Looking backwards...

In a recent telephone conversation, someone asked me about how we were doing with our Five Practices small group teams. I shared that I thought we were doing well. The groups have been actively asking the pertinent questions about how we can become more fruitful, and what we need to do to be better at what we're already doing. We talked a bit more, and the topic turned to future plans. Short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals seemed to pose a slightly different challenge. Change (see my last blog, June 22, 2009) was not something that was going to come easy for a lot of people. It usually doesn't. (Just ask any first-time parent, especially after the first eighteen years!)

Nevertheless, I began to think about what it would look like if we could see what today would look like from the perspective of five years from now. I would like to be able to say that the difficult work that we're doing right now was the turning point in our congregation's growth explosion, propelling us toward a great new place in our history as God's people of faith. What would this year look like from the perspective of the future? Would this be a year of growth? Would this be the year that made all the difference?

I read somewhere that the Gospel of Luke was unique in its way of presenting a view of Jesus who ministered during his time on earth from the perspective of what the Kingdom of Heaven was supposed to be like. Seeing the present from the perspective of the already arrived future Kingdom. What he attempted to help those around him see was that the Kingdom was a different place than what folks were experiencing. He painted a view of life lived under God's rule, rather than life lived in revolt of Roman rule. He painted a view of life where everyone was given a chance at redemption, forgiveness, and a new beginning. He spoke about life that could be lived in community where everyone was invited. He turned the current views of what society valued on its ear. It meant changing one's perspectives, one's values, one's understandings of God. It was difficult to do, and as a result, many people, out of the fear of that change, rejected him and his teachings.

How does a people of faith begin to envision what could be? How do we begin to see that what could be is a matter of the decisions we make today? How do we overcome our fear of change, knowing that it could mean the difference of salvation for someone we've not yet met? If we were to look back on the present from the perspective of the future, what would we see - today? Who would we see? And how would that affect who we are called to be in Christ?

Just a few thoughts I had...