Dear Blooming Glen Friends, 

Believe it or not, there are only six weeks left in 2023.  It’s been a pivotal year at Blooming Glen as the congregation continues to look at the future with growing strength.  It remains such a great privilege to serve with you in the transitions you are going through. 

As the year-end holiday season of Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas approach, it seems a healthy practice to take a moment and ask, “What brings you joy?”  What are the ways in which God is at work in you to transcend the world as it is with the promise of the world God intends for us to ultimately inhabit?  Joy isn’t just a spirit of happiness brought about by your team’s regular season record (take this axiom from a Dodgers fan – your team can win 100 games, and you are still disappointed at the end of the season).  Joy runs deep.  It is a gift from God.  It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit – the harvest that occurs because we walk in the Spirit daily in life.  Joy’s source isn’t our ability to be happy – it is the Gospel message alive in us; it is the resilience of a life lived in reliance on the scriptures; and it is fellowship of God’s people surrounding us.  

Joy isn’t a denial that there is pain and suffering in the world.  Joy is the realization that even in the middle of terrible pain, God is at work in our souls. God is at work, taking us out of passive and obnoxious complacency, and leading us into an active caring, courageous, and honest pursuit of God’s amazing grace in our lives. 

I know it seems counter-intuitive to suggest the possibility of joy when there is active warfare in Gaza, Ukraine, and Yemen. It seems counter-intuitive when there is conflict and violence in Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Sudan and the South Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Türkiye, Nagorno-Karabakh, Myanmar, plus India and Pakistan.  It is counter-intuitive to suggest the possibility of joy when a seventy-year-old crisis on the Korean peninsula continues, when China and Taiwan are close to war, when the USA and Iran continue to confront each other, when Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq are all unstable. As I write this, well over ½ of the world’s population is at immediate risk of war, famine, deprivation, and civil strife.  

It may be easier to turn away and stop looking.  To give up and wait passively for the Second Coming. 

But, sisters and brothers, there is no joy in passivity.  The way to joy is to labor for peace.  To get on our knees daily and plead with God for global reconciliation.  To give out of God’s generosity to us, so that others have food, clean water, medicines, and a civil infrastructure to deliver these resources.  To write letters, lobby congressional representatives, and petition our government to work to end violence around the world. To train ourselves and the next generations in the ways of Gospel-based peacemaking. 

This holiday season, I pray that I will stop wringing my hands about how awful the world is, and start working with my hands and feet, and heart, and head, for the world as God intends it to be – one where we who follow Jesus make sure that everyone has enough. 

The future is God’s gift to us as the platform for joy to blossom.  In these final six weeks of 2023, looking ahead to what’s next, may we continue to live with God’s promise of joy. 

Thanks for being the church,
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

PS – I’m at the Broad Street Grind this Friday, November 17, 3:30-4:45 pm.  I’m at the A&N Diner Monday, November 20, 7:30-8:45 am.  These are times for listening to whatever is on your mind.  On Friday, November 24, Lord willing, I’ll be strolling the halls of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, enjoying a brief Thanksgiving celebration with Debbie and her brother, Bob, who will be coming from his home in Kansas City for a brief visit.

Dear Blooming Glen Friends,  

We planned for a quick, three-session introductory study on the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (1995), to work on our identity as part of the Mosaic Pathways process.  As the third week came to end, participants asked for a fourth week.  And wow!  That was a lively discussion between sisters and brothers with different points of view. It was also a conversation among people who clearly love each another, and clearly seek reliance on the scriptures as the authority for faith and life.  It also included folks who were as passionate about baseball after the study, as they were about the scriptures during the study! 

So, we’re extending the introductory study on the Confession of Faith for at least another week.  Join us this Sunday, November 12, 6:45 pm in the Glen Adult classroom for further conversation and discernment about how this confession of faith guides our life together as we seek to follow Jesus daily in life.   

Extending this three-week test course into a five (or six?) week learning community begs a question.  Is there an appetite in the congregation for a continuing Sunday evening study group?  Topics we might continue with could range from Anabaptist history and beliefs to bible studies on various books or themes in scripture.  We could focus on the issue of baptism and church membership, or our congregational discipleship values or on exploring what’s going on in our culture or how to learn from the global church.  In short, the sky is the limit. 

And the best part … I don’t need to lead every event.  There are capable teachers other than me at Blooming Glen, and with technology, we could have people from anywhere in the world bring us high-quality teaching. 

If I get twenty-five affirming responses by Thanksgiving to the idea of participating (in person or virtually) in such a Sunday evening group, I’ll put a proposed outline together, send it out, and we’ll modify it together, with plans to launch a Sunday evening study group in January (email responses to jeff@bgmc.net, phone message to Gretchen in the church office at extension 101, or text message directly to me).   

One of our discipleship values is to embrace a set of peaceful practices: curiosity, discovery, engagement, dialogue, empathy, authenticity, dignity, and transformation.  In this Sunday evening study group, we can work at a variety of issues that puzzle and perplex us as a congregation, while learning how to do the peaceful practices that lead to deeper discipleship in following Jesus together. 

Let me know what you think, church.  I look forward to more conversation … 

Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

 PS -  I’ve been out of the office this week.  I’ve had the privilege this week of participating in a seminary accreditation site visit in Michigan.  I’ll be at the Broad Street Grind this Friday, November 10, 3:30-4:45 pm to listen to whatever is on your hearts and minds.  I’ll be back at the A&N Diner on Monday, November 13, 7:30-8:45 am to listen to whatever is on your hearts and minds.  If neither of those times work for you, please reach out to Gretchen (church extension 101).  She’s empowered to find time in my schedule when folks from the church want to talk.  I want to listen – to hopes, concerns, joys, ideas, dreams, whatever … let’s get together. Thanks!