June 2009
Dear Friends,
What a Sunday we had last week! If you missed our Pentecost picnic and rededication of the columbarium, you missed a beautiful day and wonderful fellowship on the lawn. Special thanks go to all who made it possible – from those who were on the committee to those who worked on our grounds to those who brought food for a delicious meal!
The same Spirit moving in the lives and memories of those whose ashes rest here hasn’t stopped. As a church, we are at a stage of scouting out what new things the Spirit is doing among us. A compelling fable describes a group journeying together through the woods. They had a dependable map. Every time they needed to get somewhere, they would look at the map, follow the path, and without too much disagreement, arrive at their destination. The group enjoyed traveling together, and usually got where they needed to go.
One day, the path stopped at a clearing that wasn’t on the map. The group looked around and saw several paths leading out of the clearing, but wasn’t sure which one they would need to take. The map no longer made sense; the old directions no longer worked. The people were going to have to find new ways to get where they needed to go, so that they could continue to share the joy of the journey.
We at Nauraushaun – at mainline churches everywhere – have come to such a clearing. Changing times, changing generations, changes in our own “traveling group” mean that much about the maps we’ve always used as a church will no longer take us where we need to go – as a vital church that seeks to be both deeply spiritual and focused on mission. We to need consider the directions ahead, not just where we want to go, but where God’s Spirit is moving in us and in our larger community.
Our session has approved Nauraushaun’s participation in “The Clearing,” a group of five churches from around our presbytery who are using a common process of seeking what God is doing, in our church, and in our community. Sarah Chauncey, Kathleen Fahmi, Juli Schaefer, and Jim Uleman have agreed to serve as our guiding team, meeting together and with teams from the other churches. This summer they will be conducting listening interviews, asking some members of our congregation and community to share their stories of their experiences of God. This process will continue for the next eighteen months; you will hear more about it from the group and from me, as we continue to grow in our awareness and understanding of our needs and challenges.
Leadership in these times requires different skills. All of us pastors participating in The Clearing will go through our own process, identifying our own areas of focus. Our session has also endorsed my pursuit a Doctor of Ministry degree in Church Planting and Transformation through Columbia Seminary in Atlanta, a process that will allow me to study churches with other pastors on similar journeys, but will also require me to work with our church to implement a project that reflects what I’ve learned. My continuing education time will go towards two-week seminars over the next four or five years, and culminate in the final ministry project; although I will be doing the academic work, as one session member said, we will all be in this process together. The first seminar will be July 5-19, and I look forward to “reporting back” on July 26.
This degree work is a great opportunity for scouting, for seeing how God is at work, and to discern where God is calling our church to follow new trails. The prospects are exciting, and as any unknown trail, a little daunting. I am grateful for each person among us as we continue on the path. Thanks be to God that we are not on the journey by ourselves, but that we follow One who walks with us, all by the power of the Spirit.
Grace and peace,
Laura
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