Pastor's Paragraphs | April 1, 2022

If you're like me, you've felt like we've lived twenty years in the last two. The realities of COVID, political elections, personal life changes, and more have made it feel more like we're living in the Twilight Zone more than real life.

At Benson Baptist this is also true. When I began my tenure as your pastor on January 1, 2020 –– after a 2.5 year search –– none of us could imagine what would come next. As of today, we're a congregation seeking the voice of Christ after a dark and difficult path.

In the last two and a half years, some of the things we have faced together were:

• Covid guidelines, masks, blue taped pews, and overflow service streams in the Fellowship Hall. Believe it or not, we still had some of those guidelines in place a year ago today!

• Staff changes that have left us spinning. Rev. Raybon is our fourth Minister of Youth and Children in two years. We had to process the tragic loss of a staff member following Rev. Fox's death. We've had to make decisions to transition long-time positions into ones that meet the needs of our congregation and campus. We've seen interns come and go – which is their nature – but can still add to the fatigue we feel.

• Political elections are never easy in any community, but the most recent one was more divisive than we've seen in a long while. BBC is a diverse community when it comes to politics, ideology, and theology and such times can remind us just how diverse we are. 

• We've seen attendees leave our community for a variety of reasons. Every one is a loss and we feel it deeply, even as we move forward.

Yes, the last two years have been difficult. We have been left feeling exhausted and unsure about where we're stepping next.

This Sunday we're focusing on the role of reflection in our faith journeys. The tendency is to push the difficult things from our memory and forget the pain of the past. While this makes us feel good for a season, it is generally a short one. As I said last week, we have to sit in the ashes of what grieves us if we're truly going to find a way forward.

Yet, while we reflect on where we've been in difficulty, I also believe we have to keep our eyes on what Christ is doing in our midst as he is calling us forward:

• Our Diaconate has approved the establishment of a Vision Team for the church whose purpose is to take a deep dive into our mission, facilities, and more to seek Christ's call for BBC moving forward. This team will work with a congregational coach as they work over the next few months. Their work will be presented to the congregation at a future date.

• Our Diaconate has also established Deacon subteams to begin reviewing our by-laws for the first time in 33 years. These teams will be tasked with asking where, and who, we are today as a congregation and updating our by-laws to reflect who we are today. This will include reviewing our governance structure to ask what's working and evaluate what is not. Once this work is completed, it will be released to the congregation for review.

• We will launch a mini-capital campaign on Homecoming Sunday in October to challenge all of us to address facility needs as well as missional needs in our community. The details of this are still being worked on, but more will come soon!

• While having been through the wringer these last two years, we are fully staffed and things are going well within our offices. Our staff is committed to BBC and the path we're on and believes that God is already doing immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine as we move forward. 

We can't ignore where we've been, but we must also keep moving forward in the midst of it. As we pause and reflect, the question always before us is "where is Christ calling us from the ashes of the past?"

This is the question I'm asking as your pastor. I challenge you to join me in asking it and in supporting all that is happening to seek Christ call for us moving ahead.

The best is yet to be!