Dear Blooming Glen Friends,
“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” – James 1:5
In the month of July, many of our adult Sunday School classes using the Salt & Light curriculum from MennoMedia will be studying the topic of reading the Bible with discernment and wisdom. In this next month, we will explore the question: How does the Bible communicate to us the possibility of order in a world of chaos?
Simply put, we ask God for order in the middle of chaos. When I feel the anxiety rising about something that isn’t going right, my first prayer isn’t for God to fix whatever it is that isn’t going right. My first prayer is to ask for wisdom – to seek to be calm and discerning in the face of chaos. To not let the adrenaline pumping throughout my body get the best of me, but to wait on the Lord, and let the storm pass.
Easier said than done. It’s not in our nature to be still and wait on the Lord.
That’s why we are working on identifying a set of discipleship habits at Blooming Glen. We want to find ways that empower us together to journey well with Jesus, and so, we’ve identified four important discipleship behaviors.
To live in greater reliance on the scriptures as our authority for life. To study, obey, and teach the truths of scripture to one another, to the next generation, and to those who do not yet believe Jesus is our ever present, ever faithful, Savior, Teacher, Friend, and Lord.
To embrace peaceful practices that enable us to grow spiritually. As we practice curiosity, discovery, engagement, dialogue, empathy, authenticity, and dignity in our relationship with God and our friendships with our neighbors, we discover personal and social transformation. Mennonite Central Committee offers a guide to such healthy interpersonal practices.
To practice radical candor as a way to love one another. To care deeply about one another, and to challenge one another directly when we have questions and concerns helps us steer away from the false idols of ruinous empathy, manipulative insincerity, and obnoxious aggression.
To hold fast to our confessions of faith. Our Anabaptist tradition has been making statements about what we believe to be important as a church for 496 years. To take time to read and re-read those statements in light of how we understand scripture is important. The most recent of these statements was formed in 2006 by the Mennonite World Conference. You can read that statement of shared convictions here.
Wisdom in chaos comes to us only when we are courageous enough to ask God for such wisdom. The wisdom we seek comes to us through the tools which God provides in the scriptures, in peacebuilding practices of spiritual growth, in radical candor of caring deeply and challenging directly, and in holding fast to our historic ways of articulating faith in confessional statements.
I pray our generous God continues to give us wisdom for the journey ahead.
Love you, Church!
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net
P.S. – I’m at the A&N Diner in Sellersville on Monday mornings, 7:30-8:45am, and at the Broad Street Grind on Friday afternoons, 3:30-4:45pm. I’m there to answer your questions, listen to your concerns, laugh (or cry) together. I look forward to seeing you at one of these meetups.