Dear Canadians,
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? (1 Cor. 3:16)
This statement was in full evidence yesterday at the “Working Retreat.” God’s temple, the 29 people from across Canada, are here at the Mount Mary Retreat Centre in Ancaster. The people here are filled with the Spirit. Yesterday that was evident in the formal worship of singing, reading Scripture, and interacting with key verses in Nehemiah. It was also evident in the informal worship of the deep spiritual conversations and the digging into what the association of churches should be and what it should look like. There was an inspired understanding that we were doing this work to glorify God through this (future) association of congregations. That understanding was our worship of almighty God.
Encouraged by Thursday evening’s agreement on how we should collaborate with each other to define a new, God-pleasing association of churches, and buoyed by the morning’s praise, prayers, and Scriptural reflection (and breakfast, I must add), we set to work. Each of the seven small groups first tackled one of the value statements and began to tease out its implications. Each group first created a Value Interpretation Statement, which described that value’s:
- Definition (revised if necessary)
- Theological grounding
- Key themes
- Cautions
- Desired culture of the association of churches
In other words, round out the value to articulate its significance. The second half of the day (yes, it took that long) saw each group move deeper into its value statement, and answered these questions about the statement:
- What behaviours and practices would this produce?
- What kinds of leaders and partnerships would fit?
- What kinds of leaders, or leadership requirements are needed to fulfil this value?
- What practices (local church or organizationally (TC)) become essential?
The seven groups, which had worked quite independently throughout the day, came together after the (quite necessary) break and supper to report to the whole, and to hear questions, to be ready for today’s group conversations.
The reason I’m telling you this, is because we experienced the Spirit throughout the reporting time. The seven value statements were of course, quite diverse. They dealt with so many elements of a church (association): community, mission, hospitality, theological foundations, stewardship, discernment. What we experienced were the remarkable commonalities among the presentations: so many of the presented themes were similar. It became obvious that the deliberations that had taken place had been inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Most of the groups said that the organizational implications of their value statement were, among other things, partnering and collaborating with neighbours, with a desire for mutual communal benefit.
There was an understanding that living in tension (we learned the word: tensegrity: holding tension and integrity together) is often where the best work happens; for example: living with both creativity and tradition, and autonomy and accountability, not shutting down the rich conversation that inevitably ensues in that tension. There emerged a shared belief that necessary local autonomy and loving accountability are not mutually exclusive, but can live together, dependant on a trusting relationship among churches. There were more commonly heard implications of each value: hospitality is reciprocal, belonging is a journey. Justice and respect were key threads throughout the presentations; as well as thoughtful partnerships and ecclesial covenants beyond traditional connections.
Very often, we heard from each other: 1. neither each church, nor the association needs to “do it all themselves”: there are so many Spirit-led organizations that can support what Christ is doing. And its corollary #2: learn to share resources.
So what (else) was evident yesterday? The church here in Mount Mary Retreat Centre has a profound appetite for deep, ongoing conversation and for partnering; has a desire to experiment, and a Spirit-fed hunger to continue to extend radical hospitality and welcome.
And today? We continue to move both deeper and wider. Each group will go from implications to structures and applications. And from that: the defining recommendations. After supper, the groups will present these recommendations to the whole body and ultimately leave them with the Leadership Board. And new Board members, drawn from the delegates of the churches represented here, will be chosen to move from a board of volunteers to a delegated ecclesial body. (Slight revision: the folks who will be appointed will actually not be delegated to augment the existing board, but will be a “Group of Seven” to read and integrate the reports coming out of this weekend’s meetings.)
The Spirit is indeed in this place, in the hearts, minds, and mouths of the folks here.
May God continue to bless us.
It’s a new day.
Blessings,
Peter Bulthuis
