At our annual meeting on March 18 we approved a listening and planning process for Union Church. The church of Jesus it seems is always found standing smack in the middle of the crossroads of history and Union Church is no different. Changing social conditions call to us with new opportunities to demonstrate love and hope. Growing and changing membership means needed changes to how we function, and with whom. And how to sustain that powerful, loving witness financially and with good people is, was, and continues to vary and shift.
What doesn’t change, however, is the need for a strong, skilled, faithful group of Christian followers. Call it what you will: church, service organization, movement, or philosophy, the followers of Jesus at their best have been stepping into the gaps to make life more bearable and God’s love more visible.
They have done that at enormous personal and institutional sacrifice to found hospitals, and drug clinics; to send workers to bear witness against unjust violence, and to learn with neighbors “how to fish” and so all our lives might be richer.
For all its many shortcomings, any church worth the effort is filled with followers of Jesus’ way: teach love, practice peace, give of yourself, be ready to lose your way in order to find hope for someone else, and expect nothing but a better “kin-dom” in return.
Stepping into the breach of our cultural divisions, followers of Christ affirm an essential unity. Bridging the gap even between life and death is where we have always been found, and where I assert Union Church needs to remain. It will never feel sufficient to merely build more perfect worship spaces or sing more perfect anthems if we are not also using the best of our talent and intellect to be “repairers of the streets to live in,” (Isaiah 58:12).
My high school drama club had a tradition of a circle formed before every performance. Having rehearsed, prepared as well as we could, gotten dressed, tuned our instruments or warmed up our voices, just before the play began we would pause, take stock, and then say together, “Into the breach we go!”
With this listening and planning project, we too, are taking stock, readying our understanding of the gaps, and assessing our resources in order to once again stand tall at the intersection of change and hope. We don’t yet know where we are going, but we know we must move. We must act and speak a word of strength to those who are weakened, and a word of compassion to those who have forgotten.
As I’ve often repeated: to believe is to care. To care is to do. Join with all those around us who care and let us see what might be the next great gap we can help bridge. “Into the breach we go!” to boldly and creatively embody the life and ministry of a risen and rising Christ.
- Report of Union Church’s 165th Annual Meeting
- Orientation for All Board Members – New and Continuing – April 22, after Worship Service
- Musical Happenings in April
- News of the Family, Birthdays & Anniversaries
- April Education Opportunities from the Alzheimer’s Association, Lexington
- Seven Secrets to a Sustainable Soul
- Some #UCLent Images
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