Sights and Insights
Devotion for Oct. 1, 2024
Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. – Ephesians 4:1-3 (CEB)
I am part of a weekly book study group with a few other pastors from the New Jersey Synod. This fall, we are reading the book How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You are Going by Susan Beaumont. The book is about the way that the role of religion in America is changing, and it is not clear where those changes are headed. Because of this, the ways that churches have functioned successfully in the past no longer work. Yet we do not yet have a clear picture of what the next phase of the church will be. We are in a time between eras. The structures and needs of the past era are different from what the structures and needs will be in the next era. We know what the past was, but we the future direction is not yet visible. We are in between times, or in a “luminal state” to put it more technically. Being the church in an in-between time requires different approaches than what is needed in stable times.
The chapter from this past week was the one that all of us agreed was the most surprising of the book. It argues that each congregation has its own soul. Soul here does not mean mission or spirituality or culture. Rather, it has a sort of essence of what is core and authentic to who that congregation is. The congregation may change over time, leaders come and go, members more or less active, programs shift, but the soul lies underneath these things. It is the essence of who God created the congregation to be. When things are done in line with that soul or intentional work is done to cultivate the spiritual depth of that soul, the decisions and life of the congregation feels authentic. When a congregation feels authentic, it draws people in whose spiritual sensibility matches that authentic spirituality of the congregation’s soul.
I do not think I agree with the choice of the word “soul” for what the author is describing, but I think that it is true that each congregation has something to it that is authentic to the essence of that congregation. It is not about specific activities or spiritual practices. It has to do with who God created the congregation to be and how the congregation is then able to respond faithfully to God’s leading. What would you describe as being part of the essence of who our congregation of St Matthew is? This is not about what activities are cherished or even things like worship styles. There is something deeper that God does through the congregation that is core to who we are and what draws people closer to God through the congregation. How would you describe this essence or core?