Life is full of wonder, uncertainty, unknown. Out of that we can receive great excitement for the potential of that which is yet to be. Community of Christ is called to engage its potential, to engage its calling, to help bring about healing, reconciliation, and restoration to and with a broken creation, of which it is part. In recent years we have heard that call loud and strong. That call, calling us once again to that great and marvelous work, interpreted for this time and place(s). Some have embraced this calling and seek to bring about our active engagement with it. Some are slow to engage, for fear of change and doing something in ways we have not done before. Some have been burnt out trying to engage, without the support of the community, some have left for feeling the community is not engaging fast enough, and others the reverse. Some are slow to move for fear of failure, or sense of unworthiness, or uncertain how to, or….
It is an amazing calling that we have, it is exciting time to be part of Community of Christ. It is my hope that we will engage our communal and individual callings. That we will head the counsel that we accepted as scripture 11 months ago. That we will not be afraid to go, that we discern together, that we will be vulnerable, that we will be caring, that we will discover anew and find ways of being a people of Temple expressed in unique and distinctiveness ways based on the needs, gifts, and talents of each area and aspect of this global community of disciples known as Community of Christ.
On Saturday the Eastern Great Lakes Mission Center (EGLMC) will be determining if they will engage a proposal that will lead to some change in the MC to try an re-aline resources, gifts and talents in a way to more effectively engage the mission of Community of Christ as expressed in this mission center. If approved things will be different, but change will only happen if the people in the pews engage the potential possibility this change has and get out of the pews and activity engage the mission of the church. Church is NOT something we do on Sundays, Church is something we live each and every moment of our lives, at times stumbling and fumbling greatly, but if all we do is sit in a pew on Sunday morning for an hour or two, if all we do is socialize, then we might be meeting called a church but we are not being church. Perhaps with this re-alignment of resources will will be able to help foster people with new energy to allow church to truly be lived, to allow those houses of worship to be places that foster ministries that lead to true spiritual growth, true discipleship training, and preparation to share the good news as expressed in the birth, life, ministry, witness, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ and in the continuing presence of the Living Christ and the comforting and guiding of the Holy Spirit, that seeks to guide us to embracing our full potential of being reconcilers in a broken and tattered world.
Wow, all of this and my main point for this post was to reflect on my personal calling and mention the adventure EGLMC might be embarking on starting Saturday. Guess that will be another post for another time.
Peace,
— Lyle II
April 19th, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
Lyle,
Your posts are intriguing! I am not in the Community of Christ, but my wife and I are Baptists who feel a strong pull to the Restoration.
I like what you say about church not being just a meeting. I am a minister in training and community building at the congregation we attend is…well…an impossibility at this time.
Question: How does the Community of Christ congregations build community?
April 26th, 2008 @ 8:00 pm
Thank you for your comment, you pose an interesting question, and I am uncertain the answer and thus will need some pondering. Perhaps there is no clear, consistent answer to express how community is formed at the congregational or other levels, or if there is it might take an outsiders perspective to describe….