The journey continues...

Hello, friends.  Aaron here...

This Sunday marks the six-year anniversary of the first time I joined the Spring of Life community to worship God. I remember it well because I had just moved from south Florida to Orlando for a new job and Lenora and Gabrielle had not yet joined me; so, not only was I experiencing the awkward feelings typically associated with trying a new church, I was also alone and without my family.  Shirley Stoffer greeted me at the door, made me a name tag, and immediately made me feel welcome.  I completed a connect card and Pastor Dave called me the next day.  It didn’t take long for me to figure out that Spring of Life was going to be our new church home, which was an enormous relief because the only regret our family had when making the decision to leave south Florida was that we would have to leave the church where Lenora and I were married, Gabrielle was baptized, and where we were part of a praise team we loved very much.

I tell you this because Spring of Life has been, and always will be, an integral part of my faith journey. It is now my sixth year leading worship and third year leading youth. Had you told me those things were going to be in my future when I attended that first worship service in September 2006, I never would have believed you. Had you also told me that I would begin preaching in July 2008, discern a call to ordained ministry shortly thereafter, and begin seminary in June 2009, I never would have believed those things  either. And I certainly would not have believed that I was going to take a tremendous leap of faith and leave the job I moved to Orlando for in the first place so I could attend seminary full-time and make myself more available to serve God and the good people of Spring of Life. Finally, I probably wouldn’t have believed that our family would grow by two more children either. Let’s just say that the years that we have spent at Spring of Life have brought a whirlwind of change for the Rousseau family. God indeed works in mysterious ways!

Yet, through it all God has been faithful to us as we’ve sought to follow His leading. You, the faithful people of Spring of Life, have been a source of strength and encouragement for us and we are so thankful for your love and prayers.  Answering God’s call can be both fulfilling and wrought with challenge, so having the support of great pastors and a great congregation is truly of the utmost importance. As many of you know, I appeared before the District Committee of Ordained Ministry (DCOM) last Thursday to be interviewed and considered for their recommendation to the Board of Ordained Ministry (BOOM) as a Provisional Elder in the Florida Annual Conference.  I was disappointed to learn that they would not be recommending me to for Provisional Elder at this time.  Nonetheless, they affirmed my call to ordained ministry and the gifts that I possess for ministry by keeping me on the Provisional Elder track and re-certifying my candidacy.  Still, they felt that there are some areas of growth I should address to help me reach my full effectiveness as a minister, and I was assigned some contingencies to work on until my next interview as a result. The chair of the DCOM did tell me, however, that they will consider recommending me to the BOOM as a full-time local pastor at their September meeting. Simply put, this could be a means for me to find a full-time appointment in the Florida Annual Conference and serve as a stepping stone until I am approved and commissioned as a Provisional Elder. Lenora and I will be meeting with the District Superintendent in the coming weeks to discuss possibilities.  Like anything else, there are no guarantees, but if such an appointment does become available, it won’t be until next summer, after I have graduated from seminary. 

Now you know what we know, which I confess at times this week hasn’t felt like much. I thank Dave and Carolyn for being there for me this past week. I thank all of you for your prayerful support. In spite of the initial emotions that came following the DCOM’s decision, I remain grateful for this process and feel confident that I will be better for it.  While there have been times of question and doubt these past few years, I can tell you with all certainty that every decision I have made to answer God’s call has proven to be a right one.  I look forward to a year of great growth and what I know will also be another great year in ministry at Spring of Life.  Thanks be to God.  

Learning How to Fail

The title of this blog may seem a little ridiculous. Who needs to learn how to fail? Every human being seems to come by it rather naturally. Nobody is perfect right?

But I want to suggest that the church has a role to play in teaching people how to fail well.

This week I was reminded again that the church isn’t different from the rest of the world when it comes to causing harm. There are plenty of examples to choose from. Churches are going to be communities where people hurt one another. They are made up of human beings.

If you haven't been hurt at your church yet it is only because you haven't been there long enough or haven't gotten very involved. God’s hope for the church is that it would be different from the rest of the world in the way that it responds when hurt happens. This is where we must “learn how to fail well.”

Because of Jesus and his Spirit living in us, we can learn to fail well. We can admit when we are wrong and cause harm – either intentionally or unintentionally. We can speak the truth in love to someone who has hurt us. And we can forgive. Forgiving means we make a decision not to get even. We choose not to hold a grudge or nurse bitterness. It doesn’t mean we say, “What you did doesn’t matter.” It doesn’t mean that we “forget.” And it doesn’t mean that we begin to immediately trust the person who hurt us. Forgiveness means that we no longer hold the offense against someone by continuing to bring it up and thereby allowing it to continue fracturing our communion with one another and with God.

These two gifts, confession and forgiveness, are really what makes the church different from the rest of the world. Followers of Jesus do well to use these two gifts from God to show the world how God wants us to fail.

I believe that it breaks God’s heart when we fail and do not use the gifts of confession and forgiveness. I believe that because I know that the reason God sent his son into the world was for the purpose of reconciliation.

“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:19

I found a great resource for helping people who want to get better at this and other practices that reveal God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. It is called, “Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals” by Claiborne, Wilson-Hartgrove and Okoro. It is a book to strengthen the prayer life of the church and a book that has helped me to learn how to fail well. I recommend it highly!

Here is an excerpt from the book on the topic of confession that I’d like to share with you:

Confession

“The Scriptures have much to say about not coming to the altar if we are holding something against a sister or brother. We are told that we will be forgiven inasmuch as we forgive. The early church was known for its public confessions of sins. Many traditions of Christianity have practiced public confession, and many great revivals have been sparked by folks beating their breasts and confessing sins to one another.

Consider ways of creating a space for confession to happen. We have built in some space for confession in each evening prayer office, but there may be other community rituals you want to practice. One practice used in some communities is “Prouds and Sorries,” where each person is given the space to share something they are proud of and something they are sorry about. Just as we confess things that are wrong, we also need to be reminded that we are better than the worst things we do. Reconciliation is one of the fruits of confession, and it is worth thinking about ways of speaking into each other’s lives as we hope to restore whatever may have been broken or lost. (Some communities respond to confessions by saying together, “We proclaim to you God’s forgiveness and ours.”) Confessional prayer assumes that our worship takes place in a deeply flawed community. The church has always been a worrisome and dysfunctional place. But by grace we can take small steps to restore trust. Maybe it is writing a note to someone we have offended or calling up someone we have murmured to (or about) and asking for their forgiveness. Maybe it means each week choosing to do something nice for someone it’s hard for you to like. Sometimes we call this “doing penance.” It’s not that we have to do an act of penance to earn God grace; it’s the opposite – because we have experienced God’s grace, we can’t help but do some act of grace toward another person.”