Hoss has been thinking.
Three weeks. That's how long matters of a family leaving one congregation and surfacing in another have dominated the conversation at the local pastor's meeting. Be assured, it's not just a family deciding to change scenery, but rather showing up in a new location spewing venom towards their previous church home. It's emotional. It's personal. It's a danger within the church community.
If airtime at the meeting wasn't enough, a couple of these matters have spilled into (seemingly) endless strings of "copy all" email. Has anyone else considered that email is not the best manner of communication over things that have emotional and personal charges attached? Oy vey!
One pastor has suggested a formal covenant be struck between the local pastors and leaders. Another has begun drawing up such a document. Still another invited the leader of a pastor's fellowship in Massachusetts to come visit us to share what they've written up there. Still another pastor sent an email saying he's picking up his jacks and he's going home. Email, again!
A pastor, newer to our group, had a very interesting take. He pointed out that we've spent the better part of three weeks (I think he's only been with us three weeks) arguing over a small handful of families that are "in" the church. He pointed out that folks in some 95% of the households in our community don't attend any church anywhere. He wondered aloud what might happen if we focused some of our energy on those folks. Let me just say, Hoss likes the new guy.
I'm not opposed to signing a covenant. I'll sign it. I prefer, however, that relationships within our local church community ran deeper than a formal agreement--they were there once.
For my reading of the scriptures, unity and love are those things, when evidenced in the church, that cause a watching world to take notice. I'm just sayin'...
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