Pastoral Thought--June 17

Good morning Church Family,

This morning I was sitting in the prayer chapel in the woods thinking about a lot . . . 

As many of you may know, I listen to a lot of podcasts each day. Some on preaching. . . some on sports (yes even Soccer!). . . and some of my podcasts are news based. They all come together to help me shape my world and interests, and hopefully, the more I listen and think, the more I grow as a person. So there I was sitting in the woods, thinking, and remembering what I just listened to. I was trying to make sense of the world I was living in and locating how God is at work in our community. It felt like trying to identify, and lock-in, on a moving target. The longer I sat, the more confused and bewildered I felt. I went to the chapel for hope and I left unchanged. . . Have you been there recently?  

Retired US Army General Stanley McChrystal was tasked with “winning the war on terrorism” by President Bush. This was not a small ask of him and his forces, but it was a job he embraced passionately. As part of his work, McChrystal realized that he needed to get people across departments, and military divisions, talking more frequently. They needed more interaction, more sharing, and more data. They needed to share all that they knew so that, together, they could pool their resources and find a way forward in Iraq. So he set out to redesign the military in a way that was more collaborative and adaptable. At the end of the road, Gen. McChrystal was successful in bringing about resolution to the war in Iraq before being transferred to Afghanistan to attempt to duplicate his results. 

At the end of this his time in Iraq, he realized something that I think is applicable to the church as we continue to work through covid-19 and all the social unrest that lives outside of the church’s building proper. It is the same thing that I thought about sitting in the chapel this morning. He wrote: 

"Big Data will not save us because the same technological advances that brought us these mountains of information and the digital resources for analyzing them have at the same time created volatile communication webs and media platforms, taking aspects of society that once resembled comets and turning them into cold fronts. We have moved from data-poor but fairly predictable settings to data-rich, uncertain ones."

We can have all the data we want. We can understand every aspect of what is taking place inside and outside the church. But if we do not have a way to take that learning back to God, to spend time with God, and listen to God, then we will still find ourselves living in uncertain times with uncertain results. This makes me wonder about how you address those same moments in your day? You may feel confused, bewildered, and unable to lock-in on the subject. Perhaps the answer is not more data or more reading, but more time with God. . .  

Blessings

Rev. Derek