Pastoral Thought--September 16

 I am delighted to report that next week the Beaver Butler Presbytery will be hosting author and speaker, Susan Beaumont at Calvin Presbyterian Church. The committee which I chair at the presbytery has been working for over a year to bring Susan to our area. Covid tried to stop us, but we kept moving our timeline, kept thinking and dreaming, we kept praying, and the event will happen next week. 

We feel that her teaching and perspective are essential for the church as we continue to confront and address covid-19. But her work is not just only applicable to covid. I know many churches and colleagues who are living and operating in the space that she talks about in her book. A simple glance at the title of her book and you will begin to sense what excites us about Susan’s work and how applicable it is to the church. 

Her book is entitled: How to Lead when you Don’t Know Where You’re Going: Leading in a Liminal Season. I bought the book soon after we agreed to host her and have referred to it often. The book is a combination of teachings and anecdotes that mixes together well for the reader to sit with. 

One of my favorite sections in the book is when she begins to talk about The Voice of Fear. This is a voice that we are often confronted with not only at church but also when we are not together as the Body of Christ. She writes: 

"Fear wants you to believe in the worst possible outcome. The voice of fear shuts down the open will. It wants you to pursue the status quo as a safety net, and it likes to remind you of all the ways in which your self-interests will be damaged by surrendering to the unknown.” (The unknown in this sense, I take to mean God).

That is a powerful statement for us to consider as the church. And so I invite you first to re-read Susan’s words about the voice of fear. . . 

Fear is one of the hardest things to combat that we deal with. While fear kept us safe, so to speak, during covid-19’s lockdown. Fear also limits what the church can become as we move back out into the community and begin to once again share God’s redemptive message of hope and faith. Fear reminds us that that culture has shifted so much that there is no way for us to possible return to our place of cultural applicability and importance. Fear can keep the church from dreaming about what God and the church will do together when we meet our community on their terms. 

Now, I suspect that you have ben nodding along with me as you read these words. If that is the case, then consider the places where you have projected the voice of fear into? Consider the relationships, and the potential relationships, that could be created if you allowed God the space to move and ignored the voice of fear. 

I bet you would find some positive, powerful spaces and ideas popping up, when you push the voice of fear away. . .

Blessings

Rev. Derek