Wishlist

(To understand this entry, it may help if you can find a way to listen to th 1998 recording of Peal Jam's Wishlist...but maybe not :-))

Well, Pearl Jam, Sometimes I wish I were a messenger and all the news was good...and sometimes I wish I was the full moon shining on a Camaro's hood. And I even wish sometimes I was a neutron bomb for once I could go off....and I wish I was a sacrifice and still lived on. And sometimes I wish I was a souvenir someone put their housekey on. And I wish often I was a silhouette--somebody that waited for me.

This last one, I get the feeling, a lot of my pastors wish as well. Even if there really is someone waiting at home for them there seems to be a deep yearning for that home place, that home-person-place that yearns for us back in a deeper, fuller, more heartfelt way. Somehow, sometimes, I wish:

that the pastors in my district, in the conference and the churches they lead would realize that this yearning in their souls...that need to "go off"--that deep soul-based desire to deliver the good news ...all of this can happen, it really can, if we tune our hearts to hear God's grace alive all around us.

Sometimes, sometimes I wish: that in addition to reading about the five practices for a healthy congregation, and quickly going to evaluation and critique of how we are doing with these practices, that we take a while to wander around in that wilderness and wonder of God's grace witnessed to us as we open ourselves to be led, open ourselves through regular, real prayer. And that a real passion of heart and mind might come to us, to make us desire to live out the practices not so much to meet a criteria of our own making, but because we cannot help to share the love of Christ.

And so, this year, as I continue to work with the Younger Adult Initiative, primarily in terms of supporting and holding our younger clergy accountable, I will also lead pastors and churches in a time of spiritual renewal...finally, that feels right, and first and finally, that is why we practice---to sense God nearer all the time, and to grow nearer in our heart and in our lives to the likeness of Christ.