Moving toward Wholeness

Good Morning All,

The weather this week continues to have record-breaking high temperatures as if it were summertime, but all you have to do is hang around the church house and know that we have definitely moved from one season to the next. Things are really hopping as we prepare for our annual “Fun-d Raising Day” on Saturday. Folks are feverishly working behind the scenes getting ready for our official “Green Sunday” Kick-Off, having introduced the idea in August, but really getting down to business this Sunday during Sunday School and Worship as we come to greater understandings about being stewards of our planet-home.

And then last evening as you went from room to room you heard laughter coming from a room full of girl scouts; our search committee sitting around the table interviewing a potential candidate for Associate Minister; in the next room Covenant women were gathering for Bible Study in the Youth room with evidence of the upcoming Trunk or Treat party planned for October 26; and you could find our Trustees meeting in the Library. And I thank God for the building, this church house, with which we have been so blessed.

In the early years of Covenant’s formation, I first heard God calling me to gather a congregation together, emphasizing the need to reach out and gather any and all who would choose to share in this exciting endeavor of being Church. It wasn’t too terribly long after that when I began to hear members, guests and folks in the community attempting to teach me that church=building.

And while I knew that was the typical understanding of church, I knew that God was continuing to remind me that church=people. But of course I soon learned that these were not mutually exclusive. The church was indeed a building; but more important that this, the church really was people. Of course, we decided that both=church and we were off and running. And in the midst of those early years and all through these years of formation, I continue to sense the importance of first being a congregation--a church family who gathers for worship, is nurtured in study, encouraged to serve others and all the while have fun doing so. And in our gathering, we are growing in our faith and understanding of what it means to hear God calling us to live faithfully and daring to respond as people of faith. After all, what good is an empty shell of a church building, without faithful people to fill it?

Parker Palmer from the book jacket of his book, A Hidden Wholeness, “speaks to our yearning to live undivided lives—lives that are congruent with our inner truth, in a world filled with the forces of fragmentation. Mapping an inner journey that we take in solitude and in the company of others; a form of community that fits the limits of our active lives.” He writes about a “circle of trust”—a space between us that honors the soul.” And he invites us to discover what it means to be a community of faith that shares in friendship and organizational life and all points in between, as we travel together toward living “divided no more.”

And I know that we are well on our way as we make strides toward this sense of wholeness to which we are called. Dr. Sharon Watkins, our General Minister and President, reminds us that,
“We are the Disciples of Christ—a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. As part of one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.”

How good it is to be in life and ministry with you and those who come our way to “sit down a spell” with us as we build and embody a circle of trust that gathers our fragmented lives in this fragmented world, seeking to live divided lives no more. Blessings, Joanne