed. The first was when the facilitator gave time for people to share their fears. Just being able to say out loud that there is fear in lost friendships, fear in walking into a new church community and being welcomed, fear of going through the grief over the next few months and beyond and more. After hearing some of the fears I shared how I planned on addressing some of the worries and I explained what the next six months would look like. I explained that I spoke with neighboring pastors and explained to them that I would like my entire congregation to be welcomed at a worship service, given a tour after the service, have questions answered and how we would stick around for a few minutes after the tour to debrief the visit together. I told them that it is my plan for after Christmas that every other week we would visit a neighboring congregation and the week we worship at Our Congregation we would sing favorite hymns, I would preach off lectionary and we would read favorite passages, we would bless each member to be a blessing in their new congregations. After I explained this process I felt a little more letting go - this was the second moment. The final moment when I felt that most people in the room were ready to allow the council to write a resolution to dissolve the congregation was when some of the leaders of the congregation passionately spoke their feelings. A few of the major "doers" of the congregation said that if the congregation does not close that they cannot continue on with the congregation and the day the vote to close the congregation is voted down it would be their last day worshiping at the congregation. This was not said in an ultimatum kind of way - not in the least. It was speaking the truth in love and being true to their spiritual needs and feelings. When this was shared the decision to have the council write a resolution to dissolve the congregation was made.

I ask that you pray for the members of my congregation. I ask that you pray that the Holy Spirit be with them and offer them comfort over the next two weeks as we wait for the vote. I ask that you pray for peace in their hearts and I ask that you pray that God will show them that they are in fact making a decision that is centered in Christ's mission. And, finally, I ask that you pray that they eventually come to the understanding that it's time to let go.. and that it will be okay.