Dear Church:

In her book, Pursuing God’s Will Together, Ruth Haley Barton suggests there are three forms of prayer we must begin to master to discern God’s will and be present on the journey together with Jesus.

The first prayer is the prayer of quiet trust (p.42). In this form of prayer, we acknowledge our utter dependence on an utterly faithful God, and we seek to utterly trust in that utterly faithful God. We suspend the wrestling match gripping our hearts and minds and let go of the complexities of our personal questions in simple, confident acceptance. This is different from ignoring our questions and confusions – it is about releasing the questions and confusions that are seeking to choke out our faith in a faithful God. Often, the prayer of quiet trust is discovered in silence and solitude.

The second prayer we must begin to learn to discern the will of God is the prayer for indifference (p.42). This prayer is a bit like the concept of compassionate candor. We hear about “candor,” and we think it is about telling someone off. Not so. Just like compassionate candor begins with caring deeply enough so that we can challenge directly, so the prayer for indifference is not a prayer of not caring. The prayer for indifference is the action of surrendering to the will of God. Jesus in the garden on the night he was betrayed prayed the prayer for indifference (…not my will, but yours be done). This effort to will only that which God wills takes prayer that gives to God all that we are and all that we have. The prayer for indifference is the difference between quitting and yielding.

The third prayer necessary for becoming a discerning people is the prayer for wisdom (p.43). Too often my prayers for “wisdom” are prayers offered in the hope to manipulate God into agreeing with me. Surely, God knows that I know best. Without quiet trust in the utterly faithful God and indifference to our will, there will not be any wisdom forthcoming in the journey.

Our Anabaptist forebearers used the German word, “Gelassenheit” to describe this process. The word can be translated several ways: “serenity” “yieldedness” “letting be” or “submission.” Gelassenheit speaks to a condition of the soul that trusts the faithful God; that is indifferent to my need to do things my way; and is quietly seeking serenity by letting God be God.

Our Church Together effort needs this discernment of trust, indifference, and wisdom. One way we will offer growth in discernment, is to pray together on Sunday mornings in ways that focus on trusting the faithful God, being indifferent to our assumptions about what ought to be done in favor for how God directs what ought to be done, and seeking wisdom more than resolution in our prayer. Unless we pray in new ways, we won’t likely see the renewal we are hoping for in these next two years.

Let’s go pray, church!

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

PS Breakfast on Mondays (7:30-8:45am) at the A&N Diner and Coffee on Fridays (3:30-4:45pm) at the Broad Street Grind are opportunities for conversation. Hope to see you at one (or both) of those venues…

Dear Church:

I read a chilling statistic this week. 4,500 churches have closed in the USA in the last year. Imagine, every week in 2023, 86 churches closing across the nation. Imagine, a Mosaic conference sized number of congregations ceasing operations this Sunday. Now it isn’t all bad. While 4,500 churches closed across the USA last year, 1,000 new churches were launched. Oops. You do the math. Basically, we are losing a net of one church in the USA every 2.5 hours. In less time than it takes most of us to come to Blooming Glen Church, attend worship and Sunday School, and get home, another church has closed.

When I talk about “post Christendom,” I’m talking about the factors that create the conditions for this accelerating closure rate of churches in American society. Our message is no longer about Jesus – whose life and teachings, death, and resurrection, form the center of all we are. And God’s missionary vehicle, the church, is no longer about a place of radical grace and challenge to holiness. Instead, our message is either that anything goes, if only you are sincere, OR that there’s a long, rigid set of propositions that all must be affirmed to be welcomed. As for the church, in the absence of the Godly habits, practices, and virtues of grace, mercy, justice, and holiness, we have substituted a lack of tolerance for one another’s brokenness and make little accommodation for one another. Conformity has become more important than discovery.

Church Together is Blooming Glen’s effort to be different. We will, over the next two years, do everything we can to put Jesus, and not our ideological preferences, at the center of congregational life. We will focus on spiritual habits, practices, and virtues that invite us to be more reliant on the scriptures to shape our discipleship. We will be more radically candid with each other – caring deeply and challenging directly as well as more generous and inviting to our neighbors near and far. We won’t be able to afford to practice a “whatever” spirituality, nor will we be able to demand rock solid conformity to a preferred ideology.

My commitment to you is to keep Blooming Glen Church from becoming another chilling statistic. And so, I will do what I can to lead Blooming Glen to become a different sort of church: Focusing on the scriptures in ways that link God’s great story of redemption to our experiences of God’s grace. Caring for one another with compassionate candor. Practicing the art of neighboring. My existential dread in making this commitment is that some of you already find it too liberal. Others already find it too conservative. Still others do not appreciate how the program of ministry no longer belongs to the church staff but instead belongs to the people of the congregation who are unleashed by the power and calling of the Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s mission.

I’m so sorry I won’t be able to fix those things for you as your new lead pastor. Here’s what I will do: I will study, obey, and teach the Bible as best I can. I will do my best to care deeply for each of you, and to challenge you directly when necessary. I will invite and welcome anyone and everyone to Blooming Glen Church in their quest to discover and experience God’s saving and life-giving grace. If that’s too whatever, or not whatever enough, I am truly sorry. My commitments to the scriptures as the basis for discipleship, to radical candor as the way to healthy relationships, and to generous invitation as the best expression of God’s mission is the best of me, and it’s all I can offer you.

Let’s go, Church!

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

PS | Fridays, 3:30pm-4:45pm at the Broad Street Grind, is where you will find me drinking an Iced Red Eye. Mondays, 7:30am-8:45am at the A&N Diner, is where you will find me tucking into the two-egg combo. In both cases, I’m there to listen to whatever is on your mind. On Monday, August 5, we had an important conversation about the need to improve our livestreaming capabilities and strengthen our capacity for audio and visual teams to work more efficiently together. Come, join the conversation with whatever is on your mind.