Pastor Brian's Ruminations

August 17, 2007

Dear Fellow Sojourners on the way,

Seems like a long time since I last emailed you all.  I’ve been in the Boundary Waters canoeing with the 9th graders, in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone with my family, and then bam! it’s been a whirlwind since getting back to Centennial.  We’ve hired a person for a brand new position of Coordinator of Outreach Ministries, we’re in the midst of hiring a person for a brand new position of junior high ministries, we’re working out all the details for a brand new video projector for the Sunday evening services in the sanctuary, Melanie and Kelly are working so hard (and joyfully!) in shaping how the new Sunday evening services will look—starting September 9 at 5 pm—along with so many staff and indispensable lay people, and we have folks painting and designing the church school rooms for the brand new workshop rotation to start in September too. 

Whew!  How do we deal with all this change around here?  I find that a Word in Ecclesiastes provides ballast for me.  I say ballast here, not anchoring, for we are definitely sailing forward together as the good ship Centennial.  I like the image of ballast here, for ballast is the necessary weight in the bottom of a sailboat so it stays upright while flowing with winds and waves toward a destination. 

Now what is that Word in Ecclesiastes?  “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”  There’s a time to venture forth with new faith endeavors like the Sunday evening service.  There’s a time to grow the church within the church, doing our level best to dream, to dare to reach people in traditional ways and in non-traditional ways.  There’s a time to give birth to a new service which indeed has the DNA of Centennial UMC—and to take it farther, indeed has the DNA of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  Such is my faith and trust.  

Blessings, ballast, and the wind of the Spirit to you this weekend,

Brian