Pastor’s Pen | September 2022
People of New Journey,
The Congregation Council has noticed a longing to feel grounded and connected amid a changed church and world. Through conversation and reflection, council members have identified a vision of “getting rooted again” and invite the community of New Journey Lutheran Church to live into this vision over the next months.
At a recent Christian Education meeting, when I shared this vision, one person asked: “I wonder if it’s possible “to get rooted again’ when the world has dramatically changed? Can we be rooted when there is no going back to the way things were?” A brilliant and wise question.
We know there is no “going back” to the way things were before March 2020. Our world has changed. The church has changed. Our lives have changed. Perhaps “getting rooted again” is less about “going back to the way things were” and more to do with discovering God’s desires for our lives and future? Though the world has changed, God’s steadfast love for us and all of creation has not. God continues to lead and guide. God is present and steadfast and faithful. God is dreaming up a future for us and our community. The question is, how do we listen for and perceive God’s dreams and desires?
One way of listening for God is to engage spiritual practices that work for our particular gifts, passions, and rhythms. Practices that open us to the movements of the Holy Spirit in and around us. These differ from person to person, but the intent is to perceive and participate in God’s desires for our lives and communities.
Starting in September, in an effort to “get rooted again”, we will pray a ‘prayer of discernment” in worship. This is a specific prayer for wondering about God’s desires for New Journey Lutheran Church and for individual lives. It’s a prayer that will invite us to reflect and dwell and be still. It’s a prayer that, hopefully, will contribute to our shared interest in “getting rooted again”.
Our world has changed. We have changed. Yet God remains faithful and steadfast. Let us be rooted, then, in God’s desires and hopes for our lives.
Keep the faith, beloveds. Trusting that it is faith which keeps us.
Pastor Beth