Title: A LETTER FROM PAUL. . .

Jun 17th, 2006

Paul Goodman

Interim Senior Minister

Words From the Fountain:

This edition of the Fountain contains the second in my series of “walking the congregation through the five developmental tasks” of the interim time. Last issue I dealt with Coming to Terms with History” and this time the second of the five (though they’re not in any particular order) is Discovering a New Identity.

That this is necessary and important has biblical precedent. One only has to reference the times in the Gospels when the very question of identity comes up. For example in Luke 9, Jesus is alone in prayer and his disciples approach him upon which Jesus time Jesus asks them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” The disciples give a number of options from John the Baptist to Elijah. Jesus asks them what they think “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter in his usual bold and impulsive way declares, “The Messiah of God.”

As my colleague Linda Lea Snyder puts it, “In so many ways the world is asking the church today, ‘Who do you say that you are?’ The interim time is an ideal time to boldly consider what your answer to this question might be.” (Quoted in Temporary Shepherds, edited by Roger S. Nicholson, Alban Institute, 1998. pg. 75)

Yes, this is the time when the church can take a very good look at “who do we say we are” “who does our community say we are” “who does God say we are.” It is often that churches in transition are suffering from a form of identity crisis. There is often in the lack of “settled” pastoral leadership perceived to be a chance to go back to the halcyon days of Pastor B or Pastor Y. What we were is in the forefront. There are also those who want to be just what we are now (without the tension) or those who want to have a completely different church community. The church is now in the position to – divorced from the previous person in the Senior Pastor role – look at “who we are and what will we and others say about us in the future.”

In Jesus Christ we are “new” creations the Apostle Paul reminds us. The interim period takes that statement very seriously. As our culture changes and the Ridgefield community changes and our First Congregational family changes, the mission and ministry both within and without the four walls of this church is yet to be determined. Imagine that a neighbor asked you to tell them about your church, what would you say? And after you were finished would you wonder what twenty of your church family would say in answer to the same question and how much would be similar? If so, and I suspect that’s the case, the interim time is the golden opportunity to offer your thoughts, hear the thoughts of others and as a group come up with a sense of what God says this congregation is and where it’s going.

The Transition Team is going to be planning many events designed to promote this very agenda of information expressing, sharing and gathering. Don’t miss the chances to voice your opinions about “who you say you are.”

Shalom