The Vagueness of Spiritual Unity

Our church has been chugging through the task of calling a pastor for three years and is finally at the point of calling a settled pastor, in fact his first Sunday was just last weekend so you already know how this all turned out.  But I wanted to record my thoughts on the final dash to the wire because I think it is instructive.  The interim pastor used one of his last Sundays in the pulpit as an opportunity to begin what appeared to most everyone to be a sure-thing transition to a new pastor even though no formal vote had been taken at that point in time.  He preached on calling, and choice, and decision and culminated by urging the congregation to move forward in unity.  But what exactly does that mean?  You hear that call to unity everywhere in Christian circles, but hardly ever see it demonstrated in Christian circles.  What you see is judgment, exclusion, division, endless doctrinal debate, and condemnation (let's dust off that word anathema and put it to good use!).

Does moving forward in unity mean that everyone rubber stamps the selection committee's choice?  Does it mean that every congregational member agrees with the process and decisions that have brought us to this point?  Does it mean that we fully agree that this pastoral candidate is God's exact and perfect choice for our congregation in this time and place?  You can see where that type of preaching on unity can lead to.  The facts of the matter are that not everyone agrees with the selection committee (even they were not unanimous in their recommendation), the process of selection has been too long and flawed from the beginning because of a false sense of loyalty to the bylaws and a near absolute exclusion of the congregation, and after three years the selection committee turned up only one viable candidate, not hardly the clear direction that the church hoped for.  However, true unity recognizes that we, as a church congregation, have come to a point of decision regarding our future direction, and although each of us reads the tea leaves differently, we find ourselves constrained in our choices but still faced with the demand to choose.  And right or wrong, each of us had to vote our conscience with what we had at hand and then move forward together, supporting and not second guessing or complaining about the choice made, whatever side we fell on after the vote.  Real fellowship in the midst of disagreement, difference of opinion, and personal preferences, that marks the unity that must now keep us steady ahead. 

Six Weeks in the Pulpit

Once more I dust off the mea culpa as I log in and realize that even I have not been back to this blog since May.  For shame.  I might properly blame it on summer, or at least summer in Vermont.  It's all too short, you see, and there are a lot of other things I would rather do related to the outdoors rather than the internet, but it's time to get back to business.  Sunday's at church or listening to the week to Christian radio usually provides sufficient fodder to get a short blog going, but for the past six weeks I have had the privilege to hold the pulpit at the United Church of South Royalton as we went through that interim period between our interim pastor and our new pastor.  That made me an interim, interim, I guess.  What it reminded me of was spiritual giftings that have laid dormant for a long time and were finally given an opportunity to be used in a powerful way.  I know that we give a lot of lip service to recognizing spiritual gifts and allowing them to be used in our congregations, but that may be all well and good for spiritual gifts like hospitality or giving or service, but just where does someone with the gift of pastor/teacher find an outlet?  But that's a side issue for now.  I once again realized the following from my experience:

• Proclaiming the word of God intensely focuses it on your own life, you must first be changed by it or have it real inside of you before you can truly share it.
• The word of God is living and powerful, and when rightly divided and used can reach into the heart and soul of the congregation.
• Preach Christ, and Him crucified, and people will respond better than they will to doctrine (that leaves a soul dry) or judgment (that leaves a soul without hope).  As my wife Kathy always admonishes me when I have a chance to enter the pulpit, "Tell me about Jesus".

I garnered a lot of atta-boys from my six weeks of preaching that helped to confirm again my gifting and calling.  But I wanted to close with the one that meant the most to me.  One woman simply said that she had started taking notes in church again.  What I had to say meant something to her and was worth remembering.  No higher compliment could have been given.