Patience

One of my favorite writers is Eugene Peterson. He has a chapter in his book The Contemplative Pastor he writes that pastors are called to pray, to be poets (in the sense of awakening imagination through words) and to be patient. If ministry belongs to the whole people of God, then this applies to all those who live the life of faith.

It's the patience part that's really been on my mind lately. Here's why. The church I served amalgamated with another church five years ago. For five years, we've been the proud owners of two massive buildings -- one the building we meet in, the other a beautiful, 150 Gothic structure in the downtown of the city. Several times we have almost had it sold, but then something happened and it all fell through. I was going through my prayer journals today and noting the number of times I had prayed "Lord, please send somebody -- anybody -- to relieve us of the burden of this huge building!" There are long gaps in those prayers -- times when I'd obviously grown tired of praying and wondered if it was doing any good.

Then, completely out of the blue, along came a congregation made up of African and Caribbean immigrants, a charismatic congregation with tons of faith and big plans, who managed to put together the financing and bought it as their new home. It didn't go to some sleazy developer who was going to desecrate it by breaking it up or tearing it down. It went to a vibrant, lively, wonderful congregation of Christians who will bring worship and prayer and service into the heart of the city.

It hit me so powerfully that the reason we had not sold the church, and that all of our prayers seemed to be going unanswered, is that the people whom God intended to have that church had not come along yet. It was a real lesson in spiritual patience -- in "praying and not losing heart" as Jesus put it.

I got a phone call yesterday from a young woman I assumed had moved away from town. I baptized her first child -- also about five years ago -- and all communication had gone unanswered. But, they have had another baby, and she described to me the roller coaster of sickness, crisis and upheaval she and her family have been going through. Then today, reading through my prayer journals, I noted several times where I had prayed for them.

So often we want to play the role of the Messiah -- the can-do guys who "get it done." When God is calling us to engage in the imagining of God's future and to pray, persistently, patiently.

That's such an important aspect of our ministry with and among those whom I have been calling "affiliates."

The Hope that is in us

I'm reminded that why I called this blog "the Untied Church." I'm constantly struck by two things at the same time -- the implosion of the structured institution that I grew up with; and the astonishingly real ways in which God shows up in people's lives. The church is very much alive an kicking -- but it's become "untied" from many of the things we once associated with church.

Sunday was the youth confirmation service at my church. Seven 14 and 15 year olds stood up and promised to turn away from their sins and give their lives to Christ. They're great kids and it moved me deeply to see them making this thoroughly countercultural move. I preached on Peter's admonition to always be prepared to give an account for the hope that is in you -- realizing that to give that account makes you a stranger in the strange land of contemporary culture.

But what really blew me away were our adult mentors. Like many churches, we do most of our confirmation preparation one-on-one with adult mentors. I get told all the time that I'm taking a terrible risk allowing teenagers to meet one on one with an adult -- but you know, I don't give a good you-know-what. We're really careful about who we invite to be mentors and every year I'm more confident that it's worth it.

The mentors stand up and present their teen to the congregation, describing who he or she is a person, his or her interests, talents, gifts.

But it was listening to the mentors speak from the heart about the faith they saw awakening in these young people that moved me almost to tears. It was their faith -- their willingness to give an account of the hope that is in them -- that was so powerful. At least two of our mentors spent years -- decades even -- away from the church. Several of them have had, to say the least, circuitous faith journeys with all kinds of twists and turns. But I saw God powerfully at work in them. Seven adults with amazing spiritual maturity and giftedness. All of them well under the average age of United Church members.

Our congregation is, in many ways, a shadow of its former self -- institutionally speaking. But the power of God is evident in so many lives that I think we haven't lost a thing. It's reminded me that the church belongs to God, and God in God's good time form the church that God requires.