Person of Peace

In Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends out 72 disciples to go into the towns and villages and prepare his way. He tells them to be on the look-out for "persons of peace." "When you come to a house," he says, "first say 'Peace be upon this house.' If a person of peace is there, your peace will remain with him, but if not it will return to you." And then, Jesus says, you're not to press the matter, you just move on. It's not the right time.

Watching for persons of peace is a critical skill for Christians these days. We need to be attentive to those who are open to talking to us about faith, and learning more.

My son is getting married in the summer, and he and his fiance had a pre-wedding party at a local watering hole last week. I struck up a conversation with a guy and his girlfriend. Let's call them Tim and Melissa (not their real names.)

Tim remarked on the great weather and said he'd love to go fishing. I asked him about fishing, and he told me it's one of this favorite passtimes. Then he said something that kind of surprised me. He said fishing is the thing that makes him most thankful, that arouses in him the greatest sense of gratitude. I always knew people went fishing to relax, but I'd never thought of it as a way to encourage thankfulness. "So, it's a kind of spiritual experience for you?" I said, and then he launched into an animated description of the spirituality of fishing.

His girlfriend chimed in, and began to talk about her faith. She was raised in the church, her parents are regular church attenders, and while she is deeply respectful of them and their practices, she doesn't find church to be the place where her faith is nurtured.

"How is it nurtured?" I asked. And then she went on to tell me about volunteering at Out of the Cold, and the deep and meaningful connections she has formed with some of the people who go there to eat. She said, "You know the guy you see around town pushing the shopping cart full of junk? I've had the most amazing conversations with him. He's a remarkable person."

"Spirituality is about connectedness," I offered -- and that opened up a whole new area of discussion. She told me about her work at a hair salon, where people (usually women) come in stressed and upset and she sees it as -- she didn't use the word, but it would have been appropriate -- a ministry.

This is the very moment when I am trying to find people who are interested in forming Jesus-centred faith communities that don't carry all the baggage people traditionally associate with church -- and these two young people would have stood and talked all night about the many ways in which they live out their spirituality and faith.

They were persons of peace. I've asked them if we can get together again to continue the conversation.

I'm realizing that identifying and connecting with persons of peace is a gift and a skill that we have largely forgotten. I grew up in a church where you didn't have to seek out persons of peace because they came and found you. But it's not the same any more.

Each time I have a conversation like I had with "Tim" and "Melissa" I pray that I will gain confidence and skill in connecting with persons of peace.

8 Years!

I can't believe it's been 8 years since Grantham United Church and First United Church became one congregation. I've been reflecting on the losses and gains of that amalgamation, and how things have changed since 2004.

I've seen quite a few churches amalgamate over the years, and it's not always very successful. Often, the churches involved are in a highly stressed state, and they bring their anxiety over money and people and traditions into the amalgamated church, and the results aren't pretty.

First Grantham has been a really successful amalgamation, partly because of the courage and grace of the First United people, who went through a long and painful process of soul-searching, deciding they wanted to continue as a church family, but would have to leave their beautiful 150 year old building. I feel like they had already done most of the hard work before we got together.

On the plus side, everyone received an infusion of new energy. For the First folks, a handful of people didn't have to carry a whole load. For the Grantham folks, there were a bunch of new and energetic people.

Having two ministers meant that there was time to do some different things -- like launching a second worship service. Jeff Maissan and I were able to share the burdens of ministry, spell one another off, and give each other a needed break.

The income from the sale of the First United building, and two generous bequests from former First members, were huge. We couldn't have renovated our church building without those funds.

Eight years later, we are in much better financial shape than we were before the amalgamation.

Some things that aren't as good as we might have hoped ....

We hoped that amalgamating would lead to new growth -- and, while we've had lots of new people join the church in those 8 years, there are fewer people at church on Sunday morning than there were in the two congregations. Together, their attendance in 2003 was about 250-275. Now, it's just over 200.

We still spend most of our energy on keeping the church going -- on "maintenance" rather than "mission."

And, we aren't getting any younger. We might ask, "What will First Grantham look like in another 8 years -- in 2020 -- given the age of the congregation?" We're not really building the next generation as we'd hoped.

But, on the whole, I think God has really blessed us. I believe God's hand was in the coming-together of those two churches back in 2003-2004. That was a really big change for a lot of us, and, you know what? We found out we could do it, and the world didn't come to an end!

I'm excited about the possibilities for the future. After all, it's God's future, and we're supposed to just catch the wave!