Assessing progress and offering spiritual insights and challenges

Around the time of the Annual Meeting, someone asked if I would like to give my pastoral assessment of congregational progress since I began my time with you began.  I’ll do so in the way of offering what I call spiritual insights.

Pastor Bob Brite.

First of all, all-in-all you are a group of beautiful human beings who I think are honestly wrestling with what your future is to be in the wake of a declining past.

You have, in my opinion, have worked at cultivating a deeper sense of spirituality since I’ve been here, again, honestly questioning God and
your personal and congregational purpose in God’s Kingdom, and I certainly want to encourage that continued questioning, deepening your trust in God to provide the answers.  (Though asking the questions in the first place is the important thing.)

I also think that we’ve brought our communication pieces up to date and are regaining a sense of investment in mission and hands-on ministry; my thanks to Dennis Sanders for providing a spirit of leadership on both those fronts.  We’ve made some progress in evangelistic awareness and children’s nurture and education, with a ways to go on both of those fronts.

The biggest hurdle you have yet to face is your own enculturation, your resistance to change, that lies at the heart of the congregation’s soul.

Whether it’s change in the format and style of worship, in the physical settings of the building, in the investment of time in mission and ministry, there is still the tendency to fall into habits of the past rather than embracing visions and imaginings of the future.  There’s a natural tendency to want things the way they have always been, but I will continue to issue the challenge of resisting that tendency in favor of working towards that which can be.

The primary question that needs to be answered in 2010 is, “What is best thing FCC Minneapolis can do and be for advancing the Kingdom of God in the Twin Cities?”  I expect that, by the end of this year we may have an answer to that question.