20/20 Vision

When I was in my thirties I was having trouble concentrating when I was reading. I finally visited my eye doctor and asked him about it. He said that I did have a little correction and that maybe we should try a prescription for reading glasses. So, I did. Then something peculiar happened. When Susan and I were on the freeway we both missed our exit because I could not read the signs! I went back to my eye doctor and apparently my brain realized that it did not need to work so hard anymore. I went from needing reading glasses to trifocals in three weeks time. I no longer had 20/20 vision. I was no longer that 20 year old I thought I was.

We change. Times change. Culture changes. Change, as has always been true, is a constant. Yet, in some areas of our lives change is hard to accept.

As your Visioning Team nears the end of its work one of the main themes is that of change. What we once could count on as church culture is no longer true. We are not that Norwegian congregation of 1886. We are no longer that congregation of exponential growth of 1962. We are no longer the congregation struggling out of conflict of 2009. We are a congregation that is different, a congregation that has changed.

With change comes opportunities that we never dreamed about. Like glasses that help us see the signs, our visioning document will help us discern what we might be called to become in this time and place. On June 2, we invite you to join us as we present our completed work. We are excited to share with you what we believe is God's preferred and promised future for us.

I am thankful for my prescription glasses. They help me to see what people write to me and to see the signs that give me direction. Without them I would be struggling to even navigate my way around my house much less the outside world. I hope our vision statement will be the right kind of prescription for our congregation to help us engage the world around us.