A Plea For Support!

This was written August 24th as a pastoral letter to Light for Life New Church (my congregation in Seattle). I decided to post it here because it just flowed out of me, and felt like a Divinely inspired summary of God's hope for the church as a whole.

Yours,
Ethan


Dear Friends:

I've been wanting to reach out to our congregation in some way in light of our recent transition, and for the moment felt like writing a letter. In some ways this may be the hardest phase of our ministry out here (at least for me - and I'm sure for some of you). We went from something that felt "sure and secure" to many of you in RSC to something that feels (at least to some) like a step back. I prefer to think of it as a step sideways in order to move forward, but have myself wrestled at times with wondering whether we're moving in the right direction.

Starting several months back, we had a long conversation in Pastor's Council (which Joan Smith graciously hosted at their home in Tacoma) about the future direction of LFL. I articulated a hope back then (along with many others) that our current trajectory - renting a building for a few hours a week on Sunday - was not only taxing a core with a long history, but seemed like a mismatch for the people and area we were trying to serve and the way in which we were trying to serve it. It was thought that Seattle central held the greatest promise and that as a city it is divided into "neighborhood" areas by which the local populous identifies themselves, rather than with the city as a whole. (For instance, you don't say: "I'm from Seattle", you say you're from North, South, East, or West, Seattle - and then usually a neighborhood subset of one of those areas - like Columbia City). This is a dynamic I'm actually pretty familiar with as our previous city (Pittsburgh) was identified by its neighborhoods more than the metro-area. The idea is that in order to have a lasting impact, you need to become a part of the community you're seeking to serve.

The longer we spent evaluating our current setting with an eye to future growth, the more we felt the East Side, both in terms of its culture and the way it even evolved (not organically, but through business and retirement era development that then drew people) wasn't meeting the kind of blend in state and stage of life that we had hoped (i.e. young families). So, we narrowed in on Columbia City because of its cost of living and socioeconomic and cultural blend of perspectives. To see the Percept Group study, one of the tools that helped us reach this conclusion, click here:

Ministry Area Profile

Ministry Area Profile InfoMaps

Ministry Area Profile ActiveMap (New!)

To me, the tagline we've needed to adopt is simple (and has become a shared motto of the Outreach team): we're trying to create an opportunity for a new manifestation of the Lord in the Seattle area - for culturally relevant expressions of eternal truth. In order for that to work, there's an internal and an external call. The internal call is primarily the "alerting of the Divine". The external call is how prudence meets with our perception of who we're being called to reach. And while its true that "we just put things in piles, and its the Lord who sees the house", our efforts to persistently and prudently "pile where we're called" really matter!

So, now we come to the personal part. For myself, I feel a new phase of ministry developing. One where our sense of call trumps our cultural inclinations. One where the people we have yet to serve start to matter more than how we ourselves are being served. One where every person starts to be seen as a child of God, and the needs they have (internally and externally) become more important to us than our pre-packaged "answers." One where our hearts are on fire to build the Lord's kingdom "in the trenches" - where people are experiencing isolation, depression, desperation, desolation. To be a spiritual oasis for their recovery. And when we willingly place ourselves in the stream of Providence, standing not on cultural pretense but active participation in the world the Lord's called us to serve, He will bless His Church. It will grow (from the inside out). Lives will change. His kingdom will come.

I want to close with two passages that have been speaking to me a lot in the last few days:

The human race throughout the whole world is under the Lord's supervision, and each one of us is being led by him in the slightest details, from infancy to the end of life, with a particular place foreseen and provided for. We can see from this that divine providence is universal because it attends to the slightest details, and that it is an infinite and eternal creation that the Lord has provided for himself by creating the universe. We see nothing of this universal providence, and if we did see it, it would look to our sight like the scattered piles and random heaps that passers-by see when a house is being built. The Lord, though, sees a magnificent palace constantly under construction and constantly being enlarged. (DP 203)

'And she took pity on him' means being alerted by the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'taking pity' as an influx of charity from the Lord, for when anyone looks with charity on someone in distress, as Pharaoh's daughter does here on the child crying in the box made of rush, a feeling of compassion is aroused. And since the feeling is stirred by the Lord, it is an alerting by Him. Indeed when people who are perceptive have feelings of compassion they know that they are being alerted by the Lord to offer help. (AC 6737)

We're being Divinely called to help, and that's reshaping our mission. The more I've thought about it, I cannot articulate clearer reasons than these for the direction we are headed. In terms of the specific building we're after (Columbia Plaza), we went through a process of assessing financially and practically the building that we could best afford, in the most visible area of the city, which could be configured to suit our ministry needs. Once we had the approval from Pastor's Council, Jan O'Connor, Walt Flynn (our realtor), Showcase Inc. (an online realty service) and myself did a lot of research (incl. on site visits) to a number of different buildings to arrive where we are now. But at some level, that doesn't matter to me anymore. Its not actually about the building - its a means to serve. And the lens through which we should be filtering the whole discussion is who we are called to serve.

That said, I've faced my own periods of depression, desperation, and at times a strong feeling I've failed you in an effort to break out of what was "comfortable" (for me as well). But living your faith isn't about comfort. Its about feeling for all people who are in need of saving. All people who are worth loving in the eyes of the Lord, so many of whom are stumbling through life without a clear light to guide their journey, and they're dying spiritually because of it. And that kills me - because we can stand with them in temptation and help them see there's a way out. My heart burns for us to be that kind of presence here.

I'm sorry if in my enthusiasm for this new direction, I've left some of you feeling you don't have a home or a voice. Admittedly, I've felt a stronger sense of "Ethan, this is what you're meant to be doing" than ever before in my life, and that has encouraged me to push past my own insecurities - but I want that encouragement shared by the whole. Its in large part because of my sense that this group really doesn't care as much about the externals and is hungry to serve that I felt supported in pressing this direction. I continue to believe that we're on the right path, but I hope any of you who feel challenged will find me, talk to me, work with me. I'm here to be your pastor and I want this to be a team effort, a partnership. Only then will it work. Only then will it be blessed. We have a Board meeting coming up soon, and once I have a lease draft in hand I want to convene a congregational meeting to discuss next steps. We have also started a "building team" which will be the group that helps to plan the building's reconfiguration once we've met.

At the end of the first passage in Heaven and Hell, we're reminded of the church's core purpose succinctly and beautifully -

People these days know practically nothing about heaven and hell or their life after death, even though there are descriptions of everything available to them in the Word. In fact, many who have been born in the church deny all this. In their hearts they are asking who has ever come back to tell us about it. To prevent this negative attitude-especially prevalent among people who have acquired a great deal of worldly wisdom-from infecting and corrupting people of simple heart and simple faith, it has been granted me to be with angels and to talk with them person to person. I have also been enabled to see what is in heaven and in hell, a process that has been going on for thirteen years. Now I am being allowed therefore to describe what I have heard and seen, in the hopes of shedding light where there is ignorance, and of dispelling skepticism. The reason this kind of direct revelation is taking place today is that this is what the Coming of the Lord means. (HH #1)

May we be instruments of the Lord's coming, shedding light where there is ignorance, and dispelling skepticism. So these children of the Lord know they are not alone. They never have been and they never will be!

In His Love,
Ethan