Thoughts from the Middle

In their book Hard and Holy Work, Mary Alice Birdwhistell and Tyler D. Mayfield note that "the middle is often where things begin to fall apart. The way forward is no longer clear. Trust is broken and relationships become complicated. In other words, the middle is where things get messy. We long for a world of adventurous beginnings and fairy tale endings, but we would rather not go through what happens in the middle in order to get us from point A to point B."

This is the book I've been using on Sunday nights over the last few weeks to direct our continued journey through the Lenten season. As I read these words, they drew my mind to some of the 'messy' middles in which Benson Baptist currently finds ourselves:

• The Middle of Restructure - Our new Governance Restructuring Steering Committee will soon begin meeting to take all of the documents and conversations gathered over the last few years and use them to create a governance proposal from them. The conversations that have led to this Committee have been on-going for a while and we are definitely in the middle of that work,

• The Middle of Worship Possibilities - There have been many questions around the future of worship at BBC and what is needed as we move ahead into the future. One service or two? If two, how many unity services do we need? What about style? The list could go on and on there. There is a meeting schedule for April 14, at 6:30 P.M., to discuss all of these questions and to hear from everyone,

• The Middle of Financial Change - At the end of last year, we voted to outsource our financials. This decision was made with the future in mind, but is far from complete. Every week brings new conversation surrounding it and it continues to be an adjustment,

• The Middle of Growth - We have seen many new faces over the last few years, we've baptized quite a few, and we've dedicated more children in the last four than any other church I know of. Beyond that, our community is also in the midst of a middle as people continue to move toward Benson. This middle is very messy and leaves us wondering what growth looks like for our congregation.

Really, we all could add more to this list of the 'middles' in which BBC find ourselves. As we navigate these things we've seen exactly what Birdwhistell and Mayfield write about: relationships have been strained, concerns have run deep, differences of opinion are loud, and trust has run thin as the middle has converged on us.

Change is never easy, especially from the middle. The Hebrews in the wilderness certainly knew what that was like. After all, they'd journeyed from the security of Egypt, through the miracle of the Red Sea, and then found themselves in the messy middle of wandering. The middle was a fearful place for them. It was a place they didn't even know if they would make it through. Yet, God was faithful to them and provided for their needs as God called them forward–– even though they often wanted to give up.

As BBC moves forward, I hope that we will find ourselves to be a people who listen, who show grace, and who come together across our differences–– in these middles and all others. I know we all would love to know what's coming but the middle does not give that full answer.

As we journey even more intentionally toward where God is calling us, I hope that you'll join me in taking a breath, slowing down, listening, and holding any tension the middle brings, with grace.

The best is yet to be!