My heart was full on Sunday June 30, 2019 as I shared this poem with the congregation as a part of our farewell. Our God moves in amazing ways to connect us to one another for God's greater purpose! Just- wow!
A
Dream Church
I dream a church to shepherd…
where kiddos with donut
smudged faces sit at Jesus’ knee,
while tattooed young adults
clasp Grandma’s gnarled hand in the dripping candlelight of Christmas Eve;
and where the old men fuss over
the dreams of teens
as much as toddlers cling to
the legs of blue-haired warriors of prayer;
A church where life’s joys
and sorrows soak into each other like bread in the cup, fulfilling the truth
that best of all; God = Emmanuel!
I dream a church…
imperfect and messy, plodding and deliberate in
movement,
compassionate and gossipy, sassy and humorous,
mentally ill and quirky;
made of bent, but not
broken people,
who are sinners in recovery toward sainthood, and
saints in recovery from their hypocrisy.
Church who is lukewarm and resilient, strong and uncertain,
passionate and weary, but always a leaning church…
leaning deep into the wide and buoyant grace of God.
A church poised in her past yet,
ready to pounce into the unfolding of God’s vision.
I dream a church…
who has not valued the yet-to-be
abundant harvest from Her neighbor soccer fields, ball diamonds, and dance
classes;
who yearn to know how their
absence would devastate their community;
who are hungry to live purposefully;
and who may have forgotten Whose
they are and Where they are going-
but when reminded - the fire
ignites and the people flash into a Pentecost flame!
A church ripe to live
another life chapter: together.
Yes, oh yes, I dream big dreams.
I dream a church to shepherd.
And as any dreamer does: I pray, “Does the church still dream?”
What does the church dream for in a shepherd?
Does She dream for a
shepherd-leader-teacher-preacher-prophetic sayer-priest and prayer that
is me?
Better yet, when the Church
dreams does She also pray like a dreamer asking,
”Does a shepherd still
dream?”
May, the God of all Dreamers, grant our dreams to come true.
