A season for metamorphosis
As my move date draws steadily closer, I’ve begun to reflect on the eight years we’ve had together. Most days, I still feel like I’ve only just arrived. Perhaps the familiar rhythm of pastoring has something to do with that. Each week I’m still preparing worship, writing a sermon, extending pastoral care, and meeting with ministries and colleagues. On one level, it’s as if nothing has changed.
But of course plenty has changed in these years. We lived through a pandemic, which added a lasting digital component to our familiar pattern of worship. We’ve embarked on an incredible adventure with Harvest Crossing, and God willing, this year we will see three new affordable homes built in our neighborhood. We’ve seen major post-pandemic growth in Harvest Market that has required much leadership, creative thinking, planning, and rearranging to keep the event going strong.
And, as always happens as years go by, the makeup of our church body has changed. We’ve buried saints, bade farewell to friends who have moved or found new places to worship, and we’ve welcomed new faces (and avatars!) into our midst. Our ministry teams have changed leadership, giving us a healthy churn of new ideas and shared ownership of our mission. The body of Christ is indeed an organism: breathing, moving, dying, rising, and changing all the time.
This Easter season, our worship will center around the image of a butterfly as it emerges from its chrysalis. Long a symbol of resurrection, the butterfly reminds us of just how sweeping the changes of life can be.
But the butterfly is also an active part of that change. The caterpillar has to curl itself into the cocoon, and the butterfly must later emerge: an act which takes strength, patience, fortitude and trust.
It is my prayer that this worship series will help us to more actively engage with the changes around us. For while some changes deserve our confrontation and resistance, many others require adaptation. And that can be difficult for creatures of habit (like myself), who take comfort in familiar rhythms.
But change always presents us with an opportunity to grow and learn. I can also see (through clouded glass) that I am not the same pastor I was eight years ago, and it’s not because I set out with a five-point growth plan. It’s because I was blessed to land among people who know how to be open to possibility, while holding fast to what is good.
May these postures guide us to and through the metamorphoses God has in store.
Pastor Jen
PS - Save the date. We’ll be having a celebration of joint ministry late afternoon on Saturday, June 13. More info to come!
