| Cohort Report: Churchwide/System Leaders Click here to return to the Church Innovations web site. I was a participant in the Judicatory Cohort group. The conversation was spirited, with lots of energy around listing how story telling connected with scripture and tradition, society and culture and the experience of the faithful. I imagine that if we had the time we could have continued to list those correlations for at least another hour. The portion of the conversation that I resonated with in particular was the idea that we seem to be so discouraged in our churches about finances and attendance, etc, but perhaps God is giving us the opportunity to tell the same Biblical story, but tell it in innovative ways so that those who have never heard it before will have interest and those who have heard it, but are not that excited about continuing to hear it, will be motivated to listen again. The Biblical story does not change, but perhaps the methods to convey its transformative ability need to be changed. I came away from the cohort group session extremely positive about how we worked together as colleagues in the group, listening and being respectful to each other and how even though there is a significant amount to be discouraged about in our denominations, there is a hope that prevails for the future of telling God’s story to the world. I left to go to the airport on Monday evening hoping to get an earlier flight and wanting to return my rented car before I had to drive it on the ice. As I tried to sleep in the airport, a woman walks by and says; “I know you!” We stared at each other for a moment and she says; “I know, you are a pastor. You did my cousin Thulie’s wedding and I was the maid of honor!” The young lady just happened to be in Dallas to work at the Super Bowl, she actually lives in Atlanta. The story of a wedding joined us together again, unexpectedly. The next day two flights I thought I would be able to take were cancelled, and as I and several other persons waited for the shuttle to take us to our hotel, we struck up a conversation. One of the two women I befriended (they had just come back from a vacation in Mexico) informed me as I talked about where I worked that her sister worked in the same ELCA headquarters. I realized that I knew her sister and she and I are actually on a newly formed committee together. I meet a stranger and find out that I work in the same organization as her sister! As we waited for three days to get back to Chicago, these two women and I became connected in a human way where we shared life stories, shared limited resources, shared the emotions of having expectations of leaving Dallas heightened and then defeated by the message that our flight had been cancelled. We made it back to Chicago on Thursday evening and have vowed to stay in touch and meet for dinner to relive this mutual story again. Our cohort group (judicatory leaders) realized what was reinforced to me during the trauma of trying to get home. Life is about relationships. Our relationship with God and with each other. The Biblical story is the foundation for Christians, and that story shapes us and molds us and challenges us to reach out and appreciate and respect the human story of each person that we meet. And as we share our stories together, even if we have minimal Biblical knowledge, or perhaps we feel more connected to the secular world than the religious world, or even if we are different in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, denomination, culture, etc. there is a human connection that makes my story and your story become “our story”. And perhaps, maybe, hopefully, if one person in that relationship does not know the power of Christ for their lives, our sharing of stories will open them up to the power of God and they will come to trust and believe in how “our story” is so intertwined with God’s story. Do we have a story to tell? Yes, my two new friends and I certainly have a story to tell about how we feel God connected us for such a time as this. Let us go out and tell our stories of Christ; stories of hope, joy, peace and love. Do we have a story to tell! Pastor Brenda Smith is Director for Discipleship for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. |
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