A Heart for the Future

In the final chapter of You Only Have to Die: Leading Your Congregation to New Life, Jim Harnish puts the finishing touches on his thoughts about congregational cardiology. He highlights the prayer of Dag Hammarskjold from his book Markings:

For all that has been--Thanks!
For all that shall be--Yes!

These two lines, Harnish contends, describe "the essence of living a healthy, faithful life"(p. 179).

When Jim Harnish faced the very real possibility of his own death, he was not overwhelmed with a sense of fear but rather one of gratitude for the life he had been given to live and the people with whom he had been privileged to share it. He found himself singing with the psalmist, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage" (Psalm 16:6).

I must admit that I do not do as good a job of giving thanks for all that has been or looking forward to what will be. It is all too common for me to remember--and dwell on--my failures, faults, and foibles. I tend to downplay or dismiss whatever has gone well and to highlight whatever has gone poorly--or disastrously!

Jim Harnish reminds us that no individual or congregation has an unblemished record of success, effectiveness, or accomplishment. "In each generation," he writes, "there have been high moments of great vision and growth and there have been moments of disappointment and near despair"(p. 181).

One of the challenges in today's settings is that there are people and congregations "with tin hearts, rusted shut. They live as if they have more yesterdays than tomorrows"(p. 182). They live, in a word, as if they had never heard the good news of the risen Christ.

But the church is called "to bear witness to hope that is grounded in our faith in God." At the heart of the church's life "is the word of life that is found only when we are willing to die for the right things"(p. 183).

And then Harnish points to Abraham, who is essentially the patron saint for all who think that they are too old, too feeble, or too worn out! The "visionary faith" of Abraham (and Sarah, as it turned out) "holds onto the promise of God even when every human reality seems to be stacked against it, confident that God will accomplish what God has promised"(p. 184).

Harnish summarizes the work of Hyde Park Church--and every congregation--with these words:

"Our work is to do everything in our power to use the resources of the past to energize the congregation in the present and to build into the ongoing life of this congregation those processes of healthy, spiritual growth that will prepare it for ministry in the future"(p. 184).

Here at First United Methodist Church, we have a ways to go for that to become a reality. I believe that we clearly have resources of (and from) the past that are of continuing value. We are working--though not yet systematically--to energize the congregation right now. We need to develop and build into the life of the congregation processes that will lead to "healthy, spiritual growth."

Harnish brings his book to a close with a "word of joy." It is the kind of experience that comes not with an easy road but a hard one. It is the kind of joy that has in it the reality of the cross. It may call us to take a different direction than others prefer to take. It may require us to speak words, even in love, that call people to accountability rather than simply to confirm their existing point of view.

On the way to joy, paradoxically enough, we experience pain. "Just because we're trying to do the right thing," Harnish notes, "doesn't mean that we won't experience pain"(p. 187). Growth and change, however well intended and needed, will bring with it a measure of discomfort and even pain. Most of us, myself included, prefer to take a path that avoids pain, but "pain is an inevitable part of growth"(p. 188). The cross teaches us "that the only place of healing is the place of pain"(p. 188). We have to experience Good Friday, in other words, before we can truly experience Easter.

In the last paragraph of the closing chapter, Harnish writes:

"Looking back across the journey we've taken, I can say that the new life that continues to emerge from the process is more than worth the price that was paid. The pain of the difficult years has already been totally overbalanced by the joy of seeing the new life that God is bringing forth among us. The path of obedience always leads to joy! For God's sake, for your congregation's sake, for your own sake, don't settle for anything less!"(p. 190)

May we at First United Methodist Church do no less in our continuing journey! And may we experience the joy that comes from what God has done, is doing, and will yet do among us!