Still chewing….

Today Juan Carlos was our guest preacher; Juan Carlos is one of the Bishop's Associates here in the Oregon Synod and he produced a message intended to be shared throughout our state.

As he was speaking to the Gospel, he used a phrase that caught my ear and my imagination ~ 'suffering the learning.'

Learning has a cost ~ time, energy, bumps, set-backs, struggles, suffering.

If we are honest, people in community are continually 'suffering the learning'. Students. Teachers. Parents. Employees. Employers. Pastors. Congregations. Churches.

Stretching. Growing. Experimenting. Adapting. Changing.

I am thinking of all the wild rides the folks of Immanuel have ridden with me. Preaching or teaching in alternative ways. Using visuals to mark a season or a celebration. Sometimes messy. Perhaps odd. Occasionally loud or off. Year after year, you have suffered the learning with your pastor.

Congregations and churches likewise suffer the learning. If they don't, they die. If the church cannot or will not speak the Gospel such that is can be heard, the day will come when that voice will be silenced.

Of course, these sorts of changes most often happen in increments, inches at a time. Not this season.

Even as we heard news of Covid-19 in other nations, when it began devastating populations in our country, we were taken aback. All these months later, if two people are in a conversation, there very well may be three opinions about what policies should be in place.

Face masks and proper distancing have allowed many aspects of life to resume. Gatherings are one of the exceptions. And 'large' gatherings remain forbidden. {Yes, I too see exceptions but pastorally, I wonder at what cost…}

In mid-March, 26 weeks ago, we became the church de-centralized. God bless you all as you suffered the learning as church leadership jumped into new and uncharted waters.

Here we are; here we spin. Suffering the learning.

Someday, this too will end. Someday. But I guarantee you when we re-gather Immanuel into the building on Oak and Church, there will be another level to suffering the learning.

We will not be the same community that we were last winter. People have moved, and moved on. We will have new faces, families who found us during the quarantine and newborns who will need to be baptized. But there will be other learning curves too. All these months of watching in pajamas and slippers have shifted how we 'do church'. As have the folks who meet around the breakfast table for worship. Or those who watch at 6:30 am or 11:00 pm because those times better suit their schedules. After all these months, who will be out of the 'church habit' or find that gathering for an hour is an impossibility?

What's next? Well, it's new and exciting and it will be different too. Together we will yet again step into another era of suffering the learning. But friends, we will do it together and with the energy and Spirit of the Divine ~ God calling and empowering us to be His Church in every age.

Swirl Holy Spirit, swirl.

Pastor Leah