New Things Are Brewing

Your word is a lamp to my feet  and a light to my path.- Psalm 119: 105

If you’re anything like me, you would like to have a clear sense of what comes next. In fact, what comes next after that would be ideal. Actually, a view of the next five to ten years would be fabulous. 

Alas, this is not how the Holy Spirit works. Psalm 119 says that the Word (Jesus, John 1) is a light to our path. A light is needed when it is dark; it casts light enough to show us the next step or two. 

We have been seeking to live Proverbs 3: 5-6 with the merger, building use, and ministry together.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.– Proverbs 3:5-6

One of the challenges of every church and organization is doing things as we have done them. One of the challenges of faith is to be open to however God is leading next. Trusting is being open to how the Spirit is leading us to change. As they saying goes “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

So what new things are brewing? 

Dinner church “is a gathering of people during the week or the month for a meal and conversation around faith. The movement gets its inspiration from the early church and Jesus’ ministry through meals. An invitation to eat was an invitation to faith.” Leadership is exploring this as a new ministry, done in a way that fits who we are and how we can do this in partnership with others. 

Youth Ministry Rev. Caitlyn Gartland and I have had a beginning conversation about joint youth ministry with the Presbyterian Church. Our churches will need to spend time in discernment. If we decide to do youth ministry together, we will need to learn from the past about what did not work  because this is not the first time this has been done. We would need to work together on a clear vision for what and how we would do community wide youth ministry. We would need support from the whole church. 

Will either or both of these happen? There is only one way to find out: to walk down these paths and listen for the Spirit. The more we try new things, the more we learn about ministry, and how God is at work. We learn about the spiritual gifts of our church family. Every time we try something new, we do so in the Spirit of trust, and realizing we can only see the next step. And also - God is in it. 

“Best of all, God is with us.” John of Chrysostym. 

 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:1