Memories, Hopes, and Conversations
Finally! We have our web site up and running! I want to personally thank everyone who made this come about (Cam Pietralunga, Jackie Grubb, Michele Scarberry, Randy Pench, Lisa Spagnolo, Patti Curtis, and Chris Hardwicke). It’s been a team effort and we’re now ready to begin to use this incredible took for communication, prayer, building community, and growth.
For my blog, I want to use this space to let you peek into what’s running around in my mind. I have been reading a lot and I thought I’d use this space to show you want I’m reading and how that impacts and helps me grow as a pastor.
I’m currently reading Memories, Hopes, and Conversations. Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change by Mark Lau Branson. At first blush, you might be thinking that I’m reading this to change our congregation. Not so! This rich text (and easy read) highlights the connection of gratitude to God with where God might be leading a specific congregation. On page 46, Mr. Branson says this:
“Gratitude is not just a fleeting emotion – it is foundational. As a response to God’s gracious initiatives, gratitude changes us at our very core. Gratitude is not first affect (emotions), although it often helps us move from fear or doubt or anger; rather, gratitude is a stance that changes our perceptions, our thinking, our discernment. When our beginning place is thanksgiving – for God, for God’s creation and redemption, for God’s ongoing mercies, and for evidence of God’s grace – then we give attention to any and all signs of grace. Our thankfulness, especially when voiced, makes grace more available, more present, more powerful – to oneself and to one’s community. The absence of gratitude is a primary sign that persons have turned away from God – that God’s presence and initiatives are being rejected. Paul sees the source and blindness and destructiveness in this lack of thanksgiving in Romans 1:18, 21: ”For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth…for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.”
Mark goes on to say: “When God’s presence and gifts are available, when graces are within reach, to turn from them, to demand something else, is a profound sign of lostness and sin. This perspective is not Paul’s invention; the scriptures he read (the Hebrew scriptures) give major attention to memory and gratitude.”
What’s profound, and challenging to me, about these words is that those that Paul wrote about were not people that did NOT know God. The passage is about those who KNEW God and how their minds became darkened…by a lack of gratitude to God’s presence and activity. The Hebrews were always taught to go back and remember the activity, voice, presence, and word of God. Jesus himself tells his disciples at the Last Supper to do this in REMEMBRANCE of him.
Memory of God, and giving thanks to him for what he has done, changes our present and will guide our future.
As I read this book, I began to reflect about the community of River Life and the “spirit” of this community we have dove into. It’s not a stretch to think that churches would have a specific spirit. All one has to do is read about the 7 churches John addresses cryptically in Revelations to be reminded that he understood the spirit of a church. He addresses specific things about them that needed to be highlighted for them to be healthy communities. I like how he started his letter to them. Listen to what he says in Revelations 1:4-6
“This letter is from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come; from the sevenfold Spirit before his throne; and from Jesus Christ. His is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world. All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen!”
Before Paul says anything as far as corrective or encouragement to these churches, he reminds them of God’s activity and what He has done on behalf of them, but for everyone. The start of it all is about gratitude; God’s initiative. God’s grace. God’s faithfulness. God’s love. God’s power. God’s glory. He is painting a beautiful portrait to remind these 7 churches of the past Presence and activity of God so that appreciation will help guide them to a new reality to continue to seek out the further grace and activity of God and give thanks for it as well.
Forgetting about God’s Presence and activity can create an environment of ungratefulness.
I have loved my course work at Fuller Theological Seminary and have been enriched by the reading, the classes I took, and my instructors which helped me get a framework for ecclesiology (the church). I have loved the deep thinking and reflection about the state of the Western church of America. I’ve been at this for awhile now and am just now rounding out my final year of completion. Even as everything has been so good, one thing seemed to be missing from the conversation…what God has done and is doing. A lot of what I read was a cause for alarm. And, I agree with most of it. The church of the West is in a serious era of transformation…I often wonder what John would have said of this church if he included it in his letter.
Even though we have serious things to consider during times like this, we must never, ever forget that Jesus is building his church in which the gates of hell will not prevail. He hasn’t stopped. He completes everything he starts. And I trust that, when we remember that, we will continue to move forward with hope. Looking back in gratitude launches us to our future with hope that His work is not completed.
River Life is a church that is gracious. I’ve heard it from others and have experienced it myself. We tell stories well of God’s activity and Presence and, I personally believe, this is the tangible spirit people talk about when they first experience our community. Let us continue to talk about the goodness of God’s love, grace, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, and presence in our past so that the Lord will give us a vision for our future and what He would like to do next in and through River Life!
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Bret
Nice!!! Good stuff Brother, and I love all the blues and greens, AND watter!
(two t’s on purpose of course). Glad to see you’re finding time to read (of course in the context of your study 
) So, I will try my best not to “clog” up this space, but take in what you have here and “listen”. until soon . . . Hey, does this button down here say “submit” and I just can’t read it? Guess I’ll push it and see what happens. 
Yep, it’s the “submit” button . . .
Dear Pastor Bret. Thank you for the grace, challenge and dignity of your article and lifting up into God’s presence to see Who He really is. God bless you in your studies and writing. May God use it to be a blessing to the greater Sacramento Bod of Christ and the furtherance of His Kingdom. ~ Joe