This summer, our church sent two groups of people on intentional journeys. A group of youth and adults traveled to Montreat, NC for the Montreat Youth Conference which focused on Planting Peace. Another group traveled to Spain to walk a portion of the Camino Frances for eight days from O’Cebreiro to Santiago. At the heart of each of those trips was an invitation, an invitation to grow. Our youth didn’t just go to have a good time or hear about planting peace, as if there was just a set of information to gain. They were invited to open themselves up to the growing and becoming people who plant peace. The pilgrims who walked the Camino weren’t simply tourists, going to see the sites and take a lot of pictures They were invited to listen for the voice of the divine speaking as they walked in the footsteps of thousands of other pilgrims who have sought God’s presence along this path for over 1,100 years. One of the many things we celebrate about both trips is all of the stories the participants came back to tell us about their experiences. They confirmed for us that they not only accepted the invitation of the trips but grew and changed because they did.
We hear a similar invitation in our ministry as we head into the fall. The invitation is a question really: how do we want to grow? Whether they realized it or not, this was the question underlying the trips to Montreat and to Spain. How do we want to grow? Sometimes we are aware of the question and other times we live into it and realize how we have changed in hindsight. Either way, how we want to grow is at the heart of being intentional people of faith and being an intentional community together.
Of course, we could let the many demands and other choices take over our lives and never actually engage the question or our faith or search for God. With the busyness of the fall and the return to work and school routines looming, it can be so easy to get caught up in the momentum and go along with whatever others say is important.
But one of the things we love about church is that we are a church that doesn’t rest simply on being a church. We are a group of people who are in search of the sacred in our lives and in the world. We are a community who listens deeply for the movement of the Spirit in and among us. We are a church who responds to God’s work here and now, asking what is next for us. At the heart of all of that is our commitment to listen for God’s invitation and to respond in faithful ways. Our life together reminds me of a quote by Madeleine L’Engle: “I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, ‘This is what I believe. Finished.’ What I believe is alive…and open to growth.”
So, how do we want to grow as the new program year kicks off? We don’t wait to ask that question until we are already in the midst of everything else or until a new calendar year starts January 1st. We ask it now, as summer winds down, and we can reflect and be intentional about the choices we make moving forward into the fall. We ask it now, as part of our life together and our commitment to be a growing community for one another. We ask it now, as a central question of our participation in church and as people who want to know the presence of God more fully in our daily lives and embody God’s good news in the world.
How do we want to grow and how do we want to encourage each other to grow and discover God’s presence in the midst of their lives? Who could we invite to come and join us on this journey of faith into the future?
This newsletter is full of invitations and opportunities to grow in your faith and your relationship with God, one another, and the world. We hope you will join us as we discover God’s presence with us through our ministry and mission together!
See you in church! Chip & Tami