Acts 8:26-40
Not Hindering God
James Sledge April
29, 2018
Gathering those
who fear they’re not enough, so we may experience grace, renewal, and wholeness
as God’s beloved. This
new “missional mandate,” that has been printed in our bulletins for about two
months now, was developed by Session through a long process that began with
last year’s Renew Groups.
Session
took the feedback from these groups and created synopsis of what we heard. It
spoke of a culture that tells us to be more productive, more athletic, more
studious, etc. It spoke of people feeling stressed, tired, and harried. It
suggested that we needed to remind ourselves of what we already know. God loves
us just as we are.
The
synopsis then wondered what this might mean, suggesting, “Perhaps we are called
to be a church for recovering perfectionists, of Sabbath keepers. A place where
we can rest, where we are enough, where we are fully known, where we are wholly
and completely loved by God, and where we can experience true joy.”
Last
summer, we presented this synopsis to the congregation, with listening sessions
after worship for people to tell us their thoughts, to let us know if we had
heard the feedback from the Renew Groups
correctly. Overwhelmingly, the answer was “Yes.”
With
the synopsis confirmed, Session held a Friday evening, Saturday retreat where we
joined in fellowship, worship, and work on a missional mandate. We listened for
the Spirit, and over time, the mandate emerged, Gathering those who fear they’re not enough, so we may experience
grace, renewal, and wholeness as God’s beloved.
I
mentioned in the sermon a couple of weeks ago that further work by Session has
identified several strategy areas where we hope to live into this new mandate,
areas with much deeper meaning than their shorthand titles indicate: Gather, Deepen, Share.
It has taken a great deal of work to get
us to this point, but the most difficult work is just beginning. We must figure
out how to live out our mandate. What sorts of programs and ministries will
help us Gather, Deepen, and Share? No
doubt some current activities will, but we will also need new ministries and methods.
And that inevitably will require letting go of some old ones. We can’t become
something new doing exactly what we are doing now.