Pastoral


Reflections Rev. Dr. Jack Haberer


Beloved FPCA Friend, Happy New Year. Have you made New Year’s resolutions this time around?


I’ve made some resolutions for us together. Tey grow out of my first two years here, during which I’ve been exploring, refining, and testing hopes for this chapter that lies before us. Tose hopes are coming clearer into focus. Clearer enough to voice them as specific resolutions for this calendar year.


1. Tat we will become a thoroughly missional church. To be missional is much more than supporting missions. It entails a mental conversion from segmenting our lives into different compartments (family, career, church, hobbies, etc.) to forming our lives around and in partnership with God’s mission to the world. Tat mission incorporates all of those other venues and activities, but it begins with asking, “What is God wanting to do here?” It reorients our lives—personal and corporate, secular and sacred— into ones of high purpose simply because they are being directed by God to fulfill God’s work. It carries over into our church life with us collectively asking and seeking to discern what God is doing and calling us to participate in to transform the world around us.


2. Consistent with that, that we will cultivate a culture of calling. A culture of calling is one in which every participant actually participates—and in specialized ways. Tat is, each of us is encouraged to discern our own spiritual giftings, personality type, visions, and passions, and, at the same time, explore the context within which each of us lives—all to answer the question, “Where do my gifts and passions meet my community’s greatest needs?” Such a culture of calling gets empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit and engages in a congregational life that is permission giving. When voicing new ideas, its leaders instinctively say, “Go for it.” And they help form partnerships and teams to pursue those callings.


3. Consistent with that, we will become fanatical and relentless caregivers of one another within our body. No hospital or doctor would claim to achieve a 100 percent cure rate, but they might strive to achieve a 100 percent care rate. Well, I’m determined to do that very thing. For various reasons, many church members reach a stage in life when singing in the choir, serving on committees, and attending Bible studies just isn’t possible. Indeed, their worship attendance flags to the point of


ongoing absence. Tragically, many churches allow the out-of-sight, out-of-mind pattern to take over. “Tragically” is an understatement. It is a congregational sin to allow absentee members to be forgotten. We need to become fanatical at tracking one another, visiting one another, calling one another, bearing the presence of Christ to one another. I will not sleep well until the only complaint I hear from the homebound is “You’re visiting me too much. You’re overdoing it.”


4. Consistent with that and fueling all of it, we will proclaim the Good News of God’s love made available to us by Jesus Christ. Tis resolution is nothing new. It is the central reason for being the church. But it needs to be stated lest it ever be taken for granted.


Would you join me in making these resolutions, too? Would you add them to yours? Adopting such resolutions does not minimize the other values and practices that already define us. We are a welcoming church, embracing persons of racial and ethnic diversities and those living in love relationships of various forms. We are a worshipping church, singing and playing God’s praises in multiple styles and languages. We are an extended family church, nurturing the faith of our young. We are a thinking church, loving God with the mind as well as with heart and soul. We are a prophetic church, breaking chains of injustice. Tese are convictions that have defined us and for which we will continue to strive.


Put that all together and we have much to do in the year ahead. Let us resolve together to be faithful to God’s call. May God be glorified in the process.


Grace and peace to you and yours,


Jack Haberer Lead Pastor


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