We’ve been talking a lot on Sunday mornings about being nimble, about transitions and being flexible during those transitions.
William Kincaid writes: “transitions take time. They involve reflection and intentionality. Every transition involves three phases: 1) an ending where things like a relationship, a job, a life, or a way of understanding has been brought to a close; 2) a neutral zone that surfaces everything from confusion and grief to clarity and anticipation; and 3) a beginning in which a new chapter of life opens.”
We as a church have been going through transition after transition for years, decades even. There is never any end to transitioning. The difference in our church is that we have been going through a rapid pace of major transitions routinely, and that is exhausting for us as a congregation.
We’re preparing to head into more transition, as we prepare to look toward our future, to restructure, to lead in Cheyenne in new ways, and to live out our faith in new ways. This is something we have talked about for a long time now and we know it’s coming. But the wilderness can be scary. But the wilderness can also be intentional.
“We tend to think of the wilderness as something to avoid, but if you will remember, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness.” We develop so many life-giving skills in the wilderness from having a keen eye for possibilities, to a scrappy temperament, to grit and persistence.
We are a church that’s dying. As much as it pains me to admit that, but the beautiful thing about recognizing this now is that we can be revived, we can be transformed, and we can live into God’s presence more fully. “God continually holds before us life and death, blessing and curse, and then encourages us to choose life, over and over, and to participate in its most abundant expression.” (Check out Deuteronomy 30:15-20.)
We are a church that’s on the brink of making a decision to choose life. And that is something to be thankful for.
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