What’s Going On? Now what?
A few things have happened around Mountainview that we should probably take some time to reflect on. The first is that Synod met and passed the HSR report and made it confessional. Now churches and leaders are scrambling to figure out exactly what this means and what implementation might look like. Classis Niagara (our region of CRCs) had a meeting of those who represented us at Synod as delegates along with Pastors and leaders. The spirit of the conversation was very unified and there was encouragement for nobody to take any rash action and to let the next step be to gather at our regular time in October and talk through in person how various people, groups and churches will respond. There is hope for continued unity there.
More important for most of us is the way we handle things here at Mountainview. So far, my sense is that there is widespread support for what I wrote even before Synod made any decisions: that we recognize a need to carry on healthy conversations even, or especially, when we disagree. Taking a vote on how people can think is generally unhelpful. Taking the time to learn to connect with and hold on to those who think differently will likely be more helpful. In fact, I want to suggest that becoming a community of people who know how to hang on to those who see things differently from us is the noblest of tasks. I would suggest that this is our missional project: learn to listen to each other and hold on to relationship as a way to practice a way of being missional in our community. What better way to build meaningful relationships in our community than to be thoughtful listeners who can discuss and disagree without breaking ties? I am already hoping to do a series in the fall on this and to introduce some more tools for helping us grow in this skill.
The other thing that has happened is that Rebecca Hall declined the call to come be our Discipleship Pastor. I get the sense that this comes as a surprise to many of us. As we process our reactions and responses, it might also be worthwhile to assess the process and where we are at as a congregation. Is there a more robust process we need to go through in order to ascertain who we are as a congregation so that we can extend a more unified call? Or do we simply need to find a different candidate to fill the role as we have it laid out? Over the summer there will be a pause in activity on this. In that time and before we regroup in the fall, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts and reflections. That would be helpful in determining our first steps in the next season.
Peace and strength to you all,
Pastor Erick Schuringa