Orientation is Almost Done!

The past few days have been occupied with visiting groundbreaking ceremonies for community development centers, visiting Central High and learning about the Little Rock Nine, seminars, training, discussion, and team sharing so that we will serve each other in the coming months.  I wish I could have blogged my thoughts while they were still fresh, but I don’t think it’s possible at this point.

Summarily put, we’ve discussed Esther’s example of sacrifice for the glory of God (in her case it was something as extreme as her body) and the unstoppable power of reconciling love that we called to be a part of.  The overall impression for me from the past few days is that justice work is something we are called to, but as individual churches, we are weak in.  Every church needs to learn that to minister change; we have to work with others in order to have mutual partnership and understanding.  There’s a GBGM commercial showing at UM conferences all over the country that captures what I’m talking about. 

Today however, we started in song with “Amazing Grace” and “This Little Light of Mine” which was a welcomed addition to our routine.

  Next, we had a preacher who is black speak to us about racism, which surprised me; usually I see white people dominating that conversation.  The finer points of this conversation included that in actuality, we see race regularly, and it isn’t something we can claim to be immune to.  Furthermore, we should seek truth in love.  In non-church language, this means we need to be honest and admit our prejudices through long-term dialogue and intention community building.  It is almost noon, but for the rest of the day we are having seminars and then eventually a grill out. 

Our group is tired, we haven’t had much time to freely socialize, and several of us want to go to the pool or just get out of the hotel.  Tomorrow is our sending out day and I am saddened to be leaving the community that has become so tightly-knit.  Each one of these people embody how the church should be, it should be intentional, it should be radically challenging and transformative, and radically loving. 

I have changed from this experience by being instructed to be humble when acting as a leader, seeking the Holy Spirit through silence and faithfulness, and to represent Christ by having an overflowing inner well as described in the story of the Samaritan woman.  Transformation also occurred in our lives specifically through community and sharing.  Such fellowship makes us aware of our weakness and through that comes empowerment.  In Hamburg, I plan on following the model of intentional community, interactive dialogue, tackling the difficult issues of injustice and following with action, and integrating spiritual disciplines in my life but also in the life of larger community.

Signing Out,

Koontz Corner