Transitions

Photo by Jerry Gorman

During the past seven months I have engaged a season of discernment. After 25 years of pastoral ministry in two different congregations, I feel called to a differently-nuanced ministry practice. The phrase "transitional ministry" is now in vogue to describe what was once called "interim ministry". Leaders at all levels and in all denominations of Christian ministry have come to realize that "transitional ministry" is really what all congregations are facing. Changes in culture and technology are happening at an accelerated pace; and the question for mission and ministry is not, "Will we change?" but, "How will we change?"

A more basic question might be, "Will we get caught up in waves of change happening TO us, or will we, instead, seek to discern ways God is leading us to choose and lead change happening THROUGH us?"

Faithfulness to the gospel calling requires the ability to distinguish between the message and the method. The message remains the same, even as our understanding of it grows, via the intersection of our collective and congregational life's story with the Holy Spirit's inspiration. The method is the vehicle necessary to effectively deliver the message to our culture.

The gospel story is one of paradox. From the outside, especially when viewed through the lenses of intellect and logic, it seems quite contradictory. This is because it has a two-fold purpose.

On the one hand, it offers us all comfort in our afflictions. In all the circumstances where pain and suffering have broken us, the gospel offers its soothing balm of love and hope. I'm talking about the pain and suffering inherently built-into this unpredictable and often-unforgiving change-fest we call life, and the grief and hurt we inflict on ourselves, as well as the injuries we suffer at the hands of others. In ALL these afflictions, unconditional love and unbounded hope wrap us in a blanket of comfort, and a promise of healing and deliverance.

On the other hand, the gospel also afflicts us in our comfort. In all the places and ways where we have become complacent and have attempted to both domesticate the gospel and make it a proprietary text bowing to the reflection we see in the mirror, the gospel kicks back, goading us to a place of more humility and a table of larger community.

The twenty-first century call to faith in this particular culture – the USA in which we live –challenges us to mold the method so that it reaches the ears and hearts of hungry people with the message that transcends all times and methods. The therapeutic question for the paradox of our comfort and anxiety is, "Is our anxiety about the method or the message?" The former is a place where the Spirit offers comfort to soothe the affliction of our desire for convention. The latter is a truth challenging us to offer our own comfort to assuage others' affliction.

Carry on, confident that God is writing our next chapter with every bit as much love, hope, and grace as our past and present chapters contain.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins