Dear Church:

When it’s all said and done, there may be only three kinds of churches. Congregations, regardless of denominational affiliation will self-select into one of three categories. First, there are “memorial churches.” Memorial churches generally believe that their best days as a church were in the past. Memorial churches likely used to be bigger, multi-generational, and today see to it that they maintain the finances and facilities of previous generations of generosity with care and with an eye toward conservation.

A second form of church could be labeled as, “maintenance churches.” These churches believe that things right now are as good as it gets, and so preserving what is becomes the mission-critical nature of being the church. Maintenance churches strive to keep members happy. Programs involve rehearsing Christian values. Worship is a production. Service in the neighborhood is a means to feel good about the congregation.

Memorial and maintenance churches are transactional churches. If you will but pray (and pay), then the church staff will provide you with a positive experience.

There are likely times and seasons for each congregation to refocus on memorializing what has been, or maintaining what is.

For Blooming Glen, on this Pentecost weekend, now is not that time.

Our pastoral search committee, congregational leadership board, and elders have reached a new consensus. Maybe without recognizing fully what they signed on for, our church leadership: search committee, CLB, and elders, have cast our collective lot with reanimating Blooming Glen as a “movement church.” The leadership believes the best days are yet to come. The leadership invites us toward a new passion for the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Our leadership has staked a claim in being on the lookout for new and creative ways to live out the mission of God, across the street and around the world. Our leadership is banking on new footholds for ministry within the culture to sharpen our focus on Jesus, depolarize our partisan politics, and find new wisdom in this strange new world. Our leadership has declared that church is likely going to become uncomfortable, and not very safe or simple for the foreseeable future. Blooming Glen is seeking to turn the clock back 270 years, and once again live as pioneers in new place.

In short, leadership at Blooming Glen has chosen to double down on the transformational character of Pentecost, and that the Holy Spirit will move in our midst over the next number of years in at least three ways:

To draw us into an embrace of spiritual habits and practices that fuel new core ministries that curate deep worship, that call us to thriving community care, and that guide us into truly missional service.
To expect our ministry staff to reimagine their work from program managers who facilitate religious transactions to a vital team of Jesus-led, Spirit-filled coaches who are led to build trust, character, and capacity so that the church at Blooming Glen is constantly reforming itself into an intergenerational and intercultural missionary community.
To become permanently vigilant, on the lookout for new leadership (mostly home-grown) to capably guide the church into what’s next.

This is not a two-year process. It may not even be a ten- or twenty-year process. But, seriously, isn’t the quest for transformation more appealing than the transactional ways of being church?

Our core ministries, our leadership systems, our elders, and our staff are all in agreement that, 1) we don’t know for sure where a transformational emphasis on being a movement church will ultimately take us; and 2) we sure do want to find out.

Welcome to Pentecost 2024,

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. I’m back from outer space (aka, England, and California). Coffee and Conversations resume at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, May 17 at 3:30pm-4:45pm. Oatmeal, Omelettes, and Observations resume at the A&N Diner on Monday, May 20, at 7:30am-8:45am. These are your times to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and make your voice heard in the dialogue. If you can’t make those times, come see me about other times that might work for you to be heard. Thanks!

Dear Church:

On Western calendars, today, May 9, 2024, is the 40th day since Easter Sunday. It’s Ascension Day. It’s the day memorialized in Acts 1.1-11 and Mark 16.14-20. For the past forty days, Jesus had been presenting himself alive, speaking about the Kingdom of God, and promising a new baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now, something new happens. Jesus leaves. Now he ascends. The disciples had to be gobsmacked by Jesus. As if the events of the past eight weeks – from the resurrection of Lazarus to the upper room to the cross to the empty tomb all were not enough, now Jesus abruptly departs.

Transformation is, like Jesus’ moment of ascension, the culmination of a three-strand cord of action and reflection. First, there is the on-going progression of events, full of wonder: mystery, microaggressions, tragedy, conflict, betrayal, and even comedy. In short, the stuff of life. Jesus and his disciples shared life together in those eight weeks from the decision to go up one more time to Jerusalem until the ascension. Second, along with everyday life comes an emerging vision for something more, something different, something else. Jesus points to the vision all along the way – raising Lazarus, washing feet, mandating love, giving himself up for an unjust arrest, a sham trial, and a hideous public execution. He kept pointing to a new vision in conversations with Thomas and Peter. Jesus wasn’t content to just forgive individuals of their sins by dying on the cross. Part of the purpose of the atonement was to lay the foundation for a redeemed and beloved community. Which leads to a third strand of the cord of Jesus’ action and reflection. For the church to be the new people of God, a global, intercultural people, the Holy Spirit had to come. A spirit to guide an intercultural church that, two millennia later, spans the globe.

Transformation is about attention to the everyday reality of what is, while articulating a new vision for what can be, while being shaped by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Search Committee, the CLB, and the Elders have brought forward a call to transformation at Blooming Glen. In doing so, they were acting consistent with Conference Minister Steve Kriss’ call to Blooming Glen in February 2022. My prayer for these last 2+ years is that Blooming Glen can find a way to transformation out of the morass of post-Christendom, the polarizing hostilities that emerged in global pandemic, and the loss of wisdom in a culture full of knowledge. To get to transformation, Blooming Glen will need to ascend – not into some ethereal heavenly utopia – but into a community that lives as everyday citizens of God’s kingdom, focused on a vision for future of peaceful practices and radical candor, and waiting on the Holy Spirit to empower us for what’s next.

Easter has come. Ascension is here. Pentecost awaits. Are you ready?

May the Holy Spirit come with fire, joy, and boldness,

Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. I’m back to Pennsylvania, but I have a brief duty to perform in California. A good friend from my first pastorate out of seminary, Marvin Brandt, passed away last week at the age of 99. 25 years ago, I promised him and his family that I would be there to lay his body to rest and release him to glory. Sunday night, May 12, I’ll fly back to California for his memorial service, which will be on Monday. I’ll return Tuesday afternoon, May 14. So, Coffee and Conversation at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, May 10 and May 17, 3:30pm-4:45pm. Oatmeal and Observations, resumes on Monday, May 20, 7:30am-8:45am, at the A&N Diner. These are opportunities for any and all of y’all to talk with me about anything on your mind. If those times don’t work, please reach out to me, and we’ll find a time that works for you.