Dear Caldwell,
1. Prayer Room: On Sunday, we celebrated Pentecost by focusing on prayer – its necessity in our lives, its power and its pathway to our Creator. Today, as worshippers heard on Sunday, we offer all a place of peace and respite during the week as we open and host the Prayer Room from 3:45-6:45 pm for anyone who wants to drop in. Visitors to the Prayer Room are invited to make use of prayer journals, art supplies, books about the faith journey or to leave a prayer on the prayer tree. An index of Caldwell friends and family is available for engaging in intercessory prayer. And someone from the congregation will be available to pray with visitors who request it. Also, watch the church calendar for information about special prayer activities throughout the month. The side door off the courtyard, near the choir room, will be unlocked during Prayer Room hours, so please do not ring the bell. As Peg Robarchek told us Sunday, we hope this offers at least a momentary oasis from life’s busy-ness!
2. Prayers Answered: I am pleasedto let you know that Kim Bohannon’s mom came through risky surgery yesterday in good shape and that Kim is on her way back home. She thanks all who held her and her family in prayer. Please also keep member Cindy Stonesifer in prayer as her father faces serious health problems.
3. Transformation: As our 3D groups continue to meet, many are moving past the first fellowship-focused meeting to think more about what “missional” and “transformative” mean. Readings are available – through hand-outs and on our website – that explain more about what missional means. As for ‘transformative,’ it’s also a big topic, one I focused on in a May 12 sermon. I want to share a portion of it here it hopes it may stimulate thoughts as we discern, discuss and dream.
In Romans, the Apostle Paul gives us these words in Romans (12:1-2):
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Paul’s guidance has been often summarized that we are to be “in this world but not of it.” That’s a fair summarization, I suppose, but it requires one thing. It requires transformation. Transformation.
I hope that word rings a bell with you. It is one of two “lenses” we are using as a congregation as we go through our “3D” process, a season of discernment, discussion and dreaming. Transformation lies at the very heart of the Christian life. But, because transformation isn’t easy, it often gets overlooked or replaced by activity and busy-ness. You know what I mean. Activity that keeps our calendars full and our minds and hearts preoccupied and distracted from the true call of the Gospel. Busy-ness that means we don’t have to slow down and simply “be” with the God who created us and, yes, who offers us transformation. Yes, we post-modern Westerners prefer preoccupation over transformation.
But preoccupation is not what Paul is talking about in the 12th chapter of his letter to the Roman church.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
In the words of one commentator, Paul calls us to put ourselves entirely at God’s disposal, entirely available to God’s purposes. In worship here. In worshipping God through our life together as a church. In worshipping God through service to others as the body of Christ.
Transformation – by Christ, to be the body of Christ – isn’t easy because its fulfillment requires adopting a set of values and goals that stand apart from those of the world. Values such as less versus more. Values such as hospitality versus hostility, humility versus presumption, love versus hate, even loving our enemies. Values such as justice versus dominion, command and control. Values such as selflessness over self-centered-ness. Values such as the common good rather than me, myself and I. Values such as courage rather than complicity and complacency.
For Caldwell, we are asking what does it mean for a congregation and a church to be transformative. By transformative, we mean an agent of transformation in Christ and in the name of Christ. We mean a community that seeks to live out the Gospel even if it requires a complete reorientation of our lives and values and goals, even and including sacrifice of those things the world thinks important.
So, friends, as we discern, discuss and dream what it is to be a transformative church, we might ask:
How can we reorder our lives more around God’s work?
What is the right use of money – our household budgets and our church budget?
How can our campus be used to extend greater invitation to all of God’s children and to reflect the Kingdom of God?
How can our public witness more visibly challenge and confront the powers and principalities that undermine what Jesus would do?
What does it really require of us to raise our children and youth in the light and teachings of our Lord?
You could add your own questions to this list. And I hope you will as we move forward with the 3D process. In turn, friends, we become more of the missional church our mission statement calls us to be. In that sense, these two guiding ideas work hand in hand. To be missional, we must surrender to being transformed. To be transformative as a church, we must be missional, an outward-facing community of believers.
This week one of you reflected on her time at Caldwell in the last five years and that of her family.
“I understand the idea of church being ‘transformative” by thinking about what has happened in my life and my family’s life because of our relationship with Caldwell and our Caldwell family,” she wrote. “It’s not just about feeling comfortable and feeling at home; it’s also about feeling challenged to be my best self, for all of us to continue the journey toward what God wants us to be in God’s service.”
“For me,” she wrote, “The idea of ‘transformation’ is intensely personal and intensely public. It is a blessing, a revelation, and a responsibility.”
Another of you wrote:
“One of the things I cherish about Caldwell is our avoidance of “mission du jour.” We don’t have what I consider short-term, feel-good “projects” that serve us rather than those in need. In other words, Caldwell seeks to “touch” those we serve. No, Christmas Boxes for us or winter coat drives; all things that make US feel good but are absent of the connectivity with those in need.”
Can I get an “amen” on that, too?
Those are just some ideas of what it means for a church … and a church family … to be transformative, an agent of transformation. I look forward to hearing others in the weeks to come as our 3D conversations continue.