A Word From David
Won’t You Be a Neighbor?
“Step into the pulpit with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” That’s an exhortation to preachers often attributed to Karl Barth, and its general wisdom is one reason that I rarely plan out preaching months in advance. You never know when the news of a Friday morning will require different words on Sunday morning than the ones you faithfully wrote on Wednesday morning.
There’s that, and, well, the fact that I am constitutionally incapable of keeping to such a plan if I found the discipline to make one.
But sometimes something in the life of a congregation compels me to reflect more on its common life for a few weeks at a time while reflecting a little less on the life of the wider world. This month is such a time for Western. As you prepare for calling your next long-term pastor, we’ll spend the next several weeks in worship (and in the adult education series) focusing on meeting that moment.
That next pastoral leader will be here soon, whether or not you’re ready. My role is to help you be ready.
What does that mean? Though it means way more things that we can take on in one month, to begin with it means:
Opening minds and hearts to the new thing God is doing in your midst right now, and developing the practice of such open minds and hearts for the new things that will unfold with new leadership.
Knowing the gifts of our particular way of being church, and understanding how to use the best of them, as well as understanding how to draw on the best of your own history as one expression of that larger church.
Understanding how we discern broad callings together as a community shaped by that particular way of being the church.
Embracing a practice of letting go.
We are always the church in the world, so spending four weeks examining ourselves, our systems and structures, our discerning, does not mean ignoring the world around us. At our best, all of our structures and discerning aim at being the best neighbors we can be.
So maybe the next four weeks will sound like an introduction to the art of being neighbors. Come and see.