A Word From David
Things don’t always work out as we plan, but things do work out. Eventually.
This week has been reminding me of that in both personal and corporate ways.
As some of you know, I have been in Richmond this week for a scheduled house concert featuring our friend David LaMotte. We were excitedly anticipating about 30 folks in our RVA house, including our grandson who falls asleep many nights listening to David’s album of kids songs.
Alas, just after lunch I got a call from David saying he and his 16-year-old son, Mason, who was traveling with David on a 7-concert tour, were stuck in a parking lot in Harrisonburg with a starter that wouldn’t start. David and I chatted throughout a long afternoon. We took a lot of deep breaths. We shared some hopes, and then the gradual realization that our plan was not going to unfold as we had imagined. David’s car wasn’t going to start, and the show was not going to go on.
As that conversation was unfolding, I was keeping the expected guests apprised of the situation. I let them know that their tickets would all be refunded immediately, but that we had snacks and drinks and a whole bunch of talented musicians in the anticipated audience, and would welcome everyone to come on out and bring their instruments along. In the end, we had more than 20 people, three guitars, a mandolin, and some small percussion. We wound up spending a couple of hours sharing songs and stories, and welcoming David via video chat. He sang a song from the parking lot, and we shared a couple with him before he went back to his business of getting his car taken care of.
We had a completely different evening than we planned, but we had a spirit-filled, joyous time of community connection and creativity, which is what we were aiming for in the first place.
I was thinking about that Wednesday afternoon as I tuned in to the deliberations of the International Engagement committee of the denomination’s General Assembly. I’m a GA junkie going back more than 20 years. I have attended more of them than I have missed. I’ve been a commissioner, an overture advocate, a volunteer, an advocacy group staffer, and an observer.
I’m not a fan of the post-covid manner of our gathering. I do not believe it fully serves the church. I think we are missing an ongoing witness opportunity for the sake of saving money.
It’s not what the church planned when we envisioned general assemblies in the beginning, nor when we scheduled particular ones like this summer’s.
On the other hand, I tuned in Wednesday afternoon just in time to listen to powerful testimony from advocates for an overture on confessing our complicity in Christian Zionism. In little more than 10 minutes, a group of overture advocates articulated the history of Christian Zionism and its present theological and political implications. It was a striking moment that our reliance on technology made widely available even in a condensed assembly where little actual assembling will happen.
All of this suggests to me that as the next few months unfold for the church at Western we recognize that this is not what y’all imagined a few years ago or maybe even a few months ago. Things have not worked out as you planned.
But things do work out. Letting go of regret, disappointment, and recrimination opens space for embracing what does emerge as things work out differently than imagined. My hope for the church at Western is that this brief season will offer you a chance to take a deep breath, let go of a past that you cannot change, and open yourselves to a future that you and God can build together at Western.