This is a time of year for lots of decisions. Families are making holiday travel plans. Dinners and celebrations are being scheduled. And so it is in the life of the church as well.
Our pastoral staff are planning the Advent worship events that will, God willing, touch lives at a time when they are particularly tender and open to the Spirit’s leading. Our stewardship committee is putting together a 2010 proposed budget for presentation to the congregation. Our nominating committee is seeking to staff boards and committees with people genuinely called and gifted for particular tasks within our shared ministry. And we have ongoing searches to fill two important staff positions.
Over the years I have found that the mystical and the mundane dimensions of the church’s life do not always easily coexist. On the one hand, the church is the supernatural Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). Christ is our head, and we are members of his body, filled with his Spirit, called and equipped to make his love present and visible here on earth. As part of Christ’s body, we have common values, common commitments and a deep and permanent unity with one another. On the other hand, the church is a human organization, made up of disparate individuals with different life experiences, distinct temperaments, and sometimes, sharply contrasting ideas about the directions our life together should take.
Like other human organizations, we make plans, create and raise budgets, and deploy paid and volunteer staff. Sometimes it seems that we are more prone to disagreements and bruised feelings than folk in businesses and other secular organizations, and because we are followers of the Prince of Peace, that leaves us confused and ashamed. But our convictions and our emotions are strong precisely because our life together in the Body of Christ is of supreme importance.
Remember that Christ himself fully shared our human experience. He wept and grieved and rejoiced. His disciples were, by turns, faithful, confused, courageous and afraid. Sometimes they didn’t understand Jesus; sometimes they didn’t understand one another (Mark 10:35-41). But God has willed to accomplish his purposes by coming among us in human flesh, and by working with us and through us. This is what we mean when we talk about the Incarnation (God made flesh).
Because the church makes Christ and his redeeming love present and visible on earth, as we make decisions about our congregational life and our personal participation in it, we are walking on holy ground. As the old hymn says, “I gave, I gave My life for thee, What hast Thou giv’n for Me?” As you respond to our 2010 pledge appeal; as you respond personally to an inquiry from the nominating committee, or perhaps offer yourself prayerfully for a role in our congregational life; as you offer your thoughts on the church’s ministry opportunities and directions to your pastors and to your brothers and sisters in the Body, I pray that the love of Christ, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and the zeal of the Apostles will move you and guide you, and all of us together!
Dr. David L. Wheeler