Looking in To Look Out

Between May 21 and June 11, we will be conducting a couple of dialogues with our congregation to begin discerning both our identity and direction as a congregation in the middle of our community, or to use Alphonse Kasongo’s phrase, “in the middle of our village”. It has always seemed to me that churches tend to look inward too much, to take care of their own and neglect their purpose in the community. However, there is a time for everything, and a season for everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3). Because of all the changes and challenges coming our way due to disaffiliation conversations and the fact that we live in a different world even than the one I came into when I began here in 2010, we do need to look inward for a season so that we can look outward again.

During the past month, I have been speaking about transformation, which is ultimately the process otherwise known as holiness or sanctification, when God begins to change us from the inside out. While I have been thinking about these things more deeply, I have begun to realize two things. First, we need to know where we came from so that we can know where we are going. For transformation, that means we need to keep in mind that it was grace that brought us safe thus far, and grace that will lead us home. For the church, that means we need to acknowledge our roots as a movement, a class meeting, that grew from a revival into a reality, a church named First United Methodist Church Fox Hill. Second, noticing the little things helps us to pave the way for bigger things. One of the challenges I was given as part of my continuing education was to track changes from August 2022 to May 2023. Did you realize, for instance, that during that time, while 2 of our small groups folded for understandable reasons, we added 7 new groups? Or, that in August 2022, our average end of the month balance was measured in a few dollars and cents, while now we have the buffer of well over $1,000 – it is a buffer that usually gets swallowed by repairs, but it is a buffer that lets us keep everything running and begin to think about new ministries. And, as another example, in August of 2022, we were still scrambling to make things work, while in May of 2023, we have breathing room to ask ourselves, “Who are we now, and what is God calling us to become now?”

I want to take a moment to personally thank two of our people specifically, who have been and will be instrumental in helping us meet the challenge: Pat Leary and Alphonse Kasongo. Many of us know Pat from her work as a principal, educator, consultant, and organizer. Alphonse and his family were a gift to us from the middle of Covid. You can find them in the pews by looking for a sharply dressed couple with kids who are also sharply dressed. One of Alphonse’s PhD. degrees is in conflict resolution, and so I sought him out to help us avoid conflict in the first place by creating a process to dialogue where we can listen to others and speak up without fear. After meeting with Alphonse and Pat several times, I am excited that we have such a process in place, and even though it will not be completely comfortable, it will be a safe and probably eye-opening time of dialogue – in small groups.

We have an existing vision statement that was agreed on before I arrived: “A vibrant church, making Christian disciples and enriching lives through outreach.” And we have the mission statement of the United Methodist Church: “Making disciples for the transformation of the world.” While it isn’t the goal of the “Listening tour” [see “From the Pastor’s Desk} to create a new vision statement, I expect that one may well emerge, one that will capture where we are now and where we believe God is calling us as the church in the middle of our village, or as I often think of us, the church at the intersection of the old Fox Hill (23664), new Fox Hill (23669), and Buckroe (23663) communities.

In short, I look forward to seeing how God is speaking to us as a community of faith, and listening to how God is directing us to move into the future. I have my own ideas, and I anticipate God will need all of us working together to fulfill our purpose in the middle of our village.