The Church of God 2012 North American Convention (NAC or for people like me who are used to the old name--Anderson Campmeeting) was recently held on the campus of Anderson University. Our congregation was represented by myself and Kathy Brad (who was able to attend many of the Christian Women's Connection events in addition to some of the other conferences and services). Most of my time in Anderson was spent attending the General Assembly meetings where various issues are presented and discussed. The three biggest topics of this year's assembly meeting were a resolution on Conditional Deeding, the transition plan for the retiring General Director, and the feasibility study regarding locating the NAC in different rotating sites. If you would like to watch a video of one of the services or the Hymn Sing, they can be found at this website. If you are only going to watch one, may I recommend one of my favorite preachers--Diana Swoope and the Monday service.

“Harvesting our Failures”

It’s harvest season. I recently received a photo message from my friend’s family farm during their harvest in Indiana. Apple picking season is in full swing, pumpkins can be seen at roadside stands, and the “harvest festival” of Thanksgiving will be upon us before we know it.

I’m of the opinion that many of us who haven’t farmed lose out on some of the rich imagery and stories in the Old and New Testaments. So many of the stories draw on agricultural contexts and situations. Jesus tells us “I am the vine.” Paul calls the primary virtues Fruit in his letter to Galatians. Jesus tells parables about workers in the vineyard and mustard shrubs, and throughout the OT, Israel yearns for “a land flowing with milk and honey”—crucial agricultural crops of the Palestinian area.

A lot of these stories might grab our attention more if we understood the agricultural world that illumines Scripture. Growing, pruning, and yes, harvesting, are important practices for Christians. Not too long ago, I was reflecting on some errors about which I said, “I messed up and won’t do that again.” A wise friend encouraged me to not just say “I won’t do this again” but instead advised, “harvest your failures.“

When the farmer goes out to harvest, he is not just plowing over the corn and preparing the field for a future crop, but he is gathering the produce that will sustain the family through the winter, enable the maintenance of the tools and equipment, and supply the seeds for the next year’s planting.

Most of us are experts in description. We easily justify to ourselves why we needed to do whatever it was that we now look back on and wish we hadn’t done something. We talk of being frustrated because we don’t want to be angry. On more than one occasion I’ve tried to dismiss some error and said, “well hindsight’s 20/20.” We as both individuals and a congregation can look at our pasts and turn some of our experiences into produce, harvests, and fruit instead of just a file folder of what went wrong. We can harvest those failures and allow them to enable our future and sustain our present, just like the farmer. However, most of us don’t have the patience to actually harvest. Remember the scene in The Field of Dreams where Kevin Costner is plowing under his mature corn crop so that he can build the baseball field. I remember thinking to myself…couldn’t this wait until he harvested that corn to build the field? Often we are in too much of a hurry to move on from a painful or troubling experience to truly harvest it so that it helps us grow. It is much easier to just stuff it away somewhere and move on without really giving it much reflection.

This autumn as you pick apples, drive by a roadside stand of pumpkins, or celebrate the harvest—take the time to reflect on what kind of harvests you have neglected that might carry you through the next “winter” on your journey…and don’t forget to allow others to help you too. Every farmer knows that more hands will help the harvesting process.

Pastor Nathan

It's no secret that I haven't done really well at keeping new content and communication in the "Pastor's Blog" section of the website. Well, one of the steps we're trying to take as a congregational leadership team is to provide more communication through the website.

The plan will be to have a new blog post every other Friday that addresses something we've discussed at the recent leadership team, something that has come up in my sermon preparation, or some tangential insight from other theological or biblical reading. Sometimes it will be some material that seems interesting to me, but just doesn't fit into the flow of a sermon--often because it is a long or dense quote.

This week we will start with a passage from Søren Kierkegaard. In these few paragraphs about one of Jesus' parables, I hope you'll be led to reflect on the relation between promising, commitment, and fidelity. This coincides with the present sermon series from Christine Pohl's Living into Community that I'm using with the series and reviewing for the Wesleyan Theological Journal. She is the one that led me to Kierkegaard this time. He offers a profound framing of this story that really highlights the importance of how we choose to use our promises. S.K. illustrates one more way in which our lives together are intertwined with each other and even a tendency to too quickly say "Yes" has further rippled effects on the community and our relationships.

Last newsletter I wrote about our Church of God heritage and posed the question of whether it should be a root or a roadblock. I hope that what emerged is that it all depends on us. We have the resources available to us to be grounded within a particular tradition that has sought to serve Christ for over 130 years in the US and one that has increasingly seen the fruit of connecting to appropriate places within the broader Christian tradition that takes us all the way through history to the New Testament Church. Obviously where we tie into these traditions and how we interpret and apply our historical memory and knowledge requires much discernment.

This month, I want to touch on a wonderful opportunity for each of us to connect ourselves to one of Crossroads’ roots. Each year we set up a stable, rent some farm animals, and gather together to become cold. In the past couple weeks I had two people from other churches or organizations say something about the live nativity when they found out I was from Crossroads. “Oh you’re the church with the live nativity, right?” When we host the live nativity, we are offering our neighbors an opportunity to celebrate Christmas in a way that centers on the birth of Christ. It provides a wonderful opportunity for young children to learn the story of Jesus’ birth, and hopefully provides numerous parents with the chance to tell their children “why those people are doing a play outside in the snow.”

There is another and I suspect even more important aspect of the live nativity that some of you may not have considered. As one of the newer persons to our church family, I have been struck by the way that my participation in the live nativity has tied me to some of you and some previous family members who have passed on or have moved away from our fellowship. When I was being sized for my robe as a wiseman, I learned of Josh Smith, his height, his connection to this congregation and about his work in Maryland as a pastor. I also got to see David Titter wear the Elijah costume and learned of how that role was filled for many years by Guenter Schmidt. Many other family names came out as I heard stories of previous years…Foth, Dustin, Schwarz, Tanner, Nietzche, Fridley, and others. When we gathered last fall for our Centennial celebration, one of my favorite things was seeing so many photos of people in live nativity roles. As a new member of the family, I was immediately connected to countless others from the past…walking in their paths so to speak. What a wonderful blessing for our children, youth, and new family members to have a connection to our history. The Live Nativity connects us to each other, unites us in an outreach to our community, and offers an important time of fellowship near Christmas.

What are some of the other ways that you feel connected to our past? As you spend time in prayer, study, and reflection this month, I want to encourage you to think about the ways that we are connected to each other, the past, and how we want to enable connection to the future. And hey, while you’re at it, maybe you can make the trip up to Rock Springs for a day or more during Family Camp…it’s another wonderful opportunity to walk in the footsteps of others who have been before us while also being re-energized for discipleship.

In Christ’s Peace,

Pastor Nathan