April, 2008

  Dear Friends

  As I am writing this, you have just elected your Pastor Nominating Committee. So the first thing I want to do is congratulate,
 commend and thank seven of you: Joe Beselinoff, Joan Downes, Peter Rothman, Debbie Sargeant, Alice Schwankert, Madhu
 Solanki and Phil Van Horn. You seven have been entrusted by your brothers and sisters at FPCSA with an important task that
 is all about looking towards the future. Your work is all about helping set a foundation for the future building up of this
 congregation.

  I also must pause here and say a word to all of you. The work of your PNC is confidential. In fact, during our brief schedule-
 setting meeting after the congregational meeting on the 13th, I made the point that confidentiality even includes no “pillow
 talk.” Please do not put these seven people you have entrusted with this work in the position of having to say that they are
 not going to talk about it. Please respect that boundary. They will keep you up to date of their progress as is appropriate.

  During these next months while your PNC is at work, they will be in a process much like building—gathering the materials,
 setting a foundation, identifying those things and a particular person who will be central to what they are starting. You can
 be a part of that in a very particular and important way: prayer. Prayer as they put together the Church Information Form that
 goes to prospective pastors. Prayer as they begin to receive and read Personal Information Forms (or dossiers) from
 prospective pastors. Prayer as they begin interviewing. Prayer as they hear several preach. Prayer as they move toward a
 decision and a call. Prayer as they introduce the candidate to you. There is nothing more important that you can do for them.
 And there is nothing more important that they need than the “mortar” that prayer provides.

  I have been thinking about building lately as I have been reading and working on the lectionary passages for the next few
 Sundays. As it would happen, images of stones are before me. Stones in Scripture are used for both building up and tearing
 down. In Acts (as in other places) people are stoned in order to remove troublemakers from the community. Stephen is stoned
 because he preached Jesus as the risen Lord.

  Yet, in other places, we find stones being used to build up the temple, to build up the faith, to build up people and their lives.
 In fact, Peter calls us to be “living stones.” What does that mean?

  We are part of God's structure of love, mercy and justice in the world. Christ is the cornerstone: the living rock who is our
 foundation, the one who gives us strength to be a part of Christ's living body, the church. It seems to me that Peter is
 speaking of Christ's enduring love and eternal presence, as well as the fact that God in Christ is with us. Christ is
 contemporary and concerned with what is going on now, in this time and in every place.

  Therefore, when we are called to be living stones, we, too, are called to contribute and add strength to the overall structure.
 We are called to live and speak God's message of inclusive love and justice. Each of us, with our God-given gifts and talents,
 has something to offer, and we have the responsibility to do so. If our contribution is missing, the structure is weaker.

  So stones can be used to tear down and wall out. Stones can be used build up and create spaces where the love of Christ
 shows forth. It seems to me that “living stones” are in the latter category, they show forth the love of Christ in the world
 through the way we live out our faith, especially as we reach out and include others rather than wall people out. It is a pretty
 good metaphor for this point in your interim process and for the beginning of your new time with your new pastor.

  In May we celebrate Pentecost, the time when the promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. We mark that day as the beginning
 of the building of the body of Christ on earth that we know as the church. I celebrate that the promise of the Holy Spirit is
 being fulfilled in you “living stones,” and that the Spirit will be front and center during this time of searching.

  Come, continue to build up life as Christ modeled living. Be in prayer for the PNC, and you will be an important part of the
 process and an increasingly important example to those around you, here at FPCSA and in the community in the days ahead.

  In Christ,

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