Reflecting on the Journey
Love never waits, it goes!
The story – our story – began, seventy years ago. When, after the war, a group of Lutherans from the Hill Country came to the Basin. Within a few years, a pastor had been called, land bought, and ground broken. By the end of 1953, we were official. And for the next thirty years, life was good. Of course, there were the normal booms and busts of the oil fields. But the congregation, not only, weathered the ebbs and flows, but grew. But when the change came, it was drastic and it was dramatic. From the mid-Eighties till now, our decline was steady and sure. Twenty-five months ago, the papers were signed and the building was sold. What – for sixty-some years had been our home now belongs to Midland Chin Immanuel Church.
For a while, we met in the fellowshipHall. Then, thanks to covid, we walked away and haven’t been back, since. For the last year, we’ve been here … in the wilderness. No longer, but not yet. Not here, but not there. Not being, but becoming. Living somewhere in between. But it hasn’t been easy. Learning to walk in a new world. Learning to talk to a new generation. Cultivating a church not for us, but for those who come after.
And the biggest challenge we’ve faced? Figuring out how to be a congregation without a building! For three score and ten, our identity has been an address. Midland Lutheran Church has been coordinates on a grid. Who we’ve been has been based on mortar and bricks. Our mission, our ministry, to take care of this little piece of the planet. But when we couldn’t … Well, that’s when the journey began.
Lately, I’ve been hearing a question. When will we be getting back together? More to the point … Will we, EVER, be getting back together? The answer is, “Yes! Sooner than later!” We’d be together, now, if it wasn’t for the pandemic! We’d be together, now, if it was safe! If it was worth the risk! We’re getting there. But we’re not there, yet. So, for now, we’re just working our way through the wilderness. One week at a time.
We, also, hurried to get back into the fellowshipHall, because we’d be headed in the wrong direction! It’s going backward, not forward! It’s wasting effort. Squandering energy. Doubling, tripling the journey! Think about it … For over three generations, we’ve been a place. A location. And people have come to us. Come to us to hear what we had to say. Come to us to belong. 10:30, every Sunday morning. If they didn’t … If they couldn’t … If they wouldn’t … for whatever the reason, they remained on the other side of the walls. For a time, it worked. Or worked, well enough. Well enough keep the lights on. Well enough to keep the doors open.
But there came a time when people stopped coming. Even our own kids. Our own grandkids. And the building became a prison. Became a grave. We tried to do things differently. We really did. But the building was an albatross. Then, came the pandemic. And for an entire year, we’ve been a congregation, a church, without a building! We haven’t been in one, together, for forty-nine weeks! And we’re still here! We’ve been church together, in kitchens and in living rooms! We’ve been church in parks all across this city! All across this region! We’ve been church together in Texas and newMexico, in Colorado and Wyoming, Montana and Washington state! And not once did not having walls get in the way.
It’s the message that’s brought us together! It’s the message – the good news – that’s kept us together! And our community has grown. More than we can imagine! Far beyond our cityLimit sign! College Station! Pennsylvania! Arizona. And those are only a few! One week, a sermon was, even, shared by a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of southAfrica! There’s so much more to us in this brave newWorld! People stopped coming to us! But somewhere along the way, we started going to them! Even in iceStorms! Even in blizzards! Do we miss getting together? Yes. Are we impatient to see each other, again? Of course we are! But we’ve changed! We’ve been changed! We’re different! Even if we haven’t noticed! We have something to say to this world! Something important! Something radical and profound! And people are waiting – wanting – to hear it! From us! God loves. Period. God loves! Exclamation mark! And we’ve been doing it, saying it, all without a building! No stainedGlass! No pews! Not, even, a steeple!
We’re not looking to become anything big. Not one more megachurch. Probably, not even a faint reflection of our own good old days. What matters is that we’re speaking the word god’s asked us to speak! And we’re believing it! Staking our lives on it! That’s the one thing – the only thing – that makes church church! And maybe – just maybe – we’re closer to being that than we’ve ever been! Closer than we’ve, ever, imagined! But then, that’s the purpose of wondering! Through the unfamiliar! Across the unknown! It gives us the chance, to rediscover who we are! To rediscover why we are!
Truth is, as church – as god’s very own – we aren’t the center of the universe! We aren’t the center of our world! But then, not even god is that! We’re the light! And the warmth! Going out into the darkness! Into the cold! We’re not here to draw the crowds to us! We’re here to go to them! To tell them how much they mean! How much they matter! To god! To us! Our mission is to go! Because that’s what love does! That’s what love has always done!
So, my friends, our story began a long time ago. And one story is drawing to an end. But another is, only now, beginning. Believe me when I say, we are becoming something new! Yet, something we have always been! God loves! And, finally … at last … we love, as well!