Pastor’s Corner November 17th, 2022
“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;”
Isaiah 65:17-18a
The prophet Isaiah proclaimed a message of hope to a weary people. Things looked pretty bad. They had been in exile for generations. The land and home they once knew was gone. The Temple in which they worshipped God had been destroyed and they feared that this meant God was no longer with them. Earlier the prophet had promised them that God was not tied to the Temple, God had journeyed with them to this new land of exile. Everything they had once known and loved was gone. It was in the midst of this experience that the prophet shared a message of hope. Yes, things would never be as they once had been, this was true. However, the prophet told them that something new was coming. God was radically transforming everything, they simply had to continue trusting in God’s wisdom and presence. It was in the midst of this period of exile that God called to people to remain steadfast and trust in God. The prophet called them to “be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating.”
Although we are not literally in exile, it is sometimes easy to empathize with the struggles of those in ancient Israel. We look around and notice that things are not as they once were. The world around us is constantly changing. The Church is changing too. As we look around we notice that FCC is not what it once was, it has changed. While the Church in general has radically changed, it is easier to see and lament those changes here in our own congregation. We have faced internal and external forces that have ushered in and accelerated these changes. We can name some of those challenges, like a global pandemic. Naming and identifying some of those other changes often elude us. The leadership here at FCC has begun meeting to examine and discuss some of these changes and how we might respond. On Wednesday November 9th the entire Executive Committee met in the library to begin discussing some of these issues. We began by exploring the issue of declining numbers in our congregation. What are some of the reasons people have left our community? Sadly, one reality in most congregations is that every year we lose some of our saints to death. Others had life transitions that involve moves to other parts of the country. All these departures take a toll on us all. Even when people leave for these understandable reasons we often feel sadness and a sense of loss. As the group continued our discussion we realized that others sometimes leave for other reasons. We have not developed a way of learning from these departures. We hope to develop a process to help us learn and grow as we deal with departures. How can we acknowledge the various feelings that arise and find ways to learn and grow from those experiences? We also discussed the need to be intentional about saying goodbye and tying up loose ends.
With joy and love, Pastor Karen
