4725 Brockton Avenue | Riverside, CA 92506 | 951.684.3336 | email us
Eden Evangelical Lutheran Church |
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Pastor's Message - April 2008Having Vision It was not possible to just walk away from the empty tomb — to stroll along that Sunday morning as though languishing in dreamy contentment or cloudy consciousness. These women had a startling awareness of things being turned upside down. They saw what God was doing. What they saw changed everything. Nothing could go on as before. The vision of the future was breaking into the present. Jesus was alive! Nothing is so unstoppable as a clear and compelling vision. Visions of what can be have inspired revolutions and religions. Clear and compelling visions create community and move us to great persistence and selflessness. People who have a vision have a purpose that beckons them out of sleep in the morning, that designs their priorities for every part of their day, and that gives them gratitude at the close of their day. To possess a vision of what can be and will be is what really matters. It fuels our ministry and mission as a congregation. One of the steps that God is encouraging us to do during this time of transition is to be clear and focused on the mission and ministry of Eden Lutheran Church. I would imagine that you have been working hard on that for several years now, in fact much of that is what the Natural Church Development team was all about. But something has changed. You are not the same people you were six months ago. A new reality has broken into your presence. God is compelling you to make the journey of faith with a new companion to walk beside you. During this next month, you as a congregation will be asked to nominate persons to be on the Transition Team. The team will be helping us to identify the vision that God is calling us to both for our present and our future. This team is not simply charged with responsibility for managing and maintaining what is, but with holding up a vision of what can be. They will help us to see the larger reality, the trends and needs, the purpose and destination of things in our care. God's vision is never static. Nothing can go on as before because God's vision for us is changing everything. Just like that vision at the empty tomb changed the women's reality of their world. So stay tuned! The Transition Team will be beginning their task of helping us to identify the vision that God has for Eden Lutheran, for the present and the future. But let us always remember the vision of stopping by the empty tomb to let God's new reality make its way into our lives.
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