Faith Facing Forward

It’s a bit hard to believe how much has happened in just one short year.  It was October 2010 that I started ministry here at Bellevue First Congregational Church and twelve months later, on October 2011, our second pastor, Lisa Clark, has arrived on scene as well.  And in-between we saw the addition of Brenda Hounjet as Parish Visitor, Kari Groves as co-director (with Sara Gillam) of Faith Formation, Sarah Hallberg as the Senior High Youth ministry coordinator, and the Nancy’s Two (Nancy Bos and Nancy Bent) as directors of our new musical group.  Wow!  Combine those people with the great folks already on staff – Richard Lind (organist), Kim Iverson (receptionist), Dwight Davis (Junior High), Sally Moore (Financial administrator), Dennis Coleman (chancel choir), and Pat Miller (Sunday security) and you have a heck of a team.

During these past twelve months I have spent an enormous amount of time trying to understand the history of our church, since I strongly believe that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.  The church has done a good job of keeping “stuff” from the past and as I have rummaged and poked and read and asked questions of members and former staff, I have learned a great deal.  While I still puzzle over the meaning of some actions and behaviors, a clearer picture of the “who” of our collective being has emerged: a community deeply committed to equality and social justice that strives to be inclusive and open to new ways of thinking, believing and acting.  But just as in any life this “who we are today” has not come without struggle and pain and disappointment and loss over the years.  But as the great psychoanalyst Carl Jung pointed out, consciousness is not achieved without pain.

But even as I have explored the past I have kept my eye on the future, since the past is prelude to the future.  Since January 2011 we have been involved in Shaping Our Future, a process designed to reach some collective agreement about how the “who we are” shall shape the “what we do” part of our life together.  Countless meetings have been held by various groups to ask questions about our preferred ministries and what physical structure would best serve those ministries.

Yes, it has been an incredible twelve months, but it is only the beginning of an amazing new day.

See you in church,

Kevin