Vision and Perspective

When I was in Israel, I stood next to the Wailing Wall. This is a structure that was part of the original wall of the Outer Courts of the Temple built by Solomon. This Temple was completed in 960 BC. That makes it almost three thousand years old. In comparison, as the Bishop said at one point, even 125 years doesn’t seem like so much. We’re 125 years young! Having said that, I think 125 years (or even 100) is a major milestone and accomplishment. It shows the faithfulness of a group of people who built faith communities where there had been none before, and kept them going against sometimes very powerful odds. That’s by no means an easy task.

The Bishop also built five points into his message that I want to expand upon for a moment. He listed five “lenses” that we need to view our heritage through, in order for there to be another of this kind of celebration in a few years.

The lens of Personal Holiness: The most important thing we can do to keep going and growing is to continue building our personal faith. God responds to the faithfulness of his children. It means being in worship, but also participating in worship. It means Bible studies and Sunday school classes, but it also means outreach and welcoming people into our gatherings. It means pressing into God for our personal growth, but it also means asking God what he wants to do in us and through us – both personally and corporately – and then doing it, whether we like it or not.

The lens of Excellence in Leadership: It means more than just “death by committee”. This is prayerfully putting the right people into leadership positions to make decisions, and prayerfully finding people who can share the vision for our continuing growth. It’s using the differing gifts that God has given each of us in the way that best serves God and the Church.

The lens of Stewardship: As the Bishop said; financial stewardship is vital to the life of the congregation. But stewardship is a lot more than monetary. Stewardship is supporting our congregation or congregations by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness. It is praying, attending, giving, ministering to others, and telling about what Christ has done for us. And giving is more than just money. It’s also about giving our time and our talent.

The lens of New Faith Communities: We are in a prime position to build new faith communities. Not planting new churches, but reaching out to the communities we’re surrounded by. Bible studies and home groups in Fairfield, Hailey, Dietrich… and working cooperatively with other faith traditions to build and strengthen the Body of Christ.

The lens of Youth: This doesn’t mean addressing our young people with “Yo, daddy-o, what’s the haps?” It means being willing to do whatever is necessary to make young people feel welcomed and accepted. This might be the hardest of all of them, because it means doing things we might not be comfortable with. Maybe it means hearing music that may not suit our personal taste. Maybe it means our worship services being a little more chaotic (I’m probably getting you used to that). We all have preconceived ideas of how “church” should look and sound. We need to let go of them. “Church” will never again be like it was when I was growing up. We can maintain and celebrate the heritage and the traditions, but we can’t let the heritage and traditions drive us.

You’ll notice that none of these seems to have any rose coloring. This ain’t gonna be easy. The hard work is really just beginning. We have to dance that fine line between reaching the folks who still need a church home and serving the folks who are already here. We need to make everyone feel welcome – young and old alike, while making sure nobody is entirely comfortable and complacent where they are.

I probably won’t be here for the next Centennial celebration of the Gooding, Shoshone, or Richfield congregations. It’s highly doubtful that any of us will be. But that shouldn’t stop us from pressing forward to ensure that there is another Centennial celebration. That shouldn’t stop us from doing whatever is necessary to reach out to these communities in the Name of Christ, and to try as best we can to bring people into this part of the Body of Christ.

Grace and peace. Pastor Dave

LOGIN:EDITPAGE |OFFICE