Liz Zehr

The theme of this past summer’s Synod Assembly was drawn from the words of Isaiah 43:19. “Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?’”  I think that many of us, have perceived that God is doing something new with us and we welcome it!

A lot of us feel like some cobwebs have been blown off and that we don’t have quite so strong a whiff of mothballs hanging over us. Of course, the pandemic has identified some very significant challenges for us; but its also identified some new opportunities that many of us are inspired to engage.

In February  of 2021, we invited congregations and rostered leaders to participate in a survey to help us assesses the impact of Covid-19 on congregational ministries. And according to your survey responses, you discern further change on the horizon; change that many of you welcome.

We asked you to identify “what elements of your congregation’s ministry you believe will change, post-pandemic vs. pre-pandemic.” This is some of what you told us.

With regard to “missional clarity” or “knowing what business you are in,” 53% anticipate experiencing some change and 12% predict extreme change. One of you wrote, “Post-pandemic realities will reinforce sense of urgency to sharpen missional energy.”  Another wrote, “We’ve made of an effort to reach more people than we did before. We have more volunteers to connect with others via phone, personal deliveries. It’s been a huge learning curve to figure out that we can get out of our building and be the voice of Jesus.”

With regard to the provision of pastoral care, 60% see some change on the horizon and 15% expect to experience extreme change.

One of you reported that, “Pastoral care and pastoral interaction with members increased significantly throughout the pandemic and will likely continue in post pandemic.”  Another wrote, “This time of pandemic has now guided us to use technology to its fullest. We plan to use these resources as well as the traditional means of pastoral care to reach out to people and allow for what is most helpful and needed. We also have now incorporated a “care-team” – a group of people reaching out and being there for their congregation and extended community as needed and helpful.”

And it seems that most of you anticipate that significant changes will continue to impact our worship life – 60% in some ways and 27% in extreme ways. One of you wrote, “The pandemic has opened up possibilities for us and has shifted the posture of the community.  A more missional posture and multiple access points.”  Many of you anticipate going into a hybrid worship model with both face to face and online worship, but have very real anxieties about how that can be done effectively.

I am gratified to see us become more courageous and generous in our support of emerging forms of ministry. Many of us are coming to realize that we can’t solely rely upon status quo models for ministry which, in many contexts, are unlikely to advance God’s mission in the ways that they once did. I applaud our church’s increased willingness to engage in experimentation, learn from the experience of others, and overcome our debilitating fear of failing.

During “covid-tide,” we have opened some windows and doors that we had long assumed were painted shut and immovable. That has proven to not be the case. I hope and pray we will withstand the temptation to shut them up again. I can feel the Spirit’s breeze blowing and it is oh so refreshing!

The following is an excerpt from Bishop Michael Pryse’s reflection during the Opening Service of Synod Assembly 2021, June 25-26, 2021

Over the course of my ministry, I’ve often been asked “why it is that things have to change within the church.”” Worship books, hymns, practices, policies, theology. Why can’t you people just leave things the way they are!”

Surprisingly, or not, nobody has asked me that question in the last 16 months, in spite of the monumental changes that have taken place within our life as church! Interesting!

“Behold I am doing a new thing says the Lord; even now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?” I think maybe we have. And that’s even more interesting!

Over the past year and a bit, I think that many – not all – of us have experienced a heightened spiritual sensitivity. In the midst of circumstances that, for the most part, have been just plain awful, many of us have experienced a renewed awareness of God’s gracious presence within our individual lives and within the life of our church.  And that’s really interesting!

It’s been a gift of God’s grace and the parables included in today’s Gospel lesson are pictures that describe a reign of grace. The tiny mustard seed grows into a tree that becomes a nesting place for the birds of the air! The birds didn’t and couldn’t do anything to make it happen. The seed – the reign of God – grew of its own volition and nature!  It’s pure grace!

Likewise the yeast – “God’s activating grace” – is mixed by a baker – “God” –  into three measures of flour – “the world.” Keep in mind that those three biblical measures are the equivalent of a bushel basket; 128 cups or 16 five pound bags of flour! And when the baker adds the 42 or so cups of water needed to make it come together, you are talking about 100 pounds of dough through which she needs to disburse the yeast!  Can you imagine?

But she does it. God kneads that dough until the yeast  – God’s grace – is disbursed throughout; until its everywhere! That’s the only way dough can become bread. The yeast breathes life into the loaf.  It is a gift of the baker; a gift of grace.

Do you feel like you’ve been getting kneaded – k-n-e-a-d- kneaded – for the past 15 months? I know that I have. It’s rarely felt good or even comfortable! But I also know that that’s the way that yeast gets disbursed so it can breathe life and growth into the loaf.  I’d like to believe that that has happened for me, for you, and for our beloved church.  I’d like to believe that in significant ways, we are being made new by gifts of grace that were always present, but have been re-discovered and newly revealed!

Ecclesia reformata, sed semper reformanda.

The Church reformed, but always in the process of being reformed. This was the rallying motto of the reformation; a motto that could have been written as much for us today as it was for our reforming forebears of old.

I welcome the animating presence of these seeds and grains of grace in the life of our church. In the heightened levels of collaboration we’ve experienced within and between congregations! In the adaptation and renewal of our worship life whether high tech, low tech or no tech! I welcome it in our heightened attentiveness to maintaining connection with one another and to questions of inclusion and exclusion.

Behold I am doing a new thing says the Lord; even now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?  Praise God! I think we have and I pray we will! AMEN