Thursday, November 9, 2023
Hello everyone
It has been a hectic week back after my study break, but a very good week as well. Here are some highlights:
On Tuesday we had a meeting with Nexus Church. They are keenly interested in continuing deeper conversations about joining us here in our building on a permanent basis. Remember the Sunday a few weeks ago when we had St. Peter’s in Covenant Chapel and Nexus in the gym and ourselves in the sanctuary. It was an incredible experience. People were talking about how good it was to have so many people in the building again – so many young people and children especially. We hope and pray that will be the norm in the new year
On Tuesday evening, Operational Council met to talk about policies and procedures around making it possible to open the church to greater partnerships with churches like Nexus and with other community organizations to make greater use of our 42,000 square feet of space. It was an excellent conversation with all agreeing and expressing excitement about moving forward in this direction.
Operational Council also heard a preliminary report from Lauren Wasyluk about a communications / engagement policy for St. Andrew’s. Lauren has been working very hard on this and her hard work showed! Operational Council agreed to work with Lauren to roll out this strategy in the coming weeks and months
Yesterday I had a long and productive meeting with three of the leaders of the Mission Team – planning mission themes and events for the next six months and introducing them to the communication / engagement strategy. They are now working with Lauren in this regard as well. I also had a wonderful meeting with someone who works in the Thrift Shop regularly – she is relatively new to St. Andrew’s and finds deep connection, belonging and meaning in the work of the Thrift Shop. It was a delightful meeting.
And finally Mike and Lauren Wasyluk and I will be creating a series of videos discussing the book ‘Turning Ourselves Inside Out’. It is a provocative book but an important one for us to delve into as a congregation as we plan and depend on the grace of God actively at work in our world to continue to be a thriving Christian community. These videos will appear on our YouTube page as we create them. In preparation, I ask you to consider the following:
Turning ourselves inside out is a process that ‘helps us move our unproductive attention away from our own struggles and problems so that we can notice and follow where God is at work in our world’.
This provocative statement is aimed particularly at progressive and more liberal minded churches like ours. It is too easy to focus on the decline of our congregations – too easy to spend all our time worrying about and trying to solve the issues of our deficits. Our deficits need attention – we need creative thinking that introduces new revenue streams for the church – all of that is true and we are making great strides in this regard at St. Andrew’s. But the authors contend that we too easily dismiss and diminish the work that God is doing in the world. It is almost like we don’t believe God is really doing anything – that God really has any power. If you don’t understand what the authors are suggesting here, they invite all of us to spend some time listening to a more evangelical church or an African American church focused on justice and right living. In both of those churches, the worship service including all the prayers and the call to worship carries a powerful spirit of expectation. People pray in a way that they expect their prayers will be answered. Preachers preach, expecting that God is present in the word preached, and that God is going to use the preaching to effect change in the community and in the world all around. In other words, these churches strongly believe that God is an active agent in the world – that God is working hard in the lives of all people present and that God is out in the community working hard in the lives of people everywhere.
The sermon series ‘Turning Ourselves inside out’ (and the services during Advent) will continually come back to this powerful insight. Part of turning ourselves inside out is that it is not all about us, nor does it not all depend on us. On the contrary, it is about what God is doing in the world and we are invited to participate.
Take care everyone
Rev. Marty Molengraaf (he, him)
Minister, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church