When
my sister told my dad she was pregnant, she made sure I was there. I don’t know
what
This morning, standing before all of you, the fate of my sister that quiet evening
feels quite real. See…. “I’m having a church.”
This
wasn’t the plan, of course. I imagined myself settled down as the solo pastor
of a quiet mountain town church by now. I would live in the parsonage, do story
time at the local library, and go hiking on my lunch hour. That was my plan. Except, something happened. No
one told me I needed to protect my plan. A few days ago, a friend sent me a
Bonhoeffer quote that read ‘we must be ready to allow ourselves to be
interrupted by God.” I wish someone would have told me this two years ago. I would
have ignored Dick Hanson when he regularly sought my advice regarding the 9.5
acres of land the Conference purchased 20 years ago under the leadership of
Rev. Margaret Hankins in Southeast Aurora. “I don’t know, Dick…” I would have
said.
I
wish someone would have warned me that there are people, young people,
unchurched people, out in our community that are desperate to believe; to
believe in a new beginning, a sacred space, a welcoming community. I would have
kept my mouth shut. But I didn’t. We gathered together and I as the dreamer
found over time that to others these were not dreams at all, but plans. And now
here I am, hands shaking, eyes tearing up, telling you that I am unexpectedly
expecting the birth of something completely unpredictable; a new faith
community.
I
don’t know what the right way to birth a new faith community should be but I’m
not sure anyone does anymore. From 1945 to 2001 more than 60 churches were
started in what is now the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Methodist
Church. That averages out to one church a year. In the last 13 years, however,
our Conference has started only two new faith communities. In our three state
conference, over the past 13 years, the average of churches we used to start
each year has become the number of churches we close each year. No wonder our
plans are concrete, our visions so scarce…we, whether we are aware of it or
not, are preparing for retirement not pregnancy.
My
dad wasn’t excited about my sister’s little dinner announcement not because he
was worried about public appearance or neighborhood rumors but because he loved
her and wanted the best for her life. As a man thrust into parenthood with no
college degree in his early twenties, my dad knew more than any of us at that
table how hard her life was going to be as a single mom. He was not angry with
her, he was afraid for her. He wanted something for her, he had not had, an
easier way.
JK
Rowling writes that soon we will all have to choose between what is easy and
what is right. Will we retire or will we give birth? The hardest thing for us,
as people of faith, is trusting that the unexpected, the unplanned, is the best
for our lives not because it will be easy but because it will give birth to new
life in all of us. With the support of the Rocky Mountain Conference, Pastor
Don Bird, and Hope’s Administrative Council, over the next six months I will be
inviting Hope Church to hear the story of this seed of a church we have come to
know as The Land….and if you fall in love, as I have, with all that may become,
perhaps we will find ourselves holding hands in the great sanctuary of labor
and delivery in a field filled with cows in southeast Aurora.
If you would like to learn more about the mission, vision, and possibility for Hope UMC in the role of this new faith community's development I invite you to learn more about by visiting the link below and registering for one of the upcoming informational sessions: http://www.hopechangeslives.org/the-land
