This past Sunday we heard from Denise Bell, our Regional Minister, as she shared possibilities for our next step as First Christian in Warner Robins. She encouraged us to seek our vision for how we want to minister in the name of Christ.
To seek this vision we need to recall the reason for starting this church as well as looking at our community and discovering how we can offer grace and hope. This will need all to be in prayer and investing ourselves to looking around the community and talking to people to discover the real needs in Warner Robins. We also need to share our thoughts and visions with each other. This also presumes that we will speak honestly and listen gracefully.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) claims to be “a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.” Our vision should bring to life this understanding of our Church.
Since the Lord’s Table is the heart of our faith and worship, let us start at the Table to seek our vision. At the Table we are called to share in this meal as we are, not as we hope to become. We come with our stains and injuries, our pains and our joys, our fragility and our weaknesses. None of us have approached the Table whole. Only in receiving from the Table do we begin the journey to wholeness.
Will our vision reflect this understanding of the Lord’s Table and allow any and all who want to come and receive be permitted to do so? Can we be open and affirming to everyone who needs this gift? Let us prayerfully consider what our new vision will be and as brothers and sisters of faith, work to make the vision visible to Warner Robins.
Shalom, Darrell
