Graduate 163: Five Reflections for the Church, Part 6

Interlude

I'm delighted to be able to continue this series, if only because it gives me a chance to set up this unusual situation--part six of a five-part series. Ha!

Since I am continuing this series, it might be a good idea to explain just where these reflections are coming from. The church that I am attending, Riverside Free Methodist Church, is currently going through a process designed to very intentionally move the congregation toward greater community engagement and outreach-mindedness. This is very much tied to a general desire to fulfill the great commission, but it is also a response to the recognition of an unfortunate long-standing pattern and trend among many churches away from strong community presence and involvement.

Back in January 2009, I began participating in a prayer team that our church put together for this process and began writing short letters to keep people updated on prayer needs and the latest goings-on of the process. The letters from the first few months focused on the prayer needs of our church, but as time went on, I began to incorporate small devotional reflections into those letters. Those reflections are what I have been editing and publishing in this series.

They are especially important to me because they represent my efforts to articulate what God's vision is for his people in a way that is biblically sound and that also connects with people. From the very beginning of this process, it has been important to me that we not treat this process as just another church program. What we're trying to accomplish is something much bigger.

Here's a passage from the first of these letters, published 13 January 2009, that basically captures my first take on what our church is doing:

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Throughout this past year, you've probably heard the pastors talking about the "Refocusing process." Various members of our church have been participating in the first phase of a process of reflection and vision-casting: looking at what God has done in the past and making informed decisions about the future. Phase two of this process will take place during 2009 and will engage our church community as a whole.

The exercise of "refocusing" is probably one with which you are very familiar, even if you have not gone through it in exactly the way that we are going through it now. At different times in our Christian lives, it is helpful and wise to stop and evaluate and reflect upon the condition of our walks with God. Doing so gives us the opportunity to see how far we have come, to look at how much we have grown, and to recognize how God has been working on our lives. Refocusing also gives us the opportunity to look to the future in an intentional and deliberate way. We can begin to identify areas where further growth is needed and we can listen and look for God's calling, seeking to understand what His will is for us and our future.

This same kind of process of reflection and refocusing, that is often so helpful for individual Christians, we are applying to our church community as a whole. How has God shaped us? What has God done through us in the past? How have we, as a community seen Him work? Also, what is our calling for the future? How can we continue to be at the center of God's will for us? What are the things that need to change? These are the questions that we want to bring before the church, this year, in a very deliberate way.

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God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.