I just got off a zoom call with the Bethany Fellows, not just current fellows, but alumni, those who went through the process recently and those who graduated from the program ten years ago. What’s amazing is knowing just how differently we all come to this moment of being together from but also how we’re all here.
The topic of conversation? You guessed it. Lent. Easter. The whole nine yards of have you planned? No. Have you? Why, yes, I have. Our conversation easily lasted a couple hours of discussing the church in its current state, the changes the denomination is hoping to making but also the wonderful transformations that our individual congregations are going through—the journeys we find ourselves in the midst of.
It's rejuvenating to hear repeatedly that we’re not the only ones going through this.
Lent is naturally a time for self-reflection, as individuals but also as a congregation, which culminations in one of the greatest transformations and moments in our Christian faith—the resurrection, the revival, the change that threw us into another direction from the world full force.
We have been tottering on this ledge for a while, this do we change or do we die ledge as Bishop Spong put it so eloquently. We’re a church on the brink of something huge, not just First Christian in Cheyenne, but churches and denominations all across the US. We have to change or the church will die, and you know what? Within that process the church as we know it may die anyway. We may be reborn to look completely different than we do now.
But I have faith. I have faith because I’ve seen the leaders that God has grown up and put into positions of authority. I have faith because I’ve seen the passion and love for others that these people have. I have faith because Christ is not something worth losing, and more importantly, he’s worth sharing with the world.
I asked the elders this year to share their faith or invite someone to church, every single week. And you know what? The emails I get back are astounding in some ways that they are being creative in how to accomplish this. You should ask them about it. Let’s thrive for Christ’s church, for the future that Christ is building in us, together.