8/10/22 – Our Stories
Jim Stumbo opened our meeting talking about stories. In the first 5 books of the Old Testament, there are 5 threads of J, E, P, D, R, interwoven, sometimes contradicting one another, but told as a single story. In the first 4 books of the New Testament, the 4 Gospels tell different stories to different audiences, each with a different understanding of this man, Jesus. And so do we all have our stories, interwoven, inconsistent, and diverse. Some of us were here when Pam was our minister, some were not. Some were deeply hurt by the trauma of the past year, some were not. We are a diverse church with different understandings, even under the same conditions.
David Brown made an interesting observation about a broken bicycle. Broken could mean that the frame is busted, the chain is missing, the brake cables are gone, that the bike needs to go to the dump as a lost cause. Or broken could mean a flat tire that can be fixed. While we as a church are feeling different levels of brokenness, we are fixable.
We talked about things we need to be doing. Facilitated Listening was high on that list. Telling our stories. Patience. Building guardrails (Behvioral Covenants, Pastoral Relations Committee, ByLaws). There was the sense that moving forward was a slow dance of reconciliation.
And finally emerged the need to put together a Consultation Team to consider who might work with us to facilitate this dance.
We left hopeful, buoyed by this amazing group of leaders in our church.
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